Amazon.com Archives ⋆ Be the Cat

Don’t Buy My Books

Liana Gardner — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:37:02 +0000

This is how I felt when I heard this morning that Amazon.com had a book available for sale on Kindle that goes against the grain of moral and ethical decency. The book itself has already received far too much attention, and I don’t care to give it any more by naming it. The disturbing issue to me, was not that someone published the book using Amazon’s DTP, but that Amazon CHOSE not to pull it off. They do have a clause where they advise they have the right to distribute, or withhold distribution of what they see fit, so by their choice not to pull the product, they were condoning it.

5.1.3 Digital Book Rejection. We are entitled to determine what content we accept and distribute through the Program in our sole discretion.

According to the information floating around the internet, Amazon chose not to pull the book because Amazon doesn’t condone censorship. I don’t condone censorship… but this is an issue BEYOND censorship. Amazon is not a governmental agency, they are a retailer who felt that keeping a book on their virtual shelves was more important than the outcry of their customers. In a way, I see the issue as a product recall issue. Over the years, products are released which have a problem and the products are then recalled due to public outcry over the harm they can cause. This is a product that SHOULD be recalled. So Amazon’s stance does not make sense to me. There is a lot of talk of boycotting Amazon, and although they have pulled the title now, in a kind of now you see it, now you don’t, way, I feel that their responsiveness in this particular situation was lacking. It is not the first time the mega-giant has moved slowly to rectify a situation. Nor do I expect it to be the last.

I’m caught in a bit of a quandry, because my books Misfit McCabe and Nowhere Feels Like Home are readily available through Amazon, and not found in your brick and mortar stores. So, I’ve decided to ask people to purchase the print versions through my website bookstore and the ebooks through either Barnes and Noble or through Smashwords.com

If you’d like to read two well thought out, but somewhat opposing viewpoints on the entire issue, stop by Kimberly Kinrade’s blog and Lori Reed’s blog.

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Hangin’ Out at The Retreat

Liana Gardner — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:24:58 +0000

LK Griffie will conduct an author reading at The Retreat, Monday, September 6, 2010. Time: All day long
Opening the door, the heady scents of coffee and hot cocoa greet you. Chocolates are spilled on every table and a hint of cinnamon from the freshly baked rolls wafts through the air. Every where you look, people are either reading or are in little clusters discussing young adult books. For the lover of young adult books, you have reached nirvana. The place is The Retreat, a virtual coffee house for kids and YA authors and readers.

The Retreat is a thread started by R. G. Cordiner in the Kindle forum on Amazon.com. Discussions are not limited to books on Kindle, but are open to all YA books. Here’s a snippet of the opening posted by R. G. for The Retreat:

Welcome to The Retreat. This is a virtual coffee house and chocolate shop. A place for people to meet, read and chat about books aimed at kids and young adults. The unlimited coffee, relaxing music and delectable Lindt chocolate should ensure that this remains a positive place. Heated debates and drive by spamming have no place in The Retreat.

We are neither a bar nor a bookstore for adult focussed books (although I’m sure plenty of adults do read our books :)) – I can personally recommend Al’s Place and The Spinning Wheel as two fine establishments for those discussions. Unfortunately we do not serve alcohol as there can be quite a few kids around at times!

I welcome all readers and authors – I would love to invite all authors of work suitable for kids or young adults to come along and chat to your readers at one of our author readings – a great chance for authors and readers to get to know one another.

R. G. Cordiner is the author of Treasure Lost and Candy Wars: The Tooth Fairies vs. The Candy King which are both suitable for Middle Grade readers. He deserves a big thanks for putting together the retreat and being so hospitable to everyone who enters. One of the features of The Retreat, apart from discussion of some of the most awesome books around, is author readings

How does an author reading work? Well, Mr. Cordiner invites authors to select a day, and on that day, post a bio and a selection from their book, and then anyone visiting comments and interacts with the author. I love the concept because it provides one more avenue to talk about books, get feedback, gives us an opportunity to interact with other authors and readers, and best yet, it’s all about young adult books.

As I posted above, I will be conducting a reading of Misfit McCabe on Monday, September 6, 2010, so stop by The Retreat and have some chocolates and coffee and let’s talk books.

While the reading at The Retreat has concluded, you can still stop by, read the posts and ask any questions or make comments. Hope to see you there.

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The Arrival of K2

Liana Gardner — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:10:06 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment I couldn’t miss, so I left my husband on the front porch with a book to wait for the UPS delivery truck. Before you think I’m unjustifiably cruel, let me tell you about the UPS deliveries in our neighborhood. UPS will come to the door, knock once and as the knuckles are grazing the door the driver is already turning to leave. I sometimes think that the only sound I hear is that of the driver putting the We missed you slip on the front door. I’m sure our Machiavellian driver is laughing like mad as the truck pulls away from our house. Denny, the aforementioned husband on the porch, has run after the truck screaming like a mad man to get the truck to stop on more than one occasion. Suffice it to say, if I didn’t post him out of the front porch, I would not be in possession of my Kindle today. My Kindle 2 arrived about 5 minutes before I returned home. There awaiting my arrival home was the smiling Amazon.com box. After putting down my things, I grabbed my small scissors and cut the tape holding the flaps down. Inside were two brown sturdy boxes which have the zip to open feature. The reason for the two boxes is I also purchased a cover for the Kindle because otherwise I might inadvertently hurt it. To heighten the anticipation of the moment when I saw my K2 for the first time, I opened the cover first.

