Holiday Gifts and Discounts

iMedia Converter: Free till Dec 27th, 2010

I was going to email a friend about this but then I thought, why not share it with everyone?

From today, Dec 23rd, till the 27th of this month iSkysoft is giving away their iMedia Converter software for free; it regularly sells for 49 dollars. If you're interested, here's the link.

If you're thinking that there has to be a catch, well, you're right.  You have to have a Facebook account and you have to "like" the company, but, other than that, the software is completely free.  Nice!

Kim Harrison's book Dead Witch Walking

I love Kim Harrison's Hollows series so I was thrilled when I saw that the ebook version of Dead Witch Walking, the first book in the series, is being given away for free.  I'm not sure how long that's going to last for.

Happy Holidays! :)

Amazon to sell 8 million kindles in 2010

Cnet reports that Amazon is likely to sell 8 million Kindles in 2010.  They site an article from SFGate which states that

Amazon.com Inc. is likely to sell more than 8 million Kindle electronic-book readers this year, at least 60 percent more than analysts have predicted, according to two people who are aware of the company's sales projections.

 Wow!  The cnet article also mentions that

Apple sold 7.46 million iPads from April through September, and many analysts are predicting the iPad will easily surpass the 10 million mark after this holiday buying season.

Perhaps 2011 will be the year of the electronic book.

Photo(s) of the day:

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iPad 2

Edit:  Update on the iPad 2 from cnet. (Dec 23, 2010)

A couple of months ago I decided that I was going to buy a tablet in the new year, but wanted to wait until the iPad 2 came out before I made my final decision.  A month or so ago there were a few reports of the iPad 2 being shipped for Valentines.  My heart went pitter patter and I felt like I was five years old waiting for Christmas to come! 

Today I goggled "iPad 2" and came up with this link.  The video isn't new, it was posted Sept 30th, but it speculated that the iPad would be available for sale in June 2011.  June!  I hope not.

Others speculate that the iPad 2 will have a dual camera, a USB port and a longer battery life.  It would certainly be nice.

Picture of the day:

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Brian S. Pratt: The Energizer Bunny of Self Publishing

Brian Pratt is projected to earn over 100,000 dollars next year at Smashwords and, when his Amazon sales are included, over 200,000 dollars overall. Here's a link to the blog post.

Almost as interesting as his amazing financial success is the story of his adventures in self-publishing.

[MC] You joined Smashwords March 27, 2009 10:26pm (I checked!). Can you take us back to that moment in time, and recall what was going through your mind

[BSP] Let's see. I was a single dad living with three kids and boy, was I poor (under the poverty level). Up until then, I hadn't really thought much about eBooks. I tried Mobipocket for a while and had great sales for three months, then it died off. Sales for my paperbacks, which I had published through iUniverse had fallen off dramatically. Where I had been breaking 4 figures a quarter, I was now less than 600 per quarter and bleeding red. I typed in "self publishing" and saw a quirky little site called Smashwords. It said, Your eBook, Your way. Didn't cost a thing so what did I have to lose? First quarter sales at Smashwords were dismal, 2009-04-07 — $7.92 As it happened, April 7th is my birthday. That was cool. But I wasn't deterred. Books were selling. Sometimes, one or two a week, but they sold. I stayed with it and refused to allow all the naysayers (and there were those by the droves) to stifle my dream. Sales gradually improved and, well, here we are. Can't give up on your dream, EVER!

Below are a few helpful links Brian listed.  For a complete list: Helpful Info for the Self-Publisher.

obooko: Free ebooks and free publishing.
Project Wonderful: Advertising for even a small budget.
FanStory: Share your writing and get helpful feedback.

Also, can't forget Brian's website which has a lot of useful info.

Picture of the day:

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In the trenches

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Hi again. :)  I feel badly for not blogging recently and decided to remedy matters.  Guilt can be wonderfully motivating! 

