Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon (Wonder Boys) has signed with Open Road Integrated Media for release of five of his books in ebook form. He’ll get a royalty of 50%, better than the ebook deals he has with traditional publishers for his other titles.
To help promote the ebooks, Chabon made a short (2.5 minutes) video in which he discusses how he got started. He had the same first computer I did, an Osborne, which was called “transportable” rather than portable because it was the size and weight of a big sewing machine. I just looked it up: it weighed 23.5 pounds! The screen was five inches. And of course at the time we thought it was a great technological miracle. In 1981 it was a hit; in 1983 the company went bankrupt, having been surpassed by superior computers from Kaypro, IBM and Compaq.
Anyway, here’s that short from Michael Chabon—if you’ve not read anything by him, I recommend The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
