Ebooks

Poking through various publishing/ebook blogs, these are the posts of interest to me recently. Some of them have multiple links to other blogs, and those are often worth reading too. The first one, especially, is worth some talk. I'm also annoyed at the growing number of self-pub authors who are releasing first drafts with intent to edit after the reviews start coming in and telling them what readers didn't like.

Dear Author: When I bought your book, I didn't sign up to be your beta reader (grumbling about major edits after release, like adding new chapters)

Carolyn Jewel: Why Ebook Formatting Matters (with screencaps!)

Guest post @ Publishing a Book is an Adventure: Amazon and Book Review Ownership (Amazon claims management rights for reviews on their site. Not quite claiming copyright, but they don't allow authors to use those quotes; authors would have to get permission from the reviewer.)

The Passive Voice: You Say Documents; I say Source Files (formatting manuscripts for ebook production; quote of another person's post + commentary by PG.)

Indie Author News: How to Avoid Bad Book Reviews (Importance of researching one's selected reviewers)

Everyone knows about Smell of Books, right? The (fake) air freshener you use after you've switched to ebooks and you need that reminder of a youth spent in a library instead of in the sunshine?

In addition to the Secondhand Bookshop fragrance by amberite, there's now newsprint-scented candles, aromatherapy for the bibliophile. But there's only 1000 of them, at $65 each, so Amazon probably won't be giving one away with their NYT-subscription Kindles.

Five features I want from an ebook reader that could be developed with reasonable ease, rather than the ridiculous "it will play movie clips & integrate with Facebook" that some publishers & hardware designers seem to think are important. (And, hey, if you're dying for ebooks with animated scenes, or want to have an ebook club connection through your reader, more power to you... it's just not what I'm looking for in ebooks.)

( Not that long, but still cut to save your readlist )

I've been considering posting ebook reviews. I've bought a number of small, cheap ebooks from Fictionwise (short stories... there's something wrong with calling a document of 5000 words a "book"), and am starting to buy more from Smashwords. I intend to leave reviews at SW, where they'll be useful for other readers and it occurred to me that I might post the in my journal. Or here in the comm.

On the one hand, I think "ebook reviews" are well within the scope of the comm. On the other, I don't want it to be flooded with book recs instead of ebook discussions. Not that I have any idea how likely that is.

I've been thinking (read: cluttering up 750words.com entries) about a template for ebook reviews, including info like "what filetypes is it available in" and "how is it formatted in a couple of those filetypes" and "is it available at more than one ebook store." I'd want to include price, title, author & publisher (which might be the author). I'd include DRM info except I don't do DRM at all; that'd be a blank line on the template for me.

Should I post ebook reviews here, yes/no? Should I only do them if they're long enough to be a full post on their own, or would it be okay to list half a dozen books with two-sentence notes? Should I only post (here, or in my journal--you get to speculate on What Ebook Reviews Should Be Like, even if you don't think they belong here) for books I read all the way through or include reviews for "got to page 20; realized this is tripe; clicked the backbutton--if you like cliched vampire fic, go ahead & try it."

Not posting a poll; I want open answers. Ebook reviews: tell me what you'd like. And then tell me what you'd like that someone who has a day job might be willing to provide. If there were a template, what details would you like included? What's *really* important for you in a book review from a stranger?