Amazon to Acquire Goodreads

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar. 28, 2013– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Goodreads, a leading site for readers and book recommendations that helps people find and share books they love.

“Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading,” said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Vice President, Kindle Content. “Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike.”

“Books – and the stories and ideas captured inside them – are part of our social fabric,” said Otis Chandler, Goodreads CEO and co-founder. “People love to talk about ideas and share their passion for the stories they read. I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to partner with Amazon and Kindle. We’re now going to be able to move faster in bringing the Goodreads experience to millions of readers around the world. We’re looking forward to inspiring greater literary discussion and helping more readers find great books, whether they read in print or digitally.”

“I just found out my two favorite people are getting married,” said Hugh Howey, best-selling author of WOOL. “The best place to discuss books is joining up with the best place to buy books – To Be Read piles everywhere must be groaning in anticipation.”

Following the acquisition, Goodreads’s headquarters will remain in San Francisco, CA. Founded in 2007, Goodreads now has more than 16 million members and there are more than 30,000 books clubs on the Goodreads site. Over just the past 90 days, Goodreads members have added more than four books per second to the “want to read” shelves on Goodreads.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Subject to various closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

The original press release from Amazon can be found here. You can also find more information at Goodreads.

New Terms at Digital Imprints Hydra, Alibi, Loveswept, and Flirt

A little over a week ago Random House announced new terms for their digital imprints: Hydra, Alibi, Loveswept, and Flirt.

You can read about the new and welcome terms at Writer’s Beware or the official announcement on the Random House website.

This is good news for anyone thinking about signing with any of Random House’s imprints. It proves a publisher can and will make changes for the better.

The First Step

Working on The Longest Road, volume one, should have been easy. All I had to do was collect half of the Count Albritton stories I had written and put them in one volume. When I started editing the collected edition, I realized there was something missing. It didn’t take me long to figure it out. There was a gap that needed to be filled. I looked at my notes and started working on a new story to include in the edition. The result was The First Step which details the events surrounding Count Albritton and Scott Dorward’s first meeting. That puts the total up to eight stories, two of which have never been published before. Hopefully, the cover art will be ready soon and I can publish the Longest Road before the end of this month.

Have a good weekend.

 

Hydra: Random House’s Monster

By now, some of you may have heard aboutHydra. That’s a good name for Random House’s new electronic science fiction imprint. Like the legenday beast, Hydra is a many headed monster that poses a danger to new and inexperienced authors. The contract terms being offered are incredibly bad. There is no advance. The author is charged for services you would expect the publisher to pay such as editing, marketing, and artwork. Finally, the contact asks for primary and subsidiary rights for the term of copyright.  For full details, check out the following posts:

• Random House’s Hydra Imprint Has Appallingly Bad Contract Terms
• Second Class Contracts? Deal Terms at Random House’s Hydra Imprint
• SFWA Slaps Random House’s Digital SF Imprint

What is mind boggling about this is Random House’s Response to the SFWA. Maybe things will change in the future? For the time being, I would avoid Hydra.

A Pet Peeve

I’ve been taking a little break from the internet to finish working on a couple of stories. It’s been going well but not as fast as I would like. Earlier this week, an acquaintance asked for a little writing advice. I’m always willing to help out but I had a bad feeling about this.

When he asked how to turn his ideas into a novel, I told him that he needed to sit down and just start writing. It didn’t matter what he wrote. It could be a synopsis, an outline, or just a todo list. The important thing was to get started. This wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear or the one he was looking for. He spent the next thirty minutes telling me about his idea for his book. I listened to his idea. It didn’t sound all that interesting to me but my opinion didn’t matter. He wanted advice on how to proceed, not whether or not I liked his idea so I asked him if he had written it down someplace. The answer was no. I went back to my original answer. I suggested he write his idea down and flesh it out a bit. That would make it easier to get started. He could figure out what research, if any, he needed to do and all the little things you think about when you start writing a book.

I thought my suggestion was a good one but he didn’t seem to like it. Instead, he went back to his idea and asked me how I could help him write the book. This is where the annoyance factor kicked in. He wasn’t interested in sitting down and writing a book. He wanted to someone to do the writing for him while he fed them ideas. I don’t know how many authors go through this sort of thing but it’s one of my pet peeves.

Instead of ranting, I told him that I have enough of my own ideas to work on unless he was willing to pay me for my time. He was actually shocked by my suggestion and the conversation ended. I have a feeling I might have cost myself a few book sales. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. I feel better for sharing this, even thought it took me an hour to write this short post.

Okay, the sun is up and it’s time for me to get back to it. Have a good weekend.

Book of the Week: Eye of the Wizard

Misfit Heroes, Book 1

Shadows prowl the night. A dark warlock musters power. Evil lurks in every corner. The world needs heroes. What it gets… is a few misfits.

A couple failed squires. A jinxed wizard. A banished spirit of the forest. A childlike demon and her teddy bear. They are outcasts, failures, oddballs.  They might just save the world.

What’s on My Kindle and Why: The Northworld Trilogy

It’s no secret that David Drake is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read most of his books but I really enjoyed the Northworld Trilogy. It’s on my Kindle because the series has everything I love about a good story.

The setting is unique and interesting. The characters are strong and fully fleshed out. You get a feel for them and what they are going through. The story is compelling and entertaining, always moving. As a bonus, you feel like you’ve learned a little something. That’s because the trilogy draws on Norse mythology. After reading the first book in the series, I went back to read some of the original source material.

I still own the paperback edition but my copy has a lot of wear and tear on it from alll the times I have read it. When it was listed in Baen’s Free Library, I had a copy of the Northworld Trilogy sent to my Kindle. Now, the Trilogy is available for free on Amazon.