I wrote “Giving the Gift of E-Reading: New Developments in E-Book Giving and E-Reader Cozies” for a special Beyond the Book series by PBS MediaShift. I had a lot of fun sorting through the thousands of e-reader covers available on Etsy.

Here’s how it begins:

If you thought e-books, e-readers and tablets dominated the last holiday season, you haven’t seen anything yet.

For one, this year it’s easier than ever to give e-books as gifts, and, thanks to a recent partnership with Kobo, it’s now even possible to support your local independent bookseller while giving them. And, according to the catalogs piling up in my house and the shopping ads filling my inbox, everyone who wants an e-reader either has one or will receive one for Christmas.

But the question remains: How will we accessorize?

CLOTHING AND GADGETRY FOR E-READERS

Judging from the sheer page count devoted to certain devices in its catalog, Brookstone badly wants to sell you a gadget that will enhance your communion with your iPhone, tablet or e-reader. They offer many speakers, headphones and stands for your tablets and e-readers, as well as a device that adds a keyboard and an attractive carrying case for your iPad (Bluetooth Keyboard with Tech-Grip Case for iPad Tablets, $99.99). But why stop there? For $149.99, you can get the Bluetooth Keyboard Pro in “rich leather.” (Don’t tell anybody at Brookstone I told you this, but Kohl’s has an Innovative Technology iPad case with Bluetooth Keyboard on sale for $49.99.)

Please click through to read the rest:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/12/giving-the-gift-of-e-reading-new-developments-in-e-book-giving-and-e-reader-cozies352.html

I spoke to some librarians and a library specialists from the Knight Foundation for PBS MediaShift about how libraries are facing Americans’ transition to reading digital books, especially given the country’s ongoing financial difficulties that have struck library budgets hard.

Here’s a snippet from the article:

What Is the Role of Libraries in the Age

of E-Books and Digital Information?

Public libraries are a major hub through which Americans gain access to e-books and other digital resources, but these institutions’ role in the digital transition hasn’t been made easy by the nation’s recent economic troubles.

On April 9, the American Library Association released its annual State of America’s Libraries Report, and many of its findings were grim. “Public libraries continue to be battered by a national economy whose recovery from the Great Recession is proving to be sluggish at best,” the report concluded. Twenty-three of the 49 chief officers of state libraries surveyed indicated that their library systems faced budget cuts over the past two years. According to the report, “For three years in a row, more than 40 percent of participating states have reported decreased public library funding.”

While library budget cuts continue, demand for library services has soared. Lower-income and unemployed patrons often turn to local libraries as their only source of Internet access.

At the same time, libraries have sought to accommodate Americans’ ever-increasing demand for access to digital materials, a mission that has put them at odds with the publishing industry, which is struggling to retain its viability as many American readers shift toward reading books electronically and purchasing those titles from online retailers rather than traditional bookstores.

“In the end, it will be a matter of leadership and vision that will guide libraries through the current conditions,” said Jorge Martinez, director of Information Systems for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which supports libraries through grants.

Please click through to read the rest:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/05/what-is-the-role-of-libraries-in-the-age-of-e-books-and-digital-information122.html

I had the chance to dig into the Pew Research Center’s new report on digital reading—I read the report on an iPad, so I guess you can include me in the 21% of Americans who read an e-book in the last year. I spoke to innovative publisher Richard Eoin Nash and some library specialists about the results of the survey. Here’s how my article begins:

Pew Survey Shows How E-Books Are Changing the Equation for Publishers, Readers

More Americans are reading e-books than ever, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

The most impressive stat from the study is that 21 percent of adults had read an e-book in the past year, but adults are still more likely to read a printed book. Seventy-two percent of adults (age 16 or older) turn the pages the old-fashioned way.

However, the reach of e-books is growing, increasing from 17 percent of adults before the 2011 holiday season, during which thousands of e-reading devices appeared under Christmas trees, to 21 percent immediately after. The poll, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, captured Americans’ attitudes toward reading and digital reading in mid-December 2011 and January 2012.

The data showing that e-books are on the rise will not surprise anyone who’s been paying attention to the rapid adoption of e-readers. But what the study really sheds light on is how quickly our relationship with reading is changing in the digital age.

Here’s a new article about how e-books have entered my life for PBS MediaShift. It includes a photo of my chaotic desk.

Here’s how it begins:

5 Reasons E-Books Are Awesome, Even for the Very Reluctant

When Amazon first introduced the Kindle in 2007, I had no desire to own one. I was happy with regular papery books. When the iPad went on sale in 2010, it was harder for me to resist.

I’ve been using Macs, and Macs only, since I was a 6-year-old trying to ford a river in the game Oregon Trail on my school’s Apple II. I bought an iPad within a few months of its release, and I find it as loveable and gee-whiz-cool as every other Apple product has been. Still, old habits die hard. When I hit the couch at the end of the day to read, it’s usually with an old-fashioned book.

E-books have nothing on regular books for reading in the bathtub, in the rain while you’re pushing your kid on the playground swing, and with your toddler in the rocking chair so he can learn to use his chubby fingers to turn the page, not to mention enjoy books with pop-ups, cut-outs, and other surprises. Regular books autographed by a favorite author make a perfect souvenir of an enjoyable night out at the bookstore. I write all over my books, make notes in the margins, and star and underline things. Ideas for my own writing come to me while I’m reading, and I scrawl these in the back blank pages of novels. Still, I have to admit that e-books are better than paper books in some situations — here are five reasons I’ve switched to e-books, some of the time:

Click through to read the rest:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/10/5-reasons-e-books-are-awesome-even-for-the-very-reluctant298.html#commentsv

After a drought of journalism pieces (for me, anyway—I used to publish two or three articles a week), everything is appearing this week.

Today my essay “Brave New Book World: How Authors Become Entrepreneurs” ran on PBS Media Shift, a website examining the shift from the old media landscape.

Here are a few paragraphs—click through for the rest:

“A few years ago, I interviewed author Ron Carlson about his novel “The Signal.” I asked him about his experience with his longtime editor, Carol Houck-Smith, who had recently died. He remembered back to 1977 when he had just signed a deal to publish a novel with Houck-Smith at Norton:

It’s such a treasure to me to have had this classic New York editor experience with such a professional person who was very interested in my work … I was from Utah, and it was so exciting when I walked into those offices across from the New York Public Library and she stood up and greeted me and she said, “We’ve been looking for you.” And I said, “No, I’ve been looking for you.”

This year, The Permanent Press, a small press in New York, published my first novel, “The Ringer,” and Carlson’s reminiscences sound like science fiction to me. I live in Colorado, and I’ve never met my agent or my editor, who live in New York. There have been a few phone calls, but most of our interaction has occurred via email. We copyedited my book digitally, using Microsoft Word’s track-changes feature. I’ve never had the sense that someone has “been looking for me.” Rather, I knew from the start that it was my job to go out and look for people who might write a review, interview me, or maybe even buy the book.

I’m not complaining — I accept this self-marketing as part of publishing a book today. My chance to publish my first book came now, in the middle of massive changes in the publishing industry — the rise of e-books, the fall of Borders, and a prolonged economic downturn that leaves people with little disposable income for books — and I’m thankful to have this opportunity.”

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/09/a-brave-new-book-world-how-authors-become-entrepreneurs263.html