Were We Our Brother's Keepers? Are We Yet?

The period between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a time of deep reflection and acute introspection. It is also a time for remembrance of the history of the Jewish people, a history that mingles glorious triumphs and bitter humiliation and loss. Jews worldwide ask themselves if they have done all they can to repair the world and, because the only honest answer to that question is No, resolve to try harder in the year to come.

It is therefore appropriate that during these "Days of Awe" we offer Were We Our Brothers' Keepers? The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust, 1938-1944 by Haskell Lookstein, an important work that explores in depth the American Jewish response to the Holocaust as it occurred. By examining contemporary Jewish press accounts of such events as Kristallnacht, the refusal to allow the refugee ship St. Louis to land in America, the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, and the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, Haskel Lookstein provides us with an important perspective on the way in which events are reported on, perceived and interpreted in their own time.

Rabbi Lookstein has been deeply involved in issues of concern to the Jewish community. He was Chairman of the Greater New York Coalition for Soviet Jews, President of the New York Board of Rabbis, President of the Synagogue Council of America, Chairman of the Rabbinic Cabinet of National UJA, and member of the Board of the Joint Distribution Committee. His works have appeared in numerous publications in the US and Israel.

- Richard Curtis

Pub Date

Few events in the life of a book are as thoroughly invested with magic and mystery as its publication date. Although the season, month, and day of publication are, as often as not, selected merely to satisfy the expediencies of a publisher's schedule, many authors and even some publishers assign kabbalistic value to pub dates, and a great deal of myth and nonsense has come to surround the process. One hears such platitudes as, "January is a lousy month to bring out a book," or, "Nobody buys books in August," or "Can you believe they released my book on Friday the thirteenth?"

What's true and what's nonsense? Click here for a discussion of publication dates.

A Must-Have Book for Ballet Fans

In On Wings of Joy, Trudy Garfunkel's engaging history of dance, readers are introduced to the major performers, choreographers, and composers who influenced the development of ballet. Beginning with the birth of the art in the sixteenth-century French court of Catherine d' Medici, this informative text traces ballet as it evolved in Europe and Russia and subsequently in England and then America. Included are details about the creation of such classics as Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and Serenade, as well as the contributions of such prominent figures as Pavlova, Nijinsky, Balanchine, and Ashton. Fascinating facts include inside looks at contemporary ballet companies, how toe shoes are made, and what a professional dancer's day is like. All in all, a delightful, enjoyable and informative historical overview that will delight anyone who enjoys the art of dance.

"A lucid and interesting history that reads like a novel."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A truly fascinating look at ballet. The author has done an excellent job of weaving historical events into her discussion if dancers and their art...A very readable, enjoyable book."
--Booklist

"A most engaging and informative volume."
--WQXR Radio

"It is wonderful to finally have a complete and comprehensive history of dance that is accessible to young people and equally valuable for parents, experienced dance goers, and other adults. How important to have this, an easily readable exposure to dance, to help counterbalance the disappearance of arts education in our public schools."
--Edward Villella, Artistic Director, Miami City Ballet

"A fascinating book."
--Philadelphia Inquirer

"A lively history."
--Dance Magazine

"Recommended. Easy-to-read and informative."
--Attitudes and Arabesques

"A wonderful accomplishment that strikes that perfect balance: it is great if you know nothing about ballet and it is terrific fun even if you know a great deal. My copy is going up on my desk shelf with Denby and CHOREOGRAPHY by Balanchine, so it will be one of those books to which I always turn."
--Carol Landers, Director of Research, New York City Ballet

"Covers an enormous amount of material in a readable and comprehensive manner without missing a beat."
--School Library Journal

"Parents will find this book to be excellent; this nonfiction story of ballet can easily cross over to appeal to fiction readers and ballet enthusiasts of all ages."
--Children's Bookwatch

Trudy Garfunkel, is the author of three books on dance: "Letter to the World: The Life and Dances of Martha Graham", "Start Exploring Ballet", and "On Wings of Joy: The Story of Ballet from the 16th Century to Today"; and a consumer's guide with recipes, "The Kosher Companion". Her essay on Martha Graham appears in "The Oxford Companion to United States History". A public relations, marketing and editorial consultant, she has worked with many authors, artists, photographers, publishing companies, nonprofit and arts organizations, museums, and dance companies.

