Right, that was quick. The Parasite, one of the first 'books' I published - it is in fact a 40,000 word novella - is now available on Amazon Kindle. I've worked through it, but not a huge amount since I didn't want to change it into something that had ceased to be that original The Parasite. That, I can tell you, was a temptation difficult to resist. I also haven't got a cover picture or ISBN number up. If I'd used the original cover picture then I would have had to bugger about with copyright issues and I didn't get an ISBN because I don't yet know whether it would be worth the money (10 ISBNs for a £100 I'm told)
I hope you all enjoy it.
39 comments:
wart about giving John Sullivan a cut if you do a "deluxe" version, if he comes up with some swell cheap art? (his sketches are hot stuff1). dunno if that would translate digital vs paper cover. "deluxe digital" (digilux) might be something ya could explore and beat everyone at this (semi corporeal) middle man guillotine party.
just a thought.
I've already approached him about the possibility of me using one of his pictures for the cover picture on Kindle. It just depends how much it costs. Maybe later I'll sort out a paper version. Perhaps I'll do that after I've tried out Mindgames: Fool's Mate (though I'll change the title) on Kindle. Pehaps I could then produce something like a paper 'Ace double'.
Could you also include the three 'Mason's Rats' stories? I'll bet that lots of fans would love to have them between a single set of covers... oh wait, make that within a single bit of software, since it'll be Kindle.
Market it as 'An Asher Quintet', that sounds suitably classy.
Not that I'm a fan of ebooks, don't have one, don't intend to have one, and in this instance wouldn't need one since I've been lucky in finding print copies of your early publications.
Nice, I have a Sony Reader, reather than a Kindle but with some magic (following a legit purchase) I shall read it on there :)
Hey Monkey. I'm in the same boat as you with a Sony. How will you convert the file ?
I want this :(
Is there a way to convert into another file type or some such to work on my phone? (Nokia E72)
I think it reads pdf files...need to check.
Have done my bit of promo on an ebook forum I frequent.
I don't own a Kindle, and refuse to pay a $2 surcharge for Whispernet, so won't be buying this unfortunately.
I did notice that it jumped from a #3900 sales rank to #1409 on the Uk site. Congrats!
#898 now...KERCHING!!!
898 in the sales rank now.
I'm sorry but I don't know the answers to the technical questions here so please, anyone who does, can you help out?
Hah, you posted that just as I was writing it, Stu.
Neal, does the file have any DRM applied? If it doesn't it should be very easy to use a program such as Calibre to convert the file to the desired format.
If it does, then the buyer will have to try to remove the DRM (viewed as illegal in some areas) before they can format-shift it to a file version compatible with their device.
If you don't worry about DRM, then you could also try releasing the file for sale on Smashwords.com. They'll automatically convert the file to various formats that support all readers, including the Kindle.
I think books sold through them can also be picked up by other ebook retailers, such as B&N and other independent sites.
I'm not going to post exact links for stripping DRM here... although I guess in the case of kindle you have to buy a copy first to get the DRM version in the first place.
Google "unskindle"
Then use the excellent free ebook software Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) to convert to epub.
That was quick.
As promised doing what little i can to help push it. Good luck.
Thanks all. I've mocked together a cover picture to go on there and I will do something about a table of contents. But right now I can do nothing. Maybe I have to wait the full 24 hours before I can get at it again.
$4.99 Cdn. Looks just fine on Kindle PC, iPhone & iPad. Margins were fine. Could use a little spit and polish (ToC if needed, cover) but it's text, there's not a lot of things to change.
Once you work out your template, other stories will be a breeze to add.
Looking forward to reading it.
One thing I noticed. Is there an Author field and an Author Sort? I noticed your book comes up as Asher, Neal.
I think most authors these days would have it 'Neal Asher' as displayed. Maybe some people with several Kindle buys can chime in here.
sales rank at 549 now! I've downloaded it on Kindle for Android.
First e-book so will be interesting.
Up to 434 now...
Just in case people aren't aware, you don't have to own a Kindle device to buy or read this. Kindle software is available for just about every platform out there.
