My Side Project - Ebooks From TV

geniodiabolico · 09-09-2010, 08:30 AM

Hey all, I hope this post is correctly placed and kosher. If not, I have a faith an admin will delete it.

I've been in the ebook world for a long time, working at startup JStream/Infinite Ink in Portland OR in 1998 when mobile reading devices were Palms and Rocket books. Earlier this summer I created a blog called Ebooks From TV - http://www.ebooksfromtv.com . The goal of this thing to is to blog for every single book author that 1) appears on either national TV or local TV with embeddable online video and that 2) has an ebook version of their books out within the last year. I'm not near that goal yet but I'm always trying to get closer.

I'm also as reader agnostic as I can be. I've got links in there to Kindle versions, Nook, Kobo and also to the Powells bookstore depending on availability. I have scripts that gather the links and each post should have all the links to all available stores from the above list.

The project came out of a bar conversation at the Balticon science fiction convention. I was describing my book buying dynamic from watching TV which was if I saw an author that seemed interesting on The Colbert Report or The Daily Show, I would either buy their book for my Kindle right then or never think about the book again. Someone suggested "why not a blog that collects all those resources so you can come back to them easily?" Why not indeed? So I came home and built the damn thing. I hope people find it useful.

I'm always looking for feedback on shows covered and readers supported. If there is something the site could do to make it more useful to you, let me know and I'll see if I can do that. Kobo support went online recently because of reader requests and I'm all ears for other suggestions. suggestions@ebooksfromtv.com is where to send those, as well as pointers to local TV author appearances you think are blog worthy.

Thanks all. Keep on reading!

AdamV · 09-09-2010, 10:35 AM

it looks to me like you are trying to build your page rank using this forums...

geniodiabolico · 09-09-2010, 12:36 PM

I'm trying to let the community I built it for - people who use e-readers - know that it exists as a resource. I tried to fill in my back story to make the post obviously not spammy. What more can I do?

arcadata · 09-10-2010, 04:55 AM

Funny, when I read the thread title, I thought you were referring to ebooks that are based on TV series, like those CSI, Monk etc series. Now, that would be a niche blog that would interest me.

queentess · 09-10-2010, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamV

it looks to me like you are trying to build your page rank using this forums...

geniodiabolico's sharing an e-book-related website with us. Perhaps you don't belong in the Deals/Resources forum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcadata

Funny, when I read the thread title, I thought you were referring to ebooks that are based on TV series, like those CSI, Monk etc series. Now, that would be a niche blog that would interest me.

That's exactly what I thought!

geniodiabolico · 09-10-2010, 10:18 PM

Hey, thanks for getting my back, friends. Seriously, if y'all would be interested in such a thing I can try adding that in. Say once a week (probably on the weekends because they are relatively slow for talk shows), I could make a post about one TV show and present links to all the ebooks related to it. I know mystery writer Max Alan Collins (who I am a fan of) has written a lot of CSI books.

I'll create a category for it and if that really is the only thing on the site you are interested in, you could subscribe to the RSS feed for only those posts. Sound good? Vote for which series y'all care about in this thread, and I'll start with the most popular ones.

I've also been working on my information gathering scripts to be able to get more shows covered. Some shows and/or networks don't publish guest info to the service I pay for, so I have to do other stuff to collect those. For the shows that required extra steps to find guests, they tended to blogged much less frequently. Just today I put in a way to scrape the Charlie Rose and Larry King websites which will mean their guests get represented better without me remembering to look them up. After a busy day at my job, sometimes the energy wanes and I just never get to sites I have to deal with by hand.

Thanks again! Let me know about shows.

BillSmithBooks · 09-12-2010, 10:59 AM

I agree that this seems like a really neat resource with an imprecise name.

My first impression based on the name (ebooksfromtv) was that the site would offer prose versions of TV episodes or fan fic-style extensions of established TV shows.

Might I suggest you go to namecheap.com and shell out $9.95 for:

EbookAuthorsOnTV.com

It is still available and a little more "to the point" about the site's purpose. You can set up the URL above to redirect to your website (ebooksfromtv.com) at no charge, so you can promote both URLs in your marketing efforts.

I think this resource could become really popular!! Keep it up.

(Not a shill for NameCheap.com, just a very satisfied customer. Cheap, reliable, none of the hassles I've heard about from GoDaddy.com customers. I'm sure there are other domain name companies out there that other MobileRead.com members could recommend if you want to try another company.)

geniodiabolico · 09-14-2010, 01:02 PM

Thanks for the input and feedback, all. I appreciate the enthusiasm and ideas. For the time being I'm going to keep things as they are. I really like the simplicity of "Ebooks from TV", kind of like "Snakes on a Plane." I'd rather give it room to grow with a broad title than to dial really down into being completely on the nose to where it is today - which may not be exactly where it is in 6 months. I never say never, and I'll keep this possibility at the ready.

Thanks again.

