Kindle Fire and the Nook of Doom

Yesterday, Jeff Bezos and company announced--to much fanfare--their latest line of Kindle products, which included the highly-anticipated Kindle Fire tablet.  But the real stars of the show were the prices.  Here's a breakdown:

Kindle Fire $199.99

Kindle (With Special Offers) $79

Kindle Touch (With Special Offers) $99

Kindle Touch 3G $149

 According to Bezos, he's rather comfortable with slim profit margins and is banking on the sales of apps, music, movies, and books to offset those loses.  A smart move, for sure.  Amazon must've been taking detailed notes as they watched other tablet makers fail miserably.  (I also, for some reason, can picture Bezos barking out laughter and rubbing his fingers together manically.)

Will these "non-premium prices" make that much of a difference?  Probably.  At $199, the Fire is a borderline impulse buy, and it will certainly spur a lot of interest from non-techies and families looking to buy their children tablets without having to drop Apple Bucks for an iPad.  But I don't think the Fire will compete much against the iPad, though.  The iPad is still a superior device, and people have come to rely on and fully embrace Apple's technology.  Amazon has a rather spotty track record with hardware--1st gen Kindle, anyone?  I do, however, believe the Fire will put a big dent in iPod sales, which has traditionally been Apple's gateway drug.  If you're gonna drop $229 for an iPod, why not spend a little less for a Fire?

Of course, Amazon's main beef is not with Apple but with Barnes & Noble.  Why go for the fast gazelle when you've got a perfectly good wounded elk close by?  Fortunately for B&N--and I say this with loads of sarcasm--Amazon has been kicking B&N's ass for many years now.  It's nothing new for B&N to play the wounded-animal role to the Amazonian Huntress.

Still, I think there's a lot of overreacting going on here, especially for devices that haven't even shipped yet.  Everything looks great in a presentation, but how will the devices perform in the real world?  Not to mention, once the nostalgia of The New dies down--and with technology that number's measured in nanoseconds--the Fire is just another tablet in an already crowded space.  For that matter, the Kindle Touch is just another keeping-up-with-the-Joneses device, too, since it's essentially no different than what B&N, Sony and Kobo already offer.  Sure, it's less expensive, but that brings me to my final point: vendor lock-in.

If you're not familiar with the term, here's a bit on  it from Wikipedia.  Bottom line, if you've already purchased all these apps, movies, books, etc. that are tied to a specific device, it might not matter how low Amazon prices their Kindles. In part, vendor lock-in is why the Apple iPad dominates the tablet market.  Not because it's the best device out there or the least expensive, but because people have already invested heavily in apps, movies, and music for their iPhones and iPod Touches.  You buy a dozen or so movies, a handful of iBooks, and some of them fancy shoot-'em-up games for your iPhone, you pretty much just justified the price difference between a Fire and an iPad.

There does seem to be  growing movement for demand in vendor neutral services like Netflix and Pandora and so forth, and I imagine that trend isn't going to change, but for now, most people are tethered to their existing devices, and introducing more devices with their own propriety content just doesn't seem to be a game changer.

Either way, it's gonna be interesting  to watch all this play out.

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Horrorfind Weekend 13 Update

Horrorfind Weekend 13 is fast approaching, now only a few weeks away (Sept 2-4).  And once again, I'll be making an appearance ... I know, I know, you've waited all year to see me.  Well, I can't wait to see all of you, too.

Last year, the convention drew a crowd of around 5000.  This year, I'm  expecting a much larger crowd, especially since both hotels sold out so fast.

As I've mentioned before, I'll be doing two readings at the convention:  Saturday, September 3 (10:00am – 10:30am) and again on Sunday, September 4 (11:00am – 11:30am).  Both readings will be held outside, underneath the carport at the rear of the Wyndham Gettysburg Hotel.

I'll be reading from my forthcoming children's novel EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHRIEKS.  Here's a brief descriptions of the book:

For fourteen-year-old Eve Hallows, life can be summed up in one word—horrible.  She has the most horrible friends.  She lives in a horrible old castle.  Even her family is a bunch of horrible monsters.

However, in the monster-inhabited world of Gravesville—a world where messages are sent through Ouija boards, jack-o’-lanterns get facials to suit their moods, and the worst thing Eve has to deal with are those annoying zombie tourists who overrun her favorite graveyard during the Halloween season—horrible means wonderful.  And everything for Eve is perfectly horrible.

But her life is about to go head over heels when a mysterious group known as The Source starts terrorizing Gravesville.  Now she must move to the human world—where everything is opposite ... and for Eve, that's absolutely adorable!

Besides the readings, I'll also be giving away a limited number of special prizes--though you'll have to wait until the convention to find out what they are.  I will say the story focuses heavily on Halloween, and since this is Horrorfind Weekend, expect the prizes to be, well, spooky.

Hope to see you there! 

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Thoughts on Books

Last time I visited Washington, D.C., I went to the National Archives to see all those famous historical documents--Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and so on-- and I remember thinking how marvelous those documents are, not only because of their meaning, but because of their beauty. There's something about that old parchment and the hand-crafted, painstaking alignment of the text that exudes a majestic quality.

Farther along, I found the more modern-day documents, those that were typed on boring stationary and faxed over secure data lines.  And though many of these documents were equally important, the packaging made the words insignificant and flat-out dull.

When I think of the future of the book form, I'm reminded of my trip to the National Archives.

