...a trail-blazing reprinter of out-of-print genre and general fiction and nonfiction by leading authors. Our books are available in all e-book formats and paperback. Read the latest publishing news and provocative blogs by top commentators in the traditional and digital publishing fields.
In this sequel to SHANJI, Kati has used the light of creation to win a war bringing her to the throne as Empress of her planet, and she has forged new alliances with former enemies. Her daughter Yesui is born w...
Hôtel Transylvania
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Since 1978, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has produced about two dozen novels and numerous short stories detailing the life of a character first introduced to the reading world as Le Comte de Saint-Germain. We first mee...
Mother's Choice
Elizabeth Mansfield
It's a Mother's Duty To Protect Her Daughter
Cassandra Beringer would never allow her daughter Cicely to repeat her mistake and marry a man twenty years her senior--even if he is the handsome Viscount Inge...
Pock's World
Dave Duncan
In this thrilling story of adventure and suspense by master storyteller Dave Duncan, five flawed individuals must decide the fate of an entire world.
On the outskirts of the Ayne Sector sits Pock’s Worl...
Time Slave
John Norman
Dr. Brenda Hamilton--a Ph.D. mathematician from Cal Tech--is beautiful, though she does not know her true beauty. She is a woman, though she does not know her true womanhood. Deep within herself she is sensu...
Sunday in Hell: Pearl Harbor Minute by Minute
Bill McWilliams
Using long established historical records and contemporary journals as well as recently-released war-time documents, Bill McWilliams has created a brand-new minute-by-minute narrative of the Day that Will ...
Lord of the Fire Lands
Dave Duncan
Raider and Wasp have spent five years at Ironhall studying to become Blades, expert swordsmen whose talents stand unmatched. Magic both enhances the Blades' fighting skills and binds them in lifelong duty....
Miscalculations
Elizabeth Mansfield
His Woman Of Affairs
Jane Douglas had a sharp wit, a brilliant mind, and an extraordinary knack for numbers. As financial advisor to Lady Martha Kettering, she was able to provide for herself, her sister ...
The Girl With the Persian Shawl
Elizabeth Mansfield
An Arrogant Spinster, a Dashing Rake, and an Unsigned Painting
The Girl With Persian Shawl was a strangely bewitching masterpiece that had hung in the Rendell household for generations. Kate Rendell graci...
A Thousand Deaths
George Alec Effinger
While George Alec Effinger’s Budayeen novel WHEN GRAVITY FAILS is perhaps his most famous work, his lesser known novel THE WOLVES OF MEMORY remained his favorite. In it, he introduced readers to Sandor Couran...
FEATURED TITLES
Anvil of Stars
Greg Bear
A Ship of the Law travels the infinite enormity of space, carrying 82 young people: fighters, strategists, scientists; the Children. They work with sophisticated non-human technologies that need new thinkin...
Rivals
Janet Dailey
Flame Morgan, the high-class v-p of a San Francisco ad agency, is instantly attracted to Chance Stuart, a wealthy, powerful land developer. Chance romances her lavishly but withholds a damaging secret duri...
Tarnsman of Gor
John Norman
Tarl Cabot has always believed himself to be a citizen of Earth. He has no inkling that his destiny is far greater than the small planet he has inhabited for the first twenty-odd years of his life. One frost...
Loot
Aaron Elkins
In April 1945, The Nazis, reeling and near defeat, frantically work to hide the huge store of art treasures that Hitler has looted from Europe. Truck convoys loaded with the cultural wealth of the Western ...
Past Imperative
Dave Duncan
The Great Game of Gods is afoot.
In a world on the brink of madness...
In the summer of 1914, a young man of reputation beyond reproach awakens under police guard--grievously injured and accused of hei...
Kampus
James Gunn
The college of the future has just one purpose: endless battle. Political organizations urge ruthless combat with an invisible opponent and each student is challenged to be more extreme than the rest. One ma...
This Business of Publishing
Richard Curtis
THIS BUSINESS OF PUBLISHING has been hailed by literary agent Michael Larsen as "must reading for writers, agents and anyone else who cares about the future of publishing." It reveals the unique perspective o...
No Quarter Asked
Janet Dailey
Janet Dailey wrote her first novel, No Quarter Asked in 1974 after her husband, Bill, urged her to back up her claim that she could write a better romance novel than the ones she had read. The book was accep...
