![]() ![]() Publishing Perspectives offers a handy digest of how plans have changed. The report, which you can find in full here, looks at 18 different fairs across Europe. You will remember that Bologna Children’s Book Fair has already held its 2020 edition online. With that question still hanging, a new report from Aldus looks at the way the European Book Fair industry is changing. And as we try to get a handle on what that means for us as creators of culture, we need to be part of that thought process. But more people are starting to ask questions about what kind of a world will emerge. We’ve been talking about it for a while, after all. Of course, at this stage it is not clear whether the marked prominence of subscription models in people’s cultural habits is a unique result of lockdown. And when it does, as I've been saying for a long time, that will be the next frontier hungry for high quality narrative. But if this gaming trend continues, expect the AR/VR market to take off in a big way very soon. People are busy buying Nintendo Switches not Oculus headsets. While everything else digital is booming, we seem still to be too early for AR or VR to become widespread. ![]() One of the things that has surprised me since lockdown began - or rather one thing I have become more aware of - is the lack of virtual or augmented reality in our conversations. Of course, you only have to look at the amount of Animal Crossing in your social media feed to feel this growth. That puts Storytel's $44m revenue in some useful context. Video game sales in the US grew 9% to over $10bn in the first quarter of the year. Perhaps more interesting is the boom in gaming. Double digit growth of revenue and subscribers in Q1 sees them soaring past the 1.5 million subscriber milestone. First up, a familiar story – the growth of Storytel. If we needed further confirmation that subscription is something we should take seriously, two sets of figures offered it this week. And that is something to keep a close eye on. Whatever the next step, Kobo is clearly dipping a further toe in the subscription market. The Digital Reader suggests this might be the first step in a wider roll-out, with the US next on the list. Now, Kobo Plus is set to roll out in Kobo’s home country, Canada. Not, you might think, unlike other platforms. It caused some ripples when it did so as some publishers used it to offer exclusive content. Thus far, Kobo Plus has been very limited, most notably rolling out in the Netherlands in 2017. It offers a platform for authors not enrolled in Kindle Select to reach subscription readers. ![]() Kobo Plus is the paid subscription service from Kobo. And as we look at online events in the news, do read this fabulous ALLi post on how to host online events as an author. And a reminder that ALLi has created a resource that seeks to answer any questions you may have about Covid-19, from concerns about the impact on events to ideas and news about how the services we rely on are responding. Tonight's chat will be about short fiction, with Mark Leslie Lefebvre. ![]() This will be published on the Tuesday after the chat. Remember, ALLi publishes a summary of the questions and answers from its weekly #IndieAuthorChat Twitter chat on the ALLi blog. ![]()
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