Flourishes and Scribbles

Intermediate Post

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:06:04 +0100

It’s been far too long since my last entry. Unfortunately, this won’t actually count as one, there are a lot of books I’ve been reading since May, so there’ll be plenty for me to review once I actually get around to it…hopefully tomorrow? Anyway, at the moment, I am debating e-readers…

For a long time I have been a firm advocate of Sony…no more! Although I do still like my e-reader, I’m getting very tired of the constant malfunctions. Last time I used it before I went on holiday at the end of July was back in April. As always when I shut down my e-reader, I just put it in its case and let it get on with turning off, so I didn’t realise until I was packing on the 27th of July, a good 3 1/2 months after it was supposed to shut down, that it had frozen and never actually turned off! Needless to say it was completely out of batteries and I had to rummage around for the cable, turn on my laptop and charge it a little before I could go about turning it off properly! A nightmare! So, in light of this, along with the irritating syncing problems it’s had since day one and the long loading time when it starts up (it stays on the ‘Opening Book’ screen for a good minute…), I have started considering new e-readers and am taking my Sony to get priced tomorrow.

Although I have never been fond of Amazon’s monopoly of the e-book market, it has done a fair job with the Kindle. Quite a few of my friends have one and I haven’t heard a complaint about it from any of them. They’re fast and, with a bit of help from a conversion programme (Calibre) epubs, pdf’s and even word documents can be read on the Kindle. This has made it very tempting…

The other option I’m considering (which has become very appealing) is the Kobo. WHSmith is currently selling it, so I’ll go there tomorrow and play around with it a little. It’s cheaper than the Kindle by a fair amount…the normal Wi-Fi one is less than £60 and the Touch Edition is £79.99, still less than the cheapest Kindle model! It also reads epubs, which gives it an instant step up to the Kindle. From what I’ve read online, it has had a few syncing problems, but none permanent. There is of course the huge selection of e-books from Amazon to consider, but the Kobo store seems to be more than capable of holding its own.

I need to have a further think about this…and bounce ideas off my housemate. She nearly convinced me to buy a Kindle yesterday. She’ll be back tomorrow evening, so I’ll ask her to have a look at the Kobo as well and get her second opinion. Hopefully I’ll have bought my new e-reader by the end of the weekend!

Bad Waterstones!

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:46:51 +0100

My favourite book store has gone and signed an agreement with amazon and will now be selling kindles…not cool! What about customers who bought Sony readers and have used the Waterstones store to buy their epub books? By selling the kindle and supporting amazon, will Waterstones still sell eBooks in epub format? Amazon already controls so much of the market, this is only going to strengthen their ability to bully smaller stores and independent book sellers!

It IS an interesting concept, that much has to be said. With amazon and Waterstones forming a sort of allegiance, what can consumers expect from Waterstones in the future? I don’t expect amazon to change, they already sell the same physical books as every other book seller, I honestly do not see what kind of benefit Waterstones is looking at here. Their eBook sales may increase, but at the end of the day, kindle users will still be able to get all the books they want through amazon. Unless Waterstones adopts the ‘selling at a loss’ idea that amazon follows with all its products, customers will most likely still run to amazon. There may be eBooks that Waterstones offers and the online store doesn’t, but I doubt there is a huge difference. What would be interesting is if the kindle was expanded to read epub files as well.

That being said, the Sony reader is a lot less attractive as a device than the kindle is. The latter seems to run much better; quite a disappointment when you know what Sony is capable of.

Book Binge

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:06:54 +0100

In the last three weeks, I’ve finally managed to finish reading Isabel Allende’s Zorro (it only took me about two months…) and four other books…I’m usually a relatively slow reader, so that number shocks even me! Just goes to show how addictive a really good book can be!

Zorro was by no means a bad book, but it took a while for me to really become absorbed in the story. It usually is like that with me though when it comes to a book that focuses, at least partly, on the childhood of the main character. Even the author herself said (writing as the narrator) that a story of just Zorro’s childhood would be rather boring and lose the interest of her readers. Maybe it’s simply because I can’t relate to the child characters as well (my childhood seems like it was so long ago…), but I wasn’t spellbound until Diego de la Vega travels to Spain.

It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting either, but that was probably mostly because I was influenced by The Mask of Zorro with Antonio Banderas. I wanted to read more about Zorro himself, not how he came to be the masked hero, although the background story was definitely worth reading. I might try and see if I can’t find out whether there’s another book in the series that focuses on the actual life of Zorro.

