Friskbiskit

The Espresso Book Machine: On its Way to a Drugstore Near You

Finally, the Espresso Book Machine is breaking out of its niche in libraries and a smattering of book stores. According to this article culled from my weekly RWA eNotes Newsletter, a long-awaited development in our ever-changing publishing industry is about to break.  

On Demand Books, the makers of the device that can print and bind a book in as little as five minutes, has partnered with Kodak to piggyback on the Kodak Picture Kiosks located in some 105,000 locations globally. CVS is the major chain mentioned at the moment, but my guess is these will soon pop up all over the place, especially since On Demand Books has also joined up with ReaderLink, which distrubutes books to grocery stores and other general retail outlets.

This is exciting. It could revitalize booksales in grocery and drug stores -- places everyone has to go. That puts books in the paths of folks who might not yet know they want to read them, and that's how commercial fiction thrives. It also presents an alternative for those who are still not comfortable reading ebooks, or don't wish to shell out for an ereader or smartphone.

The initiative is due to launch later this year in the U.S. and expand globally in 2013.

 

How to Alienate Readers, Foster Piracy, and Lose Sales Part 2, the Exciting Conclusion

Okay, so I had a response from All Romance eBooks help desk this morning. They sent me to a different page where I was able to download Adobe's Digital Edition application despite the fact that I'm running Lion and the other page didn't recognize Lion. (Thus the "your system's not up to date" accusation. Hmm, Adobe, project much?) So anyway, I downloaded the damn application and that part worked.

But when I tried to open the file for the ebook I purchased, it still didn't work. Digital Edition didn't recognize it. Well, I'd say there was a pattern here except I've been pretty skeptical about this file all along. It looked to me like a link to a page where the actual download would happen, not the ebook itself. So I decided to try downloading the book again, using Firefox this time, instead of Safari, which I have been using because it's fully featured in Lion.  

Sure enough, the link led me to another page where I was able to download the real file. And it opened in Digital Edition. Finally. Why didn't the link work properly on Safari? Damned if I know.

Now, in the meantime, ARe had confirmed my fear that Stanza won't open a secure epub file. They recommended using Blue Fire, which I already have -- I have seven different ereading applications on my phone. Their advice was to use iTunes to transfer the book to Blue Fire. I couldn't figure out how to do that, so I fell back on my tried and true method of emailing the file as an attachment, opening it in my phone and selecting an app. Stanza was listed! Woo hoo! I tried opening it with Stanza and was told it wasn't compatible. Boo! So, I'm reading it on Blue Fire, which isn't terrible. I have my black background and grey text, but not the font and the line spacing I want, but I guess I'll survive.

The thing is, I've purchased lots of other ebooks, none for more that ten dollars, ever. And every single one of those behaved the way I wanted it to -- downloaded, and opened in the app of my choice -- with no issues. So why did I just spend 13 bucks to work like a dog and wind up with something less than what I actually wanted? Because some companies would rather control my choice of reading platform and wage an ineffective battle against piracy than ever get my return business.

How to Alienate Readers, Foster Piracy, and Lose Sales

So, the university program I teach with is doing Jo Nesbo's book The Snowman for the group reading at the residency coming up in January. I've been asked to lead one of the discussion groups. Today I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and get a copy of the book.

The university does not pay for my copy, by the way. I was already doing some browsing on Amazon, so I looked it up and was dismayed to find that the mass market is not available yet. Hard covers are a pain in my ass. They take up a ton of room, they're heavy, and they hurt when I fall asleep reading and drop them on my face.

Okay, so, fine. For a book I'm going to be analyzing, I'd prefer a hard copy that I can mark up, but, I can mark up an ebook too, and its better than hauling around a hard cover.  But I don't want an Amazon one because I don't like Amazon's attempts to constantly herd me into only buying stuff from them that I can only read on their devices and applications. Also, I read my ebooks on my iPhone and their reading application is far inferior to my fave, Stanza. I read at night. I need a night view. I like to be able to adjust the font face, and the background, and the text colors, and the line spacing so that it's comfortable for me. Fine, I'm picky, but so what? 

So I hie over to my favorite ebook reseller, All Romance eBooks/Omnilit. They have the ebook. It's $12.99! For an ebook! Jeez! Well, fine, I suck it up and I buy the book. But its not available in epub. Just secure epub. Rrrr. Fine. I buy it anyway.

That turns out to be a big mistake because once the file is downloaded, it turns out to be a bunch of gobbledy gook that wont open in Stanza or any of my other applications. I just spent thirteen bucks for nothing. And the first thing I did was not to file a help ticket with ARe/Omnilit (though I have now) but to go to Google and search for a free download.

