Posted
May 24, 2012
It’s 2012 and the latest Game of Thrones novel is out (yeah we can dream) so what do you do? Pre-order it in Amazon and hope it’s delivered on time? Suck it up and get an overpriced edition in a local bookshop, that’s even if you can find one? Or take a trip into the future and get an eBook edition? You’re ready to take that plunge and decide to get your first eBook. It’s going to be easy, right?
Not so fast! First you’ve got to get yourself a reader and with so many readers out there that’s no easy task. Most of them display a dizzying array of formats from the almost ubiquitous ePub to the older Mobi and a whole host of non-standard formats designed to lock you in to a single store. It’s the Wild West out there so you’re going to need a sherif.
This means that most people are going to either get an iPad or some form of Kindle. At least with the Kindle you have no choice. You get your books from Amazon, you load them in an Amazon format, and you read them on your Kindle. There are advantages of having a single company do everything for you, but then you’re stuck when you want to do something that company doesn’t like.
The iPad (and to a lesser, but growing extent, Android) gives you more choice with Kindle, Stanza, Nook stores available alongside Apple’s own iBooks store, but these all have the same problems as the Kindle, DRM lock-in to the store from which you’ve bought. So what, you might ask, but if you want to read a book using the software of your choice (obviously Readmill) it’s not going to be possible.
So, like most times when the phrase customer choice is invoked, there’s no choice at all. You can choose to be locked in to one store or other or you can limit yourself to those publishers who ship without any form of encryption but you’ll be lucky finding a big name publisher doing so. True, there’s still plenty to read, from Gutenberg, Feedbooks, and the growing number of small ebook publishing houses, but you still haven’t got your hands on that Westerosi story, and it’s unlikely you will for a while.
It’s hardly the Brave New World we were promised, but there is hope. Recently J.K. Rowling released the Harry Potter books without any form of rights management and they managed to sell £1 million worth in just three days. Sure, Ms. Rowling is a special case, but surely publishers will finally realise that real fans want to pay for the books they read. We can but hope.
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Damien Ryan is a release engineer and part-time postgraduate psychology student living in Cambridge, working in London. Damien is an avid Readmill user, and you can follow him to check out his current reads.
Posted
May 22, 2012
As we highlighted last week, it seems that we’re all missing out. Missing out on an entire world of reading. There’s a plethora of independent retailers and publishers churning out some incredible reads. The problem? They’re hard to find. They also don’t have the seamless buying and reading experience integrated into them; something the larger scale publishers and retailers have been working on for years to get customers in and keep them coming back. Does this mean we should stick with the likes of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple? Not necessarily. It’s surprising what you can find when you venture outside the walled garden.
Embracing diversity
Due to its every-growing size, the sphere of independent publishing and retailing has become fragmented. This has created pockets; pockets of concentrated writing and publishing into one genre or another. Whether it’s science fiction and fantasy books offered by the likes of Tor, or readings on web design offered by publishers like A Book Apart, the titles have become refined and somewhat specialised. This focus is not only improving the quality of literature we read, but also the way in which we read it.
“Not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself”. That’s the definition of being independent, lifted from the good old dictionary. The indie crowd are doing a lot of things that larger publishers and retailers are reluctant to do, such as dropping DRM. Aside from embracing diversity in a literary sense, they also want to embrace it in a social sense - giving their customers the option to have their purchase whenever they want, however they want it, and on whatever device they choose to read on. There shouldn’t be one way of doing things.
Anyone’s a writer
The tools for writing and publishing are available for everyone nowadays, and with that we see the great horizon of self publishing. Sometimes writers, for one reason or another, find it hard to get their book commercially published. Sites like Jottify and Leanpub allow anyone to distribute their work; the latter letting people publish books that are in progress. This is a very disruptive and empowering movement, which places the control right back into the hands of the author. And this is a very important thing, as the question of what’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is dissolved, and allows for an audience to gather around anything.
As a self-publishing author, all aspects of your work are under your control. All content aspects, all design aspects. Even the marketing and PR aspects. Is it too much to do? Will it pay off? We need look no further than Frank Chimero who, after gaining interest in his book by posting the outline on Kickstarter, released ‘The Shape Of Design’ to a hungry audience of thousands. It was all his work, right down to the store from which you bought it. If it wasn’t for self publishing, we wouldn’t necessarily have this book in our hands.
