Schlock writer Jim C. Hines, in a commentary on his website, notes, “A certain champion of self-publishing recently decried all of the ‘whiny bitches’ complaining about Amazon, and argued how Amazon treats authors so much better than commercial publishers.” Says Hines, “While there are certainly advantages…
Ever more options for the self-publisher: the new service GetBookCover allows self-published authors to buy an image, add their title and captions using an in-browser editor, and generate and download a cover in a selection of formats, for print and digital distribution. They’re touting themselves…
Another week, another entry into the jostling self-publishing market. Dominic Rushe and Jeevan Vasagar report in The Guardian that on January 19, Apple announced iBooks Author, a software application that helps textbook authors create interactive teaching ‘iBooks’ for the iPad. At first glance, iBooks Author…
The New York bookseller McNally Jackson here posts a fascinating list of its bestselling titles of 2011, but there’s one big surprise: the bestselling thing in the store isn’t a book from a publisher large or small, nor is it a book at all: it’s…
In a fundraising email sent to supporters yesterday, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann offered signed copies of her forthcoming memoir, Core of Conviction, My Story. A stampede ensued as bibliophiles, collectors, and Tea Party faithful raced to place orders before stock disappeared. Catalina Camia reported in USA…
“These are dark days for the book business,” an article in The Economist tells us, citing the shrinking retail space available to book buyers and sellers with the demise of Borders. “Yet the problem is not the supply: writers will still scribble for scraps. Nor…
Lots of reports on the interwebs lately saying the same thing as this commentary from PC World: “Amazon’s Kindle e-reader store has a spam problem, and that isn’t good news for legitimate authors and consumers trying to find their books.” Or, as another PC World…
“Vanity publishing houses in France have been accused of gross incompetence after apparently failing to recognise the manuscript of one of the greatest French novels — Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert,” reports Adam Sage in a Times of London story. The hoax was perpetrated by…
