The Digital Reader

First they came for Rowling, and I smiled;
Then they came for Bradbury, and I cheered;
Alas, no one has come for White. Sigh.

Simon and Schuster has announced that Ray Bradbury’s seminal Fahrenheit 451 is now available as an ebook.You can find it in most ebookstores, including the Kindle Store, for the princely sum of $9.99. Yikes.

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The digital publisher Open Road Media has just announced that the launch of Iconic eBooks.

Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying will be the first title released under the new imprint, with The Color Purple by Alice Walker following soon after. Open Road also plan to rebrand a number of its current eBooks under the new imprint, including: Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George, Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, and several classic titles.

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A new publishing service launched a couple weeks back and it promises to let the readers decide what titles get published.

Pubslush Press see themselves as a traditional publisher, only they are introducing a new twist to the publishing process. Rather than have a handful of insiders sort through the slushpile, they plan to let  all who want to participate add their own voice to the process.

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The Huffington Post announced today that they are getting into book publishing with the release of A People’s History of the Great Recession, by Arthur Delaney. This is their first ebook, and it is now available in ebookstores everywhere.

Every book about the economic crisis of the late 2000s focuses on the institutions that caused the recession and the brilliant geniuses who were at the top when it all went down. This book is about the people on the bottom who got flattened through no fault of their own. Their stories show what happens when the system doesn’t work. Now our political leaders are in the middle of a big debate about how much the nation should spend on social programs that help people. This book asks the question a different way: How much indignity should regular folks have to suffer?

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Word got out a few days ago that Simon & Schuster would no longer be publishing Rick Yancey’s Monstrumologist series, and that they release the last title in September of this year. I’ve never read it, but judging by the screams of outrage among book bloggers I can guess that this is a very good series.

This story caught my eye not because of the series, but because of the blinkered views of the complaining book bloggers. They don’t seem to realize that being dropped by a publisher is not the end of the world.

Publishers aren’t the sole gatekeepers anymore. Unlike the upset book bloggers, I know that and that’s I’m calling this good news. Now Mr. Yancey will have the chance to go alone and make a lot more money.

I don’t think anyone actually needs a traditional publisher anymore. Yes, there are any number of jobs that contribute to creating and publishing a book, but that doesn’t mean that the author (or his business partner) can’t contract them out. And that’s especially true in this case.

Will Mr. Yancey succeed? I don’t know. But the Monstrumologist  series has an established base of readers and it has won awards. (It also clearly has a rabid fanbase.) Half the marketing effort has already been done. Failure is incredibly unlikely.

source, other source

They’re calling it The Daily Reader (yeah, I know), and it launched a few days ago.

The new blog is going to focus on news and current events as they relate to books, both titles published by Macmillan and those released by other publishers. Amanda Hirsch will be running the blog. Amanda’ a blogger and media consultant currently living in Brooklyn, and she also used to be the editorial director for PBS  (among a bunch of other things).

Amanda’s going to be running the blog, but it won’t be a solo effort.  Post ideas will be suggested by the Macmillan editorial staff – the people who are actively working with each title and can see the connection.  The Daily Reader will also have guest bloggers.

via Macmillan

image by colros

Byte Magazine, one of the better tech news sources of the ’90s,  has been brought back to life after a 13 year hiatus. It’s being relaunched on the  Information Week website as a prelude to launching byte.com, its new home.

Byte actually launched over 2 weeks ago, but it looks like this was a quiet launch (so the bugs could be worked out). (The inaugural post went up back in June but there’s a gap between then and the new stuff posted yesterday.) The writing staff is already lined up, and it’s going to be a mix of old and new (mostly new). The most important name (for me, at least) is Jerry Pournelle, who will be reprising his column from the print edition.

I couldn’t get a firm answer on future plans, but it doesn’t look like this incarnation of BYTE will have a print edition. The status of apps and digital subscriptions is also still up in the air.

Byte