By The Bookwise

Podcasts are a new one for me, I must admit. It is a blog post that is read to you. You can hear news shows, radio talk shows, or now being introduced, entire books.  Authors such as Scott Sigler http://www.scottsigler.com/ are reading a novel in chapters, similar to what was done in earlier times on the radio. 

Sigler built up his readership by disseminating his books through the Internet, after numerous publishers turned his work down. Now that he has built up a major following, they have changed their tune. He has now gone a further step and reads his book on iTunes and his website. 

Sigler has a dedicated following of listeners in the thousands, he calls “junkies. These junkies boosted his Ancestorto No. 7 in overall sales on Amazon.com, which encouraged  a deal with the Crown Publishing Group. This Tuesday, Sigler’s latest book, Infected was also released by Crown. 

Interestingly, a “free” digital manuscript of the book was downloaded 45,000 times in just 100 hours after the Crown book was released.  Sigler still offers his novels as free podcasts, but confidently says that the junkies will buy the $24.95 because “I ask them too.”

The number of publishing companies is dwindling, and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to sell a book through traditional methods. The entrepreneurial authors are coming up with new ideas every day.

Would you like to listen to your latest novel online?  For more information   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/04/DDS7VUH5M.DTL

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Increasingly, more information is coming out about over-the-counter eye drops that may  prevent and cure cataracts, according to Russian and American researchers. The drops say nothing about cataracts on box, but contain 1 percent N-Acetyl Carnosine (NAC).  The drops are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for this use.

Most recently, according to Popular Science Magazine,  Russian and American researchers are working diligently on this need. Rajiv Bhushan, an electrical engineer, decided to look for a chemical solution when his father was diagnosed with cataracts.  His company, Chakshu Research, is working on eye drops called C-KAD, and is undergoing clinical trials right now. 

Mark Babizhayev Ph.D., http://www.innovative-vision-products.com/ a principal Russian researcher, reports there are some positive results from tests underway.  Before testing the drops on humans, the Russian scientists developed some sensitive equipment to make the measurements. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between 6 and 24 months as an overall cumulative and positive change of the characteristics of cataracts in the NAC-treated group, when compared to the control group.

A cataract is a cloudy area in the normally clear lens of the eye, a tissue located behind the pupil that focuses light onto the retina in the back. Cataracts usually start small, with little effect on vision, but as they grow the lens becomes so clouded that many older individuals can no longer drive or read–which are so vital to their emotional well being. In fact, studies show that individuals with cataracts die earlier.  Over 20 million Americans over the age of 40 have cataracts; the numbers are similar worldwide.

Anyone who knows a friend or family member with cataracts has experienced the emotional pain these individuals go through when they have to stop driving and reading. Surgery has been very successful for many people, but there are still a large number who have this aging disease. A preventative treatment would work wonders.

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Movies always do it.  Produce prequels and sequels, that is.  There’s always part one and part two and part three, and…. Or, as with “Star Wars,” the newer movie went back in time. What about book classics? What about Anne of Green Gables?  To celebrate the centennial of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 original novel, Penguin commissioned Canadian author Budge Wilson to write the new book, Before Green Gables.The original book relates the fictional story of Anne Shirley, a bright, red-haired, 11-year-old girl after she was adopted from a Nova Scotia orphanage. This latest take goes back in time about Anne’s younger years.  What was she like while growing up?

The “real” Anne of Green Gables has become a true classic, with over 50 million copies translated into 20 languages. Montgomery wrote seven sequels and two related books, after her first novel became such a success.

The question is whether a classic can or should be followed up by another author at another time. Remember the debate in 1991 when Alexandra Ripley wrote Scarlett as a sequel to Gone with the Wind.  Then, in 2000, Alice Randall’s book The Wind Done Gone, which tells the story from the slaves’ point of view, created another splash. This time it was with copyright holders who filed an injunction to stop publication. It was settled out of court, and the book became a best seller. In 2007, another sequel was published, Rhett Butler’s People, from Rhett’s point of view. Does that leave anyone out? Yes, I could write the book as one of Scarlett’s other husbands or daughters.

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My phone rang today and it was the office of  the office of Congressman Tom Cole, (R) Oklahoma, chairman of National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) . I was being nominated for the Congressional Order of Merit for my outstanding work as a small business person.  Being a public relations and marketing person, I immediately thought “This is great. I’ll get publicity and tell everyone about my business http://www.bythebookwise.com. ”

Typical of my skepticism, I immediately Googled the key words and found that, alas, I was not alone, and this was another scam. In order to get this award, I have to pledge my allegiance to stop Nancy Pelosi from ruining small businesses like mine.  Upon further investigation, I found that some have pledged to do so, since their announcement of receiving the Congressional Order of Merit is advertised in papers and online.  It does not say anywhere in their article, however, how they received this award.

My question to any legal folk out there is “Is this legal?” Can I be promised something like an honor “If” I have to pledge to help stop other person from what he/she is doing legally?If this is legal, then it surely is not ethical. I would not have to think very hard and long whether or not I would vote for an individual such as Tom Cole who has to use convoluted and unethical approaches to get support to bad mouth the other guy (gal).

