Housekeeping Note

I’ve deleted the Just In Case blogs I had:

iPodAir
iPod Sky
iPod Touchbook
iPod Reader
iSlate Reader
iPod Cloud

Notes For Monday December 7, 2009

As the economy continues to tighten, I wandered around the Net for some information about books and hard times.

Presented here, without regard to accuracy, is what I found.

[A] lot of small companies — mine included — started in the teeth of a recession. It’s easier to start a business than look for a job at the start of a recession. People still buy things, but companies are reluctant to take on the cost of an employee when revenue prospects are uncertain.Posted by Susan Nov 11, 2008

eBook Notes For Thursday November 12, 2009

Confessions of an Apple Manager-Turned-iPhone App Creator

How was Air Sharing received?

We gave it away for two weeks and later set the price at $7, lowered it to $5 and then introduced a more capable one for $10. I was optimistically thinking maybe 100,000 people would download it. But really I thought that was crazy talk.

As it turned out, a million downloaded it in two weeks—168,000 in the first day. That’s without advertising, no banner ads. It was just word-of-mouth and the power of the Internet.

I await figures like those for a digital book!

eBook Notes For Monday, November 2, 2009

The Next Hot e-Reader: The iPhone

Unless the Apple Tablet becomes a reality, I think there is going to continue to be a market for dedicated e-readers, mostly because it is impossible to read large amounts of text on a smaller screen.

Emphasis added by me.

What century is Om Malik living in again?

eBook Notes For Friday October 23, 2009

Authors experiment with Twitterfiction

For Neil Gaiman, it began with a disconcerting image of a girl spoken to by her reflection in a mirror. For Melvin Burgess, it was a mother told by a passing elderly woman that her babies weren’t human. The two award-winning children’s authors have both begun to dabble in storytelling via Twitter, with Gaiman’s experiment on the micro-blogging site concluding today, but Burgess set to carry on tweeting.

Let’s not all forget writer Charlie Huston.

eBook Notes For Friday October 16, 2009

German Parliament to Bulk Purchase Hanvon E-book Reader

Hanvon also welcomed some special guests on the opening day — staff from the German Parliament. They were satisfied with the quality and functionality of the Hanvon e-book reader after successful demonstrations. They plan to purchase Hanvon e-book readers in bulk for their MPs. According to Hanvon staff, the German Parliament is going to invite Hanvon sales and R&D staff to parliament to give them a detailed introduction to the e-book reader. The cooperation will be fulfilled later.

I wonder if they will actually purchase them?

Inflate that eBook Bubble, baby:

Netronix preps Cookie, Grace and Swiftie ebook readers

A Taiwanese company called Netronix has a few new ebook reader models coming that might just appeal to those that want more than the ablility to read books on their ebook reader.

Really, save your money. The way things are going you’ll be able to buy two eInk devices for US$99.00 this time next year — as failed overstock on eBay.

eBook Notes For Thursday, October 15, 2009

Shadowmancer author Graham Taylor stops writing to care for sick daughter

Here are the two bits important to writers:

Mr Taylor, who writes under the name GP Taylor, became a leading light in the literary world when he sold the rights to his first book, Shadowmancer, for £314,000 – three times the advance JK Rowling got for the first Harry Potter story.

And:

Mr Taylor sold his motorbike to self-publish his first novel Shadowmancer, a parable about Christianity and black magic set in the 18th century.

It was snapped up by publishers Faber & Faber and went on to top the best-seller lists for 15 weeks.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Best wishes to his unfortunate daughter.

Walmart.com cuts prices on yet-to-be-released books

Walmart.com is cutting the prices of popular books even before they hit store shelves.

The online division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday that it is pricing the top 10 pre-selling books on its website at $10 each, including free shipping.

The $10 price represent a 66 percent cut on the $28.99 listing price for Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue: An American Life”, or a 64 percent cut on the $27.99 price for Michael Crichton’s “Pirate Latitudes.”

The titles will not ship until November, but eager consumers can now place orders for the books online — representing “pre-sales.”

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

More evidence that desperation rules the print book industry and is feeling pressure from the eBook Bubble.

eBook Notes For Tuesday October 13, 2009

Women, Gays Apparently Ruining Sci-Fi For the Rest of Us
— which critiques this post:

The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky
— which actually does raise one interesting point here:

What has happened is that science fiction on television has for the most part become indistinguishable from most other television shows which are written for women filled with moronic relationship drama.

Lifetime in Space!

Twitter’s unlawful Newsom contribution

Does being on Twitter’s SUL constitute a non-monetary contribution? YES.

