Quotation for the Week of November 27

"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them."
-- Ian Fleming

Quotation for the Week of November 20

"I bought some batteries, but they weren't included."
-- Steven Wright

Oh, Holy Cow! Where Should I Start?

Looks like someone's getting ready for Christmas.

Looks like someone else is, too.

Looks like someone's scrambling to catch up.

What, if anything, does this mean?

So ... Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet? Flip a coin. I guess.

PS: Merry Christmas from Barnes & Noble and James Patterson.

PPS: Given that ereaders seem to be moving toward becoming multimedia devices, information about video format shifting may be useful for those who are more technically oriented than myself (i.e., almost anyone else -- ha ha). For techno-types, if you're interested in geek talk about format shifting, feel free to check out these posts by techno-genius (and sometime quizmaster from Brentwood, England) Paul Downie on his blog Nik Nak's Old Peculiar. It's a two-part discussion on video format shifting: Part 1 and Part 2.

These days, you just never know what information might be useful, right?

Be advised that, although he's a totally right-thinking chap as I've discussed here and will no doubt happily provide a workaround where needed, Paul is not a huge Windoze fan. :)

Quotation for the Week of November 13

"I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way."
-- Carl Sandburg

There's a Whole Lot of Sh*t Going Down

I'll get down to brass tacks.

Here's the deal about Kindle Fire. Awesome.

At least, David Pogue seems to think so. Of course, he's looking at it from a technology expert/reader's perspective. Not an author's point of view.

And there's this whole messy issue of legality that's kind of being swept under the rug. Maybe.

Do you remember copyright law? It still exists. Authors hold copyright to their works. Even if they license those rights to a traditional publisher under a contract. And those contracts define what the publishers can and cannot do with the content under the license granted by the authors. Hello!

But, I'm not blogging legal opinions, okay? I'm just saying. :)

And say what you will about Barnes & Noble, but they aren't going down without a fight.

When I say a fight, I'm talking gloves off and take no prisoners.



War really is hell, isn't it?

But wait! There's more. Kindle is supposed to come to Chile in less than a year and a half.

However, as we know the Big Six isn't quite dead yet.

And believe it or not, there is life after Borders.

How does all this affect independent writers? I have no freaking idea, but I'd keep my eyes and ears open if I were you.

And as always, keep a towel handy and ...

PS: Don't forget about Kobo.

And pay no attention to the man standing behind the CEO. ;)

Quotation for the Week of November 6

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting."
-- Alan Dean Foster

Don't Dance on the Graves of Bookstores

Okay. I'm not one to mince words. So I'll get right to the point.

Ebooks are awesome, right? Authors can make a living by selling their ebooks online. No question.

However, keep in mind that they're getting help. Their work is being sold in (essentially) the Wal-Mart of the online retail world, i.e., Amazon.

Of course, Barnes & Noble is selling ebooks, too. For now.

The question is, can they compete with Amazon over the long haul?

There are other ebook retailers, of course. However, we all know the real money is made with Amazon, because of their algorithms, widespread popularity, etc., etc.

And Amazon is going global, as I've reported here over and over.

Now ... authors can always sell their own books, right? By using companies like this one to set themselves up as retailers.

And ebooks are forever, right?

Well, sure ... but the Internet is a really, really big place.

And your Web site is like this compared to Amazon ...

It's tough for the small guy to compete even in the city ...

But that's life in the hood.

Get the picture? ;)

PS: Why can't we all get along?