Buy the book - get the audio and digital for free!

The debate surrounding book publishing and the use of technology is already a few years old and looks set to rumble on for a number of years yet. It is still unclear what role, if any, digital eReaders will play and if third-party devices such as the Iphone/Ipod will have a significant say in the market. Products such as Stanza are making the delivery of digital material easier and it seems clear that the market place is open to new ideas.

One aspect of the argument that does seem settled is that book selling is starting to become less about the format (paper vs digital) and more about the content. It is also clear that choice is becoming key. It has been debated that the future will involve a reader opting to consume their book in a number of formats switching between digital and traditional as their circumstances change.

This is where US publishers Thomas Nelson come into the picture. CEO Michael Hyatt (@MichaelHyatt) has openly championed the experiment of providing multiple formats. This month Andrew Andrew’s The Noticer has been made available in a traditional paper version with the audio and pdf being given away for free.

This is what the site says:

For a limited time only, buy Andrew Andrews' new book The Noticer and receive $76.96 worth of FREE products

It's this simple:
• May 1–20 Purchase The Noticer from Amazon.com or your favorite book retailer
• Fill in the information below to download FREE audio and e-book formats, including E-Pub, PDF, and the Kindle-compatible MobiPocket*
*You will need your copy of The Noticer in hand to access the downloads.

Michael Hyatt insists that if the experiment is successful then this is a model that will be used more regularly by Thomas Nelson.

Free Online Writing Courses

In recent years the UK has seen a marked rise in the phenomena that is the post graduate Creative Writing degree. Almost every major British University now has an MA in Creative Writing with such prestigious authors as Martin Amis, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage all holding teaching positions. Yet the MA is not the most suitable route for many writers and during the same time period we have seen the rise of online writing courses.

PAID COURSES

There are a number of companies offering online courses for a range of fees.

Writing Classes (the highest ranking hit when I googled online creative writing courses) charge £150 for a ten week course. They say:

All our creative writing courses run for ten weeks (a free familiarisation week + nine conferences). During each conference participants read online notes, complete writing assignments and are encouraged to appraise each other's work.

This is pretty typical.

FREE COURSES

In addition to paid courses there is a growing band of free online courses.

Here are some examples I came across:

Creative Writing 101

Writing what you know (Open University)

Start writing fiction (Open University)

Approaching prose fiction (Open University)

What is poetry? (Open University)

Approaching poetry (Open University)

What is good writing? (Open University)

Introduction to Fiction (MIT)

Writing and Reading the Essay (MIT)

Steven Barnes' Free Writing Class

Three English courses from Yale

Publishing Poetry

Cleaning Your Copy

Proofreading Your Writing

Basic Grammar Skills

Conquering the Comma

 

So has anyone had experience of these online course? Worth the money/time?

We need you...

BubbleCow are currently working on a project that will offer writers the chance to interact in closed facebook/twitter style media platform. The aim is to offer a private environment in which writers can discuss their work, gain support from other writers, whilst also benefiting from the interaction of a member of BubbleCow.

The project is still in the early stages but we are keen to test our ideas on a live audience.

Therefore I am looking for writers that would like to get involved for free. Ideally you will be unpublished, currently working on a book or novel and be willing to interact and talk about your work.

To volunteer simply email gary@bubblecow.co.uk or send a Twtitter DM to @bubblecow

Death of Microsoft Word

Let’s face it, writers and word processors go hand-in-hand and for the last couple of years Microsoft Word has dominated the market. However, things are now changing and the world of on-line word processors is starting to come of age.

The first choice for online word processors has been Google’s free Google Docs. Though not the most feature packed of software packages it has offered a workable solution. However, Zoho recently announced the new free version of their word processor. This is by far the most advanced on-line word processor and is set to challenge Google Docs.

So the question is which word processor do you prefer?

Microsoft’s Word with is feature packed performance, Google Docs with its on-line storage or the new boy on the block Zoho’s Docs?

BubbleCow’s Twitter challenge (#wordswrittentoday)

Goal setting and sharing can be a great way to kick start your writing, so next week BubbleCow is running a week long twitter challenge aimed at giving writers a boost.

