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ASterling
Aliso Viejo
Interests: travel, wine, dog, hiking, writing, clothing
Recent Activity
Oh Kathryn, oh Kathryn. I hope he comes home too - somewhere he can and does and will. You know that.
Til Death Did Us Part
I just awoke from this horrible dream that David Hartwell, my husband, had fallen down the stairs and died. And now that I am fully awake, it is still true, and I am still a widow. It is something that cannot be true. It is as though one of the seasons, or one of the directions, up or down, has ...
We're trying to do something similar for the courses we are developing, Joe. It is a nightmare! I have gained a lot of respect for developers who have to make dozens of different systems work together, with complexity that's far beyond my ability to understand.
I understand what Adam is saying - but I think drawing on many different sources is definitely a learning or reading/experiencing method that will emerge in the future. I encourage and teach my students to do this. They have to be prompted or encouraged or rewarded. If I do not specifically guide them through, it is the rare student who seeks to investigate on his or her own. (Like, I have to say, read, watch video, write about this, read that, etc.)
How readers will become curators and resellers
It’s easy to think that today’s ebook is as good as it gets. Publishers are mostly satisfied with the current print-under-glass model and, unfortunately, flattening (or declining) ebook sales trends aren’t likely to drive investment in digital innovation. What if readers could help drive some o...
This is all so true, Joe - but in an era when the author websites are those driving the sales, I bet if I check any of the top, most-visited author sites where they interact with readers, a pretty fair number will NOT link to a publisher sales page! Remember publisher bio pages are often separate.
And then there's sellsheets and catalogs ... euughahhh!
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) starts with building community, not owning the sale
More and more book publishers seem to be focused on building a better direct relationship with consumers. Some of these direct-to-consumer (D2C) efforts are well thought-out while others are nothing more than publishers following the crowd. How else do you explain so many publisher sites that a...
I love it! I was somewhat hostile to Wikipedia and always instructed students not to use it for their papers. It's fine to use for information, but not "research." But I love this, it's so tempting!!
How content containers can dramatically affect user experience
I’m a big believer in the notion that content containers are slowly going away in the digital world. Those things we think of in the physical world as books, newspapers and magazines are being redefined digitally. It’s a slow evolution but one that is definitely taking place. In the years ahead...
This is a fantastic idea Joe ... I signed up for NextDoor - unsurprisingly there are 34 others already signed up where I live and I just had a chat with a neighbor online about our coyote issue!
Peer-to-peer content distribution
The smartwatch movement inspired me recently, which is surprising because I haven’t worn a watch since I started carrying a smartphone many years ago. I’m about as far as you can get from being a fashionista and I liken a watch to other obsolete single-use devices like the GPS. I doubt I’ll buy...
Our premise is that the current industry is so strongly focused on its current market customers and what they bought last month, last week, last year, that it doesn't seem able to see that just about 100% of people can read, and we have well over 40% college graduation rates in the U.S. and over 50% in Canada. It's still relying on near-volunteer labor and chewing up creative professionals like child workers in Dickens' London. 86% of the increase in retail spend over the next 5 years is expected to come from diverse consumers, according to the "other" part of AC Nielsen (market insights, not Bookscan). There is no data to support the commonly-held belief that more people do not regularly buy and read books because of "competition from games, film, TV and other media." Apparently, it's about impossible for many in the industry to get that everything they do is based in the market customer of the past, not the emerging customer of today and the future. It's hard to see how there is zero focus on the product (what's IN the book - not whose name is on the cover or what the cover looks like) and no questioning of what I do every 2 weeks - show one or more young people the current NY Times bestseller list and ask, "Which of these books would you like to read and why?" If it's not zero (often, it is), then it's always a film or TV-related product. Meanwhile, hand them Freakonomics or another interesting book and they gobble it up and ask for more.
One day content will enrich itself
You’ve probably heard me say that we live in a print-under-glass world, one where we’re consuming dumb content on smart devices. It’s true simply because, as Michael Bhaskar of Canelo Publishing stated it at BEA, “publishers treat ebooks as a secondary priority.” It’s far too easy to quickly c...
Innovation is a big challenge, Joe. Right now, the technology is there in terms of production, but not delivery. Our first mega-enhanced e-book is only really "right" on Apple devices. Lesser functionality is available on the computer and Android devices. Apps are not books; in fact - they are book-minus, not book-plus. EPUB3 is able to do amazing things but we have a pretty in-depth picture of what will run on what and it's very limited at present. The iBook we have produced will not even come close to validating for Kindle and that device option of "pop up" illustrations for children's books, textbooks and comics is not optimal.
