somersault

Above Infographic (click to enlarge) is by TeachingDegree.org.

But for a contrasting viewpoint, read Futurebook's (@TheFutureBook) "Print and Ebooks Cannot Co-Exist After All" by Adam Juniper.

Also see our previous blogposts, "Infographic: How Ebooks are Reshaping Publishing," "BISG Report: More Ebook Buyers Buying Print Books," and "Books vs Ebooks."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your ebooks and pbooks.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

Kindle Fire users read, while iPad users surf the Web and catch up on email. Bowker (@Bowker & @DiscoverBowker) reports that “ebook consumers are decidedly shifting to multi-function tablets and away from dedicated e-readers, according to the Book Industry Study Group’s (@BISG) closely watched on-going Consumer Attitudes Toward Ebook Reading.”

...[T]ablets have risen by about 25% over the past year as the first choice for respondents’ e-reading device, while dedicated e-readers have fallen by the same amount. The rise of tablet popularity has been fueled largely by Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which increased over the past year from no use to be the first choice for more than 17% of ebook consumers. Other Android devices, such as Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Tablet, have also increased as the first choice for respondents’ e-reading device, from 2% in August 2011 to nearly 7% in August 2012, while Apple’s iPad has held steady around 10%.

“We’ve discovered throughout the course of this survey work that we can chart the future based on what is currently happening with ebook ‘Power Buyers.’ Their ebook purchasing and e-reader preferences have proven to be reliable predictors of market trends,” said Angela Bole, BISG’s Deputy Executive Director. “Based on this, the introduction of new tablet devices by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Microsoft is likely to continue the trend of preference for tablets over dedicated e-readers through the upcoming holiday season.”

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you develop your ebook publishing and marketing strategy.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) says, according to studies by Bowker Market Research (@Bowker & @DiscoverBowker), as of June, Amazon’s Kindle reading devices were used to read ebooks by 55% of ebook buyers.

Since its introduction in late 2011, Amazon Fire’s share of ebook reading has risen quickly and hit 18% in June. Some of its gains came at the expense of other Kindle devices, but the combination of dedicated e-readers and tablets gave Amazon its highest market share ever, topping the 49% the company had in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Through its iPad and iPhone devices, Apple had a 15% share of e-reading in June, up from 13% in June 2011 with the gain coming entirely from iPads as the use of ebook reading on iPhones fell by two percentage points in the year-to-year period. Barnes & Noble’s Nook devices had a 14% share in the second quarter, a figure that has held steady since the fourth quarter of 2011, but was down from a peak of 22% in the third quarter of 2010.

Read this in full.

The research suggests fewer ebook buyers are using computers to read ebooks, but that conflicts with a survey by Pew Research Group (@pewinternet), “Young People Read Ebooks Mostly on Their Desktops & Laptops.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you develop your ebook publishing and marketing strategy.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

The management team of Family Christian (@FCstores), the nation's largest Christian retail chain with 280 stores in 36 states, has partnered with a group of Atlanta-based Christian businessmen to acquire the company from its private equity owners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Under the new ownership, Family Christian's pledge is to contribute 100% of its profits to Christian causes and, specifically, ministries serving widows and orphans both in the USA and abroad. Family Christian has always been committed to providing resources for the Christian community, but the new ownership structure will allow the organization to not only equip Christians in their daily walk, but to increase the organization's impact by providing substantial financial support to faith-based causes.

Read the news release.

Additionally, Family Christian president and CEO, Cliff Bartow, told Publishers Weekly the company has decided to drop its own e-reader – the edifi, launched in June – “because the technology is moving so rapidly, and this is not our core competency.” Instead, Family will work with Kobo (@kobo), carrying four of their color devices and three of their black-and-white devices for the Christmas season. “We definitely believe in the future of ebooks,” Bartow said. (Also see PW’s earlier article, “Family Christian Chain Launches E-Reader.”)

As for the future of brick and mortar, Bartow said, “We believe our stores are a viable concept. Today customers want to be served through multiple channels. Look at Apple--they do business online but their physical stores are also important. Our customers want the store experience. They want a place they can come for inspiration and interaction with our staff.”

