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Best eBook of 2010 contest
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Don't forget to get your vote in. The poll runs into January (to give books published in Dec. a shot).49 books have been nominated and the lead has changed twice.
You can vote for any book in the list or "nominate" (add) one or more that you think are better.
This would only be of interest to me for books that were ONLY published as eBooks, not mainstream books that are also available as eBooks.
If you're looking for things that are ONLY published as eBooks, you'll cut your reading selection down by a significant amount, but you can still be happy. All but 2 of AKW Books' offerings are eBook only and there are a lot of others. Also, you can go through Amazon's Kindle listings and reject anything that shows a paper version price.The purpose of this poll is to promote the best books that are offered in eBook format in the current year, no matter what other format it's published in.
If you want to start and eBook ONLY poll, it's easy to do. Be my guest. I'll participate and I'm sure others will as well. The biggest problem you'll have is promoting it so people will be aware of it.
I seem to encounter a lot of eBook only novels. Most of these appear to be self-published and usually seem to lack good editing, which is why I said what I did. Most are also genre books and such polls would be better in a genre context, I think.
Well, this would be a good place to do it, at least for SF/Fantasy. Why don't you start a poll for that? It's pretty easy to do.You've hit on the main problem with self-published books. Even if the author is an editor, the lack of "another pair of eyes" can be fatal. Once you've seen your own prose, you have a tendency to slide over errors without seeing them (familiarity breeds contempt?).
However (and since I work for a publisher this is hard to admit), a few self-published authors DO go the trouble of hiring an editor to catch their mistakes, and the results are sometimes quite good and worth buying.
Hi Al,I agree 100% about the 'another pair of eyes' bit.
I'm 'self published', paper back [POD] as well as ebook, I'm always banging on to new authors to be patient and not rush to publish, GET AN EDITOR and PROOF READER, a mistake I made with my first book!! Which I am now rewriting!
As for the 'some are quite good' bit! In my humble opinion the best of the 'Indies' kick the bulk of the current 'mainstream' into the weeds, the bulk of 'mainstream' stuff out there at the moment lack originality and many seem to be rewrites of the authors previous work!
This is for the most part down to the 'big boy' publishers giving contracted authors insufficient time to write a new thought out book. Mine take as long as they take, when it's right then I go to the company I publish with, no pressure. The biggest complaint you see on here and other 'bookie' sites is '..... was the same as his/her last book.
The real problem we have is finding those outstanding 'Indie' books among a flood of others varying from okayish to blaaaaaagh. Once we crack this, and we will, 'mainstream' will thankfully be history!
This cannot happen soon enough! I don't know what it is like 'state side' but over here in the U.K. it seems as though total madness has taken over. We have only one major book chain [american owned]. Their 'sale or return' conditions of sale has got totally out of control. The big publishers willing go along with it because it squeezes out the little guys, which suits them. So the sooner they all go bust the better for authors and readers, who will then be able to get the best books out there rather than books chosen on the basis of how much money a handful of greedy dinosaurs can make.
Just in case you haven't grasped the scale of the problem, there are currently two seperate 1,000,000, yes, one million book give aways, being advertised over here. That is over 10% of annual U.K. book sales! Last year for every book sold in the U.K. more than 6 were pulped, unsold! These are 'remainders' the result of calculated, deliberate over ordering to get the unit price down, and the dozy publishers play along. Current, well two month old releases, on sale at 2 for £1 when they should be 5 or 6 pounds each, hard backs at £1 which should be £15! Go figure! I'm staying 'Indie' All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
Sounds like Jolly old E. is having bigger problems than we have on this side of the duck pond.That's one of the things I really like about publishing eBooks -- no returns of unsold stock. The sales model is quite different, an "agency" model rather than "wholesale". Works out better for everyone.
But still, paper is king and is likely to remain so for a few more years (unless greed unfettered by good sense ushers that golden goose into an early grave). I suspect that eBooks will have 30% of the market within 5 years, now that the cost of eReaders is coming down out of the stratosphere.
It will, of course, attract a LOT of trash since the cost of publication and distribution is so much lower, hence the need for review sites such as GoodReads and polls like this one.
So, if you pick up a stinker (hopefully nothing we publish), write a nasty review on it to save others from making the same error. Likewise, go to the trouble of writing good reviews for the ones that tickle your fancy. All that can help to weed out the crud from the "wanna be's" and allow the really good authors to crawl out from under the looming cloud of the paper world.
