Like it or not, writers are entrepreneurs. This is especially true for indie authors who do it all: Write, publish, market and sell their own books. Indie authors are turning themselves into a small “cottage industry.”

A cottage industry is basically where products are made at home, rather than at a manufacturing plant. I’ve covered this briefly in a 2009 post, but thought it’s worth revisiting. Why now? Because with the economy in the tank people are looking for alternative ways to make a living.

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Barnes & Noble unveiled their newest Nook iteration: The Nook Tablet. This is the book chain’s answer to Amazon’s Kindle Fire. I speculated in an earlier post how B&N will respond to Amazon’s tablet computer. I only said if they don’t already have something in the pipeline, it could be a bad holiday season for the world’s largest bookseller.

Luckily for them, that’s not the case.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Here are some of the features the new tablet/eReader sports:

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A few days ago I posted my prediction about where eReader technology is going. I said that bendable ebook screens will be common in the next decade. It’s not that bold of a prediction given that the technology already exists, it just needs to be perfected.

The next day, Fast Company posted an article that’s also about bendable eReaders. However, they approach it by asking the question: Will bendable technology be a fad, or will it have sticking power?

The article starts off by saying:

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I should first state that I’m firmly against ebook piracy. The reader should pay the price that is set by the author or publisher. Or, if the option is available, borrow the ebook on the Kindle or Nook from a friend/family member or check it out from the library.

There are a lot of ways to gain access to the ebooks you want to read without pirating them. There have been many times in the past when I purchased an ebook for a price I thought was too high. But I paid it anyway because I really wanted to read the book.

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I’m going to make a bold prediction: In the next decade we’re going to see eReaders on the market that are as flexible as paper. Forget those clunky Kindles and Nooks, you’ll read your ebooks on a paper-like screen that you can fold up and put in your pocket.

Actually, my prediction might not be all that bold after all. According to Gizmodo, this technology is already in the making:

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As expected, ebook sales were up again in August. This time, sales jumped 116%. Not too shabby. There’s really not much more to add here. I’ll let the Publishers Weekly article speak for itself:

E-book sales from publishers that report to the AAP rose 116.5% in August, to $88.8 million, compared to August 2010. The gain marked an acceleration in e-book growth compared to July when sales of the format increased 105%, the slowest in 2011. All trade print segments had a decline in August sales with the largest coming in mass market paperback where sales from reporting companies fell 36.4%. Sales of digital audio rose 30.2% at 12 digital audio publishers.

For the first eight months of 2011, e-book sales increased 144.4%, to $649.2 million, from 18 reporting publishers to the AAP monthly statistics program. Sales were off by double digits in all trade print segments in the January-August period, although sales in the religion category were up 9% in the year to date at the 22 reporting houses.

Steve Jobs really was a genius. And I’m not just saying that because of his recent passing (RIP). The products Apple comes out with are always beautifully designed and surprisingly simple.

But Jobs’ genius didn’t just extend to making great products, he was also a cunning businessman who knew how to give Apple a leg up on the competition.

A great example of this is how Steve Jobs single-handily forced Amazon’s hand when it came to ebook pricing. He looked at how Amazon’s was pricing their ebooks and basically said their business model was stupid.

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There’s nothing new about taking a newspaper, magazine or even a book into the bathroom while you do your…uh…business. Usually the bathroom is the one place people can get a little peace and quiet, making it ideal for reading.

Now we live in an age of iPads and eReaders. So it naturally follows that people will take their shiny new electronics into the bathroom to read as well.

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A few years ago I gave the writing software Scrivener a try. Back then I thought it was impressive but didn’t think it was for me. I said I preferred the simplicity of a bare bones word processor.

I gave Scrivener another shot several months ago and discovered this time I really liked it. Since then I’ve been working on a few writing projects using the software. The ability to organize everything from notes, drafts, research and the final product, all in one program is very convenient.

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If you’ve been wanting to trade in that dusty old Sony Reader for a shiny new Amazon Kindle, you’re in luck. Amazon has extended their trade-in program to include non-Amazon e-readers.

According to TechCrunch you can get anywhere from $25 to $135, depending on the condition and model of your old e-reader. Instead of cold-hard cash, Amazon will send your payment in the form of a gift card.

The process is relatively simple: Just enter in your product’s information and Amazon will give you a pre-paid shipping label to print out (that’s right, free shipping!). Throw the package in the mail and you’re set.

If you’re short of cash, like I frequently am, this might be a good way to help finance that new Kindle Fire you’ve been drooling over since it has been announced. Or, you can blow all the money on ebooks. Either way, you can’t go wrong.