ebook exclusives, am i missing out on something?

[bobbb]

Earlier today i checked the Amazon.com bestsellers sci-fi to see if there was anything interesting there i may want to read. To my surprise i found several books in the top 20 that were published by the authors as ebooks on Amazon. Ryk Brown has two books of this Frontiers Saga in the top 11 and another author called T.R. Harris has two books of his Human Chronicles saga in the top 20. So i dug a little deeper and found a webpage for the Human Chronicles with some interesting facts. Harris claims he sold 21000 copies of his books (he started with 75 during the first 10 days and 3400 after 6 weeks), so i am guessing these books can't be all that bad. But i don't see them mentioned or discussed here at all. Why? And i am also wondering if there are more of these authors/books out there that never got printed but might be good? Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone read the sagas i mentioned?

[psikeyhackr]

Never heard of him. I read some of the one star reviews.

Have you looked through these?

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/

Check the Cryoburn CD. Hugo winners.

psik

[Evie]

The Fringe Worlds is a nice easy sci-fi read.
It's pretty short and you could probably read it over the course of a weekend but at that price you can't really go wrong.

[BigNaruto]

Earlier today i checked the Amazon.com bestsellers sci-fi to see if there was anything interesting there i may want to read. To my surprise i found several books in the top 20 that were published by the authors as ebooks on Amazon. Ryk Brown has two books of this Frontiers Saga in the top 11 and another author called T.R. Harris has two books of his Human Chronicles saga in the top 20. So i dug a little deeper and found a webpage for the Human Chronicles with some interesting facts. Harris claims he sold 21000 copies of his books (he started with 75 during the first 10 days and 3400 after 6 weeks), so i am guessing these books can't be all that bad. But i don't see them mentioned or discussed here at all. Why? And i am also wondering if there are more of these authors/books out there that never got printed but might be good? Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone read the sagas i mentioned?

You should try Wool. 458 Five Stars Rating out of 502 Votes

4.9 out of 5 stars
5 star:
(458)
4 star:
(38)
3 star:
(4)
2 star: (0)
1 star:
(2)





It's an indie book. The author is selling more than 1,000 copies a day. (He made $50,000 in March 2012 according to the Publishers Weekly article).

This might be a good source for you for affordable indie sci fi
http://ebooktop100.blogspot.com/2012...s-science.html
Top 100 Sci Fi Ebooks Ranking (under $4)

[psikeyhackr]

You should try Wool. 458 Five Stars Rating out of 502 Votes

4.9 out of 5 stars
5 star: (458)
4 star: (38)
3 star: (4)
2 star: (0)
1 star: (2)

It's an indie book. The author is selling more than 1,000 copies a day. (He made $50,000 in March 2012 according to the Publishers Weekly article).

Top 100 Sci Fi Ebooks Ranking (under $4)

91% 5 stars. Isn't that a bit incredible?

Ender's Game gets 52% on Goodreads. Hitchhiker's Guide gets 42%

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress get 41%

I have noticed that Amazon ratings are almost always higher than Goodreads but 91%.

psik

[Colonel Worf]

The communities at Amazon and Goodreads are completely different. I've noticed people on Amazon give books 1 star when it got there a day late or because they will "never read a book by this author" or they're reviewing the movie version, etc.

I think Goodreads reviews are a lot more accurate.

[bobbb]

This might be a good source for you for affordable indie sci fi
http://ebooktop100.blogspot.com/2012...s-science.html
Top 100 Sci Fi Ebooks Ranking (under $4)

Thanks for that link, very interesting. I wonder how many talented writers don't even bother trying to find a publisher anymore and go the ebook selfpublishing way. The next Hamilton/Banks might be out there right now?

[vrabinec]

Careful what you buy off that Amazon.com list. Authors can join what they call "select" which allows them to give their book away for free for a number of days. There's a whole bunch of people out there just waiting to download free books. The author gets a bunch of his books downloaded for free and rises up the best seller list. Amazon is supposedly tinkering with the algorithms behind this so that the free downloads don't get as much weight in the rankings, because some poorly written books are getting pushed up the charts and people are getting ticked. Also, many self-pub'd authors get their fellow authors to give them 4 and 5 star reviews in reutrn for wink-wink the same thing on their books.

You really need to read the sample to see if the writing is any good before buying. Don't just go by where it is in the list, the reviews, or the blurb.

[kennychaffin]

Thanks for that link, very interesting. I wonder how many talented writers don't even bother trying to find a publisher anymore and go the ebook selfpublishing way. The next Hamilton/Banks might be out there right now?

The publishing world is in a state of flux moreso than any time in the past. The internet and ebooks have completely changed the game.

