Naomi Reiter

Book publishing in 2010: A text novelist's digital chutzpah

At the recent Digital Innovators' Summit in Berlin, Cybermedia's Marco Koeder from Tokyo gave us the bird's eye view of mobile trends in Japan. Globally, there's no denying the uptick in smartphone (more than half the world's population owns a mobile phone, says Koeder) and tablet use. 

Text me

According to Koeder, mobile devices are used by Japanese consumers to make payments, as identification and as platforms to write. I don't just mean to write a tweet, send an email or post to a blog—I mean, using mobile devices to write entire novels. 

Text novels are "characterized by shorter sentences, the use of word contractions and symbols and moticons (such as those used in text messaging) and less detail (meaning that the reader must infer more or read between the lines more). Many of these works of fiction are actually written on cellphones as text messages that are sent to a website," according to Textnovel.com.

I had never heard of such a thing, but apparently it's huge in Japan, with text novels topping best sellers lists and Japanese publishers (a.k.a. platform owners) monetizing this user-generated content. It turns out that text novels also have a presence in the US and, coincidentally, I was asked to review a new book by award-winning text novelist Susan Wingate. (Ms. Wingate won a finalist award in the 2009 Textnovel Writing Contest.) 

B&N Nook: What Goes Around Comes Around?

I've been reading up on e-readers lately and it appears that one of the most interesting features of Barnes & Noble's Nook is its "LendMe" technology, as described on the company website:

Share favorite eBooks with your friends or family. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time. Just choose the eBook you want to share and send it to your friend's nook – or to any PC or Mac OS® or any iPhone™ or iPod touch® with the free Barnes & Noble eReader software downloaded on it. *BlackBerry® & other smartphones will be coming in early 2010.

The tagline for LendMe is "What goes around comes around." So, if I buy a B&N Nook ($259, back-ordered until February 2010), and pay around $10 to read a copy of The Time Traveler's Wife, then "lend" my copy to my friend who bought a Nook ($259), B&N makes $528—instead of $538, had my friend bought her own copy of The Time Traveler's Wife to read on her Nook. (However, B&N probably only has to pay one licensing fee for the copy of The Time Traveler's Wife that I bought, rather than two fees had each of us bought a copy.) 

Further, B&N has tapped into a tried-and-true psychological phenomenon that has worked for everyone from the airport beggars of the 70s to the neo-hippy kids of the 90s: Give a person something—no matter how small—and that person will feel compelled to pay you back in some way. For example, my friend and I are in B&N and see that if we both buy a Nook, we can share books, so one of us gets free books, or we both get them for half the price if we work together. We each buy a Nook and B&N has already made $518 off of the two of us, and will continue to make money off of us, either incrementally as we purchase one book to share, or in upgrades as we become accustomed to using our devices and will need the latest models.

Of course, if I share the content to my friend's PC, Mac, iPhone or iPhone Touch, my friend will have had to register with B&N and download its e-reader software, with the added bonus that any content I share will act as a personalized advertisement for B&N's Nook. Apparently, what goes around does come around—right back to B&N.

Acting Coach to Stars Shares all in Book

For most non-actors, it's hard to imagine how the process works—to pretend to be someone else. What is it to be an actor? Does it require continuing education? What celebrities were surprise stars? Can a book teach you how to act? Check back next week for an exclusive interview with acting coach to the stars D.W. Brown.

RHNYC Book Title Chosen After Reunion Carnage

Wow. I watched The Real Housewives of NYC reunion last night. The word "bloodbath" comes to mind. Our girl Alex McCord handled herself with grace in the face of, sorry, unbridled bitchiness and gets to close that chapter with the opening of a new one--she and husband Simon van Kempen have agreed on a title for their new parenting book, published by Sterling & Ross Publishers.

“Little Kids, Big City: Tales from a Real House in New York City” will launch in January 2010 and shares McCord and van Kempen’s real life parenting adventures while raising two young boys in New York.   

“I can’t tell you how delighted we are to be bringing you their wonderful stories of urban parenting to the market place,” says Sterling & Ross publisher Drew Nederpelt of the duo.

While I thoroughly enjoy being horrified by all the nation's Housewives, after having interviewed McCord about her urban parenting philosophy, I have to admit I like these two. They're pretty real in an over-the-top, winter-in-the-Caribbean sort of way. If you, too, are a fan, McCord and van Kempen will be at Book Expo America Saturday, May 30th, from 2:30–3pm at NYC's Jacob Javits Center to sign book covers and kiss babies.

In other news, is anyone else completely terrified of / fascinated by The Real Housewives of New Jersey? Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

What WOULD Google Do?

Jeff Jarvis tells us how a variety of industries should apply the Google model to adapt to the changing economy. His new book, What Would Google Do?, explains it all (and he insists he was done with the copy before he allowed himself to be wooed by the fabled Google cafeteria). I was invited to this business event via Facebook and I realize that FB and I have reached a point of no return.

Photo by Michael Surtees