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Suspenseful Debut Novel reflects repression of Middle East still thriving

When I heard this sad story on NPR radio this morning it moved me so much and reminded me of Doug Roberts novel, The Man Who Fooled SAVAK, a suspenseful love story based on true events. This is the kind of repression that still pervades a lot of the Middle East today as it did forty years ago when Mr. Roberts staged the successful escape of his fiancé and her mother from a repressive and threatening Iran.

In January of this year in Pakistan, the governor of Punjab province, Salmaan Taseer, who was an outspoken defender of civil rights, was gunned down for criticizing the hardness of Islamic law. He was merely sticking up for a Christian woman who was accused of blaspheming Islam. Her punishment: death.

His daughter, Shehrbano Taseer, is a journalist in Pakistan, and she talks to Steve Inskeep, host of NRP Radio’s Morning Edition, about her father’s legacy and her own fight against extremism.

Here is part of that interview:

“INSKEEP: And it was not that your father committed this alleged act of blasphemy, but merely spoke up for the rights of someone who was accused of blasphemy and asked for her to be accorded mercy. This is what many clerics described as itself being blasphemous.

Ms. TASEER: Yeah, because my father had criticized the law. He had criticized the misuse of the law.

INSKEEP: Did anyone speak up for your father after his murder?

Ms. TASEER: There were three people who believed that this law was being misused and that this was an unfair allegation of blasphemy. There was my father. There was our federal minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, and there was Syeda Imam, who is a parliamentarian. And she had tabled a bill in the national assembly trying to water down this law and stop the misuse. And two out of three of these people are now dead. Shahbaz Bhatti, our federal minister for minorities, was gunned down outside his mother’s home two months after my father was shot dead.”

You can read the rest of this moving interview or listen to it on the NPR site. And if you want to read more about a similar story with a much different outcome, download a copy of The Man Who Fooled SAVAK, available on the Kindle, Barnes and Noble NOOK, Apple iBooks and in various ereader formats from Smashwords.

You Don’t Have to be Psychic

With all the buzz around the iPad, you don’t need to be psychic to predict that Amazon would sooner or later develop a comparable color screen tablet device.

Well the sooner is here. Amazon is now accepting iPads and other devices as trade-ins for their new touch-screen color tablet at http://amzn.to/jbdaq2

Steve Windwalker reported in the blog Kindle Nation Daily that Amazon is well on the way to preparing to launch the device sometime this summer. Here’s what he wrote about the trade-in program.

“It extended its relatively unknown Buyback program, previously associated mostly with textbooks, movies, and video games, to include a wide range of electronics products including the iPad, the iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy, the Motorola Xoom, and all kinds of other devices that might — if you could trade them in for a decent sum — prepare the way for you to buy a Kindle tablet, both in terms of the need to replace functionality and the financial wherewithal to make the purchase.”

They actually want you to own their new Kindle Color version knowing full well that owners of iPads and other color tablet like devices wouldn’t buy the new Kindle after shelling out $500+ for their current iPad or similar device.

It’s another marketing first for Amazon to grab the lion’s share of the spawning tablet market, and I’m sure it won’t be their last.

You can also read Amazon’s press release about the trade-in program on Steve’s post on Kindle Nation Daily.

Another Author Sells 1 Million Kindle Books

The LA Times reported on May 11 that Novelist Charlaine Harris is now the fourth author to sell 1 million ebooks on the Kindle. Harris is best known for her urban fantasy Sookie Stackhouse series and her books are the basis of the HBO television show “True Blood.”

Steig Larsson crossed the 1-million Kindle ebook mark first, followed by James Patterson, Nora Roberts and now Harris, Amazon announced Wednesday.

This article also shows the genres that are the top sellers in the ebook market.

Just another harbinger of things to come in the publishing industry. Read the rest of the story here.

Photo:  Charlaine Harris at the premiere of the third season of “True Blood’ at  the Arclight Theater in Hollywood on June 8, 2010. Credit: Michael  Buckner / Getty Images

New Trend Emerging as Traditional Publishers go Digital

Congrats to Amanda Hocking for using a traditional publisher to further her writing career.  She did the right thing seeking out a traditional publisher and the reason is clear – she wants to be a writer – not a book marketer, editor, designer and distributor.

