Hi Everyone!
I still haven't managed to catch The Hunger Games (grr!). Maybe in a day or two? Still editing like crazy. I have one more psycho week of the day job (next week), and then things start to even out, leveling to a *much* more manageable load through the summer. (fingers crossed)
In the meantime, I'm just going to be the "link lady."
In case you haven't heard, Harry Potter ebooks are now available. The end of the article states: "E-book sales grew 117% to $970 million in 2011 compared with 2010"--good news for every Indie author, and Middle Grade (MG) authors are hoping the Potter books release spurs ebook fans among the younger set. All I have to say is: J.K. Rowling is hauling in some loot.
Susan Kaye Quinn has a great new post up: "How Indie Publishing has Changed My Thinking." It's a great reminder that ebooks are forever, and that it's okay to adopt a "slow and steady wins the race" mentality. This is especially helpful for me right now, because I'm desperate to get The Guardians Book Three released, and I have another YA contemp I want to publish before the end of the year. (deep breaths) Slow and steady. Slow and steady.
Susan mentions Kris Rusch in her post. Specifically this post: Scarcity vs. Abundance. There's a great analogy midway about traditional publishers operating in a "Depression-Era mindset," even though it's no longer necessary. It's long, but worth the read.
Apparently Barnes and Noble is rolling out its own version of "Amazon Select." It's called Nook First, and it works just like Amazon Select (exclusivity-wise), only with a 30-day stipulation rather than a 90-day. I haven't tried Select. The murmurings I've heard were that it was strong in the first weeks of its release. Now I'm hearing that authors are ready for the 90 days to end so they can remove their titles. I'm predicting a similar path for Nook First, but at least titles aren't tied up for three months. At this point, it appears you have to be invited to "pre-release" your books, so maybe this will work in the authors' favor.
Finally, there's a new What You See is What You Get ebook publishing platform available. It's called Vook, and while it's priced out of the range of the DIY e-publisher, it's going to provide some competition for Apple.
All right. Back to the day job, then editing into the wee hours of the morning. It's nearing the end of the month, so my next post will probably be a "Numbers" post (March Sales).
Enjoy your week!
~K~
