The Writer's Dome: June 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Free Ebooks at Smashwords

By Kevin L. O'Brien
Price: Free! Words: 48,960. Language: American English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Fiction » Fantasy » General

Henry Helsing-Plunkett, the son of Sir Differel Van Helsing, finds a black lacquer puzzle cube in a secure storage vault in the family mansion. Curious, he takes it and solves it, and accidentally summons the Cenobites. Can his mother stop them before they take him back to their realm of eternal torment? This is a short novella, with a Preface, Postface, and Story Excerpts.

Badge of Darkness: Episode 1

By JJ Holden
Price: Free! Words: 14,320. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense

No one ever thought that the Youth Scouts of America could be used for such sinister purposes…until now. At nearly eighty million strong and with a madman at the helm, the leading youth organization has been a literal ticking time bomb for over a decade. Triggered by a single line of spoken word broadcast over the airwaves, the killing spree has finally begun.

Paris in 5 1/2 Weeks : Around Blvd St-Germain Small Streets of Paris, Notre Dame - Days 1&2

By Felipe Adan Lerma
Price: Free! Words: 2,930. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Nonfiction » Travel » By region

Non-fiction sampler for the series, "Paris in 5 1/2 Days." Features slightly less images, commentary, and links, but follows the full format of the series. * A serial Photo- Memoir. 7 original Paris images. Light commentary with links.

Covenant

By E.J. Deen
Price: Free! Words: 79,840. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Fiction » Horror » General

Jack Sotherland is a Homicide detective who just ran into his biggest problem ever. A serial killer is on the loose, and the citizens of Miami expect Jack to track him and bag him. But Jack has no leads, no evidence, and no killer to trail. When he encounters a force that seems supernatural, he balks at the notion. But something is killing people. Something big. Big enough to rip a full-grown man

SECRETS FROM GOPAL

By Gopal Kolekar
You set the price! Words: 2,390. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Fiction » Science fiction » General

This book containing about my secret study.

Tin Universe Monthly #17

By Brian Williams
Price: Free! Words: 32,010. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Fiction » Fantasy » Epic

Here in #17 you get eight stories including short stories, vignettes, and even a TV pilot script written and released in 2012 and collected as SUSHI WRITING WITH CROWD EDITING 2012. 30,000 words normally for $1.00usd but here you get it for free.

Apocalypse Witch

By GS Wright
Price: Free! Words: 14,770. Language: American English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Fiction » Science fiction » Steampunk & retropunk

Matilda Katrine Myra is not from nobility. Her parents have spent their savings to send her to New Terros to continue her education and in hopes of a better future. It's not the life she wants. Everything changes when her airship is attacked by pirates. With a hasty lie told to protect another girl, Matilda finds herself abducted and thrust into a world beyond the safety of her civilized world.

The Good & Precious Wife (2nd Edition)

By Dr.Timothy Sng
Price: Free! Words: 4,750. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Nonfiction » Relationships and Family » Marriage

A wife is truly precious. Her preciousness is immeasurable, & definitely worth above rubies,diamond and gold. She is a gem to her husband, her children, her family on both sides, and also to society. The woman's role as wife, mother and daughter shines out when she is recognized and respected by the husband, the children and society. She is above rubies in her worth.

Kindling: Special Edition

By William Clyde
Price: Free! Words: 15,430. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Personal Growth / General

This Special Edition contains twenty of the forty essays from the second edition. Filled with stories and reflections, Kindling is a collection of life lessons the author originally wrote to give his children a ‘head start’ in becoming adults. As its name implies, Kindling is not an ending, but a beginning, inspiring lives filled with exploration and thoughtfulness.

The Final Battle

By Scott J Robinson
Price: Free! Words: 2,530. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Fiction » Fantasy » Epic

A kiss that came too late. A month that slipped away while he waited for the end of the world.

Seasons with Christ, My journey from different to distinguished

By Maretha Retief
Price: Free! Words: 34,220. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2014. Category: Nonfiction » Religion and Spirituality » Christian Life / Inspirational

Seasons with Christ is a personal story of finding acceptance and purpose in Jesus Christ. It shows that God’s love is never-ending, His grace is sufficient, and He has a perfect plan for you.

