Author of The Well-Presented Manuscript Interview starts at 12:13 and ends at 42:27 There are some wonderful stories that I just can’t enjoy, because the author has done such a poor job with the language. One of the reasons that I wanted to write The Well-Presented Manuscript was selfishly to increase my own enjoyment of other people’s books by helping them to not make so many errors that would keep hooking my attention as I was reading them. News “E-Book Sales Fall After New Amazon Contracts” b...
Sep 05, 2015•45 min
Editorial Director of Books and Kindle at Amazon.com Interview starts at 14:54 and ends at 39:15 On The Story of the Lost Child : I think this is going to break Elena Ferrante out as a bona fide super star in this country. And nobody knows who she is, which I love! News “Amazon e-book deal with NYC public schools postponed as blind advocates say it would leave out visually impaired students” by Lisa L. Colangelo and Ben Chapman at The Daily News - August 25, 2015 “Amazon Curtails Development of ...
Aug 29, 2015•45 min
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Six Colors Interview starts at 17:44 and ends at 42:27 I hope the E Ink readers stick around, because I do love them. But it’s going to be a niche market. It’s going to be for people who are dedicated book readers who are willing to spend at least a little bit of money for a nice, distraction-free experience. News “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace” by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld at The New York Times - August 15, 2015 “Was Portrayal o...
Aug 22, 2015•45 min
I am experimenting with iPhone apps that may enable me to post episodes of the Kindle Chronicles while Darlene and I are in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands this fall. I won't bring my MacBook Air, but it looks as if the tools for mobile podcasting have greatly improved in the past few years. I found an iOS app named Opinion that has a very simple editing function for recording audio, and it can share the file to Libsyn via my Dropbox account. I am including a photo of Claire taken here at Ocea...
Aug 17, 2015•2 min
Creator of the Fiona Griffiths crime series Interview starts at 12:44 and ends at 37:59 Whoever heard of a retailer offering 70 percent royalty? It’s never happened before. How’s that not a good thing for authors? So I just think the Authors United group are bananas, quite frankly. And I think there is increasingly a swell of opinion among authors—not amongst yet among the more traditional structures—but there is a sort of side movement thinking, “Hang on. Amazon actually offers us quite a lot. ...
Aug 15, 2015•45 min
Creator of Dispatches from the Frat House Interview starts at 14:23 and ends at 40:20 I’d like to write the kind of book that I’d like to read. And immediately there’s that thing in your head that goes, “Why? There are a gazillion books out there. Why would you want to write a book? This little wife in the midwest surrounded by kids—who’s going to want to read that?” And the other part of my brain goes, “Well why not ? Why shouldn't I write that? If nobody reads it, I wrote it, I’m happy. So why...
Aug 08, 2015•45 min
Editor of TeleRead Interview starts at 11:26 and ends at 37:11 Even if all the publishers remove DRM from every eBook they sell tomorrow, I would be the vast majority of Amazon Kindle customers would go right on being Amazon Kindle customers, just because it’s so easy to tap the button and start reading the book. News “Amazon Kindle Voyage to be Released November 2015” by Michael Kozlowski at Good E-Reader - July 7, 2015 “Amazon Top Pick for Contract to Create N.Y.C. Schools’ e-Book Marketplace”...
Jul 31, 2015•45 min
Author of Let’s Get Digital and Let’s Get Visible Interview starts at 16:56 and ends at 44:39 If you look at stores like Barnes and Noble and Kobo and Apple, I don’t think they’ve even caught up to where the Kindle Store was in 2011 or 2012 yet, let alone approaching where it is now in 2015. I still think they haven’t grasped the core part of Amazon’s philosophy, which is that they will always seek to recommend that they think you are most likely to purchase—not the one that a company has paid a...
Jul 24, 2015•45 min
Founder and President of IndieReader.com Interview starts at 11:46 and ends at 41:02 It’s very hard to tell a self-published book these days from one that is traditionally published. News David Pogue’s must-see Alexa demonstration and review (video) at Yahoo Tech - July 16, 2015 Tech Tip Amazon page on Cloud Collections Interview with Amy Edelman “Self-publishers flourish as writers pay the tab” by Motoko Rich at The New York Times - January 27, 2009 “Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Li...
