Posts tagged ‘Books’
Barnes & Noble Launches e-Book Store: Rumors Circulate of Plastic Logic Partnership
This week, Barnes & Noble opened their e-Book Store online. They have hit the ground running with plans to grow aggressively. The word on the Web is that they are going to be partnering with Plastic Logic to distribute content via a device scheduled for release early next year. The device is said to be a big step in the right direction, hopefully minimizing the annoying parts of the Kindle2, Kindle DX and Sony Reader.
It would be logical to assume that Barnes & Noble will be able to establish themselves in a market that they have dominated for so long. They understand books and consumers, which is quite clear when you visit their site. The eBook Store interface is extremely user-friendly. People can download the apps they need in order to interact with the new eBook Store, including options for your computer, iPhone and Blackberry.
Overall, I think that this is a healthy development. While I don’t see any indication yet that there will be an interface such as the Digital Text Platform available to upload content to the Kindle Store, I would be surprised if this is not in the works. The strength that Amazon has brought to the e-book market is a good starting ground and I believe that strong players getting into the game will drive Amazon and any other serious participants to adapt and improve.
Barnes & Noble’s new eBook Store has a clear impact on your ability to sell your book. Familiarize yourself with this new development, so that you can be one step ahead of where your target audience is going.
-1,000 Chimps
So You Want to Be a Novelist? Advice for Writers from a Successful Author
Jennifer Weiner knows a thing or two about writing and publishing. Author of bestselling novels Good in Bed and In Her Shoes (yep, the one that inspired the movie staring Cameron Diaz) , as well as her most recent release Best Friends Forever (released today), she offers a bit of helpful advice for aspiring authors on her Web site.
Here are a few of the highlights from her article on writing and publishing:
Write to Please Yourself
Tell the story that’s been growing in your heart, the characters you can’t keep out of your head, the tale story that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes you up in the morning. Don’t write something just because you think it will sell, or fit into the pigeonhole du jour. Tell the story you want to tell, and worry about how to sell it later.
Get a Dog
Okay, you’re thinking, what does getting a dog have to do with becoming a writer? More than you’d think. Writing is about talent and creativity, but it’s also about discipline – about the ability to sit yourself down in that seat, day after day. … Being a dog owner requires a similar form of discipline. You wake up every morning. You walk the dog. You do this whether you’re tired, depressed, broke, hung over, or have been recently dumped. You do it.
Get Published
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears, has it really fallen? If a writer writes poems and short stories and novels, but nobody ever reads them, is she really a writer? Nope. If you want to be a writer, you’ve got to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (not to mention evil reader reviews on amazon.com). You’ve got to put your stuff out there for the world to see, and fall in love with, or revile. In short, you’ve got to get published.
Read
Read everything. Read fiction and non-fiction, read hot best sellers and the classics you never got around to in college. Read men, read women, read travel guides and Harlequins and epic poetry and cookbooks and cereal boxes, if you’re desperate. Get the rhythm of good writing in your ears. Cram your head with characters and stories. Abuse your library privileges. Never stop looking at the world, and never stop reading to find out what sense other people have made of it. If people give you a hard time and tell you to get your nose out of a book, tell them you’re working. Tell them it’s research. Tell them to pipe down and leave you alone.
Excerpts are from Jennifer’s full article, which you can read here: http://jenniferweiner.com/forwriters.htm.
Want to learn more? Read Jennifer Weiner’s blog: http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/
Can you relate to any of the tips here? Do you have any of your own tips or advice? Please share …
-Angie
On Demand: No, Really, It’s the Future
This just in: Traditional publishing declined by 3 percent and On-Demand publishing grew 132 percent. Guess who is in the lead now …
Okay, so that sounds a little bit arrogant, but it’s refreshing to see the prediction that has driven many of us forward is correct. The structure of the traditional publishing business model is rickety and teetering. They have built their reputations and empires on being unbelievably exclusive.
Self-Publishing is remarkably inclusive.
Self Publishing is not the only group to access the Print-On-Demand technology, but it is what makes self-publishing and distribution possible. There is no need to print and pump out title after title in massive marketing waves.
Many of you who have published your books with the POD model have found this process to be accessible and reliable enough to build your business plan around. Professional speakers can maintain their own catalog of titles and have shipments waiting for them at their hotels as they travel and drive their business forward. Teachers can create their own materials to accompany (or even in some cases replace) the mainstream texts that support their curricula. Churches can document their growth and their history and expand their base through affordable means. Companies can create professional training materials that are branded for their needs and their needs alone.
Congratulations to the success of all involved, and congratulations to the traditional companies who decide to leverage this approach in the future!
Google’s Book Search: The Ongoing Debate
In an article published by the New York Times, reports on the recent inquiry by the Justice Department into the antitrust implications against Google’s Book Search program have surfaced. Analyzing the claims and settlement, they’re digging deep into a debate about how much power and control Google should be allowed over copyrighted material.
