Barnes & Noble are now allowing authors/publishers to upload their ebooks directly through their website so using a distributor is no longer necessary. It's invitation only but isn't as superior as it sounds because all you do is request an invite. I received mine at the weekend, maybe a day after I signed up. I was interested in finding out how it works but they require a U.S. bank account amongst other things. When they finally get into the right decade, I'll take a look at it but for now, I'm all meh about it.
In relation to Barnes & Noble. They, along with Kobo, have a habit of discounting people's ebooks. Then Amazon either price match or delist. (The free indie books are no longer free and authors are still waiting to see if Amazon issue some sort of statement about it.) I don't want to be delisted so highered my prices on Smashwords which in turn will raise the prices on all of the distributed sites. Eventually. I feel guilty about this so issued more free discount codes for Smashwords. I've always had free discount codes flying around but these ones are valid for another year in case I forget. They can be found along with links to Smashwords and other sites in the tabbed pages under the blog title.
Also, good news for those who are actually selling ebooks on Amazon.co.uk. They are rolling out the 70% royalty rate over there too. I'm not sure how much of an impact it will make right now but at least it will already be in place when sales pick up in the UK. I reckon this time next year will have seen substantial growth, especially if ereaders go down in price again.
It's almost Nanowrimo time and as usual I have no idea what I'm going to do. It's thrilling, I tells ya.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Twenty Free Kindles
1. People really need to stop taking everything I say so seriously.
2. Why yes, yes I did change my blog template again. It is not my fault. The right one hasn't been made yet.
3. ZOMG! Scott Nicholson's giving away 20 Kindles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay. I've mentioned Scott's epic blog tour at least seventeen times now but as he's upped the stakes again, I have to mention it one more teeny tiny time. He's already committed to giving away a Kindle DX, a Kindle 3 and over 100 ebooks to three lucky people. And he said he'd throw in another Kindle if one of his books broke the top 100 on the Amazon bestseller list. Now, he's talking about giving away a Kindle for any of his books that break the top 100 during the blog tour. That's up to 20 Kindles if all 20 books make it to the top. I don't know how likely it is but The Red Church is in the top 300 on Kindle and it's only 99c right now.
2. Why yes, yes I did change my blog template again. It is not my fault. The right one hasn't been made yet.
3. ZOMG! Scott Nicholson's giving away 20 Kindles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay. I've mentioned Scott's epic blog tour at least seventeen times now but as he's upped the stakes again, I have to mention it one more teeny tiny time. He's already committed to giving away a Kindle DX, a Kindle 3 and over 100 ebooks to three lucky people. And he said he'd throw in another Kindle if one of his books broke the top 100 on the Amazon bestseller list. Now, he's talking about giving away a Kindle for any of his books that break the top 100 during the blog tour. That's up to 20 Kindles if all 20 books make it to the top. I don't know how likely it is but The Red Church is in the top 300 on Kindle and it's only 99c right now.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Bizarrest Dream of all Time
It's around 5am, I just woke up from the longest, most vivid freakiest dream of all time so naturally I came online to share it on my blog. As you do.
It featured some great lines by me such as:
Me, delicately stepping over the remains of a bear strewn all over the footpath (what kind of wtfery is that?): I just know it would be better for the whole family if he (my mother's husband) died already. (I think we might have been on hitman territory here.)
My mother: Oh, I know everyone would be better off but still, I sort of love him, you know?
(She then goes on to passive-aggressively cite my twins repeatedly pooing on her sofa - that did NOT happen - as the main cause of her problems. But aren't they so cute when they do it, she coos).
And:
Me, after being hastled by a crowd of religious (it's a non-descript generic religion of no name, it seems) nuts who then follow me down the street screaming in my face: They're (the Irish Government, seriously, don't ask) already laughing at us! It isn't because of our religion, it's because they're wankers! (A passerby who looks remarkably like Dracula snorts with laughter.)
Right after this, a weirdo man comes running straight over to me, all stalkerish and intense, and tries to square up to me. Little old ladies crowd around me as if to protect (the weak?) me. Then a red-haired man runs up and screams, get away from her, you vampire! Um, okay. Even my dream religious nuts get weirded out and back away slowly from the red-headed drama queen (yet not from the possible vampire).
