| The bestselling author of the Alchemist, Paulo Coelho does not have a problem with book piracy. Instead he condones it and participates in the practice of uploading his own titles to the Pirate Bay. Recently Paulo became aware of a teenager in India selling pirates copies of his books. The young man would download e-books from the internet in PDF format and take it to his local photocopying store to have it printed. Afterwards he would sell them for $5 to $10 each to tourists. Most people would be pissed, including the publisher. Paulo was diplomatic commenting “I know that people call this “pirate” editions. But for me this is an honor, and an honest way for this young man to make money.” When Paulo Coelho first wrote the Alchemist in 1999 the book was failing in Russia. That year he sold only about 1,000 books, and his Russian publisher dropped him. But after he found another, Coelho took a radical step. On his own Web site, launched in 1996, he posted a digital Russian copy of "The Alchemist. The digital version of the book actually picked up sales immediately. Within a year he sold 10,000 copies; the next year around 100,000. By 2002 he was selling a total of a million copies of multiple titles. Today, Coelho's sales in Russian are over 10 million and growing. Paulo now thinks that free leads to more book sales. Since 2006 he has been sharing all of his digital books on popular Bittorrent sites and even directly linking to direct downloads in a section on his personal webpage called The Pirate Coelho. Do you think its right for people to pirate books, make copies and sell them for a profit, without paying the author? Would you see it as an avenue to sell that reader other books you have written if they like your style of prose? Bestselling Author Paulo Coelho Embraces Book Piracy is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Bestselling Author Paulo Coelho Embraces Book Piracy
The Toronto Star Suspends Digital Access Program
| The Toronto Star redesigned their website and implemented a digital access program in 2013. The main premise was to allow people to read a few articles for free each month and if you want to read more, you have to pay. This has not been success for the newspaper and they have announced the suspension of their digital subscription program on April 1st 2015. When April 1st rolls around all of the content on Toronto Star website and their digital apps for tablets and smartphones will be free. “The decision to cancel Digital Access means readers will receive full access to thestar.com, including all the news articles, columnists, investigative reports, sports, multimedia features and much more that combined make the Toronto Star, in print and online, the best and most comprehensive provider of news and information in Canada.” The last billing for Digital Access occurred in the middle of February for March's service. There will be no further charges for Digital Access. Some of the Toronto Star's print subscribers who were also paying for Digital Access may see a lower charge in their subscription based on the terms of their subscription package. It comes as no surprise that the Toronto Star digital paywall was a failure. The main reason is only people living around the greater Toronto area subscribed to the digital edition. Whereas the New York Times, who basically pioneered this subscription based system is commonly used by readers all over the United States. The main plan going forward with the Toronto Star is their newly designed app for the iPad, which is intended to capture a younger audience who will spend more time with the product. The app is being built in partnership with French-language daily La Presse, which claims some success with its tablet edition, La Presse Plus. The Star is hoping to also leverage more partners in the digital arena for its replica edition as well. Currently Pressreader is the only company that offers this to libraries, hotels and airlines. The Toronto Star Suspends Digital Access Program is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Onyx Boox i86 e-Reader has Limited Availability
| Onyx e-readers are ever elusive and new models are in tremendous short supply. This is primarily due to the fact that Onyx focuses on the Chinese market and to a lesser extent Europe. Whenever the company releases a new device they tend to garner headlines, but if you actually want to buy one, good luck. The Onyx Boox i86 features a 8 inch infrared touchscreen with a resolution of 1600 X 1200 with 200 DPI. This device is employing e-ink Pearl technology, which basically means its not going to give you a robust experience as the Kindle or Kobo which use e-Ink Carta. Underneath the hood is a Cortex A9 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal memory and SD card support. Audiophiles will rejoice because this particular model has a 3.5mm headphone jack to listen to audiobooks and music. Likely the biggest selling factor on the i86 is the fact it has Android 4.0, which allows users to install their own apps. Google Play is bundled on it, but rumors are swirling that Onyx is using an unauthorized version of Play, since the hardware does not meet the minimum requirements for an official license. This e-reader is only available right now on Amazon and eBay for around $249 US. We purchased one to review for Good e-Reader and should get it in a week or two. Once we receive it, you can expect a comprehensive hands on review to give you a sense if this is good value for the money. New Onyx Boox i86 e-Reader has Limited Availability is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monster Musume Gets July Anime
| An anime adaption for Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou has been announced, scheduled for July 2015. The manga, often shortened to Monster Musume, has been published in Monthly Comic Ryū since early 2012. Despite the author being relatively unknown, the series has rocketed into popularity, both with Japanese and Western audiences. The first five volumes of the English translated manga have reached the New York Times Manga Best Seller List. The story takes place in a world where mythical creatures like lamia, harpies, and centaurs exist. The government kept these creatures a secret for years, but has now decided to let the existence of these creatures be known, and published the “Interspecies Cultural Exchange Act”: the creatures will be integrated into human society, living in host houses with them. One of these host houses belongs to the protagonist, Kimihito Kurusu, a regular citizen who never offered to be part of the program to begin with. The series’ popularity no doubt springs from the subject matter. While the harem genre has been done before and the stories are often repetitive and uninteresting – Monster Musume is no exception, in terms of plot. But what sets this manga apart is the actual harem itself: the monster girls. All of the monster girls of the series, especially the half-human, half-snake Miia, have been a huge hit with male audiences. And female audiences, myself included, have come to appreciate the unique and different nature of these monster girls. For all that the characters maintain the usual figure we have come to expect from anime, the monstrous nature of the girls have a certain ring of body positivity. This especially shows through the half-spider Rachnee, who has clearly had trouble in the past dealing with people finding her form disgusting. No matter how light-hearted and raunchy the manga can be, it doesn’t change the message that everyone is born beautiful – just takes a different direction in showing it. Whether you’re already in love with monster girls or not, July is one of the hottest seasons for new anime and this one only adds to the heat. Catch Monster Musume when it airs!
Monster Musume Gets July Anime is a post from: Good e-Reader |
