Welcome to the Nimble Books blog! This is the successor to a variety of sites operated by W. Frederick Zimmerman since 1994, including the Internet Book Information Center, OneNoteInfocenter.com, TabletPCInfocenter.com, and wfzimmerman.com.
If you are looking for images that seem to have moved, try the search box in the top right, or proceed directly to frequently requested photos such as the new periodic table by Stewart et al. , the black? rhino at the Detroit Zoo, Microsoft’s RSS icons,, the Big House, and the Airbus 380.
 
If you are looking for an article on a particular subject, use the search box, or the category links to the right.
A charming and exceptional story, Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen meets the standards she has set with her other novels. While at the beginning it may slightly remind you of the novel Speak by Laurie Hasle Anderson, Dessen quickly defines her own persona. The protagonist Annabel Greene takes you on a journey of the failure of her friendships, of the truth about her family, and of learning how to admit reality. Dessen cleverly fits characters from previous books into the scene, like a certain couple in running outfits at World of Waffles is obviously Macy and Wes from The Truth About Forever, and later in the book, This Lullaby’s Truth Squad is mentioned. Annabel explores the options of her life with new appreciation when she realizes what it takes to be a good sister and a good friend.
After losing my job ats a product consultant at LexisNexis in December 2002, I switched gears to writing and publishing books. Nimble Books LLC has been in operation since June 2004. It’s been a great experience and I’ve learned a lot about being a publisher. But enough time has gone by for certain trends to become apparent, and it is now time for a strategy refresh.
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A strategy is a coherent series of choices that leads to victory.
- Victory, in this case, is financial independence. I’m lucky enough to have a real job that I thoroughly enjoy, but the weight of my financial responsibilities to my family is something that never leaves my shoulders. I want to have “no worries.”
Here are the macro facts of the Nimble Books situation.
- As currently configured, Nimble Books is approximately a $15K/year business.
- About 75% of the revenue comes from our series of Harry Potter books.
- The lifecyle of the Harry Potter books is finite, but we can probably maintain revenue at more or less the same level by doing incremental products and addressing less lucrative enthusiast markets.
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The Nimble Books website covers its hosting costs via Google AdSense, Google Book Search, and Amazon Associates, but doesn’t do much more. After 20 months of detailed daily monitoring, there is no reason to believe that these revenue streams will ever do anything more than show linear growth.
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$15K/year is enough to help pay off debts and to help with Kelsey’s college, but it’s nowhere near enough to live on.
The Nimble Books strategy going forward:
- Maintain the franchise by keeping products up to date.
- Devote no resources to product development on the website; its primary function is personal expression.
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Focus energies on developing a portfolio of new products; specifically, novels. Follow the Charlie Stross strategy of starting several series in different genres so that once one sells, they all sell.
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Realistically, I can hope to write about one novel every six months.
Schedule:
- Finish up current obligations (AFFC book, website) by June 30.
- 4Q2006: complete PROLIFERATED.
- 2Q2007: complete NOVEL IN FLAMES.
- 4Q2007: complete comic mystery.
Stretch goal: complete and sell ten novels by the time I am 50 (five years from March 18, 2006). (I would be perfectly happy with one!)
Via Wirepix.
The Queen Mary and the Queen Mary 2 in the background.
This is the first time they had ever met.
No idea what the big bubble in the background is.
Improved Science Puts Modern Humans in Europe Earlier
Dr. Mellars [in an article in Nature about improved radiocarbon dating] concludes from the revised chronology that the overlap between Neanderthals and new arrivals must be shortened to about 6,000 years in Central and Northern Europe, perhaps only 1,000 to 2,000 years in regions like western France.
Well, that was quick. So much for non-charismatic megafauna.
Russians Perplexed By Military Day Billboards Featuring US Battleship – NEWS – MOSNEWS.COM
Ahead of the Defender of the Motherland Day, celebrated in Russia on Feb. 23, Moscow streets have been decorated with patriotic festive banners containing a picture of the famous American battleship the Missouri, local media reported.
Although it was evidently a mistake of a picture editor, Russian officers are angered. “They were going to offend us, were not they?” a captain Vladimir Zakharov said in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets daily. “We do not have our own arms any more, they say, look at the foreigners’ one! Not so bad congratulation!”
The Missouri became a legend after in August 1945 on her board Japan signed a capitulation treaty that marked the end of World War II. Now it is moored in Pearl Harbor and serves a museum.
In accordance with a program of patriotic education of Russian citizens, Russian Defense Ministry has been regularly ordering PR-agencies various ads, including outdoor banners like the ones that have appeared in the streets this week.
