iPad losing out in eBook sales to Kindle

There's no question that Apple has been phenomenally successful in selling phones, tablets, and increasingly desktops/laptops. But in ebooks? Not so much. I've long stated that the iPad is a fantastic device but not suitable for reading eBooks...at least in the long term. The backlit screen can cause eye strain when reading pages and pages of unbroken text, whilst the Kindl's eInk display was made for the job.



 Apple continues to have far fewer titles and far fewer sales. This, despite a relatively strong start from iBook sales and some evidence that iBook sales are growingt. .

The problem? IBooks are only available on Apple devices, whereas Kindle ebooks are available everywhere - or nearly so. Kindle ebook sales dominate iBooks even on Apple devices.
So much so that author J.A. Konrath reports a 60:1 Kindle:iBook sales ratio.
This makes sense in the multi-device world in which we live. As much as we may want to be all-Apple, all of the time, the reality is that at some point we're going to use a non-Apple device, and that moment is the when Amazon's Kindle model makes so much more sense. Kindle ebooks follow the reader everywhere. On their Android device. On their iOS device. Even on their PC .

Apple's strategy of "buy with Apple, use with Apple" doesn't make sense in a world of choice. An ebook belongs to Apple if it only works on Apple devices. That same ebook, if a Kindle ebook, effectively belongs to the user - no matter what the actual legal rights - if the user can access their content on whatever device they happens to buy. Though it must be pointed out that the Kindle still doesn't work with the popular ePub format. Send an ePub file to your Kindle via Amazon merely entails turning the file into a PDF and PDF's are not nearly as versatile as ePub of the Kindle's Mobi format - however the free open source Calibre software does a great job of converting ePub into Kindle's mobi format. So it makes no sense for the Kindle to start supporting ePub with a future update.

It's sometimes said that people won't pay for sync, and that they don't value choice. Kindle's ebook sales compared to Apple's iBook sales suggests otherwise. Syncing across different devices matters. Choice matters.

Elisabeth Sladen - RIP

It's sad news that Elisabeth Sladen has died at the age of only 63 from cancer - best known as Sarah Jane Smith, companion to Doctor Who she is perhaps the show's most recognisable female character and in recent years had starred in the spin off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was Sladen who turned the role of sidekick into star and she formed a great double act, first with third doctor, Jon Pertwee and then with the fourth, Tom Baker.

I didn't even now the actress had been ill and when I wrote the previous post, reviewing the new DVD of Planet of the Spiders, I was unaware the actress had died. I tend to shut myself out from the news when I'm working on a new novel and I'm unsure how well this was reported in the press.

The actress made her first (uncredited) screen appearance in the 1965 film musical Ferry Cross the Mersey, Sladen combined weekly repertory theatre work with occasional television and radio roles, including a six-episode stint as a barmaid in Coronation Street. Further television work followed, including parts in Z-Cars, Doomwatch and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

In 1973, Doctor Who producer Barry Letts was searching for a new actress to play The Doctor's companion, to replace the departing Katy Manning. After a recommendation from Z-Cars producer Ron Craddock, Letts met with Sladen and eventually cast her as investigate journalist Sarah Jane Smith. She made her first appearance as the character later that year in four-part adventure 'The Time Warrior'.

She remained with the show for three years, becoming a favourite with fans of the show. However she was always a family person first and she went into semi retirement after the birth of her daughter in 1985. And of course in 2006 she made a spectacular return to her best known role alongside yet another Doctor, David Tennant. She would appear again in the two-part fourth series finale 'The Stolen Earth' and 'Journey's End' and also made a brief cameo in Tennant's Who swansong 'The End of Time'.

When the return of Sarah Jane proved popular with long-term fans and new viewers alike, Sladen was approached to star in a new spinoff series, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Created by then Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies, the CBBC series first aired as a 60-minute special on New Year's Day 2007. Four full series followed and the show proved a hit with both audiences and critics, most recently winning the award for 'Children's Drama' at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards. Sladen appeared alongside the newest Doctor, Matt Smith, in the most recent series, and a fifth run was in the works at the time of her death. The actress had been battling cancer and is survived by her husband of 43 years, Brian Miller, and daughter Sadie.

Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders and that bug eyed interloper

THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO ELISABETH SLADEN 1948 - 2011



Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders was the story that stopped me watching Doctor Who for many years - that's not a great way to start off a review but let me explain. It's not that this is a particularly bad episode, nor do I suffer from arachnophobia - well, no more than anybody. I can get a spider out of the bath and everything. Mind you those ones with big furry legs do creep me out a little.

