World Reader Expands Access

Having a tablet or smartphone isn't an option for most people in developing nations. But many of them do have cell phones. The mobile App from World Reader.org has opened the readership to thousands.

This project is offered by a U.S. and European nonprofit whose mission is to make digital books available to children and their families in the developing world. World Reader.org has partners of UNESCO, the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Amazon, and Random House, with support from other international organizations.

A recent article at Tech City tells the success of the project.

Random House In House eBooks

2013 saw the advent of Unlike the Simon & Schuster digitals for indie authors through ASI. It's branch, Archway Publishing, is be run by Author Solutions Inc. Shelf Awareness says:

"Author Solutions will offer editorial, design, distribution and marketing services to self-published authors. Archway Publishing titles will be listed on Edelweiss, and Archway will offer a speakers' bureau, video and book trailer production and distribution services and a 'concierge service,' allowing authors to work with a publishing guide who will coordinate each step of the book production process. Some of its services are among the priciest for self-publishing authors, ranging

Do S&S authors have to pay for the eBooks? Unsure.

Another publisher in eBook production is Random House Publishing Group (RHPG). They offers digital-only imprints through their own staff and editors. The four RHPG imprints cover major genres, Romance (Loveswept), Science Fiction/Fantasy (Hydra), Mystery (Alibi) and a genre they call New Adult (Flirt).

RHPG writes:

Every book will be assigned to an accomplished Random House editor and a dedicated publicist. They will also have the invaluable support of Random House’s experienced marketing and digital sales teams, who know how to reach out to and expand each book’s dedicated readership.

Submissions go through the regular RHPG channels, and their site doesn't indicate any monetary outlay from the author. It's a regular submission route, however RHPG "does not accept unsolicited submissions, proposals, manuscripts, illustrations, artwork, or submission queries at this time. This includes submission of work previously published elsewhere." They only consider works that come through agents.

New eBooks

 

These are two covers of new e-books that have recently gone live. GITP created the covers for each, and also formatted the e-book layouts for Nook and Kindle.

I'm happy to welcome indie author Joe Pfeiler to the GITP family.
Also the acclaimed author, Patricia Nell Warren and her company, Wild Cat Press International. Read a recent interview with Warren here.

Visit their websites to learn more about them and their interesting titles.

Blood Country - Review

I downloaded the electronic edition of Blood Country when I found it as a freebie (a short-lived occurrence) on an e-book site. The printed edition had been published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc. in 1999, and I might have enjoyed the book a bit more if I'd read that version.

Story: Claire Watkins is living in a small Wisconsin town with her daughter, Meg, after her husband's death--an unsolved murder. She works for the county sheriff's department and enjoys small town police work after having been a detective in the Twin Cities. But life changes on two fronts when her elderly neighbor is murdered in his yard; then her daughter admits she saw the man who drove the truck that ran over her father. Claire calls her ex-partner to help her with the new evidence about her husband's murder while she works on solving the small town killing.

Mary Logue is a very good wordsmith; the descriptions and sense of place were well crafted. Character differences made all the people in the story easy to recognize. For me, however, there were too many points of view; some where internal thoughts that could have been better served to come out in dialog with the principal character. Because of this, the story bogged down in many places, and the tension and action didn't live up to the title Blood Country.

Most aggravating were the many errors in the text. It was obvious the e-book layout hadn't been vetted. face most times came out as fece; missing punctuation was jarring as well as sections of dialogue that weren't separated into paragraphs. I find it very disappointing when a publishing company (in this case, Tyrus Books – F+W Media, Inc, Adams Media [all the same, I guess]) sloughs the work of creating a good final product. And they have the nerve to charge more than $7.00 for it! Hopefully, they'll go in and make the corrections--an advantage to e-books that more publishers should utilize.

Why are Bookstores Closing?

Can ebooks be the total blame? I think not. There's a lack of logic in many of the chain stores. For instance, Why have 40,000 titles on shelves for people to browse, and probably not buy? Not only are you in debt to your earlobes to publishers and distributors (Joseph Banks reportedly owes nearly $200,000 to Ingrams), but many of those books can't be returned. Also, many large chain bookstores are set up like a library; you can sit and read—have latte.... If you went every day or so, you could finish a whole book and not have to buy it.

The "chummy" attitude is also lost in large chain bookstores. Very few have knowledgeable sales people who will recommend a title, or, more importantly, who know what you read last and ask if you liked it. Hmm, Amazon does all that electronically, offering suggestions, and encouraging reader reviews. But Amazon doesn't supply the human factor that you can find with smaller indy booksellers.

Then there are other factors in the bookstore-closing dilemma. John B. Thompson’s book Merchants of Culture (Polity Press 2010) covers a lot of them. This interview tells more. "The publishing industry is in trouble—but not just because of the digital revolution."

Some other reasons? You tell me.

Rolling Thunder - Book Review

I'm playing catch-up with reviews previously posted on Goodreads.

Rolling Thunder by Thomas C. Stone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I downloaded this Smashwords book after reading reviews and comments from the author, Thomas C. Stone. As a writer of SF and a reader of SF, I couldn't pass it up. And also, the title was the same as a book I already owned--not SF--about a 1970's American Indian spiritual leader (Rolling Thunder, by Doug Boyd).

Smashwords books are often limited in aesthetic "real book" look, but that didn't matter. Stone's Rolling Thunder was compelling enough to read even if it had been in longhand.

I give 5 stars for character development. Jacqueline Judson and T.L. O'Toole are vibrant and well defined, as are all the sub-characters, from TL's companion Sera to a not-so-nice Acala. When I wasn't reading, I often thought of them, and wondered what would happen next—anxious for free time to get back to the story.

In SF, an important "character" for me is the world. Stone's Pax Noma was as interesting and well described as the flesh-and-blood characters.

For the story line: I'd only give 4 stars. The action was well done and believable, but the tie-in to what was happening politically on Pax Noma didn't show up until very close to the end. I'd say more about the actual "rolling thunder" but that would lead to spoilers. The ending pushed the envelope a bit on believable development, and this only hit me after I'd finished the book and pondered it for a day. That a book makes you ponder after reading it, is a true positive.

When all was factored in, I rated this book that in the way IRS reckons taxes; my 4.6 becomes a 5.

Stone has written several SF books. Visit his Web site

Charlie Parker Mystery

Deadly Gamble: The First Charlie Parker Mystery by Connie Shelton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I appreciated the first person presentation in Deadly Gamble. I don't usually like first-person stories. First person is hard to do, and Shelton got it right.

The story, with who killed sleaze-bag Detweiler, gets Charlie involved because an estranged childhood friend is involved and comes to her for help. Lots of good descriptions of Albuquerque's various neighborhoods as Charlie does her first sleuth work.

I was moderately dissatisfied with the conclusion, mostly because it seemed almost an after thought. But I'm really picky. This is a good, fast-paced, well-written mystery.

View all my reviews