Another epublishing student of mine has taken the self-publishing plunge.

Europa Rising

Here’s the blurb:

Commander Charles Kwetche is appointed to the elderly NASA frigate, Cabot; his mission, investigate the disappearance of the European cruiser Onbevreesd in the Jovian system. As he probes into the loss, Kwetche finds a deepening mystery involving the exobiological expedition of an industrial conglomerate; the alarming actions of a United Nations cruiser, and a mysterious signal aimed at Europa.

Sounds great! For more info, visit the Smashwords site Europa Rising.

Well done, Sean!

My ebooks will now be distributed to major app marketplaces…for free. How can you beat that?

Here’s a teaser from Smashwords:

Smashwords announced a distribution agreement with ScrollMotion today that will make Smashwords Premium Catalog ebooks available for sale as single-book apps in the major app marketplaces including Apple, Android, Windows Phone 7 and HP’s WebOS.

Full details may be found at Smashwords.com.

Thanks to the great folks at Smashwords, ebook sales just keep gettin’ stronger!

With a little advice from Mark and Bill and their fab free Style Guide at Smashwords.com, I updated my e-books and resubmitted them in the Spring…to a resounding silence.

A Hemorrhaging of Souls

But when the fall rolled around and my other titles, which I had also updated, popped up on B&N, I emailed Smashwords again for an explanation.

And this time, Bill was able to get my e-books re-activated though there’s still no information on why the pair was deactivated in the first place.

Teed Off!

Oh, well. You may now buy Teed Off and A Hemorrhaging of Souls through Barnes & Noble.

Only $2.99 US…perhaps a Christmas present for your favourite mystery buff?

This is big news. Effective today, we’ve increased royalty rates for sales at Kobo, B&N and Sony, and these three retailers have also stopped discounting.

What this means to you:

A: For retailer sales from today forward, you now earn 60% of the list price
at Kobo, B&N and Sony, in addition to the 60% you’re already earning at Apple
and Diesel.

B: All Smashwords retailers have stopped discounting prices. This means you
control the price at retail.

Previously, you earned 42.5% of your retail price at B&N and Sony, and 46.75% at Kobo. Kobo actually completed the switch to fixed pricing about two weeks ago.

How’d we do this? We renegotiated our contracts with Kobo, B&N and Sony to move them to what’s commonly known as the “agency” model.

Learn more about this important news over at the Smashwords blog:

Way to go, Smashwords!

Smashwords logo

If you’re thinking of self-publishing an e-book, there’s no better place to start.

If you need any help, shoot me an email at epubbing (at) shaw (dot) ca.

It’s especially rewarding when a student touches base as ‘Chris’ recently did, saying:

I would like to thank you very much on an excellently conducted three-hour lecture…I learned a great deal…and have actually created a blog/website. The lecture was delivered with confidence and at a comfortable pace…I very much appreciate your enthusiasm and inspiration and am feeling much more confident about going ahead with my illustrated textbook.

Or when a student grabs the information and makes it their own, like Jim Walker:

Kananaskis by Jim Walker

Jim attended my Self-Publish Your E-book course this past spring and just informed me that he followed my 13 steps to electronic publishing and has released his first e-book using Smashwords.

Titled Kananaskis, it’s a suspense thriller for young adults in which two Banff park wardens become embroiled in international drugs, kidnapping and a fateful attack on Kananaskis.

Sounds exciting and at $1.99 US pretty inexpensive thrills. Congrats, Jim!

Here’s the blurb and a link to Camosun – Publish Your Own E-book to register.

Thinking about publishing your writing but struck out with traditional publishers? Don’t fancy the headache of self-publishing in print? Then it’s time to join the latest publishing sensation.

You can publish your magnum opus (or cookbook, or romance, or…) in an electronic book format, sell it through major online booksellers and receive above average royalties as easy as a,b,c…well, almost.

This course will introduce you to all things e-book including set-up and formatting, online bookselling sites, e-reader choices, cover image basics and marketing possibilities.

And it’s only $49.00 (plus the dreaded HST). We had a full house last time so register early. Love to see you there!

Smashwords logo

They’ve entered into a partnership with one of the oldest and best ebook sites on the net: the Diesel Ebook Store.

Cooler still, most of my ebooks are now all available for sale through Diesel. This is amazing as I was unable to into Diesel on my own prior to joining Smashwords.

My new Diesel e-book links below:

- A Hemorrhaging of Souls

- Teed Off!

- Unnatural States

- Self Publish Your E-Book in Minutes!

- The Will of God

Hopefully, my little mystery writing primer, Youdunit Whodunit!, will soon join Diesel.

Now, if only Smashwords could get all my ebooks back into Barnes and Noble, life would truly be peachy.

After all, I’ve been waiting for months!

The Black Widow is an intriguing police procedural mystery from a man who’s been in the trenches. To purchase ($2.99 US) or to find out more information, check it out at Smashwords.com. The Black Widow will soon be available from a number of other online booksellers.

The Black Widow by Michael Hanson

Michael kindly offers this note of appreciation for my electronic publishing services, my brief how-to primer, Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes, and for my e-publishing course:

When you are getting a little long in the tooth and want to publish a book, modern technology and publishing changes mean that skilled help is necessary.

The lecture on E-Book Publishing given by Nicola Furlong makes it easy for all ages, and her creativity and imagination give the necessary encouragement to take this step to publish your book. She was tremendous help with mine.

Her blog will keep you up to date in a rapidly changing world of fiction and nonfiction reading.

Why not let The Black Widow spin you her web?

I jumped on the digital wagon last year by re-publishing my mysteries as e-books. Soon, I began instructing others—many had failed with traditional publishers or were wary of costly Print on Demand—at a Victoria, B.C., college.

Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes

Thus, Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes! was born.

It’s brief, practical and succinctly covers all the essentials of electronic publication, like formatting, uploading and marketing, and is available online at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com for $0.99.

It’s now available on the iPhone, Kindle and Smashwords website. See links below.

UnnaturalStates

Check it out at:

iTunes App Store

Amazon.com Kindle

Smashwords.com

Prepare to be intrigued, challenged and shaken up!