I really do love Google. I use Gmail for my personal email. I have the Google app on my iPhone. I use Google to search for everything from strange diseases to tips on writing better dialogue. I even use Google to analyze the visitor stats for this blog. So I think it is safe to say that Google is a part of my everyday life.

But I still don’t trust them. Let me qualify that: I don’t trust Google with their plan to profit from millions of out-of-print by digitizing the world of literature.

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Last night I was laying in bed and reading Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere on my trusty Sony PRS-500. Only a few minutes into reading I accidentally hit a wrong button and ‘lost’ my place in the book. The battery power was already getting low, but my rapid page turning to get back to the page I was on drained the battery for good.

I was forced to go to bed with my typical 30-45 minutes of reading before going to sleep. While it wasn’t the end of the world, it was an inconvenience. And as I laid there in the dark, I realized that the battery life of ereading devices just might be the biggest inconvenience for ebook lovers.

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Say what you want about Sony, but they just upped the ante for ebooks today by announcing that they will be getting rid of their own proprietary ebook format, and start using the open ePub format exclusively. This means that if you own a Sony Reader, you will be able to buy ebooks from other websites besides Sony’s own ebookstore.

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There are some in the book industry (mostly publishers, a few authors, etc) that do not like Amazon’s $9.99 average price for most Kindle ebooks. They say it will ‘cannibalize’ sales of more profitable hardcovers which sell at a much higher price. While this worry is not new, it has taken on a new sense of urgency since Sony recently announced that they too will sell many of their ebooks for their own ereader at $9.99.

With publishers getting worried about profits, what will happen if they start forcing sites like Amazon and Sony to jack the prices up on their ebooks? Nothing good can come from this.

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I’m back! I returned last night from my annual summer vacation – this year we were off to Washington state to visit family. What made this trip stand out from the others, however, is that it was virtually paperless for me. Unlike trips in the past, I packed no print books and went all digital.

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The debacle over Amazon and their decision to remotely remove several George Orwell titles from their Kindle device, from customers who had paid for the books, has sparked a pretty fierce debate online. I’m actually a little surprised at the number of people who have come to Amazon’s defense and even applauded Jeff Bezo’s generic apology.

A lot of people, it seems, are getting hung up on the idea that the ebooks in question were illegally uploaded to Amazon’s system, and therefore, Amazon had every right to delete them from the Kindles and issue a refund. But I think there’s a deeper problem, and a danger lurking in the shadows if something isn’t done.

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Amazon set off a firestorm of criticism across the web the other day when they decided to remotely delete several Orwell titles off of customers’ Kindles because the ‘publisher’ didn’t have permission to to sell those titles as ebooks. The tactic shows how ruthless Amazon can be with their ebook business, on top of their already draconian DRM tactics.

The question I keep asking myself is: “What will it take for Amazon to change their ways?” Yes, a big enough lawsuit might do the trick. And yes, action on the part of the government (i.e. FTC), might also do the trick. But there’s a simpler way to force Amazon to change – competition.

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Today we have a special treat – an exclusive interview with author Wayne C. Long, who owns and operates LongShortStories, a website where he sells his short fiction as a subscription-based service. I first met Wayne back in 2008 after he sent me a message advertising his site – which I first wrote about in this post.

I’m going to keep this introduction short because I think the interview speaks for itself, and I hope you find Wayne’s answers as inspiring as I do. And when you get to the end of the interview, you might find a surprise!

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When I read yesterday that Amazon had removed several George Orwell titles from their Kindle ebook reader, I can’t say I was surprised. Sad but true. Not too long ago a story surfaced about an Amazon customer who had his account suspended (too many returns, I think) and all the ebooks on his Kindle became disabled. Is this becoming a disturbing trend on Amazon’s part?

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Back when I very first started writing short fiction for fun (sometime in the early to mid-90s) the short story was in a sad state. Most writers no longer made a living off writing just short stories, and the reading public was in the mood for something longer – the novel. And today the novel continues to dominate the literary scene, while short stories are relegated to small press literary magazines and maybe a few collections published as a book.

However, could we be seeing a revival of the short story, due in large part, to the internet and digital distribution? While short fiction still doesn’t come close to the popularity of the novel, in the next few years that might begin to change.

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