I attended an anti-Fianna Fail (Oh, I forgot a fada? Really? Silly me.) rally which turned out to be organised by the same religious freaks who were now trying to organise a sit in (does this remind anyone of True Blood?) and guilt tripped me and my mother into attending. Then a puking girl guilt tripped us into opening doors for her and letting her follow us home. (We escaped, three cheers!) At this rally, we were given name tags so of course I wrote my name as the word, downloads. I was then referred to as Downloads for the rest of the meeting. (Maybe a deed poll is in order?)
I also watched a lot of television in my dream. I watched a "funny" reality show where Brian Dowling was mocked and wore four shirts at the same time to hide his shame. Yeah. I watched a Disney film about a Dora lookalike who lived under the sea and branded it the best Disney film of our time.
I also watched a video of earth, from start to finish. (It was a true story.) It begins with a small, white, flaming ball type object flying through space which then grows into what looks a little more like earth and ends with a smug looking man being claimed Universal Ruler of our Country. (Rocking title that makes lots of sense.) So creationists and big bang theorists, fight no longer. It actually all began with a tiny white pebble and will end with a Universal Ruler.
Then I became a man. A very stressed out man. Who sneaks out of work to buy the latest game and is followed by his wife who he then lies to and pretends he left work to organise the best dinner surprise ever. She's all, squee, the best husband eva! So he (I) goes on a quest and ends up walking down the street with a plate of hot dinner (there's chicken and broccoli and other some such stuff) and is constantly followed by passersby who tell him (in awe) he's holding the most delicious dinner ever.
Also, (in between the religious freaks bit and while we were trying to dodge the annoying puking girl) randomers kept coming up to me to say hello, saying they recognised me from my tattoos. Say what? I look down and on my hand are some rings. Underneath the rings (how clever) are the rings again, except inked onto my fingers. Hard core.
*Laughs* Some little tidbits (it was seriously long) in the hopes I'll stop lying in bed thinking about them and actually go back to sleep. I woke up to hear my shithead cat trying to open my son's bedroom door (noisily) and got so annoyed at his arseholiness that I became too wide awake. Right, sleeptime. Night. :)
It featured some great lines by me such as:
Me, delicately stepping over the remains of a bear strewn all over the footpath (what kind of wtfery is that?): I just know it would be better for the whole family if he (my mother's husband) died already. (I think we might have been on hitman territory here.)
My mother: Oh, I know everyone would be better off but still, I sort of love him, you know?
(She then goes on to passive-aggressively cite my twins repeatedly pooing on her sofa - that did NOT happen - as the main cause of her problems. But aren't they so cute when they do it, she coos).
And:
Me, after being hastled by a crowd of religious (it's a non-descript generic religion of no name, it seems) nuts who then follow me down the street screaming in my face: They're (the Irish Government, seriously, don't ask) already laughing at us! It isn't because of our religion, it's because they're wankers! (A passerby who looks remarkably like Dracula snorts with laughter.)
Right after this, a weirdo man comes running straight over to me, all stalkerish and intense, and tries to square up to me. Little old ladies crowd around me as if to protect (the weak?) me. Then a red-haired man runs up and screams, get away from her, you vampire! Um, okay. Even my dream religious nuts get weirded out and back away slowly from the red-headed drama queen (yet not from the possible vampire).
I attended an anti-Fianna Fail (Oh, I forgot a fada? Really? Silly me.) rally which turned out to be organised by the same religious freaks who were now trying to organise a sit in (does this remind anyone of True Blood?) and guilt tripped me and my mother into attending. Then a puking girl guilt tripped us into opening doors for her and letting her follow us home. (We escaped, three cheers!) At this rally, we were given name tags so of course I wrote my name as the word, downloads. I was then referred to as Downloads for the rest of the meeting. (Maybe a deed poll is in order?)
I also watched a lot of television in my dream. I watched a "funny" reality show where Brian Dowling was mocked and wore four shirts at the same time to hide his shame. Yeah. I watched a Disney film about a Dora lookalike who lived under the sea and branded it the best Disney film of our time.
I also watched a video of earth, from start to finish. (It was a true story.) It begins with a small, white, flaming ball type object flying through space which then grows into what looks a little more like earth and ends with a smug looking man being claimed Universal Ruler of our Country. (Rocking title that makes lots of sense.) So creationists and big bang theorists, fight no longer. It actually all began with a tiny white pebble and will end with a Universal Ruler.
Then I became a man. A very stressed out man. Who sneaks out of work to buy the latest game and is followed by his wife who he then lies to and pretends he left work to organise the best dinner surprise ever. She's all, squee, the best husband eva! So he (I) goes on a quest and ends up walking down the street with a plate of hot dinner (there's chicken and broccoli and other some such stuff) and is constantly followed by passersby who tell him (in awe) he's holding the most delicious dinner ever.
