Two Books from Brian Haig for Two Bucks

From August 1st-August 31st, 2009, you could buy Brian Haig's Secret Sanction and receive a free download of Mortal Allies. At the time, both were being sold for $6.39 and I meant to order them, but never go around to doing so. This month, Secret Sanction has been marked down to $1.99 (along with a few others ... post upcoming with details) and due to what is no doubt a glitch at Amazon, you still get the second book for free. It's not the first time - several of the "expired" Buy One, Get One Free offers from Amazon still work, although there this no longer any indication of the deals on the first book's product page.

Secret Sanction
Word of Honor meets A Few Good Men in this gripping thriller that pits the Green Berets, the CIA and the U.S. government against a top Army lawyer conducting an investigation everyone wants quashed.

Mortal Allies
Army lawyer Sean Drummond has gotten himself in way over his head-with a case that challenges his deepest fears and a co-counselor who challenges just about everything else.

Two Trilogy Conclusions: Ravenshade & Final Battle

The endings to two different trilogies I've been reading were recently released on Kindle. Both are at bargain prices for a limited time. For those without a Kindle, the second series is available at Mobipocket.com, as well.

Ravenshade ($0.99), by C.S. Marks, completes the Alterra series, concluding the quest of the heroines Gaelen and Nelwyn, Wood-elves of the Greatwood Forest, began in Elfunter ($0.99) and continued in Fire-Heart ($2.99). I expect the sale price on this third volume to rise to the same $2.99 as the second volume, in the next week or so (if not sooner). You can get the entire trilogy for under $5 (under three, if you grabbed Fire-Heart when it was introduced at 99 cents), a bargain and a good read, so far, for the entire family. These are also quite large volumes - this one looks to be close to the same 2.5 MB size as the last one, as it includes all the graphics from the print version, which has a page count of "only" 540 pages versus 732 for the middle volume and for the 516 first.

Book Description
In the third of the Tales of Alterra, the World that Is…

…the Elfhunter is forced into a confrontation with Gaelen of the Greatwood, setting into motion a tale of deceit and betrayal from which neither may emerge. In an effort to prevail over his wily enemy, Gorgon forms a powerful, poisonous alliance with an ancient, sinister force darker and deadlier than any the Company has yet known. Each side must weave a web of deception that ultimately drives them deep into the ruined northern lands, even as the World of Alterra is plunged into war. Will the armies of Lord Wrothgar overwhelm all who stand against them? Does the fate of the Light rest on the shoulders of one small Wood-elf as Gaelen strives to defeat the Elfhunter at last? At the heart of it all is the Stone of Léir and the mighty but forlorn spirit trapped within it.

The second trilogy that has been completed is In Her Name, by Michael R. Hicks, concluding with the volume Final Battle ($1.59). This trilogy was released first as a single volume and was later split into three titles due to the sheer size (bookstores complained about the print edition). The author has been hard at work on a prequel trilogy, the first of which has now released (In Her Name: First Contact, $4.79), so was delayed getting the separate conclusion volume out for this first one. Not only is it available at a bargain price, he's also lowered the price of the Omnibus Edition that has all three volumes back to the original $5.59 introduction price, as well as each individual volume (Empire, Confederation, Final Battle) to $1.59, letting you choose whether or not you want all three volumes on your home page, or one massive entry where the progress bar moves along quite slowly.

Book Description
In the final book of an epic trilogy, In Her Name: Final Battle picks up where In Her Name: Confederation left off:

Reza Gard awakens in a hospital on Earth after having been in a coma for months. Charged with murder and high treason, he finds himself the scapegoat for a daring plot to assassinate the President of the Confederation.

Escaping with the help of Jodi Mackenzie, who is now hunted for what she knows about the death of the president, Reza discovers that something is deeply wrong with the Empire: the warriors have lost their will to fight. Compelled to step into a trap set for him and Jodi, the two once again find themselves bound for Erlang. But this time it is to meet Tesh-Dar, who has been captured.

Captured and sentenced to death, they can only watch as a human armada gathers for a strike against the Kreelan homeworld. But the human fleet - and humanity itself - will be doomed to utter annihilation unless Reza can save his Empress from death...

