As you may have heard on the news, the state of Victoria, Australia was ravaged by the worst bushfires in recorded history last Saturday. SitePoint, a Melbourne-based company are holding a 3 day sale, offering any 5 of their ebooks for just $29.95 (normal retail $149.75). All proceeds, yes the entire $29.95 from each sale is being donated to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal. The sale will finish this Friday, so you don’t have much time to take advantage of this offer and donate to a worthy cause.
They’ve already raised over $75,000USD, which is a staggering result.
SitePoint publish ebooks on web design and development, covering topics such as CSS & HTML design, javascript, Ruby, PHP and ASP.Net. If you’ve done any CSS or Javascript, you’ll know you can never have enough books on these topics.
The ebooks are all DRM-free PDFs. I’ve actually been looking for a Javascript reference that I can read on my laptop while commuting to and from work. Print books are fine when you’re sitting at your desk but not something you can easily refer to while programming on your laptop in the cramped confines of a train. There’s barely enough room to sit comfortable on Melbourne’s train system – most passengers are thankful they even get a seat these days.
On a personal note, I’m also based in Melbourne with my wife and children. Luckily we happen to be living in a suburb that was nowhere near the fires. The destruction wrecked by these bushfires seems similar to that of tornadoes – some towns have been completely wiped out while other neighbouring towns remain unscathed. A couple of houses in a street are untouched and the rest are obliterated.
I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones and homes in the fires.
Burnt out letterboxes at Hazlewood North. Photo: Wayne Taylor, The Age
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The Government has sold the country to a supermarket on eBay, only for the Civil Service to buy it back and launch their own benign dictatorship. Ten years on, it is all going horribly wrong. There are Hairshirts on every corner, the incompetent Leader and his transvestite first lady pole dance and the dogs are being systematically eradicated to deflect attention from the ruling Department’s failure to achieve their promises. “Doggone” is a modern fable, a surreal and bizarre satire on a world of spin, greed, excess and the dangers of letting politicians rule unchecked.
It is also very funny.
“Narrative punctuated by Vonnegut-type apercus ‘Doggone’ is an inventive satire that Swift, Pope, et al, would have been happy to have put their name to. A future-set retrospective on a 21st century Britain, contemporary bullshit is taken to excess as the entire country is bought by two civil servants with points on a loyalty card. Vignettes of absurdist dialogues – think Pete’n Dud, Bird and Fortune – detail all too credible nonsense secenarios. And funny, laugh aloud funny. No institution, no region, no nation, no profession, no occupation, (no individual?) is spared at least a scathing aside. Erik himself makes an appearance as a sadistic p.a.: thankfully I don’t rate a mention. Unless I’m that ‘piece of worthless shit’ Smythe. Crazy, funny, and all too plausible; so please don’t show Doggone to that arch-creep Gordon Brown: with no ideas of his own he might well use Doggone as a template.”
- Sam Smith, Author of ‘The End of Science Fiction
“Full of satire, offering no answers but immensely thought-provoking, this book is one of the best I have read in recent years.” “I recommend it with enough confidence – it is full of dark humour and not so fluffy dangers, but it is a brilliant and very genuine book to be re-read more than once.”
- Ekaterina Rodyunina, The BookBag
“Get in the queue now for this book which is likely to become a cult classic…”
- DJ Kirkby, Literary to Sensory
“The style reminds me most of Irvine Walsh at his most intense.”
- Marc Horne, Author of Tokyo Zero
“the political satire and metaphorical nature of this dystopian novel are only two aspects of a greater whole. To carry it off fully one needs wit, guile and skill. And it has to be said, it really is funny (darkly). The dialogue is snappy. The characters may be drawn from a lunatic mind or absurdist figures from film or books. Mel Brooks would make an excellent Leader, for instance. Yes, it is bizarre (think Spike Milligan in Q), and in places deliberately absurd…but the ancient philosophers used a process of argument to make a point, called eductio ad absurdum…and Ryman deploys it very well here. As a dog who loves and is loved daily, Doggone was at times hard to swallow, but any human reader lucky enough to read this novel will not be disappointed. All they should realise is that the author has an ironic tongue firmly planted in his cheek, which is always far more preferable than having it planted in someone else’s.”
