REVIEW: The Truth About Ebooks
Ebooksbook business / Ebooks50 Comments
It shocked me a bit to know from reader Fiona that she was unaware that Harper Collins was releasing many of its prints books in ebook format. Jayne and I began to brainstorm about all the ebookstore vendors out there and whether we could provide a comparison chart to help ebook novices and veterans alike. Unfortunately, we haven’t bought books from all these vendors but in the coming weeks, we will. Just for your benefit (and ours of course). We want readers to let us know what their experiences are as well (so we can save some $$). From now until whenever we run out of content, every Sunday, we will be blogging about ebooks from devices (which we blogged about previously), to content, to readers, to vendors.
Today’s article is just a list of all the ebook vendors we can find and links to their pages. On each Sunday, no matter what the ebook topic we cover, we’ll profile an ebook store and let you know what we like and we what don’t like about the store (kind of like we did here). In the end, we’ll make an exhaustive comparison chart available for download. Next Sunday’s article will be about formats and what it all means. Stay tuned and let us know what topics you want to hear about.
- Ebook Vendors
- Ebook Publishers & Vendors
- Amber Quill (Lani Aames, Pamela Cummings, Sasha White)
- Awe-Struck E-Books
- Baen Publishing (Catherine Asaro, Wen Spencer)
- Belgrave House (Joan Smith, Carola Dunn)
- Blackfriars Publications Company
- Books for a Buck
- Cerridwen Press
- Champagne Books
- Changeling Press (Rachel Bo, SL Carpenter, Beverly Havlir)
- Chippewa Publishing
- Cobblestone Press
- DLSIJ Press
- Double-Dragon
- Ellora’s Cave (Lora Leigh, Lisa Marie Rice, Angela Knight)
- Extasy Books
- Freya's Bower
- Hard Shell Word Factory
- HarperCollins(Meg Cabot, Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn)
- ImaJinn Books (Lilith Saintcrow, Keri Arthur, Angelique Armae)
- Inara Press
- Kensington Books (Shannon McKenna, Amy Fetzer, Bad Boy Anthologies)
- Liquid Silver Books (Bonnie Dee, Treva Harte, Celia Stuart)
- Loose ID (Elisa Adams, Angela Knight, Raine Weaver)
- Lindenbayromance
- Midnight Showcase
- Moxie Press
- Mundania Press LLC (Elaine Corvidae, Piers Anthony)
- New Concepts Publishing (CJ Barry, Marie Harte, Michelle Levigne)
- Penguin (Nora Roberts, Loretta Chase, Christine Feehan, Jo Beverly)
- Phaze
- Random House (Naomi Novik, Suzanne Brockmann, Mary Balogh)
- Renaissance Ebooks Inc
- Samhain Publishing (Jaci Burton, Lauren Dane, Shelly Laurentson)
- Scheherazade Tales – Out of business as of June 1, 2006
- Silk Vault
- Simon & Schuster (JA Krentz, Kresley Cole, Michele Albert)
- Siren Publishing
- Total E-Bound
- Triskelion (Dakota Cassidy, Marie Treanor, Shiloh Walker)
- Twilight Times
- Venus Press, LLC
- Whiskey Creek Press
- Whispers, A division of Scarlet Publishing
- Wild Rose Press
- Wings ePress, Inc. (Shiloh Walker)
- Free Ebook “Stores”
- Bartleby
- U of Virginia Ebook Library
- Baen
- U of Penn
- Project Gutenberg
- Many Books
Harlequin is a publisher who releases ebooks but it does not sell directly from its site). I also excluded any stores/publishers or solely non fiction like McGraw Hill’s textbook ebookstore.
Oh wow! Thanks so much Jane and Jayne! The rock I’ve been under was apparently a little bigger than I imagined. Of course, now my wallet will be a little smaller!
…Fiona
Did we miss anyone? If so, let us know and the site can be added to the list.
Inara Press, Whispers, eXtasy, Silk Vault, Chippewa and a whole slew of others are all ebook publishers. You can check out this link for a more comprehensive list:
http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html — Piers Anthony lists basically every epublisher known to man, lol. He also accepts feedback from authors about how the companies are to work with. My only caveat about this site is that authors use it as a threat “I’m going to tell Piers Anthony on you”. And the information is not always correct, but can be damaging :( But it’s a good resource for authors and a comprehensive list of epublishers. I don’t know of a list anywhere that’s more comprehensive
I think eXtasy is still down for whatever that’s worth. I swear I read somewhere that one of their sr. eds (stefeanie?) was going to start an epub with some other editors, but I’ll be darned if I can remembe where….