Fictionwise Sale

Fictionwise is having a Labor Day sale - 10% off all ebooks, using the coupon code LABOR09. In addition, this week they have changed all their New York Times Bestsellers to have a 100% MicroPay Rebate (store credit), if paid for via PayPal or credit card. These are not readable on the Kindle, but can be read on some other ereaders, including the Iphone, depending on the format purchased, and all can be read on your PC (all formats of these books have DRM, which limits their use, but copies stay in your library, although Fictionwise does, like all ebookstores, recommend you keep backup copies as well as backup of your DRM key, if needed to unlock the books). With Fictionwise, you can always redownload the book, if your reader changes: if you get a new netbook, just add the mobipocket PID and redownload the book (you maintain the list of up to 4 authorized PID's and can change them at any time); the same process is used if you need to change the credit card used for the Ereader format (Fictionwise's own that, no doubt, Barnes & Noble will use on their ereader later this year).

When you are looking for something to use that store credit (MicroPay) on, check out their magazine selection. They have Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine ($2.99/each/month Kindle), amongst others, all at lower prices than Amazon (even without the sale, they are $30-$33/year versus $36 at Amazon), with no DRM and in multiple formats. You can also purchase individual copies, going back several months, rather than only starting with the current issue. Click HERE to see all the magazines, or search for "subscription" in the title to just see those.

If you join the Buywise club ($30/year, with multi-year discounts), you get another 15% off all their titles (plus one free title up to $10 list). If you joined the club, bought a few bestsellers and a couple of magazines, how would that work out, pricewise? You would want to use several orders, to maximize the discounts.

First, use the discount code for 10% off and pay $29.95 for the membership. Once this order has completed, you'll get the 15% member discount on all future orders, for one year (and you can use the coupon code you get with it for a free book, up to a $10 list price; for this one, you can't count any discounts, but it's usually good for something that is out in paperback already).

Next, buy your bestsellers. Let's say there are four you want, all of them with current list prices (or sale prices) of $20 (to keep things simple - there are some there that are more and many that are less). With a 15% member discount, plus the 10% off discount code, above, instead of $17 for the book, you'll pay $15.30 per book. You'll be charged $61.20 for the four books when you run the order thru (using either PayPal or your credit card), all of which goes back into your account after payment. In fact, since the order is over $50, you'll get an additional 10% in your account due to their large order bonus rebate (which you only get when paying by PayPal or credit card). So, your account will have $67.32 in it at this point.

With that credit, you pick two of the one-year subscriptions (we'll pick Analog and Asimov's, the two more expensive ones). The 10% discount doesn't work on these, but you do get the 15% member discount, so that $28.02 each. After checkout, you'll still have $11.28 in micropay credit and the coupon code for a free book you received for joining their club. Your total outlay is more than if you purchased the two magazines thru Amazon ($91.10 versus $71.76), but in addition to the two years of magazine subscriptions, you have four NYT bestsellers (which would be $9.99 each on Kindle, most likely), $11 .28 in credit (enough for another book or two) and a coupon code to get a $10 book. If you added the bestsellers at Amazon, you'd be out $111.72, or about $20 more and have at least two fewer books to show for it.

Of course, you don't have to use that store credit on magazines. There are a number of multiformat books in the Fictionwise store, which work on the Kindle and other readers, as well as DRM'd books (that are not Kindle compatible), often at competitive prices. The multiformat books are often from independent authors, but those who either have a very large number of books or work with small publishing houses, as Fictionwise doesn't have the same type of DTP system that Amazon has, so authors with only a few books cannot list there (then again, you also don't have hundreds of duplicate public domain titles - searching for Pride and Prejudice returns 12 books, not 245). I'll admit, you aren't getting the same low prices as Amazon's DTP authors, but it can be a good deal to supplement your reading.

You can also just let your store credit build up - so far, Fictionwise has been having a big sale once or twice a year that even includes the magazines, dropping the good prices into the great range. They've even had 100% rebates on store memberships, lowering the upfront cost even more. And I've seen some 25% off all (not just ebook) coupons, as well as a year-end 100% rebate on every "featured" book they had for a year, for those that missed their earlier sales. They seem to have a 100% rebate on four or five new titles each week and have said the Twilight series will be at 100% rebate for the indefinite future. No doubt a lot of these sales are now being funded by Barnes & Noble, as the competition for readers heats up between them and Amazon. If you decide to close your Fictionwise account, it appears you can get a refund of your micropay balance (at least, according to their faq pages), but expect it to take a lot of time (up to 60 days, it says) and possibly have some strings attached (I would not expect it to include those 10% large transaction rebates, for example, if all you bought were 100% rebate books, as this would give you the books for free, plus a 10% bonus).

