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	<title>The Electronic Author -- News and Information for Self-Publishing</title>
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	<link>http://www.wallacewang.com</link>
	<description>Site of Author Wallace Wang</description>
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		<title>Satirical Fairy Tales</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2012/01/satirical-fairy-tales/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2012/01/satirical-fairy-tales/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:28:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor and Satire]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=660</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Most fairy tales are designed to teach moral principles like being honest and treating others kindly. Yet such moral lessons don&#8217;t seem to work in the real world where corporations lay off people while recording record profits, politicians rewrite laws for their benefit, and government leaders ignore the needs of the people to fatten their own bank account when cooperating with oppressive regimes. To help people prepare for the real world, I&#8217;ve written a new e-book called &#8220;99% Fairy Tales (Children&#8217;s Stories the 1% Tell About the Rest of Us).&#8221; For a sample of the types of fairy tales you can find in this e-book, which are based on the stories from the Brothers Grimm, here&#8217;s a typical example: The Elves and the Shoemaker There once was a shoemaker who worked very hard and was very honest, but still he could not earn enough to live upon because capital gains taxes and union labor costs drove his expenses so high that he could barely afford to stay in business, let alone donate money to lobbyists who could influence the politician of his choice. After struggling for years, soon everything he had in the world was gone except for just enough [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Barnes &amp; Noble Thriving and Struggling</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/08/barnes-noble-thriving-and-struggling/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/08/barnes-noble-thriving-and-struggling/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:17:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=658</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Barnes &#038; Noble recently lost less money than analysts expected. While this may sound like a strange kind of victory, the main reason why Barnes &#038; Noble made money was through its growing Nook e-book reader and the main reason they lost money was through declining sales through their retail outlets. If it wasn&#8217;t for e-books and their Nook reader, Barnes &#038; Noble&#8217;s profits would have looked just as pitiful as Borders Bookstores. The trend is clear. E-books are not only growing in popularity but their ease of distribution makes them far more profitable than any printed book could ever be that requires shipping and storage, not to mention the cost of retail space and the limitations of retail space that&#8217;s unable to provide every available book or make it easy to find any one particular book. E-books are clearly the future and printed books in retail stores are not. Barnes &#038; Noble is surviving mostly through their links with college bookstores, but take away those stores and their regular retail outlets are suffering. E-books are the new MP3 files of the book industry. As time goes on, expect Barnes &#038; Noble to shut down their less profitable retail stores [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The &#8220;Preciousness&#8221; of Books</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/07/the-preciousness-of-books/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/07/the-preciousness-of-books/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:56:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=655</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Borders Bookstores is going out of business and people are lamenting the loss of a bookstore chain that nobody was really supporting in the first place. If all the people who claim they&#8217;ll miss Borders would have actually bought something there on a regular basis, Borders wouldn&#8217;t be going out of business. The fact that they are means not enough of their book loving supporters spent enough money to keep the bookstores open. So many people are reminiscing about the tactile feel of books and how they can&#8217;t be replaced by e-books. Keep dreaming. Books may be fun to read and hold now because that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re used to, but how precious will printed books be when they start costing hundreds of dollars for a single copy? How many people will still pine for the tactile feel of pages when they&#8217;ve never read any books except e-books since they were a child? To hear people complaining about the loss of printed books is like listening to people complain about the loss of eight-track tape cartridges or the loss of buggy whips. The fact of the matter is that printed books are too expensive to print, to slow to distribute, and [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Soap Operas Move to the Internet</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/07/soap-operas-move-to-the-internet/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/07/soap-operas-move-to-the-internet/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:05:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=653</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For decades, long-running soap operas like &#8220;All My Children&#8221; and &#8220;One Life to Live&#8221; have thrilled fans. Unfortunately, the cost of producing these shows has gotten too high so many TV networks are switching to less expensive reality-based shows that are less expensive to produce. (Notice that quality of TV programming never enters the picture?) The problem is that TV networks are simply looking to cut costs. However, these two soap operas are now going to continue producing new shows by moving to the Internet. Apparently, advertising will support the shows. Now people will be able to watch their favorite episodes at their convenience, and presumably be able to view any missed episodes at the same time. By viewing TV shows over the Internet, viewres can still see the soap operas they love and get the added convenience of being in control of when they watch the show and review previous episodes. This works at to greater convenience for the viewer while eliminating the linear middleman of the traditional TV networks. Now what does this have to do with publishing? TV networks are middlemen much like publishers. As publishers pursue sure-fire best-sellers like anything written by a celebrity, TV networks [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Digital Textbooks Coming to Korea</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/07/digital-textbooks-coming-to-korea/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/07/digital-textbooks-coming-to-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:29:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=650</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[South Korea has mandated that all schools will start relying on digital textbooks by the year 2015. At this point, there are still questions about which format digital textbooks will take and which device students will use to read these digital textbooks, but the future is clear. Printed books are on their way out. The problem is that information changes rapidly and buying, storing, and using obsolete printed textbooks is simply a waste of time and resources. In the United States, many textbook publishers follow the lead of California and Texas, two o the biggest state textbook buyers in the country. To save printing costs, other state schools purchase textbooks that Texas and California have approved. With digital textbooks, the whole textbook publishing business model disappears overnight. It will cost just as much to buy a textbook approved by Texas or California as it will to print and purchase a different textbook altogether. This will allow schools to choose the textbooks based on need and not price alone. This will also force textbook publishers to cater to more markets than just Texas and California. More importantly, textbooks are obsolete the second