Tenebris

Top-selling business books of 2004

USA Today published a list of the top-selling business books of 2004.

Christmas Eve, 2004

Merry Christmas. The stockings are well-hung.

URL of the day: LiteraryHistory.com, and, courtesy of its search engine, The John Crowe Ransom page from the Academy of American Poets. "Piazza Piece" is a favorite of mine.

Piazza Piece

—I am a gentleman in a dustcoat trying
To make you hear. Your ears are soft and small
And listen to an old man not at all,
They want the young men's whispering and sighing.
But see the roses on your trellis dying
And hear the spectral singing of the moon;
For I must have my lovely lady soon,
I am a gentleman in a dustcoat trying.

  —I am a lady young in beauty waiting
Until my truelove comes, and then we kiss.
But what gray man among the vines is this
Whose words are dry and faint as in a dream?
Back from my trellis, Sir, before I scream!
I am a lady young in beauty waiting.

John Crowe Ransom

Unique gifts for booklovers

Lulu storefronts of the day for Thursday, December 16, 2004: Unique gift ideas--books you won't find anywhere else. In the interest of coming up with a little something for everyone, here are a few unique gift ideas for the booklover in your life, all fruits of the Lulu marketplace for independently published books (& such):

           

Cooking with a Serial Killer: Recipes From Dorothea Puente   by Shane Bugbee     DORTHEA PUENTE has been accused of a lot of things... being a bad cook isn't one of them.

           

Hunting Decoys 2005 by Tom Matus

           

Vagabond Globetrotting 3: The Electronic Traveler in the New Millennium       by M. L. Endicott     The definitive how-to book for world travel.

           

Female Domination by Elise Sutton         Elise Sutton examines the prevalent male desire to be dominated by a woman.

           

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect       by Roger Williams     Caroline finds no meaning in this life of purposeless ease, and forgets her emptiness only in moments of violent and profane exhibitionism.

           

Hardball Times Baseball Annual by Hardball Times     A complete review of the 2004 baseball season, as seen through the eyes of an online baseball magazine called The Hardball Times.

           

Almost a Year with Stereolabrat       by Stereolabrat     The  rantings of the LiveJournal phenom Stereolabrat. .

           

toycamera calendar by toycamera.com     A collection of twenty-four toycamera photographs,  favorites from toycamera.com in the last year.

The big news from Google: an ocean of books

Google's big announcement about working with some of the world's largest libraries to scan their entire collections (Google page) has received plenty of attention (NYT piece) today, as well as a growing body of commentary far more erudite than anything I could come up with. But the two pieces that caught my attention this afternoon were John Battelle's entry in Search blog and the short piece in Publishers Lunch. Both note that Google is in a position to offer out of print texts--according to published accounts, Google estimates that 90% of the scanned books will be out of print material--in print on demand editions with the click of a button on your search results. It is, of course, a most provocative idea. Battelle suggests that he is aware of a company in a position to provide such a service. A company that is not Lulu? What does he know that I don't? Anyone?

Google's  strategy at this point appears to be the "acquisition" of an infinite amount of virtual real estate for advertising space--what with the print program, gmail, and all the other content advertising initiatives. Their current revenue model supports this, but their ambition and vision suggest broader goals. They appear for example, with Froogle, to be competing with Amazon.com. I have seen various suggestions as to Google's possible future revenue strategies--subscription-based access, commissions on sales-- but nothing convincing. They think far enough in the future to be genuinely enigmatic, which is an enviable position.

Baseball Blog Book: Redbird Nation

Lulu storefront of the day: Redbird Nation, 248 pages of the ups and downs of the last two St. Louis Cardinals seasons by Brian Gunn, the author of the blog called Redbird Nation.

Obviously this was a book idea inspired by the brilliant Hardball Times Baseball Annual, but the general concept of turning a blog into a book is one that I continue to hope will take off. A lot of people --not me, mind you-- spend an enormous amount of time writing for their blogs and much of that writing is as worth preserving as letters might be, or journal writing, or other casual forms.

