The Times Healthland Blog has an article by neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz that suggests that reading an ebook makes it more difficult to remember, and sometimes to truly understand, what is being read.

This is a particularly troubling claim for textbook and educational publishers.

Here’s a quote:

Context and landmarks may actually be important to going from “remembering” to “knowing.” The more associations a particular memory can trigger, the more easily it tends to be recalled. Consequently, seemingly irrelevant factors like remembering whether you read something at the top or the bottom of page — or whether it was on the right or left hand side of a two-page spread or near a graphic — can help cement material in mind.

Read more:
http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/

BakeSpace.com — the Webby-honored food social network and recipe swap –has launched its Cookbook Cafe as the first do-it-yourself digital publishing platform for grassroots cookbook authors. It enables anyone to create, market and sell their very own cookbook as a native iPad App, as well as an interactive web-based eBook.

“We’re using technology to democratize cookbook publishing,” said BakeSpace.com Founder Babette Pepaj. “Why should only ‘big name’ culinary stars have an opportunity to achieve success as a cookbook author? Our goal is to make publishing and distributing a cookbook easy for every home chef, group, company and nonprofit organization with great recipes to share!”

Unlike other do-it-yourself publishing services that help authors create traditional eBooks or mobile apps, Cookbook Cafe is free AND not limited by technology platform. It functions across different types of devices, including the iPad and any desktop or mobile web browser. It takes full advantage of the app environment, without trapping authors inside a technological “walled garden.”

Cookbook Cafe was inspired by Pepaj’s desire to transform how nonprofit organizations (schools, faith-based institutions, clubs, civic groups, etc.) use crowdsourced cookbooks for fundraising. While such cookbooks are an important fundraising tool, their value has, until now, been limited by the cost and complexity of book publishing, marketing and distribution.

“In the past, independent authors and nonprofit organizations were forced to publish cookbooks that were modest in format or designed for a single technology platform, while distribution was usually limited to a small network of friends and family members,” Pepaj added. “We created Cookbook Cafe to replace this antiquated model.”

How it Works:

The Cookbook Cafe platform is built upon three core components:

1) A free Cookbook Cafe iPad App with the cookbook storefront and reader. 2) A web-based version of the storefront and reader accessible through any web browser. 3) A web-based cookbook builder that automatically creates both a native iPad app and a website version of each cookbook.

A New World of Possibility for Indie Cookbook Authors:

There’s no cost to create a cookbook and market it in the Cookbook Cafe iPad and Web-based storefronts.

Each author determines his/her own price — from giving a cookbook away for free to selling it for a price ranging from $0.99 to $9.99 (in one dollar increments). Each cookbook is acquired by the end-user as either a free download or in-app purchase on the iPad, or as a simple download or online purchase on the web. BakeSpace.com collects a commission only when an author sells a book for profit or fundraising. The commission covers all costs, including Apple’s app store transaction fee and credit card processing fees on sales made through the online storefront.

Commercial brands can also use Cookbook Cafe to create and market cookbooks themed around specific ingredients, types of recipes, events, etc. Cookbook Cafe’s launch brand partners include Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Driscoll’s Berries, Chobani Greek Yogurt and Sabra Hummus.

A Dynamic New Experience for Cookbook Lovers:

The Cookbook Cafe iPad and web-based reader makes it easy for users to not only view the cookbooks they’ve downloaded, but also search and access each recipe individually by type, ingredient and author. This eliminates the need to search an entire cookbook (or cookbook library) to find a specific recipe.

“Imagine if you could search all of your cookbooks at home with a single click,” Pepaj added. “Home chefs often use more than one cookbook to plan a meal, so our advanced search feature means less stress and hassle in the kitchen.”

The free Cookbook Cafe iPad app also includes helpful kitchen tools such as multi-function kitchen timers (five different timers that work even when you close the app), interactive substitution charts and conversion tables.

To Get Started:

If you have an iPad: Visit the App Store, search for “BakeSpace” and download the free Cookbook Cafe app. You can also find the app on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bakespace.coms-cookbook-cafe/id467167455?mt=8 .

To check it out on the Web: Visit http://cookbookcafe.com for an overview. To build your own cookbook or visit the web storefront go to http://BakeSpace.com/cookbooks .

I’ve been working for the past two weeks updating and upgrading my list of publishers on this site. I’ve visited literally hundreds (maybe even thousands) of websites set up by publishers to sell their books and promote their authors, and I’ve noticed a few things that a great many publishers are doing, or failing to do, that limits the effectiveness of their sites.

Not Taking Advantage of Title Tags

This is probably one of the easiest things to do to improve search engine ranking and user-friendliness on a website, and yet so many publishing sites that I’ve visited have completely failed to capitalize on their title tags.

