An article in the New York Times notes that Web site Scribd now allows independent authors to upload and sell their own books. Scribd’s authors set their own prices and keep 80 percent of the revenue. What’s more, smart authors can choose to keep their books DRM-free. Also, Scribd’s move should help lower the entry cost for first time and niche authors. But if my tastes are typical, there are still formidable market barriers for these smaller authors. Spotting the winners For example, it isnt’t enough to print books---how to spot the good ones? Publishers...

 Moderator's note: I myself am curious if thinness might mean a bit more bending of the case---and more risk to the E Ink display. - D.R. How big should an e-book device be? That's the topic of a discussion at MobileRead, starting on the thread's page 94. Thin is in if you go by the current buzz. One of the Kindle 2's biggest changes is its new sleek form factor. Astak, represented by RobertB on MobileRead, drew thousands of visitors at CES and the company noted: "CES showed thin is what...

What will the next iteration of the Nintendo DS be like? The question is timely, for sales of this popular handheld have begun to slow. Furthermore, the DS-Lite (photo) is almost 18 month old, the typical life span of Nintendo's handheld systems. Next generation DS? At this point, the features of a future design are all speculation, but some of the possibilities would certainly help the DS' e-book credentials. The addition of a media slot would let users load books on a compact flash card and larger screens would also be nice. The focus of all of this redesign...

In David's article on e-slush, I commented on Baen's electronic workflow that uses fans as early reviewers. Subsequently, Pam Uphoff of Baen offered a few more details to share with TeleRead visitors. Just in case you aren't familiar with the publishing world, I'll start by defining the problem. Publishers like Baen accept unsolicited submissions from new writers. These unsolicited manuscripts are added to the bottom of the "slush pile" as they join the queue waiting to be read by an editor. With the advent of electronic submission, the Baen e-slush pile has grown to over a thousand queued manuscripts. Just 40 originals...

Have you tried the open source Zotero yet? It might be the personal "card catalog" you need to maintain your electronic reading collection. You'll even be able to use it in the future as a collaborative tool. This might sound a bit like a sales pitch, but I'm not affiliated with Zotero---just a fan of this noncommercial project. Click on the left image to take a basic tour of Zotero, then visit the tutorial page for more details. Like many powerful products, Zotero is a bit tough to define. Zotero is sponsored by the academic community, and many folks think of...

What is your perfect e-book like? I've seen discussions on the ideal e-reader, but I never jumped in with my opinion. Frankly, I was too confused. One person would argue for a large readable display, while another wanted a shirt-pocket sized reader. And I agreed---I wanted a 12-inch screen that fit into my pocket. A backlit or reflective display? Yep, I wanted both. Make it cheap and add in annotation and wireless data. Whatever the tradeoff, I wanted both choices. Then a few months ago I read about Firefox 3.0. It is designed to support offline web applications. For example,...