THE TIME-CONSUMING, ALL-CONSUMING MAKEOVER
If this blog seems a bit sporadic at the moment, the reason is in the picture above.
Yes, that is our house.
Normal service will be resumed in due course...
...as they say.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
The Digital Middle
How low should you go when pricing an eBook?
Digital Book World reckons the money is in the middle.
Draw a horizontal line and write “Free” on the left side and the number “$9.99” on the right side:
Free represents content that readers can get at no charge, such as book samples, blog posts, free resources, etc. The number $9.99 represents the typical price used to sell digital e-books. To date, most publishers and authors concentrate their efforts on either end of the line. They give away free content to promote their titles and entice readers. Then, they charge consumers around $9.99 or more to purchase a digital e-book.
Notice the wide gap between free and $9.99. I call it the “Digital Middle,” and I believe there are millions of dollars to be made in this middle space. However, this money can’t be realized until publishers and authors stop fixating on long-form content on the left side of the line. The 250-page trade book (and e-book) can still remain the basis for publishing fiction stories and non-fiction ideas. But, the growth opportunity is in the digital middle using shorter-form content at various price points.
Someone is already making millions in this middle space…guess who?
Amazon is known as a company that rarely turns a profit. Yet, they’ve found profit in the digital middle with their Kindle Singles division. They don’t sell $9.99 e-books. Instead, they sell original short-form content at prices ranging from $.99 to $4.99. Content length is between 5,000 – 30,000 words and the topics include interviews, short stories, memoirs, humor, essays, etc. According to the New York Times, the Kindle Singles division has sold over five million units and made over ten million dollars in less than three years – and they did it profitably!
Shorter pieces? That's an idea. I notice bestselling authors like Michael Connolly and Lee Child are doing it, while others club together to put out cheapish collections.
Hit the link at the top to read more of the interesting argument.
What interests me still more, though, is why the commentators concentrate on fiction in their analyses. How is nonfiction doing, I wonder?
Digital Book World reckons the money is in the middle.
Draw a horizontal line and write “Free” on the left side and the number “$9.99” on the right side:
Free represents content that readers can get at no charge, such as book samples, blog posts, free resources, etc. The number $9.99 represents the typical price used to sell digital e-books. To date, most publishers and authors concentrate their efforts on either end of the line. They give away free content to promote their titles and entice readers. Then, they charge consumers around $9.99 or more to purchase a digital e-book.
Notice the wide gap between free and $9.99. I call it the “Digital Middle,” and I believe there are millions of dollars to be made in this middle space. However, this money can’t be realized until publishers and authors stop fixating on long-form content on the left side of the line. The 250-page trade book (and e-book) can still remain the basis for publishing fiction stories and non-fiction ideas. But, the growth opportunity is in the digital middle using shorter-form content at various price points.
Someone is already making millions in this middle space…guess who?
Amazon is known as a company that rarely turns a profit. Yet, they’ve found profit in the digital middle with their Kindle Singles division. They don’t sell $9.99 e-books. Instead, they sell original short-form content at prices ranging from $.99 to $4.99. Content length is between 5,000 – 30,000 words and the topics include interviews, short stories, memoirs, humor, essays, etc. According to the New York Times, the Kindle Singles division has sold over five million units and made over ten million dollars in less than three years – and they did it profitably!
Shorter pieces? That's an idea. I notice bestselling authors like Michael Connolly and Lee Child are doing it, while others club together to put out cheapish collections.
Hit the link at the top to read more of the interesting argument.
What interests me still more, though, is why the commentators concentrate on fiction in their analyses. How is nonfiction doing, I wonder?
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Win a signed copy of an award-winning mystery
Want a treasure in your bookshelf?
Entering is simple. To win a signed copy of a winning novel, all you have to do is 'like' the Ngaio Marsh Award Facebook page. Nothing else. Easy as. The more entries there are (ie likes on the page), the more personally autographed copies of the book will be given away.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Saturday quote
Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed
-- Charles M. Schulz
Friday, November 22, 2013
Friday Quote
I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of sound made by the pig
-- Alfred Hitchcock
Cellphones on planes
NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!
The Washington Post has just zapped the news to me that it is being considered that cellphones should be used on planes.
On planes while they are up in the air with a lot of helpless passengers on board.
Right now, I respect people who turn off their phones when they sit down at a restaurant table, and do the same when invited to dinner at my house. They have probably formed the suspicion that they won't be sitting at a table with me again if they don't.
But now it looks as if flying in the US is going to be a journey into hell.
The nation’s top telecom regulator will propose allowing passengers to make cell phone calls and use their data plans while on an airplane, officials said Thursday.
The proposed rule change by the Federal Communications Commission would allow phone use once a plane reaches 10,000 feet. Restrictions would still be in place during takeoffs and landings.
The agency’s commission is set to discuss the proposal in their upcoming December meeting. The new rule has the backing of Tom Wheeler, the FCC’s new chairman, who was sworn in just weeks ago.
“Modern technologies can deliver mobile services in the air safely and reliably, and the time is right to review our outdated and restrictive rules,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working closely with my colleagues, the FAA, and the airline industry on this review of new mobile opportunities for consumers.”
Wheeler, a Democrat, would need the support of the majority of the five-member commission, which has three Democrats and two Republicans.
The commission could vote on the matter after a public commenting period. The proposal does not need congressional approval.
The FCC made a similar proposal in 2004, but it was dropped three years later in the face of opposition from flight attendants and other groups worried about the distractions of constantly ringing phones and people talking on their devices while others are trying to sleep.
Judging by the stream of furious comments, the public still feels the same way. A sampling:
For the love of god, no. Just, no. Flying can be difficult enough without sitting next to someone for four hours while he yammers on: "So now we're over Idaho. . . . Yeah, it's cloudy. . . . Oh, there's a river!. . . . I guess we'll be on time. . . . More clouds. . . ."
Ugh. That annoying person yelling into his phone at the gate is about to be the annoying person yelling into his phone for 5 hours on the flight to LA.
U.S. should also give us a right "to punch someone annoying on the face" during flights if they bother us.
"opposition from flight attendants and other groups"
Yeah, other groups ... like passengers!!!
Terrible idea. Allowing broader use of electronic devices was great, but this has a real possibility of leading to confrontations in the cabin. Multiply the annoyance you feel at hearing that inane conversation on the bus for 15 minutes times the length of a cross country flight. Things will get ugly
There is an anecdote in Dostoevsky about a man and a woman riding in a 19th century coach. The man is smoking a cigar, and the woman has a lap-dog. The woman reaches over, grabs the cigar, and throws it out the window. So what does the gentleman do? You guessed it! As I said, this is from Dostoevsky, but it is truly worthy of W.C. Fields
NO PHONE CALLS! You want to see air rage on steroids? Bring it on!
The Washington Post has just zapped the news to me that it is being considered that cellphones should be used on planes.
On planes while they are up in the air with a lot of helpless passengers on board.
Right now, I respect people who turn off their phones when they sit down at a restaurant table, and do the same when invited to dinner at my house. They have probably formed the suspicion that they won't be sitting at a table with me again if they don't.
But now it looks as if flying in the US is going to be a journey into hell.
The nation’s top telecom regulator will propose allowing passengers to make cell phone calls and use their data plans while on an airplane, officials said Thursday.
The proposed rule change by the Federal Communications Commission would allow phone use once a plane reaches 10,000 feet. Restrictions would still be in place during takeoffs and landings.
The agency’s commission is set to discuss the proposal in their upcoming December meeting. The new rule has the backing of Tom Wheeler, the FCC’s new chairman, who was sworn in just weeks ago.
“Modern technologies can deliver mobile services in the air safely and reliably, and the time is right to review our outdated and restrictive rules,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working closely with my colleagues, the FAA, and the airline industry on this review of new mobile opportunities for consumers.”
