January 2008
18 posts
I made the Long List →
Eoin Purcell
Irish Blog Awards
Very surprised and very pleased to have been nominated and to have made the Leaked Long List for the Irish Blog Awards* in the Specialist Category!
Smile on my face today,
Eoin
*Speaking of which the process of authoritative leaks of many of the long lists has been a very clever ruse for building attention. I’m impressed.
Bookseller Column: The Irish Blook →
Eoin Purcell
I’m quite pleased with how this came out in the end.
The Irish blook
29.01.08
Blogging has been brewing up a media storm in the Irish media. Two weeks ago, well known commentator, John Waters, attacked the entire blogosphere on Newstalk, one of Ireland’s talk radio stations.
Following the lead of Andrew Keen in his book The Cult of the Amateur, John Waters said that blogs were...
Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 28/01/2008 →
Eoin Purcell
James Bridle always has interesting stuff to say and today’s point is as well made as ever. Here
When we are on the topic it would be a shame not to mention today’s excellent post about e-book pricing on The Digitalist. Here
Oh and on the blogger and books Damien Mulley has an interview with controversial blogger Twenty Major (the first Irish Blogger with a book deal if not the...
The Equivoque Principle arrives on my desk: I’m... →
Eoin Purcell
So I spilled the cash for The Friday Project’s tasty looking special edition of The Equivoque Principle and boy does it look sweet. I cobbled together a few pictures into a little video:
Sorry about the naff music, I’m still learning with these slideshows and what not!
Next time I’ll get it right!
I’ll have to hold off reading it for a bit. It is not just the huge TBR Pile:
...
Some thoughts on Mike Shatzkin’s thoughts (part... →
Eoin Purcell
Mike Shatzkin* is clever
If you doubt that, read some of this article [hat tip: Joe Wikert’s Kindleville]. There are so many great ideas there that I almost don’t know where to start.
But I have to because it is so interesting
And two do stand out as being very interesting because one is a trend that seems to be emerging in Ireland and the other is relevant to news heard just a...
Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 22/01/2008 →
Walmart hits magazine publishers with a bit of a whammy. Here
Nice post from Lessig on ideas and the future. Here
Blurb seems to be rocking the self publishing boat pretty impressively. Here
How cool are Flickr and the Library of Congress? I wish our own museums and libraries had such an approach. Here
I’m testing out how well Google Docs works for posting to Wordpress. So if this is a...
Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 19/01/2008 →
Eoin Purcell
The video is relevant but more on that below:
I don’t know how I missed this but The Editor’s Corner at The Book Depository has a wonderful interview with one of my favourite History writer: Ian Mortimer. Pick of the words (though I’d like to write more later on some of the great lines to do with keeping non-fiction relevant for 40 years):
How could I not grow to like a man who...
Off topic but great →
Eoin Purcell
Some great words from a site the provides some of the best resources out there on the web for the current US Presidential scramble, Electoral-Vote.com:
The Republican side is tomorrow and too close to call. However, if Fred Thompson comes in 4th, it’s curtains for Fred. He’ll probably drop out immediately, saying some variant of “I didn’t really want the job anyway.” It’s not sour...
FutureText Part Two - Publishers, Authors and the... →
Eoin Purcell
From Consciousness to publishers survival
Yesterday I wrote about consciousness and how the “new” consciousness we see rising is an illusion in my view. It was all kicked off by this article and so it makes sense to go back to the elements in there that I really agree with . For instance:
I foresee a time coming soon when the main edition of most books will be the download, and...
FutureText Part One - Books and a changing social... →
Eoin Purcell
Homework
Emma over at Snowblog set some homework. She asked people to read this piece by Mark Booth over at The Independent online and to discuss it. I’ve much to say on it but for today I’d like to hit on CONSCIOUSNESS. To give you a good idea of what it’s about here’s a quote:
The great new literary form that will replace the novel will, I believe, arise on the net and will...
Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 11/01/2008 →
Eoin Purcell
1Book a rival to the Espresso Book Machine [hat tip to The BA Blog] Here
Riverdeep makes CEO Barry O’Callaghan a Billionaire (who was complaining about the pay in publishing?) Here
JA Konrath offers some smart words for the writer building his web presence. Here
I promised something on The Interpretation of... →
Eoin Purcell
And here it is
I was trying to figure out how to make this discussion relevant, having already mentioned here that i would kick it off. The reason I felt I should touch on it was that way back in 2006 I had read this article in the Wall Street Journal. The bulk of the article highlights the practice of paying huge advance to debut authors. The case appearing to be that it’s a...
Q&A: Hol books in depth →
Eoin Purcell
An Interview with Hol Art Books publisher, Greg Albers
A little while ago, I spotted Hol Art Books and I was intrigued. The site has been expanded and upgraded and is even more intriguing. So intrigued I thought I’d send Greg Albers (See the bio below culled from his site here), the Publisher an e-mail with some questions by e-mail and see what came of it. The Q&A below is what...
Planning for 2008 →
Eoin Purcell
Overambitious
So I foolishly announced that I would lay out a plan for blogging in 2008 in response to Bloglily’s tag. Thinking it over it sure offers a challenge. Such a big challenge and the world being so terribly random and unpredictable* that I think I made a foolish promise. So I need to do something else. If I cannot predict the blogging year, I can at least offer some...
The books I’m waiting on in 2008* (fiction) →
Eoin Purcell
In which Eoin reveals his desperate fantasy addiction
1) So when I hear that Steph Swainston was writing two new books set in the world of the Castle I was really excited. The first one seems to have changed title from Carniss Keep to Above The Snowline but is due in late November 2008.
2) If you haven’t started reading Steven Erikson yet, start now. This is detailed, realistic...
Obama wins in Iowa →
Great speech too. Will it swing New Hamphshire. I suspect this story indicates that age might influence that decision.
Predictions, Predictions, Predictions →
Eoin Purcell
Rakes of predictions about the publishing trade this week
PersonaNonData:
First, I expect more change driven by M & A activity in 2008. Second, as more companies bound by traditional publishing models migrate online and join those already there, the application of technology in our industry will accelerate. Third, we will see a ‘squeezing’ of the value-chain (from author to...
Links of Interest (At Least to Me) 02/01/2008 →
Author beta tests a book on Amazon:
Story Here, link Here
Reporting On is Ryan Sholin’s project. I like the sound of it. Here
Scott Karp tries to lay out a route map for changing your old media firm into a new media one, interesting. Here
LibraryThing finishes adding Thomas Jeffersons library.
Blog post Here and library Here
Damn its cold Eoin