How we accidentally became a Children’s Book Publisher. (Part 1 of the creation of a new book.)
We have done exactly zero market research.
We have done no focus groups.
We have done no competitive analysis.
We just don’t care about that stuff. This sounded like a cool series of books.
Filed under Digital Book
Gore, Ex-Apple Engineers Team Up to Blow Up the Book
If successfully scaled, Push Pop Press could become the easiest and quickest way for publishers and independent artists to turn their media into iPhone and iPad apps and take a whack at making money in the App Store.
Book apps created with the platform can take advantage of the iPad’s and iPhone’s advanced sensors, touchscreen gestures, microphone and powerful graphics chip to turn reading into a rich, interactive experience, Matas said. Videos, interactive diagrams and geotagged photos are just some elements that can be embedded in a book produced with the tool.
And:
Every element inside Gore’s enhanced e-book is composed of native iOS toolkits and APIs (e.g., Core Animation, Core Text and Objective C) to make the experience extremely smooth and fast.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
Good luck to them. But locking digital books to iOS only is no solution at all, except for those aiming at iOS. What about people who have chosen Android or will choose webOS?
And what happens when someone invests in a book only to have it banned by Apple?
Filed under Digital Book
With Arrington shoving his snout into troughs of money again, like a drug addict unable to quit, insisting with great convolution and rape of the English language that there is no conflict of interest and you can really really trust him (this way to the egress, you suckers!), I find it necessary to once again remind every reader of this blog of this:
It is permanently stationed in the right sidebar under Pages.
Update: Arrington’s rubbing his tits about this again — The Tech Press: Screw Them All — so I’m making this a sticky yet again for a day or two.
Filed under Blog Notes
Superman Renounces [SPOILER] in ‘Action Comics’ #900
This is what happens when you get overeducated shitheaded adults interfering in childhood fantasies.
When Spielberg drops dead and some stupid Suits get it into their dim heads to remake E.T., maybe they’ll make sure to do it in Zimbabwe or Chile or any country other than the one the ungrateful bastards obviously hate: America.
If they want to make it really real, have INS and DHS kick this illegal alien out of America.
And comics wonder why their sales continue to decline into shit?
Filed under Collapse, Pottersville, Stupid
That was her. She gave me tips about how to throw punches, how I should have something to use as a weapon if I heard a noise in the middle of the night and set out to investigate, all the while showing me how to sew a straight seam by hand.
At 4’10” and less than 90 lbs, she thought she could take down any man. And that is why every time I write a female character that has the balls to pick up a knife and stab someone, or pull out a gun and shoot it, I remember her and always will.
Filed under Other Hardware
Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are ‘running out of money’
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Wal-Mart’s core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.
“We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” Duke said at an event in New York. “There’s no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact.”
Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.
Lately, they’re “running out of money” at a faster clip, he said.
“Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year,” Duke said. “This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.
Also:
Filed under Collapse, Pottersville
Copy like this always, always, always makes me suspicious:
Zazoom creates digital video for the way we live now. Video made to be seen with tablets and smartphones, in taxis and movie theaters, and on televisions and laptops. Zazoom develops and produces video across multiple subject verticals for our own websites and apps, for web distributors and publishers, and for brands looking to build an engaging video experience with their target audience. And we do it incredibly fast.
What we know is this:
– Excellent storytelling will win every time
– Different devices demand different video content and production
– Learning from your audience and responding quickly builds successful brandsSo we focus intently on telling compelling stories, producing them precisely for the intended audience, and then listening to the viewers and making changes ASAP. In the era of instant info via Twitter, RSS feeds, and text messages anything less doesn’t cut it.
Our founders came from the world of breaking television news where the clock is always ticking and the deadline always looming. Turning out professional, captivating, effective video quickly is in our DNA.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
In a long post detailing the capitulation of the Hollywood unions to their Overlords, What WGA Leaders Didn’t Tell Membership (…And Neither Did SAG or DGA Leaders), there is this in a Comment from a veteran WGA member writer:
When cable a la cart finally arrives, half of the basic cable outlets will go dark; the net will offer you lots of opportunities to write for free – or next to nothing (remember the promise of Strike TV?) and this is going to turn into the book business: A few JK Rowlings, some up and comers, and everybody else writing screenplays while they teach College Lit.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
I’ve done several posts talking about how the Big Six think they’re all going to upgrade themselves into Hollywood studios (All Singing! All Dancing! Digital Books!). This is the first time I’ve seen someone from the other side saying Hollywood will turn into the book business!
Rev up those self-pub skills, kids. As writers, we are going to get screwed from all sides!
Filed under Books: General, Digital Overthrow, Writers, Writing
… the Adam’s viewing angles are terrible. Approach it from any angle but head-on and either the whites or blacks wash out, and if you tilt it to the left everything begins to turn a sickly yellow. The colors are also a bit washed out, and if you’re a fan of deep, inky blacks you’d best look somewhere else, as the best the Adam can do is a shade of noisy purple.
I wondered why more manufacturers haven’t snapped up the Pixel Qi screen. That seems to explain why.
A bad screen on a tablet is just a curse. The Archos 101 I saw was just horrible and this seems to be a similarly miserable experience.
Filed under Other Hardware
Mike Cane’s xBlog 