Exercises:
1.Have you contacted your favorite authors or gone to their websites? Do you like knowing more or less about them? Search for your favorite author; do they have a website or blog? Can you interact with them via web?
I have a good friend who is such an author and I enjoy this type of additional interaction and depth of content.
2. Does the idea of a book being published based on popular vote give you more or less faith in the material?
No, not really. The “American Idol” aspect of voting for favorites doesn’t have much appeal for me, or the obligation that comes with it to vote one way or the other. I’d rather be comfortable just liking what I like. If I learn a favorite of mine has been voted “#1” this week I could feel a little too common and “trendy,” but on the other hand I don’t like learning a favorite has been panned and ridiculed as a loser either.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Publishing Evolution #83: Paper to Pixels (or e-ink)
Exercises
1.Do you prefer paper or pixels? Is getting the material faster on the computer or is reading in a paper form more important to you? Why?
I much prefer paper for my reading medium for books, newspapers and magazines. Although with breaking news I don’t care through what medium I receive it.
I might enjoy reading a novel in pixels, [if it were a text-only work and not lacking any visual aspects the original format contained, i.e. drawings or photos].
But I don’t enjoy scrolling through screen text for pleasure reading, or pressing buttons to turn pages, since that’s too similar to computer work for me. I enjoy handling a book, tracking my progress through the pages as I read, and reaching the simultaneous end of the story and the final pages of the book.
The pleasure of reading a book begins for me with hunting and selecting it; browsing shelves, looking at book spines and cover art, being attracted to a book’s appearance, stlye and personality. As opposed to web pages of book cover thumbnails, and the swarms of pop-up ads surrounding them.
When it comes to book shopping I want to be the one in control. I like to walk the shelves and approach only the books that interest me, instead of trying to bouse on-line and wading through pop-up ads and “suggested” titles by a vendor trying to “target” me.
On the other hand, I enjoy books in another media, since I listen to audiobooks a lot while commuting. It’s a convenient and pleasurable use of my free time that I would otherwise not find for pleasure reading, and as I grow older it’s also easier on the eyes.
2.Does price influence how you get your books or is it availability? Would you pay the same price for a digital book as you would for a paper copy?
A little of both, of course. For book lovers it’s always a mixture of the right book at the right price.
But for most readers I think the decision to read a digital book would come down convenience, price, the amount of choice, and the amount of effort involved in using, carrying and protecting another expensive electronic device during the course of their normal day.
For many I expect it’s also a question of how much time they allot per day with each type of media. Which is to say, when they reach the boredom level and want to change to something else?; reading a newspaper at breakfast, listening to the radio while commuting to work, working all day with a computer screen and keyboard, then returning home to watch a TV or play on a videogame screen…
3.Visit iFiction and look at what it offers. Do you like the idea of preview and then pay?
No, I don’t think I could get comfortable with this method. I don’t like rules or time limits imposed on me when I’m shopping and this method takes a certain amount of control from me and gives it to the publisher.
1.Do you prefer paper or pixels? Is getting the material faster on the computer or is reading in a paper form more important to you? Why?
I much prefer paper for my reading medium for books, newspapers and magazines. Although with breaking news I don’t care through what medium I receive it.
I might enjoy reading a novel in pixels, [if it were a text-only work and not lacking any visual aspects the original format contained, i.e. drawings or photos].
But I don’t enjoy scrolling through screen text for pleasure reading, or pressing buttons to turn pages, since that’s too similar to computer work for me. I enjoy handling a book, tracking my progress through the pages as I read, and reaching the simultaneous end of the story and the final pages of the book.
The pleasure of reading a book begins for me with hunting and selecting it; browsing shelves, looking at book spines and cover art, being attracted to a book’s appearance, stlye and personality. As opposed to web pages of book cover thumbnails, and the swarms of pop-up ads surrounding them.
When it comes to book shopping I want to be the one in control. I like to walk the shelves and approach only the books that interest me, instead of trying to bouse on-line and wading through pop-up ads and “suggested” titles by a vendor trying to “target” me.
On the other hand, I enjoy books in another media, since I listen to audiobooks a lot while commuting. It’s a convenient and pleasurable use of my free time that I would otherwise not find for pleasure reading, and as I grow older it’s also easier on the eyes.
