So, I sent all three books over to Barnes & Noble's Nook ebookstore via Smashwords and took them down from PubIt, Barnes & Noble's self publishing platform. It appears as if they are now appearing as Smashwords' books and not PubIt books. This changed all the B&N Nook buy links; I think I have fixed them all, but if you get a bad one, let me know.
Also let me know if you have any problem buying a book, naturally!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SOPA Protest: Consider this page blacked out
I have no clue how to take down the blog for only a day, so just pretend when you got here there was no here here.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
G'day, mate! Apple iBooks Down Under
One reason I like Smashwords is it gives you the option of also selling your ebooks in other retailers, specifically the Apple iBooks and Sony Reader stores. Sony has provide a slow but steady sales stream, but Apple is interesting because their stores have resulted in some international sales for me.
When you own international rights to your book and publish it via KDP, your ebook is also for sale in the Kindle stores in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. But of course, except for the UK, an English language book is not going to do as well in those countries. The Apple iBooks store, however, sells in the UK, Canada, and Australia as well as parts of Europe. For some reason, Tribes has done better in Australia than anywhere else! Maybe it's the desert setting for the opening scene? Or maybe it's the remoteness of the colony world? Who knows!
But I'm happy they like Tribes Down Under!
When you own international rights to your book and publish it via KDP, your ebook is also for sale in the Kindle stores in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. But of course, except for the UK, an English language book is not going to do as well in those countries. The Apple iBooks store, however, sells in the UK, Canada, and Australia as well as parts of Europe. For some reason, Tribes has done better in Australia than anywhere else! Maybe it's the desert setting for the opening scene? Or maybe it's the remoteness of the colony world? Who knows!
But I'm happy they like Tribes Down Under!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
The SFR Brigade is having a pitch tournament
The SFR Brigade has announced the 2012 Great SFR Pitch Tournament. A bunch of members, me included, have posted “pitches” — book blurbs that try to persuade you to read the book. All the pitches have been divided into three heats of eight pitches each. Readers can vote for three pitches per heat through Sunday, January 8 at 6 PM Pacific Time. The two pitches receiving the most votes in each heat will advance to the final round.
Readers who leave comments with feedback about what they liked and/or didn't like will be entered in a drawing for an Amazon e-Gift Card. Go here to read the rules and then use the links in the top right-hand sidebar to see the three sets of entries. The books range from space opera to YA dystopian stories, something for everyone.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
I've joined the SFR Brigade!
Because my stories have all (so far) had a strong romantic element, I joined the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, a community of readers and writers of science fiction romance. They posted a very nice interview with me. Go check it out!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Year's Sale!
While The Sixth Discipline is no longer free on Smashwords (which means soon it will no longer be free in iBooks or Sony stores), it and both my other ebooks are now on sale for 99¢ for the month of January. This is the first time Tribes has ever been on sale at this price.
Here are the links:
Tribes
Kindle, Nook (B&N), iBooks, Sm
Here are the links:
Tribes
Kindle, Nook (B&N), iBooks, Sm
The Sixth Disicpline
No Safe Haven
Note that the sale price is in effect in Kindle and Nook stores pretty much immediately but it might take a while to filter to iBooks and Sony.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Self-publishing: Changing the channel
eBooks make self-publishing much easier. Both print and ebooks offer formatting challenges, but in the print world, the truly hard part is getting the books where readers will see them. You can use a print-on-demand (POD) service, of course, like Amazon's CreateSpace, but the problem is the books are sold only online (or by you, if you are willing to buy them and resell them) and you can't price them any cheaper than traditionally published books (often sold at a discount!) without losing money. Some day there will be POD machines in every bookstore and it might be worth it to self-publish in print, but right now it's an iffy thing.
eBooks are still iffy, of course, in that you're never guaranteed success. But the distribution channels are easier to manage with ebooks partly because all ebooks are sold online, not just self-published ebooks. Also, Amazon and Barnes & Noble both offer easy-to-use self-publishing platforms (KDP and PubIt, respectively), as does Smashwords,
Smashwords is unique (to the best of my knowledge) because it is a retailer that sells only self-published books and because it offers three major advantages over the other DIY publishing platforms,
The first is that aside from Smashwords itself, once your book is loaded there, it offers the opportunity to push it out to other retail platforms, specifically (as of now) Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle (although this does not seem to be fully implemented), Diesel, and Apple iBooks. It's true that Amazon is still the gorilla of ebook sales, but all the other platforms added together can make it worthwhile to pursue this option.
