News

In The News – Parfumiers are trying to capture the smell of old books

by

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

I have seen many an April Fools joke about making a perfume that smelled like old books but this is now apparently a real thing.  Boing-Boing has the scoop where you can get both perfume and candles that smell like books.

~ * ~

Parfumiers are trying to capture the smell of old books

We’ve been writing about the efforts of parfumiers to make book-smell scents (chemistry, product, hoax) for many years, but the reality has been pretty disappointing — I bought some smell early on and found that I ended up just smelling like vanilla.

Finally, the book-smell industry is moving on and up. The market for products that smell like books is ramping up, with dozens of new products, from Demeter Paperback Cologne (“used bookstore”: paper, violets and potpourri) to Byredo M/Mink (smells like ink); to Kilian Water Calligraphy (“blended to reflect a scent of Chinese ink sliding over rice paper”) to Tokyo Milk Parfumarie Curiosite 17 Paper & Cotton (“coriander, white sage, birch wood, and tundra moss”); and Paper Passion (“the unique bouquet of freshly printed books”).

Read the full post on Boing-Boing

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News – What is the Internet’s Favorite Book?

by

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

It probably isn’t what you are thinking. But I have to agree, I love this book too. Read on to find out how Priceonomics came up with their results.

~ * ~

What is the Internet’s Favorite Book?

By Dan Kopf

Which is the better book: War and Peace or installment one of The Hunger Games? 

If you ask a book reviewer or look at any of the “Best Book” lists compiled by  critics, you would say War and Peace. But what if you asked everyday readers on the Internet?

Over four million members of the website Goodreads have rated the first installment of The Hunger Games on a 1-5 scale, and it has received an average score of 4.36. It currently sits atop a Goodreads crowdsourced list of “Best Books Ever”. By comparison, the average score given by the 150,000 people who have rated War and Peace is 4.10, and it ranks 724th on the “Best Books Ever list”.

It’s no surprise that on a crowdsourced ratings site, a briskly paced young adult novel beat out a dense, 1,000 page philosophical epic about Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. And it’s probably not exactly the same group of people rating the Hunger Games and War and Peace. They likely have different backgrounds and expectations in literature.

Still, Goodreads ratings provide a glimpse into the literature that people actually like the most, and how that might differ from the critics. We know what the literati think from the variety of literary prizes and lists of books you must read before you die. But what do the people say? We collected the ratings for tens of thousands of books on Goodreads to find out.

Read the full post on Priceonomics

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In the News – Barnes & Noble Should Carry Indie Books

by

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

I have to admit Barnes & Noble just frustrates me. I want them to succeed, I want there to be competition and a lot of choices with books and eBooks.  But if you told me that Barnes & Noble was deliberately trying to fail, I would believe you. First they make affiliate advertising a horrible painful experience, and their support of self-publishing books is non-existent.  on Digital Book World agrees and makes his case why Barnes & Noble should carry indie books.

~ * ~

Barnes & Noble Should Carry Indie Books

By:
Expert publishing blog opinions are solely those of the blogger and not necessarily endorsed by DBW.

Barnes & NobleAn open letter has been making the rounds the last couple days that pits the self-publishing community against one of the banners of big corporate publishing.

Here’s an excerpt from indie author Cambria Herbert’s “An open letter to Barnes and Noble” (Emphasis is hers):

This isn’t just an angry letter because I got another form rejection. I’ve had many. I’ve also had many successes and my career doesn’t hinge on store placement. This is about change, and about asking for a chance to be equal.

I’ve been in this business a while now, I don’t know everything, but I do know some things. I know you have the capability of helping to lift up the talented writers who do ALL their own marketing, publishing and branding.

It’s time, Barnes and Noble. It’s time you step into the new era of publishing. It’s time you acknowledge there are good books out there that don’t just come out of big six [sic] publishers.

It’s time you recognize us.

What this all comes down to is respect. The self-publishing community is a passionate one, believing its authors have just as much of a right to publish a book as do authors who have traditional publishers. Moreover, many of them believe their mode of publishing is the right one.