To The Vanishing Point
Alan Dean Foster
The Sonderberg family doesn’t know it yet, but this isn’t going to be any ordinary road trip. After they pick up an unassuming hitchhiker, a quiet drive down Interstate 40 becomes a trip into an alterna...
Appointment in Jerusalem
Max I. Dimont
Biblical historian Max Dimont, author of the classic JEWS, GOD, AND HISTORY, explores the mystery surrounding the predictions Jesus made about his fate. Examining the gospel, Dimont recreates the drama in thr...
The Stone Mage & the Sea
Sean Williams
The Stone Mages rule the huge deserts of red sand. The vast coastlines are ruled by Sky Wardens. Magic is everywhere but not all have the power to control and direct it. Any child found to have magical abi...
Sounding
Hank Searls
"He had a brain biologically identical to man’s but seven times its weight and volume," writes Hank Searls of a massive, aging sperm whale whose compassion, fear, and anger at man’s attacks on his kind dri...
Sister of the Sun
Clare Coleman
From Jean M. Auel's THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR to Linda Lay Shuler's SHE WHO REMEMBERS, novels set among pre-historic cultures have shown a very strong appeal to readers of all types from fans of genre fant...
Highland Conqueror
Hannah Howell
Lady Jolene Gerard is running out of time--each moment she remains within the walls of Drumwich Castle she is in jeopardy. Her only chance lies with a prisoner chained to the dungeon walls, a Scotsman who, in ...
The Stricken Field
Dave Duncan
Paranoid but almighty, the sorcerer Xinixo had seized control of the Impire. But ruling the imps and most of the world was not enough. He would never feel safe until he was universally loved, so he would sma...
Picoverse
Robert A. Metzger
Robert Metzger writes classic hard SF but he does so in a way that emphasizes excitement and adventure and which shows the science in a way that makes it accessible and fascinating. In PICOVERSE, a team o...
E-Reads has signed a deal with UK publisher Gollancz to publish e-book editions in the UK and Commonwealth of almost 400 science fiction and fantasy titles as part of Gollancz’s Gateway initiative.
Orion deputy CEO and publisher Malcolm Edwards and Gollancz digital publisher Darren Nash negotiated the deal, which includes works by more than 50 authors, with E-Reads founder and president Richard Curtis and agent Danny Baror of Baror International. Titles by authors such as Greg Bear, Harlan Ellison, James Gunn, Fritz Leiber and George Zebrowski will be published in Gateway editions in 2011.
Deputy CEO and publisher Malcolm Edwards said: “Richard Curtis has been a pioneering figure in e-book publishing in the USA, and E-Reads has acquired rights in a lot of books which were on our wish list for Gateway. I’m therefore delighted that we’ve managed to persuade Richard that we’re able to offer a persuasive plan for selling them in our markets.”
Curtis said: “Though E-Reads has been distributing its e-books in the UK, we felt that our authors would be better served having a British publisher take charge of sales and marketing. And what better publisher than Gollancz, whose amazing fantasy and science fiction list is a perfect fit for our own?”
Gollancz’s Gateway project launched earlier this month, making more than 1,000 titles by authors including Philip K Dick and Arthur C Clarke available as e-books through all major e-retailers.
Responding to input both from readers and authors, E-Reads has cut list prices for a wide range of selected e-book titles. Many novels previously priced at $9.99 have been slashed as low as $2.99. All nonfiction, previously priced at $12.99, will now list at $9.99 or lower.
“After surveying readers and authors and studying creative pricing strategies developed by independent authors, we felt that a drop in price per unit would be balanced by a rise in volume,” said E-Reads CEO Richard Curtis. “The move seems to have worked, as our volume has already risen 10% in the month since the changes took hold. We will continue reviewing and adjusting prices as the market demands.”
E-Reads, founded in 2000, is a leading independent reprinter of previously published books. Its e-books are sold worldwide in the English language at the Kindle, Nook, Sony, Apple, Diesel, Kobo and other retail and library websites, and trade paperbacks at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Richard Curtis did not just witness the evolution of the publishing industry from print to digital, he had a significant hand in shaping it. In a Digital Book World interview conducted by Rich Fahle, the agent and e-book publisher candidly discusses his role. The video may be seen below or on DBW’s website.
