ROBUST discussion
Don't stop writing your EBOOK!!
Saw that - the Nook is a really cool device. All it needs is a chip to turn it into an Android Tablet.Here's hoping that Microsoft gives them the money, then goes away. If they start tinkering with it, the company is sure to fail.
Sharon - no one is getting my Nook without a fight!
I've been seeing the ads for the glow model of the Nook. Looks nice, but I wonder if it would feel like back lighting rather than surface lighting when in use. Amazon is supposedly developing something along the same lines and I'll probably buy it just to see if it creates a "need" for me.
Mod
What I do understand, is why Amazon wants a colour Kindle. They probably suspect that a huge part of their market, and possibly an even bigger untapped market, would be more comfortable with picture books than all-text books. It's a matter of serving the largest mass of their market, which isn't and never will be comfortable with the higher levels of literature. And beyond a certain saturation of Kindles suitable only for narrative reading even if it is vampire pulp (far from reached, I think) -- it may be closer when a Kindle costs $9.95 in Ougoudougou), Amazon will not be able to broaden its market and will have to reach out for the non-readers and the semi-literates, a project in which we should all support Amazon.
Kat wrote: Here's hoping that Microsoft gives them the money, then goes away. If they start tinkering with it, the company is sure to fail.Yeah, and you might then have to reconsider throwing away your Nook.
Last night I read a tweet listing the top 10 Android Apps. Teeth firmly gritted, I downloaded Google Currents and from there downloaded Forbes magazine. I've read bits of it from time to time, but as I read the headlines I remembered how right-winged it leans. Still, I think I'll keep it around to skim for the times I can use a bit of 'self-important-absurdity' kench. I was reminded of this tidbit reading Andre's bit about colour. Being of the masses myself, I love the colour aspect of my Android. The other thing I did last night was play Angry Birds for the first time since downloading the first day I had the tablet, because everyone said I should. OMG, I've always loved parlour games, but never dreamed this game would catch me the way it did. Stayed up way past my bedtime, kench!
At the moment I am reading the same book on both my tablet and my Kindle. The tablet is good when I catch a chance to read on my chaise, but it will never replace my Kindle, which is lighter, smaller and easier on the eyes. With its tooled leather cover, the Kindle feels like a 'real' book to me...
Once you've been bitten by Angry Birds, you never recover.
I've just been given an iPad for work (I'm the assistant to the the IT Support, so the idea is I can help the teachers to use theirs more effectively in the classroom if I have one myself). I just discovered Magic Piano. I'll never do any work again.I've heard about Angry Birds. I think I'd better not look at it.
Never used a Nook. My Kindle 2 is best for reading outdoors, and it has the text-to-speech, which is flawed but still enables me to listen to books when driving and has helped me keep in touch with my own writing on my way to and from work.The iPad has a beautiful display but it is useless in direct sunlight. Useless. Plus when you are trying to read, your natural body movements cause the display to rotate, disrupting concentration. (This is really a problem reading when lying in bed!) At least, my iPad 1 has problems with being oversensitive. I don't know about versions 2-3.
I like to read in the bathtub. My Kindle 2 is lightweight enough that I can hold it up in the tub, and I expect the average Nook would be just fine as well for that purpose. I wouldn't take my iPad into the bathtub as it is heavy and I would be likely to drop it.
I tried Angry Birds. I couldn't beat the first level, and I gave it up. Plants vs. Zombies, however, is a different matter.
Katie, I think that's wise (she said mumbling something about looking into Magic Piano...)Kench, Matt. It is a bit hard relating to the silly 'birds' and whatever the other critters are. I played a bit more last night and it took me probably 10 minutes or more to get at one lonely green grinning pig hidden within a dome. The games are pure genius in the simplicity of their complexity and the giggles they engender (at least for me).
Kindle wins hands-down as a reader, imho. I have the K3 and I love it. I also have the same experience on my Android with the automatic rotation. I can put it to non-rotate through settings, but that's a pain because I more often appreciate the convenience of the auto-rotate option. So I don't read in bed either, for that reason and also that it's heavy and larger which makes it more awkward. But for reading in the evening when it's darker, propped up a pillow on my chaise, it is very enjoyable. It's not necessary but I like having the option.
