Free backlist & small press books @ Smashwords, iTunes, et al.

ATDrake · 04-04-2012, 09:28 PM

So, since the non-Amazon stuff is so hard to find, here's a thread for the backlist, small-press, and established author self-pub offerings which are available elsewhere, preferably free to all via Smashwords or direct from the source in a downloadable format which may require conversion for your reader, but not a mere "Save HTML As" from your browser.

NB: Since Smashwords distributes to a fair number of stores and other stores will also often price-match when something at SW goes free, I will assume that if you have a preferred store that is not SW, you are

a) bright enough to look up for yourself if the freebie is also there if you want to get it from there and

b) think that your fellow MR members are also similarly bright and motivated, should they choose not to avail themselves of the DRM-free format of their choice which is free to all via Smashwords.

Therefore, I won't be mentioning other stores unless something's a pricing catch-up situation where the other stores have it still temporarily free until the price adjusts back again.

I also don't do general bargain-finding, but am willing to mention if there's some sort of low-cost-looking deal from the same author/publisher if they've got a free thing on offer for you to try before you buy.

I have this vague idea of using the first couple of posts in this thread to keep a sporadically updated "permafreebie" collection of anything that people find which has been on offer for a while, to reward the authors/publishers for sharing and make their stuff easier to find.

So, general/rotating site freebies will probably go into the 2nd post, sf/fantasy/speculative into the 3rd, mystery/thriller & historical/litfic/other in the 4th, and probably romance in the 5th since there's so much of that it's going to need its own post.

ATDrake · 04-04-2012, 09:29 PM

Publishers and multi-genre sites go here.

Belgrave House (mystery, romance, miscellaneous genre fiction). Offer some free mystery and romance short stories and a novel from their Belgrave House main site and some more romance novellas via their Regency Reads imprint. Reprint many backlist authors' books which were previously published with romance and crime imprints (generally tends to more cozy/women's fiction mysteries, but some historicals and harder crime in there as well). Couponable at Fictionwise, Kobo, etc.

Book View Café (consortium of backlist authors, mostly fantasy & science fiction, but some historical, romance, mystery, other). Offers an occasionally rotating selection of downloadable freebies on their website (currently short stories) and host free online-read short stories & novellas from their authors. Rarely if ever hold sales, but generally very reasonable pricing at mostly $2.99-$4.99 for individual novels, with online reading access and multiple DRM-free formats. Some titles also re-sold via other outlets and may be couponable.

ETA: Huh. Apparently they've removed almost all the short fiction online reads from the site. Too bad, because it was a good promo thing that I liked pointing people towards when suggesting they pick up books by particular authors. Hopefully they're just temporarily down as part of a planned site reorganization since their site seems to now be severely functionally broken in other basic ways, but I'm cynical and suspect they've disappeared for good.

Evernight Publishing (newbie imprint, romance & erotic romance). Has a small free reads section on their webstore which they seem to add to sporadically, and offers a rotating weekly 99 cent discount feature title which you can keep up with via their blog (they don't tag the entries meaningfully, but they seem to change it every Friday).

Infinity Plus (science fiction, fantasy, speculative literary, some mystery/crime @ $0.99-$2.99 via Smashwords). Do mainly short story collections but also have backlist reprints of established, often award-nominated authors. Offer a free short story and a freebie sampler containing full-length short stories and a novelette from their published authors: One Step Closer, Infinities

MLR Press (m/m romance and LGBT detective/other subgenre fiction; have also started an f/m romance spinoff imprint) offers a free PDF download of one of their titles every couple of weeks on a rotating basis, downloadable from the top of their site's frontpage. Couponable at Fictionwise, Kobo, etc.

Night Shade Books (fantasy, horror, science fiction), offer a couple of downloadable short stories from their sometimes award-winning authors on their website. Couponable via Kobo and others, but generally cheapest bought via Baen's webstore at $6 DRM-free MultiFormat vs $7.99 pre-coupon most other outlets. Occasionally hold special discount pricing and give out freebies to Amazon.

Samhain Publishing (romance, erotic romance, horror) offer a couple of permafreebies in their webstore which I'll dig up later once I figure out which ones they are. They also have the old Samhellion author promotion blog at which you can get free PDF short stories by their authors which often tie into their on-sale series. Offer 30% off new release and pre-order titles each week and run coupon sales every so often, usually during holidays, which stack on top of the 30% weekly discount as well. Coupons generally 1-use, so stock up your cart before checking out.

Small Beer Press (science fiction, fantasy, speculative literary fiction). Offer a selection of downloadable works under Creative Commons license for promotional purposes on their website. You may also find extra stories in the samples and podcasts sections. Couponable via Fictionwise, and sometimes offer discount sales in their own webstore (special event holidays, IIRC).

I especially recommend Maureen F. McHugh's story collection, which is free and which I happen to own in paper as well, and the Ted Chiang collection (not free, but well worth the money, and also a paper-own for me in two languages).

ATDrake · 04-04-2012, 09:30 PM

Just what it says in the title. There's actually a fair amount to fill in here, but I'll have to hunt it down again.

A decent-sized chunk of it can probably still be found in the freebie/bargain thread from Read an Ebook Week while you wait, but there are quite a few sf/f authors who have stuff on their websites which I'll have to go back through my bookmarks for.

John Moore (ISFDB, humourous fairy-tale satirical fantasy). Formerly published by Baen & Ace. Sadly out of print, but 1 e-book couponable via Fictionwise. Offers a PDF download of an unpublished sci-fi humour technothriller involving French Canadian separatists: Heat Sink

I've read all of his books which I've managed to buy. He's very funny and highly recommended.

