Apr
30
Dust Already Settling: Microsoft’s Courier Tablet a Fatality. HP’s Slate too?
Filed Under Books, E-books, Publishing | Leave a Comment
The weeding out of the e-reader/mobile device field has started (continued?) with Microsoft announcing it is canceling further development on its book-shaped, two-page device codenamed Courier.
HP’s Slate is rumored to be on the chopping block too. Perhaps something to do with HP bailing out Palm last week. According to this rumor, HP didn’t like the Windows 7 touch screen technology and felt that Palm’s webOS was better.
Does this mean eventually there will only be one or two players on the field? Nope. The market is too big and there are still a number of heavy-weight companies with product in the pipeline including Dell with its 7- and 10-inch iPad-look-alikes named “Streak.”
Perhaps even Microsoft is still in the game. According to Frank Shaw, a corporate vice president, quoted in a Business Week aritcle, “[the courier’s] technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings.”
What is the eventual impact for authors and publishers? Virtually every book—self-published or not—will be available to download to virtually every reader from dozens of sources. This broadens and levels the playing field for authors and independent publishers who today have to battle the many gatekeepers in the distribution chain.
Just a write thought.
Apr
25
Heady Times in E-Book Publishing
Filed Under Books, E-books | Leave a Comment
As I read the April 19th edition of Publishers Weekly, which has a number of articles touching on e-books, I’m reminded of the 1970s when Gottschalk’s, a Fresno-based department store chain, was offering free lessons to housewives on how to use a new-fangled device called a microwave. I’m also reminded of when Beta was battling VHS for dominance in our living rooms. And of the mid-1400s when Guttenberg put his big toe into the river that today we call the “information highway.”
The e-reader or mobile device—it’ll do a lot more than allow you to read text—is analogous to the microwave. We still don’t understand quite what it is or what it will do for us but we are anxious to learn.
And today’s technology battle is among competing e-book formats (Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iPad, Adobe’s Digital Editions, and the soon-to-be-released Blio, just to name a few frontrunners), each vying to be the leading, if not the exclusive format.
Finally, the Guttenbergs of the day are giving us many new ways to receive information beyond ink on paper, often richly interactive ways Guttenberg could never have envisioned.
It’s fun to watch, but it’s difficult to know where to place your money.
What should an author or publisher do at this stage? Learn what you can, participate when it makes sense, but don’t fret. Content is still king and when the dust settles, the king may have a queen, a few princes or princesses, and maybe even a consort or two, but it’ll still be king.
Just a write thought.
Apr
11
Naïve Self-Publishers often Taken
Filed Under Book Marketing, Books, Promotion, Publishing | Leave a Comment
[Under the "everybody needs an editor" category, the following paragraph was left off this post. Ooops.]
There is a huge industry built upon the dreams of would-be published authors and startup publishers. Look around a little and you’ll find any number of dubious opportunities. For instance….
For $305 ForeWord magazine will write a review of your book and give you the opportunity to have it placed on their website and distributed to other online sites.
Is this worth $305?
Conventional wisdom holds that paid reviews offer little value in terms of selling books. In many instances you can have a colleague write a review and distribute it to the same sites. If your colleague has a name or title people respect, the review may be better received than one from a little-known magazine. Why pay hundreds for something of doubtful value?
Wait, it gets worse.
For $195 more ($500 total), iUniverse will send your book to ForeWord for you. What is the postage on a book today anyway?
Are there better ways to spend one’s money promoting a book?
Here’s a fun idea: The $500, Three-Day, Three-City Book Blitz.
Arrange for three presentations on your book’s subject or, if you are a novelist, on some aspect of your story, in three different cities within driving distance of each other over three days. Think beyond bookstores to Friends of the Library groups or senior centers or fraternal organizations. Be inventive.
Be sure books are available for sale and signing at each event. Alert the media in each city. Mention it in your blog—both before and after. Have pictures taken of you speaking and the crowd and post them on your site and around the Web.
Now for the $500.
Use $300 to pay for lodging and gas. Treat yourself and a companion to a gourmet dinner each night of your trip with the other $200.
Not only will you have more fun, you’ll likely sell more books.
Just a write thought.
Subscribe to The Write Thought
My Books
