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.
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