Linkspam!
Well, it's Monday, and that means we all have a whole weekend's worth of news and randomness to catch up on. So here I am, doing my part to add to the extra clicking you have to do today. You're welcome.
At the Scholarly Kitchen, Joseph Esposito has written a thought-provoking article about disintermediation and its effects on the publishing industry. Digital publishing and the internet have ensured that authors have a much more direct connection to their readers, so where does that put publishers? Are they a necessary part of the "value chain" or can we safely chop the middleman to the benefit of both readers and authors? How can publishers continue to keep themselves relevant in a world that works very differently from the one in which their current business strategy was set up?
Author Jeannie Lin has written up a rather detailed account of some of the discussion at Book Camp, held at (or rather just prior to) last week's Romantic Times convention. There's a lot of talk there about e-book versus print book, the pros and cons of each, and a few interesting factoids.
My personal favourite of today's links comes from Tez Says and her current search for Genre Cats: "It’s a Tumblr created as a response to Writers and Kitties - basically I’d heard of or only read a few of the writers featured there. So I created Genre Cats to showcase authors I’ve actually heard of and their cats." Any genre fiction authors who are owned by cats are invited to send photos of themselves and their furry overlords for the project.
And you should really check out the bizarre paper-scented candle being marketed to book-lovers. I'm really not sure what to think of this one, although my head's certainly tilted in confusion. I'm pretty sure my first, second, and third reactions are all "whyyyy?"
At the Scholarly Kitchen, Joseph Esposito has written a thought-provoking article about disintermediation and its effects on the publishing industry. Digital publishing and the internet have ensured that authors have a much more direct connection to their readers, so where does that put publishers? Are they a necessary part of the "value chain" or can we safely chop the middleman to the benefit of both readers and authors? How can publishers continue to keep themselves relevant in a world that works very differently from the one in which their current business strategy was set up?
Author Jeannie Lin has written up a rather detailed account of some of the discussion at Book Camp, held at (or rather just prior to) last week's Romantic Times convention. There's a lot of talk there about e-book versus print book, the pros and cons of each, and a few interesting factoids.
My personal favourite of today's links comes from Tez Says and her current search for Genre Cats: "It’s a Tumblr created as a response to Writers and Kitties - basically I’d heard of or only read a few of the writers featured there. So I created Genre Cats to showcase authors I’ve actually heard of and their cats." Any genre fiction authors who are owned by cats are invited to send photos of themselves and their furry overlords for the project.
And you should really check out the bizarre paper-scented candle being marketed to book-lovers. I'm really not sure what to think of this one, although my head's certainly tilted in confusion. I'm pretty sure my first, second, and third reactions are all "whyyyy?"