DictionaryOfObscureSorrows.com includes gems like…
lethobenthos
n. the habit of forgetting how important someone is to you until you see them again in person, making you wish your day would begin with a “previously on” recap of your life’s various plot arcs, and end with “to be continued…” after those will-they-won’t-they cliffhanger episodes that air just before the show goes back into months of repeats.
This Norstat survey had me thinking about an all-you-can-eat ebook offering. How much would I pay now if Kobo or Kindle offered unlimited ebooks for a monthly fee? I would pay $99 a year now. I would pay $49 next year. In five years I would pay $9.99. Who is selling?
Nicholas Hoare bookstore should be getting more credit for their offer to deliver one book recommendation on Twitter on condition followers send them their three past reads.
Indigo should also be getting credit for their recent efforts on twitter. They are giving Kobo’s away @Indigo_Kobo and advance reading copies at their main account. I am not sure why Indigo needs five accounts but I like what they are doing, however fragmented.
Yeah it is NSFW but still an amusing anthem (∞)
Jon Renaut has just launched a site where you can give your ebook away but charge for other things. He has posted his own book as an example. Neat idea.
From Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad Blueprint for a Post-Literate Future
Books are objects defined by how much time it takes to craft them — and to consume them. They cannot be taken in at a glance. They are the distillation of many moments and states of consciousness for writer and reader alike. They slow us down and hold us steady. Books are technologies, too, and if we look at them that way, we should be amazed at how “sticky” they are, despite their lack of social media integration and bulkiness. As things, they have endured for hundreds of years while the rest of our technological society changed around them. We measure technologies by the maxim, “Does it work?” Books have worked.
I have spoken out before about the difference I perceive between pioneers like Allen Lane and the CEOs of the legacy houses — particularly Penguin’s John Makinson.
Author Robin Sloan nails the difference in a post about media inventors:
what’s a media inventor, anyway? Here’s my (totally made-up) definition: It’s somebody primarily interested in content who also experiments with new technology, new processes, and new formats. Allen Lane was a media inventor. Early bloggers were media inventors. Right now, the indie video game scene is full of media inventors.
Remembering Lane as a populist — not as an innovator — is missing the point.
Jeffrey Neuburger’s post at PBS.org had me again thinking how disingenuous it is that Amazon, Kobo, Apple et al don’t use plain language when hawking ebooks. It is a rental system. Call it that. Avoid the obfuscation around formats, lock-in, TPMs, DRM, etc. Don’t confuse on purpose. It is the customer friendly thing to do.
The ebook transition is here, so why aren’t any of my textbooks available on the popular eReaders? Educational and trade publishing are treated as different businesses in the publishing world, hence the two different approaches to digital. It doesn’t help that the popular ebook formats don’t do charts, photos, and tables very well either. But none of that makes any difference to joe consumer.
It just shows how immature the market is. The long view in ebook land is only 6 to 12 months out. Maybe next September.