At the end of the day, they just want to be treated as authors, not self-published authors.

As evidenced by the need for Herbert’s letter, there is still a significant stigma surrounding self-publishing and indie authors. Hell, I’ve been accused of perpetuating it myself.

But I don’t think that stigma is reduced when proponents of self-publishing say authors need to be writing several books a year. As one commenter on our interview with Hugh Howey wrote, “That’s not writing; that’s typing.”

What’s more, there are two types of self-published authors: those who write a manuscript, get the book proofread and professionally edited, have a cover professionally designed, create a marketing plan, etc; and those who don’t.

In The News – E-books: a twist in the tale

by

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

While we celebrate the indie publisher here at Publetariat, we still like to keep an eye on the publishing world. I am just glad for every author’s success! The Bookseller‘s editor, Philip Jones, breaks down the Publishers Association annual market report for those who are interested.

~ * ~

E-books: a twist in the tale

Marketing Mix Signpost With Place Price Product And PromotionIf the book market made sense it wouldn’t be so much fun. This week we are celebrating a 0.4% rise in physical book sales and an 11% drop in consumer e-book sales.

Today the Publishers Association releases its annual market report, The PA Statistics Yearbook that tracks the invoiced sales figures for all the major publishers in 2015. There are plenty of known knowns: physical book sales were up (just about), digital content sales were down (just about). Print fiction sales were up; digital fiction sales were down. Colouring books and vlogger books supercharged non-fiction.

The tone set by the report is upbeat. The UK publishing industry is in good health. It’s little wonder that everyone seems so cheery: print is back, digital did not kill us. The mood at the British Book Industry Awards on Monday evening was one of huge optimism and celebration. There is relief too (particularly as 2016 has got off to such a strong start) but also a sense of a sector thumbing its nose at all of those who have talked down publishing for the past half-decade.

There are still some that think traditional publishing is about to fall off a cliff: but if so they should pay particular attention to these statistics. The percentage changes may be small, but the significance is not. The digital transition has not been straightforward, but neither has it eroded sales. The digital market was in its infancy in 2009 when UK publishers recorded home sales of roughly £1,950m. In 2015 the equivalent number is £1,890m. A net loss but not a huge one, and more than made up by growth in export sales over the same period. In total UK publishers generated sales of £3.3bn in 2015, a nudge ahead of 2009’s pre-digital figure of £3.2bn.

Publishing may yet be hit by all sorts of body blows, but digital so far has not been one of them.

Read the full post on The Bookseller

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News: An Open Letter to the American People – Writers speak out against Donald Trump

by

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Even if you are not living in the USA, you have to admit our politics are pretty interesting this year. At Literary Hub, a bunch of prominent authors have penned an open letter to the American public coming out strong against Donald Trump. Which of course has started off quite the debate in the comments, because of course it did.

~ * ~

An Open Letter to the American People

Writers speak out against Donald Trump

No matter who your candidate is, go vote.
No matter who your candidate is, go vote.

May 24, 2016

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Because, as writers, we are particularly aware of the many ways that language can be abused in the name of power;

Because we believe that any democracy worthy of the name rests on pluralism, welcomes principled disagreement, and achieves consensus through reasoned debate;

Because American history, despite periods of nativism and bigotry, has from the first been a grand experiment in bringing people of different backgrounds together, not pitting them against one another;

Because the history of dictatorship is the history of manipulation and division, demagoguery and lies;

Because the search for justice is predicated on a respect for the truth;

Because we believe that knowledge, experience, flexibility, and historical awareness are indispensable in a leader;

Read the full post on Literary Hub

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News: Cory Doctorow: Peace In Our Time

by

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Are writer’s groups and libraries at crossroads with publishers over eBooks? Cory Doctorow, author and man about the web, believes so. He also believes he has some answers to help us all just get along in this article from Locus Online.

