September 2010
13 posts
1 tag
Scrivener
The world’s best book writing application (at least in my view) is finally being updated after years and years of only minute changes. Scrivener 2.0 looks pretty awesome, and the designers have blog posts up explaining (in longform philosophy-style) what will and won’t be in the new version. I can’t wait.
1 tag
How to get a book deal in the 21st Century
From CBC Books’ Rosie Fernandez:
Gone are the days of submitting pages and pages of heartfelt work to publishers (well, sort of) as now the publishers come courting you. Selling yourself as a brand online has led to all kinds of book, television and film deals for creative, inventive entrepreneurs.
2 tags
Wouldn't that be something?
Aaron Miller:
If there was any sense in the publishing industry at all, there would be some big publisher or distributor who marketed permanent backups of your paper in the cloud. With all the rights, plates, and digital masters, there would be no laborious unbinding and scanning to cut into profits. And surely there are enough people feeding a $50B sector to ensure a pretty large number of...
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The line between book and Internet will disappear
Hugh McGuire:
We are a long, long way from publishers thinking of themselves as API providers — as the Application Programming Interface for the books they publish. But we’ve seen countless times that value grows when data is opened up (sometimes selectively) to the world. That’s really what the Internet is for; and that is where book publishing is going. Eventually.
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Bowker stats bookreaders
From Mary Ann Gwinn:
More than 40 percent of Americans over the age of 13 purchased a book; the average age of the American book buyer is 42.
Women make 64 percent of all book purchases, even among detective stories and thrillers, where they buy more than 60 percent of that genre.
Thirty two percent of the books purchased in 2009 were from households earning less than $32,000 annually. A fifth...
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Canada probing Apple's iBookstore over "cultural...
Nate Anderson:
On August 20, Canada’s Privy Council Office issued an order targeting Apple and the company’s new Canadian version of the iBookstore. Referred to simply as an “order authorizing a review under the Investment Canada Act of Apple Canada, Inc.’s proposed establishment of a new cultural business carried on by iBookstore in Canada,” the order means that...
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Long novels are making a comeback
From Garth Risk Hallberg:
To be even more crassly economic, in the slog of the Great Recession, the long novel offers readers a compelling value proposition.
For a deeper explanation of the long novel’s enduring health, we have to look toward something harder to quantify: the construction of the reader. The more we’re told we’re becoming readers of blogs, of texts, of tweets, of files the...
2 tags
James Patterson world's best paid author
I’m not surprised. From CBC:
Thriller author James Patterson has topped a Forbes.com list of the world’s best paid authors with an income of $70 million US last year.
Patterson, author of more than 50 bestsellers including the Alex Cross and Maximum Ride series, recently signed a deal to write 17 more books by the end of 2012.
I wonder how much the kids writing those 17 books...
2 tags
William Gibson on social engagement
From The Wall Street Journal:
As you publish your new novel, are you noticing a difference in the business since your last book?
I’ve noticed two things. One is that I’m able to observe via Twitter the global launch of the book. I’m able to simultaneously see for the first time that the English language editions, which have been exported from England into Europe and Australia, are released a...
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Interesting
Rich Adin on the Sony Reader:
Sony also has its flaws. Perhaps the most significant flaw is the failure to include a firmware upgrade that would expand the DRMed ePub capability to include the B&N flavor of DRM. This is significant because there are now 3 major places where one cannot buy ebooks for their Sony without stripping the DRM from the files: B&N, Amazon, and the...
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At least your hammock is safe →
It’s official: This was the summer that reading went electronic. We lay poolside with rented e-readers from hotels. We took iPads on kayaks or into the hot tub. Some of us even managed to download…
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Sony's gamble on global
Larry Dignan’s Take:
Understanding the Sony Reader trade-offs requires you to zoom out. From a U.S. perspective Sony’s moves may be confusing. On a global scale, Sony looks quite logical.
Sony’s E-Ink touch navigation is a real difference maker. It took some getting used to, but worked well overall.
Haber acknowledges the risks, but says Sony was giving the best device at a...
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New Sony Readers
My Favourite ebook reader was updated today, along with its more expensive cousins. The Sony Reader Line was updated with new specs, screens, and designs. So why do they feel like they’re already behind?
From Crunchgear:
The familiar three “editions” of the e-reader family are still around, but they’ve been improved with the new Pearl e-ink display for improved contrast and...