Mayer Alan Brenner (ISFDB, light adventure quest fantasy, IIRC). Formerly published by DAW and offers the entirety of his late 80s DAW-published Dance of the Gods series free to all in multiple formats (older ones which may require conversion for modern readers) under a Creative Commons license on his website: Linkage to the lot (and he has a Paypal tipjar).

Lewis Shiner (ISFDB; cyberpunk, magic realism, fantasy & musical elements in literary speculative fiction). Published by Baen, Doubleday, and currently in print from Subterranean Press. Offers in PDF (and convertable HTML) significant chunk of backlist under Creative Commons license at his website: Fiction Liberation Front

Charles Stross (alternate timeline travel, far future, and space opera science fiction, Lovecraftian bureaucracy, near future technotopia). Published by Ace & Orbit. Offers two published novels and a small-pressed story collection free to download under a restricted Creative Commons license at his blog.

My favourite works from him are the Laundry series, which combines a very entertaining riff on pop-culture/sci-fi/fantasy tropes with a creepy lurking anticipatory horror.

Also, the more seriously Lovecraftian short "A Colder War" in his TOAST collection (one of the freebies) is excellently chilling and highly recommended.

Peter Watts (ISFDB; near future marine apocalyptic, far future space exploration, etc.). Published by Tor. Offers a significant portion of his backlist free to download under a Creative Commons license at his website where he also has a tipjar.

A Canadian author, and one I quite like, even though I'm actually not all that fond of the worlds he's created, though that may just have to do with some of them being near-future bleak dystopias.

Best stories, IMHO, "The Island" (a Hugo winner), "Fractals", "Bulk Food" (very funny satire, and even funnier if you know that Watts is a marine biologist who used to live in the very sort of area described), all free on his website.

Rudy Rucker (ISFDB, Wikipedia; cyberpunk, steampunk, other speculative @ $4.95 ePub or Mobi (really needs to offer a multi-format bundle) directly from author; also other titles couponable at Fictionwise, etc.) noted in Charles Stross' blog that he has recently started assembling proper e-book versions of some of his works to sell, currently with complete collections of his short stories and essays and a backlist novel thus far. He also has a long-standing Creative Commons release of at least two of his novels (downloadable in PDF from his website) and offers PDFs of behind-the-scenes author's notes for many of his works. The Ware Tetralogy and Postsingular are the CC freebies and can also be found in conversion on Feedbooks and/or Manybooks.

I'm not into cyberpunk, but the complete collection of all his sf short stories for just $5 sounds like a pretty good deal, and I may just get it to try out, since he's been pretty generous with the Creative Commons freebies and I like world-building notes.

Karl Schroeder (ISFDB, Wikipedia; far future & technotopia sf) offers his debut novel, published by Tor in 2000, for free download under a Creative Commons license on his website. He also offers a few PDF stories and intends to add more. He'll also be doing a time-limited free e-book promotion in conjunction with Tor.com starting April 25th; details in this post by Pete731 who spotted it.

Doranna Durgin (ISFDB, urban & high fantasy, action/adventure romantic suspenses @ $0.99-$4.49 via Smashwords). Published by Baen and Harlequin. Offers a Baen-published fantasy (likely just for a limited time): Wolverine's Daughter

NB: some of her separately-available short stories are collected within the multi-author compilation The Heart of Dog, which I bought during the Read an E-Book Week sale. To be honest, I couldn't really get into the writings of hers which I tried, but she'd been pretty generous with the freebies so I wanted to get something, and there were stories from Tanya Huff and John Zakour, whom I know I like, inside, and the proceeds went to the author's dog's medical bills, so it was for a good cause.

Phillippa "Pip" Ballantine (steampunk & historical fantasy @ $0.99-$3.99 via Smashwords as Philippa, as Pip). Published by HarperCollins. Offers a 2005 Dragon Moon Press historical urban fantasy with Shakespeare & elves in it: Chasing the Bard

ATDrake · 04-04-2012, 09:31 PM

Thomas Hoover (adventure/medical/historical thrillers, non-fiction) has been published by Bantam, Berkley Plume, Random House, and other imprints throughout the 90s. He offers his backlist of the previously published stuff free via Smashwords.

Harriet Smart (historical drama/saga/mystery w/maybe romance @ 2.99 via Smashwords). Offers a Hodder Headline-published historical novel: Green Grow the Rushes

Edie Claire (mystery, YA, romantic suspense @ $0.99-3.99 via Smashwords). Formerly published by Penguin Putnam and Warner. Offers the 1st in her apparently-humorous Leigh Koslow mystery series out from PP in 1999: Never Buried

Lise McClendon (historical & contempary mysteries, literary/general fiction @ $1.99-4.99 via Smashwords). Forget who's published her, but she's been published. Offers a literary suspense/women's fiction w/mystery elements: Blackbird Fly

Marcelle Dubé (mystery, romantic suspense @ $1.49-6.99 via Smashwords). Published by Carina Press. Offers a police procedural mystery short which ties into her Mendenhall Mystery series whose 1st book is available from Carina: Night Shift

I've read this and The Shoeless Kid which were decent but unexciting reads, though nice enough if you like Manitoba-set Canadiana.

