Oct 16 2011
Sunday Morning eBook News
This morning we have a melange of information that deserved their own posts because two of them will likely be updated later. Thus we are having a summary post:
- Changes to Amazon’s Personal Document Service. It now comes with cloud and whispersync support.
- With iOS5, Stanza has been killed. This post explores three alternatives to Stanza.
- The demise of Aspen Mountain Press. Any time someone doesn’t pay because of “family” excuses, it’s time to be worried.
Fictionwise is having a 60% of all books sale. Use the coupon code: 101411. This is good until October 17, 2011. There is the entire Harlequin digital catalog there along with publishers like Samhain, Loose Id, Belgrave House books (old trad regencies). Help a reader out and suggest some purchases in the comments.
Samhain books do not appear to be eligible for the discount.
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Oct 16, 2011 @ 11:11:00
Yes, please, someone make suggestions for books at Fictionwise. Their site flummoxes me every time I go there because I don’t know and/or can’t find what I’m looking for.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 12:02:08
FIctionwise is new to me. I may have to go check it out and see if I need to stock up or not.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 12:54:59
I got the two Joan Wolf books you love: His Lordship’s Mistress and A London Season, as I’ve been meaning to give them a try for a while. Sadly, that was all that I could find to buy this time, as everything else I was interested in was from Samhain.
But if anyone’s interested in grabbing all of Moira Rogers’ non-Samhain backlist, here’s their chance.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 13:35:22
I picked up the first two books in Victoria Dahl’s Donovan brothers trilogy, Liz Talley’s latest Oak Stand book, and Sarah Morgan’s Doukakis’s Apprentice for a total under $10. Guess I’ve had a lot of Harlequins sitting on my to-buy list. Note: Courtney Milan’s Unclaimed wasn’t available.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 13:59:11
Thanks for the coupon information. It doesn’t help me for the Harlequin’s since I have a Sony, but I was able to pick up some books from a few small e-publishers. S.K. Yule, Yvette Hines, and a couple new to me authors.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 15:02:08
If you like BDSM, Cherise Sinclair’s Shadowlands series is pretty good. Some of her (all male of course) doms tend to be all-knowing which gets annoying, but they’re not assholes, and the relationships are pretty balanced for BDSM romance. And the characters are well developed for BDSM too.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 15:42:27
During a previous Fictionwise sale, I bought a couple novellas (I can’t always justify paying full price for some of those shorter works): Cara McKenna’s Ready and Willing (m/f, m/f/m), which I enjoyed but thought it could use more depth, and Rachel Randall’s The Festival Spirit (m/f, m/f/m), which I also enjoyed (rock stars! captured by a faerie queen! yay!) but was left wanting more and wishing there was deeper characterization. (Aaaaand I’m coming to the conclusion that I like novellas more in theory than in practice, because usually I’m left wishing there was more.)
I also bought Laura Kaye’s Hearts in Darkness but haven’t read it yet.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 15:47:38
I’ll put in a plug for Alison Richardson’s Countess Trilogy series of Harlequin Spice Briefs which I reviewed a couple years back. These are so good that even two years after I read them, I haunt eharlequin in search of more from this author. In hindsight, I wish I had graded them higher.
The novellas, in order, with links to my reviews:
The Countess’s Client
An Impolite Seduction
The Birthday Present
Please note, these follow the same couple and are best read in order.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 15:57:38
If you read m/m, I think all the presses except Samhain are discounted. I bought a ton in the last 60% off coupon sale so I’m not picking up much this time. If you like gay mystery with a romantic storyline, Richard Stevenson’s books are available, as are Neil Plakcy’s Mahu series and Nicole Kimberling’s Bellingham mysteries.
Two of Tamara Allen’s historical m/m novels are available as well, and a handful of short stories and novels by Sarah Black. Both are wonderful writers. And Jordan Castillo Price’s Channeling Morpheus series. I haven’t read them but I’m picking them up based on how much I like her PsyCop and Petit Morts series.
ETA: All of these books are non-DRM, like most books from the smaller epub houses.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 15:58:48
@Janine: I’ll second that recommendation! I picked them up based on your reviews here at DA and I loved them.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 16:32:45
@LisaJ — Why can’t get you get Harlequins for your Sony from fictionwise? They have Harlequins in epub format, which is supported by the Sony reader.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 18:32:37
@AmyW: They only have secure e-reader format, not ePub. I haven’t found secure ePub from there since agency pricing went into effect. Am I missing something?
