Articles from April 2009

Google Book Search and Reader Privacy: A Consideration and Call to Action

April 29th, 2009 · 12 Comments

In the coming months, much will be written and said about the Google Book Search settlement. While I do support it in principle, I, like others, have niggles and quibbles and some distinct worries about the specifics. Part of the problem, of course, was that a subset of interested parties created the class, a subset […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Amazon Buys Lexcycle

April 28th, 2009 · 15 Comments

Did you feel the Earth shift a little bit yesterday? Maybe around 1:30 or so Pacific Standard Time (the only time zone that matters!)? Did you Twitter feed seem to be filled with jangly nerves? It turns out that Amazon bought Lexcycle today. Lexcycle? Huh? Who? Erm? Lexcycle is the mighty little company behind the […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Seth Harwood on Podcasting and Social Media

April 21st, 2009 · 7 Comments

Last week, the Internets were treated to a rather whiny post from an author who felt that agents were the only thing standing between her and literary greatness. The truth of the matter is that it’s a tough business out there, and sometimes it takes talent plus a little something extra to get your work […]

File Under: Non-Traditional Publishing

The Publishing Quadrant: Where do you belong?

April 20th, 2009 · 9 Comments

[BS: Today we bring you a guest post from Joanna Penn, from The Creative Penn blog. As publishing changes, we’re seeing increased overlap between worlds that previously seemed like publishing silos. Where do you fall in the quadrant?] There have been a few posts in the publishing blog world recently that seem to set certain […]

File Under: Non-Traditional Publishing

Amazonfail: Post-Mortem

April 15th, 2009 · 22 Comments

Days later, Amazon has maintained corporate silence on the issue of mistakenly flagging certain books as “adult”, a designation that serves to delist a product (not just books) from sales rankings, making it difficult to find them — unless you know how to look — in the Amazon catalog. While it might represent a blip […]

File Under: Square Pegs · The Business of Publishing

Open Letter to Amazon Regarding Recent Policy Changes

April 12th, 2009 · 211 Comments

Dear Amazon, (See updates at the end of the post, including link to official response from Amazon.) Happy Easter (or if it’s Monday morning, happy belated Easter!). It seems the Easter Bunny, while hopping down the bunny trail, left some rotten eggs all over the Amazon site while we were sleeping. Suddenly, many books lost […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Today a Boycott, Tomorrow a Revolution

April 6th, 2009 · 37 Comments

It should come as no surprise that a group of enterprising Amazon customers have joined together to boycott Kindle books priced about $9.99. I’ve been holding my own private boycott for months now, for reasons stated at great length (sorry, Christopher Moore, you were an unwitting catalyst and victim, though another author was a winner). […]

File Under: Non-Traditional Publishing

Enough With The Smell of Books, Okay?

April 1st, 2009 · 28 Comments

If there is one thing we can agree on, in the discussion surrounding digital books, it is that the issue is not “if ebooks ever take off” but “how ebooks will assimilate”. To my mind, too much energy is wasted on the idea that digital books are not the same as physical books. Focusing on […]

File Under: Square Pegs