This is a coup for Amazon because the only thing that prevents Amazon from real domination is content control.   I’ve argued, although not many people believe me, that Amazon wants to publish and will unveil more partnerships like this in the future.

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Huffington Post has collected a number of photographs of innovative bookcases. I love the first one that has the lounging seat in the middle. I wonder if I could get Ned to build one in the tot’s bedroom.

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Author’s Guild calls the move by Random House that all its ebook rights belong to the publishing house so long as the word “book” is in the contract “regrettable.” Regrettable? Really, that’s the harshest word you can think of?

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Harlequin’s collaboration with Big Fish Games hits the market today.   You get to play the role of a reporter while you find hidden objects and solve puzzles.   Have I ever mentioned how I played Riven like 32 hours straight.   It is sad but true.   Nora Roberts has a game coming out based on her wedding series. I would have said that a JD Robb based game made more sense, but puzzles are puzzles, right?

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Speaking of Harlequin, it has been the subject of two more controversies.   First up is the fact that Harlequin, in re-releasing some vintage titles, edited the content to make it more palatable.   Harlequin probably should have had a forward/editorial note regarding the changes.

Second, in the recent Harlequin Presents writing contest, entrants were disappointed that two published authors won the contest.   The authors were within the terms of the rules because only currently contracted Harlequin authors were ineligible but entrants felt the playing field was uneven.   I think Trish Morey has it right, though, that you don’t have to win the contest to sell.

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Andy Ihnatko writes about the mythical Apple Tablet, the death of the Crunchpad, and envisions new publishing formats:

Device-independent standards are the tools that allow them to sell content to anybody with money to spend, and investing in an open standard liberates them from the problem of predicting a winning horse a year before the race is run.

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Amazon’s Charm Offensive
2. Tuesday Midday Links: Harlequin Horizon’s, A self publishing venture
3. Tuesday Midday Review Links: Kindle is everywhere but Canada (WTF?)

Let’s sum this up. Random House got knocked down again and again by the court system but because it had deeper pockets and could continue to litigate claims that it knew it would not win, it was rewarded with a licensing payment from Rosetta Books. I feel for Rosetta. What else could the do?

The legal foundation that Random House rests upon is shaky at best. Author contracts are largely contracts of adhesion and as such any ambiguity is resolved against the drafter of the contract, meaning if a term “book” is deemed to be ambiguous by the court, then the interpretation that favors the non drafting party (the author) is usually upheld. In the Rosetta cases, the court didn’t focus on whether the contract was one of adhesion but looked to see if there was ambiguity in the term book (there was) and whether it included digital rights (it didn’t). Further, the court in the Rosetta cases determined that new uses referred to new uses in the same medium (ie print), not a different one (digital). Perhaps Random House is convinced that it could convince a different judge to come to a different conclusion.   This move is meant to strike fear in the hearts of authors who think to take their backlist titles elsewhere and for the majority of authors, this tactic will likely work.

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Author Candace Sams (commenting under pseudonym NiteflyrOne)   runs amok over at Amazon, berating a reviewer and suggesting that the reviewer look to Harriet Klausner as an exemplar reviewing professional. Incensed by the one star review and determined to critique the reviewer back, Sams includes instructions on why Klausner is a better reviewer.   Klausner knows stuff.

Again…I point to Ms. Klausner as a number one reviewer for Amazon.com. She knows that authors rarely have full editorial control; rarely do they have even ‘scant’ control over their covers or the language used in dialogue or even sequencing of scenes: love scenes, kissing scenes, scenes of violence, etc. These are ultimately controlled by editorial staff…very rarely the author alone.

I’m bolding that part.   I knew I should have gone to reviewing school.   I thought authors made decisions about dialogue and sequencing but alas, it is the editor.   Look what else the editor does:

Those conversations were, on the whole, fraught with sophomoric comments blaming authors for all kinds of editorial decisions over which they have no or very little control (kissing scenes, cover content, love scenes, language, etc., etc., etc).

