News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #139…
Are you a public library patron? My local public library helped turned me into an avid reader when I was a kid. I’ve given many print versions of my books (I don’t have many—I’m working on that) to public libraries around the country. Public libraries seem as popular as ever. They offer valuable services to the community too—beyond books, internet access for those who can’t afford it, reading programs for kids, opportunities for the public to meet writers, editors, and other people in the publishing industry, and community meeting spots, to name a few.
I’m obviously a cheerleader and lament that public libraries are often among the first victims of budget axes when communities find themselves in a bind. Like public schools, these budget axes are often sharpened when fat cats in town governments feel they need more salary (why a mayor of a small town makes more than a scientist is beyond me)—of course, some of those fat cats are school administrators!
One of the reasons I’m ending exclusivity for my ebooks on Amazon and adding them to Smashwords is because Smashwords has many more affiliates that service public libraries or act like one so readers can borrow ebooks and not have to pay for them. I’m not sure how much this benefits me financially—it might not at all—but I feel it at least brings me some good karma like reviewing (see below). Anything I can do to increase reading and literacy is worthwhile.
A new affiliate was just added to Smashwords; it’s called Bibliotheca CloudLibrary. This service offers the entire Smashwords Prime Catalog to subscribing public libraries. Library patrons can also survey the catalog and ask that ebooks they find interesting be available to borrowers, if their public library allows that. Of course, if your public library doesn’t lend ebooks, you’re missing out on a lot of good books. Your public library should welcome ebooks, by the way—their shelves are probably sagging too, something that convinced me to switch to ebooks as much as possible.
Other lending services affiliated to Smashwords are: OverDrive, Baker & Taylor Axis 360, Gardners (UK—Askews & Holts for public libraries and VLeBooks for academic libraries), and Odilio. Smashwords is far superior to Amazon in its outreach to public libraries that are as important as public schools (“private schools” in the Queen’s English) and all everyone to be a reader. The online lenders in the list, of course, act like public libraries online.
What you might be missing. Readers of this blog could be missing interesting mini-posts on my Facebook author’s page. Where the blog articles are often serious and long, posts on my author page are often pithy and short—maybe some are even like tweets (FYI: I don’t do Twitter), and they’re all about books and writing. I’ve been doing them for a while because they seem to be too short to post here. Important announcements about my books are found here, on Facebook, and on the homepage of this website. For those who RSS website content (that includes my Amazon and Goodreads pages), you’ll see at least teasers and links to this blog’s content, but you won’t see what’s on Facebook unless you visit that author page. Just sayin’…
Something else you’re missing? I’m an avid reader, and, as a writer and reader, I think my reviewing books generates some good karma for me by giving something back to the community of readers and writers. I do my “official reviewing” on Bookpleasures, but even there I pick and choose only books that interest me as a reader right up front. For Bookpleasures, I feel compelled to write a long, serious, and honest review. I do other reviews too, much shorter in general. The latter are no longer posted on Amazon, for multiple reasons—they’re here, on this blog, usually on Fridays. (So are my possibly controversial movie reviews—controversial because my assessment often differs from the hype generated by “professional critics.”)
To writers: note that when you query Bookpleasures, your book will be offered to a community of reviewers, which includes me, of course, and maybe one will choose to review it. Please don’t query me here. The book reviews posted here are books I’ve read for R&R only, not in my official reviewing capacity at Bookpleasures.
Email newsletter. You can sign up for it. Use the contact page to do so. The content somewhat overlaps with this online newsletter, but it’s more focused on readers, while this newsletter also contains material of interest for writers. By the way, I guard emails as if they were in Fort Knox (OK, if you read or saw Goldfinger, I’m even more secure than Fort Knox). I respect everyone’s privacy, and that includes internet privacy.
New books for 2017. The ebook Gaia and the Goliaths, #7 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” will soon be published by Carrick publishing in all ebook formats. Rembrandt’s Angel, a mystery/suspense/thriller tour de force, will be published in all ebook formats and trade paperback by Penmore Press this spring. The first tale is about how the crime-fighting duo solves the murder of an environmental activist. The second one introduces a new European crime-fighting duo, Esther Brookstone from Scotland Yard and her paramour, Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden, as they chase down neo-Nazis who are selling stolen art. Readers should have a lot of fun reading these new novels.
The Midas Bomb (2nd ed). If you are waiting to get started on the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” this first book in the series about the crime-fighting duo’s first case, is on sale at Smashwords until March 1 for $0.99, a 67% discount from the original price—in all ebook formats, including .mobi (Kindle): use the Smashwords coupon code PV57D. Of course, it’s also available on Amazon as a .mobi ebook and print book (the ebook isn’t for sale there, though). All books in this series are complete and independent stories, and you can read them in any order. #7, Gaia and the Goliaths, will be out soon (see above).
In libris libertas!
