We’re intrigued by the concept of social reading and want to give online book clubs the unique experience of reading and discussing our books in real-time.
Experimenting with social reading.
the digital age has so transformed the ways in which things are made and sold that there are no iron laws.
Tipping Point author vs. Long Tail author -may the best sound bite win!
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You may realize Coraline is stop motion animation and with that comes each puppet in the film and beyond that, someone has to outfit them! Would you believe one woman knitted all of Coraline's sweaters and gloves?! Hard to imagine, yea? Take a look! More on Action-figure.com!
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My first ever copyright infringement. I am hoping it is Scribd and not me who is the law breaker in this case. I have since replaced the offensive book with a book called The Digital Economy Fact Book.
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< Leon Rooke reading at the festival
The 21st season of the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival begins with a spring afternoon of readings and song that looks back to the festival’s origins. Twenty-one years ago, the first festival brought together some of Leon Rooke’s friends to celebrate his publication of A Good Baby. Those friends were Michael Ondaatje and Jane Urquhart. And on Sunday, May 31st at 2:00 pm at the Norfolk St. United Church we are honoured to present Michael Ondaatje, Jane Urquhart, and Leon Rooke for a day of exceptional readings. In the true spirit of the Festival, the afternoon promises to be a celebration of literature—both written and spoken—its authors, and its readers. Theresa Thibodeau will add one more element of artistry to the afternoon with her awe-inspiring soprano solos. Whether you are a faithful attendee of the Festival or hearing about it for the first time, you will be among friends. Spread the word and be sure to get your tickets in advance. Look for them soon at The Bookshelf, 41 Quebec St. downtown Guelph. Tickets are $20 ($15 for students) and all monies raised will help bring emerging and established writers to the festival in September. See you May 31st!
< Michael OndaatjeMichael Ondaatje is the author of five novels, numerous books of poetry, and a memoir. The English Patient won the Governor General’s Award and the Booker Prize; Anil’s Ghost won the Governor General’s Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Médicis. He is also co-editor of Brick, a literary journal. Ondaatje is a recipient of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto.
“He possesses awesome narrative gifts: prose as beautiful and clear as rainwater, a composer’s artistry in the uncanny unfolding of his stories, a flair for suspense and, not least, characters who shake us like a death in the family.” Michael Dirda on Michael Ondaatje, Globe and Mail
< Theresa Thibodeau, soprano
Theresa Thibodeau, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, is a musician/artist/teacher with years of experience in fostering young Canadian singers. She has performed extensively across Canada, the United States and England where she sang as Soprano soloist with many leading symphony orchestras and has recorded for the CBC and BBC radio. Theresa has taught on the voice faculty of The University of Western Ontario and at The University of Guelph Fine Arts and Music Department.
The Bookshelf announces a night of new writing from Biblioasis authors! Tuesday, June 9th @ 7pm in the eBar. Cynthia Flood will read from her new story collection, The English Stories; Terry Griggs will read from her new novel, Thought You Were Dead, and Kari Grimstad will read from Hans Eichner’s new novel.
All welcome, a free event.
Also, on Friday, June 26 @ 7pm in the eBar, The Bookshelf and Anansi Press present
Commonwealth Writers' Award winner Lisa Moore, who will read from her new novel, February. All welcome, a free event.
The Great Wooden Trio
is more than live music and more than spoken word; it is a unique combination of song, story, and music. GWT's material ranges from original compositions to re-worked classics threaded through myths, legends, ballads, peppered with tales of enlightenment and personal experience, with a healthy dose of embellishment. The Great Wooden Trio has had a wonderful winter and is quite excited about festival season starting soon. To catch them at an event near you check out www.myspace.com/storytellerbradwoods
or www.greatwoodentrio.blogspot.com
The Guelph Poetry SLAM has a new venue—the Guelph Googenheim! This wicked art gallery is located at 129 Woolwich, near Gordon Taylor Music. Monthly SLAMs are held on the 3rd Saturday of each month. The next SLAM is Saturday May 23rd, and it will feature Toronto-based poet White Noise Machine. There are some new additions to our SLAM, including an open mic, two rounds of competition, and a World Music dance party after the SLAM. Poet sign-up: 8-8:30. Open mic 8:30. World Music and dancing: 11:00 pm.
Royal City Rag with Jan Hall features discussion and interviews on arts and culture in Guelph. Tune in every Wednesday from 6:00-7:00, on CFRU 93.3! -
www.royalcityrag.ca
Stephen Henighan will be reading from his short-story collection, A Grave in the Air (Thistledown) and his recent essay collection, A Report on the Afterlife of Culture (Biblioasis) in B.C. in May:
-Saturday, May 9 - Sunday, May 10, 2009 Pacific Festival of the Book, Victoria Arts Connection, #110-2750 Quadra St., Victoria, B.C.
-Monday, May 11, 2009. 7:30 p.m. at Oakridge Library, 191-650 West 41st St., Vancouver
-Tuesday, May 12, 2009. 7:30 p.m. at Central Library, 350 West Georgia St., Victoria, B.C.
Wordbird Press announces the publication of Cedar, Wellington's eco magazine that encourages you to live original. cedarmagazine.com
Recent book release: North of the 15th, Volume I of a history of Nassagaweya township, Halton County.
Coming soon: Shoebox Memories, family histories of Halton County. Also look for our new blog, "The 100 Mile Housewife," humourous hints to help us live sustainably. More info at wordbirdpress.ca.