It’s all a precursor
Independence is important for the ebook sphere as it’s slowly redefining the way we distribute and read ebooks. It’s also unearthing authors and works that would otherwise go unnoticed. The more people that support independent sources, the more chance we have of a fairer, more diverse marketplace - regardless of device.
Until next time,
Team Readmill. (Matthew)
Posted
May 17, 2012
When it comes to buying and reading ebooks, there’s always the same names at the tip of everyone’s tongue: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple. And for good reason. They have crafted a convenient buying and reading experience for many. A buying and reading experience that rids headaches and makes you come back the next time around.
But is this the be all and end all? Not quite. Amazon is great and all, but there’s a whole world of reading out there that you would equally enjoy. Indie bookstores offer niche titles at low costs, and self publishing sites give anyone the chance to write an entire book for the general public to enjoy. There are also authors who choose to self publish, and they usually have their very own store for you to snag their titles from. There’s so much variety waiting to quench your literary thirst. The problem is, we’re missing out on it.
Convenience is king
Whether it’s discovering a book, buying it, or getting it onto your reading device, people adore the flow provided by the big three. It’s a flow that’s hard to match. Independent retailers and publishers are having trouble offering their users the same kind of convenience. They don’t have the marketing, PR, and critical mass pluses that the big three do either. This makes finding them in the first place, let alone the ebooks within, pretty difficult. Indie retailers and publishers have to throw on their creative hats and think of unique ways to expose who they are and what they have to offer.
Independent retailers tend to offer their ebooks in a variety of formats too; more formats than the big three do. This gives readers different options. There are many stores, many ways to pay, and many formats to choose from. Although this is a positive thing, it inherently makes the user do some work. And it’s work that doesn’t seem to be working.
The bigger picture
As much as the independent offering is exciting, it’s a double edged sword. Due to the ecosphere strategically created by the big three, the concept of independence dwindles against the experience they offer. And that shouldn’t be. There’s a huge amount of talk across the web regarding DRM, and how it keeps users in the pockets of the bigger retailers — making it hard for the indie crowd to shine through. But this is just one piece of the puzzle that’s making it hard for independent publishers and retailers to have the same amount of success.
There are other pieces that, when gathered, form a bigger picture. And the bigger picture is about adjusting the offering from the indie crowd. The concept of being an independent publisher and/or retailer is fresh and radical. It harnesses the true power of the web, and the diversity that’s encased within. As much as the big three are doing what they do well, the indie crowd have a real chance to do something outside of the box — to make for a more modern take on buying and reading, and to realise the potential they have to be at par with the giants.
Stay tuned to our blog over the next few weeks as we discuss this topic further. Until next time,
Team Readmill (Matthew)
Posted
May 15, 2012
Can we get a round of applause? It’s taken some time, especially since he’s been here from the very start, but today we’re thrilled to introduce you to the man behind Readmill for iPad. It’s time to meet Martin!
Hello Martin! Please, tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Martin Hwasser and I’m turning twenty eight tomorrow. I’m a developer and occasional musician. A little over one year ago I was working on my Master’s degree in Computer Science in Stockholm and decided to take a leave of absence to work at Readmill, and I haven’t looked back since.
You are Readmill’s iOS Engineer. So what’s that, exactly?
It means I spend my days trying to craft the very best reading experience possible on the iPad. Feel free to ping @martinhwasser on Twitter for feature requests, bug reports etc.
What’s it like developing an e-book reader?
Making a good e-book reader is a lot of hard work. I believe we’re in the midst of a paradigm shift as to how we read and perceive books. The book is being revolutionised with the progression of e-books, and I’m in a position to actually make an impact and really affect how we’ll consume books in the future. It inspires me to do great things.
You used to work at Splunk in San Francisco, how does Berlin compare as a startup city?
I’ll paraphrase Eric Wahlforss and say that Berlin is probably much like San Francisco was 30 years ago - tech meets hippie; except replace hippie with punk.
Finally, which is the best book you’ve read so far this year?
A fantastic Swedish biography by Per Olov Enquist called Ett annat liv, depicting the struggle between alcoholism and ambition. For English readers I’ll recommend Lolita, the story about a man spiralling down into pits of insanity, desire and tragedy.
You can follow Martin on Readmill and on Twitter. Go say hi!
Posted
May 8, 2012
When you read something online and want to respond to it, there are many ways to do so: leave a comment on the article, post to Twitter or Facebook, or write a response on your blog. But a frequent refrain is that comments are toxic, or that social media is shrill and devoid of substance.