Mod
Magic Piano is for wimps. Real players use the twin keyboards in Virtuoso to compose on, off the cuff. Sniff.
For €7.99 I bought MorphWiz, a program created by Jordan Rudess at Wizdom Music, loaded with his presets so that you just switch on and go, a whole family of little virtual Moogies at your fingertips. My family wants to know who is in the whole orchestra I have in the lavatory with me!
I never try these games. They suck you in to an enormous waste of time.
Mod
It's not only the iPad and, worse, smartphones, it's all these !@£$%^&*()œ∑´®†¥¨^øπ LCD displays on everything. My old IXUS Digital 300, getting on for twenty years, has a teeny LCD and a zooming viewfinder and is eminently useful and practical in all conditions. I recently acquired an Olympus with a wonderful wide-angle to big zoom lens, good enough for bird photography, but the ¡€#¢∞§¶•ªº–œ∑´®†¥ thing is next to useless for purpose, because one typically photographs birds in sunlight, because you can't see on the big LCD what it is you're photographing, and there is no viewfinder, not even a static one with frames engraved on it. Aargh. Today I shot off twenty photographs of a little wall in the river after the heron on it spotted me and flew away. If I could see in the LCD, I could have followed it and caught it in flight, potentially a wonderful shot. But I couldn't see what was going on.
Matt wrote: "I like to read in the bathtub. ... I wouldn't take my iPad into the bathtub as it is heavy and I would be likely to drop it."
My iPad is in Griffin Survivor case
http://store.griffintechnology.com/su...
It is proof against driving rain and sand, mil spec, duh, but not against steam, so I use it, complete with Survivor case, inside a scuba bag
http://www.miniinthebox.com/waterproo...
and read happily in the bath, the iPad resting on my belly button.
I use the Kindle to read on when I take steam inside a common sandwich ziploc baggie made by the Gladwrap people.
Andre wrote: ...I never try these games. They suck you in to an enormous waste of time...Actually, the games apparently can be good for one. They're good for cognitive exercise and good for a laugh or two, all healthy things. But they do require a certain amount of timetable discipline.
The oddest thing about the %$&^@# LCD screens is that you can sometimes take a pretty good pic from your iphone or other device without having the slightest notion where the frame is...
Mod
Angry Birds is based on physics so it does take a bit of skill, but the sense of accomplishment that follows mastering a level is not deserved. I've just now stopped playing for the past hour.If a level feels impossible, there are cheater videos on YouTube that show you what to do. I've resorted to the videos a couple of times just to get past a level.
Andre wrote: Magic Piano is for wimps. Real players use the twin keyboards in Virtuoso to compose on, off the cuff. Sniff.You've seen my composition skills, Andre. They don't quite extend to the likes of Kleiner Trauermarsch. However, I will look forward to seeing your own iPad Virtuoso compositions on Youtube. Maybe you could compose one in the bath and call it "Archimedes' Principle"?
Mod
Andre Jute wrote: "Hell will freeze over. My genius is protected by doing in public only what I do exceedingly well."Ah! I should have used that technique. Unfortunately I've blown it far too many times to take it up now. And, lets face it, no one would see much of me if I did!
Ah, Douglas Adams, you nailed it on the head long before you were dead...Here we are, talking about tablets, ereaders, color screens...
True irony is reading "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" on a color device of any type. Think about it. A comedy about a man going all over the galaxy using knowledge gained through a digital reader device (decades before they were ever invented), and actually reading it through a digital reader device is absolutely cool and hilarious at the same time. I wish the author lived to see it happen. I'd love to get his take on it.
He'd find 42 reasons to appreciate the irony.
Good one, Daniel! I've been wanting to re-read the books, maybe now that I have a colour reader is the time to do so. Kench, Patricia!
So long, and thanks for all the fish...
Andre Jute wrote: "Hell will freeze over. My genius is protected by doing in public only what I do exceedingly well."Oh, so that's how one protects their genius. Like Katie, I should have thought of that sooner!
