John Warner, editor of McSweeney’s online, author of So You Want to Be President? and Fondling Your Muse, and “Creative director of the struggling TOW Books” writes on Maud Newton’s blog about his new initiative to give away PDFs of four books from his humor imprint to help spread the word. “The sad fact, and I’m afraid that it is a fact, is that the reason we’re struggling is because very few people even know our books exist…. After two years of, let’s call it, non-success, I understand that the problem is at least as much about publicity and distribution […]
eNews
Next: Newspaper-Sized eReader
A company called Plastic Logic will announce a new electronic reading device the size of a standard sheet of copy paper, billed as having “a lightweight plastic screen that mimics the look of a printed newspaper.” The price to consumers, and partners enrolled in displaying papers on the device, will not be announced until the CES show in January, and “the reader will go on sale in the first half of next year.” The NYT says it has “a screen size that is 2.5 times larger than the Kindle, weighs just two ounces more and is about one-third the Kindle’s […]
One-Stop eServices for Perseus Clients
Perseus has officially announced their program to help physical distribution clients and their own publishing units streamline participation in a variety of digital and ebook sales and promotion/visibility programs. In development for months and dubbed Constellation, Perseus calls it a “‘one-stop shop’ digital offering” to help “independent publishers exploit the sales and marketing opportunities created by the rapid developments of digital technology.” Participating publishers supply a single print-ready PDF file and then “will have complete control over what books they make available for what services.” Current choices from what will be an expanding menu of options include ebook sales through […]
Stephenie Meyer Abandons Final Twilight Book after Internet Leak
Author of this year’s biggest release Stephenie Meyer surprised her fans by posting on her web site that her “partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher”–and as a result, she has put the new manuscript “on hold indefinitely.” Meyer writes: “My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn’t like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes […]
Amazon's Election-Year Promise: No New Kindle in 08
Perhaps they are worried about inhibiting current sales, but Amazon spokesman Craig Berman provided a direct answer to a NYT blogger’s question: “One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.”Item
Plus
* What does it mean for LibraryThing, now that Amazon is taking over Shelfari entirely, and will acquire an approximately 40 percent stake in LT once their acquisition of AbeBooks closes? The site opened itself up to user suggestions and feedback while pondering the possibilities, and the extensive discussion has well over 100 posts. Meanwhile, with various web stats showing user growth at both LibraryThing and Shelfari leveling off considerably, Tim O’Reilly writes on O’Reilly Radar “I’m a bit surprised that the articles have seemingly ignored the fact that Goodreads appears to be the market leader, at least based on […]