Responding in public used to be hard; if someone visited your house and spotted a particular book, you might show them some notes you’d left in the margins. Or you may write a letter to a newspaper with your thoughts on a piece, whether you enjoyed it, or found something inaccurate, or got disgusted by it.
Please don’t take this as misguided nostalgia for a past when everyone was wiser and more polite; I suspect that if we could see all those notes and letters at once today, we’d call it noisy, too. The slowness of what people in the past could say and the limits of the communities where those opinions travelled meant that any one person got only a small glimpse of what was thought, said, or written.
Living in a hyper-connected world means we need to pay attention to how the pieces are connected. And I see only the barest of connections between the way we read and the way we respond: comments set in small type are buried at the bottom of articles, back-and-forths happen across Twitter with a single shortened link back to the topic at hand, forums like Reddit and Hacker News contain entire ecosystems of posters camped under links with reworded titles. It’s easy to make sweeping generalizations, to misinterpret and misconstrue, to jump to the sides of people you know, and to get caught in spiraling discussions when what you’re talking about is kept all the way in the distance.
New reading services, by providing highlights and annotations and drawing readers together, bring an opportunity to make stronger and better connections. They can be places that collect conversation and offer easy ways to extend discussion on specific points or pieces as a whole. Writing notes and thoughts to yourself used to be easier than broadcasting them to the world – now they have the same amount of friction, and the line between reflection and broadcast blurs; it just depends on who sees them online.
There’s more than one way to see a book: we can start with the text as written by the author, or peer into what our friends think, or follow a debate between two readers, jumping from page to page. These books can grow or shrink – if I only want to see my highlights and the conversation around them, or reduce the book down to just the notes someone left behind.
And so the size of my library – containing all that I have read and reread and aspire to read – can grow and shrink and change even as the number of books on the shelves remain the same. The shelves hold not only the books of my choosing, but also the snippets and fragments that I have plucked or added or paraphrased or argued about. They sit between each other, between you and I, bound together by the strength of our connections.
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Allen Tan is a web and interface designer based in New York. Allen loves pretty pixels, elegant markup, and truly thoughtful design. You can follow him on Twitter, and catch his highlights on Readmill.
Posted
May 4, 2012
Earlier this week, to the excitement of many, Frank Chimero released his eagerly anticipated book entitled ‘The Shape of Design’. Frank Chimero is a designer, illustrator, teacher and thinker who is constantly delving deep into the meaning of design. His book investigates the creative process of a designer, and the importance of delighting your audience through things like storytelling.
The book itself is a testament to Frank’s thoughts and theories. It’s beautifully presented, and there’s plenty of retina-optimized illustrations to feast your eyes upon. Much to our delight, Frank recommends using Readmill to read his book. Curious about Frank’s work and his Readmill shout out, we were lucky enough to host a Q&A with the man himself. Read on for even more insight into The Shape of Design. We hope you enjoy, and please feel free to leave your comments below!
In your own words, what is The Shape of Design?
The Shape of Design is a book that investigates the influence of design on our lives, this world. It looks at design as a practice we all use to shape our current conditions and envision better, future circumstances. If I had to be brief, I’d just say it’s a book about change.
What pushed you over the edge and made you put pen to paper?
I was teaching a thesis design class for undergraduate students in Portland, Oregon, and felt really frustrated I couldn’t find suitable reading that encouraged my students to think bigger and more holistically. I wanted a field guide for the emerging skill set; the types of skills design is a prime candidate to teach: storytelling, improvisation, craft, gift-giving.
The book was funded through Kickstarter. Could you tell us more about that?
I knew that I needed this book for myself and my classroom, but I wasn’t sure if there was a demand outside of myself. I didn’t know if anyone else would be interested in reading a brief book about this stuff.
Luckily, I had given a talk a few months earlier in 2010 at the Build Conference that covered some of the same topics. It was warmly received, so I decided to use the success of the talk as a vehicle to begin to describe what I wanted to do with the book. I also thought Kickstarter was a perfect solution to see if there was a demand for me to write this thing I thought should exist. Turns out, there was a demand there, and I got to spend a year working on it. I feel incredibly fortunate for the warm reception the book met upon its announcement on Kickstarter and since.
You asked why we design. Were you answering your own questions as much as everyone else’s?
I think all writing is done to benefit the writer on some level. Writing becomes a way to organize thought and work your way through a problem. A lot of the book’s questions are my own, and I think that it lends the writing a certain quality. A question isn’t left alone until I’ve sufficiently convinced myself of a satisfactory response to it.
