Target Identified by Lindsay Downs
I’m late posting this, but if you hurry there is still time to enter Lindsay Down’s contest to win a free ebook copy of Target Identified, her new Thriller/Mystery novel.
To enter, follow this link to her blog, read the blurb and answer the question in a comment. The first ten correct answers win a free ebook. SImple as that.
Go. Enter.
http://murdersandmysteries.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/contest-to-win-an-ecopy-of-target-identified/
Posted by Joleene Naylor on June 3, 2011
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/chance-to-win-a-free-copy-of-target-identified-by-lindsay-downs/
Now on Snashwords: Part of the Vampire Morsels Collection. Each short story is about a different vampire from the Amaranthine universe. After Ashton’s parents die it’s up to him to take care of his younger brother, Loren. he tries to escape the pressure by befriending the new guy in town, Jessie, and his dangerous friends. But drugs and alcohol are only the beginning and he quickly discovers that his new reality is far worse than the one he tried to escape.
Posted by Joleene Naylor on May 15, 2011
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/ashton-now-on-smashwords/
Get 'er while she's free!
Amazon sent me a notice about this a few days ago and I completely forgot. So, fast forward I hopped onto Amazon tonight to check my sales and had over 3,000 for 101 Tips. Considering I haven’t sold any of those for the last two months, I immediately though “this is a mistake”, and then I remembered the mail from Amazon and it made sense.
Of course, free means I’m not making any royalties off those sales, but I don’t mind since it’s already a free book at Smashwords, anyway, and would have been free on Amazon if they allowed for it.
Right now you’re asking yourself “WHat’s the point of this post?” It’s to tell you that if you haven’t gotten 101 Tips for Traveling with a Vampire from Amazon, now is the time to do it coz it’s a freebie, and we all love a freebie!
If you don’t have a Kindle, you can still get it for free on Smashwords as a document or PDF. it’s only about 9,000 words total, including the preview of Legacy of Ghosts, so it’s not too bad to read on a computer screen.
Posted by Joleene Naylor on May 12, 2011
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/101-tips-for-traveling-with-a-vampire-free-on-amazon/
it’s time again for Six Sentence Sunday, the awesome blog event where writer’s share six sentences from something they’ve written.
This week I am taking a break from Ties of Blood to share a snippet from Adam, a short story available for Free on smashwords
He’d heard something, but he didn’t know what, only that it had been something; something that shouldn’t be there. The tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and a sudden, unexplained chill danced down his spine.
He walked towards the end of the alley where he instinctively felt the noise had come from. A row of weather stained garbage cans shone dully under a flickering light. The effect was eerie, but there was nothing there.
And then the light went out.
Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out the other great participants! Also of note, if you missed the announcement, sign ups will now start Tuesday instead of Wednesday because of the number of participants! That means lots of good reading!
Posted by Joleene Naylor on March 27, 2011
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/six-sentence-sunday-14/
This week marks the release of Dragon Blues by Edie Ramer and so she’s throwing a party – but not just any party! It’s a week long, giveaway event where you can enter to win free copies of books by authors such as Amy Atwell, Lori Brighton, PJ Alderman, your truly, and many others!
How do you play? It’s simple! Visit Edie’s blog at http://edieramer.com/blog/ , check out the excerpt(s) of your choice and leave a comment for a chance to win. It couldn’t be easier! And, participants who comment on all 16 entries will be entered to win more free books!
Here’s the schedule:
Monday: Edie Ramer, P.J. Alderman, Amy Atwell, Lori Brighton, M.A. Golla, Joleene Naylor
Tuesday: Lori Devoti, L.C. Evans, Sylvia Rochester, Karin Tabke, Jody Wallace
Wednesday: Melanie Atkins, Marcia Colette, Susanna Fraser, E.V. Mitchell (aka Julianne MacLean), Cindy Procter-King (who is giving away an audio book!)
