The Curious Case of Print-On-Demand
I have to admit I’m a bit puzzled. Initially I was selling more e-books through Kindle and then people started asking me if a print version of my most popular e-books were available. That’s when I...
View ArticleWhy Publishers Love E-Books (and Authors Hate Them)
As much as older people love printed books, the future is clearly e-books. However, traditional publishers love e-books and dislike printed books because printed books cost more to print, store, ship,...
View ArticleNetflix for E-Books
Amazon recently announced their Amazon Unlimited program where a $9.99 monthly fee lets you read all the e-books you want, which has been dubbed “Netflix for e-books.” Two other services called Scribd...
View ArticleAmazon vs. Hachette
If you’re self-publishing any books, the first place you need to put your books is on Amazon. Amazon gets roughly 200+ million visitors compared to Nook’s much smaller 6 million visitors, so sheer...
View ArticleLeonard Maltin Retiring Movie Guide
Since 1986, Leonard Maltin has printed an annual movie guide filled with reviews of practically every movie available. Yet his 2015 edition of his movie guide will be his last. As Leonard Maltin...
View ArticleHow to Make Money with Books
Here’s the fantasy many authors cling to. They think if they self-publish one book, magically billions of people all over the Internet will buy their book and keep buying their book so they’ll earn...
View ArticleBooks are Stepping Stones to Riches
One reason why I’m against book services that charge a fee to help you self-publish books isn’t because their services aren’t valid. It’s because they prey off the fantasies of would-be authors into...
View ArticleA Dose of Reality
I’m constantly appalled at the number of people who think that just because they self-publish a book, millions of people are going to buy it right away at the highest price possible. Here’s a dose of...
View ArticleAre Authors Doomed?
On August 22, 2011, The Guardian published an interesting article called “Are books dead, and can authors survive?” The basic idea behind this article is that traditional publishers are focusing more...
View ArticlePaper vs. E-Books
The Economist Magazine has an interesting essay about the future of books. One of the observations made by the article is that books need to be compared to tablets and e-readers as another device for...
View ArticleThe Dying Nook
Back when Amazon introduced the Kindle, Barnes & Noble countered with the Nook tablet. In some ways, people believe the Nook is actually the slightly superior tablet but superior technology means...
View ArticleStreaming E-Book Services
Back in the good old days, people bought vinyl records to listen to music. Then they switched to CDs. When they switched to digital files, iTunes took off and music stores disappeared. Now iTunes is in...
View ArticleiBooks Gaining 1 Million Subscribers a Week
When Apple launched iBooks (their e-book reading program) along with iBookstore (their e-bookstore), they didn’t make much of a splash because iBooks only ran on iOS. Then Apple introduced iBook on OS...
View ArticleThe Dying Magazine Industry
Even the most die-hard, anti-Apple critic can’t ignore the influence the iPhone and iPad has had on the computing market today. Yet despite the growing influence and profitability of Apple, another...
View ArticleDigital Magazines Still Struggling
There’s an interesting article about the future of digital magazines. While ordinary print magazines are struggling, digital magazines are struggling too. One major problem with magazines is that...
View ArticlePrss, the Digital Magazine Maker that Apple Bought
A while back, Apple introduced Newsstand. The idea behind the Newsstand app was to let publishers create digital magazines and deliver them to customers. The problem with Newsstand was that it took...
View ArticleIt’s Never the Content
Here’s the fantasy that most authors have. They believe if they write the best book possible, the world will recognize it, turn it into a best-seller, and send millions towards the author. Here’s the...
View ArticleBetting on Sure Things
In the old days, publishers would wade through book proposals and hope to find something that could sell. Unfortunately this process meant that publishers often picked books that failed to sell while...
View ArticleWhy Magazines (and Newspapers) Are Dying
Apple’s iPhone may not dominate the market share for smartphones, but it does dominate the profit share for smartphones. The iPad still leads the tablet category and now the Apple Watch promises to...
View ArticleThree Cases for Self-Publishing
There’s a comprehensive essay about self-publishing called The 7k Report. This report tries to track the e-book and self-publishing markets and contains lots of information, but some of the most useful...
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