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Well the competition entries are in and after a slow start we now have good numbers of submissions, in all categories. It’s now over to the judges.
I would like to thank the judges at this time for the work they are about to do, It is a time consuming job, however I'm sure quite stimulating.
We did have a delayed start and because of slow entries extended over the last weekend which turned out to be a good move, as we had a rush of entries particularly in the Short Story open section. Results will be published in ‘The Gazette’ on Thursday 27th October. I hope the judges will come to a consensus in all sections, which leads into our word of the month.....
WORD OF THE MONTH:
CONSENSUS
Pronunciation: kên-SEN-sês
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A state of general agreement within a group. 2. A
position or opinion that a group as a whole agrees on unanimously or nearly unanimously.
Notes: I should hope that there is a consensus among us all that this term should be treated at some point in our series of Good Words. First, watch the spelling. Although they both have to
do with counting heads, 'consensus' and 'census' are unrelated and hence spelled differently. Second, look out for the redundancy in the by now idiomatic phrase, "consensus of opinion". A consensus is a kind of opinion so the repetition is unnecessary unless you wish to emphasise the consensus. Redundancy for the sake of emphasis is very, very, very common in all languages. The plural is 'consensuses'.
In Play: Although generally considered formal, this word is perfectly suitable for household conversation: "I take it that we have reached a consensus on which toppings to order on the pizza." A consensus may be stretched to convergences of things other than opinions, "The consensus of testimony supported the charge that Bea Heine did, in fact, switch the signs on the men's and women's restrooms, leading the jury to a quick consensus of guilty on all charges."
Word History: This Good Word is the past participle of the Latin verb consentire "to agree," made up of con "with, together" + sentire "to feel," implying a shared sense or feeling. The root of 'sentire' is, as it appears, related to English 'send'. The original PROTO-INDOEUROPEAN
root meant "direct, move in a specific direction", a meaning which lends itself to slippage to "send" and "sense". The words 'scent, sense, sentence', and 'sentiment' all come from Latin sentire "to feel," from the sense "to move toward mentally or spiritually".
THIS MONTH'S ASSISTANCE AND INFORMATION SECTION
'Book shops closing, E books the new thing'. It has all been a little confusing. We appear to be at the beginning of a revolution and most wonder where it’s all going to end This article from Digital World, I hope helps a little.
'Sparking Ebook Sales with Fire?'
By Dev Ganesan, CEO, Aptara.
With Amazon's announcement of the Fire tablet, and new lower priced Kindle and Kindle Touch, eReaders received a lot of attention on Wednesday, but does it really change anything for publishers? In short, on the technical and production fronts, not significantly, based on what
has been announced thus far. However, on the sales and revenue fronts, it may mark a significant change.
For those who haven't heard, Amazon announced not one, but three new devices. The first is a new Kindle priced at $79 (with special offers, $109 without) is now available. In Amazon
parlance, "special offers" means that instead of photos or pictures on the sleep screen, Amazon presents targeted ads to the user, in exchange for a lower cost unit. The second is
the Kindle Touch priced at $99 (with special offers, $139 without) available in November. A 3G version of the Touch will also be available for $149 (with special offers, $189 without) in
November. And finally, the Kindle Fire tablet will be available in November for $199. The device formerly known as the Kindle is now called the Kindle Keyboard and is now available
in WiFi or 3G models for $99 and $139 respectively (with special offers, $139 and $189 without). All the new devices will be able to read users' current libraries. The ad for the Fire also states that it will come configured with your account right out of the box. The Touch and Fire devices are currently only being sold in the US.
The e-Ink Kindle Touch appears to be a direct challenge to the Kobo Touch and nook Touch released last summer, but at a lower price point. The Kobo and nook are both priced at
$139. The Kindle Fire is a 7-inch Android-based tablet that features a highly customized Amazon based interface, rather than the typical Android UI, and seems to challenge
primarily the B&N nookColor (priced at $249) as well as other Android tablets appearing almost daily. The 7-inch Android form factor has had limited success in the original Samsung Galaxy Tab and Blackberry Playbook, but it might be Amazon’s media offerings and cloud support that fans the Fire into a commercial success.
