Huge transition to digital textbooks in 2020
8 October 2021 (Publishers Weekly)
The pandemic accelerated the shift to the increased use of digital materials, particularly in higher education. Sales in the higher education segment fell 5.7%, to $3.10 billion, something the AAP attributed in part to “widespread adoption of cost-effective e-textbooks in both sales and rentals.” With the pandemic causing widespread disruptions to normal el-hi routines, 2020 sales in the Pre-K–12 education category fell 12.9%, to $3.84 billion.
(PR) OverDrive Acquires TeachingBooks.net
7 October 2021 (PRNewswire)
The acquisition of TeachingBooks significantly enhances OverDrive Education’s Sora reading app and platform to serve K-12 schools around the world. TeachingBooks provides K-12 schools with more than 265,000 curated materials from trusted educational sources, as well as their own proprietary content, to enrich how a book is taught in the classroom.
Higher education sector calls on publishers to remove barriers to provision of e-books and e-textbooks
6 October 2021 (News Anyway)
The partners aim to work constructively and actively with publishers and suppliers to ensure affordable and sustainable models that support student and academic needs and maximise efficiencies across the supply chain.
NPD Research: Soaring E-books Sales Fall Back to Earth
6 October 2021 (PRWeb)
For the year-to-date through June 2021, unit sales declined by 8%, versus last year, but sales were still 8% higher than they were in 2019 before the pandemic … e-books account for 18% of sales, or more than one in six books sold.
Germany’s Inkitt Raises $59M
5 October 2021 (Tech Times)
NEA and Axel Springer invested, along with Michael Lynton, Chairman of Snap, and Stefan von Holtzbrinck of Holtzbrinck Digital. The online service aims to bring new e-books and other forms of written media online. People are focusing more on its integration with readily available smartphones and devices. Not only that, its content would focus more on original content and features from renowned artists that brought their masterpieces to the platform.
Storytel’s Skeppstedt made director at Sesamy
5 October 2021 (The Bookseller)
Lotten Skeppstedt has been appointed director of books and podcasts at Sesamy, a Swedish platform for subscription-free audiobooks and e-books. Skeppstedt said, “While digital books are becoming the primary source of income for creators and publishers worldwide, accelerated by lockdowns, how people discover, purchase, consume and store digital books deserves to be improved. Sesamy is determined to make the user journey a whole lot more exciting and rewarding, empowering both the creators and their fan base to engage in — and spread — great stories.”
Study finds association between screen time and short-sightedness
5 October 2021 (The Lancet)
A meta-analysis of studies of smartphone and tablet exposure and myopia in children and young adults (aged 3 months to 33 years). Smart device screen time alone or in combination with computer use is significantly associated with myopia.
62% of College Students Prefer Printed Textbooks
30 September 2021 (Printing Impressions)
This represents a 10% decline in print textbook preference since 2015, when 72% of students reported favoring print textbooks, but it doesn’t mean students are embracing e-textbooks. Despite the growing e-textbook market, student preference for e-textbooks increased by just 2% from 2015 (27%) to 2021 (29%), while the number of students who have no preference increased by nearly 8% over that same period.
Latvian government agrees to reduce VAT for books and printed press to 5%
30 September 2021 (Baltic News Network)
The Ministry of Culture notes it is necessary to reduce VAT for books and printed press to 5% in order to promote their accessibility in Latvia, stabilize numbers and prices.
Over 50% of UK university students now use Kortext e-learning materials
30 September 2021 (FE News)
“This week’s announcement comes as Kortext revealed it is now available in over 120 universities across the UK, with Wolverhampton, Bournemouth and Chester, the most recent partnerships announced. James Gray, CEO of Kortext said: “Always accessible e-learning materials have been essential for students since the beginning of the pandemic.”
Educational Publishers Obtain Preliminary Injunction Against 60 Illegal Websites
27 September 2021 (BusinessWire)
In addition to Google and Bing, the websites rely on payment processors, web hosts, domain registrars, proxy service providers and other internet service providers, all of whom are required by the Court’s injunction to stop facilitating the pirate websites’ illegal activity.
US Senate Finance Committee Presses Publishers on Library Ebook Contracts
24 September 2021 (Book Riot)
A letter to each of the Big Five trade publishers demands answers to a long list of detailled questions by October 7.
Boon for Ebooks (?) as the Print Supply Chain Bogs Down
17 September 2021 (Quartz)
Supply chain problems have touched almost every aspect of book production, storage and delivery, mostly as a result of Covid-related bottlenecks. Printer capacity issues plagued the publishing industry last year, too, though 2021 is expected to be worse.
[Opinion, obviously]
Ebooks Are an Abomination
15 September 2021 (The Atlantic)
If you like ebooks, great. Enjoy your dim, gray screen in peace. If you hate them, don’t worry about it. Who says everything must involve a computer? Maybe it’s better, even, to protect the print-book market by building a firewall against ebooks’ expansion beyond their rule over genre fiction. Just give up and read normal books, like humankind has done for 2,000 years.
More Ebook Industry News (back to Aug 2017)
