Print Book Publishers: eBook Enlightenment

Shoyoroku – Case 86: Rinzai’s Great Enlightenment

Rinzai asked Obaku, “What is the great meaning of the Buddha-Dharma?”

Obaku hit him. This happened three times. Rinzai then took his leave and went to see Daigu.

Daigu asked, “Where have you come from?”

Rinzai said, “From Obaku.”

Daigu said, “What did Obaku have to say?”

Rinzai said, “I asked him three times, ‘What is the great meaning of the Buddha-Dharma?’ and I got his stick three times. I don’t know if I was in error or not.”

Daigu said, “Obaku was overly gentle like an old grandmother; he completely exhausted himself for your sake. Yet you come here and ask if you were in error or not!”

With these words, Rinzai came to great enlightenment.

Emphasis added by me.

Previously here:

Charlie Stross: eBooks Nailed, Period
Mitch Ratcliffe: eBooks
eBook Pricing 101: The Magic Formula
How Print Publishers Are Killing Writers
Print Book Publishing: DOOMED
DRM = Destroy Remaining Market
Laugh Today, Die Tomorrow, Print Dinosaurs!
eBooks And Pricing
The Print Dinosaurs Will Starve To Death

MacArthur Grant’s Missing eBook Man

Via Twitter from kottke:

MacArthur Fellows Program: Meet the 2008 Fellows

Commonly known as The MacArthur Genius Grant.

It’s criminal that David Rothman of TeleRead hasn’t been nominated and granted. He’s been banging the drum for eBooks, a standard global eBook file, and government/consumer eBook advocacy for years and years. TeleRead was the first eBook site I encountered on the Net and I’ve stayed with it since.

There’s not another person on the Net who has thought and about promoted the eBook cause like Rothman.

He should get a grant!

Intriguing Feedbooks Q&A

Q&A with Hadrien Gardeur, Co-Founder of Feedbooks

Have established book publishers used your service to create ebook editions?

No, we’re still working on those features. I expect major publishers to use XML+XSLT or Adobe InDesign rather than a dedicated service. We’re creating our publishing feature with the end-user or small publishers in mind rather than major publishers.

Do you plan to sell ebooks?

We do. I believe that free content and user-generated content in general shouldn’t be in a different environment than the rest of ebooks. It makes a lot more sense to have both in the same environment and create an optimal experience for the user.

Emphasis added by me.

This is exciting news.

There’s still no inexpensive and easy way for writers to create an eBook file for the ePub format other than the very expensive and expert design tool, Adobe InDesign. This is a speedbump on the road to the liberation of writers via direct publishing.

I had no idea that Feedbooks had a commercial endeavor planned. They have established a mindshare among eBook readers and have been embraced by iPhone and iPod Touch users via the Stanza eBook reader.

They could become a linchpin of direct publishing.