Story Of Books

Five Minutes With: Marcus Gilroy-Ware, academic and creator, Smartest

By Salina Christmas As readers depend on the internet to consume smaller pieces of information, reading a book – for those who use ‘new’ media alone – could become “a more unusual skill”. Will “reading a book” become a skill associated with taste, and thus, class? Marcus Gilroy-Ware, creator of open source online publishing platform, … Continue reading »

A Week In Book News (05/04/2012)

By Salina Christmas Vook enters the ebook fray; Amazon dodges UK tax; Nook tells London: shop online in the US; Mag+ design competition; more book covers delight; Spanish books go underground in Arizona; PayPal won’t service ‘obscene’ titles; Unicorn Cookbook and Cooking With Poo. And that’s a week (and more) in book news. Is it … Continue reading »

Five Minutes With: Pete Masters, carpenter and web editor MSF (UK)

By Zarina Holmes People admire bookshelves, not hard drives, says carpenter Pete Masters. Books inspire conversation by their physical presence, so why would you want to hide them. Masters is also web and multimedia producer for Medicines Sans Frontierés. He was our Inspiration Room guest speaker at London Design Festival 2010 event, “Aesthetics as a … Continue reading »

LIVE: Story Of Books tweets from MoMoLo’s Nook developer workshop

Story Of Books is now at the Mobile Monday London (MoMoLo)’s “Tablets Come of Age + NOOK Developer Workshop”, tweeting live at the event held at the CBI Conference Centre at Centre Point, London. We are waiting to see if the rumour of a new Nook tablet announcement at MoMoLo – ahead of the London … Continue reading »

A Week In Book News (10/03/2012)

By Salina Christmas Google axes ebook affiliates and Android Market, then launches Google Play; Amazon to publishers: ‘Drop ebook prices or else’; Picador redesigns 12 classics; soft sell and hard-ons – web promo the Mills & Boon way. And that’s a Week In Book News. Mills & Boon lunchtime read sizzles “Sweat broke out on … Continue reading »

Social media celebrates children’s books on World Read Aloud Day

By Salina Christmas Using social media such as video virals, Google +, Skype, blogs and also Twitter, educators, authors and publishers around the world have come together to celebrate the World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) on 7 March 2012 in an effort to raise awareness of children literacy. This year, LitWorld, the non-profit organisation which … Continue reading »

Five Minutes With: Niall McDiarmid, commercial and editorial photographer

By Zarina Holmes Self-publishing was “once considered the preserve of eccentric rich show-offs” but now is the authors’ “first and best option for getting work out”, says Niall McDiarmid. McDiarmid is a photographer working on editorial and commercial commissions. His photographs have been featured on the covers of novels and biographies including works by Richard … Continue reading »

A Week In Book News (11/02/2012)

By Zarina Holmes First edition “Les Fleurs du Mal” was sold for over US$5,000 despite glaring typos; indie publishers boycott Amazon; Paolo Coelho pirates his own books; Oklahoma romance writing competition welcomes vampire genre but says no to “same-sex” entries. And that’s a Week in Book News. It’s February, and the world of books is only … Continue reading »

A Week in Book News (31/01/2012)

By Zarina Holmes More condemnation on ebooks by doomsayers; Penguin Classics commissions artist Yayoi Kusama for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; the unstoppable rise of Kindle Fire and iBooks; Vladimir Putin tells Russian kids what books to read. And that’s a Week in Book News. Just like last week, books continue to stir up the publishing world. Book … Continue reading »

A Week in Book News (23/01/2012)

By Zarina Holmes Luddites shake fists at Apple iBook 2; Birds of America sold for US$8m; Rushdie kept out of Jaipur book festival by police; Waterstones’s apostrophe sends a postcard from retirement. And that’s a Week in Book News. It’s only January and there isn’t a dull moment in the book world this week. Antiquarian … Continue reading »

Five Minutes With: George Pappas, Author, “Monogamy Sucks” and “Dear Hef”

By Salina Christmas Pornography and its online formats almost killed the erotica fiction genre. Kindle and the ebook, however, resurrected the craft again, says George Pappas, author of “Monogamy Sucks”, published on Kindle in 2010. The romance genre and its sub-categories which include erotica are now driving the adoption of smartphones and tablets for ebook. … Continue reading »

Five Minutes With: Maggie Nichols, Illustrator

By Salina Christmas “The digital world is so bent on avoiding accidents that I think sometimes it takes away the possibility for serendipity.” Maggie Nichols is an illustrator based in Portland, Oregon, US. Her distinctive artwork brought to life the book authored by Amber Case, “An Illustrated Dictionary of Cyborg Anthropology”. Nichols blogs for Simply … Continue reading »

The ebook diversifies, but print is here to stay, says Oxford Brookes

By Salina Christmas Ebook generates 15% of the revenues for some publishers, with the romance genre having a huge slice in the market share, says Angus Phillips, Director, Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Although digitality has turned the publishing world upside down, Phillips stressed that it is “an exciting … Continue reading »

Five Minutes With: Jie Qi, Innovator, Paper Computing

By Salina Christmas Jie Qi, designer and a mechanical engineering major at Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), US, researches on mechatronics, new media, physical computing and human-computer interaction. While researching with the High-Low Tech Group, she created the Electronic Popables, a pop-up book with electronic interactive elements. Q. What do you think will become of … Continue reading »