# Kindle for Mac
# Kindle for PC
# Kindle for iPad/iPhone
# Kindle for BlackBerry
# Kindle for Android
# Kindle for Windows Phone
If you don't have one of these, how are you reading this blog!
Ok, but only 'cos it's you!
I'll just install Kindle pc when I get home.
I do object to paying VAT though but I believe that is a whole other ongoing discussion
Where do I find the page showing the sales rank?
Or am I being daft?
my post comes over as all mean and grumpy...it's not meant to, more than happy to lend my support :)
Andrew, that makes two of us
@Andrew The sales rank is under Product details
Neal,
Any chance of uploading it to Amazon US? I go to the page and I get a "Kindle titles at Amazon.co.uk are available for UK customers only."
It seems a bit odd as I can buy physical books from Amazon UK and have them shipped to me. Not sure what the reasoning is for the electronic versions.
Got it for Kindle PC - until I get a real Kindle that will do fine.
Kudos on getting it up so quick Neal.
Sean, I had that happen to me too, just in reverse. (US -> UK)
It should be here for US:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Parasite-ebook/dp/B004RZIC6S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&s=books&qid=1300123679&sr=8-2
The thing with Amazon is that, unless you are in the US, UK and Australia they add on a $2 "whispernet tax" for the "free whispernet delivery".
That's the case regardless of the platform you read it on (PC, phone, or wi-fi Kindle). Until they do away with that for the region I'm in I'm not going to buy any ebooks from them even if I can read it on multiple devices.
Charging $2 to move a 175KB file around is just daft. That's half the price of the actual ebook!
Neal,
Where do you stand contractually on books like this? If you were to write a short story, does that automatically go to your publisher, or is the framework more flexiable than that?
Just interested to see how things go from here?
Calibre is by far the best software for managing ebooks of any kind, and in any way you can think of. It will convert nearly any format to nearly any other format with ease, even crappy ones like PDF, though that can be touchy. DRM'd files, of course, have to be dealt with.
Neal, grats on the experiment. I hope it becomes wildly successful, so you do more.
May I suggest serial shorts in the Polity Universe? I'd pay for that! :)
Xanares,
Thanks. I had done a search on Amazon myself but did not see it in the results. Turns out it was buried several pages down in the result set.
Less than £4.00? Mr Asher, with this Novella you're really spoiling us! (imagine I just said that in a really weird Euro-accent....or maybe not) Good work Neal, not bad for a guy with no mobile phone!!
#470 now. Have you peaked?
Had a look to see if you were on their 'movers and shakers' list - what with your meteoric rise over the day and all.
Didn't see it though.
Hell of a lot of porn there. Is Kindle the ultimate brown paper package?
@operations: thanks.
Right, just focusing on questions I can answer...
BarryA, I might put together some sort of collection of short stories at some point, after Mindgames: Fool's Mate, but all dependent on how this goes.
Crusader, it has DRM on it because yet know the pros and cons of it, from my point of view.
Jay, I'm not sure what you mean. It comes up as Neal Asher on the screen and is listed with my other ebooks.
Skar, my contract with my publisher is for x books, sometimes named and described. I suspect they would only get pissed off if I was selling books elsewhere and failed to deliver the next book to them as per contract. Since I'm about six months ahead of them now that's nto going to happen - yes, it's flexible.
Jimmy, it is a 40,000 word novella as opposed to a 130,000 word book. If anything I was wondering if I was charging too much for it.
Stu, it's gone up again. 423 at last count.
Thanks to all of you promoting this too!
Excellent news on the ranking. I wonder how high it can go? Dare we dream double figures?
P.s. Thanks for the post. I've amended my blog post accordingly.
Thanks for that Kat ... and all you twitters and facebookers out there, plese spread the word!
> If anything I was wondering if I
> was charging too much for it.
What was the logical process you went through to arrive there then?
£3.56 - VAT - Amazon's cut = Price of a pint in your local?
robann, the original paper version was £5.99 15 years ago, so I took that on board. My main books go for about £5 on Kindle. If I'd gone just by word count this would have been about £1.50 but of course more is involved than just word count what with this being a complete story. And yes ... the price of a pint did occur to me.
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