Have “social” updates ruined the Kobo app?

It’s no secret that Kobo, the e-reading company formerly owned by Indigo Books & Music, is betting big on the “social in-book e-reading experience” to set it apart from competitors such as Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iBookstore.

Kobo made this much clear with the September launch of Kobo Pulse, a package of updates that effectively integrated social media within the company’s e-reader. The new features permit users to connect with other readers online, comment on an ebook’s content, view statistics about a title’s popularity, and post reading updates and passages to Facebook, among other functions. The new capabilities are in addition to Kobo’s long-established Reading Life program.

It seems, though, for some Kobo diehards, the updates have gone too far.

Just a year after naming Kobo’s e-reading iPad app the best on the market, digital publishing and tech blogger Chris Walters has come out swinging against it. In a post on his website, Walters says that, while he used to believe the Kobo app “ahead of the curve,” he now avoids using it altogether. Noting that the changes came about in response to restrictions against in-app purchases Apple began implementing last year, Walters says Kobo’s unrelenting attempts to make e-reading fun and connected have missed the mark and made the app unpleasant to use.

Regardless of whether or not users find the social features cumbersome, Walters’ main complaint is levelled against Kobo’s increasingly aggressive sales tactics. Now when the app is launched, it opens to a page of recommended reads that takes up much of the display screen. Moreover, Walters points out that when you do opt to make a purchase, the process has become much more time consuming and involves multiple website redirections.

Walters ends his post by putting these changes in context. From Booksprung:

Part of me wonders if this is the first sign of the New Face of Kobo, now that it’s been bought up by Rakuten. Software updates don’t happen overnight, so this was likely something Kobo had in the works for a while. Rakuten surely had enough time to kill this update but chose to release it anyway, which is a good sign that this is the way things will work with Kobo from now on. Who knows? By the time summer comes around the Kobo iOS app may be nothing but an impenetrable billboard of book samples, Facebook alerts, infographics, help screens, pop-up windows, slide-out sheets, and “share this” badges.

Has Kobo’s e-reading app gone too far, or are we asking too much of retail-based companies? What can Kobo do to win back Walters and other disgruntled readers?

Apple shakes up textbook publishing

Rumours of Apple’s entry into the digital textbook market were confirmed this morning with the announcement of iBooks 2.

The latest version of Apple’s e-reading platform focuses on media-rich, interactive digital textbooks designed for the iPad. Education publishers McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – which comprise approximately 90 per cent of U.S. textbook market sales – have signed on as the first content partners.

But it’s not just international corporations that will have the capability to produce and sell e-textbook content. Apple also announced iBooks Author, a free DIY ebook app that has been compared to GarageBand, Apple’s audio-editing software that has made digital recording and sound engineering accessible to independent musicians and podcast producers.

“Education is deep in our DNA,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president of world-wide marketing, at a launch event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Schiller also noted that education institutions already use “more than 1.5 million iPads and have access to more than 20,000 education apps,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Apple’s move into education isn’t all about the children. If a publisher wants to take advantage of the platform, it has to sign an exclusivity contract with Apple, and keep textbook prices at $14.99 or less (of which Apple takes its customary 30 per cent cut). While the lower price is great for students, there is the upfront cost of purchasing an iPad. And as tech website Engadget points out, with all the interactive graphics and video, the first released e-textbooks take up anywhere from 800MB to 2.77GB of memory, which means it won’t take much to fill a low-end 16GB tablet. Also, what happens when the classroom iPad breaks?

Reaction from Twitter users has been mixed:

Is Apple studying the e-textbook market?

An Apple event scheduled for Jan. 19 has insiders speculating the technology giant will announce its entrance into the e-textbook market.

In advance of the education-themed event, tech website betanews.com compiled a list of Apple’s potential U.S. competitors, which includes Amazon’s e-textbook rental program and online distributor CourseSmart.

Condé Nast tech website Ars Technica suggests Apple isn’t interested in becoming a content provider, but will announce production tools that will allow anyone to publish interactive e-books for distribution on Apple devices like the iPhone and iPad.

