Meet TeleRead's New Senior Writer: Joanna Cabot

I am delighted to inform our readers that, as of today, I will be taking on a more active and formal role here at TeleRead. I have been appointed senior writer and will be working with our editor, Dan, on content and some new site features.

I started writing for Teleread back in 2007, at the suggestion of founder David Rothman, who remains a friend. He’d seen my work elsewhere and suggested I write for the blog. At the time, I told him I couldn’t imagine having enough to say on the subject of ebooks to make any sort of regular contribution!

Over 100 articles and almost five years later, that clearly hasn’t proven true! I not only read myself, but have gotten my mother and father reading too—along with a sister, an aunt, a boyfriend and sundry others!

I’ve written about e-textbooks, DRM, piracy, reading with children and consumer issues. I have both interviewed and been interviewed, and I have reviewed ebook readers ranging from the pioneering eBookwise and Sony right up to the latest Kindle Touch.

Although I do have a journalism background, I’ve always felt that my experience as the “average reader” was my strength on the TeleRead team. Anyone can repost the technical specs from a press release. But how does that translate for the regular person? How can someone like my mother unbox an ebook reader and get going right away?

I try and think about what a regular person would do with their reader and what sorts of things would impress them or annoy them about the experience. I try and think about the marvels and frustrations they might encounter as they go online in search of books and blogs and magazines. I’m not afraid to tell publishers where I think there might be potential that is going unexploited, because I think knowing what customers want is useful information for them!

I’m also one of the few TeleRead writers who has written extensively on the ebook market for children. In my day job, I’m a teacher, and my iPad is a regular tool in my French as a Second Language classroom. I use it both to organize my own teaching materials and to work on language development and reading skills with my young students.

I’ve seen some difficulties come up in using this technology that I hadn’t expected, and the content offerings continue to be unexploited in my opinion. I think this is one area of the ebook market that has room for growth, and I have some ideas I’ll be sharing in the future on where I see some of this going.

I’m going to be helping Dan with news round-ups for the rest of the summer, and once school starts again, I’ll be specializing somewhat and covering primarily product reviews, the Canadian market, the education market, and resources for aspiring authors who want to do the e-market right.

If any readers have anything they want to send my way—articles to blog about, products to review, blogs to read and follow, apps for Android or iOS to consider reviewing—I can be reached via email (ficbot@gmail.com) or on Twitter (@ficbot). I also post book reviews routinely at Goodreads, and I welcome your involvement there.

I’m looking forward to continuing my work on TeleRead in this new senior role. Let’s keep the dialogue going!