With his agent’s permission, Boyd Morrison published 3 thrillers on Kindle and sold 7500 books in 3 months, which his agent used to sell to Simon & Schuster.
Ballantine Books and Harlequin Teen “plan to issue short standalone digital works intended to serve as ‘bridges’ to coming novels.”
Author Mitchell Reiss, a former diplomat, says e-pub is the way of the future.
As sales for traditional books remain flat and as the e-book market quickly expands — up to 8 percent for some publishers, more than double from a year ago — authors become more likely to take chances. Prize-winning author John Edgar Wideman recently published a collection of “micro stories” through Internet publisher Lulu.com. Crime writer J.A. Konrath, who has enjoyed strong sales from self-publishing e-books, is releasing a novel through Amazon.com’s AmazonEncore, a program for “exceptional overlooked books and authors.”
From Nathan Bransford’s blog:
“More e-reader news afoot as Borders will be selling the e-ink Kobo e-reader for the cheaper-than-Kindle price of $149.99 starting in June. And in tablet news, Google is apparently teaming up with Verizon to createa a tablet device amid news that a whopping 28% of Americans expect to buy an e-reader or tablet in the next year, and 49% within three years (via PubLunch).”
Hatchette Book Group, the world’s 2nd largest publisher, has chosen “RoyaltyShare Service to Handle Growing Demands of Digital Book Sales.”
“Digital Advantage for eBooks delivers substantial cost savings while increasing the accuracy and transparency of digital revenue data. The platform currently supports the revenue data feeds from over 30 digital retailers and distributors worldwide, supporting both the agency model and retail model. They include Amazon (Kindle, Audible, Create Space and AmazonMP3), Apple (iBookStore, AppStore, and iTunes), Barnes & Noble, Sony, Ingram Digital, Ingram Lightning Source, Overdrive, and others.”
Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary is actively seeking new clients. One of the genres she’s interested in is women’s fiction.
“As always, I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy — my first choice would be one for a YA audience, but I love women’s fiction as well.”
STET!, the Backspace blog, has a summary of what many of the 30 agents who attended the Backspace Writer’s Conference are looking for.