Wheeler, a Democrat, would need the support of the majority of the five-member commission, which has three Democrats and two Republicans.
The commission could vote on the matter after a public commenting period. The proposal does not need congressional approval.
The FCC made a similar proposal in 2004, but it was dropped three years later in the face of opposition from flight attendants and other groups worried about the distractions of constantly ringing phones and people talking on their devices while others are trying to sleep.
Judging by the stream of furious comments, the public still feels the same way. A sampling:
For the love of god, no. Just, no. Flying can be difficult enough without sitting next to someone for four hours while he yammers on: "So now we're over Idaho. . . . Yeah, it's cloudy. . . . Oh, there's a river!. . . . I guess we'll be on time. . . . More clouds. . . ."
Ugh. That annoying person yelling into his phone at the gate is about to be the annoying person yelling into his phone for 5 hours on the flight to LA.
U.S. should also give us a right "to punch someone annoying on the face" during flights if they bother us.
"opposition from flight attendants and other groups"
Yeah, other groups ... like passengers!!!
Terrible idea. Allowing broader use of electronic devices was great, but this has a real possibility of leading to confrontations in the cabin. Multiply the annoyance you feel at hearing that inane conversation on the bus for 15 minutes times the length of a cross country flight. Things will get ugly
There is an anecdote in Dostoevsky about a man and a woman riding in a 19th century coach. The man is smoking a cigar, and the woman has a lap-dog. The woman reaches over, grabs the cigar, and throws it out the window. So what does the gentleman do? You guessed it! As I said, this is from Dostoevsky, but it is truly worthy of W.C. Fields
NO PHONE CALLS! You want to see air rage on steroids? Bring it on!
Fourth marriage
The local TV station was interviewing an 80-year-old lady because she had just gotten married for the fourth time.
The interviewer asked her questions about her life, about what it felt like to be marrying again at 80, and then about her new husband's occupation.
"He's a funeral director," she answered.
"Interesting," the newsman thought, then asked her if she wouldn't mind telling him a little about her first three husbands and what they did for a living.
She paused for a few moments, needing time to reflect on all those years. After a short time, a smile came to her face and she revealed that she had first married a banker when she was in her 20's, a circus ringmaster when in her 40's, a preacher when in her 60's, and now - in her 80's - a funeral director.
The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and asked why she had married four men with such diverse careers.
Another pause, another smile.
The interviewer asked her questions about her life, about what it felt like to be marrying again at 80, and then about her new husband's occupation.
"He's a funeral director," she answered.
"Interesting," the newsman thought, then asked her if she wouldn't mind telling him a little about her first three husbands and what they did for a living.
She paused for a few moments, needing time to reflect on all those years. After a short time, a smile came to her face and she revealed that she had first married a banker when she was in her 20's, a circus ringmaster when in her 40's, a preacher when in her 60's, and now - in her 80's - a funeral director.
The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and asked why she had married four men with such diverse careers.
Another pause, another smile.
"One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go."
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Thursday quotes
Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.
-- Ray Bradbury
My thought is me; that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking
-- Jean-Paul Sartre
Plans for defence of the Medway, 1596
Old words can be fascinating...
"Orders for safe-guarding of the Medway. A ketch is to ride without Sheerness, and on
sight of any enemy's vessel, to give notice to the Aid which rides within
Sheerness.
So, what is a sconce? Well, according to the OED, it is a small fort
"Orders for safe-guarding of the Medway. A ketch is to ride without Sheerness, and on
sight of any enemy's vessel, to give notice to the Aid which rides within
Sheerness.
"The Aid is then to prepare to
meet the enemy, and to fire three guns, whereupon a pinnace riding at Oakamness
is to speed up the river towards Chatham, giving alarm all the way up, to
Chatham, Upnor Castle, the beacons of
Chatham and Barrow Hill, and the four sconces and borders of the river on each
side.
"On this, the Bear, riding against
St. Mary's creek, is to shoot three pieces of ordnance to continue the alarm,
which the Mary Rose, riding against Rochester Bridge, is to take up, and shoot
three pieces of ordnance, on which all the country within hearing is to repair
to Chatham Church and Upnor Castle, on directions of the deputy lieutenants of
the shires.
"Those places that cannot be
warned by shots and beacons are to be warned by hoblers sent from Rochester by
the deputy lieutenants; the Mayor of Rochester is to send notice to Sir John
Leveson, Thos. Walsingham, Mr. Style, Mr. Matoir of Maidenstone, Mr. Lennard,
and Mr. Rivers, and each of these captains to give notice to the rest.
"With note on 12 Nov. that these five captains
with 1,080 men are to repair to Upnor Castle, and there be distributed in the
five ships next the chain; and that four others named are to [repair to Chatham
church, with 540 men more."
(p.305 - Com Eliz VOL CCLX. 1596 - Nov 10)
So, what is a sconce? Well, according to the OED, it is a small fort
A hobbler was not a higler, who was a seller of eggs. No, a hobbler was a man who looked after horses -- either military horses or horses that towed canal boats, according to that little god of the sky, google.
According to the Webster Unabridged Dictionary, a hobbler
(hobeler or hobelier) is "one who by his tenure was to maintain a horse
for military service; a kind of light horseman in the Middle Ages who was
mounted on a hobby" (hobby being a horse).
With thanks to Bud Warren
Chinese baby talk boosts Kiwi dollar
Good lord, who would have thought that babies that are not even born yet could have impact on anything as mundane as currency?
But the Wall Street Journal reports that the New Zealand dollar has risen on prospects of cradles filling up in China.
The New Zealand dollar, one of the globe's top-performing currencies this year amid a booming economy and high interest rates, is getting a baby bump.
The currency, known as the kiwi, is up 1.2% against the U.S. dollar since Thursday, before China's surprise announcement that it will loosen its policy of one child per family.
Some investors are betting that New Zealand, home to the world's biggest milk exporter, is well positioned to benefit from a baby boom in the world's most populous nation. More Chinese milk demand would translate into more demand for the kiwi from Chinese importers, which money managers anticipate will boost the currency's value.
"New Zealand exports milk products, which is what China needs and wants," said Anders Faergemann, who helps manage $69.1 billion at PineBridge Investments and is buying the New Zealand dollar. Mr. Faergemann said that it is likely that a relaxation of China's one-child policy will result in more demand for New Zealand's products over time.
"If you can export more to a growing country the size of China, your currency is in a good spot," he said.
The kiwi wasn't the only asset to benefit from the policy change: In China, shares of baby-formula producers, piano makers and tutoring companies jumped following the news.
Piano makers? Good lord, again.
But the Wall Street Journal reports that the New Zealand dollar has risen on prospects of cradles filling up in China.
The currency, known as the kiwi, is up 1.2% against the U.S. dollar since Thursday, before China's surprise announcement that it will loosen its policy of one child per family.
Some investors are betting that New Zealand, home to the world's biggest milk exporter, is well positioned to benefit from a baby boom in the world's most populous nation. More Chinese milk demand would translate into more demand for the kiwi from Chinese importers, which money managers anticipate will boost the currency's value.
"New Zealand exports milk products, which is what China needs and wants," said Anders Faergemann, who helps manage $69.1 billion at PineBridge Investments and is buying the New Zealand dollar. Mr. Faergemann said that it is likely that a relaxation of China's one-child policy will result in more demand for New Zealand's products over time.
"If you can export more to a growing country the size of China, your currency is in a good spot," he said.
Piano makers? Good lord, again.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Wednesday quotes
A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment
-- Jane Austen
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry
-- Emily Dickinson
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Billionaires? Oh, spare me.
I wonder how many have given anything substantial to the Filipinos?
Ten things that billionaires will not admit to ...
WE ARE JUST SO OBSCENELY GREEDY
Quentin Fottrell"
1.“We just get richer and richer.”