Thursday: Shari Anton, Karen Cantwell, Liz Kreger, Linda S. Prather, Dana Taylor
Friday: Karen Wojcik Berner, Misty Evans, Lynda Hilburn, Leigh Morgan, Amber Scott
Hope to see you there!
Posted by Joleene Naylor on February 21, 2011
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/its-party-time/
The final version of the short story Adam, the first of the Vampire Morsels, is now available as a freebie on Smashwords. Check it out!
Posted by Joleene Naylor on February 12, 2011
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/now-on-smashwords/
(this is a cross post from Self Published Authors’ Lounge)
In an effort to rival Amazon, Google has started their own ebook store. What does this mean for you? read on!
The new endeavor launched December 6th with more than three million titles available, though many of those are public domain books. Not that that’s a bad thing. I’m all for the classics moving into the digital age. eBook formats include Android, Sony, Nook, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and web viewing, and they have a selection of free reads, as well. Of note, they are not compatible with the Kindle.
The question that’s floated around is whether or not this new site is indy author friendly, and the answer is yes, yes they are. In fact, here is the direct quote (which can be found here)
“If you’re self-published, or the rights to your book have reverted back to you, you can join the program yourself by sending us your books or uploading them in PDF format. Check out our Author Resources page to learn more.”
This is where things might get confusing.
To join you can create an account with an existing google account, or create a new one. But, first have to sign up with Google books. Google books is an oft debated search-able database of books that google has scanned into their system. (more on that later). Once you’ve joined and agreed to allow your books to be listed, that’s when you get the option to join the ebook store. In fact there are separate ToS for each. This one is for the Google Books program, while this is the addendum for the eBook store.
As I mentioned about the Google Books project, there were a lot of authors who felt that their copyrights were violated when Google started archiving portions of their books in the original Google Books program. To remedy this, Google is paying out to authors who had books in print prior to January 5, 2009 that they archived without permission, and they now offer the option for you to claim your book (do so here) and add a “Buy here” link to their directory listings. (I assume you can also have the book removed, but I haven’t looked into that) However, right now those links can only go to your website (if you’re selling books on it)not to Amazon, Smashwords, or any other third-party site.
This is where the eBook store comes in. When you submit your books to Google’s ebook store, they will then link the “buy book here” button on your google book to your Google eBook listing.
But before you worry about how much of your book is being shared, know that you can change the amount. Default is 20%, but you can choose to share more or less.
One down side to their process, in my opinion, is that to submit, books must be in a PDF format, and must be named very specifically by their ISBN numbers. Here are the details on how to do that. Of course, you can also send them a print version and they will manually enter it for you, but by the time you buy your print version and mail it, you’ve spent more than the time it would have taken to PDF is worth.
So, should you bother? If you have a book published before January 5th, I’d at least go check to see if they have it listed because they may owe you money from advertisement clicks. To sign up for the one is not to sign up for the other, so don;t have to commit to the eStore if you don’t want to. Personally, I’ve signed up for the Google Books program, and will also agree to the eStore, though I haven’t uploaded anything because I’ve been busy. As an android phone owner, I may also look into purchasing from them in the future. I’ve tried the Kindle for android and didn’t like it very much, but this may be better – or it may not. as with any new endeavor, it’s a gamble. but, the way I look at it is since you’re not signing any book rights away, what do you have to lose?
For more information, here is a link to the help section, which s actually pretty useful for a change.
Posted by Joleene Naylor on December 9, 2010
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/google-ebooks/
You might have heard of Smashwords.com, but you may not know what it is, or why you should care. Never fear, I’m here to tell you!
Smashwords has an extensive selection of ebooks with authors whose experiences are as varied as their works. Available Ebook categories include Adventure, Children’s books, Drama,Erotica, Fantasy, Humor, Horror, Romance, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thrillers, Biographies, Reference books, Inspiration, Parenting and more. with a Vampire)
Aside from variety Smashwords is also a good place to find eBook deals. Many books (like my Shades of Gray and 101 Tips for Traveling with a Vampire) are available to “set your own price”, meaning you pay exactly what you think the book is worth. And, for the frugal shopper, there’s a huge variety of free reads.
