Laura Hazard Owen of paidContent brings us this great story about Open Road Media, an e-only publisher that specializes in backlist republications of titles which were not yet available in e-book form. Along with the history lesson on the history of this unique publisher, the article offers six 'lessons' other publishers can learn from what Open Road has done. The lessons include having a marketing plan, playing nice with retail partners, using video for effective promotion, being flexible to changes in the market and in the marketing plan, and knowing when to use good ol' paper. From the article: “The speed of what’s happened...

As reported in The Guardian, the UK and U.S. poetry communities have been seriously upset by a fresh case of plagiarism unearthed online, when British career poet David R. Morgan was found to have copied work from American poet Charles O. Hartman and many others, including apparently Roger McGough. Internet postings of the verse were crucial to the exposure. The Guardian article quotes Northumbria-based poet Ira Lightman, who did much of the online detective work, at length on the value of uploading poetry for cross-comparison. "Put it all online," he told me. "Everyone will be checking for plagiarism soon." Why plagiarize poetry?...

One of the best ways to learn as a writer is to study the work of other writers. And one of the best ways to learn as an entrepreneur is to study other entrepreneurs. So who should you learn from if you are an author who wants to not just write, but sell? Here are three authors whose blogs should be must-reads for you. These authors blog in an engaging, realistic way about not just the craft of writing, but the business side of it too. In no particular order... 1. J.A. Konrath (http://jakonrath.blogspot.ca/) Konrath's blog, affably titled 'A Newbie's Guide to Publishing,'...

13 Lessons from Killing Our College Daily Newspaper and Going Digital (Media Shift) In the seven months since that party, the Revolution has worked in most of the ways we can measure. But we also see flaws yet to be fixed and lessons yet to be learned from our college peers. Here’s more on the results, the lessons and the future of the Revolution. --- Kobo Suspends Google Affiliate and Switches to Rakuten Linkshare (Good e-Reader) Affiliate programs are very popular with booksellers, indie bookstores, authors and online websites. Kobo has been running theirs for a number of years and allows people to earn a...

I'm still loving my Nook HD, and it has become my go-to device. I only use my Nexus 7 for app testing that requires either Jelly Bean or working with widgets. Since the HD goes with me everywhere, I needed a case, and I found a really inexpensive one on Amazon. The Poetic Slimline Portfolio case adds very little bulk to the HD, but it protects it from bumping around in a backpack while still giving access to all ports and buttons. (The picture is a live link to the case on Amazon.) It even offers a magnetic sleep/wake function. I actually...

Fan fiction is an interesting genre. You start with characters that already exist from movies or television shows and create new stories around them. Admittedly, I read my share of fan fiction. Sometimes a show’s run ends too early, or a video game pulls me in so deeply, that I want to read more about the characters (this happened to me with Mass Effect, for instance). Amazon announced Kindle Worlds today, the first commercial platform for writers to create fan fiction and earn royalties. Amazon says it has secured licenses for Gossip Girls, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries. According to Amazon, it...

Never underestimate the power and glory of the American ego. Granted, it can show its bizarre sides—for example, in the antics and hairdo of Donald Trump. And yet I see the good, too. We have the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the rest, not “Library Donors Anonymous.” At least some might bristle at this quest for publicity and immortality, as opposed to pure altruism. But let’s remember that despite all the government-and-corporate-enforced conformity around us, we are still in many ways a national of individualists. Didn’t Walt Whitman title a poem "Song of Myself," notwithstanding such lines as...

Earlier I wrote about the possibility that the new channels of e-book marketing might soon be saturated by the efforts of a new generation of publicists, agents and book promoters—once these had mastered social media and other techniques for getting their message in front of readers—to the detriment of indies or individual self-publishers. Now it seems this is happening before my eyes. To the right is a screenshot of my Hootsuite Twitter feed for the hashtag #pubtip, which as many self-publishers know, is a well-regarded search term for advice and tips for authors, originally started by literary agent Rachelle Gardner in...

An independent children’s publisher has decided to cut ties with Amazon. Barefoot Books has pulled its books from the online retail giant, claiming that it wants to focus on more grassroots types of campaigns, it said in a press release on Digital Book World on Tuesday. Among the issues with Amazon that Barefoot faces is Amazon heavily discounting its books, and Amazon often selling its books before Barefoot has even received advanced copies from the printer. “As entrepreneurs, we admire Amazon and its ground-breaking accomplishments. However, Barefoot’s commitment is to diversity and to grassroots values; to ‘small is beautiful’,” Barefoot’s co-founder and CEO...

An interesting report is circulating the book blogs, alleging that e-book sales in Canada are down almost five percent. I've seen reporting on the Booknet Canada report on at least 3 blogs (for example, here and here and here, but nobody seems quite sure what to make of it. We're selling lots and lots of devices here in Canada, aren't we? We're Kobo's number one country! So what, exactly, are we reading? Are e-book sales on the decline? Here are a few thoughts about what may be going on here: 1. Device Availability is Limited This is partly because the retail scene is limited! We've only just gotten Target here, and it opened...

As already noted in TeleRead, author Ted Heller has recently been bemoaning his woes as a self-publisher in Slate. He's now followed up with a further bulletin on his tribulations as an e-reader, first run on The Weeklings and also aired since on Slate. In particular, he cites the demise of that mobile billboard, the book jacket. Heller takes issue with the fact that Kindles and their ilk never show others your reading choices. "The Kindle tells you nothing about the book that’s being read and therefore nothing about the person reading it," Heller observes—though I'd object that this comes down...

Apple Deems 55 Digital Comics too Hot for in-App Buying (Good e-Reader) On Tuesday, comiXology announced, via its blog, that several comics had been removed from the apps “In order to comply with the Apple App Store guidelines regarding adult or inappropriate content, some new releases were rejected for our iOS app this week. In addition, certain previously released titles that fall outside of these guidelines were also rejected and will be removed from sale.” --- 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novelist Awards Finalists Announced (GalleyCat) Amazon Publishing has revealed the five finalists in each category of its sixth Breakthrough Novel Award competition. --- eBooks on the Decline in...