The book that followed I unfortunately left in Austria when I went home last week for the Easter holidays, so I don’t have a picture of that to show, but, as always, I was trapped by Philippa Gregory’s words shortly after the first few pages. I’m usually not very keen on stories written in the first person; a lot of the time the language comes across a little stumbling, but as it wasn’t written in perfect present (ie. I am washing the cups in the warm, soapy water), I quickly adjusted to the first person point of view (ie. I wash the cups in warm, soapy water). The Lady of the Rivers is a beautiful love story about Jacquetta Woodville, once the first duchess of England (Duchess of Bedford), who falls from grace by marrying her late Duke’s squire and later becomes the mother to the Queen of England. It ties in perfectly with her previous book The White Queen. As with all her books, Gregory delves into wonderful details that paint a clear picture of the court and characters. You feel as though you have a close friend whispering you secrets of Queen Margaret of Anjou and King Henry VI. She sweeps the reader along through the emotions of the narrator and by the love between her and her late husband’s squire, so rarely found in marriages of the court (even if it was not an approved of marriage to begin with, both Jacquetta and Richard were eventually forgiven by Henry VI). Having read so many of her books, I feel as though this is a key story connecting so much of history. The book opens with the fate of Joan of Arc and ends with the discovery that it is in fact this Jacquetta who is the grandmother of the Princes in the Tower.

The books that followed were the Hunger Games series. I managed to finish the last one last night and it had me in tears. Even before I finished reading the second one, I leant the first one to a colleague, which is why I couldn’t take a picture of the complete set. It’s a series that is charged heavily with emotions and sometimes makes you feel like you’re losing your own delicate grip on sanity. Suzanne Collins works hard to draw the reader in and she succeeds beautifully. It’s so easy to relate to Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist, to follow and understand the way she thinks, and frighteningly easy to relate to her, even when she is on the brink of losing her mind.

It’s a story of love and survival and these opposing forces (do you die to protect the one you love or do you fight for your own life despite all odds) twist the story in an almost grotesque way. You see Katniss develop from a kind, albeit it distant and often cold, girl who is determined to protect her sister at all costs, to one who is riddled by nightmares and isn’t sure she can tell the truth from a lie, or if she can even trust herself. The story takes such unexpected turns that the reader sometimes feels themselves swept away with Katniss, uncertain of where to turn or who they could trust if they were in her place. I spent so much time reading that I was half asleep at work every day last week, it was so hard for me to put it down, I don’t think I ever made it to bed before midnight.

Photo

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:47:12 +0000

And now Amazon is boycotting Indie publishers...?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:29:00 +0000

You can tell the topic of Amazon is something I feel quite strongly about…I think I blog a little too much about them, but when this came up on my publishing newsfeed, it wasn’t something I could ignore.

As I’ve said before, one of my big problems with Amazon is that they’re trying to monopolise the publishing industry and bully smaller publishers into working with them…and that is EXACTLY what’s going on now. Indie publishers refuse to meet Amazon demands and, in return, they’re being boycotted.the internet seller already has a foot in every market (imagine an octopus, if you will), they have the power to make demands that corner the smaller fish.

This is the second week now that Amazon has boycotted 400 American, Canadian and British independent presses distributed by the Independent Publishers Group (IPG). While major publishers in New York, who are facing similar cut-throat demands, remain silent, there are signs of growing support for IPG. The support from the American Booksellers Association (ABA) is present, cautious but present, with the head Oren Teicher releasing a statement saying they “supported the principle that the reading public is better served when all titles - in all formats - are available to everyone”. Much louder support can be heard from the Independent Book Publishers Association whose president, Florrie Binford Kichler, announced “We commend IPG for its support of the independent publishing community and for shining the spotlight on this critical issue.”

Even booksellers know the critical position this places Indie publishers in. Let’s face it, all publishers rely heavily on Amazon to make their sales. Canadian online retailer Kobo has stepped up in support of IPG and has decided to pay special attention to at least one of their boycotted publishers. ECW Press has written on their website that Kobo has already put together a list of their best selling e-books. The literary social networking/retail site, Copia, fore-fronted a selection of IPG titles for sale, “Recently, a very big bookseller has stopped selling eBooks from the Independent Publishers Group. Why? Allegedly because the scrappy, innovative IPG refused the bookseller’s ‘laws of the jungle’ pricing demands. Copia salutes IPG for protecting their authors.”

This boycott has rallied support for authors and booksellers all over the world and author Jim Hanas’ essay “Kicking the Amazon Habit” has gone viral over this issue. Although it is highly unlikely that the Department of Justice will get involved this time as with Macmillan two years ago, practically every other publishers is currently negotiating their annual contract with Amazon right now and its behaviour with IPG doesn’t make its demands any more workable for any other publisher. Indie publishers are gaining more and more support for their cause and the longer this goes on, the worse it will make Amazon look. Who knows what the outcome of this clash between bookseller and publisher will be.

Article:

Day 8 of Amazon boycott of indie presses: Still no comment from New York, but indies rally in support

http://mhpbooks.com/50913/day-8-of-amazon-boycott-of-indie-presses-still-no-comment-from-new-york-but-indies-rally-in-support/

JK Rowling's First Adult Novel!!!!