- Richard Curtis

John Norman Introduces Volumes 7-9 of His Bestselling Gorean Saga

I write fantasy.
Sometimes this type of literature is referred to as “escape” literature. Sometimes its “relevance” might be called into question.
It is perhaps worth taking a moment to discuss these observations, or charges.

To read John Norman's fascinating essay in its entirety, click here.

Richard Curtis's Classic How to Be Your Own Literary Agent - 100% Viewable on Google, Free!

Regular viewers of this website have seen my byline below many a pitch for new and backlist titles released by E-Reads. But today I'm hyping a book that is dearest to my heart: my own.

Drawing on my experience as the president of a leading New York literary agency, How to be Your Own Literary Agent is my comprehensive practical overview of the publishing process from submissions to contract negotiations to subsidiary rights to marketing, publicity, and beyond. It is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has been and updated to keep up with such evolving trends in publishing as e-books, industry consolidation, bookstore chains, and media tie-ins. In it you'll find such topics as:

* Big publishers, small publishers, self-publishers, e-publishers: how to keep up in a rapidly changing business
* The new breed of editors: how to find them and know what they're looking for
* How to understand a publishing contract clause by clause and figure out if you're getting a good, fair, or lousy deal.
* What the electronic revolution means to you, and how to take advantage of it
* How to know your "publishing" rights and negotiate effectively
* How to have a say in your book's design, jacket, and promotion
* How book chains and superstores have altered publishing -- and what that means for you

Since I've been characterized as a guru of the Digital Revolution, the least I can do is utilize cutting-edge technology to market my own book. And so, under the auspices of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the revised and expanded edition of How to Be Your Own Literary Agent has been made available in its entirety on Google Search. Readers may scroll down the read-only Google scan or buy the print edition in bookstores or via amazon.com. So, have a click and check it out, and, if you like what you see, I'll be looking for you on my next royalty statement.

Amazon reviewer Simon Haynes had this to say about How to Be Your Own Literary Agent:

The author is an experienced agent sharing his knowledge with a gentle humor. OK, sometimes not so gentle - the quip about the type of negotiating stance a first-time author should take with their publisher is a real gem. I read the book cover to cover in one sitting, skimming only the sections on collaborative writing and book packagers, and not only did I learn a lot I also laughed out loud at several observations. Information is so much easier to digest when it's presented in a breezy conversational style. The book includes a sample publishing contract and several author-friendly clauses which can be substituted for the more usual publisher-friendly versions. Like another reviewer's copy, my book also looks like a group of preschoolers had a go at it. Corners folded, underlining everywhere, notes in the margins... but that's always the sign of an informative title.
Highly recommended if you're at this stage of the game.

From time to time E-Reads will be running sample material from How to Be Your Own Literary Agent. For instance...

Want to know what goes on in a literary agent's office when you submit your manuscript? Click here.

- Richard Curtis

"P & L"

One of the least pleasant duties that agents are obliged to perform is explaining to their clients why their books have flopped. And there is no dearth of reasons: the editor was fired, the company was taken over by a conglomerate, the salesmen didn't understand the book, someone stuck a lousy title on it, they didn't advertise it, they didn't advertise it enough, they underprinted it, they brought it out too soon, they brought it out too late, there was an Act of God, there was an Act of Satan - an agent's files are a veritable Grand Guignol of publishing horror stories.

But -- has it really failed? Maybe it didn't earn back the advance paid to the author. But does that mean the publisher lost money?

Most authors and not a few agents tend to equate the earning-out of an author's advance with the recoupment of a publisher's investment. It's an understandable misconception, for to authors, royalties are profits. If their books start earning profits, they assume the publisher has started making profits too; and conversely, they figure, if the advance doesn't earn out, the publisher must have lost money on the book. For an examination of this assumption, and some surprising answers, click here.

