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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
By Salina Christmas REPORT: “Whatever is to become of books?” at London Design Festival 2011. The video presentation by Dr Ernesto Priego of the Comics Grid at our event, “Whatever is to become of books?”, last week was certainly unconventional. It took a while for us to realise that many of the effects used in … Continue reading »
By Zarina Holmes REPORT: “Whatever is to become of books?” at London Design Festival 2011. At the Inspiration Room event held at University College London on 17 September 2011, Creative Director of Bonnier Technology Group, Sam Syed, presented a storytelling platform for tablets that challenges the traditional notion of a page as the placeholder for … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “The book industry had the foresight to proceed with a paid model rather than wander blindfold into the digital age as the newspaper industry did. Many media conglomerates are now shored up by the profits of their book publishing wing,” says Fiona Swarbrick, former editor … Continue reading »
By Zarina Holmes & Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Ebooks and Kindle, or ebook readers in general, will become ‘the new paperback’.” Emilia Spitz and Linda Uruchurtu, co-founders, The Ballet Bag, observe that despite the digital crossover, digitisation also has encouraged the return to typography and illustrations in book design, and … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Print will be collectible,” says Zarina Holmes, Creative Director of Sojournposse who envisioned the concept “digital storytelling …a digital campfire” for a multimedia event she directed in 2009. Trained in advertising, with a masters degree in Design from the alma mater of punk, Middlesex University, … Continue reading »
By Zarina Holmes Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Books are alive and well. The debate has moved on from the death of the book.” Angus Phillips is Director of Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies at Oxford Brookes University. He is also editor-in-chief of publishing journal, Logo, and author of the Future of … Continue reading »
