Saturday, August 08, 2009

Other Newsy Bits

With many misgivings I finally downloaded B&N.com's free eReader software to see how much of a free sample they are giving away of the e-book version of Crystal Healer. It's stored in their online library and you can access about 21 pages of front material (quotes, titles, copyright page, etc.) but only 4 pages of chapter one. I also got a bunch of stuff in my online library that I didn't want, namely all the public domain novels they touted as freebies during their launch. If this big brother approach is the direction e-readers are going, I'm definitely not jumping on the bandwagon.

Related to our discussion on the Book-o-Mat, On Demand has a promotional video on YouTube here that relates the specs on and demos the operation of their 2.0 version of the Espresso Book Machine. Kind of hypnotic to watch, actually.

Lulu has taken over Poetry.com*: "Lulu Poetry is about winning prizes and recognition for your poems, creating and selling beautiful books of your poetry, and learning tips and tricks from other enthusiastic poets just like you." I hope they don't pick up where the old Poetry.com left off.

Another very bright glimmer of what's ahead on the electronic horizon -- a fusion of internet, video and book: Vook.

*via Absolute Write

2 comments:

  1. I think the consensus is that B&N's nuts. :)

    I really do love my ebook reader - but it's not a Kindle or a Sony! Nor will I be purchasing from B&N.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the concept of "vook" would work great for some non-fiction like cookbooks or textbooks. I can't understand how it would work for fiction.

    ReplyDelete

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