Comic Books: Change The Damn Model

Comics Alliance: ‘Wired’ Magazine Forecasts the Death of the Printed Monthly Comic

There’s a bit of a ComicsAlliance teamup over at Wired, where CA contributor Douglas Wolk forecasts a bleak future for the printed monthly comic book in an increasingly digital world, in a piece that includes typically astonishing illustration by occasional CA artist Ulises Farinas. Wolk calls the weekly pull list of pamphlet comics a “dying tradition” whose customers have been “trickling away for years,” but adds that the comics audience has been supplemented by graphic novel readers who buy their books in collections (often at bookstores) and digital readers who want to download their comics either through legal or illegal means.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Bleeding Cool: Marvel To Change The Face Of Newsstand Comics

Bleeding Cool has been the first to bring you news as to how both Hastings and Barnes & Noble have been massively increasing the amount of comic book material they carry.

Well, Marvel seems to have sat up and noticed. I understand that they are launching a massive amount of new ongoing titles for this market, that will anthologise existing material and flood the growing market.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

The Scott Adams Meltdown

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has done another sucktastically insane blog post: Pegs and Holes

Someone tell me about this bizarre mind virus that seems to be taking over the brains of some men so I can avoid contracting it!

At another site, which I won’t link to, a writer has basically stated that pedophiles are blameless because they’re only following their “nature” too!

Why doesn’t Adams go all the way down that road too?

Nook Touch Rooting: Script Package!

Source: This Is My Next

XDA Developers forum has put everyone one step closer to easy Nook Touch rooting.

An entire scripting package has been put together to automate much of the process.

Sony’s US$99.99 New Reader?

Consumer reports now rumor-mongering about a new Sony Reader coming this month

That’s interesting and I want to believe it. I wouldn’t want to see Sony leave the eBook market despite the egregious mismanagement of the entire company and all the missteps of its Reader division.

We see that current devices can be priced as low as US$129.99 (I leave out the US$114 Kindle with Offers).

I think Sony could do one for US$99.99.

Take the current US$179.99 PRS-350 with five-inch IR touchscreen and:

• remove stylus
• remove buttons
• shrink casing further
• use cheaper casing

Adding WiFi is really a negligible expense these days. The stylus and buttons are the most expensive bits.

So, for US$99.99 they can call it the Sony Reader Basic.

Win!

The Me-Too Media Does Me One Better

On May 20, 2011, I wrote, How Amazon Could Switch Over ePub Book Buyers

Now Forbes has me-tooed that but gone one step further in iBooks Match Could be the Next Killer App for Apple (or Amazon or Google) — wanting to add printed books into that mix.

Next!

Amazon Announces Another Million-Selling Writer

John Locke Becomes the First Independently Published Author to Join the “Kindle Million Club”

Amazon.com today announced that John Locke has become the eighth author to sell over 1 million Kindle books, becoming the newest member of the “Kindle Million Club,” and the first independently published author to receive this distinction. As of yesterday, John Locke has sold 1,010,370 Kindle books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Kindle Direct Publishing is a fast and easy way for publishers and authors to start selling to Kindle customers worldwide via Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle with Special Offers, Kindle 3G with Special Offers, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac and Android-based devices. The Kindle Million Club recognizes authors whose books have sold over 1 million paid copies in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Locke joins Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly in the Kindle Million Club.

Oh dear god! His latest one is: How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!

His other books were all ninety-nine cents.

That one? $4.99!

I’ve got one thing to say about that:

Previously here:

John Locke. Wait. Who?

Tweet Of The Day: #TheKilling

Someone told me to check out #TheKilling hashtag. The level of outrage warms me.

But this was classic:

For those who wasted 2 hrs watching the #DaytimeEmmys: at least you didn't throw away 13 on #TheKilling. #LearnLessonFromTwinPeaks

— Tiffany Connors (@DramaMamaNYPost) June 20, 2011

Yep: Twin Peaks. I bailed from that one early on and tried to warn others. They didn’t listen.

Hey, all you people stabbed in the back by AMC, just go buy the DVD set of the original Forbrydelsen. It’s better!

Previously here:

AMC-TV’s The Killing: R U FFR?
Forbrydelsen: Post-Mortem

AMC-TV’s The Killing: R U FFR?

The Killing Finale, What Did You Think?

I saw only a few minutes of the first episode, immediately hated it, and ignored it until today.

SPOILERS FOR BOTH FORBRYDELSEN AND THE KILLING AHEAD!

Amanda Hocking Jumps The Shark

She’s all the rage in this New York Times Magazine extravaganza.

And she just killed her writing cred by saying this:

For me to be a billion-dollar author, I need to have people buying my books at Wal-Mart.

So, it’s not about the writing.

It’s about the money.

No, I’m not surprised.

Hocking is the eBook equivalent of the Pet Rock.

Next!

Nook Touch Rooting: June 20th News

Note: All Nook Touch rooting news of this day will be consolidated into this single post, with any updates at the end. Note the second: there’s an update so important, I’ve put it first!

Update June 20, 2011: Important XDA Developers thread! Nook Simple Touch Root & Setup Script Kit

Here’s a link to bookmark: 17 places to download Android apps (that aren’t the Android Market)