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FirstyNews aims to bring the best news from the Web into your Inbox once a month. We scour the internet for interesting or even just quirky articles that we hope will inform and entertain you.
FirstyWork has launched its ‘application’ (apps) design, build and distribution platform which is quickly proving popular with many publishers, including a host of children’s books publishers. For more information, view our NewsFlash.
Recent wins: We are announcing a series of big wins this week and next for eBook conversion and app development. Watch this space! |
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| What is the difference between an App and an eBook? |
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People are increasingly asking Firsty to explain what is the difference between an app and an eBook. We have seen whole webinars on the subject and, rather than clearing things up, they tend to throw enhanced eBooks into the mix just to blur the lines even more. In case you’re not absolutely clear what the difference is, here is our definition, which is really simple and is based upon what they are good for.
ebooks = text heavy/image light. A cost-efficient way of making your book available on a multitude of eReading devices, from a variety of retailers, thanks to the ePub format.
Apps = the best apps are a multimedia experience, an in-depth reference/guide and/or a great tool. With apps you possibly need to consider audio, visual, interaction and content possibilities and, for this reason, the initial investment can be higher (depending on who you work with). The return, however, can also be significantly higher, but distribution points, for now, fewer. For stand-alone book apps there is a real fear that the likes of Apple are beginning to postpone, indefinitely, the publishing of apps with only basic or single functionality. The better the functionality, the more immersive the experience the better the chances of selling large numbers on the Appstore. 46% (AdMob statistic) of sales comes from word of mouth recommendation.
A 40-minute webinar in two paragraphs. You’re welcome. |
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| Apple’s iPhone 4 ‘most successful product’ for the business |
| Apple sold more than 1.7 million iPhone 4s on Saturday, just three days after it launched, making it Apple's most successful product, despite pre-order and manufacturing malfunctions... Read more » |
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| What is the iPad for? iPadivity |
| What is the iPad for? Is it just an expensive toy? Or a valuable tool for writers?... Read more » |
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| Why enhanced eBooks wont work |
| The word is "Greed", says author Tony Woodlief in the Wall Street Journal. Is that the right word? We can agree on it as a working hypothesis, but in truth the issues are far too complicated for such oversimplification, and unfortunately they’re about to become even more complicated. Fiendishly, maybe even insolubly, complicated... Read more » |
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| The world of online slush |
| When their former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, died four years ago, thousands of Chileans poured into the streets to celebrate but that's small potatoes compared to the crowds lining up to dance on the grave of traditional book publishing... Read more » |
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| Jeff Bezos on the iPad |
| In the face of Kindle price cuts and wild iPad sales, Jeff Bezos is taking Amazon into new markets and onto every device he can. Will it be enough?... Read more » |
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| JavaScript and interactivity in iBooks |
| iBooks supports JavaScript-based interactivity in EPUB content... Read more » |
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| eBook pricing and learning from others mistakes |
| I spend far too much of my time thinking about the music business. It's partly the emotional attachment formed by spending my formative years listening to jangly guitar bands on scratched black slabs of vinyl. It's partly professional too, though: I work in a similar industry, and if it's wise to learn from your mistakes, it's even wiser and less painful to learn from the mistakes of others.... Read more » |
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| Bookstores five years from now |
| Upton Sinclair famously said that “it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”... Read more » |
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| Three things we don’t know about Digital Publishing |
| The first step in facing the digital future is to admit to the known unknowns, Michael Bhaskar writes in his first column for BookBrunch... Read more » |
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