Monday News: Come see me and Julie James in Naperville IL
Publishing NewsApple / Barnes & Noble / digital rights management / iTunes / Nook6 Comments
I’m interviewing author Julie James at the Lady Jane’s Salon in Naperville IL, in conjunction with her new release “Love Irresistibly” which I did love. I’m not sure what questions I’ll be asking her (so if you have any ideas, let me know). But we would love to have you attend. It is as Le Chocolat du Bouchard and I’ve been informed there will be a bookseller there to sell James’ books to you if you haven’t already purchased them already.
This is an extension of the Save the Contemporary campaign that Sarah Wendell of SmartBitches and I started about four years ago. It’s hard to believe that there were almost no contemporary romances being published at that time and that we were begging people to buy contemporaries because we loved them so much and wanted to see more published.
My how the market has changed. I feel like we need to start a “Save the Historical” site now.
Here are the deets (April 2):
2nd Floor (aka The Loft)
129 South Washington Street
Naperville, IL 60540
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Barnes & Noble is Giving Away eReaders With Tablet Purchase – No one wants to buy the Nook eReader so B&N is now reduced to giving them away. From March 24 through the 31st, if you buy an HD+ tablet, you will get the Nook Simple Touch device for free. AppNewser
Ebook sales via Booki.sh to end on June 30 – Booki.sh, an Australian based retailer of digital books, is shuttering their platform as of June 30, 2013. While the consumer will get to retain access to their titles for now, you have to wonder how long that will last. This is one of the very real dangers of DRM and digital books. You may have purchased the book thinking you would have access to it forever or at least for the rest of your reading life. But if the company where you have purchased the books goes out of business, DRM will inevitably lead to loss of access of those books.
I lost access to some books after Fictionwise closed despite the promise that B&N would transfer all of them to my B&N account. The truth was that many did not make the transfer. As more cases of fair use and first sale go up to the Supreme Court, one of the issues that the higher court will have to deal with is the fairness to the consumer. Booki.sh Blog
The most persuasive words in English: The psychology of language – Even if you don’t agree with everything in this article, there are several fascinating take aways. Brevity is important and so is word choice. I loved the section where it talked about avoiding using adjectives and instead use a more evocative action word.
“Using single words to describe actions and objects quickly brings them to mind. When someone “stabs” a straw into their drink we see it, but “pokes swiftly” is not so clear. When a person “meanders” it is more accurate than “walking slowly”. A man whose foot is described as a “hoof” is much more vivid that having “gnarled toes and sole”.”
It’s a long, kind of disparate read but worthwhile. Buffer
So long, break-even – Analyst Horace Dediu says that iTunes is finally making money on the content it is offering from the music to the apps to the music. iTunes will be 10 years old a month from now but since 2010, Apple has said that the store (which costs $3.75 billion to run) is now over the break even point. Dediu points to the addition of Apple Software as increasing the margin and pushing iTunes content over the break even margin. A lot of this is guess work, but it’s interesting thinking about the huge costs of running iTunes, a digital only business, and how little Apps, Music and yes, even books, really add to the margin. asymco
I read the post twice and didn’t see a date for the Lady Jane’s Salon. It’s possible I missed it, as it is pretty early and I’m as of yet uncaffeinated.
@CG – I had forgotten to add the date. Can’t you read my mind?
They’re giving away Nooks? Somewhere, deep inside the lair that is Amazon headquarters someone is doing a happy dance as they await their bonus check.
Oh man. So close, yet so far away.
Dang, I really would have loved to come down for the Julie James interview – and it’s so close (relatively speaking), but a Tuesday night is not going to work for me….work the next day is going to interfere. *le sigh* Have an awesome time! I can’t wait to read the interview.
Argh! Please, please, don’t spread more grammar myths! The author of that blog article has no idea what he is talking about. “Avoid adjectives in speech and writing!” – his first example is “walk slowly”. No adjectives there, just an adverb. And “gnarled toes and sole” is not a good substitute for a “hoof” because it’s not a hoof! I have (sadly) gnarled toes, but I definitely don’t have hoofs ;-)
And then things like “remove be from your language”: don’t say “I am convinced”, say “It appears to me that”. What does it have to do with using “be”? It’s rephrasing using more tentative language, which is important in certain discussions, but should you never say “I am convinced that she is innocent”? Really? Or “I am sure she will be a great teammate” (which of course also has “be” in it)?
Most of the discussion on the language processing in the brain is misquoting/misunderstanding research of people I actually work with. The graphic has nothing to do with actual research quoted. The research quoted on top has nothing to do with the follow-up facts.
I am just sad that poorly written and poorly researched stuff like that is getting additional publicity :(