Xynobooks' Author Blogs (writing, publishing)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Xynobboks

WEB ADDRESS: xynobooks.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Xynobooks is publishing for the people! If you have a story inside you, if you have a unique voice with something to say, we want to help you share that story with the world. Follow our writers and editors as they help each other craft stories for you to enjoy.

MY REVIEW: This is an interesting blog, in that it's very eclectic. This is because the blog entries are written by different authors - book authors - each with their own area of expertise, and their blog entries are shared on this central site.

It's pretty interesting - but if you are a writer looking for help with publishing, you really need to visit the website itself.
Here's the info from their website:

Xynobooks is a full service, royalty paying publishing company focused on emerging distribution opportunities, with an emphasis on e-books.

Our goal is to publish the highest quality books from the most outstanding authors we discover in the formats readers demand.

We are dedicated to giving voice to works that previously were orphaned by the traditional publishers.

We provide authors with the most up-to-date information on trends in the entertainment, electronics and publishing businesses.

We then edit, manufacture and market your book in the most appropriate formats, so that you can sit back, relax, and know that readers are discovering and paying for your work.

Sample post

If I were an Anthony Weiner nobody would be in love with me…
If you’ve been any where near a TV, you’ve undoubtedly seen New York’s once favorite son–Representative Anthony Weiner (D)–make a complete ass of himself over his package of weiner. Now, you have to be an idiot to believe his version of events. It’s clear to anyone who’s ever used Twitter or Facebook, or heck any computer period, that Weiner’s a horn dog who was using his social network to score with the ladies, and in this case, a lady quite his junior. Instead of pressing this button, he pressed that button, and voila, he revealed himself to the world.

Now, I’m not belittling him for using the Internet for what comes naturally–and adultery in its many forms seems very natural to powerful men. Several of the characters in my book, Bugchaser use today’s technology in not so savory ways, too. I am, however, questioning his smarts just as the judgment of my characters is ultimately tested and shown to be lacking.

My advice to Representative Weiner would be to forgo the Internet as a place to hook up. You never really know who or what you’re dealing with. I’m not alone in this advice, either. Most law enforcement experts caution against these activities. The Craigslist Killer if anyone needed characters from real life and not my book!

Secondly, when you’re caught with your cookies out of the jar, admit what you did. The truth might hurt, but lying seems extremely painful–watch Weiner squirm!

RECENT POSTS:
--"Is This the End of Osama?"
--What have gas prices got to do with it?
--Believe it or not, Part IV
--Signalling Rescuers in an Outdoor Emergency

_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

M-Brane SF (science fiction)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: M-Brane SF, by Christopher Fletcher

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.mbranesf.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Science fiction blog, writing hang-out, reading room, and the homeworld of M-BRANE SF, the astounding monthly magazine of science fiction!

MY REVIEW: I really enjoyed this blog, and anyone who is an SF writer wanting to break into the [paying] business, or even SF fans, will find this blog of interest. It give sthe inner workings of publishing an SF magazine, as well as a lot of other stuff, whatever's in the fertile mind of the author.

Highly recommended!

Sample post:
The author is a man after my own heart. I too have books I've owned for 30 years and never read. I keep them and move them with me, just because some day, I might be in the mood to do so.

The Ruins of Earth

I haven't been reporting on personal reading or making book recommendations a lot in recent months. My reading time has been so scattered among so many different things, including reading lots of unpublished stuff for projects that I am editing, that it's been hard to keep track of it all. I have, however, been taking in a good deal of short fiction that I have had sitting on the home library shelves for a long, long time but never made it to previously. I recently noticed this gem, sitting long-ignored on a lower shelf, The Ruins of Earth, "an anthology of stories of the immediate future" edited by Thomas Disch back in 1970.

Considering that within a month or two, M-Brane Press will probably be announcing the publication date and table of contents for Rick Novy's 2020 Visions (also an anthology of stories of the immediate future), I thought it would be interesting to see what another editor had pulled together forty years ago around a similar concept. But while our forthcoming book is intended to present an array of possibilities about a very specific year, Disch's book is themed very much around ecological catastrophe and the assumption that such is coming in one form or another (a concern familiar to people now, and which perhaps feels more imminent). He organized the book into four sections titled, "The Way it Is," ""Why the Way it Is," "How it Could Get Worse," and finally, most pessimistically, "Unfortunate Solutions."

