Lawrence Dagstine: “Digital Stories Coming Soon…”

It is with great pleasure that I announce a couple of things.   One, now that the writing population is slowly starting to embrace the digital age, this site will not only act as a homepage and plug-page for magazines and upcoming science fiction, fantasy and horror venues, but also be a store.  You will be able to buy and then download short stories, novelettes, and novellas — most brand new, no reprints — from yours truly.  I am open to further freelancing, networking, and marketing with other authors if they too would like to be a part of this store (like trading purchase info links).  I advertise you, you advertise me.  I sell your work, you sell mine.  With that said, stay tuned to this site between now and mostly 2010.  The future may be digital, but it still looks good from where I’m at.

Alas, print is dying...

Alas, print is dying...

This site will also act as the occasional home of the “short story review”, the science fiction media news source and, later down the road, a new and unique kind of cross-marketing, branding-upon-branding, product placement and more.  To be honest, I’m surprised most bigger houses haven’t jumped on  a similar bandwagon yet.  Who knows, maybe it’s because the economy is still shoddy.  It’s what will also hopefully help fund the new venture come 2011.  I’d have to say that 2010 will also see an end to a majority of all print-related periodicals in “genre” featuring my stories in it.  I’ve been informed that 2011 would be a sort of conversion stage.  Or a few months after Kindle 3 comes out and prices on readers drop.  Whichever comes first.  Oh well.  However…

The best part of all this is you will be able to go to places like Mobipocket, Fictionwise, and Amazon.  You will be able to own my works on such reading devices as the Sony eReader, Kindle, Jetbook, iTouch, and so much more.  Matter of fact, my first e-title will be debuting shortly.   So stay tuned to the tab at the top of this page, entitled: “eBooks & Kindle”.

Thank You,

Lawrence R. Dagstine

Edited to Add: Fresh Blood Contest also coming soon…

Amazon’s Kindle 2: “The Wave of the Future…”

Ten to fifteen years ago, a new technology was developed called print-on-demand (POD).  Publishers and small authors alike who didn’t know any better explored it as a means to getting their works into print.  The Web, fairly new by publishing standards, helped become a vehicle for this phenomenon.  Back in those days you didn’t have to worry about garages or basements filled with over 500 or more titles not being sold.  No, you could order two or three at a time without having to sweat. Vanity presses took the most advantage of this, but now anyone and their mother can become a writer-turned-printer-turned-publisher (if you get the gist).  Still, no matter how far POD has come, no matter how much it has been utilized and what it is capable of, media in the form of a virtual entity will eventually – no, I’m sorry, inevitably – reign supreme.

Amazon’s Kindle 2: http://www.amazon.com/gp/…548931&pf_rd_i=507846

So toward the end of February 2009, Amazon’s new eReading gadget, KINDLE 2 makes its stunning debut.  You can go and preorder it now for a mere $359.00 – kind of steep, if you ask me – or you could wait five to ten years until every book, magazine, and news periodical known to man makes the switch regardless.  And that goes for the unknown or semi-popular ones, too. Think about it: saving trees and saving money, even saving shelf space unlike ever before, while being able to listen to music, read your favorite blogs, and go wireless on buses and subways or the road.  Amazon and Sony know what they’re doing.  In these tough times, where publishing companies are laying off hundreds if not thousands, where pro and non-pro magazines are folding left and right or going on hiatus, companies like Amazon are taking small steps through the cracks into what I call the ‘future of written word-related media’.

E-publications are more cost-effective than print.  So get with the program now, before it’s too late.  I’ll miss hardcovers and paperbacks like every other reader or writer from my generation. But if we don’t assimilate now, we may be missing out on a mighty fine resurgence.  Only in a different format. 

What do you think of the Kindle 2, or eBooks and eReaders in general? 

Come, take a KINDLE poll with me…

Cheers,

Lawrence R. Dagstine