Links of Interest

Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 12/12/2009

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment
Colm & The LaZarus Key

I like the structure of that date, it has a good look to it.

Here is a link to JA Konrath’s rather interesting list of ebook predicitions from the start of the month. I missed it then and only read it today.

A brace of great posts from Booksquare; here & here.

Great post about what gamers can teach publishers, really fascinating:

the tabletop role-playing gaming industry started out by trying to model the methods of traditional publishing, found out the hard way that that really didn’t work for them (in the long run, it’s not working for big publishers either, but they’re BIG, so they didn’t notice as soon), and had to find new solutions. They were the first to adopt electronic publishing, shame-free POD printing, electronic-only publishing, podcasting-modules, mixed media releases, and every other experimental method anyone could think of, good or bad. That’s fine: they’re small, and experimenting is something small groups of people can DO that big groups can’t.

By the way is anyone getting the feeling that Seth Godin was SO far ahead of the curve with Small is the New Big? Coz I am!

Last but by far not least, the Irish Times has a list of fabulous books for kids this Christmas, including one of an un-mentioned (on this list) favourites (I thought another self commissioned title was pushing it!): Colm & The Lazarus Key by Kieran Mark Crowley who will be one of Ireland’s best known writers for children soon, of that I am certain. The smartly excellent cover is the work of the wonderful Emma over @ Snowbooks, if you need cover work, she’s your girl.

Reading like a demon, but only just keeping up!
Eoin

Irish book links to kick the week off!

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

O’Brien‘s upcoming Blood upon the Rose by Gerry Hunt is featured in the Irish Times. if the title of the article is a little dismissive (The Rising: now with speech bubbles) the toe of the piece makes up for it. Nice review for a great project.

Merlin’s tell all on Kathy French is previewed in the Independent. The book is by Jason O’Toole who has been releasing quite a few books lately!

Tom Galvin in the Herald has a side swipe at the Ryan Tubridy and Gerry Ryan while talking up Terry Wogan’s new memoir.

For the first time in a good while, the Irish Times makes a feature of quite a few serious Irish non-fiction titles including New Island’s new Mary Kenny release, Crown and Shamrock: Love and Hate Between Ireland and the British Monarchy, Matt Cooper’s Who Really Runs Ireland? The story of the elite who led Ireland from bust to boom … and back again and Diarmaid Ferriter’s Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland. Not to mention that they also reviewed Joe Joyce’s, The Guinnesses: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Most Successful Family, but then given the week that was in it not doing something in that vein would have been hard.

It was refreshing to see a good crop of Irish authored (if not all Irish published) books reviewed! Given the way things are going, I think I’ll just have to be happy with authored!
Eoin

Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 15/09/2009

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 2 Comments

Just under a month to TOC Frankfurt & the Frankfurt Book Fair. If you twitter, search using the following hash tag and youy’ll see lots of people are talking about it #fbf09. There’ll be a TweetUp (Which I’ll miss, but there you go) at the fair this year and I’d nearly put money on a European publisher acquiring something Twitter related for their list, though I’ll wait and see!

There have been a few interesting stories bouncing around the web the last few days on writing and publishing and where we are at with them. The Bookseller has a feature on how the downturn is affecting Author Pay, David & Charles have made a radical decision to realign themselves along a vertical basis, the result is layoffs in the short term but something else in the medium to longer term. In the same week I stumbled across this fine article about GeoCities and online communities in the American Prospect, lessons we should note and think about as we embrace the idea of verticals. Speaking of Verticals, Filedby.com was chosen by CUP to expand an author promotion platform in which they use some of Filedby’s premium features to help authors develop an online presence.

Digital publishers (and aspirants) everywhere were saddened by the news that Quartet Press has been disbanded after running into a string of problems too insurmountable to continue. The site carries the message, but Mike Shatzkin and Kassia Krozser (in two [1,2] excellent articles) carried on some detailed discussion and analysis. I’m not happy about this outcome for the founders, but I’m sure we will see more from them soon.

And then there was Dan Brown and his latest book the Lost Symbol which is variously being hailed as the ruin of us all (DJ Taylor in the Independent) or something of a saviour (Jeffery A. Trachtenberg in the the Wall Street Journal). Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it at half price for about three months, and don’t they look like genuis’ now that The Book Depository and the Multiples have launched a massive price offensive?

And in sad news, it’s bottoms up to Keith Floyd who died today, the video above shows him at his somewhat slowed down more mellow best. For a decent interview of recent origin, try this Daily Mail article!
Eoin

Corvus: With Smashing Welsh Accent

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Eoin Purcell

L. Lee Lowe is to be admired
And not just because she has talent, but because Lee has embraced the web as an author and is innovating in an effort to reach readers. Lee has been a presence on the the internet since before I started blogging in early 2006 (yes, I’ve not been at it for long, especially when you look at people like this guy). Her website offers readers the chance to read and lsiten to her first novel for free, it’s called Mortal Ghost and available here to buy too!

Lee has just launched a podcast project for her latest novel Corvus:

In an alternate present the minds of teen offenders are uploaded into computers for rehabilitation—a form of virtual wilderness therapy. Zach is a homo cognoscens, one of the new humans who can navigate the Fulgrid. Though still a high school student, he is indentured to the Fulgur Corporation as a counsellor. Laura is a homo sapiens. Their story is part odyssey, part tragedy, part riff on the nature of consciousness.

Having listened to the first chapter (the project is read by welsh actor Ioan Hefin) I can say that firstly, it sounds incredible and secondly the story is intriguing. I heartily recommend listening to it.

I’m heading to Dublin’s new Ikea today, wish me luck!
Eoin

Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 19/06/2009

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Eoin Purcell

Google Books have bumped up the features on the service, nothing too amazing but some nice new additions!

A bit of accidental digging and searching for something else led me to this book on a natural history of New York City, Mannahatta, very cool indeed!

The Bookseller has a piece on the upcoming celebrity books this autumn season! Fun! Fun! Let’s hope it pulls the industry out of the fire!

Wishing I could wish for something better to rescue the industry! Like people suddenly deciding to pay for content online!
Eoin