When a full moon fills the night sky, Private Investigator Roman Dalton becomes a werewolf and prowls The City’s neon and blood soaked streets.

Stories by Matt Hilton, Vincent Zandri, Chad Eagleton, Carrie Clevenger, JJ Toner, Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw, Chris Rhatigan, Ben Sobieck, Ben Lelièvre, Paul D. Brazill.

Introduction by Richard Godwin.

Art by Marcin Drzewiecki & Jason Michel.

Published by Pulp Metal Fiction.

Paul D. Brazill presents Drunk On The Moon 2.

Banner by Carrie Clevenger.

Drunk On The Moon 2

Stories by Matt Hilton, Vincent Zandri, Chad Eagleton, Carrie Clevenger, JJ Toner, Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw, Chris Rhatigan, Ben Sobieck, Ben Lelièvre, Paul D. Brazill.

Introduction by Richard Godwin.

Art by Marcin Drzewiecki.

Published by Pulp Metal Fiction.

The genre is Thriller with a 4.5 star rating at only 99 Cents!

“Secure your seat belt before embarking on this ride! Just a warning to expect twists and turns aplenty on JJ Toner’s wild crime ride. I’d say that this was a page-turner and if I was just reading to be entertained that would be true. But, I’m also a writer and I had to keep stopping to make notes on his techniques that I plan to steal for my own writing! I’ll leave it to others to deliver the plot points–I’ll just say that the tension never leaves the page and Ben Jordan doesn’t spiral down into the abyss–he plunges into it head-first. And, lest you think all is grim on the Toner landscape, the black humor he employs at just the right moment lightens the read with delicious and perfect pitch. Get this book and then keep your eyes open for his next one!” –Les Edgerton (Amazon Review) 

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2004 Ireland is Tiger country. Aloysius Lafferty, one of Dublin’s biggest crime lords, specializes in armored car heists, raids on post offices and “Tiger” kidnappings.

DI Ben Jordan of Dublin’s Organized Crime Unit has spent three years on Lafferty’s case when a lucky break uncovers the handgun used to kill one of Lafferty’s rivals. The trail leads Jordan to the low-life who pulled the trigger. To save his own skin, the shooter agrees to give evidence against Lafferty, and Jordan and his team hide him away in a country hotel.

But before the trial can start, the witness and his minder are shot, and the case against Lafferty collapses. Lafferty is released and goes on the offensive.

Purchase St Patrick’s Day Special: click here

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About The Author

JJ Toner has 35 short stories and 3 completed novels. He’s working on a YA dystopian. To the end of 2011 his first two eBooks and 3 shorts have been released on Kindle. He also wrote a short story, Noir Nation issue #1, as well as a story included in The Kindle All Stars : Resistance Front published 9 December 2011.

Available now for purchase from Amazon.com

Available soon for purchase from Amazon.com

Bartlett Rebooted by JJ Toner

JJ has released another one of his short stories from his anthology Ovolution and Other Stories. 

Here’s the blurb:

A university professor gets military funding for a madcap experiment.

There’s more to this story than just what the blurb tells you.  After one of the professor’s colleagues dies in an accident he and another partner decide to “reboot” their friend’s brain for a military experiment.  This story is not all dry and boring about just this experiment.  There are several times that I had to chuckle with what ensues between the three colleagues with making this experiment work.

The cover for this story was a lot of fun to do…as you can probably see  You need to read the story to find out why this cover is “special” as JJ says on his blog:  Wild Thoughts by JJ Toner.

Happy Reading!

Ooze by JJ Toner

This short story by JJ Toner is very unusual but I really enjoyed it.  It’s about the first contact between two very different species.   If you like a bit of SciFi reading and want to read a story that doesn’t take too much time you need to check this out.

