Kim Harrison's new Hollows adventure, BLACK MAGIC SANCTION, goes on-sale next Tuesday, 2/23. In addition to the hardcover, we are thrilled to announce an enhanced e-book will also go on-sale 2/23.
Available via iTunes for the iPhone and iTouch, this enhanced e-book features videos and audio commentary from the author, plus the audiobook synched with the e-book, and more.
The regular e-book for all formats (Kindle, Nook, Sony E-reader, etc.) will be on-sale 4/6.
As you know, the e-book world is changing rapidly, as shown by Amazon v. Macmillan a couple of weeks ago. I'm not going to go into that in detail, but yes, it's about determining the course of e-books in the future.
Many people argue that e-books don't cost anything to produce, and thus the price should be lower. Often, these same people then complain when the e-book is not well formatted, has errors, etc. Or, sometimes, argue that publishers don't do anything to promote the book, and/or are actively trying to ruin the author's career, and authors would be better self-publishing.
None of these are true, but to fully answer would take several posts on their own (you can, however, check out posts by John Scalzi, Making Light, Charles Stross and many more. Just poke around for a couple of minutes online).
I'll just say that like anything, it is always easier to armchair-quarterback, that it is much easier to strike out on your own once you have a following/backing/audience/credentials/experience, and then ask why any business would not be trying to make money in this economy.
We're doing this because we're looking at the long-term future of publishing--hardcover books, electronic, etc.--to figure out the best way to keep publishing and growing our authors. Things are changing literally every day, and we all wish there was a way to fast-forward so that we knew the best possible way to make this work on all fronts, from author to publisher to retailer to consumer.
Kim Harrison discusses the e-books on her blog. Her agent, Richard Curtis, runs e-book publisher E-Reads--check out his blog for more analysis of the market, etc.
Back to business, next Tuesday you can get the enhanced e-book of BLACK MAGIC SANCTION via iTunes on Tuesday, including videos, audio, etc., for more money. And then the regular e-book will be available 4/6, at a lower price.
In the meantime, you can read the first seven chapters of BLACK MAGIC SANCTION.
-- Diana
