KDP freebie backlist round-up for 2012-02-05

[ATDrake]

Today the KDP Select exclusive or else slushpile was flooded by a lot of self-help, religious stuff, and obvious plot-what-plot? porn.

You know, I think I approve. If I've got 5 pages of stuff with ~99 books per page to wade through to see if anything Relevant To My Interests appears, then it's nice to see so much that I can just skip past with impunity.

Do I need to know what the cheapest trip to Disneyland is? No. Do I need to know that birth control is a trap and a lie? No! Do I need to know anything about irritable bowel syndrome? I certainly hope not.

Anyway, as you can probably tell by the lack of a feature title, there's no truly significant title which popped up today, but we did get some nice mystery and romance backlist and established author self-pubs, plus some semi-promising newbie items to try if interested.

I'll start off with some Smashwords freebies that are available to all and may also be price-matched in the store of your choice.

I forget exactly who paperbacked her (I think it was Berkley) but Lise McClendon has been previously-featured and she offers the 2nd in her Alix Thorssen mystery series, this one involving an art theft: Painted Truth

Canadian writer Marcelle Dubé offers a short story to tie in with her Carina Press-published mystery novel about Manitoba small-town police chief Kate Williams: Night Shift I've actually bought and read the CP novel when it was on sale, and while it was nothing spectacular, the writing was pretty decent and I liked it enough that if the author offers a decent sale coupon for the self-pub sequel during Read an E-book Week, I'd be willing to pick it up.

Doranna Durgin offers a short story that ties into her celtic fantasy w/romance A Feral Darkness, which was a freebie feature a couple of weeks ago: Hair of the Dog

And now the KDP slushpile yield:

Thomas Marcinko (ISFDB entry) offers a collection of previously-published multi-genre stories: Astronauts and Heretics

Previously-featured Ruth Nestvold (ISFDB entry) offers a set of 3 previously-published fantasy stories: Never Ever After

Previously-featured Chris Howard who had some illustration credits in his ISFDB entry which I'm not going to bother to link again offers the graphic novel version of one of his works: Saltwater Witch Graphic Novel Chapter 1

ISFDB-ed David Bain offers another horror short: Vigil

If you missed it earlier, Mainak Dhar (author of Zombiestan) offers his take on superheroes, which was picked up by Random House India in 2010: Heroes R Us

Consuelo Saah Baehr offers a multi-generational historical Palestinian family saga originally paperbacked by Dell in 1989: Daughters This has praise from Publisher's Weekly and prominent newspapers in the blurb.

Paul Clayton, who was once paperbacked by Berkley, offers a 2004 Thomas Dunne (a division of Macmillian, IIRC)-published Vietnam War coming of age general fiction novel based on his own true-life experiences which has a favourable Publisher's Weekly review: Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam

Sharon Potts, whose Oceanview-published mystery/thriller we got as a freebie a few weeks ago, offers one of those mid-life crisis journey of self-discovery general fiction novels: Goodbye Neverland

UK writer John Matthews returns yet again with a thriller involving Montreal's crime families, originally 2001-paperbacked by Penguin: The Last Witness I think this is the first time and in the first package that we are seeing this.

Ben Rehder offers the 1st in his comedic-looking Blanco County Mysteries set in Texas, originally published by St. Martin's Press in 2004: Bone Dry

Some of Paul Bishop's LAPD Detective Fey Croaker novels were paperbacked by Pocket Books. He doesn't have the volumes linked up to their originals, so I'm not really going to dig to see if this is a printed one or a later continuation of the series, but the blurb says this is the 2nd in his series: Croaker: Grave Sins

Previously-featured R.J. Jagger returns with: Attorney's Run (Nick Teffinger Thriller 5)

Phil Edwards has a humour book on fake science out from publisher Adams Media. He offers the New Orleans-set: Death By Gumbo (A Jake Russo Mystery)

Don Bullis has a number of non-fiction culture/history books out from special-interest small New Mexico publisher Rio Grande Books. He offers a mystery/thriller which has praise from a local police captain in the blurb, so if you're interested in local matter, you may want to give a try to: Bloodville A number of other indie/self-pub-looking mystery/thriller and assorted general/non-fic are out from his publisher BeachHouse Books who look kind of vanity, so if you want to try them: Linkage to pull all 11 up This includes a set of biographical tales of wild west outlaws in New Mexico also written by Bullis.

