Hi eBookNewser readers - as you can see we've evolved and are now called AppNewser, where we'll bring you the latest app news and reviews. If you'd just like to keep up to date on digital book news click here. And if you have some news to share email us at AppNewser@mediabistro.com - Thanks, Jason. 
There’s a new enhanced eBook format in iTunes: Byook. The developers of Byook decided to go in a different direction from most eBook makers. The Byook format has sound and animation, but the animation is deliberately anachronistic. A Byook uses paper cut outs for the characters.
Watch this short promo video, if you’d like to learn more.
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.
Last Week Google announced that its online document viewer could now read a round dozen file formats including Apple Pages, Adobe Photoshop, as well as MSOffice’s latest PPTX and XLSX. Here’s a complete list of the new formats:
If you’ve never used the service, you can find it at docs.google.com. Or you can click on a document sent as an email attachment and open that document in Google Docs.
via Google
The Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan recently announced that it would soon adopt Epub 3 as its standard. When the standard is finalized in May, part of the spec will include support for vertical text, making it possible for Japanese-language e-books to be viewed on reader devices sold overseas.
Curiously enough, the Japanese language supports both vertical and horizontal text, and you might sometimes see both on the same sign.
The 43 members of the EBPAJ, including Sharp, Dai Nippon Printing, and others, have been working on the new standard since November. The group is expected to publish its draft specification shortly and finalise the standard by the end of March.
via Nikkei
image via Flictkr
Overdrive, the digital library service, announced yesterday that it now offers eBooks from Disney. Participating libraries can buy the Disney ebooks and lend them out to library patrons. The collection offers nearly 700 classic and new titles with lovable characters, including Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Disney Princesses, Hannah Montana and many more.
Overdrive also reported that Disney library ebooks fall into 2 categories. Some can be checked out like traditional library books (one copy, one use), and others will be available for online viewing only.
via Overdrive
Yesterday the IPDF announced the release of the first public draft of the new Epub 3 standards. This draft is the result of more than 7 months of work by the Epub Working Group.
Epub 3 is the next major revision of the Epub ebook format, an XML and Web Standards based format that has become a key global standard in the rapidly developing digital publishing industry. The new revision adds support for:
This initial draft is being released for comments from the general public, as well as for trial use by early implementors. The final Recommended Specification of EPUB 3 is anticipated by mid 2011.
The enhanced eBook publisher Vook announced today that Hay House, a self help publisher, will soon use MotherVook to make new enhanced ebooks based on the Hay House backlist.
“Hay House is excited to bring to market so many of its titles in an enhanced e-book format that will resonate with new audiences,” Hay House CEO Reid Tracy said. “Our readers will be inspired not just by our authors’ compelling stories, but also by the engaging videos we can feature.”
MotherVook is a new digital conversion platform that Vook used to create more than 150 of its own titles. Vook is now opening the platform to other publishers, allowing them to scale enhanced e-book creation. MotherVook is also the head of a distribution chain that reaches into iTunes, iBookstore, Kindle Store, and the Android Market.
In a panel at The O’Reilly “Tools of Change” conference today, publishing CTOs talked about their wishes to make digital publishing easier.
Andrew Savikas, CTO of O’Reilly Media, wishes that Amazon would adopt ePUB as their standard, which got a cheer from the audience. “That would go a long way to getting people to adopt an eBook,” he said.
Bill Godfrey, CTO of Elsevier, wishes “not to have to worry about how my content is rendered on multiple devices. We’ve got to get to some defacto industry standards.”
Rich Rothstein, CTO of HarperCollins Publishers, wishes for “an XML workflow that allows us to mirror our current production processes so that things that don’t get too slowed down.” He also pointed out that the industry needs to start thinking about multichannel distribution in the programming end.
Smashwords founder Mark Coker created a multi-platform publishing service that helps independent writers and publishers compete with traditional publishing houses. But now that the major publishers have fixed their prices, it’s the retailers who need the help. Here, Coker dissects the agency model of bookselling and answers the question, what should readers pay for an eBook?
Which retailers are you currently working with?
We’ve signed distribution agreements with Sony, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, and we’re working on a deal with Amazon.
What about Google?
Without a standard format in place, designing eBooks can be difficult for publishers who are used to designing text for the printed page. Most publishers are looking to reformat digital versions of their print titles in the easiest way possible.
But Joshua Tallent owner of eBook Architects, a company that formats print titles into eBooks, argues that this might be the wrong approach. In an interview with O’Reilly Media, Tallent said: “To me, the big deal is that the conversion process is going to morph from conversion to design. We’ve been stuck on this idea that we have to get books developed and out in the market right now. We’re trying to get thousands of backlist titles produced, and the quality has suffered. What’s happening, at least on a small level, is that conversion companies and publishers are starting to see that it’s not the conversion that matters, it’s the design. Ebook design requires the same quality and care that you see in print book design. I hope that’s the direction we’re headed.”
Should publishers be concerning themselves with eBook design, the way they do in print? What do you think?
eBook formats have yet to be standardized across publisher, eBook retailer or device, but ePUB seems to be growing in popularity. O’Reilly Media has noticed a growth in this format.
Today, Andrew Savikas, VP of Digital Initiatives at O’Reilly Media posted a chart on which eBook formats its customers have downloaded from June 2008 to October 2010. As you can see from the chart above PDF has been the most popular format since the beginning, but ePUB files are growing in popularity.
Here is more from Savikas’ blog post: “At O’Reilly we offer multiple (DRM-free) formats to choose among for customers who buy our ebooks. Since starting the program with PDF, EPUB, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket formats, we’ve added an Android application file (.apk) and more recently the accessible DAISY format. We track which of the formats customers actually download, and from the start PDF has been the dominant choice, though as the chart below shows, there’s been a steady shift toward other formats, especially the open EPUB format (which can be read on nearly every ereader device, and is the format used by Apple’s iBooks reader).”
NEXT PAGE >>
Dianna DilworthEditor
Jason Boog
Managing Editor
AppNewser Twitter feed loading...
