Category: general

Micheal Smith (head of the International Digital Publishing Forum) says”

E-books are a growing niche for now… but I certainly don’t see a time when everybody will be reading them. People just love what the traditional book represents to them. Link

Yet…

Public sightings of e-books remain rare compared to iPods or iPhones… Link

And…

Publishing house Penguin said today that it…. is… working on turning its 5,000 title Penguin backlist into ebooks for publication this year and next. Link

Yet…

The publisher is digitising its entire worldwide backlist so that it can make the most of the emerging ebook trend. It also hopes the print-on-demand opportunities – whereby customers can have one-off copies of out-of-print titles printed, bound and shipped to them – will give older books a new lease of life. Link

Does that last part make sense to you? Penguin plans to publish ebooks and POD out-of-print titles? Why? Why, I ask, if the ebook is available would you want a POD of that title?

Here’s an idea; why not offer limited edition printings of out-of-print titles to collectors and bibliophiles. Due to limited supply, Penguin could charge more for these special lifestyle objects. Ebooks are geared for a completely different audience—an audience who just wants the content and not the packaging. Don’t waste time on POD. POD books are for university creative writing students and vagrant poets.

More doom and gloom about the declining influence of books and readership. 

MSM outlets report these desperate stories, yet the printer who manufactures the books I help publish report that book sales increased from 2007 by 7.4% . Maybe people aren’t reading the books they buy. Juvenile hardcover increased 46% while adult hardcover is up almost 8%. Further, audio books is up almost 20% and e-books are up 23%.

Can Kindle increase the number of people reading? 

“There are a multitude of ways to resist modern corporate culture. One can turn the TV off, walk to work or live off the grid.” Link

This intro copy is better than the actual blog post. I was hoping for a some business wisdom like a list of: ‘7 highly effective ways to resist The Man’ or ‘21 irrefutable rules for living outside the matrix.’ But, nay, verily, only a blog post about something that didn’t require reading beyond the intro paragragh. 

[end transmission] 

Argh, I read these posts and want to scream! Why don’t you just tattoo the letters AMATEUR across your forehead.*

I know what you’re thinking… “But I can finally publish my lousy, self-absorbed poems and people will love me and want to buy my book and maybe sleep with me.”

No, that’s not what poetry is about. And don’t dare visit Lulu! Only idiots use Lulu for their own creative validation.

And then you upload your crappy ass covers that scream CorelDRAW and MS Word and you want publishing cred?!?

If you’re going to DIY and publish poetry in a unique and deserving manner, at least exhibit an intimate love for the physical package of a book… like this or this.

*Forgive me, after seven years of publishing independently I cringe when people make the same mistakes I made during the early years. And, not to brag, but I have been able to sell and ship over 14,000 copies of various titles at my current post. Rule #1: Selling books makes you a publisher. Rule #2: Printing a book makes you a printer (duh, not a publisher). Rule #3: Just because you publish it doesn’t mean people will give a flying flip and actually buy it. Rule # 4: Covers sell books. Rule #5: I don’t care what’s beyond the book cover, the cover sells the book. Rule #6: See Rule #4 and #5, again. Rule #7: Have a business plan including production, distribution and customer service details. Rule #8: If you don’t know the difference between RIO, P&L and ISBN, don’t get involved in publishing just step away from your laptop and go back to Kinkos where you belong and photocopy your precious little chapbook and pass it out to friends and family and vagrants. Rule #10: If you read this far you realize Rule #9 are missing. It contains secret ingredients that I can not post, but may be able to e-mail you.

From a spokesperson for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation regarding Poetree.coop being shut down (via Seth Godin):

“We applaud the work of the FBI in shutting down this travesty of copyright. If we want great poetry, America, we’re going to have to pay for it.”

Seth Godin observes:

“Many of the world’s top poets reported dramatic decreases in royalties and sales as a result of the site. ‘When poetry is free, no one is willing to pay for it,’ one poet is quoted by Wired. Even though some poets had reportedly been earning three or four million dollars a year in royalties and advances, it apparently wasn’t enough.”

Link

I’d like to know what poets earn that kind of money in royalty. It sure isn’t anyone I know.  

Karen asks two good questions, here at Write Stuff, regarding writing career aspirations:

“What did you first want from your writing career when you began? What is your writing dream today?”

Fill in the blank:

In my personal writing career dream, I see myself …

The least it would take for me to feel successful is …