My friend Steve worked as a school bus driver to help pay his way through seminary. His first year on the job was the horror story you would imagine–chaos, unruliness, insolence, anarchy. His second year on the job was a model of order, civility, respect and humanity. What made the difference?
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Kindle Aflame
Well, Amazon’s Kindle made it–just in time for Cyber Monday today. Amazon has a huge spread on the glories of Kindle, complete with video demonstration and words from Jeff Bezos and Toni Morrison. Already there are over 700 customer reviews with an average three-star rating out of five.
Today, Larry Magid wrote: “The first batch of Kindles sold out quickly and Amazon says it won’t have more in stock until Dec. 6. But my guess is that the Kindle will have modest success and won’t become a bestseller. But it does point the way to the future of reading. As paper and other natural resources get more expensive, this is the obvious way to go, especially for students and school districts who are now burdened with heavy, expensive and often outdated text books. But if I were Jeff Bezos, I’d worry about Steve Jobs. It wouldn’t take too many Apple programmers to turn an iPhone and an iPod into an iReader.”
The Dark Side of Platform
Be careful what you wish for.
Publishing is becoming like real estate. Only three things matter. Platform. Platform. Platform. It seems to be a requirement that to publish a book authors must be well-known or be on the speaking circuit or have a deep network of potential readers to tap into once the book is published. A high-platform author is the dream of every publisher. Or is it the nightmare?
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One Flew Over
It seems that everyone wants a say about the new book There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheists Changed His Mind. It started with publication of the book last month by Harper One about Antony Flew, a British philosopher who wrote a pivotal essay in 1950 called “Theology and Falsification,” originally presented at the Oxford Socratic Club chaired by C. S. Lewis. Reprinted many times over, it has been a guide for atheists ever since.
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The Writer’s Dream
America is the land of infinite opportunities. We can all be whatever we want to be, shape our own identity, pursue any career path, even create our own gods. Certainly there is a great deal of opportunity and possibility in America, but as a recent Chicago Tribune article suggests, it is not infinite. There can come a time when we need to give up on a dream–if only, in true American style, to pursue a different dream.
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Changing Lives
Last week the DePaul Journal for Social Justice celebrated its inaugural issue. As the opening “Letter to Our Readers” from the managing editor states, “It began with a dream. Three women with a vision to create a forum calling for justice, bringing inequalities to light and inspiring others to fight for what is right and just in this world. Beyond a dream, we had little more. No money. No office. And very few models for what we wanted to accomplish. We knew we wanted a journal unlike any other at our law school and among only a handful of public interest-oriented journals across the country.”
The three women are Jennifer Keys, Alysia Franklin and Susan DeCostanza. The last of these is my daughter.
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Kindle’s Fire Not Yet Lit
It looks like Amazon.com’s e-book reader, Kindle, has been delayed once again. Previously scheduled for the end of October, the new rumored release date, according to engadget, is the end of the year.
Time will tell.
Will Kindle Set the World on Fire?
Breathlessly we await this month the yearlong-rumored launch of Kindle, Amazon.com‘s electronic book reader. At a reported $400 to $500 per, will this be the e-book reader Nirvana we have all been looking for?
Not according to ComputerWorld. This and a half dozen other products like it are destined to fail.
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First Impressions
The lowly receptionist. It can be about as entry level a job as you can get. It is not a position many people would say they aspire to. You greet people. You answer the phone. It’s that simple.
Extreme Makeover: Vanity Publishing Edition
Vanity publishing. It even sounds a bit sleazy, doesn’t it? Paying a “publisher” to print and distribute your work has always had negative connotations in publishing. If a legitimate firm won’t produce your book, there must be something wrong with it. Right? Either it is commercially unviable or editorially substandard. It means someone is doing it just to satisfy their vanity.
No more. Vanity publishing has had an extreme makeover.
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