Go Red: Save a Heart Tonight with Rhonda McKnight

This month is Heart Health Month.  This week is also my birthday week. As I said earlier, I owe my longevity to you guys and also my cardiologist super team and the American Heart Association. Tonight is the last night to support heart health and get a read at the same time. Hop over to Rhonda McKnight(whose birthday is tomorrow) Heart Health Online Book Tour. 10% of book purchases today will goto the American Heart Association. Go Red. Get a Great Read.

Weekend Chat: Will Hachette & Macmillan Agency Model help or hurt Amazon?

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David Young, Hachette Book Group USA's CEO, sent an e-mail to agents Thursday announcing the company's decision to "transition to selling our e-books through an agency model," giving Macmillan an ally in its confrontation with Amazon. GalleyCat posted a copy of the letter. View it here.

The agency relationship will allow us to make more titles available to more consumers on more platforms. This expands the author's reach and readership, which is at the heart of what we do as a publisher. Ultimately, these new terms open doors to all online e-book service providers and create more avenues for delivering e-books to readers.

What do you think? And how will this affect readers and authors?

Online Book Tour, Chat & Giveway Announcement

 

Next week Christian Fiction Blog will participate in an online book tour, not just as a tour spot, but as a member of the tour. Yep! My story "Short Ride to Sanctuary" will be featured in Sistahfaith: Real Stories about Pain, Truth & Triumph (Simon & Schuster, Feb 2, 2010.) More details about my part in the book will come down the pipeline next week. You can order the book here. I am available for interviews on your blog, Facebook page or twitter chat about the book and my story as well. I invite you to hitch onto the tour here. I will be giving away an autographed copy of the book and chatting with you live next week at the blog and on Facebook.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Usually I'm not very excited about my birthday. Perhaps because I've always shared it with my brother, David. Happy Birthday, bro! But this year is special to me, because ten years ago my doctors said I wouldn't make it past two years. I made it and kept on making it. This month I have to take an exhaustive list of tests. It comes with the territory, but I'm good about it. I exceeded my expectations. My doctor's are happy with my progress and the ticking clock has been removed from their mouths about me. So this is a happy, happy birthday for me. I hope you share it with me today. I will be on Facebook hosting my own e-party so to speak. Thanks for being my friend and praying for my success.

Trailer Park Tuesday: The Graveyard Book

This week's Trailer Park Tuesday is the 2008 Newberry Award for children's literature, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

Read an excerpt here.

Monday Book Mention: Tiffany L. Warren's In the Midst of it All

This week's Monday Book Mention is Tiffany L. Warren's In the Midst of it All(Grand Central, Feb. 2010.)

Synopsis: All her life, Zenovia has struggled with the burden of caring for her schizophrenic mother, Audrey, alone. Until one day, God seems to offer support in the form of two members of a church called the Brethren of the Sacrifice, who knock at the women's door preaching an unconventional version of the Gospel. Despite having questions, Zenovia agrees to join the church along with her mother. Soon afterward, Audrey stops taking her medication when fellow churchgoers deem her illness a demonic possession. Unable to watch her mother's mental deterioration, Zenovia flees town, only to receive a fateful phone call several years later telling her of her mother's suicide. Heartbroken, Zenovia must now make a soul-altering choice: accept "God's will," or return home to confront the demons she's worked so hard to leave behind.

Weekend Chatterbox: Does Amazon own Your Publisher?

If you've been hanging around Amazon much, then you noticed some weird things happen after Steve Jobs announced the iPad, particularly the iBook feature in it. Some St. Martins Press books and their sisters and brothers living in the Macmillan house have disappeared from Amazon. According to The New York Times they didn't just disappear they were yanked. Apparently Amazon is standing firm on its point to keep e-books under $10. The i-books are around $12-15. As a reader I admit I like the reduced price, but I am concerned that the selections on the Kindle would be reduced. Moreover, I'm a huge fan of Farrar and St. Martin's Press, so now Amazon is pushing me toward the iPad. Not coll.
As an author I'm also concerned. Ooh the conundrum. Most publisher's pay a small royalty percentage to authors for e-books. Don't know if there will be addendums made to contracts for i-book sales. If not, then it doesn't matter what price is set, the author gets the slim pickings. But what it does set forth is a problem for authors on the part of distribution. Since online book sales continue to increase, and we know Amazon is one of the top reasons why, then if our books become ghost over there, how large of a chunk will that suspension take out of our sales? An even larger question--one I open up to the community--what does that mean for the publishing industry? Are they owned by Amazon? If so, then the ramifications about the future of publishing,especially whether authors would benefit from being independent over being published by a major publishing house matter anymore? Can we make money writing stories anymore? If you discuss over Twitter or Facebook, please use the #iYank hashtag


Related posts:

• 4 Questions for the ibook from an Author's POV
• iThink Thursday: iBookstore vs Amazon

Related Blogs Chatting About this:

• http://digitalbookworld.com/2010/more-reactions-to-the-amazonmacmillan-battle/
• http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bookselling/macmillan_and_amazon_report_round_up_150534.asp
• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/technology/30amazon.html
• http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/login.php/lunch/archives/006196.php
• http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2010/01/31/why-my-books-are-no-longer-for-sale-via-amazon/

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