Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Blogs
August 24, 2010 | Tuesday | 24 Comments
First, a link to NPR’s article on Digital Overload: Your Brain on Gadgets. According to the article, The New York Times reports that the average computer user checks 40 websites a day and can switch programs 36 times an hour. “It’s an onslaught of information coming in today,” says New York Times technology journalist Matt Richtel. “At one time a screen meant maybe something in your living room. But now it’s something in your pocket so it goes everywhere — it can be behind the wheel, it can be at the dinner table, it can be in the bathroom. We…
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July 02, 2010 | Friday | 40 Comments
Next week I have a TON of travel coming up. First, I’ll be at RomCon in Denver, CO, and if you’re going to be there, I hope you’ll introduce yourself to me. I’m the one with glasses. And I’m usually pretty loud. Then, immediately afterward, I’m going to be in Vancouver, BC, Canada, at Simon Fraser University’s Summer Publishing Workshops giving a keynote address and leading a one-day seminar on Romance Novels. The keynote is focused on “The Reader’s Place in the Publishing Process,” and I’ve got an hour. Think I can squeeze it all in?! (PUN TOTALLY INTENDED.) I…
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December 06, 2009 | Sunday | 5 Comments
Heather gave me the heads up about a spiffy giveaway going on today at SFR: they’re giving away autographed books among other literary offerings to folks who leave a comment a network of book review blogs. Hey, it’s December, there’s gift giving and there’s the post office - what more could you wish for?
Details at Galaxy Express/ Science Fiction Romance.
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December 02, 2009 | Wednesday | 32 Comments
I’ve asked a few times over the past few weeks for folks to send me their gift ideas and wish list items that they, as avid, voracious, book-lovin’, page-turnin’, spine-breakin’, button-pushin’, downloadin’ readers would love to have for this year’s holiday season. Get ready for random awesomeness. First: from Cat, the Read or Dieshopping bag. I swear on God’s potpourri, there is something for everyone at Archie McPhee, but this in particular rocks my literary socks. You could buy one, put some books in it, and hello, perfect gift. FOR YOURSELF. Heh. Kwana suggested Levenger, or as Jane and I…
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November 19, 2009 | Thursday | 27 Comments
Motoko Rich, who is second to Hillel Italie on my list of Reporters of Whom I am a Quietly Squeeing Fangirl, wrote an article for The New York Times that examined the use of iPhones and iPod Touch devices as reading tools. The article was titledLibrary in a Pocket , and quoted me talking about my use of both the iPhone and the Kindle during my commute: Indeed, Sarah Wendell, an administrative assistant in Manhattan who blogs about romance novels, said that although she used the iPhone to read while on a coffee or lunch break, she still used her…
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October 20, 2009 | Tuesday | 7 Comments
If you like popular culture essays, BenBella has launched their new Smart Pop Books site, where they’ll be offering free essays weekly and the option to order digital copies of essays individually. Currently among the crop of free essays for reading are “Whimsy Goes with Everything” by Heather Swain from the Gilmore Girls essay collection edited by Jennifer Crusie, and “Darn Your Sinister Attraction!” by Carol Poole about the violent relationship between Buffy and Spike from a collection that analyzed the psychology of Joss Whedon’s television creations. SmartPop is also running a contest for essays on the Whedon show Dollhouse.…
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August 16, 2009 | Sunday | 9 Comments
Business Week updated their May 2005 article about blogging to talk about how “Social Media will Change Your Business.” Back in 2005, blogs were the focus. Now blogs are an older method of online communication and marketing, operating alongside photo sites like Flickr, video megalopoli like YouTube, and my personal addiction, microblogging options like Twitter. What I found neat about the article is that, even though I knew about much of the software, I didn’t know about the business adventures that created the blogs of the companies we know of now. Also, I’ve passed this link on to a few…
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August 05, 2009 | Wednesday | 42 Comments
Dubbed the “Pocket” and the “Touch,” Sony has released formal data about the two new digital book readers they plan to release later this month - earlier than they planned, after a few tech blogs posted pictures when J&R music listed them for sale prematurely (oops!) The NY Times and Engadget have more info, as does USA Today and a whole heap of other folks. The Pocket Reader will be $199 and the Touch Reader will be $299 US retail. The highlights I’m most curious about: Sony’s eBook Library software 3.0, which now includes support for many Macs as well…
