Dan Holloway, author of the highly rated Songs from the Other Side of the Wall informed me that Smashwords had experienced an outage for several hours over the weekend. He was concerned the timing was particularly bad as it coincided with the time our weekly email digest of ebook releases gets sent out.
I asked Smashword’s founder, Mark Coker what had happened. Here is his response.
We had two separate outages Sunday, each caused by the same problem, though it took the second outage for us to verify the exact cause (a single author’s attempt to publish a bad file caused Meatgrinder to go haywire, causing a crash on each of her two upload attempts). The author was probably not as badly affected as they think. Despite being down for a just over 50% of the day’s hours, the site’s traffic dropped only 18% from the previous day, according to Google Analytics. I think the impact was mitigated because half the downtime occurred while the US was sleeping, and by around 2pm Pacific the problem was resolved.
Smashwords has always been a very reliable service. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of any serious outage.
On the positive side, Smashwords have just announced a distribution agreement with Sony, allowing Smashword authors to publish their works at the Sony eBook store. This comes just 4 weeks after a similar agreement was reached with Barnes and Noble.
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Eva thought she could outrun the plagues, but she was wrong. The bio-hackers that ripped the world raw are targeting her hometown of Prague, and this time there may be no escaping it.
Now, hunted by police who think she’s a hacker herself, Eva must brave the rotting city streets to find her mother before it’s too late. But with a ruthless agent known as a “Healer” on the prowl, it may only be a matter of time before Eva becomes another victim of his blood-soaked carnage.
In this snowy, ash-strewn apocalypse, Eva’s greatest fear is this new threat may not be coincidence at all… it may be personal.
“A gripping, scary viruscore tale.”
— io9.com
“MCM is one of the most unique voices working in SciFi today.”
— Martin Gero, Producer, Stargate: Atlantis, Stargate: Universe
(5 votes, average: 5.80 out of 10)
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Have you ever wondered what it might be like to go to Antarctica on a whim, or did you start thinking about it just now? Is going on the Trans-Siberian Railway on your list of things to do before you die, but you’re not entirely sure why? Does your idea of good traveling exclude any kind of detailed planning?
If so, you might want to get One for the Road. It’s a fun read, but it will also teach you a lot about several far-away and foreign parts, and about how to travel independently anywhere in general.
Building on experience from 60 countries worth of independent travel, the author takes you on three journeys to places you may never have considered visiting, although you probably should and you definitely could.
The book was published on paper in 2008, but was only recently made available as free PDF, ePub, mobi and LIT downloads from the book’s Web site, bjornfree.com.
FREE (but not because it had to be)
381 dead tree pages
(7 votes, average: 9.57 out of 10)
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50 Benefits of Ebooks is Published in an Updated and Expanded Edition
http://epublishersweekly.blogspot.com/2009/09/50-benefits-of-ebooks-is-published-in.html
A new edition of our popular book about ebooks is now available.
50 Benefits of Ebooks is a lively introduction to the brave new worlds of ebooks and electronic publishing. This revised September 2009 edition (now 51,000 words) is 25% larger than the March edition, contains new chapters, and features an inspiring Afterword by Michael S. Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg.
A PDF version is available for sale right now. An EPUB version will be available on September 28; the paperback will be released on October 14.
The price is $ 2 — one-tenth of the paperback price.
There is a special discount for senior citizens and for buyers of the March edition: $ 1.
Michael S. Hart, who has been called ‘the inventor of ebooks’, says about the book: “This book is pretty much a ‘must read’ and a ‘ready reference’ for anyone considering eBooks.”
In addition to the essay by Mr. Hart, new chapters have been added, and other chapters have been expanded and updated, including the chapter about How and Where to Find Free Ebooks. An article “The Google Book Search Settlement Demystified”, offers a clear and simple explanation of this boggling issue.
More About the book:
Written for a wide audience — from ebook newcomers to experts — in 28 chapters, the book explores 5 essential aspects of ebook reading, writing and publishing: A. Benefits of Ebooks and Paper Books; B. Reading Ebooks; C. Ebooks for Authors & Publishers; D. The Value of Reading; and E. The Education of An Ebooklover. Ebook newcomers will find all the basics here. Ebook experts can debate and debunk the author’s wild predictions for the rosy and thorny future of ebooks, by reading the essay, “Publishing Ebooks: Ten Tremendous Trends in 2009.” Authors will discover tips and resources for ebook publishing. Library professionals will enjoy the book’s glossary, Index, and links to leading ebook sites.
For more information, contact Victoria Weise by email: ebook AT care2.com
For more information, please visit the book’s companion blog-site, at
http://www.EpublishersWeekly.net
$2.00
374 pages (51,000 words)
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Imagine Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, transported to Eastern Europe.