PO Box 154, Rockwood, ON N0B 2K0
519-856-2386
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Elizabeth May is
an environmentalist, writer, activist and lawyer. She is the author of
seven books and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Order
of Canada medal. Since her 2006 election as leader of the Green Party
of Canada, she has led the party to an unprecedented level of support
among Canadians. May and her daughter, Victoria Cate, divide their time
between Ottawa and New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
Losing Confidence
Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy
Format: Trade Paperback, 280 pages
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 978-0-7710-5760-1
A ringing manifesto for change from Canada’s Green Party leader and Activist.
We
Canadians are waking up from our long political slumber to realize that
there will not be change unless we insist upon it. We have a
presidential-style prime minister without the checks and balances of
either the US or the Canadian systems. Attack ads run constantly,
backbenchers and cabinet ministers alike are muzzled, committees are
deadlocked, and civility has disappeared from the House of Commons. In Losing Confidence,
Elizabeth May outlines these and other problems of our political
system, and offers inspiring solutions to the dilemmas we face.
“We no longer behead people in Canada, but Stephen Harper’s coup d’état cannot
be allowed to stand, not least because of the precedent. Any future
government can now slip the leash of democracy in the same way. This is
how constitutions fail.” - Ronald Wright
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Certainly one of my big realizations during this conference was how quickly things change in the digital domain. Something that seemed revolutionary and bleeding edge 6 months ago sounds stale or naive today. For instance Sara Lloyd of Manifesto 2.0 fame gave a presentation based on that article and it come across a little bit as resting on your laurels, so the insights from that article had come and gone already.
There were a number of instances like this which prompted Tim Spalding of LibraryThing to say over lunch that he wishes there were a level 2 or some kind of flag that indicated the level of the panel/presentation. I concur.
Tim O'Reilly:
"the best way to predict the future is to invent it" Alan Kay
Tim O'Reilly had a lot of reasons to be excited and at least one of the reasons was the financial collapse. According to Tim difficult times breeds creative solutions, and history bears this out.
Ironically Tim had technical difficulties when starting his presentation which maybe can be used as the metaphor for our times. We are having technical difficulties! But Tim takes these technical difficulties in stride and continues to experiment wildly out in the digital space. In fact Tim is so optimistic that he thinks by 2011 ebooks will be 50% of O'Reilly revenue! That is not a drop in the bucket.
Here are the top reasons that Tim is excited about what is happening:
Participation Drives Revenue
* Books from Rough Cuts doubles the sales for finished book in Safari
* Collaborate!
Mobile reading is taking off
* iPhone App outsold print -but print book still the category bestseller
* it is additive - margin is same
* Doubled price to 9.99 and sales dropped by 4x -w went back to lower price
* Googles Algorithmic pricing is exciting (not really sure what this meant but sounded cool!)
Challenging Notions of Free:
‘MAN, I WANT A COPY OF THIS RESEARCH from "Economics of Free" panel at Tools of Change #toc’ @Doctorow on twitter
A poorly named panel that was really more about piracy and DRM. Both Random House and O'Reilly are experimenting with free content to see if sales are affected when you give away the same book. Mac Slocum from O'Reilly summed it up by saying that piracy is a 'zero sum game'. The short coming of the study was the amount of data and particpants. More research required! However, a rough cuts version of the study is going to be available and not only Cory Doctorow wants it.
Article in the Guardian on Piracy
Lexcycle: Lessons Learned
Presenter: Neelan Choksi COO of lexcycle
"if ebook world had a TigerBeat equivalent: This month's issue would have Neelan Choksi on the cover (and on fold out poster)." @KatMeyer twitter
After introducing himself and the Lexcycle team as a bunch of java geeks Neelan began his presentation by saying that when we look back at ebooks we will see 2008 as the inflection point. Why?
Indicator of mainstream: the holy grail - the Oprah effect: Stanza downloads went through the roof when Oprah mentioned ebooks.
Lexcycle conducted a survey to discover the primary usage of the Stanza reader and found the following:
* In bed 31%
* Commuting on bus/train 29%
* In waiting areas 13% (*parenting note: read to your kid to help prevent them from seeing the candy aisle)
* At home 12%
* At work 5%
* At a bar or cafe 5%
* On an airplane 5%
* 2 write-ins mentioned In the bathroom
Since the launch of the Fictionwise store on Stanza they have found the average selling price of a title is 10.25.
Lessons learned:
* Its all about the people who are reading
* Quality matters: you get noticed when you're the top dog
* Every reader is unique give them lots of options to cutsmize their reading
* every device is unique things that work for one device may not work on another device
* listen to the user they are happy to tell you what you are doing worng
* give your readers a voice
* too much friction in purchase registration - every time you remove friction from the purchase experience sales go up
Publisher Lessons
* calls to action need to be clear and contextual
* KISS
* Hold your technology providers (conversion houses) responsible
* Keep experimenting
* Have a budget for marketing e-books
* Support EPUB
* Support DRM-free
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Mac Slocum, Brian O'Leary
Findings
Not binary: Piracy is not Good or Bad
Measures must evolve: data based on print sales
Book industry does not appear to parallel other media
P2P threat may be overstated
(*I saw this article today on the guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/feb/09/kindle-ipod-books-piracy)
Sample Matrix: 20 variables and many permutations
Random House: An initial look at sales impact
Mac Slocum: "It's a zero sum game"
If you are concerned about piracy make sure you pay attn. to where it's happening (rapidshare vs torrents)
Avg. results in small sample were 'up'
range of possible outcomes
It looks a little bit like retail sales - the seeds peaking and dropping off.
Surprises in research
number and range of under the radar free exp available for analysis
strong interest among trade pubs
some strongly positive correlations
low volume of p2p incidence
lag time on p2p seeding
Next steps:
Random house:
Three useful cautions:
! Rough Cuts research paper coming soon
brian.oleary@magellanmediapartners.com
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