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GigaOM (@gigaom) senior writer Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) reports on 72-year-old Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s (@MargaretAtwood) involvement with Wattpad (@wattpad) (blog) and Fanado (@Fanadoevents).

Wattpad is a Toronto, Ontario-based...online writing community with more than 3 million users and over 5 million pieces of content uploaded to the network....

Instead of just uploading books, many members of Wattpad’s community upload unfinished chapters that are still in development, or pieces of poetry they need feedback on, and then get comments and advice from other users of the service — both other writers and readers....

In addition to her work with Wattpad, Atwood is one of the founding artists involved with a startup called Fanado, which is trying to raise funds through the crowdfunding service Indiegogo (@Indiegogo) in order to launch a kind of digital-community platform for artists....

The idea behind Fanado is to give authors tools that they can use to interact with fans remotely, including the ability to share live video and audio of readings or get-togethers with a community, and to autograph and distribute both electronic books and printed books, as well as CDs and other offerings related to a work. In some ways, Fanado is the logical extension of an earlier project that Atwood was involved in, which led to the development of an electronic book-signing device called the “LongPen (@Syngrafii) — which authors could use to sign physical books in remote locations while on a virtual book tour.

Read this in full.

Read the Fanado news release (pdf).

See book patrol’s (@bookpatrol) post, “Fanado: The LongPen Still Lives."

Also see our blogpost, "Authors Can Now Personalize Messages in Ebooks."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan and execute strategy to bring authors and readers together.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Forbes (@Forbes) senior editor Deborah L. Jacobs (@djworking) offers insights she learned in successfully self-publishing her non-fiction book.

Digital technology has made it possible for anyone to publish a book….But turning that book into a successful commercial venture is far more challenging. For more than one year after self-publishing my book, Estate Planning Smarts, promoting it was practically my full-time job.

I didn’t take the decision to self-publish lightly. In fact, I turned down offers from two big publishers because I wasn’t happy with the money they offered. McGraw-Hill’s offer was missing a zero—and I told them so.

...The reason for publishers’ low offers was that statistics show estate planning books don’t sell well. I had a vision for a book that would prove them wrong, but the big companies would never have allocated the resources to produce it.

My business model involved going against the grain by spending money where big publishers are cutting corners: high-quality paper, two-color graphics, printing on a Web press, rather than print-on-demand. And while big publishers were cutting experienced staff, I retained top talent for editing and graphics, on a freelance basis. The goal was to produce a high-quality product that advisers would give to their clients and friends and family would share with each other.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your content in this fast-changing digital age.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard;especially the Publishers tab that includes links to self-publishing services.

Between traditional publishing, the legitimization of self-publishing, print-on-demand, and Internet technology lowering the barrier to authoring books, roughly 1,000 books are now being published every single day in the USA.

We’ve never had so many books available, yet bookstores are going out of business like never before. With the astronomical number of books in the marketplace and stores closing their doors where books have historically been displayed for serendipitous encountering, the question these days is, “How will people conveniently browse and discover new titles.” The following social websites are one answer:

·         AudioBookFans (@AudioBookFans)

·         AudioFile (@AudioFileMag)

·         Audiobook Jukebox (@audiobkjkbx)

·         Authonomy (@authonomy)

·         BookCrossing.com (@BookCrossing)

·         BookFinder.com (@BookFinder)

·         BookFinder4U.com (@bookfinder4u)

·         Book Genome Project

·         Bookhitch.com (@bookhitch)

·         Bookins (@Bookins)

·         Bookish (@BookishHQ)

·         Booklist Online (@BooklistOnline)

·         Bookmarks Magazine

·         BookMooch (@bookmooch)

·         Booknibblr (@booknibblr)

·         BookPage (@bookpage)

·         BookRabbit (@thebookrabbit)

·         Bookreporter (@Bookreporter)

·         Book Review Index Online

·         BookRiff (@BookRiff)

·         Books & Culture (@booksandculture)

·         Books For Ears

·         BookShout (@BookShout)

·         BookSpot

·         Book TV (@BookTV)

·         Book Verdict

·         Byliner (@TheByliner)

·         DearReader.com (@DearReaderCom)

·         Edelweiss (publishers catalogs) (@weiss_squad)

·         Everyday eBook (@EverydayeBook)

·         Fanado (@Fanadoevents)

·         FiledBy (@filedby)

·         Findings (@findings)

·         FirstChapters (@first_chapters)

·         ForeWord (@ForeWordmag)

·         fReado (@freado)

·         goodreads (@goodreads)

·         Google Books

·         Hyperink (@hyperink)

·         Kirkus Reviews (@KirkusReviews)

·         Lendle (@lendleapp)

·         LibraryThing (@LibraryThing)

·         Listal (@listal)

·         Little Free Library (@LtlFreeLibrary)

·         Los Angeles Times Books (@latimesbooks)

·         Lovereading (@lovereadinguk)