The second advantage of Smashwords is that, unlike KDP and PubIt, Smashwords lets you make your book free, either by offering a code for downloading or just by making the price zero. Further, once you have done that, some (but not all) of the other retailers will also make the book free.
Making a book free might not seem much of an advantage. You could post a book on your own website and make it free to download, after all. But readers troll the online stores for free ebooks, and if you have more than one book, giving one away for free can get you sales on your other books (especially if the free book is the first in a series).
The third advantage of Smashwords is they make your book available in multiple formats, without DRM. Surprisingly, that's related to the one disadvantage of Smashwords. They require a Word file be loaded that corresponds to their guidelines and then they convert that file to the other formats they offer, and this gave the writer less control over how the book looks in the downstream retail outlets. However, Smashwords recently announced they plan to start supporting ePub uploads, so that might help because the other retailers will want ePub.
Perhaps because they only sell self-published works, Smashwords actually reviews each book that is uploaded, not for editorial quality (now there's a loaded term!), but for formatting. They make the distinction of having a premium catalog, and only well-formatted books are assigned to it. Your book cannot be pushed to major retailers like iBooks unless it is in the premium catalog (some retailers also require an ISBN).
In many ways, Smashwords acts more like a publisher than the other platforms; when they push books to other retailers, their name appears as the publisher of those books.
In the eight months since I started publishing, the one platform that has been a total disappointment has been PubIt; unlike Amazon, I don't think Barnes & Noble treats self-published books the same as traditionally published books. Ergo, I recently decided to pull my books from PubIt and use Smashwords to sell on Barnes & Noble. This will provide me considerably less swift feedback on any sales, but I would rather have slower feedback and more sales. I'll post about the results of this experiment after a while, but I'm not taking the books down from PubIt until Smashwords has shipped them to Barnes & Nobles, so that might be a few weeks.
eBooks are still iffy, of course, in that you're never guaranteed success. But the distribution channels are easier to manage with ebooks partly because all ebooks are sold online, not just self-published ebooks. Also, Amazon and Barnes & Noble both offer easy-to-use self-publishing platforms (KDP and PubIt, respectively), as does Smashwords,
Smashwords is unique (to the best of my knowledge) because it is a retailer that sells only self-published books and because it offers three major advantages over the other DIY publishing platforms,
The first is that aside from Smashwords itself, once your book is loaded there, it offers the opportunity to push it out to other retail platforms, specifically (as of now) Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle (although this does not seem to be fully implemented), Diesel, and Apple iBooks. It's true that Amazon is still the gorilla of ebook sales, but all the other platforms added together can make it worthwhile to pursue this option.
The second advantage of Smashwords is that, unlike KDP and PubIt, Smashwords lets you make your book free, either by offering a code for downloading or just by making the price zero. Further, once you have done that, some (but not all) of the other retailers will also make the book free.
Making a book free might not seem much of an advantage. You could post a book on your own website and make it free to download, after all. But readers troll the online stores for free ebooks, and if you have more than one book, giving one away for free can get you sales on your other books (especially if the free book is the first in a series).
The third advantage of Smashwords is they make your book available in multiple formats, without DRM. Surprisingly, that's related to the one disadvantage of Smashwords. They require a Word file be loaded that corresponds to their guidelines and then they convert that file to the other formats they offer, and this gave the writer less control over how the book looks in the downstream retail outlets. However, Smashwords recently announced they plan to start supporting ePub uploads, so that might help because the other retailers will want ePub.
Perhaps because they only sell self-published works, Smashwords actually reviews each book that is uploaded, not for editorial quality (now there's a loaded term!), but for formatting. They make the distinction of having a premium catalog, and only well-formatted books are assigned to it. Your book cannot be pushed to major retailers like iBooks unless it is in the premium catalog (some retailers also require an ISBN).
In many ways, Smashwords acts more like a publisher than the other platforms; when they push books to other retailers, their name appears as the publisher of those books.
In the eight months since I started publishing, the one platform that has been a total disappointment has been PubIt; unlike Amazon, I don't think Barnes & Noble treats self-published books the same as traditionally published books. Ergo, I recently decided to pull my books from PubIt and use Smashwords to sell on Barnes & Noble. This will provide me considerably less swift feedback on any sales, but I would rather have slower feedback and more sales. I'll post about the results of this experiment after a while, but I'm not taking the books down from PubIt until Smashwords has shipped them to Barnes & Nobles, so that might be a few weeks.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
A Merry Christmas to all!
