Musical Ebooks: Breakthrough, Fad, Or Bad Idea?

The New York Times recently published an article on Booktrack, a New York startup that takes top sellers like The Power of Six and old public domain classics and gives them a score.  The article can be read in full here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/books/booktrack-introduces-e-books-with-soundtracks.html.

According to The Times, "As e-book sales have skyrocketed in the past several years, publishers have searched for ways to improve on the digital editions of their books. In 2010 enhanced e-books with video and audio were all the rage — Simon & Schuster, for instance, found some success with an edition of its best seller “Nixonland,” with 27 videos scattered throughout the text — but sales for many enhanced e-books were dismal, and the books were often expensive to produce."

Will The Power of Six turn this around?

If this enhancing becomes cheaper, will it become a new fad in the year head?

Probably not.  Truthfully, this strikes me as gimmicky and (as the article notes) accompanying books with music is not a new concept.  Film scores work for films, but for books?  I'm not sold.  Still, I commend the idea of ebooks embracing  multimedia technology.  As noted in an earlier post, in my opinion ebooks like Al Gore's Our Choice show possible benefits of mixing media for nonfiction, if done in an intelligent way.  I do believe that multimedia is the future of publishing.  However, I think it will take more than a gimmick to bring ebooks into the next generation.

Oddly (to me at least), the publisher mentioned doesn't focus more on the obvious place for these books: the children's market, particularly picture books and more juvenile and middle grade titles.  Maybe this is because numerous physical chidren's books already have interactive components and / or sing-along CDs, or maybe it's because those rights were harder to obtain.  Whatever the case, this strikes me as something that would appeal to younger readers more so than to older sticks in the mud like me.

Otherwise, a book with a score?  I'll be happy to hear the music, but not when I'm reading.

Why All The Furor Over Free?

If you're an indie author, it's hard not to notice the furor over "free" ebooks.  It's become the new
John Locke / $0.99 model, and authors at all corners of cyberspace seem to be setting up for the
holiday shopping season by putting freebies out there for readers to voraciously consume.

So why, then, is it so polarizing among indie authors?  Here's an attempt to consider both sides, as
misguided as I think the anti-freebie arguments may be.

Anti-Freebie (As seen from comments on the Kindle Boards):

1. It cheapens books, making readers accustomed to getting freebies.  This is often presented as an alleged domino effect in which readers will stop buying as many books and / or will start expecting more free material.

2. Number one leads to this point, which is that freebies may hurt honest good old-fashioned capitalism among indies.  Why buy an unknown author's work, even for $.99, if a thousand other authors post free material?

3. It doesn't generate sustained interest, leading to only temporary spikes in sales.

4. It reeks of desperation rather than effective marketing.  Readers will equate free ebooks with cheap material, which may not help an author's marketing effort after all.

Pro-Freebie (As seen from comments on the Kindle Boards):

1. Insane numbers of downloads, which include potential buyers of future series or trilogy installments.

2. One free book, if well-written and well-marketed, may lead to lasting spikes in sales.  Several authors have reported serious increases in income.

3. Effective (and cheap) marketing.  Similar to loss leader marketing strategies, but significantly cheaper for authors.  Authors may be taking a financial hit on one book, but sales to other books and increased publicity more than make up for the lost sales.

4. Readers don't necessarily equate price and value, and positive reviews and buzz may build from favorably received free ebooks.

Personal disclaimer: I have current books listed for free; thus, I have a horse in this race.  Having said that, though, I just want to point out what I think are fallacies about the free ebook.

1. Fallacy #1: Customers will stop paying for books just because they download free ebooks. 
While there may be those who only get what's free, there's no evidence that this is the majority of Kindle / Nook users.  The best seller lists still include quite a few indies.

2. Fallacy #2: That "free" is something new.  This is as old a marketing technique as any in existence, and entire types of marketing include variations on the "free" model.  So far, it hasn't led to the death of books or ebooks.  In fact, Baen Books once used free ebook downloads to increase, not decrease, their paperback sales.  Go to goodreads.com or librarything.com and authors, including those put out by large New York publishers, are giving away free copies for sales.  The key, as with any marketing strategy, is to use free effectively.  It should be an author's best work, in my opinion, and making a book free for a period of time doesn't necessarily mean doing so in perpetuity.  There may be a time when it's no longer needed for some authors.  There may be authors who are better off keeping ebooks free indefinitely.

