Self-publishing is getting a whole lot easier for authors who prefer to go the ‘indie’ route and avoid the hassles of trying to get the ever-more-evasive traditional publishing contract. Espresso Book Machines (EBM) are paving the way not only for indie authors, but also indie bookstores as well – who must compete with the likes of Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon.

The EBM is basically a mini-self publisher all wrapped up into one machine. You select the book you want printed, and it prints the entire book (nifty covers included!), binds, trims and spits the newly printed book out for you to enjoy.

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Exciting news for all you iPhone and iPod Touch owners out there – mega bookstore chain Barnes & Noble (B&N) released a free app today, available on the iTunes app store. The app lets you browse books, read editorial/customer reviews, access to exclusive content, and even take a picture of a book’s cover and find out a whole bunch of cool information about it.

Could B&N be gearing up to go even more digital (think: ebooks) later on in the year?

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It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Grateful Dead. I was lucky to catch their Spring ’09 concert in Chicago back on May 4, and you will usually hear their music playing while I write, read, drive around town and even while surfing the intertubes. I’m not very musically talented, so taking lessons from them from that standpoint is pretty useless. However, writing is a creative endeavor like music. In that regard, there are a few lessons all you creative writers out there can learn from the Dead.

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Summer has hit the Chicago area like a ton of bricks (pardon the cliche`). The temperature over the last few days has hit the upper 80s, with the humidity soaring – making it feel a lot hotter than it really is. Walking outside into high temps and high humidity saps your strength almost instantly, and your clothes become soaked with sweat within minutes.

Needless to say I’ve been hiding indoors as much as possible these last few days.

As always, have a happy and safe weekend!

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I’m really excited about the release of the new book by Chris Anderson, from The Long Tail blog, and plan to pre-order my copy soon. For those of you who don’t know, Chris has been leading the way in promoting ‘free’ as a new kind of business model. I advocate it here on this blog as well by encouraging and supporting authors who give away free ebooks to help promote a current title (for example).

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There are a lot of ebook reading devices out there, so it’s sad that only the Amazon Kindle makes  headlines. I own a Sony Reader PRS-500, which I love and have recently revived after discovering Calibre, a program that lets me manage my ebook library from my Mac (something Sony’s software doesn’t allow, for whatever reason).

One ebook reading maker I have rarely talked about on this blog is  iRex. When I saw this article from the New York Times this morning, I jumped at the chance to write a post about it.

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Whenever a case of censorship, or attempted censorship of literature appears in the news, I try to write a post about it here. Sadly enough, I don’t have to wait long. In the most recent case I read about concerns a school district in my own backyard – the Antioch Community High School made headlines in Publishers Weekly after a group of parents tried to strike a young adult Sherman Alexie title off the required summer reading list for incoming freshman.

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Way to go RIAA! You just won a court case against a single mother for 24 stinking songs. You not only ruined this woman’s life (unless a higher appeals court finds some common sense and overturns the $1.9 million dollar judgement), but you also have managed to pull of the world’s worst PR campaign – sue the hell out of people, with sketchy evidence, for sharing a few songs online.

Of course, I’m referring to the verdict against 32-year old Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who was ‘convicted’ of uploading 24 songs to a popular file sharing website.

I try not to stray too far from books, writing and literature on this blog. But there are implications for the growing ebook industry in this case, and I hope publishers are paying attention.

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Iconic science fiction writer Ray Bradbury is still going strong. He writes for several hours a day, reads, mingles with visitors and still supports one of his biggest passions: Libraries. And given the recent economic meltdown, public libraries need all the help they can get. Because of high-unemployment and lower wages, libraries are seeing a bit of a comeback. But as local governments try to trim their budgets, libraries are usually the first to get the ax.

That’s where Ray Bradbury comes in.

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It is a dark and stormy morning and I’m worried about how long my laptop battery will last during this thunderstorm. Hopefully the storm will break throughout the day so I can plug my computer in for some much needed juice. Not when there’s lightening though, I’m not risking frying my hard drive.

For those of you in the Chicago area, you’re probably like me and getting tired of this rainy, stormy weather we’ve been having this summer.  This has been the rainiest summer that I can remember.  I wonder if this means that the upcoming winter will be more snowy than usual. I hope not.

Anyway, if you’re not in my neck of the woods, I hope you’re enjoying sunny weather. Either way, have a happy and safe weekend!

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