And in honor of Read an eBook Week, Carol’s Aquarium and Homefront are both free at Smashwords March 3 – 17. Books are available on Smashwords in a variety of formats for the many different e-readers being used, but if you don’t have an e-reader and instead use your computer, there’s a format for that, too. Happy Read an eBook Week!
-Kristen
100% of the proceeds from the purchase of “Homefront” (novel) and/or “Carol’s Aquarium” (fiction collection) at Smashwords (which allows you to download the books in a variety of formats you can read on your e-reader or on your computer) between now and March 1 will be donated to Doctors without Borders.
See sidebar, or click the “books” link above, for information about the books.
The most downloaded books today, Jan. 8, at Smashwords.com are Backword Books.
Women’s fiction – #1 and #2
Literary fiction – #1, #4, #6, and #8
Much gratitude goes to the readers using the e-readers I can’t say I’ll ever buy, myself, but which I completely support and appreciate as a technological tool. I do see the beauty in them – really. Not just because you’re using them to read Backword Books’ books, either. But, that said, thank you so much for reading Backword Books.
Since offering a free coupon code for Homefront (featured, at left, in the December issue of Military Spouse Magazine, but by no means meant only for the military spouse), I’ve received a number of emails of request from people who have been given Kindles for Christmas (what a great gift!). Thank you, sincerely, for your interest. With days still left in this free-book offering, I look forward to hearing from more of you. What’s to lose? At the most, you end up with something you may enjoy reading and a glimpse into a different kind of life, and at the least, you have an extra file on your reader or computer. (For a 100%-off coupon code to download Homefront from Smashwords, email me at kjt AT kristentsetsi DOT com.)
Speaking of book files…the ease of e-reading is almost convincing me to save up for a Kindle. Almost. After unwrapping a big, fat book with paper pages for Christmas, I don’t know that I’m quite there, yet. Maybe if I had a job that involved a lot of travel. Maybe then. (But a book develops such beautiful wrinkles and creases in travel…)
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In other news, Backword Books has released on Smashwords a collection of author-on-author interviews that attempt to approach their books (and the writing of them) from a perspective that will interest potential readers, rather than from this more common perspective: “The only person who could possibly be interested in this is the writer of the book or some other writer who cares about writerly things.” Some interesting discussions, and you set the price. Here’s the cover:
And here’s the link.
So. Christmas is over, and we have four days left until New Year’s eve. Ian and I haven’t made any plans, yet, and may or may not end up downtown Nashville. What are your plans?
Minimalist at its finest…
There are quite a few stories in the collection having to do with a woman’s anxiety as she awaits the return of a man at war. I believe Ms. Tsetsi has some experience with that, and so it didn’t surprise me that it would be one the major themes explored in the work, but pining for the soldier lover is only one of many of the existential themes represented here: We also explore the issues of mortality, depression, desperate delusional love, jealousy, insecurity, envy, guilt …The themes are very pointed, and the writing is confident enough to deliver the emotional payload like a blow to the chest with a knife-blade. – Cheryl Anne Gardner, POD People
Thanks to Ms. Gardner for taking the time to read and review Carol’s Aquarium.
(For the rest of the review, visit POD People. I hope you’ll visit frequently to check out this informative and interesting review blog.)
The brain child of Kindle author Edward Patterson, who wanted to find a way to support military deployed overseas, Operation EBook Drop began small.
In a post on the Kindle Boards – an online community for Kindle authors and readers – Patterson writes, “Today on Amazon I bumped into a soldier currently serving in Iraq who was explaining that he had a Kindle without Whispernet, but used a router to get books onto a computer and then used the USB connection to his Kindle. I suddenly had a thought (being a citizen who benefits from his service and a veteran) that I should make contact with him and gift him my entire Kindle library of 13 books. He accepted gratefully and off they went this morning in a nice 3 MB zip file. I also asked him if he knew any other service personnel in Iraq with Kindles, suggesting that other Indie authors might want to gift books to our brave men and women in the Armed forces.”
