Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog! Now on Smashwords!

86,000 words. Hundreds of articles. The cream of the crop. The most informative, penetrating, useful, controversial, opinionated, wild, and absurd posts I've done over the first several years of this blog. That was Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog. The book is still available. From me, in fact. Just go over to Planet Lactose Publishing to order it.

Paper is out, I know. Electrons are in. But the formatting of the book, with many quotes, large numbers of pictures, and lots of sections, meant that it was a nightmare to convert into digital form and not make it an unholy mess that would offend the eyeballs.

Finally, though, after many, many hours of reformatting, the digital edition is ready to go.

I've posted it on Smashwords.com, a writer-friendly multi-platform site that converts your manuscript in almost every major format that anyone could want to download.

eBook Formats


epub
This is the format Smashwords distributes to the Apple iBookstore, Sony, Kobo, B&N, Stanza, Aldiko and others. Also very popular with Smashwords.com customers. EPUB is an open industry format.

Sony Reader (LRF)
LRF is the format used on older Sony Reader ebook devices. The newer Sony Readers use EPUB.

Kindle (.mobi)
This is one of the most popular formats for Smashwords.com customers. Mobipocket is an eBook format supported on the Kindle, as well as Windows PCs and many handheld devices.

Palm Doc (PDB)
PalmDoc is a format primarily used on Palm Pilot devices, but readers are available for PalmOS, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile Pocket PC/Smartphone, desktop Windows, and Macintosh.

PDF
Portable Document Format, or PDF, is a file format readable by most devices, including handheld e-readers, PDAs, and computers.

RTF
Rich Text Format, or RTF, is a cross-platform document format supported by many word processors and devices. Usually pretty good at preserving original formatting from Word documents.

Plain Text
Plain text is the most widely supported file format, working on nearly all readers and devices. It lacks formatting, but will work anywhere.

That's great. Here's something even better. Smashwords sells the book to you directly. Just go to my page.

You can view it online or download to an astounding number of formats.



Anyway you want it, the ebook price is a low, low $4.95. That's less than a penny for each hour of work that went into it! Seriously.

It gets better. Smashwords would like you to buy directly from them. But you don't have to. They make the book available at all the major online sellers, so you can get it along with any other of the million books available electronically.

For example, if you happen to be at Barnes & Noble just add it to your shopping bag.

Only one tiny problem remains, and I'm working to take care of that. Although you can get the book in .mobi format and you can read that on a Kindle, you can NOT buy it directly from Amazon. Soon, though, I hope.

UPDATE: As of September 15, 2011, you can so too buy it directly from Amazon. Go to this page to download it.

In the meantime, however, I can't think of many needs that Smashwords isn't already covering. You can even read a large sample of the book for free.

And the book has been completely updated to ensure that all the URLs given are live, that the products listed are still available, that unavailable products or sites have been eliminated, and comments or updates added wherever necessary.

It's finally ready to go. And that means I can return to posting on this blog. You'll see new posts starting September 5. And then everything is back to normal.

Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog

Long delayed, the announcement of my book finally appeared locally.

Planet Lactose was today's selection in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle's Spotlight on Authors: Rochester Authors column.

Planet Lactose: The Best from the Planet Lactose Blog by Steve Carper (Planet Lactose Publishing, $16). This book distills three years of the author's blog, which focuses on avoiding dairy products for those who are lactose intolerant, have milk allergies, are vegan, or want to keep kosher. Carper, also author of Milk is not for Every Body, has spent 30 years exploring dairy-free living. Learn more at planetlactose.blogspot.com. Carper lives in Rochester.

You can purchase copies of the book by going to this page.

Planet Lactose, Another Good Thought for a Present

Thinking about Hanukkah gifts made me think about Christmas gifts and gift giving in general. Why give a gift that will be used up and thrown away in an evening. Why not something that will last, because it's something you can turn to over and over again?



OK, you caught me. A little self-promotion here. But honestly, Planet Lactose, The Best of the Blog is a terrific compilation of the best, most timeless posts I've made here so far.



You don't even have to take my word for it. I've got independent witnesses, as testified to in my press release.



You can order it from my new publishing company. Or check out the block and the website that goes along.



The book is easiest to order via PayPal. If you live outside the country or want to contact me for other reasons, here's even more info.



And now for a big, big look at the cover. Cartoon is by Dan Reynolds.



The book has a little bit, heck, a whole lot, of everything that might interest you.



Cost is a measly $16.00, with free delivery, except outside of the U.S. Just go to www.planetlactosepublishing.com and go to the Purchase Books page. With PayPal everything is automated and easy.

Your friends will be amazed you could give something so obviously useful away. It'll really show how much you're thinking about them.

Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog

Many, many, many months in the making, I can finally announce the official publication of my new book, whose full title is Planet Lactose: Reports from the worlds of lactose intolerance, milk allergies, and dairy-free alternatives [The Best of The Planet Lactose Blog, volume 1 (2005-2008)].

As the title indicates, I've taken the best posts on the blog and put them into a handy trade paperback book. Blogs are wonderful things for daily updates and specific searches, but nothing beats a book to collect and organize information to make the whole more than the sum of the parts. You can quickly turn to your greatest subject of interest, whether lactose intolerance, veganism, baby feeding issues, or cookbooks, and find a whole chapterful of posts that should capture your attention.



The cost of Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog is a mere $16.00 and postage is free. For that you get a thick slab of a book, 376 pages covering almost 250 topics, and weighing more than a pound.

Buying the book is just as easy. I've set up a website for Planet Lactose Publishing. On the Purchase Books page, you can order Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog. My collection of f&sf short stories, Tyrannosaur Faire, is also available for purchase there. All purchases need to be made through PayPal.If that's not possible for you, or if you live outside the U.S. or Canada, then go to the Contact page for information on sending checks or the equivalent.

As you probably know all too well, there are few books that talk about living dairy-free. Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog packs more and varied information about all things non-dairy than any other book available today. It's a book I'm proud of. I hope you'll spread the word.