Ken's Weekly Book Recommendation

The Meander Tile of Lisa Greco" Romance of Mythic Identity Book 2 by Andrea Aguillard

Ancient excavations reveal the key to two lovers' identities.

Second generation Italian-American Lisa Greco is about to receive the reward she's worked her head off for--but she's not sure it's what she wants anymore.

She's always postponed exploring her creativity, and discovering her Neapolitan origins. So she throws the dice, and goes to Naples where she meets a mysterious Japanese-Italian professor of mathematics and itinerant tenor who's in search of his own roots. This leads her to do something she's never done before. She takes his hand as he leads her into the darkest recesses of the ancient excavations that reveal the key to both their identities.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON 

 

Could This Be The Future Of Books?

I can't count how many times I've heard someone lament to me that they’re too busy to read a book. 

At first, I avoided these people. Who's too busy to read a book? But, the sad fact is that everyone thinks they're too busy to do most things these days. And why shouldn't they be? Our attention is constantly divvied among dozens of devices all bearing different distractions across mediums that dominate nearly all of our senses. 

The most common excuse people give me for why they haven't read a book is that they just don't have time to sit down and do one thing at a time. 

I want people to read more books, to continue to consume good stories, to let themselves get lost in someone else's imagination. 

That's why I'm intrigued about a new start-up that is trying to marry the best of books with the best of podcasts, to give readers the ability to consume stories across formats. 

Serial Box, which raised $1.65 million in funding in 2017, does exactly what its name suggests. It serializes books into episodes, bite-sized portions that are relatively easy to digest. In the past few months I've heard it called both Charles Dickens for the digital age and HBO for Books. 

The company acts as a hybrid between a production studio and a publishing house by hiring talented authors to write new fiction in addition to writing teams who can turn that books into easily consumable episodes released on a weekly basis, just like podcasts. 

A typical serial will run for about 10-16 weeks. Here's the part where it gets interesting. Consumers can listen to an episode or they can read it on an e-reader. Don't have time to sit and read a book? Listen to the next chapter/episode while driving to work or mowing the lawn. Find yourself with a spare half hour in the midst of a lazy Sunday? Why not read the next chapter in print. The two formats are aiming to be seamlessly interchangeable. This is what I find so interesting — the ability to enjoy a story in multiple formats as it suits you. 

"In the past 20 years our lives have changed as the book hasn’t changed while other entertainment forms like television and podcasting have," explains Molly Barton, Serial Box's co-founder. Barton knows books. She previously worked at Penguin Random House US as global digital director. She told me that she understands books can feel daunting to people. "The experience of reading a full-length book feels hard," Barton said. "The switching back and forth between reading and listening really appeals to people. I think people expect their content to be very mobile and very flexible." 

...So is this the future of the printed book? An evolution of the book rather than the death entirely of the printed page? Let's see if it gets more people reading before we make that call.

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How Technology Is (and Isn’t) Changing Our Reading Habits

When Alexandra Alter, a reporter who covers the books industry, doesn’t want to lose herself in what she’s reading, or lose her balance on the subway, she reaches for her Kindle. Credit Jeenah Moon for The New York Times 


How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Alexandra Alter, who covers the books industry for The Times, discussed the tech she’s using.

Given that you write about the books industry, how do you prefer to read books? On a Kindle or iPad or some other device, or printed books?

I came a little late to e-books, but I became a convert in 2010 when my older daughter was born. I needed a way to read books with one hand (and in a dark room), so I got a Kindle. The Kindle and ice cream sandwiches — also easily managed with one hand — are what got me through the brutal early weeks with a newborn, when you basically can’t put them down. Now I’m on my fifth Kindle.

I still love print books and find it to be a much more relaxing and immersive experience, but when I’m reading books for work — honestly, the bulk of my reading — the Kindle is incredibly convenient. I have all my books on a single device that I always have with me. I read advance copies of books that way: Publishers send me digital copies through NetGalley or Edelweiss, sites where book industry professionals and critics can get digital copies of books before they’re published.

I like that e-books are searchable, which is helpful for fact-checking, and the device stores all my notes and highlights, so I can quickly look stuff up when I’m writing. And I can read with one hand on a crowded train. One of my mild phobias is being trapped somewhere, on a plane or a stalled train or in a line, with nothing to read, and I also have the Kindle reader app on my iPhone, so I always have my entire library with me.