It took off from there. Indie author/publisher collective Backword Books (http://www.backwordbooks.com) jumped immediately on board and continues to offer 100% discount coupons to deployed military, more of whom submit their names daily to the growing list of troops receiving free ebooks.
Today, almost 50 independent and/or Kindle authors are donating free books to deployed military.
And Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com), an eBook publisher and distributor that recently signed an agreement with Barnes & Noble to distribute Smashwords ebooks, has joined in.
“I got on the phone with Bill Kendrick, Smashwords’ CTO (and chief magician), and together we brainstormed how we could help take Ed’s campaign to the next level,” founder Mark Coker writes in a Smashwords blog post. “Then late last night, Ed and I spoke on the phone for more brainstorming. What began as ‘Operation Kindle Ebook Drop’ has now morphed into something much bigger – ‘Operation Ebook Drop’ – in recognition of the multiple ebook-reading devices – cell phones, Kindles, Sony Readers, laptops, etc. – people use to read ebooks.”
Troops and authors interested in participating in Operation EBook Drop are encouraged to visit Coker’s blog for instructions: http://blog.smashwords.com/2009/09/smashwords-supports-operation-ebook.html
Author Edward Patterson, whose books are available on Kindle, had the fantastic idea to provide free ebooks to deployed service members.
So far, this many authors have signed up and are donating their books:
Maria E Schneider
Kristen Tsetsi
L.K. Campbell
Elmore Haimes
E.J. Ruek
Leslie Nicholl
Jim Chambers
Kelly Abbell
Chuck Austen (Illustrator)
Willam Woodell (Bluearkasascowboy)
Lloyd Lofthouse
L C. Evans
R. J. Keller
Laura Eno
Moriah Jovan
Andrew Kent
Marva Dasef
Al Past
E. Patrick Dorris
Trish Lamoree
Stanley Morriss
K. Raven Rozier
Sharon Cathcart
Alan Baxter
Susan Helene Gottfried
Brandan Carroll
Lisa Pietsch
Joshua T. Calkins-Treworgy
Eugene Docema
S.A. Rule
&
Edward C. Patterson
ADDITIONALLY: Smashwords has joined in! Read their blog about it here. Clicking the link will provide instructions for publishers, authors, and deployed service members who would like to be involved.
Authors with ebooks, or authors who can make their books available that way, this is an incredible and easy way to offer some troop support. I know my husband would have loved having such endless, and free, reading material during his down time in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Backword Books (of which I’m a member) has recently been discovered by Publishers Weekly. Exciting!
Publishers Weekly, the most influential daily news journal of the publishing industry, featured Backword Books in a piece published September 3.
(Interesting side note: a PW editor published an editorial – “I Don’t Want to Hate Self-Publishers” - complaining about Henry Baum, one of Backword’s founders, the same day.)
POD People also did a quick piece on Backword’s PW appearance that praises Baum’s Stands-With-Fist approach. (Sorry. “Dances With Wolves” was on a few days ago.)
In APPEARANCES news, several Backword Books authors will appear as guests Friday, September 11 on Stacey Cochran’s BookChatter, airing at 9 p.m., EDT.
SMASHWORDS, KINDLE, AND SCRIBD
Homefront is now available everywhere: Amazon.com (paperback), Kindle, Scribd, and Smashwords.
Carol’s Aquarium – a fiction collection (and Backword Book) with stories ranging from fish-in-a-box (“Carol’s Aquarium”) to a tense prison visit (“Visiting Hour”) to a hotel worker with a deployed boyfriend breaking into the room of a soldier on R&R (Pushcart Prize nominated “They Three at Once Were One”) to a prize-winning story illustrating the danger of being too perfect (“Becoming an Oates Girl”) – is available as an EBook only on Kindle, Smashwords, and Scribd.