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:42:00 +0000

Exciting news! I’m sure all Potterheads and JK Rowling fans are already well aware of this (I’ve known for days and just haven’t gotten around to posting - I’m lazy like that), but our favourite children’s book author is writing her first adult novel and has chosen Little, Brown as her publisher! They will be responsible for selling her book in the US and the UK and Hachette is selling it in Australia and New Zealand.

Rowling said her next book would be very different from her successful Harry Potter series, “The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher.” It seems that the book was not put up for auction but offered directly to Hachette. Well, that probably is a step up from Bloomsbury. Hachette would not divulge any details on the book, but it has been rumoured that Rowling is working on a crime novel set in Edinburgh.

It has to be said that I am relieved to hear she’s chosen to go with a publisher for her new book. With the sheer number of discussions surrounding self-publishing at the moment, there was the slight concern that big name authors would choose that path. Those that have seen Rowling’s level of success would have absolutely no problem self-publishing their books, but I think the critique they would end up facing would be bitter. I was also relieved to read that Little, Brown has full publishing rights for both the physical and the e-book versions of her new novel. Considering that she has chosen to sell the Harry Potter e-books exclusively on Pottermore, a similar move could have been expected.

All in all, I am really looking forward to her new book, be it crime, fantasy, horror, historical or otherwise inclined. I do have a feeling that it won’t be as well-read as Harry Potter and not nearly as loved or successful, curiosity will get the better of me and as one of my favourite authors, reading her newest books is a must. Even if Little, Brown wouldn’t even offer me an interview when I was applying for jobs :P

Article:

Little, Brown to Publish JK Rowling’s First Adult Novel

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/little-brown-publish-j-k-rowlings-first-adult-novel.html

Boycotting Elsevier? When did this happen?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:39:00 +0000

Obviously I haven’t been paying attention at all! I was going to write about Bloomsbury (the wonderful people who published Harry Potter) and their decision to open a branch in Delhi, but this seems slightly more relevant!

Elsevier is a very well known scientific/academic publisher (I sent them at least one application while I was looking for work) and, in the academic aspect, is quiet similar to the publisher I work for now. I do know though, from overhearing conversation my line manager’s had with potential authors over the phone, as well as listening to the editors around me discussing royalties and advances, that the academics who write, edit or are simply involved in the creation of our products, are paid for their work. I didn’t realise that there were publishers who don’t pay academics, like Timothy Gowers at Cambridge University. I can’t imagine that there is no money involved at all and I think it needs to be clarified that it seems academics aren’t paid for their editing and proofreading services.

According to The New York Times, 34 mathematicians issued a statement last week denouncing “a system in which commercial publishers make a profit based on the free labour of mathematicians and subscription fees from their institutions’ libraries, for a service that has become largely unnecessary.”

The impression I’m getting is that textbooks are sent to academics, professors, lecturers for editing and proofreading, sent back to the publisher who then publishes the material and sells it back to the academic through the university library…no wonder a boycott is taking place! This is a fairly aged model that comes from a time when information was not easily accessible. The internet is an easy source of information to take advantage of, the problem is, of course, that the it tends to be a somewhat unreliable source. Knowing there are these simple alternatives though, should make publishers more aware of the fact that the services from these academics are valuable. If the publishing house cannot afford to pay them, then at least offer some form of discount to the academic when he places an order.

Update 25/02/2012:

Funny enough, we talked about this in a meeting at work and my publisher mentioned a few things that were not referred to in the article. Over the years Elsevier has set up a system where they will ‘force’ customers to buy a bundle of their digital journals. If a library or institution is interested in one in particular, they won’t sell it as a single product but only offer it as part of a package. This means that many institutions are made to spend 70% of their budget on products they don’t actually want. Of course this is Elsevier’s attempt at controlling the market of STM journal publishing. I have a feeling that it’s backfiring…

Article:

Mathematicians Organize Boycott of a Publisher

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/researchers-boycott-elsevier-journal-publisher.html?_r=1

Boycotting Amazon Publishing!

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:35:50 +0000

Joining the Amazon boycott is the American Booksellers Association (ABA), following Barnes & Nobles, Books-A-Million and Indigo Books. According to BookTrade, IndieCommerce, ABA’s for-profit subsidiary, has begun removing Amazon titles from their database!

Don’t get me wrong, I do a good deal of my shopping online and probably 50% of that is through Amazon. Their marketing is impeccable (when was the last time you saw an Amazon advert?) and they do have everything under the sun! Their service is fast and efficient, the website easy to use and the company global, it’s very difficult to avoid! They have given small publishers, and now international publishing houses, a very hard time over the years though. Booksellers have been struggling enough in their physical bookshops and with Amazon, they’re not having a lot more success with their online stores. With big names boycotting Amazon, the smaller companies might stand a chance of staying afloat!

The director of IndieCommerce, Matt Supko wrote, “While Amazon is seeking to distribute its print catalog through conventional means, it seems that they are simultaneously pursing a strategy of locking in ebook exclusives which other retailers are not allowed to sell.” Not only are they not listing Amazon titles, but they’ve gone as far as to say that “only publishers’ titles that are made available to retailers for sale in all available formats will be included in the IndieCommerce inventory database”.