Last week, eBound Canada, the digital arm of the Association of Canadian Publishers, announced a partnership with Follett Canada that would give elementary and secondary schools greater access to titles by independent Canadian publishers.

Book links roundup: Apple to ship iPad 3 in March; rare Audubon to go for $10 million, and more

• Apple to ship iPad 3 in March; iPad 4 in October
• A first edition of a rare Audubon book is yours for $10 million U.S.
• Popular Halifax secondhand bookstore owner to pack up 25 years of stock
• The Occupy Wall Street activists have been evicted, but their library continues to grow
• Second issue of the Toronto Review of Books now online

Book links roundup: 2011 Canadian bestsellers, Apple self-publishing rumours, and more

• Random House of Canada and Penguin Canada lead Canadian entries on the 2011 Globe & Mail bestsellers’ list
• Is Apple launching a digital self-publishing program?
• Kitty lit: reimagined classics from The Sound and the Furry to The Great Catsby
• James Franco sells debut novel to Amazon
  
• Jonathan Lethem has “no stake in defending lame stuff”
• Remembering U.K. illustrator and cartoonist Ronald Searle

Booksellers’ picks of the year: international non-fiction

Canadian booksellers contacted by Q&Q say 2011 has been an especially strong year for international history and biography, with one book clearly taking the lead.

“The huge one would be the Steve Jobs title,” says Colin Holt, manager of Bolen Books in Victoria. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple’s late co-founder and CEO, had its publication date moved up from 2012 after Jobs’s death in October. Indigo, Chapters, and Coles stores opened early on Oct. 24, the book’s release date, so Canadians could get their hands on a copy right away. Steve Jobs has since become a #1 bestseller.

In Toronto, Book City branches have already seen high sales of U.K.-born historian Niall Ferguson’s latest title, Civilization: The West and the Rest, a follow-up to Ferguson’s 2009 bestseller, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

At Nicholas Hoare’s Toronto location, books with buzz include Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History by Australian art critic Robert Hughes and Jerusalem: The Biography by British writer Simon Sebag Montefiore. Fiona McCarthy’s The Last Pre-Raphaelite, a biography of artist Edward Burne-Jones, and Franny Moyle’s Constance, chronicling the “tragic and scandalous” life of Oscar Wilde’s wife, are also top sellers.

Outside of history and biography, booksellers also pointed to Gully Wells’s memoir, The House in France, and Arguably, an essay collection by British-American writer Christopher Hitchens.

“Giller effect” boosts e-book sales of Half-Blood Blues

The so-called “Scotiabank Giller Prize effect”  is already helping e-book numbers for Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers).

Yesterday, Half-Blood Blues was listed 3,376 on Amazon’s bestsellers list for Kindle e-books. As of noon Wednesday, the book had risen to 360, a significant increase in sales overnight. In the Apple iBookstore, it is the third top-seller, just below the e-book and enhanced e-book versions of Stephen King’s 11/22/63. Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers (House of Anansi Press) is the only other Giller Prize finalist in the iBookstore’s top 10, at number five.

Giller finalist Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table (McClelland & Stewart) is the fifth best-selling e-book at Kobo, the only e-commerce site that is prominently merchandising Half-Blood Blues as the Giller winner.

Ondaatje’s book is also the top-seller in the new Canadian Google eBookstore, which launched last week. As part of its roll-out strategy, Google tailored the store for a Canadian audience, dedicating a section on its homepage for the Giller shortlist, however, Half-Blood Blues is conspicuously absent. According to David Glover, Thomas Allen’s marketing manager, the publisher is working with Google, and the title will be available soon.

Prices for the e-books also vary between websites. At the high end, Half-Blood Blues is available in the Apple iBookstore for $20.99. Kobo is carrying the e-book for $15.49, and Amazon, $9.60.

(Photo by Tom Sandler, courtesy of the Writers’ Trust)

Ontario Library Association announces Forest of Reading award shortlists

The Ontario Library Association has announced its shortlists for its 2012 Forest of Reading program. The winners, as chosen by Ontario school children, will be announced during the Forest of Reading Festival, May 15–16, 2012.

