Publishing with Kindle

Recently I have been reading blogs of several authors who have taken the leap into publishing for the Kindle Reader at amazon.com

For some authors, it has been books never before published and for others it is their unpublished works.

So with enough on my plate as always, I decided I needed an added challenge! So I have published three books with Kindle this past week.

The first one I decided to do was my novella, The Masquerading Cowboy, a short I wrote some time back and won a writing contest with it. I decided I would try formatting it myself for the Kindle and I was having problems with the formatting such as putting in a cover graphic within the text, and feeling uneasy. So I contacted Joshua at Kindle Formatting and in a few days he had my book formatted and ready for me to upload at Kindle.

But one book did not satisfy me so I did a second one, a nonfiction, A Meeting of the Minds: 19th Century Poet-Philosophers Explore Spirituality, and formatted it myself with some trial and error. I know a little about html coding and actually was able to read the html and correct a few little flaws. It took a few uploads and going through the preview of it a few times, but I finally got it!

So my success with formatting led me to publish a third one, Exclusive Interview With Richard S. Prather, Author of the Best-Selling Shell Scott Mystery Series.

I also began to thinking about my other books and putting them into Kindle editions. So I decided to do two of my published novels and The Dawning and Roulette will be Kindle editions in the coming weeks. I decided not to tackle the formatting on those myself but left it up to my publisher to do so.

I work with my web designer, Judy on my book covers. I give her the idea of what I want and she comes up with it. So if anyone needs a cover for a Kindle book, an ebook, or a POD, visit her website.

One day I may have to break down and buy a Kindle Reader. I only know one person with a Kindle and she really likes it.

I don’t know where publishing is going as the economy has definitely affected the business and in turn all of us authors. Many authors are looking at alternative choices such as self publishing, PODs, ebooks, and Kindle editions. There are pros and cons in moving away from traditional publishing, the main thing being distribution and ending up with only online bookstores and not in brick and mortar stores. Some people will always want the physical book in their hands, not a reading device. But it appears over these last years or so people are very willing to read downloaded books on their reading devices or computer screens. And this young generation is exposed to computer technology at such a early age, sometimes pre-school, they may always prefer to use a computer or reader instead of a paper book. After all, many of them do text or tweet all the time from their handheld devices.

In 2002 I wrote an article about ebooks versus print books and quoted N.Y. agent, Richard Curtis, a well known New York Literary Agent and president of E-reads, an electronic publishing company. He had this to say, January 7, 2002, in a "Publishers Weekly Magazine" article: "How long are we going to endure skeptics telling us that nobody wants to read on screen, when thousands are paying do so every day?" He also stated in response to critics, "Those of us making money in e-books, delivering thousands of downloads every month, paying royalties to authors and publishers, have to wonder what planet these pundits are on." I agreed with Curtis then, and still do.

Will it replace library bookshelves? Probably not, but it may in time drastically change the book market. After all, the world is changing. And probably most of us are using technology now that we never dreamed of a few years ago. Isn’t that right?

Linda Pendleton at Kindle Store

~Linda

Bookstore Event

I attended a Cheese-Wine Reception at a used/new bookstore for the Two Year Anniversary celebration today from 5 to 8, with a few other local authors. It was enjoyable talking with the other authors and sharing ideas, and speaking with people who wanted to know more about writing and publishing, or who are in the process of writing books themselves. My friend Anne went with me and spent an hour or so there, which was nice, as bookstore signings can be a little uncomfortable if no one shows up. LOL

Some of the people were interested in self-publishing, Print on Demand, E-books and the Kindle was mentioned.

My friend Michele has a Kindle and she loves it. She finds it handy while traveling or even all the time and does not have to worry about filled bookshelves. Maybe she has a point. Those of us who love books around, whether we read them or not, can have overflowing bookshelves and it can be hard to clear out books. I had to do that when I moved, and some books are hard to let go.

I read earlier today that Amazon.com has come out with the new Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device for $299.00. It holds 1500 books, and with a selection of over 300,000 books and magazines and newspapers to buy and download in less than a minute.

Maybe one of these days I will get one.

~Linda

What is a Hero Today?

My friend and fellow-writer, Jon Guenther posted a Blog today about “A Resurgence of American Heroes” and within his comments he quoted and linked to an article, “Joseph Campbell's Definition of Heroes: Does Traditional Hero Still Exist?.” I found myself disagreeing with the author of that article on Joseph Campbell, as Jon did. I love Joseph Campbell but I almost felt as if the author missed the point of Campbell’s intense study of mythology and the impact of inspirational myth on cultures down through the ages.