2.Does price influence how you get your books or is it availability? Would you pay the same price for a digital book as you would for a paper copy?
A little of both, of course. For book lovers it’s always a mixture of the right book at the right price.
But for most readers I think the decision to read a digital book would come down convenience, price, the amount of choice, and the amount of effort involved in using, carrying and protecting another expensive electronic device during the course of their normal day.
For many I expect it’s also a question of how much time they allot per day with each type of media. Which is to say, when they reach the boredom level and want to change to something else?; reading a newspaper at breakfast, listening to the radio while commuting to work, working all day with a computer screen and keyboard, then returning home to watch a TV or play on a videogame screen…
3.Visit iFiction and look at what it offers. Do you like the idea of preview and then pay?
No, I don’t think I could get comfortable with this method. I don’t like rules or time limits imposed on me when I’m shopping and this method takes a certain amount of control from me and gives it to the publisher.
Publishing Evolution #82: Print on Demand
Exercises:
1.Visit each of the websites listed above and see what they offer. Is it higher or the same as traditionally published books? Look at some of their published books. Have you read any of them? Would you?
I don’t think I’ve read many examples of this type of published book. And I don’t expect to unless it’s a substantial work, and specific to my interests, [like one I noticed about the pulp fiction hero, Doc Savage]. Vanity press titles always seemed pretty closely related to fanzines to me. I see descriptions of vanity press new releases on a regular basis, since I read the monthly issues of The Ingram Advance magazine, and see the Lightning Source section.
They never seem to be of the best quality, or on topics of much general interest, and usually have poor cover art. Most are by authors writing their life stories, or their deeply felt philosophies, or their metaphysical beliefs and dream visions of other worlds.
I don’t fault them for having the universal human desire to express themselves, or for feeling that their “story deserve to be told.”
I hope for their sake that writing their story fullfills them, without expecting others to have to read it.
2.What do you think of self publishing? As a reader, do you prefer books that have gone through the traditional route and have the confidence of a company’s financial backing, or do you not care how the book got printed, you’re just glad it did?
I enjoy book shopping a geat deal, so in a way I’m grateful that the traditional publishing route weeds the “all-too-common” stories from the market place and off the shelves that I like to brouse. And I appreciate the general level of quality and substance that mass production brings to published books.
But on the other hand I realize that I, myself, have been quite lucky in having had various outlets for my own self expression over the years. I’ve been published in a variety of works, I’ve performed in public many times, and now that I’m a home owner I enjoy “expessing my creative vision” in projects around my house and gardens. So I know the kind of self-expression thrill that vanity press authors are after and I shouldn’t really point fingers.
1.Visit each of the websites listed above and see what they offer. Is it higher or the same as traditionally published books? Look at some of their published books. Have you read any of them? Would you?
I don’t think I’ve read many examples of this type of published book. And I don’t expect to unless it’s a substantial work, and specific to my interests, [like one I noticed about the pulp fiction hero, Doc Savage]. Vanity press titles always seemed pretty closely related to fanzines to me. I see descriptions of vanity press new releases on a regular basis, since I read the monthly issues of The Ingram Advance magazine, and see the Lightning Source section.
They never seem to be of the best quality, or on topics of much general interest, and usually have poor cover art. Most are by authors writing their life stories, or their deeply felt philosophies, or their metaphysical beliefs and dream visions of other worlds.
I don’t fault them for having the universal human desire to express themselves, or for feeling that their “story deserve to be told.”
I hope for their sake that writing their story fullfills them, without expecting others to have to read it.
2.What do you think of self publishing? As a reader, do you prefer books that have gone through the traditional route and have the confidence of a company’s financial backing, or do you not care how the book got printed, you’re just glad it did?
I enjoy book shopping a geat deal, so in a way I’m grateful that the traditional publishing route weeds the “all-too-common” stories from the market place and off the shelves that I like to brouse. And I appreciate the general level of quality and substance that mass production brings to published books.
But on the other hand I realize that I, myself, have been quite lucky in having had various outlets for my own self expression over the years. I’ve been published in a variety of works, I’ve performed in public many times, and now that I’m a home owner I enjoy “expessing my creative vision” in projects around my house and gardens. So I know the kind of self-expression thrill that vanity press authors are after and I shouldn’t really point fingers.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The Future of Media #81: Get Out Your Crystal Ball
Wondering about the future of media is always an exciting daydream!