It's just my opinion, but I truly feel whoever the next Locke or Hocking is this holiday season will be an author who isn't afraid to use the "free" model effectively.  Rather than debate the practice, authors should consider trying the model out for themselves.  If it works, great--if it doesn't, well, there's always other marketing strategies.

Five Ways To Tell You've Met An Insane Indie

In the good old days, say the nineties, before Kindle, e-book audiences, and a large ditigal marketplace, one of the premiere ways for an author to grow a following was a blog.  Okay, maybe not for this author, but for those who link to other blogs and grow a steady readership over time.  It was a golden idea then, and it has its appeal now.

It seems only natural that aspiring bloggers would elevate their names in the indie community by offering some service to fellow authors.  That was originally the idea behind this blog, and it seems to be the idea behind a more elaborate blog from a self-publisher (who apparently dislikes the term indie) who fancies himself a critic.

The only problem: this guy seems totally insane--so much so that I don't think I'd even post this if there was a chance of him reading this blog!  Luckily, he's one literary critic who admits he doesn't like to read, so I don't have any problems there.

That being said, here are five signs you've just come on an insane indie:

1.  The indie decides to run a scam, offering editorial services after threatening to post bad reviews.  When this doesn't work, said indie goes to the Kindle Boards (in a misguided attempt at validation) to admit to doing just this in the form of writing retaliatory reviews. 

2.  Said indie invokes standards for what he calls good literature and then he proceeds to violate every single one.  He does this by releasing a poorly formatted, unfocused book with pages running into one another while critiquing the format of others.  He does this by refusing to follow even the most basic of mechanics.  On his blog, one sentence doesn't even end.  It simply begins and then goes to limbo, and yet this reviewer still criticizes others (and no, not me!) for doing the same.

3. The critic actually admits, on his own blog, that he hates to read and that he doesn't even find fiction that interesting.  Even so, for reasons that remain obscure, he expects everyone else to take his reviews seriously.  This when even the average sixth grader can spell better.

4. He refuses to learn from the experience, constantly engaging in the same abusive behavior and posting about it.  If that's what he can do with the internet, one only wonders what would happen if anyone was stupid enough to hand this guy gasoline! 

5. The critic sends emails to detractors constantly, yet complains when some of the recipients of those emails don't take kindly to his spamming and retaliate against it.

I don't mean to make light of this.  I also have no vested interest.  I'm simply astonished at how anyone can be so dense.  Maybe the real reason is mental illness.  If so, I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs and that someone pries his keyboard away before he does further damage to himself.

New York Fights Back!

Here's a tale that's both old and recent news, as the site should be launching any week now.

From Newsbreaks, it looks like the Big Six (or at least three of them) are finally waking up to what they should have started doing ten years ago:  "Bookish, set to launch this summer—though no one is saying exactly when that will be—is backed by such industry heavyweights as Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA), and Simon & Schuster."

All of these giants have had their issues with Amazon.com in the past, and it's no surprise that they finally joined forces to come up with an attractive way to promote their books.

But what sets them apart in an age where Amazon has brand recognition and consumer confidence?

According to Newsbreaks, "Part online community, part recommendation engine, part bookstore, Bookish seems to be doing a little bit of everything."

This makes it sound like publishers are looking to combine Amazon.com, goodreads.com, and librarything.com into a site designed to help readers decide what to read next.  Is there a need?  Is this really anything new?  Maybe not.  However, if Bookish offers greater interaction with leading authors readers might not be able to access through other sites, and offers exclusive content about and from said authors, Bookish could build a following.  Otherwise, the site doesn't seem too dissimilar from what's already out there.

It's summer--pretty far along in summer--and the site isn't up and running yet.  When it does go live, we'll see if Bookish lives up to all the buzz.

Is This A Look Into The Future Of Ebooks?

Digital publisher Push Pop Press made news recently not for its re-envisioning of the e-book
as much as for its acquisition by social networking giant Facebook.

Why?  While Facebook apparently has no interest in throwing their hat into the world of
e-publishing, apparently they have an interest in adapting the technology utilized by Push Pop
Press into a more complete social experience. 

Why does this concern the future of e-publishing?  Looking at the Push Pop Press home page feels a little bit like looking into the future of the big publishers.  Push Pop Press is most famous for publishing Al Gore's latest work, Our Choice, a project the site indicates has been two years in the making and boldly declares the next generation of digital books.

