Thanks to the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the EPUB format for eBooks has become the widely accepted standard. On the audiobook side, Apple products have popularized the MP3 format. Retailers, it seems, also prefer this format. Barnes & Noble and Waterstones, only sell their audiobooks in MP3 format. Read more »

Alex Wormall, a former Waterstone's bookseller and lifelong book addict reviews Mark Kermode's iPhone enhanced e-book app: I think it is only fair to begin this review with a couple of admissions. Firstly, Mark Kermode is a critic who tends to divide people. They are either hugely in favour or very much against him. I am definitely a huge fan and a regular listener to his film show with Simon Mayo. Secondly, I am a book lover, but have an almost instinctive apathy when it comes to reading books in any form other than paper. Read more »

Writer and illustrator Mike Topping reviews Simon Pegg's iphone app for FutureBook: Deep in the bowels of a mock-tudor manor house somewhere in North London, a suave, buff superhero sits in his cavernous, tricked-out superhero lair. On the bank of giant screens before him: a YouTube video of a farting baby. Read more »

Neal Hoskins of Winged Chariot recently spoke at The Bookseller's Children's conference.  He talks us through his new app and how the use of a device's features can enhance the story: In the fast pace of the digital world, I often feel we are starting to overlook the central most important part of our work - The Story.

Apps, ebooks, code and web features are only as good as the stories that they hold inside them. Read more »

I'm developing a section on Futurebook.net of book app reviews and previews. Critiques of book apps; their usability, functionality and whether the app has enhanced the original book/narrative. I'm hoping these reviews will come from bloggers, reviewers and book trade folk. If you'd like to be involved, email me at sam.missingham@bookseller.co.uk. Kicking this off is Jennifer Lucy Allan's review of the Marvel app.  Read more »

Footfall. Always an important measure of success for the public library. How many customers / users step through the front door and into your library. We must, we must improve our visitor figures. For the library service, as a tool for performance management, visitor figures remain Very Important. Read more »

Sunday's London Book Fair Digital Conference was marked by an optimism about the prospects for the industry. George Lossius from Publishing Technology set the tone early on. Dedicated e-readers, he suggested, merely allowed publishers to sustain existing revenues, but mobile offered an opportunity to increase them. Not only do mobile phones have mass ownership, but – most importantly – users appear to be far more willing to pay for content on their phones than on their computers. Read more »