A radio interview after Digital beats Paperbacks

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Yesterday i listened to a interesting interview on Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show on BBC Radio 2 with Tim Cooper, head of digital marketing at Mills and Boon, after Amazon had announced that the Kindle e-books had outsold paperbacks in the US. (see The Bookseller- Kindle sales outstrip paperbacks)

Cooper said how the advantage of digital is that once you’ve finished a book you can immediately buy another one, without a gap where you have to wait to buy a printed book and wait for the delivery.

Romantic novels have been one of the more popular genres that have sold well digitally, but maybe this is because digital allows people to buy these books discreetly and read them on e-readers which don’t display what you are reading, as some of these books can be embarrassing to be seen reading in public!

Cooper said that other publishers have reported the same sort of sales, so its just the way the customer is going, with digital changing the market.

He believes that the physical book isnt going to disappear very quickly and doubts the end of it is coming, but said that digital sales will increase anyway over the next few years.

He also says how booksellers do have the problem that print sales arent as big so they are now offering e-readers in their stores in the US to help them keep sales going.

Cooper said you need to be able to look at your content and see what can be interpreted into digital for the ever-growing digital market.

It was certainly interesting listening to what Cooper said about digital and its impact on the industry, as it is a vitally important issue to keep an eye on, as digital is here to stay and is growing in popularity and developing rapidly each day.

Book Blurbs: How accurate? Pointless?

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I was just wondering the other day about the blurbs on the backs of books and how important they are.

I admit i am one of those people who picks a book by the cover if i’m just wandering round a bookstore, and then i will pick up the appealing book and flip it over to see the blurb on the back to see if the book sounds attractive too.

And OK, a lot of the time, i am given a book or forced to read it during my studies, and don’t take much notice of the blurb, or think it is awful but still read the book anyway.

I find myself wondering how many books i rejected purely because of the blurb being unappealing. And how many books i missed out on because someone wrote a bad blurb.

However, maybe we are only attracted to the books which sound like what we have read before and therefore are considered as “safe reads” in our heads? You could get quite philosophical about this compulsion which drives us to pick a certain book.

Maybe the blurb makes the plot sound really normal and unspectacular, but then wins you over by the descriptive words it uses, seducing you with romantic terms. I found this applied to the Twilight series, with the first book using phrases like “with his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts”, which appealed to me (as a fan of fantasy, and having a love of poetic description). The later books don’t seem to have such romantic terms in their blurbs so i am less attracted to them as blurbs. However, by the time i’d finished the first book and become addicted to the plot, i cared less and less about the blurbs, and preferred to just read the books without reading the blurbs, because i already trusted the quality and content of the first book, and was more inclined to carry on with the series based on the  content.

You might be sitting reading this thinking, why is she going on about blurbs? What’s the point?

Well, after studying English, i find myself over-analysing even little bits of texts, and as the author doesn’t tend to be the one who writes the blurb, i wonder just how you go about describing how good the book is, and finding the right words to describe it. It must be quite a challenge for the publisher to find the few sentences which will make the book a success, especially at the moment that a potential reader picks the book up and reads the blurb, which is the making or breaking of that book!

Maybe i will find out soon when i start my career in the publishing industry!

I also wonder if Ebooks will remove the need for blurbs…. after all, you can’t pick up a virtual book and read the back of it!

I’m interested to know what everyone else thinks about this!

Book Review: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson

I have just finished reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” after struggling with reading it for the last 2 months or so. I finally got into it a few days ago and once i was hooked, it pretty hard to put the book down!

I think it is a very good book, if a little dark at times, but then most crime novels are.  I can see why the Millennium series is so popular, it is definitely an interesting read!

Without spoiling the plot for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, the story follows Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who faces prison after losing a libel case, who is hired by the elderly Henrik Vanger, the rich CEO of a large international company, who has spent the last 40 years or so trying to discover what happened to his young niece Harriet who disappeared without a trace. Blomkvist investigates this case with little belief that they will ever find out what happened to her, but after a few important incidents, the dysfunctional Vanger family’s lives start to unravel and secrets come pouring out. Blomkvist, with the help of Lisbeth Salander, an expert hacker in her twenties and with her own troubled past, has to go through all the stories and lies to find out the truth.

It really keeps you guessing all the way through, and it is a little bit hard to follow at time, making you wonder what on earth is going on, but eventually the loose ends are all tied up and the ending is pretty good.

The characters are really well written, and Lisbeth Salander in particular brings a lot to the plot, with the theme of the novel being about the abuse of women by men. The original Swedish title of the novel was “Men who hate women”, and that certainly shows throughout the book.