Kit Ehrman (equestrian murder mysteries @ $2.99 via Smashwords). Published by Poisoned Pen Press. Offers his 1st in series debut novel in the Steve Cline Mysteries, originally published by PPP: At Risk

Richard Herley (historical novels @ $2.99-3.99 via Smashwords; fellow MR member author). Published by Ballantine. Offers the 1st in his Stone Age England trilogy, originally out from Morrow: The Stone Arrow

Robin Lee Hatcher (Christian contemporary general/women's fiction @ $2.99-$8.99 via Smashwords) Published by Bethany House or Tyndale, I think it was. Offers the 1st in an inspirational small-town general fiction quartet: Legacy Lane

Sol Weinstein (humourous vintage James Bond spoofs published in Playboy Magazine @ $2.99-$9.99 via Smashwords). Offers the 1st in the Israel Bond Oy-Oy-7 series, printed by Pocket Books in 1965: Loxfinger

ATDrake · 04-04-2012, 09:34 PM

Under re-construction. Click spoiler to reveal the old listings, some of which are probably expired.

Wendy Lindstrom (f/m historical & historical western romance @ $3.99-$4.99 via Smashwords). Backlist by St. Martin's Press & Dorchester/Leisure.

Shades of Honor 2002 St. Martin's Press post-US Civil War historical romance, 1st in Grayson Brothers series

Patricia McLinn (f/m contemporary career-oriented & contemporary western romance @ $0.99-$6.99 via Smashwords) In print from Bell Bridge Books. Backlist by Harlequin.

Almost a Bride 2001 Silhouette Special Edition contemporary western romance, 1st in Wyoming Wildflower series

Josephine Myles (m/m contemporary & historical romance @ via Smashwords; additional online free reads @ author's website). In print from Samhain, Dreamspinner Press, Amber Allure, etc.

Pole Star awkward emergency room encounter erotic short
Fuzzy humourous domestic erotic short, sequel to another story

Spoiler:

ScalyFreak · 04-04-2012, 09:54 PM

"Divorced, Desperate, and Delicious" is one of the few comedy romances I've read that actually was funny. Romantic too, and I am a complete sucker for all things romantic.

Please don't tell anyone about that last part. I have a public bitch-persona to maintain.

Blue Tyson · 04-04-2012, 10:07 PM

Found this one yesterday:-

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/117635

In The Tide: a science fiction short story by Linda Nagata

"The rings of Saturn have been poisoned with a cloud of nanomachines designed to infect and destroy smart technology, including spacecraft control centers. Aron is a molecular designer with an unspoken passion for Indigo, a modified human adapted for life in space. Together they descend into Saturn’s poisoned rings in a desperate attempt to salvage an abandoned spacecraft. "

Blue Tyson · 04-04-2012, 10:12 PM

Frosty the Hitman: A Lawson Vampire Short story - Jon F. Merz

"It’s the day before Christmas and Lawson’s spending it with his least favorite person in the world: Ava, a wealthy Council member who has always hated him. But Ava’s in trouble and Lawson is the only person standing between her and a deadly assassin named Frost. "

Mobi | epub

Blossom · 04-04-2012, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

"Divorced, Desperate, and Delicious" is one of the few comedy romances I've read that actually was funny. Romantic too, and I am a complete sucker for all things romantic.

Please don't tell anyone about that last part. I have a public bitch-persona to maintain.

The other two books in the series are just as funny. I own all Christie Craig's books in paperback and ebook form. I support this author because I love her writing! Her books are hilarious and all heroes are in some kind of Cop, Agent or P.I. there always some kind of pet in the story too. Not to mention if you haven't read Gotcha you gotta! The Tampon scene in the book is

Thanks to ATDrake for starting this thread!

ATDrake · 04-04-2012, 10:26 PM

I've got a lab report and some other stuff to type, so I'll take a break for now but these are the new things which haven't been previously mentioned in threads on this forum, IIRC:

Becca Dale & Patricia McLinn western romance, Debra Webb contemporary (I'm pretty sure this is a new freebie), Marilyn Campbell romantic suspense.

ETA: Also Lise McClendon literary suspense.

ScalyFreak · 04-04-2012, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blossom

The other two books in the series are just as funny. I own all Christie Craig's books in paperback and ebook form. I support this author because I love her writing! Her books are hilarious and all heroes are in some kind of Cop, Agent or P.I. there always some kind of pet in the story too. Not to mention if you haven't read Gotcha you gotta! The Tampon scene in the book is

Tampon scene???

Okay, you got my attention. I have to get this one now. It's on Smashwords as well, right?

Blue Tyson · 04-04-2012, 11:03 PM

Accelerando - Charles Stross

"Accelerando is a 2005 science fiction novel consisting of a series of interconnected short stories by British author Charles Stross. As well as normal hardback and paperback editions, it was released as a free e-book under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. Accelerando won the Locus Award in 2006,[1] and was nominated for several other awards in 2005 and 2006, including the Hugo, Campbell, Clarke, and British Science Fiction Association Awards."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_%28novel%29

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...ndo-intro.html

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...celerando.mobi

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...celerando.epub

And

Toast and Other Rusted Futures - Charles Stross

http://manybooks.net/titles/strosscother10toast.html

A collection which contains :-

Antibodies
Bear Trap
Extracts from the Club Diary
A Colder War
TOAST: A Con Report
Ship of Fools
Dechlorinating the Moderator
Yellow Snow
Big Brother Iron
Lobsters

Antibodies and Lobster being another two of my favorites.

Blue Tyson · 04-04-2012, 11:06 PM

Baen CD

There are A LOT of books here given there are a couple of dozen CDs.