In 2013, the wealth of the world’s billionaires reached a record high — helped by 200 newcomers like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The 2013 Forbes Billionaires List names 1,426 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $5.4 trillion, up a whopping 17% from $4.6 trillion last year. And that doesn’t include royalty or, um, dictators. Of those, some 442 make their home in the U.S. (there are 386 in the Asia-Pacific region, 366 in Europe, 129 in the rest of the Americas and 103 in the Middle East and Africa combined, according to Forbes). The average net worth of each U.S. billionaire: $10.8 billion, up from $9.1 billion last year, according to a separate survey released this month by private wealth consultancy Wealth-X and UBS.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country’s net worth has actually fallen since the Great Recession — and has yet to recover. Adjusting for inflation, real net worth per U.S. household hovered at $652,449 by the end of June 2013, according to the Federal Reserve, or about 95% of its 2007 level of $684,662. If that seems inordinately high, that’s because the majority of U.S. households carry their net worth in their home. That average also is inflated by, well, millionaires and billionaires: In fact, around half of U.S. households have a net worth of no more than $83,000, a Pew Research Center’s analysis of 2010 Federal Reserve survey found.) And while ordinary Americans have seen their net worth fall since the recession, billionaires saw their net worth rise by over 50% from $3.5 trillion in 2007.
Why are billionaires on the rise? “Daily record highs in the financial markets have caused surging net worth for the richest 1%,” says Mark Martiak, a wealth strategist at Premier Financial Advisors in New York. Commercial and residential real estate values have also been rebounding, he says. “Combined with low inflation and low interest rates for borrowing, this big picture presents a favorable backdrop for the wealthy, in spite of higher taxes, stubbornly high unemployment, the potential Fed tapering and wrangling in Washington,” Martiak says.
2.“One million — or 10 — ain’t what it used to be.”
In a time when the median price of a home in Manhattan is just over $1 million, according to real-estate website Trulia, experts say that being a millionaire no longer means that you’re rich. It could just as easily mean you own your own a home in New York or San Francisco, or have a vacation home on the Jersey Shore. “The word now doesn’t have as much power,” says Charles Merlot, author of “The Billionaire’s Apprentice: How 21 Billionaires Used Drive, Luck and Risk to Achieve Colossal Success.” “In the eyes of the public, even $10 million is considered at the low end of high-net-worth.”
For the global elite, keeping up with the Joneses, Gateses and Buffetts can require, at bare minimum, an eight-figure annual income. The online listing site Jameslist.com, a Craigslist for the super-rich, lists helicopters for a snip at $7 million-plus. (Failing that, one could always quietly take a share in one through a site like FlexJet.) For those who believe a Bentley is too — well, obvious — the fastest and most expensive production car in the world is the $2.4 million Bugatti Veyron Super Sport car. Billionaires who don’t want (or like) their neighbors can check out PrivateIslandsOnline.com, which has a collection of hideaways around the world to choose from. The 225-acre Katafanga Island in Fiji in the South Pacific is currently on the market with a price tag of $20 million.
In the movie “The Social Network,” a semi-fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook (FB), Justin Timberlake, in the role of Napster founder and early Facebook backer Sean Parker, tells the Mark Zuckerberg character, “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.” (Parker has, in interviews, denied he ever said that in real life.) Indeed, those who have worked with billionaires say that, to be considered rich among their elite, a million doesn’t cut it. Billionaires and millionaires may sit side-by-side on boards, Martiak says, but handshakes and smiles aside, billionaires don’t see millionaires as their equals.
3. “This is basically a boys’ club.”
Women are making some progress: There are 138 women among the 1,426 people on Forbes’s Billionaires List this year, up from 104 last year.
Still, more than 90% of billionaires are men. Perhaps that should come as no surprise, considering that just 4% of CEO positions at Fortune 1,000 companies are held by women — a strikingly small proportion considering that 18% of members of Congress and 30% of U.S. District Court Judges are female.
Luckily, rising through the corporate ranks isn’t the only or even the most common way to become a billionaire. The richest woman in the world — Liliane Bettencourt, 91, who has $30 billion — inherited her fortune from her father, who founded the cosmetics giant L’Oréal. And the late Rosalia Mera, one of the 20 richest women in the world, was self-made: Although she dropped out of school at age 11, she co-founded the global clothing chain Zara (she died in August).
A more novel theory for the boys’ club: For some young male billionaires, testosterone may have given them their start. “The coolest thing about Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin is that they never did it for the money,” says Ben Mezrich, author of “The Accidental Billionaires” and “Bringing Down the House,” which became the sources for “The Social Network.” “The main impetus for them at the very beginning was to meet girls. It turned into a billion dollars.”
4.“I may be smart, but I got a head start.”
America’s billionaires tend to also be among its most well-educated, recent research suggests. In “Investigating America’s Elite,” published in the journal Intelligence, Duke University psychologist Jonathan Wai found that billionaires are more likely than CEOs, judges, senators or House members to have attended colleges with the most rigorous admission standards
But were they born smart, or born lucky? Wai says it’s a bit of both. Most billionaires — including Bill Gates, America’s richest man, and son of a successful lawyer — were born into a upper middle-class backgrounds, he says. The father of billionaires David and Charles Koch was Fred C. Koch, the founder of Wood River Oil and Refining Company, today known as Koch Industries; granted, the Koch brothers turned the company into the multi-billion dollar conglomerate it is today. S. Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart, is the son of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. “The first trick to becoming a billionaire is being born a millionaire,” says author Mezrich.
In fact, plenty of billionaires were not born with financial advantages. Sheldon Adelson, 80, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort, was born in a working-class neighborhood in Boston; his father was a cab driver. Stephen Bisciotti, 53, the majority shareholder of the Baltimore Ravens, worked his way through school; his father died when he was eight. Lynn Tilton, 54, founder of private equity firm Patriarch Partners, grew up in the Bronx, and was a single mother working 100 hours on Wall Street in her 20s. “I can’t even remember my 20s,” she says, “they were so dark.”
5.“It’s like Monopoly money.”
Billionaire Donald Trump offered to build a $100 million ballroom for the White House in 2011, but that’s nothing compared with what some of the mega-rich have actually spent without blinking. In 2010, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich purchased his latest yacht — the 536-foot-long “Eclipse”— for a reported price of about $1 billion. In 2009, Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud bought an Airbus A380 for $400 million. In 2006, Mexican businessman David Martinez bought a Jackson Pollock classic drip painting from music producer David Geffen for $140 million. And in 2012, real estate mogul Stan Kroenke bought a 240,000-acre Montana ranch for more than $132 million.
But in some cases, the lavish spending is all relative. Oprah Winfrey, 59, was reportedly recently in the market for a $38,000 Tom Ford handbag, but she’s worth an estimated $2.9 billion, according to Forbes — so the handbag would cost just 0.001% of her wealth.
Indeed, “most billionaires can actually be very cheap,” says David Friedman of Wealth-X. Many have spent their lives trying to make a profit and doing accounting in their heads. “They’ll ask for the receipt in a restaurant and argue over 50 cents,” he says. “But then they’ll go buy a jet for $50 million.”
6. “What scares us? Divorce lawyers.”
Luckily, and perhaps not coincidentally, divorce is relatively rare among the moneyed set. Of the 84% of billionaires who are married, only 8% are divorced, according to a survey of the world’s billionaires published by Wealth-X earlier this month. That’s far lower than the U.S. divorce rate:
Some 40% to 50% of marriages overall end in divorce, according to the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.