Also, (in between the religious freaks bit and while we were trying to dodge the annoying puking girl) randomers kept coming up to me to say hello, saying they recognised me from my tattoos. Say what? I look down and on my hand are some rings. Underneath the rings (how clever) are the rings again, except inked onto my fingers. Hard core.
*Laughs* Some little tidbits (it was seriously long) in the hopes I'll stop lying in bed thinking about them and actually go back to sleep. I woke up to hear my shithead cat trying to open my son's bedroom door (noisily) and got so annoyed at his arseholiness that I became too wide awake. Right, sleeptime. Night. :)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Indie Freebies on Amazon
Quick post while the kids are (momentarily) playing nicely together. First - Happy birthday to my wee ones. Can't really believe this time two years ago I had no idea I would give birth to my boys in a few hours!
Okay, over the last few days, a number of indies have found their books on Amazon for free resulting in a lot of downloads. I had already read a couple from Smashwords but downloaded them from Amazon anyway. They aren't sure why they are free (aside from the fact they are free on Smashwords) and this morning some have noticed they might actually be getting paid their share of the original price despite the books being downloaded for free.
Whether this works out or not, the exposure is unreal so I'm listing a few here from authors that are on Kindleboards in case anyone would like to download. I'll update it with any others if I get the chance, I'm low on time today. You can view the entire list of freebies on Books on the Knob.
Weight of Blood
Dead(ish)
A Hairy Adventure
The First Completely Electronic Robot and Science Fiction Limerick Book
Monster in the Mirror
Okay, over the last few days, a number of indies have found their books on Amazon for free resulting in a lot of downloads. I had already read a couple from Smashwords but downloaded them from Amazon anyway. They aren't sure why they are free (aside from the fact they are free on Smashwords) and this morning some have noticed they might actually be getting paid their share of the original price despite the books being downloaded for free.
Whether this works out or not, the exposure is unreal so I'm listing a few here from authors that are on Kindleboards in case anyone would like to download. I'll update it with any others if I get the chance, I'm low on time today. You can view the entire list of freebies on Books on the Knob.
Weight of Blood
Dead(ish)
A Hairy Adventure
The First Completely Electronic Robot and Science Fiction Limerick Book
Monster in the Mirror
Saturday, October 2, 2010
KB Book of the Day
Kindleboards are now selling adspace on their forum. One book is listed each day in the banner at the top of the page. It costs $35 to hire out the space for one day, $65 for 2 days, $95 for 3 days and $195 for a full week of advertising. In addition, if you have a promotional thread for that particular book in the Book Bazaar, they will sticky it to the top of the page for the entire day. It's not expensive compared to other advertisements and they get a lot of visitors.
As far as I know, they are (or just about) fully booked up for the rest of the year. People were inhaling those spots. It was a KB author frenzy. I was going to wait until next week to book a couple of days together but I decided to get one in the meantime - I'm glad I did now. My date is in December, I'm aiming to have something new up by then that I'll use it for but if it all goes pear-shaped, I'll use it for my short stories instead. I don't usually buy into things like this but I like Kindleboards so even if I don't get one sale from it, at least I've supported a forum I enjoy. My time there has been well worth $35.
By the way, my twins are two tomorrow. The other night, they both had all of their curls chopped off (which was unexpectedly sad because it kind of marked the end of them being my little babies) and tomorrow, I am absolutely certain they will destroy our house on the major sugar rush that ensues on a family birthday. Last year I got lots of chocolate face photos so I'm hoping I get some good 'uns this year too.
Last Christmas, the kids broke my Nikon camera (that broke my heart, I was seriously attached to that thing) so we've been sticking with small, cheaper digitals ever since. Of course, so many of them have been broken, it would have been cheaper to buy another decent one. (My kids can break anything.) The other day somebody (nobody's talkin') broke my semi-decent camera so I'm stuck with an old crappy backup but hopefully I'll get at least one decent piccy of my very own Wild Pride. So be warned, ('cos I'm a photo freak) if I end up posting photos, there's bound to be a few gross ones in there. :)
As far as I know, they are (or just about) fully booked up for the rest of the year. People were inhaling those spots. It was a KB author frenzy. I was going to wait until next week to book a couple of days together but I decided to get one in the meantime - I'm glad I did now. My date is in December, I'm aiming to have something new up by then that I'll use it for but if it all goes pear-shaped, I'll use it for my short stories instead. I don't usually buy into things like this but I like Kindleboards so even if I don't get one sale from it, at least I've supported a forum I enjoy. My time there has been well worth $35.