This was a fun book cover to design.  It’s very simple but I think it is perfect for the story.  Sometimes simple is best!  Also JJ is so much fun to work with.  Check out his blog at:

Wild Thoughts by JJ Toner

Ovolution and Other Stories, by JJ Toner

Ovolution and Other Stories, by JJ Toner
Available at:
Amazon, Smashwords

Description:  10 fun SF stories in the tradition of Douglas Adams and R A Lafferty.

Ovolution: What would happen if women laid eggs?

Children Admitted Free: A mission to find the source of a mysterious message from deep space.

Deca-Millennium Bug: Remember the millennium bug? It’s all going to happen again in 9999. Better get ready!

Intelligent Design: How it all went wrong right at the start.

Scouting Party: First Contact, Love and Golf.

Snugglesuit: The adventures of an irrepressible inventor.

Bartlett Rebooted: The human brain is more resilient than people think.

Short Back and Sides: An alien abduction and a great haircut.

Ooze: It’s life, but could it be intelligent, and can we eat it?

The Perfect Woman: Baron von Frankenstein’s assistant finally succeeds, but will he survive the experience?

Excerpt:

Captain Dennison put away his Readers Digest and surveyed the scene through a tiny window.

“What d’you think, Skipper?” said Pauli, his crewman.

“Looks even more like Hell up close,” said Dennison. “What’s the surface temperature like out there?”

“Touching a hundred forty degrees, sir.”

“Gravity?”

“Tolerable. Maybe G plus five percent.”

“And the atmosphere?”

“Oxygen-nitrogen, but with heavy concentrations of sulfur dioxide and fine-grain ash.”

The captain’s eyes glazed over. “Fire and brimstone, in other words.”

Crewman Pauli said nothing. He knew better than to disturb the captain during one of his Milton moments.

The rain came. A deluge. Hammering on the outer skin of the shuttle, it sounded like a thousand million crazed aliens desperate to smash their way in. The downpour lasted ten minutes and then stopped abruptly.

Pauli peered out the window. “I think it’s stopped,” he said.

“D’you think the air’s breathable?”

“I doubt it, sir.”

Captain Dennison sighed. “Only one way to find out. Break out the haz suits and fetch Rembrandt. The quicker we get the job done and blast off this hell-hole the better.”

The two men emerged from the shuttle in their silver haz suits, Pauli carrying a white rat in a cage. The planet steamed like a giant sauna.

Within thirty seconds Rembrandt was twitching violently. One minute later the rat turned up its toes and died.

Through the mist the two men could see a vast yellow plain stretching out below them, surrounded by dark mountains. The sky was dark, partly obscured by a dirty cloud of super-fine volcanic ash, and dominated by the larger of the two suns. A red giant, this sun appeared purple, while its smaller companion looked like a bright blue moon sitting on its shoulder. Of course the large sun was not really purple, any more than the small one was blue. The dust particles in the upper atmosphere accounted for their strange color, and for the color of the sky itself.

“Weird,” Pauli muttered.

“What, the brown clouds?” said Dennison.

“Yeah, that and the two suns, and the yellow snow. Everything, really.”

“I don’t think that’s snow, Crewman. Not at these temperatures.”

“Right. So what is it, Skipper?”

“I don’t know. Let’s take a closer look.”

They scrambled down the slope, past steaming fissures and yellow sulfur deposits, to the edge of the plain. Up close, it looked like a vast lake stretching to the mountain.

“Looks like my mother’s carrot and coriander soup,” Pauli said.

Dennison shook his head inside his haz helmet. “I don’t think it’s liquid. It’s not moving. No waves. And look closely at the edge.”

Pauli hunkered down. Right where the yellow substance began there was a distinct edge, and it had thickness—maybe three millimeters. The captain was right. It wasn’t liquid. Pauli poked it with a gloved finger, starting a tiny ripple that radiated away across the lake, growing as it went.

Captain Dennison pointed his Gismo—General Instrumental Scientific Monitor—at the yellow mass. “No readings,” he said. “None that make any sense, anyhow.”

“How’s the Geiger count?” Pauli said.

