News roundup, a PSA, and a quandary.

First, some news.

News item #1:  Seized got a terrific 5-star review this week at Big Al's Books and Pals.  The reviewer even said I might be her new favorite fantasy author -- which is gratifying, humbling, and squee-inducing, all at once.

News item #2: Also in the gratifying, humbling, etc., department, my buddies over at kevinswatch.com picked Seized as the inaugural book for our new book club.  Maybe I should write a book club study guide....

News item #3:  I sat down yesterday and drafted a rough outline for the final Pipe Woman Chronicles book.  The majority of the research is also done.  So I should be starting to write the first draft, oh, maybe next weekend.  Although I also need to finish that sweater; all that's left to do is the neckline edging (picking up stitches, oh goody) and sewing the side seams.  And I still haven't made myself a scrapbook of the Danube cruise.  So many projects, so little time....

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We pause now for the following public service announcement. 

My daughter Amy, who works for a Barnes & Noble store, would like to remind everyone that Barnes & Noble is, in fact, NOT GOING OUT OF BUSINESS.  Yes, B&N is closing some stores, BUT NOT ALL OF THEM.  And she would really like to stop having to explain this to people who call her store to find out the latest discount on DVD boxed sets and whether they've started selling their bookcases yet.  Got it?  Good.  Let's move on.

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Now, the quandary.

Publishers Weekly put a curious item on its website this week.  Amazon Technologies -- a division of Amazon.com -- has been granted a patent by the U.S. government for a system to re-sell used e-books and used audio books.

Indie authors have been scratching their heads since the article was released on Thursday, and the brevity of the piece makes me think PW couldn't make heads or tails of the announcement, either.  After all, you don't really own the books on your Kindle -- or the songs on your iPod, for that matter.  What you have purchased is a long-term lease of copies of these digital files.  Amazon made that abundantly clear in 2009, when it yanked copies of George Orwell's 1984 from users' Kindle libraries because the third party who uploaded the book to Kindle Direct Publishing didn't own the rights.  (Amazon settled a lawsuit over the incident later that year.)  And last year, Bruce Willis reportedly was thinking of suing Apple to find out whether he could leave his iTunes music collection to his kids in his will -- a report that later turned out to be false. 

When the latest news came out, I did a quick Google check of tech industry websites, and learned from Wired.com that the Amazon patent covers resale of the lease on the content, not a resale of the content itself -- so the Zon isn't changing its business model to let us buy e-books outright.  Basically, the patented system would cut off the seller's access to the content as soon as the buyer paid for it.  Also, there would be a limit on the number of times a file could be resold.  

Speculation is that Amazon might allow re-selling in order to get the content out from under publishers' control.  It occurred to me today that this could be particularly lucrative in the digital textbook market.  Students who buy dead-tree texts pay through the nose for them, but at least they can sell them back at the end of the semester -- an avenue denied to those who buy digital editions of the same texts.  An Amazon-controlled used textbook marketplace could give e-textbook buyers this option -- and as a plus, it could erode Barnes & Noble's lock on textbook sales through its campus bookstore operations.

The Zon could also use used e-book sales as a carrot to attract authors to its own publishing division; authors who sign with an Amazon imprint could conceivably be granted a cut of any resale proceeds of their Kindle books -- a perk trad publishers can't offer.

Other industry wags think Amazon locked up the patent to lock out resales of digital content altogether.  Just because someone holds a patent, these experts say, doesn't mean it will ever be implemented.

It's still unclear what effect, if any, this system will have on indie authors.  As many of us have observed, it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference between a new or used digital file.  It's not like you can dogear an e-book, or break its spine.  And many indie books are already so cheap that the cost savings on a used file would probably be minimal.  Maybe Amazon would grant a cut of any resales to indies who publish on KDP?  Who knows?  Maybe it won't affect us at all.  Time, I guess, will tell.

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This moment of bloggy celebration and speculation is brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

Winter Solstice Advent Countdown, Week 2.

I pulled my beret out of the coat pocket where I'd shoved it that morning and perched it on my head at what I hoped was a perky angle, using my reflection in a shop window as a guide. As I adjusted my hat, I noticed a man leaning against the building on the opposite side of the street.  That struck me as odd -- he wasn't one of our regular street people, and we were in the middle of the block, nowhere near a bus stop. I turned to get a better look at him, but he was gone. Must have ducked into the building. But I knew he hadn't time while I turned around. Maybe he was finishing a cigarette when I noticed him. Except that he hadn't been smoking.

