Disc Binding for NaNoWriMo (and Lots More Stuff)

I am writing a very (VERY) bad thriller for National Novel Writing Month this year.  It's horrible.  It's terrible.  It's a hoot, so much fun!  I do not worry about intended readers, niches, clients, or editors because it's just for me.  

I'm also excited to report I will succeed in meeting my NaNoWriMo goal this year.  Which feels great.

Part of the fun has been handwriting parts of the book.  Most of the early word count is in cursive, words in black ink as I tested out various pens.  And paper.  It's amazing how varied paper quality can be!  

I've also dictated sections of this tome as well as running to my keyboard for a good chunk of the word count.  

Which means I've got a mess.  Chapters all over the place, on all sorts of stuff.  Add to that my maps, diagrams, flow charts -- things I want to keep with this thing when I go back to edit it.  

(Or at least read the whole thing from start to finish.  I'm telling you, it's BAD.  There's a tsunami, for one thing.  It seemed like a good idea at the time. ) 

Organizing My NaNoWriMo Draft and Resources

I've got chapters in spiral notebooks; in cheap DollarTree composition books; on college ruled loose leaf paper.  I've also got chunks of the book in printed pages from times I opted to dictate or sit there and type at the keyboard.

Then there are all the research things.  Maps, diagrams, flow charts, and more that I created to help me keep my various violent sub-plots organized.  As well as pretty images stored in Padlet and Pinterest and Evernote.

Where to keep all this stuff?  How to compile all my papers into a final first draft, in proper page order?  

My solution will not be an old-school three-ring binder.  Thought about it, but nope.

5 Reasons to Use Disc Binders

I will be using a disc binding process.  First, this be much more fun, especially creating my "book covers" and my fake accolades on the back (I'm imagining them now:  Mark Twain couldn't put my book down, Ian Fleming reports that my thriller is so real, it's scary, ...).

Bigger reason:  I can insert and remove pages as easily, and probably faster, than a metal ring binder. 

Best reason:  with a disc binding system, all sorts of papers can be held together and if you choose to do so, you can flip them together like a spiral notebook, and lay the whole thing flat down on its side, there on the table.  This cannot be done with a ring binder, as you know.

Maybe it's because I am left-handed, but it's a great advantage to me, the ability to have the draft lay flat on the table, and the ease with which I can flip it around.  

Another plus, as SeaLemon points out in her great instructional video below, I can choose to put those discs at the top or on the side.  My decision.

Uses for Disc Binders: More Than NaNoWriMo Drafts

I'm sharing this not only because other NaNoWriMo folk might like the idea, but because I think disc binding has lots more uses. 

I'm already thinking of all my recipe stuff that I've shoved into backs of cookbooks, index card boxes, etc.  And then there are all those notes-to-self I make and need to gather:  quotes and cool vocabulary in books that I'm reading, ideas for things, you know what I mean.

Am I the only one who finds stuff they have to KEEP in every Alexander McCall Smith book they read?  I just finished the latest in the Precious Ramotse series (the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) and there's so much wisdom in there.  Wow.  

You may find this a fun alternative to a ring binder, too. 

SeaLemon's Instructional Video on Disc Binding

Publish Your Book: Self-Publishing or Using a Publishing Service

Today, you can publish your own book. Opting out of the traditional publishing route, you become your own publishing company. Or maybe you hire a publishing service to help you. Here’s some information that I’ve collected which you may find helpful if you’re ready to share your writing with the world.

(Oh, and congratulations to you if you are ready to publish! I think it’s a big (HUGE) accomplishment to write and finalize a book, any kind of book. Getting tens of thousands of words down on paper (well, on the screen) and then editing, organizing, and finalizing that work product is a big deal. No one appreciates that more than those of us who have done it. Kudos to you! I wish you much success!)

1. Self-Publishing 

Once you have your content ready to go, it is possible to take that Word document (or Scrivener file) and turn it into a book on paper or in an electronic format. E-books, of course, are sold in several different formats that depend upon the e-reader that will be used.

Kindles will not read e-books sold on Barnes & Noble, for instance, because Amazon sells the Kindle e-readers and Amazon wants you to buy e-books from Amazon, not its competitor. Of course, Amazon also offers a free downloadable software program so you can read their e-books on other devices.

All this because Amazon e-books are published in one kind of proprietary format. For Barnes & Noble, another format is used. Apple, ditto.

