Psst. I Can Get You the New Dan Brown for 5 Yuan

Raising impossible barriers against foreign commerce in order to protect domestic industry is among the oldest sources of international friction, and China is no exception. But a recent ruling reveals that the industry China is protecting is piracy. By severely restricting imports of American books, music and movies, China extends an umbrella of protection over institutionalized theft of intellectual property.

Don't take our word for it. Take the word of the World Trade Organization, which has just ruled that Beijing has violated international trading rules. Or you can take the word of the New York Times's Keith Bradsher, who writes, "One reason for the slow growth in imports has been China’s restrictions on imported books and other content. Demand is met by pirated copies made in China; the latest Hollywood movies are on DVDs on street corners across China within days of their release, for $1 or less.

Also, because of piracy, Chinese consumers are so accustomed to paying very little for DVDs, or downloading movies or songs free on the Internet, that American movie companies already sell authorized DVDs of their movies for much less in China than in the United States — and still struggle to find buyers.

US trade organizations and commercial exporters of books, songs and films hope that the WTO's ukase will open the door to direct sales to the consumer. Don't bet on it. China will undoubtedly employ a tried and true tactic for keeping that door shut: “'They’ve got a poor record of compliance,'" Bradsher quotes a Washington lawyer. '"They keep filing appeals.'”

Details in W.T.O. Rules Against China’s Limits on Imports

RC

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Hachette Says The Fix Is In as Europe Ponders Googlification

Arnaud Nourry, CEO of Hachette says that Amazon's fixed $9.99 ceiling on the retail price of printed books, which seems to have been picked up by Google and BN.com, could doom hardcover publishing.

“On the one hand, you have millions of books for free where there is no longer an author to pay and, on the other hand, there are very recent books, bestsellers at $9.99, which means that all the rest will have to be sold at between zero and $9.99,” Nourry is quoted in an article by Ben Hall on the Financial Times website. Hachette owns US imprints Little, Brown and Grand Central Publishing among many other worldwide publishing holdings.

Nourry's comments come as the European Commission considers drafting rules and guidelines governing online business. "The changes would be aimed at allowing Internet users to access out-of-print works and so-called orphan works for which it is impossible or very difficult to trace the rights holders," James Kanter of the New York Times quoted a European Union executive in charge of Internet matters. For details of the European plan see Europe Seeks to Ease Rules for Putting Books.

RC

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the Financial Times and the New York Times.

Veterans of Publishing Campaigns Speak, and a Good Listener Records

Jofie Ferrari-Adler, an editor with Grove Atlantic Publishers, has taken it upon himself to conduct, for Poets & Writers, a series of lengthy Q&A's with distinguished editors and literary agents whose careers exemplify values and virtues that are rapidly fading from the daily discourse of the publishing business. It is absolutely incumbent on every member of our community 40 years old or younger to listen to their voices and imbibe their experiences so that you can understand what publishing was like when men and women of charm, taste and integrity walked the earth.

Ferrari-Adler's most recent interview is with literary agent Georges Borchardt, who has represented and in some cases discovered such towering figures as Marguerite Duras, Eugène Ionesco, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Samuel Beckett, Elie Wiesel, John Gardner, Charles Johnson, and even General de Gaulle.

A brief excerpt or two...

J F-A: Let's talk a little about the industry. You've been in it for several decades, over the course of which it's changed a lot, or at least that's what people seem to say. What's your take on that?

GB: It has changed. Mainly it's the shift from individual ownership to corporate ownership. The individuals who owned the firms were, for the most part, the sons of millionaires. They didn't need to take money out of the firm. They lived well before, they lived well during, and they had something very valuable afterward. Knopf became very valuable. Farrar, Straus became very valuable. So the heirs, I suppose, got a good amount of money. But the purpose [of founding those firms] wasn't really to make money. The purpose was the excitement of publishing. It's totally different now. Not so much at Grove/Atlantic or Norton—those are two firms for which what I'm saying doesn't apply—except that they are competing against these giants. So if Grove/Atlantic has a book that becomes a major best-seller, it can't hold on to the author, even if the author has made lots of protestations about how he will never leave the firm because he's in love with all the people who work there. Either he, or his agent, or both, will decide that rather than taking a million from little Grove/Atlantic, they're better off taking six million from somebody bigger. So they are affected by it too. The corporate thing has sort of poisoned the whole industry.

J F-A: What has that meant for writers?

GB: It's mainly meant that they've become products. And that their main relationship is more with their literary agent. In a way it has worked well for the agents. Their main relationship is much more seldom with the editor because the editor's position is very precarious. You've already changed jobs like four times. That was most unusual when I started in publishing. If you were an editor at Knopf, you stayed an editor at Knopf. There are still editors at Knopf who have been there forever: Judith Jones; Ash Green, who just retired; Bill Koshland, who was not an editor but more the business person. When Bill was chairman emeritus, well after Alfred had died and Bob Gottlieb had taken over, he would still take all the royalty statements home and look at them to be sure they were right. Now there's no one on the editorial side of a publishing house who even sees the royalty statements. They have no idea what's on them. They have no idea whether the reserve for returns is outrageous or justified. The person who decides on the reserve doesn't know either. The whole climate has changed.

Ferrari-Adler has also interviewed literary agents Molly Friedrich, Nat Sobel and Lynn Nesbit, editors Janet Silver, Pat Strachan and Chuck Adams, plus a host of young editors and agents. Each Q&A is a gem, and their cumulative effect is to transport us to a culture that is every bit as worth preserving and revering as the our rapidly dwindling glaciers and forests.

Richard Curtis

If your Chiropractor Breaks Your Neck, Shouldn't You Seek a Second Opinion?

Meet Kate Jasper, Marin County, California's own, organically grown, amateur sleuth.

In Jaqueline Girdner's first Kate Jasper novel, Adjusted to Death, the heroine plunges into her career when she visits her chiropractor for a simple spinal adjustment, but instead finds a dead man on one of the tables...dead of a broken neck. And it seems everyone in the chiropractor's office knew the victim, Scott Younger, in one way or another, except for Kate herself. Maggie, Kate's friend and chiropractor, has known Scott for years, as has her staff. Her receptionist, Renee, even dated him. Devi knew Scott from college. Guru-follower, Valerie, accuses Scott of being a drug pusher! And Wayne, Scott's now unnecessary bodyguard, a shy, homely man who almost makes Kate forget her husband has left her, knew him the best of all. But Kate can't forget murder, especially since Wayne is the main suspect. And there's the pesky matter of Kate's fingerprints on the metal bar that broke Scott Younger's neck. Kate Jasper's in for a spine-tingling, bone-chilling adventure.

The Kate Jasper novels have been in e-book format for a while but now you can snuggle up with paperback editions. For a complete listing, click here. And read the author's fascinating dossier on her heroine. Researching real people is hard enough, but researching your own fictional ones - that takes some clever doing!

RC

A Brash Young Space Patrol Officer Faces the Ultimate Challenge

Hero! by Dave Duncan is space opera at its finest and most action-filled, from the bestselling author of fantasy quests, epic tales and swashbuckling adventures. E-Reads has 21 of them.

Vaun, born a peasant in the stinking mud flats of Ult, a thriving colony planet, claws his way to survival and fame by becoming the toughest young officer in the Space Patrol. A veteran of the brutal training academy, he seizes opportunities as they arise, leading the first ship out against a surprise attack by the mysterious Brotherhood. He returns to a hero's welcome as the Brotherhood ship falls to the surface of his home planet in shattered pieces. The Brotherhood is elsewhere unstoppable, though, as neighboring planets, one by one, fall silent, conquered. And then, the Patrol detects a huge spacecraft launched from one of the now-silent worlds and headed for Ult. Facing a challenge greater than he can truly hope to overcome, Vaun sets out to save Ult - for a second time!

RC

The Royal Kennedy Men

Unparalleled by any other family in the history of our nation, the Kennedys have become a legend for the scandals, the love and the mysteries that surround them. The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets uncovers the truth about this long-admired family. Learn what they have endured and the truth about the men who play by their own rules: JFK’s rumored first marriage; President Kennedy’s Oval Office tapes; the night Marilyn Monroe died and the subsequent cover-up; the Good Friday rape case; Teddy Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick tragedy. Unfortunately, not long before publication of the original edition, another celebrated Kennedy man, JFK's son John-John, died in a plane accident.

Nellie Bly is author of the New York Times bestseller, Oprah: Up Close and Down Home, as well as biographies of Barbra Streisand and Marlon Brando.

Here's what one Amazon reviewer says:
Nellie Bly details the peccadilloes of the Kennedy men from the 1900's to the 1990's. We get the lowdown on Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, Judith Campbell, Chappaquiddick, Joe II's jeep accident that left a young woman paralyzed, the drug use and the arrests of the third generation men, and so on. Joe Kennedy Sr. told his sons "If there's a piece of cake on your plate, take it". You have to admire the women that stuck it out with these guys. A good read for those interested in the Kennedys.

- Richard Curtis

Four Big E-Book Stories to Watch

Like tributaries flowing into a river, four events in the past week have come together to increase the depth and breadth of the e-book business. Each bears watching.

1. Discord over the Google Settlement as the September 4 deadline approaches. After Endeavor William Morris Agency voiced its opposition to the opt-in choice for its client-authors, a number of other opponents entered the fray. It will all come to a head at the end of next week.

2. Sony Debuts Wireless. According to Huffington Post, "Sony Corp. plans to offer an e-book reader with the ability to wirelessly download books, injecting more competition in a small but fast-growing market by adopting a key feature of the rival Kindle from Amazon.com."
In December Sony will release the device with a price tag of $399. It features a touch screen and will carry books and newspapers via AT&T's cellular network.

Buried in the story is a Sony announcement that you'll be able to "borrow" ebooks from libraries and view them on their eReader. That appears to be a feature that other device makers have or have even given much thought to. A system like it has been in use at a number of colleges. After a fixed period of time (in Sony's case, 21 days) the loan expires and your e-book vaporizes.