Through the Fire device, in addition to books, magazines and newspapers, users will be able to access other media available through Amazon including music, streaming video (through the Amazon Prime membership), and apps (from the Appstore for Android). Since Amazon
is running their own app store, they can control what is available, meaning that you won’t find nook, Kobo, Blue fire or other eReader apps on a Fire. Book and media files can also be
backed up to Amazon’s cloud servers. Also featured is Silk, which is a new web browser developed by Amazon.
What does this mean for publishers? The Fire does not support EPUB or EPUB 3, so a separate .mobi production stream will still be required, especially to produce more complex
and interactive Amazon eBooks with features of the type allowed by the EPUB 3 format.
One unanswered question is whether the Fire tablet will be able to access books currently being sold as “Kindle Editions with Audio/Video”. Currently only the Kindle for iPad/iPhone app is able to read these files and a quick check of the web site doesn’t give any indication that the Fire can. This new tablet, if so enabled, could be a unique opportunity for Amazon to support enhanced titles, opening an array of new possibilities within the Amazon eBook ecosystem.
What does this mean for the device landscape? It introduces a new concept in reading tablets that will likely spur eBooks sales and give Apple a run for its money as consumers seriously weigh their options between a $200 Kindle Fire and a $500 iPad. It might also cause Apple to reconsider pricing as they prepare to release the iPhone 5 in the coming weeks and the iPad 3, probably next spring. However, the iPad is a more general purpose
device and still has capabilities that the Fire doesn’t, most notably, a camera. The connectivity with the Amazon Cloud Service is also very reminiscent of Apple’s iCloud
announced earlier this year and due out when the iPhone 5 is released.
For the time being, Amazon will continue to be the sales leader (as documented in the recent results of Aptara’s Third Annual eBook Survey of Publishers) and appears to be
directly challenging Kobo and B&N by selling reading systems at a lower cost. The conventional wisdom has posited that $100 is the threshold at which the mass market would adopt eReaders (one for every student in the classroom?). Amazon has now released 3 devices below that threshold, just in time for holiday giving.
As the eBook Survey of Publishers revealed, eBooks are just starting to generate a significant proportion of publishers’ revenues. Amazon’s new low cost products may greatly accelerate this trend – teetering a market on the verge. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its figures from January 2011 book sales, and the news echoes what we've come to expect: more readers
are turning to e-books, and they're doing so in droves. In fact e-book sales have more than doubled since the same time last year. According to the AAP, e-book sales are up 115.8%,
from $32.4 million to $69.9 million year-over-year.
But how does that impact the rest of the publishing industry? Do more e-book sales mean more books are being sold? Are e-readers and iPads engaging a new audience of readers (or at least book buyers)? Or are consumers simply making the switch from print to digital? The Awareness Social Marketing Hub is the leading social media marketing software for marketers to publish, manage, measure and engage across all their social channels. The Awareness Social Marketing Hub is leveraged by companies of all sizes including Sony, MLB, American Cancer Society, and Starwood Hotels. According to the AAP figures, the growth in e-book sales didn't save the industry from
declining sales. But the drop in sales overall was small - just 1.9% - as total book sales across all platforms and across all categories fell from $821.5 million in January 2010 to $805.7
million in January of this year. More interesting, however, the breakdown in those sales: the adult mass market paperback section fell the most, declining over 30%. Adult paperbacks dropped almost 20%. Adult hardcover sales fell 11%. Children's hardcover and paperback sales fell, too - 2% and 17.7% respectively. Altogether, the drop in sales of these two key elements of the publishing industry amounted to a $50 million decline.
It may be that our book consumption habits - both buying and reading - are changing. In addition to the explosion in e-book sales was a growth in downloadable audio book sales. That category rose by 8.8%, although it's still a very small cut of the overall industry and that increase meant just a half million dollar boost. The publishing industry is clearly still reeling from the rapid adoption of e-books by consumers, and it is trying to work out new pricing and licensing models. Of course the implications here aren't just for the book industry, but for authors, readers, libraries and
bookstores alike, as our book buying and reading habits change.
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I hope these articles have been helpful….just keep writing!
This month’s meeting Thursday 20th October. We would like all to bring something to read for a critique session. See you all there!
The 250 words this month: Now this is a tester, I think from the north of England.
‘There’s nowt as queer as folk’.
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