Moffitt Sci-Fi Adventure Anticipated Operaton Immortality by Twenty Years

On October 12, 2008, astronaut and video game designer Richard Garriott will be shot into space for a visit to the International Space Station. On board his capsule will be an archive of digitized information intended to tell visitors from other worlds about the great race that was humanity. The scheme is called Operation Immortality. The underlying assumption is a tried and true science fiction theme: that by the time someone reads it, Planet Earth and its inhabitants will have perished.

"The archive will include information on humanity's greatest achievements," according to the Operation Immortality website. The file will also carry "messages from people all over the world, and DNA samples from some of our brightest minds and most accomplished athletes. During the month of September, every human being is invited to come to the OperationImmortality.com website to submit their suggestions for our greatest achievements and leave a message for the cosmos."

Knowledgeable science fiction fans may well wonder if the inspiration for this plan was a pair of novels by Donald Moffitt published in the late 1980s, Genesis Quest and Second Genesis. Unlike the International Space Station, which orbits only a few thousand miles above Earth, Moffitt's fictional space probe travels for millions of years before ultimately being captured by an alien race that not only manages to decode the information, but uses the code to reconstruct human civilization as well!

E-Reads is proud to publish this amazingly prescient saga and three other Moffitt novels as well. But was he prescient enough to anticipate that two decades later Operation Immortality would enlist such living celebrities as Steven Colbert to contribute their DNA to the project?

You can read about it on the Operation Immortality Celebrity News Page.

- Richard Curtis

(iRex) Reader 1000 Revealed - Kindle Killer?

After tormenting e-book technorati with teasers, iRex has now revealed its Reader 1000. Some bloggers are calling it a Kindle Killer. Time will tell. Here's what it looks like, and below is iRex's press release predicting that the Reader 1000 spells "the end of the printed word for business professionals."

Media Release
22nd September 2008
iRex Opens New Chapter In E?Reading
Eindhoven, 22 September 2008

- The world’s leading provider of e-reading solutions, Netherlands
based iRex Technologies, has opened a new chapter in professional digital reading with the launch of the iRex 1000 series Digital Reader. The iRex suite of e-reading products is growing steadily following the success of the iLiad and iLiad Book Edition amongst the consumer market. Now the launch of the iRex 1000 series, with its larger display size and memory, is spelling the end of the printed word for business professionals. “The success of digital reading has been focused on and measured by its impact upon the book market when in fact the real revolution is happening in the business world.” Said Hans Brons, CEO of iRex. “The computer revolutionised the way we do business, but it has never offered a solution to match paper.

With the launch of the 1000 series it is now possible to ‘print’ documents onto electronic paper for the first time.” Although the iRex iLiad products with their larger screen and superior functionality have been extremely successful, the company recognised the need for a new generation solution for business. The result is the iRex 1000 series, offering superior functionality and a unique 10.2 inch screen size to allow easy reading and referencing of documents from A4 Powerpoint presentations to sophisticated PDF files and from HTML to TXT and JPEG. Increased memory ensures that users can be confident that the device will hold any and all documents they require.

Weighing less than 570 grams and only 1.2cm deep the 1000 series is an open system which synchronises easily with the PC and is able to read all common formats. The large display has 16 grey tones and storage capacity is delivered via a changeable 1GB SD card. The universal mini?USB connector can be used for transferring files as well as uploading and content can be easily transferred from the internet. The chargeable built in Li?Ion battery has sufficient power to last for several days.

The 1000 series will offer three products within the range from the DR1000 base version equipped with a USB connector, through the DR1000 S equipped with a stylus for writing which can serve as an unending notepad, to the DR1000 SW with stylus, plus WIFI and Bluetooth connectivity. The later model will not be available at the launch date but will be introduced at a later stage.