Billionaire divorces can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and exact a heavy toll on the couple’s privacy, says Janet Lowe, author of books about biographies of several billionaires, including Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-A) Charlie Munger and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The 2003 divorce between former General Electric head Jack Welch and his second wife Jane Welch, she says, is a prime example: Divorce paperwork filed in Connecticut revealed the couple’s high (and previously undisclosed) standard of living, and major newspapers throughout the U.S. publicized the details, focusing on the generous benefits Welch received as a retired GE exec. The Securities and Exchange Commission then launched a formal inquiry into Welch’s compensation agreement, and Welch voluntarily gave up his GE retirement package, valued at $2.5 million a year.
“In this environment, I don’t want a great company with the highest integrity dragged into a public fight because of my divorce proceedings,” Welch wrote in a column for The Wall Street Journal at the time, explaining his decision.
7.“We didn’t get rich investing in stocks.”
If you want to be a billionaire and you’re starting from scratch, don’t bet on the stock market, some advisers say. Sure, an individual who happens to invest at the bottom of the market and sell at the top can do quite well. In general, “if you beat stock indexes by 1% consistently over 20 years, you’re a massive superstar,” says Martin Fridson, author of “How to Be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies From the Titans of Wealth.” But at that rate, it’ll be a long time before the average investor becomes a billionaire. Here’s another way to look at it: If you earned 15% a year on your investments — an astronomical benchmark that almost nobody has consistently hit — you’d still have to start with about $65 million in order to wind up with $1 billion after 20 years.
Many billionaires — Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg — instead made their fortunes in start-ups, says Robert Klein, founder and president of Retirement Income Center, a retirement and income planning firm in Newport Beach, Calif. (Klein is also a MarketWatch RetireMentor) The founders of Twitter likewise became billionaires with their IPO earlier this month. “You’re far more likely to become a billionaire in Silicon Valley than on Wall Street”, says wealth strategist Martiak. “Wall Street becomes far more important later on when you’re preserving their wealth.”
8.“You say evading, we say avoiding.”
There’s no data on whether the ultrawealthy shirk their responsibility to pay taxes more often than the average citizen, but incidents involving billionaires certainly garner more media attention — presumably because of the vast sums involved. “A lot of billionaires try to avoid paying taxes,” says Friedman of Wealth-X. The latest to be named and shamed — and face jail time: Ty Warner, 69, CEO of Ty, the maker of stuffed Beanie Babies and worth an estimated $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. “I apologize for my conduct,” Warner told a U.S. District Court in Chicago in October. “I made a mistake. I’m fully responsible.” He owes the government $53.6 million for failing to file a report on foreign financial accounts, one of the largest offshore-account penalties ever.
The line certainly gets blurred between illegal tax evasion and lawful tax avoidance. For the most part, Martiak says, “no-one is deliberately or intentionally avoiding paying tax.” The very wealthy — billionaires included — also have the opportunity to pay a far smaller percentage of their income in taxes, since most of their income is from investments and, therefore, taxed at lower rates than wages and salary.
Around 25% of all millionaires — 94,500 taxpayers — pay a lower tax rate than 10.4 million moderate income tax payers, according to a 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service, a government agency that analyzes public policy data.
9. “My family hates me, loves my money.”
Spare a thought for Gina Rinehart, 59, Australia’s richest woman — whose children, John Hancock, 37, and Bianca Rinehart, 36, are suing her. They allege that she engaged in serious misconduct as trustee of the family’s multibillion-dollar trust by trying to delay the date when the trust’s beneficiaries — her four children — could access their money. (Gina Rinehart’s law firm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, says she denies all wrongdoing and, in a statement released to the press, said she’s offering to give up her role as trustee to end the litigation.)
Not all family disputes are about money, however. Nor is it always the kids suing the parents: Financier T. Boone Pickens sued his son Michael in February for alleged defamation, libel, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of distress and harmful access by computer, after Michael began writing about the family in a blog called “5 Days In Connecticut.” Collin Porterfield, an attorney representing Michael Pickens, says the case is being considered by Dallas County Court and no decision had been reached.
10. “King Lear taught me everything I know.”
Most billionaires have traditionally left their fortune to their offspring or brought them into the family business. Case in point: Three of Donald Trump’s children work in the family business and even appear on his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” These days, however, more billionaires are taking a slightly different tack. At least 30 billionaires have chosen to sign the “Giving Pledge,” an initiative started in 2009 to encourage the ultrawealthy to give away half their wealth. (Warren Buffett has pledged to give away 99% of his wealth. He once told a television interviewer: “I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing.”)
Others who have made the pledge thus far include hotelier Barron Hilton, banker David Rockefeller, financier Ronald Perelman, Citigroup founder Sandy Weill and his wife, Joan, hedge-fund managers Julian Robertson Jr. and Jim Simons, private-equity financier David Rubenstein and “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. In fact, Lucas, 69, also sold off the bulk of his business empire last year, which some experts say will prevent a power struggle among his three adopted children after he’s gone.
Do good? Oh please ....
Ten things that billionaires will not admit to ...
WE ARE JUST SO OBSCENELY GREEDY
Quentin Fottrell"
Bloomberg
1.“We just get richer and richer.”
In 2013, the wealth of the world’s billionaires reached a record high — helped by 200 newcomers like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The 2013 Forbes Billionaires List names 1,426 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $5.4 trillion, up a whopping 17% from $4.6 trillion last year. And that doesn’t include royalty or, um, dictators. Of those, some 442 make their home in the U.S. (there are 386 in the Asia-Pacific region, 366 in Europe, 129 in the rest of the Americas and 103 in the Middle East and Africa combined, according to Forbes). The average net worth of each U.S. billionaire: $10.8 billion, up from $9.1 billion last year, according to a separate survey released this month by private wealth consultancy Wealth-X and UBS.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country’s net worth has actually fallen since the Great Recession — and has yet to recover. Adjusting for inflation, real net worth per U.S. household hovered at $652,449 by the end of June 2013, according to the Federal Reserve, or about 95% of its 2007 level of $684,662. If that seems inordinately high, that’s because the majority of U.S. households carry their net worth in their home. That average also is inflated by, well, millionaires and billionaires: In fact, around half of U.S. households have a net worth of no more than $83,000, a Pew Research Center’s analysis of 2010 Federal Reserve survey found.) And while ordinary Americans have seen their net worth fall since the recession, billionaires saw their net worth rise by over 50% from $3.5 trillion in 2007.
Why are billionaires on the rise? “Daily record highs in the financial markets have caused surging net worth for the richest 1%,” says Mark Martiak, a wealth strategist at Premier Financial Advisors in New York. Commercial and residential real estate values have also been rebounding, he says. “Combined with low inflation and low interest rates for borrowing, this big picture presents a favorable backdrop for the wealthy, in spite of higher taxes, stubbornly high unemployment, the potential Fed tapering and wrangling in Washington,” Martiak says.
2.“One million — or 10 — ain’t what it used to be.”
In a time when the median price of a home in Manhattan is just over $1 million, according to real-estate website Trulia, experts say that being a millionaire no longer means that you’re rich. It could just as easily mean you own your own a home in New York or San Francisco, or have a vacation home on the Jersey Shore. “The word now doesn’t have as much power,” says Charles Merlot, author of “The Billionaire’s Apprentice: How 21 Billionaires Used Drive, Luck and Risk to Achieve Colossal Success.” “In the eyes of the public, even $10 million is considered at the low end of high-net-worth.”
For the global elite, keeping up with the Joneses, Gateses and Buffetts can require, at bare minimum, an eight-figure annual income. The online listing site Jameslist.com, a Craigslist for the super-rich, lists helicopters for a snip at $7 million-plus. (Failing that, one could always quietly take a share in one through a site like FlexJet.) For those who believe a Bentley is too — well, obvious — the fastest and most expensive production car in the world is the $2.4 million Bugatti Veyron Super Sport car. Billionaires who don’t want (or like) their neighbors can check out PrivateIslandsOnline.com, which has a collection of hideaways around the world to choose from. The 225-acre Katafanga Island in Fiji in the South Pacific is currently on the market with a price tag of $20 million.