I recently read an interesting article that said by coincidence, when Charles Dickens was a boy, England had a string of really cold winters and more snow than usual. Ergo, when writing his nostalgic novella A Christmas Carol, he gave Scrooge and the Cratchits a white Christmas. In actuality, London doesn't get that much snow and has only had snow on the ground for Christmas seven times since 1900.
Well, the story has ghosts, too, so I think we can safely call it a fantasy in more ways than one. Maybe that's why I love Dickens' story of Scrooge and his redemption? In fact, I aced this quiz on it. I got 10 out of 10! See how you do!
And have yourself a Merry little Christmas!
Well, the story has ghosts, too, so I think we can safely call it a fantasy in more ways than one. Maybe that's why I love Dickens' story of Scrooge and his redemption? In fact, I aced this quiz on it. I got 10 out of 10! See how you do!
And have yourself a Merry little Christmas!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Death Comes to Pemberley: a review
Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James
Hardcover: 291 pages; also available as an ebook
Publisher: Knopf
It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to write a sequel to one of the most well known and well-loved novels of the English language. Pride and Prejudice probably has more TV and movie adaptions than any novel except perhaps Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (I'm talking through my hat here. I haven't actually counted). In written form, P&P also has numerous sequels, prequels, alternate tellings, and mash-ups.
As you might infer from the title, Death Comes to Pemberley is a murder mystery. From reading the blurb on Amazon, I thought it was Mr. Wickham who was murdered, but in fact he is more suspect than victim. I was disappointed, as I had thought he would get his just deserts. Well, he does suffer, but not nearly enough for me. And when it comes to murder mysteries, P.D. James knows her stuff. I thought I had caught on to the true motive, but I was a bit off.
It turns out Baroness James also does a pretty good job with early 19th century English. That, of course, is the true test for the writer. Austen wrote P&P as a contemporary novel, but since she died in 1817, that gives you a sense of how far back in time James had to look. On the whole, DCtP does very well at keeping the reader in the early 19th century, with narrative like this:
A couple of times, I thought she slipped just a tad, as when Darcy says he needs to "make sure Bingley is fully in the picture. . ." and when a magistrate says, "The constables will need blankets, and some food and drink to see them through—cold meats, bread, the usual.” The phrases make sure, fully in the picture and the usual struck me as too modern for the time. Mind you, I don't know that they are, but they sound wrong to me.
On the other hand, this passage, where Elizabeth Darcy (nee Bennett) is recalling that phase of her husband's courtship where she abruptly changes her mind about him impressed me as being on target and rather clever:
When the story begins, it's about six years after the Darcys' and the Bingleys' marriages, and both Elizabeth and Jane have children. I was pleased that James didn't feel compelled to tinker with circumstances too much. She did marry off Mary Bennett, who is little seen in this novel, but appears to be happy as a clergyman's wife. The only unmarried Bennett sister still at home (and happy to be there, in full possession of her parents' time and attention) is Kitty.
If I have a complaint about the book, it's that I knew the original novel well enough not to need the retelling of the P&P backstory that James felt compelled to include. I thought it slowed things down too much, and considering the book was written in the style of the 19th century, that made it darned slow in places. On the other hand, I can see why James didn't want to exclude from her audience people who either never read the book, or haven't read it recently. I also agree with a few commenters I saw on Amazon who complained the ending felt a little rushed. It did seem to me James might have spent a bit more "ink" in the ending.
If I were giving out stars, I would say 4 out of 5. An excellent job on copying a master, and an enjoyable mystery, too.
Addendum for Kindle owners: I read (naturally) the Kindle version. The formatting was excellent.
Hardcover: 291 pages; also available as an ebook
Publisher: Knopf
It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to write a sequel to one of the most well known and well-loved novels of the English language. Pride and Prejudice probably has more TV and movie adaptions than any novel except perhaps Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (I'm talking through my hat here. I haven't actually counted). In written form, P&P also has numerous sequels, prequels, alternate tellings, and mash-ups.
