I remember as a kid writing long stories with a fountain pen, adding a few drawings and then binding all the sheets of paper together in brown parcel paper tied down the middle with wool. I was an author at eight years old and nobody was going to tell me any different! It’s funny but I never sold any copies but my mother still has them in a box somewhere and they come out now and again when the subject of me writing for a living comes up, bless! Read more
Well there are certainly some fun ways to get youngsters reading and writing these days and if this one doesn’t get them hooked then I don’t know what will. It could be quite a laugh to use as an adult too if you want to get a point across in a comic style. The mechanics are simple and once you log in you are taken on a step-by step guide to creating a comic strip page complete with characters and text. The first thing you have to do is choose the layout of your page from a selection of boxes and once ... Read more
It used to be the case that the poor beleaguered novelist out there had to jump through the odd hoop and find a publisher in order to release their masterwork. Not only would it mean another roadblock on the path to glory but it would also mean a percentage of the takings being sliced off. However, the plethora of 'publish your own book' sites that have cropped up over the last few years has begun to change the way it works. Pandamian is a writing and book tool that acts as your publisher by covering all the techical and background ... Read more
Most students seem to meet have a money problem. There's never enough of it. Then there's the money that has to be paid back later. It all adds up. So when it comes to the text books you need to buy for your course it can easily turn into a big problem. You pay a lot of money for them, use them a little bit and then try to sell them back. It would be so much better if you could rent the chapters you want. BookStep is a textbook tool based in the cloud that let's you access the ... Read more
I’m sorry but I really don’t get this one at all. When I first saw the title I assumed it would be a useful educational source of famous questions throughout history such as "how do you like your omelette cooked Mr Bennett?" Read more
I love a really useful app that doesn’t need too much driving and so I’m certainly going to be signing up for this free one. If you’re an avid reader of books I strongly suggest you consider doing the same. Read more
There have been plenty of times when I've said to a Twittere friend "Have you read any Jonathan Carroll books?" Of course, they've generally never heard of him so I offer to send them something so they can see if they like his writing. That's where it gets a little tricky. I could just go out and buy a copy of "Sleeping In Flames" and post it off but that takes time. I could use a file sharing site but, let's face it, that's a bit of a hassle. Twtebook is a PDF book share tool for Twitter that let's ... Read more
As if students don't have a hard enough life anyway there is always the added cost of textbooks and what to do with them when you don't need them anymore. Usually, it's just advertising at your college or university, but you won't get much for them as there are plenty of others selling theirs too. Or you buy and sell them through booksellers leaving you open to bad customer service and hard to read websites. Fairbooks is an education selling tool that buys and sells textbooks at a much better rate than it's competitors. Fairbooks makes textbook buyback work ... Read more
Do you find it hard to keep up with all the books that are released these days? You used to be able to walk into your local bookstore and pick up a 'what's new' pamphlet but the humble and much-loved bookshop is beginning to become a thing of the past. Then there's the online releases too, of course. So where do you find out about all the latest book releases? BookPeeper is a simple book shopping tool that details all the books, whether online or on paper, that are released today. BookPeeper is a simple shopping tool that gives ... Read more
Launched with the support of a number of celebrity endorsements, including one from Monty Python’s Terry Jones, Unbound is a publishing house that uses crowdfunding to get the books on the shelves that people want to read. Read more