Russell R. Miller has some very expensive specialized business books hardcovered. He offers some sort of globe-trotting thriller with a CIA operative whose cover is that of a businessman: The Spy With a Clean Face

Victoria Lynne returns with another backlist novel, this one a historical cowboy romance paperbacked by Dell in 1997: Chasing Rainbows

Nina Bruhns offers a 2002-Harlequin-published romantic suspense, which appears to be a sequel to the one that Blossom alerted us to a few days ago: Sweet Revenge

Ellora's Cave-republished romance writer Susan Sizemore offers a short story: The Devil You Know

Previously-featured specialty-romance-pressed Keta Diablo offers an m/m contemporary romantic suspense which she warns has some graphic content: Crossroads

UK children's/YA author John Tully returns, with another children's/YA set of tales I'm not going to dig through his 3 pages worth of assorted 70s-80s era HC/PB publication credits to try and match up. Caveat 1-clicker if you get: Killer in the House (Young Joey)

Rosemary Fifield wrote a co-op cookbook in 2000. It's a bit of a leap from there to literary/general family drama fiction, but since we don't get very much of that, you may or may not want to try her: A Road Well Traveled which has a rather articulate and descriptive without being spoilery or rambling blurb, which I freely tell you is kind of rare for the slushpile, even for previously-published work, so this may be a good sign.

Previously featured Donald Newlove, whose autobiography really was reviewed by Time Magazine, offers some kind of book on film director Orson Welles: The Welles Requiem It's probably worth mentioning that IIRC Newlove was either employed in the theatrical industry or reviewed/critiqued/peripherally involved with it.

Nancy Hendrikson has had a few specialty non-fic books out, including a how-to genealogy guide published by Betterway, a division of Adams Media. She offers what looks like a historical biography: Gold Fever! How the California Gold Rush Changed the Face of America

Michael Powell and Jürgen Horn have a travel blog. They offer an illustrated collection of their trip if you're interested: For 91 Days in Savannah

John Ling is a New Zealander with a job as an editor at a local small publisher. Since this may or may not bode well for his own writing quality, you may want to give a try to his fiction: Linkage for a thriller and a set of short stories

Rusty Wilson openly self-publishes his many Bigfoot Campfire stories. This set has the ghost of a Canadian Mountie and wacky paleontologists on a dinosaur dig, so I'm including it for the lulz: Wild and Weird Campfire Stories

Here's a hopefully educational picture book for any kids you might know or have: A Pocketful of Dinosaurs (A great way to learn about dinosaurs!)

And just because I feel like it, some self-pub historical/mystery stuff with unusual subject matter that is Relevant To My Interests and the sample-skim did not indicate immediate suckage of an Electrolux degree:

Blue Murder at Kudu: A Very British Murder Mystery Novel set in Africa (Crime Fiction Bestsellers) is just what it says in the title, set in 1930s colonial Central Africa, and looks like it might be a comedy of errors kind of thing.

Unsheathed Swords (Hollow Reed series) drama set in the warring states period of Japan (one of them, anyway) which would establish the dominant shogunate family until they had another round of wars to establish the dominant shogunate family. Sample skim suggests the author has Done The Research (I used to Do The Research for this area/time period so I'm less forgiving of people who Did Not Do The Research and still slap their novel up for $$$ a pop). If this is not to your taste, you may instead prefer to try: The Kyoshi Scroll - Samurai vs. Zombie by a different author

The Thieves of Shiny Things Even in the KDP slushpile, I do not often see murder mysteries set in the actual Stone Age, rather than merely involving archaeological artifacts recovered from

The most recent time I recall reading fiction featuring Emperor Norton of San Francisco (Wikipedia entry), it was in Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Majestic Madness I'm sure he's probably had cameos in a few steampunk/AU stories since.

That's everything I looked which more-or-less checked out (usual disclaimers apply). Happy reading if there's anything in there you think you might like.

[Dr. Drib]

Well.....only a few this time.

Thanks!



Don

[phloxy]

I always end up pickin' some up even when the pickins are slim. Thanks ATDrake!