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/

"The Baen CDs hosted here are freely-distributable disks provided to promote the sale of the books contained within. Baen allows these CDs to be distributed not simply to provide free electronic copies of their books, but to generate sales for those same books. They are a medium of advertising.

These CDs are generally available bound into the first edition of the books they are titled for. A few of the CDs (those marked with the P prefix) are not bound in any book and were made available as publishing industry promotional material.

Please remember that just because these books are being provided at no cost does not mean that they are in the Public Domain. Just because Baen isn't asking for any money for these copies doesn't mean that they are giving up any of their copyrights. Copyright doesn't mean that you have to pay for something, it means that someone legally owns the right to distribute something (or not) in any fashion they desire - including doing so at no charge. So all the rules that apply to an ebook you bought and paid for also apply to these titles.

If you download any of the disks, please take the time to go to the Baen Webscription site and buy a copy of at least the CD's primary ebook. For a modest investment of about $6, you can buy the book, which gives you access to a downloadable copy of the CD, anyway. Or you can buy the entire Webscription month that the CD accompanies for $18 and/or buy the book in paper form.

For more freely downloadable Baen books, visit the Baen Free Library."

Blossom · 04-04-2012, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Tampon scene???

Okay, you got my attention. I have to get this one now. It's on Smashwords as well, right?

Yep for $3.99 It was 99 cents for the longest time when I bought mine. I still shop at Smashwords occasionally.

To get back on Topic.

Here's one Author from Smashwords. Her freebies changes now and then.

Candice Hern: Regency Romance Author Books Prices $0.99 - $4.99 All are backlist titles.
She offers a free novella Desperate Measures.

Blue Tyson · 04-04-2012, 11:39 PM

Bob Moore: No Hero - Tom Andry

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/36483

"Super powered humans started appearing 30 years ago. Now, they are everywhere. Bob Moore, Private Eye, dares to investigate those who could incinerate him with a thought. When he is called to help a super from his past, however, he'll be pushed to his limit. When supers and the police think there is no crime, can he get to the truth? Will he want to for the man that destroyed his marriage?"

Even an Australian author. Rather enjoyed this.

04-04-2012, 09:28 PM	#1
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	Free backlist & small press books @ Smashwords, iTunes, et al. So, since the non-Amazon stuff is so hard to find, here's a thread for the backlist, small-press, and established author self-pub offerings which are available elsewhere, preferably free to all via Smashwords or direct from the source in a downloadable format which may require conversion for your reader, but not a mere "Save HTML As" from your browser. NB: Since Smashwords distributes to a fair number of stores and other stores will also often price-match when something at SW goes free, I will assume that if you have a preferred store that is not SW, you are a) bright enough to look up for yourself if the freebie is also there if you want to get it from there and b) think that your fellow MR members are also similarly bright and motivated, should they choose not to avail themselves of the DRM-free format of their choice which is free to all via Smashwords. Therefore, I won't be mentioning other stores unless something's a pricing catch-up situation where the other stores have it still temporarily free until the price adjusts back again. I also don't do general bargain-finding, but am willing to mention if there's some sort of low-cost-looking deal from the same author/publisher if they've got a free thing on offer for you to try before you buy. I have this vague idea of using the first couple of posts in this thread to keep a sporadically updated "permafreebie" collection of anything that people find which has been on offer for a while, to reward the authors/publishers for sharing and make their stuff easier to find. So, general/rotating site freebies will probably go into the 2nd post, sf/fantasy/speculative into the 3rd, mystery/thriller & historical/litfic/other in the 4th, and probably romance in the 5th since there's so much of that it's going to need its own post.

04-04-2012, 09:29 PM	#2
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	General/rotating website freebie offerings (contents subject to change) Publishers and multi-genre sites go here. Belgrave House (mystery, romance, miscellaneous genre fiction). Offer some free mystery and romance short stories and a novel from their Belgrave House main site and some more romance novellas via their Regency Reads imprint. Reprint many backlist authors' books which were previously published with romance and crime imprints (generally tends to more cozy/women's fiction mysteries, but some historicals and harder crime in there as well). Couponable at Fictionwise, Kobo, etc. Book View Café (consortium of backlist authors, mostly fantasy & science fiction, but some historical, romance, mystery, other). Offers an occasionally rotating selection of downloadable freebies on their website (currently short stories) and host free online-read short stories & novellas from their authors. Rarely if ever hold sales, but generally very reasonable pricing at mostly $2.99-$4.99 for individual novels, with online reading access and multiple DRM-free formats. Some titles also re-sold via other outlets and may be couponable. ETA: Huh. Apparently they've removed almost all the short fiction online reads from the site. Too bad, because it was a good promo thing that I liked pointing people towards when suggesting they pick up books by particular authors. Hopefully they're just temporarily down as part of a planned site reorganization since their site seems to now be severely functionally broken in other basic ways, but I'm cynical and suspect they've disappeared for good. Evernight Publishing (newbie imprint, romance & erotic romance). Has a small free reads section on their webstore which they seem to add to sporadically, and offers a rotating weekly 99 cent discount feature title which you can keep up with via their blog (they don't tag the entries meaningfully, but they seem to change it every Friday). Infinity Plus (science fiction, fantasy, speculative literary, some mystery/crime @ $0.99-$2.99 via Smashwords). Do mainly short story collections but also have backlist reprints of established, often award-nominated authors. Offer a free short story and a freebie sampler containing full-length short stories and a novelette from their published authors: One Step Closer, Infinities MLR Press (m/m romance and LGBT detective/other subgenre fiction; have also started an f/m romance spinoff imprint) offers a free PDF download of one of their titles every couple of weeks on a rotating basis, downloadable from the top of their site's frontpage. Couponable at Fictionwise, Kobo, etc. Night Shade Books (fantasy, horror, science fiction), offer a couple of downloadable short stories from their sometimes award-winning authors on their website. Couponable via Kobo and others, but generally cheapest bought via Baen's webstore at $6 DRM-free MultiFormat vs $7.99 pre-coupon most other outlets. Occasionally hold special discount pricing and give out freebies to Amazon. Samhain Publishing (romance, erotic romance, horror) offer a couple of permafreebies in their webstore which I'll dig up later once I figure out which ones they are. They also have the old Samhellion author promotion blog at which you can get free PDF short stories by their authors which often tie into their on-sale series. Offer 30% off new release and pre-order titles each week and run coupon sales every so often, usually during holidays, which stack on top of the 30% weekly discount as well. Coupons generally 1-use, so stock up your cart before checking out. Small Beer Press (science fiction, fantasy, speculative literary fiction). Offer a selection of downloadable works under Creative Commons license for promotional purposes on their website. You may also find extra stories in the samples and podcasts sections. Couponable via Fictionwise, and sometimes offer discount sales in their own webstore (special event holidays, IIRC). I especially recommend Maureen F. McHugh's story collection, which is free and which I happen to own in paper as well, and the Ted Chiang collection (not free, but well worth the money, and also a paper-own for me in two languages). Last edited by ATDrake; 04-06-2012 at 12:09 AM.