From Push Pop Press: "Our Choice melds the vice president's narrative with photography, interactive graphics, animations, and more than an hour of engrossing documentary footage. A new, groundbreaking multi-touch interface allows you to experience that content seamlessly. Pick up and explore anything you see in the book; zoom out to the visual table of contents and quickly browse though the chapters; reach in and explore data-rich interactive graphics."

How might this affect ebooks of the future?   Here's some speculation.

1. Seamless downloading, whether via HTML or another platform, may well be the future of the viewing / reading experience.  This will allow for true touch screen use and a more interactive experience that so far has eluded the e-book world.

2. Active reading.  Reading will not simply include turning digital pages.  It will still be far more
textual than experiencing a film, but graphics, audio, interviews, teaser film footage, graphs, charts, and even music and media files will be embedded, allowing readers to feel more like they're interacting with a fusion of a kindle and a web site.  "Reading" may include listening to your favorite author talk or voicing part of the narrative, reading some chapters on your own, touching a graph or chart to find out more info on the topic, and possibly utilizing your music library for some background music while you read.  Readers might even have a "create your own movie" option that allows them to put music on at key parts and watch dramatizations of certain book scenes, much like video game narratives.

3. This will be how New York publishers justify higher prices for ebooks during the decade.  It will be about premium content.  How else will you get a single download that allows you to listen to your favorite author speak, read, and get interviewed while getting film footage and music that you can select to enhance your reading experience?  How else will college kids get access to up-to-date technical data and charts?  Content will be at a premium, and readers will be paying premium prices for it.

4. Pirating books will truly come of age once ebooks make reading that much more popular (and profitable) again. 

5. Cheaper digital versions with less features will also become big business, as select readers will still insist on lower prices.  This will, in my estimation, be like the digital equivalent of mass market paperbacks, which are on their way out.

6. Despite the upward trend in pricing that this new digital book will justify, readers will have greater control over pricing, deciding which content they might want to include with their download and which content they might leave out.  This will help counter cheaper digital versions somewhat, though cheaper versions will still persist.

Definitely an exciting time ahead for the ebook!

The Most Expensive Kindle "Novel" Out There Today

Yesterday, I posted about the most expensive ebook (series) on Kindle.

After sifting through the ranks a bit, I wanted to post on what I thought might be the most expensive novel on Kindle, unless it's subject to a typo or something.

The winner?  The Other End of the Pencil by Anna Reed, yours for only $408.00.  Pretty pricey per word, given that the ebook's only 87 KB.  According to the product description: "Nude modeling for figure drawing classes, sculpture students and art photographers was dirty, cold and tedious, so Evie was relieved to land a job as a studio assistant to a brilliant painter..."

I'd go on and put up a picture of the cover, but this is a G-rated site.  You can see more about the world's most expensive e-novel at:  Amazon.com.  Beware the "Buy now with 1-click" button, though!

Was This The World's Most Expensive Ebook?

Think $0.99 is too much to pay for some ebooks?  Try $7,681.26 (yes, that's the list price)
for a hardcover version of  Selected Nuclear Materials and Engineering Systems by
Materials Science International Team (MSIT).  According to The Digital Reader, this was
available as the most expensive Kindle ebook back in February (don't see the ebook version as of today's date) at $6431.20.

If the title doesn't grab you, consider the product description: "The present volume in the New Series of Landolt-Börnstein provides critically evaluated data on phase diagrams, crystallographic and thermodynamic data of ternary alloy systems."  I think that translates into I'm not the target audience.  Anyway, if you're looking to blow nearly two grand, here's the link: Amazon.com.  Amazon wants you to know that at its current price, you'll save $357.74.  What a deal!

New Barnes & Noble Director Named

The news making the rounds today is that Barnes and Noble has named a new director
for their Discover Great New Writers Program.

From their press release at EON:

NEW YORK--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that Miwa Messer has been named Director of the Discover Great New Writers program. Established in 1990, the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program has championed new talent and been a showcase for our commitment to new writers.

“Miwa’s passion for books, her literary skills, and experience in multi-channel bookselling ensure that the Discover Great New Writers program will continue to bring new writers of exceptional quality to our customers”

“Miwa’s passion for books, her literary skills, and experience in multi-channel bookselling ensure that the Discover Great New Writers program will continue to bring new writers of exceptional quality to our customers,” said Patricia Bostelman, vice president of marketing for Barnes & Noble, Inc."

