Free (Amazon) Fair Warning by Simpson and Burger [mystery/thriller]

[Fbone]

Originally published in 1980 and now by e-reads a few days ago. Was reviewed by PW. Only one review so far. Alternate WW2 history?

http://www.amazon.com/Fair-Warning-e...7296134&sr=1-4

America is set to finally end World War II with a devastating act--dropping the atomic bomb over Japan. But what if a secret mission was set in place to alter the course of history? In this fast-paced and imaginative thriller, the authors strike a brilliant chord between what was, and what might have been.

It is July 1945. Germany has surrendered, and the U.S. is poised for one last surge against the Japanese. Under pressure from both the press and the Washington politicos, Secretary of War Henry Stimson launches a mission so secret, not even the President knows. Dubbed Operation Big Stick, it is a subversive plot to warn the Japanese and get them to surrender. Charged with leading the daring mission is Captain Patrick Snyder, an impulsive, smart-talking intelligence officer, who fears what failure will bring, not only to himself, but to the entire world.

[ATDrake]

This is a repub by e-Reads (who have a rather good and recommended backlist selection available and couponable MultiFormat on Fictionwise), who are experimenting with the KDP Select exclusive-or-else thing according to their blog.

At least it's a new release and they're not yanking the back catalogue from distribution elsewhere. If I'd had enough spare break time today it would have been the KDP slushpile feature.

[koland]

Is "e-Reads" an actual publisher, or just another DTP outlet (it's what I've always assumed it was).

I appreciate the posts that Fbone has been adding lately, but they all appear to be self-pubbed KDP Select (a few of the hundreds/day that are set free). I'd prefer they be kept to a single thread/day (as ATDrake's are), just to keep from downing the forum in these. It's bad enough when the big publishers dump 2 dozen a day on us; adding another few dozen from KDP makes it very difficult to get thru the threads and there are those who seek out these backlist books, who would appreciate being able to find them easier, as well as those who want to put them on a separate account at Amazon (plus a few, I suspect, that want to skip them just because they are at Amazon). All would seem to benefit for a single, focused thread...

[ATDrake]

E-reads is an actual publisher run for 10+ years by literary agent Richard Curtis. Their catalogue is almost all backlist by established midlist or higher tier authors including genre classics like Harlan Ellison and Fritz Lieber. When they publish "new" stuff it's things like continuations of John Norman's bafflingly popular Gor series for which I'd link the Houseplants of Gor parody but I'm typing this from the Kindle on the bus home so you're lucky to get punctuation and caps instead of txtspk.

They're one of my top recommends for FW purchasing and if this had shown up as a weekly new release with coupon discount, I'd probably have bought it outright. So yeah, this is definitely title feature worthy.

[koland]

Thanks for the info (now, if it were only possible to tell at Amazon if these are actually being published by the publisher listed or by the author -- the only ones you can often tell are the ones claiming to be a big-6 agency publisher, but are obviously KDP instead).

At least at Sony and BN, you can tell which ones the authors have added themselves.

And, I hear you on the punctuation - I started my message on the nook Tablet. It crashed, just before I could click to post; had to redo the entire thing after getting a PC up and running (and ended up on a different thread from the first one I'd started replying to in the first place).

[koland]

ps. Can you believe that the GOR series is now up to 30 volumes?

[Fbone]

Generally speaking I list the titles that seem interesting to me, above average in quality and have some positive reviews. Whether they are self published or not isn't much of a concern for me. As you said it can be difficult to determine. And shouldn't we try to support the indies also? I even try to weed out the titles with suspect reviews. Searching through the 505 free titles added today was time consuming. And I do this almost daily. So far this year that amounted to over 50,000 titles. I posted only 21 titles this year. Today, the Deals forum had 10 new threads; 6 of them by me so I hope I'm not flooding everyone out. My apologies if I am.

[ATDrake]

If I hadn't had a look through Ellora's website I'd ask rhetorically just how many times one could write about "kidnapped to another world to enjoy a deeply fulfilling* life as the rights-less sex slave one apparently always wanted to be without which prior existence seems dull and composed of naught but disappointed queeb sounds" before it got really stale but I have gazed into the abyss and apparently neither age nor wannabe Shakespearean monkeys can stale its infinite variety.

I'm just surprised he hasn't farmed it out franchise-style like thos Tom Clancy' "world" spinoff YA novels (allowing for subject matter).

* Pun intended. The brain bleach is on the top shelf behind the mental floss, by the way.

[KentE]

Well, I'm a rank beginner compared to the wizards and grandwizards chiming in (and believe me, I have great respect for them, and have certainly benefited from their wizardry!), but...
I also appreciate Fbone's posts. It's way to easy to overlook a great book that's currently self-pub, but was originally traditionally published, especially because the authors seem less likely to pad the positive reviews. On the rare occasion when I spot such a book that I've read & found worthy, I certainly post it here, traditionally published, KDP, or whatever. I also appreciate tips towards good books that have never been traditionally published-- maybe even more so, if the poster has actually read the book.
Maybe a compromise, and follow ATDrake's method when there's a slew of them happening to appear on one day, with independent threads when it's something you know needs special mention.
Either way, I'm willing to read through a few extra threads to find something really worthy, and I'm picking up at least one of Fbone's suggestions today.
Thanks!
KentE