books – Page 4

How Do People Read Nowadays?

March 23, 2013

It’s an uncertain descent into darkness when you start thinking about heady questions like the future of books. In my short story, Digitally Remastered Classics, I try to ask a lot of those questions.

For Writers, Rantography

authors, books, ebooks, self-publish, writing

Is KDP Select Worth It? (An Example From a Real Person)

March 13, 2013

Amazon’s KDP Select program has kind of been marketed as a Miracle Grow for Books. It seems that, whenever you Google something about KDP Select, you run into another article boasting about authors who got rich and famous from just using KDP Select and barely marketing their book at all. Like a lot of authors who are…

For Writers

Amazon, books, ebooks, For Writers, KDP, self-publish, writing

Music, Writing, and Art in the Age of the Optional Purchase

February 23, 2013

In the summer of 2010, when I started my first job, I listened to about six hours of Pandora a day. The ads were an annoyance, but I sat through them because I loved the songs that Pandora found for me. I knew that there was such a thing as “Pandora One,” but, like most…

Culture, For Bands, For Visual Artists, For Writers, Rants

art, authors, books, content marketing, For Writers, millennials, Pandora, writing

A Blog About eBooks, Now Advertising an eBook About eBooks

February 21, 2013

Since around October, I’ve been talking a lot about the future of books and the future of eBooks. I’ve made a guide about how writers should blog in a way that gets people to read your stuff. I’ve also talked about how building a platform and an audience is crucial to getting anyone to actually…

For Writers

authors, books, content marketing, ebooks, self-publish, technology, writing

Writers Stink at Social Media (And Why That’s Bad if You’re Self-Publishing)

February 20, 2013

I’ve talked about how bad writers can be at Facebook before. It’s pretty obvious if you just take a look around. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but in general it seems that us writerly folks tend to not like social media that much, particularly the insta-smile networks of Facebook, Twitter, and their…

For Writers

authors, books, ebooks, Facebook, For Writers, self-publish, social media, social media marketing, writing

Are Commercial eBooks the Only Things You Can Write to Make Money?

January 24, 2013

Jane Friedman thinks that self-published eBooks are going to have depend on a “readership that consumes books like candy.” The idea is that you should write a lot of stuff. Publish it. Then, you repeat until you make a profit. Essentially, this means the books themselves will be like candy. Sweet, short-lived, instantly gratifying… and…

For Writers

authors, books, ebooks, self-publish, writing

Why Can’t I Click Your Book?

January 13, 2013

Books. Engrossing vessels of unparalleled knowledge, learning, and experience… or obsolete hunks of text that can’t hope to compete in an era of relentlessly over-stimulated people? The question struck me when I was reading Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run recently. I like to run. I like learning things. And I’m not adverse to being taken to far-off,…

For Writers, Technology

books, ebooks, self-publish, writing

The Death of the eReader

December 16, 2012

I think I’m a prophet. At least when it comes to the future of books and eReaders (like the Kindle or Nook). A prophet that has the impressive power to tell… the present. As I was swirling around in my office chair, ruminating about eReaders and how they’re probably going to be obsolete in the…

For Writers, Technology

books, ebooks, kindle, self-publish, writing

The Future of Books (Calm Down Edition)

November 21, 2012

Let’s talk about the future of books by stating the obvious: books take a long time to write. In fact, per hour, I think they’re definitely one of the top most time-consuming forms of art. Writing a book in a year is considered almost a heroic effort. Two, three years, well, that’s about normal. A…

For Writers, Technology

books, ebooks, self-publish, technology, writing

eBooks: The Future of Writing, Once Everyone Gets Over It

May 23, 2011

Reading Time: ~5 minutes When the Kindle first came out, I remember a distinct feeling as my heart sunk into a swamp of pessimism. This is it, I thought. I am an English major, an aspiring novelist, a “writer,” at literally the worst time in American history of the world to be one. In other…

For Writers, Technology

books, ebooks, kindle, reading, technology, writing