Be a story-teller on the go

Self-publishing company, Blurb, is launching a free mobile app that lets people tell and share creative stories in new ways, reports Mashable. The app will let users create shareable stories using photos, videos and audio sourced from their devices; they'll be able to rotate, crop, scale, sequence events via drag-and-drop, incorporate geotags and otherwise edit mobile story content as they see fit. Resulting stories can then be shared as digital booklets via email, Facebook or Twitter. Definitely a fun tool if you're stuck in an airport with hours of delays and plenty of content on your phone, but beyond that, I believe creating engaging stories is a fine craft that most people won't be able to master on the move.

Book takeover!

Folks, I can't resist pointing it out-- we've (Blogads) got a beautiful skin running on Wonkette.com today for One Nation Under Sex by Larry Flynt, the legendary publisher of Hustler magazine. I love the way skins effectively grab your attention! If you're interested in the book, it's available for purchase here.

Penguin's Book Country

Looking to support and develop writers of genre fiction, Penguin is launching a public beta of Book Country, a free online writing community and publishing services venture, Publisher's Weekly reports. Book Country, which has been in development for over a year, offers writers a place to upload new works and receive feedback and criticism from a community of writers and readers; a place for agents and editors to look for new talent; and eventually the venture will offer a suite of self-publishing services that will offer e-book and print publication for a fee.

So if you're an author, which do you choose: Harpercollins' Authonomy or Penguin's Book Country?

A few pros to Book Country:

• An emphasis on helping authors get valuable feedback
  
• Former literary agent and popular Twitter personality Colleen Lindsay is a Book Country community manager and a moderater on the boards
• It features a Genre Map, an interactive literary “map” of the known literary world, that uses a variety of landmark titles in various genres (say Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress for Hard Boiled Noir) to point Book Country members to literary stars as well as literary hopefuls working in the genre

A few pros to Authonomy:

• A focus on getting great books published
• A public scoreboard
• Been around longer, so better established and perhaps a larger community
  
• Clear writing tips in addition to discussion
• Lower barriers to entry as you can upload your works right away without critiquing others first
  

Anyone have any experiences with either community, that they'd like to share?

Simon & Schuster's tweetable ad generates 292 tweets!

We (Blogads) recently rolled out a “Tweet this” button for ads, allowing advertisers to recommend a Twitter update directly from an ad. Simon & Schuster was one of the first advertisers to use the tweetable Blogads, while promoting Bethenny Frankel’s new book A Place of Yes and the results have been phenomenal! Simon & Schuster's engaging suggested tweet text included the author's twitter handle, a link to the book, and a reason for viewers to care. In all, the ads generated 292 tweets and over 6,700 clicks.

This is just the latest innovation to our custom units, and it’s proving to be a big win for advertisers who are looking to spark their own Twitter trend. Get started building your own now!

Simple and creative advertising

Cool campaign for Mint Vinetu book store by Love Agency.

Great looking stories

Check out how the book Tree of Codes was made. Visual Editions worked with Die Keure in Belgium to produce the book, after they were turned down by every other printer they approached – with claims of "this book can't be made."

A cheaper Kindle

"We're working hard to make sure that anyone who wants a Kindle can afford one," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a prepared statement, reports CNN Money. The result of those efforts is a new ad-laden Kindle that will sell for $114, which is $25 less than its current ad-free counterpart. The ads will appear on the screensaver and at the bottom of the home screen. An interesting twist is that Amazon plans to mix together advertisements from launch sponsors including Buick, Olay and Visa with daily-deal style discount coupons (like their own $10 for $20 deal featured on Living Social in the past). Is the $25 difference really enough to offset the "annoyance factor" of the ads? I think it might be. There's a chance, judging by the success rate of the Living Social offer, that people will welcome them. According to The NY Times ads have been in physical books for a while, and in one 1972 study, while readers claimed to dislike the idea of advertising in books, after actual exposure their negative feelings declined while brand awareness climbed. At any rate, I'm glad Amazon stayed away from in-text ads, as those would be more disruptive and intrusive-- but if we look at how written content has been supported online, it may not far behind. Perhaps a $89 Kindle is on the way.....

From an album into a book

Christophe Gowans, a graphic designer who lives in London, imagined albums as book covers-- a pretty cool idea! His collection includes everything from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Michael Jackson as something you might find in a library or a book store. For example, check out Arcade Fire's The Suburbs pictured to the left-- looks like an old school book of the month. You can view the well-thumbed covers here.

Share your notes

Readum from Travis Alber on Vimeo.

Times are a changin! But not really-- remember the way you used to seek out a copy of the required book for your college class with the most comments and highlighting already done in it, by another (presumably smart) student? Well it's something we're all still doing-- taking notes as we digest what we read, and trying to connect with other folks' opinions. Now there's an easier (digital) way to annotate and share parts of books-- Readum integrates Google books and Facebook, allowing you to select passages and comment on them-- both within the book and on your social wall/group. Could allow for some lively banter, pre-book club meeting. Pretty cool!

Party's on Twitter!

Hey ya'll! This morning I found an amazing list of book industry folks on Twitter and thought I'd share with you-- so you can get involved in the conversation!

Sections you might be most interested in:
Book Publisher Company Accounts
Book Publisher Individual Accounts
Literary Agents Accounts

There are 355 comments under the list, so it's worth trolling through there for additional influential folks-- like my good friends @juliabaxter @mjrose @mitzpa and @liternista.

Using a tool like Twiangulate to see shared friends/followers is extremely effective as well.

Poetry: spread the word

Writer, Greg Pincus, wants to spread poetry from online to the classroom. So far he's raise $1,940 towards his $5,000 goal. If Poetry: Spread the Word is funded, over the course of the next year (roughly May, 2011 through April, 2012), he will put 100 original poems up on his blog and out into the world for free and do 40 school visits (via Skype or, if it works out, in person) at no cost to the schools. He'll also create a collection that will celebrate and document the visits and the poetry--and you could get it! What are you waiting for, check out his Kickstarter project and pledge now!

When it comes to self-publishing

Over the weekend Derek Murphy, author of Jesus Potter Harry Christ, wrote a detailed post discussing ways to promote a self-published book. He's got a plan and he's willing to share! He recommends:
1.) Getting reviews
2.) Getting your kindle page set up
3.) Advertising with Blogads to spread the word (now you know why it's a great plan:))
4.) Choosing a peak time (i.e. when do people give a darn about the topic you wrote about?)
So far, only one other author has weighed in. What would you add to the recipe for success?