What about Whiskey Creek Press Torrid [www.whiskeycreekpresstorrid.com] and the new minx on the block, Samhain Publishing [www.samhainpublishing.com]…yes, admittedly I am biased, but when acting as a reader, still think they are fabulous publishers.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking on this project. Recently I tried to explain the whole ebook thing [readers, formats, ease of use, etc.] to a friend and it just wasn’t working, now I will point her in your direction :-)
That’s fact, Cece, Stef is starting a pub with two others. I think Jaynie had it on her blog, but I heard it elsewhere before that. They haven’t chosen a name, last I heard, and I’m guessing it will take at least a short while to get up and running, get contracts and website, etc in order.
Very nice! One thing I was thinking about after the Avon eppy thing… was what is a good price to page?
And how do you figure e page count to print page count. Doesn’t it depend on what type of format you choice as to what the page count will be? What do you think is a good price?
Angie thank you! I knew I’d read it somewhere, then couldn’t find it and thought maybe I’d lost my mind along the way.
Sybil I think most epublishers format differnet so maybe tough to answer but I recall Fictionwise posts the wordcounts if that helps.
You can’t go by page count in ebook because every format has different page count. And every publishing company uses different margins, font size, line spacing, etc (or if there’s a lot of short line dialogue, that requires a new line each time, that’s going to fill pages more quickly than longer paragraphs). Actually, most readers don’t realize the same is true for print.
Every publishing company has different font size, margins, etc. So page count is a difficult thing to base on, no matter what type of book you’ve got. Open any two books, print or ebook, and the page count might be the same but the word count could be vastly different. That’s why epublishing goes by word count (actual computer word count).
In reality, page count doesn’t mean much, because there’s no standard of printing. As an example, a 250 page chapter book, meant for 4th to 6th graders, is actually going to be much shorter than a 250 page book from Harlequin. Because the chapter book uses larger font, more line spacing–there’s more white space on the page. Yes, they’re both 250 pages, but the word count could be 20,000 words difference.
But do most publishers display the word count? I’ve been looking and can’t find it on several sites.
Word count is the most accurate way to tell how long a book is but many, many publishers don’t provide word count. (probably because word count is getting shorter and shorter). For comparison, you can look at the following numbers:
Desire 50-55K (192 pp)
Intimate Moments 60-65K (256pp)
Special Edition 60-65K (256pp)
Bombshell 70-75K (304pp)
Love Inspired 60-65K (256pp)
Everlasting 70-75K (304pp)
American Romance 60-65K (256pp)
Blaze 60-65K (256pp)
Intrigue 60-65 (256pp)
Superromance 70-75 (304pp)
LI Suspense 60-65 (256pp)
Hmmm, new topic idea.
They’ll give you a range, usually. Like Samhain’s:
Short Stories: $2.50 12,000 to 18,000 words
Novellas: $3.50 18,001 to 35,000 words
Category: $4.50 35,001 to 60,000 words
Novel: $5.50 60,001 to 100,000 words
Plus Novel: $6.50 over 100,000 words
So you can tell a specific book falls within a certain range, but not the exact word count.
New Concepts has a similar range chart as well.
BOOK LENGTH:
Full Novel = 90,000 words and up; 360 pages and up (double-spaced)
Mid Novel = 61,000-89,000 words; 244-356 pages (double-spaced)
Category = 40,000-60,000 words; 160-240 pages (double-spaced)
Novella = 20,000-39,000 words; 80-156 pages (double-spaced)
How about booksforabuck.com? They are fairly small but they have an excellent philosophy that deserves support and I’ve read some wonderful gems at great prices there.
Added:
BooksforaBuck
Extasy Books
Chippewa Publishing
Inara Press
Silk Vault
Venus Press, LLC
Whiskey Creek Press
I did not add Whispers Publishing because there is no books for sale other than 1.
