A masochist tries to find the good stuff in the world of print on demand publishing. You have to wonder why she does it, and wonder that she’s consistently interesting.
Get behind the scenes to stay ahead of the curve
Access by readers to the text while it’s being written and edited. I’m not sure David Foster Wallace would go for it (though on second thought, maybe he’ll get all over this—more footnotes!), but it’s a pretty cool idea for tech books.
Not for the faint of heart.
Some books title themselves, but other titles are the result of a prolonged author agony (and the fallout agony of anyone nearby during the naming process). The clever folks behind this website have put together a bit of software that analyzes titles for their inherent bestselling qualities based on years of the NY Times best seller list. Good fun, at the very least.
Amazon is offering author pages that the authors themselves can contribute to. Like similar pages at publisher websites, these efforts are limited even when the amounts of information allowed are extensive. A booknoise.net site enables an author to craft her or his own message about the book, using all the resources she or he may want to bring to bear.
That (sometimes) alternative focus is what makes a booknoise.net site stand out, and helps media outlets and readers find books they might miss on the big sites. Still, if given the chance, getting your own author page at Amazon is a no brainer.