eBookGuru.org

Book Title: Frozen Death
Author: G.L. Didaleusky
Genre: Mystery
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press
Purchase Link: http://www.roguephoenixpress.com/
ISBN: 978-0-9824833-3-6
Price: 2.99
Page Count: 133
Release Date: 8/1/09
Heat Level: 0

Reviewer: Laura

Blurb:

Something is causing people to freeze to death in Florida during
ninety-degree weather. Ancient Indian lore holds the answer to these
mysterious medical aberrations. A newly constructed Florida male prison sits
on ancient hallowed grounds called Forbidden Hill. Soon after the prison
opens, two male inmates freeze to death without exposure to frigid
temperatures. John Randall, a widowed prison doctor, meets Lena Windmaker, a
single, off-duty sheriff detective at a local library. Their initial
plutonic relationship soon kindles into a more amorous one. They hide a
personal secret that could bring them together or destroy them. They uncover
articles in local, post-Civil war newspapers describing residence succumbing
to Frozen Death. John and Lena race to discover a cause before it chooses
other victims

Review:

Frozen Death takes place in and around the Timucua State Correctional Institute. The first few chapters grab you and keep you guessing as to the reason why prisoners are dying suddenly. As the story goes on, it follows Dr. John Randall from being the prison physician, to being an investigator to an archeologist of sorts. He wears many different hats in this book and may cause the reader to wonder as to the reasoning. Throw in a beautiful Native American law enforcement officer, and the plot thickens. Overall, the story was intriguing but not riveting. The central theme held such promise but I felt a little let down that there weren’t more twists and turns throughout. The ending was unexpected, but I felt like the author rushed to include so much information in the last chapter that it made the reveal lose some of its punch.

Reviewed by: Brenda

Short. Sweet. Simple. Three tiny words in this complicated world that humans love to hear or read. These three tiny words are also what I use to describe www.795marketingplan.com’s ebook on how to create a memorable domain name for less than $10.

The ebook is quite easy to read and follow and being only 40 pages long helped. The pizza example on how to create a marketing plan was fun and the every day common language used to write this plan was great. It wouldn’t matter if you were young or old, an experienced entrepreneur or just a beginner, this ebook was very easy to read and follow. The use of internet links to show examples of already established domains and easy to follow exercises were a plus! The links worked even when the book was downloaded to the PC.

I would honestly recommend this ebook to anyone even considering starting their own business or just trying to get the word out about an existing one.

Book Title: Killerbyte
Author: Cat Connor
Genre: Mystery/Crime
Publisher: Rebel e Publishers
Link: http://www.rebelepublishers.com/?Task=system&CategoryID=28211&HeadingText=Killerbyte
ISBN: 978-0-9814256-2-7
Price: $7.99 (Amazon) $9.99 (Mobipocket)
Page Count: 303
Release Date: 2009
Reviewer: Laura

Ellie Conway works during the day as an FBI agent who works on serial crime cases. At night as a hobby she runs an internet poetry chat room. Someone breaks into her home and tries to kill her and she soon realizes that it has something to do with the chat room. Things take a turn for the worse when the killer is found dead in the trunk of her car.

Ellie runs to her friend Mac who she met through the chat room. The killer almost gets her at Mac’s house so they go on the run to evade the killer while at the same time figure out who it is and catch him. The FBI is called in and as the killer starts picking off the chat room’s members one by one they realize they need to find the killer and stop him fast. Even though there are numerous crime scenes they do not have enough evidence to catch the killer much less figure out why Ellie is being targeted. The killer is clever and manages to mess with them while managing to escape right under their noses several times.

Once there are victims that were not part of the chat room the FBI, Ellie, and Mac realize something more sinister is going on. Eventually a chance remark from twelve years ago give them a clue to help them start to piece together who it is and how to stop him.

This was a great book! I really enjoyed this one and couldn’t wait to read what was happening next. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading it and I didn’t want to put it down. Which unfortunately at points I had to since I was traveling and they make you turn off all electronic devices during take off and landing (I sincerely doubt leaving my Kindle on was going to make the plane crash but I was a good girl and followed the pilot’s instructions and turned it off. Darn it!) This killed me since I was dying to keep reading so I could find out who the killer was. Luckily for me taking off and landing doesn’t take that long and I was able to get back to the book and finish it. And it was worth the wait. I highly recommend this book and am going to read anything else this author has written immediately. Buy this book! You WON’T be disappointed.