I have not read all of the stories in the book yet, so I won't comment on them, but what makes me consider this book something of a gem is its remarkable table of contents. Lesser-known works such as Kurt Vonnegut's "Deer in the Works" and Fritz Leiber's "America the Beautiful" and Gene Wolfe's "Three Million Square Miles" are combined with well-known items like Daphne du Maurier's "The Birds" (the basis for the eponymous film by Hitchcock) and Harry Harrison's "Roommates" (the seed for his novel Make Room! Make Room! which was the basis for the film Soylent Green) and Philip K. Dick's "Autofac." I chose as the first item to read (last night, as I fell inevitably asleep on the couch), J.G. Ballard's "The Cage of Sand." Though I haven't finished it yet (sleep, you know), as I started reading it I felt myself settle comfortably into one of Ballard's uncomfortable worlds. This one starts with someone in a hotel building which is evidently getting overtaken floor-by-floor by drifting sand, and it has the flavor of one of his 1960s catastrophe stories, The Drowned World or The Wind From Nowhere, both of which I like a lot.

A book like this is the answer that I wish I could give to the various people over the years (looking at you, Jeff!) who sigh and wonder why it is that I ever need to buy another book and why we must move from home to home cases and cases of books that I may never read again and which I may never have read in the first place. I bought The Ruins of Earth as one of a thick stack of books that I lucked into at a thrift shop about 12 years ago. It still has a fifty-cent Goodwill price tag on its cover. Did I need it right then? Probably not. And it did sit for over a decade, and moved to several new homes, untouched except to pack it into a box and then unpack it to put it back on its shelf. Until last night, when I was looking for just the right thing to read before sleep time, and I saw it on the shelf and said, "Hmm. What's this one about anyway?" And that's why I bought it all those years ago.

RECENT POSTS:
--M-BRANE #19 ToC announced; change planned for print schedule
--Writers guidelines updated
--FANTASTIQUE UNFETTERED opens to submissions
--The Ruins of Earth

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Kindle Author (publishing, writing)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: N/A

WEB ADDRESS: http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: A few months ago I published my first novel on Kindle.

It has been such an amazing experience that I decided to continue publishing novels and shorties on Kindle, and to blog about all things Kindle, from the author's perspective.

MY REVIEW: Now that digital publishing is extremely easy - anyone can publish anything and have it available for sale in days rather than months or years - I expect there to be many blogs seeking to give advertising and credence to Kindle authors. This is among the first, and its very good. Professional all the way. The author writes well, he interviews interesting authors, and he presents excellent information.

As an aside, and not related to the above author in any way, too many "self-published" authors do publish books that are not fit to print. As a reviewer for The Thunder Child Science fiction webzine) I have reviewed my fair share of poorly written, self-published novels. Of course such authors should be commended for even completing a book - such a thing is a feat in itself! - but many of them seem to leave out critical things - proofreading and editing by an impartial third party, at the very least.

So it's when reading interviews by people such as the author of this blog, David Wisehart, that you get to meet the other authors, and see just how professional they are, before you try any of their books. So this blog performs a great service in that regard.

RECENT POSTS:
--Interview: Helen Smith
--JA Konrath Tells How to Make Money on Ebooks
--Interview: Susanne O'Leary
--A Conversation with Stacey Cochran
--Kindle Author Karen McQuestion's Amazing Year on A...
--Why Zoe Winters Sells So Well
--Kindle Hopes to Improve its Performance in the Cla...
--James Patterson Sells 1 Million eBooks
--How to Get 70% Royalties for Your Amazon Kindle eB...
--Free Sample — Crimson Lake (A Leonardo da Vinci My...
--Making Sales vs. Gaining Fans
--Free Sample — Devil's Lair
--Authors Get 70% Royalty with Kindle

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 (publishing industry)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020

WEB ADDRESS: http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Writing, Publishing, eContent and Technology Perspectives.

MY REVIEW: If you're a writer or a publisher, this is an excellent blog for you. The only flaw is its only updated once a week, but that delves deeply into its subject matter and is informative - and of course, well, written!

Recommended.

Sample post

Reaching New Audiences
After 5 weeks of iPad use one thing has become crystal clear to me: Magazine, newspaper and book publishers are too focused on applying the same old, tired business rules.

Maintaining your current customer base is critical to any business, but the number of existing customers is generally a fraction of the total potential base. We're somewhere in the midst of an inflection point in the content business. This is a stage where existing models are challenged, new ones are created, leaders can be toppled and the proverbial "guy in a garage" can completely reinvent things. So why are so many publishers trying to apply all the old rules? Here are a few examples:

Magazines at $4.99 an issue. This one's just too easy to pick on. Are you kidding me? The product is nothing more than a quick-and-dirty print-to-e conversion. Were these guys not paying attention to the book industry when they saw nobody could sell their quickie p-to-e books at the print price? Curiosity is driving some sales now, but that's not a long-term strategy. Look at some of the comments about Time's app:

Only $260/year to get content freely available on the web or delivered to your door in print for a fifth of that. Idiots.