Dennison checked his Gismo again. “The reading’s high, but I figure that’s to be expected, given the volcanic activity.”

“Any life signs?”

“None.”

“Strange,” said Pauli. “There’s no shortage of water.”

Dennison said, “At these temperatures, there must be a rapid evaporation-precipitation cycle.”

“You mean it’s gonna rain again soon?”

“Bet your house on it.,” said Dennison. “What’s surprising is that it hasn’t vented out of the atmosphere eons ago.”

The rain started again, right on cue. Dennison’s backpack fizzled in the torrent.

“What about the minerals?” Pauli shouted. “Where should we look?” Long distance spectrometry had identified the MMG binary system as a probable source of a variety of useful minerals. The detailed spectroscopic survey had pinpointed MMG73 as the exact location of many.

“Difficult to tell. Everything around here’s pumice. Find me a rock sample.”

Pauli hunted around until he found a heavy rock. He chipped a small piece off and zapped it with an electrolytic charge from the Gismo, then peered at the reading. “It’s showing fifty percent silica, with some iron and magnesium.”

“Classic mafic igneous rock,” Dennison said. “Take a look over there.” He pointed toward the nearest mountain.

“What am I looking at?”

“See the way the yellow stuff’s laying on the slope?”

Pauli saw it. It looked as though it had washed up the contour of the mountain and stuck there, like a thin coat of paint.

The rain stopped again and the landscape immediately began to steam.

“Looks like paint,” Pauli said. An involuntary shiver ran down his back.

“Don’t be abstruse,” Dennison said, giving his word-power word-of-the-day an airing.

A mighty seismic tremor shook the ground under their feet. Instinctively, they reached out to each other for support. Pauli dropped the Gismo.

“Shit!” said Dennison.

The device ricocheted off the rock and sailed out over the lake. When it hit the surface it bounced, then rolled, coming to rest fifty feet out.

“Oops!” Pauli said. Then, “It floats!”

“Shit!” said Dennison again.

A creature like a four-foot long, segmented millipede leapt from a steaming fissure and scuttled over Pauli’s boot.

“Holy crap!” he shouted, instinctively kicking out at the creature, propelling it onto the lake. The millipede landed on its back, righted itself immediately, and headed back toward the shore as fast as its legs would go. It had traveled no more than a couple of yards before a small wave rose from the lake’s surface and folded itself over the creature. A moment later the wave disappeared and the creature was gone.

“Did you see that, Skipper?” Pauli said.

“I’m not sure what I saw.” Dennison’s voice sounded strained.

“The yellow paint stuff swallowed the creepy-crawler creature.”

“Right. That’s what I thought I saw. Let’s get on with it.”

Pauli said, “I’ll get the Gismo, Skipper,” taking a step toward the lake.

Dennison held out a restraining arm. “Not so fast, Crewman. We don’t know that it’ll support your weight.”

Captain Dennison picked up Pauli’s rock and threw it. It bounced and rolled to a halt. Concentric ripples ran across the surface, radiating outward from the rock and running on and on eerily to the horizon on all sides, apparently without diminution.

Pauli said, “Looks strong enough.”

“Okay, I’ll go,” said Captain Dennison.

He pulled a rope from Pauli’s backpack. Pauli tied one end around the captain’s waist and wrapped the other end around his own shoulders. Captain Dennison placed a foot on the yellow lake and tested it. It held firm. Taking a deep breath, he put both feet on the surface. It wobbled like rubber, but supported his weight well enough. He took a few steps away from the edge, stopped, and flexed his knees. The surface reacted like a trampoline, but with a strange dampened effect and more weird ripples.

With each step, volcanic ash fell from Captain Dennison’s boots, leaving dark footprints on the surface.

Dennison was twelve feet from the Gismo when Pauli called out, “Don’t you think that’s odd, Skipper?”

“What? Don’t be abstruse, Crewman.”

“Look at your footprints, sir. And why are there no boulders on the surface?”

