Here are a few highlights from the publishing world. (Note: These stories were published here on Radar throughout the week.)
An app is up for a TV BAFTA for the first time
For the first time ever, an app has been nominated for a TV British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. The Malcolm Tucker: The Missing Phone app, which has a story line based on a character of a popular BBC series called “The Thick of It” and a subsequent book “The Thick of It: The Missing DoSAC Files,” was launched in December. In a post for The Bookseller, Charlotte Williams talked to Henry Volans (@FaberDigital), head of the digital arm of UK publisher Faber & Faber and part of the team responsible for the app. In the interview, Volans responded to the nomination:
It’s really thrilling. When we made this app we wanted to do more than translate a book to an app, but made something that made sense of the platform and I think this nomination shows we’ve gone some way to doing that.
I reached out to Volans via an email interview to find out more about the app and the nomination. (The BAFTA awards will be announced May 22.) Our interview follows.
How did the app get started?
Henry Volans: It started with a question that’s quite common but to which the answer is usually “no.” We looked at the book and said “can we make an app from this?” Because the material is so rich, and I had the freedom at Faber Digital to develop something new — and on a schedule independent of the book — it got off the ground quickly. The project also worked because we went straight back to the creative team — Armando Iannucci and his four co-writers — rather than shoehorn the book into an app template.
- This story continues here
Kindle book sales officially outpace print — are we at the ebook tipping point?
In a news release today, Amazon announced that Kindle book sales are outpacing sales of hardcover and paperback book sales combined. The release included several interesting statistics:
- Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
- Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
- Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.
These stats beg the question: Are we at the ebook tipping point?
- Please share your thoughts in the comments here
How to revolutionize the Kindle
Amazon is well positioned to advance the Kindle platformmuch faster and further than they have in any 6-12 month period up to now. Here’s where I hope they end up between now and the middle of next year:
An insanely inexpensive entry-level device. Picture the current Kindle, but for $99 or less. How about $49? Better yet, how about free with a customer commitment to buy a minimum of X books in each of the next two years? Sounds a lot like a cell phone plan, doesn’t it?
Of course, if you’re instead looking for something a bit more powerful and extendable, how about…
An Android tablet device with an LCD screen. This one is the worst kept secrets since the iPhone 4. Amazon didn’t launch that Appstore for Android because they want to push more cell phone sales. The only questions here are (1) when?, (2) how much?, and (3) how open? If they’re smart the answers will be (1) any
day, (2) $300 max, and (3) wide open.
But if you can’t stand the thought of reading long-form content on an LCD screen, then how about…
That same Android tablet with a hybrid E Ink/LCD screen. That’s right. A single device offering both the bright-light comfort of E Ink with the backlit option of LCD. Unfortunately for Amazon, it seems Apple is the one who’s taking the lead on this front. Just search for the phrase “hybrid E Ink LCD display” and you get nothing but Apple news. That’s a bummer since the first company to offer this solution could own the high end (and my loyalty). A fully open Android tablet with hybrid E Ink/LCD could easily command a $500 price or higher.
- This story continues here.
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