Patricia wrote: "Once you've been bitten by Angry Birds, you never recover."I'm late to this discussion - but I have a photo of my Mom playing Angry Birds. She's sitting in front of the fireplace, Trouble by her side looking sorrowful that she's ignoring him.
That's a great image, Kat. You must treasure that pix...
Patrica - Trouble is my Jack Russle Terrier.Sharon - it's a favorite. I think I also have video of her talking about her younger days.
Kat, I should have remembered that, but my memory is about a half-minute long.
With all the animals I own, I can't keep their names straight. :-) I've got a house full of terriers - they are trained to respond to pack commands. When I call out "Dogs come in!" "Dogs, hush!" or 'Dogs off the couch.'
The hens have numbers on leg bands not names.
The biggest change since the buy-in so far are Nook ads. They are all over the TV.Since the Nook Table has already been introduced to the Tech community as hackable and utterly cool - there should be a surge in sales.
You're certainly right about the ads, Kat. I see multiple TV spots per day. The ads are appealing, too.
Yes - so we'll see what happens to the B&N market. I've sold 1 book since all that started.
Well, all long-term. I do think it's good that we have a decent player that's going to be sticking around. I don't have any particular problem (nor love) of Amazon, but competition, in general, breeds better results for everybody involved.
If B&N let's their geeks off the short leash so they can make a good website, B&N should continue to nip at Amazon's heels.Competition is good.
I don't buy into the 'Amazon = boogieman' stuff. It costs them nothing to treat author's like any other vendor. If it works, don't mess with it.
I agree with both of you. A bit of competition never hurt anyone - business or customer.
And even with all the technical silliness around my Select promotions, Amazon's support has been better than one might expect. They have provided a great venue for distribution and it's on me to figure out the promotion game, should I choose.
Sharon, as soon as you figure it out, let me know how to do it.
We are all stumbling around blind on this one. I haven't found anything that works consistently either.
But Select and freebies are the best tools so far.
Patricia wrote: "Sharon, as soon as you figure it out, let me know how to do it."You know I will, Patricia. And I'm sure you know by now not to hold your breath for it, Kench!
Today I'm ending a 5-day freebie run with one of pen name books. Gave away only about 300 over the nearly completed period.In about a month I'm going to be Kindle-izing two YA novels (a murder mystery and a romance). If you folks have any ideas on how to go after that market, I'm all ears (or, er, eyes).
From what I've seen, Patricia, YA romances seem to sell themselves. In fact YA in general seems to do better. I don't do half as much marketing for my YA as I do for the others, with much better results. Good luck with them!
I already have one YA romance that gets ignored way more often that it gets purchased. I'd love to learn the secret of making it sell itself.It'll be interesting to see how well the new romance does. It did great when it was released by the publisher.
Really Katie?From what I've seen on KB, it seems like a lot of YA has trouble getting traction unless its the kind that is liked by say the twenty-somethings into YA (e.g., PNR books about older teen).
There's also lower penetration of e-readers among actual well, young adults.
Patricia,
There are a lot of YA-specific book blogs. You might want to target them for review.
To toss another bit into the data point pile:
My book is currently free on Amazon (YA urban fantasy, not PNR). I've given away 900 copies over two days. I haven't done much other than FB it and tweet a few times.
Those are good numbers, Jeremy! Hope somethings comes of them...
900 sounds tres impressive to me, J.A.
Mod
Well, it'll be interesting to see what comes of it.
Patricia, you need to get onto YA book review blogs to make a buzz for your YA book. There's heaps of them & those who buy YA do visit those blogs. Kids between the ages of 18 and about 22 don't buy books (they're too busy studying), it's those younger and older than that that do.
I used to spend money I couldn't afford on books when I was studying, Tahlia. They were all that kept me sane. Study for an hour, read for 15 minutes, study, read. That way my brain stayed in the same gear, but didn't have to work so hard.
Tahlia, I'm no good at promoting my work. I wouldn't even know how to begin looking for YA blogs.
I agree, I'm currently studying but I can always justify spending money on books!
Passive Guy (short version)
Fortune Mag Interview
Kat, better not throw out that Nook yet! Unless it is to purchase the new one with the back lighting...