We’re having our first agent guest blogger this Monday, the fabulous Jennifer Schober from Spencerhill Associates. She’s written a great blog and she’s taking questions. Be sure to stop off and comment.

Agent Jessica Faust from Bookends posted her New and Updated Publishing Dictionary. She says it’s an “ever-popular post.”

Agent Donald Maass wrote a blog about The Elements of Awe on Writer Unboxed that every writer should read. He used information from a New York Times article on a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The study shows which NY Times articles are most emailed to friends and family, and end up going viral. Maass brilliantly links the results to writing.

“Their conclusions have some relevance for fiction writers because they reveal what it is about stories that probably generate word of mouth. This month and next I’m going to discuss these elements and show how you can apply them in your novels.”

If you can bear reading one more article about e-book pricing, the Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book might be the one.

J.A. Konrath has only good things to say about e-books. His blog title says it all: “JA Konrath Kindle Sales: 30k Ebooks in 11 months.”

“I’m currently selling $1.99 ebooks at the rate of 170 per day. That means I’m earning around $120 per day just sitting on my butt. If this trend continues as-is, I’ll earn $43,800 this year on previously published short stories and novels that NY print publishing rejected.”

E-books aren’t the only unconventional alternative writers are taking. John Edgar Wideman, a two-time winner of the Faulker Award for fiction, is publishing his next book through Lulu. Briefs, Stories for the Palm of the Mind, are available now.

“I’ve been thinking about alternatives for a long time,” said Wideman, whose works of fiction and non-fiction include the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Philadelphia Fire and Fanon. “Lulu seems to represent a very live possibility as the publishing industry mutates. I like the idea of being in charge. I have more control over what happens to my book. And I have more control over whom I reach.”

This study on The Short-Term Influence of Free Digital Versions of Books on Print Sales shows that for the most part giving free digital books increases sales. The only ones that didn’t work was Tor, and they concluded it could have been because of Tor’s distribution.

“Two of these books (titles 32 and 41) both had releases of paperback editions that preceded the free book by only a few weeks. Thus for the majority of the ‘pre’ weeks, a paperback version was not available. These newly released paperback versions could easily explain why the “pre” sales of these titles were less than the “post” sales.”