Is there really anything wrong with eBooks? No, not inherently. Hell, I own an ereader, and I even use it on occasion. But ereaders are dull, lifeless creatures, the equivalent to secure data transmissions, and they make what I'm reading seem insignificant, perhaps because the words tend to take a backseat to the technology itself (especially in the case of devices like the iPad--not ereaders per say, but they usually gets lumped into the same category).

As writers, we need every outlet possible to get our work to our readers, and new technologies allow us to distribute to the masses at a very compelling price: Free.

But it saddens me just the same.  Hopefully the day never comes when I'm visiting the National Archives to see that rare artifact called the book.

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Borders

The demise of Borders has been thoroughly picked apart by pretty much every person with an interest in the written word.  Whatever circumstances led to their downfall--be it poor management, ebooks, Amazon--the result is the same ... It's over, Johnny.

What I find particularly sad is that ever since Border started its liquidation sale, my local store has never been busier.  Even at a mere 10% discount, the place was packed and the lines snaked around the aisles.  I've never seen anything like it.  Like Black Friday meets Groundhog Day.

And for 10%?  You get the same (or better) discount with a membership, people.  Makes me wonder if Borders should've had a store-closing sale a few years ago.  I'd made a comment about this to one of the employees last time I visited, and he told me that the place has been like something out of a zombie apocalypse novel ever since the sales began.  I hope the employees are at least getting compensated for all their extra work.

Today, the Borders near me started selling off their furniture.  I called up the store to inquire about some bookshelves and chairs, and the store manager who answered eagerly passed me off to the liquidator, which made me laugh.  I could tell by the liquidator's tone that the manager has been passing anything and everything off to him.  I'm sure I'd do the same.

Borders was one of my family's favorite places to visit.  We each had our aisles of interest (mine being the horror section--a rarity in bookstores these days) and after we'd pick up a few books, we'd gather in the cafe and read our purchases and sip our drinks.  It was a nice way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I'll miss it deeply.

I did manage to procure a few pieces of furniture, so at least I'll have some memories of my favorite bookstore.  I guess I'm sentimental that way.

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Eve Hallows and the Book of Shrieks - Cover Design by Shaun Lindow

It goes without saying that if you've decided to go the self-pubbed route, you're job description goes far beyond writer.  Some of that extra work is tiresome, and just about all of it distracts you from the main task of actually writing.  That being said, it's not without some benefits--namely the ability to have complete control over your cover design.

Thanks to the ridiculous talent of artist Shaun Lindow, I couldn't be happier with the results of the cover for my forthcoming children's novel EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHRIEKS, so I thought I'd talk a little about the process of bringing the cover from concept to finished product.

Shaun and I tossed around some ideas early in the process.  Basically, it was him explaining what works and me saying what I would like to see and the two of us meeting on common ground.  Shortly after those brief discussions, Shaun sent me four concept sketches.

 Already it was a hard decision.  I liked them all!  I felt the top right image truly captured Eve's moody attitude, but I also wanted the whole family on the cover.  I told Shaun my concerns and he came back with something even better: How about a candid shot of the family getting ready for a photo?  I loved the idea, and he sketched it out.

This was the one I decided to go with (above), so Shaun put together a more detailed sketch to make sure the colors and layout were exactly how I wanted them (below).

From there, I was like a nervous soon-to-be father pacing around my writing room.  I've seen Shaun's work, so I trusted him completely, but there's always that worry: He didn't read the entire book.  He doesn't understand the characters like I do ... and so on.

But then he came back with this, and all those little worries slipped away:

And here's the final design with spine and back cover.

I can't praise Shaun Lindow enough for his artistic talent and his ability to take my scatterbrained ideas and turn them into a beautiful cover.  If you're shopping around for an artist, then you should add him to your short list of professionals who charge reasonable fees for quality work.

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Proceed With Caution

Instead of offering a list of rules you must not break, or a list of rules you must follow, in this month's Hellnotes article, I decided to give a list of rules that are sometimes okay if used sort of properly. Yup, just call me Switzerland.

You can check it out here: Proceed With Caution.

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Pottermore Revealed

J.K. Rowling today unveiled Pottermore.com, an interactive site pertaining to all things about The Boy Who Lived.  The site will open to a million fans on Harry Potter's birthday, July 31, and then go live for the rest of us muggles in October.

The bigger news, in my opinion, is that Rowling plans to finally release the series in ebook format (also due out in October); however, the ebooks will only be available through Pottermore.com.

What does this mean exactly?  For one, Rowling has just kicked both her publishers and every distributor to the curb, which is all too reminiscent of when Stephen King ventured off on his own and released THE PLANT via his website back in 2000.  However, King did not have the benefit of e-readers, tablets, and smart phones.  But let's put all that aside and focus on the effects this will have on the industry.

So far, sales of children's ebooks have been lackluster at best.  Besides Rick Roirdan and a few others, we haven't seen much action in this area.  And I suspect most of the people buying these titles are adults.

The most common speculation as to why children are not embracing ebooks is because the devices are still too expensive, but I don't buy into that theory.  Most children have an iPod, Nintendo DS, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.  Some kids have all of these devices plus an iPad.  And every one of these devices costs more than a Kindle or nook.   I believe the more reasonable answer is that kids just don't read enough to justify a dedicated ereader.  Maybe the Potter-effect will change that, maybe not.  Either way, it's certainly going to bring a lot of attention to the children's ebook market, and that's a good thing.

Overall, I'd say Rowling has just destroyed at least three of the publishing world's Horcruxes.  She also might've just changed the whole landscape for self-published writers and the children's ebook market.

And she did it with this little announcement...  

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