A. The Four Major E-Book Sellers in the United States 

(1) There are four major e-book sellers right now. These are the websites where you want to place your e-book for sale. They are:

• Amazon 
• Apple iBookstore 
• Barnes & Noble 
• Kobo.

(2) Each of these online e-book sellers offers their products in a different format. So you have to provide your book to them in the electronic format they require. Yes, this means that your book will have to be formatted several times, in different ways, if you want to cover all the major selling sites. 

Fortunately, these sellers will guide you through this process for free. Kobo will take your Word document, for example, and convert it to its preferred sales format as part of the steps you take to upload your book to their site for sale. Kindle Direct Publishing guides you through the process as well, converting your document into an .AZW3 format for placement on Amazon.com. Apple really holds your hand, helping you to add images and graphics as you build your e-book for their sales site.
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B.  The Four Big e-Book Formats 

1. .AZW3 

This is the format required by Amazon.com (Kindle Format 8 aka .AZW3). It is used on all Kindle e-readers, and with the new reading apps provided by Amazon, these .AZW3 formatted e-books can also be read on smartphones, tablets, PCs, etc., via the free software provided by Amazon.

2. .iBook 

This is the format used with the free iBooks Author software. It’s based upon the .ePub format but it’s proprietary to Apple Inc. You agree to sell books in the .iBooks format through Apple exclusively.

3. .ePub 

This is an open software format. E-books formatted as ePub works can be read in e-readers like Kobo Readers and Barnes and Noble’s Nook as well as on iPhones and on PCs with things like the Firefox add-on, “ePub Reader.” Sony has changed its e-reader formatting from its proprietary BBeB format to .ePub. Barnes & Noble sells e-books via NookPress in an .ePub format. Kobo will take your content and publish it in an .ePub format, too.

4.  .PDF

This doesn’t mean that you cannot offer your ebook in a published, professional way that is outside these sales formats. Portable Document Format (.PDF) is a popular format for e-books that many people use because PDFs are so easy to view on so many different devices and platforms. Most e-readers, smartphones, and tablets can display .pdf formatted e-books. You might choose to offer your e-book as a .pdf on your website, for instance, and invite your readers to upload it to the e-reader, smartphone, or tablet of their choice.

C. Print on Demand for Paperbacks and Hardbound Books 

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Some of your readers will want to read your books in print, not on a screen. You can do this without printing an inventory of books (and incur that expense) like traditional publishers do by choosing to “print on demand.”

Amazon.com provides this service with CreateSpace. You can also choose to print your work as a paperback or hardback through Barnes & Noble’s NookPress or through third-party services like BookBaby, IngramSpark, Lulu, or Blurb.

These are not necessarily services where a buyer requests a printed product and then the book is printed for them so much as avenues for you to print your work as a hardbound or paperback book which is then sold on the various web sites. Read the fine print on each site to learn more — and compare the costs! These services aren’t cheap!

2. Publishing Services 

If this seems complicated or overwhelming to you, there are businesses out there ready to help. They will take your raw word count in its Word format (or Open Office, or Scrivener, whatever) and they’ll do everything necessary to convert it into a finished product.  They will also help with marketing your work to readers in various ways.

Some will also submit your work to all the different sales sites (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.) as a distribution service. Some stop before distribution, but still offer help on things besides publishing the book, like marketing your work.

For instance, Lulu.com offers support for things like helping you market your book, including things like press releases and business cards.  Popular publishing services that include distribution, etc., include Smashwords, BookBaby, IngramSpark, and Draft-2-Digital.  

3. Royalties: How Much Profit for You? 

Different places offer different royalties to you. If you are writing these books for profit, then you need to analyze how each seller takes their cut and how much profit you can make at each site. Royalties are the buzz word here.

Compare royalties that are offered both for e-book sales through Amazon.com (and other sales sites) to you directly as well as royalties offered via these publishing service companies.

Remember, if they are helping you with marketing tasks or distribution jobs, then they will need to be paid for their work and you’re choosing less profit here for not doing these things yourself as an indie publisher. So, it’s important in your analysis to keep track of the costs you may have incurred in hiring an editor, paying a designer for the book cover, and other costs you’ve incurred in getting your product ready for sale.

These costs need to be tallied alongside any publishing expenses as well as marketing costs and monies paid to get the book into the marketplace. The hard thing about writing books for sale is that you start at that keyboard as a creative artist, but at the end of the process, you evolved into a business owner dealing with a bottom line.

