This is a really weird time to be a writer. Agents are becoming publishers; publishers have moved to “the agency model“; and some self-published authors are making millions—all because e-books are now outselling all other segments. Magazines and newspapers are dying, blogs and aggregators are thriving, and the line between them all is blurring. Last year Apple was their savior; now it’s damned as a destroyer.
So what’s a writer to do?
These days I’m mostly a developer, but I’ve had a clutch of novels (thrillers about globetrotting techies) published by traditional houses, and also experimented with just about every form of The New Publishing. My latest book (an epic urban fantasy about a squirrel) was Creative Commons-released and self-Kindle-published before I sold it to a publisher. I’ve scripted a Vertigo Comics graphic novel, and a free online comic for Engineering.com. Plus I write here, and for magazines. And the news I bring from all my literary peregrinations is this:
…in the immortal words of William Goldman, nobody knows anything.
And that is awesome. → Read More
The e-book world is slowly evolving into a number of fairly similar, homogenized ecosystems. No one wants to be shackled to using a single device to read their e-books: the Kindle is both a device and an app on your smartphone; Apple’s iBook’s is an app on your iPad and your iPhone. And today Kobo is following the trend with the announcement of the Kobo Desktop Application. Like its competitors, the Kobo Desktop Application allows you to consolidate your e-book purchases on your computer, shop for new titles that can be synchronized to your Kobo-powered e-readers, as well as read and bookmark your e-books. → Read More
Samsung has bailed on the e-paper reader market, citing the display costs as being too expensive. Electronista reports that this doesn’t mean they are completely out of the business though, as they are still planning on producing an e-book reader that uses an LCD display instead. You’ll remember that we showed you the a new Samsung reader that was announced at CES ealier this year, but it never shipped due to being priced out of the market. No one has seen the new Samsung reader yet, but company reps are reporting that it should be sometime next year. We’ll probably see one at CES 2011. → Read More
So fair warning, there’s not a whole lot of detail on this one. Fujitsu just showed off their latest e-book reader prototype at a trade show in Japan. It probably won’t hit the US, but expect to see it in Japan later this year. We’ll keep you informed when we get more information. [via Akihabara News] → Read More
Revealed at CeBIT recently, we find that Gigabyte is building an e-reader of their own. Called the EB10, the new reader will be running Android on a 667Mhz Samsung processor. What makes this one different from the rest of the readers out there? → Read More
When is a qwerty keyboard a bad idea? When it’s on the Samsung E61 e-book reader. The problem with this thing isn’t just the ugly keyboard, or the fact that it’s obviously “inspired” by the Kindle, it’s that the Samsung E6 looks promising. → Read More
Asus leaked some information recently about their upcoming e-reader, the DR-570. Not content to be a “me too” with the standard black and white e-ink product, it looks like they are going to be coming out with an OLED offering that might just kick the rest of the e-readers to the curb. → Read More
The enTourage eDGe dualbook made its official debut at CES last week, along with lots of other e-book readers, dual-screen laptops, and more. We mentioned the eDGe book store, but that book store is gaining usefulness with the announcement of deals with publishers McGraw Hill, Oxford University Press and John Wiley & Sons, which will bring a number of academic texts to the dualbook. And enTourage has just inked a deal with Blackboard, a leading e-learning platform. More details inside. → Read More
So Matt and I just got our hands on the Samsung E6, the company’s first electronic book reader. As a device it’s not bad, but compared to what’s out there you just know that Samsung was all, “We need to release something to get a foothold in the market.” The 6-inch e-redaer slides open, quite possibly like a phone you once owned. It’s only black and white, too, so those of you expecting Samsung to usher in the era of color e-reaers will be disappointed. → Read More
The US e-reader market is about to get one more player when Dulin’s Books brings its Boox 60 reader to the States in the middle of January. But even though it packs a lot of tech into its shell like W-Fi, Wacom technology, and a Webkit browser, chances are it won’t ever make it mainstream thanks to the Kindle, Nook, and Reader. → Read More
Looks like 2010 is turning out to be the year of the e-book reader. I’m not sure at what point these are going to stop being news, but here we go again. Insdream is launching the SX601 which seems to borrow some significant design ideas from another rather popular e-book reader. The Insdream does use a different type of screen from the source material (can you say Kindle), but looks pretty much the same otherwise. → Read More
More competition is the color E-book market can only be a good thing. The Nook is just sort of in color, the Kindle is the 800 pound gorilla, no one knows what exactly Apple’s got planned, and now there’s this new guy Paradigm Shift, talking about launching a full-color e-book reader at CES. Bet they wish they’d come to market before the holidays. → Read More
In-flight movies might not be the only form of airline-provided entertainment on KLM flights. The airline is considering handing out e-book readers after the idea won a contest offered up by the airline. The idea beat out Online Tax-Free Shopping and placing wind turbines under the runways. (yeah, I don’t get that either)
But as fun and exciting as free e-books seem, it would be a technical nightmare. Your mom barely knows how to use her cell phone, let alone a newfangled e-book reader. KLM might as well hire a Geek Squad agent for every flight. → Read More
The Entourage eDGe, the world’s first “dualbook” is a dual-screen laptop / e-book reader hybrid thingie. The laptop portion is pretty straightforward, but what about the e-book? In the already crowded e-book space, how can the eDGe compete? Well, today they’ve announced they’re very own e-book store. That’s right, a device that is not yet in anyone’s hands now has its own bookstore. All sarcasm aside, this is a pretty good move to demonstrate the long-term commitment from Entourage to the eDGe, even if it is yet another e-book store (okay, so maybe it wasn’t all sarcasm aside). Read on for the whole press release. → Read More
The Amazon Kindle costs $260. The Barnes and Noble Nook costs $260. The Sony reader is $300. Clearly there’s an established price point for what we call an e-book reader. Jumping into the e-book fray comes the Intel Reader, for fifteen hundred U.S. dollars. No WiFi, no associated book store, but it does include a 5 megapixel camera, and a host of features designed to make it the best choice for vision impaired people. → Read More
With all the talk about the nook lately, you might have forgotten that this is ending up as being the year of the e-book reader. Just to remind you, pricing leaked today on the IREX DR 800SG reader. → Read More
Looking for a new book to read? Kindle owners (or people who have the Kindle app on their iPhone/iPod can get a free copy of “Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice” from Amazon. → Read More
Samsung is now getting into the e-book game. It has developed its very own e-book reader, which will first be available in Korea for around $270. It’ll be Korea-only for a little while yet. → Read More
Pictures and rumors of FLEPia, a color ebook mady by Fujitsu, have been floating around the web for around 2 years now. Last October, we saw a working prototype during the CEATEC electronics exhibition in Chiba, Japan and were impressed.
Today, half a year later, Fujitsu announced the release date in Japan and price for the device (press release in English). And it turns out to be a very expensive piece of hardware. → Read More