If each issue was a dollar I'm sure more people would buy this mag. $5 is silly.

Time notes that they're only selling single issues right now and that a subscription model is coming. Fine, but in the mean time how about doing something more creative? If not a dollar an issue how about giving me the last 5 issues for $5. Just because you can sell print copies at a newsstand for $5 each doesn't mean you should charge the same for single digital issues, especially when there's little to no value added.

I really want these guys to succeed and I'm more than willing to pay a reasonable amount for an issue or a subscription. They should use this opportunity to come up with models that help them reach new customers, not just squeeze the early adopters because they know they have more disposable income.

P.S. -- It seems so obvious but I can't help think these guys have forgotten that they make a good deal of money on advertising, so if they go with lower prices and expand their audience they'll increase their reach...without the cost of printing and mailing.

Newspapers are still asleep at the wheel. The New York Times seems afraid to commit. Their Editor's Choice iPad app is OK but it's more of a teaser than a viable, long-term product strategy. As I mentioned in this earlier post, these guys are just training me to find workarounds to get the content I want. And although I'd love to pay for a subscription they don't even offer one.

USA Today is doing a better job but only going half way to a total solution. Their iPad app is nice and it's even free. I only read USA Today when I'm on the road but I'm starting to read it more thanks to this app. That said, they need a model that pushes the content to me every day, not one that forces me to open the app for updates. Go ahead and charge...it's OK!

My local newspaper is more typical of the larger problem though. We've been paying subscribers for almost 20 years and every month we're one step closer to canceling. Want to know how they could keep me on board? Offer an iPad app version of the paper for free with my print subscription. And please, make sure it includes every bit of content that's in the print version.

The focus there is on customer retention, not reaching new ones. To solve that problem, how about forging alliances with other newspapers so that the app provides much broader access? So if I'm heading to Seattle today I can open my app on the flight west to catch up on all the local news. Sure, you can accomplish all this in a browser for free...if you're willing to grab the pages in advance. But we're talking about convenience, which often comes at a price. And don't forget about the additional advertising reach for all those non-subscribers today who could become customers tomorrow.

Lemmings waiting for the next channel to open. Why does it seem like publishers are all sitting around waiting for channel equilibrium to happen on its own? I have two words for everyone: Go direct! Sure, you'll want your products in iTunes, the iBookstore, etc., but why is everyone so leery of creating a direct relationship with their customers? Yes, some existing accounts will complain, but if you're not building a direct strategy you'll lose in the long run. Despite Apple's "closed" model it's remarkably easy to add epub books bought elsewhere to your iBooks library. And look at Amazon. Even though they have a Kindle app for the iPad, any purchases you make for it are untouched (and untaxed) by Apple. Why wouldn't you want to capture 100% of the transaction by building a direct channel, especially since the choices aren't mutually exclusive? The more storefronts your products are in, including a storefront of your own, the better!

Here's an example of how we should all be thinking: The Elements, from Touch Press. Why would a tightwad like me spend $14 on a subject I dreaded in high school and has nothing to do with my job or personal interests? Because it encourages discovery. I don't know the difference between Dysprosium and Holmium but this crazy app makes me want to learn more about both. So while most chemistry publishers would have done quick-and-dirty p-to-e conversions, these guys took the time to make the topic fun and interesting. As a result, they're reaching far more new customers than a dusty old periodic table ever would have.

So if the periodic table can be completely rethought to encourage discovery and reach a totally new audience, what about the topics you specialize in? How can The Elements inspire you to approach your business differently?

RECENT POSTS:
--Amazon's iPad App(s)
--When Less is More
--Reaching New Audiences
--eReaders and Digital Bookstores

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

History of the (Whole) World (Lifestyles & Culture)

REVIEWED BY: Ann Currie

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION PAGE: History of the (Whole) World

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.susanwisebauer.com/blog

BLOG DESCRIPTION: My progress in writing, revising, sending to my editor, re-revising, fact-checking, galley-reading, and promoting a four-volume history of the world...along with reflections on life as a writer/parent/amateur farmer.

MY REVIEW: You have to admire someone who takes on the world – writing its history up to the Knights Templar. (I assume she thinks we can take it from there!) The author is a professor at William and Mary, a mother, and has a farm outside Williamsburg. Any one of these four occupations is a fulltime job, juggling four is impressive.

She journals about writing her book and the “birthing” process of getting it published. Oh, and did I mention, she also runs a small printing press (publishing business) of her own on the side? And, she does mention sleeping.

One of her children, a son, is spending his gap year in South Africa, so you have a mother’s pride/fear of a child’s travels to add to all else going on. The author is an excellent writer. In one post, she notes that her book is now listed as #1 on the medieval bestseller list on Amazon. I’m impressed, I just got my blog on Amazon and it doesn’t have a rank. She has an interesting feature once a week where she lists her twitter feeds.

