Kindle MatchBook: Read More and Live Free

At the end of the summer, Amazon offered to let all of us authors and publishers in on their new Kindle MatchBook program. MatchBook is an interesting deal. It’s set up to allow readers to get the e-book edition of a book at a very low cost when they buy the paperbound version — kind of a 2-for-1 thing.

The program has been offered to both indie authors and traditional publishers. That means you can get budget pricing on the e-book version of thousands of books at Amazon store. The budget pricing range is anywhere from $2.99 on down to Free. As an example, John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany can be purchased as a Continue reading

What We Mean When We Say the End of Books is Coming

Image representing Seth Godin as depicted in C...
Seth Godin (Source: CrunchBase)

Seth Godin is one of the most insightful mainstream bloggers you can find on the Internet. His fame comes from popularizing, among other things, the ideas of “Permission Marketing” and Internet “Tribes.” The dude has been involved in marketing, development and innovation in the computer and Internet media world since he began work with Spinnaker Software in 1983.

Godin posted a particularly insightful piece in mid-August called “An End of Books” that pretty much anyone who gives a crap about where we’re headed as a global community needs to check out. Whatever your politics or your religion, books as the vessel for ideas and vision have been the single most important element of civilizations at least since the invention of the printing press.

The gist of Godin’s post is that electronic text is changing everything. Nothing new, right? We all know this — even those of you die-hard “I wouldn’t wipe my ass with a Kindle” purists. What I like about “An End of Books,” though, is that Continue reading

When Books and Social Networks Mate

Barnes & Noble nook (ebook reader device)
Barnes & Noble nook (ebook reader device) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The share of the book market attributable to self-published books is not an easy number to track down. But a lot of folks with skin in the game feel data like this is pretty important now that the indie publishing movement has a few years under its belt. However, if you pay attention to all the bloggers on this subject, its kind of comical how they stretch the math given the paucity of meaningful and transparent numbers.

Market share questions for both indie work and electronic books may in fact be a major red herring that will fade away in the next few years for most of us as writers continue to enhance their creative offerings. Here at the dawn of the economy of the Continue reading

E-Book Pricing In the Modern World: Addendum

English: Congestion Pricing Equilibrium
English: Congestion Pricing Equilibrium (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Things move so fast for writers who have taken publishing into their own hands. Since posting my latest “Talking Indies” column on E-Book pricing at TalkingWriting.com, I got to thinking about the need to be more creative about pricing. I knew that Smashwords had a system that allowed for that to a certain extent. But Smashwords is a bit scary when you first check it out. They have formatting requirements that sound a bit Gestapo-esque. And yet, they are known for being part of the new writer’s liberation front. Hmm…

You need to grow a pair or two if you want to be a writer in the 21st century. Right? It Continue reading

Smashwords Rocks: My Books at Your Price and the Philosophy of Modern Fiction

A few days ago I posted my novel Beyond the Will of God to Smashwords.com as my first experience with the book distribution upstart. Yesterday I posted both of my story collections, Trying to Care: A Story Collection and Implosions of America: Nine Stories.

It’s a bit of a chore formatting your work to run through the Smashwords meatgrinder (why don’t they call it a wordgrinder?), but once you succeed the website is a very writer and reader friendly place. I strongly urge you to go there and buy all of my books as soon as you finish this brief post. Two of the three are set up with the “You Set the Price” payment option. Implosions is still being sold at a premium of $5.99. It will always be sold at that price. Why? Because it’s a collection of damn fine stories that rival any you will find anywhere. See it featured at Short Fiction Spotlight here or check out the 5-Star (★★★★★) review at the Kindle Magazine El Dink here. Continue reading

Holiday Price Slashes: Fiction By David Biddle

Up to 80% Off!

It’s Black Friday. Holiday pricing for ebook versions of Trying to Care: A Story Collection and Beyond the Will of God: A Jill Simpson Mystery are now at the rather low levels of $0.99 each. Take advantage of these offers. You can read electronic books on E-Readers, of course, but you can also download reading apps from Amazon that let you read books on your smartphone or your computer as well. Books that list at $4.99 cut by 80% to a penny under a dollar are good deals. Buy one for yourself and use Continue reading