Walmart is going into the ebook market in a big way including audiobook subscription, thanks to a new partnership with Rakuten's Kobo and Overdrive. And Amazon has finally merged KDP Print and Createspace.
If you'd like a piece of the vast Chinese market, read these fascinating insights into what ebooks Chinese libraries are buying, read PublishDrive's post here, with some surprising pie-charts!
As libraries play an increasing part in people's digital reading habits, it is increasingly important for indie writers not to follow the likes of publishing house Tor and restrict libraries' access to their works. And the UK government launches a competition for an app to improve literacy.
Industry figures show both audiobook sales and ebook library borrows continue to grow rapidly, while the figures on diversity in publishing are less promising.
Google has launched Talk to Books, which moves discovery beyond metadata and inside books' covers. Amazon has launched Prime Reading in China, and a new group of small independent publishers is seeking to change the way the industry works.
Amazon has finally opened its first staff-less shop to the public, Wattpad has secured $51m funding to expand its machine learning, and several platforms have expandd their offerings to readers.