A most interesting blog – well done.

Sample paragraphs

I haven’t posted an update on my reading for a while. Actually I haven’t posted anything lengthy for a while. I’ve been submerged in researching, editing, and keeping up with daily life; tax returns had to be done; I have papers to grade; filling out all of the financial aid forms for my rising college freshman killed untold brain cells; my nine-year-old gave herself a concussion and fractured her clavicle; you get the idea.

But I still read books, no matter what else falls off my to-do list.

First up, Michael Ruhlman’s food trilogy: The Making of a Chef, The Soul of a Chef, The Reach of a Chef.

Grades: A- for the first, A for the other two.

I’ve always enjoyed food writing, and if you find that genre dead boring, you probably won’t like these books. But what I appreciate about Ruhlman is his sense of drama. He can take the preparation of a poulet saute, the reaction of a food critic to a single pasta dish, a not-too busy lunch service, and turn each one into a fully developed narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. He sketches out characters with a few strokes and makes them real. I envy his skill.

Of the three, The Making of a Chef spends the most time on kitchen minutia and the least on characters and story, so that drops it a bit on my grading scale. (Also the font in the new Holt paperback version is way annoying.) The Reach of a Chef is my favorite of the three; in it, Ruhlman traces the inevitable trajectory that afflicts professionals in every profession. Get good enough at what you do, and eventually you’ll find that you’re not doing it anymore. Instead you’re administering your own career, and there’s hardly any time to devote to the activity that created that career in the first place.

SAMPLE TWITTERS

Going off the grid for a (silent) family day. #
Trying to answer interview questions by email. Making my brain hurt. #
Inside house: half-sick mom trying to nap. Outside: children w/sticks trying to find object on farm which will make most noise when struck. #
Voice half-returned, is gone again. This is getting boring. #
Need to change time of departing flight to New York. Change fee: $150. New one-way ticket: $59. How does this make sense? #
That's it. NOT watching American Idol after this year. Competition can't sing on pitch, judges apparently listening by satlink from Mars. #
YES, I watch American Idol. YOU spend YOUR working hours submerged in classical rhetoric and see what YOU want to do at the end of the day. #
Heading off the grid to write. Today's agenda: the Sultanate of Cairo and topics for middle-grade writers. (Different projects, obviously) #
Cleaning up DD9's room. How is it POSSIBLE to have this many stuffed animals? Wouldn't it give you the creeps, being so vastly outnumbered? #
Just finished Connie Willis's BLACKOUT. Yelling FOUL. Ends mid-story, conclusion in new book not out til fall. BAD DECISION, angry reader. #
At the W&M library reading. "A New Approach to English Grammar, on Semantic Principles." FUN. #
Clouds + cold + drizzle + church over = nap. #

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Twitter weekly updates
--Quick Photo update on the gap year
--Twitter weekly updates
--Medieval World sightings

________________________
Ann Currie publishes My Life a Bit South of Normalwww.abitsouthofnormal.com/
and also, Silver Pieces: The Strange and Peculiarstrangeandpeculiarsilver.blogspot.com/

How I started my own publishing company with less than $1,000

REVIEWED BY: Ann Currie

MY RECOMMENDATION: NO

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION PAGE: How I started my own publishing company with less than $1,000

WEB ADDRESS: mortifiedbooks.blogspot.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: To inform those aspiring to become indie publishers/authors in the digital world how easy it is to get started without going into any debt. It's as simple as having access to the internet and owning a PC. This blog is also for an novice or seasoned author looking to get a quality published book for less!

MY REVIEW: As the title says, this is a commentary on the publishing business from the independent side. The blogger shows how he went about getting his book published POD (publish on demand)- on shelves - on Amazon - and in e-book format. There are posts commenting on the status of the publishing industry today. It is all very interesting.

Another facet of this blog is his personal life - he is a minister and there are posts included dealing with his profession. (At one point he refers to himself as the "Writing Reverend".)

The posts are well written, as you would expect. However, once again, he is not a consistent poster. Posts can be as frequent as every two days or every two weeks.
It doesn't matter how well it is written, if it a blog is not regularly updated, I cannot recommend it. As of February 22, this blog had not been posted to since January 12. In my book, that makes it Inactive.

RECENT ARTICLES:

• Mye Book - How did I get here.
• My Thought on the Publishing future
• Check out Writers Inspirational Articles
• Reviewing of E-books for free.
• Our Logo

________________________

Ann Currie publishes My Life a Bit South of Normalwww.abitsouthofnormal.com/
and also, Silver Pieces: The Strange and Peculiarstrangeandpeculiarsilver.blogspot.com/