Teleread

29/05/2024

My hometown of Alexandria, Virginia, comes in 53rd on the list – worse than Akron, Ohio.

The cleanliness of your environment can impact your health. Find out which U.S. cities are the dirtiest in this LawnStarter ranking.

27/05/2024

By Paul StJohn MacKintosh

A few days ago, I was in Strasbourg, designated in April 2024 the UNESCO 2024 World Book Capital City (WBCC). And that’s a fitting award, because for lovers of books and the printed word, Strasbour…

20/05/2024

James O'Shea, former L.A. Times editor, has opened his mind up about bots. I feel the same, and here I give a few reasons why.

Could a reporter bot have been me in real life in the 1970s—or Jonathan Stone, the far more dashing investigative journalist in my novel The Solomon Scandals? And who would have made a better…

05/05/2024

“I’ve recently been head down over the keyboard filling in the endnotes and other citations for my upcoming historical work, The Liberation of Strasbourg. It’s my first brush in forever with academic citation, and I’m not relishing the experience. Aren’t those citation requirements a headache? Could blockchains rescue us?” By Paul StJohn Mackintosh

I’ve recently been head down over the keyboard filling in the endnotes and other citations for my upcoming historical work, The Liberation of Strasbourg. It’s my first brush in forev…

04/05/2024

By Paul St John Mackintosh

I can hardly pass a moment at home without an audiobook or an audio podcast playing. But I haven’t invested in a new Bluetooth speaker for a long time. So the Tribit XSound Go was a welcome generat…

26/04/2024

To help people explore my Washington corruption novel, I created ScandalsBot.com with a WordPress plug-in called AI Power.

The version I’m running isn’t free but is affordable. Indie authors and small publishers might find this of interest.

Yes, my bot page reminds visitors of the negatives of AI, including hallucinations and well-worn language. Still, the ScandalsBot is factual most of the time and is wonderful for calling attention to possibilities, even if a human should verify the information.

A useful discussion provoker (on issues such as ethics in media, government, business, and law)!

I don’t speak for the ScandalsBot, and it doesn’t necessarily speak for me. That’s not what the bot is about.

The Solomon Scandals, a Washington novel by David Rothman

06/01/2023

“On January 1, 2023, copyrighted works from 1927 will enter the US public domain. 1  They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. These include Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse…

06/01/2023

Still not a bargain E Ink device, but on sale it’s reasonable enough for me and my tired eyes. 

Eager to try out the Kindle Scribe’s handwritten-note capability, I gambled $419 on the 64GB version with the deluxe pen. Loser! I was up against such nuisances as a 50MB cap on PDF files transferr…

15/12/2022

"For now, the banners are targeting local libraries. But what if the United States has a single national digital library system, as some influentials on the library scene have hoped? Censorship risks are a major reason why I myself favor two national digital library systems—one public and one academic. A single system vs. two is an issue for librarians and others to decide. But as a gungho library advocate, going back to the early 1990s, here is my current personal vision."

The public library news out of League City, Texas, is grim. By 4-3, the city council voted to ban “obscene” books and let a new board decide which ones are right for minors. It’s …

17/11/2022

“The Russians, Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova, both of St. Petersburg, operated Z-Library, which offered more than 11 million books and 84 million articles for free, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn which charged the pair with criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering.”

Z-Library bills itself as "the world's largest library" and offers e-book files in a variety of file formats, stripped of their copyright protections, and encourages users to upload and download titles.

17/11/2022

“In an era of growing distrust of the super rich, librarians and friends should be far more proactive than before. Don’t risk credibility and expect billionaires to oblige with their own organizational framework in the Gates Foundation tradition. Ideally the American Library Association and other library groups can team up with like-minded universities, think tanks, and others with the needed expertise. I reject ALA’s past contention that it lacks the bandwidth for the endowment idea. For the embryonic efforts, ALA and other groups could seek funds from different sources.”

Regardless of the Carnegie tradition, should libraries even accept major donations from the wealthy? More than a few librarians hate the very talk of an endowment and of relying on the super rich, …

17/11/2022

“Enter Vellum self-publishing software. It’s pricy—$200 normally for ebooks alone and a whopping $250 for paperback books as well–but worth it. Vellum was even worth it enough for me to buy a late-2014 Mac Mini for $225 used. MacOS (version 10.15 and up) is the only operating system Vellum works with unless you use a virtual emulation service.”

I loved Draft2Digital’s ability to create ePub books from Word files, not just distribute them to places ranging from Amazon and B&N to Apple and the Overdrive library service. D2D can gr…

18/10/2022

“Fresh off the late-summer publication of Cat Brushing, her well-reviewed book of short stories, Campbell spoke to Slate about being an 80-year-old debut author and why more angry, sexy old ladies is exactly what the publishing industry needs.”