With a recent study demonstrating that the average US office worker prints more than 10,000 pages of paper a year, of which three quarters is thrown away within one week and more than half the same day, the 1000 series finally offers a way for companies and individuals to cut out the billions of pages of printed paper they produce each year, making a powerful contribution to the environment.

“Tax specialists, accountants and lawyers that previously had thick piles of documents can carry them in their digital reader; students and academics can easily save their textbooks in the device.” Says Brons. “Government and public sector organisations can make minutes and reports available electronically whilst medical specialists can have all their patient information and key texts at their fingertips. Plus, in addition to their professional documents they can also have their e?books and newspapers available.”

The new devices and their place in the suite of iRex products marks a step change in the world of digital reading consolidating iRex’s position as the first choice provider of e?reading solutions. “Our partnership with our customers, partners and particularly the developer community is vital to drive new and better technology. By offering a suite of separate e?reader products we are not only meeting the needs but revolutionising the expectations of our customers.”

About iRex Technologies:

iRex Technologies BV have been instrumental in pushing the frontiers of digital reading since 2001 when their team developed the electronic paper display for the Sony Librié the first commercially available ereader launched in 2004. Following the formation of iRex Technologies in 2005 as a spin?off company from Royal Philips Electronics their focus on open innovation and co?operation has seen them become the world’s leading provider of solutions for reading written digital content with the ease and comfort of print on paper. This is combined with the interactivity, flexibility and up?dating functionality provided by digital information.

Located on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands iRex serves the B2B market as well as the consumer market and works closely with companies and publishers to enable them to offer their content (newspapers, books, documents) digitally to clients, subscribers and employees.

- Richard Curtis

Second Gen of E-Book Readers Swoops in on the Wings of the iRex Reader 1000

Hard on the heels of the announced unveiling of Plastic Logic's unnamed tablet reader, Andy Greenberg of Forbes reports the imminent launch of iRex Technologies' iRex Reader 1000. What does it look like? The image at the right is all that anyone gets to see until Monday September 22nd.

With Sony and Amazon developing next-generation e-books, the race for the hearts, minds and wallets of the consumer is on, and tablet-sized screens will definitely be a critical factor. Forbes will win handily in that aspect, as Plastic Logic won't get its product out till late spring at the very earliest. But who will win the contest on the basis of quality is anybody's guess. In any case both business and student users will be the beneficiaries, and though this blogger has restrained his temptation to buy a tablet up to now, it's more than likely he will succumb when all the entries are available.

One thing that will affect my decision is the price: the projected price for the basic iRex 1000 will be about $650 but add-ons will increase the cost, bringing it to about twice the price of Kindle and Sony. On the other hand, that's about half the price of a tablet PC. And iRex may deliver twice the value.

According to Greenberg,

The iRex Reader 1000 offers a 10.2-inch diagonal E-Inkscreen, far larger than Kindle's 6-inch screen or even iRex's own 8.1-inch diagonal iLiad, its last e-book model. That stretched display is designed to work with any file format, be it an e-book, a full-sized PDF, a Word document or HTML. Like earlier iRex devices, it sports a stylus and touch screen for taking notes and marking documents.

Some other issues inhibiting consumers are lack of color and no video, says Greenberg. So, even business men and women who can afford it (assuming they can even afford lead pencils in the current economy) might want to sit out the dance until those features are in place. That will happen in the next four years.

-Richard Curtis

One Planet Ahead of the Bounty Hunters - William C. Dietz's Smuggler Hero Pik Lando Now Available in E-Book

William C. Dietz's Drifter trilogy is now available for download, and it's chock-full of vintage Dietzian nonstop action and - well, nonstop women.

Smuggler Pik Lando suffers from a Robin Hood complex, and a good thing it is, because onlyhe and his ship The Tinker's Damn stand between a lot of good people and a ruthless syndicate that will stop at nothing to exploit a planet's precious resources.

E-Reads is happy to offer, for the first time online, Drifter, Drifter's Run and Drifter's War.

And if you've missed out on any of Dietz's adventures, check out our full selection.

