SHHHH!
I’m not supposed to tell anyone—but I didn’t actually promise—and I have another deadline coming up, so I’m squeaking in this post. However, if this blog suddenly disappears, you’ll know what happened. It means SWP found out, and I’m in hot water. Plus, I’m still on jury duty, which I thought was over because I served on a jury already, but apparently they have more trials than usual and have run through the entire pool of prospective jurors. Bummer. I say that not because I don’t want to serve, but because I went ahead and committed to some important upcoming events. First, I may have a TV interview coming up this month for The Not-Witch (or not—it’s complicated, more on that later, if I fit in another blog entry this month), and I’ve been invited to a former practicum student’s doctoral celebration get-together, (She’s going to be a PsyD, and a good one, hooray!). I’ve gladly accepted that invitation, so I need to call the county courthouse today and try and get those 2 dates blacked out for jury duty. Like I said, “It’s complicated.”
So what is the Shhhh all about? The Not-Witch is live on Kindle, but the hush-hush part is, please don’t get it yet. There was some foul-up, and the navigation between chapters doesn’t work right. The low introductory price will be extended when the new version comes online, so don't let that sway you. Hopefully, the SWP (Singing Winds Press) editor is getting all of that straightened out. I discovered the navigation problem when I downloaded The Not-Witch to my Kindle. The history of SWP with eBooks is likewise complicated. The first four books they published (two were mine : ) they paid to have formatted to be on Kindle. When I say they, I was also involved in that process. I was disappointed at the outcome, but Joe was incensed, and that was pretty much the end of eBooks at SWP. Then Joe bowed out, and our new editor, Noelle (not to be confused with my daughter, Noël), said eBooks are a priority for her—along with clearing out the publishing backlog of paperbacks.
Anyway, the formatting in this just-released Kindle eBook is wonderful compared to those earlier efforts, except, of course, for the navigation aspect—you know, jumping from the Table of Contents to say Chapter 7. So, why do we bother? That was Joe’s big question. Noelle says probably over half of all eBook sales are Kindle, and close to another quarter are on the Nook, and maybe a final quarter are Apple iBooks. Those are just rough estimates. Nobody really knows because the actual figures don’t get released. So, Noelle wants us to publish on all three, as well as Kobo. Even though Kobo’s market share is only like 5% of eBook sales, and the total of all eBooks is somewhere around 40% of eBook and non-eBook sales. The figures one encounters depend on the source, I guess. The traditional book industry has more conservative estimates than the eBook publishers about eBook sales. But both sides probably fudge a little.
“So, why Kobo?” I asked. “Seems like a lot of work for what may be only 2 or 3 percent of combined eBook and non eBook sales.” And she responded, “Because they supported the small bookstores—the little independents, and helped them turn things around. Even the big retail chains were dropping like flies until Kobo came along.” Does this mean I’m gong to have to get a Kobo reader now? Stay tuned, but don’t hold your breath.
The other impeding deadline I mentioned up in the first paragraph of this now mini-tome of a blog entry regards two new books about to come out. Werewolf Vampire Witch (a YA paranormal fantasy) may actually publish this month (April). And then there is the MG thriller, Jamison Pond: The Spy who Came Down with a Cold. I’ve finished writing both, although there is still some rewriting to do on the second one. The bigger issue is that Noelle wants me to get the sequels to Jamison Pond ready so she can publish them this summer/fall. (She’s got to be dreaming, right?) The second one, Jamison Pond: The Spy Who Dumped Me, is 90% completed, but I’m less than halfway done with the third and we haven’t even named it yet. But, as my mom always says, “It will all work out.”
Until next time, EAB
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