3. Barnes & Noble Teams with IREX to offer New Digital Reader. Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly writes that "Barnes & Noble stepped up its efforts to compete with Amazon and the Kindle, announcing plans to partner with Netherlands-based IREX Technologies to offer a new wireless-enabled digital reading device with access to the 700,000 e-book titles available through the newly launched B&N eBookstore." iRex is a Dutch reading device that has gained some traction in Europe. We hailed it as a Kindle killer a while back, though contenders developed since then are bidding for that title.

One of them is the forthcoming unnamed Plastic Logic reader (we have nicknamed it Teasle until the manufacturer announces the official monicker). And speaking of that, we hope BN.Com will unconfuse us about something. We had the impression that BN had cast its lot exclusively with Plastic Logic. But now it's announced this relationship with iRex. Can someone out there clarify?

And as for Kindle killers, we're calling a moratorium on such declarations until Gen Next of e-reading hardware makes itself known. And we're definitely withholding our blessing until we can read on a full-color screen.

4. Amazon Kindle to launch in Europe next week? Stuff.TV asks whether Kindle is Europe-bound.

The Kindle has proved popular with bookworms in the States, but has failed to launch over here due to licensing issues, leaving British ereaders with a choice between the Sony Reader and the Cool-ER to quench their ebook thirst. However, none of these current offerings have been able to offer the Wi-fi capabilities that is the Kindle's killer feature, enabling wireless downloads of books and delivery of electronic versions of newspapers and magazines direct to the device. It could be that Amazon is hoping to get the Kindle over here as quickly as possible in order to win over the market before the launch of Sony's Daily Edition, announced in the States yesterday.

We'll update you as these four news items unfold.

RC

New Breed of Authors Hustles Own Books to Clubs

When did book clubs become book clubs? That is, how did the book industry evolve from a business model defined by commercial reprinters like Book of the Month Club and The Literary Guild, to one heavily dependent on groups of book-loving - and book-buying - amateurs?

At whatever point we crossed the line from definition #1 to definition #2, the reading circle has become a driving force in book marketing, and the author who knows how to work the clubs has become a formidable promotional machine.

"The focus on book clubs has spurred the evolution of a new breed: the author-hustler, the writer who succeeds in large part because of door-to-door salesmanship," says Mickey Pearlman, a "professional book club facilitator" as Francesca Mari, blogging in The Daily Beast, describes him. In The Book-Club Hustlers Mari details Pearlman's very professional approach to what most of us think of as an informal and loosely organized activity.

Pearlman offers four-hour book-marketing seminars (for $500), focusing on "how to creatively market your book on the Web and in other outlets"—one of those outlets being, of course, book groups. "You’re building an interest in you," Pearlman says, “so they’ll be very likely to buy your next book."

Mari cites the activity of a typical self-promoter, Joshua Henkin, who has made the rounds of more than 175 groups. “With 10 people in each group, that’s 1,750 books sold right there.” Another, Adriana Trigiani, works the clubs by phone, as does Chris Bohjalian. Laura Dave even does hers via Skype.

You can't fault authors for wanting to hustle their goods. But you might get a little squeamish to think that authors and publishers may deliberately be shaping books to appeal to book clubs. Mari reports how one author, Robert Alexander, hired an editor after his novel had been turned down fifteen times.

She told him to shoot for a book-club 'gem', to cut the manuscript from 460 pages to 250 and hone in on the historical fiction. Alexander did and got three offers in eight days. His Viking and Penguin contracts, he says, even state that his books should be around 250 pages. The Kitchen Boy is now in its 22nd printing, and was optioned to be made into a movie by Glen Williamson, the man behind American Beauty and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

We referred to book club members as "amateurs" - by which we mean, literally, those who love books more as a pastime than a profession. But in fact clubs have evolved far beyond the cliché of schoolmarmish intellectuals reading Proust over tea sandwiches. Chelsea J. Carter blogging on PaperBackSwap.com says, "Around the country, book clubs also have become networking tools for young professionals." There is even an instructional book for clubbers: The Book Club Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to the Reading Group Experience by Diana Loevy.

Richard Curtis

ESPN The Magazine Offers Subscription + Insider Website for a Buck

One of my mother's favorite mottoes was "Nothin' for nothin' and damned little for a dollar." I wonder what she'd say if I told her that ESPN The Magazine was offering subscribers - some 2 million of them - one full year of the magazine PLUS free access to Insider, its subscription-only website, for one dollar? The newsstand price for 26 issues of the magazine is $129.74 and a one-year subscription (which includes free access to the website) normally costs $26.00. No matter how you dice it, the magazine's offer is irresistible - less than 4 cents per issue for a year. The offer expires no later than mid-October.

If you're squinting skeptically and wondering what's the deal, you'll want to read an interview with the magazine's general manager, Gary Hoenig, conducted by CNBC's sports business reporter Darren Rovell. Here's Hoenig's explanation in a nutshell:

What we’re trying to do is get people to experiment with our paid Web site, Insider, which magazine subscribers are entitled to but they’re not signing up for at the numbers we had hoped for in the past. So what we’re doing is giving them an opportunity for a year to experience both the magazine and the Web site for only $1 and obviously we hope to get them back to a decent price for the two of them.

Beyond the nutshell is a unique strategy for triggering synergy between a print publication and its related website, something that every newspaper and magazine is trying to do but few are doing very well. By stimulating that synergy, ESPN The Magazine will deliver the most bang for the buck. And when we say buck we mean One buck. When the first year's subscription is coming to an end, the magazine offers what Harry Scherman, founder of Book of the Month Club, called the negative option."The opportunity here is to change the decision making process from opt-in to opt-out," says Hoenig. "...Instead of saying, 'I like this. Am I willing to fill out a credit card form or any other kind of form to get it?' You are now saying, 'Do I not like this enough to say no,' and that’s a very different decision."

Obviously, Hoenig and his team are confident you won't say no. Read Why ESPN The Magazine Is Going To Four Cents.

RC

Get Rich Quick. Sue an Author

Pardon me, but do you have any legal training? I'm thinking of suing someone. My lawyer thinks I'm a crackpot, so I need a second opinion.

Listen to this:

About twenty years ago when I was a volunteer 4th grade teacher I created an adventure aimed at teaching children about government. I instructed the kids to pretend to be on a cruise ship that is blown off course by a storm. They ended up shipwrecked on a tropic island, and in order to survive they had to develop a government.

Fifteen years later, Lost was launched on television and guess what? It's about a passenger jet that crashes on a topical island. Obviously, to cover their trail they changed my cruise ship into an airplane. Other than that it's my exact same idea. And look at the similarities! In my story the kids have to organize; On Lost they have to organize. In my story the kids have to eat disgusting things - same as on Lost. So, I'm thinking of suing the producers of Lost for copyright infringement. Do I have a slam-dunk case or what?

Actually, I hadn't thought of suing until I read that an author named Jordan Scott has brought a lawsuit against bestselling Twilight author Stephenie Meyer alleging copyright infringement. According to Gil Kaufman of MTV. com, Meyer allegedly plagiarized something called The Nocturne written by Scott when was fifteen. She posted it one chapter a time on her website. Here's what Kaufman writes about Scott's claim: "Though Scott's book is set in 15th-century France and details a love affair between a young sorcerer and a teenage girl and Meyer's book chronicles a doomed teenage love triangle between a human, a vampire and a werewolf set in modern times, Williams said the plot lines and some developments — detailed in more than a dozen examples in the suit — match too closely to be a coincidence."

My case is at least as airtight as Scott's. But my lawyer doesn't want to touch it, even on a contingency basis. Here are some of his reasons why.

• Except for fifteen or twenty copies I ran off for my students, I never published my school project.
• The producers and television network had no access to my material. I never submitted my project to them. I never submitted it to anybody. I have no idea how the network got its hands on my property.
• I never registered copyright in my story.
• There is no similarity between the "fixed expression" of my story - the characters, the plot sequence, the narrative or the dialogue - and the characters, plot, narrative and dialogue in Lost.

So that leaves the idea itself, and it's as plain as the nose on your face that the core idea for Lost is identical to my idea. But my lawyer tells me you can't copyright ideas.

I'm really frustrated because I could really use the money and I figure if a cockamamie lawsuit like Jordan Scott's has a shot, so does mine. You don't think I'm a crackpot, do you? Do you?

Richard Curtis

Brit ISPs Defend Rights of Pirates, File-Sharers and Other Freemongers

After Business Secretary Lord Mandelson called for tougher sanctions on those illegally sharing files of copyrighted material, spokespeople for some British Internet Service Providers have howled in righteous pain. Milord's suggestion that parents of file-swapping children might be subject to fines evoked particularly raucous - and predictable - yowls from the likes of Virgin and TalkTalk. Especially when talk of penalties reached 50,000 pounds and repeat offenders would have their plug yanked out of its socket.

Implying that the Secretary practiced an antique morality that requires thieves to be punished, one spokesman for an ISP suggested Lord Mandelson didn't "get" the Internet and proposed such Draconian alternatives as "educating people" and "writing letters to alleged file-sharers." Many a British parent must be trembling today at the prospect of receiving a letter from an Internet Service Provider or, worse, having their children educated about not taking things that belong to others.

Read BBC News's Anger at UK file-sharing policy.

RC

It's Simple: ePub is Open, Except When It's Wrapped in DRM, And Then It's Not

We recently attempted to explain the new ePub standard and did a pretty good job of simplifying it for the lay audience if we do say so ourselves. However, a reader's comment suggests we may have oversimplified it. He introduced the concept of "wrapping" ePub in proprietary shell.

What does that mean and why is it important to you?

The ePub (short for "electronic publication") standard, we explained, was designed to create an open, one-size-fits-all format. We said that Sony was planning to scrap its proprietary anticopying software in favor of ePub, enabling users to read e-books on any reading device that supports the ePub standard.

Well, yes - and no. Here's what a correspondent wrote:

"Unfortunately, Sony's version of ePub, as currently described, will be wrapped in Sony's DRM, so books downloaded to Sony's e-reader will not be readable on other devices. ePub does not necessarily mean open, which should be the goal of IDPF and the reading community."