Also see Christianity Today’s coverage.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you navigate the fast-changing environment of today's book publishing world.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

The above Chart Of The Day (@chartoftheday) depicts a portion of the Pew Research Group’s (@pewinternet) survey of people’s e-reading habits. The most popular way for people under 30 to read ebooks is on their desktop and laptop computers, surpassing e-readers, smartphones, and tablets.

Among the survey’s other findings:

·         83% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year. Some 75% read a print book, 19% read an ebook, and 11% listened to an audiobook.

·         Overall, 47% of younger Americans read long-form e-content such as books, magazines, or newspapers. E-content readers under age 30 are more likely than older e-content readers to say they’re reading more these days due to the availability of e-content (40% vs. 28%).

·         60% of Americans under age 30 used the library in the past year. Some 46% used the library for research, 38% borrowed books (print books, audiobooks, or ebooks), and 23% borrowed newspapers, magazines, or journals.

·         Many of these young readers don’t know they can borrow an ebook from a library, and a majority of them express the wish they could do so on pre-loaded e-readers. Some 10% of the ebook readers in this group have borrowed an ebook from a library and, among those who have not borrowed an ebook, 52% said they were unaware they could do so. About 58% of those under age 30 who don’t currently borrow ebooks from libraries say they would be “very” or “somewhat” likely to borrow pre-loaded e-readers if their library offered that service.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan your ebook publishing and marketing strategy.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

Presented by: OnlineDegrees.org

Above Infographic is by Aptara – Transforming Content into Knowledge

The above Chart of the Day (@chartoftheday) graph depicts research by Kontera (@Kontera) to determine when people use their PC (stationary) versus smartphones and tablets (mobile).

PC usage is strongest from 11 am to 5 pm (the work day while in the office) and mobile usage is strongest from 6 pm to midnight (the leisure hours at home).

The research also finds that 22% of all Internet content consumed in the US is on mobile devices.

Here’s another chart, showing how people are using their smartphones and tablets.

How might this influence your digital publishing strategy?

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you think through your mobile content effectiveness.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

During the Victorian Era in England, the trend of publishing the stories of novels in installments helped propel Charles Dickens to fame.

Publishing reporter Julie Bosman (@juliebosman) asks in The New York Times Media Decoder (@mediadecodernyt) blog, “Could serialized fiction finally force the ebook to evolve?”

Various ventures are trying to satisfy a common complaint about ebooks: that they are simply black-and-white digital reproductions of long-form print books, flat and unoriginal in their design and concept. One variation, what publishers call enhanced ebooks, with audio and video elements woven throughout the text, has largely fallen flat with readers.

But serialized fiction, where episodes are delivered to readers in scheduled installments much like episodes in a television series, has been the subject of an unusual amount of experimentation in publishing in recent months. In September, Amazon announced Kindle Serials, stories sold for $1.99 and published in short episodes that download onto the Kindle as the episodes are released....

In August, Byliner, a digital publisher, announced that it would begin a new digital imprint devoted to serialized fiction....

One of the most talked-about new experiments is taking serialized fiction a step further. It’s a novel called The Silent History that’s available on the Apple iPhone and iPad. It includes interactive, user-generated elements.

Read this in full.

Also see USA TODAY’s article, “Will 'The Silent History' change the way we read?”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you think through your mobile content effectiveness.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

New findings from a Nielsen (@NielsenWire) online survey of respondents from 56 countries:

·         Nearly half (49%) have purchased a product online.

·         46% have used social media to help make purchase decisions.

·         37% purchase from online-only stores most frequently.

·         1 in 5 global respondents plan to purchase electronic books and digital newspaper and magazine subscriptions in the next 3 to 6 months.

·         The online purchase intent of hard copy books and physical subscriptions declined from 44% in 2010 to 33% this year.

·         Categories with growing global purchase intent include computer/game software (+18%), entertainment tickets (+10%), computer/game hardware (+6%), video/music production (+5%), cars/motorcycle and accessories (+4%) and apparel/accessories/shoes/jewelry (+1%).

·         More than one-quarter (26%) of global respondents plan to purchase food and beverage products via an online connected device in the next 3 to 6 months — a jump from 18% reported in 2010.

Also see the Infographic “The Pre-Purchase Habits of Shoppers” and our previous blogposts, “Why Shopping Will Never Be the Same” and “Tablets Change Shopping, Media Habits.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help digitally publish and market your content.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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