Amazon Sunshine Deals: Over 600 Kindle Books on Sale for $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99

[shibamistress]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Good choice. Those Who Hunt the Night is one of Hambly's best books, and also one of the best gaslight vampire sleuth thrillers ever written. It won a 1989 Locus Award for Best Horror and something called a "Lord Ruthven" Award, which I gather is some vampire-specific horror nod.

Having read my own e-copy already, the formatting errors are relatively minor (wordsquish rather than 7yp0-ridd1ed) but still moderately annoying and I'll be contacting Amazon with a list of them so they can get fixed.

For sf/mystery lovers the sale has also got some Lawrence Block and Alan Dean Foster for $1.99 or less, classic David Gerrold and Richard Matheson award-winners for $2.99, and for regular science lovers, one of James Gleick's books for about $2.99.

Oh good! I saw this one on there (the Hambly book) and wondered about it, so I think I'll go back and put it on the wishlist. I downloaded a bunch of sample chapters of things I was interested in, and then I'll decide which I want after looking at all of those. I was glad to see the sale will be on for a bit so I have time to decide.

AND....I just ordered my Kindle too, so I'm really excited!

[Tome Keeper]

Is this available on the UK site as well?

[arcadata]

Originally Posted by Tome Keeper

Is this available on the UK site as well?

Amazon UK had a "Spring Spectacular" sale recently

[wyndslash]

hmmm so i started reading one of the books, and there are a lot of words squished together. is there a way to have this corrected? D:

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

hmmm so i started reading one of the books, and there are a lot of words squished together. is there a way to have this corrected? D:

Contact Amazon CS to notify them of the issue and they'll pass it on to the publisher to do something about it (or not). I did so with Those Who Hunt the Night with a list of corrections, so hopefully it gets fixed. And if that happens to be the book, feel free to contact them about it too.

Possibly the more complaints Amazon CS get about errors, the more pressure there might be to fix, and the more careful the publishers may be when producing their wares since Amazon will usually offer you a refund if you say the errors make the book unreadable.

I wouldn't be surprised if other books from the same publisher had issues (I notice that publishers tend to fall into either careful or sloppy for e-editions within an imprint).

[SensualPoet]

From the Sunshine Sale, these are in danger of being bought shortly:

Lawrence Block - The Girl with the Long Green Heart ($2)
Karen MacInnery - Murder on the Rocks ($2)
Joseph Haywood - Ice Hunter ($3)

This one already got snagged:
G M Malliet - Death of a Cozy Writer ($2)

And also don't overlook:
Phyllis Smallman - Margarita Nights ($1.60)
Connie Shelton - Deadly Gamble ($1)

Very smart to include these early works, often #1 in a series ...

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

From the Sunshine Sale, these are in danger of being bought shortly:

Lawrence Block - The Girl with the Long Green Heart ($2)
Karen MacInnery - Murder on the Rocks ($2)
Joseph Haywood - Ice Hunter ($3)

This one already got snagged:
G M Malliet - Death of a Cozy Writer ($2)

And also don't overlook:
Phyllis Smallman - Margarita Nights ($1.60)
Connie Shelton - Deadly Gamble ($1)

Very smart to include these early works, often #1 in a series ...

I looked at the GM Malliet one, too, but decided against it after reading some of the reviews.

I got the Connie Shelton one free during Ebook Week last year and it was just okay. In fact, ficbot's review summed up exactly how I felt about it:

http://e-finds.blogspot.com/2010/11/...e-shelton.html

That said, I haven't given up on it yet. I got the next 2 in the series for $.99 or so I think at the same time and I'll read those because the writing is good and the series could improve.

I'm not a big Block fan but I will have to check out the others you mentioned.

All in all, pretty slim pickings. Some of the stuff really does look like what you pick up at the bargain bin for physical books. lol. However, apparently this is an experiment, as someone on the Kindle boards linked this article:

We’re guessing that this promotion is serving as a test case for them to try out a range of low prices, particularly on older e-books (or, as in the case of the two books above, on books approaching their publication dates). Update: This is correct. Sunshine Deals is “an opportunity for publishers to test compelling pricing coupled with on-site merchandising,” Sarah Gelman, PR Manager at Amazon, told us. “We’re excited about the number of publishers who are participating.”

Amazon Rolls Out 'Sunshine Deals' For Publishers To Test E-Book Pricing

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Good choice. Those Who Hunt the Night is one of Hambly's best books, and also one of the best gaslight vampire sleuth thrillers ever written. It won a 1989 Locus Award for Best Horror and something called a "Lord Ruthven" Award, which I gather is some vampire-specific horror nod.

Having read my own e-copy already, the formatting errors are relatively minor (wordsquish rather than 7yp0-ridd1ed) but still moderately annoying and I'll be contacting Amazon with a list of them so they can get fixed.