Here are the English-language nominees:

Blue Spruce (Grades K–2)

• A Flock of Shoes, Sarah Tsiang; Qin Leng, illus. (Annick Press)
• Giraffe and Bird, Rebecca Bender (Dancing Cat Books)
• Kiss Me! (I’m a Prince!), Heather McLeod; Brooke Kerrigan, illus. (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The Little Hummingbird, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Greystone Books)
• Making the Moose Out of Life, Nicholas Oldland (Kids Can Press)
• Noni Says No, Heather Hartt-Sussman; Geneviève Côté, illus. (Tundra Books)
• One Hockey Night, David Ward; Brian Deines, illus. (North Winds Press)
• Rosyln Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth!, Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books)
• Small Saul, Ashley Spires (Kids Can)
• Stanley’s Little Sister, Linda Bailey and Bill Slavin, illus. (Kids Can)

Silver Birch Fiction (Grades 3–6)

• Better Than Weird, Anna Kerz (Orca Book Publishers)
• Crossing to Freedom, Virginia Frances Schwartz (Scholastic Canada)
• Ghost Messages, Jacqueline Guest (Coteau Books)
• Ghosts of the Titanic, Julie Lawson (Scholastic Canada)
• The Glory Wind, Valerie Sherrard (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The McGuillicuddy Book of Personal Records, Colleen Sydor (Red Deer Press)
• Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze, Alan Silberberg (Simon & Schuster)
• Neil Flambé and the Aztec Abduction, Kevin Sylvester (Simon and Schuster/HarperCollins Canada)
• That Boy Red, Rachna Gilmore (Simon and Schuster/HarperCollins Canada)
• Undergrounders, David Skuy (Scholastic Canada)

Silver Birch Non-fiction (Grades 3–6)

• 50 Poisonous Questions: A Book With Bite, Tanya Lloyd Kyi; Ross Kinnaird, illus. (Annick)
• Africans Thought of It: Amazing Innovations, Bathseba Opini; Richard B. Lee (Annick)
• Animals That Changed the World, Keltie Thomas (Annick)
• Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science, Susan Hughes; Michael Wandelmaier, illus. (Kids Can)
• Don’t Touch That Toad & Other Strange Things Adults Tell You, Catherine Rondina; Kevin Sylvester, illus. (Kids Can)
• Game Day: Meet the People Who Make It Happen, Kevin Sylvester (Annick)
• Highway of Heroes, Kathy Stinson (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• Mathemagic! Number Tricks, Lynda Colgan; Jane Kurisu, illus. (Kids Can)
• Totally Human: Why We Look and Act the Way We Do, Cynthia Pratt Nicolson;Dianne Eastman, illus. (Kids Can)
• Who Wants Pizza? The Kids’ Guide to the History, Science & Culture of Food, Jan Thornhill (Maple Tree Press)

Silver Birch Express (Grades 3–6)

• All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine, Monica Kulling; Bill Slavin, illus. (Tundra)
• Banjo of Destiny, Cary Fagan; Selçuk Demirel, illus. (Groundwood)
• Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Gordon Lightfoot; Ian Wallace, illus. (Groundwood)
• The Gargoyle Overhead, Philippa Dowding (Napoleon & Company)
• The Last Loon, Rebecca Upjohn (Orca)
• Our Earth: How Kids are Saving the Planet, Janet Wilson (Second Story Press)
• Saving Arm Pit, Natalie Hyde (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The Time Time Stopped, Don Gillmor (Scholastic Canada)
• Uumajut: Learn About Arctic Wildlife! Simon Awa; Anna Ziegler; Stephanie McDonald; Leah Otak, trans.; Romi Caron, illus. (Inhabit Media)
• When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew: Tales of Ti-Jean, Jan Andrews; Dušan Petričić, illus. (Groundwood)

Red Maple (Grades 7-8)

• Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom, Susin Nielsen (Tundra)
• Dust City, Robert Paul Weston (Puffin Canada)
• Fanatics, William Bell (Doubleday Canada)
• Fly Boy, Eric Walters (Puffin canada)
• Half Brother, Kenneth Oppel (HarperCollins Canada)
• Haunting Violet, Alyxandra Harvey (Bloomsbury)
• Home Truths, Jill MacLean (Dancing Cat)
• No Safe Place, Deborah Ellis (Groundwood)
• Thunder Over Kandahar, Sharon E. McKay; Rafal Gerszak, photog. (Annick)
• Torn from Troy, Patrick Bowman (Ronsdale Press)

