In addition to the paperback and Kindle editions, on Amazon, my novel 'The Delta Chain' is now also available in several other ebook formats, from Smashwords, and from Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, Apple's ibooks, and Diesel.
And just in time for the 2011 Read An Ebook Week.
As part of the Ebook Week promotion, 'The Delta Chain,' is available at a 50% discount (using coupon code no. RAE50) from Smashwords, until March 12.
According to my neighbor, Buggeroff, there's no reason now for anyone not to get a copy. But then up until last week he thought an ebook was a geeky term for an xbox. When I showed Buggeroff a Kindle, he wanted to know which button to press for the latest Red Faction: Armageddon game.
The Read An Ebook Week initiative runs this week, from March 6 to March 12. It's an annual promotion that's been going strong for several years now, but is more topical than ever given the steep rise in ereader devices over the past year, as they've become lighter, slimmer, and lower in price.
On her write2publish blog, Robin Sullivan investigates many ebook stats. Industry reports show that the ebook was recently approx 10% of the U.S book sales market. That's a healthy and growing niche.
Ebook Week has news, info and features, across a wide variety of media, about the pleasures and advantages of reading electronically. Authors, publishers, readers, booksellers, the media and the general public participate. In 2010 it attracted readers from 136 countries, speaking 74 languages.
You can find out a great deal more about it here
For 500 years, since Gutenberg's first printing press, we've had printed books. This past decade the Project Gutenberg enterprise has made thousands of classic books available as ebooks, and for free, and helps introduce them to a whole new generation.
In the 1960's movie version of 'The Time Machine,' the time traveler arrives in the far future and is taken to a hall that contains Mankind's books. When the traveler takes some of them from the shelves, they crumble in his hands, due to neglect.
In Ray Bradbury's classic novel, 'Fahrenheit 451," futuristic nasties burn all the books.
I expect the printed paper book is more resilient, that it will survive the doomsayers, and that it will always have a place in our hearts, albeit in smaller numbers. And that it can live happily alongside the ebook.
The ebook definitely has a vital and increasing place in our world, and in our hearts, and Ebook Week celebrates that without resorting to burning or neglecting its print counterpart. Live and let live.
There's thousands - or more - books available, from the classics to the latest bestsellers. And if there's a negative to the whole ebook revolution, then it's that there's so many titles of all kinds available, and just not enough time to read 'em all. Damn.
I enjoyed reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteI don't yet have an e-reader, but from what people have told me, I should get one. Even if would read some books that way, I still prefer holding a printed book in my hands. I guess I'm still a little old-fashioned.
I have all of my novels available through Kindle, but haven't yet checked out the other places. Kindle allows me to upload a .html document and it works well on the reader. That's so easy because I simply click to save as an .html file from Word. What type of document files do the other places require? Is there a charge to upload to the other services?
Hi, Sheila, thanks for dropping by. I'm being distributed to the various other ebook retail sites via Smashwords. You can upload a Word document to the Smashwords site and they convert to the various formats required, and distribute. You can check out how it works at http://www.smashwords.com - and Smashwords founder Mark Coker's Guide on formatting your document is very user friendly. Takes a little patience but if I can do it, I'd say anyone can, lol. As you're in the US, you can also upload direct to the Barnes and Noble Nook, check out their site, similar in some ways to uploading for Kindle, or just go the Smashwords route. Good luck and keep publishing.
ReplyDeleteThe doomsayers also said the zip would kill the button, and it didn't do that - they both survive side by side, which is what will happen with the book.
ReplyDeleteAlthough 'the book' is really the content, and not what container it arrives in, there are a lot of readers around who will ensure demand for paper books will endure, at least for the next 20 years.
I agree that statistics confirm eBooks are thriving - I expect eBook sales of my new thriller titled According to Luke (which came out on Amazon today)will out-sell paperbacks at least during the launch period.
Rosanne, all the best with the launch of According To Luke. Hopefully, the paper books will be in demand for many years more than 20, and ebooks will continue to carve out their own unique place. It's a win-win for readers and authors.
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