"DRM" stands for Digital Rights Management, a long way of saying controlled or restricted access to digital content. Proprietary, in other words. Kindle is an example of a proprietary, closed standard.

We referred the question to Michael Gaudet, who frequently unpacks technical complexities for us, and here is what he had to say to our commenter:

What I think you're asking for is a world with no DRM. While you may see it as unfortunate that Sony isn't as forward thinking as you'd like, I'm sure Sony and the IDPF are trying to be as realistic as possible in accommodating the ebook market's suppliers: publishers.

ePub has always been formulated with the anticipation that retailers could wrap it in DRM if they needed to, and many publishers ask for DRM and won't retail ebooks without it. Each ePub retailer needs to consider how to solve the DRM requirements for publishers and customers, and it's never going to please everyone.

The biggest publishers who are still actively specifying DRM controls are members of the IDPF and they made these demands in standards meetings for the ePub format, and retailers like Sony and Content Reserve saw what's coming down the road well in advance of their customers. It would have been suicide for Sony's ebook store to ignore all the content from publishers who require DRM at this time just because it's fashionable to bash DRM.

It's unknown yet whether Sony's ebookstore ePub implementation will be readable on other devices, but chances are that it can be, depending on the other devices' software to unlock DRM from multiple vendors. It's highly likely Adobe's Digital Editions could support Sony's ePub in the future, and if that's possible, then so will other reader platforms that acknowledge ePub.

When customers choose to buy non-DRM books from other retailers that offer them, like Fictionwise, the Sony device is a very welcoming platform for ePub, and I think that's probably more important than Sony's store right now. The opportunity exists to read ePubs with or without DRM, and that's better than where we were a year ago.

Obviously, ePub is not so white, and DRM is not so black. We hope you can live with shades of gray until a true One Size Fits All Standard rules all digital content.

RC

Publishing Glass Half Empty, Half Full? Third Possibility: No Glass At All?

Douglas Rushkoff is author of Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back and he's written a feel-good "Soapbox" guest editorial for Publishers Weekly telling us "why scaling down is good for publishing." I'm not sure the fired, laid-off, and otherwise redundanted victims of last winter's Wednesday of the Long Knives would characterize themselves as joyous forerunners of an upswing in the fortunes of our industry; nor do Rushkoff's opening comments evoke buoyant optimism: "Borders is verging on bankruptcy; Barnes & Noble is closing stores; and major media conglomerates are closing imprints and ejecting talent faster than they gobbled it up in the 1990s."

And how about this passage for making sure we know how dark it has become before the dawn:

Over the past year, we've watched venerable imprints fold into one another and great talent be almost randomly ejected. Knopf's revered name is now subject to the corporate-speak of “Knopf-Doubleday.” HarperCollins created Collins, then crossed it off the spreadsheet, in the process booting Brenda Bowen's children's imprint; one of the most talented publicists in the industry, Larry Hughes; and the brilliant Gillian Blake, whom they had just snatched from Bloomsbury. Doubleday closed Morgan Road and lost an irreplaceable asset: one-woman publishing-powerhouse Amy Hertz.

But if we forcibly restrain cynicism we'll come to his thesis: "While this makes for some bleak headlines in the short term, it bodes well for the future of a publishing industry that operates on a scale more appropriate to the medium we're all creating and selling."

We'll grant him this one: "Publishing is a sustainable industry—and a great one at that. The book business, however, was never a good fit for today's corporate behemoths. The corporations that went on spending sprees in the 1980s and '90s were not truly interested in the art of publishing."

Whether Rushkoff makes the case that the meltdown of the trade book publishing industry is a forerunner of the Age of Aquarius we'll leave to readers of his editorial, We'll Be Back. But some may take exception to his conclusion: "Now that publishing has revealed itself to be a bad growth industry, it is free to rebuild itself as the vibrant, scaled and sustainable business the reading public can support." Even Dr. Pangloss might shrink from such soaring wishful thinking.

All sneering aside, we join the editorialist in hoping that tomorrow will truly be a better day for our poor battered industry.

Richard Curtis

Pub Industry Braces for Schwarzeneggrification of Textbooks

About ten years ago as the digital book revolution got under way in earnest, the industry's pioneers agreed that e-books would take off only when a generation of students had matured and begun demanding its content online.

That day appears to have come. With textbook prices tripling since 1986 and rising at twice the national inflation rate, students are looking at school books the way they looked at music CDs - if there's a cheap or free way to get their hands on them, they will.

"Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet," writes Tamar Lewin of the New York Times, "but many educators say that it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions — or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web."

That will come as welcome news to many of the nation's 17 million students. Both the cost and the weight of book-laden backpacks can be crippling.

But for publishers of textbooks and college bookstores it will feel as if the Death Star has just launched a doomsday weapon. Textbooks are a $5.5 billion industry, representing about 25% of the entire US book market. According to the National Association of College Stores, in 2007-08, students spent an average of $488 on new and used course materials in the college store or its online equivalent. The average price of a new textbook in 2008 was $57, and for a used one, $49. Some textbooks cost over $100 and the total book fees at some schools can exceed $1000 a year.

The loss of a good chunk of that revenue is going to put a big hurt on all who make a living from textbooks (and let's not forget the authors!). Nevertheless, that seems to be the way the world is going. “In five years," says the superintendent of one county serving half a million students, "I think the majority of students will be using digital textbooks”

Though publishers are repurposing their textbook content for online delivery, the pressure by colleges to hold costs down will make digitally delivered content far less profitable than books packaged in hard covers.

The state leading the charge to take textbooks digital is California under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who balked at the cost and half-joked that the weight of printed textbooks was daunting even for him, an international bodybuilding champion. His initiative is to replace high school math and science textbooks with open source digital versions, which are free thanks to the efforts of CK-12 Foundation, a nonprofit group. CK-12 has adapted textbooks to meet state education standards.

"With California in dire straits, the governor hopes free textbooks could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year," writes Lewin in In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History. If the experiment is successful, what happens in California is not going to stay in California.

Cengage Learning, however, is trying another approach: renting textbooks. It will rent them for 40% to 70% off list price for as little as two months and as long as 130 days, according to another article by Lewin. When the rental ends, students have a choice of returning the books or buying them.

One of the benefits of Cengage's business model is author compensation. “'Our authors will get royalties on second and third rentals, just as they would on a first sale,'” Lewin quotes Cengage's CEO. In the traditional model, textbook authors never receive royalties on resales.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Dan Brown Book Killer Shoves McMurtry, Brooks, King Off The Road

September is traditionally the month when publishers release their biggest books. The strategy is to lock bestsellers into bookstores through winter and capture the Christmas sweepstakes. Christmas is by a wide margin bookselling's biggest season.

But major book houses are pulling to the side of the road to let Dan Brown's behemoth The Lost Symbol, with a purported 6.5 million first printing, rush past. Hopefully the vacuum created by its sweep to Number 1 on the bestseller list will suck some other books into its slipstream. Among those books are novels by authors who at any other time would seize and occupy that list - Larry McMurtry, Terry Brooks and Stephen King among them.

Instead, their publishers are scrambling to rearrange publication release dates or reconfigure sales and marketing strategies.

Read about it in this article in London's Times Online. The headline says Brown's book has created "panic" among its rivals. Sara Nelson, former editor in chief of Publishers Weekly, called The Lost Symbol a "book killer."

RC

Cherish Your Privacy? Acxiom Knows 1500 Things About You

"For all the concern and uproar over online privacy," writes Stephanie Clifford in the New York Times, "marketers and data companies have always known much more about consumers’ offline lives, like income, credit score, home ownership, even what car they drive and whether they have a hunting license. Recently, some of these companies have started connecting this mountain of information to consumers’ browsers."

The most effective way this information is disseminated is via the cookies in your computer. Marshall Brain of How Stuff Works defines a cookie this way: "A piece of text that a Web server can store on a user's hard disk. Cookies allow a Web site to store information on a user's machine and later retrieve it. The pieces of information are stored as name-value pairs. For example, a Web site might generate a unique ID number for each visitor and store the ID number on each user's machine using a cookie file."

Like their black and white confectionary counterparts, digital cookies can be enormously beneficial or treacherously dangerous. In fact, they're both at the same time, but unlike the bakery version you can't eat the half you like and ignore the half you dislike. Each use of a cookie makes life easier for you or someone else; it also exposes your privacy and makes you vulnerable to exploitation by third parties. Some of those parties are trying to sell you something. Others may have more ominous motives including capture of your identity and theft of your savings.

"For decades," writes Clifford, "data companies like Experian and Acxiom have compiled reams of information on every American: Acxiom estimates it has 1,500 pieces of data on every American, based on information from warranty cards, bridal and birth registries, magazine subscriptions, public records and even dog registrations with the American Kennel Club." A lot of that data is harvested from the habits, tastes, preferences and relationships disclosed by the cookies you create through normal use of your email and Web browsing. Here is the link to Clifford's article, Ads Follow Web Users, and Get More Personal

Though you can view, manage and delete your cookies, most people don't bother. Like their Sesame Street role model, they are addicted to the convenience but unaware of the tendrils subtly enveloping their privacy and choking off options.

If you read the nutrition information on cookie packages because you're worried about obesity, you absolutely owe it to yourself to read Brain's article to understand what goes into your computer - and, more importantly, what secretly comes out of it, who views it and what they do with it.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Cookie Monster Image Copyright © The Jim Henson Company

A Pair of Lovers Can't Escape the Gravitational Pull of a Tyrant

In Strings by Dave Duncan, Alya's hunches are so consistently right they're surreal. Naturally, someone wants to use her gifts so they can exploit an offworld colony. But Alya meets the grandson of the brilliant and tyrannical director of the world called 4-I and she begins to doubt her own intuition. Cedric has dreamed of becoming a scout and exploring new worlds and when he meets Alya he is more determined than ever to leave 4-I, with her. His grandmother, the director, needs him on 4-I, though, because she has schemes afoot to protect her planet and to cover up a murder and she does not intend to let him go. However, she has underestimated her grandson--and the young woman whose intuition is so strong and whose destiny is linked to Cedric's.