How is technology affecting the publishing industry?

About a decade ago, when Amazon introduced its first e-reader, publishers panicked that digital books would take over the industry, the way digital transformed the music industry. And for a while, that fear seemed totally justified. At one point, the growth trajectory for e-books was more than 1,200 percent. Bookstores suffered, and print sales lagged. E-books also made self-publishing easier, which threatened traditional publishers.

But in just the last couple of years, there has been a surprising reversal. Print is holding steady — even increasing — and e-book sales have slipped.

One possible reason is that e-book prices have gone up, so in some cases they’re more expensive than a paperback edition. Another possibility is digital fatigue. People spend so much time in front of screens that when they read they want to be offline. Another theory is that some e-book readers have switched to audiobooks, which are easy to play on your smartphone while you’re multitasking. And audiobooks have become the fastest-growing format in the industry.

Ms. Alter likes that e-books are searchable and that the the Kindle stores her notes and highlights for easy retrieval. Credit Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

Social media has also had an enormous impact on publishing, as it has on all corners of the media industry. It has definitely become a new way for readers to connect with authors and discover books, but it has probably also cut into the time that people spend reading. (A depressing article in Quartz estimated that if people spent the same amount of time reading that they did on social media, they could read 200 books a year easily.)

Many new authors are skipping traditional publishers and use tech tools to go straight to self-publishing their own e-books or print books. What will be the fate of traditional publishers in the next few years?

Self-publishing has been one of the most fascinating corners of the industry to me. There have been a handful of massively successful self-published authors who have started their own publishing companies, and they’ve started to publish other “self-published” authors. But publishers have survived so far through consolidation, and we’ll probably see more of that.

 
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APRIL IS THRILLER MONTH! Story Merchant Books Amazon eBook Deals!!

William Diehl Thrillers are this months Amazon eBook Deals!!

Critically acclaimed New York Times Bestselling author William Diehl was an extraordinarily gifted storyteller who enjoyed an unbroken string of best selling novels.

"Diehl knows how to tell a story, and his novel moves."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"In the best thriller tradition.,"
-- Los Angeles Times

Seven Ways To Die FREE April 9 - April 10!


Manhattan Murders ... by the book!


From the New York Times bestselling author of PRIMAL FEAR and SHARKY'S MACHINE -- From the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho to New York's Central Park is a straight line right through to Bill Diehl's last and most intriguing lead character, Micah Cody.


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Sharky’s Machine #FREE April 11 - April 12!

Atlanta narc cop stumbles across a mob murder with government ties. "Every chapter crackles with sex, violence, and corruption."

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The Hunt aka 27 FREE April 13 - April 14!

A heroic ex-bootlegger and his Nazi nemesis, both on a deadly mission!

Two men on a deadly mission. One a cold-blooded Nazi driven by hate and dedicated to the destruction of America.

The other driven by a devotion to a lost love faces the impossible task of finding him.

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Thai Horse #FREE April 15 - April 16!


A licensed killer is on a deadly mission to track down his missing friend!


Christian Hatcher, the licensed killer they call the Shadow Warrior, is free from a hellhole South American jail. The former special ops officer returns to Hong Kong and Bangkok--- deadly and seductive stops on the heroin pipeline—to track down his best friend, missing since the war.

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CHAMELEON FREE April 17 - April 18!



Two crack reporters are hot on the trail of a deadly assassin known only as CHAMELEON, feared by all, known by none, is quite possibly the most menacing and mysteriously elusive person alive.


"An explosive blend of sex, violence, and the old triple-cross."

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Primal Fear for FREE April 19- April 20!


Hotshot attorney Martin Vail must defend a young man accused of brutally murdering Archbishop Rushman, known as the "Saint of Lakeview Drive." This case looks impossible until his psychologist makes a startling discovery.

"Spine-tingling...Mr. Diehl can sustain suspense."
--THE NEW YORK TIMES


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Hooligans FREE April 21 - April 22!


Supercop for the feds assembles a group of tough ex-cops to find a killer!

When someone starts murdering the leaders of the local Triad in Dunetown, Georgia supercop for the feds, Jake Kilmer, puts together the toughest bunch of ex-cops ever assembled to find the killer.

"Make no mistake, these guys are cool... They prefer action to talk, but when they talk it's tough, dirty, often funny and always realistic."-- Atlanta Journal Constitution

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