Royal Wedding Inspires Romance Writers

The royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton has inspired several new novellas.

Six of the stories revolve around William’s forebears from the 12th to 19th centuries. Harlequin commissioned the novellas for its “Royal Weddings” ebook collection. Each costs $1.99.

And Avon Impulse has released an ebook anthology called Royal Weddings by Stephanie Laurens, Gaelen Foley and Loretta Chase. It also costs $1.99 and features three fictional love stories set against real-life British royal weddings.

Read the full USA Today article here.

The 'Wild West' World of Self Publishing

Self-published ebooks are continuing to shake up the publishing world.

I first ventured into the world of ebooks after getting a Kindle for my birthday last November.

Although I did buy some ebooks in the $6.99 to $8.99 range, I soon realized I could still purchase my favorite authors’ new paperback releases at Target or other discount stores for a 25 percent discount. I’m still buying from the big publishers, where I can be assured of a certain quality and high standard, but I go where I can find the best price – whether it’s digital or paper.

However, when it comes to my Kindle, I’ve quickly fallen into a pattern of giving less expensive ebooks a second (and third) look. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, I am not alone.

Reporter Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports that a recent Amazon top 50 ebook best-seller list featured 15 books priced at $5 or less. One part-time thriller writer who sells his titles for 99 cents had seven spots on the best-seller list. The self e-published author, John Locke, he says he made $126,000 from his Amazon sales in March alone.

The country’s six largest publishers set the retail prices of their ebooks. Amazon reports it sees a higher rate of growth on titles it can discount. I still look for ebook deals from the established authors and publishers. Honestly, I have never bought a 99-cent ebook but apparently there are plenty of readers out there who have.

It all goes to show it is still a crazy world of the unknown when it comes to ebooks and self-epublishing.

Or as literary agent Jane Dystel says in the article,  “This is a Wild West of a world.”