I shrugged mentally and continued on. I'd gone about another block when an owl suddenly swooped past me, hooting. Startled, I grabbed onto my hat and stepped back. The owl hooted again, flew another hundred yards or so down the street, and then veered up and into the darkness.

"Okay, things are getting just a little too weird around here," I said aloud, and then clapped my gloved hand over my mouth.

-- From Seized

Tapped is off to a good start! It's now available just about everywhere in both e-book and paperback, including at Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and the Apple iBooks store, in addition to Amazon and Smashwords.  Thanks to those who have purchased it so far; you're all my new best friends.  And again, if you liked the book, please go back where you bought it and leave a review.  Indie authors' sales tend to live and die by the reviews they receive. Thanks in advance!

In addition, Tapped is one of the books featured at the Orangeberry Virtual Book Expo for the next couple of weeks.  I've got some blog stops scheduled this week in connection with the expo. Check the Tour Dates tab for more info.

One other housekeeping thing: Smashwords asked me to take down the preview for Gravid because it wasn't a complete book.  So I've moved it here to the blog.  The same caveats as before (re spoilers, etc.) apply.

Now then: Congratulations and a round of applause, please, for Chuck Myers, who wins last week's contest for the Cosmic Coyote pin. Way to go, Chuck! 

As I said, the prizes will be getting a little bigger as time goes on. This week, we have a $10 Amazon gift card (I know -- ho-hum, right?) and a way cool two-inch-wide pin featuring the fractal owl from the cover of Seized.  I had a limited number of these made to hand out at the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto last month, and this is the last one. (Except for mine, which nobody can have, muahaha!)

The rules follow and the place to enter is below.  Good luck, everybody! 

The Rules (sorry, gotta have 'em):

1. Friends and family may definitely enter.
2. Winners from my previous contest may win again.  However, winners from previous weeks in *this* contest may not win *this* contest again.
3. If there is no winner one week, the prize(s) will be added to the following week's contest.  I am getting this stuff out of my house, one way or the other.
4. As always, the judge's decisions are arbitrary, capricious, and final.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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These moments of bloggy generosity are brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

Winter Solstice Advent Countdown, Week 1.

Joseph howled. He shed his jeans jacket and shirt. And then he changed.

He had always shielded me from seeing him shift. I mean, I had seen him do it in his battle with Loki in the time-out-of-time. But those were spirit shifts, if you will; no actual human body was involved. Body parts just sort of melted and reformed there.

But here in the real world, it was real, and it looked painful.

-- from Fissured

It's release day for Tapped!  The e-book with the glowy wolf on the cover is now available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and in all kinds of formats from Smashwords.*  (The paperback, with the same cool cover, will go on sale sometime this week.)

In celebration of the new book -- and because, as you know, this year's winter solstice is a Very Big Deal in the Pipe Woman Chronicles -- I'm going to run a contest every week for the next three weeks.  The prizes will get bigger as the month goes on, with a grand prize in the final week.  (Not to say the Cosmic Coyote pin isn't cool. By the way, the pin looks huge in the box below, but in real life, it's two inches square.)

Um, well, I don't know what else to say here.  Hope you enjoy Tapped (and if you do, please go back to where you bought it and leave me a review -- thanks, you rock!), check out the contest rules below, and good luck!

* Alert readers of the Smashwords version of Tapped will find a link at the very end of the book to the first two chapters of Gravid: Book Four of the Pipe Woman Chronicles.  I'm providing these chapters with some misgivings.  First, Gravid was my NaNo project this year, so this is only a first draft and may change (a little or a lot!) by the time the book is published in the spring. Second, there is a major Tapped spoiler, right up front, that I could not take out.  Sooo...if you should decide to read the sneak peek on Smashwords before you read Tapped, don't come crying to me that it ruined Tapped for you.  Okay?  Okay.  Just so we're clear.

The Rules (sorry, gotta have 'em):

1. Friends and family may definitely enter.
2. Winners from my previous contest may win again.  However, winners from previous weeks in *this* contest may not win *this* contest again.
3. If there is no winner one week, the prize(s) will be added to the following week's contest.  I am getting this stuff out of my house, one way or the other.
4. As always, the judge's decisions are arbitrary, capricious, and final.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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These moments of celebratory blogginess are brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.