Science-fiction, adult-themed novels and other types of genre fiction have made an impression on the digital world. Little, Brown UK’s Clare Smith thinks literary fiction is obviously the next step in the e-book world. The company has created Blackfriars, a digital imprint to be launched in June. “I think the thing for me, with doing a strategic review of fiction, one of the things that seems really clear is we’ve reached the tipping point of genre fiction,” says Smith, Blackfriars’ publishing director and associate publisher. “It’s just not obvious to me why you wouldn’t do digital-only literature.” Blackfriars will kick off with three...

The news, released today, that the San Francisco-based Inkling has decided to give away for free its "collaborative digital publishing environment" known as Inkling Habitat was probably the e-publishing community's most eyebrow-raising story of the week thus far. As Laura Hazard Owen wrote today for Paid Content, the company "has spent three years and $30 million to build Habitat, a cloud-based set of digital publishing tools that let users create and collaborate on high-quality, interactive ebooks." That sounds like fairly exciting stuff. Although if Inking Habitat actually manages to get itself off the proverbial ground over the next few months with any sort...

If the true definition of entrepreneurship is the process of finding a need and filling it, then it must also be true that C. Max Magee, founding editor of the online literary magazine The Millions (photo at right), is a publishing hustler of the highest order. Yesterday, the 10-year-old site, which primarily covers literary topics and book reviews, announced the launch of a new e-book publishing initiative known as The Millions Originals. According to Magee, the general idea behind The Millions Originals is to "give our talented writers a platform to publish as ebooks longer, magazine-quality pieces that will explore a variety...

By Gloria Quintanilla 2012 felt like a decisive year for print. E-Book sales surpassed print book sales on Amazon for the first time, and widely-read publications like Newsweek decided to give up on print media altogether, and instead to transition fully into digital publishing. All the while, pundits are still debating if there is a future for print in a world dominated by digital formats. Similar discussions are going on between book lovers and authors, who are worried about the publishing industry being ill equipped to respond to their demands. So here's the question: Is it possible to have the best of both worlds? Can...

The publishing industry (understandably) made a lot of noise last November when the news broke that self-improvement author Tim Ferriss would be promoting his newest book project, The 4-Hour Chef, on BitTorrent, a site that will probably always be associated with illegal online file-sharing. The promotion—a free, downloadable BitTorrent bundle that includes interviews, candid author photos, the first chapter of the book and more—was at least partly conceived as a response to Barnes & Noble, which has publicly refused to carry any books published by Amazon, its top competitor. According to an article by USA Today reporter Dierdre Donahue, a number of independent bookstores have followed B&N's boycotting lead,...

  By David Wogahn There seemed to be a sigh of relief the last few months of 2012 as the trade publishing establishment trumpeted the slowing growth of e-book sales. It may indeed be slowing, but the pain of adjusting to new economies of scale, changing consumer habits, technology adoption and lack of business model options are even bigger threats to the independence of large traditional publishers. The digital revolution has had an undeniable impact on how businesses operate. Costly technology and complex analog media production (music, publishing, film) are no longer the purview of large organizations. With lower technology costs and easy...

By Mik Strøyberg | Director of Consumer Engagement for Issuu  Conventional wisdom holds that publications are losing market share and that the industry itself is endangered. But in this case, conventional wisdom is wrong: We're actually on the verge of a publishing renaissance—a new age when people can access whatever content they want wherever they are—and it’s an exciting time to be in the publishing business. This isn't an unprecedented situation: When digital music files began replacing CDs, many prematurely lamented the end of the music business. But musicians kept creating new work, and music publishers kept generating more revenue. The same is...

Bookouture is a new digital publishing imprint launched by ex-Harlequin UK marketing controller Oliver Rhodes. Specializing in women’s fiction, Bookouture will publish e-books and print-on-demand globally, paying a 45 percent of net receipts royalty on e-books. “My aim with Bookouture is to focus on creating global author brands and followings—through high-quality editing and particularly through smart, creative digital marketing," Rhodes says. "We’ll be delivering bespoke digital publishing and marketing for every single one of our authors, in a way not always possible at larger publishers. That means focusing very much on the author as [a] brand, and aiming for a select number...

From the press release: GigaOM, the leading independent voice on emerging technologies and the disruption of media, today announced the launch of its digital book publishing imprint, GigaOM Books. In keeping with GigaOM editorial coverage and GigaOM Pro research, GigaOM Books publishes e-books about the people, technologies and trends shaping the evolution of technology and media. “GigaOM has always been at forefront of new publishing models,” said Michael Wolf, vice president, GigaOM. “We have a heritage in digital publishing and a crack team of writers who will provide the rich, deep content GigaOM readers expect, but in longer form.” Technology has changed the way...

Zite is my favorite personalized magazine on the iPad.  I much prefer it to Flipboard, as it has a much better aggregation of materials and a superior user experience.  StrategyEye has an interview with Zite's CEO about the state of digital media.  Here's a snippet: ¤ What are the main barriers for publishers seeking to monetise online? The technology pieces are mostly in place now. There's a system of micropayments that’s been enabled by devices like iPad and the iTunes store. There are also ways to protect your content these days. You have delivery devices like the iPad, which is a really...

Publishers Weekly is reporting: Standford University Press has started a digital imprint called Stanford Briefs, which will release short e-originals on a variety of academic topics. The first brief, "The Physics of Business Growth" by Edward D. Hess and Jeanne Liedtka, will be available on May 15 for $9.99. Alan Harvey, who takes over as director July 1, said: "The evolving nature of digital publishing and the tastes that it has cultivated in our readers calls us to further that mission by providing content in new formats." The short pieces will be available through all major e-book sellers, as well as...

From the summary of the UK Publishers Association Statistics Yearbook 2010: The PA Statistics Yearbook 2010 shows that total book sales in the UK amounted to £3.1bn in 2010. It also reports that: Total consumer digital sales (including consumer ebooks, downloads and audiobooks) showed the most rapid growth, having increased by 318% since 2009 from £4m to £16m.  Combined digital sales have increased by 38% on 2009 figures. The digital publishing market is now 6% of the combined physical and digital sales of UK publishers. The overall size of the digital market stands at £180m. Consumer digital sales of ebooks and downloads increased from 2%...