~ * ~

Cory Doctorow: Peace In Our Time

Closeup portrait of a male hand with two fingers up in the peace or victory symbol 4 May 2016

E-books are game-changers, but not in the way we all thought they would be. Far from taking over print, e-book sales have stagnated at less than a quarter of print sales and show every sign of staying there or declining for the foreseeable future.

But e-books continue to be a source of bitter controversy that divides publishers from two of their most potentially useful allies: writers’ groups and libraries.

Below, I’ll present two thought experiments for how libraries and writers’ groups could find common cause with the Big Five publishers, using tech projects that would make a better world for writers, readers, literature, and culture.

First up, libraries. Libraries are understandably exercised about the high prices they’re expected to pay for their e-books – as much as 500% more than you and I pay on the major online services. To add insult to injury, HarperCollins makes libraries delete any e-book that has circulated 26 times, on the bizarre grounds that:

a) Its print books are allegedly so badly bound that they disintegrate after 26 readings (this is not actually true); and

b) This defect in the robustness of physical books is a feature, not a bug, and should be im­ported into the digital realm.

Libraries have tried to shame the publishers into offering better deals, through the Fair Pric­ing for Libraries campaign, fairpricingforlibraries.org. It’s had some limited success there, with Random Penguin, the largest of the Big Five, offering ‘‘flexible’’ prices that are a substantial improvement, but still far from perfect.

The libraries’ fight is hamstrung by their lack of leverage. Library patrons want e-books, publishers are the only source of the e-books patrons want, and libraries have to give their patrons what they want.

Read the full post on Locus Online

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News: DRM nightmare: After recent upgrade, Kobo customers report losing Sony books from their libraries

by

 In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

It is laughably easy to get around DRM in eBooks. Not only does it not deter would be pirates, DRM punishes those who purchase titles legally. Case in point – the most recent episode of legal users loosing purchases from their libraries after an upgrade courtesy of Sony and Kobo. This also brings up another issue with electronic goods. You don’t technically own them, you “rent” them. Again punishing the legal users. Sound off your thoughts in the comments below.  Chris Meadows at Teleread reports.

~ * ~

DRM nightmare: After recent upgrade, Kobo customers report losing Sony books from their libraries

Gold skull and crossbones isolated on white.By Chris Meadows

I mentioned my trouble with losing one of my eReader e-books from Barnes & Noble a few weeks back. In that case, the matter was resolved amicably, but it seems Barnes & Noble isn’t the only store to have trouble with e-books ported from other companies. Over the last week, some Kobo users on the MobileRead forums have been discussing problems they’re having with their Kobo libraries, including with books from the customers’ Sony Reader libraries that Sony had passed over to Kobo when it exited the e-book business.

One of the issues has to do with concealing the option to download ACSM files in order to be able to pull Kobo EPUB files down to the desktop reader. Unlike Barnes & Noble, however, Kobo hasn’t actually removed the option to do so—just hidden it under the three-dot menu at the far right of the listing for the e-book in question.

Another issue is that the “Trash” folder has been removed from the library. Now books customers delete from their library are simply automatically removed, though they have the option of searching the book in the Kobo store to add it back at no cost.

Some users are reporting that some or all of the books they’d added from their Sony Reader libraries are missing. They were apparently removed from their library during a recent software upgrade, and the customers now have to search them in Kobo’s store and add them back individually. One reader reports missing around 460 Sony books from her library, which is an awful lot to have to add back one at a time! Some customers also report that the Kobo site wants them to repurchase some of the missing volumes. (“This is why I back up and ‘future proof’ all my ebooks,” writes MobileRead user MGlitch, and he wasn’t the only forum regular to cop to making Calibre backups.)

Read the full post on Teleread

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News: Ereader Showdown: Amazon Kindles, Compared

by

 In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Lifehacker’s Thorin Klosowski gives his opinion on the four Amazon Kindles. The new Oasis is out, and if you are curious if it is worth the price, read on. For reading I am a purist and I love my Voyage. So having a dedicated eReader is important to me, but I don’t know if I will be shelling out the bucks for anything new. What are you using to read?