04-04-2012, 09:30 PM	#3
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	This space reserved for speculative fiction freebies Just what it says in the title. There's actually a fair amount to fill in here, but I'll have to hunt it down again. A decent-sized chunk of it can probably still be found in the freebie/bargain thread from Read an Ebook Week while you wait, but there are quite a few sf/f authors who have stuff on their websites which I'll have to go back through my bookmarks for. John Moore (ISFDB, humourous fairy-tale satirical fantasy). Formerly published by Baen & Ace. Sadly out of print, but 1 e-book couponable via Fictionwise. Offers a PDF download of an unpublished sci-fi humour technothriller involving French Canadian separatists: Heat Sink I've read all of his books which I've managed to buy. He's very funny and highly recommended. Mayer Alan Brenner (ISFDB, light adventure quest fantasy, IIRC). Formerly published by DAW and offers the entirety of his late 80s DAW-published Dance of the Gods series free to all in multiple formats (older ones which may require conversion for modern readers) under a Creative Commons license on his website: Linkage to the lot (and he has a Paypal tipjar). Lewis Shiner (ISFDB; cyberpunk, magic realism, fantasy & musical elements in literary speculative fiction). Published by Baen, Doubleday, and currently in print from Subterranean Press. Offers in PDF (and convertable HTML) significant chunk of backlist under Creative Commons license at his website: Fiction Liberation Front Charles Stross (alternate timeline travel, far future, and space opera science fiction, Lovecraftian bureaucracy, near future technotopia). Published by Ace & Orbit. Offers two published novels and a small-pressed story collection free to download under a restricted Creative Commons license at his blog. My favourite works from him are the Laundry series, which combines a very entertaining riff on pop-culture/sci-fi/fantasy tropes with a creepy lurking anticipatory horror. Also, the more seriously Lovecraftian short "A Colder War" in his TOAST collection (one of the freebies) is excellently chilling and highly recommended. Peter Watts (ISFDB; near future marine apocalyptic, far future space exploration, etc.). Published by Tor. Offers a significant portion of his backlist free to download under a Creative Commons license at his website where he also has a tipjar. A Canadian author, and one I quite like, even though I'm actually not all that fond of the worlds he's created, though that may just have to do with some of them being near-future bleak dystopias. Best stories, IMHO, "The Island" (a Hugo winner), "Fractals", "Bulk Food" (very funny satire, and even funnier if you know that Watts is a marine biologist who used to live in the very sort of area described), all free on his website. Rudy Rucker (ISFDB, Wikipedia; cyberpunk, steampunk, other speculative @ $4.95 ePub or Mobi (really needs to offer a multi-format bundle) directly from author; also other titles couponable at Fictionwise, etc.) noted in Charles Stross' blog that he has recently started assembling proper e-book versions of some of his works to sell, currently with complete collections of his short stories and essays and a backlist novel thus far. He also has a long-standing Creative Commons release of at least two of his novels (downloadable in PDF from his website) and offers PDFs of behind-the-scenes author's notes for many of his works. The Ware Tetralogy and Postsingular are the CC freebies and can also be found in conversion on Feedbooks and/or Manybooks. I'm not into cyberpunk, but the complete collection of all his sf short stories for just $5 sounds like a pretty good deal, and I may just get it to try out, since he's been pretty generous with the Creative Commons freebies and I like world-building notes. Karl Schroeder (ISFDB, Wikipedia; far future & technotopia sf) offers his debut novel, published by Tor in 2000, for free download under a Creative Commons license on his website. He also offers a few PDF stories and intends to add more. He'll also be doing a time-limited free e-book promotion in conjunction with Tor.com starting April 25th; details in this post by Pete731 who spotted it. Doranna Durgin (ISFDB, urban & high fantasy, action/adventure romantic suspenses @ $0.99-$4.49 via Smashwords). Published by Baen and Harlequin. Offers a Baen-published fantasy (likely just for a limited time): Wolverine's Daughter NB: some of her separately-available short stories are collected within the multi-author compilation The Heart of Dog, which I bought during the Read an E-Book Week sale. To be honest, I couldn't really get into the writings of hers which I tried, but she'd been pretty generous with the freebies so I wanted to get something, and there were stories from Tanya Huff and John Zakour, whom I know I like, inside, and the proceeds went to the author's dog's medical bills, so it was for a good cause. Phillippa "Pip" Ballantine (steampunk & historical fantasy @ $0.99-$3.99 via Smashwords as Philippa, as Pip). Published by HarperCollins. Offers a 2005 Dragon Moon Press historical urban fantasy with Shakespeare & elves in it: Chasing the Bard Last edited by ATDrake; 04-28-2012 at 03:48 PM.

