Smashwords

May 13 2013

Monday News: Mark Coker of Smashwords suggests that $3.99 is the new black; Copyright reform for consumers introduced to Congress; Gender hypocrisy exists outside romance

Smashwords: New Smashwords Survey Helps Authors Sell More eBooks – Mark Coker shares some Smashwords data with the public. How much of this can be extrapolated to overall sales is unknown. Some interesting points include that the #1 bestselling book outsells the #500 by 37 times in total revenue; longer books sell better; and $2.99(…)

By • Publishing News • 3 • Tags: , , , , ,

Wednesday Midday Links: Libraries search for better deals to provide digital lending to customers

Jun 27 2012

Wednesday Midday Links: Libraries search for better deals to provide digital lending to customers

Califa Lands $325,000 in Funding for Ebook Ownership Project; Deal Close With Smashwords — The Digital Shift – “The San Mateo-based Califa Group, which is the largest library network in California, has made major strides in its project to create an ebook ownership model along the same lines as the Douglas County Libraries in Colorado.(…)

By • Publishing News • 10 • Tags: , , ,

Thursday Midday Links: LinkedIn passwords hacked, HBO direct to consumer not likely

Jun 7 2012

Thursday Midday Links: LinkedIn passwords hacked, HBO direct to consumer not likely

8 million leaked passwords connected to LinkedIn, dating website (updated) | Ars Technica – “An unknown hacker has posted more than 8 million cryptographic hashes to the Internet that appear to belong to users of LinkedIn and a separate, popular dating website. … The massive dumps over the past three days came in postings to user(…)

By • Publishing News • 7 • Tags: , ,

Thursday Midday Links: Female Writer Moves to Pen Name to Appeal to Men

Apr 26 2012

Thursday Midday Links: Female Writer Moves to Pen Name to Appeal to Men

Scots crime writer Shona MacLean ‘killed off’ to appeal to men – Scotland – Scotsman.com – “SCOTTISH crime writer Shona MacLean has been forced to change her name – to S G MacLean – to make her novels more appealing to men.  The change follows the publication of three successful historical crime books under her(…)

By • Book Deals, Publishing News • 26 • Tags: ,

The Paypal Fiction Crackdown Roundup

Feb 26 2012

The Paypal Fiction Crackdown Roundup

Background Back in 2007, Jayne and I reviewed ebookstores. There seemed to be new ones that were announced everyday. When All Romance eBooks launched in 2007, it lacked the Paypal option. It would later add Paypal in October of 2007. Commenters informed us that Paypal had content restrictions. One reason that Loose Id does not(…)

By • Publishing News • 62 • Tags: , , ,

Friday Links of News & Deals: Amazon the Bully, Readers in need of help (me), and How to get an ebook refund

Dec 30 2011

Friday Links of News & Deals: Amazon the Bully, Readers in need of help (me), and How to get an ebook refund

News Bayou Arcana is due out in the UK shortly. I can’t find it in the U.S. but it is a “southern gothic” horror anthology that brings together an all female team of artists and all male team of writers. From the Guardian: “There is a certain sensitivity that you find in women’s art that(…)

By • Book Deals, Publishing News • 45 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Thursday Midday Links: Stanza Not Dead, Reviewer Sued for Defamation, Amazon Acquires TTS Firm

Nov 10 2011

Thursday Midday Links: Stanza Not Dead, Reviewer Sued for Defamation, Amazon Acquires TTS Firm

In the UK, a self published author is suing a reviewer for panning his book. Chris McGrath, an online entrepreneur from Milton Keynes, who wrote and self-published a little-known book entitled The Attempted Murder of God: Hidden Science You Really Need to Know, has launched libel proceedings against Vaughan Jones, 28. He claims Mr Jones(…)

By • Publishing News • 67 • Tags: , , , , , , ,

REVIEW: Something Different by S.A. Reid

Oct 11 2011

REVIEW: Something Different by S.A. Reid

Dear Ms. Reid (actually I’m just assuming your gender here — sorry if I got it wrong). This is a self-pubbed book that you sent to Dear Author for possible review. I enjoyed the excerpt and it hit one of my buttons pretty hard (*love* stories about prostitutes or strippers — no idea why), so(…)

By • B+ Reviews, Recommended Reads • 16 • Tags: , , , , , , , • • • Author:

REVIEW: Barefoot in the Grass by Judith Arnold

Jul 4 2011

REVIEW: Barefoot in the Grass by Judith Arnold

Dear Ms Arnold, “Barefoot in the Grass” is a novel I’ve heard a lot of good things about over the years. First pubbed in 1996, I think that the use of this issue as the main theme of a romance book was more notable then than it is today but I want to say kudos(…)

By • A- Reviews, Recommended Reads • 8 • Tags: , , , • • • Author:

REVIEW: Principal of Love by Patricia McLinn

Jun 27 2011

REVIEW: Principal of Love by Patricia McLinn

“Meet Josh Kincannon, high school principal, single father of three, and thus, he thinks ruefully, celibate into the foreseeable future. After working with Vanessa Irish on a project for tiny Drago, Illinois, Josh believes he knows her. Then he catches sight of her wild, vibrant robe, and it makes him curious –then a lot more(…)

By • B Reviews, Recommended Reads • 7 • Tags: , , , , • • • Author:

Apr 4 2011

Monday Midday Links: Post mortems full of fail

I wasn’t going to do a links round up today. I’m getting ready to leave for Romantic Times and have a list as long as my-well, it’s a long list. But I would be totally remiss if I didn’t point the readership to Publishers Weekly, a supposed journalism magazine about the industry of publishing. But(…)

By • Publishing News • 63 • Tags: , , ,

Nov 21 2009

Saturday Midday Links Roundup: Writers Organizations Mad at Harlequin

TBIResearch believes that Amazon is losing quite a bit of money on the ebook market as it tries to drive down prices of books. Publishers are trying hard to maintain a higher price, but researchers and retailers believe that consumers will not pay a high price for ebooks. The good news according to the research(…)

By • Features, Publishing News • 158 • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Sep 29 2009

Tuesday Midday Links

Maili is guesting over at Victoria Janssen’s blog home about her favorite category books. Sadly so many of them are out of print. I’ve read all but one of the stories recommended by Maili and they are worth hunting down and not just because Jane is the heroine in one of the books. Really. You(…)

By • Features, Letters of Opinion • 13 • Tags: , , , , ,

Aug 31 2009

Monday Midday Links: It Is All Gloom and Doom (today at least)

Disney bought Marvel Comics for $4 billion. Disney will now own the rights to over 5,000 Marvel characters including Spider Man, X-men, Ironman, and the like. One key element of copyright law that people tend to forgot is that the longer copyrights benefit corporations like Disney more than any one else, even the individual copyright(…)

By • Publishing News • 15 • Tags: , , , , , ,