Oct 16, 2011 @ 18:38:05
@Sunita: I’m so glad you enjoyed the Richardson novellas. I only know a handful of people who have read them, and I think they deserve to be better known.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 19:05:57
@Lisa J Yes, you would have to strip the DRM and then convert to epub.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 19:55:31
I just picked up 18 books in the sale – I thought I was being ridiculous when the total was $115 and thought I’d have to do a cull, but when I applied the coupon code, the price came down to just over $48 so I bought them all!! *rubs hands together*
I picked Heidi Cullinan’s Dance with Me, some Josh Lanyon, some LA Witt, Jane Davitt/Alexa Snow, AM Riley, Harper Fox, Urban/Roux, lots of ZA Maxfield, some Ava March and a GA Hauser. thx for the link :D
Oct 16, 2011 @ 20:01:39
My recommendation would be any of Joan Smith’s regencies (Ms. Smith, if you’re listening, please release Sweet and Twenty in e) and if your pocketbook is really flush you could also pick up some of the Susan Napier titles released through Harlequin Treasury.
@Lisa J: If you’re looking to stock up on some Harlequins, Books on Board is running a good promotion right now with 25% reward dollars. Your Harlequins would end up being around 50% off when you consider the free books you can get with the reward dollars. That’s where I purchase most of the ebooks for my Sony reader.
@ms bookjunkie: Joan Wolf’s The American Duchess is also wonderful.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 20:04:36
I bought:
2.02 – 1 Eye Of The Storm [MultiFormat] by Monette Michaels
1.02 – 1 Carolina’s Walking Tour [MultiFormat] by Lesley-Anne McLeod
1.70 – 1 Bath Scandal [MultiFormat] by Joan Smith
2.38 – 1 Absolution [MultiFormat] by Kaylea Cross
1.70 – 1 Miss Timothy Perseveres [Wedding Series Book1] [MultiFormat] by Emily Hendrickson
1.70 – 1 Lady Alex’s Gamble [MultiFormat] by Evelyn Richardson
1.70 – 1 Dark Magic by Christine Feehan
2.21 – 1 Creature Comforts [MultiFormat] by Buffi Becraft-Woodall
1.45 – 1 Marriage By Necessity [Secure eReader] by Christine Rimmer
2.04 – 1 Dangerous Intentions [To Serve and Protect 7] [MultiFormat] by Anna Leigh Keaton
2.04 – 1 Volarn Book II: Heart of the Dragon [MultiFormat] by Myra Nour
2.38 – 1 Dream Fever [MultiFormat] by Katherine Sutcliffe
1.70 – 1 Dark Desire by Christine Feehan
1.02 – 1 Beauty And The Geek [MultiFormat] by Roni Adams
1.02 – 1 The Countess’s Client [Secure eReader] by Alison Richardson
1.02 – 1 The Birthday Present [Secure eReader] by Alison Richardson
1.02 – 1 An Impolite Seduction [Secure eReader] by Alison Richardson
1.02 – 1 Wild [Secure eReader] by Crystal Jordan
1.70 – 1 Just a Little Sex… [Secure eReader] by Miranda Lee
1.53 – 1 The Bride In Blue [Secure eReader] by Miranda Lee
1.53 – 1 A Daughter’s Dilemma [Secure eReader] by Miranda Lee
1.53 – 1 Mistress Of Deception [Secure eReader] by Miranda Lee
1.53 – 1 Breaking/Making Up [Secure eReader] by Miranda Lee
2.38 – 1 RetroCog [a Power Up! story] [MultiFormat] by Marie Harte
2.38 – 1 The Lost Locket [a Power Up! story] [MultiFormat] by Marie Harte
2.04 – 1 Whispered Words [a Power Up! story] [MultiFormat] by Marie Harte
1.70 – 1 The Unexpected Wife [MultiFormat] by Emily Hendrickson
1.45 – 1 The Spaniard’s Baby Bargain [Secure eReader] by Helen Bianchin
1.53 – 1 Forgotten Husband [Secure eReader] by Helen Bianchin
2.38 – 1 The Darkest Secret [Lords of the Underworld Series #7] [Secure eReader] by Gena Showalter
6.44 – 1 Lords of the Underworld Bundle [Secure eReader] by Gena Showalter
13.46 – 1 Men Made in America Mega-Bundle [Secure eReader] by Gayle Wilson & Marie Ferrarella & Jennifer Greene
1.53 – 1 Kiss Your Prince Charming [Secure eReader] by Jennifer Greene
1.38 – 1 Hot to the Touch [Secure eReader] by Jennifer Greene
1.53 – 1 Bachelor Mom [Secure eReader] by Jennifer Greene
1.70 – 1 The 200% Wife [Secure eReader] by Jennifer Greene
2.14 – 1 Cast in Secret [The Chronicles of Elantra Series Book 3] [Secure eReader] by Michelle Sagara
2.14 – 1 Cast in Courtlight [Chronicles of Elantra Series Book 2] [Secure eReader] by Michelle Sagara
