Monthly Archives: November 2010
Ebook postings now resuming!
| November 28, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Ebooks and Ereaders |
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Apologies for the hiatus on the ebook posts, y’all; they ran into a roadblock when Seattle got smacked upside the head with winter early last week, and then the holidays kicked in, so!
As of tomorrow I will resume the rest of the ebook posts, though! If you missed the previous ones, here are their links:
- What kind of e-reader should you get? (Intro)
- Part 1: Ebook formats
- Part 2: Ebook pricing
- Part 3: Touchscreen vs. e-ink
Come back tomorrow for Part 4: Do you want a dedicated reading device?
How to read ebooks, Part 3: Touchscreen vs. e-ink
| November 22, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Ebooks and Ereaders |
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Here’s part 3 of my little series of posts about ebooks and ereaders! As I’ve mentioned on previous posts, this series of posts about how to read ebooks and what ereader you might want to get focuses on what reading devices I’ve had personal experience with: the nook and the iPhone.
The nook:
E-ink is pretty damned good overall for emulating the look of an actual printed page.
The big complaint I had initially about an e-ink device is the weird way that it refreshes the screen when you turn a page. I found this extremely distracting at first–but on the other hand, I quickly got over it, particularly after a couple of firmware updates for the nook made that screen refresh faster. I don’t notice it at all now.
A somewhat bigger complaint might be the lack of relative contrast though, depending on what reading conditions you want to read under. I find my nook to be sub-optimal for reading in less than direct sunlight, such as when I’m commuting to work on the bus during the winter, and the bus lights are likely to be turned down in between stops.
Of course, with the original nook, most of the device is an e-ink screen with a touchscreen section at the bottom. This is a bit confusing and I still occasionally catch myself trying to touch the e-ink section of the screen directly to tap pages. Fortunately this actually works, but only sort of.
If you’re interested in a nook (the original model thereof, anyway), I’d recommend going into a Barnes and Noble to handle one first to see if you actually like the interface and the e-ink/touchscreen combo. Ditto for if you’re interested in the new Nookcolor, which is all touchscreen–though I haven’t seen one of these yet myself.
The iPhone:
I definitely go over to reading on the iPhone in low-light conditions, since the phone actually can light the screen for me; in theory I could get a light to put on my nook, but in practice I’d find that a bit too much effort and it’d be just one extra little fiddly bit to have to keep track of.
The phone’s touchscreen is ideal for my reading speed, since I can pretty much just whip right through a book by tapping. Since the screen size is in fact small, I can build up quite the tapping speed as well as I glance at little chunks of page at a time and tap right on through to the next one. On an iPad, I suspect I’d slow down somewhat since it’d be more comparable to the nook in screen size. Now, what reading experience you’ll get on the iPhone or iPad will again depend on what app you’re using. Just about all of the ones I’ve played with, though, will let you configure whether you want to turn pages by tapping or swiping.
Other readers:
It’s worth noting that 
seattlesparks
Overall though I still prefer my nook as my primary reading device, and I’ll get into why in tomorrow’s post: do you want a dedicated reading device?
How to read ebooks, Part 2: Ebook pricing
| November 21, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Ebooks and Ereaders |
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This is the post where I get a bit into the agency pricing model, how it’s affected what books you can buy where, and how much you can expect to pay for them.
How to read ebooks, Part 1: Ebook formats
| November 20, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Ebooks and Ereaders |
Depending on where you get your ebooks from, they’ll come in several different and often proprietary formats. If you’ve been an ebook reader for a while, you’ll know as well that several formats that used to be in play have fallen out of favor. It can get pretty confusing pretty fast. So this post is about what formats are currently in favor, who sells what, and what devices you can buy that’ll read ‘em.
What kind of e-reader should you get? Posts to come!
| November 20, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Ebooks and Ereaders |
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As y’all know, I’m an e-author as well as a voracious reader of ebooks. So I get asked about this semi-regularly, and just this afternoon keethrax
So I thought I’d do me a series of posts about ebooks and e-reading devices. I don’t have firsthand experience with all of them, so I’m going to focus on what e-reading experience I’ve had, and try to give as clear a picture as I can to folks. I’ll break it down roughly into the following topics:
- Ebook formats, who sells what format, and what devices can handle which formats
- Ebook pricing, whose prices are better, and how the agency pricing model has affected who sells what titles
- Touchscreen vs. e-ink and which is better to read when
- Do you want a dedicated e-reading device, or a device with many other functions as well?
- Can you read ebooks on your computer? How?
- How to check out ebooks from the library
- Some technical differences between devices, or, how much of a pain in the neck is it to get your books onto the thing you want to read them on?