Strings is another gem in E-Reads treasure chest of 21 Dave Duncans. We urge you to read them all.

RC

A Space Trucker Takes a Wrong Turn and Now Everybody's After Him

In Starrigger by John DeChancie, an independent space trucker picks up a beautiful hitchhiker and a trailer-load of trouble. E-Reads has just reissued it with a beautiful cover by our ace designer and production manager Nathan Fernald.

One of the best of the indie starriggers, Jake knows a few tricks about following the Skyway, which connects dozens, or maybe hundreds, of planets. Nobody knows how many and nobody really knows the full extent of the Skyway and much of it remains unexplored. But, somehow, a rumor gets started that Jake has a map for the whole thing and suddenly everybody wants a piece of him: an alien race called the Reticulans, the human government known as the Colonial Assembly, and a nasty piece-of-work called Corey Wilkes, head of the wildcat trucker union TATOO. No matter what Jake does, no matter how many twists and turns he makes, he can't shake any of the menaces on his tail. The Starrigger series continues with Red Limit Freeway and concludes with Paradox Alley, which we hope to bring to you soon.

By the way, we have two authors writing about starriggers, John DeChancie and Jeffrey Carver, who calls his Star Riggers - two words. And two worlds. Check both series out and see how each approaches the theme.

At any rate, if you love John DeChancie's science fiction, get hooked on his "Castle" fantasy series - eight of 'em.

RC

Who Do You Have To Take to Paris To Get Your Book Published?

Do guys read? Fifty top editors in the publishing business say they don't. Listen to Tom Matlack, co-founder of The Good Men Project, telling a tale of woe on Huffington Post:

A year ago my VC partner and I (collectively we have been involved in starting Television Food Network, a 15 million subscriber weekly magazine, and 30 other media-related companies) decided we wanted to publish an anthology of first person stories by men about manhood. We collected a Pulitzer Prize winning author (Charlie LeDuff), an NFL Hall of Famer (Andre Tippett), a New York Times war photographer (Michael Kamber), a Sing Sing inmate gone straight (Julio Medina), a fantasy baseball legend (Mark St. Amant), a poet Laureate (Robert Pinsky) along with normal guys (black, white, straight, gay, rich, poor, married and divorced) with stories to tell about being fathers, sons, husbands and providers at this turning point in man-history.

We hired the best agent in the business, wrote a detailed book proposal, and went shopping for a publisher. Fifty (that's 5-0, including a who's who list of the literary world) turned us down. They told us guys don't read, would never read any kind of anthology, and most certainly wouldn't read an anthology about men. Apparently we are all mindless fools. The publishers also said they were focused exclusively on the "sure-thing" celebrity books in the wake of deteriorating economics. Just about that time we noticed a well-received anthology in the New York Times Review of Books written by women during menstruation.

Matlack decided to go in another direction and his book and documentary film are scheduled for launch in mid-November with a cadre of heavy-hitters and high-profile events. " We are planning events in boy's clubs, fire stations, prisons, and army bases -- where ever guys want to talk."

"Who knows if The Good Men Project will work?" Matlack says. "But at the very least our approach demonstrates the wave of the future. The dinosaurs are dead. It's time for everyone involved in the old book food chain to admit it and develop a holistic approach to something new and exciting."

RC

You Listening, Google? Rocket-fast Japanese Page-Flipper Could Revolutionize Scanning

How's your speed-reading? Ready to go up against a robot? Here's your chance.

A Japanese laboratory has developed a scanner that can turn pages and scan their contents - text and images - at 1000 frames-per-second with a minimum of distortion.
"The system could be used to speed up the digitization process of low-cost e-books and other library data," reports plasticpals, a website devoted to all things robotic.

"The camera uses lights connected to a synchronized control circuit and a laser range projector to estimate the three-dimensional page geometry. This allows it to correct any distortion from the page being turned while at the same time flashing it with uniform, ideal lighting. The 3D data can even be reproduced on a computer."

RC

Google Settlement Under Attack for Making Treasure out of Trash

A major literary agency is urging its authors to opt out of the Google settlement. A lawyer is planning to file his opposition to the settlement.

Where were they when, year after year and decade after decade, a treasure house of literary works was abandoned? Along comes Google with a plan to recover those treasures from the trash heap and now those who abandoned them have become passionate bibliophiles. Or have they just become jealous that someone figured out how to make a profit on properties in which they had no interest?

From where I sit it's not about books, it's about money. In the course of rescuing countless works from the public domain and adding value to works that publishers, agents and authors deemed commercially valueless, Google figured out how to monetize those works. And now those selfsame parties want a piece of something they so recently turned their backs on. It reminds me of the oil producers who abandoned tracts because they couldn't get oil from shale. Then someone figured out how to get oil from shale and now the oil companies claim they've been duped.

Perhaps a better analogy is the story of the Little Red Hen. None of her friends - the cat, the duck, the rat - offered to help her to sow the seeds, water the plants, till the soil, pull the weeds, harvest the wheat, thresh the grain, grind the flour or bake the bread. But when the bread was baked, all her friends wanted a piece.

The Little Red Hen said to them, "You shall have no bread." And the moral of this classic childrens tale is that she had every right to say it to them.

So - why do I smell a cat, a duck, and a rat?

Though Google has sown the seeds, watered the plants, tilled the soil, pulled the weeds, harvested the wheat, threshed the grain, ground the flour and baked the bread, it has, after a concerted effort by responsible author and publisher organizations, worked with our community to make sure that everybody gets a piece of bread. But that doesn't seem to be enough for some who have conveniently forgotten who did all the work, invested all the money, developed the technology, and embarked on a stupendous effort to identify the priceless treasures of civilization's literary heritage and see to it that they will never be lost.

Google also did it to make a profit. And for that they are under attack. Forgive me for wondering about the profit motives of these knights who belatedly ride into our midst with flags of righteous indignation unfurled.

Richard Curtis

Cover of The Little Red Hen, Usborne First Reading series,

As 9/4/09 Google Settlement Deadline Approaches, Authors Guild Recommendations Make Most Sense

I trust we have your attention.

September 4 is Deciding Day for authors trying to figure out whether or not to opt in to the Google Settlement. Though the previous deadline came before the author and publishing community had fully digested the settlement, we've now had time to contemplate the facts in tranquility. The Authors Guild in particular has striven to make authors' options crystal clear. Below is the Guild's own summary of recommendations. We've also appended links to its statement of last October. Finally, a link to the excellent analysis performed by an attorney and published on our site in April of this year.

RC
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All rights granted Google under the settlement are terminable at will by the rightsholder. Licenses that are terminable at will give the rightsholder far more power than a license of defined duration. In book publishing (as in life) all negotiating power comes from the power to say "no." The settlement fully preserves that power for rightsholders, from day one.

By staying in the settlement:
• You aren't limited to the (quite favorable) royalty rate we've negotiated.
• You have the right to veto your publisher's decision to make your in-print book available in any way through the settlement.
• You have the right to block all displays of your out-of-print books, even if rights haven't reverted to you, even if your publisher wants to display the books.
• You have the right to have your work in Google's searchable database and display only snippets to users, blocking all other uses by Google.
• You have the right to change your mind (allow books you'd previously blocked to be displayed; block books you'd previously allowed to be displayed) at any time.
• This is just the start. For a more complete list of benefits, read this.

Authors Guild's original statement last October

Attorney Joy Butler's summary

RC

Readers Digest Association Files for Bankruptcy But Magazine Will Go on - with a Rightward Spin

Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times reports that "the Reader’s Digest Association announced on Monday that it would file for prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for its United States businesses within 30 days." Though it sounds dire (most of us would be concerned if we were $2.2 billion in debt) the restructuring of the company, with its extensive holdings, will bring its debts down to $550 million. Most of us would be concerned to be in debt by that amount too, but the debtholders taking over the corporation seem to feel its manageable.

The jewel in the corporation's crown is the revered magazine, Reader's Digest itself. It will continue operating but at a reduced schedule (10 issues a year instead of 12), a reduced circulation (currently 5.5 million, down from 8 million) and a focus on"socially conservative values," says Clifford. Here's the article in full, and here's a piece we posted a few months ago as this event began unfolding.

RC

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

What is ePub and Why It's Important to You

I've made a rule for myself to ignore an unfamiliar phrase the first couple of times I hear it, but if I hear it a third time I pay attention. If you haven't heard the term "ePub" up to now, you're going to do so with increasing frequency. So maybe you'd better listen up.

If you understand nothing else about e-book readers, at least understand this: they operate either on a closed standard or an open one. If closed, you can read an e-book only on that device. If open, you can read it interchangeably on many devices. Ideally, you should be able to read it on any device.

Music lovers know all about closed systems from Apple's iTunes store, created a few years ago. You could not transfer music from your iPod to non-Apple players.

The most prominent example of an e-reader with a closed standard is Amazon's Kindle. You simply can't download a Kindle title into your cellphone or PDA. Amazon designed its product to keep retail e-book sales inside the Amazon family, and so far the strategy has been a big success. Arguably, however, the success can be attributed to Kindle being the first big commercial e-book reader, and by far the most actively promoted and publicized. Many Kindle owners swear by the device, but with competition mounting from a number of manufacturers and retailers, the next generation of consumers will have more choices. Some of the e-book readers will have a more open format.

Another example of a closed, or proprietary, device is the Sony e-Reader. However, an announcement by Sony of its intention to switch to an open standard will add momentum to the forces arrayed against Kindle. The name of that open standard is ePub. "By the end of the year," writes Brad Stone of the New York Times, Sony "will sell digital books only in the ePub format, an open standard created by a group including publishers like Random House and HarperCollins."