04-04-2012, 09:31 PM	#4
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	Everything which isn't speculative or romance besides the kitchen sink Thomas Hoover (adventure/medical/historical thrillers, non-fiction) has been published by Bantam, Berkley Plume, Random House, and other imprints throughout the 90s. He offers his backlist of the previously published stuff free via Smashwords. Harriet Smart (historical drama/saga/mystery w/maybe romance @ 2.99 via Smashwords). Offers a Hodder Headline-published historical novel: Green Grow the Rushes Edie Claire (mystery, YA, romantic suspense @ $0.99-3.99 via Smashwords). Formerly published by Penguin Putnam and Warner. Offers the 1st in her apparently-humorous Leigh Koslow mystery series out from PP in 1999: Never Buried Lise McClendon (historical & contempary mysteries, literary/general fiction @ $1.99-4.99 via Smashwords). Forget who's published her, but she's been published. Offers a literary suspense/women's fiction w/mystery elements: Blackbird Fly Marcelle Dubé (mystery, romantic suspense @ $1.49-6.99 via Smashwords). Published by Carina Press. Offers a police procedural mystery short which ties into her Mendenhall Mystery series whose 1st book is available from Carina: Night Shift I've read this and The Shoeless Kid which were decent but unexciting reads, though nice enough if you like Manitoba-set Canadiana. Kit Ehrman (equestrian murder mysteries @ $2.99 via Smashwords). Published by Poisoned Pen Press. Offers his 1st in series debut novel in the Steve Cline Mysteries, originally published by PPP: At Risk Richard Herley (historical novels @ $2.99-3.99 via Smashwords; fellow MR member author). Published by Ballantine. Offers the 1st in his Stone Age England trilogy, originally out from Morrow: The Stone Arrow Robin Lee Hatcher (Christian contemporary general/women's fiction @ $2.99-$8.99 via Smashwords) Published by Bethany House or Tyndale, I think it was. Offers the 1st in an inspirational small-town general fiction quartet: Legacy Lane Sol Weinstein (humourous vintage James Bond spoofs published in Playboy Magazine @ $2.99-$9.99 via Smashwords). Offers the 1st in the Israel Bond Oy-Oy-7 series, printed by Pocket Books in 1965: Loxfinger Last edited by ATDrake; 04-27-2012 at 11:41 PM.