Book Title: Meghan’s Legacy
Author: K.J. Legacy
Genre: Mystery/Crime
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press
Purchase Link: http://www.roguephoenixpress.com/
ISBN: 978-0-9824833-5-0
Price: 2.99
Page Count: 114
Release Date: 9/1/2009
Heat Level: 0

Reviewer: Val

Meghan had just inherited her family home and is back to claim it. Appearances can be deceiving, especially in this big mansion. There are people who don’t want her there or are they ghosts? Now that I cannot tell you as it would give away much of the story but let me just say that you will be gasping in horror at some of the scenes throughout the book but I will make this promise, it is totally worth every minute spent reading this book.

I picked up Meghan’s Legacy for the mystery/ suspense aspect alone and found it to be one of the best books that I have read. K.J. Dahlen most definitely knows how to write a chapter with one heck of a cliffhanger. I love how K.J. Dahlen’s mind works. Just when I thought I knew what happened, boom, another surprise! This book does contain a sensual romance and characters who sizzle together, but the main focus is on the mystery as, for this book, it absolutely should be. It’s what made the book a compelling and well crafted read. I found this book to be fast moving with a lot of sitting on the edge of your seat suspense. The villian is always lurking just one step behind Meghan and Quinn. I consider this book to be an instant pick me up book and I know that I will be reading it for a long time to come. I will definitely be looking for more work by K.J. Dahlen and this author has just become a mandatory add to my automatic to be read list.

#5 Remember Tomorrow Never Comes

OK, here’s the deal, tomorrow will never come. That sounds like a very philosophical statement coming from me and I’m not normally a philosophical writer, but hear me out. To prove my point check out my waistline. I know, what does that have to do with writing!? EVERYTHING! I keep telling myself that I will diet, and I will exercise, but I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll do it tomorrow because I’m too tired, or that roast beast (beef) looks too good to only have one helping. I can’t diet today because that Almond Joy cake Momma made for dessert can’t possibly be left for her to eat! She’s a diabetic for crying out loud. I’m saving her from herself. I must save her and I must do it twice TODAY! So TOMORROW I will diet. But for some strange reason it is always today. Today is the only day that we have to think about, so let’s make the most of it.

You need to make yourself write sometimes. At first it will come easily. You are going to be so stoked by a great story. You are going to do nothing but write, write, write. They ideas are going to flow from your fingers. The sparks will fly, and your significant other will be standing nearby with a fire extinguisher to make sure that no fires are started. Then your darling child comes up to you and says, “I’m hungry!” or my personal favorite, “I’m bored!” So you get up quickly and run to the kitchen to make a quick PB&J and then you are headed back to write. You then see the mail on the table that has to be put away. Dang is that the credit card bill that was due last week? Why didn’t that get paid? Now you are making a mad dash for the check book to pay it before too many late fees get added. Hold up, the check book’s not balanced? It’s always balanced, do you have enough to pay the bill? By this time, you have forgotten that you were writing in the first place.

It’s especially hard on a nice sunny day. But you need to set a goal, even if it’s small.

* My goal for today is 400 words, in other words, you can set a word count goal!

So if you decide that you are going to write that 400 words act like the Nike commercial and Just Do It! Sit down and write 400 words. It needs to be something. It doesn’t have to be the most wonderful thing you have ever written and if you are stuck on the story that you are writing, start on something else. Don’t force the words to come that will only frustrate you and drive a very painful and potentially LONG writers block into your near future. (I hate writers block! In the infamous words of my children, “It sooooo sucks!”)

* My goal is 5 pages, I’m sure you get where this is going, a page goal right!?