A surprising number of sites I’ve visited over the past few weeks had nothing at all in the title tag.   An even greater number of sites had completely unhelpful and unrelated text as their title tag. This is a huge problem, since search engines use the title of a site as the link in search engine results, and Google in particular still uses the title tag as a ranking factor in their results.

But even if Google can compensate for your unhelpful tags, in an Internet where tabbed browsing is the norm, it is extremely important to use good title tags because that is what identifies your site in a browser’s tab.

Take a look at the image below.  This is exactly what I see in one of my browser windows right now. There are three publisher websites tabbed on the screen.

It’s obvious what two of them are, but what is the third? It’s somebody’s home, but it’s not mine. If I were a customer who tabbed away to check something else then got distracted, this certainly wouldn’t remind me to come back and finish my purchase.

Not Using Site Icons

Looking at the tabs, you’ll also note that the University of Arkansas stands out because it uses an icon. While in past years the icon was a bit of a vanity luxury on a website that only really got seen in bookmark folders, now the favorite icon is a feature in the tabs and address bar of every major browser. This again is a simple fix, but one that very few publishers have implemented.

If you’ve got a logo that works on the spine of a book, it’ll work just as well as an icon for your site. It’s a great branding tool, and one that’s so easy and inexpensive to implement, there’s no excuse not to do it.

Missing Meta Descriptions

Although Google and the other search engines have devalued the meta description tag as a ranking tool, it still holds a great deal of value if you use it correctly.

If you know the search terms that people use most frequently to find a page, you can include those in your meta description and Google will show that description in the search results. If you have no description tag on your page, Google will grab some random text it things is relevant to the search, but if you can control what Google displays, you have the opportunity to craft some text that will compel browsers to click through to you rather than the next site down the list. If you’ve got that opportunity, it’s a shame to waste it.

Not Connecting to Social Media Accounts

I am not at all sure why, but there are a surprising number of publishers who use both Twitter and Facebook to connect with readers and authors, yet don’t have any links to their social media pages on their website.  If you’re using social media, connect your accounts with your site, and your site with your accounts. It only makes sense.

Most publishers failing to properly integrate their online properties simply didn’t have any mention of Facebook, Twitter or YouTube at all, but the one site that sticks in my mind had a “Find us on Facebook” button with no link to their Facebook page. I suppose they were serious about the finding part, and thought a direct link would be cheating?

Linking to Social Media Accounts that are Dormant

If your company is using social media, you should definitely link to it, and integrate it into your site. However, do not link to your Twitter account if the only thing there is a two year-old tweet saying, “We’re now on Twitter! Yay!”  In fact, if you’re not using Twitter or Facebook regularly but have accounts on those services, make them private until you are ready to make use of them. Social media is there to connect with your customers and fans. If you’re not connecting, don’t advertise it.

Making It Difficult For Browsers to Do What They Want To Do

Make a list of the things that people that visit your site are interested in. Writers will  want submission guidelines, other publishers or agents might want to get permissions or inquire about rights, while  a bookstore buyer or librarian will want to know how your books are distributed. If you write books for kids, parents might be looking for information about books, and teachers might want activities or lesson plans, or a way to request a school visit. A reader might be interested in writing to one of your authors, finding discussion questions for a book club, or maybe someone just wants to buy a book.

I’ve seen publisher sites with no contact information, no links to help authors with submissions or bookstores with distribution information… just a list of books.  If I’m describing your company’s site, you’re not helping your customers or yourself. Take a look at your website from the perspective of the people visiting, and make the information they’d want as visible and accessible as you can.

If You Need Help

SEO expert Ian Scott has been helping my site recover from Google’s algorithm changes from a few months back, and has done wonders in restoring my rankings and traffic. If you need a hand with your own site, I highly recommend his services.

• How to Navigate a Changing Business?
  Children’s Agents Shed Some Light http://t.co/gPOXHYMV via @publisherswkly 

• Penguin Severs Ties with OverDrive
  Penguin strikes another blow against libraries by severing ties with ebook provider  OverDrive http://t.co/cVp9REGM via @publisherswkly 

John Curran and Caroline Todd discuss the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie pt.1
Agatha Christie historian and Bestseller Caroline Todd talk about the life and works of Agatha Christie.

MPA – 2011 Overall Magazine Advertising Revenue Flat
The consumer magazine industry generated $20,086,199,882 in full-year 2011 print advertising revenue, a slight $8 million increase compared to 2010’s advertising revenue of $20,078,0916,149, according to the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB).  Pages dipped 3.1% from 169,552 in 2010 to 164,225 in 2011.

Thrown Overboard: Publishers Feel Abandoned by the U.S. Postal Service
Until recently, Postal Service executives talked about periodicals as “the anchor in the mailbox.” But lately, says one publishing executive, it seems that “the USPS just tied us to the anchor and threw it overboard.”