Archive for the ‘Electronic / Digital Publishing’ Category

The Electronic Evolution of Publishing

Monday, March 8th, 2010

I recently gave a speech to a local group called the Victoria Writers’ Society on the Mysterious Evolution of Publishing.

An engaging crowd of over thirty writers and editors attended. My focus was on electronic publishing and blogging and how I have used ebooks to give a couple of my novels a second life. My efforts appeared to go over well as there were numerous questions and much discussion after.

One of the best things occurred about a week later when the president, Debra Henry, kindly emailed me a sweet thank you note for “an information-packed evening that was both engaging and inspirational”.

She added the following:

A poet in the audience that night spoke to me a few days later and said she’d never considered the web when submitting poems for publication. After your talk she went home and sent poems to a dozen online venues for her work. She was up until the wee hours of the morning, well past her bedtime, and blamed it on you. Ha!

Now, that’s what I call inspirational!

My thanks to the Victoria Writers’ Society. Anyone interested in joining an obviously thriving wordsmithing community should check them out; they’ve got all sorts of stuff happening, including a monthly meeting, critique groups, writing contests and a summer e-camp.

Podcasting – How to Write Genre Fiction 2/2

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Since I always enjoy peeking behind the curtain and seeing the secrets therein, I love hearing what other fiction writers offer as their methods, tips and techniques.

Now that PODCASTING exists as an easy to make and even easier to hear medium, it’s a perfect platform for what I have in mind: a ‘radio’ show that chats with published authors to discover the insights they’ve gleaned from the real life wordsmithing trenches.

Old-fashioned Mic

Old-fashioned Mic (Photo CM Seter)

But what exactly is a podcast? Glad you asked. In a nutshell, media files are published online using RSS (stands for Really Simple Syndication) feeds. These files or POD (taken from the concept of “Portable on Demand”) and casts (taken from the term “broadcasting”) may be heard via a computer or an MP3 player.

My plan is to produce a regular free podcast which offers simple, practical and helpful ways to improve your writing based on the experiences of published Canadian genre writers.

And, I’m going to post my experiences about the creation and production to help other podcaster wannabes.

The show format will be interview-oriented, focusing on one writer per episode, and it will be available here at epubbing and through major podcasting channels, like iTunes.

No fluff, no excessive flattery, but fun. We’ll be talking hands on tips and techniques of the craft that you may immediately use to improve your writing.

I’ve decided to nickname my how-to-write-genre-novels podcast The Novel Experience®. I hope you’ll tune in for it; your comments and suggestions are welcomed!

Oh, did I mention it’s gonna be FREE?

Now, just have to figure out how to make my first podcast…

Podcasting – How to Write Genre Fiction 1/2

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Okay, I’ve got the promo website, I’ve got social media whirling and I’m blogging. Should be enough, don’t you think?

Nah…I’ve decided to give podcasting a try and blog about it.

As a writer, I’m always keen to learn practical tips and techniques of the craft from other published novelists. Yeah, writing fiction is a craft as well as an art so some of it can be learned.

I doubt I’m alone; that’s the main reason I wrote my little inexpensive how-to mystery writing ebook primer called Youdunit Whodunit! and why I teach a similar writing course at our local college.

cover image for Youdunit Whodunit!

I know there’s a wealth of information out there from other Canadian genre fiction writers just waiting to be picked and offered up in a useful and usable format.

So, that’s exactly my plan.

Stick around; should be a gas.

The Number of Library E-book Downloads Soared in 2009

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Okay, hands up those of you who insisted that your local library was going the way of the Dodo.

Good, now those of you who said e-books were just a fad, stick up your fists, too.

Now, don’t you look foolish.

Dodo bird

Dodo bird (photo Jeremy Burgin)



Today, soaring numbers of ebook (and audio downloads) have been reported by OverDrive, the world’s leader in ebook and audio downloads.

Adding to the good news reported in their press release is a 40% increase in new library users and a 53% increase in ebook checkouts.

Yeah, I know that we authors don’t get royalties directly from library downloads but we do receive some for the books purchased by the libraries and exposure to new readers is one key way to for us to increase our paying audience.

So I think this is terrific news.

Oh, and what were the most downloaded fiction and non-fiction ebooks of 2009?

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

Congrats, guys.

(And thanks to Jeremy Burgin for his Dodo pic)

The Top Ten of 2009: The “Niki” Awards

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Happy New Year and best wishes for a healthy, prosperous and inventive 2010.

As the old year ends, I’ve established my own little awards, The Niki’s, to honour the best of 2009.

My categories are mostly related to creative endeavours, are arbitrarily chosen and listed in alphabetical order.

So, drum roll, please:

1-Top Technology of the Year: Podcasting

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

credit: Amazon.com


2-Top Book of the Year:

The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold







3-Top Cool Thing of the Year: the E-book

4-Top Food of the Year: my sister’s Microwavable Chocolate Fudge

Lounging Lions (credit E. Polinsky)


5-Top Photo of the Year: Lounging Lions

by Eddie Polinsky





6-Top Plant of the Year: My funky Spectabilis bamboo

Spectabilis bamboo

Phyllostachys Spectabilis





















7-Top Radio Play of the Year: The Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope (BBC Radio)

8-Top Song of the Year: Battlefield by Glynne Turner

9-Top Television Show of the Year: The Closer (James Duff: executive producer/creator/writer)

10-Top Word of the Year: Quillr® (online multimedia storytelling platform)

So…what are your Top Ten of 2009?

