Lists

Have you ever wondered what words are the most looked up in a dictionary? It’s a small thing, but earlier today I was asked for my opinion on a dictionary app. As I was trying the app I began to wonder what words did people need help on the most.

After a little bit of research, I found three dictionary websites that offer a top five list. (I also found a half dozen that don’t offer a list.) The lists did not show what I expected.  If the three lists, there are 14 words that show up once each and only one word that shows up twice (insidious).

I expected more overlap, frankly. But the  diversity is fascinating. These are not easy words, and there are 2 that I actually had to think about before I was sure i knew what they meant.

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I’m sure you know that piracy is quite common, but did you ever stop to wonder which titles were the most pirated? I decided to look into it today, and my first stop was The Pirate Bay. This is widely known as the most infamous torrent site, so it seemed like a good place to start.

This probably isn’t the best place to find pirated eBooks, but the ones I found raised some  interesting questions. As important as piracy is to me, my readers, and digital publishing, I would never have guessed the titles that topped the list.

According to The Pirate Bay, top 5 most pirated eBooks were a fitness guide, 2 technical manuals, a self-improvement book, and the June 2011 issue of Playboy. This leads me to conclude that the average pirate is an unemployed physically fit tech worker who reads Playboy for the articles.

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Amazon announced its annual Best Books of the Year (So Far) list today. Amazon does this every June as a way of helping readers find great titles to read during the summer. It’s an eclectic list this year, from a humorous autobiography to a faux memoir conceived as an introduction to a long-lost Shakespeare play.

“Our goal with Best of the Year So Far is to go beyond our personal favorites and identify books that transcend genre,” said Mari Malcolm, managing editor of Books at Amazon.com. “The books on our Top 10 list are engrossing reads that you could give to anyone, no matter what their taste. Helping customers more easily find and discover outstanding books by creating these lists has always been one of our favorite activities, and 2011 is proving to be a great year for readers.”

The list was hand-picked by Amazon.com Books editors as their favorite reads and it includes a number of titles from  many different genres. You can find all titles in the list in the Kindle Store.

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are the most popular headlines of the week–ranging from proofreading contests to free book sites to eBook formatting sites.

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1. How to Convert EPub Books for use on Kindle
2. LinkedIn Groups for eBook Authors, Publishers & Readers
3. Five eBook Mistakes
4. So You Think You Can Proofread?
5.How To Download eBooks From Your Local Library
6. eBook Formatting Tools
7. 10 Websites To Download Free eBooks
8. Amazon Now Sells More eBooks Than Paper Books
9. Cheap isn’t Always the Best Price
10. Is Africa Ready For eBooks?

1. Bad Design: Designing an eBook should be done with as much care as a print book. Think about the layout, the font, the images and such and consider how they will look on different devices.

2. Overly Enhanced Features: Just because you can add video, animations and soundtracks to a book doesn’t mean that you should. Only add enhanced features when it adds to the experience.

3. Poorly Priced: eBook readers are not willing to spend as much on an eBook as they are on a print book. They’ve already spent money on a device and they know that the publisher is saving on print costs. But don’t make it too cheap, people sometimes doubt the quality of products that they can get for nothing.

4. Limited eBook Formats Available: If you put out an eBook in the Kindle Store, make sure you put it in the Nook store, the Google eBookstore, the iBookstore and so on. Readers have their own preferred devices and want to find books regardless of the device.

5. Lack Of Copyediting: eBooks deserve the same attention to detail that print books receive. This is more of a problem seen in self-published eBooks than in eBooks from bigger publishing houses.

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are the most popular headlines of the week–ranging cartoon updates to LinkedIn groups to more free eBooks.

Click here to sign up for eBookNewser’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. 10 Websites To Download Free eBooks
2. How to Convert EPub Books for use on Kindle
3. eBook Formatting Tools
4. LinkedIn Groups for eBook Authors, Publishers & Readers
5. Analyst Predicts Kindle Revenue To Hit $5.42 Billion In 2011
6. Is Africa Ready For eBooks?
7. Calvin & Hobbes: The Later Years
8. Best Free eBooks of the Day
9. How To Read The News For Free On an eReader
10. Best eBook News on Twitter

LinkedIn will make its IPO this week, joining the New York Stock Exchange with the new symbol, LNKD.

To celebrate the professional social network’s first step into the public market, we’ve compiled a list of 20 LinkedIn groups for eBook authors, publishers, and readers–a handy introduction to the world of LinkedIn. We’ve compiled a list of 42 LinkedIn groups for publishing professionals as well.

If you want to join these groups, follow LinkedIn’s Finding and Joining a Group directions. Here’s an excerpt: “Group managers may review your request to join or ask for additional information to make sure you meet their membership criteria. Membership approval is solely up to the group manager.”

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For your weekend reading pleasure, here are the most popular headlines of the week–ranging from eBook formatting to manga to Al Gore‘s eBook.

Click here to sign up for eBookNewser’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. How to Convert EPub Books for use on Kindle
2. Six eBook Formatting Tools
3. Analyst Predicts Kindle Revenue To Hit $5.42 Billion In 2011
4. Five Tools For Self-Publishing Your eBook
5. iPad 3 Rumors, Already?
6. Amazon Pulls Yaoi Manga From Kindle Store
7. Is Africa Ready For eBooks?
8. Al Gore Scores Top Grossing iPhone & iPad App This Week
9. Kindle Library eBooks Limited to Only US Libraries
10. Free eBooks of the Day

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are the most popular headlines of the week–ranging from a Bittorrent hit (pictured) to free eBooks to Borders Reward Cards.

Click here to sign up for eBookNewser’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. I Hope You Don’t Have a Borders Rewards Card
2. How to Convert EPub Books for use on Kindle
3. Italian Publisher Marco Ferrario Talks About eBooks In Italy
4. Kindle Corruption Possible, But Not Likely
5. No eReader Supports College Students Needs: Study
6. Five Tools For Self-Publishing Your eBook
7. One in 4 Americans Read eBooks
8.  Debut Novel Exceeds 400,000 Downloads Through BitTorrent
9. Free eBooks of the Week
10. Al Gore Scores Top Grossing iPhone & iPad App This Week

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are the most popular headlines of the week–ranging from eBook sales records to Microsoft’s new patent.

Click here to sign up for eBookNewser’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. eBook Tops All Trade Publishing Categories in February
2. Library eBooks Coming to the Kindle
3. Best Online Fiction Writers
4. Amazon Plans Kindle Stores in Spain & Italy
5. The Kindle 4 Rumors Have Started
6. Kindle Library eBooks Limited to Only US Libraries
7. Achtung! German Kindle Store Opens
8. Big Lots Now Selling a One of a Kind Android Tablet
9. Microsoft’s New Patent is a Threat to All eBookstores Apps
10. Our Collection of Free eBooks Links