Incompetent book design

I was reading a recent book that had laughable book design.  The index was actually one column per page I've never seen that before anywhere.  There was also strange shading on the chapter titles.  I was already to blast them as an incompetent self-publisher when I searched on the publisher name.  Shockingly they aren't in fact they've been in business for nearly 30 years.  Disgraceful simply disgraceful.  Looking at their other titles I'd consider purchasing them but I'm terrified what the final product will look like.

Vanity Fair are pirates

Wears some journalist ethics talking head when we need one?

Funny article on offline book piracy

Offline Book "Lending" Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion

Amazon reviews useless

Now they're getting 1 star if there's no Kindle.

This is epic

Admittedly I haven't been doing much these days on the blog. I did have to sit up and take notice to the ongoing disaster that is Harlequin becoming a vanity publisher. To watch the fallout see and this.

New self-publishing website

Self-Publishing Review will be a website to watch. Not much there at the moment but it looks like one of the ideas they will be pushing is professionalism. Something that I considered writing about in the past but haven't really managed to get to.

When will Oprah learn?

Publication of disputed Holocaust memoir canceled

I'll review your book, maybe [My book review policy]

Today for the first time I was offered a book to review for the blog. It's a science fiction alternate history. Naturally I've accepted the offer. I've taken enough political science courses that when something new happens I feel the urge to write a set of guidelines so here's my book review policy. I'm happy to review your book if it meets the following criteria.

• The book falls within the genres I usually read. Don't bother suggesting your contemporary horror or supernatural romance. If there's any doubt suggest it and I'll make the decision. As far as nonfiction just about everything goes.
• The book must have an ISBN.
• And most importantly be willing to ship to Canada.

If you want to contact me you can do so through the the comments link on any post. All comments are moderated [since the spam attack this past summer] so it won't be posted. Remember to leave an e-mail address so I can get back to you.

Just when you thought SFWA couldn't make themselves more irrelevant they do

Science Fiction Writers of America abuses the DMCA. Somebody needs to walk the plank over this.

Unknown Binding on ABE Explained

I often chuckle when reading wants reports from the advanced book exchange because books are often listed with various attributes listed as unknown. How exactly can you not know what a binding is on a book? books to furnish a room a bookseller on ABE figured it out apparently if a seller uses terminology different from the standard good very good hardcover paperback etc. terminology ABE gets rid of it. Hopefully they'll fix this bug in the system.



book collecting
used books
advanced book exchange
Abebooks

Ripping Off Consumers: dinosaur publishers and bookstores

the Toronto Star has an editorial discussing the problem of publishers and bookstores ignoring the rising Canadian dollar and maintaining the exchange rates for converting prices between American and Canadian. Which of course leads to Canadian consumers paying a premium for reading. The publishers wine that they print books more than a year in advance so they can't adjust prices. Well if they're using print on demand technology as most of them are it's a simple enough change to make. Possibly needing a generation of a new barcode. Easy enough. There would also have to be a change in the books in print catalog which is industry-standard but would only take 45 days to take effect. Just goes to show what a joke the archaic industry is.

publisher
consumer
ripoff
bookstore
Canadian dollar

The book inventory increases

After various wanderings around my favorite web site ebay I've managed to find two more books which will work for my republication project. One is sitting here on the desk beside me. The book is severely yellowed unfortunately. Which will mean I’ll be looking for a typist? Maybe this is something I can outsource. I'll have to look into that.

Options

Well unfortunately I lost the auction mentioned in the last message but I did find another book which would work and managed to win it. So when it shows up I'll be able to take a look and see. Already have two books here which could work. Don't seem to be currently in print. Now to pitch it to the parents.

Target work for republication

I may have a target work for my republication project. Clearly this text is in the public domain and would be relevant to historians. Copies are going for $800American in the collectormarket but I've come across a cheap set on eBay.. I don't think OCR software can handle it so this maybe a typing job for someone unfortunately. I have to see just how it looks before the auction ends. Maybe putting in a bid.

Digging through the pile

I'm back at home which means I have access to all those books that have been piling up since last September. I would bring in a few each week but could never exactly get it right. Never got through what I brought or was done by Wednesday afternoon. So now it's time to start making my way through the backlog. Not that I'll stop buying we'll know that's impossible. Now if I just had somewhere to put them all.

quick explanation

I wasn't particularly fond of the interface on xanga so hopefully this will work out better. I'll be reposting my old messages just so there's a complete archive.