What will this mean for the future of the brick and mortar store and for great new voices?  We shall see.

Which Is More Important--Price or The E-Reader Experience?

I'd just like to add another take on yesterday's article on future e-stars.

This article from mashable.com is a bit old, dating back to Christmas of last year (Christmas does seem to be an unusual theme in postings from these past two weeks!).

Philip Ruppel's predictions are in bold.  My responses follow.

1. Enhance e-books are coming and only getting better.  Given the intense competition, this is hardly a surprise.

2. The Device War Is Nearly Over.  Here Philip Ruppel, president of McGraw-Hill publishing, explains (in the article) that "Because most developers are developing e-reader software that will work on multiple other devices (Kindle also works on the iPad, iPhone, and computers, for example), consumers will care less about the device and more about the user experience of the e-reader software, portability of titles from one device to another, and access to a full catalog of titles."

Little old me agrees that the e-reader experience, access to catalogs, and compatability will be huge factors, but I don't think those will result in less competition between device providers or end the proliferation of e-readers.  Marketing is just too powerful, and we are all victims of marketing to one extent or another.  Just as word of mouth sells books, word of mouth from trusted friends and authorities will continue to sell e-reading devices, leading companies to constantly vie to stay ahead in the technology.  This competition, and the paying audience's response to it, will lead to Ruppel's prediction #1 in my opinion.

3.  The $9.99 E-Book Won’t Last Forever.  I definitely agree here, for the immediate future.  I still feel that major publishers, as much as they customize and improve the e-reader experience, will need to market an effective price to audiences.  Honestly, as simplistic as it is, it's just hard to argue that an e-book, even with a refined reading (or even intereactive) experience, shouldn't be noticeably cheaper than its print counterpart.  So long as customers can't see (tangibly) why e-books should cost more, they'll expect to pay less.  Amazon, Kobo, Sony, Google, and others will do everything in their power in the next few years to make sure that customers do just that.

4. The Contextual Upsell Will be a Business Model to Watch.  Ruppel writes: "E-books allow publishers to interact with their customers in new ways."  He uses an example of a student stuck on a problem receiving help.  I agree here, but with two exceptions: this is true more so for non-fiction titles than for fiction.  It seems that features like those, while neat, will only be truly applicable to a specialized part of the marketplace.  As for fiction, if it does factor in, I believe this could be a dividing point between cheaper conventional reading experiences and more interactive experiences that will cost more.

5. Publishers Will Be More Important Than Ever.  Ruppel notes here that: "Commodity content is everywhere (and largely free), so high-quality vetted, edited content — which takes a staff of experts — will be worth a premium."  For Ruppel's line of publishing, I imagine this will be so.  For areas that are less specialized, it isn't as applicable.  Name recognition and branding apply, and those can be done online.  This isn't to say publishers won't have the benefit of their years of marketing experience.  It's just to say that this won't be success that's exclusive to them.

But what do I know?  Only this: the future of publishing will be exciting to watch (if only from the outside).

Does Price Reflect Value? Predictions About The Next Big E-Stars

We're safely tucked away in the middle of summer, with thoughts of the holiday rush safely removed for a few more months.  Yet, the Kindle millionaire phenomenon that swept over us last Christmas, into early this year, still finds itself making the news. 

In a recent article, Entertainment Weekly has taken a collective swipe at Kindle poster girl Amanda Hocking and at Kindle king John Locke.  In a July 20th article, Rob Brunner claims: "It's a shame, then, that their books are so much less exciting than their stories."  Hocking is praised for her storytelling instincts, but trashed with lines like these: "Her work reads like a high school creative-writing assignment, full of typos and misused words and lifeless language."  John Locke fares no better with Brunner, who claims that  "Locke's idea of a zingy line is: ''I lock the front door, then move through Phyllis' office like clap through a *****house.'' It's cheap stuff, which makes sense given that the book sells for just 99 cents."  This makes me wonder: despite Locke's much-printed quote on the matter, does price really reflect value? 

In my opinion, the next big Kindle stars will most likely be those who realize that price and value are not synonymous.  While I haven't read either Hocking or Locke and thus cannot comment on their writing, whatever the quality may or may not be, the article did get me thinking.  Those two Kindle giants nailed the supposed marketing formula for selling ebooks--and no, it wasn't just cheap pricing.  It was marketing and promotion, using the blogosphere and the world of online bloggers to their advantage, pricing to undercut potentially better competition, and persistence, including persisting with the copious number of ebooks they've e-published.

