Fiona L. Woods's Blog, page 407

Amazon-Hachette Dispute Is Yesterday's War

Are you two listening?Panzer was out in the Catosphere today trying to avoid the Amazon-Hachette dispute.

No such luck!

What my bad kitty did find is a post by Leonid Bershidsky at the Bloomberg View site with an argument that could put an end to the dispute. Mr. Bershidsky points out that in his opinion buying ebooks from the Amazon store for your Kindle is obsolete.

What?

The Kindle obsolete?

The Amazon ebook obsolete?

Why?

Because more people are reading ebooks on their smartphones and tablets.

So, according to Mr. Bershidsky, the Amazon-Hachette dispute (war) is pointless.

Panzer says, Are you listening Mr. Bezos? How about you Mr. Pietsch? It's a pointless fight."

To read this new take on the Amazon-Hachette disagreement, tootle over to battle is yesterday's war

Hachette's Pietsch Responds To Amazon's Readers Emails

Mine! Now get out of there!Panzer is back home after a trip to Publishers Weekly's site in the Catosphere.

My bad boy found a post there about Amazon's response to Douglas Preston's New York Times advertisement asking people who support him to email Amazon's Jeff Bezos. In response, Amazon setup an online site and asked people who support Amazon to email Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch.

So ...

Mr. Pietsch sent letters to the supporters of Amazon who have been emailing him.

Panzer says, "Would you guys get out of my litter box? It's so full I can't even get in to use it."

To read the latest in the Douglas Preston-Amazon and Amazon-Hachette disputes, tootle over to Hachette's Pietsch

A New Panzerism

Panzer says:
Even Mom is right once in a while.
Mom figured she could have a kitty

OR

a nice couch.

She made the right choice.

The Douglas Preston vs. Amazon Dispute Continues

Be quiet! I need sleep!Panzer is not a happy kitty. First, my bad boy hasn't been able to get any sleep because of all the noise in the Catosphere about the Amazon-Hachette dispute. Now, the Douglas Preston-Amazon dispute my sleepy kitty told you about is making noise again. This time Mr. Preston tells David Streitfeld at the New York Times website he's worried because his book sales at Amazon are down.

So ...

His letter to Amazon (that he's had all over the Catosphere for weeks) will finally appear in Sunday's New York Times newspaper in a full page ad. Some of the authors from Mr. Preston's Authors United group who signed the letter paid the $104,000 price tag for the ad.

Panzer says, "Can't you humans get it straight, Mr. Preston? You never ever bite the hand that feeds you (or sells your books)."

Be prepared. This is a very long post and the comments section is long too. You'll also find a link in the post to the letter from authors who support Amazon in the Amazon-Hachette dispute.
 
To read the latest from Douglas Preston about his Authors United group and his views on Amazon, tootle over to writers battle amazon

YouTuber Creates ‘Harry Potter’ & ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Mash-Up Trailer - GalleyCat

Hee hee hee!Panzer was over at GalleyCAT today where he found a post about a YouTube Harry Potter mash-up video by Scott Pilgrim. My bad boy has been laughing so hard he can't get up off the floor of the Panzermobile. There are scenes from each of the Harry Potter movies put together to make quite an adventure,

 To watch the video, tootle over to YouTuber Creates ‘Harry Potter’ & ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Mash-Up Trailer - GalleyCat

Douglas Preston and 900 Other Authors' Letter To Amazon

Finally.Panzer got jarred out of his morning nap by yowling and hissing coming from the Catosphere. My bad boy jumped into the Panzermobile and followed all the noise to the Publishers Weekly site. Once there, he found a copy of bestselling author Douglas Preston's much talked and blogged about letter to Amazon about the Amazon-Hachette dispute. The letter has now been officially signed by 900 authors and will be published as a full-page ad in Sunday's New York Times newspaper.

The full letter and all of the signatures are included at the end of the article.

Panzer says, "Well ... after all these weeks of threatening to do the letter and the ad, finally, we get to see who signed it."

To read the letter and see if your favorite authors signed it, tootle over to open letter to amazon

J. R. R. Tolkien’s 10 Tips For Writers: INFOGRAPHIC - GalleyCat

Middle Earth? I want to go there.Panzer was over exploring at GalleyCAT today. He found a post by Dianna Dilworth that includes an infographic titled J. R. R. Tolkien's 10 Tips For Writers. Mr. Tolkein was the author of the Middle Earth books.

Panzer says, "I'm a HUGE Lord of The Rings fan. I'll print this infographic and put it up over my food dish. Then I can see it ever time I eat!"

To read J. R. R. Tolkein's tips, tootle over to J. R. R. Tolkien’s 10 Tips For Writers: INFOGRAPHIC - GalleyCat

Sony to Leave Ereader Market

You knew it was coming.Today, Panzer wasn't surprised by a post he found at The Bookseller about Sony's announcement it's leaving the ereader market. My Catosphere traveling bad boy told you back in February of Sony's departure from the ebook stores market. So, leaving the ereader market is a logical step.

According to Joshua Farrington and Lisa Campbell's post, Sony will instead concentrate on their Digital Paper PDF reader. They will be working with the business customers market now.

Panzer says, "The market keeps getting smaller."

To read about Sony's movement out of the ereader market, tootle over to Sony ereader

A New Panzerism

You do see I'm not done yet, right?Panzer on "being in the family way":

No.

You move.

Smashwords: How to Do Box Sets at Smashwords for Audience Buil...

A multi-cat boxed set.Panzer noticed a while ago that a lot of authors have been doing boxed sets at Amazon of either their own work or in conjunction with other authors. So, it was no surprise today when he found Mark Coker's latest post at the Smashwords blog.

This is a long post because Mark goes into detail about how to do a boxed set at Smashwords. He starts out with examples of how some Smashwords authors have already put together their boxed sets. He then goes on to give instructions about doing multi-author sets.

Panzer says, "I better get some of my cat friends together for a box set!"

If you're interested in doing a box set, tootle over to Smashwords: How to Do Box Sets at Smashwords for Audience Buil...: