Oh my god, okay, so there’s this thing, right? Did you hear? There are these people, just ordinary people like you and me except they got lucky because there’s this revolution going on and people are bulldozing the libraries all across America right now and taking apart those Barns’n’No-Bull stores or whatever they’re called, which is, ha, funny, because it’s like that saying about locking the barn door after… anyway, I gotta tell you this, it’s so cool, and you’ll never believe it, but back to these lucky folks, one of them is called Joe Konehead and there’s even this really young chick named Amanda Hawking (I think she’s the little sister of that handicapped spacegeek with the creepy computer voice), and they heard about this new book revolution, only they’re not books, they’re eBooks and, oh my god, LOL, this is so amazing, you gotta keep listening. So they made, like, more money than Jesus at a Casino thanks to these iKindles and MaxiPads and all the other eReaders that all these big companies are now making especially for the eBooks, and you know, here’s the thing, you can now go sell your eBooks on them since it’s so easy, anyone can do it… Continue reading “Entitled”
Tag: publishing
Ed’s Casual Friday: Happy Birthday to Me.
Today is February 24th, 2012, meaning tomorrow is the 25th. I mention that, because 02/25/2011 is the publication date of The Sable City on Amazon KDP, the first title I ever uploaded, to the first place. I sold four copies the last couple days of that month, and of course I know who bought them. 😉
At that time, one year ago, my “online presence” consisted of an e-mail account I checked every few days. Maybe once a week. No facebook, no blog, never heard of Goodreads nor Smashwords, nor several dozen other virtual places where I now seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on a daily basis. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: Happy Birthday to Me.”
Moving the Velvet Rope – by Stephen Hise
There are and have long been exclusive clubs. Some exert their exclusivity through means of social status or wealth. That’s why Cousin Eddie won’t be seen golfing at Snobmore Country Club. Others use the velvet rope and a bouncer who makes the individual decision as to whether someone is cool enough to get in. Often, the decisions of the bouncer seem enigmatic, capricious, and objectionable to those on the wrong side of the velvet rope.
That model of exclusivity is the one used (or perhaps imposed) by the traditional publishing industry. Their idea being to preserve the integrity of the written word by selectively choosing those who would produce the written word. What a great idea. I wonder how that worked out. Continue reading “Moving the Velvet Rope – by Stephen Hise”
The Why and How of E-Book Piracy by Arline Chase
Preface: The other day a Google alert informed me that my first novel, Lust for Danger, was mentioned on a site called 4shared.com. I clicked through to discover that they were offering my novel as a free download. I immediately emailed my Indie Publisher, Write Words Inc., to notify them of this issue. Within a couple of days they’d managed to get the site to take my book down. Honestly, I never thought this would happen to me. But it did. Arline Chase – owner of Write Words, Inc. – will explain why, and how, pirates steal our titles.
Without further ado, here is industry veteran Arline Chase:
I can’t speak to how pirates get hold of every title, but I can mention some of the ways they are able to “find” material to give away and why they do it.
Some publishers, not me, but some, put the PDF up at Bowker’s Books in Print when they register the ISBN. As a protection to our authors, Write Words does not send the whole PDF there, or to Google’s “search inside the book” or anywhere else except sales sites where we actively participate. Bowker’s security is good, but no Internet Security is infallible.
Authors get tons of spam all the time. One ploy is to offer “free advertising” to authors by e-mail and ask them for one free copy to use for promotional purposes. If the author sends them ONE PDF book file by e-mail attachment, they can then give it away hundreds of times and they can claim to have your permission to do so as it was sent willingly. I don’t know that this is how they got your book, but it DOES happen. A Lot. You would also get lots more “offers” from them to buy advertising on line. Continue reading “The Why and How of E-Book Piracy by Arline Chase”