2.14 – 1 Cast in Shadow [Chronicles of Elantra Series Book 1] [Secure eReader] by Michelle Sagara
1.53 – 1 The Chauffeur Wore an Evening Gown [MultiFormat] by Roni Adams
1.70 – 1 All-American Father [Secure eReader] by Anna DeStefano
2.14 – 1 Lord of Scandal [Secure eReader] by Nicola Cornick
1.68 – 1 The Notorious Lord [Secure eReader] by Nicola Cornick
2.38 – 1 One Wicked Sin [Secure eReader] by Nicola Cornick
2.72 – 1 Notorious [Secure eReader] by Nicola Cornick
2.45 – 1 The Darkest Lie [Secure eReader] by Gena Showalter
2.38 – 1 Only Yours [Secure eReader] by Susan Mallery
Oct 16, 2011 @ 20:09:58
You’re a friggin beast, Jane. /salute
Maybe I’ll mosey on over and shop off my to-buy-harlequin list, since I scrub DRM off like an old sunburn. I’ve had a wicked hankering for some HP action.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 20:39:20
For those who aren’t familiar with Fictionwise, they issue the new releases on Mondays, sometime after 10:00a.m. Each week’s new books are discounted 15%, and that’s on top of the 60% coupon, which ‘should’ be good until about Wednesday, if past patterns hold.
I had been building up my shopping cart waiting for the next 60% coupon so I’m a happy girl this week. I’m buying Harlequins: Michelle Reid, Dianne Drake, Susan Crosby, Betty Neels, Miranda Lee, Jennifer Greene, Christine Merrill (can’t remember who recommended her here a while back but it was a good recommendation!).
Oct 16, 2011 @ 20:41:50
Jane, do you read exclusively ebooks now?
Just curious.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 20:42:01
@Statch: I’m going to have to start that – building my shopping cart. I haven’t ever heard of Dianne Drake. I’ll have to mosey over to Fictionwise tomorrow.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 20:42:41
@Cara Ellison: I read paper arcs but other than the books for my tot, I BUY only ebooks.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 21:12:46
Be aware that on some FW MultiFormat books (at least from Liquid Silver [I also have a couple Loose ID's where only the LIT and PDF are formatted properly as they use Loose ID's files instead of FW formatted ones]) FW has screwed up the formatting and left out the section breaks (such as in Jane’s mentioned Eye Of The Storm by Monette Michaels) and FW is completely unresponsive about it to both myself and the publisher. I know some people don’t care about stuff like that, just an FYI.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 21:18:13
@Brian Does the LIT format convert well via Calibre?
Oct 16, 2011 @ 21:58:39
How do I choose the ebook format in my shopping cart at Fictionwise? I can’t seem to click on anything. Is it my browser? I’m using chrome
Oct 16, 2011 @ 22:34:00
@Jane: I’m not Brian, but YES in my experience. Lit converts most painlessly, then mobi/prc, then epub, then everything else.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 22:37:02
I bought 27 ebooks. Happy birthday to me!
Tomorrow I shall celebrate my 31st year in sweatpants reading a mountain of Harlequins.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 22:40:13
@lorenda-If the book is multiformat then you choose the format when you download. If it is secure, you have the option of adding which secure format you prefer but not all of the secure books are offered in multiple formats.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 22:46:01
As Sunita says, generally lit is one of the more plesant formats to convert (mobi & epub being the others), but if that was in reference to my above post it’s only a couple Loose ID’s I got at FW that were Ok in lit, the Liquid Silver’s were either Ok in all formats or not Ok in all formats.
I was lucky in that Raven & Mike at Liquid Silver/Atlantic Bridge sent me good copies of my problem books.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 23:17:45
hmm, I’ve tried to choose, but when I go and check out, I get an error message telling me I have to choose a format, even though I already have.
I’ll try with IE, maybe Chrome just isn’t playing nice.