Jul 18, 2015•45 min
My wife the amazing art quilter and Kindle enthusiast Interview starts at 14:08 and ends at 39:48 A friend of mine said, “How many times have you dropped a Paperwhite in the tub?” And she’s right. I never have. And so at that point I decided that I was just going to hold the Kindle, and if it fell into the tub I would deal with it. News “Half of Net Proceeds Is the Fair Royalty Rate for E-Books” at the Authors Guild - July 9, 2015 “Bread and Roses” by Hugh Howey at The Wayfinder - January 24, 20...
Jul 11, 2015•45 min
Project Manager and TKC Listener Interview starts at 13:52 and ends at 39:03 I have the books that I read, and I read the books that I have. The ones that I collect now are meaningful to me. News “Apple Loses Appeal, E-book Decision is Affirmed” by Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly - June 30, 2015 US Court of Appeals affirmation of verdict against Apple (PDF)- June 30, 2015 Frequently Asked Questions about eBooks lawsuit Amazon press release on Alexa Skills Kit - June 25, 2015 Amazon Opens Al...
Jul 02, 2015•45 min
Amazon’s Senior Vice President - Kindle Interview starts at 10:17 and ends at 42:35 My guess is that if you asked all the publishers with whom we’ve reached agreement in the last year they would tell you that they had to compromise some things they didn’t love. And we’ve had to compromise some things we didn’t necessarily choose on our own. And that’s okay. That’s business. News Amazon Echo aka Alex a - now available to anyone for $179.99 “Amazon echo owners now able to write reviews on Amazon” ...
Jun 25, 2015•45 min
Author of Barrio Imbroglio Interview starts at 14:24 and ends at 38:38 There’s an incentive for Amazon on two levels to say, “Hey, let’s try to bring in readers.” And one way of bringing in readers is you get more writers. And so they’re definitely reaching out to Spanish-language authors in America and in Latin Americas to get their work up on Kindle. News “Amazon updates Kindle Paperwhite with a high res screen in India” (video) at Digit - June 18, 2015 Neuer Kindle Paperwhite 3 Test ( video i...
Jun 20, 2015•45 min
Author of The Underwriting Interview starts at 19:39 and ends at 39:40 I was a first-time novelist; I didn’t have a name at all. So it was a great way to find my audience before I tried to find an agent and a publisher. I think that is such a daunting process for writers, to find someone to pay attention and beyond paying attention to understand their work and let them maintain their vision. News “Bezos’s obsession translates to this honor for Amazon” by Andria Cheng at MarketWatch - June 4, 201...
Jun 12, 2015•45 min
Professor at Le Moyne College Interview starts at 17:02 and ends at 44:15 If it keeps your attention, and you’re enjoying it, and it’s making you think —that’s the book for you. News “Trade Sales Fell in February” by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - June 5, 2014 BEA panel on Publishing in China “China and Publishing: The Best of Times, or the Worst of Times?” by Rachel Aydt at Publishing Perspectives - May 29, 2015 “Shelf 2.0: Neil Strandberg to Join Shelf Awareness” - June 4, 2015 “Neil Stran...
Jun 06, 2015•45 min
Intro Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Paperback, 1993) by Scott McCloud Interviews at Denver Comic Con (Times show when each interview begins) Andy Mithun of the Stubby Shillelaghs (6:25) Critical Fail Kickstarter campaign Clayton Kauffman, 12, of Brush, Colorado (12:20) Dale Roberts of Dale Roberts Comics (13:56) Megan Sullivan, director of communications, Aurora Rise (17:23) “Alex Sullivan, one of 12 Aurora victims, died on 27th birthday” by Ethan Sacks at The Daily News - July 21, 20...
May 30, 2015•45 min
Authors of The Straight-A Conspiracy Interview starts at 13:10 and ends at 41:52 What the brain science says is that if you’ve learned one thing, you can learn anything. If your brain has a preference right now, it’s just because you’ve been working on that thing a little more. Your brain is not coming into the world ready to be more Englishy than mathy. News “What’s The Best Ebook Reader?” at Lifehacker - April 16, 2015 “Five Best Ebook Readers” by Alan Henry at Lifehacker - April 19, 2015 “Mos...
