Posted on 2014-Mar-18
Joyland eBook up for Pre-order
Even Stephen King cannot resist the charm of eBook technology after he intentionally released the print-only version of his novel, Joyland. To many readers’ surprise, despite him being an early supporter of eBook, his decision was countered with several attempts to have his print copy digitized publicly, albeit illegally. In March last year, he stated his reasons for not releasing an eBook edition of Joyland as a gambit to encourage readers to “go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one” and read the actual book.
Based on his bold decision, it did not take long for pirates to reproduce the book in digital formats. While certain fans may defend King for whatever motivation he had, the illegal copies were instantaneously available all over the place jeopardizing paid customers who bought the physical book while leaving many frustrated over the limited choice of reading.
It has been almost a year since he last made the critical decision, and the latest statement on his website confirms the eBook format release in April. While the preorder date is not officially made known there, The Digital Reader publicizes the eBook release date on several leading retailers including Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and several others. For those readers who hesitate to read his book in print and download the illegal copy onto your eReading device, mark the date on your calendar and buy the eBook. Additionally, it is quite interesting to see the transgression the eBook technology has helped readers enjoy their reading of their favorite title based on this customer’s review.
Amazon to Own B&N’s Stores
Nook has become the center of attention when it is brought back into discussion over a reblogged article on The Passive Voice. Despite being originally posted by Forbes magazine almost a year ago, the majority still find Amazon’s bid for B&N hard to digest. Given the costly management of retail space and the unprofitable status of Nook’s business, it is most unlikely that Amazon’s takeover of B&N stores will see the light of day. This is especially true since Amazon has continued to maintain their status in the eBook-selling business along with other business entities: Amazon Publishing, CreateSpace, Kindle Store, just to name a few.
Chris Meadows of TeleRead puts his personal perspective giving out possible motives why Amazon might experiment with the idea of buying Barnes and Noble stores to showcase as their Kindle showroom and delivery center. By providing the retail store experience, Amazon might earn some trust among consumers who fancy the interaction within the brick and mortar environment. However, again there seems to be too many disadvantages switching to the physical shop. Paying higher taxes could be seen as one of the factors that would delay Amazon from opening a physical store. But the writer throws an interesting assumption into the last paragraph: what if Barnes and Noble could sell their Nook business leaving the stores ready for the big investors to scoop up since their retail business operation is “doing reasonably well”?
Google Play Books App Supports Thai Fonts Good Enough
In August 2012, I wrote a short story in my native language, which is Thai obviously. I wrote it in three days in hope that my story would be well read digitally. While the Thai font displayed properly on web browsers, at that time I was not able to predict how the Thai text would show up on the eReader’s screen since I did not own one. Fast forward to December 2012 when we had the first-gen Kindle Paperwhite, somehow the misfortunate rendering of the font on Kindle Paperwhite left my heart broken to witness mangled text with misplaced tonal marks. Just when we reviewed our Google Books Partner program, the EPUB eBook upload process reminded me of a possibility that the platform could support Thai fonts far superior to the Kindle app since the Google Play store has been in Thailand for quite some time. My speculation was right and this is the screenshot for your observation. My intention to share this little piece of information is to show that it depends on the eReading software solution to handle foreign languages. In this case, it is great to see my short story reappear on the screen across devices (i.e. PC, smartphone, and tablet) on the Google Play Book app.
Although the tonal marks do not always appear in the right place, the reflowable display promises the closest thing to decent eBook format that eBook app developers are aiming to improve the reading experience among Thai eBook enthusiasts.
Label: eBook Industry News
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