Let's get it straight. I'm been on the Internet since 1993 and can't stop praising the Net as a bridge between readers and writers---not to mention its value as a research tool, distribution mechanism and life-enhancer in general. But here are two Not So Good Things: 1. Writer Stephenie Meyer is complaining that "my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher." Bottom line: "I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on...

In this never-ending debate, DearAuthor quotes Nancy K. Herther, an anthropology and sociology librarian at the University of Minnesota Libraries, who's on the multiuse side. I'd second observations from DA's Jane: "For me, the perfect device would be a slightly larger (6-8″ screen size) iPhone. I don’t mind the LCD. I like the touchscreen, the beautiful video abilities, and the expanded software options." Technorati Tags: iPhone,iPod Touch...

This week Twilight Times Books is locking up the first galleys for The Solomon Scandals, the D.C. newspaper novel on which I've worked, on and off, for three decades. It'll be out in P, not just E, complete with an almost surely memorable cover from Carl W. Scarlborough, who normally designs for Godine, known for its aesthetics. Matt Richtel's approach is just the opposite. The New York Timesman and comic writer has drawn 400 subscribers to his Twitter posts of a novel done in real time. Details: Recently, a handful of creators (present company...

Ten years ago the United States carried 70 percent of the world's Internet traffic. Now? A mere 25 percent, according to estimates from Andrew M. Odlyzko, a well-regarded specialist in these matters. Just the decentralized nature of the Internet means that America can't control the beast forever. But Luddites in D.C. are unwittingly speeding up the decline. Check out two of the points in Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S., in today's New York Times: "Since passage of the Patriot Act, many companies based outside of the United States...

"Last week Random House announced sales for e-books were already more than double the total for 2007. The trade body, the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) estimates that sales of e-books in March 2008 were 58.9% higher than in March 2007." - The Times in the U.K. The TeleRead take: This is hardly an isolated phenomenon. Also see recent IDPF stats, from which I picked up this image.The Times further reports: "In the first four months of this year Penguin's sales of e-books surpassed all those made in 2007. So far, [chairman and chief executive] John Makinson said, the company had found...

John Platt at RiverWired weighs in, and veteran e-publisher Elizabeth Burton challenges him on various points. The TeleRead take: E probably beats P at least in cases where you're a heavy reader and don't constantly swap out your gizmos. Keep in mind that many people are reading E off multi-purposes devices that they'd be using anyway. What's more, e-book-capable devices can also be used for newspaper reading. In the end just about all of us are heavy readers of something. So what's your current thinking on the above topic? Question: Isn't an e-book a "book"? ...

The Sony Reader will debut in England next week, and the Amazon Kindle may very well be coming to England soon.  A Times of London article article mentions both and has a number of interesting quotes from John Makinson, Chairman and Chief Executive of Penguin.  I suggest you pop over to the site and read the article in full.  This statement interested me the most: Makinson said paper-based books were still his primary business and he didn't see that changing soon. As a result, it is hard to see how it will change the publishing business. Although there is less...

Although I've continued to manage  the TeleRead backend over the years, I've taken a little (involuntary) hiatus from posting on TeleRead for practically the whole summer due to an avalanche of work at my job. So I'm back....to announce that as of September 4.... I'll be taking a three week vacation from TeleRead! I'll be mainly to Germany, Ireland, Kosovo and Albania. I have dual Irish citizenship even though I've never actually been there. I'll be visiting friends in Germany and Kosovo, and I'll be spending a week in Albania (where I worked as a Peace Corps volunteer). Although this trip is...

How can you install the new eReader upgrade safely on your iPhone or iPod Touch, so you can enjoy a progress bar, page numbers and other goodies? Nothing is certain with any upgrade of any program. But in the wake of some people's problems, here are helpful tips from Steve Pendergrast, a co-owner of eReader.com and Fictionwise: "We seem to get a handful of reports about losing books each time we release an upgrade. At least in a few cases this was user error: They upgraded by deleting the old version of eReader (which removes all application data...

A tip of the hat to my former colleague Steve Pool for this one. Steve, by the way, is Director of Content Management and Production at VitalSource Technologies, an Ingram company. Steve recently sent me an e-mail to tell me a quick story about his son, a freshman at a local high school, and the Kindle. His son explained how "his World History teacher at Fishers High School, Chris Edwards, told the class to put away the textbooks for the day. He was tired of teaching from the book. Then he surprised the class by unveiling five Kindles...

Book Business Magazine hosted my Kindle webinar, and I had a lot of fun with the presentation. If you missed it, you can still watch it via this archive link which also lets you download my slide deck. We received quite a few questions from attendees and I wasn't able to address them all during the session---so I thought I'd try to tackle a few via a blog post. Here are some of the ones I didn't get to during the webinar: Do you think Sony has lost? Wow, what a loaded question! I think the...

"In the first move by a major American publisher to publish iPhone-ready (and friendly) reference material, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has rolled out applications for four of its reference titles. The titles, which can be purchased in Apple's App Store range in price from $29.99, for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, to $8.99 for Wall Street Words." - PW. The TeleRead take: Amid all the fixation on the Kindle, I'm pleased that HMH also sees possibilities in the iPhone. What's more, the American Heritage Dictionary isn't just shovelware, but rather includes multimedia capabilities, such...