not bad tip money

Shelf Awareness caught my attention with this Newsweek interview of David Sedaris by mentioning that on his last book tour, he put out a tip jar (not every night, mind you) and made $4,000. did he claim it on his taxes?

the Kindle reaction at BEA

an object of buzz at BEA was the much publicized Kindle.  the device is not exactly the new, popular kid in school with booksellers envisioning reduced sales and an increase of Amazon’s power in the marketplace.

Sarah over at Smart Bitches devoted a posting to the Kindle and ebooks in general and brings up a very important point:  ebooks are not significantly cheaper to the consumer, especially compared to the price of a mass market pb, and this is a major hurdle.  the way i see it, it’s a similar phenomena to what’s happening in the music industry:  downloading a cd from itunes is not that much cheaper than going to the record store.  and for someone who is lazy like myself, downloading an album and then burning it to a cd for my car is much more time intensive, less enjoyable than a trip to the record store, and results in a far less attractive product than a cd with the glossy cover art, tracts, and lyrics.  if ebooks are going to hit mainstream, changes on many levels will need to be made.

Anita Blake, not for the faint-of-heart

the Penny Arcade takes a stab at the continued popularity of Laurel K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series.