This is not a new trend – it has been happening for years.

The caveat here is her content.  She has the content that sells – when she writes, it sells.  She can afford to give away a large piece of her royalties so she can spend more time writing.

So should every self-published author seek out traditional publishers for their work.  Maybe, yes and maybe, no.  Some authors like JA Konrath took the reverse course – he went from traditional publishers to self-publishing because he could get a bigger piece of the publishing pie, especially on his traditionally-published books that went out of print. Even luminary Stephen King experimented with self-publishing a few years back.

A new trend is emerging as traditional publishers go digital.  Currently, a self-published author could get their work in front of more people as an eBook than a printed book.  This is still true, but as more and more traditional publishers go digital, they can offer both – significant eBook exposure as well as print book distribution.  They will take a larger piece of the pie, but if your work is selling well, it is worth going with a traditional publisher.

Here’s the Amanda Hocking story from The New York Times.

A Successful Self-Publishing Author Decides to Try the Traditional Route

By JULIE BOSMAN

Published: March 24, 2011

Amanda Hocking, who has self-published nine books.

In the past year Ms. Hocking, a 26-year-old from Minnesota, became an indie heroine in the literary world for publishing nine books that sold a total of more than one million copies, nearly all of them in e-book form, earning almost $2 million for her efforts.

But for Ms. Hocking, self-publishing has had its limits. On Thursday she announced that she had sold a four-book series to St. Martin’s Press, ending a frenzied weeklong auction that involved nearly every major publisher in the business, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins.

St. Martin’s, part of Macmillan, paid more than $2 million for the world English rights to the “Watersong” series, Ms. Hocking’s latest books in the young-adult paranormal genre. >more

Kindle books can now be loaned – Newest Trends

We just received this newsletter from a new site called kindlelendingclub.com launched by Amazon last December.

If you have a Kindle or any of the Kindle reading apps (Kindle for PC, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for Blackberry, etc.) you can go to the site, sign up and borrow any Kindle book that has lending enabled.

The book will then be loaned to you for 14 days and then automatically transferred back to the original owner.

What we found interesting is the lending trends reported by the site in the following newsletter and the 25 most wanted books.

In light of the demographics (females between 35 and 55) we would have thought romance novels would be the leading lending genre. However, here’s what they reported.

The 25 Most Wanted

Literary fiction, the paranormal, sci fi, crime fiction, thrillers and even a memoir about a comedian’s one-night stands; it seems like KindleLendingClub.com readers (who tend to be female and between 35 and 55 years of age) are borrowing anything but traditional romance in the lead up to Valentine’s Day 2011.

While Amanda Hocking’s vampire and paranormal romances for young adults remain perennially popular, only two of the top 25 most requested books are traditional romance novels: A Season to be Sinful, by Jo Goodman, and Terry Spear’s An Accidental Highland Hero.

(Another interesting trend we saw last week as well? Eight of the 25 titles fall under the umbrella of young adult fiction.)

KindleLendingClub.com Most Wanted - Week of January 30, 2011:

1. The Hangman’s Daughter, by Oliver Pötzsch

2. Water for Elephants: A Novel, by Sara Gruen

3. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

4. Switched (Trylle Trilogy, #1), by Amanda Hocking

5. Wicked Appetite, by Janet Evanovich

6. Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games), by Suzanne Collins

7. Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games), by Suzanne Collins

8. Heart of the Matter, by Emily Giffin

9. My Horizontal Life, by Chelsea Handler

10. My Blood Approves, by Amanda Hocking

11. The Lover’s Dictionary: A Novel, by David Levithan

12. Freedom: A Novel (Oprah’s Book Club), by Jonathan Franzen

13. The Templar Concordat, by Terrence O’Brien

14. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card

15. We Interrupt This Date, by L.C. Evans

16. A Season To Be Sinful, by Jo Goodman

17. Sizzling Sixteen, by Janet Evanovich

18. Favorite, by Karen McQuestion

19. The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, by Kevin Malarkey

20. Ascend (Trylle Trilogy, #3), by Amanda Hocking

21. Ender in Exile, by Orson Scott Card

22. Crossing Oceans, by Gina Holmes

23. Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater

24. Firefly Lane, by Kristin Hannah

25. The Accidental Highland Hero, by Terry Spear

A New Trend in Publishing is Emerging

As more and more authors turn to self-publishing, a new trend is emerging that may benefit publishers as well as authors.

