Here is the link.

And here is the audio [mp3].

Here is the link.

And here is the audio [mp3].

We launched

Iambik’s a bit different though: we’re partnering with publishers to make audio versions of in-copyright books, we’re much more picky about sound quality, and … we want your cold hard cash!

You can visit the site here, read more about it on our blog here, and listen to samples here, here, here and here.

Oh and here are some beautiful covers (there are even more on iambik.com):

Thanks to the many people who helped make this happen.

Access to Public Sector Information : Law, Technology and Policy: Volume 1 , , Sydney University Press

On the back of the growing capacity of networked digital information technologies to process and visualise large amounts of information in a timely, efficient and user-driven manner we have seen an increasing demand for better access to and re-use of public sector information (PSI). The story is not a new one. Share knowledge and together we can do great things; limit access and we reduce the potential for opportunity.

The two volumes of this book seek to explain and analyse this global shift in the way we manage public sector information. In doing so they collect and present papers, reports and submissions on the topic by the leading authors and institutions from across the world. These in turn provide people tasked with mapping out and implementing information policy with reference material and practical guidance.

A free online version should be accessible shortly.

LibriVox is a hope, an experiment, and a question: can the net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the public domain to life through podcasting?

LibriVox is an open source audio-literary attempt to harness the power of the many to record and disseminate, in podcast form, books from the public domain. It works like this: a book is chosen, then *you*, the volunteers, read and record one or more chapters. We liberate the audio files through this webblog/podcast every week (?).

Five years later, it seems as if the answer is: yes. [more...]

Here are my ten thoughts:

1.
Marketing isn’t convincing people to buy your stuff.
Marketing is making sure that the people who want your stuff will find it.

2.
Social media is not a tool.
It’s a strategy.

3.
If you are using social media for business or marketing you have to know:
a. who you want to connect with
b. why you want to connect with them …
…then you have to figure out what you can do to give them value.

4.
Don’t blog to be known.
Blog to be knowable.

5.
Figure out who the influencers are.
And who they are influenced by.
Interact with them.

6.
Don’t be a social media douchebag.

7.
Blogging effectively requires discipline.

8.
When other people talk about you, Google hears them.
And Google smiles upon those who are talked about.

9.
Spread the love.
Link out, retweet, show appreciation.

10.
Social media works when you give value to others, so:
a. publish good content
b. show appreciation for others
c. point to great stuff on the web
d. interact with your readers
c. care about your readers

Follow us on Twitter: @bookcampto
Hashtag: #bcto2010
Web site: http://bookcampto.pbworks.com

BOOKCAMPTORONTO: TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

ROOM ONE:

9:30 Launching a Digital Business from Inside a Print Business
* Sulemaan Ahmed (Director of Digital Marketing, Harlequin)
* Jenny Bullough (Manager, Digital Content Harlequin)

10:30 Reading is Everywhere
* Michael Serbinis (CEO, Kobo)

11:30 Distribution for Everyone
* Allen Lau (CEO, Wattpad)

2:00 When CanLit Becomes GlobalLit
* Sarah MacLachlan (Publisher, Anansi)
* Michael Tamblyn (EVP Content, Sales & Merchandising, Kobo)

3:00 Data-geek Extravaganza! Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bibliographic Metadata.
* Julia Horel-O’Brien (General Manager, LitDistCo)
* Meghan MacDonald (Project Coordinator, BookNet Canada).

4:00 Building Communities
* Tan Light (Coordinator, Digital Sales and Marketing, Random House)
* Meg Mathur (Online Merchandising Manager, Indigo)

ROOM TWO:

9:30 The (Shifting) Role of Design in Publishing
* Ingrid Paulson (Ingrid Paulson Design)

10:30 But Is It Art?
* Kelsey Blackwell (StudioBlackwell)

11:30 Obscure Objects of Desire
* Neil Stewart (Anstey Book Binding)
* Aurelie Collings (Folded&Gathered Books)

2:00 From Letterpress to XHTML
* Scott Boms (Principal, Wishingline)
* Joe Clark (journalist, author, and web accessibility consultant)

3:00 The Book of MPub
* John Maxwell (et al.), SFU/Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing

4:00 Venturing Beyond the Text
* Ian Barker (CEO, Symtext) & TBA

ROOM THREE:

9:30 eBooks in Education and Academia — the glacial revolution
* John Dupuis (York University)
* Evan Leibovitch (York University)

