Wednesday Book News: Changes at RT, digital audio sales, Sacramento Black Book Fair, and Alphabetacool
RT Announces Transition From Print To Online – Coinciding with the 35th anniversary of RT Book Reviews‘ first edition, the magazine format is shifting to online-only. Kathryn Falk announces the change, promising even more content and reassuring readers that the annual Reader’s Convention is still part of the RT universe:
Coming soon is a “Membership” portal — tentatively called RT VIP SALON — that includes ALL the content you’ve come to love and expect in your RT magazine and SO MUCH MORE! Those who were print subscribers will now be given access to the RT VIP Salon. Within this portal, you can continue to count on favorite features like Publishers’ Previews and Parting Gifts. You will also find first chapters of much-anticipated books AND monthly downloads. Of course, you can continue to peruse advanced reviews (formerly found in RT Book Reviews magazine) to join our archive of over 70,000 books from the past! We’ll be adding more surprises, so stay tuned. – See more at: http://www.rtbookreviews.com/blog/124692/rt-transitions-print-online#sthash.CY7iftBR.dpuf – RT Book Reviews
Digital Audio Drove 2015 Sales Gains – The Audio Publishers Association reports the unsurprising news that digital audio continues to grow as a category, with fiction books leading the pack. The growth of digital audio sales over the past year was 34% (compared to 20% in overall audiobook sales), adding a twist to the current story that it’s all about print, print, and more print sales.
As sales have increased, audio publishers have upped the title output to meet demand. The APA said that the number of titles released by the 20 companies that take part in the survey hit 35,574, a 37%increase over 2014 – Publishers Weekly
3rd Annual Sacramento Black Book Fair – Featuring authors Denise Nicholas, Frederick Foote, Jr., Geri Spencer Hunter, JaNay Brown-Wood, and Jay King (among many others), the Book Fair will take place from June 3rd to 5th at Oak Park. This year’s theme, “On the Wings of Words,” will include author readings, workshops, a book drive, and other events. The Fair, hosted by Blue Nile Press, even includes a Community Read-In from November to April, and this year’s theme is “Growing Readers.” More information, including a call for volunteers, vendors, and sponsors, can be found at the website linked above:
This historic 3-day book fair and celebration will include a panel discussion among four featured authors, book signings, talks by each of the featured writers, cultural & food vendors, book discussions with each writer listed in the program (80+), children’s activities, poetry readings, art displays, and much more. – Sacramento Black Book Fair
With Visual Puzzles and Funky Still Lifes, “Alphabetacool” Is a Children’s Book for Adults (Too) – Speaking of growing readers, children and adult, this innovative and visually appealing alphabet book of visual art is pretty darn cool.
HES: We’ve been talking a lot about the intellectual side of the book. It really does seem like it will force, especially young readers, to make some significant linguistic and visual connections—beyond what a lot of children’s books do. Was this something you went at with intention, as a goal for the book? And how did you cultivate that theme throughout?
SEAN: We wanted the book to appeal to both kids and our friends, and wanted to make some fun and weird still-life photos, so we didn’t restrict ourselves too much to reach a specific age range or learning level. And our collaboration with Jeremiah Chiu on the typography puzzles was also very open, we gave him a lot of freedom to explore and have fun designing the hints for each page. It’s been fun to read the book with kids and see what they notice. I think a good kid’s book is one that you come back to and get different things from at different ages, so if there is a little joke or something in there, that a 3 year old won’t get at first, maybe she will when she’s 8. – Core 77
Digital audio: Carry around the 14-CD box of a book I’m currently reading or download the same to my phone or tablet? Lemme think.
With Audible’s frequent sales and the audio tie-in for digital books I already own, this choice becomes even more viable.
I have been pleasantly surprised at the number of independent writers whose books are showing up in audio, setting aside questions of narration quality for the moment. We used to have to wait forever for even the biggest titles to make the transition, so this is good news all around. And probably backs up the figures representing increased digital sales for independents as well.
I hope all of the editors and staff who lost their jobs in this RT shift go on to bigger and brighter ones.
It’s nuts to think I got rid of cable over 15 years ago but have been with Audible since the beginning. I even had two accounts for a few years. The bad part is that I sometimes pass on books with bad narrators (to me) and don’t even bother with the ebook no matter how interesting the book seems.
I also recently discovered I sometimes have a hard time sitting and just holding a book or my Kindle :I I can read tons of stuff on the ‘net, but problems sustaining focus on a book aren’t helping my efforts to return to school. :(
On the other hand, it was great that unabridged Jurassic Park finally came out and audible Tolkien removed the work of dealing with pronunciations and songs. I’m super excited Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union gets released this July. I liked the few chapters I’ve read but ultimately decided I’d rather listen to it. I also hope the Beverley Nicholas gardening books make it to audible as well. Great narrators are such treats for favorite books.
I can’t wait for the membership portal to open! I love to to read all those contents on RT magazine.