The article provides a little background on the ongoing debate:
“The settlement, announced in October, gives Google the right to display the books online and to profit from them by selling access to individual texts and selling subscriptions to its entire collection to libraries and other institutions. Revenue would be shared among Google, authors and publishers.
But critics say that Google alone would have a license that covers millions of so-called orphan books, whose authors cannot be found or whose rights holders are unknown. Some librarians fear that with no competition, Google will be free to raise prices for access to the collection.” … “Google will be a monopoly.”
But, there’s another side to the story, and it’s not just Google who’s in favor of the Book Search settlement. Many authors, publishers and readers feel the good outweighs the bad:
Here’s an excerpt from the NY Times article:
“Google, which has scanned more than seven million books from the collections of major libraries at its own expense, vigorously defends the settlement, saying it will bring great benefits to the broader public.
Most of the critics, which include copyright specialists, antitrust scholars and some librarians, agree that the public will benefit. But they say others should also have rights to orphan works. And they oppose what they say amounts to the rewriting, through a private deal rather than through legislation, of the copyright rules for millions of texts.”
For those who have recently published and have their book on Google’s Book Search program, it’s definitely a positive. The world is digitizing more and more content every day, so now more than ever, we can marvel at the different ways we can reach such a wide audience across the globe.
But what are your thoughts on this debate regarding the copyright issues for so-called “orphaned” books and their future implications?
-Angie
Shvoong.com: Write Book Reviews & Summaries for Extra Money
Surfing the Internet this week, I discover this great site where you can post brief reviews on anything interesting and earn money while you write. How many of you are currently using Shvoong? Because if you’re not and you like to share your opinion with others, you should, and here’s why:
- Registration is free to everyone.
- You write and post about anything you want.
- You can write as many or as few reviews as you want.
- Millions of visitors can read your stuff.
- Shvoong is available in 34 different languages.
- Writers from all over the world join.
- Shvoong pays 10% of its advertising revenues to the writers.
- The more your review is read, the more you earn!
It’s a straightforward concept, don’t you think? Join, write, promote your content using social networks, bookmarking or Yahoo! Answers, and then earn some extra dough in the meantime.
Not unlike Helium.com when it comes to the approach to articles, where Shvoong.com differs is the variety. You don’t post facts, you post your opinions, you use your own voice, and the more compelling your tone and articulate your opinions, the more money you earn from the visitors who read your reviews.
Definitely check out Shvoong.com, and hone your writing as well as your reviewing skills. Plus, you may want to direct your own readers to the site in order to post a review of your own book, getting you a little more visibility and keywords on the Internet.
Join Shvoong.com and start writing>>
Learn more about earning money with Shvoong.com>>
More About Shvoong.com
Shvoong is a global web 2.0 knowledge sharing platform that provides readers Short and Instant Knowledge, via Summaries and Short Reviews on a variety of subjects. Available in 34 languages and attracting millions of visitors and writers from over 160 countries, anyone can join Shvoong, write about books, movies, websites, and academic topics, and earn royalties.
Big Money in This Economy: Not Impossible for Book Publishing
Many of you may remember Audrey Niffenegger’s first mega bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife (also her first book) from 2003. I know that my local bookstores still prominently display the title in a reasonably large volume. It has become part of the bookseller’s backdrop. In the world of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, The Time Traveler’s Wife was a welcome addition to the books that people read and talked about. Just this week, rumor has it that Scribner (a division of Simon & Schuster) has paid over four million dollars for the right to print Niffenegger’s new work Her Fearful Symmetry.
Congratulations to her and to everyone involved. It is refreshing to hear about something that will give books a boost. I am sure that we will be watching to compare the sales figures for this and other big releases in the near future, especially to see how the Kindle 2 and e-book world does versus the traditional print model.
News like this is overwhelming at times. As writers, it is easy to feel immeasurably distant from that kind of success or notoriety. I am certain that Niffenegger and any other big name out there felt the same way before they rose to fame. In all likelihood, we all will not experience this level of success, but in reality, some of us will. It is an opportune time for writers to redefine what it means to be big in this digital/physical/economical storm of confusion. One thing’s for sure: whatever medium and business model wins the battle will need content to drive their fortunes.
So keep writing and promoting, and we’ll see who gets the next big check…
Compose a Book on Your Cell Phone? A Text-oholic’s Delight: Keitai Shosetsu
If you thought your kid was a text messaging fanatic, you’ll be thanking your lucky stars if they haven’t caught on to keitai shosetsu – a sweeping and lasting trend in Japan of writing books on cell phones.
