A social entrepreneurship company based in Australia, Mailbooks for Good, has recently launched a literary-minded project that combines good design and a simple but strong idea with the joy of philanthropy. The company's tagline, "Re-gift the gift of reading," does a decent job of explaining the concept. But here's the general idea, direct from the MFG website: Mailbooks For Good is an innovation in book publishing, which allows you to donate books directly to those who need it. When the books are finished, readers simply turn the covers inside out and the books become pre-paid and pre-addressed packages. Once posted they are...

It’s the week before Christmas, and the post office and local stores are full of people I’ve never seen before. Where do they shop the rest of the year, these folk? Do they live in suspended animation till December? I can only surmise that the warmer weather here in Oz wakes them up, like locusts, just to clog the supermarket aisles and make buying a postage stamp a two-hour operation. But at least they got me thinking about one of the nicest and most often overlooked aspects of purchasing e-books—you don’t have to relate to the other customers. Not that bookstore...

From the press release: Softlink, leading developer of Knowledge, Content & Library Management (KCLM) Systems, and OverDrivedistributor, observes the growth of eBooks and audio books in schools. Australian and New Zealand schools are embracing the use of digital resources as more libraries, iCentres and classrooms incorporate eBooks, audiobooks, music and video in their teaching using OverDrive.Softlink has been a driving force behind the growth of digital resources in Australia and New Zealand, since becoming authorised distributor of OverDrive, the leading global supplier of eBooks and audiobooks. In the past 12 months alone, over 250 schools in the region have subscribed to the OverDrive...

From Digireado: The training workshops  How to Publish Your Ebook are a series of two-hour workshops  made available by The Australian Society of Authors. Convened by Linda Funnell they cover the background and current landscape of ebooks in Australia and internationally; preparing and producing an ebook option; sales channels; metadata and promotion. Running weekly, participants also receive comprehensive handouts and references. Last week Joel Naoum, Publisher, Momentum Books, Pan Macmillan’s digital-only imprint, presented Part 1: The growing market for eBooks and recent developments. You can read about his presentation and view slides. This week it was my job to set out the options for preparing and producing an ebook Part 2: Preparing and Producing an...

From the press release: OverDrive, the leading global distributor of eBooks and audiobooks to libraries, schools and retailers, is accelerating its growth with the opening of a new office in Melbourne, Australia. OverDrive Australia supports the company’s ongoing effort to deepen its relationships with library, publisher and bookseller partners in Australia, New Zealand and throughout the Asia Pacific region. At the Australian Library and Information Association Conference (Booth 24) in Sydney, July 10-13, OverDrive will introduce its new team members and showcase Next Generation services that enable instant access to eBooks and audiobooks, rich integration of digital content and a streamlined user experience. OverDrive...

Digireado has an interview with the founder of BiblioCrunch.  Here's the beginning: Every now and again you come across someone with the entrepreneurial spirit and get-up-and-go to take their dreams and make them a business reality. Miral Sattar is one of those people. I met Miral last July at the Yale University Book Publishing Course where she presented her start-up businessBiblioCrunch. Since then Miral and BiblioCrunch have gone from strength to strength, including winning the Most Entrepreneural Publishing start-up showcase at the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference. Thanks to Social Media and email Miral and I have been in constant contact over the last year...

From the NLA Blog: The National Library’s catalogue is now available for your iOS and Android mobile devices. This means you can search our extensive collections, request items and track these items all from the palm of your hand, no matter where you From a NLA Mobile Info Page The mobile catalogue, available through iTunes and Google Play, is an example in motion of the National Library of Australia’s Mobile Strategy, launched in May 2012, positioning the Library at the forefront of mobile technologies within the cultural sector of Australia. In order to pave the way for invention and experimentation, the Library hopes...

From the press release: MOMENTUM BOOKS, Pan Macmillan Australia’s digital-only imprint, today announced that by early August all its titles would be released without DRM. DRM – digital rights management – is the software used on digital content to prevent casual copying by users. ‘The problem,’ said Joel Naoum, Momentum’s publisher, ‘is that DRM restricts users from legitimate copying – such as between different e-reading devices. We feel strongly that Momentum’s goal is to make books as accessible as possible. Dropping these restrictions is in line with that goal.’The move by Momentum follows recent announcements by sister company Tor in the United...

From the press release by the Book Industry Study Group: ...The Global eBook Monitor finds that men are slightly more likely to have engaged with the digital book market than women. The 18-24 age group leads in use, just a little ahead of those aged 25-34. However, that may change shortly. 'Although current e-book use tends to decrease with age, those most likely to come into the market in the next six months are somewhat older than current buyers,' said Ms. Henry. 'That's the pattern we're seeing in both the U.S. and the U.K.' The Global eBook Monitor (GeM)...

EBookNewser reports that social e-reading platform Copia is about to expand into Australia, in partnership with the Australian Publishers Association. The platform is going to allow booksellers to offer customized e-book and e-reader services to their customers under the APA’s “TitlePage” brand, based on localized content. It’s interesting to see these smaller brands expand internationally when larger ones like Barnes & Noble seem firmly stuck on American soil. I wonder if our next serious competitor to Amazon will emerge from a seed planted in foreign ground?...

From the press release: Partnership to Provide Customized Branded Solutions for Australian Booksellers and eBook Aggregation and Distribution Services for Australian Publishers and Distributors New York, NY, March 12, 2012—Today Copia Interactive, LLC—creator of one of the largest, independent, full-featured digital content platforms—announced its partnership with the Australian Publishers Association (APA) and Thorpe-Bowker to equip Australia’s booksellers and their customers with a competitive suite of top-flight eBook and eReader services under the APA’s “TitlePage” brand.  As a result, independent bookstores in Australia no longer have to struggle to compete with the resources and technologies of large, global competitors in the eBook...

  In my post about  reading Australian Women Writers in 2012 I included a list of Australian bookshops that were supporting the Reading and Reviewing Challenge for 2012 AND selling ebooks. I wanted to keep the list growing of these bookshops but have the information available on one page.  This list will continue to grow as I’m informed about more bookshops. Australian retailers providing links to ebooks by Australian Women Writers Bookshops using the Booki.sh Platform participating in the Challenge Avid Reader in Queensland have a list of books for the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge  here.(744 ebooks as at 14/03/12) Readings Bookshop (six shops...