Nevertheless, the Ministry has denied allegations that its officials ordered the banner with the Missouri. But a spokesman stressed that the mistake was made due to an author’s incompetence and was not a malicious action.
However, Moscow was also celebrating the Navy Day last August with banners containing image of the U.S. Knox frigate.
Ha ha!
cantonrep.com
And Penn State almost did. A controversial loss at Michigan was the Nittany Lions only blemish. Paterno made sure to take a shot at the timing controversy in Michigan’s favor.
“I get a half hour to speak,” Paterno said. “Lloyd Carr will get 30 minutes and two seconds.”
CNN.com – Prince ‘indiscreet over views’ – Feb 22, 2006
former assistant private secretary Mark Bolland said the heir to the throne had boycotted a 1999 Chinese embassy banquet out of respect for Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Bolland said Charles sees himself as a “dissident.”
Good grief. We’re all rebels in our own minds. Even those of us whose entire existence is the essence of the establishment.
Continuing to experiment with ad-sponsored publishing models … crawlers, please harvest the full text of Hypochondriac’s Guide to Hoodia Gordonii H 57!
Author David Brin Blesses Jim Baen’s Universe, Urges Fans to Help Save Science Fiction
Hugo Award-winning science fiction author David Brin urges fans to subscribe to new online science fiction and fantasy magazine, Jim Baen’s Universe for quality fiction and to help save science fiction.
Winston-Salem, NC (PRWEB) February 21, 2006 — Multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning David Brin ( author of the Uplift series, The Postman, and others) has thrown his reputation behind a new SciFi magazine, Jim Baen’s Universe.
Brin says he’s been unimpressed by other SF&F e-zines, but “this time things are very different.” Brin goes on, “Imagine what such a magazine would have to be like, in order to make you hunger for it, month after month. I think you just envisioned Universe, brought to you by the legendary science fiction impresario, Jim Baen and edited by the inimitable Eric Flint.”
The editor of this commercial venture is none other than Eric Flint (1632 and others). The authors list is a who’s who of modern SF&F (Alan Dean Foster, Cory Doctorow, Catherine Asaro, L. E. Modessitt Jr., and of course, David Brin). A complete list of authors who have been signed up for this venture is at www.baensuniverse.com.
Brin goes on to say, “Certainly, I’ve decided to trust them with some of my latest, first-run stories… and a serialized novel that I’m sure you’ll find to be my funniest ever.”
All of that is great, Brin says, but best of all a major raison d’être for Universe is to provide a place for new authors to get started, and established authors to make a living (another is to revive short SF). The quality of the stories already committed is awesome, and they’re still bringing SF&F giants aboard.
Jim Baen and Eric Flint believe that they can provide an unprecedented value proposition (starting with over 150,000 words per issue, twice a standard novel size), and you only have to look at Baen’s existing DRM-free distribution and Free Library to know that these guys already have been successful at publishing without encryption.
Why is this necessary at all?
Eric Flint explains: “In decades past, it was the size and health of the magazines that allowed new writers a place to be published, gave mid-list writers a place to hone their craft, and allowed very popular and well-established writers to move easily from short fiction to novels and back again as they developed their fascinating and imaginative settings. The range of magazine markets also meant that an exceptional story could still be published even if it was beyond the then-boundaries of acceptable SF.
“Today, that’s almost completely vanished. The economics of modern paper publishing and distribution have hammered the magazines badly, and the decline of short form SF has hurt the field as a whole. When once science fiction and fantasy was a cheap refuge from reality for bright teenagers, now the ticket to entry is a full-length novel — often enough, at hardcover prices.”
“If you want to stand up and be included in the movement to help save science fiction,” says publishing legend Jim Baen, “drop in, subscribe, and join the club! You know you want to!”
Jim Baen’s Universe is published as a bimonthly online magazine beginning in June of 2006, with up to 150,000 words per issue, making it far larger than a typical magazine. The magazine can be read online, or in a variety of downloadable formats, including Acrobat PDF, Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, RTF, and others.
As with all of Baen Publishing’s electronic offerings, Jim Baen’s Universe is published completely unencrypted and without any Digital Rights Management schemes or copy protection.
This is a tremendous endorsement from one of the best science fiction writers of the 80s and 90s. It’s exciting to read that he’s going to feed his stuff into Baen’s Universe.
It is a bit disconcerting, though, that this good news has to be spun as part of a movement to help save science fiction.
Does it really need saving? Apparently so…
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