I had to look because I didnt’ think that was quite right, though they are small right now. They have 12 books for sale. I’ve included the link to their products page. http://tinyurl.com/lxfjn
home page is: http://www.whispersstore.com/index.php?main_page=index
Jane, try this link. You can see all of Whispers’ releases better.
Freya’s Bower is a new erotica / erotic romance epublisher. :)
I googled Whisper Publishing and it came up with something completely different. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.
Just thought of a few more: imajinnbooks.com (Lilith Saintcrow, Keri Arthur, Angelique Armae), midnightshowcase.com, mundania.com (Elaine Corvidae, Piers Anthony), wings-press.com (Shiloh Walker)
I didn’t see it on the list, and yes, I know quite well that they are a part of Ellora’s Cave, but their offerings are different, so they deserve their own link- Cerridwen Press…
http://www.cerridwenpress.com
Hi Jane, one of our authors posted a link to your blog and I thought I’d offer any assistance if you have any questions about Liquid Silver Books. I’m their PR Liaison as well as an Acquisitions Editor for them. I was unable to find a contact for you so I decided to look “like I’m pimping my publisher” and post the offer in a comment. LOL. Feel free to contact me.
I was on Romance Divas today and found that they also have an excellent and very nicely laid out list of e-publishers
http://www.romancedivas.com/divaforum/index.php?showtopic=8683
DPPstore is still somewhat new to the eBook vendor game, but you may want to keep an eye on http://www.DPPstore.com.
We are the only eBook vendor who is dedicated to exclusively distributing content from independent authors and presses.
We started with 7 books in January, and we now house over 100 titles…we will be adding about 100 more in the next few weeks. And thousands more are in the works by the end of summer. Keep us in mind for your next list.
-Catherine Hodge
Added:
imajinnbooks.com, midnightshowcase.com, mundania.com, wings-press.com, and DPP Store. Cerridwen Press already there.
Tina Burns, will email you. Note to self: make contact button.
Lord ya’ll got your work cut out for you!
Thanks for adding us to your compendium of eBook retailers!
– Catherine Hodge (of the DPPstore)
Hard Shell Word Factory (www.hardshell.com) is one of the early epublishers and still very much in business.
You may want to add:
DLSIJ Press (http://www.dlsijpress.com/)
Double-Dragon (http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/)
Phaze (http://www.phaze.com/)
Twilight Times (http://twilighttimesbooks.com/)
And another freebie site with LOTS of formats:
Manybooks (http://manybooks.net/)
Here’s another epublisher. Siren Publishing. I’m not familiar with them, but I thought I’d add them to your list: http://www.sirenpub.com/
You have the link to WhiskeyCreek wrong:
https://dearauthor.com/wordpress/www.whiskeycreekpresstorrid.com
this won’t work this way!
Thanks for the nice heads up, John. I had forgotten to put the “http” in the “a href” tag
I just wanted to give my input on Baen Publishing. I have been buying their ebooks for almost 7 years now and I am more than pleased. They use a more open format than most other sellers which allows me to put my books on an ebook reader for better enjoyment. They even sell the ebooks already formatted for my device! If I switched to a different device, I could download the books I’ve already bought from them in text and format them to my new device – if they didn’t have a version already formatted for my new device!
I have a REB1100 ebook reader and consume several books per day. I wish I could entirely dispense with paper books but too many publishers do not cater to those of us with ebook readers. The so-called “secure formats” are not very secure anyway and only prevent those of us who aren’t hackers from buying the books. I’d love to see other ebook sellers use Baen Publishing’s model.
Thank you for listing all of these sources of ebooks, I’m currently hunting through them for those that sell open format or RB format books.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Lewitt
Jennifer, Samhain Publishing’s publisher, Christina Brashear has the same feeling that you do about secure formats, that they just irritate readers like you and I, lol, so she’s always said Samhain’s books will remain in unsecure format.
I think quite a few of the epublishers do REB friendly formats, including Samhain Publishing (who also does the Ebookwise specific IMP format as well as the .RB format). I know Ellora’s Cave does .RB format, as well. Others may be able to specify other publishers which do the same.
From what I’ve encountered, most online bookstores seem to favor LIT, PDF (in secure format) and Palm format. I wish they’d at least branch out to HTML, which is easier to convert.