Ideally, I’d like The Shape of Design to be a part of a larger discussion in design about the effects of our work on an individual level for those that use it, and what the implications of our craft is en masse, since the work that we do forms so much of the ambience of life. A dull ache of sadness and disappointment works through me when I see design portrayed as surface work, or when I see a lot of time and money funneled into empty solutions to fake problems. It feels like squandered potential. Fruit rotted on the branch. I believe that design, at its best, can act as life-enhancement. We can make and use this stuff to help all of us live well, and I’d like to see us live up to those expectations across the board, my own work included.
You mention that the book isn’t just for designers. What’s appealing about it for the rest of us?
Directly, I think we all have the belief that things need to change, and I hope that the big promise of The Shape of Design is that we can initiate those transformations. We are creatures of consequence. Everything was made at some point, which means the responsibility is on us to remake them when they aren’t as we wish.
More indirectly, I think of design as a liberal art, a mode necessary on some level to read culture and write to it. Design has lessons, knowledge, and ways of thinking that be carried over to other disciplines. We all have projects and things we wish to be different, and having some understanding of how to plan change, then knowing the tools to execute, is crucial for just about anyone.
You recommend reading your digital book on Readmill. What do you like about it?
My favorite thing with Readmill is that it feels like a significant step forward in making reading more social by creating vesper trails of data as you naturally read. As a writer, it’s been a thrill for me to see my friends reading my book, gauging how far along they’ve come, and then being able to peek in at their highlights to see which aspects of the book they’ve particularly liked.
All of those things apply to everything else my friends are reading, and Readmill’s become a fantastic way for me to discover new things to read.
And finally, is there any further reading you’d recommend?
There’s always more to read. Here are a few titles I’ve enjoyed recently:
Happy reading!
Posted
May 3, 2012
It’s in the background. It’s trying its best to get out of your way. That’s exactly how we want Readmill to be. We’re devoted to making your reading experience as simple, non-distracting and intuitive as possible. And today we’ve got a Readmill for iPad update that adds to this philosophy, with some extras on top. So what’s on the cards?
Start and finish your book in style.
We guess you’re familiar with how you start and finish reading a book on Readmill. Today we do away with the connect pop-over, and instead give you all of your sharing and tracking options in a new side view. The side view sweeps in beautifully from the right, and gives you a peek at the book behind. It finally feels like you’ve lifted the front cover off without being interrupted. From here you can start reading and begin tracking your progress and highlights. For those of you who like to skim a page or two before committing, we’ve got you covered. Swipe the side view away and get a taste of what’s to come — without sharing any progress with your followers.
Feel rewarded…
Many of us spend hours inside our books. We do so for the love of reading, of course. But after you’ve finally finished War and Peace it would be nice to have someone give you a pat on the back, right? Today’s update brings you a nice reward screen every time you successfully finish a book because… well… you deserve it. You can see a nice recap of all your activity from start to finish too, including the time spent reading the book and the number of highlights you made. Be sure to recommend the book to your follows if you liked it, and seal the deal with a closing remark. To spur you on, you can even dive right to your ‘interesting books’ section to grab your next read. As much as Readmill is going unnoticed, your achievements never will.
Retina support and a built in browser? Check.
We’ve updated all of our in-app graphics ready for the new iPad’s beautiful retina display. You can enjoy a clearer, crisper Readmill experience — one that will make your reading even more immersive. We’ve also included a brand new built-in browser for all of those books that contain links and other online resources. You won’t be forced out of the app anymore, so you can spend more time actually reading without heading for your multitasking tray every time you jump on the web.
We sure hope you enjoy today’s Readmill for iPad update, which you can grab from the App Store. Feel free to leave any comments you have below, or if you’d like to ask us a question we’re always available at support@readmill.com. There’s plenty of hidden features in today’s release too, so get busy looking! If you don’t find any, don’t worry. I’m sure we can show you them in a blog post very soon ;)
Happy updating!
Team Readmill (Matthew)
Posted
May 2, 2012
Reading is one of those experiences that we’re in total control of. We read whenever we want, and tend to drop and pick up our books as we move around. In essence - our stories follow us. We also like to immersive ourselves in the atmosphere of reading; whether it’s on the porch, in the garden, or on the beaches of Maui. For me, making a nostalgic connection between my favorite book and where I read it plays a big part in how I remember the story making me feel.
The problem is, we all read an incredible amount. Sometimes it’s hard for us to remember where we put a book down, let alone where we began reading it in the first place. We believe retracing your steps, and seeing how a story kept you company and travelled around with you, is something very special. How can we do that? Well, we at Readmill have found just the thing. It’s called Readmap.