“What d’you mean? There’s one.”

“Yes, but shouldn’t there be more? And shouldn’t there be a layer of ash on there, given the active volcanoes?”

Pauli was spooked. He wondered if the captain was too.

Dennison hesitated. “I expect the rain washed it all away,” he said with a wave of his gloved hand.

Three rapid steps took him to the Gismo. He picked it up and turned back. That was when Pauli knew the captain was spooked; his face was white as a ghost behind the visor of his helmet.

Dennison’s boots began to sink.

“You’re sinking, Skipper!” Pauli shouted, taking up the slack in the rope.

“I can see that, Crewman,” Dennison said. “Give me some help. Use the rope.”

Pauli pulled on the rope and Dennison managed two steps, sinking further each time. Another short half-step and Dennison came to a halt, buried to his knees in yellow goo. He was no more than twelve yards from safety.

“It’s slimy underneath. I can’t get any purchase,” he said. “Pull harder, Crewman.”

Pauli wrapped the rope around his waist and applied his full weight to the task, the prospect of losing his skipper in this desolate hell too horrible to contemplate. He had no success. With so much loose pumice on the ground, it was impossible to find a firm footing. Dennison sank as far as his hips. Leaning forward, he dug his fingers into the rubbery material in an attempt to drag himself free. Pauli continued to heave on the rope, but it was hopeless.

Pauli dropped the rope and stepped out onto the lake.

“Stay back,” Dennison shouted. “That’s an order.”

Pauli ignored him. “Take my hands, Skipper.”

Dennison dropped the Gismo and they locked arms. Pauli pulled as hard as he could, but Captain Dennison remained stuck fast.

The lake began to wave and fold over Pauli’s boots. Panicked, he tugged at them and managed a couple of backward steps before he, too, became bogged down in the rubbery slime.

In desperation Pauli pulled out his sidearm and fired into the lake. The bullet vanished below the surface with a soft schplock sound. Schplock, schplock, schplock, schplock, schplock, schplock, schplock, schplock, schplock. Pauli emptied his gun into the yellow rubber.

Both men continued to sink.

“Any ideas, Skipper?” Pauli said.

Dennison shook his head. The horror in his eyes told Pauli everything: The captain was resigned to his fate. The glutinous yellow material had reached Dennison’s chest. It was over Pauli’s knees already.

“If they come looking for us they’ll find the Gismo. That should warn them to stay clear,” Dennison said. “You’ve been a great crewman, Crewman. It was an honor to serve with you.”

“You too, sir.”

“Aren’t you afraid?” Dennison said.

“No sir. Not yet, anyway.” Pauli’s mother had always said he lacked imagination.

Ovolution and Other Stories, by JJ Toner
Available at:
Amazon, Smashwords

We have spoken on this blog several times about what the future holds for agents in a world where publishers are disintermediated by the dominance of e-books and the marginalisation of bookstores.

Some agents are responding to the fall in advances and the collapse of print by seeking alternative revenue streams: editing services, creative writing classes, and, worst of all, becoming publishers.

However, it’s now becoming very clear that some agents have decided that the time spent dealing with the fire-hose of submissions would be better spent scouring the Amazon rankings for indie writers.

When I suggested this on a writing forum, I was told to “get real”. Some people are so scared of the changes occurring in the publishing industry that they are willing to go on record and deny basic, provable facts.

Noah Lukeman has been closed to submissions for some time. That in itself is not surprising, a simple glance at the list of awards his clients have won will tell you that this an agent in demand. What is notable is that he is now signing self-publishers.

The powerhouse agency Trident Media Group have been extremely vocal about what a terrible idea it is for agents to become publishers. What are they doing instead? They have signed five self-published writers this year.

To anyone who still doubts that this is occurring, or that it’s becoming more common, here are a list of self-published writers that have been approached by, and signed by, New York agents in the last twelve months: Mel Comley, LC Evans, Victorine Lieske, Scott Neumyer, Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Linda Welch, Lynda Hillburn, Christopher Smith, Nancy Johnson, Colleen Houck.