10:30 Writing about Writing
* Stuart Woods (Editor, Quill & Quire)
* Amy Logan-Holmes (Executive Director, OpenBook Toronto)
* Conan Tobias (Taddle Creek)

11:30 Where are you at? Geolocating Lit
* Ashleigh Gardener, (Digital Manager, Dundurn Press)

2:00 Leaping off the Page: Transmedia Storytelling
* Mark Leslie Lefebvre (Titles Bookstore)
* Jill Golick (consultant, screenwriter, creative producer)

3:00 Unleashing Your Inner Reader
* Marichka Melnyk (CBC Radio, CanadaReads)

4:00 The sBook
* Bob Logan, Greg Van Alstyne, Peter Jones and friends -sLab at OCAD

ROOM FOUR:

9:30 Literate Video Games
* Tim Maly (Founder, Capybara Games) & TBA

10:30 What Does the Writer Want?
* Nichole McGill (author)

11:30 A Bucket of Cold Water – a Digital Reality Check
* Denise Bukowski (The Bukowski Agency)

2:00 Writers from the sidelines: challenges and successes
* Khadija I

3:00 The Onset of Exhaustion: Publishing in 2010
* Alana Wilcox (Editor-in-Chief, Coach House Books)

4:00 Going Alone: Educating the Market
* K Sawyer Paul (Gredunza Press)
* Eisee Sylvester (Gredunza Press)

ROOM FIVE: HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS

9:30 Digital Do-Dads: Digital Reading Devices
* Mark Pavlidis & TBA

10:30 Making Books into Audio
* Miette (miettecast.com)

11:30 Video and Books
* Ian Daffern (IDFACTORY)

2:00 Print-on-Demand Workshop
* Rob Clements, Lightning Source Inc.

3:00 Pimping Your Book
* Ian Paul Marshall (Book Marketing & Toronto Writers Mastermind)

I’ve been meaning to update the theme on this blog for some time, along with sprucing up some of the aboutish stuff too (still in process).

I played around a bit with some other minimalist WordPress themes, but this one – Manifest, by Jim Barraud – seemed to most closely match what I want these days out of a web page. Namely, to get the hell out of the way, and leave the text to do what it’s supposed to do.

I’ll likely be doing some little tweaks and fiddles over the next while. Though the beauty of this Theme is its constraints: there’s not much fiddling to be done, without a bit more than my rudimentary html skills.

In any case I like the look.

Now I just need to write a bit more.

The question you might ask yourself is: who is creating all that text? Well, if you are reading this, there’s a good chance that you are.

You might ask another question: who’s going to edit all that text? And if you are reading this, we’re hoping you’ll help with some of it.

Connecting Writers, Readers, and Word-lovers

That’s why we built Bite-Size Edits: so that people who write text can connect with people who can improve it. Usually that implies a vice versa.

Last month, we announced that we’d split Bite-Size Edits out of Book Oven, but it was a very barebones affair: text in, editing, text out. But while editing is the reason for the existence of Bite-Size Edits, the real power lies in connecting writers, readers, editors and people who love words.

We’ve just released a whole host of new social features: contacts, random editing, privacy controls on texts, and much more. We’ve built in some gamish stuff too – everything you do in Bite-Size Edits will win you points, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Try It, It’s Fun!

So, we invite you to come take a look at the new Bite-Size Edits, to add some text for editing, and even better, to do some editing yourself.

Bite-Size Edits is a work-in-progress, and we’d love to get your feedback, suggestions, as well as your complaints.

You can tell us what you think by:

* sending us an email at: contact AT bitesizeedits DOT com

* @’ing us on Twitter at: @bookoven or @bitesizeedits

* submitting bug reports or user feedback at: http://feedback.bitesizeedits.com

« Le numérique ne tuera pas l’édition traditionnelle, mais il va la changer », dit Hugh McGuire. Cet ancien ingénieur en mécanique âgé de 35 ans lançait en 2007 un autre collectif, Earideas, qui recense les balados (podcasts) de l’heure sur le Web. Et voilà qu’il vient de créer The Book Oven, un nouveau type de maison d’édition. « The Book Oven offrira une plateforme d’autoédition, qui permettra à un auteur de collaborer avec des rédacteurs, des réviseurs, des recherchistes, des photographes, des maquettistes », dit Hugh McGuire. [more...]