The only thing holding me back from going through with that is that the only site I could find wants me to install a .exe file that may just eat my hard drive or something. So, I go back to ARe/Omnilit, read thier faq, follow the link to the application they recommend for reading secure epub files and... that website informs me that my system is not up to date enough to download their software, despite the fact that I'm running lion on a MacBook Air I bought a month and a half ago.

For the love of god, people! I just want to read the fucking book on my phone, with a black background, Cochin font in grey, with the lines spaced at 1.25. What's the big fucking deal?

At this point, I'm at the mercy of ARe's tech support that I didn't just throw 13 bucks down the drain, and I'm reasonalby confident that they'll do right by me in the end. I'd just as soon get a refund now, if I can't read the damn thing on Stanza. And you know what I'll do then? Go to the library.

NPR on the future of bookstores

Here's an interesting article</a> offering an optimistic view of the evolving role of independent book stores.

http://t.co/xBKRzQm

The Grandmammy of Apocalyptic Ebook Stories

Came across this link yesterday. An article from British newspaper The Independent entitled Ebooks: The End of the Word as We Know It. Lordy. This one has it all, from the fetishistic adoration of "real books" to the hysterical proclamations of the death of culture. Play the E-books Article Drinking Game with this one and become an instant alchoholic.

There's a lot of hyperbole here, as you might guess from the title. There is also some information quoted that seems grossly innaccurate to me. Agent David Godwin is quoted as saying:

"But all that's going to change now in the US – the price of the e-book is now controlled at $12.95."

$12.95? Did I miss something?

And some terminology that is either Britspeak, which is one thing, or simply not bothering to know what one is talking about, which is another:

The paperback-sized e-books haven't been responsible for all the trouble, but they certainly started it.

He must mean e-readers, right? Those darn e-readers, always causing trouble.

Here's just a couple of my favorite passages:

Less anxious commentators thought the Kindle might be handy to take on holiday, because it was lighter than carrying six books in your luggage.

Few noticed its incendiary power to torch the publishing world. Nicholson Baker, the lofty author of The Mezzanine, called it "an alpenhorn blast of post-Gutenbergian revalorisation".

Holy shit! I'm not sure what that means but it sounds pretty serious.

And then there's this:

And the new phenomenon might indeed have remained a passing fad, had it not been for the involvement of four major companies: Amazon, Sony, Apple and Google. It's their quadrilateral Battle of the e-books that is sending gouts of blood all over the arena.

Gouts of blood! Incendiary blasts of post-Gutenbergian revalorisation! Aieeeee!

Well at least there will be plenty of unsaleable paper books to blot it up all the gore.

You really should just go read this. It's a hoot. If you need any more convincing, here's the porny part. Quoting Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of The Bookseller:

His voice becames dreamy. "Physically bumping into a book, in a shop, in real life. Having a bookseller put it into your hand..."

Are you getting hot yet? I know, it's difficult what with the blood and the blasting horns and all, but close your eyes, and remember the smell and feel of a real book. Yeah... that's it... just lay back and think of moveable type.

 

 

E-books Article Drinking Game: The Lost Weekend Edition

This article from the NYT offers the perfect opportunity to play the e-books article drinking game. I've added a few of my own alternate rules.

Expert you’ve never heard of before predicting percentages:

By the end of this year, 10.3 million people are expected to own e-readers in the United States, buying about 100 million e-books, the market research company Forrester predicts.

Okay, not quite a percentage, but still a prediction from an expert I've never heard of: 1/2 a drink.

Reminder that some people read in the bathtub or on the beach and assertion that e-readers/physical books are superior in this regard:

Ms. Muskat, 29, bought an iPad for her husband, 33, who works at his family’s shoe business, before their honeymoon in June, but quickly discovered that his electronic reading impinged on her old-fashioned reading.

“I brought a book with me and I barely read it,” said Ms. Muskat, a media consultant. “We used to go to the beach and we’d both take out books, but he had an iPad, and it was almost distracting because it didn’t feel like he was reading with me.”

two drinks + half a bottle of vodka for vague wtfery (see in bold).

1 use of phrase “real book” + “smell of a real book”

“She talks about the smell of the paper and the feeling of holding it in your hands,” said Mr. de Halleux, 32, who says he thinks the substance is the same regardless of medium. He added, sounding mildly piqued, “She uses the word ‘real.’ ”

It's happy hour! One drink + clean out the liquor cabinet, drink until you pass out, wake up next morning, puke, then continue drinking.

