When 3.3 Million People Vote On Their Faves Aside from reading — we have to hope — nothing seems to entertain Goodreads more than surveying its vast self, and this is good news for the rest of us because we get some interesting insight into reading habits. The newest round of “Goodreads Choice Awards” —… Read More
Goodreads Reviews ‘Sex And Reading’ On The Big Platform
It’s Not About Who’s Reading More We already have an understanding — sad to say — that in general, men are not reading as much as women. Today at The FutureBook, in fact, the author Simon Scarrow talks about his new Cato and Macro mobile game-app for iOS and Android that’s intended to help draw… Read More
Of Talent And Turkeys
If Anybody Mentions ‘Talent,’ Just Gobble Louder At the heart of mystique is talent. Which is the ultimate mystery. Why do some people have it while others do not? Shelley Souza That’s the writer Shelley Souza in one of several fine, thoughtful comments from Writer Unboxed late last week. In the lead essay there, I… Read More
Wait! Not Another Selfie! Instead, Take A Shelfie!
Is A Picture Worth A Thousand eBooks? So there I was the other day, putting together a story for The Bookseller’s The FutureBook about Vancouver’s BitLit. That’s the young start-up company that wants you to have ebook editions (free or at a discount) of books you’v’e already bought in print. A lot like when you buy… Read More
On The Ethical Author Code And Amateurism
The Ethical Author Code The Ethical Author Code is being promoted by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) based in the UK. There’s more about its launch at The FutureBook conference in London here. While no one at ALLi is pointing fingers in this effort, many observers feel that it’s a pivotal one in terms of… Read More
Diversion Books Launches EverAfter App
Is The Romance Market Really Bottomless? An innovative independent publisher in New York City, Diversion Books has announced a new venture: EverAfter is described in its inaugural press release as “the first bookstore experience exclusively dedicated to romance ebooks,” offering “in-app purchase.” The consumer copy on the app’s landing page puts across its information in this customer-facing language: Always… Read More
Josh Malerman’s Tricks Are Treats: ‘Ghastle And Yule’
‘We Were…Making a Horror Movie’ No, there’s no film called Curate Your Own Death (1960). Yet. But there is one called Choose Your Own Death: The Babysitter(2009). And no, there’s no Bicameral Island (1961). Yet. But there are Shutter Island (2010), Gilligan’s Island (1964) and more Islands —Dinosaur (2014), Spike (2012), Fantasy (1977), Harper’s (2009),… Read More
AuthorEarnings.com: Kindle Unlimited On The Line
‘I wish our conclusions could be more . . . conclusive’ But all things being equal? Authors are working without a net right now. As with so many things in publishing at this point in its encounter with the digital dynamic, the potential contradictions loom large in the new AuthorEarnings.comreport, just out today from the… Read More
Innovation’s Momentum: A Digital-Only Publisher In Oz
“I Got Acquired” Over the weekend, an Australian author, Steve P. Vincent, was a guest blogger at Writer Unboxed, one of the best-read daily blog sites around. In his piece, Advice To My Newbie Self , Vincent made some perfectly cogent points familiar to many writers. Among them: After submitting your manuscript, it will take longer than you’d… Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
It’s springtime for Amazon, and there’s more than one evolving new slant on the massive retailer in play at the moment. Between the monkey chatter and the growls of slow-moving traditionalists, hear it? A skip in the usual drumbeats. A new syncopation in the publishing jungle. Read More