According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, book giant Barnes & Noble has plans to begin selling its own electronic reader as a direct competitor to Amazon’s popular Kindle. The newspaper said that Barnes & Noble could begin selling its new product as early as next month and that there is no word on the e-reader’s retail price.
Barnes & Noble, however, has not released any statements confirming or denying its plans to begin selling an e-reader. According to a company spokesperson, Barnes & Noble does support the idea of a portable e-reader and believes that readers should be …read more

If you’re a freelancer writer, chances are that you’re also an avid reader. I know I am. While I’ve resisted purchasing a Kindle, I know a lot of you guys and gals probably are enjoying this new technology. Well, most of the time. Earlier this month, Amazon deleted the books Animal Farm and 1984 (how ironic) from Kindles around the world after finding that the uploaded version violated copyright laws. Everyone got their money back, but some people are still pissed.

One such person is 17-year-old Justin D. Gawronski, a student at Shelby Township, Michigan’s Eisenhower High School. Along with other …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
One of the reasons I like blogs so much is I don’t have to try and track everything I think I should write about here. For example, I’ve been a proponent of ebooks since the beginning; I’ve been singularly unimpressed with ebook readers. Fortunately, Joe Wikert over at his Publishing 2020 Blog takes time to track these devices.
Today he’s got a post called Sony Reader Now Selling at Target . Using Google Trends, he’s tracking Amazon’s Kindle (current price, $359) and Sony’s Ebook Reater ($299 at Target). It’s amazing. He speculates that Amazon doesn’t get the market as well as …read more

Sigh! I suppose it should be obvious, but until I read Joe Wikert’s story called Kindle Book Conversion: One Author’s Story that I realized there would, of course, be formatting problems when it came time to get your book, or mine, into shape for whatever ebook reader I wanted to be able to sell it for.
Actually, the story is a Q&A with Francis Hamit is the author of The Shenandoah Spy, but the bottom line is it will cost either coin or extra effort to get your book ready to display on Amazon’s Kindle, and I’ll bet the same thing …read more

I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. Joe Wikert who has the blog Publishing 2020 Blog, also authors a blog about Amazon’s new ebook reader the Kindle.
Called Kindleville, there info both interesting and not so interesting about this ebook reader. Because it’s Amazon and because it uses epaper I think it may be the precursor to the really great ebook reader I’m waiting for.
By the way, today Amazon is still sold out of Kindles, or is it sold out again… I’m not sure. It is available at ebay, mostly for a premium… no clue what it all means.
Write well …read more

There’s still lots of talk about Amazon’s Kindle.
For example, if:book talks about how the dollars might work for ebooks in a post called: kindle maths 101
Mashable talks about the problems with wireless, the Kindle and certain parts of the country in Moving To Montana? Forget About Your Kindle!
Then there are all sorts of sites that claim to offer ways to break into the digital rights management part of Kindle, some acknowledging copyright breaks, others just assuming it’s okay.
We’re closer to a breakthrough on ebooks and ebook readers imo, but we’re not quite there et.
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing …read more

The day before Thanksgiving I posted about Amazon’s new ebook reader. There’s lots of buzz around the blogasphere, a lot of which makes little sense to me. However, Michael S. Hyatt, President CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and writer of the blog From Where I Sit has reviewed the device in a post called: Kindle: First Impressions.
First of all, unlike many, including me, he’s actually used one, and pretty extensively. That helps. He observes that the Kindle is more like a bookstore than an ebook reader – interesting thought, that – a bookstore I can take with me.
Then he details …read more