Join in the eFestival of Words

I've been invited to participate in a panel on Dealing with Social Issues in Fiction at the eFestival of Words Virtual Book Fair. Since both of my novels, Sleep Before Evening and Black Cow are heavily rooted in social issues and the power of creativity to heal and transform these situations, this is a topic close to my heart and of course I said yes immediately. The panel is being held on Sunday August 19th at 5pm US EST and I'd love for you to join in.  There will also be a Q&A with me straight afterwards at 6pm in the chatroom.

The eFestival of Words is a free, virtual book fair designed to connect readers with authors and publishers of digital books. For fans of ebooks, this is an opportunity to scout out hidden treasures and interact with authors (loads of freebies, prizes and fun). For those readers new to digital books, this is a chance to learn more about the format and what it can offer.  There are lots of different panels, workshops, open author chats

According to Event Coordinator Julie Ann Dawson, “The goal of the eFestival of Words Awards is to highlight those independent authors and publishers that have worked to raise the bar in terms of the literary quality and production value and of digital books. Many people still think of ebooks as nothing more than scanned pages of print books. We hope that both the fair and the awards will help readers discover the amazing wealth of original content being produced in digital formats.”

Registration is easy. Just sign up at the efestivalofwords.com forum and you are all set! You must register for the site before August 17th in order to attend the fair.  Don't miss this one - I think it's going to be pretty special.

Lovely new flipping mini-book courtesy of my publisher

My publisher Bewrite Books, is always looking for innovative new ideas to help their authors promote.  They've recently done a complete revamp of their website, and have provided lovely flipping mini-book samples which can be downloaded for free.  Here's my most recent poetry book, Repulsion Thrust:

http://bewrite.net/mm5/FlippingBooks/RepulsionThrust/index.html

For those of you who love and support poetry, if you enjoy the mini-book, please consider grabbing a full copy for your Kindle or ereader in any format for only $2.99.
 
There's also one for my novel Sleep Before Evening: http://bewrite.net/mm5/FlippingBooks/SBE/index.html

And very soon, you'll see my brand new novel Black Cow in all its flipping glory (don't worry, I'll let you know when it's out). 

For those of you with your own books to promote, you might enjoy checking this new promotion out as an idea to generate interest and provide free sampling of your work.  It's pretty cool. Can't accuse this team of being luddites.

Media Release: Letting Our Customers Choose Their Poison…or Their Layer Cake

Media Announcement

CONTACT:
Carolyn Howard-Johnson e-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

CONTACT:
Magdalena Ball e-mail: maggieball@compulsivereader.com

For Immediate Release

Letting Our Customers Choose Their Poison…or Their Layer Cake

World Wide Web—Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson are poetry partners who believe in letting their customers have their poetry in whatever flavour they want. Up to now their Celebration Series of chapbooks have been available in print, for Kindle and other readers. But now most (with more coming!) are available at Barnes and Noble’s Nook.

Nook is Barnes & Noble’s answer to the Kindle--it’s an e-book reader which is available in both colour and a black and white version. The new black and white is priced slightly cheaper than Amazon’s so there has been a lot of competition between the two leading to cheaper e-books and lots of freebies! We’re all for anything that encourages reading though, so we say, bring it on. Learn more here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp

The chapbooks that are now available for Nook are:

Cherished Pulse for lovers everywhere at the special price of $3.95: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cherished-pulse-magdalena-ball/1018912754?ean=2940000818442&itm=3&usri=magdalena%2bball

Imagining the Future, for fathers and other masculine apparitions for $4.75:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/imagining-the-future-magdalena-ball/1021152596?ean=2940000904893&itm=4&usri=magdalena%2bball

She Wore Emerald Then, written with mothers in mind, is $4.95: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/she-wore-emerald-then-magdalena-ball/1020032782?ean=2940000807408&itm=5&usri=magdalena%2bball

Blooming Red, our unconventional chapbook of Christmas poetry will soon be available on Nook and so will our newest member of our inexpensive series that celebrates women called Deeper Into The Pond.

Artists who have contributed artwork for the covers of our chapbook series are Vicki Thomas, May Lattanzio, and Jacquie Schmall.

 

For more information on any of the chapbooks in this poetry series, contact either of the authors or visit media rooms at www.howtodoitfrugally.com or  www.magdalenaball.com  .

Free books for E-readers

Read an E-Book Week is March 6-12, 2011 and that means lots and lots of freebies.  I'm not one to miss out on a chance to get my work in the hands of readers (I don't want your money honey, I want your love), so, my writing partner Carolyn Howard-Johnson and I have decided to offer all of the books in our celebration poetry series for the sensational price of $0.  Yup, that's free: free as in freebird, freebie and the bean, freewheeling.  To get your hands on these beauties, just drop by Smashwords and pick the books you want. Coupon codes to reduce the price to $0 are provided on each book's page.

If you have any difficulties there, just send me an email asking for what you want and as long as I get it during Read an E-Book Week, your books will be with you faster than you can say Gutenberg.  Want more? You can visit the official Read an E-Book Week site started by Rita Y. Toews in 2004 for a big list of partners, publishers, authors and more, all offering a range of freebies and really good offers, including my own terrific publisher BeWrite Books who is offering a gobsmackingly good deal of two free books from their catalogue to anyone who buys an ebook or treebook from any publisher at any bookstore, online or brick-and-mortar during the week (with additional goodies if you buy from them).  Considering how inexpensive ebooks are (Amazon is still offering Repulsion Thrust for .99c), that's an offer hard to beat.  If you need any more incentive, how about the fact that no trees are killed in the manufacture of ebooks (yes, they're green), the fact that you can read in bed at night without a light, the increasingly beautiful display as e-ink becomes prevalent, the fact that a single e-reader can hold thousands of books (apparently a 16GB iPad can hold 16,384 average books if it contains nothing else...), and maybe the most important and least well promoted benefit is that you can change the font to suit your eyesight and as technology improves, add audio.  For an aging population, this is particularly important. 

Are you still here?  Go on (fly fingers fly) and get your books.   Happy reading!