#amazon beta-testing #ebook #cover Generator

If you’re planning to self-publish an ebook, and don’t have the skills, you’re in luck. Amazon’s experimenting with an automated ebook cover generator (on the lines of CreateSpace’s cover generator. And it’ll be free.) About time, I say.

The Digital Reader has more details on this.

Publishing #contracts and #royalties in the Big Bad World

Jane Friedman has great advice on Writers Unboxed for authors in this brave new world of electronic publishing. Click here for the post.

Ebook HowTo & Author Spotlight

Ohio State University has a good tutorial online on how to do a basic ebook. Click here for the link.

Also, Author Spotlight was kind enough to shine the spotlight on me yesterday. They are open to sign-ups from other other authors. Here’s the link to mine: Author Spotlight

epublishabook.com’s Interview of Rasana Atreya

Author Interview – Rasaba Atreya, a successful author born out of annoyance with advertisements … (via ePublish a Book)

Author Interview – Rasaba Atreya, a successful author born out of annoyance with advertisements … Rasana Atreya, author of Tell A Thousand Lies, left a comfortable job in IT because she thought roughing it out as a penniless writer was romantic. She’s a blogger, and the mother of two grade-schoolers…

KOBO Ups Royalties for The Self-Published

Kobo, the Japanese counterpart to Amazon, is running a limited time promotion. Between September 1 and November 30 all ebooks priced between $1.99 and $12.99 will earn their authors 80 percent royalty (vs. Amazon’s 70%).

If the book is priced outside of this range, the author will earn 45% royalties (vs. Amazon’s 35%).

Kobo, anyone? kobobooks.com/KoboWritingLife

Microsoft to invest $300M in Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-book platform

So you think Amazon is a monopoly? Now comes the news that Microsoft is set to enter the ebook space. Click here for the story from the Apple Insider.

Connecticut libraries announce Random House ebook boycott

Click here to see why.

Tell A Thousand Lies: Unleashed!

My book, Tell A Thousand Lies, is officially out in the world! Print book to follow in a month or less. One line description: A politician bribes an oracle to declare the teen he’s targeted is a Goddess descended from the heavens to endorse him in the elections.

Since I refused a mainstream publishing offer, this is a huge step for me.

For indie authors, word of mouth, as well as reviews on Amazon etc, are absolutely crucial to survival. Should you wish to help, check out the Spread The Word tab above.

Click on the book cover (on your left) to buy the book.

Literary Agents Relevant in Digital World? An Agent’s Thoughts

Authors can now publish their own books via Amazon, B&N, Smashwords etc. They even get to keep a larger percentage of their royalties than if they went the traditional literary agent-publisher route.

Are literary agents even relevant anymore? Agent Wendy Lawton has some thoughts about this in her blog post. While I agree with most of her points, authors who can network and market and are generally savvy can manage their own careers quite successfully.

Also, keep in mind, not all agents know what they’re doing, or have good contacts. Plenty of authors have got burnt due to clueless agents. And then there is the huge cut of your earnings the publisher and agent takes. Versus what Amazon et al. pay if you can make the sales. Tough choice.

Here’s Wendy’s post.

UPDATE: Penguin Gouging Authors

This is an update to my previous post: Penguin, through it’s Book Country arm, is poised to take a 30% cut of of your royalties.

From Moconews.net:

“In other words, an author who directly uploads his or her work to Amazon receives a 70 percent royalty. An author who uses Book Country to upload his or her work to Amazon receives 70 percent of that 70 percent. An author who publishes a $2.99 e-book directly on Amazon will receive $2.05 for each sale. An author who publishes an e-book to Amazon through Book Country will receive just $1.47 for each sale.”

This is in addition to the ‘fees’ you pay Book Country. So Penguin charges you both a one-time fee *and* keeps a percentage of your royalties for perpetuity. Nice deal for Penguin. Not so nice for the desperate-to-be-published writer.