Through August 5, author Jason Pinter is offering visitors to his web site free online access to the first book in his Henry Parker series, THE MARK. (The third in the series publishes at the end of July.) In an additional twist, Pinter offers to thank in the acknowledgements of next year’s book any fan who links to the free offer, posts the widget or e-mails five friends and notifies Pinter. I guess we just qualified.Pinter blog Separately, starting a few days ago, Thomas Friedman has been offering a free audiobook giveaway of THE WORLD IS FLAT from his web […]
eNews
At CBA Show, Zondervan Introduces Download-by-Card
The Tamba Bay newspaper covers the CBA’s International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, with approximately 7,000 attendees (and no exhibit from Thomas Nelson). Non-book merchandise captures the paper’s attention more than books, including everything from “a Christian version of the wildly popular Guitar Hero video game to ‘witness wear’ clothing and skateboard art that proclaim faith in bold cultural statements.” With Nelson’s absence, the show appears to be in serious decline, with numbers well below the approximately 9,250 attendees recorded the two previous years. (Even that number is well below the show’s high-water-mark of almost 15,000 attendees from 1999.) Publisher […]
Mitch Albom's Kindle Exclusive
Amazon started selling bestselling author Mitch Albom’s “Commencement Speech To His Nephew’s Graduating Class: May 30, 2008, Nice France” today as an exclusive Kindle file, priced at 99 cents. (It’s fewer than 4,000 words.) The AP notes, “proceeds are being donated to a Detroit-based charity for the homeless — but it does offer a test for the digital device that has created a great debate about the future of books and great speculation over how much the Kindle is part of that future.” Amazon pitches it: “Albom created a memorable testament to what we know and what we need to […]
ABA to Partner with Applewood on POD
I love the tidbit via Vermont Public Radio that, despite publishing world dreams that a POD book machine within a bookstore will make available countless titles efficiently to individual customers, what those customers really want is to make their own books. There is, potentially, huge opportunity there for physical bookstores, since the dozens of web sites that offer such services don’t have their own retail outlets. The bookstore is a natural place to go for help in publishing your own book (and if you buy the right package, they’ll put it on sale for you, too.) I’ve noted in speeches […]
Kindle Rumor: Next Version In October?
TechCrunch says “an insider let slip that two new Amazon Kindle models will hit stores this holiday season, with the first coming as early as October.” [Remember how late Kindle 1.0 was in making it to release, however.] “The first is an updated version with the same sized screen, a smaller form factor, and an improved interface. The source told us that Amazon has ‘skipped three or four generations,’ comparing the old Kindle to the 1st gen iPod and the new version to something like the sexy iPod Mini. “The second new model, which is shaped like an 8 1/2 […]
O'Reilly Will Sell Their Own Kindle Files, Thank You
Why give all the control to Amazon? O’Reilly is selling e-books from their own web site that are bundled to include three different formats together in one package (epub, PDF, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket). The sales page includes a green-colored tease: “Save a Tree – Go Digital.” The program launches with “30 popular” O’Reilly titles. They are also making available a few titles–Devices of the Soul; Wikipedia Reader’s Guide: The Missing Manual; and Facebook: The Missing Manual–directly through Amazon in Kindle format. The O’Reilly e-price for two of those books is well above Amazon’s standard ceiling of $9.99 for Kindle editions, […]