That’s the choice you’ve made by going the independent route: being both (1) a writer and (2) an independent publisher of books.

Book Covers: Design Your Own Book Cover at Canva.com

THIS POST UPDATED MAY 17, 2017 TO SHOW NEW CANVA BOOK COVER 

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It's important to have a professional book cover.  Everyone says so, right?

Personally, I know when I surf through books on Amazon.com as well as my daily e-mail message from BookBub, those covers matter.

Sure, we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but heck.  I DO.  I admit it.

My books all have professionally designed covers ... except for the one that I wrote with Terry Lenamon.

I hate that cover.  I created that cover.  I want to change that cover.

And now, maybe I can because Canva is coming to help me!!

Here are two examples of the FREE book cover designs offered at Canva.com -- there's lots more, and prices for those that aren't free start at $1.00.

Canva's Book Cover Templates

At Canva.com, there is a new offering:  book covers.  Check them out here.  Oh, it's great stuff.

Not only do they have designs that you can use, or that you can change as you like, they also have the basic skeleton to use if you want to upload your own images, use your own fonts, etc.

Some are free.  Others cost you a buck.

Yes, you read that right: one buck.  Uno. 

It's sweet.  And it looks like lotsa fun.  (They have tutorials, too.) 

I'm going to be playing around with Canva's book cover options over the weekend.  Thought I'd share -- and hopefully, I'll have a better cover for the Death Penalty book too!


Gotta love (LOVE) Canva.com....

MAY 2017 UPDATE: MY CANVA BOOK COVERS 

Someone asked me about this post and I realized that I didn't share my new cover for the Death Penalty book I created using Canva.com.  So, I'm doing that now.

The first one (no pix in background) is the one I uploaded to Amazon for the Kindle E-Book.

The second one (death chamber pix in background) is the alternative cover I created using Canva.  I liked it, but it seemed too busy for a thumbnail.

Pen Names, Pseudonyms, Nom De Plumes, aka DBAs

News this week is that China is forcing its writers to reveal their true identities, despite the fact that writing under a pen name has been a longstanding Chinese tradition. It’s said to be a part of the Chinese government's attempt to control what happens online.

Some may think that outlawing pen names isn’t that big of a deal; they’d be wrong.
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Charlotte Bronte and her sisters published under pen names using the surname Bell; Charlotte's nom de plume  was Currer Bell.  

Pen Names Give You Power   

Pen names are powerful: they allow writers a level of creative freedom that only anonymity provides. Aside from political freedom, there are several reasons that writers choose to publish under a nom de plume.  For instance:

• Pseudonyms can be important for professionals (like lawyers) who may not want clients to know that they write steamy romance novels or Louis L’Amour-type westerns. 
• Also, pen names allow writers established in one field or genre to publish in another area without fear of losing readership. 
• For prolific authors, using pen names frees them from concern that publishing too many books in one year may dilute their market if they were to publish all under a single name. 

There are lots of reasons to use a pseudonym if you are a writer and pen names are widely used by writers today. How widely used? As for how popular pen names are, I leave it to you to surf the web for all the lists of “famous pen names” both past and present - like the 2013 list that Time Magazine provides in its article, “Famous Authors with Secret Pseudonyms.” 

Writing as a Business

Thing is, when you write under a pen name and you publish that work online with hopes of making a buck or two from it, then you’re going into the writing business. At this point, it’s not just romantic to use a pen name, it’s business. 

Which means you might want to consider filing your pseudonym down at the courthouse as a “DBA” (doing business as). Why?

First, filing your pen name as a DBA provides legal notice to the public that you are using another name to do business which may be important to you in the future for various reasons. It proves that the pen name really is you if you ever need to establish that ownership.

Second, it may help to block someone else trying to use that same pen name - if not globally, then possibly within your county or state. It’s a legal argument that isn’t as strong as copyright law but it’s better than going forward and not having this backup.

After all, establishing your DBA isn’t creating a business entity. It’s just providing legal public notice that you are using a fake name to do business.

Setting Up Your Nom de Plume as a DBA 

Getting a DBA set up is pretty cheap and easy. It’s a service provided in Texas by your local county clerk. Just look up the details online (like these set of instructions for Bexar County or Travis County) or give your County Clerk’s Office a call.

One important caveat: if you are serious enough about your writing business to take the time to register a legal notice of your pen name as a DBA in your public county records, and you’re pretty darn sure that you’re going to be making more than pocket change from your sales, then you may want to consider creating a business entity for yourself.  Writers can register copyright under a corporate name just as they can under their personal legal name.

