Tag Archives: books

Kindle Subscription Now Available!

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Did you know that Amazon offers Kindle subscriptions to some blogs? I recently bought a Kindle and just discovered the Kindle blogs store contains over 13,000 blogs! Some are free, most are 99 cents a month (FYI Amazon decides on the pricing, based – I think – on publication frequency).

After some RSS feed tweaking I applied to have What Betty Knows listed, and it is now live here!

WBK Amazon subscription page view

Note that it is only available on certain Kindle devices (because some of them do not reproduce images, NOT because I “opted out of making it available”), so check your device. In any case you will not be allowed to purchase a subscription if you don’t have a usable Kindle model registered.

There is a 14-day free trial period, so you can cancel if the Kindle experience doesn’t work for you.

However! Whether or not you have a Kindle, please do me a favor: If you enjoy WBK please go to this link and write a review. It doesn’t need to be long (there is a 20 word minimum required), but would help convince others to check out WBK. Most helpful would be for you to say what you like about it, as trying to describe the content is difficult unless you already know me :-)  Thanks!

Friday Faves – 24 May 2013

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Grab Bag O’ Books

It’s sad when a bookstore has to close, but Once Sold Tales in Kent WA has an additional problem: a warehouse full of 500,000 used books on which they can no longer afford to pay rent! Rather than just sending all of that linear media to be pulped they are having a Grab Bag sale:

Now through May 30th you can order a grab bag of paperback books (8 for $10, 16 for $18, which includes shipping) or children’s books (“small” for $12 or “large” for $20, number of books will vary since kid’s books come in many sizes). You can give some guidance as to the books’ genre, but they can make no guarantees. See their Facebook post for all details – note that this offer is available for direct Paypal payment only, not though their main website.

Etsy Stores of Note

My West Coast musician friend Sharon Knight has been building additional ways to have income when she is not on the road touring with her band. Her latest effort is an Etsy store – please check it out.

While attending a recent Steampunk fair I ran across an awesome local leather worker: Emporium Custom Leathers. In addition to selling at the New York Ren Faire, she also has an Etsy store here. I can attest to the high quality of her work, and intend to indulge in some garment soon :-)

Friday Faves (Free-Cheap Edition) 03-05-13

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Free Music Business Book

I’ve just started reading an ebook, The Six-Figure Musician. So far it seems filled with good points about what you need to do to “make it” as a professional musician (spoiler: mostly, work really hard at what you decide you want to do). It is available as a free PDF download from the author’s site (and geek kudos to him for getting the domain name “musicianbook.com”!), or you can buy it on Amazon for Kindle for $4.99:

Free Facebook Newsfeed Optimization

I’m testing a 30-day free trial of a Facebook posting service. PostRocket analyzes the fan engagement data you see at the top of your band/business/etc. Facebook Page and uses a proprietary algorithm to decide when to make posts to the page that maximize your fans’ interaction with them.

To do this you set up several posts in advance and they post those at the times they deem best. And since recent research shows that pictures get more attention than just verbal posts they help to turn the latter into pictures from the site being linked, and let you apply some Instagram-like photo filters and add text into the image.

I didn’t have to give them a credit card to get the free trial, and even after 30 days they have an ongoing free option (which limits your account to managing 3 Pages, and does not give you as much analysis of your posts’ performance).

Pay What You Will Music Downloads

First, if you haven’t seen Amanda Palmer‘s recent TED talk The Art Of Asking  I recommend you do so.

Palmer’s message is that there is no shame in asking your fans to support you, and that while it’s impossible to force people to pay for music they generally will give you money and/or other kinds of support if you give them the opportunity to offer it.

So keep your eye out for performers who offer their music for whatever you are willing to pay. Usually there is an option to stream the music first so you can get an idea about whether you like it –  if you do please consider the time, efforts, cost of musical gear, cost of music lessons, nights spent playing in bars for little or no pay while honing their chops, etc. as you decide what amount to give them for their download.

If you are a starving artist/musician/un-or-underemployed whatever: don’t feel guilty if you can’t toss a lot into their virtual hat – but DO drop them a note about liking the music, and tell your friends about it.

Here are a few musicians with pay-what-you-will downloads:

Amanda Palmer – Theatre Is Evil

Walter Sickert & The Army Of Broken Toys – Soft Time Traveler (just released!)

Jaggery – Private Violence

Ginger Ibex – The Rusty Goat Sessions (disclosure: this is one of my bands!)

Ginger Ibex – Firefly (our 2009 album – following my own advice and just made download PWYW!)

Friday Faves 02-15-13

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Firstly, some sad news for sewing and knitting folks in the Boston area: the venerable Windsor Button shop is closing its last remaining store, on Temple Pl. in downtown Boston, due to lease non-renewal. Read about it here, and stop by to pick up sale items as they liquidate their inventory.

Secondly, some more sad news that can be helped: the “fiercely independent” bookstore Longfellow Books in Portland ME suffered massive water damage during last week’s storm due to frozen pipes in the building over their store. You can help them out by buying ebooks from their website, gift certificates (which give them cash now and you/your giftees books later), and/or donating directly. See this letter from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance for more information.

Thirdly, you may recall that I recently recommended a Kickstarter project by ThinkMusicTechnology for an iPad app with musical note handwriting recognition for creating scores. They’ve now canceled the KS project as it wasn’t going to reach their (very ambitious) goal despite much interest. But they are looking for other funding resources and still plan to develop the app – so if you are interested, sign up for their mailing list at their website.