A couple bits of personal news:
- My picture book, PRAIRIE STORMS, comes out in August. The illustrator, Kathleen Rietz has done monthly coloring pages, and here’s the July page! Please LIKE the Prairie Storms Facebook Page for monthly coloring pages. And please let your friends with kids know about the monthly nature coloring pages.
Coloring Page for July, Prairie Storms. For monthly coloring pages LIKE www.facebook.com/PrairieStorms
The Wayfinder is reviewed this week on Susan Heim on Parenting blog. There’s a free giveaway, just leave a comment.
NonFiction BookBlast
Sunday, June 26, 2011. 8-10 am.
ALA Conference in NOLA.
At the recent conference for the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media, I did a session on book trailers for use in the library. As part of that session, I asked librarians to participate in making a video. Those interested in become a YouTube star answered this simple question:
What do you do when you get lost?
Here’s the video:
*|YouTube:1NZmSXuxynA|*
Great fun!
NonFiction BookBlast
Sunday, June 26, 2011. 8-10 am.
ALA Conference in NOLA.
After I wrote about the digital versions of my novel, The Wayfinder, Sherrie wrote with this information about the PC Kindle and the iPhone Kindle app.
PC and IPhone app. I thought I’d forward this to you in case you haven’t seen it. The free Kindle for PC download is another great option for readers who prefer digital versions of the Wayfinder. Readers who own iPhones can also download a free Kindle app. This is one of my favorite apps. I’ve read several entire books on my iPhone this way.
Everything is in-sync. The Kindle’s “whisper-sync technology” automatically saves a reader’s place when he/she finishes reading, and it synchronizes among all Kindle reading platforms. So, if a mother begins reading The Wayfinder on a PC, she can continue reading on her iPhone while she waits for her kids to finish soccer practice. She won’t even have to try to remember what page she read last; Kindle will keep track for her!
I like the fact that a reader doesn’t need to purchase a Kindle device in order to read books on a PC or iPhone. Hooray for more reading options!
I’ll have to load the Kindle PC on my netbook! Thanks for the tip, Sherrie
My novel, The Wayfinder, is now available in two different digital versions. You can still find used copies of the book on Amazon, Abebooks and other online stores. In addition, you can download the novel from Amazon’s Kindle store and from Mobipocket’s Ebook store.
Amazon’s version requires the Kindle, Amazon’s exclusive ebook reader. Mobipocket can be read on almost every ebook reader or on a free desktop reader (a fast download).
The Wayfinder, print edition
The Wayfinder, Kindle edition
The Wayfinder, Mobipocket edition
Related posts:
- Ebooks
- Kindle2
- 33 pages
Are Ebooks finally ready for Prime Time?
I hated it when, about ten years ago, my local library went to the online digital version of the reference book, Books in Print. I tried to look up something about quilts. There were about 5-600 entries beginning with Quilt in the title, and in the paper version, I’d just flip a couple pages and Voila! 2 seconds to find what I needed. In the online version, I had to go through about 30-40 screens before I came to the end of the Quilt titles. Wasted time. Are digital versions or ebooks still a waste of time? Maybe.
Are Ebooks Viable? Yes.
When are ebooks used the most? When traveling.
Friends report that they love to load up several ebooks and keep the weight down in their luggage. Ebooks are used in schools, when textbooks are changed often, as a way to reduce costs to the student. Ebooks are here to stay and will probably co-exist with paper versions for a long time.
We’re going to read ebooks, that battle has been won. The next question is this: are dedicated ebook readers the best option for reading ebooks? Should you buy a Kindle or Sony ebook reader (or some other brand) as a Christmas gift?
Dedicated Readers, iPods and Screens. The biggest problem with reading ebooks has traditionally been the inferior quality of screens and the eye-strain of reading from a screen. In some ways, this is a McGuffin, because, well, we all read online right now, and many of us read many hours a day from a computer screen.
Enter e-ink. It is supposed to be a higher quality, less eye-strain and should be available in color in another year or so. So, let’s agree that the screen-quality problem is about to be solved, or else call it a moot point.
What Happened While You Were So Self-Absorbed. But there’s a complication when deciding on how to read ebooks: technology hasn’t stood still while e-ink has been developing. We now have the iPhone and other smart phones. Here’s where I think the current discussion of ebooks goes wrong. I mean, how many pieces of technology do I want to carry around? The answer for most of us is, not many. Which is why the Apps market for smart phones is so dynamic right now. If I’m carrying around this smart phone, which is always hooked up to the net, then why not do everything on this one piece of equipment.
Optimal Screen Size for Multiple Tasks. Which changes the problem from screen quality to screen size. What is the optimal size screen for multiple tasks? For me, most smart phones fail this test. I want huge, 18″ or bigger, flat-screen, best-quality-I-can-afford monitors. But you can’t carry THAT around with you. And now, we’re down to this question: what size screen is the best compromise for portability, flexibility and easy viewing? What’s the best compromise of features and quality?
Do you see what has changed? My requirements for an ebook reader has been changed by the advent of smart phones. I now want one piece of electronics that has instant, almost-everywhere access to the internet; the screen must be large enough to read comfortably (very important), so I have flexibility in choosing what tasks I’ll do on this device; it wouldn’t hurt either, if it also included a keyboard in a usable size, instead of the teensy-tiny Blackberry and other smart phone keyboards.
Netbooks. For me, the answer is a NetBook.
Can you read ebooks on a netbook? Yes.
Is the netbook dedicated to one and only one task of reading an ebook? No. It’s versatile.
