The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on the death of the “slush pile”—the old publishing term for the stack of unsolicited manuscripts that would-be authors have submitted in the hope of being selected for publication. (So named because in the old old days, rather than being thrown away, the the waste paper would be rendered down to “slush” for making more paper out of.) The slush pile has been a fixture of publishing for a long time—or at least it had been. In the “good old days”, they represented a potential “rags to riches” story: writer submits manuscript, publishers...

C. A. Bridges, a new contributor, is a newspaper writer and a veteran e-book-reader---his bio appears at the end. Welcome, C.A.! – D.R. Readers of e-books already know this tune. Asked about reading text files on a handheld device, defenders of print proclaim their love for the printed word, the feel of the paper, the experience of holding, owning and reading a physical book, with the sometimes not-so-subtle implication that anyone settling for a text file is somehow less of a reader. This week, as I was wondering what to write about first for TeleRead, my own newspaper helped me out...

Editor's Note: The following is reproduced, with permission, from The Mark, a Canadian Web publication. And speaking of Canada, check out a post on the E/P generation gap---by the Toronto-based Ficbot, who interviewed her dad. - Paul Biba For the last few hundred years, paperbound books have been the dominant form of communicating the written word. Now it may be time for e-books to flourish. In the past year or so, I’ve heard increasingly that books are beginning to be replaced by more "modern" forms of communication; some say this out of worry, others out of excitement. Although...

Editor’s note: Actually the generation gap between Ficbot and Dad isn’t quite as wide as in The Flower Drum Song, source of the above quote. But, yes, he has his own thoughts on e-books vs. p-books. How about your parents or kids? What E/P generation gaps do you notice? – D.R. I've spent all of my e-book years as a 100% reader except for my online writings. During my previous career, I dabbled in the dying journalism industry but have not maintained any contacts there, and my sole “connection” in publishing is my father, who is involved...

Warning: This isn’t just a cute headline. Read Paul Biba’s new post, Better not go on vacation or Adobe DRM will get you, and an Adobe employee’s unofficial reply. – D.R. Small e-bookstores with me-too offering may be doomed to fail, given the stiff competition in this area.  Does Stephen King really need another outlet? But at first glance---I’ll welcome in-depth impressions from readers familiar with the store---Horror Mall has it right. “Horror Mall's mission,” says the FAQ, “is to collect the best independent horror products within a single storefront while marketing indie horror outside of its...

Links via Gary Price at ResourceShelf---along with some comments from me: --Cheaper Books Come at a High Cost to Worthy Literature, in the New York Times. Not only does the Times article discuss pricing issues, but also Wal-Mart’s favoritism toward politically conservative writers such as Glenn Beck. E-books, of course, as I see it, could be one way to bypass the Wal-Marts. In a related vein, see my post headlined Arguing with Idiots: If book chains want to save paper books from the Kindle, why are they so stupid about local needs?  --Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Denies Site...

The uppity Jane Litte, who is to trashy romance novelists what Molly Ivins was to the Bush family, has been blackballed by the Romance Writers of America. Whoops. Ron Hogan at Galley Cat gives RWA its well-deserved comeuppance. I’m proud to say Jane is a TeleRead contributor from time to time....

I sympathize with indie bookstores caught in the crossfire of the price wars between Amazon, Target, Walmart, Sears and others, a situation in part reflecting the price competition from $9.99 e-books. So here’s a little experiment. I’ll give away free copies of The Solomon Scandals---for resale---to the first ten indie bookstore managers who simply promise to read the book and talk it up to customers if they like it. Perhaps they could use shelf-talkers. I’m also of course willing to do remote appearance by Skype---or show up in person, if practical---and otherwise help out. And, yes, if a chain...

Make e-books available legally and conveniently at fair prices. That’s the best single anti-piracy measure. Now consider a new piracy study from France. Ninety-five percent of the pirated e-books discovered---perhaps 6,000 or so---are not online in authorized editions. Granted, this isn’t proven cause-effect; the above percentage could simply reflect the slowness of French publishers in getting their wares online. Just eight percent of the top 50 bestsellers in France are legally buyable in E. Cause-effect or not, I hope that French houses will still consider the wisdom of using attractive legal editions to preempt the...

Barnes and Noble’s forthcoming rival to the Kindle will feature an E Ink screen as expected. But it will be monochrome only. Gizmodo is running all kinds of photos but does not reveal the price of the unit expected to be unveiled officially this month. Intriguing detail: There’ll be “a multitouch display like an iPhone underneath.” What do you think of that, folks?  Wish we had more details on the uses of the multitouch display. Perhaps even for some non-e-book apps? And in color? Yes, if you go by the photo to the left. ...

You don’t own your books for real when you buy ‘em with DRM, as Amazon’s 1984 recall showed us. When will the Federal Trade Commission, the bureaucracy housed in the building to the left, crack down on that---in a truly meaningful way? Just why isn’t the Amazon site full of big, conspicuous reminders mandated by the FTC? So you can bet I was more than a little baffled when the FTC announced hefty fines for bloggers who didn’t play by a newly announced set of rules about free products (PDF alert), including review copies...

Over the weekend some TeleRead folks replied to my post headlined “Should authors have to be talkers? Is multimedia a threat at times to the best lit?” Most disagreed with my concerns. Well, here’s some handy ammo for the folks who say, “No threat to lit.” Russell Brooks, a Canadian writer, paid an actor to read Pandora’s Succession, Brooks’ thriller, to help woo agents and editors. Enjoy the recording here. Yes, this was before Brooks, aka Russell Parkway, sold his book, reports Jeff Rivera at GalleyCat. Brooks still hasn’t made a sale. But...