Heston Blumenthal and 'rockstar chef' books help stir sales for Bloomsbury
MasterChef among titles boosting revenues by 12.6%, with marketing campaign set for illustrated Harry Potter editionsThe chief executive of Bloomsbury has hailed "chefs as rockstars" after a surge in...
View ArticleBraille isn't 'embattled' we're on the cusp of a golden age for blind people...
Far from heralding the death of a great medium, technology may be ushering in a new era of access and greater independenceImagine a situation where you walk into your favourite restaurant and ask for...
View ArticleMargaret Drabble on the joy of ebooks
You can buy texts at midnight while on the train to Taunton and read with ease in the full glare of the sun. What's not to like about electronic reading devices, asks Margaret DrabbleMy deep attachment...
View ArticleBooks do furnish a room but not for much longer if Jeff Bezos has his way
The Kindle prophet's vision of a world without paper and its technologies will see the end of 500 years of culture. Hallelujah!"Our vision," wrote the great prophet Bezos, introducing the Kindle way...
View ArticleMurder your library and you lose much of yourself
As Linda Grant's new Kindle Single illustrates, e-readers are no substitute for a full bookshelfIn the run-up to Christmas, Amazon's ad campaign showed beaming customers extolling the virtues of their...
View ArticleA better deal for authors from a digital publisher? Yes, actually
At digital publisher 0s & 1s, 80% of profit goes straight to the writer much more than traditional print or AmazonIt's a common misconception about digital books that they should cost much, much...
View ArticleLucy Mangan: I've a shameful confession to make I've joined the cult of the...
I bought my Kindle for work, honest, but there's been mission creep. I'm so not proud of myselfOn the day Independent Booksellers Week begins, I feel I should confess: I've become a Kindle owner. Look,...
View ArticleCan the Hawking Index tell us when people give up on books?
By counting which pages readers highlight on their Kindles, a new scale attempts to measure how far people persist with certain well-known books. Bad news for Capital and Fifty Shades of GreyName: The...
View ArticleAmazon leak reveals plan to launch Kindle book subscription service
The Netflix for books service will provide over 600,000 books and audio books for Kindle subscribersAmazon is due to launch a new book subscription service called Kindle Unlimited, according to a...
View ArticleKindle Unlimited: it's the end of losing yourself in a good book
Amazon's leaked 'Netflix for books' plan will alarm publishers and doom old-fashioned anonymous readingOnce upon a time, 12 years ago to be precise, David Bowie said something very perceptive. "Music...
View ArticleGot a novella in the bottom drawer? It could be a Kindle single
The elasticity of digital publishing can give new life to the shorter form, as DJ Taylor discoveredI wasn't sure what to make of From the Heart, DJ Taylor's digital novella about a corporate insolvency...
View ArticleA single publisher going it alone won't counter the might of Amazon
Competition between publishing houses here and in the US means they stand little chance of ending Amazon's dominanceA couple of weeks ago, HarperCollins rolled out a new website in the US that allows...
View ArticleBitLit's pilot has got my name written all over it
'Bundling' ebooks with hardbacks is a fine idea, but the startup's scheme is open to abuseWith holiday packing comes fraught decisions. The weighty new Philip Hensher, which you rushed to buy in...
View ArticleReaders absorb less on Kindles than on paper, study finds
Research suggests that recall of plot after using an e-reader is poorer than with traditional booksA new study which found that readers using a Kindle were "significantly" worse than paperback readers...
View ArticleWaterproof e-reader launched for bathtime bookworms
New device will allow readers to fully immerse themselves in their readingDodie Smith's Cassandra, in I Capture the Castle, would "bask first, wash second and then read as long as the hot water holds...
View ArticleAmazon reveals new Kindles and Fire tablet that will compete with iPad Air
Retailer also reveals a child-friendly version of its Fire HD tablet, which runs a simplified, icon-based mobile operating systemAmazon, the online retailer, has revealed a complete refresh of its...
View ArticleCan you read a novel in three hours?
Speed-reading a Man-Booker-shortlisted novel with help from an app called Spritz was a thrilling ride that left me in agonyLast week, I decided to perform an experiment. At midday precisely, I sat on...
View ArticleAmazon launches Kindle Unlimited - a Netflix-for-books - in the UK
Harry Potter, Hunger Games, audiobooks and more bundled in to £7.99-a-month subscription, following US debut in JulyAmazon is launching its Kindle Unlimited ebooks subscription service in the UK,...
View ArticleWhy William S Burroughs would have loved XSS
The beat generation author was way ahead of the virus game as its revealed that cross-site scripting, or XSS, makes Kindles vulnerable to hackersWilliam S Burroughs, celebrated and dangerous author of...
View ArticleWhy the subscription dream of a Netflix for books still has its limits
Book streaming services such as Oyster and Kindle Unlimited are still struggling to get bestsellers on to our virtual shelvesNetflix for X is one of those tropes of Silicon Valley that has rapidly...
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