In today’s technology-driven, social online world, authors need a website to promote themselves and their books. Without an online presence, an author risks being thrown into obscurity. An author website should be primarily of an author’s own making (except for the design, that should be left to professionals). Their publisher (unless they are an indie author) might help them optimize their site to promote their books – that never hurts.

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Yesterday’s release of Dan Brown’s much anticipated new book The Lost Symbol has been making waves in the publishing world and with booksellers alike since he announced a new book earlier in the year. I bought a copy of the book at my local bookstore and am currently reading it. I’ll try to post my thoughts on the book when I’m finished.

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Have a cell phone? Have a web browser on your cell phone? If so, then that’s all you need to sign up for start-up website CellStories.net. The stories, some fiction and some non-fiction, are delivered through the site that can be easily accessed on your mobile browser. The content appears to be free.

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Anyone who thinks a writer should take a passive role in marketing and promoting of his/her work to concentrate on writing needs to talk to self-published author Christopher Herz about the importance of self-promotion. Herz quit his day job in advertising to concentrate on selling his book The Last Block in Harlem to one customer at a time.

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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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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 no fan of JD Salinger. I’m talking about the man, not his writing. You can read my reasoning in this earlier post What do authors owe their readers. Mr. Salinger is not helping his case in an ongoing legal battle where he wants to prevent publication of a ‘sequel’ to his infamous novel Catcher in the Rye.

You might recall that on July 1, an injunction was ordered by a judge that prevented the publication of the sequel by Swedish author Fredrik Colting called 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. Since that ruling, groups ranging from free speech advocates, librarians, the Associated Press and others have been filing briefs with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to get the injunction lifted. The appeals court will start hearing arguments on September 3.

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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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Romance is not a genre I read, much less write about on this blog. But the romance genre is fairly large and has a fiercely loyal following, so it’s no surprise that romance is still doing well, despite a grim economy. Thus this is a genre that cannot be easily ignored or shunned aside.

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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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