———————-
Michigan

You have no idea how panicked I was when I saw this, because that would have been a pricing error and the screw-up mine. Thankfully, that's the incorrect word count (it's 40k+ words) and I can now practice my deep breathing to bring my heart rate back down.

Sorry, Angela, I pulled the info from Fictionwise. Didn’t realize it wasn’t correct.

The only serious criticism I have is (which applies to some of other epubs as well), the site offers just word counts and prices*. No clue to whether it's a short story, novella, novel or whatnot, which makes it quite tough for a person with dyscalculia like me.

The indication as to whether it is a novel or novella comes after the description. Unless an ebook is indicated as a novella, it is a novel. And, as I mentioned, the novels are $5 and the novellas $3, so that’s a further indication. Neither Belgrave House nor Regency Reads offers short stories.

This is far more pervasive than ads in ebooks and ads killing the ebook market.

Every ebook offered on the sites is DRM-free, has a word count, a blurb, a one-or-two chapter sample, is offered in 10 different formats, is instantly downloadable (with PayPal or credit card), has a $5 (for novels) or $3 (for novellas) price, and there are several free offerings-a contemporary romance, a Regency novella, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

So what are you waiting for??

I’m off.
I can’t think how I’ve managed to overlook Belgrave House, especially as it seems like just the thing for me. Thanks for linkage.

While the site isn’t pretty-looking, the navigation is very user-friendly, which is a massive relief when comparing with better known epubs’ sites. The sheer ease of the navigation alone makes me not mind the site’s 1995-era appearance at all. I really do love samples. Not too short or long, just right.

The only serious criticism I have is (which applies to some of other epubs as well), the site offers just word counts and prices*. No clue to whether it’s a short story, novella, novel or whatnot, which makes it quite tough for a person with dyscalculia like me.

(*When I see $5, I may read it as $S, $9, $8, $6, $$ or $Z (and $ as S) because of the similarities among these. As you may see, the price isn’t quite a useful guide. Most times, word counts appear as alphanumerics to me. This is why I appreciate another visual guide, in form of written words.)

Thanks.

So much talk about erotic fiction, can I just say that there other genres of new entry romantic e-fiction available!? If you don’t believe me, go to the Sony ebook store site and check it out! The mass market and popular authors have their work available in both traditional and electronic versions!

All I want now from Sony is for them to put and extra set of back and forth buttons on the top of the screen, so I can really curl up on my side and read with it cradled in my arm…:) If Sony does that, I am better than married to that thing!

And whose fault is that? If we focus only on Ellora's Cave, Loose Id, and Samhain, of course we are going to see all those erotic titles.

I am familiar with those imprints but e-book reviews are hard to come by, and no one can deny that the e-books that are reviewed at the biggie review sites like here and Karen Knows Best, are more often than not, erotic romance. As someone else said above, there’s a bigger risk in just trying unfamiliar e-book writers because you cannot donate them to the library, turn them in to the UBS, nor can you pass them on to a friend who might like it if the book didn’t impress you.

Also, those three publishers are spoken of often because they’ve branded themselves and marketed their “house”–you can’t deny that Angela James is the “face” of Samhain. If she weren’t such a dynamic proponent of e-publishing and Samhain, most would be as leery of trying their e-books are they are of the lesser known houses. I myself will try an unknown Samhain author simply because the imprint presents itself as devoted to quality and innovation in all romance sub-genres–which is exactly how Aoife says she browses brick and mortar stores for NY pubbed books and why the so-called average reader will reach for Avon Romance for historicals and Berkley Sensation for paranormals. So rather than I singeing my fingers on so-so reads and turning away from the e-publisher, why shouldn’t they reach out and establish a “brand”? (Which, IMO, will also help distinguish the legitimate, professional e-publishers from the fly-by-nights).

Anyway, my point is that as someone who was always open to ebook reading but not very educated about it, I needed help in crossing over to that new paradigm. I needed information about reading device options (and I read on my iPhone, laptop, and Sony reader very happily), understanding of where and how to purchase ebooks, and awareness of what was being offered in electronic format and why. And I do not think I am alone.

Clearly digital is here and it’s growing. No matter how readers stand on the digital market currently, enough are engaged in ereading that it’s a rapidly growing market. IMO digital publishers absolutely need to focus on quality and professional appearance both, and also IMO, they would do well to assist the reader who is currently on the precipice of ereading take the leap.

There is always, IMO, going to be a proportion of readers who don’t want ebooks, who will always choose print, and who don’t want to be converted. Which is fine by me, because I certainly don’t want to see print books disappear. And I don’t think those readers should be the focus of any kind of conversion efforts, because for whatever reason, they just don’t want to read differently.

But between the current and potential (aka on the precipice) readers of ebooks, there is definitely, I think, a need and opportunity for epublishing to build the viability of the market by providing quality books with a quality name recognition (i.e. a professional front). And by helping readers find and purchase those books (insert rant about DRM here). Unlike many readers, I do not find it unreasonable to pay $5 and more for ebooks (as long as I’m not being asked to pay OVER the print price for books in both formats), but then I never paid attention to word counts before reading Romance.

In any case, I think there are many readers who would move quite naturally into the ebook market if only they had more incentive and assistance from epublishers, and so much of that, IMO, is just good business sense and professionalism. It’s not going to be too long before NY steps into the breach, so it seems to me that this is exactly the time for professional independent epresses to establish themselves as every bit as legitimate as NY print houses. The market might not be huge now, but it’s also not unreasonably crowded – yet.

I still hold to this pattern, only occasionally publishing ebooks by authors who are already multipublished and offered on the website. My assumption was that no matter how industriously a reader had applied her/himself, they could not possibly have read all the romance/mystery/paranormal/historical/etc. books that had been published in the previous twenty years.

