It’s the last day of the month, the last Sunday Salon of the month and the last day of my non reviewing hiatus – and I am not ready to start reviewing yet.
However – the words are crawling around in my head to come out and there are too many pieces of paper with my thoughts on them just ready to be put into some order and get onto post… So I am pulling my socks up and getting on with business.
My first review should be up on Tuesday – I am doing my roundup of my day with the ladies on Monday, so all you guys wanting to know how I faired out – check back tomorrow.. (I’ll warn you now – it was not pretty)
Now that that is out of the way – I just want to say that book world seem to have more tittles and tattles everyday and it only gets worst every time a new one crops up…
This time last week, we were eagerly waiting on Apple’s big announce – by the end of the week, there was definately a feeling of lines being drawn for who love and who hate the Ipad…
Then to top that off – the Amazon – MacMillan debacle hit the fans and it’s not good.
Shiloh Walker has done two easy pieces HERE and HERE on this matter and the comments make for some enlightening reading.. Check out her twitter update post as well.
Kindle Vixen as well did a great round up the whole situation and looking at the whole picture – just by Apple introducing a new product it seems to be the catalyst for alot of what is happening in the book world now..
The Creative Penn gives a nice drill down of what Amazon has been up to pre-empting the release of the Ipad, as well as some other book news especially if you are in the ebook industry.
Amazon
In the last few weeks, Amazon have proactively done the following, most likely getting ready for the hype around Apple:
Publishers (and self-published authors) can now receive 70% revenue when publishing on the Kindle You can publish in multiple languages on the Kindle
You can choose to publish the book in a non-DRM format with a simple checkbox More books are being released in Kindle format every day (we finally have big name authors and new paperback releases in the Australian Kindle Store) Amazon is opening up the Kindle to developers so expect some apps for more functionality Kindle has 90% of the ebook market right now and recently announced they have sold “millions” of Kindles© The Creative Penn (Please visit the article – it does make for an interesting read)
As for the month – I enjoyed my time just reading, doing the library thing every few days, blog surfing and visiting with my old girls as often as I can.
Not all of it was sugar and spice though – while blog surfing things that I normally overlook seems to jump out at me and became totally annoying – Check out my Discussion Point – What do you bring to your reading and What's with all the Twinks. On Wednesday I am going to be talking about comments…
I had a fun month learning more about Steampunk as well – I am looking forward to the next lot of books to be release for 2010.
I learned a whole lot about reviewing, and although I have always been open minded about a whole lot of things, I think the month away has really allowed me to put alot of things into context and things I didn’t used to look at before – I am now looking at and still earning more as I go along…
The last thing I want to say about my month is that I want to give a big shout to Chris – From Stumbling over Chaos, Sassy Britt from Alternative Reads and Jude Mason (Author), for just being great sports and really supportive during some of the low points of the month for me…
Thank guys…. even Chaos and Mayhem cheered along as well…
I hope January has been more than just cold for you and you are just about ready for February… it’s of course the Valentine month…
Until next week – cheers
From The Sunday Salon site –
What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....
That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book