Will e-books wipe out/kill/decimate/pulverize/HULKSMASH/angry verb real books?

The trend is wreaking havoc inside the publishing industry, but inside homes, the plot takes a personal twist as couples find themselves torn over the “right way” to read.

One drink, plus super extra bonus points for making it personal: Not only are ebooks WREAKING HAVOK in publishing, they're also tearing families apart! Think of the children! Won't SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHIDLREN?!

Since this is the main thrust of the whole article, don't hold back. After all, civilization is falling down around our ears and nobody can stop reading on their Kindle/Nook/Ipad long enough to care! Quick, rob a pharmacy, hop on a plane, break into Steve Jobs house and leave Jeff Bezos/Hemmingway slash on his iPad. Preferably noncon.

FCC Seeks Further Feedback

Here's an article in the NYT about the FCC, Google, Verizon, and net neutrality. I kind of find it comforting to see that the FCC is as confused as I am.

WSJ on E-reading Habits

The ABCs of E-Reading

Borders Hits Impulse Purchase Point for Ereaders

Here's a post from Mashable about how Borders is selling an ereader for $99. For personal electronics that's like the holy grail of price points. I also think it's interesting that they're taking a different strategy than other book sellers. Instead of creating and selling their own device, they're offering customers a wide seletion of ereaders from third-party manufacturers.

37? Really? Wow.

So I downloaded the iBookstore app and I was browsing the interface. And before my story has even begun, let me detour here to bitch a bit. Even if DRM didn't annoy the hell out of me, I don't think I'll be buying a lot from that app because their categories are so broad. For example, you can browse romance, but that's it. No historical romance, no LGBT romance (no LGBT anything as far as I could tell), no paranormal. Just a list of romance books. You pretty much have to know what you want in order to find it. Fortunately, Stanza has a storefront for All Romance eBooks, so if I do decide I want to buy and read books on the phone I'm good.

Any way, back to the iBookstore, to the cool part of the story (don't worry, I'm getting to it, I promise.) The easiest way to browse the romance seemed to be to go down the top rated lists. As you may know, iBookstore has paid top rated lists and free top rated lists. So out of curiousity I scrolled down the free top rated list to see what was there. And at number thirty seven I saw a familiar cover:

No shit! Thaw and Serve, that freebie about Mal's little run-in at the party store that I wrote for a ficlet challenge (and then later posted to Smashwords, who distributed it to Apple, thnk u sw), is #37 on the top free romance list on iBookstore. Is that fucking cool or what?

Techno Odyssey 3: First Post from iPhone

Okay so I downloaded the Typepad app and so far it has been ridiculously easy to use. I even took a picture of Willy (say hi to Willy everyone) and threw that on here just to see how it works. Only downside is no keyboard in landscape mode for some silly reason. Gotta say, so far the new phone is well worth the techno odyssey it took to obtain it.

Techno Lust: The Anticipation

So the Fed Ex tracking page tells me that my iPhone 4 is in transit and likely to arrive at the AT&T store sometime today before 7 pm. Not that I'm excited or anything.

Techno Oddysey Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Okay, so remember how I bought a Pantech Pursuit and wasn't satisfied with it and decided to get an iPhone instead and actually found them in stock only to discover that I'd used up my upgrade discount for two years on the Pantech and would have to pay $700 for the iPhone, after which I went into Best Buy with guns blazing and they took the Pantech back and put in the call to AT&T to reverse the upgrade? That was Monday.

As of this morning, the reversal had still not taken effect. Grrrr. I called AT&T and it turns out that the goateed wank who manages the phone department at Best Buy on John R in Madison Heights had neglected to register the return of the Pantech phone with AT&T. GRRRRRRRR. Fortunately, it all got sorted out and the upgrade was reversed. But of course nobody has iPhones in stock now. Ha ha!

Well, my local Apple store had a few, but as the store was packed when I called, the salesperson was doubtful there'd be any left by the time I got there. Race over to the mall only to once again be turned away empty handed? No thanks.

So I went back to the AT&T store this afternoon and ordered one. It may arrive in as little as four days or as many as ten. Time will tell. Tune in next time for Techno Oddysey 3: Hopefully the Conclusion

Southfield Computer Outlet

The folks who did my repair, quickly and inexpensively, are Southfield Computer Outlet on 28901 Southfield Rd in Lathrup Village, MI 48076 (248-557-2222)

They were really nice, easy to talk to, and saved me a ton of money.