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June 15, 2009 | Monday | 21 Comments
Oh, let us celebrate the positive press about the romance! This week, in the 22 June issue, Nora Roberts is profiled in The New Yorker - alas, the article is not available online but I’m begging for a PDF to post here as soon as possible. As part of their “Profiles” section, Lauren Collins takes a look at the career and impact Nora Roberts has had on publishing and American fiction. From personal history to a discussion of Roberts’ online marketing chops - including appearances on AOL chat rooms, blogs like this here site, and her own bulletin board, ADWOFF…
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June 10, 2009 | Wednesday | 4 Comments
One of the things I am most interested in is the online education potential for authors, readers, reviewers, and all them publishing type folks who are curious about how to use Twitter, Facebook, blogs, mySpace, podcasting, etc. for online marketing and publicity. Booksquare University has positioned itself perfectly to offer online workshops on how to use key tools for online promotion, starting with Tweet Camp. The video introducing TweetCamp is fantastic, particularly because it cuts through the media hype in the first two minutes, and asks those curious about Twitter to look at it in a new way: “What if…
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May 22, 2009 | Friday | 28 Comments
Did you miss the blog and Tweet-splosion about the Avon AAR interview? I have to say, Avon, that was not your finest PR moment. But moreover: what a missed opportunity. This part in particular was a massive wiff: May Chen: In my opinion, the online world still doesn’t have much impact on sales as, anecdotally, I’ve seen books get horrible online reviews but have done well. As far as I know, we still don’t include online reviews on our books, but that can certainly change if we see them start making a difference. Right now, the best endorsements for us…
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May 15, 2009 | Friday | 21 Comments
What with Bosoms travel and conferences this year, my vacation days from Ye Olde Day Job are limited in number. Alas, therefore, I attended the 2009 IDPF Digital Book conference on Tuesday 12 May for the afternoon, and relied on the the power of Twitter for news and information from the morning sessions. Even with the 140 character limit, I was getting a pretty accurate snap shot of the proceedings: - Steve Potash, Timekeeper and President of OverDrive, is not to be messed with. Fear ye, all who do not prepare your PowerPoint or go beyond the 10 minute time…
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May 14, 2009 | Thursday | 41 Comments
If I didn’t already know about many of the little things Amazon has done to completely decimate any interest I had in them as a bookseller, this wouldn’t bug me too much. But since the long sequence of WTF has been revealing itself for months now, this is just one more layer in the stank that is Amazon. Way back in 2007, which was several millennia ago in blog time, we bloggers heard from Amazon that we could make our content available for Kindle users. Kindle folk would have to subscribe, and we’d get a cut of that subscription while…
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April 28, 2009 | Tuesday | 88 Comments
At the RT booksigning on Saturday, someone came up to meet me. I absolutely love putting faces to names that I read online. When this very kind and interesting person left, she said, “Thank you for being honest.” I loved that. I so appreciate when people let me know that they enjoy the site, and I love how she put it: “Being honest.” There’s no implication of acceptance or even of agreement with what I say. But there is acknowledgment of honesty, and its value. At the panel Jane and I gave Thursday about blogging, I said that any person…
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April 10, 2009 | Friday | 40 Comments
We’d had a few romance-positive articles in the news the last few weeks, including a New York Times article quoting Jane from Dear Author, but it appears the streak is over now that this article by a condescending LA Times reporter has been picked up by the AP so the derision can be shared across the land. How appropriate that last night we at my giant table of loudness asked as part of the seder, “Manishtana ha lailah hazeh mikol ha leilot?” How is this night different from any other night? On any other night, or in any other industry,…
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