Amazon has always had a very clever selling strategy, one which other publishers and booksellers haven’t been able to come to grips with. This is explained very well by a statement from Jaime Carey, chief merchandising officer at Barnes & Nobles, “Our decision is based on Amazon’s continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent. These exclusives have prohibited us from offering certain ebooks to our customers. Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content.”

The power the online seller has in the book industry has meant that Amazon feels it can make demands and not give publishers or bookseller’s any other options but to accept their terms (I work for an educational publisher and a good number of our books are sold through Amazon as well!). Amazon has gained a lot of influence over the years, too much influence, and this is being taken away from high street bookstores (Borders UK for example, Woolworths UK has disappeared too!). The market needs diversity and if Amazon rules the market, diversity does not exist and in that kind of environment any and every industry will struggle.

Articles:

Amazon Publishing bookshop boycott grows

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/09/amazon-publishing-bookshop-boycott-grows

ABA Says ‘No’ to Amazon Publishing

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/50551-aba-says-no-to-amazon-publishing.html

Universal eReader Platforms

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:11:00 +0000

I know I haven’t updated in donkey’s years and I have no good excuse! I’ve been lazy and have just collapsed in front of the TV after work…although I was busy last week and this coming weekend is fully booked, my last entry was far more than two weeks ago…I promise I’ll put more effort into my posts from now on!

I read and interesting article in my publishing news updates today: Universal platforms for eReaders…never going to happen, right? The eReader market’s already established itself as dependent on the platforms that they’re read on. The Kindle only reads books from the Kindle store, the Kobo and the Nook both have their own stores and file types that don’t allow mixing. Although this concept doesn’t really sound strange as such, if you think about it, it’s a ridiculous idea. The example the article used was cars…if you bought a BMW, imagine only being able to buy gas from a BMW gas station…ludicrous! So why is it so easy to accept in the eBook market?

One of the main reasons for this is that eBooks are a fairly new concept and the idea is still being experimented with. Publishers are worried that eBooks will go the same way as the music market where everyone downloads books illegally and the industry starts in a downwards spiral (let’s face it, we’ve all downloaded music without paying a penny). To try and counter this, they introduced DRM (Digital Rights Management), which the music industry once used for their songs as well. The funny thing about DRM is, not only is it possible to hack it, but some of the most highly pirated books aren’t digital, but physical, books. All that’s needed is access to a high speed scanner and creating copies of books is easy as pie! Even the music market dropped DRM, so why in the world would the book industry think it’s a good idea…?

One of the biggest issues DRM presents is the message it gives to customers: we don’t trust you. As long as you have a music player, you can listen to your mp3’s anywhere. Epub is probably the closest equivalent to an mp3 in popularity and distribution (everyone uses Epub’s except for Amazon), but even having a universal format does not lift the platform lock. A Nook cannot read eBooks from a Kobo store.

There are ways to get around this of course. There are apps for the iPad that allow users to read ePub and Kindle files, but they’re separate apps, meaning users have to flip through two different libraries if they’re looking for a specific book. Even on the more flexible platform, the two formats cannot be unified.

As the digital reading industry is still developing, I think a sensible solution will be found eventually, the question is just when? If the industry becomes too accustomed to this arrangement, will they agree to change at all or will they assume that, because it’s worked so far, and sales are still rising, that customers are satisfied with the platform lock-in, with the separation?

Article Link:

The ToC Perspective: A Call for a Unified E-Book Market

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/50484-the-toc-perspective-a-call-for-a-unified-e-book-market.html

The Bicentenary of Charles Dickens' Birth

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:53:39 +0000

Right, another loooooooooong overdue post! There’s a lot of big anniversaries coming up this year. It’s been 100 years since the Titanic sunk, 50 years since Marilyn Monroe died and 200 years since Charles Dicken’s birth! I did some work on those the other week, putting together articles from the Times Digital Archive so the marketing team can create a digital booklet as marketing material. The Times published a few interesting articles about him! But that’s beside the point…

What’s more to the point is the BBC’s three episode mini-series of Great Expectations. It was beautifully done and, like many other viewers, made me want to buy the book and read it for myself! Unfortunately I was not among the shoppers who bought Great Expectations and sent sales soaring, doubling in the week the drama was aired. 6100 copies were sold, the highest weekly figure since 1998.

BBC’s mini-series was a huge success and they’re riding on that achievement by dramatising the last of Dickens’ work, which he died writing. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was never finished and no one knows what his intentions were with the novel, but producers are taking a chance and finishing the story. The first episode was shown last week when an estimated three million people watched it. Somehow I didn’t realise that it was being aired at all and missed it entirely! I guess this is what BBC iPlayer’s good for. One thing that’s really caught my attention with the snippets I saw from previews, is that the female lead, Rosa Bud, is played by the actress you portrayed Catherine Howard (Tamzin Merchant) in The Tudors with Jonathen Rhys Meyers (speaking of which, Natalie Dormer, who was Anne Boleyn, will be Magaery Tyrell from Game of Thrones!! Old news for any die hard GoT fan, but it has to be said!).