In the movie “The Social Network,” a semi-fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook (FB), Justin Timberlake, in the role of Napster founder and early Facebook backer Sean Parker, tells the Mark Zuckerberg character, “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.” (Parker has, in interviews, denied he ever said that in real life.) Indeed, those who have worked with billionaires say that, to be considered rich among their elite, a million doesn’t cut it. Billionaires and millionaires may sit side-by-side on boards, Martiak says, but handshakes and smiles aside, billionaires don’t see millionaires as their equals.
3. “This is basically a boys’ club.”
Women are making some progress: There are 138 women among the 1,426 people on Forbes’s Billionaires List this year, up from 104 last year.
Still, more than 90% of billionaires are men. Perhaps that should come as no surprise, considering that just 4% of CEO positions at Fortune 1,000 companies are held by women — a strikingly small proportion considering that 18% of members of Congress and 30% of U.S. District Court Judges are female.
Luckily, rising through the corporate ranks isn’t the only or even the most common way to become a billionaire. The richest woman in the world — Liliane Bettencourt, 91, who has $30 billion — inherited her fortune from her father, who founded the cosmetics giant L’Oréal. And the late Rosalia Mera, one of the 20 richest women in the world, was self-made: Although she dropped out of school at age 11, she co-founded the global clothing chain Zara (she died in August).
A more novel theory for the boys’ club: For some young male billionaires, testosterone may have given them their start. “The coolest thing about Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin is that they never did it for the money,” says Ben Mezrich, author of “The Accidental Billionaires” and “Bringing Down the House,” which became the sources for “The Social Network.” “The main impetus for them at the very beginning was to meet girls. It turned into a billion dollars.”
4.“I may be smart, but I got a head start.”
America’s billionaires tend to also be among its most well-educated, recent research suggests. In “Investigating America’s Elite,” published in the journal Intelligence, Duke University psychologist Jonathan Wai found that billionaires are more likely than CEOs, judges, senators or House members to have attended colleges with the most rigorous admission standards
But were they born smart, or born lucky? Wai says it’s a bit of both. Most billionaires — including Bill Gates, America’s richest man, and son of a successful lawyer — were born into a upper middle-class backgrounds, he says. The father of billionaires David and Charles Koch was Fred C. Koch, the founder of Wood River Oil and Refining Company, today known as Koch Industries; granted, the Koch brothers turned the company into the multi-billion dollar conglomerate it is today. S. Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart, is the son of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. “The first trick to becoming a billionaire is being born a millionaire,” says author Mezrich.
In fact, plenty of billionaires were not born with financial advantages. Sheldon Adelson, 80, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort, was born in a working-class neighborhood in Boston; his father was a cab driver. Stephen Bisciotti, 53, the majority shareholder of the Baltimore Ravens, worked his way through school; his father died when he was eight. Lynn Tilton, 54, founder of private equity firm Patriarch Partners, grew up in the Bronx, and was a single mother working 100 hours on Wall Street in her 20s. “I can’t even remember my 20s,” she says, “they were so dark.”
5.“It’s like Monopoly money.”
Billionaire Donald Trump offered to build a $100 million ballroom for the White House in 2011, but that’s nothing compared with what some of the mega-rich have actually spent without blinking. In 2010, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich purchased his latest yacht — the 536-foot-long “Eclipse”— for a reported price of about $1 billion. In 2009, Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud bought an Airbus A380 for $400 million. In 2006, Mexican businessman David Martinez bought a Jackson Pollock classic drip painting from music producer David Geffen for $140 million. And in 2012, real estate mogul Stan Kroenke bought a 240,000-acre Montana ranch for more than $132 million.
But in some cases, the lavish spending is all relative. Oprah Winfrey, 59, was reportedly recently in the market for a $38,000 Tom Ford handbag, but she’s worth an estimated $2.9 billion, according to Forbes — so the handbag would cost just 0.001% of her wealth.
Indeed, “most billionaires can actually be very cheap,” says David Friedman of Wealth-X. Many have spent their lives trying to make a profit and doing accounting in their heads. “They’ll ask for the receipt in a restaurant and argue over 50 cents,” he says. “But then they’ll go buy a jet for $50 million.”
6. “What scares us? Divorce lawyers.”
Luckily, and perhaps not coincidentally, divorce is relatively rare among the moneyed set. Of the 84% of billionaires who are married, only 8% are divorced, according to a survey of the world’s billionaires published by Wealth-X earlier this month. That’s far lower than the U.S. divorce rate:
Some 40% to 50% of marriages overall end in divorce, according to the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.
Billionaire divorces can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and exact a heavy toll on the couple’s privacy, says Janet Lowe, author of books about biographies of several billionaires, including Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-A) Charlie Munger and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The 2003 divorce between former General Electric head Jack Welch and his second wife Jane Welch, she says, is a prime example: Divorce paperwork filed in Connecticut revealed the couple’s high (and previously undisclosed) standard of living, and major newspapers throughout the U.S. publicized the details, focusing on the generous benefits Welch received as a retired GE exec. The Securities and Exchange Commission then launched a formal inquiry into Welch’s compensation agreement, and Welch voluntarily gave up his GE retirement package, valued at $2.5 million a year.
“In this environment, I don’t want a great company with the highest integrity dragged into a public fight because of my divorce proceedings,” Welch wrote in a column for The Wall Street Journal at the time, explaining his decision.
7.“We didn’t get rich investing in stocks.”
If you want to be a billionaire and you’re starting from scratch, don’t bet on the stock market, some advisers say. Sure, an individual who happens to invest at the bottom of the market and sell at the top can do quite well. In general, “if you beat stock indexes by 1% consistently over 20 years, you’re a massive superstar,” says Martin Fridson, author of “How to Be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies From the Titans of Wealth.” But at that rate, it’ll be a long time before the average investor becomes a billionaire. Here’s another way to look at it: If you earned 15% a year on your investments — an astronomical benchmark that almost nobody has consistently hit — you’d still have to start with about $65 million in order to wind up with $1 billion after 20 years.
Many billionaires — Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg — instead made their fortunes in start-ups, says Robert Klein, founder and president of Retirement Income Center, a retirement and income planning firm in Newport Beach, Calif. (Klein is also a MarketWatch RetireMentor) The founders of Twitter likewise became billionaires with their IPO earlier this month. “You’re far more likely to become a billionaire in Silicon Valley than on Wall Street”, says wealth strategist Martiak. “Wall Street becomes far more important later on when you’re preserving their wealth.”
8.“You say evading, we say avoiding.”
There’s no data on whether the ultrawealthy shirk their responsibility to pay taxes more often than the average citizen, but incidents involving billionaires certainly garner more media attention — presumably because of the vast sums involved. “A lot of billionaires try to avoid paying taxes,” says Friedman of Wealth-X. The latest to be named and shamed — and face jail time: Ty Warner, 69, CEO of Ty, the maker of stuffed Beanie Babies and worth an estimated $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. “I apologize for my conduct,” Warner told a U.S. District Court in Chicago in October. “I made a mistake. I’m fully responsible.” He owes the government $53.6 million for failing to file a report on foreign financial accounts, one of the largest offshore-account penalties ever.
The line certainly gets blurred between illegal tax evasion and lawful tax avoidance. For the most part, Martiak says, “no-one is deliberately or intentionally avoiding paying tax.” The very wealthy — billionaires included — also have the opportunity to pay a far smaller percentage of their income in taxes, since most of their income is from investments and, therefore, taxed at lower rates than wages and salary.
Around 25% of all millionaires — 94,500 taxpayers — pay a lower tax rate than 10.4 million moderate income tax payers, according to a 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service, a government agency that analyzes public policy data.