The idea is for writers to share with other people the amount of words they have written that day. It’s not a competition but a mutual love-fest and exercise in backslapping.

The approach is simple and anyone with a Twitter account can play along. All you have to do is send a tweet each day that contains the hash tag #wordswrittentoday and the number of words you have written that day.

e.g.

#wordswrittentoday 700 - I am on a roll.

You can follow everyone’s progress by using this link at Twitter Search. Alternatively you can try searching on #wordswrittentoday at http://hashtags.org/.

To help everyone out we will be blogging a different writing tip each day next week.

You can find out more about #tags here.

TwitterTitters

A tweetin’ hilarious collection of new comedy writing, selected to raise money for Comic Relief.

Includes foreword by Chelsey: OMG! Writer Nat Coombs and exclusive new writing by Phoenix Nights co-creator Dave Spikey.

TwitterTitters is a project by an independent group of fundraisers for Red Nose Day 2009. All proceeds of the publication go to Comic Relief.

You can buy TwitterTitters here.

'This Morning' short story competition.

(Source: writing about writing)

'This Morning' have launched their short story competition:

Prize: publication in She magazine and a 4 day writing holiday in Istanbul.

Word count: 1,500 - 2000.

Open to: unpublished writers - "You must not be a professional fiction writer or ever have earned significant, regular or frequent payments for story writing."

Closing date: 23 March.

All details can be found here

Comic Relief's Red Nose Goes Digital

For the first time since its launch 21 years ago Comic Relief has released three different Red Noses – with each of the trio set to rally the nation to Do Something Funny for Money on Friday 13 March.

Rednoseday.com has always been at the centre of one of the most interactive engagements with the public. In 2007, £7m was donated to Comic Relief through the website and mobile, contributing to the overall £67m that was raised for good causes in the UK and Africa.

Now, for the first time ever, consumers can buy a digital red nose . The site allows users to upload their photo, choose from the three red noses and apply it digitally to their image, before exporting it to their favourite social networking sites, including Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and Twitter.

The Digital Red Nose costs just £1, of which 87p goes straight to good causes.

The Google Settlement - more money for writers?

Over the past years Google has been systematically scanning library books and making the digital copies freely available on the internet. The potential implications to writers, the impact on their sales and the thorny issues of copyright resulted in legal action and a recent settlement in the US.

In essence the settlement creates a new market for out-of-print books. It establishes a new not-for-profit organisation that will be controlled by authors and publishers. This will be called the Book Rights Registry. They will collect revenues from Google and distribute to registered copyright holders. Google will fund the initial set up of the Book Rights Registry and future costs will be taken from the overall revenue.

Issues to consider:

• Out-of-Print: Google focus on scanning out-of-print books and only include in-print with the consent of author/publisher. However, what is meant by ‘out-of-print’ is vague.
• Revenue split: Google keep 37% of revenue and forward 63% to the Book Rights Registry. If the book rights have reverted to the author they will receive 100% of this revenue (minus BRR admin fee). If rights not reverted then it’s a 50-50 split between author and publisher (minus BRR admin fee). If book published before 1987 revenue split is 65% author, 35% publisher (minus BRR admin fee).
• Source of Revenue:
  

1. License to educational establishments
   
2. Individual users
   
3. Advertisements
   
4. Printouts.

• Non-US countries: It is still unclear how this agreement will impact on non-US countries.

Win free books via a weekly Twitter contest

Chelsea Green Books are offering their Twitter followers the chance to win a free book, every Wednesday at 3pm.

We love that a publisher is using Twitter in such a creative way and to read the full details of how you can join in their Twitter fun, go here.

How to convert your iPhone into an e-reader

It is becoming increasingly common to hear of people using their iphone/ipod as an e-reader.

Here are three apps to get you started:

Stanza

eReader

FileMagnet (for pdf files)

TwitterTitters

News, via Twitter, of a new project to create a book of funny stories for Comic Relief, called TwitterTitters.

"The collection of new comedy writing to be published on Lulu to raise money for Comic Relief. Calls for submissions, publicity and planning are all being done on Twitter. We'll be raising awareness of the book on Twitter and we're hoping we can even get some famous Twitterers to endorse it..."