But I expect future forms, whatever shape they take, will always have to meet certain audience expectations from now on.
Advance Word: viewers will always want to know what entertainment is "coming." Whether in the form of commercials, trailers, news items, web updates, RSS feeds, or even newpapers and magazines, they'll always want something they can quickly scan to know what future offerings to pick and choose.
Watching: as individuals, viewers want to watch what they like, when they like, in a way that's most convenient to them, and with the best possible viewing experience [in 3-D?].
But they'll want to watch what everyone else is watching too.
Be it movie theaters, popular shows, sports events, talk shows, news flashes or awards shows, they'll want to be able to have and share the communal viewing experience, so they can keep current and discuss what's popular with each other. Viewers will always need the media, but they'll need each other too.
Making it their own: the VHS videotape explosion made obvious for the first time the fact that media fans love to collect and own. The future will be intensely more so. Fans will want to save and own copies of DVDs, webisodes, downloads, etc., but will also want to mix, adapt, edit and post to share their own versions [to the extent that copyright law allows]. This will be expected of all future media as well, despite what the media corporations will want to allow.
Favorite Technologies of the Past: I guess for me, being over 50 years old, that my favorite older format would be record albums. They were a large format of audio, with particular handling requirements and gave a unique listening experience. [Albums were played straight through in the sequence the artist determined. They had to be turned over by hand to hear the other side, so the album and the listener had to "work together" to complete the listening experience].
The size of the format and it's packaging allowed for large graphics and quantity of liner notes, providing additional levels of appreciation not really equalled by any format since.
But I expect future forms, whatever shape they take, will always have to meet certain audience expectations from now on.
Advance Word: viewers will always want to know what entertainment is "coming." Whether in the form of commercials, trailers, news items, web updates, RSS feeds, or even newpapers and magazines, they'll always want something they can quickly scan to know what future offerings to pick and choose.
Watching: as individuals, viewers want to watch what they like, when they like, in a way that's most convenient to them, and with the best possible viewing experience [in 3-D?].
But they'll want to watch what everyone else is watching too.
Be it movie theaters, popular shows, sports events, talk shows, news flashes or awards shows, they'll want to be able to have and share the communal viewing experience, so they can keep current and discuss what's popular with each other. Viewers will always need the media, but they'll need each other too.
Making it their own: the VHS videotape explosion made obvious for the first time the fact that media fans love to collect and own. The future will be intensely more so. Fans will want to save and own copies of DVDs, webisodes, downloads, etc., but will also want to mix, adapt, edit and post to share their own versions [to the extent that copyright law allows]. This will be expected of all future media as well, despite what the media corporations will want to allow.
Favorite Technologies of the Past: I guess for me, being over 50 years old, that my favorite older format would be record albums. They were a large format of audio, with particular handling requirements and gave a unique listening experience. [Albums were played straight through in the sequence the artist determined. They had to be turned over by hand to hear the other side, so the album and the listener had to "work together" to complete the listening experience].
The size of the format and it's packaging allowed for large graphics and quantity of liner notes, providing additional levels of appreciation not really equalled by any format since.
The Future of Media #80: Movies
For me, the future of watching movies on-line will depend on whether I can do so dependably, at the time of my choosing, with good sound and focus, and without glitches and delays. Other factors involved are the viewing size [a large enough computer monitor], the availability of the home computer, and the possibility of on-line connection problems.
With DVDs I've come to love the extras, interviews, narration tracks, and chapter stops, [so I can pick up where I left off if I'm watching a movie over several nights].
Movie Trailers: I've loved watching movie trailers on-line for years. I can watch exactly the ones I want to see and avoid those with story lines I'd hate [trailers I'd be forced to watch in the theatre]. Trailers are available to me more quickly and conveniently on-line than almost any other method.
And if I suffer playback problems I haven't invested a lot of time, compaired to trying to watch a TV show or movie on-line and having it fail in the middle.
Movie trailers are even useful to me in my work duties, the reseaching of forthcoming Children's books, since almost every movie released means the publication of tie-in books.
I love watching movies and TV shows. But I also like recording and collecting my favorites, which I can't do from the computer at the moment. Or, I just haven't learned how yet.