- Tom, Andrew McGuinness’ – the author of A Portrait of an Arsonist as a Young Man – Dog
“Rather powerful writer, this guy, Erik Ryman”
- An Obsidian Blade
eBook Free, Paper: £8.99
220 pages
(3 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10)
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Don’t mistake WRECKTORY for a religious book! It is the story of Father Frank Beckett and his forty-three years at the inner-city church of Saint Timothy. Frank has a president of his parish council who is determined to oust him; a housekeeper who does not know how to clean or cook, but is great at solving real-life murders; and a female parishioner for whom Frank has special affection. He has a mother who tries to use her influence to get him made bishop; a half-sister who is on trial for killing her lover; two gay parishioners who want him to officiate at their wedding; and a Juliet in a high school Shakespearean production he is directing who is sure she’s dying. As he nears the end of his career, Frank finds he is about to pass the clerical baton to a young priest who wears a ponytail, drives a motorcycle, and doesn’t have time to bother with church red tape and traditions…
Tales from the Wrecktory is a wonderful book to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon with. The characters are convincing and well developed and Father Frank Beckett is the compassionate pastor we are all looking for. In this collection of heart felt stories the priest follows that small voice within which doesn’t always please his congregation or Church hierarchy and often leads to complications. But the reader knows no matter what happens Father Frank will do the right thing.
– Amazon.com customer review
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Ricardo from AmigoAudio sent me a bilingual English-Spanish ebook of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe the other day. This is just one of many bilingual ebooks that are freely available on his site. He also has an extensive collection of audiobooks, podcasts and glossaries in MP3 format. This site has a wealth of resources for people learning Spanish.
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After discovering the wonderful collection of children’s illustrated ebooks over at sharing-books.com I started to think about how I could read these books to my children. Unfortunately I don’t think a suitable reader currently exists for children’s illustrated books. Today’s ebook reader screens are too small. This is especially true of the iPhone/iPod touch but also of dedicated readers such as the Kindle or Sony Reader. The latter two also have the disadvantage of being black and white. Laptop screens come closest but they are far too bulky. I want a device I can comfortably hold over my head while lying down in bed. The closest device I can think of is a tablet PC but these are too expensive and too heavy.
Looking at today’s crop of ebook readers, it would be easy to conclude that children’s books will never make the transition to ebook format. I don’t believe this is the case. The problem is that today’s devices are designed to replace the paperback. Their main requirements are portability and a comfortable reading experience for sustained periods of time.
An ebook reader for a children’s illustrated book has a completely different set of requirements. What’s needed is a dedicated illustrated ebook reader. Here are the requirements of such a device.
- Large colour display, preferably with a touchscreen. I would see A4 as being the minimum size, but ideally something a little larger.
- Lightweight. I’d be prepared to trade off some battery life for a lighter device. I imagine this device would spend most of its time in the home, near a ready power source.
- Spill resistant with an easy wipe down surface.
- Simple controls for easy page navigation. As children’s books don’t tend to have many pages, sophisticated navigation and bookmarking functionality is not required. Instead simple Next/Prev page buttons would suffice.
- Reasonably priced – at least comparable to other ebook readers.
- Linked to a library or subscription based model. It’s too expensive to buy every book you read to your children.
What advantages would an illustrated ebook reader provide over print?
- Instant download of new books. No more running out of reading material between library visits.
- As long as your ebook reader is reasonably rugged, your books will always remain in pristine condition – no more ripped pages, stains and missing flaps.
- Less bedroom clutter and no more tedious putting of books away and tidying the bookshelf.
- No more lost book searches on library day.
- Better interactivity. Illustrated children’s books have been crying out for increased interactivity. Just look at all the lift the flap books available. A touchscreen ebook reader would provide the ultimate in interactivity. Touch the bush to see what’s behind. Touch the main character to see him dance. Touch an instrument to hear it play. Touch a door to see what’s behind.