That’s a decision that may need the help of a lawyer licensed in your state — and you may want to run it past your accountant, too.

Pen Name Fun

Finally, here's a couple of fun links for you, Dear Reader, if you are considering a pen name or are just curious about nom de plumes:

Choose your new author alias here using the online Pen Name Generator.
Go here to take the Oxford Dictionary's Pen Names Quiz.

Infographic: DOJ's case against Apple for price fixing of ebooks

This image is from a series of slides presented by the DOJ at trial today.

E-book Sales Increase 252% in First Quarter of 2010

Shown: Amazon's Kindle

E-book sales increased an astonishing 252% during the first three months of 2010, according to Publisher's Weekly.  This news comes from the industry analysis performed by the Association of American Publishers which keeps track of the publishing industry, and releases its statistics in periodic reports to its membership. 

And this, even before Google Edition debuts with it offering of e-books that can be read without the need for any specific e-reader (Nook, Kindle, etc.).

Lawyer Writer News Flash: Facebook Claims Full Rights to Everything On Your Facebook Site

Apparently, Facebook has quietly changed its Terms of Service (actually, they did this back on Feb. 4th) and maybe you should know about this.

Unless the complaints carry enough power to change things, right now Facebook owns everything that you put on its site -- that's right, everything that you've placed on your personal facebook page -- and Facebook can distribute and use your stuff for anything that Facebook thinks is a good idea. For Facebook.

Given that there's lots of talk about Social Media these days, especially focusing upon the use of Twitter and Facebook by law firms, this is really big news.


riverScrap has a nice overview.

My E-Book Road -8: Bob Jensen Is the EBook Guru

Bob Jensen of Trinity University (here in my hometown, what luck!) has studied e-books for years, and he's sharing his information over at his website, Electronic Book, e-Book, eBook, eJournals and Electronic Journals Watch.

Lots of info here, going back many years -- Prof. Jensen's attitude may seem slanted toward academic usage of the publications, but that's certainly understandable. He's very generous with his knowledge and he's kept his website current for several years. Good place to surf thru when pondering e-books vs print ....

My E-Book Road 7: Traditional Publishing

As you know if you've been following along My E-Book Road, I'm wanting to provide lots of info regarding several specific topics on which I get quizzed regularly by email and which involves much too much to thrown into my Everyday Simplicity blog. I've decided a small book, maybe even a couple of hundred pages, would help a lot of folk and now the hurdle for me is: how best to accomplish this goal, cheaply, efficiently, with a quality product, and maybe a bit of a profit for all my time, effort, and lost opportunity costs?

I'm not investigating where to publish my Great American Novel, or even a single poem. I did stumble across two opposing views this week -- the first, as I learned that Murderati is up for a major blogging award, and the second, as I read in Media Bistro that an author is choosing to write an ebook, available online as a pdf, and if his sales are strong enough, then his publishing house will take his book into a paperback version. So, I went surfing around to learn about Canterabooks (which has a blog but no separate website).

I learned a lot just from this limited surfing. Check out the perspectives being advanced online by Peri Noskin Taichert over at Murderati (such a great blog, by the way) in her post, "What is An Author?" and an interview by a blogger at Subtletea of Cantera Christopher:

You read them both and see what you think ... excerpts:

Peri: "I want something that more accurately reflects the difference in the two processes of publishing. I don't want the term to be loaded with judgment or arguments about quality; after all, there's a need for both opthalmologists and optometrists in this world. A person could make the same argument about self-publishing and traditional publishing. But they're not the same. I've never paid to have my work in print. I DO want potential readers to know that. ...."

Cantera: "As for our motto ["Beating Our Tiny Fists on the Big Hairy Chest of the Corporate Literary World"](which came to me one evening over drinks with my partner Michael upstairs at Sardi’s), it puts one in mind of a voluptuous but virtuous art maiden on the brink of being seduced/raped by the testosterone-driven commercial establishment. I like the eroticism of that fantasy. It gives me the juice to keep plugging away. Eros is the main component of my artistic makeup and philosophy, and by Eros I mean the creative, generative spirit at its primal."

I don't know about you, but wouldn't want to spend any time with Cantera but I'd like to have a conversation or two with Peri. I've even put Peri's name on my Barnes & Noble Buy list.

My E-Book Road: 6 - Amazon Looking Good

Well, well, well.