I am actually quite impressed with the cover. On the original Kindle, I didn’t like the cover it came with. It was pretty much a leather jacket with elastic bands to attempt to keep the Kindle within. The cover wasn’t even as wide as the Kindle (1), so the edges stuck out making the propensity to hit the Next page button a likely occurrence. This cover is different. On the inside spine of the cover are two doo-hickeys which allow you to snap the K2 into place, and it doesn’t fall out, even if I just hold it by the edge.

Next, the moment I had been waiting for. I unzipped the box holding my K2. The way Amazon.com packages the Kindle, it appears to be thicker than what it actually is. I tried to prepare by looking at photos of the K2 all over the internet, but somehow, I still wasn’t prepared for the thinness in actuality. If they make it any thinner, it simply won’t be there. Once you put it into a cover, however, it feels just like a slim volume book. Once I had it in my hands, forget the quick start guide that comes with it, forget learning about how to use it, forget checking to see whether it needed to be charged first – I just had to turn it on.

As I think I may have mentioned, I pre-sent Misfit McCabe to my K2, so as soon as I turned it on there was my book, which was a very satisfying feeling. I also downloaded the Smashwords Kindle version of Misfit McCabe so I could compare the two versions. The top picture is the version which was formatted using the Amazon Digital Text Platform (DTP) service and the second picture is the Smashwords version. They both look very similar, except the DTP version has more left white space than the Smashwords version. This was entirely my fault being so new to the game when I did the DTP version. I have corrected several formatting errors with DTP, but have not purchased the book again so I can see the newer version in action.

Originally written for the LL Book Review

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LK Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The LL Book Review

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Waiting on Kindle

Liana Gardner — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:58:53 +0000

The day has finally come. The one I’ve been waiting for. I am so excited it feels like Christmas. My Kindle 2 arrives today! I have wanted a Kindle since before they were first available and have been telling myself I would get one . . . someday. There was always a reason I needed to put off making the purchase. I did get my mom the first generation Kindle when they came out, so I have actually seen one, touched one, and used it (albeit briefly). While that assuaged my immediate lust for the Kindle, in a way it also increased my longing for one. Well, someday is finally here. All I have to do now is wait for UPS to arrive. It could be excruciating because they can deliver between 9 AM and 7 PM – so when will they get to my house?

What’s the big deal? Here are some of the reasons I have wanted a Kindle since I heard about them: in no particular order

The ability to carry hundreds, if not thousands of books with me at one time
Dust reduction. I have a severe allergy to dust, and the pages of books decompose and create dust. If I can convert the majority of my books to Kindle – I can reduce the amount of dust created.
No more waiting for a book. I don’t like to shop in stores, so I eliminate the trip to the store. I can get a book downloaded direct to the Kindle at a moments notice, should I desire. And since I buy the bulk of my books from Amazon anyway, I don’t have to wait for them to be delivered.
Conversion of PDF files to read on the Kindle. Since I review books for the LL Book Review, the bulk of my reviews are done from PDF’s, which believe it or not, I prefer versus reviewing directly from a book. This way, I won’t have to scroll back through the document when I leave off because the Kindle will keep track of where I am for me. I’ll also still have the PDF file so when I need to extract a quote from the actual work, I am able to do so easily. With a hard copy book (whether hard bound or paperback), I have to type any quotes I use – which while not difficult certainly takes more time and is more prone to error than the simple copy and paste method from the PDF’s.
Reduction of eye fatigue. With the e-ink technology, the Kindle is more like looking at the page of a book than looking at a computer screen, so this will reduce the amount of eye strain. Plus, when my eyes are getting tired, I can always increase the font size.
I will be able to get books from Smashwords.com as well as Amazon, because Smashwords has a Kindle format available. Plus, more sites like Smashwords are opening up, so one of the purportedly negative things about a Kindle, which is you are tied to Amazon, is quickly going away.
The ability to highlight, bookmark, and make notes throughout a book. While I am not a student, I see this as having huge potential from the textbook angle. Plus, sometimes you just want to mark something to come back to it at a later time, or put a note as to what you were thinking for sharing with someone later.

Well, those may not be all of the reasons I am excited, but should be enough to start with. It was a choice between the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX, and I did have to think long and hard about which one to get. Both have definite pros to them. My final decision was made due to the size of the Kindle 2, making it more portable. I didn’t want to carry around what amounts to a letter size device. If I had been getting it to strictly keep at home, then it would have been the Kindle DX all the way. What a wonderful pre-birthday birthday gift from my mom. Thanks Mom – I am now a part of the e-book revolution. My mom has read Misfit McCabe on the Kindle, now I can too.

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