- Non-linear stories. Remember the old twist-a-plot stories. Imagine being able to let your child decide where the main character goes next, simply by tapping on the screen.
What dangers would an ebook reader introduce to early childhood reading?
- The top on my list would be ebooks that come with built-in narration. It’s bound to happen. Imagine having the author able to read their story to your child. Now you don’t even have to sit down with your child and read to them. That’s the problem. Regularly reading aloud to your child is probably one of the most satisfying and beneficial activities you can do. However, given the choice of being able to outsource this, many tired and busy parents will.
- Turning every book into a video game. The most important part of a book is the story. In a children’s book this is told using both words and illustrations, both being equally important. As ebooks offer endless possibilities for interaction there is the temptation to turn every book into a game. While some interaction can be great, the story needs to remain central.
The technology exists today to create an effective illustrated ebook reader. It will be interesting to see when this happens and who is the first to take the lead.
(2 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
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Today I stumbled upon Sharing-Books.com a wonderful site that publishes childrens illustrated ebooks. All books are DRM-free and also free to download and sample. If you enjoy a book, you’re asked to make a donation.
Sharing-books.com has an interesting business model, best described by founder Pierre Lapointe in the Sharing Books Story.
Actually in early 2007, our friend Andrea Azevedo shared with us a brief children’s book, called The Little Suitcase, written as a eulogy for a young friend, Dylan Oser, who had passed away due to a rare disease. My wife, Bonnie, asked me to help Andrea get the story published as Andrea wanted the proceeds to go to Sunny Hill Health Centre.
To a technophile like me, traditional publishing was not an option. It is expensive and the margins are paper thin. It had to be on the web. As I researched how to get the maximum visibility for Andrea’s book, I found out that there were a lot of children’s book creators hoping to be published. Many books had been lovingly crafted but had been abandoned because publishers rejected them.
I also learned that most children’s book creators are purpose driven people. They want to share their creation first and money and fame are secondary motivators. In fact most related to the idea that Andrea wanted to give away all her profits. They felt the same way about causes they believe in. This revelation helped advance our thinking. What if we could provide a web venue where children’s book creators could share their work and help charities at the same time? What if we could concentrate a lot of new children books in one site? I saw the need for a new web business model.
What if we created a “charitable” company? We mean by that not a charity but a business that by design would really impact an important cause. We decided that our business model would split all revenues: 1/3 to a cause, 1/3 to the book creators and 1/3 to the company itself. That’s not only one third of our profits but one third of our revenues!
Today’s announcement Scatsby the Bear is an example of a book published on the Sharing-Books.com.
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An allegorical tale about a young bear’s struggle with believing in something better beyond his own life in a zoo.
Blinking his eyes from the first rays of sunlight striking his eyes, Scatsby the bear was born into our world. A cute little ball of fur that looked wonderingly at the world around him, Scatsby’s mother and father looked down with pride at their new son.
“Isn’t he the most handsome bear you’ve ever seen?” His mother said with a smile.
“Quite so.” His father replied. “He shall make a fine bear some day. I’ll teach him to be the best in everything!”
Mother laughed, and rocked the little baby to sleep.
Forgetting about the mundane concerns of the world around them, for a time, their love and joy was in each other.
– Excerpt
(1 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
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In this medical mystery thriller, Doctor Carson Hyll falls asleep and drives into a river and experiences one of the worst nightmares of his life. The young intern is knocked unconscious and has a negative near death experience so real, so frightening that he thinks he died and went to hell.
When others in the highly-religious small town of Ocean Village have similar negative near death experiences and wake up with burnt skin, they believe they went to hell and that God has abandoned them.
Matters get worse when a local Satanic cult emerges to promote their beliefs and win over the town residents. Will the heroine, Chantress, be able to stop cult leader Kyle Mabus or will he succeed in destroying all known religions in the world?
Bestselling author and psychic Sylvia Browne writes in her book, Prophecy, that, “…our beliefs are the driving force behind our behavior, our opinions, our actions. Without faith, without our beliefs, we’re lost.”
