Dead Tree Books, eBook, Writing

eBooks sell better through Apple’s App Store than through iBookstore. Go figure.

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

I had wondered about this for awhile; having an interest in photography, I’ve got a copy of Master Your DSLR Camera.  When I went to the BetterBook site, I noticed that the ebook was available as an app.  It’s an ebook.  It’s for sale on iTunes.  It’s #1 in the iBookstore, but way lower on the app store.  I saw this as probably a failure of Apple; they must have categorized the ebook incorrectly, or the ebook creator had made a mistake with the upload.

Turns out that the publisher – Open Air – is selling 10 to 30 times as many ebooks through the app store as they are through iBookstore.  Being #1 in the iBookstore is 10 sales a day.  Ranking around 7th in the App Store translates to 150 sales a day.

Laura Hazard Owen wrote a piece about this particular book over on PaidContent, titled “Want to publish an ebook for iOS? Surprising tips from iPad publisher Open Air.”

From the article: Continue reading →

Warbirds

Planes of Fame Hosting AVG Flying Tigers Event July 6th

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The Planes of Fame Air Museum’s living history event for July is the Flying Tigers and the AVG, featuring the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk.

Quick Stats from the Planes of Fame Museum’s website on their P-40N:

History

  • The P-40 is most widely known as the aircraft of the Flying Tigers, aka the American Volunteer Group (AVG), who began fighting the Japanese in China during the early days of the Pacific war.
  • The P-40 was not as maneuverable as the aircraft types flown by the Japanese.
  • The P-40 was built in a number of variants, sold to several foreign air forces, and operated under a plethora of names.
  • It was known as the Warhawk to the USAAF, while the British Commonwealth countries called the early versions Tomahawks and the later versions Kittyhawks. A number served with the SovietAir Force, under the lend-lease program.
  • The aircraft served in all theaters of WW2.
  • Purchased by Edward Maloney in 1960 and restored to flight by Planes of Fame Air Museum in 1980.

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Dead Tree Books, eBook, Screenwriting, Self Publishing, Writing

Camp NaNoWriMo 2 Officially Starts Today!

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

If you are a writer – especially one who can’t seem to find the time, set goals, or who suffers from writer’s block – you should head over to campnanowrimo.org and sign up to write during the month of April.  if you’re REALLY serious, make sure you sign up for NaNoWriMo in November!

From the website:

Based on November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Camp NaNoWriMo provides the online support, tracking tools, and hard deadline to help you write the rough draft of your novel in a month.

Camp NaNoWriMo was established in 2011 as a project of the Office of Letters and Light, the parent 501(c)(3) nonprofit to National Novel Writing Month and the Young Writers Program. 2013 Camp sessions will take place in April and July.

To find out more, head over to Camp NaNoWriMo‘s “What is Camp NaNoWriMo?” page and get started!

Warbirds

Howard Hughes 1937 Sikorsky S-43 arrives at Kermit Weeks’ Fantasy of Flight

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Kermit Weeks and his Fantasy of Flight team are back at their home base in Polk City, Florida, after spending a week earlier this month prepping Howard Hughes’ Sikorsky S-43 for transport.  This is the plane that Hughes had originally planned to use for a record-breaking around the world flight. CAA delays and the arrival of a faster plane made him leave this beautiful seaplane on the ramp.

While Hughes was using the Sikorsky for some water landing tests on Lake Mead, a crash landing send the plane to the bottom of the lake, killing two other passengers and almost killing Hughes as well.  He had the airplane salvaged and refit it as his personal executive transport business and (ahem) Hollywood starlets to exotic (and not so exotic) locations.

There are only three of these beautiful planes left in the world.  Kermit plans on restoring the aircraft to airworthiness.

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Activities, National Parks, News

June 30, 1864 – Yosemite Grant

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

 

On this day in 1864 President Lincoln signed a bill drafted by both houses of the 38th Congress of the United States officially creating the Yosemite Grant.  While Yellowstone ultimately became the first National Park, this was the first instance of park land being set aside for preservation and public use by the federal government.  The grant was the result of citizens like Galen Clark and Senator John Conness advocating heavily for protection of the area.  John Muir later led a successful movement to establish a larger national park encompassing not just the Yosemite Valley, but surrounding mountains and forests as well.

Yosemite presented a series of firsts for the national park system we enjoy today; first to have land set aside, paving the way for other parks like Yellowstone to carve out protected areas for future generations to enjoy; and first to build on the national park idea, and put in place a system for the future United States National Park Service.

Today marks the 149th year since the Yosemite Grant was signed.  2014 promises to be a banner year at Yosemite, as the park celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Grant.  You can find out more about the events celebrating the 150th anniversary HERE.

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