As you might infer from the title, Death Comes to Pemberley is a murder mystery. From reading the blurb on Amazon, I thought it was Mr. Wickham who was murdered, but in fact he is more suspect than victim. I was disappointed, as I had thought he would get his just deserts. Well, he does suffer, but not nearly enough for me. And when it comes to murder mysteries, P.D. James knows her stuff. I thought I had caught on to the true motive, but I was a bit off.
It turns out Baroness James also does a pretty good job with early 19th century English. That, of course, is the true test for the writer. Austen wrote P&P as a contemporary novel, but since she died in 1817, that gives you a sense of how far back in time James had to look. On the whole, DCtP does very well at keeping the reader in the early 19th century, with narrative like this:
The entertainment and seasonal diversions of country living are neither as numerous nor enticing as to make the social obligations of a great house a matter of indifference to those neighbours qualified to benefit from them . . .
A couple of times, I thought she slipped just a tad, as when Darcy says he needs to "make sure Bingley is fully in the picture. . ." and when a magistrate says, "The constables will need blankets, and some food and drink to see them through—cold meats, bread, the usual.” The phrases make sure, fully in the picture and the usual struck me as too modern for the time. Mind you, I don't know that they are, but they sound wrong to me.
On the other hand, this passage, where Elizabeth Darcy (nee Bennett) is recalling that phase of her husband's courtship where she abruptly changes her mind about him impressed me as being on target and rather clever:
If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome?She even worked in the title of the original novel! There were several places where it was almost as if she were channeling Austen, as when she describes Mr. Collins' letter to Elizabeth:
He began by stating that he could find no words to express his shock and abhorrence, and then proceeded to find a great number, few of them appropriate and none of them helpful.It's apparent, too, that James has done her research about the times. At one point, in order not to disturb Darcy's sleep, the servants wrapped chunks of coal in paper before putting them in the fire, so that they would burn with less noise. I have read a fair amount of historical fiction, but I had never heard that,
When the story begins, it's about six years after the Darcys' and the Bingleys' marriages, and both Elizabeth and Jane have children. I was pleased that James didn't feel compelled to tinker with circumstances too much. She did marry off Mary Bennett, who is little seen in this novel, but appears to be happy as a clergyman's wife. The only unmarried Bennett sister still at home (and happy to be there, in full possession of her parents' time and attention) is Kitty.
If I have a complaint about the book, it's that I knew the original novel well enough not to need the retelling of the P&P backstory that James felt compelled to include. I thought it slowed things down too much, and considering the book was written in the style of the 19th century, that made it darned slow in places. On the other hand, I can see why James didn't want to exclude from her audience people who either never read the book, or haven't read it recently. I also agree with a few commenters I saw on Amazon who complained the ending felt a little rushed. It did seem to me James might have spent a bit more "ink" in the ending.
If I were giving out stars, I would say 4 out of 5. An excellent job on copying a master, and an enjoyable mystery, too.
Addendum for Kindle owners: I read (naturally) the Kindle version. The formatting was excellent.
Friday, December 16, 2011
One thing Amazon needs to do . . .
My family is a multi-Kindle family. My husband and I each have a "real" (e-ink) Kindle and we each use a Kindle app. He has an iPad and I occasionally use the app on my Android phone. My dad has one of our old Kindles, so we're bumping up against the six-device limit that Amazon allows on one account.
That's not really the problem. The problem is that Amazon makes your latest (most recently purchased) Kindle into the default for your account, the one new purchases will go to unless you change the setting before you click the buy button. There doesn't seem to be any way to change the default Kindle! I really think they need to let you click the buy button and then make you select a Kindle to send the book to.
I keep sending books to the wrong place! It doesn't cost me any money, but at different points in time, my husband and my dad have both gotten books I know they don't want. I have two good friends who write romance, and I can tell you neither guy is interested in their books.
So Amazon, listen up! Change the buy button so if you have more than one device registered, it makes you pick a Kindle after you buy!
That's not really the problem. The problem is that Amazon makes your latest (most recently purchased) Kindle into the default for your account, the one new purchases will go to unless you change the setting before you click the buy button. There doesn't seem to be any way to change the default Kindle! I really think they need to let you click the buy button and then make you select a Kindle to send the book to.
I keep sending books to the wrong place! It doesn't cost me any money, but at different points in time, my husband and my dad have both gotten books I know they don't want. I have two good friends who write romance, and I can tell you neither guy is interested in their books.
So Amazon, listen up! Change the buy button so if you have more than one device registered, it makes you pick a Kindle after you buy!
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