With DVDs I've come to love the extras, interviews, narration tracks, and chapter stops, [so I can pick up where I left off if I'm watching a movie over several nights].
Movie Trailers: I've loved watching movie trailers on-line for years. I can watch exactly the ones I want to see and avoid those with story lines I'd hate [trailers I'd be forced to watch in the theatre]. Trailers are available to me more quickly and conveniently on-line than almost any other method.
And if I suffer playback problems I haven't invested a lot of time, compaired to trying to watch a TV show or movie on-line and having it fail in the middle.
Movie trailers are even useful to me in my work duties, the reseaching of forthcoming Children's books, since almost every movie released means the publication of tie-in books.
I love watching movies and TV shows. But I also like recording and collecting my favorites, which I can't do from the computer at the moment. Or, I just haven't learned how yet.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Future of Media #79: TV #80: Movies
THE FUTURE OF MEDIA #79: Television
[Adobe Flash Player says I must get version #10 before I can watch anything here, but I'm not authorized to download anything to my computer myself].
Cast TV - the video clips seemed fuzzy and halting, like stop-motion animation. I started various clips to see if they were worth watching, and when I switched them to Full Screen they wouldn't expand, they'd just start over at the beginning with the commercials. Not worth watching.
TV.com was great! The CBS shows there were clear and quick.
ABC.com turned out pretty good, but I had trouble scrolling around to see everything off screen.
"Joost" had "squat," but I liked UStream since it had video game footage.
The Internet Movie Database: also demanded Flash Player 10 and wouldn't play anything for me.
So some sites were great, others were promising, disappointing and troublesome. But I don't plan on spending a lot of time trying to find the ones that are dependable.
Watching TV on my Cell Phone: not much interest in doing this currently. My phone screen is too small to enjoy, the sound's not good enough, and it's not a feature I want to pay for or use battery power to watch.
And the amount of free time per day that I allot for TV viewing is spent watching at home, and not "on the go." I can see how this might be an option I'd want to keep in mind for "emergencies" though. But I have a great many other options for TV and movie watching already.
Streaming Programs and Posted Videos: I haven't gone looking for streaming programs, but I can think of some types I might be interested in; tropical beaches, or DisneyWorld... hard to say. For me this is the equivalent of staring out the window, and I have so many other things I'd rather be doing.
I'd love to be able to trust computers for watching TV online, but they're still fairly undependable for that for me. And as for the "future of television," watching videos on computers still seems about as haphazard as it was 20 year ago. It still involves skips, jumps, slow downloads, focus issues, computer lock... Added now are slews of pop-up boxes and half-screen sliding windows, connection and buffering problems, and delays that take the control of my TV watching and put it at the finicky moods of the computer.
I'd love to watch movies and TV shows on these sites [on my home computer, of course], but at work had the following difficulties:
Hulu - the index of programs looks very interesting to me, but my computer can't play anything on this site, so I couldn't try this part of the iHCPL exercise.[Adobe Flash Player says I must get version #10 before I can watch anything here, but I'm not authorized to download anything to my computer myself].
Cast TV - the video clips seemed fuzzy and halting, like stop-motion animation. I started various clips to see if they were worth watching, and when I switched them to Full Screen they wouldn't expand, they'd just start over at the beginning with the commercials. Not worth watching.
TV.com was great! The CBS shows there were clear and quick.
ABC.com turned out pretty good, but I had trouble scrolling around to see everything off screen.
"Joost" had "squat," but I liked UStream since it had video game footage.
The Internet Movie Database: also demanded Flash Player 10 and wouldn't play anything for me.
So some sites were great, others were promising, disappointing and troublesome. But I don't plan on spending a lot of time trying to find the ones that are dependable.
Watching TV on my Cell Phone: not much interest in doing this currently. My phone screen is too small to enjoy, the sound's not good enough, and it's not a feature I want to pay for or use battery power to watch.
And the amount of free time per day that I allot for TV viewing is spent watching at home, and not "on the go." I can see how this might be an option I'd want to keep in mind for "emergencies" though. But I have a great many other options for TV and movie watching already.
Streaming Programs and Posted Videos: I haven't gone looking for streaming programs, but I can think of some types I might be interested in; tropical beaches, or DisneyWorld... hard to say. For me this is the equivalent of staring out the window, and I have so many other things I'd rather be doing.
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