Jun 5 2009
This is a fascinating interview by Billboard with Hilary Rosen who was the industry head of RIAA at the time that Napster got shut down. She resigned in 2003. The take away from the article is that digital downloads brings the consumer closer to the manufacturers of the product and that interoperability should have been(…)
May 31 2009
It’s hard for me to tell exactly how many of the readers of Dear Author are from outside North America, but it is not insignificant despite the fact there is no localization of the blog. In other words, we are an English blog that can be run through a translator but is not translated directly.(…)
May 18 2009
For a small $5.00 per month, you can stream music from Napster’s library of over 7 million song titles and download five mp3s to keep as your own. I’m not sure the profitability of this model, but I’m curious to see what publishing house or retailer will offer a subscription based ebook club. Harlequin? Send(…)
May 12 2009
According to PublishersMarketplace (subscription needed), the data shows that there is close to 1 million Kindles out in the wilds of readerdom and that the previously provided statistic that if a book is available in print and Kindle, 1 out of 3 purchases is a Kindle purchase is confirmed by at least one major publisher.(…)
Apr 30 2009
The LA Times held a panel this past week on the issue of publishing. The panel, moderated by the Times book editor David Ullin, included former PW editor-in-chief, publishing consultant and author of So Many Books, So Little Time Sara Nelson; Richard Nash, former head of Soft Skull Press; Otis Chandler, founder of the Goodreads(…)
Apr 26 2009
Michael Perry, editor of Inkling Books, wrote an editorial on why he officially objected to the Google Book Settlement. Meljean Brook, author of the Guardian series, wonders why Google couldn’t have asked for permission first before scanning and why Authors’ Guild is pursuing this settlement which requires authors to opt out. Epublishers Weekly has a(…)
Apr 5 2009
Rupert Murdoch, losing money on his print publications, is turning his eyes toward Google, accusing the search engine of stealing copyrights. (I’m guessing that Murdoch isn’t a big fan of the fair use doctrine). It’s pretty easy to exclude your material from Google and I would think that Murdoch could afford to hire a tech(…)
Mar 18 2009
Last week, Amazon sent a DMCA takedown notice to MobileRead requiring MobileRead to stop hosting, or even linking to, a kindle script that allowed users to buy mobipocket books at other retailers and load those mobipocket books onto the Kindle. The unique thing about the kindle script was that it did not remove any DRM,(…)
Mar 12 2009
Mar 8 2009
Disclaimer: Sony has supplied Dear Author with Sony Readers in exchange for an ad space and links to the ebookstore.sony.com. Sorry for the picture quality. I will replace later on today. I receive a lot of emails from readers asking me what device should they buy between the Sony and the Kindle. (FN1). This(…)
Feb 17 2009
Authors’ Guild wants its authors to withhold ebook rights until AG is done looking into the matter, but Publishers Weekly has an article about why ebooks are here to say and how different publishers are experimenting with concepts to harness technology to boost sales. 80% of teens have a cellphone Publishers are using ebooks to(…)
Feb 15 2009
There’s something wrong with this picture. Read the article to find out what. Background Back in the nineties auto manufacturers began to realize that it was missing an important segment of the auto buying market: women. Today, women purchase over 50% of all cars (new and used) and influence 95% of all auto purchases. Video(…)
Feb 7 2009
Dear Mr. Valentine and Mr. MacLeod: It’s all about expectations, isn’t it? This book is being marketed, or at least it’s labeled by its publisher, eXcessica, as a BDSM novel. And the excerpt is some pretty darn hot pre-BDSM-play negotiations which promises more hotness of the BDSM variety when you get the rest of the(…)
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