- RC

What Happens at Your Publisher's Sales Conference and Why it Matters Desperately to You

Twice every year, around mid-May and mid-December, a curious lull befalls the frenzied lives of literary agents, like those abrupt silences that occasionally muffle a party when everybody, inexplicably, stops talking at exactly the same time. I've experienced enough of these semiannual brownouts that I ought to expect them by now. Yet they always take me by surprise, and I can predictably be heard at these times barking to my staff, "Is there something wrong with our phones? Is this a mail holiday or what?" At length it occurs to me: it's sales conference season.

Do you know what happens at sales conferences? If not, you owe it to yourself to read up on them.

At Least One Number is Going Through the Roof: E-Book Sales Up 71%

At midyear trade e-book sales are more than 70% higher than those of the same period last year, according to Michael Smith, Executive Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Smith was citing stats gathered by the Association of American Publishers.

Year to Date Revenue is also up, a whopping 47.5%.

Smith made it clear that:

* This data represents United States revenues only
* This data represents only trade e-book sales via wholesale channels. Retail numbers may be as much as double the above figures due to industry wholesale discounts.
* This data represents only data submitted from approx. 12 to 15 trade publishers
* This data does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales
* The numbers reflect the wholesale revenues of publishers
* The definition used for reporting electronic book sales is "All books delivered electronically over the Internet OR to hand-held reading devices"
* The IDPF and AAP began collecting data together starting in Q1 2006

As so many other economic indicators plunge, it's comforting indeed to learn that this brave new industry is thriving.

- RC

Rip, Burn and Mash - Downloaders Cast Their Eyes on Textbooks

If you've been wondering, as I have, when the E-Book Revolution would find its way to textbooks, it's now no further than your keyboard.

If any aspect of the book business were ripe for revolution it's textbooks, because it's closest to the music industry in terms of the SRI - the Student Resentment Index. College students have been complaining for decades about being compelled to pay preposterously high prices for school books of which they may be required to use only a few chapters. Though there is a secondary market for those books, publishers and authors have gotten around it by producing new editions, often merely cosmetically enhanced, and requiring students to buy them instead of used ones. The process is particularly cruel on families on a tight budget. And it's not that hot on the spines of students lugging fifteen or twenty pounds of books in their backpacks.

The logical question is, "Why can't we just download?"

Noam Cohen's article in the New York Times, Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free discusses new approaches by students and parents who feel ripped off by a conspiracy of publishers, textbook authors, and colleges.

Recognizing the injustice, at least one denizen of academia, Professor R. Preston McAfee of Cal Tech, has forgone the traditional route and a big advance in order to deliver a free download of an economics textbook he has authored. The book is also for sale in an on-demand print edition, but for a fraction of the price that students would have to pay at their college bookstore. “This market is not working very well — except for the shareholders in the textbook publishers,” Cohen quotes Professor McAfee. “We have lots of knowledge, but we are not getting it out.”

Cohen cites other attractively priced approaches to Web delivery of math, science, economics and other big-ticket textbooks. These breakthroughs come along just as tablet-reader technology solutions accelerate. A tipping point may be closer than anyone (except a core group of wild-eyed visionaries like yours truly) could have imagined a few years ago.

- Richard Curtis

Attention Target Shoppers: Your All-Email-All-the-Time Peek is in Aisle Three.

David Pogue in the New York Times announces the imminent rollout - in Target Stores of all places -- of The Peek, a device so single-mindedly dedicated to email that if you dissect it you will find not a trace of a bell nor a hint of a whistle. Go ahead and dissect it: for $100 you can replace it. But don't try to browse the Web on it, check your calendar, watch a video, produce a spreadsheet, or even phone home. You want convergence? Buy a BlackBerry. The only thing The Peek converges with is your email account.

Call it a DumbPhone, but there are a lot of people who don't care, don't want anything more sophisticated and can't afford it anyway.

At a glance The Peek looks like BlackBerry's skinny kid sister in a training bra.