Twitter is providing this free service to Gavin Newsom, a declared candidate for governor. Newsom uses Twitter to send his Twitter followers links to his campaign website and to campaign news stories promoting his candidacy.

It would be personally very satisfying to me to see the children who (mis-)run Twitter meet the real world of real-life consequences. I hope they get a big fat fine for this.

Remixing the Book

We’ve always had abridged versions and “selected-essays-from” and audio versions and made-for-TV adaptations. But in a more open rights schema (say, Creative Commons licensing), there is something thrilling about the idea that dedicated readers – the most engaged of all stakeholders, beyond the original writer & editor – might legitimately improve texts for certain audiences.

I’m both intrigued and horrified by this idea. Several weeks ago I was mulling over how I really hate fantasy novels — I just can’t get into them with their bizarre names and use of magic or other such things. Beneath that veneer, however, could lurk an actually good story. It crossed my mind that such writers might want to consider remixing their own works for fantasy-averse people like me. Take away the weird names and the other things I find too alienating and set it in the present day. The King becomes, say, a CEO or just The Boss, the magic becomes a lawsuit or some other real-world device … and now not only does the writer quickly have a second book out there, but one that might even attract me and others like me.

eBooks Notes For Thursday, October 8, 2009

Three interesting blogs:

Don’t Publish Me!

The living diary of what it takes to get published…or not. Writing, obtaining representation, getting a publisher, and achieving fame and fortune. Fortune without fame would be preferable, since my kid is going to private school this fall.

29 Jobs and a Million Lies

This is the story of my 29 Jobs, fraught with a Million Lies. And some very stupid decisions, lucky tricks, and altogether silly outlooks.

Ditchwalk

To understand and pursue the craft, art and business of storytelling in the digital age.

Since Twitter has been having its usual vapors (worth a billion dollars? what drugs are you people on?), many of the eBook/book news tweets I’d run there will be here instead, below, after the break.

eBook Notes For Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Foxconn said to be tapped to make Apple tablet PC, shipments expected to begin in 1Q10

The sources indicated they believe the tablet PC features will focus more on e-book functionality rather than music, and that based on Apple’s marketing strategy, long battery life, quick Internet connectivity and an easy-to-use user interface will be key features of the device.

I really feel sorry for all those people who are requesting a Kindle for Christmas.

doubleTwist Unveils An Alternative To The iTunes Music Store, Powered By Amazon MP3

Today, doubleTwist has revealed what it means by that: doubleTwist now includes an integrated Music Store, powered by Amazon’s MP3 Store. But unlike iTunes, this app will let you transfer your files to non-Apple devices.

And:

In fact, it’s probably safe to say that the new doubleTwist music store is actually easier to use to download music than iTunes is, simply because there’s so much less going on.

Apple really needs librarians. The entire iTunes Store is a complete mess.

QR Code Generator from the ZXing Project

ZXing (pronounced “zebra crossing”) is an open-source, multi-format 1D/2D barcode image processing library implemented in Java. Our focus is on using the built-in camera on mobile phones to photograph and decode barcodes on the device, without communicating with a server.

Although QR codes are for print, I’ve seen flyers stuck on lampposts in New York City that use them.

The Periodic Table of Typefaces

The Periodic Table of Typefaces is obviously in the style of all the thousands of over-sized Periodic Table of Elements posters hanging in schools and homes around the world. This particular table lists 100 of the most popular, influential and notorious typefaces today.

If such a table was done for eInk-based eBook readers, it’d be very, very small.

HTML5 assault on Adobe Flash heats up with ClickToFlash

ClickToFlash allows Safari users to isolate Flash content on the web so that it only plays when they choose to allow it. Flash content is replaced with a bounding box that enables the user to ignore the item (such as with ads) or to click the placeholder to activate Flash playback as desired.

Additionally, the plugin can convert requests for YouTube Flash videos into requests for higher quality H.264 videos, allowing desktop users to bypass Flash the same way the iPhone does, and simply play any YouTube videos using the browser’s own built-in HTML5 support for direct H.264 playback.

Just when you think the world has devolved into Apple vs. Google vs. Adobe, the users themselves jump in to kick everyone’s asses.

New app turns iPhone into psalm pilot

Just watch the video:

“EBook Publishing Site Sees Huge Growth in Submissions”

Books are submitted to abook2read as email attachments to admin@abook2read.com and are read and fully assessed within 28 days. If accepted, the author is then invited to get involved in the creation of their eCover for their eBook and write both the description and biography that appears on the site. There are no charges to any of our authors and they receive 30% of net publisher’s revenue, which on a Pounds Sterling 3.50 book after Pay-pal charges and V.A.T is 82 pence per down-load.