Big Ban Theory: Elementary Essence Applied to Carbon and Sunflower Diaries 2nd and 3rd, Volume 6

By Rod Island
Price: Free! Words: 27,900. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Nonfiction » New Age » Numerology

Volume 6 is a continuation of redoing the "Sunflower Diaries" and "Magical ME" Series. It shows highlights of the news for 6/21 of 2014 on the day "Sunflower Diaries" Volumes 2 and 3 were reprinted in this publication.

Midsummer Night's Dance of the Ethereal Spiders - An Eldapa Tale

By David Brant
Price: Free! Words: 2,670. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Fiction » Inspirational

Encompassing the magic and mischief of the sprights of William Shakespeare's Midsummer Dream, and so very much more, the very real master elsprights, launch their weavers - their Ethereal Spiders - to dance in rhythm with of the season, and weave together the Els - the elevated spirits in all of us - into the fabric of the elsphere - where it all comes together for greater good!

Vietnam War Elegy

By G. Lowell Tollefson
Price: Free! Words: 2,320. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Fiction » Poetry » Biography

This poem was born on a hilltop over forty-five years ago in Vietnam. It is the result of the experiences both of its author and the Vietnamese people. Its many fragments came together into final form twenty five years later. The length of time it took to develop this elegy is a testament to the enduring impact of the Vietnam conflict on our national psyche and the men and women who served there.

From The Deer Forest: A Story of Wolves

By G. Lowell Tollefson
Price: Free! Words: 16,450. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Fiction » Historical » Ancient

Before Europeans arrived in the Pacific Northwest rainforest, deer, wolves, elk and man lived in balance. This story follows a single pack of wolves in the pristine wilderness of what we now call the Olympic Mountains and the Hoh River valley as they give birth, raise their young, fight for survival, and endure as part of this majestic web of life.

Undead L.A. 1: LAX

By Devan Sagliani
Price: Free! Words: 13,760. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Fiction » Horror » Crime

When it comes to safely navigating 747's Edgar Reynolds is a consummate professional. It's his personal life that's in shambles after a string of affairs he couldn't be bothered to hide. None of that matters to him the morning he wakes up to discover he's smack dead in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Now what's important is that he survives long enough to hijack a plane from LAX and flee!

The Grove Health Science Series:Book 4

By Sari Grove
Price: Free! Words: 23,670. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Nonfiction » Science and Nature » Life Sciences / Neuroscience

The assumption is that there are 22 brain parts that PAIR...The pairing should be in the Minus Plus format...So each paired couple of brain parts should have Minus & Plus designations...Female & Male possibly...This should straighten out some of the complexity of brain surgery for neurosurgeons...(& DIY Neurosurgeons LOL!!!)

The Path To Eternal Life 1

By Mary O Ajakaiye
Price: Free! Words: 1,140. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Nonfiction » Inspiration » Personal inspiration

The path to eternal life is a story about Rachel at the age of thirty shares her life experience on her journey filled with sorrows ,pain ,betrayals but had to endure this path to fulfill Gods purpose for her life

Silly Stream Children's Book

By Sean McLaughlin
Price: Free! Words: 10. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2014. Category: Fiction » Children’s books » Animals

Come join Sam, a fun loving and curious salmon, as he is born in the beautiful but trying Callahan River (nicknamed Silly Stream!). Join him as he embarks on his first journey upstream, unaware of the countless adventures or dangers that lie ahead. Well, gather the kids together and get ready to take them on this incredible journey, that will hopefully not just leave them inspired but you as well!

These books are free as and according to Author's discretion.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Daily sales reports

Smashwords

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Smashwords Adds Daily Sales Reporting for iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and OverDrive

Smashwords today added daily sales reporting and interactive charting for sales at iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OverDrive and the Smashwords store.

The reports include daily and total order accumulation numbers for iBooks preorders.

The reports provide authors and publishers unprecedented insight into recent sales performance across the largest Smashwords retailers. Authors can use the reports to gain rapid feedback on the effectiveness of marketing and promotion campaigns.

You can view your aggregated performance over the prior seven day or 30 day period, with drill-down views by retailer, title or series. There are also one-click filters to view priced books, free books, all books and accumulated preorders (iBooks only). Publishers and literary agents who manage multiple authors can drill down and view author-specific performance.

If you want to compare the performance of two or three series across different retailers, you can do it. If you want to measure the impact of a blog tour, an advertisement, a price change, a new cover image, a new release in a series or a new free series starter or anything else, the results are now at your fingertips.

Each chart is also accompanied by a table that shows how the recent 7- or 30-day period compares to the prior 7- or 30-day period.