"The first time you turn on the Peek," Pogue writes, "you’re asked for your e-mail address and password. If it’s a Web-based account like Hotmail, Gmail or AOL, that’s all there is to it. The Peek automatically checks for new messages every 5 to 15 minutes, and notifies you with a little chime, a little vibrating buzz and a blinking blue light in the corner. (You can also check on demand.)"

Navigation couldn't be easier, and if you're from the K.I.S.S. school -- Keep It Simple, Stupid -- the Peek is refreshingly fundamental. You can read about it in Pogue's article or visit getpeek.com. Thumbs not included.

My prediction? A runaway hit!

- Richard Curtis

William C. Dietz's Classic McCade Quartet, Bodyguard Available at Last as E-Books

Sam McCade, William C. Dietz's asskicking military science fiction hero, is reporting for action in E-Reads' release of the four classic titles chronicling one man's war to prevent the imminent destruction of the Terran Empire. Read Dietz's special introduction to the series in the first novel, Galactic Bounty, then consume the sequels as fast as you can: Imperial Bounty, Alien Bounty and McCade's Bounty.

And here's a bonus: we've also brought back Dietz's tense space thriller, Bodyguard Ride shotgun with Max Maxon on a hairraising trip to get a teenage girl safely back to Earth. Hang on tight: it will not be an uneventful voyage.

Look in this space for news of a paperback edition of Bodyguard coming your way soon.

- RC

Are Editors Necessary? - Part 2

The paternalistic treatment of authors by editors in the Maxwell Perkins era described in Part 1 of this article produced many inequities, for publishers took advantage of many authors who were too ignorant, shy, or well-bred to demand good terms of their editors. Knowing that most authors write for love, publishers tended to assume that they didn't care about writing for money.

Resentment toward publishers over their exploitation of authors created the conditions for the rise to power of literary agents. Read how everything changed, and how we define editors in the 21st century.

Plastic Logic Brings E-Newspaper Closer to Your Doorstep

Driven by the same E-Ink technology that powers Sony's eReader and Amazon's Kindle, Mountain View California's Plastic Logic will soon release a large-screen reader designed to carry your daily newspaper, according to Eric A. Taub in the New York Times. The screen will be twice the size of the eReader and Kindle and just about the same weight but two thirds thinner.

You'll be able to buy it in summer of 2009, but the economics of newspaper subscription haven't been worked out. It could be far more expensive than subscription to the paper version, not even counting the cost of the device itself. In time we may see the newspaper equivalent of Gillette's "Give away the razor and sell the blades," but too much remains to be settled about technology, economics, psychology and customs before the next generation is as comfortable with downloading newspapers as today's aging populace is with ink on newsprint. But with magazines and newspapers dying, the lure of huge savings on downloads may prove overwhelmingly tempting. Though European culture may not be an accurate guide, the iRex'a iLiad newspaper and magazine reader may show us how an Old World society can adapt to a completely new way of reading the daily news.

The Plastic Logic reader (it doesn't have a name yet - you got any suggestions?) also brings us a little closer to the tablet-sized device that will inevitably revolutionize the classroom.

- Richard Curtis

The Cursed, The Seventh Sword and A Handful of Men, by Dave Duncan

Fantasy fans of Dave Duncan will be pleased to know that 8 titles are now back in print. The Cursed, a novel, and two series, The Seventh Sword (all 3 books), and A Handful of Men (all 4 books), are in paperback as well as E-Book editions as of September. Dave is a prolific and wonderful Canadian writer, and in the opinion of his many readers, a master of swashbuckling and magical adventure fantasy.

The Cursed
Reluctant Swordsman, The (Book One of The Seventh Sword)
Coming Of Wisdom, The (Book Two of The Seventh Sword)
Destiny of the Sword, The (Book Three of The Seventh Sword)
Cutting Edge, The (Book One of A Handful of Men )
Upland Outlaws (Book Two of A Handful Of Men)
Stricken Field, The (Book Three of A Handful Of Men)
Living God, The (Book Four of A Handful of Men )

IDPF Reports E-Book Sales Climbed 43% This Year, So Far

According to the latest statistics reported by the IDPF (here), the momentum of new ebook titles added by major publishers this year and the popularity of the Kindle and Sony Reader have had a big effect on E-Book revenues in the publishing industry.

