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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

LibertyCon and some Free Books

I mentioned in passing last week that I was going to LibertyCon, the SF/Fantasy book convention in Chattanooga. It was a three day event and with it so close, we decided to just drive down each day. Of course, there was torrential rain two of the three days, making driving miserable, and with events running well into the night, I'm still catching up on my sleep. On the plus side, I met a number of authors and managed to attend a number of sessions on epublishing (including a rather heated discussion of DRM and piracy, with some authors and agents on the side of calling library patrons and families that pass around a book, thieves, while others feel that DRM only hurts sales (and they won't buy books, themselves, that have it). Other than that, the panels were a mix of indie and midlist authors, for the most part, along with several big names, such as Brandon Sanderson, that write in the genre. And yes, that's Jerry Pournelle signing my Nook Tablet above - he and David Niven, sitting next to him, weren't the only authors that said it was a first for them to sign an ereader, something that I found surprising, as I had my first Kindle signed years ago and have seen various ereaders at other book signings since.

One of the authors that I ran into was John Hartness, seen here at the signing table. We had actually corresponded a bit in the past, but he took my card without looking at it (bad, bad author!); later, we were sitting at lunch after one of his panel sessions and he mentioned blog tours and was trying to explain to someone what they were, when I mentioned that he had sent me an email or two in the past when he had free books. Once he realized which blog it was that I wrote, he was quick to make sure I had seen the notice about the upcoming free days for Genesis, the first title in his Return to Eden YA series. It's free today, but tip to John: don't forget to tell me which days it's supposed to be free, not just "next week", okay?

Book Description
The end of the world was just the beginning.

Now they have to stay alive.

17-year-old Christin Kinsey started the day with nothing more pressing than an English exam. But when an EMP attack knocked out all technology across the globe, she found herself in the mountains of Georgia trying to stay alive in a world suddenly thrown back in time a hundred years or more.

And when she starts shooting lightning bolts out of her hands, things get really weird. Christin, her younger brother Matt, and Matt’s cute friend Dave have to figure out what this new world is about, why they suddenly have super powers, and what happened to their mom in this apocalyptic fantasy novel geared for audiences 16 and up.

Mad Max meets X-Men: First Class in the first book of the Return to Eden trilogy by the best-selling author of The Black Knight Chronicles.
I don't think any of the other authors that were in attendance are currently running any special free promotions, other than the behind-the-scenes audiobook excerpt from Timothy Zahn. A couple of the authors do have a short story free now and then, but nothing currently, from what I can see.

In the dealer's room, besides the autograph tables and the required cluster of booksellers, there were also a number of authors with tables and even an artist or two. Mark A. Helwig had a great coffee mug with "Mornings are Evil" on one side (now on my desk), as well as a number of originals and prints for sale.

Sarah Hoyt was on hand to read from her forthcoming release of Darkship Renegades. Like Darkship Thieves, you can get the paper edition thru Amazon, but if you want the ebook, you'll need to order it direct from Baen Books, either on it's own for $6 ($15 for the eArc early release) or as part of a monthly bundle, once it hits the catalog (it should be there next month, but you can get Darkship Thieves now).





For those who aren't yet aware of it's existence, be sure to check out the Baen Free Library, where Baen and their authors make a number of books free on a semi-permanent basis (authors can remove the works there at any time and that does happen now and then). It's such a great resource that I have a permanent link to it on the right sidebar. The contents are mostly hard Science Fiction and Fantasy, but there are a number of short story anthologies, some non-fiction and ezines included, as well. Eric Flint, seen at the far left on this book panel discussion, swears that having 1632 and 1633 there as free downloads is one of the major reasons he's now a bestselling author (you'll find hardcovers of his latest in most bookstores, not just at Amazon and ebooks thru Baen). Read them and if you like the series, you can buy copies for your Baen library or just buy the ones that come afterwards (my stepson has read them all and has to be restrained from buying the eArc's that come out a month or two before the final release in a Baen Monthly Bundle).

For those that haven't ever had an account at Baen (this won't work if you've purchased books from them, although you can download titles from the free library without an account), I have a gift code available for the November 2011 Monthly Baen Bundle. Leave an email address and I'll pick a name and email you the code. Then, here's the fun part: if you pick someone else on the list, you can send them a gift code for the same bundle, by entering their email address in step 5 of the check out (you enter your gift card on the first page that shows up after you click on Add to Cart, then click on Update Cart before "checkout now"; You should see in about step 3 that no payment is required). I've seen these chains last for dozens of people, but if a half-dozen of you get the bundle, I'd consider this a big success. So, leave your email address below and don't use one that has been used at Baen before. The email you receive will have "has sent you a free Baen Ebooks Monthly Baen Bundle" in the title and often ends up in the spam folders for most people - so, be sure to check those while the thread is active. If you are checking out and the person you picked already has an account, you'll get a message to that effect - just pick someone else and enter their email address on step 5's page; leave a msg here, if you want, to let that person know you sent them the bundle.

And for those that just want to download a few books and read, but not participate in the giveaway, here are few that look interesting and are currently free on Kindle. Some are backlist titles brought back into "print" as ebooks, a few are from small publishers and others just had a good cover or writeup.
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