I no longer have Campbell’s classic book, Hero with a Thousand Faces, first published 1949, in my library, but I do have Power of Myth, from the Bill Moyers ' PBS interviews with Campbell. Campbell said, “Even in popular novels, the main character is a hero or heroine who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience. A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

When my late husband, Don Pendleton conceived his fictional character, Mack Bolan, forty years ago, he not only put Bolan into a situation of “giving” his life to something LARGER than himself but also to a courageous battle for justice for others. But the writing of the Executioner: Mack Bolan Series went even beyond that with a spiritual, metaphysical element.

Campbell had this to say about the two types of deeds of a hero. “One is the physical deed, in which the hero performs a courageous act in battle or saves a life. The other kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero learns to experience the supernormal range of human spiritual life and then comes back with a message.” This can be something as simple as taking a journey inward, inside ourselves, emotionally and spiritually, and discovering a strong connection to the Divine, which may result in a new understanding of life, a new purpose, a passion, such as to serve all of humanity in some way, large or small, or to bring positive change.

Most of us grew up with Superman, a fantasy hero, but I believe what has happened in recent years is a “false hero worship.” And that is as a result of the media and the impact celebrity now has on society. Now, youth too often look up to sports figures, singers, and other popular figures who really lack any qualities that should qualify them for heroes.

So where have all the heroes gone?

The heroes of today are people like many during 9-11 or Katrina, who set their own lives aside to save others—or the guy down the street who pulls someone from a burning car or home—or someone who gives a kidney to save a stranger—or anyone we know who may do some courageous act at a time when needed. Heroes are ordinary people, probably flawed and not perfect in all their personality traits, but people who are able to go beyond to do something that makes a difference in the world.

Even those who inspire with words:

“We should always be at war with injustice. Always.” ~Maya Angelou
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” ~Mark Twain
“We can’t all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” ~Will Rogers.

I do agree with Jon that with the several years of corruption, war, and now the failing economy, we do have a need to look up to someone with heroic qualities, and even a fictional hero that will entertain us and take us to an imaginary place and restore our hope. But hey, I am optimistic that better times are ahead.

Joseph Campbell also said we need to get in touch with our “real self.” He stated, “The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are that they should be living for.” And his famous words, “Follow your bliss.”

I’m sure Jon Guenther will come up with a great idea for a new series of books, and with a believable hero. I intended to comment directly on his Blog but I wrote too much for that, so here it is.

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)

~Linda

Simon and Schuster and Author Contracts

The Authors Guild (of which I’ve been a member since 1990) sent out a notice to members early this week to let us know that publisher, Simon and Schuster has made changes to their standard contracts with authors. Traditionally all major publishers follow the practice in which rights to a work revert to the author if the book falls out of print or if its sales are low. Their new contract language apparently will no longer include minimum sales requirement for a work to be considered in print, and the work would remain under their exclusive control as long as it is available in any form, including through its own in-house data base (POD) and not even available to be ordered by traditional bookstores. In essence, this would amount to an exclusive grants of right in perpetuity. And as the Authors Guild suggests, this would effectively mean the publisher would co-own the author’s copyright.

The Authors Guild, who represents thousands of writers, states this is unacceptable. And most authors and agents would agree! This is very troubling. It will mean more negotiation for an author to protect his rights. Simon and Schuster is now stating that the Authors Guild is over-reacting and that they will negotiate reversion clauses on a "book-by-book basis."

An author wants to have control of his work. Books normally have a short shelf life, sometimes as short as three or four months, unless it really catches on. In this scenario, Simon and Schuster could publish a book, and it might have a short run, and even after a reasonable length of time when rights traditionally and usually revert, they could continue to consider the book "in print" as a Print on Demand, forever.

In many cases, an author wants to take back the rights of out-of-print books so they can give their work a new life with a new publisher. That happens often. When Don Pendleton’s six Joe Copp, Private Eye novels and six Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective novels were out of print, I asked for the rights back and soon put them into print again.

Richard S. Prather is another example: his Shell Scott mystery series is available again after many years, and his 1952 novel, The Peddler, was published a few months ago by Hard Case Crime.

I’m sure we will be hearing more on this from literary agents and authors. It’s difficult enough negotiating a decent contract without having this added issue.

~Linda