On top of those eleven writers, several more have been approached by publishers directly (both foreign and domestic), or have been approached by agents but haven’t signed anything yet. Over half were signed in the last three months.

This is far from an exhaustive list. This was an hour’s research on one self-publishing forum. I’m sure there are lots more. It doesn’t include indie writers who snagged an agent through querying with their impressive sales numbers, and it obviously doesn’t include successful indie writers who have no interest in retaining an agent.

I’m not sure why anyone would argue against this. It makes perfect sense. If a self-published writer is in the Top 200, they have something special on their hands. They have built a huge audience, often with no expenditure other than time.

Smart agents will realise that even though they have sold thousands of e-books, they haven’t come close to saturating the market yet. After all, over 70% of sales are still in print, and most indies either don’t bother with a print version, or haven’t been able to get it into stores.

And even if you go further down the rankings, and the quality becomes a little more uneven, it has to be better than looking through the dreck that makes up most slush-piles. On top of that, there is always the chance that you will catch a rising indie star before they have fully broken out.

I don’t want to get into the discussion now about whether writers should have agents at all. That’s a whole other can of worms, and I’m not opening it today.

Let’s just assume, for the purposes of this discussion, that any writer who’s smart enough to get a self-published book into the Top 200 is smart enough to make that decision for themselves, and to educate themselves about all the pitfalls surrounding contracts and whatnot.

That said, this development raises a number of questions for self-publishers. First is, do you even want a publishing deal? This might seem like a stupid question, but for writers that have been through the trade publishing mill, and have switched over to self-publishing, this is a real question.

They are enjoying the creative control, the reduced time to market, the lack of restrictions on titles released per year, the freedom to write anything, and, of course, the far superior royalty rates. Also, they have built an audience in print, and a trade deal wouldn’t have the advantage of exposing them to as many new readers.

However, for indie writers who haven’t been trade published before, there is at least 70% of the market they haven’t tapped yet. For them, a print deal with a large house that can get their books in stores across America, and boost their profile with a promotional push in mainstream media, is a very attractive proposition.

The main question for these writers is, what are you willing to give up for a print deal? Reduced royalties are a given. But are you willing to take your e-book off the market before a deal is signed? Are you willing to restrict your output? How much control are you willing to cede over the creative process? Can you still self-publish other work, and what restrictions will there be on that?

These are all tough questions, and each indie writer in this position will have to answer them for themselves. Obviously, the terms of the deal will be a big factor. But it’s not all about money. Would a big cheque be enough for you to risk losing the audience you have carefully built up by having no new work out for at least a year?

Ovolution & Other Stories by JJ Toner

Fellow Irishman – and all-round good egg – JJ Toner has released his first e-book, a collection of ten fun, humorous science-fiction shorts (although you get a lot of story in each one).

I bought it the other day, read the first one yesterday, and will enjoy dipping into the rest over the next week. If you like surreal, absurd stories, if you like science-fiction that’s not afraid to crack a smile, or if you like Douglas Adams or Grant Naylor (Red Dwarf), then you are sure to enjoy these.

Check them out at Amazon, Amazon UK, and Smashwords, and follow his blog here.

Let’s Get Digital

I still haven’t sent the manuscript off to the editor, but I have a good excuse. I’ve been playing around with the structure, but I think I’ve got it now.

The first part will be called “The Digital Revolution” and will encompass a lot of the themes I have been writing about on this blog: the challenges facing the publishing industry, piracy, the future for agents and booksellers, Amazon and so on.

This will be followed by a brief section on how you can make money in this changing climate with information on submitting to agents and publishing houses, short story magazine markets, and, of course, the various places where you can sell self-published work.

