Books Without Limits

I love this announcement from Apple that they will open their iBookstore to those who self publish. I can think of a few friends and colleagues that will be able to take advantage of this change and use it to make money for their art and reach a larger audience.  Kudos, Apple!
<blockquote>To take advantage of the service, you must first have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for each work you wish to make available for sale. Obtaining an ISBN isn’t as difficult a process you might think; it can take as little as two weeks. Second, you must have a copy of the work in ePUB format. There are a variety of different ways to convert text into ePUB format, many of which are free (a list can be found on the LexCycle website). You must also have a valid iTunes Store account as well as a US tax ID.
The last requirement is that you, as the author, must have access to a modern Mac. In order to participate, you must encode your eBook with Apple’s software, which needs an Intel Mac running at least OS X 10.5. The encoding process most likely adds Apple’s very own brew of DRM to the book, ensuring that your writings won’t be distributed outside of the iPhone or iPad.</blockquote>

<a href=”http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/05/ibooks-opened-to-self-publishers.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss”>Original article from Ars Technica</a>

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After months of being so busy in my writing career that I have not had time to read books, much less post to my sorely neglected writing and book blogs, I am pleased to start up again with E. Christopher Clarke‘s collection of short stories “Those Little Bastads”. This book is currently ending its first limited printing, and signed copies are still available over on Chris’s site. I’d get them while you can, folks. I predict much writing success for this hidden talent from New Hampshire, the state that brought you Dan Brown, John Irving and other contemporary greats.

After a long drought of reading, this book was what brought me out of my “all work and no play” funk. From the first story, I was hooked, and ended up setting aside a sunny afternoon recently to read them all in one fell swoop. I had decided to jump around a bit, thinking I would skim a few stories and put the book down, so I simply opened the book and chose a story at random. The first one I picked drew me right in to the rest.

“Hacker” was my first foray into the collection. Being a computer geek and social media maven who spends her days writing about technology and the social web and helping companies navigate the marketing aspect of it all, I immediately felt like I knew the character on a personal level. This is the stereotypical basement dwelling hacker, sure, but with a twist. It particularly resonated with me as being like one person I know and the thought of him having the special talents (if you can call it that) of Ben, the story’s main character made me cringe. I immediately loved the way Chris was able to draw you into a regular story then give that little twist of the knife to make it just a bit off kilter. Perfect.

The strongest stories in the book seem to be concentrated in the middle, bracketed front and back by a cast of supporting stories. One of the more intriguing was “Sam”. At only a page in length it reminded me of Hemmingway and his six word novel concept. It told a complete story in less than time that it takes to sip my coffee. The stories take an irreverent and twisted look at everything from the absurdity of campus politics and college level creative writing to murder and mayhem. Covering every type of character from elderly ladies to the very young, the working class and the average Joe, there is something here for everyone.

If you’ve ever wondered what the quiet guy in the corner was really thinking, this book might be your answer. The stories are simple, almost like day dreams, if your day dreams tended to go horribly, horribly awry. It is the simplicity that makes them a solid book and worth a look, and it is the continuing element of surprise that will have you reading them all. I am frankly excited to read Chris’s first novel after reading this – I can’t wait to see how the way he writes translates from short form to long. You can pick up your copy here and you can read more of Chris’s work on his other web site, Geek Force Five.

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The site is back, and now hosted by a brand new company, along with my other sites. I have a HUGE stack of books ready to review for you, including the new Barbara Delinksi and the new Stephen King. Look for more new content coming this weekend.

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My web host sent a notice that they will be having a planned outage for server maintenance tonight from 6pm to 3am PDT. That means this site may be down for the count during those times. Never fear, it will be back up and running as soon as they are done.

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The ten most “literate” US cities – is your city on the list?

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I’ve been given a place on the Blogger Board at Cre8Buzz. I’m very excited to help shape the site. I still have invites, too, if you want to get in on Cre8Buzz while it is still in its youth! Just post in comments that you want an invite and I’ll send one. I am BGWEWRITER on the Buzz. Join us! we’re a lot of fun! You can find me building the Apple group on there and generally nosing around socializing with people in other groups.

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Excellent interview from the well known author. (source)

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For the holidays, JK Rowling has handwritten ten unique copies of a companion book to the Potter series: The Tales Of Beedle The Bard. The books will be auctioned off by Sotheby’s on December 13th, 2007 with a starting price of $100,000. All proceeds will benefit the charity the Childrens’ Voice. The complete copy will be viewable online at JK Rowling’s site before the auction.

Source: ecorazzi

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I am building an Apple community on Cr8Buzz from the ground up. Come get in on the ground floor of this new social network and user generated content site!

Click the link to see my profile, and leave a comment below to request an invitation from me. Don’t forget to join the Apple channel once you get your invite! My personal goal is to have 50 new Apple members by the end of the year! If you sign up, post it here so I can add you to my friends and contacts on Cr8Buzz!

Cr8Buzz is not your typical Myspace / Facebook social site. It is a new and growing community of users who are using Cr8Buzz to launch their own content and meet like minded people.

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is the big news this week. You can read my take on it over on my Writing Blog. I’m also slogging through my slush pile of books I’ve finished that need reviews for you, so keep checking back in coming days. I’m also posting daily this month on my personal blog during NaBloPoMo, writing a novel for NaNoWriMo, several times a week on both my Apple blog and on Profy, and sporadically on HubPages, among other places, like The Juicy Dirt.

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