Successful crime novelist Joe Konrath is probably the author who started this new trend and is the poster child of successful authors moving into the self-publishing realm.

According to an article in The Star-Telegram online written by Alex Pham of The Los Angeles Times,

“Joe Konrath can’t wait for his books to go out of print.


When that happens, the 40-year-old crime novelist plans to reclaim the copyrights from his publisher, Hyperion Books, and self-publish them on Amazon.com, Apple’s iBooks and other online outlets. That way he’ll be able to collect 70 percent of the sale price, compared with the 6 to 18 percent he receives from Hyperion.


As for future novels, Konrath plans to self-publish all of them in digital form without having to leave his house in Schaumburg, Ill.


‘I doubt I’ll ever have another traditional print deal,’ said the author of Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary and other titles. ‘I can earn more money on my own.’”

Mr. Pham goes on to write, “It’s difficult to gauge just how many authors are dumping their publishing houses to self-publish online, though for now, the overall share remains small. But hardly a month goes by without a well-known writer taking the leap or declaring an intention to do so.”

However, Mr. Konrath is one of the exceptions to successful self-publishing because his fan base was primarily created by the marketing and distribution efforts of traditional publishing houses.

Does that mean an author needs to be published by a traditional publishing house to be successful later in self-publishing?

Not at all.

Mr. Konrath just stood up on his surf board and is about to catch one of  the largest new waves in publishing. He knows where his readers are and how to read them – online where most hang out.

As an aspiring or first-book author who is relatively unknown, you need to market your work to where people seek, read, recommend and review books – in social media: Facebook, Twitter, NING, Linkedin, Foursquare, Goodreads, and all the other social networking sites out there.

There is only one problem. By the time you learn how to effectively market your work on all the social media, you may be in an old-age home especially if you are not so computer savvy. Besides, when would you have time to write another book?

Most authors just want to write. They don’t want to wear six or seven hats and be the marketing guru, the sales superstar or the promotional genius.

This is where publishers can get their own surf board and ride the same wave as Mr. Konrath.  But some are just standing up on their boards, others are knelling and most don’t even see the social media wave.

Publishers can offer social networking services, electronic distribution and all the perks of traditional publishing to authors in digital and electronic form. This is a wave that is coming whether publishers like it or not so the best strategy is to make sure to have a surf board and to look out over the horizon. This publisher is certainly standing on his surf board poised to ride the next giant wave.

The Magic of the Season

Christmas and the Holiday Season has always been a magical time whether you are experiencing the joy as a child or an adult looking forward to the happiness you will bring to others. People are happier, more friendly and filled with peace. The spirit of giving is everywhere.

The year has been filled with many blessings. We received more manuscripts than the previous year which resulted in several new titles being published this year and next.

We would like to wish you and your loved ones the most joyous and wonderful holiday season with the hope that all your wishes come true.

Take these words into the new year and beyond by Ralph Waldo Emerson,

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead
where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Jockey’s Ridge – the largest living sand dune on the East Coast

May the Best Titan Win!

Google’s entry into the highly competitive ebook market

I am not surprised that Google will launch it’s own electronic book venture called Google Editions. After all, why were they scanning every book ever published into digital form?

The Wall Street Journal and numerous other major publications, blogs and websites reported that Google is now nearing the launch of its massive new ebook venture and they hope to launch this year.

Instead of building another boat to navigate the ebook waters, they are diving into the water and going with the flow. Google says its books will not be tied to one particular device like a Kindle or iPad, but their books will be accessible from any device with an Internet connection.

