“The 22,000-word novella, ‘Basic Training,’ was rejected by the Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940’s, long before Mr. Vonnegut had become famous through works such as ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ and ‘Cat’s Cradle.’”
“RosettaBooks described the novella as a book that demonstrates Mr. Vonnegut’s ‘trademark grand themes: the lunacy of kings, the improbability of existence, the yearling hero’s struggle with duty and love and the meaning of heroism.’”
What’s the lame part?: “It will be released exclusively through Amazon as a Kindle Single at a cost of $1.99.”
Staples has an eReader reading speed test. After reading a section, you get a few questions to see what you’ve retained.
Yeah, I’m bored. Click image to try it.
Pajama bedhead book-signing
Inevitable, this was.
Autography has developed technology to allow for signatures in eBooks. Those signatures are also archived so that if an eReader is lost, the signatures aren’t.
If you can’t connect the dots, an author conducting an online reading can now sign eBooks too. Sorry readers-of-real-books. No signing for you.
So why am I having boxer-rebellion as I sit here typing?
- Cost is yet to be determined.
- Who owns the signature? (If it’s stored on their servers…), and is Autography free to use a general signature in agreements with publishers? (My point is, a signature is unique. It should not be something that’s given away and stamped upon everything like a 2-for-1 sale at the grocery store.)
- Can I sign in different colors, or can the signature reflect different types of pens?
- Security of the signature? (How is it stored?)
- On the one hand, someone in Chengdu can hear me read from my novel and obtain a personalized signature on her eBook. On the other, I can’t shake her hand or have a small conversation to help understand why she likes the book, or why my novel offends Auntie Hu without having to manage a crowd of people speaking all at once. Have you ever had a tele- or a video-conference? “Everyone needs to take a number, please.” At least there’s order, and a wee bit of privacy, to the book-signing table.
Now, I could direct all these questions to Autography. But I’ve got better things to do at this point… like getting my novel published.
Give me a nice bottle of whisky and I can crank the volumes up 11.
Ebook to eBook salesman
Ads in eBooks? Only if I get to choose to see/hear them… none of this Facebook “you’re-getting-geo-tagged-and-like-it” opt-out scheme.
You want fries with that?
With regard to the book industry
Dump hardcover printing, release everything as ebook or refined paperback (e.g., Espresso Book Machine), and set up a recycling program for paperbacks with added purchasing rewards (much like returning bottles and cans).
[UPDATE: Go to Better World Books with the ones you don’t need.]