·         The Midwest Book Review

·         NetGalley (@NetGalley)

·         The New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) (@Book Reviews)

·         Oprah's Book Club (@OprahsBookClub)

·         Published.com

·         Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly)

·         Reader2

·         Readmill (@Readmill)

·         Revish

·         Riffle (@Rifflebooks)

·         Shelfari (@shelfari)

·         Shelf Awareness (@ShelfAwareness)

·         ShelfCentered

·         Shelf Unbound (@shelfmagazine)

·         Small Demons (@smalldemons)

·         Togather.com (@TogatherInc)

·         USA TODAY Books (@USATODAYBooks)

·         The Wall Street Journal Books (@WSJBookReviews)

·         Wattpad (@wattpad)

·         Zola Books (@zolabooks)

·         Zooba (@MyZooba)

Also see our blogposts:

·         “Findability, Discoverability, & Marketing" 

·         “Discoverability in the Digital Age: Personal Recommendations and Bookstores" 

·         “How Ebook Buyers Discover Books" 

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to market your books so consumers readily discover them.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, where you’ll find the above list of links in the Book Discovery Sites tab.

The Verge (@verge) reports on a publishing/marketing concept that uses disappearing ink to print books whose text gradually fades away over a period of 2 months as it comes into contact with light and air.

Dubbed "The Book That Can't Wait," the format — an intriguing one in a world increasingly dominated by Kindles and Nooks — is being pioneered by independent Argentinian publishing house Eterna Cadencia, which is using it to promote new authors. As the promo video points out, “if people don't read their first books, they'll never make it to a second.”

Read this in full.

If you’re a book lover like we (@smrsault) are, bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) editorial director Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) says, “Publishers worried that readers who borrow ebooks from libraries don’t buy books can put those worries to rest."

According to a new study from the The Pew Research Center's (@PewResearch) Internet & American Life Project (@pewinternet), those who borrow ebooks from libraries also purchase ebooks. When ebook borrowers were asked by Pew how they acquired the last ebook they read, 41% said they bought it.

Read this in full.

“Ebook borrowers are book lovers,” says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet project. “They the heaviest book-reading cohort of the ones we measured. They are more into books than even ebook readers, the larger group they fall into.”

Findings from the study:

·         12% of readers of ebooks borrowed an ebook from the library in the past year.

·         But 58% of all library card holders say they don’t know if their library provides ebook lending services.

·         55% of all those who say the library is “very important” to them say they don’t know if their library lends ebooks.

·         53% of all tablet computer owners say they don’t know if their library lends ebooks.

·         48% of all owners of ebook reading devices such as original Kindles and NOOKs say they don’t know if their library lends ebooks.

·         47% of all those who read an ebook in the past year say they don’t know if their library lends ebooks.

·         E-book borrowers appreciate the selection of ebooks at their local library, but they often encounter wait lists, unavailable titles, or incompatible file formats.

·         Many Americans would like to learn more about borrowing ebooks.

·         58% of Americans have a library card, and 69% say their local library is important to them and their family.

·         Leading-edge librarians and patrons say the advent of ebooks has produced a major transformation in book searching and borrowing at libraries.

Read the study, Libraries, Patrons, and Ebooks, in full.

In his blogpost, “Does Pew study prove ebooks in libraries are safe for publishers?,” Mike Shatzkin (@MikeShatzkin) says, “The latest Pew ebook study seems to me to confirm that the publishers are doing the right thing for sales by constricting the availability of many of the most attractive books from library shelves.”

Read this in full.

Also see PBS’ MediaShift (@PBSMediaShift), “What Is the Role of Libraries in the Age of Ebooks and Digital Information?” and FOX News’ (@FoxNews) article, “How to borrow Ebooks from the library.”

Also see our previous blogposts, “Ebooks Projected to Comprise 50% of US Trade Book Market By 2016” and “Extensive New Study: The Rise of E-reading.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your brand’s content in pbooks and ebooks.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Family Christian Stores (@FCstores) is the world’s largest Christian-focused retail chain with nearly 300 stores nationwide. Along with its books, Bibles, gifts, and music, it now is selling its own exclusive e-reader, edifi.

Based on a chart comparing edifi with the Nook Color, Nook Tablet, and Kindle Fire, edifi is comparable but a bit smaller (although same screen size), has less resolution and pixel density, runs on Android 2.3.5, comes with its own stand, and is less expensive. It’s uniquely pre-installed with family-friendly features and free apps including Safe Search Wi-Fi Web browsing, 27 Bible translations, and Christian Internet radio. With edifi, users are able to check email, access social networks, watch movies, display photos, and download ebooks and read them with the included FC Reader app.

Read our previous blogposts on the subject of tablets.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish your content for ebooks, pbooks, and audiobooks.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The Audio Publishers Association (@AudioPub) (#JIAM2012) has declared June Audiobook Month.

Author Cathryn Prince (@CathrynPrince) writes on her blog about the magic of audiobooks.

