Six Sites With Free Digital Comics
And really, why wouldn’t you want these?
And, most of the time, they can be read on an iPad Mini-sized tablet, as my past PDF tests have shown (as long as that clone has a Retina-class screen; I wouldn’t bother with any lower-resolution screens on any tablet, even larger ones — despite this: How to Read Digital Comics on the ($50) Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet).
Filed under Digital Periodicals, eBooks: General, Reference
The horrors of Kindle Format X
The problem with Amazon’s Kindle platform has always been that it has been designed and maintained by people who, quite evidently, do not understand books. The device and its firmware has been designed by Lab126, a company that specializes in handheld devices, and the name, Lab126, could not be more fitting, because everything about the Kindle has felt like something put together by lab rats, from day one; people with no sense of the real-world application of their devices. I would not be surprised to hear that the engineers at Lab123 have never really read a book on a Kindle or tried to format one, for that matter.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
What’s even worse: Most readers don’t understand books.
They might notice it doesn’t look exactly like a “real” book and that some weird things happen with sub- or super- scripts or fractions, but otherwise they live with it for the sake of both convenience and because they’ve already sunk money into a damn device (be it a Kindle or iPad or anything else that will run the Kindle app).
I still think Microsoft’s LIT format was beautiful.
Although, these days, eBooks look best from the iBookstore on an iPad. Although that contains horrors of its own too.
Filed under Amazon Kindle, Book Creation, Digital Overthrow, eBooks: General
Jane Friedman on bringing books ‘back to life’
Oh, I was one of the skeptics. But I didn’t understand what her goal was.
What I’ve seen every damn year, though, is a sale at Amazon with titles that make me go, “I want that and that and that and oooh yes that one too” — and they all turn out to be eBooks from Friedman’s company, Open Road Integrated Media.
She wins. She rules.
Anyone who wants to do eBooks should study her company.
Applause.
Filed under Digital Overthrow, eBooks: General
I tried both Aldiko and FBReader.
FBReader I use on my Windows desktop because it’s fast and svelte compared to using others (which, back in the day, were the Sony Reader app, Kobo app, and — god help us all — Adobe Digital Editions).
Aldiko was so slow that I became thoroughly disgusted and didn’t even waste my time with screensnaps. It’s not software I will be using.
FBReader contained an interesting and useful surprise!
Filed under eBooks: General, eBooks: Screens, iPad Mini Clones
I had no damn idea:
1) It was originally self-published
2) It was originally a serial
3) It was once free
Andy Weir and his book ‘The Martian’ may have saved NASA and the entire space program
The story unfolded as a serial over the course of several years. At the request of fans, Weir repackaged it in an e-reader version. Some readers struggled with the downloading process, so Weir then put it on sale at Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing, charging the required minimum of 99 cents per copy. More people downloaded it at that price than had ever downloaded it for free. They gave it positive reviews.
Not a single damn person in my bookish Twitterstream ever mentioned it to me.
And you would think Amazon would have pimped the shit out of it. They fell down on this job!
Podcast page: How Andy Weir Took ‘The Martian’ From Blog to Bestseller to Blockbuster Movie (Starring Matt Damon)
— thanks to @JulietaLionetti
Filed under Digital Overthrow, eBooks: General, Marketing, Writer, Writing
Waterstones is removing Kindles from stores
Waterstones is removing Amazon’s Kindle devices from many of it stores as sales “continue to be pitiful”.
Why is this any surprise?!
People have large phones to read on.
And better tablets.
When — and if — they read at all something other than narcissistic IMing.
Filed under Amazon Kindle, Digital Overthrow, eBooks: General, eBooks: Screens, eInk Devices
Apple Conspired to Fix E-book Prices: U.S. Appeals Court
By a 2-1 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court judge that the conspiracy violated federal antitrust law, and that the judge acted properly in imposing an injunction to prevent a recurrence.
Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston said that by organizing the conspiracy, “Apple found an easy path to opening its iBookstore,” while ensuring that marketwide prices rose to a level that Apple and the publishers wanted.
Previously here:
Filed under Apple: The Company, eBooks: General
Amazon Offers All-You-Can-Eat Books. Authors Turn Up Noses.
Let me fix the headline: Shitheads Who Have No Business Writing Whine Their Free Ride Is Ending
On Twitter, I railed against that article.
I’m publishing those tweets here. Because fuck you.
Filed under Amazon Kindle, Digital Overthrow, eBooks: General, Friction, Marketing, Writers, Writing
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