Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Google

Google, who acquired the rights to all out-of-print books in a class action settlement a while back, has now entered the e-book publishing marketplace, http://books.google.com/ebooks. Scroll about halfway down the home page to locate free books. Seven pages of books provide a wide selection of classics you may have read in print.

Since my books, Behind These Mountains, vol. 1, 2 and 3 are out-of-print Google also was awarded the right to digitize them and make them available to the public. I don't know whether the details of the settlement also gave them permission to e-publish the books and offer them free to the public as they have with these classics. However, I have republished the series, so the 2nd Edition is now in-print. Digital copies can be read online at http://www.behindthesemountains.com/.

The good news is, the e-books Google publishes can be read on just about any electronic device you own, http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/overview.html.

Since my books are regional history books about the sparsely populated area of the Cabinet Mountains where the Clark Fork River flows in northwestern Montana I'd be surprised if Google ever would have digitized and make them available. But the books are no longer in the out-of-print category.

Starte enjoying them today at http://www.behindthesemountains.com/.



From e-Book Manuscript to Publication

Some days being supportive to other writers leads to exceptionally useful writing information. I often send my congratulations to a Yahoo published on my favorite writing list, the Internet Writing Workshop list (http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/, http://internetwritingworkshop.blogspot.com/.) I make it a practice, in addition to reading the stories online at a web site the author includes, to also check the websites the author includes with their signature.

Virginia Winter's Yahoo is a prime example. While checking out a signature link contained  in Virginia Winter's Yahoo, http://www.writewordsinc.com/, I discovered Write Words Inc. There, my curiosity took me to the Site Map, which led me to Submission Guidelines, where I scrolled down to THE RULES, http://www.writewordsinc.com/sugu.html, and discovered great detailed information about the e-book publishing process --- what, how and why -- for manuscript preparation and what happens in the publishing process. ie: galleys, .pdfs and such. Helpful information.

Since Virginia hadn't included a link to her story, I searched the publication she included, and was able to enjoy her story, too. Virginia Winter's Homicide in Haliburton, is here at Pine Tree Mysteries, http://tinyurl.com/4ko37b7.

Virginia Winters' The Facepainter Murders is available at http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.writewordsinc.com/.