Category Archives: E-books

Unpublished Plath Sonnet Now Available Online

A previously unpublished poem by Sylvia Plath has made its way online. The sonnet, called “Ennui,” was discovered by Anna Journey, a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, while she was researching in the Plath archives at Indiana University. It was published by Blackbird, an online journal of literature and the arts from VCU and New Virginia Review.

The poem was apparently written during 1955, Plath’s senior year at Smith College, while she was studying F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Notes she jotted in her copy of the book end up as themes in “Ennui.”

“She was observing; her notes were creative, metaphorical reactions,” Journey said, according to The Guardian. “She was riffing off of Fitzgerald’s passages.” The poem includes two original typed versions and handwritten notes.

“Poets don’t just come out of an overwhelming emotional experience,” said Gregory Donovan, a VCU English professor, according to The Guardian. “They come out of study and hard work. That’s what made it possible to write such amazing poems later in life.”

read original article here

Posted in Authors, E-books, Poetry |

Major player in American writing makes all 27 titles available in e-book format.

Warren Adler, who has all his books available in traditional print, is a pioneering author in electronic publishing as well. All twenty-seven of Mr. Adler’s books can now be purchased and downloaded online.

DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, launched their online bookstore (www.dppstore.com) just ten months ago.

Opening their store with just seven titles, the DPPstore’s virtual shelves are now lined with five hundred titles by new authors and the best eBooks from independent publishers, creating an eclectic array of literary offerings.

The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com) continues to grow and this week is pleased to announce it has added 27 more eBooks, all by critically acclaimed author Warren Adler.

As a novelist, Mr. Adler’s themes deal primarily with intimate human relationships — the mysterious nature of love and attraction, the fragile relationships between husbands and wives and parents and children, the corrupting power of money, the aging process and how families cling together when challenged by the outside world. His books have been cited by readers and reviewers for their insight and wisdom in presenting and deciphering the complexities of contemporary life.
His novels have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Ten of his novels have been sold or optioned to the movies, and two have become major motion pictures, the classic The War of the Roses and Random Hearts.

Warren Adler is arguably the only author in the world, published by major publishing houses, who has re-acquired the English language and foreign rights to his entire backlist of more than 25 novels. Stonehouse Press (Adler’s own publishing company) has made the English language versions available in all eBook formats and Print-on-Demand formats in trade and hardcover.

full press release here

Posted in Articles, Authors, Book Release, Booksellers, E-books, Publishers, Self-publishing, Websites |

U. of Wisconsin libraries team with Google

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has reached an agreement with Google to digitize the collections of the University libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library and make them both freely accessible online.

Individuals will be able to use Google Book Search to get full-text documents from both collections. Materials in the collections cover everything from government documents to information on Wisconsin cheddar cheese. Examples of the collections can be seen at http://www.writingnews.org/www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/libraryGoogle.html

Read the full article here.

Posted in E-books, Reading, Resources, Websites |

This week's online writing resource: OnlineComics.net

Whether you’re a reader or writer of graphic novels, OnlineComics.net is the place to start. Once you add your favorite webcomics to your free account, the website will tell you when they update, and even recommend similar comics to you.

If you’re a webcomic author/illustrator looking to get started or trying to get exposure, this is a good place to start. You can add your comic to their extensive list (broadband recommended for this link), or look in their forums for projects that are looking for an author/illustrator.

Link

Posted in E-books, Graphic novels, Reading, Resources, Websites |

Amazon reveals ebook reader

Engadget reports:

Oh, come now, like you thought the world’s largest book retailer (online) — which just started peddling digital video under the Unbox brand — wasn’t going to go head to head with Sony’s Reader on an e-book device and service? Say hello to the Amazon Kindle, their take on a book reader device that comes equipped with a 6-inch 800 x 600 display (which we can only assume is e-ink), 256MB internal storage, smallish two-thumb keyboard cursor bar, scroll wheel, standard mini USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, SD slot, and get this: EV-DO data! (Don’t believe us? The spec sheet is after the break. Why do you think it was in the FCC?)

Looks a little big and clunky to me. And surely they could have done better than 256mb of storage? True, ebooks don’t take up as much space as mp3s, but it’s several times as big as any iPod. The real question, though, is will it work with ebooks that weren’t bought from Amazon?

Read the report here (with pics!). (Via futurismic)

Posted in E-books, Reading, Technology |

Harper Lee tells Oprah she's no fan of e-books

Reclusive octogenarian Harper Lee, author of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-wining novel To Kill a Mockingbird, has re-appeared in print for the first time after a long hiatus, writing a letter in the July issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

Lee reveals that she’s no fan of modern technology, or e-books for that matter, writing: “Now, 75 years later, in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.” She asks: “Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up—some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.”

Read the Publisher’s Weekly article here.

Posted in Authors, E-books |

Springer launches new ebook offering

The Springer eBook Collection debuted June 24 with more than 10,000 e-books that included electronic versions of textbooks, reference works, atlases and monographs. And to accelerate the adoption of e-books by libraries and other insitutions, Springer is offering its e-books without any digital rights management software.

Read the Publisher’s Weekly article here.

Posted in E-books, Publishers, Websites |

Where to find DRM-free science-fiction

David Dean has posted a list of good, free/low-cost, DRM-free science-fiction on the internet.

I’m a science fiction reader these days, and it has been a long time since I have read a real fiction book – I much prefer the convenience of always having a book with me that ebooks provide. So I have decided to let you know five excellent places to find DRM-free reading material, from no-cost to low-cost.

Link (via Futurismic & BoingBoing)

Posted in E-books, Reading, Science fiction/fantasy, Websites |

Flurb – a new free webzine

Flurb is a new webzine of free short stories edited by Rudy Rucker, featuring pieces by authors such as John Shirley, Terry Bisson and Cory Doctorow, among others.

And then I had a revelation that, if all I want is a freakin’ Web publication of a piece, there’s no reason to go through the same painful “submission” (how apt a word) process that is standard for ink on paper zines. Why not do it myself?

You might think of this as the Cyberpunk issue, or maybe the California issue. I have further theme ideas for future issues. We’ll see what emerges.

Link (via BoingBoing)

Posted in E-books, Science fiction/fantasy, Websites |

Recent PW Daily updates

There is a new literary prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, that will be awarding $10,000 each year to a novel with themes that promote peaceful solutions to conflict.

Five major booksellers and distributors of Europe sent an open letter to American and British publishers, “voicing their concern over the attempt by U.K. houses to get exclusive rights to the European market.”

Many e-book software companies and device manufacturers are supporting new standards that would make it easier for both e-book customers and publishers.

Posted in Awards, Booksellers, E-books |