Mockingbird

Amazon generals don’t read Sun Tzu By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: May 15, 2012

As you all know, the verb “decimate” (meaning the removal of one out of every ten) describes a form of military discipline in the Roman army to punish mutinous or cowardly soldiers. A unit selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten; each group drew lots, and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing...more

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Amazon Reviews By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: May 22, 2012

Over the last few days there has been much noise on the grapevine about the objectivity of Amazon reviewers. Critics contend that many star-studded reviews belong to friends, fans, acquaintances and family of the authors. Given enough of these biased reviews and the overall rating may be skewed. That’s the theory anyway.

Problem is that the opposite is often truth;...more

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Ethical Censorship By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: May 29, 2012

One of the beauties of this world resides in the small things; the gems hidden under the garbage. To find an unexpected gift suddenly made my day. As I browsed through Business Week, I spotted an article posted by Angie at Angie’s Diary: ...more

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Kobo jumps into the e-pub bandwagon By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: June 05, 2012

Good news for writers taking the road to self publish. Kobo, the Canadian e-book retailer, finally gave specific details and launch dates (toward the end of this month) at BookExpo America. There’s an excellent article in Publisher’s Weekly with full details of the move....more

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Ten Reasons to Stop Doing Business with Amazon By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: June 12, 2012

I could have thought of a few dozen more, but the ten reasons listed in a slide show featured in The Nation read like a recipe for 1984.

1. Amazon Dodges Taxes and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Doesn’t Contribute to Local Economies Through Charity.

2. Amazon’s Business Model Is Monopolistic....more

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Self-publishing success By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: June 19, 2012

Even though I wrote the title a little tongue in cheek, I must confess to being green with envy at Christopher Paolini’s success. I don’t begrudge the young man’s good fortune, far from it. He’s a writer, and as such he deserves our respect and recognition as a peer.

What irks me is that most struggling writers out there don’t realize that the unique set of circumstances available to Mr. Paolini is as rare as a pink-spotted platypus or...more

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Amazon’s Top 10 Books of the Year So Far By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: June 26, 2012

On June 25, 2012, Amazon editors unveiled their choices for the best books of the year so far. Not surprisingly—and this should give us pause to thought—every book on the list was published by the Big Six publishers; no independent publishers or self-published titles.

The lists are posted at Amazon in twelve different categories and genres. You can take a peek...more

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Tablets, media, and publishing. By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: July 03, 2012

In the final minutes leading up to the annual developer conference in San Francisco, Google confirmed the release of its tablet Nexus 7—built in partnership with Taiwanese-manufacturer Asus—which will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Google is bent to take on Apple and Microsoft on the...more

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J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: July 10, 2012

After the secrecy, a blunder or two (Little & Brown UK named Barry Fairbrother, the protagonist, Barry Fairweather in the original press release) and much confusion about page count and shelf price, the final details are out.

Little, Brown and Company has released the cover for The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling, along with updated cover copy, details of the audio reader, and confirmed page count. You can take a peek at the cover and the Little, Brown and Company’s full release...more

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Smashwords: 5 billion words By OFW editor: Carlos J Cortes Publish Date: July 17, 2012

On Smashwords official blog, Mark Coker announced they had published five billion words and counting.

"If you typed at 25 words a minute without pause, it would take 200 million minutes to write 5 billion words. 3.3 million hours. If you typed 8 hours a day, it would take 416,600 days, or 1,141 years. Imagine the lifetimes of creative output now captured, packaged, immortalized and available for discovery at the click of a button or mouse."...more

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