Category Archives: books

No April Fools’ joke apparently: The REAL Cheryl Kaye Tardiff warned against Amazon zapping book reviews

I’ve just gotten a Tweet from Canadian suspense writer Cheryl Kaye Tardiff. She thanks me for my TeleRead post about Amazon’s war against authors—the evil souls donating free reviews of other writers’ books in return for a little publicity.
Via Twitter, the note came from a cherylktardif account listed with 709 followers. So I’m [...] Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Kindle, E-books and all that, EPub, Uncategorized, amazon, book publishing, books, e-book, e-books, e-books and other digipubs, ebook, ebooks, kindle | Leave a comment

Friday Procrastination: Link Love

Ah Friday!  I’m not sure how this week is over already but I have to admit that I am happy it is.  With the sun starting to appear and Spring making itself known, good things simply must be on the way.  So cheers to a good weekend and a great April.  Enjoy the links below.
Clip [...] Continue reading

Posted in A-Featured, Blogs, Links, OUP, Uncategorized, books | Leave a comment

Bought book reviews: LibraryThing cracks down to nip the problem in the bud

LibraryThing is cracking down on sleazes who charge authors to generate five-star reviews. This isn’t a major problem at LibraryThing now. But the site is wisely taking precautions. The key rule is, "Reviewers must not be paid for their reviews, except in free books and similar non-monetary perks." Exactly. Do we really want LT to [...] Continue reading

Posted in The Solomon Scandals, Uncategorized, book publishing, books, librarything, net tools | Leave a comment

Why fiction really IS good for you

"Through a series of studies, we have discovered that fiction at its best isn’t just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves." – Keith Oatley, novelist and psychologist—writing in Greater Good Magazine (via Readerville).
The TeleRead take: So what about distinctions within fiction? Will [...] Continue reading

Posted in E-books and all that, Uncategorized, book publishing, books, e-book, e-book economics, e-book ergonomics, e-book technology, e-books, e-books and other digipubs, ebook, ebook publishing, ebooks | 55 Comments

Filedbyauthor: Q&A with cofounders Peter Clifton and Mike Shatzkin

Complete with listings for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, Filedbyauthor has started up with 1.8 million name-related pages waiting to be claimed.
So far the most viewed writers are Stephanie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, former PW editor Sara Nelson (claimed page), Sylvia Day (claimed) and Sharon Lee (claimed). More than 1,600 writes have "filed."
We’ve [...] Continue reading

Posted in Social networks, Uncategorized, Writing, book publishing, books | Leave a comment

Tweet, tweet! More Twitter tips—this time from Kat Meyer

How to use Twitter for books marketing—or, to be more precise, relationship building? We passed on some tips earlier, and now Kat Meyer, the star of the TeleRead post, shares additional thoughts. For example, how do you pick people whose posts you want to follow?
Related: Mari Smith’s hashtag tips, to which Kat points. This [...] Continue reading

Posted in Twitter, Uncategorized, book publishing, books, net tools, netbook | Leave a comment

Copyright heirs: Greedsters or guardians?

What’s it like to be a copyright heir? In the Financial Times, Rachel Keeler writes about the descendants of James Joyce (image), Roald Dahl, Ian Flemming and others. Excerpt:
For lovers and scholars of the 20th-century novel, Stephen Joyce has become something of a literary villain. The grandson and sole living heir of James Joyce, [...] Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized, book publishing, books, copyright | Leave a comment

AuthorWeb service to help writer swamped by paperwork

Want to spend more time writing and less time dealing with Books in Print, Google Book Search and other services? Or uploading your works to Amazon? Or perhaps setting up a blog to promote yourself?
Laura J. Dawson, a 20-year veteran of the publishing industry, is launching AuthorWeb to help writers cope with the above, [...] Continue reading

Posted in E-books and all that, P-books, POD, Print on demand, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Uncategorized, book publishing, books, e-book, e-book technology, e-books, e-books and other digipubs, ebook, ebooks | 45 Comments

Galley slaves: Several hundred galleys sent out per title—one more expense to sink besieged publishers

Yen at the Book Publicity Blog has embarked on an admirable crusade to get people to use e-galleys these days—digital advance reading copies or ARCs, in current parlance. I love the idea. She works for Viking Penguin, and if you qualify as a reviewer and want a title to write up, you’ll score points [...] Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Kindle, Blogs, E-books and all that, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Uncategorized, amazon, book publishing, books, e-book, e-book technology, e-books, e-books and other digipubs, ebook, ebook publishing, ebooks | Leave a comment

1.8 million author pages waiting to be filled on new Filedbyauthor site

F. Scott Fizgerald didn’t limit his art to his novels. He cared endlessly—at least at the start of his career—about how well they were selling and how readers perceived him. I suspect he’d regularly track his Amazon rankings if he were alive today. Real life became an extension of This Side of Paradise.
The [...] Continue reading

Posted in Publishing, Publishing Industry, Uncategorized, amazon, books, e-book, ebook | 58 Comments