You may check out Is SHE Available? by Igor Goldkind via the iTunes Store and we will be launching its hardcover edition at Comic-Con next week.
We will do more books like this in a variety of sectors. But innovation seldom comes from long-established companies.
One day content will enrich itself
You’ve probably heard me say that we live in a print-under-glass world, one where we’re consuming dumb content on smart devices. It’s true simply because, as Michael Bhaskar of Canelo Publishing stated it at BEA, “publishers treat ebooks as a secondary priority.” It’s far too easy to quickly c...
Cannabis Baby: Mascot for One and All!
Posted Apr 14, 2015 at incipit vita nova
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That Deaf Dumb and Blind Kid
Posted Jun 22, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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The Crossing
Posted Jun 20, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Just Don't Brag About Consuming Spoiled Junk Culture
Posted Jun 11, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Pokemon You Choose: Future Visions in the Top Books of 1985-86
Posted Jun 1, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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If It's a Trope, It Must be True!
Posted May 29, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Just in from Paul Levinson - the NYU summer reading list is more female than male. I'll make Paul an "honorary lady" LOL! Because his book is on this great list!
http://hashtagnyu.tumblr.com/post/85932771956/10-perfect-summer-reads-authored-by-nyu-alumni
Are Men or Women Better Writers?
Let's see what the interwebs have to say. The top web result for this query, entitled "In Which These are the 100 Greatest Writers of All Time," has 14 female and 86 male writers on its top ten list, going all the way back to one of the first writers ever known -- a guy who may not even have bee...
I asked Prof. Immerwahr about it and here is his take on a potential factor or reason for the phenomenon (which isn't as pronounced as I thought due to ... heck I don't know!) "... one possible reason why you see women looming fairly large as authors before 1950 has to do with their inability to work in most other areas. From pretty early on in the nineteenth century, it was socially acceptable for women to work as writers, assuming they stuck to certain topics. They still faced considerable sexism, of course, but nevertheless the bestselling book of that century was Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and there are a number of other serious and well-regarded female writers like Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman who wrote in that period. That continued into the twentieth century but presumably the effect is somewhat diminished as women gain the ability to enter politics, business, and government. In other words, on this interpretation it is in part the relative weakness of sexism in publishing that pushed talented women who might otherwise have invested their energies into other pursuits toward writing."
Are Men or Women Better Writers?
Let's see what the interwebs have to say. The top web result for this query, entitled "In Which These are the 100 Greatest Writers of All Time," has 14 female and 86 male writers on its top ten list, going all the way back to one of the first writers ever known -- a guy who may not even have bee...
Pat, that is an interesting point. The bestseller list over the past 50 years is running approximately 30% female/70% male ... Ron Collins just informed me I'd counted wrong and those figures were always just about the same and it was never 50-50 early-on as I'd counted up last year.
Are Men or Women Better Writers?
Let's see what the interwebs have to say. The top web result for this query, entitled "In Which These are the 100 Greatest Writers of All Time," has 14 female and 86 male writers on its top ten list, going all the way back to one of the first writers ever known -- a guy who may not even have bee...
Thank you so much, Chris ... I cannot understand why literary agents feel they must state this type of thing, since they have zero market metrics and only the performance of the past upon which to base such comments and statements.
Toward Renewed Humanism
As I was born, I am easily deceived. I can be easily taken advantage of, and am easily fooled into doing things for others which have little to no benefit for myself. This is ironic, considering that at the same time, person to person, I am one of the most difficult people to "fool" or lie to. ...
Are Men or Women Better Writers?
Posted May 20, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Once A Helmander
Posted May 20, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Baycon 2014
Hey - all you burglars out there who'd get a treasure trove of BOOKS, a few avocados, a nice kitty litter box and some dog food while I'm gone - there'll be people in my house. While I'm at Baycon... Continue reading
Posted May 14, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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No One Reads Any Longer ...
Posted May 13, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Age of the Gatekeepers and Special Words: Temple Grandin & Arizona Farmer-Ranchman
Posted May 9, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Facts to Help You, the Writer, to Understand Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing, and New Models
Posted May 8, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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In the Absence of Real Metrics ... Why Buy Based on BookScan?
Posted May 7, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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Cigarettes and Cheese Kill; Books Don't
Posted May 7, 2014 at incipit vita nova
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