KDP freebie backlist round-up for 2012-01-30

[ATDrake]

Not very much in the slushpile today, but a few moderately nice minor things especially for graphic novel and romance readers (and more Canadiana!). Some other late-evening additions to yesterday's thread may still be free, but I do not have the time to check and link them now.

Previously-featured Marvel & DC Comics artist Steve Uy offers another graphic novel which appears to draw upon Greek mythology: Titan's Tears

Previously featured screenwriter Ryne Douglas Pearson whose IMDB entry I am not bothering to dig up and link again offers his 1993 William Morrow-published: Cloudburst (An Art Jefferson Thriller)

Gary Morgenstein says he's a SyFy Channel PR director. IMDB does have someone with his name listed as "miscellaneous crew". More to the point, someone with his name seems to have published some sort of baseball thing with Atheneum in 1983, so here are his 3 offerings, which include a runaway kid thriller, some sort of Jewish-culture-based looks-like romantic comedy, and some sort of guide to living your life as though you were living in a romantic comedy: Linkage to pull up all three, even though only one actually looks all that interesting (you know you wish that you had Jesse's Girl).

Previously-featured Jim Baen's Universe-published Amber D. Sistla offers a short story: An Apple a Day Keeps the Dragon Away (Break Bites) She also offers another non-KDP fantasy short which is playing price catch-up: Flotsam and Fool (Break Bites), as well as an sf short free to all via Smashwords Going Somewhere Else

Aaron Polson (ISFDB entry) offers the self-explanatory: Echoes of the Dead: A Supernatural Thriller

Harlequin-published Vancouver Island-resident Vanessa Grant offers her BC-set 2nd novel, a contemporary romance now revised by the author: Storm - the Author's Cut For more of her romances, some previously published, some set in Canada, and mostly between 99 cents and $2.99, many are available via Smashwords and thence to price-matching outlets.

Lisabet Sarai who has had several erotic romance stories published in recognized small specialty presses (Total E-Bound is a frequent participant in All Romance countdown giveaways and available via Fictionwise) offers a collection of her erotic romance short stories with m/m and f/m and menage themes: Body Electric

Previously-featured small-press-published Gordon Callahan returns with the 1st in his historical immigrant drama, should you have missed the omnibus edition: Destiny: The Callahans Book One

Previously-featured newbie small press Penumbra Publishing have another offering from an author who apparently doesn't google-stalk his reviewers or post lengthy chapter excerpts in response to criticism (admittedly, he's got fewer and better reviews). And this historically-based novel involving mysticism and race relations in the aftermath of an apparent tragedy does look kind of interesting, so you may want to give a try to Gary Bolick's: Angel's Oracle

I previously featured another in the same series of thrilling true-life-based science stories by David Wooster, PhD: Secret Life of the Brewer's Yeast: A Microbiology Tale

Enjoy!

[Dr. Drib]

Got some more!

Thank you.



Don

[emellaich]

So I'm trying not to reply every time I get books, but I am following your posts every day.

Thanks again

[koland]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Previously-featured Jim Baen's Universe-published Amber D. Sistla offers a short story: An Apple a Day Keeps the Dragon Away (Break Bites) She also offers another non-KDP fantasy short which is playing price catch-up: Flotsam and Fool (Break Bites), as well as an sf short free to all via Smashwords Going Somewhere Else

Has anyone read any of her short stories on Kindle (or even anything from Baen)? What little has been reviewed on Amazon has overwhelmingly bad reviews (which could indicate bad writing or just hate-fans).

[Blue Tyson]

I have read two from Baen. One was good, one was average.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by koland

Has anyone read any of her short stories on Kindle (or even anything from Baen)? What little has been reviewed on Amazon has overwhelmingly bad reviews (which could indicate bad writing or just hate-fans).

To be perfectly frank, I haven't read any of these KDP things myself unless it's something I've previously encountered earlier like the Pulver SCA mystery.

As for 1 and 5-star reviews, I personally don't bother to consult most of them, at least not on e-books, because the ones on Amazon especially tend to be suspiciously fake-looking or pricing-grudges. And I refer everyone to John Scalzi's challenge to his fellow sf/fantasy authors, most of whom have been nominated for major awards at some point, if not outright prize-winners, to post their 1-star Amazon reviews on their "best" works. Or perhaps more to the point, Charles Stross's unearthing of some depressingly hilarious 1-star reviews on well-known and generally beloved classics.

The main criterion for ending up included in these posts (no, it's actually not Stuff I Find Relevant To My Interests, as one might think) is whether or not an author has at some point in the past had their writing thought of highly enough by someone who wasn't their friend/family/writing support circle to release to a wider audience under the aegis of said someone's brand imprint.

Admittedly, a lot of the stuff will be marginal at best (Sturgeon's Law strikes again!), but hopefully having been printed at some point will put that margin somewhere at the higher end of the "90% of everything is crap" cutoff because at some point, someone besides the author's mother seems to have liked their writing (which may have sadly deteriorated since then) and one of you might perhaps, as well.

In any case, I leave you all with Bad Review Bingo, which I encourage you to play along with at home, especially when you find a negative comment about a negative review, especially if it happens to be your negative review. It's funny because it's true!

ETA: Sistla's actual reviews on Amazon may perhaps seem insufficiently stellar if one is used to seeing the hyperbolic 5-star BEST BOOK EVAR praise that normally gets attached to indies, but it does look like overall she's got a decent balance of 2-4 stars with reasonably articulate remarks which describe what the reviewer did/didn't like about the story.

Even the 2-star one here says that while her writing falls flat for the reader, it's okay on a technical level and has potential, and this 1-star one here simply seems to be a case of YMMV for the reader.