Anyway, Sams wishes for more “cognitive readers” and more “equitable” ones and speculates that the unhappy reader is a “frustrated romance author – who could not get his/her own work published – or who cannot write a manuscript at all……there seems, therefore, to be a need to render rather caustic attacks and on those who ‘can’ write and who ‘can’ get published.”   Also, in commenting to another negative review, Sams notes that some reviewers just can’t handle the material that steps outside the box.

This has been the biggest complaint about romance on the whole – that they all sound alike. Apparently ‘some’ reviewers ‘want’ them to sound alike. When they don’t, they aren’t able to handle the material.

In conclusion, don’t complain about the author’s writing, complain about how the editor obviously took gold and turned it into dross.   Thanks to the reader who sent me the link.

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Books on Mars posts the salaries of the top paid employees of the various writers’ organizations.   Mystery and romance writers associations pay the most with the Science Fiction position paying the lowest.   Allison Kelley, Executive Director for RWA, earned $106,572 in 2007/2008.

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Barnes and Noble should hurry up with the updates for it’s nook because the nook is being savaged in reviews.

• Gear Diary (she wants to ebay it right now)
• Gadgeteer (she’ll continue to use her iPhone)

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Author Barry Eisler who is making a concerted effort to get his books into romance readers’ hands had a nice surprise for him this morning when Salon named his book, Fault Line, one of the best for 2009. “Eisler has reinvented spy thriller for 21st century.”   Any romance reader want to take up the gauntlet and review Fault Line for Dear Author? I’ll buy you the copy and have it shipped to you, paper or ecopy.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: It Is All Gloom and Doom (today at least)
2. Monday Midday Links: Bookstore Outlet Looks Grim
3. Friday Midday Links: Promo is an author’s friend

Adobe sent MobileRead a nice list of devices that support ePub.

In other Sony news, it has a partnership with Overdrive to start offering library digital downloads compatible with the Sony reader. This means that Sony will offer the epub format to library patrons. I have asked whether this Sony/Overdrive relationship will mean that Harlequin will start offering epub as well.

Bookseller also confidently reports that Sony will be offering a wireless device at the end of the year. Sony has announced a press conference for the 25th of August. I’m getting a little excited about this.

Edited to add: Forgot to mention that ScrollMotion is bringing in app purchase to the iPhone. It will be the first iPhone book app to take advantage of this, as far as I know. Scroll Motion has overpriced its individual apps so it will be interesting to see what the pricing is for the books via in app purchase.

The Book Oven talks about its new open platform for authors who want to publish on their own. Authors can upload content and other folks can come along and proof and edit the work.

Speaking of self publishing, Stephen Covey has decided to forego an established publisher and will self publish an entire line of short books under the name “Insight Series.” Covey went with Rosetta Books. It sounds like there will be print versions as well, but who the retailers will be I’ve yet to read.

A district court looking at RealNetworks DVD copying software ruled that it was unlawful under the DMCA but leaves open the issue of whether consumers can make copies regardless of the DMCA for their own personal use. Via Gizmodo.

IASPR, a scholarly journal and association devoted to the genre, has a seminar underway in Brisbane Australia. Here’s some local coverage.

Talking Alot Blog argues that commentary on the web can inform publishers about its readership and that part of analyzing data is separating dross from the wheat. In other words, yes, there is some mean, stupid comments out there but there are also important comments.

The meme out of the 2009 BEA was that it was a dying or dead trade show. People are already trying to see how it can be saved. Penguin floated the idea of having consumers attend but only at off site locations.

While some smaller publishers favor selling books to consumers on the convention floor, no major houses (and no booksellers) PW spoke with support the idea, and Fensterman has vetoed the notion. "The reading public won’t be coming into the [Javits] tent anytime soon," he said.

Related posts:

1. Thursday News Links: More Digital
2. Thursday Links Round Up: Rupert Murdoch Is Unhappy
3. O’Reilly to Sell Multi-format Bundles and Books without DRM

What was even more interesting, though, is that Krozser showed how dangerous it is for authors who do not have an ebook version of their books. The refusal of an author to be in eformat doesn’t stop the eformats from being readily available.

Related posts:

1. Is the Marriage Between Epublishing and NY a Good One?
2. Heeding the Warning Signals in ePublishing
3. What the success of 300 tells us about Youth and Reading.