The e-reader on my HTC also came with A Tale of Two Cities. I think this is a sign that I need to read more Dickens!

Christmas!

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:11:31 +0000

Just driving back home now with my best friend’s parents they’re driving to France for the new year so they’re giving me a lift as mine is on their way. I’m very grateful, but this 10 hour drive will be the death of me, not to mention my 2 1/2 train journey, to actually get home tomorrow, with a suitcase, handbag, laptop case and a hold all.

I can’t complain though, my friend’s parents are very good when it comes to Christmas shopping. There are a lot of general necessities, along with really nice gifts, among my presents. One of the best things was the sheer amount of books I got!

I asked for ‘the mask of Zorro’ DVD from my dad and he went one step further and gave me the book too! From my best friend I got all three books of Robin Hobb’s assassin trilogy (I love you Rozz)! I’m so excited! I’m still reading my historical fiction right now and I have ‘The Lady of the Rivers’ to read, so I have a long reading list. I won’t be getting bored anytime soon! I will be getting books 2 and 3 of Hobb’s liveship series before I start the assassin books though and I really REALLY want to get my hands on ‘Dancing with Dragons’ by George R.R. Martin too! My next paycheck can’t come soon enough!

It’s back to work on Wednesday though and that’ll be the end of my Christmas holidays for me. And I always thought the holidays dragged during university.

Just for you Rozz! You know this picture but it’s just too...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:25:40 +0000

Just for you Rozz! You know this picture but it’s just too fuwah not to post again!

Long time coming!

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:13:29 +0000

Sorry it’s been so long since my last entry! I started a new job last month and haven’t had time to sit and relax since then. Things have settled down a bit more now though, so hopefully I’ll be able to get back to regular posts.

I have been reading quite a bit in the last few weeks and have finished two books since my liveship entry (I wanted to buy the rest of the series but I’ve been forbidden because Christmas is right around the corner)!

First is Alison Weir’s The Captive Queen, a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and later of England.

I read a book about her a few months ago, The Devil’s Consort by Anne O’Brien. It was advertised as better than Philippa Gregory by The Bookseller, a well recognised publishing magazine. Although I did enjoy it, I have to disagree and say that Philippa Gregory is still by far my favourite historical fiction author. The Devil’s Consort focussed on Eleanor before her first marriage to King Louis VIII, as Queen of England and the end of her first marriage. It worked really well with Alison Weir’s book, as that told the story of the end of Eleanor’s marriage to Louis and her life as the Queen of England, married to King Henry II. I’ve read Alison Weir before and she is an amazing writer, both in historical fiction and in historical fact. She is a historian and most of her books tend to be factual, but she has written three fiction books: Innocent Traitor, the story of the Lade Jane Grey who reigned England for 9 days before Mary took her rightful place as the daughter of Henry VIII, and The Lady Elizabeth, Mary’s younger sister and the daughter of Anne Boleyn (my favourite queen!), and how she grew up in the care of Katherine Parr and her life as queen.

The second book I finished is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Without a doubt it’s one of the most amazing books I have ever read. It is literally, unputdownable. I never wanted to stop reading it!

The narrative is told from three perspectives: Aibileen, a black maid who is a nanny to white families, Minny, another black maid known for her temper, sharp tongue and her cooking abilities, and finally Skeeter, a young white woman trying to get into the publishing industry and find her place in the world. It’s no wonder this book is an international best seller, anyone who hasn’t read it yet, has to!

The amazingness that is a Liveship!!

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:49:00 +0000

About two weeks ago I bought my very first Robin Hobb book! WH Smith at Gatwick Airport had quite a selection, but they only had the first book of The Liveship Traders trilogy. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with the book and I breezed through the 880 pages in just under two weeks. Although I have a Kathy Reich’sFatal Voyage coming with me on my plane trip tomorrow, I’ll be scouring WH Smith for the second book in the Liveship series!

Considering my free time and job interviews, I’ve done a painful amount of flying in the last few months. I’m flying over to England again this weekend to have a look at flats for a job I’ll be starting on the 14th! Exciting and a bit scary. It also means that I’ll be flying back home at the end of the weekend and to England again to move into the flat/house/room just before I start my new job! After that I have my graduation in Scotland on the 25th of November so I need to fly up north for that too…in other words, I’ll need lots and lots of reading material!

I’ve heard of Robin Hobb before and I must have walked past her books a hundred times while browsing in bookstores, but this is the first book I ever read by her. She writes an amazing narrative and puts a fascinating amount of detail into her plots. There are so many lives that the reader follows that everything seems rather detached to begin with - it’s amazing when you find how it all fits together.