Next up is the heart of the book, a hands-on guide to digital self-publishing. This will be familiar to any of you who have been following my series INDIE PUBLISHING FOR INTERNATIONAL WRITERS, except all the information will be updated, rewritten, professionally edited, and put in a slightly more logical order.

The final section was a last-minute addition, and it’s called “Success Stories”. First, I thought of writing about 10 or 20 indie writers who have all achieved success in one way or another. Then, I thought it would be much better if we heard it from them directly, in their own words.

I have some amazing contributors who have generously agreed to take part, but I can’t reveal their identities just yet. But trust me, these stories are going to look amazing side-by-side, and I can’t wait to show them to you. The release date is pencilled in for the last week of the June.

And, as I mentioned before, the whole 50,000 word e-book will be available free in PDF format here on this blog. If you want a version that will work on your e-reader or smartphone, you will have to pay $2.99 for it.

I’m aware that this might be unfair for anyone with eyesight difficulties, and I am trying to come up with a solution. I’m toying with the idea of relying on the honesty of the general public, and asking those with eyesight difficulties to email me, and I will send them the mobi or epub file free of charge. If anyone has a better idea (and there’s got to be a better idea), please let me know.

I think the free version has a very good chance of being popular, especially considering that it’s based on a blog which has had over 11,000 views in its first two months.

I’m hoping that those that find the free version useful, will either spring for the paid version, gift it to someone else, or purchase on of my other titles. I will have costs to cover, and I may end up making a loss on it.

But if the free version is hugely popular, that will be its own reward.

Tomorrow, I will continue my free guide to self-publishing with a section on pricing. Today, I want to look at some of the big news stories of the last week or so.

The E-Reader War Hots Up

On Monday, Canadian upstart Kobo launched a new touchscreen e-reader for the tasty price of $129.99. It only weighs 200 grams (take that, iPad!) and uses the same e-ink technology as the Kindle (easy on the eyes, can be read in sunlight). It can store up to 1,000 books (and can be expanded to 30,000 with memory cards).

One thing Amazon should take note of is that it will be available in multiple languages: English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian, and “customers will be able to use a localised store in their own language”. As a contrast, Amazon only ships the Kindle in English and with English instructions, usually with a US plug attached.

The following day, Barnes & Noble – who seem to have no interest in the international market – announced their new touchscreen e-ink Nook. While they have trumped the new Kobo on memory (can store 2,000 books) and battery-life (2 months rather than 1 month), it just doesn’t look as pretty. It will retail for $139.99

Amazon countered with their latest offering, an ad-supported 3G Kindle, priced at $164. The ads only display on start-up and when the Kindle is “sleeping”, but if that bothers you an ad-free version is available for $189.

Expect even more models and even lower prices by September in time for the holiday season. What will this mean? More people switching to e-books, and a surge in e-book sales as they “load up” their devices. This market is getting bigger all the time, and it’s only going to get bigger.

Waterstones Bought for £53m

The largest book chain in the UK – Waterstones – has finally found a buyer - news that will be cheered by everyone in the book business in the UK (and readers too). Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut’s first move was to appoint highly respected indie bookseller James Daunt as the managing director.

Excellent analysis over at Declan Conner’s blog.

Liberty Media makes play for Barnes & Noble

In a surprise move, John Malone’s Liberty Media have made an offer to buy 70% of Barnes & Noble in a deal that would value the company at $1.02 billion, if it goes ahead. One of the prime motivators for such a high price seems to be the outstanding success of the Nook colour, which has captured some market share from Amazon.

New Imprint for Amazon

Last week, Amazon launched their fifth publishing imprint. Thomas & Mercer will focus on mysteries and thrillers, launching with four titles in the fall. This comes hot on the heels of their announcement regarding their new romance imprint, Montlake.

In addition, Amazon have snapped up industry heavyweight Larry Kirshbaum to set up a further imprint which is expected to focus on non-fiction and literary fiction. Hiring the former head of Time Warner Books, and more recently LJK Literary Management, is a clear statement of intent from Amazon.