I suspect that in both the digital and paper worlds, the presence of a trusted imprint will help to sell books and that self-published works will have a harder time selling (but not impossible). Both venues can be helped by a good reputation for a particular author, but getting there will be difficult (but most good things are worth the effort).
The choice boils down to sharing your sales income with a known publisher, but hopefully garnering more sales vs keeping all the money for yourself while assuming the expenses of editing and publishing and the harder sell of self-publishing.
And if you wrote a great eBook this year, don't forget to "vote" it into the list for the poll. Who knows, you may end up with an honor you can use for promotion if enough other people like your work and will vote for it.
Readers: don't forget to vote for your favorites. You'll help the author to better survive and hopefully write more stuff for your enjoyment.
Hi Al,Simon is trying to do something similar on another thread on G.R. His aims are the same, i.e. to find those 'diamonds in the rough' among all the sand. It is open to all 'Indies', ebook or printed, but to qualify they must have won an 'award' and have published reviews.
It may surprise you to know it has thrown up all sorts of anomalies he didn't expect, mainstream published, 'in house awards' etc. but full marks to him for trying!
You raised the point about no returns of unsold stock, this is why I use 'print on demand', our digitaly printed books are of superb quality and printed within 36hrs of the printer receiving the order, except bank holidays and in the manic run up to christmas.
We have world wide distribution, what we don't have is deep pockets for publicity. It wouldn't make any difference if we had as the mass media over here is owned by the same people as own the big publishers.
In effect we are excluded from meaningful coverage by this cartel. If books had to stand alone on quality then VERY FEW 'mainstream books' would sell many. The 'Brit Writers awards' at the O2 arena proved that earlier this year, the only mainstream winner was Terry Pratchett in the general fiction class. The media were there in force, the ONLY report was about Terry, no-one begrudges Terry's award, but it shows what we are up against, as all the rest of the awards went to 'Indies'.
I think your attempts to get readers to vote for their favourite ebook is great, the difficulty is getting the general readers engaged in the process.
It ought to be possible but it never happens on a large enough scale! The majority of comments about books on here are on copies won on 'givaways' or bought from charity shops or in clear out sales.
I'm not blaming the readers at all for this, times are hard for everyone, but it does nothing to help new authors however good they may be. Your ebook pole just might provide one way forward. At least my books are also available as ebooks as well as print on demand.
I wish you well in your endeavors.
Sorry if some of this is a bit incoherent babbling but I'm dosed up on painkillers at the moment and stumbling around like a zombie! I hate those damned tramadol, but sometimes it's the only way. Serves me right for not looking where I was going to land on a parachute many years ago!
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
Timothy wrote: "Hi Al,Simon is trying to do something similar on another thread on G.R. His aims are the same, i.e. to find those 'diamonds in the rough' among all the sand. It is open to all 'Indies', ebo..."
I'm on hydrocodone and muscle relaxers, so I can sympathize with your plight (buggered up my back last Friday).
There's a misconception that your publisher will spend a lot of big bucks to market a book. Ad budgets are tight and, except for the big name authors and an occasional jewel the publisher thinks can go big), the only advertising the average book gets is its presence on your store's shelves. It's really up to the author to promote his own book, be he self-published or published by a legitimate house (no matter how large). And yes, if you're a "new kid", you won't get much respect from even the independent media unless it's a local rag that wants to feature a "local author".
And that's why the average book sells 14 copies (somebody's poll). For every author who works hard at publicity or hits "the jackpot", there are hundreds of books that sell only one or two copies.
POD does indeed keep returns down, but you can't shelve a POD via a wholesaler at your local indi bookstore unless you go to each store yourself and convince the owner your book is worth the shelf space.
Another problem with POD, is that it has to sell at a higher price than a mass market paperback (MMPB) if the publisher wants to make a profit. POD is expensive on a per-copy basis.
But, if the publisher (not to be confused with the "printer") does a good job of assembling the book, the POD copy should look and feel great; probably better than its MMPB cousins.
An eBook publisher has started a poll here on Goodreads to find the best eBook published in 2010.
You can add books and/or vote for any book(s) you think are great.
The winning book in each category (fiction/non-fiction) gets an award and a seal they can use in their promotion and on the cover of their book.
Any publisher's books (or Indi's). No porn nor erotica.
I posted a few (which amounts to a vote by the way) and so have a number of other people so far. A children's picture book is currently holding down first place, but the poll isn't over.
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/74...