Even if it's only an author preserving the intellectual labors of his youth for his grandchildren, there may well be a demand for paper copies of work published on the web. To that end, software developer Fabrice Gadaud developed LJBook, an application that turns LiveJournal blogs into reasonably well-typeset books.

The Self-Publishing Conversation

As you may have noticed, I have (somewhat crudely for the time being) added a link to sign-up for the newly created Google Self-Publishing Group. In creating the group, I want to do two things:

1) Create a discussion environment and hub for the topics that come up in this blog and some of the other excellent publishing and epublishing blogs out there.

2) Begin to build a search-optimized pool of resources for independent publishers larger than any compiled by my meager abilities.

In the second respect, the effort is already paying off. Author and musician C.D. Moulton posted a couple of great web resources I had never run across:

• A list of resources for promoting your book online from the site Word Thunder.
• BOWIndex, an ambitious "portal for e-books, containing both a search directory for ebooks, print on demand books and digital books, plus a book and author news and announcement service." This is another site by the talented fellow who publishes Shadowdark, an epublishing blog.

Slashdot reviews "Pocket and the Pendant"

Yesterday, Slashdot  posted a review (on the front page, no less) of Mark Jeffrey's novel, The Pocket and the Pendant, published through Lulu. Good for Mark! His novel is also bundled this month with another fantasy series on Amazon.com, called His Dark Materials. Bundling your book with another (presumably more popular) book is a marketing service Amazon offers for a fee. It strikes me as a great idea. You can read more about the Amazon marketing program here.

Crossing an ocean

Lulu storefront of the day for Thursday, December 9, 2005: Crossing An Ocean Under Power, by Ken Williams

                   

Crossing an Ocean Under Power        Crossing an Ocean Under Power follows a retired software entrepreneur and his computer game designer wife, as they cross the Atlantic on their 62’ trawler. Although sailors have been crossing oceans for hundreds of years, the era of couples cruising the world in small powerboats is just beginning.

As the book begins, Mr. Williams frankly admits to serious doubts about his boating skills. Mr. Williams chronicles his journey across the Atlantic, as well as his personal journey from “coastal cruiser” to “ocean crosser”. Along the way, we learn with him. Sans Souci, his boat, made the trip as part of the historic first Atlantic Power Boat rally (18 small power boats, averaging only 50 feet long, owned and captained mostly by retired couples.) Best described as a “Dummy’s Guide to Crossing Oceans”, Mr. Williams’ honest, and entertaining, style will keep you turning pages as you take this important step in readying yourself for your own long-distance cruising.

Madame Raven Breddelwyn

Lulu storefront of the day for Monday, December 6, 2004: The erotic historical tales of Raven Breddelwyn.

The Practical Manager's Guide to Open Source

Lulu storefront of the day for Sunday, December 5, 2004: Marie Winslow's Practical Manager's Guide to Open Source.

Scotland in photos

Lulu storefront of the day for Saturday, December 4, 2004: The photography of Luke Bosomworth, which includes a lovely calendar of Scotland.

Everything you ever wanted to know about sax

Lulu storefront of the day for Friday, December 3, 2004: Aaron Santee's Saxophone Store.

Today in Alternate History

Today I ran across the weblog of Robbie Taylor, dean of the "Alternate History Academy." It doesn't quite rank yet as a storefront of the day because he's just begin publishing a serialized novel on Lulu, but it looks very promising. I'm looking forward to more.

Gods & Monsters

Lulu storefront of the day for Thursday, December 2, 2004: Gods & Monsters, "a fantasy game of high adventure and magic. Journey with a band of intrepid adventurers deep into uncharted territory. Solve intricate puzzles, fight strange creatures, and wield arcane power in a fantastic story of your design." See also, the official Gods & Monsters site.

Aikido Terminology

Lulu storefront of the day for Wednesday, December 1, 2004: Aikido Terminology

                   

	Aikido Terminology        An Essential Reference Tool In Both English and Japanese     by Michael Taylor
More martial arts titles on Lulu...