A New Spin on the Bookmobile

Looking for uses for your mobile phone? How about searching for book titles? Also from M.J. Rose's e-publishing notebook: Stephen King's e-novella could be his next movie. ... E-publishing rights to the highest bidder. ... Indie authors get a directory of their own.

Talk about taking phone books literally. RoamingReader.com is offering access to hundreds of classic literary works via any WAP-enabled mobile phone.

RoamingReader.com offers the ability to search by authors and titles, as well as to get access to personalized book placemarks and a virtual bookshelf, said owner David Da Silva.

The development team responsible for creating Mobible.org, the first modern English WAP edition of the Holy Bible, has come up with this new library.

"Other e-book solutions require the user to download the text into a handheld computer or dedicated reader. With RoamingReader.com, the chances are that you already have a compatible reader in your pocket," Da Silva said.

Over 200 titles are available now and will increase to over 1,500 during the next few weeks. RoamingReader does not charge for access to any its features, but service-provider charges may apply.

King's e-novella to be a movie? Director and screenwriter Mick Garris has adapted Stephen King's e-novella Riding The Bullet for the big screen and is in talks with producers and production companies.

Garris, who has worked with King in the past directing both Sleepwalkers (1992) and The Stand (1994), said Bullet was a story that resonated with him.

"It's a simple story, small scale, a ghost story -- but really has an interesting twist to it," Garris said.

When Riding the Bullet was released by Simon & Schuster in March 2000, over 400,000 copies were downloaded in just 48 hours. Industry analysts credit King's title as one of the seminal events in bringing e-books to the public's attention.

Epublish.com going once, twice ... Dave Whited-Ford registered the name "Epublish.com" in 1994 when his company was doing e-publishing for the University of Wisconsin Extension. But because of the momentum e-books and e-publishing currently enjoy, he has put the name up for sale to the highest bidder.

"I am not in the business of selling names and I am not a squatter. I just think I own a very valuable asset which I'm not using," said Whited-Ford, who still does some work with electronic publishing.

On auction at Afternic.com, appraisals for the domain have been as high as $500,000, but Whited-Ford is guessing he'll get half that amount. He has set the minimum bid for $50,000.

Indies get their directory: ReadersCentral.com, a directory for e-books published by independent publishers and self-publishers, goes live this week.

Over 400 titles are already indexed and can be searched by genre, title or author. Listings are free for both authors and publishers. Marilyn Nesbitt, CEO of DiskUs Publishing, donated both the domain name and Web server.

Each entry includes cover art, all formats in which the book is available, a description of the e-book and a link for reviews and ordering information. The ReadersCentral search engine looks for key words in both titles and book descriptions.

"The one thing that seemed to echo repeatedly among the writers' lists on the Internet was the lack of a central directory," said Leta Nolan Childers, e-author and project coordinator.
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