From the interview:
“Agents find themselves more and more providing services they never needed to render in the past: cover approval, correcting cover copy, editing, spellchecking authors’ manuscripts, marketing and other tasks that should be the publisher’s, but publishers either can’t or won’t do some of these things. They keep pushing the burden of responsibility back on the author. And if the author can’t do it or is helpless or doesn’t want to, the agent has to do it…
Mr. Curtis said he expects to eventually see product placement in digital books that will generate ads for e-books. “If you see a link in a novel to a product being advertised, you’re generating synergy between the content and the advertiser. It will be the same principle as product placement in movies and television,” he said.
(Richard Curtis, New York literary agent and digital book publisher, commenting in the Wall Street Journal on Amazon’s introduction of a Kindle carrying advertising.)
Product placement in novels? Hmm, just how would that work….?
Agent and E-Reads publisher Richard Curtis was interviewed by Gatekeepers Post publisher Jeff Rivera. The two industry leaders explored the emergence of a corps of gatekeepers that is very far from the establishment elite that we grew up with.
You can also read Richard Curtis’s posting about Gatekeepers here . ************************************
The Gatekeepers Post is the leading social media book publishing community on the web Richard Curtis is probably one of the most respected people in the book publishing industry. He’s incredibly smart, wise and a true visionary who foresaw the eBook revolution years before the masses. In today’s audio interview with the veteran literary agent and Publisher of E-eads, he discusses with us the true pros and cons authors need to keep in mind when they are deciding between publishing directly or publishing with an e-book publisher such as his company. If you’re about to load your book on Kindle yourself, you might give serious thought to listening to this interview first.
Another prominent e-book publisher, Smashwords’ Mark Coker, has checked in with Galley Cat’s Jeff Rivera with ten predictions for the coming year. Here are the headlines.
1.Ebook sales rise, unit consumption surprises
2. Agents write the next chapter of the ebook revolution
3. More big authors reluctant to part with digital rights
4. Self Publishing goes from option of last resort to option of first resort among unpublished authors
5. Big 6 publishers increase ebook royalties
6. Ebook prices to fall
7. The customer is king- Readers will decide which books become hits, not publishers.
8. International ebook market explodes, causing publishers to rethink territory rights restrictions
As he did last year, Galley Cat‘s Jeff Rivera invited literary agent and E-Reads’ President Richard Curtis to make some predictions in the book and e-book industry for the coming year. He produced ten, and here’s one that will raise a few eyebrows:
The Big Six publishers will raise their current royalty rate over the standard 25% they currently offer.
“Enhanced e-books” was one of the most overused catchphrases in 2010. Publishers stampeded to load up conventional e-books with all manner of enhancements ranging from author out-takes to big-name intros to film and video clips. The idea was to justify boosting the price of their souped-up e-books.
Some of these products were interesting, entertaining and attractive, But were they worth those extra bucks? Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg of the Wall Street Journal asked that very question in Testing Enhanced E-Books.
Ana Maria Allessi, publisher of HarperMedia, says definitely yes. “When both digital editions are available, and consumers are given the choice, in half the cases they’ll pay more for extra content,” she says. Sourcebooks’ publisher Dominique Racca thinks so too: “I can imagine a product where you multiply by 100 percent because it has so much more value than the non-enhanced editions.”
But a very different view was expressed by Tony Woodlief, oddly enough in the Wall Street Journal too. He had a one word explanation for why most enhanced e-books will flop. Click here if you’d like to learn what it is.
And if you’d like to hear it expressed poetically…
Publishers expressed enchantment
With the notion of enhancement.
Audio, video, music, flix,
Bangles, baubles, Bar Mitzvah pix.
A tune or two was all it took
To constitute a mobile vook.
They tossed in every kind of crap
And designated it an app.*
Richard Curtis
* From 2010 (The App) by Richard Curtis with permission of Publishers Weekly, PWxyz, (c) 2010 Richard Curtis
Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by The Wall Street Journal.
Speculation has been running at fever pitch: What’s this year’s theme of literary agent Richard Curtis’s end-of-year poem? And which publishing executives has he singled out for poetic immortality?
For seven or eight years in the mid 1980s and early ’90s Publisher’s Weekly ran Curtis’s annual summary, in tongue-in-cheek verse, of the highlights and lowlights of the year in the publishing industry. The annual rhymes carried such titles as, “Merger, He Wrote,” (1986), “Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Industry of Mine” (1989) and “Stop the Millennium, I Want to Get Off” (1990).
After a hiatus of some fifteen years, the verse-atile agent returned to PW in 2007 with “The Year of the Platform,” which boasted such lines as
Are our values turning asswards
When opening books requires passwords?