[ebleyes]

I read The Frontiers Saga: Aurora CV-01 by Ryk Brown, and immediately bought the rest of his episodic series.They need editing, but the story itself remind of the old space operas that I feel are missing these days. This self publishing revolution is the best thing that happened science fiction in a long time. I'm surprised it took me so long to find out about those Kindle authors.

[vrabinec]

Hmm, just checked out the sample, and I'd say the writing needs a once over Doesn't exactly flow. Seems like an interesting premise.

[psikeyhackr]

Here is a 3-star review:

This review is from: Aurora: CV-01 (The Frontiers Saga) (Kindle Edition)
First off, the story is not bad, though I wouldn't call it terribly original. Just previous to this book I read another self published book and the similarities between this one and that are eerie. By no means am I saying one story was plagiarized over another, but it's obvious this story in this genre has been done a lot. They both share the same plot and setup, only the characters are different:

* New Earth government after dark times
* New flagship spacecraft on maiden voyage
* Experimental device that lets said ship 'jump' great distances through space
* Meeting and involuntary assisting an alien race against a brutal and overwhelming enemy
* Alien race is distant relative to humans on Earth
* Alien race is very advanced, yet comment on how amazing some of the Earth technology is, such as the ability to 'jump' the ship light years through space in an instant.

Each of these points are in both books. So it's something to think about when moving forward with a sequel.

As for characters, they all seemed rather bland and one dimensional. Nathan, the protagonist, is cut from the same mold as every other character I've read about that is 'standing in his father's shadow. Except, that I didn't feel Nathan really developed throughout the story. Nathan is more like a 13 year old boy as opposed to a recently graduated Navy cadet.

The secondary characters were a little more interesting, with Vlad being the most interesting (and least seen) character in the book.

My last bit of criticism is POV. The point of view in this book is generally from Nathan's perspective, but it's really all over the place and leads to quite a bit of confusion. It's ok to have POV shift from chapter to chapter and even in a chapter as along as there is a scene break between the paragraphs. However, throughout the entire story POV shift will occur from one paragraph to another and sometimes within the same paragraph. There were some POV shifts that occurred with characters not even in the same vicinity of the other characters.

It makes for a tough read when Nathan finishes speaking and in the next paragraph you are in Cam's head and the next paragraph you are back into Nathan's head. I understand the reason was to 'color in' some more details as to what is happening, but it makes it a really sloppy read.

To close on a positive note, I really do love these types of stories, a great space adventure that isn't so techie you get bored with the science talk. There is a lot of potential here and I would love to see these character's really mature and grow.

On the basis of that review I might give that book 2 stars but I would not want to spend my time finding out.

So it is really interesting that so many people gave it 5 and 4 stars.

We need something better than just stars.

psik

[vrabinec]

Yeah, stars are subjective. Doesn't mean anything. One man's 3 is another man's 2 etc..I like detailed reviews that cover character development, pace, and things of that nature. The quality of the writing I can judge for myself from the sample, so I don't need anyone to tell me that. Of course, telling me it's like some other book I never read doesn't turn me off of it, since I'd be reading this one first, and I don't necessarily mind a somewhat cliche'd plot if it's written well.

[ebleyes]

I'd give the book 3 stars too. The story itself is very similar to many SF(lost in space) novels and an editor or group editing will fix some of the issues like the the sudden shifts in POVs and character development, but the story is fast paced and feels like a TV show. I've never read episodic novels before, but it's a great way to write a novel for an indie writer. English is not my first language (obvious), those self publishing writers make me wish I had the writing skills to write something in my spare time.

[DennisC]

This is a very, very inspiring thread. Inspiring for authors. I can't believe some of the indie success stories.

I initially was very doubtful that e-publishing would mean better stories on the market. The music industry had a similar issue with the widespread sharing of mp3s. But out of that came some stellar independent artists (plug: Marc Gunn's Celtic Music). I am still cautiously optimistic about independent publishing. I don't want to red the 1st 10 pages of 10 books to try and find one that has promise and then read up to page 50 on that one to decide to read it or not. That's why I trust certain publishers like Tor for a decent read.

But reading this thread has forced me to (again) rethink how I decide what to read. The intertubes are ripe for an independent author review site to sift the wheat from the chaff.

I haven't been able to read much lately b/c of a move (my location is about to change from "not in Dixie" to "Dixie" and then to "The Heart of Dixie"). I am about to move out of new england. I am looking foreward to next week as I will be able to stop packing and read.

Intertubes: (an american joke, sorry - one of our politicians here in the united state thinks the internet is a series of tubes through which horses run and thus we should allow internet providers to determine which sites we can and can't visit - network neutrality)