The day the Berlin Wall came down, Jennifer returned to England, A subtle dream one doesn’t want to wake up from (Authonomy) abandoning her week-old daughter, Szandi, to grow up on a Hungarian vineyard with 300 years of history. Now 18, Szandi is part of Budapest’s cosmopolitan art scene, sharing a flat and a bohemian lifestyle with her lover and fellow scupltress, Yang. She has finally found her place in the world. Then a letter arrives that threatens everything, and forces her to choose once and for all: between the past and the present; between East and West; between her family and her lover.
Songs from the Other Side of the Wall is a coming of age story that inhabits anti-capitalist chatrooms and ancient winecellars, seedy bars and dreaming spires; and takes us on a remarkable journey across Europe and cyberspace in the company of rockstars and dropouts, diaries that appear from nowhere, a telepathic fashion mogul, and the talking statue of a bull
(7 votes, average: 9.29 out of 10)
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Strategies to keep you sane
Housework is a unique challenge.
How you feel about housework not only affects your home – it can impact your relationships, your emotional well-being and your health. It can even affect your finances!
So if you’re just not at home with the domestic stuff…
Relax. There’s a brand new resource just for you!
Make Peace With Housework is a series of eBooks that deal with the mental woes of domestic life. Each of the 8 eBooks address a separate issue, ranging from Futility to Injustice to Overwhelm. This introduction sets out why we need to address the psychological aspects of housework – and shows exactly how to do it. The free intro gives you a taster of what you can expect from the series and also explains why this resource came about – and why women everywhere will find it useful, entertaining and inspiring.
So if housework is doing your head in – this intro will explain how there is another way.
It’s brilliant! Funny, interesting, informative and enjoyable. Thank-you!”
Tina Kirkman, West Yorkshire UK
“…wonderful and chock full of inspiration and useful info.”
Kris Wise, Manchester USA
“I’m married to a housework-phobic woman who will LOVE your ideas.”
Chris Twiggs, Florida USA
“…if I hadn’t read your book, I might not have understood the tools to help me begin what looked like a neverending task.”
Lowenna Luke, Cornwall UK
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.tech is a free e-book of poetry about technology, artificial intelligence, video games, and computers. Several of the poems are actually composed in programming languages and can actually be run.
The poems discuss a digital mindscape, telling a story of how technology affects many aspects of our lives, both in fantasy and reality.
The book is published free on scribd. A stylized audio version of one of the poems, building can be found on my blog. building is about how assembling a computer and bringing it to life resembles an act of mystic creation.
(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)
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Xanta Claus is a hilariously funny, fresh story guaranteed to brighten your holiday season. David Kringle, Santa’s brother, realizes his destiny is to start his own fairy tale, Xanta Claus, which starts where his brother’s ends. The new fairy tale is an extension of the family business, but is different in every way! David is a slender, handsome man with a quick wit and a certain charisma with the ladies. He is hopeful he will find the one, even after searching for over a thousand years! He believes it can still happen since his brother found Mrs. Claus (Claire) and he is as big as a house! David had found a niche in life as an author writing about the family business with titles such as “Elves Gone Wild”, “One Reindeer You Don’t Want to Pet”, “What Happens at the North Pole Stays at the North Pole” and others. Despite these less than flattering views of the North Pole, Kris and Claire supported David in all his endeavors – that doesn’t mean there isn’t restitution! The Council of Fairy Tales approves the Xanta Claus charter for a one year provisional trial. Immediately the race is on to prove the new South Pole based fairy tale can make a difference in the world. The success of Xanta Claus relies on the edgy elves appointed by the Elf Union, a rookie reindeer team and their strict trainer, an inexperienced head elf, a cantankerous plant foreman and the rest of a colorful, hilarious cast of characters. Their journey is sure to become part of your holiday season for years to come.
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Nano Wars is a techno-thriller of a world unknowingly gripped in conflict by the emergence of dark uses of nano technology and the amazing nano based devices and weaponry it brought with it, a new era of hybrid soldiers and warfare. Nano Technology had been introduced into society with much fanfare, specifically in the medical field and had generated new levels of investments in medical companies utilizing such technology based procedures. However, as the nano based procedures were made available, their costs proved to be too costly for the masses. This caused a tremendous tremor in nano companies as they scrambled to reinvent themselves or close operations. This tremor caused a severe crack in morality, out of which was born a new form of espionage and warfare. Any force armed with this technology is invisible to their enemy, able to kill hundreds, thousands, in seconds and can penetrate any facility at will. The problem, this technology was introduced by the wrong side and it is DATIS’s job to recreate itself, fast. DATIS is scrambling to meet this challenge by creating a new hybrid army molded out of new soldier classifications and weapons, but time is short and the world is hanging in the balance.
(1 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
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