The ePub (short for "electronic publication") standard was developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. IDPF is a trade organization of e-book manufacturers, retailers, software developers and publishers that from the dawn of the industry - 1998 - has been working to create an open, one-size-fits-all format. Think of it as the e-book equivalent of the standard 33 1/3 rpm established for long-playing phonograph records and 45 rpm for singles. "Sony will also scrap its proprietary anticopying software in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe that restricts how often e-books can be shared or copied," writes Stone.

Once Sony switches over to ePub, you'll be able to read an e-book on any reading device that supports the ePub standard. As Stone points out, the battle that will take place around the ePub flag will involve a host of giants, not the least of which is Apple. So, as you shop for your next (or first) e-book reader it is definitely in your best interests to remember the word "ePub".

Read Brad Stone's Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Does Dan Brown Have the Atomic Bomb?

Given the hysterical headline of an article on the Guardian.co.uk's Observer website, either Dan Brown has become a world superpower or the Guardian's staff has contracted a fatal case of Hyperbolicism, or "Hype" for short. Or maybe they've forgotten that the same thing was said about Riding the Bullet, Stephen King's novella, when it was published originally online in 2000. Anyway, here's the headline:

Could Dan Brown's new novel spell the end for the printed word?

And the subheadline:

"Hopes are high for Dan Brown's sequel to The Da Vinci Code, with an ebook version of The Lost Symbol expected to transform a struggling publishing industry."

It's all about the release of Brown's new thriller, The Lost Symbol, set for release on September 15. The Observer says the print run will be six and a half million. After the over-the-moon nuttiness of the headline I'd be inclined to check that figure. We're certainly happy to confirm that Brown's book will be a blockbuster bestseller and we will welcome the e-book edition's appearance at the top of the format's bestseller list. We just suspect that the printed book will still be standing when the book's surge, and the hype, are over.

If there's a nugget of news in this conflated story it's that the e-book will be released simultaneously with the print edition. The business wisdom of simultaneous e-book and p-book publication has been fiercely debated with sharply divided opinions expressed by both pro and con supporters.

RC

How Lucky We Are That The Book Business Is Not Like The Movie Business!

Is the book business beginning to feel like the movie business? An article by the New York Times's Michael Cieply might reinforce the similarities.

Cieply reports that, unlike filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino who landed huge studio deals at the Sundance Film Festival, today's aspiring young movie makers have got to finance everything, investing in themselves on the speculation that lightning will strike in the form of financing and distribution by a major studio. As more and more authors throw in the towel in despair of landing a book deal with a big publisher, they are publishing their own books and underwriting every step from editorial to publicity.

Are there other ways to compare Cieply's description of the film industry with the current state of publishing? Let us count them, and to help you, I've taken the liberty of extracting some of Cieply's descriptions and substituting language that might reinforce the idea that New York is a lot closer to L. A. than a five hour flight on the red-eye.

The glory days of independent film [first novels], when hot young directors [authors] like Steven Soderbergh and Mr. Tarantino had studio [publishing] executives tangled in fierce bidding wars at Sundance [Book Expo, Frankfurt] and other celebrity-studded festivals, are now barely a speck in the rearview mirror. And something new, something much odder, has taken their place.

Here is how it used to work: aspiring filmmakers [authors] playing the cool auteur [literary lion] in hopes of attracting the eye of a Hollywood power broker [major New York literary agent].

Here is the new way: filmmakers [authors] doing it themselves — paying for their own distribution [self-publication], marketing films [books] through social networking sites and Twitter blasts [social networking sites and Twitter blasts], putting their work up free on the Web to build a reputation, cozying up to concierges [maitre d's] at luxury hotels [chic publishing watering spots] in film festival cities [New York] to get them to whisper into the right ears.

The economic slowdown and tight credit have squeezed the entertainment [book] industry along with everybody else, resulting in significantly fewer big-studio [Big Publishing] films [bestsellers] in the pipeline and an even tougher road for smaller-budget independent [midlist books]. Independent distribution [Independent publishing] companies are much less likely to pull out the checkbook while many of the big studios [publishing houses] have all but gotten out of the indie film [midlist book] business.

Had enough? Oh, come on, how about one more for the road! This time, you fill in the right words:

“Everyone still dreams there’s going to be a conventional sale to a major studio,” said Kevin Iwashina, once an independent-film specialist with the Creative Artists Agency and now a partner at IP Advisors, a film sales and finance consulting company. But, he said, smart producers and directors are figuring out how to tap the value in projects on their own.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Strange Wine, 5 Other Harlan Ellisons Back in Paperback at Last

At long last some thirty of Harlan Ellison's finest books are becoming available in paperback. After releasing them as e-books we worked closely with the author to make sure the print editions reflected his stringent editorial standards.

Recently released are Strange Wine , The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, Harlan Ellison's Hornbook, Troublemakers, Partners in Wonder, Stalking the Nightmare and Again, Dangerous Visions. You can see them all on display on Ellison's E-Reads author page.

Many connoisseurs of Harlan Ellison consider Strange Wine to be his finest collection. Though its contents, individually speaking, are not as high profile as some of his other collections, taken as a whole it is an electrifying book. Here's an excerpt from an Amazon reviewer with the handle "Penguin Egg":

It is good news that this book is soon to be republished. It's about time. I've been a fan of Ellison for a quarter of a century and this, by far, is my favourite book of his. If you have never come across Ellison before, you're in for a treat. A master story-teller, he breaks new ground with practically every story, whether it is in the style of the telling - such as "From A to Z, The Chocolate Alphabet"-, or in the subject matter - "Croatoan." Whatever the style or the subject matter, the voice of Ellison is unmistakable, -uncompromising, vivid, funny, and perceptive- so that even if an Ellison story did not have his name above it, you would quickly guess who it was. The stories range from the humorous "Mom" to the serious "In Fear of K." Whatever he writes, he is thoroughly entertaining. What makes this collection of stories different from his others is that this collection has an introduction for every story. With any other writer, this would be an intrusion; but with Ellison, it works, because the man is funny, wise, and entertaining. They are basically a miscellany of anything that Ellison wants to talk about: How he came to write this or that story; where he wrote it; the ideas behind it- and sometimes the connection to the story is tenuous...

And for a delicious appetizer, you won't want to miss Ellison's introduction.

RC

The Soul of a New Operating System: Showstopper! by G. Pascal Zachary

The exclamation point in Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft is no error. You'll undoubtedly add a few of your own when you finish the dramatic inside story of the creation of Windows NT by Wall Street Journal reporter G. Pascal Zachary.

Driven by the legendary Bruce Cutler, a picked band of software engineers sacrifices almost everything in their lives to build a new, stable, operating system aimed at giving Microsoft a platform for growth through the next decade of development in the computing business. Comparable in many ways to the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder, Showstopper! gets deep inside the process of software development, the lives and motivations of coders and the pressure to succeed coupled with the drive for originality and perfection that can pull a diverse team together to create a program consisting of many hundreds of thousands of lines of code.

RC
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Some reviews...

Released in mid-1993, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT software is arguably the best attempt yet at a universal operating system for personal computers, allowing PC users to open a file, move text or graphics, calculate a row of numbers and run several word processors, spreadsheets and other applications at once. With Windows NT (which stands for New Technology), Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates hopes to extend his dominion, with NT serving as the foundation for everything from desktop systems to corporate information networks. Critics, however, observe that the hardware required for NT is expensive and note that a forthcoming Microsoft operating system, Chicago, may eclipse NT. Wall Street Journal reporter Zachary tells how Microsoft wizard David Cutler and his team of programmers, working intensely for five years, overcame technical snafus, thousands of bugs, workplace skirmishes and collapsing personal lives to create Windows NT. This is both an enlightening primer on the management of complexity and a rare behind-the-scenes look at the cutthroat software wars.
Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

*********************
I found this an absolutely riveting read. The book provides a view into a type of company and an approach to software development that is different from anyplace I've ever worked. Many things about it have stuck with me--the perspective on testing an operating system that will have to work with every popular software product; the staffing philosophy at Microsoft; the "eating your own dog food" concept (developers and testers had to actually use NT as they were developing it, thus constantly exposing themselves to its flaws). The author does a good job of telling the stories both of the big players and the worker drones. It's a very personal book about what strikes me as a very impersonal company. It's one of those rare non-technical books that I recommend to people who are new to software engineering. I read it for the first time when I'd just gotten my first software development job, and again several years later, and I didn't enjoy it any less the second time around.
Kevin B. Cohen for Amazon

Plastic Logic Can Call It Whatever it Wants, We're Calling it...

Last month, we completely lost our patience waiting for Plastic Logic to reveal the name of the e-book reader it will be launching next year. "I don't think the company's directors realize how frustrating it is for us to refer to the surname but not the given name." we wrote. "Our frustration has reached the tipping point. We don't want to wait any more." So, we invited readers to make up their own name and offered an award for the one we liked the most.

Today we have a winner. Chris Christoffersen (no relation that we're aware of to the singer-actor, who spells his name Kris Kristofferson) coined the word "Teasle," a truly creative blend of "Kindle" and "Tease." Perhaps Plastic Logic hasn't meant to tease us. Perhaps it truly hasn't come up with a name. That's fine. Until they do, we're calling it The Teasle.

The naming of the gadget is no small matter. Barnes & Noble will be partnering with Plastic Logic to carry its e-books on the newly launched BN.com retail site. So it would be nice, to say the least, if the manufacturers could give BN.com a name to refer to. Meanwhile, for whatever it's worth, a teasel (note the spelling) is an herbaceous plant. Some teasels have medicinal properties. Others, we are reliably informed, are pests.

If Plastic Logic adopts "Teasle" we expect a fat tip.

Richard Curtis

1. Wake Up. 2. Check Messages. 3. Visit Facebook. 4. Pee.

The New York Times's Brad Stone reports that our obsession with the media has overturned our daily routine starting with our very waking moment.

“'It used to be you woke up, went to the bathroom, maybe brushed your teeth and picked up the newspaper,'” Stone cites one observer's comments. “'But what we do first now has changed dramatically. I’ll be the first to admit: the first thing I do is check my e-mail.'”

