October 2011 - All Star Press

Micro Publisher analyzes growth of e-book sales

Author Walter Shiel has written several books on aviation and history. Shiel, who is also a regular blogger, takes a close look at his book sales over the last couple of years with a breakdown of each electronic book type, along with a comparision of book sales versus print sales. Interesting stuff for any aspiring author. Take a gander.

More Authors Opting to Self Publish

This spring, best-selling thriller writer and former CIA agent Barry Eisler wrote a piece in the New York Times about why he turned down a half-million dollar advance from St. Martin’s Press to self-publish instead: He believes he can market his books better on his own.

Neal Pollack, author of several books, including “Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude,” wrote in another New York Times piece called “The Case for Self-Publishing” that “self-publication crackles with possibility as never before” and vowed to bring out his next book himself, as an experiment. He writes… READ MORE

Authors: Tips for taking better Headshots

Some excellent advice here from Thomas Nelson publisher and star blogger Michael Hyatt. For example, tip #3 is…

Don’t shoot in a studio. I know some will disagree with this, but few things look more sterile than a studio. Instead, shoot the photos on your turf, in familiar surroundings. This is so much more interesting and adds more of your personality to the final result.

Learn the 9 tips he suggests for taking a better headshot.

Profanity in Media/TV affecting Children

An educational study recently concluded and published by TIME magazine states that children who are exposed to profanity on television are much more likely to show negative consequences. What a shocker, but it is nice to see evidence of what many of us already believe.

“Using statistical models, the researchers calculated that exposure to profanity had about the same relationship to aggressive behavior as exposure to violence on TV or in video games. In addition, they found that the more children were exposed to profanity, they more likely they were to use swear words themselves, and those who used profanity were more likely to become aggressive toward others.”

Read more details on this important study here: http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/17/children-who-hear-swear-words-on-tv-are-more-aggressive/#ixzz1b9Bin8zf

Changing Landscape of Book Publishing [Economist]

In some ways the transition from paper to digital distribution for book publishers and independent authors is a boon. It’s true that most e-books currently have high profit margins, and are free from many of the drawbacks of print. Peter Osnos, who is the founder of PublicAffairs Books, states that the biggest challenge small publishers face is managing their inventories. Print too many books, and lots of them will be returned by stores. Print too few and publishers will forgo sales while they order reprints (at higher prices). None of these problems exists when distributing books digitally.

Apple vs Amazon Steve Jobs — The late Steve Jobs

The comic from Bluewater Productions, which was first announced last June, is expected to show the history of Steve Jobs and Apple’s rise to the top of the technological heap. Of course, since the comic was produced before his passing, the paper copy will make no mention of when he passed away. The special eBook version however will make respectful mention of the end of his life. While those who use Comixology as their main comic book or eBook reading app will have to wait until October 27^th to get the book, Kindle users will be able to download the book today and Nook users tomorrow.

This is not the first time that… READ MORE

Kindle eReader and ebooks enter French Market

Last Friday Amazon.fr started to sell the new Kindle for only 99 Euros. This is the same Kindle model as the Kindle 4 on Amazon.com. Amazon.fr will begin shipping the Kindles today, Friday, October 14. The French Kindle is a wi-fi model.

Kindle in France — New Market Opens Up for Authors

France has a strong market for ebook readers; Bookeen makes the popular Linux based Cybook ebook reader line, which can read EPUB files. The Kindle is able to read PDF and Mobi files, but not the almost universal EPUB file format.

Amazon is opening up Kindle Direct Publishing for Amazon.fr, so authors and independent publishers can publish Kindle ebooks for French customers.

A Look at the 4 Kindle eReaders including the Fire

Everyone expected news about the Kindle Fire tablet, but Amazon surprised (and dazzled) ereader fans with three new Kindles on September 28, 2011.

September, 2011 has been a big month for Kindle users. First, Amazon Local (which offers Groupon style local shopping deals) became a Kindle feature. Kindle users can finally check out library books and read the ebooks on their Kindles. Finally, Amazon splashed new excitement into the digital media world on September 28, 2011 with the long-awaited Kindle tablet, which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says, “brings together all of the things we’ve been working on at Amazon for over 15 years into a single, fully-integrated service for customers.”

InnoTab, an iPad for children

Recently, Leapfrog introduced its LeapPad tablet for children. A company called VTech has now entered the market with the InnoTab, an inexpensive iPad-like device for kids that plays games, music and ebooks, and offers downloadable apps for the device. USA Today takes a closer look at this second kiddie tablet, which is to hit the market in the next few weeks.

The e-reader lets kids listen to books as the words are read aloud and highlighted. Each page offers interactivity when kids tap the screen. And words appearing in a different color ink can be tapped to be defined.

Month: October 2011