May 23, 2015•45 min
Author of Shadow Work: The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs That Fill Your Day Interview starts at 21:13 and ends at 39:30 Becoming aware of shadow work enables us to prune away some of the clutter in our lives. Take, for example, surveys—the inundation of our time with surveys, requests for surveys. It seems you can’t buy anything or go anywhere or receive any service without having a followup survey usually emailed to you to ask you, “How did we do?” And I would just encourage the citizens to throw those a...
May 16, 2015•45 min
INSERT PHOTO OF CUTE DOG HERE I have tweaked my workflow for uploading new episodes of the show and want to make sure it works before I begin creating TKC 354 this week. If you see this and could let me know how it looks and sounds on your devices, I would appreciate hearing from you at PodChronicles AT gmail DOT com. Here is a link to Amazon.com (feel free to buy something with it!)...
May 14, 2015•1 min
Director of the Isaacson School for New Media, Colorado Mountain College Presentation starts at 5:32 and ends at 43:55 In the 1930s, Walter Benjamin wrote, “The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet but the one who cannot take a photograph.” I mean could this guy see far ahead, or […]
May 08, 2015•45 min
Author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now Interview starts at 13:37 and ends at 36:56 I remember a long time ago when Timothy Leary saw one of my first books, Cyberia or something, an early book about cyberculture, and he took it and he was moving his finger along the lines, and going “a line, and […]
May 02, 2015•45 min
Founder of Write Our World Interview starts at 19:15 and ends at 39:47 The necessity of writing a book requires that they talk to the elders in their communities or other people who can help them, so it’s really a wonderful language-building, literacy activity. News “Four of the big five have new deals with Amazon […]
Apr 25, 2015•45 min
Links NMX New Media Expo in Las Vegas Tom Webster of Edison Research Monthly podcast listening statistics from Edison Research – February 15, 2015 Power of Moms podcast Mark Ramsey’s Media Unplugged podcast Libsyn Rocks! Interview with Robert Martin (begins at 3:39, ends at 20:00) Isaacson School of New Media at Colorado Mountain College Article about “the uncanny […]
Apr 17, 2015•45 min
Director of Content at Wattpad Interview starts at 17:50 and ends at 37:37 I think that Wattpad’s a great place for people to be able to tell their own experience and their own story. We’re seeing really interesting, diverse stories being added to Wattpad from around the world. News Oyster “Oyster Expands Its ‘Netflix For Books Service […]
Apr 10, 2015•45 min
Co-authors of Transcendence Interview starts at 8:31 and ends at 38:29 As an historical upward swing, people can view all this as ways of increasing our ability to share information and ideas and therefore get smarter. I’m not sure we’re taking advantage of that yet, but maybe we will. –R. U. Sirius News “Amazon adds new […]
Apr 03, 2015•45 min
Software Quality Engineer in Santa Clara, California Interview starts at 13:06 and ends at 39:32 So if you have Evernote installed on your Fire, then it will be one of the options. You can put it directly into your notebook. It’s not quite as slick as I’d like, but it’s better than copy and paste. […]
Mar 27, 2015•45 min
Founder and CEO of Pebble Technology Corp. Interview starts at 7:54 and ends at 19:50 What we found is that as long as you’re open, and the watch is an open platform, people will hack on it, people will build. So there’s actually a Windows Phone for Pebble, there’s a Blackberry app. I’ll have to […]
Mar 21, 2015•45 min
Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research Interview starts at 17:05 and ends at 40:13 I think the problem with the written word is that it is so easy to generate and—no disrespect to the best writers out there—but at least poorly constructed sentences are very easy to generate. It means that this is a […]
Mar 13, 2015•45 min
Editorial Director, Amazon.com Interview starts at 17:17 and ends at 38:50 Dead Wake: Well this is Erik Larson, and if Erik Larson told me somebody had tied their shoes in an interesting way, I think I would read the book. News “Amazon may soon launch a wireless service” (video) – Nicholas Thompson, editor of NewYorker.com, […]
Mar 07, 2015•45 min
Editor-in-Chief of TeleRead Interview starts at 17:22 and ends at 39:20 If large-screen smartphones were going to replace the tablet, I would assume that I would start seeing people working on their big phones, and I still don’t see it. News “Cory Doctorow Rejoins EFF to Eradicate DRM Everywhere” – Electronic Frontier Foundation release – […]
Feb 28, 2015•45 min
