Archive for Books and Reading
New Look and Exciting News
If you’ve visited my website before, you’ll notice that my blog now has the same look. I’d wanted that for a long time and, finally, due to the fantastic work of my husband, it happened. I’m thrilled that both are now integrated.
As for exciting news:
My new SF Thriller, Catalyst, will be coming out in August. As soon as the cover is done, I’ll be sure to post it.
In addition, Synergy, my other SF Thriller, will get a brand new–although similar–cover and look. The second edition will read better, with a new font, and the cover will look more streamlined. It will also come out in August, to coincide with the publication of Catalyst.
Stay tuned for more news!
The Self-Publishing Dilemma
This week on Twitter’s #litchat was a discussion about “indie” authors, a euphemism now used instead of self-published authors, including those who start their own publishing company to sell their own books and those who use vanity publishing.
Indie publishing is touted as the new publishing model. Self-published authors claim that they are able to retain their own voice, that they are not constrained into a mold, that they are able to have control over all aspect of publishing the book, from writing it to marketing it. That’s all very well and good, but how about filtering?
In her article, When anyone can be a published author, Laura Brown asks the question. In all of the talk of the new publishing model, she argues that one element is being forgotten: the reader. How, amid potentially millions of self-published books, is one to find something good to read? »» The Self-Publishing Dilemma
Expat Harem
A year ago through Twitter, during a discussion on literature at #litchat, I met a fantastic woman, Anastasia Ashman, a US expatriate living in Turkey. She was talking about her new book, Tales from the Expat Harem, and anthology of stories written by expatriate women living in modern Turkey. Tales evolved into a huge project and blog, a “neocultural hub for global citizens, identity adventurers, Turkophiles, identity travelers and culturati of all types.” It is a place where “common interest + experience defines us better than geography, nationality — or even blood.”
Expat Harem has its regular contributors but also visiting ones. I am such a one, discussing the feeling of being an expatriate in my own country because of differences in language, culture, behavior. The in-country expat forced me to inspect and introspect what it meant for me to live in a different culture, and it reinforced the empathy I feel for all new immigrants to our country, and to my town.
The Future of Publishing
I Tweeted about this video and sent it to my friends, but I like it so much I decided to have it here for a while. Last week was Read an ebook Week and this video would have been most appropriate. For at least ten years I’ve said that content is more important than format. This video explains it in a very clever way.
The Espresso Book Machine
Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
Increasingly, discussions about thee EBM center around the possibility that this ingenious piece of hardware and software might save the small bookstore.
The Espresso Book Machine (EBM) is a print on demand (POD) machine that prints, collates, covers, and binds a single book (trade paperback) in a few minutes. The quality is surprisingly good–and the machine if fast.
Giants such as amazon and the rise of ebooks are stealing business away from small bookstores, which also cannot sustain the large inventories of larger box bookstores such as Chapters or Barns and Noble. The EBM is a way to cut costs and to have a huge inventory, as large as any electronic database of books can sustain. It also solves the problem of returns and how to supply out-of-print books.
Publishers such as Simon & Schuster and Hachette are setting up to provide all their titles for the EBM. Many other publishers will follow suit. It also brings to the bookstores people who wish to self-publish and have printed copies of their books, and most of the small indie publishers registered with Ingram who cannot afford to ship copies to bookstores.
The EBM has transparent walls so it’s possible to see a book being created from beginning to end, something most people never see.
Although it’s a pricey initial investment ($75-95,000), all university presses and bookstores that bought them fully believe they’ll recoup their investment in a few years. Marcus Gipps, the Blackwell store manager in London, England, says that his customer base has increased since they brought in the machine; it has been dragging people away from their computers and into the store.
The number of university presses and bookstores that have Espresso Book machines is now up to 86: http://www.ondemandbooks.com/our_ebm_locations.htm
Filed under: Books and Reading,Commentary | books, EBM, ebooks, Espresso Book Machine, POD, print-on-demand, printing, Publishing|No Comments