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May 25

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Bill Willingham and Down the Mysterly River


I’ve been a fan of Bill Willingham’s writing since the first issue of Fables, so I’ve been looking forward to his prose novel Down the Mysterly River for quite awhile.

Here are some of the things he said today:

  • biggest difference between comics and prose, [time] commitment needed to write a novel much greater than for a comic script
  • “Villains should be villainous.”
  • Motivation for writing prose is to have complete control over the story.
  • “The need to shut up [in expository writing] is much greater in prose [than comic scripts].”

May 25

Google eBooks Session


Forgive me for the editing of this post, but I’m typing it on my phone at Google’s eBook session.

Listening to: Scott Dougall, director, product management, from Google

  • Google positioning Google eBooks as “all about choice”.
  • 15 million Google Books
  • 3 million free Google eBooks
  • cross-platform accessibility
  • eBook sales tripled @ Google over last year
  • 7k publishers
  • 4 mln books found – 100 mln pgs read = 25 pgs read per book on avg?
  • most eBooks found via web, read within apps
  • Google Bookstore becoming destination and mobile store gaining traction at cost of search
  • 250 resellers in the US
  • indie booksellers getting creative: bar codes and purchasing within store to mobile apps
  • “higher priced” nonfiction (eg medical texts) outselling fiction among Google eBooks
  • in-store events to promote eBooks
  • affiliate program for bloggers slated for this year
  • bundling (digital/print) not in the works
  • hinting at book rental play (Netflix model)