Still, it isn't just formula.  Pixie dust is involved too.  Even so, if no one universal formula for success exists, will there be patterns and will they be the same as last holiday season?  May vague guess is: yes and no.  While some of this may be obvious, in my opinion, the next ebook stars to emerge after the holiday will take advantage of or benefit from the following patterns:

a. The Free Phenomenon.  I predict that the next big Kindle stars will not just have $0.99 ebooks, but will have free ebooks in time for Christmas along with cheaply priced ebooks.  It will become increasingly commonplace, even expected, by readers that the first installment of an indie trilogy or series be free, and that the next installments be free or cheaply priced.  The next Kindle stars will take advantage of manipulating Kindle into giving some of their titles away for free and learning, through fluid pricing models, which books to offer for free and which to price cheaply in time to make money during the more commercial months ahead.

 b. Community.  One aspect I never truly realized about the indie experience is how much it is community-driven.  That's not to say a great book with pulp appeal won't catch on.  It's simply to say that the readers who connect with other indies, who build their online profiles, who blog, and who have a presence at various forums, tend to do better (duh!), and this will continue to distinguish more authors in the age when anyone can publish.  Whoever the next big e-stars may be, they will have online communities behind them.

c. It ain't just Kindle anymore.  It will feel like the next big e-stars' ebooks are everywhere--not just in the Kindle store--because they are everywhere.  This won't be exclusively a Kindle phenomenon.  Authors will break out big with Kobo, Sony, Barnes and Noble, and Google, and will take advantage of every available platform for their work.  They'll still stand out in the Kindle store, but these other venues will also produce stars, especially as the competition between e-reading devices heats up.  If these future stars' books are everywhere, it doesn't much matter which e-reader company wins out this holiday season, as the next big
e-stars' books will win too.  Even so, wouldn't it be good marketing for Google, Sony, and others to have their own e-stars too?  If a star breaks out in their ebook store, that ebook store somehow looks that much bigger in comparison to Amazon.

d. The $99 e-reading device barrier will be broken.  Either this Chrismas shopping season, or a Christmas shopping season thereafter, e-reading devices will go below the $100 mark, leading to a new wave of purchases.  This will be crucial in giving authors a push at potential readers and will lead a few authors to break any records Hocking and Locke may have set.

e. Genre-bending.  I may be proven flat out wrong here, but I don't think readers of series are just going to want carbon copies of New York titles.  I think the next big books are going to genre-bend just a bit to give audiences a fresh spin on an intensely popular genre.  I also don't think this exclusively means paranormal romance or erotica, either.  I think mystery / thriller and sci-fi / fantasy are also poised for breakout e-stars this holiday season.

f. Bold, bold prediction I may wish I never made!  Sometime in this decade, the next huge author (Meyer big) will break out in ebooks rather than in print.  Given all the marketing and promotion that goes into making a star, this seems rather bold.  However, with the power of online communities and sites, it's only a matter of time before the next major star breaks out independently and uses an online model to capture and intereact with his / her fan base.  I'm not saying that it will have to be Pottermore big, but this star will have an online presence or connectivity with their fans that truly sets him or her apart.

Will I be proven right?  Only time will tell.  And if I'm wrong?  Luckily, posts can be deleted!

Christmas In July? Not Without Zombies!

Some Christmas traditions are so time-honored, so revered, they've found their way into our collective culture and are passed on from grandfather to grandchild, from parent to child, from family to family.  One such tradition is reading, viewing, or seeing some dramatization of the most beloved of Charles Dickens' Christmas books, the one and only A Christmas Carol.

Perhaps it's the unremitting heat of summer talking here, but I can fondly recollect spending time in a library in December just soaking up the pages of Dickens' lively tale, a narrative so rich in simplicity and virtue that it resonates with any but the hardest of hearts.

Side note: Yes, Dickens did write more Christmas books, as you probably know.  Dickens wasn't stupid and knew success when he saw it, but from what I've read A Christmas Carol is the best of these tales.