04-04-2012, 09:34 PM	#5
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	Romance which will probably outnumber everything else combined Under re-construction. Click spoiler to reveal the old listings, some of which are probably expired. Wendy Lindstrom (f/m historical & historical western romance @ $3.99-$4.99 via Smashwords). Backlist by St. Martin's Press & Dorchester/Leisure. Shades of Honor 2002 St. Martin's Press post-US Civil War historical romance, 1st in Grayson Brothers series Patricia McLinn (f/m contemporary career-oriented & contemporary western romance @ $0.99-$6.99 via Smashwords) In print from Bell Bridge Books. Backlist by Harlequin. Almost a Bride 2001 Silhouette Special Edition contemporary western romance, 1st in Wyoming Wildflower series Josephine Myles (m/m contemporary & historical romance @ via Smashwords; additional online free reads @ author's website). In print from Samhain, Dreamspinner Press, Amber Allure, etc. Pole Star awkward emergency room encounter erotic short Fuzzy humourous domestic erotic short, sequel to another story Spoiler: Marilyn Campbell (romantic suspense via ePublishing Works @ ~ $4 couponable at Kobo and elsewhere). Also published by Ellora's Cave. Offers a 1994 Random House book: Pretty Maids in a Row (A Romantic Suspense Novel of Revenge) not available on Smashwords, but free @ Kobo & iTunes (available to Canadians). Debra Webb (romantic suspense & contemporary romance @ 99 cents via Smashwords) has been published by at least Harlequin and seems quite popular. Two of contemporary romances are free to all via Smashwords (probably for a limited time): Going to the Chapel and Tempting Trace Patricia McLinn (western romance @ $0.99-$6.99 via Smashwords) has been published by at least Harlequin and seems to have a lot of wedding-related romances. She offers a contemporary western free to all via Smashwords: Almost a Bride Christie Craig (romantic comedy & zany comedic mystery/romance @ $0.99-$3.99 via Smashwords) is formerly Dorchester/Leisure published. She offers a follow-up novel in one of her published series free to all via Smashwords: Divorced, Desperate and Delicious I read Craig's Weddings Can Be Murder when it was an official freebie and it was very funny and the relationships worked out in a surprising, but nicely fitting way. Peggy Webb (contemporary, time-travel, career-oriented, humorous romance @ $0.99-2.99 via Smashwords). Formerly published by Bantam and offers a free humorous contemporary from their Loveswept line: Donovan's Angel Moira Rogers (paranormal shapeshifter romance @ 99 cents via Smashwords). Published by Samhain and offers a tie-in story to her Samhain series and the 1st volume of a self-pub werewolf series: Zola's Pride (Southern Arcana, #2.5), Kamikaze (Last Call #1) Lori Brighton (historical, paranormal, historical paranormal, romantic suspense @ 2.99 via Smashwords). Published by Zebra. Offers a historical, a paranormal, and a historical paranormal romance novella: Love Letters, Historical Romance, The Ghost Hunter, Wild Passion, Story 3 in the Wild Series Kathryn Shay (contemporary, career-oriented, action, romantic suspense, women's fiction @ 2.99-6.99 via Smashwords). Published by Berkley. Offers a firefighter romance novella excerpted from an anthology: In Too Deep Josephine Myles (m/m contemporary & erotic romance @ $0.99-2.99 via Smashwords). Published by Samhain. Offers two m/m erotic romance shorts: Fuzzy, Pole Star I read Pole Star out of curiosity when it showed up in the eReaderIQ slushpile. It was a cute, funny, moderately explicit story about an awkward emergency room encounter with bonus redheads. Becca Dale (western, contemporary, military, erotic romance @ 1.99-6.99 via Smashwords). Newbie author from Decadent Publishing LLC, who have romance & assorted other genre fiction @ Smashwords in the same price range. Has a western contemporary romance freebied by the publisher to promote the upcoming multi-author Western Escape series: Unspoken Promises Candice Hern (Regency and other historical romances @ $0.99-4.99 via Smashwords) Previously published by Berkley. Offers: Desperate Measures (A Regency Short Story) Karen Rose Smith (contemporary, western, career-oriented, family drama romance @ $0.99-3.99 via Smashwords) Published by Harlequin. Offers a 1993 Harlequin Silhouette career-oriented contemporary family drama romance published under the pseudonym Kari Sutherland: Heartfire Patricia Watters (westerns, historicals, romantic suspense @ $0.99-$2.99 via Smashwords) Formerly published by Harlequin and Avon/HarperCollins. Offers what looks like a frontier western historical free @ iTunes (available to Canadians): Miss Phipps and the Cattle Baron Laura Leone, penname of fantasy writer Laura Resnick (romantic comedy & suspense, historical romance @ $2.99 via multiple venues including Kobo, Diesel, and All Romance which allow coupon/rebate/loyalty discounts). Formerly published by Harlequin. Offers a free romantic comedy/mystery short originally published in the 2001 anthology Murder Most Romantic: Homicidal Honeymoon Patricia Rosemoor (romantic suspense, paranormal investigative @ $0.99-$3.99 via Smashwords). Published by Harlequin & Carina. Offers a multi-author supernatural multi-generational historical romance linked-story anthology: Heaven Can Wait. I actually bought this one for 99 cents when it was on sale during the Backlist E-Books author consortium Xmas holiday promotion, on the grounds that it was the most potentially interesting thing Rosemoor was offering (didn't care for the samples I read of her romantic suspenses) and one of the few titles which the assorted participating sale authors had chosen to price-match on Smashwords instead of only giving the good discount prices on Amazon and occasionally maybe B&N. I still haven't read it, but I don't regret paying that small amount to help support the idea of DRM-free MultiFormat stuff selling on Smashwords. Angela Benson (contemporary & inspirational, African-American romances @ $3.99 via Smashwords). Formerly published by Kensington and Avon and Christian publisher Tyndale House. Offers a 1st-in-series contemporary humourous romance short novel, originally out from Kensington in 1995: Friend and Lover Cynthia Wright (historical romance @ $0.99-$2.99 via Smashwords) offers an historical western romance which she says is the Director's Cut of an originally Ballantine-published book via iTunes: Wildblossom Patricia Hagan, whose books are part of Samhain's Retro Romance imprint, offers an historical romantic suspense freebie via iTunes: Orchids in the Moonlight Harlequin Special Edition-published Beth Kery (contemporary romance @ 2.99 via Smashwords) offers a contemporary romance: Gateway to Heaven Diana Dempsey (contemporary romantic suspense, maybe humourous or chick-lit @ $0.99-$2.99 via Smashwords) offers her 2002 Onyx debut novel which won a RITA award: Falling Star Jana DeLeon (romantic comedy/mystery @ $3.99 via Smashwords), formerly published by Dorchester and also Harlequin, offers the 1st in her very funny Mudbug series free: Trouble in Mudbug This is a zany screwball romantic comedy/mystery series with supernatural elements (involves a ghost). I read this 1st novel when it was an official freebie a couple of years ago (for Dorchester-not-paying-its-authors-royalties values of official, that is) and liked it enough to look up the sequels from the library, which were nice light fun. If the author offers Smashwords coupons during a future sale, I'd probably give her other books a try as well. Annette Blair (historical romances @ $2.99 via Smashwords). Published by Zebra. Offers the 1st in her previously-published regency Rogue's Club series free (no longer a KDP exclusive, though I don't know how long/if they'll stay): Undeniable Rogue Elizabeth Bevarly (contemporary comedic romance @ $0.99-$2.99 via Smashwords). Published by Harlequin Silhouette. Offers a free zany screwball romantic comedy novel: My Man Pendleton Lucinda Brant (historical romances @ $2.99-$5.99 via Smashwords). Seems to only be published once by New Concepts Publishing, who are kind of iffy and look like they'd accept anything (though I've seen some decent better-established backlist authors have one or two later books out from them). Nevertheless, several MR members have said that they enjoyed her books. Offers a temporarily-free Georgian historical romance to promote her half-price sale on another volume (sale book may have been given a different promotional price at different outlets depending on region; check your usual stores first if interested): The Salt Bride Last edited by ATDrake; 05-22-2012 at 02:53 AM.

