kindle
Books I Bought Today
I’ve found some pretty awesome freebies so I figure I’ll start sharing with you guys. 🙂
Reading Test – One Librarian’s Tech Comparison
With the holiday season barreling down upon us (QUICK EVERYONE! BUY STUFF!) and my library launching a tablet lending program, I have had the unique opportunity to read at length on several devices over just the last week.
My overall impression is that reading on a tablet is a pain in the wrist. The kind my library is circulating is the Nexus 7; which is comparable in weight to my Kindle Fire. The book I was reading on the Nexus was Dr. Sleep. That is a LOT of pages to hold that heavy tablet… If I had a choice, I would have much rather have had it on my regular Kindle or better yet my Nook, which is lighter than the lot of them.
Not only that, my eyes did NOT enjoy the backlit screen. I don’t read novels on the Kindle Fire. I use that for non-fiction books that require pictures (like cookbooks) and my daughter’s books (because kid’s books are no fun on an e-ink screen with no color). And some of those kids books are interactive. In other words, books I won’t spend an hour or more staring at. Not to mention that it’s no fun having Facebook notifications and emails popping up while you read (I could disconnect them but… Who disconnects at all these days?).
I used to have a problem with dedicated devices (i.e.: Tech that does only ONE thing like an eReader) but now I see the point much clearer than I did before. I mean, it’s cool and all to be able to Facebook, Tweet, email, play Candy Crush, AND read on the same device. Books with links embedded in them are much better on a tablet than a regular eReader but for me the point of reading is to be lost in the book. And it’s hard to do that if my wrist aches, my eyes burn, and people keep sending me effing Candy Crush requests.
To sum up, I prefer my Nook Simple Touch out of these 4 devices. I look for Nook versions of books whenever I can (and let me tell you, people: COMPARISON SHOP. There are tons of books on Amazon AND Barnes and Noble and sometimes one will be cheaper than the other). But it is very awesome that you can check out tablets from your local library. Ours come preloaded with some best sellers and I’m sure most libraries are doing the same with their tablets and eReaders. In my opinion, I would borrow the Nook. It’s kinder to your hands and your eyes.
My Mini Rant on KDP and Free EBooks
I recently made a post on facebook about how I have over 3000 books between my Kindle and my Nook and how I’ve paid for about 4 of them. Less if you count my Swagbucks giftcards that I’ve used on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Between Librivox, One Hundred Free Books, Hundred Zeros, EBook Spice, and Book Bub, I can get 20 or so books in one day and not lay out a dime for any of them. I have discovered so many cool authors and series I’ve gotten into because of these promotions and I would LOVE to do the same for my books.
However (isn’t there always a ‘however?’) the only easy way to get your book free on Amazon is the KDP select program, which offers the book free to Prime members ONLY and ONLY if you stop selling the book anywhere but Amazon. A decent enough promotion I suppose but what about people who can’t afford to or won’t sign up for Amazon Prime? The books I’m getting from the above sites are regular, plain ole free to download and KEEP. When I looked into making that happen for my books, the only way to go about that seems to be:
- Publish on Smashwords (or another site) for free
- Notify Amazon and B&N of a lower price so they’re forced to price match
- Wait till they do so
- Wait till they change it back when you’re done with the promotion which could take forever
Not to sound lazy but that is way to freaking convoluted to me. I think both Amazon and B&N should make it so you can price your book at any level so you can do a promotion like “in celebration of book 2, here’s book 1 free for a week” or something like that. It gives authors a chance at major exposure because it’s on multiple platforms for free; and people LOVE free.
I know people have fabulous success with KDP Select but there has to be an easier way than to cut off other sales channels or try and game the system. I can understand the sites wanting to make their money but I don’t see Amazon exactly hurting for profits and ya know what? I’d like to make some money, too. As giant book selling sites, they could easily say “There’s a 2 week limit if you set your price at $0.00.” I couldn’t blame them. But at least give us a shot. I would like to do a decent promotion without risking having my account suspended at either site for ‘cheating.’
So, give it a shot, Amazon and B&N! It certainly wouldn’t cost you money since people are setting their prices at free anyway.
Happy Friday!
Since I was editing instead of working on Winter Boot, I come with a peace offering:
Here are the first two illustrated chapters of my novel; First Brood: Dreamhunter. These are only $.99 each and if you can’t wait for more, the link to the full novel on Amazon is right there (also available from Createspace and Nook). Illustrations are by the fabulous Melody Herbert over at Ragdoll Comics. 🙂
I am also proud to announce that Gods in the Grey City has a fancy new cover! 😀
Cool, huh? Also by Melody, as she’s pretty much my go to art person. ^_^
Hopefully, Winter Boot will be back next week. I seem to have a short story groove going on but in the meantime, enjoy! 😀
Happy 400 Posts!! :D
I was torn between a contest or a giveaway for the 400th post. That’s a pretty good milestone for me considering I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep this up at all. ;D While I was deciding, I was sniffing around Amazon for freebie Kindle books. I suddenly realize I haddn’t checked to see if I had any new reviews on my existing books. I’d been checking every day at one point and got pretty disheartening when nothing was showing up. On a lark, I decide to look.
Properly scared out of my wits, I went to read it and was very happy to see someone enjoyed my story. 🙂
So, for my 400th post, I want to thank everyone who’s read my books and send a personal thank you to Natalie C. who left me that review. It makes me so happy to see feedback and I look forward to giving you all more stories to gobble up.