It’s time to be selfish. Have your spouse watch the kids. Go somewhere quiet, or semi-quiet if you live in my house and close the door. Put several full laundry baskets in front of the door and sit down to write. You have to take the time to do this.If you don’t take the time to be selfish with your writing, no one else is going to do this for you. If you don’t take care of this child, (Yes, your writing is your baby too! Don’t believe me? Wait till your first not so good review when you want to beat the heck out of some reviewer for having an opinion. And do remember folks, it’s just an opinion. OK?) no one is going to do it for you. So you need to get off your duff and take time for it. You can not blame anyone but yourself if you don’t get it done.

* My goal is to write for 30 minutes and last but not least…a timed goal!

I know you’ve heard it before but use a timer. The advice is sound, tried and true guys. If you don’t have an egg timer, a timer on your microwave, your stove, your phone, or an alarm clock, I do have solutions. I absolutely love this site: http://www.nakedalarmclock.com/ because you can set it and have it go off whenever your goal time is complete. Besides, the name is fun. (I bet over half of you have already clicked on the link thinking you would find something naked on there, HA fooled you.) Make sure if you set a timer for yourself, that you are not punishing yourself. Try not to make this a time out like you would give your child. So, don’t do it for 3 straight hours in a row. When I tutored college Accounting, I always told students never to study for more than an hour at a time, take a 10-15 minute break and then go back to studying. That way your brain doesn’t go into overload. If you force your brain to work non-stop for 3-4 hours then you may end up resenting the time that you are sitting there, and won’t enjoy what you are doing. Another fun thing that I can tell you about is http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html. You can go to that site and put in your word goal, a time limit, and if you would prefer the program it to go easy on you, be strict or just be plain evil. It’s a little difficult to explain, so you may want to go there and play with it just for fun! If nothing else, it kicks you in the butt and gets your mind working and breaks the monotony of a brain fart or writers block.

Make sure to come back next week when we talk about organizational skills! It’s a great thing baby!

It was just over two months ago when I published a post (The Future of eBooks) that included a chart from Forrester Research Inc. showing the growth drivers for eReaders. It predicted a $199 price point at sometime around mid 2010 to 2011.

The new Cool-er reader (Price Matters…) came out in mid July, right around the same time that Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle 2 by $60, and I stated that I really didn’t expect to see an eReader break the $200 mark before the end of the year.

Well Sony has done it. There have been lots of articles about this but best one so far is this post by Canada’s own Globe & Mail. The ‘Pocket Edition’ of the Sony eReader will be retailing for $199 at the end of August. The Pocket Edition is smaller and a little limited compared to current eReaders. At 5 inches (vs the 6 inch Sony readers , the Cooler, & the Kindle 2), it can’t play music and can ‘only’ hold 350 books but the sub-$200 price point

“breaks an important psychological barrier”

In an ironic twist, the article includes a quote from Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst at Forrester Research.

“This is something that is affordable for the holiday season, and I think that you’ll see sales of e-readers outpacing current forecasts”

The current forecast has sales of eReaders doubling this year to 2 million, up from 1 million in 2008.

Sony is also announcing a higher-end eReader, the Touch Edition (note: Sony seems to finally be catching on that names are a lot catchier and easier to remember than model numbers – the Pocket Edition replaces the PRS-50 and the Touch Edition replaces the PRS-700). This model will retain the same 6 inch size and touch screen abilities, losing the built-in light that seemed to cause more trouble than it was worth.

Another major milestone for the new Sony eReaders is their compatibility with both PC’s and Mac’s.

Neither of these readers has the same wireless access that sets the Kindle apart but given the recent furor over Amazon’s bungled book recall, this isn’t such a bad thing. Certainly for those of us outside the US this isn’t a limitation as Amazon’s Whispernet is limited to US states, with the exception of Montana and Alaska. Even in covered states, it has been reported that coverage is often close to non-existent outside of major urban centers.

Sony is apparently working on a wireless eReader but won’t say when it will be available. Hopefully it will be soon as a new eReader from iRex is entering the marketplace. The 8.1 inch eReader with wireless 3G capabilities and a touch screen is slated for fall 2009 and is rumored to be able to connect with a large on-line eBook store.

The eBook market is also progressing with the recent launch of Barnes & Nobles eBook eReader software and eBook store (An Embarrassment of Riches).