Whiskey Creek Press actually has two web sites for our customers, our all-genre site at http://www.whiskeycreekpress and our Torrid Romance (erotica) site at http://www.whiskeycreekpresstorrid.com. We have been in business since early 2003 and have over 200 authors under contract and 350 published titles. We publish about 15 titles per month at the combined sites, in both ebook and paperback formats.
We always invite new customers to come by our sites and discover our great books by our many outstanding writers!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Steven Womack
Whiskey Creek Press
Jane,
As a first time writer, I need some direction.
My story is 50-55,000 words, 10 chapters with 106 pages in Microsoft Word format. I have converted it to HTML format using the NVU free program. Is this format acceptable with most publishers?
Hey, thanks for including Whiskey Creek Press on your ebook list! Of course, we actually have two divisions/sites, the general all-genre line at http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com and Whiskey Creek Press Torrid, our Erotic Romance line (where you have our link above going) at http://www.whiskeycreekpresstorrid.com.
We work really hard to publish a quality producr, and we have some OUTSTANDING authors at both sites. w We make both sites customer friendly too and we certainly welcome new customers.
Thanks again for the support!
Steven Womack
Whiskey Creek Press
http://tiny.pl/9883
2
We have a new eBook store with over 70,000 titles in 4,000 categories – perfect for browsing by subject – or use our quick search function to leap right to an exact title or your favorite author…
Think it, Click it, Read it – Find Exactly What You Are Looking for at:
ebooksabouteverything.com
Jayne, Both entries you have for Baen books point to the Free Library.
http://www.webscription.net/ is the “Pay” library which contains LOIS McMaster BUJOLD’S VORKOSIGIAN SERIES as well as many, many other fine books at $4 to $6 each. The newer books are searalized until one month before publication and often come in blocks of five for $15 but after publication the whole book is available. You can also buy ARCs for more if you just can’t wait. This sounds more complicated than it really is. They also have a page of links to where you can get e-book software. They don’t support Adobe but do provide HTML, RTF, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, and Rocket e-book formats. You can try different formats at no add’l charge. The new Sharon Lee& Steve Miller collections are $20 for five books now but will go up to $5/book soon…Still a heck of a deal!
p.s., I don’t work for them. I’m just a satisfied customer.
[quote comment=”1136″]Did we miss anyone? If so, let us know and the site can be added to the list.[/quote]
Yes, you missed Writers Exchange E-Publishing. We have been around for the last seven years, but have just moved our ebooks to our “new” bookstore Readers Eden.
http://www.readerseden.com
Our old site still exists but the shopping cart is faulty, hence the move, the old site will be a small writing resource site when the change over is complete.
We currently have 420 books put into the new system, with the rest due to be up in the next week.. The old site, which still shows all our books is http://www.writers-exchange.com
I felt my ears burning… Yes, I started Mojocastle Press after I was told my services were no longer needed at eXtasy. We’ve been open since September of 2006. All information is on our site at http://www.mojocastle.com . Any questions, feel free to email me!
Thanks for this resource..I really appreciate when folks do this sort of posting.
Stephanie is the backbone and public face of Mojocastle Press. The CEO, Carrie A. King, and I bought the domain mojocastle.com together early in 2006, but didn’t do anything with it. Carrie is a bit of a ‘mystic’ for a lack of a better word, and just had a feeling that we should buy it before someone else did. Lo and Behold, Carrie sponsored my attendance at the Daytona RT convention, where I met Stephanie in person for the first time. She was my editor when I wrote for Extasy breifly. So one thing leads to another and a few weeks later, we knew EXACTLY what to do with mojocastle.com. Carrie had even thought of opening an ebook company like a whole year before all of this. All the chips fell into place. It would have been bad kharma not to move forward when the Universe so graciously provided all the pieces, ya know? I second Stef’s thanks, as well. This is a great resource. Hugs, Princess M
I noticed BooksOnBoard is not on the list on this page. It alway has either the best price or something very close to it. They also have a couple hundred thousand ebooks.
I couldnt see my site up there …
Publisher and Seller.
regards
jules
I don’t recomend The Writers Exchange or Readers Eden.
Just browsing around the site and found this list. It’s made of awesomeness, thank you!
I noticed that Torquere isn’t on the list.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/zencart/
De – My list is abysmally out of date. Must address that at some point.