Red Adept Review Site Closed

In Mid March, the popular online site Red Adept Reviews, ceased publication. A true loss to the Indie Author. If any of your titles had been reviewed at RAR, and you didn’t grab the actual text you can still do that for a few more weeks. Just type your name, or the title in the search box. Be certain to list all the information with the review (date, reviewer, etc.) so you can use it later. Any ideas who will fill this void?

Ebook Pricing Lawsuit?

How are ebooks priced? Not those titles produced from the many Indie Authors, but those from traditional publishing houses--especially the Big Five? It's been a mix of super-high prices (with ebooks costing more than their paperback counterpart) and occasional deep discounts. How is it all determined?

In 2010, a breakdown of costs comparison was done at Gizmodo. It seemed there were a lot of pro-publisher stats. First they took the hard copy edition as the model to work with, then stated the bookseller gets a 50% discount (At Amazon...40% is the standard for other outlets, with 3% to the distributor); and the publisher pays 15% royalty to author (they didn't mention this happens only after the author has sold 10K copies or more)...

Considering the majority of what they call "real" books sold are trade paperbacks, NOT hard copy editions, the information given didn't tell the whole story. Then the ebook distributor they modeled was Apple--which, in 2010, was the most demanding and the hardest for which to format an ebook. They also didn't consider that once the ebook is formatted the costs to produce it for different readers drops off.

Another 2010 article inThe New York Times stated:

"In fact, the industry is based on the understanding that as much as 70 percent of the books published will make little or no money at all for the publisher once costs are paid."

(This begs the question of why the publishers don't go to POD to reduce costs.)

Now, two years later, after all types of back-and-forth, blah-blah-blah in blogs and forums, there seems to be some official follow up. Read about it in this CNET report and the Wall Street Journal. The Justice Department is now involved, and behind-the-scenes Apple information is revealed.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Read an eBook

Here are two very different selections you could make for Read an eBook Week (March 4 -10). From GITP Author connections we present:

Linda Sandifer's western romance Desire's Treasure.

Disguised as a nun, Paris McKenna hides her father's treasure map in her saddlebags and sets out to find the legendary lost mission of Santa Isabel and its fabled riches. But lawless Arizona Territory is no place for a beautiful woman alone. She needs a guide as mean and tough as any outlaw, and she gets her wish in dangerously handsome bounty hunter Nate Brannigan.
Brannigan is willing to do just about any job if the price is right. He's prepared for what the desert has to throw at him, but he isn't prepared for a treasure protected by a curse, a gang of thieves hot on his heels, and a whole lot of unholy thoughts about "Sister Frances." But Nate Brannigan is no saint. And when he finds out Paris is no nun, their treasure hunt takes them on a wild ride across untamed borders of desire they've never crossed before.

Available for Nook and Kindle.

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Jeff Gibson's novella, Last Rites of Passage.

Two "gracefully aging gentlemen" embark on a trek into the wilderness to visit again the special places of their youth. Increasingly threatened by unpredictable weather, bodies that aren't what they used to be and serious injury, the gentlemen push on, until they find themselves battered and nearly immobilized in a mountain basin two miles high.
For one of the men, the trip stirs memories of a time half a century gone, when he and another boy vied for the affection of a girl named Till; a time of joy, adventure, youthful exuberance and life-changing events the man still struggles to understand.
A coming of old age story and more, briskly paced, adventurous and humorous.

Available for Nook and Kindle.

More Events for March

Beginning today: it's Read an eBook Week, March 4-10, 2012. Click on the GITP Authors in the side column to get some ideas. All have interesting ebooks to delight and educate. Mysteries, Westerns, nonfiction and more.

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The fifth annual Women of the World Poetry Slam will be held in Denver this year on March 7-10, 2012.

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EPIC's EPICon will be held 15 – 17 March in San Antonio. EPIC (Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition) was established in 1998 and holds it’s annual CON each year in a different city.

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30 - 31 March is the 6th Annual Northern Colorado Writers Conference, at the Fort Collins Hilton, Fort Collins, Colorado.

Small Press Month

Small Press Month is a nationwide celebration highlighting the work produced by independent publishers. Held annually in March, Small Press Month raises awareness about the need for broader venues of literary expression, showcasing some of the most diverse, exciting, and significant voices being published today.

The National Book Critics Circle (NYU) is one of many organizations with event for this month.