The eBook market will change in ways that we can’t foresee but for the moment the future for eBooks is here.

Book Title: The Darkness Within
Author: K. J. Dahlen
Genre: Mystery
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press
Purchase Link: http://www.roguephoenixpress.com/
ISBN: 978-0-9824833-9-2

This story is fraught with twists and turns that make for interesting reading. One critique I do have is there are too many people comprising Sable’s team. The characters get a little lost in the plot while the reader attempts to keep up with who is who. I think paring down the numbers would have kept the story intact without sacrificing the integrity of the plot. Also, the killer in the story did not do very much in the way of killing. He beat up a lot of people and left them for dead. However, the idea of his killing people is what put the fear in most of the people in the story. To have him not make absolutely sure his victims were dead did not make a lot of sense to me. All in all, the story was compelling, intriguing and captivating. I read the story in one sitting because I could not stop turning pages. I loved the unexpected ways that the story came together in the end. I plan to recommend this book to several friends because writing this good should not be overlooked.

Laura Moreno
Reviewer

I monitor a variety of RSS feeds and I am always on the lookout for news on eBooks and eReaders. This week there seems to be an embarrassment of riches in terms of the number of articles available.

Here is just a sampling of a few of them:

PCMag.com reviews the new Barnes & Noble eReader software for PC, Mac and iPhone and overall rates it 3½ out of 5. It also takes a shot at Amazon and the Kindle, stating that B&N allows you to read titles on devices you already own. It also compares Amazon’s Kindle library (300,000 titles) to B&N’s eBook library (700,000 titles). Overall the B&N appears to be an attractive eBook store alternative to Amazon, and the addition of an eReader from Plastic Logic that promises to start shipping in early 2010 will only make the comparison even easier.

Adding insult to injury to the beleaguered Kindle is a damning article in the New Yorker. The article has some harsh criticism for the device and Amazon’s proprietary format, although to be fair some of the criticism is specific to eInk devices, notably the lack of color and back-lighting. Overall the author does seem positive about eBooks but seems to prefer the Sony eReader for eInk and the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch where color, illustrations, and back-lighting are important.

Another interesting article appeared in IT Canada regarding the EPUB format, which was developed by the Toronto based International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It states that the EPUB format

is quickly becoming an e-book industry standard as support from publishers and tech giants such as Adobe Systems Inc., Sony Corp. and Google Inc. continues to grow.

In sharp contrast to Amazons proprietary DRM restricted AZW format, EPUB is an open, non-proprietary, XML based format, in which DRM is optional.

The industry has gone into two camps: Amazon and everyone else … You have Amazon and they’ve got their proprietary, closed standard, DRM, one-source-for-everything (approach) and you’ve got the rest of the world trying to agree on an open standard for which you can have multiple book stores.

There is also the news that Samsung has launched their eBook reader, although it is only available in South Korea for the moment. The device is smaller than a Kindle and will offer some neat features like hand-writing recognition.

Finally there is the possibility of Apple competing against Amazon with the rumored introduction of a Tablet PC. The combination of a Tablet PC and the iTunes store could

blow Amazon and other e-book makers out of the water…

The success of iTunes for music and iPhone applications indicates that there is market potential for eBooks by making eBooks just as easy to download. It goes further to speculate about à-la-carte ordering books, something that already possible through the Shortcovers program from Canada’s very own Indigo Books.

The one thing that none of these articles dispute is that there is a future for eBooks. What this future looks like, how we will be reading eBooks, and what format the eBooks will be available in, are all very good questions. Personally having seen what DRM has done to the music industry, not to mention how Amazon bungled it’s recent recall of illegally published Kindle books, I’m hoping for the success of an open format like EPUB and as many readers as possible.

Amazon sparked an outcry in the blogosphere late last week when it deleted two books from people’s Kindles. Ironically the eBooks in question were George Orwell’s “1984″ and “Animal Farm”, prompting headlines like

Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

Amazon recalled the ebooks because the publisher lacked the rights. As an author, I can appreciate the steps that Amazon took to remedy the problem even if I don’t agree with their methods. No doubt about it, Amazon made a mistake, not in what they did, but in how they went about it. Working for a public relations firm, I’ve gained new appreciation for the value of proper communications, something that Amazon would do well to heed. It also raises disturbing issues regarding ownership and censorship. If Amazon can delete the books in question, there is nothing to say that they can’t replace existing books with ‘edited’ versions. Sounds very ‘Big Brother’ to me.