What have I been busy doing, you ask.  Good question.  I've started the second book in my Death trilogy. Very exciting.  At least it was the first week, now I'm in the trenches, as it were, doing some of the research I put off when I was writing the first book (they're going to be released together, so I can make small adjustments to the first book as I go along.)  Most of it is riveting -- right now I'm reading about the Salem witch trails.

I have a tendency to get caught up in minutia.  How much research is enough?  Too much?

I'm reading J.R. Ward's book, Lover Avenged and am about 1/3 of the way through.  Wow!  That lady can really tell a story.

Stephen Leather's book, Once Bitten, reaches top of Amazon's bestseller list

I took a break from writing to nose around the internet and found out that, on this November 15th, a self-published book had reached the number one spot on the paid Kindle list at Amazon.co.uk.  I don't know if this is the first time that's happened but, even if it isn't, congratulations to Stephen Leather on his success.  

I bought the book from Amazon.com -- at 99 cents who could resist? -- but haven't had a chance to read it.  Here is a quote from the Amazon.com site:

Jamie Beaverbrook is an English psychologist working for the Los Angeles Police Department. His job - to sort out the insane from the sane, the crazies from the ones who are pretending to be crazy. But Beaverbrook's life is turned upside down one night when the police find a girl crouched over a man with his throat torn out. The girl has blood on her lips but claims she only found the body. Beaverbrook doesn't take long to establish that she's totally sane - but he is forced to face a bigger question. Is she a vampire? And what does she want from him?

I look forward to reading more of Stephen Leather's books in the future.

Stephen Leather's Blog

Cuteness

A friend told me about fotopedia, a "collaborative photo encyclopedia", the other day and it seemed like a fabulous idea! I searched on the keyword "cats", because I love cats, and came up with this picture and thought I'd share. :)

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Amanda Hocking

Indie author Amanda Hocking just tweeted this:

"Wow. Just did some crazy math: I have sold over 30,000 books in the past 214 days. Prior to 214 days ago, I had never sold a single book."

Good for her!  

Jamie Oliver Rules the World ... or at least the world of books

I was just reading an article over at thebookseller.com about how Jamine sold about 86,000 copies of his book, 30-Minute Meals, last week.

Philip Stone writes that:

... the biggest high-profile release of the week, George W Bush's Decision Points (Virgin), sold just 4,300 copies across all editions (3,736 in hardback; 564 in trade paperback) in its first week in UK bookshops, and fails to chart in The Bookseller's bestseller lists. Its opening-week sale is around one fifth of the 21,069 first-week figure posted by his predecessor Bill Clinton's My Life (Hutchinson) in 2004. Decision Points was the 77th bestselling hardbook book of the week and falls short, in volume sales terms,  of titles such as Hannah Montana Annual (Egmont) and Ben Collins' (a.k.a. The Stig) The Man in the White Suit (HarperCollins).

Go Jamie!

Oh My Gosh

James Frey and Full Fathom Five.  For the source article click here.

Robin McKinley

Another wonderful thing happened yesterday -- a lot of good stuff happened yesterday! -- I discovered an author who I am sure will become a new favorite, Robin McKinley.  I went to a ... not sure what to call it ... a Robin McKinley party to celebrate the launch of her new book, Pegasus.  Everyone at the party was fabulous and I had a wonderful time.  We took a picture -- a number of them! -- that our intrepid organizer is going to post on a blog.  When she emails me the link I'll try and remember to post it here.

The Hero's 2 Journeys

Yesterday I watched The Hero's 2 Journeys by Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler.  Awesome stuff.  Inspiring and helpful.  The visual quality of the video isn't the best but that wasn't what I was interested in so it was, at most, a minor irritation. 

As I write this I'm thinking of a story I wrote years ago when I was a teenager and how I felt there was something missing from the climax but I couldn't pin it down.  I finished the book but something stayed with me, a niggling doubt.  Well, now I think I might know what was wrong.  I had completed the hero's outer journey, but I had left the inner journey unresolved.  

I can't recommend these videos highly enough to writers.