E-readers gain ground but print holds steady

Good news for digital publishers. A new survey by the Pew Research Center shows e-reading is on the rise, as more people buy e-reader devices.
The survey shows:

• 76 percent of Americans aged 18 or older, read at least one book in 2013 in some format,     
• About 69 percent read a book in print while at least 28 percent read an e-book, up from 23 percent a year ago,
• While reading e-books has grown in popularity, the number of people who read print books has remained steady. Of all the people who read an e-book in the last year, 87 percent said they also read a print book,
• 67 percent of U.S. children aged 2 to 13 read an e-book last year,
• Adults aged 18-29 showed the highest rate of reading e-books with almost half who responded saying they read e-books,
• While e-readers such as Nook or Kindle contributed to the rise of in e-reading, a greater number of people use their tablets for e-reading. The study showed 42 percent of adults own tablets, and 78 percent of them said they use those tablets for reading.

The increasing sales of ebooks has seen publishers devote more attention and resources there than on traditional paper-and-ink books and publishing giant, Simon and Schuster launched a pilot program Jan. 16 where 31 US public libraries have access to many digital books published by the company. Library members can borrow e-books for a period of 12 months or buy them if they prefer.
According to Joshua Brustein of Businessweek the ebook publishing industry will eventually evolve into a subscription-based business like Netflix and Spotify.

View the Pew Research Center survey

2014 Digital Book Awards Winners

PRESS RELEASE

January 14, 2014 – NEW YORK – During a gala event tonight at the Digital Book World Conference & Expo in New York City hosted by LeVar Burton, Actor and Co-Founder of  Reading Rainbow, the Digital Book World team announced the winners of the Digital Book Awards, celebrating innovation in apps and Ebook publishing. The awards recognize innovation, creativity, design and production excellence in 15 distinct digital publishing categories. http://bit.ly/2014DBAs

“The Digital Book Awards were created to recognize the best in the burgeoning market for digital reading experiences,” said David Blansfield, President, Digital Book World (F+W Media).  “The winners we celebrated tonight were certainly that. The range of titles we evaluated, from large technology and media companies to self-published authors, was impressive, but they all had one thing in common – in their own way they’re all great stories well told, using the latest digital technology to go beyond print.”

The winners by category are:

Ebook Flowable – Adult Fiction
Eversea: A Love Story, Natasha Boyd
Ebook Flowable – Adult Non-Fiction
Cooking Light  Lighten Up, America!, Oxmoor House
Ebook Flowable – Children
Can You Survive the Titanic?: An Interactive Survival Adventure, Capstone Press
Ebook Flowable – Reference/Academic
Scotland’s Marine Atlas, On Behalf of the Scottish Government by APS Group Scotland

Ebook Fixed Format/Enhanced – Adult Fiction
Mistress of France, Emma Boling, Beneath the Ink
Ebook Fixed Format/Enhanced – Adult Non-Fiction
Isa Does It, Little, Brown and Company
Ebook Fixed Format/Enhanced – Children
The Man with the Violin, Annick Press Ltd.
Ebook Fixed Format/Enhanced – Reference/Academic
Cracking the GRE: Interactive Prep & Review for the GRE Exam, Random House Children’s Books and The Princeton Review
Ebook Fixed Format/Enhanced – Illustrated/Comics/Graphic Novels
The World Atlas of Wine iPad Edition, Octopus Publishing Group
App – Adult Fiction
Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus, Noble Beast
App – Adult Non-Fiction
The Pocket Scavenger, Penguin Group (USA) Katherine McCahill, Executive Producer; Meg Leder,
Executive Editor

App – Children
COWZAT!, Colour Me Play
App – Illustrated/Comics Graphic Novels
Go Big or Go Home: Taking Risks in Life, Love and Tattooing, HarperCollins/Harper Design
App – Reference/Academic
Disney Animated, Touch Press/Disney
Digital Cover Design
A Shiver of Sharks, Little Bahalia Publishing
Transmedia (Any Format)
The Niantic Project: Ingress, Niantic Labs at Google
The Digital Book Award for Inkling Habitat
Modernist Cuisine at Home, The Cooking Lab

“We want to thank to our sponsors, Kobo and Inkling, and our esteemed judges for their expertise and critical eye,” Blansfield said. “And a special thank you to LeVar Burton for making the first annual Digital Book Awards Gala an event to remember for our nominees, winners, and everyone in attendance.”

To view the full list of Digital Book Award winners and finalists, as well as the winners of Digital Book World’s QED (Quality, Excellence, Design) designations, please visit http://bit.ly/2014DBAs

About Digital Book World

Starting with the only conference designed to address the radically changing commercial publishing environment, Digital Book World (www.digitalbookworld.com) has evolved into a year-round platform offering news, analysis and educational and networking resources for consumer publishing professionals and their partners – including agents, booksellers and technology vendors – online and in person. Digital Book World is a division of F+W Media, Inc. www.fwmedia.com