Overall, for a crime novel, this is extremely well written, and although i found certain parts of the plot a little disturbing at times, it is still an excellent read, and i really recommend you try it, even if you don’t normally go for crime fiction. I am not a huge fan of crime fiction, but i always like the suspense of a mystery which you can’t wait to solve!

I give it 9/10 for originality, suspense, and a fantastic plot with great little twists and lots of great detail!

My current reading habit

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Interestingly, the last two days i have found i got bored with the internet and my computer and have ended up resorting to reading an actual printed book for once!

I’m currently trying to finish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, after reading it on and off for about 2 months! It’s actually getting better now, i was struggling to keep going with it, but yesterday i picked it up and finally got hooked and havent put it down since!

It’s also nice to find i can still sink into the reading mentality, where i tune out everything going on around me and my sole ambition in life is to finish reading the book! For someone who multi-tasks all the time, its quite refreshing to just do one thing!

I just don’t think i could abandon paper printed books totally, i love books too much! They don’t require as much maintenance as, say, a Kindle, which still needs power of some kind! A paper book will just sit nicely on a shelf, or be used as a door-wedge! Or, in my case, the top of my latest read is where my mobile phone lives because then it doesn’t vibrate so loudly! Some people may say, OMG you can’t use a book as a door-wedge, its sacrilege! Well, you can say that, but are you really going to use your Kindle as a door-wedge? No, thought not!

Oh dear, here’s me banging on about my love of paper books again!

I felt i should mention paper books though, because lately i’ve been all technical, checking out the Ipad and its accessories, and looking at alternative tablet computers! Finding myself drooling over them now! I really want one, but my current finances suggest i will have to wait a few months! At least by then i will have decided which to actually buy!

So, now i will get back to my book, and i will be back as soon as i finish it to write my review of it!

The Wallee – a wall-mount for the Ipad

I found this strange contraption today while surfing the internet, the Wallee.

It is a hardback case for the Ipad, which can be mounted on the wall with a special bracket.

Now, i find this a bit odd, as the point of the Ipad is that it is a portable computer, and attaching it to a wall kind of defies the point. Still, i guess it could be useful if you are using your Ipad for recipes and have nowhere to put it while cooking, or if you don’t want it lying around on your desk or something… but this wouldnt really work if you’re watching films on your Ipad…. its still too small to be a good viewing from a distance! There are photos on the their website of it being attached to the dashboard of a car, but i think that just adds danger to the product, as it wouldn’t be any safer than using a mobile phone in the car while driving.

I have to say, it looks kind of tacky in the colours available!

You decide what you think! See this product for yourself at The Wallee website.

Or watch the Youtube video manual:

Calling all parents! (looking for submissions)

Hi,

As part of my publishing Masters course, we are putting together a book about parenthood and how to survive it! If you are a writer and a parent, or even if you just have a story to share, please get in contact and submit your stories! (UK and US entries only) The all important link: UCLan Blessing and Bother Call out See the call out for more information below:

…………………………………………………..

Parents, We want you!

Did your waters break in an unusual or embarrassing place? Did you fall out choosing your baby’s name? Did you find your own ways to cope with baby-blues or sleep deprivation? Then why not share your experience with other parents, in a new book of parenthood stories called Blessing and Bother: How to Have Children and Live to Tell the Tale.

Published in summer 2011 by UCLan Press, Blessing and Bother is all about parents sharing their stories of first-time parenthood, and how to survive it.

From conception to potty-training, we want to hear your unusual, amusing or heart-warming accounts of how you overcame the trials and tribulations of parenthood.

So, if you’re a mum or dad with a quirky story to share, or a midwife with an entertaining anecdote, then please get in touch. The book will be edited, published and promoted by Publishing MA students at UCLan University, who will be on hand to work with you on your story and perfect it prior to publication.

Interested? Great! Please take a look at our guidelines before you send your story.

Guidelines

We’re looking for entertaining stories about your own experiences of parenthood (about anything from conception through to potty training), of between 1000-3000 words. While we want your true account, please bear in mind that we want this book to be as entertaining as possible, with stories that are well-crafted and engaging. So here are some tips on writing compelling stories:

• Don’t give away what happens right at the start – establish what the problem is, and keep the reader in suspense about how it will be resolved.
• Try to put yourself in the shoes of a reader and anticipate what they would find interesting.
• Try to pace it so that each paragraph moves the story on.
• Try to tell it in your own words, avoiding cliches of expression.
• Small, unusual descriptive details and similes are usually more effective than long passages set aside for description.
• Don’t feel you have to end your story with a flourish, or a joke. Let the events speak for themselves.

Please email your stories as an MS Word doc attachment to Debbie Williams (DJWilliams1@uclan.ac.uk), and include your name contact details within the document. Closing date for submissions is 28th February 2011.

