Rocket Bomber - linking to other people's stuff

@ProfessorBlind Chipped in $25 #cash_for_robot to help a worthy cause – encourage you to do the same. www.giantrobot.com/donate

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/borders-partners-with-kobo-to-deliver-ebooks-79339012.html

I don’t have a whole lot of commentary, considering I just read the article myself. But Kobo née Shortcovers claims 2 million titles, supports open standards, is device agnostic, and the crafty Canadians have had 10 months lead time to build up their back-end and launch their e-reader apps for a variety of smartphones (and through the kind offices of Adobe, for a number of other devices) (*cough* including the nook. How’s that taste, B&N?).

The press release says 2nd quarter 2010, though, and for retail (most retailers use a fiscal year that starts in February) that means May at the earliest, and more likely July. So a late start… but maybe six months is enough time for B&N to fix the bugs in the nook, for Sony to sell a few more e-readers, for the media to beat the whole e-book thing into the ground, and for the folks who own a nook, kindle, or sony to start asking the question: where can I get the cheapest book, without DRM?

Still and all: Borders now has a horse in this race.

Not with the blog; the failings are in the wetware of the guy running the blog.

In lieu of substantive updates: here’s Kevin Smith on Twilight Fans (I think I first saw this on the Huffington Post)

Oh, and Kevin Smith = Not Safe for Work [“Multiple f-bombs incoming, Captain!”] but it’s a holiday for a majority of my readers — I pity those of you who have to work, the rest of you enjoy this.

“There is a plan, and it’s working.”

Came across a new (rather sparse) blog recently, Clay Shirky, though the content provided more than makes up for the lack of bells and glitter:

In much the same vein as my Rethinking the Box series of columns, Clay takes on the topic, “Local Bookstores, Social Hubs, and Mutualization,” and while some of the same concepts come up (bookstore as third place, bookstore as community hub) without my bias as a bookseller the essay goes off into whole new areas, and to a very different conclusion.

Worth a read. (as are the other articles — at least those currently on Clay’s main page — which also touch on issues of publishing and content)

But I’m going to enthusiastically encourage you to participate anyway.

That link over in the left sidebar — yeah, the second one — has been sitting there for like a year now.

Go ahead, click it.

Even better, click this link to Book One, and then this link to the (illustrated, but not comic) text interstitials that have been at least as engaging as the original comic.

Are you hooked yet?

And now, Rob Balder and Co. (there is an artist change, from book one to book two — Jamie Noguchi is being replaced by Xin Ye — Jamie is moving on [moving back?] to other projects; though Xin Ye was identified and selected [I’m assuming] because she was also a fan and an active member on their forums — and so yes, it’s a change but not a revolution) after a short hiatus, are storming back into another volume of Erfworld comics. Book Two, Page One just posted on their homepage

I’m tempted to post an image on the main page to further encourage folks to go, and read, but I’ll hide it as a comment to this post for those of you who might want to read the original without the (minor) spoiler.

Spike wants your money.

Not so specific, I know — a lot of people want our money. Sometimes we even give it to them, in exchange for goods and services.

To get into gritty details: She would like you to pledge money for a great project (so you don’t have to pay right now, just promise to pay later). And you can pledge as little as a dollar.

You didn’t realize it at first, but you likely already know Spike (How many of you read Templar, AZ?) and this project is a book, a comic, that bridges two topics near and dear to my heart: sequential art in the service of non-fiction narratives, and getting by on a meager salary.

Here, I’ll let Spike explain it herself:

UPDATE: Spike has said on her blog that if when they go over the $6000 goal, that just means more money up-front for the artist, Diana Nock, and a larger print run (plus other possible upgrades, like better paper and cover stock). So Keep Giving!

Links:
Poorcraft Project Page @ Kickstarter

Templar, AZ — read it online or buy the books

discovered via Make

Reuters has a great article up…

wait, strike that.

Reuters has a depressing, gloom-and-doom news article up with some excellent information in it: Actual average rent numbers (Bloomberg.com has a very similar article citing the same source)

National averages (lowest since 2007)

• $19.22 per sq.ft. for strip malls, compared to $19.59 last year
• $39.18 per sq.ft. for the largest regional malls, down from $40.62

Both cite Reis.com — Looks like Reis will sell you a market analysis report for something in the neighborhood of $1000 (they don’t list prices but their home page advertises a ‘sale price’ of $695; even a grand is cheap, though… equal to merely the first month’s rent on a scant 50 sq.ft. of your hypothetical retail space.)

So, one more resource for you folks and some real-world numbers we can plug into past and future calculations.

Seth Godin over on his thought-of-the-day blog points out something I might have said myself once or twice. There isn’t one bestseller list

“The way to understand lists that aren’t vintage pop music is this: it isn’t one list. It’s four or five, mushed together. You have the list of rock acts, overlaid with the list of comic book heroes, etc. There isn’t one person (at least I hope not) who’s interested in all of these articles.”

He also points out that combining markets can result in some marketing missteps — oddly enough, he doesn’t reference my favorite example: People eat breakfast in the morning. People take showers in the morning. But you should stop short of putting a toaster in the shower. [that’s a false synergy right there. When some flack comes at you with merger-this and new-synergies-that remember the Shower Toaster]

There are at least five threads in the ‘comics’ market right now: Marvel/DC, Vertigo/Image/Darkhorse/Other-Indy, “serious” graphic novels (mostly biographies for some strange reason), manga, and comic strip collections.

Yeah, sure, Blackest Night or Dark Reign or whichever event is the “bestselling” comic right now: but bookstores make more off of Dilbert, FoxTrot, and Peanuts than “graphic novels” at the moment. What, exactly, does the New York Times track? What are their sources — what might be excluded?

Why do we slavishly link and reprint their hackneyed list? What is the magic that is conjured by the label “New York Times Bestseller”?

other than the fact that they post on time every week. [*cough*]

Per YouTube, this video only has 116 views. —which is criminal

Can you help me to fix this? It’s simple: I just need you to watch — and maybe link.

OK, so there are at least two other versions of this performance just on YouTube itself (with 20k+ views apiece) but the video embedded above is from the official Tripod channel, so I think they deserve a little love. If you’re really interested, and until Tripod gets their shit together, this link will be quite useful; and this is why you’re interested:

Oh, and this one too:

and it’s 10 years old but I still love this one:

As a favor to me: Can we show a little love for Tripod?