In a recent post on his wonderfully digressive Blog (an American Editor), Rich Adin ponders what the After life will be like for addicted readers of ebooks.

When I read his contemplation of how ebooks have changed his reading habits, and his worry that Heaven (I love the way he assumes that he is heading to that place) won’t provide him with enough ebooks and a comfortable reading chair in which to pass eternity in pleasant comfort, I felt I had to share it with you all.

So here are his thoughts on this enormously important point:-

Will there be ebooks in the afterlife?

Every once in a while we need to exercise our minds and imagine what our future will be like. We all know that at some point we need to say goodbye to our current existence and move on. I don’t know whether or not there is an afterlife, but for the sake of this article, I’m willing to assume that there is one.

I know that for me it will be a miserable afterlife if I haven’t got a La-Z-Boy rocking-recliner (I need a comfortable place to both read and to take naps) and a never-ending library of books to read. So the question isn’t so much will there be a library of books — I’m sure that in my afterlife I’ll have the basics for an eternal good time, including no politicians – but will there be a comfortable chair and ebooks?

I’m pondering this because with the passing of each day, I am increasingly disinclined to pick up a pbook to read. Just about everything to do with pleasure reading is a better experience on my Sony 950 Reader than it is picking up a print book. Well, except, of course, for that book smell that one gets from a pbook (and I can easily do without the musty smell that often accompanies a pbook that has started to succumb to mold and mildew!) but which has yet to be duplicated by an ebook. Read full story »

Once again Vicki Tyley produces another very good mystery ebook…… Fatal Liaison

Some time ago I wrote a review of some earlier ebooks from this Australian author, which I had enjoyed no end (link), so when she sent me an email the other week to let me know she had stuck again, I was intrigued to get my hands on a copy and to see if she was keeping up the quality of those earlier mysteries.

I am happy to say that she is, or even exceeding those earlier ones.

This one gallops along at a fine pace, the mystery gets deeper and deeper as the book proceeds and the ending is a total surprise, or at least it was for me.

The description on Smashwords (where this ebook is to be found) is as follows:

The lives of two strangers, Greg Jenkins and Megan Brighton, become inextricably entangled when they each sign up for a dinner dating agency. Greg’s reason for joining has nothing to do with looking for love. His recently divorced sister Sam has disappeared and Greg is convinced that Dinner for Twelve, or at least one of its clients, may be responsible. Neither is Megan looking for love. Although single, she only joined at her best friend Brenda De Luca’s insistence. When a client of the dating agency is murdered, suspicion falls on several of the members. Then Megan’s friend Brenda disappears without trace, and Megan and Greg join forces. Will they find Sam and Brenda, or are they about to step into the same inescapable snare? Read full story »

A selection of available ebooks on caring for your favourite Moggy – everything you need to know about looking after a cat:

As part of my occasional series about looking after various pets, this time I shall be pointing you at a number of ebooks all about cats, rearing them, caring for them and generally telling you everything you might need to know to ensure that your Moggy is a healthy and happy puss.

First up is Our Happy Cat, a site with a lot of cat care ebooks on offer, covering between them just about every aspect of cat care, a site well worth a wander around I reckon.

To give you an idea of the range of ebooks they have available, here is a short selection of them with a bit of the blurb that describes what each ebook covers:-

The Cat Health Guide

The authors description of the contents:

When your cat gets sick you will naturally want to take your cat to the vet as soon as possible, as any good pet owner would.
However I know just how worrying it can be when your cat gets sick and I also know that knowledge of the symptoms of cat health problems is power and allows you to provide the best cat care for your pet, as well as helping you to prevent some of these illnesses in the first place.

I’ve written this cat health guide ebook as a tool for you, the caring cat owner who wants to provide the best cat care for their furry friends and to have an understanding of cat illnesses which are preventable and which will help reduce any unnecessary suffering and distress.

The guide covers the following cat health issues

• Cat pregnancy
• Cat Hair Loss and Skin problems
• Cat eye problems
• Cat Flu
• Cat Ear Mites and other ear problems
• Cat Vomiting
• Cat Diarrhoea
• Cat Constipation
• Feline Diabetes
• Felv
• Hairballs
• Allergies
• Arthritis
• Thyroid problems
• Heart Problems
• Toxoplasmosis

Read full story »

Vicki Tyley, author of three very good ebooks, gives her thoughts on the benefits of good editing before publishing an ebook: …

On Rich Adin’s always interesting and very varied blog (An American Editor), Vicki Tyley muses on her thoughts about editing ebooks, a subject that is dear to many of our hearts, as so many ebooks are totally appalling messes of typographical and grammatical mistakes, which takes away so much reading pleasure.  Something that I am happy to be able to report is absolutely not the case with her books, all of which I have read with great pleasure.   They are all available at Smashwords, and I can recommend them without reservation if you happen to enjoy detective novels with a difference…..  The most notable difference being that they are well written, by the way.

Anyhow, enough of me, here is what Vicki has to say on the subject of editing ebooks, words that should be read by all aspiring ebook authors before publishing their master-works.

