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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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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I’m a big fan of the ePub ebook format because it’s free, open source, easy-to-use and is free of that evil DRM. So you can imagine I was pretty thrilled when I learned of a new website that gives away free ebook exclusively in the ePub format. I learned about the site from the good folks over at Teleread on this post New, free epub book site goes live.

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If there is one thing I’ve learned about the world of ebooks, it’s that you can’t always predict what publishers will do. Back in May I wrote this post ‘Will book publishers learn from music  and newspaper industries‘. In it, I gave a fairly harsh critique of Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy for arguing that ebooks should not be priced lower than their print counterparts, because you’re paying for the content, not the format.

I’m not going to re-hash how loony her reasoning is (read my early post for that). But you can imagine I was surprised when I read in this New York Times article ‘Simon & Schuster to sell digital books on Scribd.com‘. Apparently, someone over at S&S has some idea of how to integrate digital books into the traditional publishing model.

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Today felt a lot like Christmas for me, especially as I sat and watched the liveblogging of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote presentation. The excitement peaked when Apple unveiled the next generation iPhone – the 3GS (the ‘S’ stands for ‘Speed’).

The newest version of the popular mobile device is packed with new features – like auto-zoom camera, video recording, digital compass, longer battery life, etc. There are plenty of places where you can read all the juicy details about the 3GS, so I’m not going to go into much detail here. But there are a few things I found interesting.

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Since mega-book retailer Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise, the online retailer of ebooks, I’m very anxious to know what B&N plans to do with the website and their service. In the last year, a majority of the ebooks I have bought have been from Fictionwise, giving me even more interest in the outcome of this acquisition.

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In a move to try and drum up foot traffic at bookstores across the country, Publishers Weekly is announcing the first ever National Bookselling Day, according to this article from their website. PW has partnered with several publishers, various literary publications and different bookselling associations across the country to help promote the event.

While in theory this sounds like a great idea, I wonder how they are going to get Joe Average Reader on board to actually visit his local store on November 7. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but if they are not careful, it can easily turn into an event that only PW and the involved parties care about – not the readers who are the ones who shell out cash to actually buy books.

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Whenever I read news stories about reclusive authors, like the famous J.D. Salinger, I usually just shake my head. Salinger is again in the news because another author wants to publish a sequel to the classic The Catcher in the Rye (aff link).  So, in typical Salinger fashion, he’s suing to prevent the book from being published.

However, that’s not what I’m really worried about. I have no problems with an author trying to protect his work (even though sometimes they go too far). What I do have a problem with, however, is iconic authors like J.D. Salinger, who have obviously had a huge impact on the American literary scene, shun their own fans.

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How do you turn a boring classic novel into something new and exciting? Add a bunch of brain-hungry zombies, of course. At least, that is the approach that author Seth Grahame-Smith took with his novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
(aff link). The novel takes the popular Jane Austen story and turns it upside-down with zombies.

I’m reading the book right now and find it very funny. But I should also admit that I haven’t read the original Pride and Prejudice, so I might be missing out on some of nuances of the story. Nevertheless I’m still being thoroughly entertained. You can bet that when I’m finished, I’ll write a more detailed book review here.

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