Thanks.
Oct 16, 2011 @ 23:19:30
Just realized it’s probably because I’m currently in Bangalore. I probably don’t have the regional rights to buy. I hooked up to my VPN (based in US) and had no trouble. Thanks everyone.
Oct 17, 2011 @ 05:56:14
@Lynn S.: Thanks for the rec!
I bought some more books, mostly inspired by Jane’s list but also by comments:
1.20 – 1 Comet Wine [MultiFormat] by Lesley-Anne McLeod
2.00 – 1 Old Lover’s Ghost [MultiFormat] by Joan Smith
2.00 – 1 Bath Scandal [MultiFormat] by Joan Smith
2.00 – 1 Miss Timothy Perseveres [Wedding Series Book1] [MultiFormat] by Emily Hendrickson
2.00 – 1 My Wayward Lady [MultiFormat] by Evelyn Richardson
2.40 – 1 Seducing Olivia [Incognito Book 1] [MultiFormat] by Madison Layle & Anna Leigh Keaton
2.00 – 1 The Unexpected Wife [MultiFormat] by Emily Hendrickson
2.00 – 1 The American Duchess [MultiFormat] by Joan Wolf
I read Comet Wine immediately after downloading, it was really cute. I might go back for more… o_O
I really wanted some Rebecca Brandewyne (The Outlaw Hearts is an old favorite!), but they were all in Secure eReader. >:(
Oct 17, 2011 @ 06:32:58
@Ridley: Sounds like an awesome way to spend your birthday. Have a nice one Ridley! =D
Oct 17, 2011 @ 07:38:46
@ms bookjunkie:Lesley-Anne McLeod’s novellas are cute. I tried a full length novel of hers that didn’t work for me but all the novellas – so far – have been at least B grade for me.
Oct 17, 2011 @ 09:46:00
@Jayne: I went back and got Lesley-Anne McLeod’s Daughter of Trade, we’ll have to wait and see how I like it…
Oct 17, 2011 @ 13:06:25
I bought 14 backlist HQN categories that’ve been on my wishlist for a while for $24.33. It’s such a good deal I’m tempted to go back and look around again …
1.89 – The Inherited Bride by Maisey Yates
1.62 – His L.A. Cinderella by Trish Wylie
2.00 – Sam’s World by Ann Williams
1.70 – A Bride for Kolovsky by Carol Marinelli
1.80 – The Fearless Maverick by Robyn Grady
1.70 – Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress by Lynne Graham
1.70 – One-Night Love Child by Anne McAllister
1.70 – Antonides’ Forbidden Wife by Anne McAllister
1.70 – In Bed With Her Italian Boss by Kate Hardy
1.80 – The Stolen Bride by Abby Green
1.70 – One-Night Mistress…Convenient Wife by Anne McAllister
1.70 – The Virgin’s Proposition by Anne McAllister
1.62 – The Santorini Bride by Anne McAllister
1.70 – Billionaire Doctor, Ordinary Nurse by Carol Marinelli
Oct 17, 2011 @ 14:57:06
Some of Darlene Marshall’s books are there, but not her latest one.
Oct 17, 2011 @ 16:02:13
@Brian: It’s a waste of time emailing Fictionwise these days, they appear to be run by robots who don’t care about customer service and never respond. A far cry from the days of personal responses and chats with Scott and Daniel.
Oct 17, 2011 @ 17:17:02
I actually have had pretty good reponse from FW customer service in the last few months. One thing to watch for with the Harlequin Treasuries is that sometimes a book under one name will actually be a different book. That’s happened on several occasions, and FW hasn’t been able to fix it for me (looks like it’s coming from the publisher that way) but they have refunded my money each time, and they responded quickly.
@Jane, Dianne Drake writes Harlequin Medicals. I’ve read two of them and really liked them (enough to buy more), but I do have a note saying that they started out slow. Just FYI.
@ms bookjunkie: I thought I was done buying for this week(about 35 so far) but something about Lesley-Anne McLeod sounded familiar so I looked her up and the books do sound very cute! Back to the shopping cart..:->.
Oct 19, 2011 @ 05:35:31
@Statch: HI, do you mean as a customer? Good to hear they’re still interested in their paying customers. As a publisher it’s been a waste of effort. Despite having a contact box for publishers, they just never respond.
Oct 21, 2011 @ 17:28:41
@Coribo25, I did mean as a customer. Sorry, didn’t realize you were a publisher!