9. “My family hates me, loves my money.”
Spare a thought for Gina Rinehart, 59, Australia’s richest woman — whose children, John Hancock, 37, and Bianca Rinehart, 36, are suing her. They allege that she engaged in serious misconduct as trustee of the family’s multibillion-dollar trust by trying to delay the date when the trust’s beneficiaries — her four children — could access their money. (Gina Rinehart’s law firm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, says she denies all wrongdoing and, in a statement released to the press, said she’s offering to give up her role as trustee to end the litigation.)
Not all family disputes are about money, however. Nor is it always the kids suing the parents: Financier T. Boone Pickens sued his son Michael in February for alleged defamation, libel, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of distress and harmful access by computer, after Michael began writing about the family in a blog called “5 Days In Connecticut.” Collin Porterfield, an attorney representing Michael Pickens, says the case is being considered by Dallas County Court and no decision had been reached.
10. “King Lear taught me everything I know.”
Most billionaires have traditionally left their fortune to their offspring or brought them into the family business. Case in point: Three of Donald Trump’s children work in the family business and even appear on his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” These days, however, more billionaires are taking a slightly different tack. At least 30 billionaires have chosen to sign the “Giving Pledge,” an initiative started in 2009 to encourage the ultrawealthy to give away half their wealth. (Warren Buffett has pledged to give away 99% of his wealth. He once told a television interviewer: “I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing.”)
Others who have made the pledge thus far include hotelier Barron Hilton, banker David Rockefeller, financier Ronald Perelman, Citigroup founder Sandy Weill and his wife, Joan, hedge-fund managers Julian Robertson Jr. and Jim Simons, private-equity financier David Rubenstein and “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. In fact, Lucas, 69, also sold off the bulk of his business empire last year, which some experts say will prevent a power struggle among his three adopted children after he’s gone.
For many billionaires, their legacy becomes more important than their money, says Martin Fridson, author of “How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth.” Although they obviously didn’t become billionaires by accident, he says many billionaires mellow with age:
“They’ll usually tell you, ‘I never set out to be a billionaire, I set out to do good.’”Do good? Oh please ....
Tuesday quote
You know when they have a fishing show on TV? they catch the fish and then let it go. They don't want to eat the fish, they just want to make is late for something
-- Mitch Hedberg
Monday, November 18, 2013
Monday quote
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened
-- Douglas Adams
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Art in lieu of taxes
From the BBC
What a great idea. Hand over objects of huge cultural value when handing over dosh is difficult.
Taxpayers also handed over sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and a painting by Mark Rothko through the Acceptance In Lieu scheme over the past year.
In total, 30 collections, worth £49.4m, were handed over in 2012-13, said Arts Council England.
Now owned by the public, they will be displayed in museums and libraries.
The scheme was created in 1910, and allows owners to use their cultural and historical artefacts to pay inheritance tax.
It was augmented this year by the Cultural Gifts Scheme, which allows people to give gifts to the nation for a reduction in income tax.
In both cases, they are given the full open market value of the item, which is then allocated to a public institution.
What a great idea. Hand over objects of huge cultural value when handing over dosh is difficult.
Charles Darwin's letters and John
Lennon's lyrics have been given to the public under a scheme which accepts
cultural artefacts in place of tax.
Taxpayers also handed over sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and a painting by Mark Rothko through the Acceptance In Lieu scheme over the past year.
In total, 30 collections, worth £49.4m, were handed over in 2012-13, said Arts Council England.
Now owned by the public, they will be displayed in museums and libraries.
The scheme was created in 1910, and allows owners to use their cultural and historical artefacts to pay inheritance tax.
It was augmented this year by the Cultural Gifts Scheme, which allows people to give gifts to the nation for a reduction in income tax.
Barbara Hepworth's Rock Form (Porthcurno) is on
display in Edinburgh
In both cases, they are given the full open market value of the item, which is then allocated to a public institution.
Sunday quote
I go to the theatre to be entertained. I want to be taken out of myself. I don't want to see lust and rape and incest and sodomy and so on. I can get all that at home
-- Alan Bennett, playwright
Friday, November 15, 2013
Money pours into eTextbooks
Six million-plus poured into Gutenberg books
As an independent researcher, I use Gutenberg eBooks all the time, and bless them constantly.
Therefore, I'm delighted to learn that more money is being devoted to this cause -- and this despite deafening lack of interest from academia.
Perhaps it is because the teachers would prefer their students to use the textbooks they have written themselves?
Press release, from DBW
MOBILE LEARNING INNOVATOR GUTENBERG TECHNOLOGY CLOSES $6.5M ROUND B FINANCING
Gutenberg Technology, the European leader of textbooks on tablets and smartphones, announces the completion of its $6.5 million Round B financing. BNP Paribas, one of the TOP 10 worldwide banks, took the most significant part in this funding together with Gutenberg Technology’s historical investors.
This new funding will enable the start-up, with offices in New York and Paris, to expand its footprint in North America, acquiring new clients and building long-term, strategic partnerships. The company has already signed premier logos like Pearson and Hachette Book Group.
The educational technology company plans to extend its digital book production platform MyEbookFactory 5.0 which has found wide adoption in the textbook market, to other publishing segments such as travel guides, cookbooks and professional training books. In this context, they have recently inked a partnership with celebrity chef Alain Ducasse to help him become a worldwide leader of cookbooks on tablets and smartphones.
Additionally, Gutenberg Technology is revolutionizing the e-learning industry by adding MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) features to the MyEbookFactory 5.0 production platform. These new features will facilitate scalable, industrialized production of MOOCs & e-learning courses.
“After almost 3 years of R&D, we now offer publishers a unique tool to solve their digital issues,” says François-Xavier Hussherr, founder and New-York based CEO of Gutenberg Technology. “Our goal is to empower our clients to take control over their digital book production workflow.”
“We decided to invest in Gutenberg Technology,” explains Jean-Michel Gabriel, CEO of BNP Paribas Développement, the investment entity of BNP Paribas, “because we believe that the education market will be undergoing massive transformations in the coming years,
and Gutenberg Technology has the team and the technology to take full advantage of this change.”
About Gutenberg Technology
Launched in 2010, Gutenberg Technology is a technology company that provides publishers with a SaaS solution called MyEbookFactory 5.0, enabling them to enrich content and create interactive ebooks and custom branded apps for all electronic devices (iOS, Android, Windows 8, web) as well as print. Using custom branded apps, publishers have a single store on iOS and Android and would have control over licensing and payment.
About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas Developpement, subsidiary of Groupe BNP Paribas, is a leader in venture capital with more than 25 years of experience and a team of more than 20 professionals. It’s current portfolio includes 320 investments totaling Euro500Million. BNP Paribas Developpement’s perspective is to take minority stakes in small and medium-sized companies with a view to being part of their long term growth strategy.
Therefore, I'm delighted to learn that more money is being devoted to this cause -- and this despite deafening lack of interest from academia.
Perhaps it is because the teachers would prefer their students to use the textbooks they have written themselves?
Press release, from DBW
MOBILE LEARNING INNOVATOR GUTENBERG TECHNOLOGY CLOSES $6.5M ROUND B FINANCING
Gutenberg Technology, the European leader of textbooks on tablets and smartphones, announces the completion of its $6.5 million Round B financing. BNP Paribas, one of the TOP 10 worldwide banks, took the most significant part in this funding together with Gutenberg Technology’s historical investors.
This new funding will enable the start-up, with offices in New York and Paris, to expand its footprint in North America, acquiring new clients and building long-term, strategic partnerships. The company has already signed premier logos like Pearson and Hachette Book Group.
The educational technology company plans to extend its digital book production platform MyEbookFactory 5.0 which has found wide adoption in the textbook market, to other publishing segments such as travel guides, cookbooks and professional training books. In this context, they have recently inked a partnership with celebrity chef Alain Ducasse to help him become a worldwide leader of cookbooks on tablets and smartphones.
