Books

Mark has been a book man since he learned to read. Why did he get in trouble in elementary school? Because he was reading a book when he should have been doing his math. Mark shares insights on questions you might have. How are books written? How do books get edited? How do books get published and distributed? And what are some great books that have something unique and compelling to say?

Mark Gilroy June 27, 2014

What Is the Biggest Media Format Globally?

Global dollars spent on media entertainment, including books, magazines, movies. music, and video games.

What media format generates the most revenue dollars worldwide? A lot of people will be surprised to discover that the good old book publishing industry is larger than movies, magazines, video games, and music in the global media and entertainment industry.

The global estimates for book publishing include trade, educational, and science-technology-medical publishing. It is fair to argue that educational and science-technology-medical publishing should not be used to compare books against entertainment. But then we have to remove those categories from television and magazines – and the comparison gets impossible.

With the explosion of digital publishing, there are those that have declared the “book is dead.” But the oldest communication technology is still alive and kicking!

The data was gathered by Rudiger Wischenbart Content Consulting for the International Publishers Association 2013 report.

Mark Gilroy June 25, 2014

What Are the Biggest Book Markets in the World?

What is the biggest book market in the world? What other national book markets have a substantial slice of the global pie?

Not surprising, the United States is the largest book market with a 26% share. It makes sense that China is next with a 12% share.

Rounding out big four are Germany at 8%, and Japan at 7%. The top 10 markets make up approximately two-thirds of the global book industry.

The data was gathered by Rudiger Wischenbart Content Consulting for the International Publishers Association 2013 report. The chart reflects the value of each market as determined by book publishing per data along with number of new titles per 1 million inhabitants.

Mark Gilroy June 18, 2014

Do e-Readers Cause More Eyestrain Than Paper and Ink? (It depends.)

What e-reader do you use?

In 2010 I wrote a blog, which listed the reasons that I had selected the simple black and white Kindle (E-ink technology) over the iPad, Nook, Sony, and other dedicated E-readers (all using LCD backlit technology). At the top of the list was the prevailing wisdom that E-ink and paper-and-ink cause less eyestrain than an LCD (backlit) display during longer reading periods.(Incidentally, it is hard to believe that the tablet device was new at the time! The first iPad was introduced April 3, 2010.)

I’ve continued to advise people to purchase a separate, inexpensive, dedicated E-ink device for long form reading. But when someone recently challenged me on this issue and asked where I got my data that LCD backlit screens increase eyestrain, I had to admit I couldn’t remember where I got the information and that I had never personally read a primary research piece.

I was delighted to find a fairly recent (December 13, 2013) peer-reviewed journal article, E-Readers and Visual Fatigue (Kevin Paterson), which is available to you in its entirety with compliments from the National Library of Science if you want to go through the design, methodology, and data of the study to draw your own conclusions.

And just in case you were wondering, with the explosion of digital reading, whether it be on E-reader devices, smartphones or computer screens, there is a scientific name for eyestrain caused by digital reading: Visual Fatigue Syndrome (VFS). [Read more…]