Enter author Rebecca Brock, who in the spirit of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, with maybe just a touch of Anne of Green Gables: Pixie Slayer  thrown in, has decided that there aren't quite enough undead spirits fluttering in Dickens' beloved classic.  After all, what would Christmas be without Marley's ghost, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and, naturally, zombies?  Never fear. A Christmas Carol of the Living Undead: a zombie holiday tale is available on Kindle, pictured with an older cover below.

Ms. Brock's Amazon product description is brief, but speaks to the point:

"Because every classic needs a little more zombie action, here's the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his Christmas Eve visits from the three ghosts...with a surprising twist thrown in.

Written in the spirit of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Make this story a new Christmas tradition for your family."

Zombies and Christmas?  For me, it just doesn't work quite as well and Santa and elves.  But for any who are interested, here's a link to the Kindle version, which is just $0.99: Amazon.com.

The Undead Invasion: Literary Classics...And Zombies

Walk in most book stores and you've no doubt seen Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. 

The concept seemed clever: take Regency era language and elegance and turn them on their head (bad choice of words there!) by introducing a touch of the undead.  The work became a literary sensation, in part due to winning lines like these: [he] ''cut the two zombies with 
savage yet dignified movements. He then made quick work of beheading the slaughtered staff, upon which Mr. Bingley politely vomited into his hands.''  Mr. Grahame-Smith is indeed lucky Austen herself didn't rise from the grave and (politely, of course) use her tibia to do what Mark Twain once threatened to do to her.  Mr Twain's exact words: "Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her [Austen] up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone." 

In the age of zombies, Twain may have his chance to battle Austen after all.  Even if it isn't exactly hitting her on her skull, Twain can now take the war to words, as his equally beloved and reviled classic (The) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is now The Advenutures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim.   Forget sensitivity towards slavery--now, in alternate nineteenth-century America, the zombies have rendered the slave trade unnecessary and even the N-word has been banished.  Co-author W. Bill Czolgosz goes so far as to alter the beginning of the beloved classic for Huck to assure us that  "the widow better never hear that word come out of my mouth."  But all is not happy in zombie country.  Apparently, pox mutations cause the undead like Jim to get downright nasty, leading Huck to question his allegiances to his best undead friend.  This no doubt gives new meaning to their Mississippi River adventure.  If you're interested, here's a link to the book: Amazon.com. 

What's next?  Perhaps a Canadian zombie invasion with Anne of Green Gables: Zombie Slayer?

P.S. Oops.  According to this link (blog.chron.com), it's Anne of Green Gables: Pixie Slayer.  Apparently, Anne of Green Gables: Zombie Slayer exists, but it's another production.  You can see info here: http://playsandstuff.com/aggzs.  I'll have to keep my undead Canadian heroines straight!

Kindle Free Picks: Howard Pyle's Men of Iron

If you haven't checked out the free titles on Kindle lately, there really are some hidden gems between those less than compelling book covers.

Take today's book, for example,  Men of Iron by Howard Pyle, renowned illustrator and historical fiction author.

Back in the days of my childhood, well before Kindle, I can fondly remember reading Men of Iron.  The coming-of-age boy's adventure novel follows the rise of Myles Falworth, a boy from fifteenth century England (the opening paragraph mentions the year 1400) who navigates his way through competing squires, courtly intrigue, and eventual knighthood, culminating in trial by combat to exonerate his father. 

The book is an old classic--it was published in 1891--but its strong narrative make it a fun read that teaches children a little about the days of chivalry along the way.  Some of the language, while not especially difficult, might still challenge young readers ("thou" and "thee" seem to be the pronouns of choice), but it is worth the challenge.  You can find the book for free on the Internet or secure the free Kindle edition by going here: Amazon.com.

The Future Of Ebook Pricing--Necessarily A Downward Trend?

This http://makerightpub.com post asks one of the eternal ebook questions: what is the right price for an ebook?  Is there ever one such price to begin with?  Amazon's rock bottom $0.99 seemed like the answer, until authors sought ways to make their books free.

The poster mentions, "The problem right now is there are tons of eBooks on Amazon for just 99-cents and many are great and more are junk."  Numerous threads, both on absolutewrite.com and at the Kindle Boards, have given different perspectives on these very points.  The conventional answer is usually that price is but one marketing tool and must be considered along with the rest of the package, whether genre, cover, blurb, or press releases.  There is no one answer for each and every book.

Makerightpub.com indicates:

"Here are general pricing guidelines when you want to sell a book, especially an eBook:

• If your book appeals to a huge number of people, you should price it lower.
• If your book appeals to a small number of people, you should price it higher."

