Category: Singapore

Celebrating its first anniversary, Singapore’s mobile reading app Dreame is another example of the millions of invisible global digital readers outside mainstream publishing

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“Show Your Girl Power” is the topic of to a writing competition to mark the successful first anniversary of the Singapore-based mobile reading app Dreame, owned private equity firm STARY. For those interested, the competition submissions in which “authors can create their ideal female characters and heroines” are open until November 1, but submissions must Read More …

StreetLib partners with Singapore-based STARY’s Dreame and FicFun mobile reading apps

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Italy-based digital books distributor and publishing facilitator StreetLib has partnered Singapore’s STARY to deliver content to its mobile reading apps Dreame and FicFun with strong followings in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa. Full disclosure: The New Publishing Standard (TNPS) is published by StreetLib to further the debate about Read More …

As Penguin Random House SE Asia goes live, PRH plans just shy of 100 mostly English-language releases this year across the region

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A common theme here at TNPS is the much-overlooked demand for English-language content in parts of the world where English is not the first or official language. Perhaps nowhere has that been more apparent than with the Big Bad Wolf phenomenon, where a Malaysia-based outfit ships literally millions of English-language books to countries like Indonesia, Read More …

StreetLib completes January tranche of global expansion. 21 countries on 6 continents

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When StreetLib launched The New Publishing Standard in September 2017 we made clear the function of the journal was to stimulate debate about the much-neglected global book markets. It was not a StreetLib promotional tool, and not a vehicle to advocate digital at the expense of traditional formats. But occasionally StreetLib becomes part of the Read More …

Storytel to launch in Singapore in 2019

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In marked contrast to Storytel’s usual approach of keeping quiet about new launches until everything is ready to go, Storytel’s Asia expansion plans are being announced well in advance. This week comes a Storytel press release confirming Storytel will be launching in Singapore in 2019, with titles in English and Chinese. This will come as no Read More …

As PRH announces planned expansion into 8 SE Asia countries, TNPS looks at the digital prospects in a region of 380 million internet users

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Back in December 2017 TNPS ran with the headline, S.E. Asia online economy growing faster than predicted. $200bn by 2025. Will publishers rise to the opportunity? S.E. Asia online economy growing faster than predicted. $200bn by 2025. Will publishers rise to the opportunity? It seems some have. This week comes news that, from a base Read More …

As Storytel’s 2019 Asia expansion steps up with a Thailand office, TNPS speculates where next for Storytel

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Not content with its Latin America ambitions, with a Mexico launch set for December, and a Brazil launch looking likely in the New Year, Storytel has announced the next stage of its Asia expansion is underway. To start with it’s an office in Bangkok, which will be used to coordinate expansion across the continent as Read More …

Shortlist of 5 announced for World’s Best New Library

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35 libraries from 19 countries were in the running, but just five have been shortlisted for the annual prize to be acclaimed 2018 Public Library of the Year, awarded to a public library that is either newly built or set up in premises not previously used for library purposes. The jury consists of members of Read More …

Ten global publishing stories not to be missed. 5 June 2018 collation

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The global publishing market has never been more exciting, and every day myriad publishing stories cross my screen that I’d love to develop here at TNPS, but there simply isn’t time. They do make the TNPS twitter feed, however. Follow TNPS on twitter here: @thenewpubstd. But twitter is an ephemeral beast. If you’re reading TNPS Read More …

Singapore. Population: 5.6 million. Library members: 2.4 million. Library loans: 33 million

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Singapore’s National Library Board made the headlines briefly earlier this year when Singapore joined the US and Canada in the notional OverDrive One Million Club. That is, a country where OverDrive saw over one million digital downloads. Not such a surprise given almost half the population are library members, and that in 2016 the Singapore Read More …

Vietnam’s Tet book fairs sell $280,000 books in seven days, taking Vietnam book streets sales towards $4 million

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The Tet (lunar New Year) holiday has just ended and book fairs set up for the event raked in over a quarter million dollars in book sales in the week long event. Fully half of that came from the Ho Chi Minh City event, held across three streets in District 1 – Nguyen Hue, Mac Read More …

12 mind-blowing book events you probably never knew happened in 2017

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Usually on alternate Sundays I review the latest Hot Sheet from Jane Friedman and Porter Anderson, but this time around it was a review of the past year and much of what is covered has been discussed in previous reviews here, so this week I’m doing my own TNPS-style review of the 2017 publishing year Read More …

While western publishing parties, global publishing goes from strength to strength

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It may be Christmas where you are, and the publishing industry is sleeping off one hangover just in time for the next as the New Year celebrations begin, but elsewhere in the world it’s business as usual for publishing. The Saudi Jeddah Book Fair and the Singapore Bookfest may have wound up on 24 December Read More …

While Myanmar bookstores struggle, street bookstores and English-language bookstores thrive

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Myanmar has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this year, so let’s round off 2017 with a look at Myanmar’s book scene. Today’s Myanmar Times (never let it be said TNPS brings you old news!)(of course, time zones help) tells of English teacher Peter Evans, planning on opening his third bookstore in Read More …

S.E. Asia online economy growing faster than predicted. $200bn by 2025. Will publishers rise to the opportunity?

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A year and a half after Google and Temasek’s first assessment of the SE Asia digital economy, a new report shows the region growing significantly faster than predicted. The report touches on neither books nor ebooks, but this study represents major opportunities for publishers, distributors, retailers and authors, both within the region and beyond. By Read More …

Singapore’s biggest bookstore chain diversifies as book market stagnates. Or does it?

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Stagnating book markets are a troublesome feature of the modern world, where so many different forms of infotainment vie for our limited cash and attention. In Singapore Cheng Ngok Chou, the eighty year old CEO of Popular, the biggest bookstore chain in the country, believes the book market is stagnating, and he’s experimenting with diversification Read More …

The world’s youngest bi-lingual published author

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It was only last week we reported on the world’s youngest published author (Guinness Book of Records certified), a four year old in the Seychelles. This week we report on the world’s youngest published author (Guinness Book of Records certified) to write a bi-lingual book – in Singapore. Singapore’s The Straits Times tells us of Read More …