E-books vs. Paper Books Controversy Date: Wednesday, February 24 @ 20:14:57 Topic News Kindle™ Author Threatens to Sue the Book Awards Organizers for Refusal to Accept Kindle™ E-Books Organizers of the Sharp Writ Book Awards confirmed that they has received threats of legal action by a Kindle™ Author for excluding Kindle™ (and other) eBooks from being nominated for the prestigious 2010 Sharp Writ Book Awards. Meanwhile, printed books continue to pour in at the Book Awards’ San Diego office for consideration for the 2010 awards from across the world. Nominations for this prestigious Award, which is open to English books printed between January 2006 and February 2010, are being accepted till March 15th. -- The organizers of the Sharp Writ Book Awards confirmed that a Kindle™ author has threatened legal action against them for their refusal to accept digital books for consideration for the awards. The author, whose name is being withheld, has claimed that by refusing to accept the digital eBooks, the Sharp Writ Book Awards Organizers were denying equal opportunity to writers who have chosen e-publishers over traditional paper bound publishing. 2010 Sharp Writ Book Awards We decided to exclude e-Books because of practical issues." explained Yashpal Talreja, Coordinator for the BLSIG. "It is truly astounding to see how much interest the Awards have generated, the books have been pouring in from everyday all over the world. “We decided to exclude e-Books because of practical issues." explained Yashpal Talreja, Coordinator for the BLSIG. “Unfortunately, all the popular e-publishing platforms use proprietary formats; accepting digitally published books for the Awards would have required us to equip each of our judges with a Kindle™, a Nook™, a Sony reader, and an iPad™; and still we will miss some platforms. It is truly astounding to see how much interest the Awards have generated, the books have been pouring in from all over the world." Meanwhile, printed books continue to arrive at the Sharp Writ Book Contest’s distribution center in San Diego from around the world, and from there, they are being immediately dispatched to members of the Judging panel located across the country. Nominations for Sharp Writ Awards are open to printed books of exceptional merit in five different categories including Non Fiction, Autobiography & Memoirs, Fiction, Young Adults and literature for Children. Any book in English and published between January 2006 to February 2010 is eligible as long as it has an ISBN. Final deadline for receipt of nominations is March 15, 2010. Self-published titles are also eligible for entry as long as they meet other requirements. A nomination form can be downloaded from the Book Lovers SIG's website. Winners will be announced at the Book Lovers SIG’s annual meeting at the combined Annual Gathering of American and Canadian Mensa in Detroit on July 3rd, 2010 in a special award ceremony. In addition to the priceless credibility which comes from a stamp of recognition by a Special Interest Group consisting of Mensa members, this is an excellent opportunity for authors to reach out to Mensa members themselves. It is expected that more than 2,000 Mensa members will be attending the Annual Gathering. The award ceremony will also be webcast live by Channel IQ, the official Channel of the m-Tube SIG of American Mensa where it will be accessible by more than 50,000 members. The winning books and authors will be featured in Expressions, the newsletter of the consortium of the Arts and Entertainment SIGs and will be showcased on a special section on Genius Mall, the online store operated by the Consortium of A&E SIGs. ABOUT THE SHARP WRIT BOOK AWARDS Sharp Writ Book awards were created by the Book Lovers SIG, a special interest group of American Mensa with more than 800 members worldwide to recognize excellence in writing and publishing and to identify well written books of high quality. To find out more details and to download a nomination form, visit Book Lovers SIG's website. Kindle is the registered trademark of Amazon, Inc. MENSA is registered around the world as a trademark/service mark of Mensa International Limited and affiliated national Mensa organizations. American Mensa, Ltd. does not endorse any products or services being offered by the BLSIG. All opinions expressed in this press release are those of its author, and not of Mensa, which has no opinions. http://www.prweb.com/releases/kindle/book-award/prweb3639554.htm San Diego, CA (PRWEB) February 24, 2010 This article comes from Mid-America Mensa http://www.mamensa.org/ The URL for this story is: http://www.mamensa.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=121