I’m always on the lookout for authors who not only embrace ebooks but use them to compliment their print book sales. The most interesting way of doing this, I think, is by giving ebooks away for free. Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow does it and I’m sure a lot of other writers do to.

Last night I came across the blog of writer JA Konrath (who goes by the pen name Jack Kilborn) via this Enriched by Words blog post. As I side note, I’d like to mention that I had the pleasure of seeing Konrath in my local bookstore when he stopped by to sign a few copies of his book. He happens to also live in the Chicago area like I do.

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I’ll admit that I wasn’t very surprsied when I read Declining Sales Cast Gloom at an Expo on the New York Times website yesterday. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, cut off from all civilization and news, then it’s hard to ignore the news about how this deep recession we are in is hurting a lot of industries – publishing included.

This weekend BookExpo America, the book industry’s annual convention, is taking place in New York City. Also not surprising is that attendance at the convention is down as well.

Normally I’m not a numbers guy. I don’t like math and I failed remedial math in college (embarrassing, I know). But sometimes you have to let the numbers speak for themselves.

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I can’t believe May is almost over! Where does the time go? I was looking over my summer calendar earlier and it is really filling up. The next few months will be pretty busy, to say the least. There is so much I want to do, so many books I want to read, and so little time.

As far as this blog goes, there is one idea I want to devote a few posts to in the coming weeks: Ideas for alternative, viable business models for the publishing industry (Whew that’s a mouthful!). This ties in especially well with my obsession with ebooks. I don’t have anything yet, but the ideas are percolating, so stay tuned…

With that said, it’s Friday. For those of you here in the U.S. we’re back to our 2-day weekends. But hey, it’s better than nothing, right? If the weather is nice where you are, then go outside and enjoy it. If not, then stay inside and read.

As always, have a happy and safe weekend.

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If you’re a writer, then you’re going to have to deal with a certain amount of criticism. It’s a fact of life. Developing a thick skin is crucial, and just as important, knowing the types of criticism to take seriously and the types to let roll off your back and forget about. Criticism might be one of the toughest issues for writers to deal with, especially when starting out.

Why can criticism be so damaging? Because writing, no matter if it’s a short story or an article for your local newspaper, is extremely personal. You are putting a part of yourself out there, exposed to the public. I touched on this part of writing in an earlier post “Are you afraid of being a writer?”

So how do you deal with criticism as a writer?

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The online self ebook publisher Smashwords has announced the beginning of their affiliate program, which will let bloggers, publishers, authors, and website owners promote ebooks sold on Smashwords in exchange for a commission on each sale. Here’s an excerpt from their press release:

“Our mission at Smashwords is to help authors and publishers publish, promote and sell their ebooks,” said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. “The Smashwords Affiliate Marketing Program will help authors and publishers expand their digital shelf space while providing affiliate marketers the opportunity to profit from the rapid rise of electronic books.”

According to the Association of American Publishers(AAP), ebooks are the fastest growing segment of book publishing today. Ebooks experienced a compound annual growth rate of 58 percent per year for the last six years, versus an overall industry growth rate of 1.6 percent. In recent months, the growth of ebooks has accelerated to over 100 percent while print books have declined, according to the AAP (source: http://www.publishers.org).

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Yes, after much prodding I have finally jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon. My main reason for not joining sooner was that I wasn’t sure how I’d use Twitter. Would I write about the mundane details of my every day life? Would I write about writing? Would I make sarcastic comments about the book I’m currently reading?

Right now I’m still experiment with Twitter and, as they say, trying to find my ‘voice’. So my tweets might be all over the spectrum, from personal to sharing an interesting article on ebooks. I can assure you, however, that I have no intention of tweeting every little detail of my life (i.e. “I’m going to the bathroom now”). On average, since joining Twitter, I’m writing one tweet per day. But that will probably increase a little as I get more comfortable with Twittering.

With that said, you can check out my Twitter profile at: http://twitter.com/bradvertrees

I’m currently looking for a WordPress plugin so I can integrate my Twitter profile into this blog. Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Twittering!

Sometimes I lose all faith in the world of book publishing. And after I read the article Steal This Book from the New York Times, I just wanted to bang my head against my desk until I stop caring what publishers do. The article details Amazon’s $9.99 price point for a majority of ebooks and the consequences it might have on the publishing industry.

For one, publishers (and a few authors) fear that if us readers get too comfortable with lower prices for ebooks, it might be the end of literature as we know it. Well, not really, but that’s how they make it sound. And the sheer stubbornness that some publishers and authors view ebooks with is frustrating. But what gets me the most is that some in the book industry have not really learned a single lesson from the music industry, or even our county’s dying print newspapers. Here’s an example:

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Since switching to the new blogging platform yesterday, one issue I have noticed already is the Brad’s Reader RSS feed. You’ll probably need to update your RSS reader to continue reading all the great content you have come to love from this blog.

To update your feed, you can either click on the RSS icon on the left side of the homepage. Or, just point your RSS reader to: http://www.bradsreader.com/feed/

As always, if you have any further problems or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me.

This has been quite a week. It started when I was sick with the stomach flu (thankfully I’m better now) and is ending with this blog getting a new design and new features. Actually, the latter has been in the works for a while now.  As Brad’s Reader has grown and the content has evolved to include more about ebooks and the intersection of technology and literature, the need to upgrade became more pressing.

I believe that once the bugs are worked out and I become comfortable with all the new features, this blog will really explode with growth. At least that is my hope.

Anyway, it is Friday. And better yet, it’s a 3-day weekend for most here in the U.S., making this Friday better than most. As always have a happy and safe weekend.

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Don’t worry, the intertubes aren’t broken. This is the same Brad’s Reader, just with a new, improved and upgraded design. My blog also has a few new features as well. Here’s a rundown of what’s new:

- More categories: The categories have been  updated to reflect how Brad’s Reader has evolved over the last year or so. You’ll find a handful of new categories and a few old ones are still around. This will make finding posts that interest you easier (i.e. there is now a category for ebooks!).

- Related posts: You will now see a small list of similar posts under each one. I’m actually really excited about this feature. When I first started Brad’s Reader, I did this manually. But as the blog grew it became impossible to go back and find related posts.
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