Amazon seems to have a method in its madness, and maybe self-publishing through Amazon makes more sense than ebooks ...
check out my post over on Rebecca Kennedy.

In a nutshell, Amazon is looking to cut out all the middlemen with a future where it's just Amazon and its authors. Means lots more money in the author's pocket.

And, Amazon purportedly will be targeting self-publishing authors first -- get them into the Amazon fold, and then Amazon is allegedly going to go head to head with the traditional publishing houses.

Now, all the BookSurge and CreateSpace and Kindle information is making much more sense ....

My E-Book Road: 4 - Harper Collins Imprint Gives No Advances

Curiouser and curiouser.

Harper Collins has recently announced a new imprint that would not provide any advances to writers (stupid) although this doesn't seem to be set in stone just yet. (Writers would get paid through some type of profit-sharing plan - check out MediaBistro for the best scoop on this story.)

Meanwhile, Joseph Weisenthal of paidContent.org, over at WashingtonPost.com, opines that this Harper Collins step is in reality a spin on the usual POD setup which would allow untested writers the opportunity to be published by HarperCollins without that nasty inventory risk.

I'm just wondering if Amazon's BookSurge bit correlates with this HarperCollins spin in some way ....

My E-Book Road: 3 - Amazon's Booksurge for Print on Demand, The Only Choice Now?

Well, I'm learning.

Print on Demand ("POD") through Lightening Source was coming highly recommended (see My E-Book Road post no. 2), and POD sure seemed to make sense to me for my purposes (see My E-Book Road intro post).

Today, however, I learn that Amazon.com is demanding that its own Print On Demand service, BookSurge, be used for any books sold on the Amazon site.

MediaBistro is reporting on the public backlash that appears to be growing: apparently, the American Society of Journalists and Authors has issued a press release relaying its "disgust" with Amazon's move, and the Authors Guild is mentioning that big, scary word of "antitrust" (which wouldn't be the first time that someone used "monopoly" and "Amazon" in the same sentence).

In fact, this story is building by the minute - so much so, that Writers Weekly has devoted a specific page on its site to this issue, with continous updates. Go here to read the latest.

There's talk of boycotts. Lawsuits. Anti-Amazon blogs are popping up. It's a big deal today.

Post I like best so far? Angela Hoy's personal take on the story over at Media Mensch -- she's the co-owner of BookLocker.com (a POD company) and the publisher of WritersWeekly.com.

My E-Book Road: 1 - ISBNs & Barcodes

Sure, you don't have to have an ISBN when you are self-publishing -- but I think it's wise to have one, and I'm investigating how to do so for my E-Books.

What the heck am I talking about? Well, ISBN stands for "International Standard Book Number" and I suppose it's analogous in its own way to a Social Security Number these days for most folks. You can manuever through the world without one, but it's a ramble.

ISBNs

ISBNs are very official, and they are assigned by a very official organization: the US ISBN agency which is run by a private firm, RR Bowker -- the publishers of Books in Print. Nice, tidy market niche they've got there, huh?

Their website offers lots and lots of information, including this list of fees:

REGULAR PROCESSING
(15 business days turnaround)

ISBN price list (the categories below include the combined processing fees and registration fees):

10 ISBNs: $275.00
100 ISBNs: $995.00
1000 ISBNs: $1,750.00

They also offer a warning about "unauthorized resellers of ISBNs", which states in part:

"If you use one of these reassigned ISBNs, you will not be correctly identified as the publisher of record in Books in Print or many of the book industry databases. The result may be extensive costs to apply for a new ISBN and the application of stickers to books already printed and in circulation.

"If you are a new publisher, you should apply for your own ISBN publisher prefix from the US ISBN Agency. Assigning ISBNs from your own ISBN publisher prefix will identify you as the publisher of your titles, and link your contact information to the specific publisher identifier. This will ultimately aid in circulating your books properly in the industry supply chain."

Who are these scandalous resellers? I'm not sure.

Meanwhile, I found BarCode Graphics has a good deal -- $55 for an ISBN and a Bookland EAN barcode -- promoting itself as:

"Bar Code Graphics, Inc. is not related to R.R. Bowker, but does have an agreement by which the Publisher Services division can act as an agent for small publishers and facilitate single ISBN assignments through Bowker with the publisher's name listed as the registrant (Personalized Publisher Program)."

About Those Barcodes ...

