Blog Archives
Time’s Edge Is On Sale
The Kindle edition of Time’s Edge is on sale!
From December 8th through December 14th you can purchase the Time’s Edge ebook for only 99¢.
This new edition includes a character and place name index.
Treat your family and friends to a gift of Time’s Edge for the holidays!
Available at Amazon.
Time’s Edge is the first place winner of the Tassy Walden Award, a literary prize given by the Shoreline Arts Alliance of Connecticut. The story blends adventure, humor, and romance in a fun-to-read mix of science fiction and fantasy.
Forgetting How to Use a Book
A very interesting post from journalist David Bauer. He has been reading books all his life, but after only two years of reading on an ipad, he is no longer comfortable reading a book the old-fashioned way.
I find it increasingly uncomfortable to move my eyes from the top of a page to the bottom as I read along. I prefer to keep my focus at roughly the same spot and to move the text rather my eyes.
Read his entire blog here: The Day I Forgot How to Use a Book
The Trouble with Free eBooks
Everyone loves to get something for nothing, right? And what is more tempting than going online and cruising through thousands of free ebooks? It’s like a smorgasbord that you don’t have to pay for, a literary heaven.
Well, not exactly. Here’s why:
1. Quantity. There are too many free ebooks. Thousands of titles are available, which means a free ebook no longer stands out in the crowd. A few years ago, this was a great way for a new author to get noticed. But now? “FREE! isn’t special when everyone is doing it” author Kristen Lamb wrote in her blog The Problem with Free. As a tool for authors, it is losing its advantage. As a source for readers, it is overwhelming, and that leads to the second issue:
2. Excess. Many readers do not read the free ebooks they download. The books go into the modern day slush pile called To Be Read. The problem is that most TBR lists contain hundreds of books and why not? They are all free. It doesn’t cost anything to download a book and leave it sitting in electronic limbo. The reader doesn’t lose anything if he never gets to the book. And that brings up:
3. Value. It turns out that most folks do not value something unless they pay for it. Author Dean Fetzer makes this point in his blog Value for Money: “One of the lessons I learned early on about the internet in my previous job – and the world, for that matter – is: users don’t value free stuff as much as things they pay for.” Readers have no investment in a free book and no expectations. Just the opposite, in fact:
4. Perception. A free product is perceived to be a lesser product. Even positive reviews of free books reflect this attitude. When scanning any reviews of free books you invariably find comments such as “Not bad, for free”, “I was surprised that something free was actually readable”, “Enjoyed it but glad I didn’t have to pay for it”. And let’s take a look at the “glad I didn’t have to pay for it” crowd:
5. Addiction. Yes, ebook readers are now hooked on freebies. They have been trained to NOT pay for books. They expect free ebooks, in quantity, in perpetuum. Check out The Digital Reader: Are Free eBooks Killing the Market? for a take on this phenomenon.
Of course, there are authors who have benefited from using the free ebook strategy just as there are readers who devour their electronic books and hunger for more. These authors will argue that giving away free ebooks boosted the sales of their non-free titles. They are the exception now, not the norm. Free promos, if done correctly, can temporarily boost a book’s ranking. Does that translate into sales and reviews? There is heated debate over that but it seems clear that most authors receive only a momentary lift, a blip, so to speak, in the book publishing cosmos.
We have never offered our books for free and have no plans to do so. We want readers who are invested in the story, who want to read our tales so much much they actually pay for them. Authors should set a value on their work. In a race to the bottom, no one wins.
An Ode to Bestsellers
(Sung to the tune of “The Monster Mash” written by Bobby Pickett, Leonard L. Capizzi)
I was looking at my stats late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my book from its slough began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
The bestseller list
It was an Amazon hit
It hit the list
I pumped my fist
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
From their computers in their happy homes
To the Amazon boards where the critics roam
The readers all came and their Kindles shook
They wanted a download of my book
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
The bestseller list
It was an Amazon hit
It hit the list
I pumped my fist
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
The downloaders were having fun
The series had just begun
Readers could download a three-pack
Or buy paperbacks, one by one.
The scenes were rockin’, all were digging the plot
Word spread quickly, they liked it a lot
Everyone predicted the book would thrive
If only some characters came out alive
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
The bestseller list
It was an Amazon hit
It hit the list
I pumped my fist
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
Out from his lair, a critic’s voice did ring
Seems he was troubled by just one thing
He opened the book and shook his fist
And said, “Whatever happened to a final plot twist?”
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
The bestseller list
It was an Amazon hit
It hit the list
I pumped my fist
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
Now everything’s cool, the critics have calmed down
And my new book is the hit of the town
For you, the reader, this book was meant to
Hook you on the series; I’ve planned twenty-two!
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
The bestseller list
It was an Amazon hit
It hit the list
I pumped my fist
It hit the list
It hit the bestseller list
Our Favorite Time’s Edge Quotes
Shelfari, amazon.com’s “community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers”, has a neat feature; readers and authors can add quotes from books they enjoyed. We had a lot of fun selecting quotes from our novel Time’s Edge. Here are our favorites (in no particular order):
“It’s impossible to walk through solid rock… You have to walk between the molecules that make up the rock.” Nick, the Sarzonian guardian
“Seers. They make everything they say sound like a prophecy.” Jafrey Ral
“What I can do is science, not magic. Magic is just a term for an aspect of science that hasn’t been explained yet.” Michael Blayne
“Within this dimension there are doorways to every place in the galaxy… A misstep in this hall can have serious consequences.” Alrick Zartollis
“If we live through this remind me to buy you a Ratherian beer.” Commander Lucas Joyston
“This place is a cross between a medieval castle and a space station.” Kate Weston
“The robot was my ancestor…just as the amoeba was yours.” Edgar, Michael’s robotic servant
“I’m ready to believe anything from a man who spends three months on a simple probe retrieval and then returns wearing a cat.” Zilla, the commander of Division 9
“You are not the portent. You are the great event.” Rista Jahlan
“Alrick will kill you if you talk, and Michael will kill you if you don’t. Glad I’m not you.” Jafrey
Whither Goest Publishing?
There have been arguments all over the Web (and off it!) about the future of publishing. Some believe printed books are dead. Others think ebooks are a fad. (Yes, we actually heard someone say this.) It was inevitable that, as authors, we would get asked our opinions about this burning question. And our reply?
We don’t know.
That’s right, we have no idea what direction publishing is going to take. Are print books dead? We don’t think so. Are ebooks a fad? Nope. But do we have to choose one over the other? We aren’t so sure about that.
Let’s face it. Technology changes so quickly that discussing traditional formats vs. ebooks seems silly. Who knows what will be available ten years from now. And fifty years out is even more vague. We’ve read many of the predictions about publishing and are frankly amazed that so many seem so sure about something so nebulous.
Our first novel, Time’s Edge, is available in ebook and printed formats. Yes, the ebook is out-selling the paperback version, but we’re willing to bet price is the deciding factor. (The ebook is $3.99 and the paperback is $9.99.) Everyone loves a bargain.
We wish we could get into a space ship and time travel as the characters in our book do. However, we are stuck with today. And since that is all anyone has anyway, arguing about the direction the future is going to take seems unnecessary. If pressed on the subject, we’re willing to say that new ways of sharing information and emerging technologies are going to change the publishing field in ways no one is even considering.
It’s an interesting intellectual exercise. But that’s all it is. The important point is to stay current and to be open to new ideas and adaptable to new technologies. However, if any one does have a time-traveling space ship, let us know!
J.M. Dattilo 