Additionally, Gutenberg Technology is revolutionizing the e-learning industry by adding MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) features to the MyEbookFactory 5.0 production platform. These new features will facilitate scalable, industrialized production of MOOCs & e-learning courses.
“After almost 3 years of R&D, we now offer publishers a unique tool to solve their digital issues,” says François-Xavier Hussherr, founder and New-York based CEO of Gutenberg Technology. “Our goal is to empower our clients to take control over their digital book production workflow.”
“We decided to invest in Gutenberg Technology,” explains Jean-Michel Gabriel, CEO of BNP Paribas Développement, the investment entity of BNP Paribas, “because we believe that the education market will be undergoing massive transformations in the coming years,
and Gutenberg Technology has the team and the technology to take full advantage of this change.”
About Gutenberg Technology
Launched in 2010, Gutenberg Technology is a technology company that provides publishers with a SaaS solution called MyEbookFactory 5.0, enabling them to enrich content and create interactive ebooks and custom branded apps for all electronic devices (iOS, Android, Windows 8, web) as well as print. Using custom branded apps, publishers have a single store on iOS and Android and would have control over licensing and payment.
About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas Developpement, subsidiary of Groupe BNP Paribas, is a leader in venture capital with more than 25 years of experience and a team of more than 20 professionals. It’s current portfolio includes 320 investments totaling Euro500Million. BNP Paribas Developpement’s perspective is to take minority stakes in small and medium-sized companies with a view to being part of their long term growth strategy.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
98 UK publishers folded
From the Los Angeles Times
Ninety-eight British publishers closed their doors in the year ending August 2013. The cause? E-books and online discounts.
Ninety-eight British publishers closed their doors in the year ending August 2013. The cause? E-books and online discounts.
Closures were up 42% over the previous year, according to the Guardian. The companies that folded included the 26-year-old healthcare publisher Panos London, and Evans Brothers, which published popular children's book author Enid Blyton for 30 years.
During 2012, e-book sales in Britain rose by 134% to more than $346 million. While print sales still dominate the bottom line in Britain with more than $4.6 billion in sales, that total was a 1% drop from the year before. The trend is toward e-books, and that trend has not been good for publishers.
The accounting firm issuing the tally, Wilkins Kennedy from Companies House, cited e-books, discounting from Amazon, and online trading in secondhand textbooks as the significant factors in the closures. Academic publishers, magazines and journals were included in the tally of closed publishing businesses, as well as trade book publishers.
"The rise of Amazon and other discount sellers with massive buying power means the pressure on publishers' margins is now immense," said Anthony Cork of Wilkins Kennedy told the Guardian. "While publishers might be able to sustain relatively small margins on a bestseller, it is much harder for niche publishers."
During 2012, e-book sales in Britain rose by 134% to more than $346 million. While print sales still dominate the bottom line in Britain with more than $4.6 billion in sales, that total was a 1% drop from the year before. The trend is toward e-books, and that trend has not been good for publishers.
The accounting firm issuing the tally, Wilkins Kennedy from Companies House, cited e-books, discounting from Amazon, and online trading in secondhand textbooks as the significant factors in the closures. Academic publishers, magazines and journals were included in the tally of closed publishing businesses, as well as trade book publishers.
"The rise of Amazon and other discount sellers with massive buying power means the pressure on publishers' margins is now immense," said Anthony Cork of Wilkins Kennedy told the Guardian. "While publishers might be able to sustain relatively small margins on a bestseller, it is much harder for niche publishers."
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Beautiful libraries
From Huffington Post
Some book collectors do not care very much about where they store their books. The English King Henry VIII, had a fine collection of books, but when visitors came to view them they were horrified by the conditions they were stored in, commenting on how they were stacked randomly on the floor and in untidy heaps covering every available surface.
Thankfully, since Roman times, if not before, others have cherished books and wished to show them off to their best advantage.
Incredibly, until now, there has been no single volume tracing the history of library buildings through the ages. For the last three years, I have been traveling the world together with Will Pryce the architectural photographer, visiting and photographing 85 of the world's greatest libraries in 21 countries.
The result is The Library: A World History (Chicago University Press, all photos taken by Will Pryce), the most complete account of library buildings to date.
Hit the link at the top to see a selection of the beautiful images.
With thanks to Dale Williams.
Some book collectors do not care very much about where they store their books. The English King Henry VIII, had a fine collection of books, but when visitors came to view them they were horrified by the conditions they were stored in, commenting on how they were stacked randomly on the floor and in untidy heaps covering every available surface.
Thankfully, since Roman times, if not before, others have cherished books and wished to show them off to their best advantage.
Incredibly, until now, there has been no single volume tracing the history of library buildings through the ages. For the last three years, I have been traveling the world together with Will Pryce the architectural photographer, visiting and photographing 85 of the world's greatest libraries in 21 countries.
The result is The Library: A World History (Chicago University Press, all photos taken by Will Pryce), the most complete account of library buildings to date.
Hit the link at the top to see a selection of the beautiful images.
With thanks to Dale Williams.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Moby-Dick's one-star reviews
One- and two-star reviews can be amusing to read
A favourite of mine is readers who complain that carefully researched history doesn't read like a novel
If they want to read novels, why don't they buy novels?
Therefore it is fun to read one-star reviews of Melville's great whaling classic, Moby-Dick, written -- of course -- by people who didn't have a clue what they were reading.
From GalleyCat at Mediabistro.com
Biblioklept.org has put together a list of one-star reviews of Herman Melville‘s classic novel Moby Dick. At the time of writing this post, the book averages four stars with 939 total reviews. That includes 530 five-star reviews, 154 four-star reviews, 107 three-star reviews, 73 two-star reviews and 75 one-star reviews.
Here are some of the reviews highlighted on Biblioklept.org, taken from Amazon exactly how they were written.
I like the last one. It's exactly the way I feel about quite a number of mega-bestsellers and a few major literary prizewinners, too ...
A favourite of mine is readers who complain that carefully researched history doesn't read like a novel
If they want to read novels, why don't they buy novels?
Therefore it is fun to read one-star reviews of Melville's great whaling classic, Moby-Dick, written -- of course -- by people who didn't have a clue what they were reading.
From GalleyCat at Mediabistro.com
Biblioklept.org has put together a list of one-star reviews of Herman Melville‘s classic novel Moby Dick. At the time of writing this post, the book averages four stars with 939 total reviews. That includes 530 five-star reviews, 154 four-star reviews, 107 three-star reviews, 73 two-star reviews and 75 one-star reviews.
Here are some of the reviews highlighted on Biblioklept.org, taken from Amazon exactly how they were written.
i personally didn’t enjoy the philosophical or deep side of the book, i have read much much better books in that regard.
It is 540somepages of boring whaling details.
I think if you made it into a short comic strip, you would have liked it.
There is no suspense, and I find the idea of people hunting whales offensive. Offensive with a capital O.
No wonder Melville flopped as a writter.
OMG, this is tedious and torture to read.
I like the last one. It's exactly the way I feel about quite a number of mega-bestsellers and a few major literary prizewinners, too ...
Thursday, November 7, 2013
The Dr Who with the extended hair
From the Daily Mail, which has lots of pictures ...
Susanna Reid joked that the ponytail made David Tennant look like a woman.
Say what? Obviously, she never sensed the sexual electricity between Tennant's Dr Who and Rose (Billie Piper) which held fans enraptured for a season or two.
Understandably, the Scottish actor looked slightly taken aback by the joke, by recovered well by telling her: 'That's slightly what we were going for.
'I'm playing Richard II at the RSC and there's a slightly androgynous quality we were slightly pursuing.'