The Agency offers the official Bookland EAN format while Bar Code Graphics offers something else:

"The Bookland EAN barcode is a standardized format which is accepted by trading partners worldwide. Our experience with bar codes enables us to provide our customers with symbols which comply to the GS1 guidelines and offer assistance with providing the appropriate format. Click here for an example.

"If you require only a Bookland EAN symbol, we encourage you to purchase ISBN Bookland barcodes files from www.createbarcodes.com for only $10 each."

(Go to www.createbarcodes.com, and you find this site owned and operated by Bar Code Graphics, as well.)

The Bottom Line

$55/1 ISBN is a lot better than $275/10 ISBNS (not including barcodes). On the other hand, I am intending on writing more than one e-book, and the idea of being a real, life publisher listed in Books in Print sounds so darn - well - cool.

So, is this a good deal? What does RR Bowker say about Bar Code Graphics? I don't know yet, but I've asked them.

My E-Book Road: Introduction

For all those snoots who look down their noses at self-publishing, hey - I understand. My first thought is visualizing the horrid yellow backwater paperback offered up by a proud "author" at a local writer's group: 340 pages of a rambling, rhyming epic detailing the life of his beloved, and very dead, cat. Nine lives and all that, you know.

Meanwhile, over at my simplicity blog (Everyday Simplicity), I get lots of traffic going to the same subject matter -- and lots of email asking questions -- on basically three or four topics. Over time, the requested information has delved into a lot more detail than a blog post can - or should - handle.

The answer, I've decided, is an E-Book. I'm expanding these high-traffic topics, compiling a lot more information into a hopefully helpful publication that meets the needs of these readers in a way that Everyday Simplicity cannot.

Little did I know that this decision, once made, isn't so simple to implement. I'm learning all sorts of things as I undertake this endeavor - and I thought this blog post series would be a good idea. I'll share what I learn, as well as keep track of my progress and what info I've accumulated.

My E-Book Road. Here goes.

Perez Hilton v Lindsay Lohan's Friend: Defamation Concerns for a Blogger

All the media coverage today surrounding Perez Hilton being sued by Lindsay Lohan's friend for defamation may give many a blogger pause.

Here's the skinny: bloggers can be sued for defamation not only for their own posts - anonymous or otherwise - but also for the comments left on their blog. Comments, too? Yep.

And, in today's legal arena, remember that while they may not win, they may well be able to pursue a lawsuit against you. In this murky, new area of the law, there's lots of leeway to argue that a cause of action has been established and the suit's not frivolous (even if it's not winable).

While the law is still evolving, here's what is leading the pack:

1. John Doe 1 v. John Cahill. In October 2005, the Delaware Supreme Court held that anonymous bloggers are not immune from being sued, but the standard of proof to reveal their identity is the highest possible burden.

2.The US Communications Decency Act holds that a blogger who repeats someone else's statements is legally responsible for the defamatory content of those statements, just as if the blogger was the original speaker, if the blogger knew, or had reason to know, that the statements were defamatory. The Act protects against liability for online "intermediaries" who merely provide or republish speech by others.

For a nice discussion of this evolving area of the law, check out TCS Daily's 2003 article, The Next Litigation Background; the British blog Internet Defamation which has been posting exclusively on this topic from a world-wide perspective since 2005; the articles at Law.Com, including Charles Toutant's on cult bloggers and the October 2007 Law.Com's online report of the National Law Journal's Roundtable discussion on this issue.

Choosing A Digital Marketplace: Is It Zipidee?

The New York Times is reporting today on Red Herring's story of the upcoming debut of Zipidee -- a type of E-Bay site which will let folk sell ebooks, software, games, and the like through its marketplace.

The NYT comments thus far are interesting: David Mitchell writes that Tradebit.com has been doing this for years already, and Kram urges content creators to sell from their own sites, avoiding these marketplace hubs.

Meanwhile, it's Nick Gonzalez at TechCrunch that gives the real skinny on Zipidee: he compares more than just Tradebit.com -- he brings in Payloadz, e-Junkie, Lulu, Edgeio, and eBay. He also discusses horizontal versus vertical, pointing to DocStoc, Scribd, AmieStreet, 5Min, and Snocap.

Gonzales does address several items that distinguish Zipidee from the rest of the pack: more control over pricing; the ability to create your own little virtual store (akin to E-Bay); etc. An important feature: Zipidee will offer its own proprietary DRM protection function.

Meanwhile, over at the Wall Street Journal -- they just like the name.