04-04-2012, 09:54 PM	#6
ScalyFreak Sith Wannabe Posts: 2,034 Karma: 8017430 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: I'm not sure... it's kind of dark. Device: Galaxy Note 4, Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Fire HD, Aluratek Libre	"Divorced, Desperate, and Delicious" is one of the few comedy romances I've read that actually was funny. Romantic too, and I am a complete sucker for all things romantic. Please don't tell anyone about that last part. I have a public bitch-persona to maintain.

04-04-2012, 10:07 PM	#7
Blue Tyson Blue Captain Posts: 1,595 Karma: 5000236 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G,Huawei Ideos X3,Kobo Mini	Found this one yesterday:- http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/117635 In The Tide: a science fiction short story by Linda Nagata "The rings of Saturn have been poisoned with a cloud of nanomachines designed to infect and destroy smart technology, including spacecraft control centers. Aron is a molecular designer with an unspoken passion for Indigo, a modified human adapted for life in space. Together they descend into Saturn’s poisoned rings in a desperate attempt to salvage an abandoned spacecraft. "

04-04-2012, 10:12 PM	#8
Blue Tyson Blue Captain Posts: 1,595 Karma: 5000236 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G,Huawei Ideos X3,Kobo Mini	Frosty the Hitman: A Lawson Vampire Short story - Jon F. Merz "It’s the day before Christmas and Lawson’s spending it with his least favorite person in the world: Ava, a wealthy Council member who has always hated him. But Ava’s in trouble and Lawson is the only person standing between her and a deadly assassin named Frost. " Mobi \| epub

04-04-2012, 10:26 PM	#10
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	I've got a lab report and some other stuff to type, so I'll take a break for now but these are the new things which haven't been previously mentioned in threads on this forum, IIRC: Becca Dale & Patricia McLinn western romance, Debra Webb contemporary (I'm pretty sure this is a new freebie), Marilyn Campbell romantic suspense. ETA: Also Lise McClendon literary suspense. Last edited by ATDrake; 04-04-2012 at 10:58 PM.

04-04-2012, 11:03 PM	#12
Blue Tyson Blue Captain Posts: 1,595 Karma: 5000236 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G,Huawei Ideos X3,Kobo Mini	Accelerando - Charles Stross "Accelerando is a 2005 science fiction novel consisting of a series of interconnected short stories by British author Charles Stross. As well as normal hardback and paperback editions, it was released as a free e-book under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. Accelerando won the Locus Award in 2006,[1] and was nominated for several other awards in 2005 and 2006, including the Hugo, Campbell, Clarke, and British Science Fiction Association Awards." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_%28novel%29 http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...ndo-intro.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...celerando.mobi http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...celerando.epub And Toast and Other Rusted Futures - Charles Stross http://manybooks.net/titles/strosscother10toast.html A collection which contains :- Antibodies Bear Trap Extracts from the Club Diary A Colder War TOAST: A Con Report Ship of Fools Dechlorinating the Moderator Yellow Snow Big Brother Iron Lobsters Antibodies and Lobster being another two of my favorites. Last edited by Blue Tyson; 04-05-2012 at 12:19 AM.

04-04-2012, 11:06 PM	#13
Blue Tyson Blue Captain Posts: 1,595 Karma: 5000236 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G,Huawei Ideos X3,Kobo Mini	Baen CD There are A LOT of books here given there are a couple of dozen CDs. http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/ "The Baen CDs hosted here are freely-distributable disks provided to promote the sale of the books contained within. Baen allows these CDs to be distributed not simply to provide free electronic copies of their books, but to generate sales for those same books. They are a medium of advertising. These CDs are generally available bound into the first edition of the books they are titled for. A few of the CDs (those marked with the P prefix) are not bound in any book and were made available as publishing industry promotional material. Please remember that just because these books are being provided at no cost does not mean that they are in the Public Domain. Just because Baen isn't asking for any money for these copies doesn't mean that they are giving up any of their copyrights. Copyright doesn't mean that you have to pay for something, it means that someone legally owns the right to distribute something (or not) in any fashion they desire - including doing so at no charge. So all the rules that apply to an ebook you bought and paid for also apply to these titles. If you download any of the disks, please take the time to go to the Baen Webscription site and buy a copy of at least the CD's primary ebook. For a modest investment of about $6, you can buy the book, which gives you access to a downloadable copy of the CD, anyway. Or you can buy the entire Webscription month that the CD accompanies for $18 and/or buy the book in paper form. For more freely downloadable Baen books, visit the Baen Free Library."

04-04-2012, 11:39 PM	#15
Blue Tyson Blue Captain Posts: 1,595 Karma: 5000236 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G,Huawei Ideos X3,Kobo Mini	Bob Moore: No Hero - Tom Andry http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/36483 "Super powered humans started appearing 30 years ago. Now, they are everywhere. Bob Moore, Private Eye, dares to investigate those who could incinerate him with a thought. When he is called to help a super from his past, however, he'll be pushed to his limit. When supers and the police think there is no crime, can he get to the truth? Will he want to for the man that destroyed his marriage?" Even an Australian author. Rather enjoyed this.

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