Google is not running against the current trying to sell their own reading device with its own ebook store. Instead, they are the current ready to sell books to any device, in any format as long as those devices have a connection to the Internet.

And they won’t have just one web site where you have to go to buy their books, they will have unlimited websites paying commissions to anyone who directs traffic to a Google Editions book using the same model as their Google ads.

And some observers think they may have a competitive advantage over the other Titans in the electronic book publishing market.

It will be interesting to see which Titan comes out on top: Amazon, Apple or Google.

Take a look at the video for more – Rex Crum talks with Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal about what Google’s entry means for the online book market.

And Let the War for Words Begin!

It seems there is only one formidable opponent competing on level ground with Amazon’s Kindle and that is Barnes & Noble.

With the launch of their new ebook self-publishing venture, Pubit, in early October, the book store giant is finally on equally footing with Amazon.

Pubit was the last puzzle piece in the new paradigm of publishing that Barnes & Noble needed to take on Amazon with equal word power. (excuse the pun)

Both companies have control of the entire ebook publishing process from obtaining manuscripts to marketing, sales and distribution.

Here are the similarities:

Both companies have a huge inventory of books.
Both have years of experience selling books.
Both have comparable ebook readers with similar features and now both have self-publishing ventures. (Pubit and Kindle)

Cover via Amazon

And the war is on. Check these other similarities between the two competitors as they try to one up each other.

Amazon pays its Kindle authors 70% of the list price if the price is $2.99 or more.
B&N pays its Pubit authors 65% of the list price if the price is between $2.99 and $9.99.

It is free to upload and publish your manuscript as an ebook on both Amazon and on Pubit.

Both companies have free, downloadable apps that will allow their ebooks to be read on other devices such as the iPad, iPhone, Android, PC and other mobile devices.

B&N claims they have more than 2 million NOOKbook titles.
Amazon claims to have more than 725,000 Kindle titles.

Amazon lowered its Kindle price to $189 last year.
B&N lowered its NOOK price to $149.

Amazon produced a next generation Kindle that is thinner, has longer battery life and a crisper screen in a cool graphite shell.
B&N recently introduced a full color model in a graphite body with a full touchscreen.

So what’s next?

More great ebook devices and apps at great prices and lower book prices.

Who will win? No one knows. Maybe both will.

For authors undecided about publishing on the Kindle or the NOOK, well, pick one or pick both. You will win either way. Both companies have an equally strong market share and different market segments.

After all, think of how boring life would be if there were only one car company, one computer company, one pizza shop, and only one big ebook retailer.

So You Thought E-books were a passing fad?

New Online Book Store Debuts Today

Outer Banks Publishing Group’s new online OBPG Book Store debuts today offering its titles directly to customers at special prices.

We have pre-launch specials for new titles and limited discounts on current titles.

Here are some special buys:

Order a pre-launch paperback version of Martin Brossman’s and Anora McGaha’s, Social Media for Business at only $9.95.

A great buy considering books of this caliber sell for $30 or more, and Mr. Brossman’s first edition sold for $15.00 with a special discount.

Social Media for Business is probably the most comprehensive and up to date reference on  the light-speed changing world of social media.

As Mr. Brossman so aptly asks the question, “…Are you part of the conversation? The worldwide presence of you and your business is becoming of greater importance. People want to know more about you before they trust you with their money, just as we pay more attention to what “others” have said about a product than the advertised description when we consider buying a product online.”

Another new title published in September is William Meloche’s, Not Another Business Book!, the true story of a cutting-edge medical device company told in a parable that reveals a simple truth – many early phase businesses are no more than one innovative deal away from solid ground.

Mr. Meloche is CEO of The William Meloche Group in Toronto and he  may be the only consultant on the planet specializing in – Business Relationship Innovation – by helping C-levels create, close and implement groundbreaking B2B relationships.

He offers a hands-on approach to “building successful B2B groundbreaking relationships,” with a true story on how he helped orchestrate a revolutionary win-win situation for a medical robotics developer and a major medical facility.

