Hillary Clinton may be poised for a big night tonight, with wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. Clinton aides say this will be the beginning of her comeback against Barack Obama. There’s only one problem with this analysis: they can’t count.

I’m no good at math either, but with the help of Slate’s Delegate Calculator I’ve scoped out the rest of the primaries, and even if you assume huge Hillary wins from here on out, the numbers don’t look good for Clinton. In order to show how deep a hole she’s in, I’ve given her the benefit of the doubt every week for the rest of the primaries.

I love definitive articles like this one. Tip of the hat to Jonathan Alter.

This new format for “nimble” books is color interior, 32 to 120 pages long, 8 x 10. For examples, visit the Nimble Books store. (I should add that we are entirely willing to entertain proposals for “traditional” format books.)

The price to the customer varies with page length, but we use a pricing algorithm that results in author compensation of about $3 per book. (Here is our standard contract).  Of course, sales vary from book to book, so  royalties do too.

The manuscript should be 7,000 to 40,000 words long minus approximately 400 words for each image. Excluding the front and back matter, that works out to 23 to 111 pages for the body of the manuscript (including images, which are typically presented in full-page format). The sad truth is that many (if not) most full-length books today are padded. Sometimes it can be more artistically effective to work within constraints.

Images must be 72dpi resolution or greater; color, if at all possible; and provided with either explicit permission to use from the owner or with a strong “no copyright” rationale.

To be clear, the availability of color images is not a requirement; it’s a nice-to-have. This format does work with straight text or with B&W illustrations, but color helps differentiate the book and add value for the customer.

The “content package” that seems to motivate purchase best is a substantial number of beautiful images plus pointed, insightful commentary on a topic that is attractive to enthusiasts.

These are some of our series and titles (current and planned):

• COOL AIRCRAFT — the X-47
• COOL MAPS — Afghanistan, Baghdad, Cuba, France, France’s Overseas Territories, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq …
• COOL SCIENCE — Our Colorful Moon, Our Splendid Sun
• COOL SHIPS — CVN-68 Nimitz, CVN-69 Dwight D. Eisenhower, CVN-70 Carl Vinson, CVN-76 Ronald Reagan, CVN-77 George H.W. Bush, CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford, DDG-81 Winston S. Churchill, SSN-23 Jimmy Carter
• CURRENT AFFAIRS – Sovereign Wealth Funds, Should Barack Obama Be President?
• MILITARY HISTORY — Borodino: Why It Matters Today; BB-67 MONTANA, U.S. Navy Battleship: Why She Matters Today
• POPULAR CULTURE– The Solomon Key and Beyond, Reread THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Today, The New Harry Potter Quiz Book
• TECH FUN — Cool Web Graphics

Ideas for other topics are quite welcome.

The important thing to understand about the financial side is that this is micropublishing. I will be quite happy with a book that sells 10 copies a month. This is not a way to get rich; I would suggest that you think about it more like adding a revenue stream to your blog. By that measure this approach stacks up pretty well. Each book purchased (anywhere in the world) is like a $3 ad click. There are no fees to the author, ever, and we bear all costs of publication.

Incidentally, I have no objection if you wish to compose your book as a series of blog entries, then turn a manuscript over to me for “nimble” publication. Our standard contract gives Nimble exclusive rights to publication in book form, but all other rights are reserved to the author.

This format should work for you if:

• You have pointed, interesting text in hand that you want to “repurpose” or try out in print, or
• You have beautiful color photos or art in hand, or
• You pick a topic that is easily illustrated with high-quality public domain images (e.g. space, navy ships, history before 1922)

and …

• You have a blog or some sort of platform that gives you the ability to drive traffic or…
• You pick a topic that is keyword-friendly or …
• You pick a topic that is beloved by enthusiasts.

Our Nimble Books Marketing Playbook provides advice on how to maximize your online sales.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

… we’ve invited all the presidential candidates to come visit our headquarters in California and share their ideas in town hall-style meetings with our employees.

In February we were honored to host Sen. Hillary Clinton on campus for the first candidate visit, and last Friday we welcomed Sen. John McCain as our second visitor. We’re flattered that the other candidates have responded positively to our invitations, and we’re working to schedule their visits over the next few months.

Just as the Internet poses interesting policy questions, it also helps empower citizens with more information. So, to help potential voters learn more about the candidates and their views on the issues, we’ve posted the complete, unedited videos of these candidate talks on YouTube. Take some time to check out Sen. Clinton’s talk and Sen. McCain’s (as well as a special interview that Sen. McCain did with YouTube’s CitizenTube).


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What? Obama hasn’t been to Google yet? That’s one of those events that seems so inevitable that it’s surprising it hasn’t happened yet.

Obama’s instinctive cautious progressivism will play well at the GooglePlex.

Here’s a hypothetical question for Google employees to pose at the confab: if Larry Page and Sergey Brin offer to let Obama use their 767, will he renounce his “no private jets” pledge?

[poll=5]

Technorati Tags: Google, Obama, Google Obama

WASHINGTON - If the Democrats choose Sen. Barack Obama to be their presidential nominee in 2008, will his skin color and his name cost him enough votes to lose the election? Signaling that he knows this worry is on some Democrats’ minds, Obama addressed the issues of skin color and identity during his tour of New Hampshire last weekend.

The terrible thing is that he’ll never know if race was an issue unless he wins.

Technorati Tags: obama

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, a potential presidential candidate, planned to end weeks of speculation Monday and tell a national audience … he supports his hometown Chicago Bears.

Having some fun with all the political hype, Obama mocked the frenzied interest by taping the introduction to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between his hometown Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Rams.

“So tonight I’d like to put all the doubts to rest. And tonight, after a lot of thought and a good deal of soul-searching, I would like to announce to my hometown of Chicago and all of America that I’m ready …”

And to top it all of he’s got a sense of humor!

Technorati Tags: Obama

Colin Powell, had he run in 2000, was poised to be the ultimate uniter. He was a Republican embraced by Democrats, and an African-American adored across the lines of color and creed. In a nation never quite at peace with issues of race, the mere presence of an African American atop the Republican ticket could have offered hope for a better and less fractious country. Instead, the 2000 election split the electorate nearly down the middle, and the candidate with the short end of the popular vote took the White House. Four years later, even more Americans were passionate about politics, but as many seemed driven to the polls by scorn for the opposing candidate as by unmitigated devotion to their own.

When I hear scholars and pundits claim that single men lead “warped lives” until they marry and become magically transformed, and when I read that bachelors “eat poorly, carouse too much, drive too fast,” and when I am treated to the thousandth rendition of the morality tale of how a young and foolish George W. Bush was saved from a life of alcoholism and recklessness by the firm admonitions of wife Laura, I remember Colin and Alma Powell. I think about what might have been, had it not been for the restraint of a spouse.”

This is absolutely ridiculous. So it’s Alma Powell’s fault? Because she asserted herself in an eminently sane and humane way?

Technorati Tags: obama, colin powell, alma powell

Obama addressed a crowd of more than 800 at the California African-American Museum on Friday.  Then actor Ben Affleck joined him to promote a state proposition at a news conference at the University of Southern California....

"It was nice to have Ben Affleck there," said Alexander Shams, a 16-year-old freshman, "but Barack Obama was the star."

Wow, what a backhanded compliment.