Deadline for submissions is 4pm on Friday February 20, 2009.
Find out everything you need to know here.

A bleak outlook?

Will 2009 be the worst year for publishing in decades?

Some points for consideration HERE.

Changing face of publishing.

More exciting changes for The Friday Project:

The Friday Project is to become the first mainstream publisher to offer its authors profit-share contracts in which profits from each book are split equally between publisher and author.

Read all about it, HERE.

Megan Taylor's blog story.

A message from Megan Taylor :

"Our blog story, 'The box', is now complete - you can now read the whole crazy, fabulous joined-together story on my website here -HERE.

Thank you so much to all you wonderful writers and readers and general supporters - but thanks most of all to-
C-Ray
Kerrie
sweetseadog
matt writer
Leatherdykeuk
Patience Mnbongwo
Dansk
Jamieson Wolf
Eli Regan
hedgehog
Anonymous
and Anonymous (?)
Caroline
Nik
and DJ"

Tonto's Reader Poll and free books

A message from Stu at Tonto Books:

"To celebrate the end of Tonto's New Discoveries in Fiction initiative, readers are able to vote which title they'd like to see given away for free on 2 March 2009.

Yes, that's FREE! PDF excerpts of each book can be obtained by emailing contact@tontobooks.com with the title of the book in the subject line.

Voting is via the Tonto Blog, HERE

Whichever title receives the most votes will be made free throughout March 2008 in PDF format. The paperback version of the winning title will also be half price in March too... get voting! Like, now!! "

Trucking Hell

A few words from Gaz Hunter:

"Picture the scene... a nervous first-time writer is waiting for a phonecall from The Editor. The person allotted to him by his publisher to wrestle his work into a publishable book. To take the thin, almost etherial threads of useable material from the haystack of dross, and weave that into a fabric, a rich tapestry of prose.

The phone rings, and I (for yes, dear reader, I was that first-time writer!) answer. Nervously, as previously pointed out. What jewels would this paragon of the writing art throw at the feet of the grubby, ink-stained beginner? What advice would be gifted? What pearls before swine. I awaited the verdict, as the whole of the catholic church watches the smoke from the Vatican chimney.

*I am disappointed by the lack of sex!*

Yes.. well... it is an autobiography... I'm none to happy either!

Caroline edited, cajoled, suggested, threatened... she polished and primped, she cleaned and shined. She was a joy to work with. She started off as my editor, and I am now happy... nay, proud, to call her my friend.

And she fancies Simon Cowell... so don't go thinking she's perfect..."

You can buy Trucking Hell by Gaz Hunter, HERE.

Bored with reading?

... then visit WikiSummaries, where literary works appear to be easily summarised.

You need never read or buy a book again!

Megan Taylor - Bubblecow's friend

This comes from the blog of the amazing Megan Taylor:

===

I thought I’d begin another interactive blog story. Just a little one.
Would you like to play?

To begin 11th January 2009!

In not more than 300 words, written every 3 days, with only 3 posts each – can we create a short story together?

Last Time . . .
In June 2008, to coincide with the launch of my website, I posted the opening to an experimental short story on my then brand new blogs, and asked the blogs’ readers to provide the next 200 words. Every 2 days for 2 weeks, we took 200 word turns at creating a blog story. It was intense, and crazy, and fun. And at the end, we had 'The Cabin'. You can read the complete merged-together piece via the blog page of my website.

This Time -
As mentioned above, things will be slightly different. I thought I’d try something a little shorter and lighter (less commitment? More fun?) but make the time between posts and the maximum word-count for each a little longer . . .

The idea is this:
On Sunday 11th January 2009, I will post the opening to a brand new short story, which I hope that you will continue by providing the next 300 words (or far less if you so desire). After 3 days (January 14th), I’ll read the responses and choose just one to carry on from with my next piece. Then it will be your turn again. And so on.
Once again, I promise to publish the whole, joined together piece on my website http://www.megantaylor.info/

I’m looking forward to playing . . .

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR, to you all.