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It’s easy to see how the United States is becoming more diverse and the books much wider in their subject area. The winners of this year’s National Book Critics Circle are Dominican American Junot Diaz, who took the fiction prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Harriet A. Washington, for her nonfiction entitled Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experientation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present. The winning biography is Tim Jeal’s Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer, the awarded poetry is Mary Jo Bang’s “Elegy,” and the criticism winner is Alex Ross’ “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.”

The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, is a non-profit organization consisting of approximately 600 reviewers, who would like to honor quality writing as well as communicating with one another about issues of interest. Members receive a packet that contains the NBCC’s tips and guidelines for placing book reviews in publications around the country, which includes contact information for dozens of review editors and an outline of the critics and reviews they seek.

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Here we go again. This time, the book was not even on the market for a week before it was announced that the author, Margaret B. Jones, lied about her name and her life. Instead of being a half-Native American raised by a black foster mother, the author grew up in the San Fernando Valley in California with both her white biological parents and without drugs or gang membership.

You would think that the publishing companies would do better research on their authors before spending all the time and money on these books. It makes you wonder what other memoirs on the market are not true? Any ideas?

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Remember how Oprah’s “Suggested Reading” and “Bestseller” A Million Little Pieces by James Frey turned out to be fabricated? It’s happened again with a Halocaust memoir, of all topics. How does a reader know that a memoir is true, or does it matter if it is entertaining and interesting? All memoirs have some fabricated or at least misremembered information, because the writer is developing this from recalled memories. It’s the degree of misinformation.

Frey’s book, about his horrible struggle with drug and alcohol abuse and difficult road to recovery, was complete with exaggerations, embellishments and lies, such as reporting  that he had beat up a police officer and spent three months in jail and being involved with a fatal car accident.

Now, publisher Jane Daniel claims her 1997 book Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, about a young girl fleeing the Nazis and living with wolves is a fraud.  The book was published with an excellent blurb from Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, author of the Holocaust memoir Night. Daniel published the book, although the Holocaust scholars who reviewed it for her said they had serious doubts and suggested a number of changes. She ignored their comments.

What happened next is a story by itself. Once the book was published, lawsuits came flying from the ghost writer and author at Daniel. Then there were million dollar penalties and even jail time. Daniel, penniless, decided to find out if the story was fabricated. Now that the book is reported as a fraud, she is trying to get her money back with another lawsuit!

Holocaust scholars are livid that someone would exploit such an atrocity for financial gain. They comment that its as bad as saying the Holocaust never happened. Fray’s fakery did the same thing for the millions of people who suffer with addiction. It’s a sad state of affairs when people are scrupulous enough to profit from others’ pain and death.

How do you feel about this? Can a memoir be faked? Does it matter?

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The British trade magazine, The Bookseller, is waiting for your vote for the Diagram Prize that honors the world’s oddest book title. You can cast your vote at www.thebookseller.com for one of these six final entries, which were submitted by publishers, bookstore employees and librarians worldwide. The nominees are:  I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen by Jasper McCutcheon; How to Write a How to Write Book by Brian Paddock; Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues by Catharine A. MacKinnon; Cheese Problems Solved edited by P. L. H. McSweeney; If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs by Big Boom; and People Who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Doctor Feelgood by Dee Gordon. The winner will be announced on March 28. This contest has been held since 1978, when the winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.

Do you have a title to suggest? Which of these do you believe should win and why? I’d love to hear your responses.

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In snowy, cold Vermont, if Northshire Bookstore does not have the book a reader wants to snuggle with in bed, then it’s possible to try out the Espresso Book Machine (EBM). This bookstore became the fifth location worldwide and the only commercial location to have this print-on-demand machine.  The bookstore is testing it out and will provide feedback regarding the interface. The bookstore owner said even the largest booksellers can only house about 100,000 titles in their stores. (But, we all know that you can get many more online!) The print-on- demand machine would make millions of titles accessible to the consumer. 

Who said books are dying out? They are just changing their form. At least for this generation and surely a couple to come, readers will have many different choices for books:  Go to the local library or bookstore, purchase a book online at a bookstore like BookWise, download a book online or at the bookstore, read an e-book online or with a viewer. Whatever the special way, books are here to stay. 

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Now’s the time to read over some of the news and trivia books about the Academy Awards. Test your trivia with  So You Think You Know Oscar: Test Your Academy Award IQ. If it is the movie scores you love, then get 20 Years of Original Oscar Winning Songs.

The crime book Oscar Season by Mary McNamara , which has had quite good reviews, is set in and around Los Angeles during the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards. Juliette Greyson, the director of public relations at the swanky Pinnacle Hotel, is preparing for another wild Oscar season (the month between the nominations announcement and the awards ceremony) when someone murders her ex-husband, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Josh Singer. With a reporter and a young starlet nominated for best actress already dead, Greyson and cancer-ridden megastar Michael O’Connor join forces to uncover the mastermind behind what the media is calling the Oscar curse. Featuring a plethora of self-absorbed actors, comedians, publicists and producers as possible suspects, McNamara’s self-assured, tabloid-fueled narrative—simultaneously sexy, scandalous and suspenseful—will appeal to fans of authors like Jackie Collins and Harold Robbins. McNamara insightfully portrays life on the other side of the velvet rope—and it’s far from glamorous.

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