Keitai shosetsu, meaning “cell phone novels,” have broken past the barriers of being just a trend among Japanese youth. Explained in an article on CNN.com, “By 2007, half of the country’s 10 best-selling novels were written on cell phones, according to book distributor Tohan while last year mobile novels and comics were a $240 million market in Japan.” An author known by penname Rin tells what compelled her to begin using her cell phone to write:
“I started writing stories on my keitai when I was a high-school student,” Rin said. “Usually, you don’t write novels during recesses between classes, and others might think you were a bit strange if you did that. But if you write on your keitai, nobody knows you are actually writing stories. I was writing stories when others thought I was sending e-mails.”
Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070923x4.html
Rin’s work was eventually published as a hardcover, selling 400,000 copies at the time the article reported on this story in the end of 2007.
It’s hard to believe that this hasn’t yet caught on in American culture. With the Blackberry and seas of people texting faster than most can type on a full keyboard, you’d think this trend would be a perfect fit.
According to an article in CNN.com, they comment on this very subject:
While the cell phone novel market may be cooling in Japan, it is just starting to emerge in other countries, like the United States, where faster networks and cheaper data plans are leading more consumers to use handsets in ways similar to people in Japan.
Many companies are starting to launch mobile Web sites in the U.S., including DeNA, the Japanese firm that owns Mobage-town, the site where Yume-Hotaru writes his keitai shosetsu.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/25/japan.mobilenovels/
What are your thoughts on this trend? Have you heard of this before? Are you currently, or do you personally know individuals that are writing books or diaries on their cell phones?
-Angie
Angry Villagers Burn Books: E-book Zealots Versus Sentimental Booklovers
Earlier this week, Computerworld Blog posted an article entitled “Clueless book publishers miss huge opportunity,” which adamantly predicts that the growing convenience of e-books and development of e-reader technology like Kindle and the Sony Reader will soon render physical books obsolete.
Undoubtedly, e-books and e-readers have opened new areas of publishing and marketing for all genres of books, but does it necessarily follow that the printing of books is doomed to dust as a result of this digital boom?
For me, the question is not one of the merits and benefits of digital content. Of course online content has given us more convenience learning information and accessing entertainment. In fact, I found the Computerworld article online, but I could have easily read the content on an iPhone as well.
Instead, I believe the question concerns the value of the physical book, whether our hardcover or paperbacks will truly become obsolete, relics of an out-of-print past. In order to look deeper at this issue, however, we’ll need to address a few fundamental questions about the concept of the book itself and the publishing industry at large.
What’s the value of a book?
Of course there’s huge value in the content of books. Otherwise why would you search out and order particular books, by specific authors, talking about the topics or stories that interest you? And obviously, that content translates (and should translate) to a digital format. But is that the end of a book, its content? Why wouldn’t we dispose of them after reading then? Why would they decorate our house? Why would communities like BookCrossing exist if not for the demand and interest in the physical book?
The simple answer is: a book is more than its content.
For starters, a book’s design, especially when it comes to art books, children’s books and novels with nontraditional formatting like House of Leaves, can have unique, experimental layouts that are just as compelling as their content at times. (more…)
A Matter of Perspective – Lessons in Fiction Writing
While getting ready for work I like to watch the news. And since Bloomington, IN is too small to have its own local newscast, I watch Today (don’t judge me, OK?) So, this morning, Matt and Meredith were broadcasting in front of the newly lit Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center. The massive evergreen is decked in holiday cheer — lights and a perfect star on top — the works. As I looked upon the gorgeous tree in all its glory, my husband sarcastically mumbled, “Wow, they really dressed up that dead corpse of a tree.”
How dare he say that? And, how could we both be looking at the exact same thing, and have such different feelings about it?
While this is just a silly anecdote, it brings up an important point that every writer should know and understand: perspective is everything.
Perspective directs what you say, and how you say it. It dictates what a character could possibly know. People and characters cannot tell what someone else is actually thinking (although we all think we know what others are thinking…). Decide your narrative perspective carefully and deliberately.
When you make the decision to write in first person, remember that you can only know the thoughts and happenings of one person in the story. Their perspective of an event is probably entirely different than that of another person. Also, be aware of who the character is talking to and in what setting.
Whether you choose to tell your story in first person, third person omniscient or third
person limited, stick with it. Remember whose thoughts you are “allowed” to know and reveal as the teller of your story.
Be mindful of perspective in writing. It’s something that can easily be overlooked if you’re not paying attention.
— Angie
P.S. My husband is a wonderful man, and he doesn’t really hate Christmas trees.
Blerp: Start a Coversation about Books & Comics
Registration is free, and your profile takes about five minutes to complete. Then, you can start your own conversation on interesting topics or add to the blerps (or comment threads) of others. Make friends who share similar opinions, and start a conversation about whatever you want, any day you want, easy-peazy.
Really, the flexibility and interactivity of Blerp.com offers almost endless possibilities, so explore their Web site, register for free, post a few comments whenever you want and start discussing some topics about which you’re passionate. You never know who’s listening and who feels the same way.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
April 9, 2009 at 11:34 am jdimos Leave a comment