Planet of the Spiders, a six part story, was originally broadcast between May and June 1974 - I was eight years old at the time and had only discovered the show the year before. I had no knowledge that any actor other than Jon Pertwee had ever played the Doctor, I don't think I'd ever heard of that regeneration thingie the producers use when they need to replace the lead actor. To me Jon Pertwee was the one and only Doctor Who, and yet at the end of this story the dashing Jon Pertwee changed into the rather goofy looking Tom Baker. I must have been puzzled, couldn't figure out what was happening but I do remember being horrified - Jon Pertwee was the Doctor not the bulging eyed intruder named Tom Baker. It was Jon Pertwee I'd watched battling the DALEKS, Autons and Dinosaurs and yet I was supposed to believe that this newcomer who looked kinda scary was now the Doctor. I wasn't swallowing it and as a result I turned away from the show and didn't return until Peter Davidson replaced Tom Baker. I think I must have been a particularly stubborn eight year old and couldn't forgive this gurning new face for replacing the real Doctor - I also remember not being amused when the real Doctor Who later turned up on the other channel (there were only two in those days - well ignoring BB2 which was beyond me at that age ) as a scarecrow. I couldn't understand why Pertwee would prefer wearing the rags of Worzel Gummidge to the frilly shirts of Doctor Who. It made no sense and I switched my allegiance to Star Trek - after all, I reasoned, it wasn't as if anyone other than William Shatner would ever play Captain Kirk, nor would he ever jump ship and turn up as some sort of uniformed cop. No, I must have figured, I was safe with Star Trek.

Of course years later, watching the Tom Baker episodes on video tape I realised that Tom's era contained some of the best ever episodes. But the fact remains that Jon Pertwee's Doctor was the first time I'd ever experienced the show and even now, Pertwee remains my favourite Doctor with Pat Troughton whom I never saw on his original run coming a close second. Mind you I have revised my opinion on Tom Baker and think he did some great stuff in the show, but deep down, where I'm still that eight year old, that old grudge is still burning strong. The regeneration scene is embedded in this post.

And so onto the new DVD release.

The thing with the BBC's classic Doctor Who DVD releases is that even if the story is not one of the better ones, the added extras are always superb. And this time it's a double whammy because, corny lines and dated effects aside, Planet of the Spiders is a damn good story. Or at least it is, to my mind. More fervent Who fans may have a different opinion.

The second disc is where the real interest comes in - rammed full of bonus material - among other goodies there's a commentary by Elizabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin, Barry Letts and Terrance dicks, an interesting documentary looking at Jon Pertwee's era as the Doctor, The Planet of the Spiders omnibus edition, material from the radio times and a coming soon trailer.

RELATED - The new series of Doctor Who starts this coming weekend in the UK and I'm in one episode - can't tell anything about it yet but I do crop up this season as a -CENSORED. Once the episode airs I'll tell you all about what was a great day's shooting.

101 days and counting

My new novel, The Ballad of Delta Rose is now available for pre-order from The Book Depository - this includes free worldwide delivery.

Find it HERE

Writing the West

Western author, Charle Whipple is interview over on the excellent Booklife

Calibre - if you own an eReader you need this.

I've been using his free software on both the Kindle and Sony eReader and I must say it is an absolute must have if you own an eReader - It exists to organize, convert and even transfer your ebook collection to and from your ebook reader.

That's not all it does: you can use it to download RSS feeds and convert them into a format for reading on your eBook reader. You can even configure it as a web server, allowing you to access your books from any Internet-connected browser. It'll even convert between formats - ePub for the Sony and Mobi for the Kindle. Another nifty feature is that it will correct badly formatted eBooks-indent the paragraph, remove headers and everything.

And whilst it's interface may seem a little baffling at first it is simple to use and only needs an hour or so of use before it becomes second nature. Think of it as iTunes for eBooks - it's that simple.



The process starts by letting the program organise your e-books library. Point calibre at your files and it'll quickly (and almost automatically) build a database around your collection, downloading metadata like covers for extra visual appeal. You can then sort and search your books by title, author, date published, rating, custom tags and more, making it quick and easy to find whatever you need.
Calibre can then display your book, too (as long as it's not DRM-protected), with an integrated viewer that handles all the main formats and supports features like table of contents, CSS, printing, searching, embedded fonts and more.

You also get a comprehensive conversion tool that will convert documents in all the main e-book formats (CBZ, CBR, CBC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, TCR, TXT) to any of twelve standard formats (EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, TCR, TXT).

And there are many surprising extras. Calibre can automatically fetch news from websites or RSS feeds, for instance, then format the results into an eBook. A powerful sync tool will work with many different devices, from dedicated e-book readers like the Kindle to Android phones and the iPhone. And the program even includes an integrated web server that allows you to access your e-book collection from a browser, anywhere in the world.


Download the free tool HERE  where you will also find a demo that show the software in action.

Shit you didn't know you needed to know

This is the kind of shit that you don't really need to know, but I thought I'd tell you anyway.

Squirrels can climb trees faster than they can run on the ground.

Squirrels cannot carry or contract the rabies virus.

The only three US President who have faced impeachment all have names that are euphemisms for penis - Dick Nixon, Willie Clinton and Andrew Johnson.

George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.

Adolf Hitler was the Times Magazine's Man of the Year in 1938

Thomas Edison once saved a boy from the path of a locomotive.


Sigmund Freud had a fear of ferns.

Napolean Bonaparte was terrified of cats.

Ben Franklin wanted the turkey not the eagle to be the US mascot.

Judy Garland's real name was Francis Gumm

Andy Garcia was a Siamese or conjoined twin.

Alfred Hitchcock did not have a belly button.

Charley Chaplin once won third prize in a Charley Chaplin lookalike contest.