Must Read: Joe Konrath's Take on The Impact of E-Books Upon the Quality of What You Can Find to Read

Once again, Joe Konrath has written something everyone (writers and readers, which I assume is almost everyone on the planet) should read, and here's how his latest greatest begins:

Some people believe the ease of self-publishing means that millions of wannabe writers will flood the market with their crummy ebooks, and the good authors will get lost in the morass, and then family values will go unprotected and the economy will collapse and the world will crash into the sun and puppies and kittens by the truckload will die horrible, screaming deaths.

Continue reading "The Tsunami of Crap," his July 5, 2011 post on his great blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing....

J.B. Stanley Reveals Her Profits From Cozy Mysteries Series

Way of the Guilty will be
released August 31, 2010.

Jennifer (J.B.) Stanley writes more than one cozy mystery series -- the Flab Five Supper Club mystery series; the Molly Appleby Antiques & Collectibles Mysteries; and The Hope Street Church mystery series.

I have read more than one of both the Hope Street Church series and the Flab Five Supper Club, and I recommend them both -- if you're a cozy mystery lover, you'll enjoy these books.

Recently, at the group blog Cozy Chicks, J.B. Stanley did a lot of us a favor by actually discussing the money that she's making from her efforts.  For the details, check out her post.  The numbers aren't that high, folks. It's definitely a labor of love.

For example, Stanley reports her average advance is $3000, $5000, or $7500 per book, she gets an average of an additional $500 or $1000 for large print or foreign rights, and then she turns around and spends 50-75% of her advance on promoting the book.

For more information:
Janet Evanovich Splitting From St. Martin's Press
Mystery Writer Joe Konrath Talks Money
Highly Successful Authors Put Their Two Cents Worth on The Money Question

PBW Made Me Laugh - Maybe You Will Too

Great post today by Lynn Viehl over at Paperback Writer. Maybe her best post ever. Go read it, you'll laugh.

And, for backstory before you do ... read this post, which explains the whole shiny pink cover horror.

Amazon Author Blogs

Amazon Connect hosts author blogs, with RSS feeds. A long and growing list of participating authors is provided.

Two examples:
Sharyn McCrumb
Robin Lee Hatcher

Amazon Connects also offers customer "plogs" which it defines as "a personalized web log that appears on your customer home page. Every person's Plog is different (hence the name) and just like a blog, your Plog is sorted in reverse chronological order. Each post also gives you the opportunity to provide feedback to the sender as to whether you liked the post or not. This feedback loop means your Plog becomes even more relevant and interesting over time. Your Plog will appear if you are logged into our web site and is visible only to you."

Bottom line, your Amazon "plog" collects posts from various author blogs for you on your customer page. Same thing can be done directly to your email via an RSS feed option, if you prefer.

From my surfing through the author blogs, these aren't kept current -- and most authors with an interest in blogging have their own blogs at this point.