Reports are updated same-day dailyevery three hours for Barnes & Noble; next-day daily for iBooks and Kobo; and same-day daily every 30 minutes for the Smashwords store.

Sales data can be downloaded as a spreadsheet.

Find the new charts in your Dashboard via the Daily Sales link. Learn more about daily charting in our Daily Reporting FAQ.

What's coming next with Daily Sales: We'll continue to add more retailers to the daily charts as retailers make their data available to us. Also, in the months ahead as we begin archiving more daily trending data, and we'll add options for longer analysis periods such as 60 days, 90 days and longer.

Consolidate Your Distribution with Smashwords

If you're uploading direct to any of our major retailers such as Barnes & Noble, iBooks or Kobo, consider consolidating your distribution with Smashwords. We help you spend more time writing and less time managing multiple upload platforms. By aggregating your sales analytics at Smashwords, we make it easier for you to spot trends, measure performance and adjust your marketing. If you want to change a price, or update your book description or upload a new cover, you do it once at Smashwords and we get it out to all our retailer and library partners. All Smashwords authors enjoy centralized pricing and metadata management, aggregrated sales reporting, exclusive sales and merchandising tools, access to a growing network of retail and library sales channels, and consolidated payments and year-end tax reporting.

At Smashwords, we're always working to bring you the tools, distribution and knowledge that will give your books a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Smashwords Daily Reports joins other powerful tools at Smashwords including Smashwords Coupon Manager (custom coupon codes),Preorder Distribution (preorder listings at iBooks, B&N and Kobo),Smashwords Series Manager(enhanced series discoverability),Pricing Manager (centralized pricing control and custom library pricing),Smashwords Interviews (fun self-inteviewing tool helps readers learn the story behind the author). More tools are coming!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Apples new iOS 8 a plus for ebooks

Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Apple's New iOS 8 is Game-Changer for eBook Retailing

Yesterday Apple unveiled iOS 8, the new Apple operating system upgrade that will come out this fall. Buried in a slide during the live demo event referenced as "iOS 8 features we didn’t have time to talk about" was an ebook retailing bombshell: iBooks will come pre-installed on iOS 8. The iBooks app is Apple's ebook store. Inside that app are over 250,000 books from Smashwords authors. This is a game-changer for ebook retailing. iBooks will come pre-loaded on every device with iOS 8. Image modified from original sourced from BGR.com According to the latest public information, there are over 800 million devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad) running prior versions of Apple's iOS. The new iOS will be available as a free upgrade to users of the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2, iPad with Retina display, iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina tdisplay. Prior to iOS 8, readers who wanted to shop iBooks were forced to click to the Apple App store, search for the iBooks app, sign in with their email address and password, and then install it. The absence of a pre-installed app created unnecessary friction. It means only a fraction of Apple's customer base today has convenient access to your books (which makes the enormous success of iBooks all the more impressive). Yesterday's news means iBooks will become ubiquitous. It'll be like having a bookstore in nearly one billion pockets and purses. It's not a stretch to speculate that within a couple years, the iBooks app will be ever-present on over one billion devices around the world. Apple's brilliant move will place your books just one or two clicks from being discovered by readers. How can you make the most of this new development? Make sure all your books are at iBooks ASAP. As we announced May 18, Smashwords now delivering ebooks to iBooks five times daily, seven days per week, and many of our books and preorder listings are going live in the store within hours of us delivering them. If your books are locked in the dungeon of exclusivity elsewhere, release them today on Smashwords! If you're not yet on Smashwords, click here to get started today. Promote direct hyperlinks to iBooks. Make sure that on your blog, website and in all your social media promotions that you're providing a direct hyperlink to your books at iBooks. With a direct hyperlink, your book page will open directly within the reader's iOS device, and with another click they can purchase it. Use Apple's Link Maker or Widget Builder tools to find links or create attractive widgets that point directly to your book at iBooks. Link your series with Smashwords Series Manager. If you write series, make sure your books are linked with Smashwords' Series Manager tool, which you'll find in your Smashwords Dashboard. We pass this enhanced metadata on to iBooks, and they use it to make series books more discoverable. Also referenced in fine print on the slide above is a mention of enhanced series listings in iBooks for iOS 8, which means we can expect the Series Manager metadata to become more important than ever to iBooks merchandising and reader discovery.

Congrats Smashwords authors!