While Amazon has been slowly getting into the publishing game, this latter move is a clear ramping-up, and will make it very real for a lot of people in trade publishing.

It will be interesting to see if anyone (indie bookstores, Barnes & Noble) refuse to stock Amazon’s books.

Konrath’s Indie fight & Smith’s gift card

On that note, there was another dust-up over at Joe Konrath’s blog. This time, Konrath was the target of some ire, rather than his guest. He had gotten wind of a mooted boycott by indie bookstores of his new title Stirred (co-written with Blake Crouch), in response to it being published by Amazon’s new imprint.

Konrath was clearly stung by this, which is understandable given his history of marathon book tours and all-day signings, and he made a plea to indie booksellers not to go through with it. He rounded off his post with some interesting suggestions on how indie booksellers could survive in the digital age.

Things, as usual, heated up in the comments, with some anonymous posters suggesting Konrath was getting his just desserts for voraciously championing e-books and Amazon. Many indie writers defended him, pointing out that if all indie writers disappeared tomorrow, indie booksellers would still face the exact same set of problems.

Others chimed in to add to Konrath’s & Crouch’s list of ways indie booksellers could weather the digital storm and partner with indies.

However, my favourite suggestion came separately in a fascinating blog post from Dean Wesley Smith. He has a superb, creative idea on how indie booksellers could sell e-books that I’ve never heard before.

Check it out, it could be a low-risk way for indie writers to get their books into indie bookstores, without creating a print version, that works well for both parties.

Eoin Purcell & The Value Web

Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the moving parts in this chaotic new publishing world. Eoin Purcell does a better job than anyone in his latest blog post of explaining how all the parts fit together.

In essence, he shows how the old linear publishing value chain (from author, to agent, to publisher, to distributor, to bookseller, to retailer, then to reader) has broken down, and what is replacing it is something far more chaotic and complex.

EPUB 3 Introduced

Have you ever wondered why it seems that most e-books are fiction? As someone who is assembling a non-fiction title right now, I can tell you they are a lot more complex.

All those bells and whistles that print books use to break up text – different fonts, boxes, graphs, pictures, charts, pictograms, and creative layouts – are difficult or impossible to do with e-books because of the limitations of the various formats (especially MOBI, which is favoured by Amazon).

At the IDPF conference in the run-up to BookExpo America (which is taking place right now) they discussed the release of EPUB3, which is hoped will become the new industry standard. I hope so too, it will allow a lot more flexibility in formatting, which is crucial for non-fiction.

Amazon To Accept EPUB Files

In related news, Amazon has told publishers that it will begin accepting EPUB files in the near future, and, crucially, will allow Kindle readers to read EPUB files (instead of MOBI). This is a great move, and will streamline book production in the future.

Writers who sign with Amazon’s imprints are usually bound with exclusivity clauses regarding the sale of their e-books, i.e. the Kindle store only. This will make prospective deals with Amazon’s imprints juicier for writers, as they will no longer be locking out fans who own e-readers other than the Kindle.

Reviews

If You Go Into The Woods got an excellent, thoughtful review from BookedinChico. I’m very grateful, thank you. Also, Irish author JJ Toner gave Transfection four stars on Goodreads.

I’m looking forward to his upcoming release, a collection of science fiction shorts very much in the mould of Douglas Adams and Grant Naylor.  You can read the blurb here.

Transfection Competition Winners

The competition was a great success. There was a big surge in blog traffic, and sales for both my titles jumped. Because I am such a big softie, I decided to give a free copy to everyone who helped spread the word.

I have email addresses for some of you – you should already have your free copy – and I have sent messages to the rest on Twitter.

It’s likely that I missed one or two, so if you entered (retweeted, posted on Facebook, or blogged), and you haven’t heard from me by now, please get in touch – I have a free copy of Transfection for you. You can leave a note in the comments below, or send an email to david dot gaughran at gmail dot com.

Don’t be shy!