they&#8217;re printed, so switching to digital textbooks provides a [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Harry Potter Goes to E-Books</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/harry-potter-goes-to-e-books/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/harry-potter-goes-to-e-books/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For the longest time, J.K. Rowling&#8217;s resisted selling her Harry Potter books as e-books due to piracy concerns. Now she&#8217;s finally decided to sell e-book versions of her Harry Potter novels, and she&#8217;s going to do it through her own site to completely circumvent book stores altogether. Harry Potter books have always been a draw for bookstores to attract people, but now if customers can get Harry Potter e-books without going through a publisher or a book store, that pretty much gives future authors one less reason to rely on publishers or bookstores in the future. The future of bookstores and publishers is dead if authors can sell e-books directly to customers. While someone like J. K. Rowling has the clout to pull this off right now, what will happen if (and when) other authors can do this as well? By selling directly to customers, authors can insure their writing gets published while keeping the lion&#8217;s share of the profits at the same time. What will publishers and bookstores do? Nothing, since their whole purpose in life was to get books in front of customers. With the Internet able to reach publishers directly, bookstores and publishers are about as useful [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/harry-potter-goes-to-e-books/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Angry Birds Self Publishes a Cookbook</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/angry-birds-self-publishes-a-cookbook/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/angry-birds-self-publishes-a-cookbook/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:20:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=642</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In case you don&#8217;t have an iPhone or Android smart phone, you may be missing out on one of the most addictive video games around called Angry Birds. The basic idea is simple. You aim a slingshot using birds as ammunition, and they fly through the air and smash into structures that collapse to kill your enemies. Such a game would likely prove too simple for game consoles such as the Xbox or PlayStation, but it proved perfect for mobile phones. Angry Birds is the type of game you can play in your spare time while standing in line at the post office or waiting in a doctor&#8217;s office. Now Angry Birds has decided to self publish a cookbook of egg recipes. The rationale is simple. Through self pbublishing, Angry Birds can capture 90 percent of the sales while if they went through a traditional publisher, they would only make 10-15 percent of the sales, and that&#8217;s after the publisher sold the book to a distributor, who sells it to a bookstore. So if Angry Birds sells their cookbook for $10, they&#8217;ll get 90 percent of the profits or $9 a book. However, if Angry Birds sold their book through [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>iBooks Slowly Improves to the Second Generation</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/ibooks-slowly-improves-to-the-second-generation/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/ibooks-slowly-improves-to-the-second-generation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2011 03:39:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=639</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Amazon has run commercials showing a woman reading a Kindle in bright sunlight with no problems while a man using an iPad-like device squints and strains to read his book in the same sunlight. The message is that the Kindle makes reading as simple as looking at a printed page. That&#8217;s great, except it represents the first generation of e-books that simply mimic the static text and pictures of a printed book. The second generation of e-books will include audio and video, which the current version of the Kindle can never do. To display video, an e-=reader needs color and a screen that will likely be more difficult to read in the bright sunlight. Essentially, an e-reader needs to be more like an iPad, a fully functional computer. Apple has recently released a version of iBooks 1.3 that can read aloud and play audio or video. E-books will gradually move away from static text and pictures towards audio and video to enhance the presentation in ways that plain text and pictures can never do. As more publishers take advantage of these audio and video features of e-books, first generation e-books will start looking like the antiquated objects that they are. [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/ibooks-slowly-improves-to-the-second-generation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Tracking the E-Reader Market</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/tracking-the-e-reader-market/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/tracking-the-e-reader-market/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:46:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=635</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Amazon&#8217;s Kindle is the number one e-reader on the market today, so if you plan on self-publishing, target the Amazon Kindle format first. Surprisingly, the second most popular e-reader is Barnes &#038; Noble&#8217;s Nook followed in third place by Apple&#8217;s iBookstore that runs on their iOS devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Here&#8217;s the breakdown for royalty rates for each e-bookstore: Amazon Kindle: Authors get 70%, Amazon takes 30% Barnes &#038; Noble&#8217;s Nook: Authors get 65%, Barnes &#038; Noble gets 35% Apple&#8217;s iBookstore: Authors get 55%, Apple gets 45% These royalty rates depend entirely on the price of the e-book. With Amazon, you have to price your e-book between $2.99 and $9.99. If you price it outside thise price range, the author royalty rate plummets to 35% as an incentive to keep your e-book pricing within this range. The biggest problem with Amazon&#8217;s Kindle is that it can only display static text and graphics. As e-boks evolve, e-readers will need to play audio and video. This is the reason why both Amazon and Barnes &#038; Noble are updating their e-readers to act more like tablets. Of course, Apple&#8217;s iOS devices already offer this feature so when e-books [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/06/tracking-the-e-reader-market/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>The Three Generations of E-Books</title>
		<link>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/05/the-three-generations-of-e-books/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wallacewang.com/2011/05/the-three-generations-of-e-books/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2011 02:45:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Miscellaneous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wallacewang.com/?p=632</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Progress is almost always defined by existing products. Initially, cars were called horseless carriages and even today, the term &#8220;dashboard&#8221; comes from a board in front of a carriage rider that stopped a horse from kicking dirt back up into the face of the carriage riders. Early movies were simply filmed versions of stage plays until film makers learned to take advantage of the unique properties of film to tell stories that couldn&#8217;t be told on a stage. Now e-books are evolving from printed text to a new future all their own. The first generation of e-books are simply digital versions of printed text. Look at an Amazon Kindle e-reader and it&#8217;s easy to read in bright sunlight because it displays black text against a white background. Of course, that&#8217;s all it does, but at least it does it well. However, first-generation e-books offer the freedom from carrying bulky books around. A single Amazon Kindle can store hundreds of books, which no one could ever carry around even if they wanted to. The second generation of e-books will include audio and video. A history book might contain a speech of John F. Kennedy so you can hear the power of [...]]]></description>
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