Authors who are published in mass market paperback see their books on the racks for a month or two and then disappear. Epublishing is an opportunity to see their books available once again–and permanently.

Because very few traditional Regencies are being published these days, I developed a second site to specifically offer Regency and Georgian romances. These books have a chance to find new readers.

Every ebook offered on the sites is DRM-free, has a word count, a blurb, a one-or-two chapter sample, is offered in 10 different formats, is instantly downloadable (with PayPal or credit card), has a $5 (for novels) or $3 (for novellas) price, and there are several free offerings–a contemporary romance, a Regency novella, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

So what are you waiting for??

http://www.BelgraveHouse.com
http://www.RegencyReads.com

I can enlarge the font, bookmark pages, prop it up on the pillow when I read in bed and snake my hand out just to turn the page so my fingers don’t grow icicles and fall off, put it in a ziploc bag to read in the tub or even in the rain (and OMG does it ever rain where I live), eat while reading, fold napkins at work while reading, switch to a different book at will, and read for hours and hours without getting hand fatigue. Plus, it keeps track of exactly where I stopped reading, even if I have multiple books going at the same time. AND I can buy a book the moment I want it, even if it’s 11 at night and I’m in my jim-jams.

You practically have to hold me down and make me read a paper book nowadays. Mass market paperbacks are hard to keep open–and some publishers put the margins way too close to the spine, IMO. You practically need to flatten the book to read it. And hardcover? If I wanted to weightlift, I’d use dumbells. Trade paperbacks are so floppy when you read lying on your side, and you have to roll over every time you move onto the next page. PITA.

I looooove my Sony. I love it so much, I almost want to marry it. But I don’t think it swings that way…

I love my Sony Reader, though, because I can blow up the font size as big as I want it to be (we wouldn’t want to deprive all those stealth readers around us from joining in the experience, grin) before I even import the rtf files. I was skeptical about whether the reading experience would be different and better from my laptop, but I have to say there is absolutely no comparison. The Sony wins hands-down by a margin so wide it’s not even in the same universe.

I just finished reading a paperback and it was a real hassle. The font was relatively small and having to hold that beastie open without totally cracking the spine and making the pages fall out was really annoying.

That made me realize how much I enjoy reading on my e-reader. I was really annoyed to have to stop eating lunch/stop reading because doing both at the same time with the paper book just didn’t work!

I also think those that find it perfectly fine to read an ebook on their cell phone must be under 40. I’m 45 and I just had to get reading glasses to enjoy my beloved paperback books. The mere thought of trying to read over a cell phone makes me shudder. Same thing for ereaders but not because their viewing size is small. I’m just not an ebook person. I work on a computer all day and the last thing I want to do is either sit down at a computer or another electronic equipment to read.

The other thing I have to say is that while some of the sites Mrs. Giggles referred to (thanks for them – some I’ve never heard of), I’ve been on those sites and maybe I’m off about the definition of erotic romance but when I scan and see sex in the excerpt, that’s erotic romance, not straight romance. I do only look at futuristic/paranormal but still see that in the excerpts. Ugh.

Before I will plunk down my hard-earned money on ebooks (yep, I’ve tried – can’t find any of the quality or taste I like over paper pubs), the quality has to increase. And while I suspect I’m missing out on some of the quality writers, they are too dang hard to find and I don’t have time to look for them. Or the eye sight.

It’s surprisingly tough to be an ebook browser. Most ebooks I bought were because of others’ recommendations/suggestions and a couple of book reviews.

When alone and without recs, it’s extremely hard to buy with confidence. I’m thinking it’s because:

a) most ebook authors aren’t familiar. There seems to be an assumption that I – a casual ebook buyer – know who writes what kind. I don’t. Paranormal author? Great, but what kind? Dark, comedic, bizarre…what? There’s nothing to compare with. With a print book, I can flip through the book and figure out what it’d be like. Since I can’t do this with an ebook, I need more clues a better guide.

b) surprisingly, excerpts aren’t always available.

c) when a title looks good, a short excerpt isn’t enough. I’d like a sample. I don’t know if this is possible, but Amazon’s See Inside function is incredibly helpful, so I’d like something similar from epubs/shops.

I do try visiting an author’s blog or web site to get a better idea, but most don’t bother with longer excerpts. That said, why must I spend time and effort to visit those authors’ sites when I could see it at epub’s site?

Browsing is ideal for impulsive buys, and it won’t happen if I have to make an effort to do homework.

d) surprisingly, some epubs don’t bother with summaries and excerpts at all. It’s as if book covers, word count and tags (m/f, m/m, etc) are good enough to snag potential buyers. Some book covers are rather off-putting and the tags? What’s the point? I want good stories. :D

e) Navigation for browsers isn’t always user-friendly. This applies to Waterstone’s, WH Smith and Blackstone’s as well. It’s incredibly hard to browse in their sections. You have to have a specific title or author to get what you want from there.

I think it would be helpful or useful if some would try the ‘If you like so-so, you might like so-so’ function.

The point is, epubs or ebookshop (native ebook or not) are supposed to be like a high street bookshop: easy to browse and with minimal effort. Please don’t make me feel browsing is a chore.

Because of these issues, my ebook shopping is based solely on readers’ recommendations and suggestions, so no casual browsing for me at the moment.

I’ve just read six books on my LifeDrive with MobiPocket. And I used the MobiType option, which makes the text *teeny* almost.

I resisted doing this for the longest time, citing the above objection. Then I finally made the connection that all the Mobi eBooks offered at the NYPL were just sitting there while I kept racking up overdue fines with the print books!

What I’ve found is this: If it’s something you are *really motivated to want to read*, the teeny type and wee screen melt away and the words of the book remain.