Here’s to 400 more posts! 😀
Free Kindle? Damn right.
You may have noticed in my Twitter feed popping up with notices of me winning a certain amount of swagbucks via searching. Most probably dismissed it as spam or some sort of phishing scam due to someone hacking my Twitter account. But this is not the case.
Check it:
Yes, that my friends is a Kindle paid for via an Amazon gift card I earned with Swagbucks. That means free. For 6 months, I painstakingly earned and saved swagbucks all on my own because every single person I tried to refer didn’t believe I would actually get anything. But I was patient, took surveys, watched the videos and after all this time I have a free Kindle. Why go through all that trouble? I have major beef with the fact you can’t read other formats on a Kindle AND that they would DARE place ads on a device you’re shelling out 100 bucks for. Unfortunately, there are authors I want to read in e-book format and they are Kindle exclusive. Otherwise, I would have just bought them for my Nook.
Want in on this? Here is my referral link. Don’t wanna be referred by me? Here’s the direct link to the site. Even as I speak, I’m earning my way to another gift card for more free swag. Because there is nothing better than coming home to a pile of books that are not only free but you get to keep them. 🙂
New story up! :D
Gods in the Grey City is available for download on Kindle for $1.99!! 😀 My empire is growing!! BWAHAHAA!! XD
Seriously, I’m glad to have more up there for people to buy. 🙂 And now that it’s for sale, I won’t have to bug anyone to vote for it up at top webfiction anymore. Maybe I’ll come up with something else to put there, I dunno. It doesn’t seem to be doing much for my traffic. This doesn’t mean I’ll stop having some free goodies for you guys. And you’ll also notice there’s no cover. I figured I would rather get the story THERE than sit on it and wait for cover art. I’ll upload a cover whenever I get one. :p
Now, I’m going to concentrate on getting Greenhouse done and the entry for that contest over at Otakus and Geeks. Then there’s some open ended submissions for some other anthologies I’d like to try for, as well. It all depends on how much time I have and how Greenhouse flows.
With a hurricane coming, I may have more time that I bargained for. Can’t do laundry if the power goes out. :/ I think once I get through the legal crap from Ma’s passing, I’ll buy a generator. I’ll just feel safer. ._. Not that we’re gonna get really slammed here but still. You never know. Last time we had a long term power outage (last year, I forget what month) it was a tree branch taking out a power line that did it. Can happen anytime so I’d like to be prepared.
Next week, I’ll be on vacation. ^_^ In order to get a proper break, I need to leave the state so I’ll be headed to VA. I may post, I may not. But I will of course, take plenty of pictures. 🙂
July 4th weekend recap
Ma went back into the hospital on Friday night. I’m of the (correct) assumption there is going to be a lot of this in and out with hospitals which is why I didn’t furiously post about how much I was freaking out on Friday. While Mom is still in the hospital, she is in there because they will (rightly) not release her till the shingles rash has healed. She’s also getting a CAT scan on her lungs to see how the tumors are progressing. The nurses are being SUPER awesome and keeping me in the loop. I need to get them candy. XD
On the subject of money, I have decided I am going to close my Etsy store. Not right NOW but in the future when I own website has more traffic (meaning I can update it regularly). I’m working on having my own storefront of stories to sell, which will take time, but that got me thinking: If I’m going to have a storefront to sell my stories, why can’t I sell my needlework there, too!? I’m already paying for a domain and hosting so there’s no sense in me paying Etsy fees on top of that and making the CEO of Etsy rich while I don’t sell a thing. It would also give me the option of listing needlework when I darn well please and not have to worry about my shop standing empty or items expiring. I’ll still shop at Etsy because I believe it’s important to support handmade and indie artists and authors but I think I’d save money selling on my own. :/
Like I said, I don’t plan on doing this anytime soon. I have plenty of items there to keep the store presentable and there’s a bunch of legal stuff I have to do to close the Etsy store and set up my own site as a real business so I can pay my taxes and all that good stuff. I am WAY too cute to go to jail for tax evasion. 0.0 But I think this would be MUCH more cost effective for me and allow me to focus on my writing with less guilt about ignoring the 50 other hobbies I have. XD
I’ll be making this transition very slowly as I need to concentrate on getting as many short stories up to sell as possible. Think I can join the Million Club? I sure as hell am gonna try. XD One crazyassed story at a time. 😉
Ye, gods >_
I’d planned a long entry a couple days ago but then Ma went into the hospital with shingles and well, I freaked out. She’s doing fine so now that I’m calmer I can update the blog with SOMETHING. :p
I’m awaiting a file review for getting Dreamhunter on Kindle and a review of my book from Sorean by . Pardon me for freaking out in both cases. XD I’m trying not to chew my fingernails right off.
Once I’m confident DH went up smoothly, the short stories will start to go up. Eventually, I would like to collect all my short stories in a bound book but for now, Kindle seems to be the way to go for me.
My new 5 page a day goal is going pretty well (the hospital scare where I not only did NOT write, I didn’t sleep… Or eat). I’ve been bouncing back and forth between Greenhouse, Grey City and the lesbian thriller. I’m having such a fabulous time working on them, you have no idea. >D I grab every spare moment I can. 🙂
Since Ma is still in the hospital, I’m walking to the train on weekday mornings. Today I managed to give myself a fabulous blister on my foot so instead of watching Dr. Who on the treadmill, I’ll just sit and watch it. I also have to review Paradise Kiss for you guys.
All in good time, my pretties.