By the way, my twins are two tomorrow. The other night, they both had all of their curls chopped off (which was unexpectedly sad because it kind of marked the end of them being my little babies) and tomorrow, I am absolutely certain they will destroy our house on the major sugar rush that ensues on a family birthday. Last year I got lots of chocolate face photos so I'm hoping I get some good 'uns this year too.
Last Christmas, the kids broke my Nikon camera (that broke my heart, I was seriously attached to that thing) so we've been sticking with small, cheaper digitals ever since. Of course, so many of them have been broken, it would have been cheaper to buy another decent one. (My kids can break anything.) The other day somebody (nobody's talkin') broke my semi-decent camera so I'm stuck with an old crappy backup but hopefully I'll get at least one decent piccy of my very own Wild Pride. So be warned, ('cos I'm a photo freak) if I end up posting photos, there's bound to be a few gross ones in there. :)
Friday, October 1, 2010
Back . . . Sort Of
I said I had to take a break so I did, except it wasn't really a break. September was kind of horrible in a lot of ways. Lots of personal stuff, more than our fair share of "accidents" involving the kids, even a trip to the emergency room. Combine that with all of the crap online especially surrounding publishing and it became clear I needed to take a step back before I flipped out. Aside from the personal stuff, all of the online stuff was beginning to really suck the fun out of writing. The same arguments are overdone, the same complaints about reviews are tiring. The freaky sock puppetry scares me, quite frankly. I started this out of a love of writing, not money or sales or a legitimate reputation and definitely not other people's drama, so why am I getting involved in other crap that I don't even truly care about?
Worse, I was putting "other crap" before my responsibilities at home and that resulted in a chaotic month so I need to straighten my priorities again. Aside from that, I haven't heeded warnings about looking after my own health and payback is overdue but that's my own fault and I'm trying to remember to take care of myself properly. LOL During my time off, I dealt with a number of ongoing things and am working on others so life in general is settling down. Writing wise, I finished the first draft of Thirst and started on the sequel because I didn't want it to end. Then, I realised that story wasn't really the second story after all and left that on the backburner and began a brand new sequel which right now fits much better in my long-term plan for that world. I'm writing for me right now and it's making me happy again. I've gotten way too sucked into the business side of things (which I'm no good at) so it's been nice to go back to what it's all really about for me. I even read an entire book last night, something I've been having a lot of trouble with.
Not everything is back to normal. There are still some major things that need to be sorted so I'm not committing to throwing myself back into the midst of everything. But hopefully October will be a lot less problematic and a lot more fun. The month begins well (my twins are 2 on Sunday) and ends with Halloween, what's not to like?
Now I'm off to do some edits while I feed the baby (multi-tasking or what) and hopefully quit moaning on my blog. ;)
Worse, I was putting "other crap" before my responsibilities at home and that resulted in a chaotic month so I need to straighten my priorities again. Aside from that, I haven't heeded warnings about looking after my own health and payback is overdue but that's my own fault and I'm trying to remember to take care of myself properly. LOL During my time off, I dealt with a number of ongoing things and am working on others so life in general is settling down. Writing wise, I finished the first draft of Thirst and started on the sequel because I didn't want it to end. Then, I realised that story wasn't really the second story after all and left that on the backburner and began a brand new sequel which right now fits much better in my long-term plan for that world. I'm writing for me right now and it's making me happy again. I've gotten way too sucked into the business side of things (which I'm no good at) so it's been nice to go back to what it's all really about for me. I even read an entire book last night, something I've been having a lot of trouble with.
Not everything is back to normal. There are still some major things that need to be sorted so I'm not committing to throwing myself back into the midst of everything. But hopefully October will be a lot less problematic and a lot more fun. The month begins well (my twins are 2 on Sunday) and ends with Halloween, what's not to like?
Now I'm off to do some edits while I feed the baby (multi-tasking or what) and hopefully quit moaning on my blog. ;)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Taking A Breather
Very quick post.
I have to take a break for a few days. I'll try to check my email some and hopefully will be back around during the week.
Ciao.
I have to take a break for a few days. I'll try to check my email some and hopefully will be back around during the week.
Ciao.
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