What’s With the Price of eBooks?

Posted by Stephen Gibson on 2012 Jan, 24 in Blog | 0 comments

Don’t publishers get it? I guess not. Most eBooks are priced higher than a normal paperback and some even higher than hard cover. That just does not make any sense. Sure they need to make money and sure they want to make a lot of money. I just don’t think this is the way. I for one do not feel that $10 or $12 is acceptable for something purely digital. For titles I know I want and authors I respect, I would pay up to $5 but that’s the limit. What publishers need to know is that if prices were more like $1 to $5 dollars, I would take more chances on unknown works, buy more books and ultimately spend more money.

Our book, Sea of Dekatos is priced at $0.99. In my mind that is low. However, I understand that its not fair to ask people to take a chance on an unknown author and expect them to pay big bucks. That’s the beauty of eBooks. They can be priced low without loosing money to encourage sales.

That’s not the case with the printed version. Sea of Dekatos is also available in paperback. I printed and published that myself (no vanity press here!) and the $10 price barely covers expenses (ignoring all the hours we worked on it). Worse than that, if I ship them myself through regular mail the postage alone would cost as much as the book itself. Crazy. Digital is the way to go. Embrace it. Love it. Read it.

Gibson Out.

Penturian is coming!

Posted by Stephen Gibson on 2012 Jan, 12 in Blog | 0 comments

Penturian is the next novel that Tim and I chose to finish. You can read about our other unfinished titles from the Upcoming Titles page on the main page here.

We’re in the final push. Oh I so dearly hate that expression. It makes me think of long caffeinated nights slaving over a computer swearing at “Unknown Errors” spewed forth by ancient Microsoft compilers. It also makes me think of some of my favorite Blackadder episodes (so not all bad). But this real is the final push. We are in the final, final edition stages and are working with artists for cover artwork. Originally I had targeted the end of February as a release date but if you know me, you know better than believe any dates I give you.

You can read more about Penturian from the main page as well. It is an epic fantasy adventure with a little science fiction mixed in for good measure. How would you stop a war which will occur 4,000 years in the future? Read Penturian and find out what Zondela does. She’s one amazing character being first among Penturians!

You can view the full image of the thumbnail on my Flickr account.

Gibson Out.

2012 is the Year of Adventure and…

Posted by Stephen Gibson on 2012 Jan, 02 in Blog | 0 comments

Its official. I hereby declare 2012 to be the year of adventure. Go out there, read an adventure, have an adventure, write an adventure…live an adventure!

For me adventure often takes the form of read fantasy and science fiction. I just purchased Feast of Souls by C. S. Freidman who is one of my favorite authors. Almost all of her works are outstanding, which seems to be rare today in the commercialization of writing and the frantic scream towards turning out stink in the name of selling copies.

But I digress…Who is your favorite author(s)? Who do you like to read? Can you introduce me to some new works?

If you said Tim and Stephen Gibson from King Tiger Books, I’m deeply indebted to you (and pleasantly shocked). If you didn’t, why not give Sea of Dekatos a try and let us know what you think? I recently authorized Amazon to offer it for free on the Kindle for Amazon Prime members. Check it out!

Enough shameless promotion (I’m sure I’ll have more later). I also think 2012 is the year of the Indie. Digital media has opened doors to people who otherwise did not have a key. Indie writers, publishers, musicians and authors are taking on the establishment and doing incredibly well. This, in my mind, is the future. Just as in the dawn of the industrial revolution people had small foundries in their backyards forging goods or during the dawn of software engineering people where making games and business apps in their basement, so now is the time for the artist…the musician, the graphic artist and the author. Let’s all make 2012 a banner year for digital, independently developed adventure.

Wow, dramatic. However, I am not ignorant of the irony. Frankly I live irony everyday and this sure is an example. Here I am telling you to promote independent authors and I started the post by telling you I purchased an eBook published by DAW – one of them. Sorry. You’re right. Tell me about what indie books you like and I’ll give them a whirl and may even review them here. If you want to see the books I like and have read, check me out on . Goodreads is a great place to connect too.

You can view the full image of this thumbnail on my Flickr account.

Take care and watch the skies!

Gibson out.