Last week I published a book on Amazon’s Kindle platform. It was a fairly straightforward process, although I had to take some care with the formatting. I wrote my book in Word and was fortunate that I did not have any images or tables. Had that been the case I feel that using HTML would […]
Writing
Are Texting and Tweeting Destroying the English Language?
In his book A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers and the Digital Revolution, Dennis Baron poses the intriguing question of whether new writing technologies such as texting, email, and instant messaging are debasing the English language and doing major damage to society as a whole. He proceeds to dismiss these notions as overreactions, a point […]
Academic SEO: Why Search Engine Optimization Isn’t Just For Businesses
SEO is often thought of as a purely commercial endeavor: companies and other for-profit websites use keywords strategically, make use of headings and meta tags, and build inbound links in order to increase search engine positions and generate more revenue. But in the world of academia, scholars are also recognizing a need to implement some […]
Kindle eTextbook Rentals and the Future of Textbook Publishing
Amazon’s recent unveiling of a Kindle Textbook Rental Service, which allows students to rent electronic versions of “tens of thousands of textbooks,” is the latest news in the radically changing textbook publishing market. Amazon boasts savings up to 80% of the print cover price, offers very flexible rental periods, and enables students to access their […]
An Introduction to Books, Bytes and Blogs
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been passionate about collections of all sorts—books, coins, sports cards—and as I grew older, I worked hard to keep my digital music collection organized and find the most effective ways to keep up to date with my favorite websites. In my junior year of college, I started to […]
Why I’m Waiting to Start My Blog
As I’ve become active on Twitter and participated in Blogchat these past few weeks, people have naturally asked me what I blog about. Great question! I guess I should think about that… What I mean to say is, I’m holding off on starting a personal blog for a little while, and this past Sunday’s chat […]