The launch of Pottermore and the Pottermore Shop changes the rules of the publishing game in ways that promise to shake the industry to its foundations.
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The Power and Psychology of Storytelling
In this thoughtful post, The Power of “Once upon at Time”: A Story to Tame The Wild Things, Maria Konnikova explores the power of storytelling, starting with the four iconic words: Once upon a time. It’s healthy to step back from the mechanics of writing, distributing, and promoting ebooks from time to time and remind [...]
Panel Discussion: Books in the Digital Age
A panel discussion at the Desmond-Fish Library explores the issues surrounding ePublishing and digital books. Brisk discussion and thoughtful insights into a topic that we’re all interested in. Tweet
Visual Narrative Offers a Fresh Storytelling Slant
You wouldn’t think that it would be possible to craft imaginative imagery around the story of coal mining in Appalachia, but the Beehive Collective has done just that. “The True Cost of Coal”, as profiled in Orion Magazine (Beehive Collective: Metaphor Crafters | Orion Magazine), uses visual arts to trace the history of mining in [...]
The Derivative Nature of Creativity
One of the more contentious issues in the epublishing realm revolves around whether ebooks should be locked up with digital rights schemes or left open in a more trusting manner. The discussion often spirals to the larger issues of copyright and patent laws, which by imposing 18th century strictures on 21st century digital content [...]
Pop-up Books to iPads: Storytelling Technology
Storytelling has been around since humans learned to scratch antelope figures on cave walls, but there have always been those who experimented with new techniques and pushed the medium in new directions. Joe Sabia gives his take on the ways technology has influenced storytelling using Lothar Meggendorfer and the pop-up book as an example. Tweet
Writing Insights from a Coffee-Shop Vampire
Written by a British Columbia resident, Lee Rawn, The Solstice Conspiracy tells the story of Beth and Chris, two children who move to a new home in the country and discover that a nearby garden is inhabited with strange beings. They’re both drawn into this previously unimagined world of tiny creatures where power struggles and malicious intentions [...]
Spruce Up Your Ebook Cover with a Photo
The old saw goes something like this: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Now I’m not one to question your elementary school English teacher’s wisdom (though the original expression was actually “You can’t judge a book by its binding”). I get it. But when it comes to selling your book, covers are tremendously [...]
Speaking with Indie-ePublisher Mikkel Aaland
As an award-winning photographer, author of nearly a dozen books, and widely-recognized expert in digital imaging, San Francisco, California-based Mikkel Aaland is the person many turn to when questions arise about capturing and creating the perfect photo. As it turns out, Aaland is also an expert on constructing the perfect sauna. In this article, we [...]
Gestures and Ereader Design
Navigating the pages of an ebook with current generation Kindles, Nooks, and iPads is a clumsy affair—a linear, mechanical process typically linked to a progress bar. Flipping backwards and forwards through an ebook, perhaps to recall an earlier passage or to gauge what’s coming, is an exercise in overshoot or undershoot, nothing like the ease [...]
Promote Your Title through Google Books
As an author committed to self publishing, you already know that writing an ebook, formatting it for the major platforms, and getting into the online bookstores is only part of the challenge. The other part—one that will occupy more and more of your attention as you get serious about building a readership for your work—is [...]
