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

[Blue Tyson]

Winning Mars - Jason Stoddard

http://manybooks.net/titles/stoddard...ning_Mars.html

"Jere Gutierrez is bucking the trend at the dying art of "linear" entertainment - what we know today as TV shows. His combination of astounding stories, captured in the moment, are captivating millions. Of course, every one of his stories are fabricated and engineered and orchestrated, even though they're sold as "real." Unfortunately for Jere, his backers have begun to see through his tricks. Desperate for another story, one large enough to capture the attention of the world, he teams up with a retired TV executive to create an ad-supported mission to Mars, complete with corporate sponsors and extreme sports events. What Jere doesn't know is just how captivating his Winning Mars will be."

There's a Winning Mars short story - e.g. in Garder Dozois' Dangerous Games anthology. Also a novel version.

[Blue Tyson]

Butcher Bird - Richard Kadrey

http://www.feedbooks.com/book/227/butcher-bird

"Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself."

[Blue Tyson]

The Green Leopard Plague - Walter Jon Williams

Mobi

"It is based on the idea of a genetically engineered virus that allows people to photosynthesize food, leading the world to an agalmic society, where there are no more food shortages. It begins in the far future with a mermaid who makes her living by searching old archives. She is approached by a customer who wants her to find information on the man who founded the theoretical background on which their civilization is based, John Terzian. It is eventually revealed that he was involved in the release of the photosynthesis virus. The story then veers back and forward between his story and the mermaid's."


Also pdf, rtf html here :- http://www.nightshadebooks.com/downloads

One of my all time favorite short stories.

[Blue Tyson]

Exhalation - Ted Chiang

"Exhalation is a science fiction short story by Ted Chiang. It was first published in 2008, in the anthology, "Eclipse 2: New Science Fiction and Fantasy", edited by Jonathan Strahan. It won the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Short Story"

Mobi

http://www.nightshadebooks.com/downloads/

Another of my all time favorites. Escape Pod has an excellent audio version too.

http://escapepod.org/2009/04/10/ep194-exhalation/

[ATDrake]

Frankly, I'm personally just going to treat the Night Shade, Book View Cafe, Small Beer Press & other publisher/re-publisher imprint freebies as a single entity similar to the Baen Free Library since there are so many.

If the authors additionally add extra freebies on their own time to the promo lot, that's great and they get an extra listing, but otherwise it's the publisher promo aegis umbrella for them.

[Blue Tyson]

Makes sense. These were just a few that sprang to mind, the latter two being personal favorites.

[ATDrake]

If people want to specially recommend the good stuff, I encourage that.

I'd just rather not have a lot of individual posts & descriptions of everything to trawl through. The KDP slushpile is more than enough for me in that regard.

[emellaich]

So, I'm not sure if this really fits since its not really an ebook publisher. But you might want to check out podiobooks.com. They have free audiobooks that you can play on your computer, mp3 player, kindle, ipad etcetera.
www.podiobooks.com

Of special note is Nathan Lowell's "Traders Tales" From "The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper". This six book series follows life in the space lanes for merchant traders. The writing is excellent. The books are narrated by the author, who has a very soothing reading voice.

I really enjoyed the series, although I didn't feel that the final ending was quite in the tradition of the bulk of the series. I still really enjoyed it all. The series is complete at podiobooks, and it is also being published (slowly) in written format at Amazon and other ebook retailers. Here is the podiobooks link for the free audiobooks:
http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks...+solar+clipper

And the Amazon listing for all of Nathan Lowell's printed works:
http://www.amazon.com/Nathan-Lowell/..._athr_dp_pel_1
None of the printed ebooks are on special at this time, but one or two have shown up free in the past.

[ATDrake]

If they're offering free stuff from established traditionally print-published authors, I'll put them under the publisher section. The official freebie audiobooks which end up in Deals seem to be pretty popular.

Thanks to all for the tips and recommends of your backlist favourites, BTW.

[ATDrake]

For the romance readers:

Debra Webb has added a contemporary musician romance to her Smashwords freebies: Tempting Trace

(ETA: If you missed it earlier, her other contemporary romance is still temporarily free @ Kobo while it plays pricing-catchup with Smashwords, where it has gone back up again: Here to Stay)

Harlequin-published Patricia Watters (westerns, historicals, romantic suspense @ $0.99-$2.99 via Smashwords) has what looks like a frontier western historical free @ iTunes (available to Canadians): Miss Phipps and the Cattle Baron

ETA 2: Laura Resnick (ISFDB, epic & urban fantasy) writing as her Harlequin-published penname Laura Leone (romantic comedy & suspense, historical romances @ $2.99 via multiple stores including Kobo, Diesel, and All Romance) offers a contemporary romantic comedy short which originally appeared in a 2001 anthology: Homicidal Honeymoon

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

For the romance readers:

Debra Webb has added a contemporary musician romance to her Smashwords freebies: Tempting Trace

Thank you! I was waiting for this one to go free or buy it. It's one of her Precious Gem romances. This particular one was published in 1999. Precious Gem was Zebra's attempt at trying to have a category series romance like Harlequin. They were cheaper then the HQs and being a YA on tight budget back then I bought them instead of the HQs.

[ATDrake]

You're welcome.

Another ex-Harlequin Silhouette author if you liked that line:

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.

ETA: Angela Benson (contemporary & inspirational, African-American romances @ $3.99 via Smashwords). Formerly published by Avon. Offers a 1st-in-series contemporary humourous romance short novel, originally out from Kensington in 1995: Friend and Lover

[ATDrake]

Some mystery & sf which I'll add the extra provenance info to and edit into the main posts later:

Ace & Tor-published Stephen Ames Berry still has his printed milSF space opera novel free from Read an E-Book Week and has now added the sequels @ $2.99 via Smashwords: The Biofab War

Melanie Jackson wrote historical romances for Dorchester/Leisure. She offers those and some comedic-looking cozy mysteries for $0.99-$3.99 via Smashwords and offers a short story set in one of the cozy series free (and her other series apparently is set in Canada and has Mounties in it, so I'll be downloading samples and waiting for Smashwords sale): The Sham (A Chloe Boston Mystery Book 14)

More romances:

Sharon Ihle, whom I forget who's published her, but I know people have said she's a favourite, has her historical western romances @ $2.99-$3.99 at various outlets including couponable/loyalty rewards ones like Kobo and Diesel. A 1995 Harper/Monogram historical western is free @ iTunes: The Bride Wore Spurs

St. Martin's published Wendy Lindstrom has historical romances @ $3.99-$4.49 via Smashwords and offers a Civil War-set one free: Shades of Honor

ETA: Andrea Parnell (historical & gothic historical romances @ 2.99 via Smashwords) offers her 1st-in-series 1995 Signet-published gothic historical novella: Dark Prelude

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Accelerando - Charles Stross

Thanks for the heads up on this. I've got this book in paperback but it's great to have it on my ebook reader as well, especially as my paperbacks are all in the UK and I am not...

[sufue]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

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.

{edit}

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.

Does there have to be a totally freebie leader, or could it be just be a cheap (e.g. 99 cent) leader, with reasonably priced rest of backlist?

Examples: the Ashley Gardner/Captain Lacey mysteries on Smashwords (first one is 99 cents), or the 99 cent sort-of-monthly specials at Poisoned Pen press, which tend to be the first in a series, with slightly pricy backlist (usually $6.99, but very well done, and you get two formats DRM-free, or can also usually get for less at Amazon, BN, or Kobo - with coupon).