Terms:

• ‘Blessing and Bother: How to Have Children and Live to Tell the Tale’ will be published in eBook format in 2011.
• Stories should be between 1000 – 3000 words.
• Stories must be the author’s own original work.
• We are unable to use work which contains copyright material (e.g. quotations from other published work, songs, etc), or any material which, in the sole opinion of the editors, is deemed of a libelous, defamatory or otherwise actionable nature.
• The editors may request reasonable editorial revisions prior to publication, where deemed appropriate, and will be available to help make any such revisions.
• Copyright of all submissions will remain with the contributors, however the publishers request exclusivity for one year following publication.
• UCLan press is unable to offer any payment for contributions. ‘Blessing and Bother: How to Have Children and Live to Tell the Tale’ is a non-profit publication; any proceeds raised by the sale of the book will go towards future publications by UCLan MA students.

I want an Ipad! (or: Other tablets are available)

Lately i’ve found myself wanting one of the tablet devices available on the market at the moment. I’ve physically held an Ipad twice, and i have to admit it is fairly cool!

I was originally put off touchscreen after having bought a touchscreen phone last summer and it dying on me so many times over the weekend i had it, that i sent it back and bought myself the QWERTY keypad version of that same phone model, fed up with the technical hitches i had with the touchscreen. Maybe it was just a faulty phone, but i was so excited about owning a touchscreen phone that it ruined it for me!

Of course, with one of these special touchscreen tablet devices, maybe i will find some satisfaction in the touchscreen, something i was unable to enjoy before. However, i am stuck with the problem of which tablet to choose from, because although we only ever hear about the Ipad (let’s face it, Apple is the big rich guy of technology and therefore has more means of promoting its products), there are plenty of other devices out there on the market.

(I’m not going to describe the Ipad, i think it has enough airtime as it is! It would be boring to harp on and on about it when most people know about it anyway! and for my earlier posting on the Ipad see Ipads in Society)

The list of Tablet Devices which i found on the market:

1) Samsung Galaxy Tab

• 7 inch touchscreen
• Two cameras (3.2 megapixels and 1.9 megapixels)
• runs Android 2.2
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Adobe Flash support
• Weighs 380g
• Looks slick and smart, looks rather like a bigger version of their Samsung Genio Touch phone… same Samsung style, which is fairly attractive.
• This one seems to be a serious contender, and is the one which i would choose to buy if i don’t go for an Ipad!

For more information see Samsung Galaxy Tab @ Samsung.com

2) Blackberry Playbook Tablet

• 7 inch touchscreen
• front and rear mounted cameras (3-megapixel and 5-megapixel)
• runs RIM’s  QNX OS
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Another smart and sleek device! Blackberry’s phones are hugely popular, so I think maybe that could sway many people to buy it.
• Doesn’t seem to be available yet, but seems to be due to be released at some point within 2011

For more information see Blackberry Playbook Tablet @ Blackberry.com

3) Dell Streak

• 5 inch touchscreen
• 5.0M Rear-Facing Auto-Focus Camera + VGA Front-Facing Camera
• runs Android 1.6 or 2.2
• Dimensions - 6 x 3.1 x 0.4 inches
• It seems to be a hybrid, basically a mix of smartphone and tablet
• Smaller than other tablets available, seems more like the size of an IPhone…  but a bit bigger – it works as a mobile phone, but is a bit on the big side!
• Literally just seems like a supped up touchscreen smartphone, isn’t as cumbersome as most tablet devices. It is being marketed as being the pocket tablet which actually will fit in your pocket, so maybe that will benefit those who want a tablet but not a big clunky thing like the Ipad!

For more information see Dell Streak @ Dell.com

4) Advent Vega tablet

• 10.1 inch touchscreen
• runs Android 2.2
• Wi-fi
• Weighs 700g-750g
• Dimensions - 13.6 x 275 x 178mm
• Looks like it has a fairly simple system for a tablet
• Looks fairly attractive and simply designed

Advent Vega @Adventcomputers.co.uk

So there you go, a selection of alternatives to the Ipad, some of which are probably better than others, but i can’t be too selective over which is best because i have never tried any of the above!

With any luck, in a few months i’ll be able to afford to buy one of these, but for now i can just dream!

Thanks for reading!

Facts about books!

I was just randomly checking out news articles, when i came across this video on Yahoo! and thought i would share it for all you book-lovers out there! (unfortunately i am unable to embed it, so you’ll have to follow the link to view the video).

Best-selling books of all time

To be honest, i wasnt expecting the Guiness Book of World Records to be one of the three best-selling books of all time! Obviously, I expected the Bible and the Koran to be up there, but that stumped me!

Can’t really say much about the video, it speaks for itself! Definitely worth a watch if you’re into useless trivia, publishing, or books!