I also loved the fact that George R.R. Martin left a review for the Liveship series (not that I noticed until after I’d bought the book):

Even better than the Assassin Books. I didn’t think that was possible.

Any recommendations for other Robin Hobb books I should keep an eye out for?

Kobo, Kindle, Sony?

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:48:30 +0100

Digital publishing, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned several times in this blog, is still at an experimental stage within the publishing industry. Neither publishers nor booksellers know what will happen to books in the future and with so many new products emerging in the digital reading market, the future is more than a little uncertain.

The strongest product in the e-book market is, without a doubt, the Amazon Kindle. Although it could easily be argued that the iPad leaves the small e-reader in the dust, the Kindle is a far more successful product where sales of e-readers are concerned. iPad users, although certainly using the e-reading functions of the tablet, most likely did not purchase it to read with. The Kindle, on the other hand, has no function other than reading.

One of the main reasons for the Kindle’s success lies with the popularity and reliability of Amazon. I’ve used the online store for years and only once have I ever had any problems with shipment, and that was nearly ten years ago. As the logo suggests, Amazon has every item from ‘A to Z’. I have bought a large majority of my books there and I doubt I’ll be able to avoid doing so in the future. The Kindle connects directly to Amazon and, although e-books are still relatively new in the market, by no means is there a small selection of them in-store. To make things even easier for Amazon, the Kindle cannot read the standard ePub format, meaning that Kindle users can ONLY buy books from Amazon. Although this could be viewed as a weakness to the product (it’s why I decided against a Kindle), it has turned away only a minimal number of consumers and has turned into a very successful marketing ploy.

Recently though, a new rival has appeared in the increasingly crowded European market: the Kobo. Although it has lower specs than the Kindle, with 1 GB memory instead of 2, two week battery life rather than three weeks to a month and weighs an extra 30 grams, it cannot be excluded as a competitor. Just like the Kindle it has wifi capabilities (and the more expensive version of the Kobo is touch screen), but reads ePub files, meaning out of copyright libraries such as The Gutenberg Project (who do also offer e-books for the Kindle) can be used to your heart’s content.

Aside from that it seems fairly similar to the Sony Reader, which I have been a happy owner of for nearly a year. E-book pricing is still very touch and go (sometimes the digital version is more expensive than the physical version…an issue that I don’t think I’ll figure out any time soon) and I’ve therefore limited myself to the vast number of websites that offer out of copyright content. There are only two issues I have with my Sony:

1) The syncing function between the e-reader programme on your computer and the e-reader itself is abysmal. 90% of the time the programme gets stuck syncing the third or fourth book in the list (which is already on the reader I might add…the programme likes to sync every time the reader’s plugged into the computer and it seems to want to resync every single file). I have found a way around this though, and that is going into the e-reader icon in the programme and deselecting the syncing option. Tough this does result in the programme removing all the files from your reader, they are STILL in your library. By reselecting the syncing option, the programme puts all the files back into the Sony without a hitch. It’s a bit of a roundabout way, but it works.

2) The loading time. When first turning on the e-reader, it takes a good 30-40 seconds until it’s operable. After that, it takes a few seconds to load the new page…not long enough to grow impatient, but just enough to get a little annoying.

I have never had the opportunity to use a Kobo, so I don’t know how this product deals with the syncing and loading problems I have experienced with my Sony, but considering the Kobo has wifi, syncing may not be as much of an issue.

The next problem e-readers do need to deal with is reading documents. Neither the Sony nor the Kobo can read word documents, so in order to read reports, manuscripts or any other non e-book file, the document must be saved as a PDF. Saving it is easy…reading it is another thing altogether. Although PDFs are legible, a problem occurs if an image, graph or table is on a page; the e-reader can no longer zoom in. For some reason, PDF files appear very small on a screen to begin with, sometimes so small the text is simply fuzzy lines, but the zoom function on e-readers makes it possible to read them without too much hassle. The e-reader does not know how to resize images though…adjusting the length of a line of a text is one thing, but trying to adjust the image to the screen size without a proper scroll function…this is where the iPad definitely, without a doubt, has the Kobo, Kindle and Sony beat (for e-reading functions at least).

I still insist that I enjoy using my Sony more than I would a Kindle, but considering the sales the Kindle, and its progeny, have witnessed, I may be among the minority that does not want to own a Kindle.

More information on Kobo:
http://bookbrunch.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10953&Itemid=999

50% Digital Royalty Rates

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:02:00 +0100

Somehow that sounds more than bit steep to me. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a lot of information on Andrew Wylie’s statement at the Frankfurt Bookfair, but I don’t think it’s a plausible plan at this point in time. With the entire publishing industry on insecure footing in respect to digital publishing, coaxing more royalty rates from publishers and asking digital distributors to charge nothing (currently they’re charging at 30%) sounds implausible.

