Free Horror Stories Here

If you like horror short stories, you have two days to get a free copy of my ebook, "Big Chills",  a collection of short horror stories that pack a wallop at the end.
That's because "Big Chills" is being offered for free on Amazon.com on January 26-27.
I've taken the plunge. After following the heated debate among indie authors about KDP Select, the Amazon program that lets readers borrow ebooks for free, I signed two of my ebooks up for it. KDP Select, in case you don't know, is a little perk that Amazon gives to its Amazon Prime members, where they can borrow one ebook a month for free, to read on their Kindle. There have been thousands of words written about this program since Amazon went public with it a few months ago, with writers divided on whether it's the greatest promotional tool ever invented or a crude ploy by Amazon to corner the market on ebooks.
Why are some writers mad? When you enroll an ebook in the KDP Select program, Amazon forces you to stop distributing it on any other sites -- including your own Web site or blog -- for 90 days.  If you're selling a lot on Barnes & Noble, for example, you have to bite the bullet and lose those sales for 90 days. Other publishers are not pleased. Smashwords, in particular, released a statement saying that Amazon was being "predatory" and trying to take away writers' independence.
Amazon says that it's doing writers a favor -- that by offering your ebook to its huge audience for free, either through its lending library or as a free promotion (you're allowed to offer your ebook for free for five days during that 90 day period, and that's what I'm doing with "Big Chills") you'll get a large boost in name recognition among readers, and that will carry over to more sales for your other ebooks.
Plus, Amazon is paying writers every time their ebook is borrowed. There's a formula for payouts, but basically it works out to $1.70 per ebook.
I don't like the idea of giving my work away for free, but I finally decided to enroll a couple of my ebooks in the program. The reason is that Amazon does have a huge audience, and its giving away free Amazon Prime trial memberships to everyone who buys a Kindle Fire (and that's a lot of people). As an indie author I need exposure, and it's worth trying KDP Select to get that.
Plus, I already know it works pretty well. I did a test promotion on my book "Facebook Ate My Life" and got hundreds of downloads. When the promotion ended I saw a bump in sales for all of my ebooks.
Now I'm going to do it again. This time it's "Big Chills". I'll post the results here when the promotion is finished.  

Read An E-Book Week, March 7 - 13

E-books are getting more popular all the time, and it's easy to see why. With compact, handheld devices like the Amazon Kindle or Apple's iPad, it's easy to download and read e-books anywhere, anytime. The books are sold at cheaper prices than print editions, and you can store hundreds of books on each device. E-books offer readers economy, accessibility, and convenience, while they offer writers an easier way to get their books published. It's much easier and less expensive to publish an e-book than a print edition, and this is opening up new possibilities for authors everywhere. March 7-13 is Read An E-Book Week, so why not download an e-book and read it? You'll be happy you did!

Preditors & Editors -- Inside Scoop on Publishing

I like Preditors & Editors
because it is a great resource about publishing and writing. Look at the categories -- it has everything from Agents & Attorneys to Workshops. It's a great way to find out the inside scoop on the publishing industry. I hadn't visited the site in awhile, but when I stopped by recently it had a plea for visitors to contribute to the Preditors & Editors legal defense fund. Apparently, P & E is being sued by some people who don't like all the information that is divulged at the site, and they're asking for donations to help them mount a defense in court. It's a good cause, and I hope people help them out.

In the meantime, if you just want to research a magazine, an agent, a publisher, or anything else related to publishing, P & E is the site for you.

Tips On Self-Publishing

Here's an excellent blog post about self-publishing. What To Do When You Can't Afford An Editor offers some tips from author Sharon Lippincott on how to get good feedback on your manuscript when you can't afford to pay a professional editor to look at it.

More Money From EBooks?

Here's a good story about how eBooks are changing publishing. Why Indie Authors Will Break Traditional Publishers actually has some hard numbers from an author about how much money he's made from eBook publishing. I was especially interested to see how much more he's made from self-publishing his eBooks.