I have been going through this list of NYC tech companies (Made In NYC) and if there is one pattern there it is that these tech companies take great pride in not having a phone number to call.
I am not sure that is a good thing.
Silent SpringSilent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on September 27, 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement. .... Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT in 1972 in the United States. ..... Silent Spring has been featured in many lists of the best nonfiction books of the twentieth century. ... Most recently, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine.
There are so many options to blog. There are so few options to podcast. I know of no easy one.
Things are too silent on the web. Voice's time will come. I see an opening.
Google might have started with public domain books, and Amazon might have taken a step with its Kindle and the $9.99 per downloaded book, but what would really change the game is if you could pay a monthly flat fee and read as many books as you might want online. That would include books old and new. Charging 10 bucks a month for that would make sense. The Netflix business model needs to be replicated for books, or maybe Netflix itself should want to get into the books business. They have already done it for movies, maybe they are well positioned to replicate it for books.
Kindle Or The Browser
Google wants to do over your browser what Amazon wants to do through its Kindle. My prejudice is for the browser. You should not need a different appliance to read books. Your computer should do it.
Off the Charts: By Some Reliable Measures, Recession Is Over the manufacturing sectors of China, Taiwan, South Korea and India had begun to grow by April, but that the United States did not follow suit until August. The Tech Sector Trumpets Signs of a Real Rebound for many technology companies, orders are starting to bloom like flowers after a spring rain........ Computer hardware and software are building blocks of the modern economy, as basic as iron ore and coal were to the industrial era. Together, technology products represent about half of all business spending on equipment. ...... “I th
“The true aim of everyone who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions, but to kindle minds.” - Frederick W. Robertson quotes (English Preacher b.1840)
The book industry is in the grips like the music industry used to be. Then Steve Jobs came along and said we are not a nation of crooks, it is not that people don't want to pay, they just like the idea of digital. Don't fight the technology.
Music is like movies, like books. Books and movies are like music. They are mindfood, and they beg to go digital, full-fledged.
All books ever written and to be written should go digital. That is what the technology asks for. That is the consumer wanting. But that does not have to mean money will not be made from books.
Digital is more efficient, cheaper, easier to move around. How is that bad for business? There are millions of in-copyright, but out-of-print books. Are you telling me the digital option is bad for them? Digital will bring them back to life. Digital will give them immortality.
Every book ever written has to be digitized. But I am also all about authors making money. How do you make money?
(1) Self Publish
Publish books like blogs. There are several good, free blogging platforms. And monetize. Run ads. This is not vanity publishing because if you don't get many readers, you don't make much money. Everyone can get published, but not everyone will get a mass readership. As an author I would rather get rejected by readers than by publishers. What about you? You go global without going on a book tour.
(2) Kindle/Google Publish
Find a digital publisher who will put forth digital only editions. So if the paper book had been out there for $29, the digital version will be sold for $9. But how much you make per book sold will not change. Why are you complaining? And you have a much larger potential audience. So you will likely sell more books.
(3) Monthly Subscription
What if I was made to pay $20 per month by a digital books vendor? Or what if there were a Netflix for books? You could pay per book, or for a certain price you could read as many books as you want. And then it would be the vendor's responsibility to pay the authors, give them their cuts.
(4) The Public Library Option
In-copyright books have been available for free at public libraries. There is no reason why they should not be available also digitally. Think of it as free marketing for your books. You do want buzz.
(5) Ads Inside Books
There are ads inside TV shows. Why can't there be ads inside books? You turn from page 25 to page 26, and boom, there is a full page ad that just paid for your first 25 pages of great reading material. This way digital books can be stand alone digital objects, they don't have to stay online and look like webpages.
Of the four options, I think the best one is the ad supported version. Go free, go global, go massive.
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