"Trade eBook sales were $4,900,000 for June 2008, an 87.4% increase over June 2007. Calendar Year to Date Revenue is up 43%." - IDPF, Sept. 4, 2008

Looking back a bit farther, in the last 2 years the ebook sector has doubled its revenue; more publishers and more titles have come into the marketplace creating a huge surge. This is what we at E-Reads are proud to see. For many years it seemed E-Books were a sleepy little industry, but the boom in consumer awareness has come from a lot of publishers seeding the growth by adding more and more mid-list and back-list titles, with digital versions finally coming out of the shadow of their print counterparts. Popular proprietary platforms like the Kindle and Reader have assisted publishers in making the decision to invest more in digitization and good DAW (Digital Archive Workflow) practices, because the big names of Sony and Amazon carry a lot of weight in boardroom decision making.

Knowing that the E-Book tide continues to swell, has that given you more confidence to try ebooks or buy a new reading device?

- Michael Gaudet

While There's No New Kindle Until Next Year, Sony Goes To Europe

The excitement for the next generation Kindle, fueled by lots of speculation at Wired.com, was quickly doused with some cold, wet reality from Amazon spokesman Craig Berman. Even though he didn't deny Frog Design were up to something special for the Kindle 2.0, he's quoted as saying "a new version will come out sometime next year at the earliest," in a recent interview with Dow Jones.

So, that leaves another key player in the ebook device market, Sony, some nice wiggle room in the months leading up to the holiday season. Sony has yet to make any announcements about what might be coming down the pipe, but they have just started expanding into Europe, most notably by partnering with Waterstone's, one of the UK's biggest book retailers.

From September 2008 onwards Waterstone’s will be selling the Reader itself in over 200 of their High Street bookshops. And the product is available to pre-order for September delivery now via their online store. - From Sony's Website, here.

It's very likely that this is just the tip of the iceberg for Sony's competitive march against the Kindle. Of course, E-Reads wishes them both the best of success, so we're currently prepping many more titles to be released in both Kindle format through Amazon and as Sony ebooks (and Reader compatible ePub) this fall, supplementing the over 450+ titles we have currently available at the Sony Connect eBook Store and Amazon.

- Michael Gaudet

The Zombie Apocalypse Arrives!

David Wellington first released his zombie trilogy of novels to the internet by publishing them serially through his own website, in the classic cliffhanger tradition. Since then, more of his thrilling, classic monster inspired fiction (zombies, mummies, sorcerers, werewolves, vampires) have been picked up by Random House, bringing his monster-mash writing to a wider audience. Now, E-Reads is proud to release the first e-book editions of Wellington's zombie trilogy, Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet, just in time for Fall 2008 and Halloween. Wellington's zombie apocalypse broadly stretches out from New York City across the world, a nightmare for humanity. If you've ever gotten chills from the dark humor of Romero's Night of The Living Dead or 28 Days Later, or the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, you won't be able to put these books down.

Are Editors Necessary? Part 1

There's been a lot of talk lately about the decline of editing. These are fighting words.

The problem with evaluating this allegation is that everything editors do today is invidiously compared to the accomplishments of that quintessential master, Maxwell Perkins. Every such typo we come across in a published book is a rebuke to the hallowed memory of that figure who has been depicted as gracious, patient, erudite, nurturing, precise, demanding, polite, and modest, a man whose love of authors was exceeded only by his love of good and well-made books. Let's assume that he truly did possess all of the virtues ascribed to him, and more if you wish. I have no desire to desecrate either his memory or his achievements.

Richard Curtis just doesn't happen to think that "Where are today's Maxwell Perkinses?" is a very good question. What questions should we be asking? Click here for some suggestions.