Shortcovers Rebrands as Kobo

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Pretty interesting day for ebook author and sellers.

Shortcovers.com

Shortcovers.com

Shortcovers, the online bookselling arm of Indigo Books & Music Inc., has spun off into a new chapter. They’ve taken on Borders Group Inc., Instant Fame and REDgroup Retail as partners, and have rebranded themselves as Kobo.

Their press release, in part, says:

Shortcovers is pleased to announce a new chapter in our company’s history: Shortcovers is rebranding with a new name, a new look, and a new round of investment from leaders in the industry.

Today, December 15th, 2009, Shortcovers will begin operating under the name Kobo. Our rebranded website is available today at http://www.kobobooks.com , and updated versions of our mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm Pre are on their way to their respective app stores and our website.

Read the complete press release from Shortcovers here.

This could be very cool and profitable for ebook authors: more markets; more buyers; more dough.

Of course, now I’ve got to change all my links to booksellers!

Does the SI Tablet Mean the End of Publishing?

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

With the crop of new e-readers available and the ever-growing list of ebooks available, there is a lot of rumbling and grumbling about the end of publishing as we know it.

UnnaturalStates: John & Harry Battling

UnnaturalStates: John & Harry Battling

 

As a keen believer in electronic publishing, especially in telling stories in a multimedia platform like our UnnaturalStates, I’m all for evolution in the publishing business.

  

Church Choir Mysteries: The Unsuitable Suitor

Church Choir Mysteries: The Unsuitable Suitor

I’m also up for good old-fashioned printed books, with their lovely heft and smell.

And, most shockingly, I don’t see these two positions as being diametrically opposed.

 

 

Now, Michael Hyatt offers some excellent predictions on the end of publishing as we know it, as well as offering a video introducing an amazing new multimedia reading device by Time Inc. and Wonderfactory called the SI Tablet.

Check it out. Reading is evolving, whether you like it or not.

Oh, and of course, publishing isn’t ending anytime soon.

Smashwords Titles Soon Available on Amazon Kindle

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Smashwords, the “people’s ebook publisher and distributor”, have announced another coup: a deal to distribute their titles through Amazon.com’s Kindle Store.

Smashwords logo

Smashwords logo

This is really freakin’ amazing given what is required by an author/publisher to get titles into the Kindle Store. See my earlier post for more info.

I worked for weeks, spending hours lurking on Kindle forums, figuring out Amazon’s Digital Text Platform, uploading dummy test titles, reviewing and testing uploaded versions until finally hitting the publishing button for my three titles.

Amazon Kindle E-Reader

Amazon Kindle E-Reader

And now, all you have to do is be an author in the Smashwords Premium Catalogue (not hard; just follow their sensible text format and conversion advice) and you’ll soon have ebooks available to Kindle readers!

How to Publish an Ebook on the iPhone

Friday, November 20th, 2009

As part of my ongoing quest to list my ebooks on as many online bookselling sites as possible, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see my work available earlier this year on the iPhone via the App Store at iTunes.com.

Though the iPhone isn’t billed as an e-reader, its screen is amazingly clear and this ‘coolest gadget on earth’ is used by many to read a vast array of books, articles and papers. A lot of folks are waiting for Apple’s entry into the ebook reading business, the so-called Apple Tablet, but until then, the iPhone does the job very nicely.

My ebooks arrived onto the iPhone after I read an interview with Tom Peck where he described how his nifty company, Appengines.com, was producing ebooks for the iPhone and iPod Touch by creating them as individual apps and selling them through the App Store.

Appengines.com logo

Appengines.com logo


Tom agreed to carry my titles and with a minimum of fuss, they were up and live on iTunes. Unfortunately for the rest of you authors, Appengines’ focus is now beyond ebooks and they are creating all sorts of neat new apps.

I was fortunate and got in early and my titles continue to sell happily on iTunes.com.

Kindle Finally Available in Canada

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

The Amazon Kindle, the grandaddy of all e-readers, is now available in Canada, though with a few missing bits.

It’ll cost $259 USD plus a $31 USD import fee surcharge. Though it will be able to wirelessly download ebooks, the details about the cellular connectors (Rogers and Telus) in Canada have yet to be revealed.

Amazon Kindle E-Reader

Amazon Kindle E-Reader


The Canuck version will lack a web browser and blog subscription service but the nifty Kindle can hold over 1500 books so it’ll more than do the job as an ebook reader. It just won’t act like a mini computer.

Kindle’s VP said:

“We know that Canadians are passionate about books and reading, and we’re excited to make Kindle available to our customers there,” said Ian Freed, vice-president of Kindle, in a statement. “Kindle enables customers around the world including Canada to think of a book and start reading it in under 60 seconds.”

Read more about this announcement here.

It’s still a pretty pricey gadget but also very tempting.

(And thanks to the Kindle Blog for the pic.)