White Pine Fiction (Grades 9–12)

• Ashes, Ashes, Jo Treggiari (Scholastic Canada)
• Beat the Band, Don Calame (Candlewick Press)
• Blood Red Road, Moira Young (Doubleday)
• Chance to Dance for You, Gail Sidonie Sobat (Great Plains Publications)
• Death Benefits, Sarah N. Harvey (Orca)
• The Fifth Rule, Don Aker (HarperCollins Canada)
• The Gathering, Kelley Armstrong (Doubleday Canada)
• Motorcycles & Sweetgrass, Drew Hayden Taylor (Vintage Canada)
• Something Wicked, Lesley Anne Cowan (Puffin Canada)
• The Way It Is, Donalda Reid (Second Story)

White Pine Non-fiction (Grades 9–12)

• The Book of Awesome, Neil Pasricha (Penguin)
• Call Me Russell, Russell Peters (Doubleday Canada)
• Wars: An Illustrated History, Jonathan Webb; J.L. Granatstein, illus. (Scholastic)
• Hockey Now! Mike Leonetti (Firefly Books)
• I.D.: Stuff that Happens to Define Us, Kate Scowen; Peter Mitchell, illus. (Annick)
• Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World, Tom Rand; Dave Clark, eds. (Eco Ten Publishing)
• Nice Recovery, Susan Juby (Viking)
• Stick to Your Vision: How to Get Past the Hurdles and Haters to Get Where You Want to Be, Wes “Maestro” Williams  (McClelland & Stewart)
• Two Generals, Scott Chantler (M&S)
• Will to Live: Dispatches from the Edge of Survival, Les Stroud (Collins Canada)

Golden Oak (adult)

• Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Gordon Lightfoot (Groundwood)
• Fatty Legs: A True Story, Christy Jordan-Fendon and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton; Liz Amini-Holmes, illus. (Annick)
• Highway of Heroes, Kathy Stinson (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• No Safe Place, Deborah Ellis (Groundwood)
• Our Earth: How Kids Are Saving the Planet, Janet Wilson (Second Story)
• Out of Darkness: The Jeff Healey Story, Cindy Watson (Dundurn Press)
• Second Wife, Brenda Chapman (Raven Books/Orca)
• Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged, Jody Nyasha Warner; Richard Rudnicki, illus. (Groundwood)

Weekend reading list: top stories from around our offices

Every weekend Q&Q rounds up the highlights from other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. This week’s top stories include a tribute to Apple and plenty of Thanksgiving recipes.

Grace Kelly gets the royal treatment at TIFF Lightbox [Toronto Life]

The fashionable ways of Steve Jobs [Fashion Magazine]

Fifteen easy slow cooker recipes [Canadian Family]

Chloe Berlanga’s Tortillas de Patatas recipe [Ottawa Magazine]

Our 10 recommended record shops [Where Canada]

Seven Thanksgiving pies, crumbles, and crisps [20 Minute Supper Club]

DIY wedding ideas from cakes to centrepieces [Wedding Bells]

Hooded Fang makes some noise in the Toronto Public Library [Torontoist]

Weekend reading list: top stories from around our offices

Every weekend Q&Q rounds up the highlights from other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. This week’s top stories include an inside look at fashion week and a new Blue Jays logo.

House of the Week: San Francisco meets The Beach [Toronto Life]

Catch up on the inside scoop as fashion week continues onto its next hotspot [Fashion Magazine]

Decorate your fridge with these DIY glass pebble magnets [Canadian Family]

The ethical oil lobby takes on the Saudi lobby [Ottawa Magazine]

Ten Ontario hotspots for fall colours [Where Canada]

Six apple recipes for fall weather [20 Minute Supper Club]

Eight ideas every rustic wedding needs [Wedding Bells]

A new look for the Blue Jays? [Torontoist]