Friday, September 26, 2008

What's on your cell phone?

What I'm reading: Contest entry 5/5

What I'm writing: Chapter 26, scene 2

I write for three different publishers. One targets the library market with hard cover books. One has a fixed schedule for books coming out digitally and then in print. Another is primarily electronic, although they do put books in print, but there's no predicting if or when any particular book will make the jump. And, because I wrote for a couple of e-publishers, I learned a lot about e-books and e-publishing.


I've become a moderate e-book convert. If there's a choice, I'll often opt to buy the digital version which saves trees and space. But my reader doesn't allow me to download just any e-books. The formatting wars are the hot topic, and one I'm not going to get into here. But, my sister-in-law sent me this link this morning, and it about blew my mind.

I've barely cracked the surface of what my cell phone can do. Mostly, I want it to call AAA if I get stuck, but it's got a 175 page owners manual, so I think it can do a lot more.

OK, I can see someone who might be willing to read a book on a cell phone sized display window. I can see taking a file and uploading it somewhere that people could access it if they were so inclined to read on their cell phones. But to text a book?

3 comments:

Ray said...

If my vision weren't already bad enough I would be blind reading a novel on a small screen regardless of how short the chapters.

Thanks for sharing a very interesting article.

Ray

Terry Odell said...

I tried reading a book on my husband's PDA. I spent all the time tapping the 'next screen' button, because you can only see a paragraph or two at a time. I finally bought an eBookwise, which I absolutely love.

Ray said...

The Japanese seem to be enamored with new technology more than anyone else. All the good toys are developed in Japan. They may say made in China, but the development was for the Japanese consumers. If an idea goes over big then the rest of the world gives it a try.

Ray