Amazon Apologizes for Book Removals

If you, like I, purchased any of the books that have been available in the Kindle Store that were later removed from your Kindle by Amazon, due to them being illegally published (by persons other than those holding the digital rights), then you should be getting an email (or have, already) with a short apology from Amazon for the manner in which they were removed. In addition, even though you were given a refund at the time, Amazon is offering to give you $30.00 in either a gift certificate or check, by way of compensation. I received three such emails (they are identical, not even identifying the book purchased), but have no idea if that is $30.00 per removed book, or in total. Either way, it's free money for buying more books (what else would I spend it on?).

Some are planning on not accepting the payment, as they don't feel they are entitled to it, but most of us purchased books in good faith (I didn't get Harry Potter, for example, because it was obvious it was illegal, as a living author has made her stance pretty clear and quite vocally). Ayn Rand and George Orwell (and perhaps others) were some of the more recent (and heavily publicized) examples of these and with both there was some question about whether they were OK - the Rand estate has opposed ebooks, but has been said to have been considering it and there were other (and apparently legal) copies of the Orwell books in the store. Another reason a few won't be taking the offer - I suspect that it will negate any standing you might have in a lawsuit. It's a good move on Amazon's part, since that will probably knock out any class action status of the individual suits (which will get most of the vulturous lawyers out of the action, as the money to be made in these is from the attorney fees, not from being a wronged party). It's probably cheaper, overall, plus all those affected are getting what is no doubt considerably more than they would if a class action settlement were reached (I know that I've been a "winner" in some of these, without my knowledge, where a phone company ended up having to give me a calling card and the attorneys made off with millions -- I suspect you have, too). So, my advice is to take the money. It'll be to your benefit and to Amazon's (and if their cost is lower, they can afford to give us lower prices in the future), while slapping their fingers for their tactics (which they have already said won't be used in the future).

If you haven't checked your email (or didn't purchase one of the books in question), this is what the letter looks like. Pay careful attention - you don't hit REPLY to send in your claim, but send an email to an address noted in the body of the letter, instead.

Hello,

On July 23, 2009, Jeff Bezos, our Founder and CEO, made the following apology to our customers:

“This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com”

As you were one of the customers impacted by the removal of a book from your Kindle device in June of this year, we would like to offer you your choice of an Amazon.com electronic gift certificate or check for $30. Unfortunately, we cannot make this title available on your Kindle again.

Please email Kindle customer support at kindle-response@amazon.com to indicate your preference. If you prefer to receive a check, please also provide your mailing address.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
The Kindle Team

Please note: this e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

Kindle Store now lists all editions with price comparisons

When you pull up listings in the Kindle store tonight, you'll now see information about other editions of the books, even other Kindle editions and audiobooks. The one below would have saved me from purchasing a second copy of this particular book (I won't complain too much - with one at a penny and the other at 99 cents, I wasn't out much and just kept them both).

One of the biggest complaints people have had about the Kindle listings is that they were a one-way trip to the Kindle sandbox. If a hardcover or paperback linked to a kindle edition, then once clicked on it, you could not see the other editions and clicking the author's name only showed you their Kindle editions (and this part is still true). Now, however, you can click on the paper edition link, then the author name to get a listing of their books that are in print (still an important source for many books, as even the Kindle store is only a small step towards digitizing all books currently in print (a task that will take years, just due to the copyright laws and various reversion of rights to authors or their estates since the 1920's).

With the new links to paper editions, you'll no longer feel like Amazon is hiding the comparisons. Often when a book that has been available in hardcover is released in paperback, the Kindle price takes a while to update (after all, a new edition isn't really needed, with an ebook). And for some books, that never hit the bestseller lists (and the $9.99 price break those get), there is often not as much of a discount from the "list" price as you think, since the hardcover is almost always discounted at Amazon as well.

As you can see from this second picture, the Kindle edition of Scourge of God was only discounted a bit under $3, not the $11 difference from the "digital list" price. You can also see that the paperback has now been released and the ebook price hasn't been changed (to be fair, this one was released on paperback only two days ago). The next book in the same series, The Sword of the Lady, has the $9.99 pricing (I suspect due to being a new release, not the bestseller lists, although Scourge was listed at that price for a short time, as well.

As of today, you can finally make an informed decision before one-clicking that Kindle edition, without having to work at it. At least, if you buy via the web site - the Kindle Store displayed on the Kindle itself still ignores all other editions on it's book listings. However, you can use the Basic Web to look up the paper book prices (and the Kindle versions now display there too -- you just can't purchase them in Basic Web; you can add them to your wishlist, however).