“The coup-de-eta was when I suggested to the president that he donate one of his multi-million dollar surgical robots to a major teaching hospital. The hospital became the premiere leader in surgical robotics and the developer sold more machines than he dreamed would be possible,” Mr. Meloche explained.

And don’t forget to check out our fiction titles also at special prices in October.

Kindle Outselling iBooks 60 To 1?

Not hard to believe when you consider the Kindle was the first mass-market ebook reader and the iPad is really a computing tablet with an ebook reader.

The iPad appeals to a larger market segment overall,  but a smaller segment who just want the device to read ebooks.

Our own titles show sales on the Kindle, the Nook and the Kobo and none so far on the iPad.

Here’s the post from TNW.

By Alex Wilhelm on August 22nd, 2010

If you follow the ebook market you were likely stunned this June when Steve Jobs claimed to have captured 22% of the electronic book market overnight with the release of iBooks and iPad. Many of us who watch this market with carefuleyes were leery of the numbers that Jobs was tossing around, they sounded too good to be true.  more>

Barnes and Noble for Sale?

Image via CrunchBase

When hardcover sales began to dwindle a few years ago, there was talk that Barnes and Noble would either sell or swallow up a major competitor.

The possibility of the sale of B&N comes as a surprise since they recently ramped up their digital book sales by opening an ebook store with more than a million titles and launching the ebook reader, The Nook, the most formidable competitor to the Kindle.

Have any idea who would buy B&N? I would not be surprised if it were Amazon. What do you think?

From Book Business magazine – Aug. 4, 2010

A “for sale” sign may soon be hanging in the window of bookstore giant Barnes & Noble Inc., the company announced today.

According to a press release issued this morning, Barnes & Noble’s Board of Directors “intends to evaluate strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company, in order to increase stockholder value. The Board came to this decision based on the price of Barnes & Noble shares in the marketplace, which the Board believes are now significantly undervalued.” >more

Related articles

• Barnes & Noble up for sale; winner takes nook (slashgear.com)
• Barnes & Noble may consider sale of company (marketwatch.com)
• Barnes & Noble may put itself up for sale (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Barnes & Noble up for sale (financialpost.com)
• Barnes & Noble puts itself up for sale (money.cnn.com)

Will Literary Agents become the Next Ebook Publishers?

In an unprecedented move, the Wiley Literary Agency struck a deal with Amazon to publish 20 classic titles as ebooks on the Kindle. According to reports, this is the first time a literary agency moved into the publishing business.

Will this be a trend as agencies struggle to survive in the dwindling print market? It might be. An agency would sign on an author, retain electronic publishing rights and then sell print rights to traditional publishers.

Agency revenues would increase considerably for ebooks, especially with the current structure where agencies only receive 15% of the author’s royalties.

However, the big question is will traditional publishers go along with this scenario or refuse to publish an author unless they retain electronic rights?

Will this be beneficial to authors?

Read Stephen Windwalker’s column for more information on this emerging development.

Read the report from The New York Times.

Borders launches e-bookstore

Now that Borders has entered the ebook revolution, we will also see lower ebook prices and market pressure to lower the cost of ebook readers.

From The Wall Street Journal – July 8, 2010
By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG

Intent on catching up in the fast-evolving e-book arena, retailer Borders Group Inc. is launching an e-bookstore with titles provided by Kobo Inc., the Canadian e-book retailer in which it has an investment stake.

The nation’s second-largest bookstore chain in sales, Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., acquired the stake in December and said Kobo would provide e-books for sale on Borders.com.

For consumers, the entrance of Borders into the e-book marketplace may mean lower prices on some titles. More>

Bookstores are no longer a guarantee of an author’s success

Some interesting questions from a potential author -

Author: Do I have a better chance going the traditional route (agency, etc), than with Outer Banks Publishing, in order to get the book to the big screen?

Outer Banks: No. The content is what will get you there whether you self-publish, publish with a small publisher or large one. However, there are agents out there who specialize in film placement and they have connections in Hollywood and in the film industry if you can get one to represent you.

Author: Would my book make its way into the main stream bookstores if I went with Outer Banks?

