Just in case you've been living under a rock, yesterday Amazon announced Kindle Worlds, otherwise know as authorized, paid fan fiction (sort of). In response to one of my comments on that post, our own Joanna Cabot linked me to John Scalzi's initial thoughts on the move. I have tons of respect for Scalzi, and I agreed with much of what he said, especially with his opinions of the contract terms (which kind of suck). I didn't agree with quite everything, though. In response to a comment, Scalzi expressed a reasonable concern for how the move will affect fandom communities, and to...

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...

Claire Ryan of The Raynfall Agency posted a pretty good article today on piracy; it includes the agency's thoughts about what authors need to know, along with some practical tips for avoiding piracy of their works. Ryan didn't cover anything new, but she did discuss the basics. I agree with most of what she wrote, but I think she weakened her argument right at the end. Removing DRM and making books available in all territories? That's excellent advice. Readers are far less likely to pirate if they can get your books in the format they like. And if the book is free of...

Summer is almost here, and it's time to find some light vacation reading. If you're a fan of light fantasy and haven't tried The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne, I'd suggest you give them a look. The basic premise is that the main character, Atticus O'Sullivan, is the last Druid, and he's 21 centuries old. He's hardly an old fogey, though. He uses his herb lore to brew a tea that keeps him young and looking about 21. He's got a sidekick, an Irish wolfhound named Oberon, and the exchanges between Atticus and Oberon are among the best parts of the...

DBW featured a press release for BookLikes, a new social reading platform that is supposed to combine the features of Tumblr and Goodreads. I consider one of my roles here is to involve trying things out, and potentially wasting my time so you don't have to waste your. And my reaction to this site? Don't even bother. (Click here to see what TeleRead's Susan Lulgjuraj has to say about BookLikes.) Everyone seems to be wanting to get into the social reading space today, and honestly, I don't think we need yet another one. Especially not one that acts so much like Goodreads....

As soon as I published the post about Astrid being bought by Yahoo and mentioned I was looking for a new app, my in-box started chiming with suggestions. Wunderlist was one of the more interesting ones, and I’ve been checking it out this week. It has some interesting features that make it worth downloading. It’s usable across multiple devices. I currently have it downloaded on my computer, installed on my iPhone and Nexus 7, and there’s even a Web-based interface if I should need it. It mostly looks and acts the same across all devices, so there’s little learning curve as you move from one...

Since the middle of 2011, the London Evening Standard has been focused on increasing literacy in the UK with their "Get London Reading" initiative. To date, they've raised £1 million (about $1.5 million) and helped more than 2,000 children. Now Barnes & Noble and Nook Media have joined the campaign, along with several large UK publishers (Hachette UK, HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House). Last month, Barnes & Noble donated 100 Nook Simple Touch readers to the program, which has allowed volunteer reading helpers to use the e-readers during their work. [caption id="attachment_85168" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo credit: London Evening Standard[/caption] I just checked out...

The New York Times and Reuters ran articles recently that tell opposing stories about Apple's role in agency pricing. In the Times story, the Justice Department paints a picture of Apple as the ringleader of agency pricing. In the Reuters story, Apple insists that it just had tough talks with the publishers about the future of e-books and pricing. Apple had an interesting claim in the Reuters article that had me hunting down some history. Here's their claim: It [Apple] says that e-book demand "exploded" with Apple's iPad launch, and the average retail price of an e-book dropped to $7.34 from $7.97. I can't...

A few days ago, Sony announced they they were launching a large format reader aimed at the educational market. E Ink is making the screen, which has been touted as flexible and durable. Here's the relevant section of the press release: E Ink Mobius will be the first flexible display technology that will go into mass production for a large format digital paper product based on flexible Thin Film Transistor (TFT) technology developed by Sony. Mobius uses a TFT technology that will enable the development of much lighter and rugged products. Mobius displays can weigh less than 50% of the weight of...

And this is why I try very hard not to report on rumors. Last week I wrote about a rumor that Microsoft was considering buying the Nook Media division. Well, the rumor was good for Barnes & Noble stock, which spiked up to $22 a share the day the rumor was announced, and then continued up to almost $24 a share later in the week. (Today it's down to $21.) However, as with many rumors, this one has now been dispelled (maybe, assuming dispelling the "rumor" isn't just part of the big plan.) Insider Monkey says they had an email on Friday...

When I stopped by Amazon this morning to check the Daily Deal, I saw something cool for you Kindle Fire owners. You've got free Amazon Coins! In case you missed the announcement of Coins earlier this year, they were supposed to start in May, and it looks like this announcement is the launch. What can you do with Coins? Buy Kindle Fire apps, games and in-app items at a discount. I dropped by the Coins page, and it looks like the discount ranges from four percent (if you buy 500 coins) to 10 percent (if you buy 5,000). 100 coins equals $1. Since I...

If you've taken advantage of the great sale on the Nook HD (ending today), or if you've had one for awhile and recently upgraded to add the Google Play Store, you might be wondering what apps to add. Here's my list of must-have apps, not available in the Nook App store. 1. Feedly With Google Reader going away this July, you'll need another way to keep track of your feeds. I've been using Feedly for awhile now, and it's an excellent Google Reader replacement. In some ways, I've grown to like it better. For example, I've found its integration with Pocket to...