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Book publishing is changing: this book describes how to take advantage of those changes. This Volume II is the sequel to The Self-Publishing Manual (Volume I), the most successful book ever written on the subject. This manual describes how to use new techniques to write your book even faster, use new technology to publish it for less, and how to use social media for promotion.
As usual, our self-publishing guru, Dan Poynter, is on the cutting edge of the New Book Publishing Model. Volume II couldn’t come at a better time…when we so desperately need it!”
– Ellen Reid, www.bookshepherding.com
Self-publishers: This how-to book and encyclopedia will be your most important investment. The subject matter is succinctly stated, well planned, and organized with excellent illustrations; particularly notable are the sections on how to gather and refine material for any nonfiction book, no matter who publishes it. Poynter points you in the right direction.”
— Teacher–Writer
This is by far the best book of its kind.
— Writing & Publishing
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The year is 1775. On the surface, Proctor Brown appears to be an ordinary young man working the family farm in New England. He is a minuteman, a member of the local militia, determined to defend the rights of the colonies. Yet Proctor is so much more. Magic is in his blood, a dark secret passed down from generation to generation. But Proctor’s mother has taught him to hide his talents, lest he be labeled a witch and find himself dangling at the end of a rope.
A chance encounter with an arrogant British officer bearing magic of his own catapults Proctor out of his comfortable existence and into the adventure of a lifetime, as resistance sparks rebellion and rebellion becomes revolution. Now, even as he fights alongside his fellow patriots from Lexington to Bunker Hill, Proctor finds himself enmeshed in a war of a different sort—a secret war of magic against magic, witch against witch, with the stakes not only the independence of a young nation but the future of humanity itself.
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A collection of the best 150 posts from the very popular humor blog, Cranelegs Pond. Two years and 800+ posts in the making. But don’t take my word. Here’s what other bloggers are saying about Cranelegs Pond.
“Cranelegs is in top form with his dazzling wit, sensitive insights, and down home humor. He consistently manages to take everyday experiences we can all relate to and turns them into vignettes of hilarity.”
– Pamela Beers, Freelance Writer – www.FreelanceWritingEtc.com
“I adore this blog. If you read anything, read this.”
– Gabriel Gadfly, Blogger – www.gabrielgadfly.com
“… quite a talent for saying a whole lot with few words, and one of the best blogs I’ve seen, just added it to my favorites.”
– Dr. Jay, Blogger – yogaforcynics.blogspot.com
“CRANELEGS POND is a rip roaring romp into a wild land of Manstakes, Mermaids, Andy & Benny, and frozen pork chops.”
– Cathy Perez, Blogger, itsmecissy.blogspot.com
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DARK END OF SPECTRUM will make you think twice before turning on your cell phone or PDA!
DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM is a frighteningly plausible, headline ripping tale of the real threats that loom in cyberspace based on the author’s years of research into the hacker culture.
DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM is a thriller that will connect with everyone with a cell phone, PDA or wireless device.
When digital terrorists known as ICER take over the US power grid and the cell phone network, they give the government an ultimatum – bomb the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan with nuclear weapons to put an end to Al-Quada. When the government refuses,the group destroys most of the downed aircraft in several major airports.
When ICER sends a pulse that will kill people on the East Coast, only security expert Dan Riker can stop them, but ICER has kidnapped his family.
Will Dan save his family or will millions die?
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If you have learned Japanese for 1 – 2 years and want to try out reading a real Japanese Manga this book is for you. With every Manga page you find the vocabulary and detailed explanations that enable you to really read the text on your own.
Not only is this a fun way to repeat what you have already learned. You also get new insights into the colloquial Japanese that is normally not taught in Japanese language classes.