"This is morning in America in the Internet age," the reporter concludes. "After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cellphones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities."

You can read here about some of the measures families are taking to prevent their lives from being completely taken over by their communications devices.

RC

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Can You Attend Two Circuses With One Behind?

My grandmother used to say You can't attend two circuses with one tuchus. Last time we looked, Google CEO Eric Schmidt possessed one rear end. But he was trying to occupy seats on the executive boards of both Google and Apple and hoping he wouldn't run athwart of the Federal Trade Commission.

He ran athwart of the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC's Bureau of Competition is investigating whether Google and Apple are in violation of antitrust laws aimed at discouraging competitive companies from sharing common board members. The principle is known as interlocking directorates and though it's not not necessary unlawful, when the companies are high profile the government's antennae start to quiver. Are these corporations in the same business? Are they competitive? Would cooperation between them subdue competition, freeze out smaller competitors and tend to create a monopoly? How independent are board decisions at both corporations?

Though two companies may not overtly be subverting each other's independence, they may nevertheless fail to pass what lawyers call the smell test. Wikipedia has this to say on the subject:

Watchdogs point out that interlocking directorates may cause conflicts of interest, poor governance and poor compensation decisions, a lack of fresh perspective, and the concentration of corporate power into a single extended social network. CEO interlocks are seen as a particular concern for potential conflicts of interest. Proving direct harm to stockholders is difficult, though, because there is no clear definition of how much overlap is acceptable, and in any case board members are selected by stockholders' votes.

Not wishing to be suspected of any of the above, Schmidt gave up his seat on Apple. Perhaps the companies had as little in common when they started out as a fruit farm and a phone company. Or in the case of Google and Apple, they felt safe in teaming up against a third party, rival Microsoft. At any rate, in time Google's and Apple's products and services have expanded onto each other's turf to the point where they waved bright red flags in front of Uncle Sam's eyes. "Mr. Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board constitutes a stark admission — Apple and Google had previously played down the issue — that the companies are now directly competing in the crucial race to develop the next generation of software for mobile phones and personal computers." writes Brad Stone in the New York Times.

How? For instance: "In recent weeks Apple rejected two of Google’s applications for the iPhone, including one for Google Voice, a service that allows people to make cheap international calls and send free text messages. The software could have hurt the business of Apple’s partner in the United States, AT&T, which subsidizes the cost of the iPhone and recoups that money through monthly charges," Stone notes. You can read details here.

Tail tucked beneath his tuchus, Eric Schmidt has departed the Apple circus. For now, a front-row seat at Google's will keep him quite well occupied.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Q2 E-Book Sales Leave Previous Records in Splinters

Everybody loves the bearer of good tidings, and Michael Smith, head of International Digital Publishing Forum, is due for another fuerte abrazo thanks to his tidings of another record-setting month and quarter for e-books. Trade eBook sales were $14,000,000 for June, more than double last June's $5,900,000. in fact June was the biggest e-book month ever; the prior record setter was April '09 at $12,100,000.

Second quarter wholesale trade sales reached $37,600,000, exceeding by about one third the $25,800,000 reported for the first quarter of this year.

As we've stated before, the true sales numbers may be even higher than the above chart indicates. Smith reminds us that:

The true sales numbers may be even higher than the above chart indicates. Michael Smith, Executive Director of IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) reminds us that:

• This data represents United States revenues only
• This data represents only trade eBook 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
  

RC

He Should Have Paid the Two Dollars: Student Loses $675,000 Judgment For Downloading FileshareTunes

In a famous vaudeville routine, a man is fined two dollars for spitting in the subway, but his righteous lawyer urges his client to fight the judgment. Every time the lawyer denounces the unfairness of the ruling, the judge bops the defendant on the head with a rubber truncheon, shouting "Pay the two dollars!"

Maybe Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum's lawyer should have counseled him to pay the two dollars. Or, more accurately, the $4,000 that the recording industry demanded of him for downloading copyrighted music from a filesharing website. Or maybe Tenenbaum should have just paid for the 30 songs he originally copped. Instead, his attorney urged him to fight fight fight. According to John Schwartz of the New York Times, "Nearly all of the thousands of people confronted by the industry settle for a few thousand dollars, but Mr. Tenenbaum chose to fight."

He fought fought fought and the Recording Industry Association of America sued him.

He lost lost lost. He lost lost lost to the tune of a $675,000 judgment. That's not the tune Tenenbaum bargained for in 2004 when he downloaded his music at a time when the recording industry went on the warpath to defend its copyrights.

According to Schwartz, Tenenbaum's case was not helped by flamboyant defense tactics by his attorney, which may have been entertaining (they actually quite entertaining) but were not legally persuasive in the eyes of the court.

We report this because of the parallels between the music and book industries. Filesharing and pirate book websites abound, and because many of them are offshore and impossible to prosecute, the next best tactic may be to sue the downloaders. Read Can You Be Sued for Dowhnloading a Book?

Freemongers who think it's cool to thumb their nose at copyright owners might want to take note of Joel Tenenbaum's experience - and just pay the two dollars.

RC

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Authors Guild, William Morris Not on Same Page re Google Settlement

After William Morris Endeavor (a recent merger of two major Hollywood agencies) urged its clients and other agencies and authors to opt out of the Google settlement, Authors Guild swiftly issued a rebuttal, saying WME's memo "contains several errors."

WME's reasoning is summarized by Publishers Lunch, the industry's online newsletter: "Though the primary reason to opt-out entirely is preserve one's rights to pursue independent litigation against Google, WME appears motivated by another argument we've heard circulating among some agents. They simply don't want their clients subjected in any way to the jurisdiction of the blanket agreement."

The Guild on the other hand contends that "unless you want to sue Google, there's no good reason to opt out of the settlement. If you want to allow your book to be searchable in Google's database, and you want to be fairly compensated for Google's use of your work, and you want to retain complete control over whether, and how, your book is displayed or sold to users, you should remain in the settlement.

To read the Guild's statement in its entirety, click here.

Who are we to believe? For the moment there's no need to believe anyone. But as the September 4th deadline for opting in or opting out impinges on us it becomes imperative for all members of the publishing community to study the issues. The WME-Guild debate may appear to fuel our confusion, but it will actually help to dispel it.

For details of the original settlement and background on the issues click here.

Richard Curtis

Shouldn't Publishers Pay Interest on Late Checks?

It happens every recession.

Anyone who has lived through enough business cycles can predict that whenever there's a downturn in the economy book publishers are going to attempt to cancel contracts on overdue books. You can also bet they're going to step up pressure on authors of overdue books to repay advances issued when they signed contracts. Given the double plunge of the national economy and the trade book business, a story by Leon Neyfakh in the New York Observer, Note to Authors: Make Your Deadlines!, comes as no surprise. "Many literary agents are growing increasingly worried that publishers looking to trim their lists will start holding authors to deadlines and using lateness as an occasion to renegotiate advances and, in some cases, terminate contracts altogether," writes Neyfakh.

Authors and agents will ignore Neyfakh's cautionary article at their peril: it is absolutely true that late authors are vulnerable to cancellations and demands for refunds. Though arbitrary or vindictive terminations are rare, a breach of deadline removes an author's most important legal defense against having a late book chopped arbitrarily. And though wholesale cancellations are equally rare, Neyfakh reminds us that the waters are still roiling from HarperCollins's termination of as many as 100 contracts for tardy books back in 1997. Another reason why authors must either deliver their books on time or work out deadline extensions with their editors - and get them in writing.

If you haven't taken these measures, don't despair. There's plenty you can do to defend yourself. This may be a good example of the saying that the best defense is a good offense. A little attitude might make publishers think twice before pulling the plug on the book you've worked on for years - for more years than you contract granted you.

The first thing you need to do remind yourself is that lateness is the medium in which the publishing process is bathed, and publishers are as guilty as authors are. "We breathe late manuscripts and eat late checks and drink late contracts," I observed on one of those occasions that publishers rattled their sabers about coming after delinquent authors.

However dearly publishers would like to turn authors into automatons, the fact is that they are artists, and artists just don't live in the same time zone as the suits who expect their publishing companies to generate the predictable cash flow generated by the pantyhose or shoe store divisions of their global conglomerates. It also behooves publishers to remember that professional authors are proud and conscientious people who would rather take a little extra time to get the work right than to turn in crap on deadline. Nor should it be forgotten that authors are as much motivated by self-interest as publishers are: writers don’t get paid until they deliver their manuscripts. So, publishers can rattle sabers all they want: their book will be turned in when it’s turned in, and if that means a day or week or even a month or longer past deadline, they’ll simply have to grin and bear it.

Whatever the suits might expect, most editors understand that late books are more the rule than the exception, and these men and women are patient, tolerant, resigned and (most of the time) good natured about it. They realize that writers are creative people possessed of a somewhat atrophied internal clock. Writers also have lives to live, and stuff happens to them - the same stuff that happens to editors, except that editors collect their paychecks every week when stuff happens, and authors don't.

For most editors most of the time, a late book isn't the end of the world. Editors are resourceful; a book that falls out of the spring list will, with some muttering and scrambling, be replaced by another. Sure, there’ll be some awkward patches in their catalogs - "Postponed", "Delayed", etc., and some budget considerations will have to be reconfigured - but, short of a late James Patterson or Stephenie Meyer on whose shoulders a year's profit projections rest, few postponements make a dent in a publisher’s bottom line.

Lateness, then, is an understandable and forgivable quality in authors. In publishers, however, it is less excusable. The internal clocks of publishing companies are precisely calibrated – until it comes to paying money to authors. For most trade book houses, the time between the handshake and the arrival of a contract takes several months, as does the time from execution of that contract to the arrival of the advance due on signing. During which time the author is expected to be working in good faith on the manuscript.

Because the editorial departments of publishing companies are usually separated from the accounting departments (they are often located in different states), editors are seldom aware that their author is hurting for money, at least not until some plaintive cry (or homicidal rant or suicide threat) from that author sends them into a frenzy of phone calls and emails to accelerate the check and "walk it through" the corporate precincts. That the author may have been forced to take on other work to boil the pot until the the publisher finally got around to paying up does not always register on editors and their superior officers.