09-09-2010, 08:30 AM	#1
geniodiabolico Member Posts: 16 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Conway SC Device: Kindle 2	My Side Project - Ebooks From TV Hey all, I hope this post is correctly placed and kosher. If not, I have a faith an admin will delete it. I've been in the ebook world for a long time, working at startup JStream/Infinite Ink in Portland OR in 1998 when mobile reading devices were Palms and Rocket books. Earlier this summer I created a blog called Ebooks From TV - http://www.ebooksfromtv.com . The goal of this thing to is to blog for every single book author that 1) appears on either national TV or local TV with embeddable online video and that 2) has an ebook version of their books out within the last year. I'm not near that goal yet but I'm always trying to get closer. I'm also as reader agnostic as I can be. I've got links in there to Kindle versions, Nook, Kobo and also to the Powells bookstore depending on availability. I have scripts that gather the links and each post should have all the links to all available stores from the above list. The project came out of a bar conversation at the Balticon science fiction convention. I was describing my book buying dynamic from watching TV which was if I saw an author that seemed interesting on The Colbert Report or The Daily Show, I would either buy their book for my Kindle right then or never think about the book again. Someone suggested "why not a blog that collects all those resources so you can come back to them easily?" Why not indeed? So I came home and built the damn thing. I hope people find it useful. I'm always looking for feedback on shows covered and readers supported. If there is something the site could do to make it more useful to you, let me know and I'll see if I can do that. Kobo support went online recently because of reader requests and I'm all ears for other suggestions. suggestions@ebooksfromtv.com is where to send those, as well as pointers to local TV author appearances you think are blog worthy. Thanks all. Keep on reading!

09-12-2010, 10:59 AM	#7
BillSmithBooks Padawan Learner Posts: 243 Karma: 1085815 Join Date: May 2009 Location: www.OutlawGalaxy.com, Foothills of NY's Adirondack mountains Device: My PC...using Puppy Linux (FBReader, Calibre, Kindle Cloud Reader,	Neat resource...new name? I agree that this seems like a really neat resource with an imprecise name. My first impression based on the name (ebooksfromtv) was that the site would offer prose versions of TV episodes or fan fic-style extensions of established TV shows. Might I suggest you go to namecheap.com and shell out $9.95 for: EbookAuthorsOnTV.com It is still available and a little more "to the point" about the site's purpose. You can set up the URL above to redirect to your website (ebooksfromtv.com) at no charge, so you can promote both URLs in your marketing efforts. I think this resource could become really popular!! Keep it up. (Not a shill for NameCheap.com, just a very satisfied customer. Cheap, reliable, none of the hassles I've heard about from GoDaddy.com customers. I'm sure there are other domain name companies out there that other MobileRead.com members could recommend if you want to try another company.)

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09-09-2010, 10:35 AM	#2
AdamV Censored Posts: 105 Karma: 20724 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Warsaw, Poland Device: Kobo Aura HD (brown), Asus DR 900	it looks to me like you are trying to build your page rank using this forums...

09-09-2010, 12:36 PM	#3
geniodiabolico Member Posts: 16 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Conway SC Device: Kindle 2	I'm trying to let the community I built it for - people who use e-readers - know that it exists as a resource. I tried to fill in my back story to make the post obviously not spammy. What more can I do?

09-10-2010, 04:55 AM	#4
arcadata Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,230 Karma: 4651787 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle, Kindle Fire, iPad, iPod Touch, Sony PRS-350	Funny, when I read the thread title, I thought you were referring to ebooks that are based on TV series, like those CSI, Monk etc series. Now, that would be a niche blog that would interest me.

09-10-2010, 10:18 PM	#6
geniodiabolico Member Posts: 16 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Conway SC Device: Kindle 2	Hey, thanks for getting my back, friends. Seriously, if y'all would be interested in such a thing I can try adding that in. Say once a week (probably on the weekends because they are relatively slow for talk shows), I could make a post about one TV show and present links to all the ebooks related to it. I know mystery writer Max Alan Collins (who I am a fan of) has written a lot of CSI books. I'll create a category for it and if that really is the only thing on the site you are interested in, you could subscribe to the RSS feed for only those posts. Sound good? Vote for which series y'all care about in this thread, and I'll start with the most popular ones. I've also been working on my information gathering scripts to be able to get more shows covered. Some shows and/or networks don't publish guest info to the service I pay for, so I have to do other stuff to collect those. For the shows that required extra steps to find guests, they tended to blogged much less frequently. Just today I put in a way to scrape the Charlie Rose and Larry King websites which will mean their guests get represented better without me remembering to look them up. After a busy day at my job, sometimes the energy wanes and I just never get to sites I have to deal with by hand. Thanks again! Let me know about shows.

09-14-2010, 01:02 PM	#8
geniodiabolico Member Posts: 16 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Conway SC Device: Kindle 2	Thanks for the input and feedback, all. I appreciate the enthusiasm and ideas. For the time being I'm going to keep things as they are. I really like the simplicity of "Ebooks from TV", kind of like "Snakes on a Plane." I'd rather give it room to grow with a broad title than to dial really down into being completely on the nose to where it is today - which may not be exactly where it is in 6 months. I never say never, and I'll keep this possibility at the ready. Thanks again.

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