Personally, I don't believe such general rules are as applicable in the world of self-publishing.  The beauty of self-publishing is that it lets the author test the waters due to a variety of market conditions.  Thinking of a price as a fluid concept rather than a fixed number might be the best way to proceed.  Experiment with the number that works best for you.  Maybe that number is zero.  Maybe it's much higher.  Maybe this will fluctuate based upon marketing endeavors.  It may be more about trial and error than about setting the lowest price.

I've only been at this for a few months, and certainly my sales are nothing stellar, so I don't claim expertise in the matter.  I'm just giving my opinion.  That opinion is this: the future of ebooks won't be about a set number, such as $0.99, or lower.  It will be about skillfully navigating what you should give away, what you should charge for, and what your market will allow you to charge for a return on your investment.  For some people, myself included, that return (readers who might actually enjoy the work) is worth more than profit.  For the more professional or profit-oriented, it may not be.  One thing that seems certain is that the ebook market is only projected to grow.  It will be interesting to see how authors use pricing to distinguish themselves in the future and how reader expectations will begin to shape the industry.

I-River Story Reviews Are In...And Mixed

I wrote one post on Google's I-River Story already, but I am curious.  Now that the device is out, is it worth the money?  Early reviews are in, and they aren't exactly bad, nor are they exactly stellar.

Slashgear.com has already noted some of the stronger features of the device: "The 6-inch E Ink display with XGA resolution is the device’s strongest asset, boasting 63.8% more pixels than other E Ink e-readers. Comparisons with the display of the Amazon Kindle have generally shown that the iRiver Story HD’s image quality is much more crisp and rich although they both have 16 levels of gray scale." 

As slashgear.com and several reveiwers have noted, "Unlike the Amazon Kindle bookstore, Google’s offering is open to all publishers, retailers, and manufacturers. It can also be accessed from any device on any platform with an internet connection."

Those are two strong incentives, but are they strong enough?  Macworld.com gave a detailed account of what it was like to use the device, praising (partly) its sharp text, but critiqued features from fonts to the lack of page-turning buttons (found on the Kindle) to the waiting time when dowloading ebooks.  Slashgear.com also notes that the device fails to make any bold strides ahead of its competition.

Will this device become the e-reader of the holidays or just another failed campaign in the assault on your e-reading dollars?  Critics may not be impressed, but buyers have yet to weigh in.  We'll see how the device sells soon enough.  As for me, I question the wisdom of making any device the color brown.  It gives the critics that more ammunition.

Author Shout-Outs: What We Should Be Reading

This week's author shout-out goes to Spouse Hunting by Lisa Scott, available here: Amazon.com.

Stacy Juba, author of Sink or Swim, describes the novel as "a fun romance about a woman trying to find the perfect house and falling for her realtor." The novel is doing well, with some great reviews, so if you're in the mood for a light, romantic read, why not pony up the $0.99 and check it out?

Sink or Swim by Stacy Juba

Today's book is a mystery that will be available for $0.99 for this summer only, Sink or Swim
by Stacy Juba. 

Here's a little about the book: After starring on a hit game show set aboard a Tall Ship, personal trainer Cassidy Novak discovers that she has attracted a stalker. Can she trust Zach Gallagher, the gorgeous newspaper photographer assigned to follow her for a local series? As things heat up with the stalker and with Zach, soon Cassidy will need to call SOS for real.



Reviewer Sibel Hodge praised the novel, writing that: "Sink or Swim was an intriguing, suspenseful mystery with a smidgen of romance thrown into the mix. It will keep you guessing until the end."  The book is doing quite well, and you can purchase your copy here: Amazon.com.

Google iRiver Story HD Ready To Capture Its Market Share?

The race for your e-reading dollars is heating up, as the latest entry into the market comes via one of Amazon's primary competitors.  Google has certainly not been shy about advertising its iRiver Story HD, partnering with super chain Target and creating buzz in mainstream newspapers and on the web.

Thus far the jury is still out on just how successfully this particular device will rival the Nook or the Kindle.  Will it trump Kindle as the new Christmas reading gift of the year?  Just how good is the device?  Los Angeles Times writer Nathan Olivarez-Giles wrote: "One thing we know for sure is that the Story HD lacks the snappy touch-screens of the new Barnes & Noble Nook and the Kobo eReader Touch Edition devices." 