But first a word from Rich Adin…..

Today’s guest article is by Australian author Vicki Tyley. Regular readers of An American Editor will recall my review of her mysteries in On Books: Murder Down Under. She has 3 books available and you can buy them at a significant discount until May 15, 2011 using the codes found in Worth Noting: A Gift from Down Under or in Worth Noting: A Gift From Down Under Redux.

The word is with Vicki:

The Editor: A Writer’s Fairy Godmother or Ogre?

The digital age opened the floodgates to all those writers who’d been trying for years to break through that almost impenetrable publishing wall.

No more “does not suit our current publishing programme.”

No more “we’re too overcommitted, and as a result, can’t take on any new projects.”

No more “sorry, not for us.”

Screech! Wait. What about quality control? Where once upon a time it was the role of the publishing house to hone and polish a manuscript until it gleamed, in the case of an Indie publication it now falls to the author to produce that high quality, marketable product.

Readers love the opportunity to sample fresh and new authors, books that cross genres, books from around the world. However, they (and I am one of them) expect those works to be up to the standard of mainstream books. Unfortunately, the complaint I hear most about self-published works is that many fall a long way short in the editing department.

In the Amazon Kindle store alone there are 750,000+ titles. That’s a lot of choice for a reader. So why then, I asked myself, would a writer not give his/her book a fighting chance and have it edited?

Initially, I thought that maybe it was the expense. For a writer struggling to make ends meet, the investment of hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars can make the idea of employing an experienced editor out of reach. I soon discovered that whilst this does hold for some, it isn’t the major deterrent.

First, do writers even need editors? How essential are they in the publishing process? To answer that, we need to understand the editorial role and the different levels of editing services available. Read full story »

Down Under Murder ebooks at reduced price at Smashwords.

I posted a review  by Rich Adin a few days ago of a couple of ebooks he had come across at Smashwords, and enjoyed.   I have just heard from him that one of the authors – Vicki Tyley – has arranged a special coupon offer for us all, to buy her ebooks at a special reduced price.

Read on:

Last week I wrote a review of Vicki Tyley’s murder mysteries, On Books: Murder Down Under. If the review sparked an interest in her Down Under murder mysteries, you can, until April 30, buy her books for 99¢ each — a savings of $3 on each book — at Smashwords using the following coupon codes (courtesy of Vicki Tyley):

1. Brittle Shadows = RV82D
2. Sleight Malice = JY87E
3. Thin Blood = RR44V

Smashwords lets you download the ebook in your choice of format, one of which will be suitable for reading on your preferred device — whether it is your computer, your cell phone, or your ereader.

It is hard to go wrong, even if you only occasionally read a murder mystery. Buying all 3 of the books using the coupon  codes saves you $9 – for $2.97, you can have 3 excellent murder mysteries.

If you do buy any or all of her books and enjoy it (them), pass the word. Remember that indie authors rely on readers telling other readers about good ebooks. And be sure to share the coupon codes.

So, seems a good deal to me, a very good deal in fact.   So I shall be off to Smashwords in a few minutes to get my copies of these three ebooks.

Share with us:

If you take Vicki up on  her offer, and read her books, do let us know what you thought of them.

Link:

Rich Adin’s blog:   http://americaneditor.wordpress.com/

Previous post about this author:  http://www.ebookanoid.com/2011/03/31/two-ebooks-from-smashwords-you-should-read/

Murder and mayhem in Central London.

I have just finished reading an ebook called Ice Blue that I downloaded from Smashwords by an author (Emma Jameson) that until now I have  never read, but I shall certainly be reading more by this author as I enjoyed this ebook enormously.

The synopsis of this ebook on Smashwords gives enough general information about the main thrust of the plot, without giving anything away, so I shall simply quote it here to cover that side of things:

Anthony Hetheridge, ninth Baron of Wellegrave, Chief Superintendent for New Scotland Yard, never married, no children, no pets, no hobbies, and not even an interesting vice, will turn sixty in three weeks. With the exception of his chosen career, too sordid for his blue-blooded family to condone, his life has been safe and predictable. But then he meets Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield – beautiful, willful, and nearly half his age. When Hetheridge saves the outspoken, impetuous young detective from getting the sack, siding with her against Scotland Yard’s powerful male hierarchy, his cold, elegantly balanced world spins out of control. Summoned to London’s fashionable Belgravia to investigate the brutal murder of a financier, Hetheridge must catch the killer while coping with his growing attraction to Kate, the reappearance of an old flame, and the secret that emerges from his own past.

Its the characters, not the crime…….

What made this ebook such pleasurable reading was not the murder or even the Police procedure, but the rather wonderful cast of characters that the author, Emma Jameson, has created to populate her world.  In the space of about 184 pages, Emma has managed to give us a whole collection of individuals, each very nicely rounded out and real.   Even very minor players – such as the tall PC who finds the pistol seems to be alive and obviously has a life outside the book.

Read full story »