However, this points to a problem inherent in self-publishing. Where are the checks and balances? Amazon states that the eBooks

… were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books…

How does something like that happen in the first place, especially given the titles in question? Surely this should have raised some red flags for someone somewhere? If this had been a traditional publisher, there would have been more steps involved before it was published but even that is no guarantee.

When I was accepted for publication, I provided the publisher with the copyright certificate for my novel but it wasn’t a requirement. The main difference is that there is a relationship inherent in this arrangement so my certifying in the contract that I own the work free and clear is probably sufficient. This relationship doesn’t exist in the self-publishing world. Also the process of editing makes it difficult to obtain a copyright before the contract has been signed. This doesn’t hold true for self-publishing.

The rise of eBooks and blogs has made it easier than ever for people to make their voice heard. It has also made it easier than ever for other people to steal someone else’s work. Perhaps it’s time for companies in the business of self-publishing to reevaluate the requirement for copyright.

A Kindle in Every Backpack. This is the title of a proposal by the Democratic Leadership Council that argues that the government should provide students with Kindles. The proposal argues that this could improve education quality and save money.

It’s an intriguing concept but according the proposal traditional textbooks cost $109 per student, rising to $115 per student in 2016. Currently the Kindle 2 costs significantly more than that for the hardware alone, not to mention the cost of the content. The Kindle DX, which is better suited for use as a textbook replacement, costs almost $200 more than the Kindle 2. Admittedly if a Kindle was provided to every student this would result in lower costs but it’s hard to see the economic benefits.

The proposal states that the costs of eTextbook materials would be about $200 initially and then drop to $80 by 2012. Looking at the proposal here and now however, the comparison is an outlay of $499 ($299 for the Kindle, $200 for the eTextbooks) vs. an existing cost of $109 for a difference of $390. It gets even worse if you propose using the Kindle DX, rising to a difference of $580. That’s anywhere from 3½ to over 5 times more costly per student. Or to put it another way for the same cost as equipping a student with a Kindle, you could equip another 3 – 5 students with traditional textbooks.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great idea. I just think that it’s perhaps a little ahead of its time. eBooks are still a nascent market and we really don’t know where the market is going to end up.

Reports of cracked or frozen Kindle screens don’t inspire a lot of confidence in the proposal either. Even investing in the cover for the Kindle doesn’t seem to help, as a recent class action lawsuit against Amazon (see Update below) attests. Given the high cost of ownership, most Kindle owners are very protective of the devices yet they are still having problems. Somehow I can’t see a group of school students, for whom the device would be essentially free, being more careful.

Flexible screens like the Readius could be the answer to this problem but the recent bankruptcy of Polymer Vision, the company behind the Readius, means that it will probably be a long wait before this technology becomes mainstream.

Given that plans are already underway to make the Kindle DX available to University students, it would seem prudent to wait for the results of this pilot program. The pilot program will

…evaluate the impact of the device on the learning experience, determine if faculty delivered the information in new ways, and determine if students approach their reading and assignments differently.

As much as I would love to see kids with Kindles, I think there are too many unknowns. Advances in technology and lower production costs could change the landscape for eBook readers dramatically as more people start to use them. After all, look how long cell phones have been around and how much they’ve changed today as they morph into smartphones. Perhaps the eTextbook reader of the future will be a touch Netbook. To me this makes more sense for students, who would likely use the device for more than just reading. Given that Netbooks are comparable in terms of cost to a a Kindle DX, it’s hard to argue for a single function device, as good as it is.

Still, the very fact that this was proposed is a good indication of the strength of the eBook market. Regardless of how we end up reading eBooks in the future, it seems pretty clear that eBooks and eTextbooks are the future of reading.

UPDATE: Amazon has just announced that they will replace cracked Kindle 2 readers for free.