New construction reflected in windows of abandoned building.
Here’s a brief sampling of news items that I found interesting enough to pass onto our community. I hope you find some nuggets in this week’s writer-reader news roundup. Patti’s News Day Tuesday posts every other week.
“Smashwords, an e-book self-publishing platform, and digital library vendor OverDrive have reached an agreement to distribute its titles via the OverDrive network of public libraries. The deal will make more than 200,000 Smashword titles available for borrowing and for-purchase through OverDrive.”
This is huge. How do you feel about your Smashwords book being distributed for free? It will be interesting to see how this goes. On one hand, many more readers will have access to your work. On the other hand, most will probably not be buying it. If you have a good book, and it shows high readership, will that be enough to raise sales and/or to fulfill your needs as an author? Hmmm
“PW will introduce BookLife, a new website for self-publishers, at this year’s BookExpo America. Simultaneously, we are integrating reviews of self-published books into our regular review coverage.” More good news for indies?
A quick article about the two main ways that retailers, publishers and indie authors can “fix” the e-book industry. No one can deny the first fix, but what do you think about the second one?
http://www.lifehacker.co.in/life/Five-Best-Book-Recommendation-Services/articleshow/35312577.cms
Looking for a good book to read? Here is the scoop on the top 5 sites to go to for book recommendations. Many of us do book reviews on Goodreads, but what about these other sites? Where do you go for book searches?
Where do you get your writer-reader news? Please share a link or two in the comments section.
Happy Newsy Things,
Patti
THE WRITE PLACE... 
May 20, 2014 at 11:54 am
Met Mark Coker of Smashwords a few years back at the SF Writers Conference. It was the first time I thought seriously about self publishing. As for pricing, one of the keys to success (beyond having something that is worth reading:)) is to get your books out there whether at $2.99, $.99 or even for free. Nice selection. Thanks. –Curt
May 22, 2014 at 6:50 pm
Glad you enjoyed, Curt. I agree about one of the keys to success. Can’t be read without being published.
I like the way Mark Coker thinks.
P
May 20, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Thanks for the links. The weird thing is, that we get a cut out of each book sold. Even at smashword ,though my cut is smaller than at Amazon. But Amazon will tell customers very quickly that you don’t own your copy. Customers think they are “purchasing” a copy that they own, but they are, in essence, paying a fee to borrow.
http://www.economist.com/economist-asks/did-you-know-you-do-not-really-own-your-e-books
Amazon prime customers can already borrow your book if it costs more than 99 cents.
I am curious to know if they plan to pay authors anything.
May 20, 2014 at 4:18 pm
Useful info in some ways but not sure how many choices an author has. If you don’t sell your book on Amazon, what other choices do you have? Sell if yourself via Paypal or sell it in a bookstore? Wondering what others do/think?
May 20, 2014 at 4:24 pm
I have my book on smashwords which sends it to other platforms like Kobo, Apple, B&N, and others. Not nearly rated high enough any of those places to fit in the top 1000 that this article refers to, but curious to know what others think of the digital library thing. They say in the article that they would only release one copy at a time or limited copies. Who regulates or enforces that?
May 22, 2014 at 8:03 pm
I think it has to do with the kind of rights they buy. They buy rights to one or two copies, with agreement that it is loaned one patron at a time. Wish a librarian world jump in here 🙂
May 22, 2014 at 6:59 pm
Lots of options besides Amazon these days for self publishing. Thanks for stopping by, Juliana.
P
May 22, 2014 at 8:26 pm
I published with a small press that uses CreateSpace so…
May 22, 2014 at 6:54 pm
Good points, Susan and thanks for the link. Most of the times books are redistributed through a library, I don’t think the author is paid. Thanks for joining in.
P
May 20, 2014 at 2:40 pm
I appreciate the links, Patti.
It’s interesting that one-syllable words often thought as quite common a short while ago (smash, slush) now have meaning in the digital world: “smashwords “and Pubslush, which you probably know as a crowd-funding forum only for books.
May 22, 2014 at 6:55 pm
Love your take on this, Marian! Never though about the play on words there.
P
May 20, 2014 at 5:44 pm
Great reads, thanks! I’ve been getting so many book recommendations from other bloggers that my To Read list is far too long. They may be recommending books they’ve read and reviewed or their own. Either way, I find myself adding to my endless list 🙂
May 22, 2014 at 8:05 pm
Yep, my list is endless also. I still find myself looking…just in case 🙂
P