I didn’t think about audio books as something for me until I started commuting about 45 minutes to and from an adjunct teaching job. I’m not teaching at the moment, but as Dr. Frasier Crane said: I’m listening. A lot. I discovered a whole new world in audio books. I imagine audio books to be the distant relative of the serial shows of radio days.

Read this in full.

The above video is Jim Dale (@JimnJules), the voice of all the characters in the Harry Potter audiobook series. As a narrator, he's won a Grammy Award (2000), 5 Grammy nominations, and 7 Audie Awards.

NPR Books (@nprbooks) offers a list of audiobooks “that’ll make the family road trip fly by.”

See the list of winners in The Audies competition, the award that “recognizes distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.”

For a behind-the-scenes description of the making of an audiobook, see Publishers Weekly’s (@PublishersWkly) “How Chef Marcus Samuelsson Records an Audiobook.”

More reporting about audiobooks is available on PW’s audio blog, Listen Up (@PWAudio).

If you’re interested in audiobook reviews, subscribe to AudioFile (@AudioFileMag), the magazine that covers the world of audiobooks.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to create an audiobook for your content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The above film, EPILOGUE: the future of print (@EPILOGUEdoc) (vimeo channel) by Hanah Ryu Chung, is a documentary that explores the world of print books, scratching the surface of its future. Chung says:

The act of reading a “tangible tome” has evolved, devolved, and changed many times over, especially in recent years. I hope for the film to stir thought and elicit discussion about the immersive reading experience and the lost craft of the book arts, from the people who are still passionate about reading on paper as well as those who are not.

Also see our previous blogposts:

• "Paper is Stronger than Tech and Now its Aroma Comes Bottled"
• "Home Libraries Despite the Ebook Era"
• "Birth of a Book: The Handmade Bookbinding Process"
• "Book Seller Believes in Video's Marketing Power"
• "A Video About a Poster Masks a Bookstore's Promotion"
• "Video: What Books Do After Hours"
• "The Technology of Storytelling"
• "Photos: The 20 Coolest Bookstores in the World"
• "Introducing the New Book"
• "Even E-reader Owners Still Like Printed Books, Survey Finds"
• "In a Flood Tide of Digital Data, an Ark Full of Books"
• "The 'End' of Print and TV."

If you love books like we (@smrsault) do, we invite you to make our SomersaultNOW online dashboard your personal computer homepage (see instructions).

Mardel (@Mardel_Inc) retail chain has 35 stores in 7 states. Its store in Oklahoma City, OK is now “one of the first Christian bookstores that has a newly-installed Espresso Book Machine® (EBM), technology that offers patrons instant access to more than 8 million titles printed in any language, and allows area Oklahoma authors to self-publish their work on-site.”

“Now people have a source to print-on-demand all types of books in any language and genres, and to publish their own professional or personal writings,” said Kevin McDonell, merchandise manager of Mardel.

The EBM is “the only digital-to-print at retail solution on the market. With the push of a button, any book from EspressNet®, On Demand Books’ (@espressobook) digital catalog of content, can be printed, bound and trimmed, creating a paperback book that is virtually indistinguishable from the publisher’s version.“

Read the news release (pdf).

Last November, Baker Publishing Group (@ReadBakerBooks) became the first major Christian publisher  to make available almost its entire paperback list to the EBM network.

Read the news release (pdf).

Espresso Book Machine location list.

In other digital news, Publishers Weekly reports:

Zondervan (@Zondervan), the evangelical Christian publishing division of HarperCollins, has begun a new direct-to-digital imprint. Zondervan First (@ZondervanFirst) launches with the acquisition of a historical fiction title, Love in Three-Quarter Time by Dina Sleiman. The digital titles will be produced with editorial and marketing support from Zondervan.

Zondervan First will initially focus on fiction but will eventually include all the categories the company currently publishes. Submissions will be accepted for fiction, non-fiction, and Bible material suitable for kids, teens, and adults in addition to manuscripts geared for curriculum, church resources, academic, and reference books.

Zondervan First will not pay an advance, but authors will receive a 25% royalty from the first book sold. After an ebook sells 10,000 net copies, the author's royalty rate rises to 50%.

Read the news release.

And Alive Communications literary agency for Christian and inspirational titles has launched “a sister epublishing company, Bondfire Books (@BondfireBooks).“

“We aim to be a game changer by working with other literary agencies and paying all authors a 50% net royalty, essentially double the industry standard of 25%. We will also offer 5-year renewable terms instead of the normal life of copyright,” says Rick Christian (@RicklyChristian), founder of Bondfire Books and Alive Communications.

Read the news release.

Somersault (@smrsault) is here to help publishers and other content creators communicate their messages digitally and in print.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Perfect insight on today’s fast-changing publishing scene! :)

(Cartoon copyright © Harry Bliss. Used by permission of Pippin Properties, Inc..)