Self-Pubbed YA Author Hits Bestseller List

Self-epublished authors continue to make a name for themselves by showing up on the bestseller lists. Lower price points could be helping them along. I know I'm more likely to try a new author if her ebooks sell for under $3.

For the week ending Feb. 6, 2011, three of self-epublished sensation Amanda Hocking's young adult paranormals appeared on the USA Today bestseller list.  All three were in the top 50. (According to Publishers Weekly, the New York Times ebooks bestseller list excludes self-published ebooks.)

According to USA Today, Hocking sold more than 450,000 copies of her nine titles in January alone.

Hocking, 26, lives in Austin, Minnesota. On her website, she reports her trilogy has been optioned for a film. She is represented by agent Steve Axelrod.

Hocking's blog also says that her eight self-epublished books sell for between $.99 and $1.99 - and that she's sold 900,000 copies of her books (including a novella) since April 2010.

Latest Issue of RT Book Reviews Features Final Round of Writing With the Stars

The April issue of RT Book Reviews features the final round of Kensington/RT's Writing with the Stars contest. I am one of three finalists vying for the top prize - a book contract from Kensington Brava.

For those of you who haven't been following, this all began back in July when I entered my full manuscript, Seducing Charlotte, into the competition. Initially I was reluctant to enter because Brava is Kensington's more sensual line and I thought Charlotte was more suited to the Zebra imprint. But my husband convinced me to enter - and boy am I glad I did!  A month later, I got a phone call from Kensington Associate Editor Megan Records informing me that I was one of 10 finalists in the national competition.

Now after four months and as many rounds of competition, we are in the final drive to the finish. In this last round, the Best Love Scene is judged.

I am so excited to have reached the final round - and to be THIS close to my dream of publication. 
I hope you will take a moment to CHECK IT OUT BY CLICKING HERE. Please consider voting for Seducing Charlotte - a Regency romance set against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. Voting is super quick and easy. No registration required. Just click on the link, scroll down and vote!

But be forewarned, it is a little spicy! Voting continues until this Sunday, Feb. 27. The winner of Writing with the Stars will be announced at the 2011 RT Booklovers Convention on April 7 in Los Angeles.

Thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it!

Self-Published Novel Sneaks Onto NYT eBook Bestseller List

Even though the New York Times indicated it would not count self-published books on its new ebook bestseller lists, one has made it to the top.

Not surprisingly, it's a book that costs just 99 cents, which might have a lot to do with the high sales. I admit I'm often persuaded to buy an ebook that looks interesting at that price point. Nancy Johnson's Her Last Letter is Number 31 on the "also selling" list of fiction ebooks.

Publishers Weekly quotes Johnson as saying, "After I wrote my first novel, I was able to find a great New York literary agent, and I was thrilled. At the time, I thought I had it made. But though several big publishers took interest, nothing came of it, and my book never sold.... In the end, I formed my own publishing company. It was the best thing I could have done."

Check out the list here: NYT list. All this goes to show that, while ebooks are making a mark on the publishing industry, no one knows which box to put them in or how they will surprise us next!

UPDATE: I''ve taken the plunge and developed an author website that I actually have to pay for! I hope you'll start visiting me there; that's where I'll be blogging from now on! Come along and have a look! Click here.

Making it to the Finals!

Valentine's Day is off to a great start for me. 

RT Book Reviews announced today that I am one of three finalists to advance to the final round of Kensington/RT's Writing With the Stars contest. This is such a big deal because the person to gets the most votes in the online poll wins a book contract!

I'm SO excited to be this close to my dream of publication.

I hope you'll take a minute to CLICK HERE and consider voting for my entry, Seducing Charlotte, a Regency romance set against the backdrop of the dawning Industrial Revolution.

WRITING WITH THE STARS

CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW!!

Thank you for your time!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy early Valentine's Day!

Here's an interesting little news bit. Remember Barbara Cartland? If you're like me, she was your first introduction to romance. Well, she's back! 

The estate of Barbara Cartland, in partnership with M-Y Ebooks, will release a portion of her backlist starting on Valentine's Day. 10 books will be available for sale then with 160 titles to be released overall. 

According to barbaracartland.com, the prolific author left behind 160 unpublished manuscripts when she died. They've since been published and are referred to as The Pink Collection.

Kindle Books Get Page Numbers - Finally!

I don't know about you but one thing that drives me crazy about Kindle books is the lack of page numbers. Where am I in the book? How many pages do I have left?

Well, now I'll know - because Amazon is giving in to readers' wishes to add real page numbers to their ebooks.

They write, "Our customers have told us they want real page numbers that match the page numbers in print books so they can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class. Rather than add page numbers that don't correspond to print books, which is how page numbers have been added to e-books in the past, we're adding real page numbers that correspond directly to a book's print edition."

Kindle is also making some other changes. They are going to make it easier to sell an author's other works at the end of Kindle ebooks.

"We will now offer a seamless experience that lets you immediately rate the book, share a message about the book with your social network, get personalized recommendations for what to read next, and see more books by the same author."

Another good move. Now I don't have to go all the way back into the Kindle store and type in the author's name to find the next book in the series. It'll be right there at my fingertips.

Easy is always good!

Kindle Lending Club

Now here's an interesting idea - a sort of library for Kindle books.

A small company called Kindle Lending Club is connecting people who are willing to lend e-books to strangers who want to borrow them.

The five-person start-up was founded by a 40-year-old Canadian mother of three. She began with  a Facebook page which proved so popular, that she hired two web developers to expand her idea into a bonafide business. So far, the Kindle Lending Club is said to have facilitated the lending of more than 1,000 books among strangers.

Amazon announced its own Kindle lending program late last year but that seems to facilitate e-book lending only among friends, not on a potentially global scale like the Kindle Lending Club.

I would never want authors to lose out on their just profits. But an e-book library seems like a natural progression. We have libraries for tree-books, why not e-books? If anything, I buy more books from authors whose work I first discovered at the library.

It will be fascinating to see how this concept  progresses.