But, I think the absolute best thing about Smashwords are the multiple file types. eBooks are available as
Most smashwords books are also available at iTunes, kobobooks.com, barnesandnoble.com, among others, however, the set your own price does not apply on third party sites like those.
To start with, Smashwords is free, and, as I mentioned above, it automatically turns your uploaded document into several different formats, so that nearly every eReader on the planet can open it. And, if your document passes the formatting standards for Premium catalog inclusion, you can opt in for distribution through other sites. Current distributors are Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Amazon, Sony and Diesel. Or, if you prefer, you can opt out of any, or all, distributors. For instance if you use Amazon’s dtp service you may want to opt out of Kindle, or if you use Barnes and Noble’s new publishing service you may want to opt out of them.
Smashwords doesn’t do any advertising for you; they’re a distributor and YOU are the publisher. You own all the rights and you can simultaneously publish with as many other companies or POD’s (print on demand) as you like. You can also take your book off the market whenever you want without breaking a contract. Smashwords also allows you to update your files (both your cover file and your interior files) as many times as you need to.
If you want to know more, check out Smashwords.com, or stop by their FAQ page.
And, here’s a really cool video that will probably explain things much better than I ever could!
Posted by Joleene Naylor on November 29, 2010
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/smashwords-2/
For the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting the first three chapters of Legacy of Ghosts in tiny, blog sized nuggets, hopefully a bit a day.
If you’ve missed previous chapters, you can read them here.
WARNING!!!
This contains spoilers. If you haven’t read Shades of Gray, proceed at your own risk
*****************
Given his mood, she was certain the conversation would be unpleasant. However, a question remained. “So, who is he, anyway?”
“Loren? He lives about a mile down the beach and keeps an eye on things while I’m gone. As you’ve no doubt noticed, he’s not the smartest, but he’s useful now and again.” A deep scowl settled over his features. “However, he’s more than failed me this time. As if this little mess wasn’t enough, he didn’t bother to take care of the house. The yard especially. I should have known better. He’s afraid of lawnmowers, but he did promise he could handle it.”
That struck her as an odd statement on many levels. “Why’s he afraid of lawnmowers?”
Some of Jorick’s anger seemed to evaporate. “That’s how his brother was killed. They tied him down and ran a lawnmower over him.”
She shuddered involuntarily, a look of horror on her face. “Who’s ‘they’?”
But, before Jorick could reply, the front door opened and Loren reappeared.
“Car’s waiting.”
“Good,” Jorick barked. “We’ll take them-” he paused uncertainly, then charged on ahead. “-Somewhere, and then we can stop at the store.” He looked at Katelina and his voice softened. “I’ll get you some food and some warmer clothes. This house is a bit drafty.”
“That’s an understatement,” she mumbled. “And how about some milk?”
“Right,” Jorick answered. “Milk. Loren, go find some paper and a pen so Katelina can make a list.”
Loren looked like he wanted to argue, but thought better of it, and ducked into the dining room. He reappeared with a yellow tablet and an ink pen and, while the males hefted the sleeping girls onto their shoulders, Katelina dashed out a shopping list. When she finished, she traded it to Jorick for a quick kiss and watched as they headed outside to the waiting car. They unceremoniously deposited the girls in the backseat. Then, with a wave, the vampires climbed in and the car disappeared down the driveway.
Katelina shut the door and leaned against it, still dazed. Of all the mornings she’d imagined, this wasn’t one of them.
Posted by Joleene Naylor on September 30, 2010
http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/legacy-of-ghosts-chapter-2-part-5/
Check out Authorgraph.com to get your digital ebooks autographed!