Though delays in processing contracts and payments are the products of normally slow-moving corporate machinery, those delays are sometimes the result of deliberate policies designed to hold onto money as long as possible. And that is simply deplorable, especially these days when the interest to be earned on withheld funds is neglible. I have never known an author to be deliberately late with a book, but I have known many a publisher to be deliberately, or at least suspiciously, late with a check. I have a standing bet with publishers that an author can write a book faster than the publisher can issue a check. Not surprisingly, nobody has taken me up on it.

And so, when publishers start talking about penalizing authors for late manuscripts, I start talking about charging publishers interest for late checks, or withholding the manuscript one week for every week the check is delayed.

Publishing attorneys are scarcely fountainheads of empathy for the hardships of writers and sympathy for the excuses offered by dilatory authors. So, if you don’t think you’re going to make your deadline, negotiate a comfortable contractual extension. And if you’re worried that your publisher is going to pull the plug on your book, it’s a good idea to keep a record of when checks became due and when they were actually received. That way, you have some recourse to fight back or at least plead that your publisher had some responsibility for your delayed book.

Publishers have a great many weapons at their disposal to recoup money paid to authors who fail to deliver their books on time. Contractual language gives them a kind of lien on the sale of the book to another publisher, and it is therefore hard for an author to get away scot-free even if he or she should manage to find another home for the book. Publishers harass authors with demand letters even though everyone knows the authors have long ago spent the money and don't have it to repay. And, though no responsible agent will ever condone it, there is some anecdotal support for the likelihood that if an author strings a publisher out long enough, the demand letters will eventually cease and the matter will fall to the bottom of the publisher's to-do box. For, if the truth be known, publishers realize that it is simply bad public relations to sue an author.

Still, the times being what they are, publishers are much more disposed to give delinquent authors a hard time, and in this regard Neyfakh makes a revealing slip. "Like so many other practices associated with the 'gentleman’s business' that the book business used to be", he writes, "eating advances in the service of good humor has become a luxury most publishers do not indulge in as readily as they once did."

It was not called the gentleman's business, Mr. Neyfakh. It was called the gentleman's profession, and in this incorrect choice of words is all the difference between what publishing was and what publishing has become. But if it truly is a business, publishers need to be more businesslike and pay authors promptly. They might be pleasantly surprised to see the delinquency rate for manuscripts plummet.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Observer.

The Great Game by Dave Duncan

In the midst of the horror of the First World War, a stranger falls from nowhere into the mud and death of Flanders battlefield--bruised, babbling, and stark naked with a remarkable story to tell. The Great Game, the timeless diversion of human gods, a ruthless contest of treachery, magic, betrayal and manipulation, created to relieve the tedium of immortality goes on, weaving through the centuries and across dimensions. After three unaccounted years, bearing scars and secrets from a place he calls Nextdoor, Edward Exeter, wrongly accused murderer and fugitive from the law, has reappeared on Earth. Leaving behind a war of spears and arrows, he has come to do service in a war of artillery and poison gas, fleeing powerful forces on both sides of the guarded, mystical border who have other plans for the young patriot, and ancient prophecies they wish to see fulfilled. In another realm, Edward is Liberator--the one who is to "bring death to Death." Edward wants no part of the prophecy and flees the murderous pursuers from two different worlds. But there is no escaping Destiny and there are obligations to the past and future alike that must be met if civilizations are to survive.

In creating his Great Game trilogy Dave Duncan has stretched his imagination to the limits, and now it's time for you to match the challenge. But fair warning - the going is intense. It always is in the worlds created by one of fantasy's greatest masters - and one of E-Reads' bestselling novelists. Past Imperative flows into Present Tense and then into Future Indefinite, and you'll scarcely have a moment to catch your breath as you shift from one dimension to another in the sure hands of a great storyteller.

The trilogy is available in e-book and print formats.

RC

All-Star Speakers Booked for September WD Conference

The Writer's Digest Conference, scheduled for Friday September 18 through Sunday September 20 2009, is open for registration, and here's a chance to hear a stellar cast of media leaders talk about platform, networking and social media. It convenes at New York City's Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.

Here's a short description.

The Writer's Digest Conference is an innovative and ground-breaking conference, featuring the industry's top forward-thinking speakers, leading sessions on topics relevant to the current state of the publishing world. Chris Brogan, social media genius, is the keynote speaker. Other speakers include Mike Shatzkin, the industry's top publishing consultant; David Mathison, whose online sales success is the new business model; Bill O'Hanlon, one of the country's top motivational speakers; April Hamilton, leading proponent of independent publishing; Jennifer Gilmore, author and former publicity director at Harcourt; Kassia Krozser, editor of BookSquare.com, a leading publishing blog; Christina Katz, author and well-known blogger; Amy Cook, attorney focusing on issues affecting writers and small publishers; independent editors Ruth Greenstein, Linda Carbone, and Alice Rosengard; and Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, whose own podcasts and videocasts have made them superstars in the business; and many more, plus the editors of Writer's Digest!

Yours truly has been invited to serve on a panel chaired by Jane Friedman, Publisher and Editorial Director of Writing Communities at Writers Digest. Come up and say hello!

RC

Magazine Founders Danced as Red Death Waited Outside

"Nothing succeeds like excess," quipped Oscar Wilde, and had he been alive at the launch party for Talk magazine in the summer of 1999 he would certainly have found grist for a score more bons mots. "It seemed as if a new era of media fabulousness had been christened," writes the New York Times's David Carr in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of "The Party," as it was referred to by all who attended. "The Hearst Corporation and Miramax, owned by Disney, decided to finance a new general interest magazine led by Tina Brown, fresh off her triumphs at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, that would lead the national conversation."

Carr's priceless description of the Lucullan event on Liberty Island, illuminated by a fireworks display mounted by pyroliterato George Plimpton, captures a moment in time when wealth, privilege and luxury found their embodiment in a magazine of stunning opulence.

But this was not only the end of a century but the end of an era as well. As the rich and famous partygoers sated themselves with food and drink they paid no heed to the omens that drifted toward their island like nefarious wraiths. It would not be long before these materialized in the shapes of 1's and 0's: a new system for delivering text, pictures and advertising directly to readers without reliance on the medium of print on heavy, glossy paper.

A year earlier the Rocket e-book had been introduced, the first practical electronic book and a forerunner of the Sony Reader, Kindle and other devices capable of delivering the same content as books and magazines for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the price. That such devices could not be displayed on the coffee tables of Hamptons beach houses and Park Avenue duplexes would be of little consequence to class of people that had lost its beach houses, duplexes and its shirts.

If the attendees of the Talk bash sensed any of this they were too dazzled by the fireworks to express it. As in Edgar Allan Poe's Masque of the Red Death the voluptuaries danced while doom waited outside the palace gates.

"Rather than the culmination of a century of press power, the Talk party was the end of an era," writes Carr, "a literal fin de siècle. Flush with cash from the go-go ’90s and engorged by spending from the dot-com era, mainstream media companies seemed poised on the brink of something extraordinary. But that brink ended up being a cliff."

Read about the exquisite last hurrah of the magazine era in David Carr's 10 Years Ago, an Omen No One Saw.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair...

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Kindle Eats Homework; Student Files Lawsuit

The Great Orwell/Kindle Caper has ruffled many feathers. Whether Amazon is legally liable for its actions in pulling two unauthorized Orwell novel files is a matter of debate - one in which we've actively participated (see Did Amazon do the Right Thing?). The issues are cloudier than they appear at first.

That hasn't prevented some who feel victimized from talking lawsuit. One of these, a student named Justin Gawronski, claims he lost more than an e-book (for which Amazon promptly reimbursed victims). Gawronski says he watched in horror as his Kindle copy of 1984 vanished while he was preparing a school paper about the book. He had annotated it, but was now left with a lot of dangling notes that referred to - nothing whatsoever. His grievance is not merely loss of the e-book but annulment of his right to annotate the text, a feature that Kindle proudly promotes.

Though Amazon chief Jeff Bezos was deeply remorseful over the Orwell incident and will certainly strive to liberalize the company's policies, his attorneys will remind him that Amazon must stoutly defend itself from liability, particularly a class action lawsuit that could be damaging to both its purse and its reputation. It gives us no pleasure to support any corporation that throws its weight around but in this case we have to give Amazon its due. If the case ends up in a courtroom Gawronski and fellow class-action plaintiffs will have a formidable opponent citing fine print that most users seldom glance at when they click Accept. See Michael Gaudet's analysis, Reading the Fine Print.

Does Gawronski have a case? Read about the legal issues here.

Richard Curtis

There'll Always Be An England, Except on Sundays

The Internet may achieve what Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm and Der Fuhrer could not - shut down England's Sunday Observer. After 218 years, the revered publication - as much an institution as a newspaper - is in serious trouble and may be shuttered - or worse, converted into a magazine issued on...Thursdays!

The Scott Trust, a charitable foundation that owns the media group that runs the paper, is debating its fate now. With circulation down to 400,000 from well over 1 million twenty years ago, and losses of ten to twenty million pounds annually, that fate seems to be writ large in crimson ink. Indeed, ink of any color seems to be the problem for this and every other newspaper.

Members of the Trust will be forgiven if they resist the Sunday Observer's termination. Founded in 1791, the original newspaper was one year old when Percy Bysshe Shelley was born, and four when John Keats came into the world.

Read Guardian Media Group plots closure of Observer newspaper and weep.

Richard Curtis

What's an Industry without a Trade Publication? Book Biz About to Find Out

"These are challenging times for all media businesses," writes Tad Smith, until last week US CEO of Reed Business Information. It looks like the challenge was too big for Reed to handle: parent company Reed Elsevier, hoping to raise funds to cut down a 5 billion pound deficit, is dumping a bunch of magazines. One of them is Publishers Weekly, the venerated journal of America's publishing industry. Also on the block are Library Journal and School Library Journal. Smith tendered his resignation.