When the music industry was first overwhelmed by digitisation, they were at a complete loss and in fear of pirating. The publishing industry is now experiencing the same difficulties and fear and, although they have the music industry setting an example, no one wants to get it wrong the first time around. With reading rates falling and e-readers gradually becoming more popular, of course publishers want to ensure that they will still manage to stay in business throughout this change.

I own an e-reader and I have to admit that I haven’t bought any e-books yet. The e-books I do have are all out of copyright and can be downloaded for free legally. E-book pricing is still unpredictable, I plan on waiting and finding out what challenges publishers will have to meet in the future.

Further Information:

The Observer http://www.observer.com/2011/10/andrew-wylie-in-frankfurt-agent-advocates-for-50-percent-digital-royalty-rates/

Is the British Library working with Amazon?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:04:03 +0100

The British Library has lately been harshly criticised by independent and high street booksellers. Apparently undermining the bookshops, the library has provided links to Amazon on its online catalogue, listing 13 million items in its collection.

While I love Amazon as much as the next person (which is to say that I go there when I can’t find the book I’m looking for elsewhere for a reasonable price), I would not have expected the library to show such support for the retail giant. Publishers struggle with Amazon in regards to retail pricing and smaller publishers are even pressured into using Amazon’s facilities to print their books, but to them there still exists an advantage by working with them. The Library, on the other hand, should sense the same danger as independent book stores; by providing links in their catalogue they are undoubtedly steering readers away from their own books by making them aware of a cheap alternative.

A spokesperson for the library said that this was a system they were testing at its pilot stage. Although the software purchased for the new search function links only to Amazon, the library insists that it is not making any revenue from the redirects. It is hard to believe, much less understand, why an already struggling institution is directing its own customers away from borrowing books to buying them at discount prices from Amazon.

Despite the struggle British book stores and libraries are facing, there are still those fighting to keep independents and libraries open. In north-west London, campaigners hold a constant vigil to prevent Brent council from boarding up a library.

With the book industry going through immense change and evolution, there’s no saying what developments publishers and booksellers will be faced with in the future. Although I do disagree with the idea of an Amazon link in a library catalogue, I believe part of the reason for this decision has to do with the fact the libraries cannot foresee what the future of the book industry holds for them. If they find a way to survive this digital evolution, they will grasp at all the straws they can in order to do so.

Further Information:

The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8830766/British-Library-criticised-over-Amazon-link.html

The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/bookshops-read-the-riot-act-to-british-library-2371593.html

There's too much I want to read!

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:28:00 +0100

I know it’s been ages since my last entry, sorry! I’ve had a lot going on lately, what with going to Austria to visit family again and flying to England for job interviews…I’ve been spending a lot of my free time reading.

As Part 2 of the 7th Harry Potter movie came out over the summer, all the books are written and Pottermore is completing its Beta stage (and I’m already in!!), I’ve become very nostalgic about the Harry Potter series. I read the first book when I lived in the US when I was 12 years old…it’s been 12 years since then and I feel like half my life has been marked by this series. Harry Potter is more than just a children’s book. Not only is it a captivating story with characters every reader, young and old, can relate to, but JK Rowling brought the children’s book market to life, selling over 400 million copies worldwide, translating successfully into a series of captivating movies, inspiring eight video games and licensing over 400 additional products. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, book 6 in the series, sold over 2 million copies in the UK within the first 24 hours of its release. This isn’t just a story and these aren’t just books.

It was in the summer of 2007 that I got my hands on the seventh, and final, Harry Potter book while visiting friends in Denmark. Having watched the film recently, I realised just how many details I’d forgotten since I read it four years ago (I can’t even believe it’s been four years!) and was overcome by the urge to reread the series. Unfortunately all my books are packed away in boxes in Germany and I have no access to them…when I mentioned this to my aunt, she told me that one of my cousins actually had one of the books in English! I was over the moon and borrowed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, number seven in the series.

I consider myself a somewhat slow reader, but even I finished the 607 page book in under a week…I just couldn’t put it down! These books carry a huge nostalgia rating for me…I grew up reading them. Now I know the series is completely over…no more books, no more movies. It made the seventh book a surprisingly emotional read. Rowling created characters that were made to fall in love with. She knew exactly how to captivate her readers and she lead us through the world of Harry Potter, holding our hand every step of the way.

One aspect I especially loved about her writing, is the detail she includes…something as small as including a character who hasn’t made an appearance for a good two, almost three, books, gives the story, and characters, so much more depth. Oliver Wood, Gryffindor Quidditch team captain, made a very brief appearance in the final movie during the fight at Hogwarts, flying to the school on his broom stick with his single line ‘Come on!’ to the audience. In the movies, he hadn’t been seen since the third part (I will never forgive the producers for not including him in the beginning of the fourth movie and for skipping the Quidditch World Cup!), but in the books he makes a brief appearance in Goblet of Fire. His last, final and only appearance in Deathly Hallows in on page 556, helping Neville carry the body of Colin Creevey:

Then Neville nearly walked into him. He was half of a pair that was carrying a body in from the grounds. Harry glanced down, and felt another dull blow to his stomach: Colin Creevey, though under-age, must have sneaked back in just as Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had done. He was tiny in death.

