Podioracket welcomes Drew Beatty, the author of Lost Gods, as he shares his observations about e-books and Smashwords. Welcome Drew!

Follow Drew on twitter @drewbeatty and see his website.

The Smashwords Approach to E-books

While I am not sounding the death knell for books, I think it is important to realize the phenomenal growth of the e-book, and to consider the opportunity that comes with this growth. A recent article on bNet had this to say:

“E-books sales jumped up by 136.2 percent for the month over June ‘08 (to $14.0 million), reflecting an increase of 149.3 percent for the year.”

Okay, what we have here is runaway growth, though not quite as impressive as the nearly 400 percent annual growth rate we saw in Q-1. Nevertheless, e-books continue to grow at rates that traditional books cannot, which is an indicator of which way the wind is blowing.”

I think the biggest takeaway from this is that traditional books cannot maintain the same growth trajectory as e-books. As more and more devices enter the mainstream, more and more people are going to be looking for content to consume on these devices. Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s eReader, and the multitude of portable devices that support e-books are helping to fuel this phenomenal growth, but there is  a caveat. Most of these devices use a proprietary format. What that means is that if you want to release your book in an e-format, you have to have several different versions of it. One for the Kindle, one for the Sony reader etc… Formatting your manuscript into multiple versions can be difficult, time consuming, and technologically frustrating.

Fortunately Smashwords.com has come along to make the process idiot-proof, or at least as idiot-proof as possible.

As long as you have properly formatted your manuscript, Smashword’s “Meat Grinder” will parse it and reproduce it in a variety of popular formats. These include common ones such as HTML and Plain Text, but, and this is where it gets really interesting, it will also produce versions for the Kindle, Sony Reader, Palm Reader, Stanza and more. Writers and publishers can, in just a few simple steps, make their work readable by most of the major e-readers, set the price they want to charge, and have a new distribution system in place. The biggest hurdle is formatting your work correctly. They have easy to follow instructions, but depending on the complexity of your manuscript, it might take some time to get everything in order so that the Meat Grinder can do its magic. It took me an evening of playing around before I got everything working well, but there is nothing overly complicated in the process.

For readers, Smashwords has thousands of books in a variety of genres. Most authors choose to freely share at least part of their work, so that you can get a feel for the story and see if it captures your interest. Most are also reasonably priced, ranging from pay-what-you-want to a few dollars. There are some very talented authors who are part of Smashwords, and eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that Podiobooks.com now links many of its titles to Smashwords.

I think that the true winner in this will be the readers. Multiple formats allow for a great deal of flexibility, and the cost of the e-book is traditionally much less than even a paperback. My novel, Lost Gods, costs $15.00 plus shipping through Lulu.com, but if you get the e-book from Smashwords you can set your own price. While there are still many people who love the feel of hefting a paperback, if all you are interested in is the content, Smashwords is a great place to check out! Oh, and did I mention the files they produce are DRM free? They are!

Drew Beatty will be appearing LIVE on Podioracket Blog Talk Radio on September 24th at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern.

She is in need of an army against the Inertians; a show of support and the purchase of Nina Kimberly the Merciless will do the trick. Are you an Inertian?

Still wondering whether you’ll  like it?  Christiana Ellis is giving you every opportunity.  Listen to the audio, download the book, and buy that beautiful print release. Yes, she really means it when she says that she’s trying something new and bucking those Inertians. Let’s show them that it works!

Listen now

Or download the podcast and remind a friend to buy Nina Kimberly the Merciless at Amazon today.

Many thanks to those who have helped us and shared in the playful community that makes Podiobooks so much fun to be a part of.

With special thanks to:

Jack Hosley of Wanderradio
Rhonda R Carpenter of The Mark of a Druid
H.E. Roulo of Fractured Horizon
Emerian Rich of Night’s Knights
Drew Beatty of Lost Gods
E.G. Talbot of New World Order
Arlene Radasky of The Fox
Philippa Ballantine of Chasing the Bard and Weather Child
James D. Priest of KIRINS: The Spell of No’an
Michele Roger of Dark Matter
Nathan Lowell of Quarter Share

Listen now

or download Podioracket Ep-06

Show Notes for Episode 6

INTERVIEWS

In this episode John Mierau discusses his work Serving Worlds

John Mierau’s Website: http://www.johnmierau.com

Twitter ID: johnmierau

Mur Lafferty’s Website: http://www.murverse.com

Mur’s Heaven Series Website with premium content discussed in this episode: http://www.heavennovel.com/

Twitter ID: mightymur

CONTESTS:

Phillippa Ballentine is still looking for reviews. Leave one, drop her a line in an email to pip@pjballantine.com and you could win!

New contest for Rhonda R Carpenter’s site at www.themarkofadruid.com. For the month of May come and meet the characters. And while you wait for their answer– pop on over to the contest 8 post, click participate, and let our very own Rhonda Carpenter know which character you asked a question of or made a comment about. Your name will go into the drawing for each question you add. Leave a question for as many characters as you want. 

Vote for a champion to defend Podioracket.com and the internet from Nina Kimberly.

NEWS

J.C Hutchins

J.C. Hutchins has something to celebrate! Warner Bros.’ has optioned the 7th Son trilogy! While the option doesn’t guarantee that a film series will be made, the deal gives the studio the right to do so sometime in the next three years. “The possibility alone is terrific,” says Hutchins. Congrats from Podioracket! I know that Rhonda has scored an interview with J.C. so we can learn more about exciting things happening with all his projects.

The Rookie by Scott Sigler

Scott Sigler is doing a special release of The Rookie; only 3000 copies available through his website.

Cover Art Revealed

James Melzer just revealed the cover art for The Zombie Chronicle. Go over to http://www.jamesmelzer.net/ and have a look if you dare! I understand the podcast is close to completion too.

Seth Harwood News

As John Mierau mentions, Seth Harwood is celebrating the print release of Jack Wakes Up and beginning a book tour.

TIP FROM AN EXPERIENCED AUTHOR

Our tip this episode is from Drew Beatty, author of Lost Gods. He reminds authors to consider how long they can maintain a character’s voice when they read out loud. Your throat will thank you.

NEW RELEASES:

• The Ninth Avatar by Todd Newton Fantasy
• KIRINS: The Spell of No’an by James D. Priest
  Fantasy FAMILY FRIENDLY: Safe for family listening
• Untrue Tales From Beyond Fiction - Recollections of an Alternate Past, Book One: An Introduction To Dodgeball -or- Conception and Induction -or- How To Begin An Apocalypse by Teel McClanahan III
  Science Fiction
• How To Succeed in Evil: The Original Podcast Episodes by Patrick McLean Fiction
   

COMPLETED WORKS: 

• Corporate Warfare by Kris Davis Thriller
• The HeavenField – Book One by Ian G Hulme Science Fiction
• The Market For Liberty by Linda and Morris Tannehill Non-Fiction
• Lost Gods by Drew Beatty Fantasy