Buy These Books As Holiday Gifts

This post is a sticky for the next few weeks. Scroll down one for the new stuff.

I’m not, but if you do… click that above for suggestions.

My own quick short list:

Declan Burke (help the guy out!)
Winterland by Alan Glynn
Anthony Neil Smith
Victor Gischler
Christopher Fowler
Karl Alexander
Warren Ellis

And because she will kill me if I leave her off:

Moriah Jovan

Don’t complain if you were left off. This was a quickie. No Comments.

It’s Like A Party With Women All Wearing The Same Dress!

I learned of this via Dear Author:

Reusable Cover Art in Historical Novels: A Gallery

One of them was recycled eight times!

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And lest you think this is happening with so-called low-end publishers, look carefully at the publisher names!

Writer Declan Burke: A Sad Post

Woe Is Me, Etc: A Failing Writer Writes

It really is becoming as stark as that. I decided over the weekend, after interviewing James Ellroy, that it is actually immoral of me to steal time to write fiction when I could be writing freelance material that will actually earn real money. And that’s not even factoring in the time I steal away from my family on the ‘writing’, a catch-all word which includes, these days, reading and blogging too. Someone who liked my books asked me over the weekend, rather facetiously, how come I haven’t sold a million books. I said, rather facetiously, that it was because no one put a million dollars worth of advertising spend behind them. It’s not quite that simple, of course, but there’s a significant element of truth in that.

I can’t argue with his priorities in this post.

However, he acts as if he’s some obscure bloke no one has ever heard of.

Hell, I haven’t read him yet — but I’ve heard of him. I’ve seen him cited or mentioned by writer after writer in that genre!

Sarah Weinman beat me to a post about this, so I get to link to her too: On Giving Up the Fiction Ghost

Like her, I hope he’ll change his mind.

This is a tumultuous time in publishing. People such as myself won’t buy print any longer. I want digital. So do all those others out there who have spent lots of money on Sony Readers, abominable Kindles, other crappy eInk devices, as well as the sleek iPhone and iPod Touch. We don’t want to have to decide which damned paper brick to lug around. And we’re too smart to be suckered into paying exorbitant print prices for lightly-tarted up text files under the guise of ePub for Seniors. This is seriously hurting many writers who are innocents in the crossfire between the pearl clutchers of print who won’t publish most writers in e at a reasonable price and a new marketplace with demands that are bound to change very soon.

For all writers who are contemplating throwing in the towel: Just keep writing. It will all work out.

Quote Of The Day: Jenn Topper

I’m unsure anything needs to be priced more than $10. It’s a fucking book, not a piece of gold.

Consumption Paradigms: PART I

Digital Book: The Whale Hunt

This is just extraordinary!

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GUD’s Pricing Experiment

What is GUD?

GUD (pronounced “good”) is Greatest Uncommon Denominator, an award-winning print/pdf magazine with two hundred pages of literary and genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles.

Our hardcopy issues are 5″x8″, slightly narrower than a mainstream paperback but solid in the hands and easy to read.

GUD’s also available on the Kindle, and in a number of eBook formats via Fictionwise, and beautiful PDF straight from us! Need more convincing? Check out what critics have said about us.

I’d never heard of this before. They’re doing a pricing experiment:

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Pay What You Want!

We’ve given you deals before, but nothing quite like this. Now’s the best time to get a PDF of any issue of GUD–for whatever price you like (minimum one US cent; though we don’t see a cent unless you pay more than 5 cents; and half the net of every sale goes back to our contributors. Help us bump their advances from semi-pro to earned-out pro rates?

Apparently the experiment extends only to the PDF version purchased directly from their website.

But if it looks interesting to you, go for the eBook version via the stores they mention.

The Fine Print = Apple iTablet WIN!

In a prior post, I teased all of you with this:

What Vook’s running into here is precisely why the iTablet is going to be a monstrous hit — even beyond the monstrous hit of the iPhone. I won’t explain that statement right now. I’m saving that for a future post.

The post I did earlier today reminded me I should do this follow-up.

Buy A Vook For Less Than A Dollar!

If you’ve been curious about trying out one of the Vook digital books, now is the time to do so. They have a promotion going:

The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen

The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen vook is a revolutionary new way to follow the inspiring recipes of chef Eric Gower. You can now read Eric’s recipes, watch videos of Eric cooking the dishes or shopping for ingredients, and connect to Eric and the cooking community through social media.

Take the shot!

Previously here:

Jeff Jarvis Wanted To Vook
eBook Notes For Wednesday, November 4, 2009
eBook Notes For Monday, November 2, 2009
Reading Is NOT Sacrosanct!
eBook Notes For Tuesday October 13, 2009
eBook Notes For Monday, October 5, 2009
FTC Wants Bloggers To Disclose: My Disclosure
Why Digital Books Will Win
How To Properly Integrate Video Into Fiction Digital Books
Eveda: How NOT To Do A Digital Book
Vook Debuts Digital Books