~ * ~

Ereader Showdown: Amazon Kindles, Compared

Thorin Klosowski

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Qke0hwQKL._SY500_.jpgAmazon has somehow managed to create four different models of its Kindle ereader. Each of the four models has its own strengths and weaknesses, so if you’re in the market for one—or an upgrade—let’s take a look to make your buying decision a little easier.

The Contenders

It’s no secret that Amazon has the lock on ereaders. Sure, the Kobo and Nook are still around, but the Kindle dominates the ereader space. Here’s a quick overview of the four models available right now:

  • Kindle: Amazon’s basic Kindle retails for $79.99. It’s about as basic an ereader as you can get, which means it doesn’t come with a built-in light and at 167 ppi, this Kindle has the lowest resolution of all the models available.
  • Kindle Paperwhite: The Paperwhite is $119.99. It features a backlight powered by four LEDS and a 300 ppi resolution screen.
  • Kindle Voyage: The Voyage was Amazon’s first foray into luxury Kindles and comes in at $199.99. It has six LEDs and an adaptive light sensor for the backlight, as well as a touch sensor on the case to change pages.
  • Kindle Oasis: The Oasis is the newest Kindle model, and costs an absolutely insane $289.99. That $300 gets you a backlight powered by 10 LEDs, hardware buttons for turning pages, and a charging cover that keeps your Kindle alive for months between charges instead of weeks.
Read the full post on Lifehacker

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News: E-books, why so old-fashioned? Here’s a Web wakeup call

by

 In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Over at CNET,  asks why we can’t make eBooks more like webpages, with all the glories functionality that technology provides.  I actually love creating customized eBooks for people. Because of my background as a software engineer, I can often do little extra’s such as drop caps and still make the eBook work in all the different readers. I don’t take on eBook work anymore because I can’t compete with overseas pricing.

That is why we can’t use all the technology of the web in our ebooks. Cost. You would need to have two very different versions of the eBook created. One with all the bells and whistles that a webpage can provide and that would work in your Fires, and Ipads. The other version would be the simplified “traditional” one for people who just want to read a book and for eReaders that don’t support such technology. Most people aren’t willing to pay for both version. What are your thoughts on why we haven’t moved farther?

~ * ~

E-books, why so old-fashioned? Here’s a Web wakeup call

Stack Of Books Flying From Computer Shows Online Learning
Get into my computer!

Groups that advance Web and e-book technology want to join forces. That could make e-books livelier, richer and easier to read online.

May 10, 2016

by

For all the supposed disruption that e-books brought to the publishing industry, the digital versions look still look an awful lot like the paper ones you could have bought a century ago.

Nighttime orange text to avoid sleep disturbance is nice, but digital text on a tablet is basically the same as ink text on paper. Comic books and graphic novels go a bit farther. Still, most e-books fall far short of the creativity shown in paper with the “Little Lamb” finger puppet book or Maurice Sendak’s “Mommy?” pop-up book.

E-books could become much more dynamic and interactive, though. That’s because two groups — the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) — are trying to join forces. The first advances and standardizes the technology underpinning the Web; the second the Epub format used to package e-books. In a statement Tuesday, Web creator and W3C leader Tim Berners-Lee said the planned merger would “create a rich media environment for digital publishing.”

The current Epub 3.0 standard already uses Web technologies, but e-books remain a separate domain from the Web. The new Portable Web Publications effort would erase the distinction. That would make it easier to publish a single Web document that’s conveniently separated into multiple chapters, lets you flip from page to page, and better handles math formulas in textbooks.

But the more exciting opportunities would be encouraging authors to draw on the Web’s power: enlivening books with video, audio and photos; enriching them with links to outside sources like footnotes on steroids; and even adding running software like the dynamic illustrations in Mike Bostock’s guide to visualizing various computer algorithms.

Read the full post on CNET

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.