- Pointers off to reviews of various devices
That should get me started and give me plenty to post about, but if anyone has any specific requests or questions they’d like to see me address, please drop a comment! I’ll be linking off to the various excellent reviews of various devices that the fine ladies at Smart Bitches Trashy Books have done, too. However, y’all please feel free to link me up with any reviews that have influenced you in favor of specific devices as well.
Ready? Next post to come: ebook formats!
Works in progress update: Mirror’s Gate
| November 15, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Mirror's Gate |
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My muse has been an aggravating and fickle creature all year. Usually I’ve been able to coax it to do something for me only after I’ve had a long enough dry spell that it starts to aggravate me, and then and only then can I start kicking the words into gear again. And even then, only if I come at it obliquely and try not to stress too much about getting something done.
Bah. My discipline has suffered sharply this year, and it’s still taking much to get it to recover.
But that said? I wrung words out of my brain tonight. Part of tonight’s work, I think, has been fueled by needing a break from editing Lament of the Dove for Carina Press–and so I’ve thrown about five hundred words at Mirror’s Gate tonight, continuing Chapter 2, and letting my heroine Yevanya follow up on the strange sighting of a man who looked very disturbingly like her dead husband. She’s come to visit her husband’s teacher and colleague Genrek, and Genrek reacts quite strongly to her news:
“Do I want to know what you were trying to accomplish?” For the first time in more days than she could remember, Yevanya felt herself grinning with honest pleasure. Genrek was a great hulk of a man, towering over her by many inches, and yet she had never found him anything but amiable in his gruff fashion. She always supposed it was not because he found her fragile and dainty; next to Genrek many things were, such as carriages, hills, and the smaller varieties of bear. No, she’d won him over for venturing what her cousin had never been able to: interest in the nature and workings of magic, for all that she had not a shred of the talent herself. Nor had it ever hurt that Genrek had been Aleksandr’s best and favorite teacher–and later, his colleague and his friend.
“Bah. If you had been here in the city these past months, you would not need to ask that question.” Genrek clapped both his great hands upon her shoulders and gazed down at her, all traces of levity fleeing his face. “You should not have come to Istra, my child. Tell me you have not brought the children?”
Her grin fading, Yevanya shook her head. “My uncle looks after them in the country. I didn’t wish to subject them to–” To my selling the house, her mind finished, even as she could not. Nor did it seem to matter, with Genrek’s worried scowl so fixed upon her. “They are safe,” she said instead. “What haunts this city, Genrek? I must know!”
The words came out more stridently than she intended, and the sorcerer’s gaze upon her sharpened. “What have you seen?”
“Purest impossibility.” To her dismay and disgust, sudden wetness blurred Yevanya’s sight. She offered no denial, no equivocation; relief that he’d so quickly divined her purpose required matching forthrightness. “A man on the streets, as my cousin and I went past in our carriage. Genrek, he…” Her voice shook. “He was so like Aleksi that he might have been his twin. Or his ghost.”
“Blood of the saints,” Genrek rasped, round-eyed. Then, before she could utter another word, he whirled and stalked away to one of the room’s innumerable shelves. From one he plucked a corked and slim-necked bottle; from another, a pair of small cups that looked as fragile as eggshells in his grasp. Returning to her, he thrust one of the cups at her. He uncorked the bottle with his teeth and spat the cork aside, heedless of where it fell. “Drink,” he commanded, pouring for her into her cup, and then into his own.
It’s going to be fun when Yevanya actually finds the man she saw. Muaha.
Written tonight: 508
Chapter 2 total: 2,877
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 6,660
Signal boosting: Call for submissions for Gay City anthology
| November 1, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Other People's Books |
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Forwarding this on behalf of Eric Andrews-Katz, mentioned below. If you think this might be your cup of tea, follow the link he provides over to information about his anthology!
Howdy,
Please find below an Open Call for submission for both Writers and Artists/comics/photographers for the new anthology, Gay City. Vol. 4 – At Second Glance. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you might think is interested and if there are any community boards that it can be posted on, that would be very much appreciated. I’ve included an on-line link for your convenience.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Eric Andrews-KatzOn line link:
http://libraryofthelivingdead.lefora.com/2010/10/26/submission-call-gay-city-vol-4-at-second-glance/At Second Glance
Open Call for Submissions: Gay City: Volume 4-At Second Glance ~Familiar stories from different views
Edited by: Eric Andrews-Katz & Vincent Kovar
Gay City’s Mission is to promote the health of gay/bisexual men and prevent HIV transmission by building community, fostering communication, and nurturing self-esteem. This year, our anthology series continues with volume 4: At Second Glance.
There are always at least two viewpoints of every story and yet, we usually only hear one side. In the tradition of WICKED, The Red Tent and The Mists of Avalon, a different perspective can provide an entirely different story than the commonly known tale; the other side of the looking glass, so to speak. You are encouraged to experiment with sexual and cultural norms, technology and historical events. Sensuality is fine, but please no erotica.
More at the link!
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