Conversations with the creators of the best in science fiction and fantasy. If you love SF literature, are an author or aspire to become one, you'll enjoy this podcast.
Middle-school teachers bringing you tips and techniques fresh from the real-world classroom environment. Discussions on education, ideas for parents and teachers
Show Notes: Voicemail Time!
Voicemail: Indiana Jim on moving publishers and editors to places besides New York City; David from Manhasset on needing an economic way to test drive a Kindle, or having it do text to speech; a slippery slope on providing free and inexpensive materials driving the publishers out of business?; Indiana Jim on changes in publishing.
Listener Review: Web Genii brings us a review of Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs, third in the Mercy Thompson series.
Audible: Try out Audible’s SciFi and Fantasy offerings, including a free audiobook!
The Library: Mind the Gap by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon; Avenging Fury by John Farris; The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams; Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley; Lord of Lies by David Zindell; In Secret Service by Mitch Silver.
Submitting Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know! “Cover to Cover” has it’s own call-in line, 206-350-READ! That’s 206-350-7323, or just email Michael with a comment you’ve recorded yourself!
Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s new open air social club now occupies the top floor of the Third Life Books castle! Both entertaining locations can be found at these coordinates: http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.
FarPoint Forums: Head on over to the FarPoint Forums and join in the discussions on Dragon Page topics, and for most of your favorite FPM shows!
Promo: Variant Frequencies
Just a word on the whole e-book thing. I don’t have a Kindle. It’s just a little pricey as a standalone item right now. I’ve been reading e-books on a Palm device (initially) and a Windows mobile device now. For the most part, my source for these books has been Baen Publishing. You may be interested in checking into the publisher, Eric Flint’s, articles on e-book publishing, DRM and publishing as a whole. Baen offers books at extremely reasonable prices.
Another source that I use occasionally is Fictionwise.com. Their prices are a bit steeper than Baen, but not out of reach.
E-books are about the only thing I read any more. I can carry a large number of books at any given time. I can read in low-light situations, and I’ve got something to do when I’m standing in line at the store or anywhere else. I’ve pretty much stopped buying dead tree books unless I can’t get the book in electronic format.
As far as combining e-book and audio, as was mentioned on the show, Microsoft’s e-book reader will convert text to speech. I’ve only tried it for a short time. The voice is obviously computer-generated, so it’s not as pleasing as a real audio book. And now my other secret comes out: I listen to an inordinate amount of audio books. I’ve got quite a large collection of mostly science fiction/fantasy that I listen to while at work.
After hearing you guys talk about the iPod touch I used my tax check to get the 16GB model. At first I was dissapointed with the web based apps. I then found jailbreak and ‘fixed’ the iPod and found text readers, Frotz text adventure engine, and even a VOIP phone. Thanks for the reccomendation.
On the ebooks issue. A friend of mine commented that ebooks will mainlly appeal to scifi readers. I write crime fiction, and my first novel, Bone Machines, has just come out in print from http://www.brightsparkpublishing.co.uk. However, I can’t imagine it ever making it to an ebook, because it isn’t scifi. On the basis that it’s scifi readers who lead the field in internet publishing.
Still, even without the benefit of e-publishing, a biker in Texas read and enjoyed my novel, even although it is set in Glasgow, Scotland. So fiction can cross the globe, even without the internet.
I’d be interesting in a debate on the issue on Dragonpage.
Keep up the good work, guys and girls.
Johnd
I enjoy the c2c podcast and a number of your other podcasts including The Secrets, ISBW, The Survival Guide…. and like Mur I am a Wannabe author. Podcasts are great because regardless of time zone or place I can choose to listen to them to suit my needs. The social networking sites are good in that they are mostly also asynchronous but Second Life is real Time limited, so fans not in a convenient time zone cannot participate.
That’s why readers read and the rest watch television.
It’s also why tivo type boxes are so popular.
Asynchronous v. synchronous and who controls is a key factor in the ultimate success of a product and its penetration of even a niche market.