A whole world of reading
Readmap is a nifty third party service that allows you to track what you’ve read with Readmill, and where you’ve read it. You’re presented with a big world map, and every single place you’ve ever read is pinned. Hover over a pin, and you can find out which book you were enjoying at that very spot. It’s incredibly accurate too, so you can relive the various stages of check-in at Aéroports de Paris if you’re that way inclined.
Aside from being a great way to link books and places together, we think Readmap is doing a good job of making the reading experience a little more fun. With the power of technology and the availability of fantastic reading devices such as the iPad, the possibilities are endless when it comes to getting nose deep in your favorite story. Small steps such as Readmill and Readmap help us enjoy our reading in a new, fun way.
Start plotting
To get started with Readmap, simply head over to the Readmap site. Hit ‘Connect with Readmill’, and on the next screen select ‘Allow’. And that’s all you have to do. Readmap will start tracking what books you read and where, and will also plot all of the reading you’ve done prior. For those reading sessions where you didn’t share your location, unfortunately Readmap won’t be able plot them. Make sure you enable location tracking for future books so you can experience Readmap to its fullest. We hope you enjoy looking back at where you started reading your stories, and seeing where they’ve taken you!
Happy plotting,
Team Readmill (Matthew)
Posted
April 30, 2012
We’re back with a new episode of “Meet the team behind Readmill”. Today we’d like to introduce Matthew, the newest Readmill recruit. And guess what? It’s his birthday today!
Hi Matthew! Please introduce yourself…
Hey everyone! My name’s Matt and I’m the new Community Manager at Readmill. I’m responsible for our Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as writing up some spectacular vernacular on our blog. If you’ve joined the dots already you’ll probably realise I’m conducting this interview with myself, which means I’m either highly proactive or forever alone.
What brings you to Readmill?
I’m a communications guy, through and through. I worked for another startup here in Berlin for a year spearheading product marketing, but I did a lot of other communications related stuff too. I love talking to people, understanding what they need and want, and helping them out. I totally believe in Readmill, so I’m here to spread the word and get more people using it — I’m convinced they’ll never look back!
You’re the newest member of the Readmill team. Is everyone treating you nicely?
Of course! Everyone has been very welcoming and helpful as I’ve tried to find my feet. The atmosphere is so super relaxed here; it’s a great breeding ground for creativity. I’ve already had some awesome fun with the team, and I’m looking forward to more!
You’re British. Why the move?
Because I like the fact that people think I’m related to the queen. Joking aside, it’s because Berlin is an awesome place, it’s also the epicentre of the European startup scene at the moment. I’m here to learn a lot, cycle a lot, and write a lot.
And finally, can you recommend us a good book you’ve read recently?
Well, as I writer myself, I particularly enjoyed ‘Ernest Hemingway on Writing’ by… Ernest Hemingway. It’s incredibly interesting and insightful, although short. Check it out!
You can follow Matthew on Readmill and on Twitter. Go say hi!
Posted
April 27, 2012
We’re back with a new episode of “Meet the team behind Readmill”. Today we’d like to introduce Michael, one of our newest employees who’s getting busy with the Readmill backend. Let’s dive in!
Hey Michael! Please, tell us a little bit about yourself…
I’m 24 years old, have been living in Berlin for about a year and a half and absolutely love it! I also love coding in Ruby and listening to instrumental hip hop, dubstep and other strange music. You can follow me on Readmill too, and keep up to date with what I’m reading.
You’re pretty new here. How’s that going for you?
I have been doing some pair programming with Christof which I think is an excellent way to get into the codebase. The whole Readmill team have been very helpful and awesome in every way, so everything is going great!
And why Readmill?
Because it made reading much more fun and interesting for me—it’s just one of those ideas that makes perfect sense. So I’m here to play my part in making reading even better for everyone else out there. Why make a book digital and not make it shareable?
So you’re Danish. How would you rate living in Berlin?
It’s really awesome here! Apartments are cheap, food is cheap and they have Club Mate. In the summer I love to hang out with friends at Yaam, which is an artificial beach down at the river Spree. They have a bar, a nice volley ball area, and you can listen to some raggae/dancehall until late. Beat that, Copenhagen. ;)
Finally, what’s a good book you’ve read recently?
I’m a big fan of anything that involves zombies, so I think that must be World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. It’s also being made into a movie, which I’m looking very forward to!
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