Reed Elsevier doesn't publicly break out income for individual publications but those of a cynical turn of mind might suggest that the sale of PW and its library journals would relieve its owners of all but 4,999,999 pounds of debt obligation. Though it's a big deal to publishing insiders, the hard truth is that it's scarcely a spark on the media industry's radar. In 2008, the magazine's circulation was 25,000 according to Wikipedia, of which about 6000 subscribers were publishers; 5500 public libraries and public library systems; 3800 booksellers; 1600 authors and writers; 1500 college and university libraries; 950 print, film and broad media; 750 literary and rights agents; and assorted civilians. Issues of the magazine circulated widely within these institutions and organizations, increasing eyeballs manifold but adding not a dime of revenue for the beleaguered publication.

The unenviable job of presiding over the disposal of PW and its sisteres falls on acting US CEO John Poulin.

Last winter PW suffered collateral damage as the full brunt of the economic recession hit the publishing industry, leading to wholesale staff firings, closings of divisions, curtailing of frontlist titles, a glut of retailer returns and across-the-board belt-tightening right down to the shocking precedent of making agents split the bill on lunch dates with editors. We had expected PW to chronicle the chaos but not be a victim of it. However, the firing of the magazine's respected and beloved editor in chief Sara Nelson had a feeling of the apocalypse to it. "Me?" I lamented, "I'm in mourning. Sara Nelson was one of us."

"Nelson's hiring four years ago brought a lively voice to the stodgy old news magazine. Her weekly editorials - I haven't kept count but I doubt if she missed more than a handful of issues - were intelligent, thought-provoking, and often fearlessly controversial. She overhauled every section and injected color and sparkle to deadly dull listings and boring announcements. She was a passionate advocate for all the right causes, but she did not disdain gossip and buzz. She wore her love for books and book people on her sleeve."

Though the magazine has soldiered on since then under the leadership of Brian Kenney and has fortified its online presence via PublishersWeekly.com, the drying up of publisher advertising revenue had made the paper magazine so emaciated you can all but slide it under your door. And, as is the case with most other print media, ad revenue for the dotcom edition has not generated enough money to balance the red ink generated by the paper format. The New York Times's Motoko Rich summed it up:

"Like the industry it covers, Publishers Weekly has suffered from a downturn in the retail economy as publishers have stopped advertising their upcoming books in the magazine. In past years, publishers used the magazine as a way to inform booksellers of the buzz on upcoming titles, but now most publishers communicate directly with bookstores and executives at the biggest book chains."

Publishers Weekly has been a compass and a lifeline for book people for 137 years, and we sincerely hope that a savvy team of investors and book industry folks will find a way to turn the business around and restore this indispensable resource.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times and Publishers Weekly.

Novelist Baker Tries Out a Kindle and Finds the Plug Very Much to His Liking

Literary novelist Nicholson Baker (The Mezzanine, Vox, The Fermata) applies his wickedly witty analytical skills to describe his experience with a Kindle in the August 3, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. He strives nobly to give a balanced review but his heart is clearly not in it.

Among his findings:

• Screen color: "It wasn’t just gray; it was a greenish, sickly gray. A postmortem gray."
• The font: "Monotype Caecilia was grim and Calvinist; it had a way of reducing everything to arbitrary heaps of words."
  
• Text to speech: "The robo-reader...was sometimes confused by periods. Once it thought “miss.” was the abbreviation of a state name: 'He loved the chase, the hunt, the split-second intersection of luck and skill that allowed him to exercise his perfection, his inability to Mississippi.'"
• Photographs, charts, diagrams, foreign characters, and table: they "don’t fare so well on the little gray screen."
• Pagination: "Page numbers are gone, so indexes sometimes don’t work. Trailing endnotes are difficult to manage. If you want to quote from a book you’ve bought, you have to quote by location range—e.g., the phrase 'She was on the verge of the mother of all orgasms' is to be found at location range 1596-1605 in Mari Carr’s erotic romance novel 'Tequila Truth.'"
• Transferrability: "Kindle books aren’t transferrable. You can’t give them away or lend them or sell them. You can’t print them."
  
• Not so green: "It’s earth-friendly, too, supposedly. Yes, it’s made of exotic materials that are shipped all over the world’s oceans; yes, it requires electricity to operate and air-conditioned server farms to feed it; yes, it’s fragile and it duplicates what other machines do; yes, it’s difficult to recycle; yes, it will probably take a last boat ride to a Nigerian landfill in five years."
• Not all the news that's fit to print: Newspapers read on a Kindle are "enjoyable if you like reading Nexis printouts."

"The Kindle Times ($13.99 per month) lacks most of the print edition’s superb photography—and its subheads and call-outs and teasers, its spinnakered typographical elegance and variety, its browsableness, its Web-site links, its listed names of contributing reporters, and almost all captioned pie charts, diagrams, weather maps, crossword puzzles, summary sports scores, financial data, and, of course, ads, for jewels, for swimsuits, for vacationlands, and for recently bailed-out investment firms. A century and a half of evolved beauty and informational expressiveness is all but entirely rinsed away in this digital reductio."

Surely Nicholson has some nice things to say about the Kindle, yes? Well, he agrees with James Patterson that "The wind doesn't make the Kindle's pages flutter." And he positively gushes over the plug/USB connector: it "was extremely well designed, in the best post-Apple style. It was a very, very good plug."

Ultimately he has a wonderful experience reading a book on his Kindle. Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer "swept me up." But it's not the device that enthralls him, but the book itself. In fact, he started it on an iPod but "forced myself to read the book on the physical Kindle 2. It was like going from a Mini Cooper to a white 1982 Impala with blown shocks. But never mind: at that point, I was locked into the plot and it didn’t matter."

Bottom line for Nicholson? "Here’s what you buy when you buy a Kindle book. You buy the right to display a grouping of words in front of your eyes for your private use with the aid of an electronic display device approved by Amazon."

It seems pretty clear that Nicholson wrote that judgment before The Great George Orwell/Kindle debacle made us all realize that you don't "buy" anything when you buy a Kindle book: you rent it on a fully revocable basis.

Surely, countless thousand of Kindle users can't be wrong about their beloved e-book reader; the Kindle store testimonials page carries many, many five-star encomia that balance Nicholson's harsh critique. Read A New Page: Kindle and the Future of Reading by Nicholson Baker and make your own judgment.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by The New Yorker.

E-Reads Launches Large Print Program

E-Reads has launched a large print initiative with publication of three popular romance novels that have never appeared in the large print format: Highland Bride by Hannah Howell, Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale, and Love's Wild Desire by Jennifer Blake.

In line with standards recommended by many governments, our large print books are printed in 18-point sans serif fonts for easy and legible reading. We hope that these titles will give pleasure to those for whom access to romance fiction in large print format has been a problem. If so, let us know about it. There are lots more books where these came from!

Richard Curtis

A Bad Hair Day for Marla Shore Is a Great Day for Fans of Nancy J. Cohen's Mystery Series

Permed to Death introduces sassy salon owner Marla Shore, and what an introduction it is! Here's Marla giving grumpy Mrs. Kravitz a perm when the old lady croaks in the shampoo chair. If that isn't enough to give her a bad hair day, handsome Detective Vail suspects Marla of poisoning the woman's coffee creamer! Figuring she'd better expose the real killer before the next victim frizzes out, Marla sets on the trail of a wave of wacky suspects.

Looks like Marla's heading for a bad hair day, but you're heading for some delicious reading as E-Reads publishes nine delightful whodunnits in the Bad Hair Day series by one of America's most beloved women's novelists. The rave reviews will absolutely curl your hair. Oops! Bad hair pun. The thrills will stand your hair up on end. Um, no, not that one either. Well, read all nine books and see how many plays on words you can make up. E-Reads offers them both as e-books and paperbacks.

Read the first chapter of Permed to Death.

RC
*****************************
PRAISE FOR PERMED TO DEATH

Sun-Sentinel: "...an amusing tale, buoyed by a likable amateur sleuth and enhanced by the South Florida atmosphere."

I Love a Mystery: "PERMED TO DEATH is a beauty of a read. The characters are believable,
the mystery is well-plotted, and the suspense is a real manicure ruiner."

Kirkus Reviews: "...a plot with more tangles than an uncombed perm..."

Mysterious Women: "...a fascinating story, with intriguing, sometimes quirky characters, a touch of humor,
a hint of romantic possibilities, and a look at a profession we don't often see in mysteries."

GO Riverwalk Magazine: "Cohen fills her book not only with a close look at the South Florida scene, but a rash of well delineated murders, which keeps the reader's attention right to the end."

Murder on Miami Beach: "A pleasing and interesting cozy that will keep you entertained all evening...The atmosphere is definitely South Florida, the heat, the crazy drivers, the Santeria, but with none of the Miami overtones."

Under the Covers: "PERMED TO DEATH is propelled by strong characters set in a plot full of interesting kinks." (Highly recommended)

Cozies, Capers, & Crimes: "...a funny, suspenseful story...PERMED TO DEATH is a good book to start reading while waiting at your favorite salon for your hair appointment. Just the title alone, ought to get you great service."

MyShelf.com: "Nancy Cohen has styled a novel that is to curl up and die for. A permanent solution to the doldrums."

The Mystery Reader: "...exceptionally clever, amusing, and lively..."

Crescent Blues: "Cohen captures Marla's voice perfectly and makes the Cut 'N Dye salon so real
I could swear I've sat in its chairs."

About.com: "Even if you don't like your current hairstyle, you will love PERMED TO DEATH."

BookBrowser: "PERMED TO DEATH is an entertaining amateur sleuth tale that sub-genre fans will fully enjoy."

Southern Scribe: "...a nail-biting adventure, so schedule a manicure. PERMED TO DEATH is a witty and a well-crafted mystery that will have you guessing till the intense end."

Romantic Times: "...a nicely woven story..." (4 stars)

Fort Myers Life Magazine: "This is a very successful mystery in a new series."