Comments on: Cover to Cover #312B: Listener Comments

By: Tony Dyer

Tony Dyer — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:01:44 +0000

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.

By: John Dodds

John Dodds — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:13:23 +0000

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

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:18:47 +0000

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.

By: Blaine Binkerd

Blaine Binkerd — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:14:32 +0000

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.