Sunday, November 21, 2010

Chris Kindle

Amazon has introduced the ability to give Kindle books as gifts. While that might seems like a mildly pleasant turn of events for readers, it is huge for writers. Word of mouth in the ebook community has just grown up and been given a license to drive. The Nooks ability to share titles was nice, but you could only do that to one person at a time, and the holidays are coming.



Once again Amazon’s two Kindle readers, (as well as the Nook and iPad,) are set to be big sellers this holiday season, especially now that they are in Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart and selling for $135 and $189 respectively. Putting more Kindles into reader's hands and now allowing friends and family to give ebooks from the comfort of their living rooms, all writers have to do is write a good book. Caught up in the impulse at the end of a really satisfying story, they just might buy a copy for that friend they know would love it.

Now if other E-readers don't want to be left out and adopt similar options, viral book buying might have just entered into a new era.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

An Early Christmas Present

For a limited time Ridan is offering electronic versions of Avempartha, the second of my book series, for free. You can get it where ever electronic books are sold—including Amazon kindles. I think it is the only free fantasy novel presently available.

Why is Avempartha free? It is a marketing promotion obviously, but why Avempartha and not the first book in the series?

Two reasons:

One, Avempartha starts better. The first chapter of Crown can be misleading given that it is more like a prologue than the first chapter in that it doesn't even deal with the main characters, but rather the somewhat unpleasant personage of Archibald Ballentyne. And as people who pick this up for free aren't likely to put much effort into reading a book that cost them nothing, I'd better grab them right away.

Second, while Crown is a pleasant introduction to the series, Avempartha is where the greater story begins to unfold. The "Fellowship of the Ring" to Crown's "The Hobbit" if you will. And if you are looking to hook first time readers into buying the other books in the series—which they are—this is probably the best book to do that.

For those of you reading this blog, the news isn't likely useful as I imagine you've already read Avempartha, but if you know someone who reads electronic books, here is a chance to get them hooked into the series for free. Also if you've secretly bought someone a Kindle, SonyReader, or iPad for Christmas, you can preload it with Avempartha as an added surprise. Better yet, I suppose you could consider it a "buy Crown and get Avempartha free," promo too. Of course, if you read the hard copy, and now find yourself fortunate enough to own a reader of some sort, and you couldn't bring yourself to repurchase a book you've already read, now you can just download it. This way when you finish Percepliquis and find that you just have to re-read the series, you'll at least have one on your new device.

The offer should run until sometime around the end of this month (November.) So tell your friends and tell your neighbors that they really have to meet two great friends of yours that you just know they're gonna love...Royce and Hadrian, who for at this a month, can be hired for free.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Probably Should Have Mentioned This Earlier

I was asked to speak at a local event, here in the northern Virginia area, and was so caught up in other things I forgot to mention it earlier. I rarely make public appearances anymore having discontinued bookstore signings, so this is one of the few opportunities you'll likely have to see me. I will be signing books, so if you have any, bring them.

Here's the info to any of you who might be interested:

Michael Sullivan and Tom Henning will be hosting a speaking and discussion engagement at 1PM on November 7th at Evergreen Country Club (15900 Berkeley Drive, Haymarket, VA. Reservations - 703-754-4125 Ext 221).

Michael Sullivan's Riyria Revelations have been released to wide acclaim, winning the BSC Book Tournament as well as being the ForeWard Magazine 2009 Book of the Year finalist.

Tom Henning's fiction novel, "Legends of the Chinese Spy" was released in March, 2010.