Source: Press Release First guidebook for book publishers outlining how metadata for books operates in the real world DataCurate announces the publication of The Metadata Handbook, a one-stop guide for book publishers — large, small, and independent — offering help in understanding how metadata works and outlining the essential components of successful metadata creation and distribution. Topics covered include: > How metadata for books operates in the real world > Metadata fundamentals and the history of metadata for books > Standards and best practices for creating and distributing accurate and comprehensive metadata > The basics of ONIX for Books, including ONIX 3.0 > The basics of EPUB 3...

TechCrunch has a piece on Scribd, the document-sharing platform with 100 million registered users and 90 million monthly active users. The piece focuses on the iOS news aggregation app, Float, that Scribd developed and almost sold to Yahoo for between $2 and $8 million before Yahoo decided to walk away in February. Float had gotten off to a good start, with up to 200 news partners and good ratings at the app store. However, it soon ran up against some stiff competition: “When we originally launched Float, Scribd wanted it to be Instapaper and Read...

There are several sites where you can read books online. It’s a good idea to try them, and eventually pick up a favorite one, if you don’t want to rely only on reviews, likes and faves. Here are the most popular ones. Amazon There are two ways to read books on Amazon site: Look Inside and Kindle for the Web. Look InsideYou can use this feature no matter which book form you want to buy, print orKindle. Just go to a book page and check whether there is a Look Inside! arrow on top of a cover (like on a picture). Click on it...

Wikipedia isn’t the only site considering a public demonstration of the evils of SOPA. Scribd has gone ahead and done it. Scribd has added a script to its page that blanks out documents word by word before users’ eyes, followed by a pop-up explaining what’s happening and why we should all be concerned about SOPA. This analysis of why SOPA is unconstitutional is cited as an example. (At least, in theory. It didn’t work on my computer, nor on those of some others who posted comments on Scribd’s post.) That puts me in mind of a tool I...

The United States Senate has reached an agreement with Scribd to provide ad-free hosting document hosting for public Senate documents, as well as an “official Scribd liaison” presumably to help the Senate figure out how to use it. They will be using a number of other digital services as well, such as Sharepoint and UStream, to give the public a greater view into Senate proceedings. Of course, it remains to be seen just how many people will actually bother to take advantage of this openness, but it’s nice to see the Senate taking advantage of new technological platforms....

Scribd is launching an iPhone app called the Float Reader, through which it hopes to become “the Netflix of reading.” Unfortunately, I can’t try this app out on my first-gen iPod Touch—it requires iOS 4.0—but from the news coverage it looks like an interesting attempt to bring some of the benefits of iPad-only reader apps like Flipboard to the smaller smartphone interface. The Float Reader provides access to a user’s Scribd documents, as well as to articles from 150 partners including The Atlantic, Time, Salon, and TechCrunch, and to excerpts of articles friends have shared on Facebook, Twitter, or...

From mocoNews: Social publishing site Scribd has closed $13 million third round, as it looks toward rolling out new mobile features and additional products around ad sales and its two-year-old book and document store. The round was led by MLC Investments of Australia and SVB Capital, with previous investors, including Redpoint Ventures, Charles River Ventures and Kinsey Hills Group, participating as well. The latest round brings Scribd to about $25.8 million in total funding raised in the past four years....

For those who’ve been following the outrage about Scribd instituting a paid archive feature in which the site charged for downloads of content that had been meant to be downloadable for free (we covered it here), TechCrunch reports on the latest development. Our earlier report on the issue came from Lynn Viehl’s blog (and subsequently, Scribd responded with an editorial in the Huffington Post), but another vehement denouncement of Scribd’s apparent malfeasance came from law professor Eric Goldman. It turned out that Scribd had started moving older files into an archive for which there was a charge...

SaveDelete has a list of the 30 best websites to download free books. I’m not familiar with all of the sites it lists, so I’m not entirely sure that all of them are completely legit. But then, you find some unauthorized books even on otherwise completely legit sites like Scribd (which is one of the thirty). It’s nice to see that even with all the fuss going on about agency pricing and restrictive DRM, there are still so many free books available to anyone with an Internet connection. People from previous centuries would be amazed and thrilled at...

This is a part of a post from author Lynn Viehl's Paperback Writer blog.. It deserves to be read in full, but I must point out that I can't verify anything that it contains: It's been brought to my attention that Scribd.com has begun charging people to download my free e-books hosted on their site. To get around my copyright and the free distribution notice I've placed in each e-book, they are using an archive subscription scam to make their money (this also neatly avoids them having to pay me any royalties on the profits they make.) Evidently all...

   1. Smashwords Smashwords continues to kick goals in self-publishing. In an increasingly crowded market, I just don’t think you can beat Smashwords for ease of use, price (you can’t do better than free), and distribution. Fling your words to Smashwords, and you’ll quickly end up with an ebook in multiple formats, playable on all devices, and distributed to iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and the Diesel eBook Store. Soon they’ll be adding Amazon to the already impressive list. The website could use prettying up, but this offering is the best one-stop-shop free solution out there. Other services...

As I mentioned back in July, I’ve posted a couple of stories to Scribd just by way of trying out the service to see how well it worked. I’ve since ended up with a number of Scribd subscribers (including Slate writer Farhad Manjoo; I’m not sure entirely why), and my stories have been read a little over 70 times each. Now I’m wondering whether I should try writing another story—the idea for which came to me in a dream the night before last—and posting it there, for sale for $1. Would anybody buy it? How effective would promotion...