Outer Banks: It would depend on sales and demand. Keep in mind a book is a product like any other product and if people love it, they will demand it and it will sell. People will ask for it in bookstores and the bookstores will have to keep it on their shelves.

Let’s say you landed a major publisher, one of the big 6 in New York. They would place two copies in all the major book stores given the state of book sales today. Two things could happen: it sells and the bookstore orders more copies or it sits there until the 90-day consignment period is over and the bookstore either discounts it or sends it back to the publisher.

With roughly 100,000 books in a given big box bookstore (Borders, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million) how is your book going to stand out? Having your book in a bookstore does not guarantee sales or exposure anymore. Before the Internet and Amazon, bookstores were the only place to get books. Now most books in print as well as  ebooks are sold online.

The current book selling trend is this: ebooks are outselling printed books. Dan Brown‘s The Lost Symbol, presold more copies as an ebook than print titles.  Bookstores are ultimately forced to stock less.

But don’t fear, bookstores will always be around just like the printed book, but they may be a lot smaller. If they want to stay large, they will have to reinvent themselves, perhaps into a literary center where authors, writers, and readers can meet and have open discussions, debates or writing sessions.

Related articles

• “If You Write It, They’ll Buy It.” Just Ain’t So! (dancurtis.ca)
• A Tiny Increase in Independent Bookstores (slog.thestranger.com)
• Books-A-Million Buys Stake In Frozen Yogurt Company (huffingtonpost.com)
• Politics And Prose Bookstore For Sale; Hoardes Of Agents, Authors, Investors Vie For Chance To Take Over (huffingtonpost.com)

Bestselling author John Grisham writes another thriller…for kids

From NPR by the NPR Staff – June 4, 2010

Bestselling author John Grisham has written another legal thriller — and this one is for kids.
Grisham has 24 books under his belt, many of which were turned into movies, including The Pelican Brief and A Time To Kill. But he says writing for a young audience created a special challenge, mostly because he didn’t want to underestimate their abilities.
“It’s not necessarily any easier than adult fiction,” Grisham tells NPR‘s Michele Norris. “It’s easier in that it’s shorter; the plot is not nearly as complicated.

“But the biggest challenge I found was the ability to try to tell the story without talking down to kids. Because I think that’s what a lot of writers do and they don’t like it. Kids don’t like it. They want you to treat them as your equal and tell them the story.” more>

Have you written the Great American Novel?

From The Writer’s Edge blog:

Image via Wikipedia

As writers who have completed books, many of us believe we have written the great American Novel or a nonfiction book that will change the world. And we may have, but the hardest part of being an author is convincing others of your feat. Not that you’ve written a book, but that your book is revolutionary.The Writer’s Edge, May 2010

Did you think Amazon would go gently into the night?

Image via CrunchBase

It was only a matter of time. Did you think Amazon would sit back and let Apple steal its thunder from the Kindle? I predict based on the following New York Times blog post, that we will see an iPad-like device from Amazon by the end of this year or early next year.  What do you think?

From The New York Times blog, Bits, May 17, 2010, 3:42 pm

With a Kindle Hiring Spree, Amazon Gears Up for Battle With Apple

By NICK BILTON

Since Apple announced its plans for the iPad, Amazon has shared few details about how it would respond to the competition for its Kindle. But over the last few weeks, it has offered some more clues.

Lab 126, the division of Amazon responsible for building the Kindle, has been on a hiring binge, with dozens of new job listings on its Web site. Some are positions for testing and readying new products. And this suggests that the company might be preparing a new device. More >>

Borders hopes the Kobo can cut the Kindle to pieces

The e-book market keeps growing everyday with new hardware offerings from small startups or or big companies like Apple and Google selling the latest reads. Borders is hoping to get in on the fun with their new eBook Store and affordable e-reader called Kobo.

Many people haven’t purchased an e-reader simply because of the price. Buying a discounted bestseller at the nearest megamart is a lot easier on a budget than paying $259.00 for a Kindle. That’s why Kobo’s $149.99 price tag may finally convince weary consumers to purchase the device.