Frankfurt Book Fair

Evidently keen this year to be seen in the forefront of the digital publishing transformation, the Frankfurt Book Fair has set out its stand for 2013 for the self-publishing community, turning Hall 3.1 of the venue "for the first time" into a 'self-publishing arena', "with presentations , information events and discussions."

The Frankfurt Book Fair, the global publishing industry's biggest trade show, is busily positioning itself for the digital era in advance of its opening in October. At the customary pre-event press conference, as reported by Germany's E-Book-News.de, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair Juergen Boos announced a "new era in international publishing." Boos declared: "The dividing line is not between old and new, print and e-book, analog and digital, but between those who have the passion for content and want to provide access to it - and those who do not care what they sell."

Helicon Books, an ebook technology and services company from Israel, announces a new service for publishers: Social DRM. This service will be announced during the upcoming Frunkfurt Book Fair on October 9-13. Most publishers complain about high DRM prices, the fact that DRM is not a real protection, and that it punishes the legal buyer. Social DRM is a solution for publishers who wish to protect their ebooks and prevent copyright violation at reasonable prices.

Slicebooks today announces that it has secured funding from Ingram. See Publishing Wire below for details, and read our interview with  Slicebooks co-founder Jill Tomich here.

When EPUB 3.0 was officially unveiled at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, 2011, it was taken by many as the spec to end all specs.

At last, we could really get to work creating ebooks with all the things we’d always wished for — basic things like the sophisticated typography and layout we can do in print, and beyond-print features like video and interactivity — as well as some things we hadn’t thought to want, like global language support and rich metadata. Not to mention something we knew we should do but that was “too hard” before: real accessibility. Best of all, we could make just one file that would work the same everywhere…

The euphoria didn’t last long. Sure, EPUB 3 told us how to do all those things; but did they all actually work anywhere?

That was 18 months ago. Guess what? Progress happens.

Dallas-based startup BookShout, which aims to promote social reading and aid book discovery, has raised $6 million in a Series B funding round, the company announced Thursday. But the company is, at least temporarily, no longer permitting users to import their Kindle and Nook books onto the platform — the feature that it showed off as the main perk of its platform at the Frankfurt Book Fair last fall.

That hasn’t stopped Ambassador Enterprises, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based venture firm, from investing again. “By serving authors and publishers in a process-oriented

Amazon released its list of the bestselling books of 2012 on Friday morning. The list is a great summary of one of the key themes in book publishing in 2012: Self-published authors and traditional publishers need each other.

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2012—The Association of Educational Publishers' CEO, Charlene Gaynor, received the Female Executive of the Year bronze medal at the Stevie Awards for Women in Business competition.  As a winner in the Government or Non-Profit/Up to 2,500 Employees category, Ms. Gaynor was selected for her success in expanding the AEP’s programs and initiatives that support the learning resource community.

“It is an honor to receive this award,” said Ms. Gaynor. “In addition to teachers and schools, learning resources are the third pillar of education. This is a wonderful opportunity to share the AEP’s important work with fellow business leaders.”

Rovio, whose “Angry Birds” app has been downloaded over 1 billion times, announced its first book app, a $0.99 iPad cookbook called “Bad Piggies’ Best Egg Recipes,” at the Frankfurt Book Fair Thursday. “We’re looking for millions of downloads,” CMO Peter Vesterbacka said.

Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish company whose “Angry Birds” app has now been downloaded over 1 billion times, announced its first book app, an iPad cookbook app called “Bad Piggies’ Best Egg Recipes,” at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Thursday afternoon.

Around 7,300 exhibitors from 100 countries are expected to attend this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. The leading international trade fair for books, media and digital content reveals an industry that is redefining itself in the midst of the most comprehensive paradigm shift since the introduction of the printing press.