The ebook is in DRM free PDF format and has been optimized for reading on 800×600 pixel displays like netbooks or the Sony Reader. A free excerpt is on our website http://www.fuyosoft.com
The story: 14 year old Billy visits his fatherly old friend who has just finished the construction of a time machine. Accidentally Billy starts the machine and travels into the future where among other persons he meets his future son …
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Self-Publishing Review has a great interview with Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, a digital publishing platform and online bookstore for self-published authors and their readers. Regular readers will know that we often announce ebooks that appear on Smashwords.com.
In the interview Mark explains why he started Smashwords.
A few years ago, my wife and I wrote a novel, a satire on Hollywood celebrity, and we signed on with one of the most respected literary agencies in New York City. We and our agent had high hopes for selling the book, but in the end, publishers told our agent they questioned whether our target audience, daytime television soap opera fans, read books.
As you might imagine, after spending thousands of hours on our novel, it was quite frustrating to have a publisher deny us the opportunity to reach our audience. In the end, I decided that in today’s Internet age, every author should be allowed to publish, and it should be up to readers to decide what’s worth reading and what’s not. I envisioned a social publishing platform for books, similar to how YouTube is a publishing platform for video.
Mark also talks about the benefits of ebooks, the Kindle, why Smashwords is strictly DRM-free, recommendations for ebook authors and what’s in the pipeline for Smashwords.
Today seemed a great opportunity to announce Mark and wife Lesleyann’s novel Boob Tube (Smashwords ID of 3).
(1 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
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Go behind the scenes of the daytime television soap opera industry with Boob Tube. Written by Lesleyann Coker (a former reporter for Soap Opera Weekly) and her husband Mark (of Smashwords), the two interviewed dozens of soap opera industry insiders for their stories and then fictionalized everything here.
Jason Christiansen’s actors demanded Xanax and organic tampons. He had one hour to retrieve the items before afternoon production ground to a halt.
As the publicist for Tranquility Bay, daytime television’s number-two rated soap opera, he was accustomed to such requests.
The first panicked call came from Eden Jordan, a popular actress on the show. The 27-year-old was stranded in her dressing room, ill-prepared for the early onset of her period, and too embarrassed to seek help from anyone else. She refused to leave her room until Jason brought her organic tampons from a store on Sunset Boulevard called Herganic.
Scud Hudson, the actor who played Eden’s love interest, was suffering from an agoraphobic panic attack. He wanted Jason to pick up a Xanax refill from the pharmacist
Jason took a deep breath.
– Excerpt
Boob Tube exposes the gritty sleaze of the soap subculture. An insider view of the desperation of underdog actors and actresses as they claw their way up the ladder, hostages to opportunistic producers and agents and their own near-sighted ambition — it portrays a unique slice of the Hollywood bubble.
– Anne Murray
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Panton di Villa was a ten-year-old boy who wanted to write a “Blog” and to get his revenge on a boy who had “taken his girl”. The final 19 days of Panton di Villa’s life are shown to be as extraordinary as the way in which he tried to get her back.Why not see the world through the eyes of your average cynical child, in this Sallinger meets Coupland classic that is most definitely not written for kids?
Things people have said about Doctor Mooze:
“For sheer everyday weirdness of the kind that rarely makes it to print, it’s book of the month on Pulp.net, and hang the Booker nominations”
- Pulp.net
“Doctor Mooze is such a vivid read that it is surely destined to become a modern day classic.”
- Authortrek
“I can see it as a Channel 4 programme, scaring Daily Mail readers shitless”
- Ian Bahlaj, Laura Hird.com
“a fascinating and bold book”
- Laura Hird
“..do yourself a favour; get a copy”
- The Journal
“The back cover blurb name drops Catcher in the Rye, but Holden Caulfield represented a generation while Panton di Villa, real or fictional, is just a spiteful little brat who represents no-one much other than himself. Adrian Mole meets the dark side in a nasty little story that uses paedophilia as a convenient plot device and has nothing particularly useful to tell us about the experience of growing up or anything else, except perhaps how easy it is to drag the innocent in the mud. Reworked as Horror fiction and without the attempts at youth speak it might have been much better, but as a mainstream novel and/or social document this is of little worth and leaves a sour taste in the mouth.”
- The Third Alternative
(1 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
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