Ebrandz.com noted, "Interestingly, its integration with Google eBooks makes it the first device in the world to adopt the open platform, which like Apple's iBooks or Amazon's Kindle store, empower readers to browse and purchase a vast collection of digital books through WiFi, which could add another wrinkle in the rapidly expanding e-book market."

In my opinion, the success of the device is not so much the issue as what it respresents: Google is ready to be a major player, not simply a content provider, in the e-book world, and they have the platform to give Amazon a run for their e-reading fan base.  Hardware is important, especially to an e-reading audience, but in the age of apps, the device itself is still secondary; the market share is paramount, and right now Kindle rules the roost.  Not to be overly obvious, but if there's another brand that can match, if not excel, Amazon, it's Google.

There's no doubt that as the technology improves, to truly recreate the reading experience in all of its subtle nuances, the winners will be the readers.  A part of me, however, thinks that the real losers here are the New York conglomerate publishers, the stepchildren of major multi-media corporations who somehow let Amazon and Google trump them in a market that they should have dominated.  How these gigantic companies could have underestimated the impact of e-books a decade or so ago, how they could've lost the opportunity to not just supply but control the e-book industry, is beyond me.  With a little more foresight and ambition on their parts, any one (or perhaps a collective) of these publishers could have cultivated a site that would have become what Amazon.com is to the reading pubic.  Now, ever-expanding Amazon is rising up to publish some of their own successful Kindle authors, shown most publicly as they vied for Kindle star Amanda Hocking some months ago, and New York is fighting over e-book prices.   I'm not saying that they shouldn't set precendents for these prices--just that they're far too late.  As the makers of brands and best sellers, they should have been bold enough to look to future capital rather than simply taking the money waved before them.  Years ago, they should have denied their content and supplied them via sites and devices of their own, setting the prices long before the age of Amazon discounts set in.  Now, such a move might prove disastrous; they need Amazon and Google as much as these companies need them.  There is a monumental shift in reading habits upon us, and the real story is not simply that of the devices, or of content pricing; the real story is who puts all of that together to control the market.  Google is stepping forward; in their myopic vision of the market, the big publishers are the ones stepping back.  Again. 

Do We Really Need A Kindle Version Of This Book?

Ever been told you're an awful writer?  Ever had it suggested that the day you learned how to type was the day literature as we know it died?  Hopefully not.  But if you need an ego boost, be sure to check out this odd, if fascinating, book by Nick Page (which, incidentally, would be a perfect nom de plume for such material).  It's not on Kindle yet, so you'll have to settle for a paper copy.  That may not be a bad thing.  In the age of the e-book, we can only hope Mr. Page doesn't feel the need to attempt a sequel.  For those looking to find out more info, you can visit Nick Page's own site at: http://www.nickpage.co.uk.

Page elevates the idea of bad writing to an art form as he describes these pre-e-book era authors who clung desperately to the dream of literary greatness.  One of these authors is Solyman Brown, who wrote "The Dentologia," giving us some of the world's first epic dental poetry.  Sample a few lines:

'Tis thus derangement pain, and swift decay,
Obtain in man their desolating sway,
Corrupt his blood, infect his vital breath,
And urge him headlong to the shades of death.

Never has decay seemed so eloquent!  Other authors to receive the dubious honor of inclusion in this book include Julia Moore and a poet by the name of William MacGonagall.  You can see samples of their work at the link listed above.

Personal note to Mr. Page: If the urge to write a sequel ever overtakes you, steer clear of my Kindle books!  Then again, at least I don't write epic dental poetry, so maybe I'm safe...for now.

Freedom's Sword by J.R. Tomlin

Today's featured author is J.R. Tomlin, author of A Kingdom's Cost and Freedom's Sword.
You can find Freedom's Sword here: Amazon.com and a description below.

Before William Wallace... before Robert the Bruce... there was another Scottish hero... In 1296, newly knighted by the King of the Scots, Andrew de Moray fights to defend his country against the forces of the ruthless invader, King Edward Longshanks of England. After a bloody defeat in battle, he is dragged in chains to an English dungeon. Soon the young knight escapes. He returns to find Scotland under the heel of a conqueror and his betrothed sheltering in the hills of the Black Isle. Seizing his own castle, he raises the banner of Scottish freedom. Now he must lead the north of Scotland to rebellion in hope of defeating the English army sent to crush them.