David went on to discuss life as both a stage and screen star, what with his critically acclaimed turn in Broadchurch as well as wowing audiences with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
'They're quite different jobs,' he explains. 'The pacing of your day is very different. The theatre is all about three hours of intensive work at the end of the day whereas filming is sort of about finding those intense moments in a day with lots of gaps in between, but that's part of the joy for me.
'The varieties is one of the great joys of this job'.
But while he was chatting about new legal thriller "The Escape Artist," sci fans would be aching to see him in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, reprising his role as the tenth Time Lord.
But even though he passed on the reins to Matt Smith - now set (thank God) to be replaced by Peter Capaldi - David says the attention is still there.
'It doesn't really stop,' the actor said on BBC Breakfast. 'Doctor Who doesn't go away and people always want to know about it. Even people who don't watch the show are interested.'
The anniversary special will be shown in 3D in selected cinemas - tickets for which have sold out - as well as reach a global audience, with screenings lined up in over 400 cinemas across eight countries.
Susanna Reid joked that the ponytail made David Tennant look like a woman.
Say what? Obviously, she never sensed the sexual electricity between Tennant's Dr Who and Rose (Billie Piper) which held fans enraptured for a season or two.
Understandably, the Scottish actor looked slightly taken aback by the joke, by recovered well by telling her: 'That's slightly what we were going for.
'I'm playing Richard II at the RSC and there's a slightly androgynous quality we were slightly pursuing.'
David went on to discuss life as both a stage and screen star, what with his critically acclaimed turn in Broadchurch as well as wowing audiences with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
'They're quite different jobs,' he explains. 'The pacing of your day is very different. The theatre is all about three hours of intensive work at the end of the day whereas filming is sort of about finding those intense moments in a day with lots of gaps in between, but that's part of the joy for me.
'The varieties is one of the great joys of this job'.
But while he was chatting about new legal thriller "The Escape Artist," sci fans would be aching to see him in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, reprising his role as the tenth Time Lord.
But even though he passed on the reins to Matt Smith - now set (thank God) to be replaced by Peter Capaldi - David says the attention is still there.
'It doesn't really stop,' the actor said on BBC Breakfast. 'Doctor Who doesn't go away and people always want to know about it. Even people who don't watch the show are interested.'
Fourth Dr. Who gobsmacked
Quote of the Day
“I met an old lady, aged about 85, the other day, who said: 'When I was a little girl I used to hide behind the sofa when I saw you!”Doctor Who star Tom Baker, 79, on meeting the show's fans
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Tall Ships in Town
Two tall ships are visiting Wellington, the cool little capital of New Zealand, this week, and the public can go on board.
The sail training ships Young Endeavour and Lord Nelson (pictured) have sailed here from Auckland, after appearing in the Auckland Tall Ships Festival.
STS Lord Nelson is the first tall ship to be designed and built to be sailed by people of all physical abilities. Special features include wide decks for wheelchair users, a speaking compass to enable blind people to steer the ship, and power-assisted hydraulic steering for those with limited strength.
The STS Young Endeavour provides training voyages for young Australians, as part of a youth development scheme.
Both ships ... which are yet to arrive ... will be berthed right down town, at Queens Wharf.
"Ender's Game" tops US box office on opening
From the BBC
Sci-fi adventure "Ender's Game" has zoomed to the top of the US box office chart in its debut weekend.
"Ender's Game," a story about children forced to fight an enemy race, took $28m (£17.5m) according to estimates.
The film stars Harrison Ford as a commander who manipulates a young boy (Asa Butterfield) into leading a war.
Double Oscar nominee Viola Davis plays Ford's second in command.
This was despite calls by some to boycott the film after the book's author, Orson Scott Card, made some comments expressing his opposition to gay marriage.
Which proves what every politician should know by heart -- that once you're famous, you should keep your mouth shut...
Sci-fi adventure "Ender's Game" has zoomed to the top of the US box office chart in its debut weekend.
"Ender's Game," a story about children forced to fight an enemy race, took $28m (£17.5m) according to estimates.
The film stars Harrison Ford as a commander who manipulates a young boy (Asa Butterfield) into leading a war.
Double Oscar nominee Viola Davis plays Ford's second in command.
Based on the best-selling 1985 novel of the same name,
"Ender's Game" was in line with box office forecasts which predicted it would take
between $25m (£15.6m) and $30m (£18.8m) in its opening weekend.
This was despite calls by some to boycott the film after the book's author, Orson Scott Card, made some comments expressing his opposition to gay marriage.
Which proves what every politician should know by heart -- that once you're famous, you should keep your mouth shut...
US Box Office Top Five
1. Ender's Game ($28m)
2. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa ($20.5m)
3. Last Vegas ($16.5m)
4. Free Birds ($16.2m)
5. Gravity ($13.1m)
Source: Hollywood.com
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Pirate flag that changed the course of WW2
It looks more like a Halloween joke than an interesting footnote in WW2 history, but this pirate flag has a story...
From the Daily Mail
Some of you may recollect a popular film called "The Man Who Never Was." It was the story of a tramp's body dressed in British commando uniform, equipped with very convincing fake intelligence papers, and then dumped into the sea, for the Germans to find.
It was based on nothing less than fact ... and the pirate flag by carried the submarine Seraph, which signified that it was bound on a clandestine mission, has surfaced.
It was one of the most audacious missions of World War Two that saw false information about Allied plans to invade Italy planted into the hands of a German intelligence officer.
And today a Jolly Roger flag from HMS Seraph - which had a crucial role in the clandestine mission known as 'Operation Mincemeat' - has emerged, 70 years after the famous event.
In April 1943 the senior crew of the Royal Navy submarine dropped the body of a Welsh tramp, dressed up as a uniformed commando, a mile off the Spanish coast.
The highly-sensitive papers falsely stated the Allies planned to invade Italy through Greece and Sardinia.
It gave the Allies a foothold on Hitler’s fortress in Europe for the first time since Dunkirk.
To mark the special operation the flagman on HMS Seraph added a dagger emblem to the submarine's Jolly Roger to go alongside five others for clandestine missions.
It was traditional for Royal Navy submarines to have its own skull and cross bones after a World War One Admiral famously compared submarine warfare to piracy.
Emblems were added to the flags each time the submarine sunk an enemy or completed a mission.
One of the other daggers on the flag signified a bizarre special operation which involved the entire crew speaking in American accents to appease an English-hating French general they were rescuing.
General Henri Giraud refused to board a British craft and so the sub hoisted the Stars and Stripes and pretended to be American.
HMS Seraph's Jolly Roger was kept by a junior rating, whose role was to update it, after it was replaced by a new one in 1944.
He handed it on to his son who has now made it available for sale at auction and is estimated to fetch £10,000.
Auctioneer Steven Bosley, of Bosleys of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where the flag is to go on sale said: 'It is rare for these Jolly Rogers to come on the open market because most of them went to the submarine captain or ended up at a museum.
Definitive Jane Austen portrait on sale
What did the creator of the world of romantic fiction look like?
According to her nephew, Rev. James Edward Austen-Leigh, she was "a clear brunette with a rich colour".
"She had full round cheeks, with mouth and nose small and well formed, bright hazel eyes, and brown hair forming natural curls close round her face...she never was seen, either morning or evening, without a cap."
What a charming picture! It seems little wonder, knowing this, that the Rev. James commissioned a portrait of her to accompany his biography, a portrait that has never been out of the family, but is now up for sale.
The watercolour, estimated to fetch about two hundred thousand pounds, was based on a sketch made by Jane's sister Cassandra, and will be auctioned by Sotheby's in December.
Even if it disappears into some dark mansion or the dim corridors of a museum that no one has ever heard of, it will be come familiar to her millions of fans, with the appearance of an etching based on the portrait on the British ten pound note.
Read more from the BBC
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