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 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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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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