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Windows Server 2008 All In One Desk Reference for Dummies

matt — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:07:01 +0000

I left this off yesterday’s list!
Congrats to John Mueller on the publication of the Windows Server 2008 Desk Reference All In One for Dummies!

David Boles on Amazon’s Kindle

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:41:46 +0000

David Boles has one of the more enthusiastic reviews I’ve seen so far, here.

I’m a fence sitter when it comes to ebooks, I read all day long on my work screen and I’m not sure I’m ready to sit down with another screen at night, but there’s little doubt that the future will bring more and more print to the screen and this is a laudable start.

Enter the Best Travel Writing of the Year Contest

admin — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:26:25 +0000

Think you’ve got what it takes to entertain the editors at Travelers’ Tales? Enter their Best Travel Writing contest!

The current round ends on September 1, 2007. Some winners may be published in future Travelers’ Tales books.

Link

Happy December, Happy Holidays

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:02:24 +0000

I’m blogging Camille

Here’s my excuse for not posting much over the last month!

(and I’ve wanted to post this (O’Reilly) shirt forever)

I’m approaching my second anniversary as Fresh Books and I’ve had a wonderful time. I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with a great group of authors and I’ve also benefited greatly from many generous recommendations from current and former clients. Thank you.

Thanks also to the many editors who often bring me great books. It’s appreciated.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas. May we all have a peaceful New Year.

“Shill our books!”

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 17:35:19 +0000

I have an author who’s under pressure to include _only_ the publisher’s titles in the resource section. I understand the publisher’s desire to cross promote titles, and it’s not the first time that I’ve heard a publisher say “point to our books,” but the author is understandably peeved. They not only want him to point to their books, they want him to shill books he hasn’t even seen.

Publishers, if you want an author to feature your other books, please send review copies and let the author choose what belongs and what doesn’t. You have plenty of space in the back and front matter to promote your other titles. It demeans your book if, by design, it doesn’t include other credible resources, some classic, that happen to have been published elsewhere.

O’Reilly does a great job of not only encouraging their authors to list the best available resources in their books, they even allow their authors to promote their other titles on O’Reilly blogs. In fact, I remember Tim bragging about this many years ago at the Waterside conference. I’d love to hear about other publishers who are as open.

We live in a transparent world. If an author can’t include credible resources the readers will get the picture pretty quickly. A publisher who can confidently point to its competition will gain the confidence of its customers.

The Book Standard

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 22:25:33 +0000

The Book Standard is a new site from VNU and Nielsen’s Bookscan that utilizes Bookscan data in its coverage of the book industry. For more info click the release on page one.

This is of interest as Bookscan data is hard to come by unless you have a publisher account or see the occasional leaks on Drudge. The Book Standard site will allow access to many category bestseller lists for $9.95 per month — you can review the top three titles in each category for free.

Keep in mind though that Bookscan data does not include Amazon or the retail superstores such as Sams or Costco.