“You know what? I can manage him alone, Neville.” said Oliver Wood, and he heaved Colin over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift and carried him into the Great Hall.

Although the story’s over, I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving Harry Potter. It’s a wonderful series that will stay with me forever and, once I get my hands on all of my belongings, I will reread the entire series again…maybe I’ll make it an annual ritual…

Shocking news for publishers

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:16:00 +0100

I was going to make an entry about George R.R. Martin’s A Feast for Crows as I recently finished that behemoth of a book, but the news about David Tebbutt yesterday took me for a spin.

David Tebbutt (58), Publishing Executive at Faber and Faber was shot in the back on holiday in Kenya by, what are believed to have been, Somali pirates. I have never met Mr. Tebbutt, nor have I had any experience with Faber and Faber, but the idea that something could happen to someone in the industry I want to go in to is shocking. Publishing seems like a quiet, safe career, where you have the glamour of famous authors and the fame surrounding them, but publishers tend to play the background role…we work backstage. Of course these things can happen to absolutely anyone and publishers have been threatened, and even murdered, for the publication of certain works (such as Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie), but David Tebbutt was on holiday in a resort that promised 24 hour armed protection for tourists. Clearly this was not enough.

Shortly after midnight on Sunday, David Tebbutt was shot in the back in, what appears to have been, an attempt at protecting his wife (56). According to BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14892504), Judith Tebbutt was then taken by 6 armed men and carried away in a speedboat. The newest information suggests that Mrs. Tebbutt has now been taken into Somalia, which will make any attempt to recover her very difficult. The only positive news in this case is that Somali pirates tend to not harm their captives as their ultimate goal is to claim a ransom.

My thoughts go out to the friends and family of the Tebbutts, especially their son (25) and that Mrs. Tebbutt’s release is secured in the very near future.

Further Information:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/kenya-brits-murder-kidnap-man-arrested-035212943.html

Entry of Amazon's tablet?

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:06:20 +0100

It’s been a while since my last post, sorry! I’m visiting a friend in Scotland for three weeks so I’ve been distracted from reading, meaning I’m still only about halfway through ‘A Feast for Crows’. So, although I can’t go ranting about evil cliff hangers and squealing about amazingly unexpected plot twists, I did come across an interesting article about Amazon’s next step into the book publishing industry today.

Apparently the online retailer, who has experienced immense success in the eBook/eReader market through the sale of the Amazon Kindle, is planning to challenge Apple further by introducing its own tablet onto the market in late September/October. While writing my dissertation, I stumbled over an article claiming that Amazon was going to continue dropping the price of the Kindle until it was practically free - no one would have an excuse to purchase any other product. The intention is to do the same with the tablet, which will go on sale several hundred dollars less than the $499 entry of the iPad.

Anyone who’s ever bought anything from Amazon knows that products are sold for cheap, specifically at a loss for the company itself. The only reason it can actually afford to do this is because of the sheer volume of products that are sold. An article on the NY Post website (I’ll add all the links at the end) says that Amazon might end up forcing the prices of its competitors to drop if they are particularly aggressive with pricing. Anything can sell buckets at the right price, like the HP tablet, which sat collecting dust until the price was dropped from $399 to $99. After that consumers couldn’t get enough.

According to PC World, Amazon plans to make up for the lack of income in hardware, through sale of the software that will inevitably follow the tablet. Once the hardware’s sold successfully, it won’t be all that difficult to convince consumers to add the necessary software in order to take full advantage of the product. The article goes on to explain that Amazon is planning on releasing two versions of the tablet: a dual-core processor model for the average consumer and a more powerful quad-core device. Although it’s smaller than the iPad, as long as it’s comparable to its biggest competitor, the pricing decision will pay off.

Amazon has hoped to claim the digital book market, like Apple has claimed the music market. They moved in with their Kindle very quickly and were, admittedly, one of the first companies to develop a popular eReader. The only problem is that Apple has had far more experience in digital devices and has an established reputation. Even coming into the e-reader race a bit later, Apple still has seen an incredible market success with its product. It sold 3 million units of the original iPad in the first 80 days. Amazon’s tablet is hoping to see similar success and, considering their product will hit the market in the fourth quarter with Christmas, it might have a winning chance.

I am personally not a huge fan of the Kindle and own a Sony eReader instead. Never having had the opportunity to play around with an iPad though, I can’t say myself which I think will see the bigger success. Amazon’s become fairly well established on a global scale and the affordability factor will play a huge role in the future.

ShadowDove87

New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/tablets_price_is_right_p9yGIOGH9cl8amKOPBSDII

PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/238906/amazons_tablet_to_be_hundreds_less_than_ipad.html

TeleRead: http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/amazon-could-sell-3-to-5-million-android-tablets-in-the-4th-quarter/