Christopher G. Moore’s novel SPIRIT HOUSE will be offered as a free download for Kindle owners between August 1 and August 15, prior to its print publication on August 28. Publisher Morgan Entrekin says in the announcement, “We think this innovative partnership is a great way to expand Moore’s audience even further.”
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Stephen King Short Story in Short Online Videos
Take Stephen King’s previously unpublished story N., about “a psychiatrist who becomes the victim of the same mysterious and deadly obsession as his patient,” set for inclusion in his new book of stories JUST AFTER SUNSET publishing this November and then turning into a Marvel comic book series in 2009. Turn it into a series of 25 two-minute video episodes. Starting on Monday, release a new one every weekday for five weeks. Add multiple viewing and payment options: Free to mobile users through the largest cell-phone companies; through an embedded Flash player that updates automatically; and through CBS’s various online […]
Pushback Over RH UK's New Out-of-Print Language
It’s the story that keeps coming back. This time the focus is Random House UK which, according to Society of Authors deputy general secretary Kate Pool, seeks to redefine out-of-print so that rights are eligible for reversion to an author “only if the publisher cannot supply a physical or electronic copy of a book within a month, or if there have been no royalty earnings for a year.” President of the Association of Authors’ Agents Philippa Milnes-Smith says that some agents had “raised concerns about RH’s approach to negotiating boilerplates…over the terms being proposed and the approaches being made to […]
Sony Reader Will Open Up to ePub
Starting today Sony is offering a software upgrade to the newer edition of their Reader that will let it render books in ePub format. That means that other retailers can sell files for the Reader, opening it up beyond Sony’s own online store and the recent offering from Borders.com. And it should add considerably to the number of titles available for the Reader, currently at about 45,000 books. As svp of consumer product marketing for Sony Electronics Steve Haber says, “This upgrade opens the door to a whole host of paid and free content from third-party e-book stores, Web sites and […]
Google Bids for Author Knols
Google’s Squidoo knockoff product Knol is now open to public use after a less-than-spectacular introductory phase, so they’re making a particular appeal to authors to take advantage of the service: “Knols are articles about specific topics written by authoritative sources, so if you’re an author, writing a knol is a great way to raise the profile of a topic you care about. “Let’s say you’re an author who’s a gardening expert. You could write a knol on how to tend roses, which could introduce a few general principles of gardening and then explain how to care for a rose bush. […]
Google Book Search, en Francais
Google has now officially confirmed the enrollment of the the Municipal Library of Lyon as the first French institution to join the Google Book Search Library Project. Together they will digitize “close to 500,000 public domain books.” You may recall that in the early days of GBS there were two primary schools of griping: the we’re going to be included and we don’t want to be branch, and the we’re not going to be included (and horrible English works will smother the world) branch. Needless to say, the French were among the leaders of the latter camp, advocating for government-backed […]