For sf/mystery lovers the sale has also got some Lawrence Block and Alan Dean Foster for $1.99 or less, classic David Gerrold and Richard Matheson award-winners for $2.99, and for regular science lovers, one of James Gleick's books for about $2.99.

Thanks - I've been wanting to try her, so thought this was a good time. I just recently found out that she had been married to George Alec Effinger, too.

That's what I saw in the sample - just words squashed together - and not that many. I figured if it really bugged me I could fix it, but I will add to the list of complainers to Amazon. lol Good idea.

I read the Matheson one and it's not one of my favorites, but a lot of people like it. I find him to be very hit or miss. Will have to check out the others.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Contact Amazon CS to notify them of the issue and they'll pass it on to the publisher to do something about it (or not). I did so with Those Who Hunt the Night with a list of corrections, so hopefully it gets fixed. And if that happens to be the book, feel free to contact them about it too.

Possibly the more complaints Amazon CS get about errors, the more pressure there might be to fix, and the more careful the publishers may be when producing their wares since Amazon will usually offer you a refund if you say the errors make the book unreadable.

I wouldn't be surprised if other books from the same publisher had issues (I notice that publishers tend to fall into either careful or sloppy for e-editions within an imprint).

Thanks Do I also need to offer a list of corrections? The book is actually The Man Who Folded Himself (which I am enjoying immensely). But I also bought Those Who Hunt The Night and will probably contact CS about it too

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

From the Sunshine Sale, these are in danger of being bought shortly:

Lawrence Block - The Girl with the Long Green Heart ($2)
Karen MacInnery - Murder on the Rocks ($2)
Joseph Haywood - Ice Hunter ($3)

This one already got snagged:
G M Malliet - Death of a Cozy Writer ($2)

And also don't overlook:
Phyllis Smallman - Margarita Nights ($1.60)
Connie Shelton - Deadly Gamble ($1)

Very smart to include these early works, often #1 in a series ...

i'll check those out The blurb for Murder on the Rocks seems similar to the Pizza mystery thingy book that used to be posted here for free :P

weird. margarita nights is $1.99 for me.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

Do I also need to offer a list of corrections?

No, I just did it because TWHTN is a book I re-read practically every year, and I highlighted the problem spots as I was reading it so that I could fix it myself if I had to.

But they might ask you to point out any particularly bad spots you can remember* to point the publisher in the right direction.

Originally Posted by wyndslash

The book is actually The Man Who Folded Himself (which I am enjoying immensely). But I also bought Those Who Hunt The Night and will probably contact CS about it too

If you do, then thanks for taking the time to add your voice to the issue. Hopefully the feedback will motivate the publishers to fix things.

* "There was this really horrible OCR error somewhere around Chapter 2 and I couldn't figure out what in the world was going on when 'a11 of a suclclen, the |<i11er rabb1ts attadkecl!!!'".

[NightBird]

Okay, I now get why there's a deluge of Kindle bargains! Sorry for cluttering the deals forum by posting publisher by publisher

That's okay - better too much info than not enough.

Thanks for posting this.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

No, I just did it because TWHTN is a book I re-read practically every year, and I highlighted the problem spots as I was reading it so that I could fix it myself if I had to.

But they might ask you to point out any particularly bad spots you can remember* to point the publisher in the right direction.



If you do, then thanks for taking the time to add your voice to the issue. Hopefully the feedback will motivate the publishers to fix things.

* "There was this really horrible OCR error somewhere around Chapter 2 and I couldn't figure out what in the world was going on when 'a11 of a suclclen, the |<i11er rabb1ts attadkecl!!!'".

thanks, i will i am highlighting TMWFH as I read to make it easier for me later there's nothing I love more than a beautifully formatted/edited book

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by NightBird

I looked at the GM Malliet one, too, but decided against it after reading some of the reviews.

I'm reading this one right now -- Death of a Cozy Writer. It has a nice blurb from Louise Penny and this title won the Malice Domestic Agatha Award for Best First Novel in 2008. If you like cozies, I'd be surprised if you didn't enjoy this one. It's entertaining for me so far.

BTW, Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan was short-listed for Best First Novel that year but lost to Malliet's book. PSD is also in the $1 Sunshine Sale although it seems more like the "typical" woman-at-home sleuth vs. a more traditional English village murder and mayhem.

Originally Posted by wyndslash

weird. margarita nights is $1.99 for me.

I mentioned this one as I came across the name Phyllis Smallman just a few days ago. She's part of the Bloody Words 2011 conference being held in Victoria, BC this weekend in which the Crime Writers of Canada award Louise Penny this year's Arthur Ellis Award for best Crime Novel.

[wyndslash]

@SP: it's now $1.59 for me o_o

say, is Sophie's Choice any good?

it also seems to me that a lot of cozy mystery plots unfold the same way. is this characteristic of the genre?