Spinward Fringe On Smashwords: January Coupons!

After dealing with many distributors, Smashwords has become my favorite. Mobipocket is still a great place to release a book, but thanks to the Digital Rights Management Copy Protection, glut of XXX covered erotica, periodical down time that denies readers access to their libraries, and growing negligence on the corporate side, it was in my best interest to look somewhere else.

Along came Smashwords, a place for Indie authors to release their work in many formats DRM free. It's a friendlier place to be with large book samples available for download or online viewing. I first discovered them when I was trying to find a way to release my work on the Stanza Reader, a popular iPhone eBook reader app.

How have things been going with Smashwords? They've been going well enough for me to offer The First Light Chronicles Omnibus there for free (over 6,700 downloads since August), and to list the entire Spinward Fringe series there as well. The only complaint I've had regarding Smashwords is that their system doesn't allow for navigation menus inside eBooks, and I'm told that the feature is coming. They'll roll it out when its ready and anyone who bought the books previously will be able to update to the indexed version. For now I use word search to return to "Chapter ?" (replacing the ? with a number), whenever I intend to continue reading from where I left off. Most quality eBook readers also have a book marking system so you can mark your last page or even create your own index. I'm too lazy when I'm reading on my iPhone, to be honest, so I word search for chapter numbers.

On the positive side, one doesn't have to worry about compatibility if they move to a new device or need one document on two platforms. With no DRM and multiple versions available when you buy a book you can use that piece of property wherever you like. You can also download each version and back them up so you never have to visit the book's site again, or add them to your online library. To me, that's actually a fair trade for limited formatting and no indexing. I strip formatting from most of the ebooks I read anyway. I like to read text my own way using features in Stanza so the book suits my device properly, not as determined by some over zealous designer. There are other reasons why I like Smashwords as a reader and as an Author, but I'll get into that in a future post.

Now, on to what many of you are here for; coupons for the Spinward Fringe series. This is an experiment, so I don't know if I'll be offering them in the future. These expire on Feb 2, 2010.

First Light Chronicles Omnibus: Free!
Spinward Fringe Resurrection: No coupon, the price was reduced to $1.99 instead.
Spinward Fringe Awakening: No coupon, the price was reduced to $1.99 instead.
Spinward Fringe Triton: [From $7.95 to $4.99] RE56H
Spinward Fringe Frontline: [From $7.95 to $4.99] BG73S
Spinward Fringe Fracture: [From $7.95 to $4.99] MH48Z

Click here to go to my bio and full book list at Smashwords.

A few of you may be asking where my fantasy novels are and why I haven't adapted them to Smashwords yet. Well, the Fate Cycle books; Dead of Winter and Sins of the Past (Click here for the Mobipocket Links), aren't going to be sent over to Smashwords until The Sons Of Brightwill is out, which will launch on Smashwords first.

The Sons of Brightwill is a stand alone fantasy novel that is unrelated to my previous works, and in an effort to keep them separate the Fate Cycle books will not be launched on Smashwords until later this year when Fate Cycle: Exodus, the last book in that set is ready.

I hope you enjoy reading my work, please feel free to leave a comment or rating whenever you like!

RL

Now, back to work on Spinward Fringe: Fragments and the Sons of Brightwill.