Techno Oddysey

Okay, so the whole time I was working on finishing The Third, I promised myself a new tech toy if I finished on time. And I did finish on time. Ever since I've been researching smartphones and netbooks.  After exhaustive research I narrowed down my netbook decision to the HP Mini and went off to Best Buy.

But when I got there, I was disappointed with the colors (no green!) available and the more the sales people told me about the differences between the different HP Mini's, the more confused I became. I got overstimulated, went to the smart phone section, and bought the first cute green phone with web browsing I spotted. It only cost thirty dollars, so I figured, why not try it out and then I if I want something more fully featured later, I can always upgrade again. (I know, I'm a babe in the woods when it comes to this phone stuff.)

Anyway, two weeks later and I'm finding the new phone is not all I'd like it to be. My techno-lust has not been sated. This past Sat. I go back to Best Buy set on an iPhone. But they don't have them.

Meanwhile, I've been rereading one of my favorite books and getting totally caught up in it. I spend Sat. night (Steve was at a gaming con), reading and dinking on my trusty mac laptop. Do you want to install software upgrades, it asks me? Sure, I say. I go to the ATT site and browse smartphones, open a chat with a cust. rep, and then, as I"m waiting for the rep, go back to my book.

Hours later, I've forgotten about the chat with the rep, and much more disastrously, I've forgotten the installs. I've gotten lost in the book and it's bedtime and I close the laptop and go to bed, blissfully ignorant of my tragic error.

The next morning, the laptop browser screen is frozen. I still don't remember the upgrades.  Force quit isn't working so I do a hard shut down.  The short version is that not only had I contrived to kack the operating system, I also somehow managed to fry the hard drive so bad that disk diagnostics couldn't even find it.

I go back to Best Buy (slow learner). I'm ready to put down cash money for an HP mini netbook but they're out of stock. Still no iPhones either. Or iPads, or anything sexy that connects to the internet, apparently.

That night, my friends Brian and Paul suggest I take the mac to Southfield Computer Outlet, which repairs macs and sells refurbished macs. That's fine, I think, but I'm skeptical that a repair will be affordable and in the meantime, I still haven't satisfied my raging technolust. I decide I want the Sony Vaio P netbook. Even though it's ridiculously expensive. It's pretty, and green. (Detect a pattern yet?)

So the next morning, I hit up my friend Paulette for the loan of her MacBook, so my ass is covered, and shanghai her off with me to go in quest of hot tech. First stop is the sensible one. I take the mac to SCO and am amazed to learn that it will cost well under $200 to replace the hard drive and reinstall the OS. Yay!

That was pretty much the bright spot of the day. The Sony store didn't carry the P series, and the guy there was adamant that I didn't want one, either. He was right. Talking it over with Paulette over chocolate chip cookies I realized that what I really wanted, what would truly make my life complete, was an iPhone 4. Off to the Apple store. They didn't have them either. No, you can't order one, says the sales person. You have to call each day at noon and if their in rush over to buy one.  Really? Yes, she says.

Sigh.

But, I have a friend who recently bought an iPhone at the AT&T store on Woodward. Okay. One more stop, but Paulette really needs to get home and feed her family.

And lo and behold! The AT&T store has the iPhone, the big busting 32 g one that I want anyway. Yay! Success at last! We go to the counter, the saleswoman asks if this phone is an upgrade, or a new line. Upgrade, I say and give her the number.

*sound of screeching brakes comes here*

"You just upgraded to a Pantech Pursuit," she says, a bit accusitorily, I thought. "Yeah," I say, "But I'm returning it."

"You only get one upgrade every two years." And without the upgrade discount, the phone costs $700! Shit!  I learn that I must return to Best Buy, return the Pantech, and get them to revert the upgrade.

Heavy sigh.

I drop Paulette at home, fortify myself for battle with BB customer service, and go in with guns blazing. At  this point, I wasn't taking any chances so I went on the offensive. I was mislead! I'm outraged! I must have this contract reverted now! To be fair, the manager in the phone department did his best. But the way AT&T handles contract reversion is that the salesperson leaves a message on voicemail at a special number (which took him about tweny minutes to find, I swear.) The contract gets reverted and within 48 hours.

Just about the time the AT&T store will run out of iPhones, I'm sure. LOL.

The good news is my laptop was ready, and I was able to put my sim chip back in my original phone and that's working too. At least I can work, and make phone calls, and I should probably just be grateful for that.

So all of this, and now I am exactly where I started off. Same tech, same thwarted technolust still unfullfilled. I've come full circle. Pretty damn hilarious, don't you think?