Birmingham, Bookstores, Digital Publishing, E-Books, On the Web, Publishing Industry News

Alabama Booksmith Sells eBooks

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I just noticed this on the Alabama BookSmith website, you can buy ebooks from them.

The interwebs are all a Twitter with the new IndieBound iPhone app, but I had not read deep enough into all the news to realize that the stores had started competing in this space too.

Though they may not have many customers via the ebooks channel yet, it’s smart that they are making it an option to site visitors and store customers. Even though they’re hands are tied by the DRM publishers and distributors have on their books, I thought that the eBooks FAQ was pretty informative for the everyday newbie.

Authors, Bookstores, Events

Patsy Riley signing at Milestone Books

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Alabama First Lady Patsy Riley will be at Milestone Books this Saturday, May 9th, 10am-12pm. She’ll be signing her new cookbook When the Doorbell Rings at the Governor’s Mansion. And if you want that book, you better go to Milestone because I can’t find it on Amazon or Indiebound.org. It seems to only be available at the Montgomery Gift Shop and select local bookstores.

On the Web, Technology

Why Twitter only allows 140 Characters

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Having been bitten by the Twitter bug, I found this article interesting. I mean, in this day of streaming HD video over wireless networks, why are text messages limited to 160 characters? The answer is so practical (that it is borderline boring) and it dates from the 1980’s.

SMS-father Friedman Hillebrand pounded out random statements, questions and thoughts on a typewriter. He kept an average character count. His team also found that the average message on the back of a postcard was under 160 characters.

Whereas Twitter used the exact same rationale as Hillebrand except they kept the first 20 characters allotted for the sender’s name.

To be honest I was hoping for something more tech inspired and exotic than the reasons given. But I can’t tell you how pleased I was that a typewriter was used in determining the optimal length of “useful” message.

Digital Publishing, E-Books, Events, Publishers, Publishing Industry News, Technology

Large-format Kindle this Wednesday?

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Amazon announced they will hold an event this Wednesday (May 6th:10 a.m.) in New York. Most are expecting the unveiling of a large-format e-reader geared towards newspaper subscriptions. Which would be a smart move for Amazon, as many newspapers aren’t happy with the Kindle and its inability to serve up newspaper styles content and ads as the industry needs. That’s a fact that has many of the major newspaper chains partnering with other e-reader device manufacturers to develop their own e-ink devices.

A trend that Amazon would no doubt like to curb with its potential to cut into it’s growing revenue stream of (on avergae) $14 a month per newspaper subscription.

Books, Publishing and Birmingham