99 Cent E-Book Sale

Check out this e-book sale! Over 60 authors are participating (including me).

Click here.

Now Available on Kobo!

Screwing Up Time and Screwing Up Babylon are now available on Kobo!

Here's the link for Screwing Up Time. Click here.

Here's the link for Screwing Up Babylon. Click here.

Smashwords

Screwing Up Time and Screwing Up Babylon are now available at Smashwords!! So now they're available for any format e-reader!

Here's Screwing Up Time.

Here's Screwing Up Babylon.

Merry Christmas!!

How Do You Choose A Book?

I remember going to the library as a child, touching the glossy covers of books and reading the blurbs to decide what to choose. Or I’d devour the Scholastic paperback list, trying to decide which paperbacks I wanted to spend my money on. The thin novels were often only 25 cents, so I could buy several.

But now everything has changed. There are still libraries, but I don’t have to always drive there. I can download books to my Kindle from the library’s website. But the selection isn’t extensive. And the more I read, the fewer books are left that I’m interested in. The same applies to the library’s physical collection. Budgets are dwindling, which means the collection of books is too. To help generate revenue, they charge for new releases. And they aren’t cheap. Plus, I’m amazed at how long books are considered new releases. I’m beginning to think something is no longer a “new release” only when people aren’t reading it anymore.

Several months ago, I found an e-newletter that advertised free and 99 cent novels. I signed up and thought my book problems were solved. They weren’t. Now I receive a daily newsletter of listing free and cheap e-books. Some of the books are written by indie authors while others are by traditionally pubbed authors, who are making their backlists available to e-market. But I haven’t got the time or energy to weed through the newsletter, read all the blurbs, check the books’ ratings on Amazon, read a sample to see if the writing is quality or not. The e-newletters advertise books regardless of quality—basically it’s a pay-to-play situation. And the cost isn’t cheap. (If any of you know of some e-newletter that’s different—and not just the reviews of a single book reviewer—please let me know!)

So I’m not really reading the free newsletter anymore. Instead, I’m paying attention to other writer’s recommendations. If writer X, whose novel I liked, says, “Book A is really good and it’s free/99 cents/cheap,” then I usually buy it—assuming the plot and genre are interesting to me.

What about you? If you have an e-reader, how do you decide what e-books to buy?

Giving E-books As Gifts

It’s Christmas time, and I’ve gotten emails asking if it’s possible to give Screwing Up Time as a gift. The answer is YES. “Gifting” e-books is very simple—no trips to the store, no waiting in line at the post office, no hoping it gets there on time. Delivery is immediate.

Here’s what you do. On the right hand side of the screen, is the “Give as a gift” button. (It’s light orange—check out the screen shot below. Click the screen shot and it will enlarge so you can see the gift-wrapped button.) All you have to do is go to Amazon page for SUT and click the button. Then you type in the recipient’s email address. Amazon will send them an email telling them they’ve been gifted a book.  (Which reminds me, if you get an email from Amazon, make sure it’s actually spam before you delete/ignore it because it may well be a gift announcement. We gifted a book to a relative who just thought it was another advertising email, and it wasn’t until we asked how they liked the book that we realized they hadn’t opened the email.

One more announcement. I took the big step forward. Screwing Up Time is now available for lending to Amazon Prime members. And if you'd like to buy the book, it's still on sale for 99 cents at Amazon.