Jane Campbell on why more angry, sexy old ladies is exactly what the publishing industry needs.

28/09/2022

“Whoever leads the I.T.U. will have power to influence the rules by which new technologies are developed around the world. While the organization is not well known, it has set key guidelines in recent years for how video streaming works and coordinates the global use of the radio frequencies that power cellphone networks.”

Member countries vote on Thursday for an American or a Russian to lead the International Telecommunication Union, which sets standards for new technologies.

28/09/2022

Progress galore, for many.  Ten-inch screen. And if you think it’s easier to remember material through handwritten notes, not just typing, this could be the ticket. Less happily, Amazon once again is offering an E Ink device without text to speech for the fully sighted. Oh, and no page-turn buttons, either, unlike the Oasis.

Introducing Kindle Scribe (16 GB), the first Kindle for reading and writing, with a 10.2” 300 ppi Paperwhite display, includes Basic Pen

28/08/2022

With schools and libraries under increasing political pressure, Kathy Zappitello, director of the Conneaut Public Library and the 2022 President of the Association of Rural and Small Libraries, is standing up by standing for public office.

29/05/2022

Skimming news reports, some optimists may think they’ll soon be able to send their existing Kobo, Apple, or Nook books to Kindles since those other brands use ePub. But DRM in many cases will…

09/05/2022

Right now, consumers, writers and small publishers aren't the only ones suffering. So are libraries.

One of the most fearsome anti-trusters was Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican president who jousted with the oil companies. We know who today’s oil companies are. Big Tech in so many cases. And Go…

30/04/2022

Are war novels too scary for kids?

My answer is: “Lots of ‘It depends.’” The biggest question would be, “How old is the child emotionally?” Some 14-year-olds can handle a bloody war novel that may not be right for the most sensitive high school seniors.

But due to all the much-televised horrors from the war in Ukraine, the general age limit may now be lower.

That’s a good thing, in some ways. Today’s children will be tomorrow’s voters. They need to understand the issues, ideally after discussing them with parents and teachers. (Continues.)

Are war novels too scary for kids? My answer is: “Lots of ‘It depends.’” The biggest question would be, “How old is the child emotionally?” Some 14-year-olds can handle a bloody war novel that may …

07/12/2021

Hemingway, Cather, Faulkner and Milne are among the writers with works newly in the public domain.

Here's a list of public domain books 2022, out next year for your reading pleasure - including greats such as Winnie the Pooh.

19/09/2021

A Kindle success story from the UK:

"Louise spent 18 months writing [her first detective novel] around getting to grips with motherhood, before starting the hunt for an agent and publisher.

"''With breath-taking naivety I sent it to 12 or 14 agents and publishers thinking that would be enough. I only later learnt JK Rowling sent Harry Potter to hundreds.

"'I did have one offer from what I would call a midsize publishing house which was exciting, but when the contract came through and I was supposed to feel elated, I just didn't.

"'I thought, 'I'm handing over an awful lot here, my intellectual property in perpetuity.

"'It just left me feeling very anti-climatic.'"

She has sold more than seven million copies of her works since swapping financial law for crime writing.

26/06/2021

Marko Markovic, a brilliant designer in Serbia, created the cover for No Taller than My Gun, my new thriller.

Marko Marković is the magician of a designer who created the striking cover of No Taller than My Gun, my new thriller. I’m not the only Marko fan. Below, reproduced with permission, is an int…

22/02/2021

Major publishers have favored well-off whites in hiring and other HR matters. Consider all the low-paying or unpaid internships, not to mention a bit of an Ivy League bias at certain houses. The industry, yes, has made some progress. But a new report from the Panorama Project suggests in effect that publishing could benefit from much more, if it wants to tap the minority market to the max....

http://teleread.org/2021/02/22/black-and-latinx-people-more-engaged-with-books-than-most-americans-are-new-report/

Major book publishers have favored well-off whites in hiring and other HR matters. But a major new report from the Panorama Project suggests in effect that publishing could benefit from much more d…

05/02/2021

Much of the loudest buzz within the book business is of Random House's plan to swallow Simon & Schuster. S&S among other advantages could enjoy more outlets for its book. But such a vision still reeks of "shuffling chairs on the Titanic." Merger or no merger, and regardless of Random House's profits, the industry as a whole is a dismal underperformer, as shown by pre-Covid numbers from the…...

http://teleread.org/2021/02/04/big-fail-for-publishers-just-92-per-household-spent-on-rec-reading-in-2019-and-even-that-may-decline-long-term/

Much of the loudest buzz within the book business is of Random House’s plan to swallow Simon & Schuster. S&S among other advantages could enjoy more outlets for its book. But such a v…