I’ve been testing quite a few recently, so I thought I’d show you how I got on. These are the free ones, because a) I’m a cheapskate and b) Why pay for something when you can get it legitimately for free?

So you won’t find Mantano in this list, because I haven’t taken the plunge yet. And I haven’t included the apps like Wattpad, which are primarily to obtain and read online content, although this category has been growing recently and will be worth perusing in a while. I’ve included Nook and Kindle apps, because you can read books on your device as well as online, and it’s primarily as a reader of internal content that I’ve reviewed them here.

These readers are for my rooted Nook Color. Now I love the basic Nook reader dearly, but rooting it (I use the CM7 mod method – basically you are rooting through your SD card and leaving the nook firmware well alone. It’s superb, but this post isn’t about that) means I don’t get regular access to the Nook program. Still, getting Angry Birds, solitaire, Dolphin Browser and all the wonderful things you can get on the Android market makes rooting well worth it. If I lived in the US and I had access to the Barnes and Noble store, I might think differently.

This is what I’ve discovered about the apps. I would love it if you’d discovered more apps or more ways of using the apps, because I daresay I’ve missed something in my wander around the Market to discover the ideal reader.

What I’d like in an ideal reader –

The ability to:
1.    Set my own fonts. I prefer to read with serif fonts, and some of them look better than others on the Nook, so I like to be able to change them. I’m not including altering the size of the font, because I haven’t found a reader yet that doesn’t do this.
2.    Set my own margins – I like almost edge-to-edge reading. Why waste all that space?
3.    Make notes – I do a lot of reviewing, and it’s much easier to make notes on the NC, as I can on my Kindle, and then call up the list when I’m done.
4.    Open the reader and be right at the page where I left off.
5.    Flip animation. It’s fun, okay? But it’s not essential.
6.    A nice bookshelf. I like a book cover and a blurb to tell you what it is. It’s a nice way to browse.
7.    CSS reading. This means that the book is rendered as it is supposed to be by the publisher. While they then dictate fonts, it does mean that you get to see the italics, bolds and chapter headings, as well as scene breaks, etc. This is most important to me when there are italics. I read a fair amount of paranormals, and it’s much, much easier to see telepathic speech if it’s italicized. Italics can also be a part of an author’s voice, and when it’s missing, it can jar a bit. Failing the CSS thing, then the rendering of bolds, italics etc. I want my italics.
8.    A way of reordering the bookshelves by at least title and author. I’d prefer options to sort by tag, read or not read, date published and date added to the device, but, well, a girl can dream. And a way of creating bookshelves of my own and categorizing them, as I can in my Kindle.
9.    Reading books from the internal device of the NC, so you can read offline. I keep my books in the NC itself, not on the SD card, so porting to the SD card is a bit of a pain, and then you have to keep it up to date. Since I still occasionally read using the original Nook firmware and the lovely reader there, the books have to be in the internal memory.
10.    The ability to dim the screen in the dark, especially by swiping the left hand side of the screen vertically (means I don’t have to leave the book to do it).
11.    A progress bar that tells me how much I’ve read and how far I have to go.

What I don’t care about:

1.    Fancy backgrounds and day/night modes. I always read black on white and dim the screen for night reading. And I don’t want to pretend that my Nook Color is an ancient tome.
2.    Syncing between devices. I have a Blackberry phone, a Kindle, a Kobo and a Nook Color which I’ve rooted to full Android. I don’t own an ithing. Well I do, but iTunes is a nightmare on a PC, so I don’t use them. None of these devices sync particularly easily, apart from the Kindle, so I don’t bother. I keep a central library on my PC and then port to the devices as I need them. I use Calibre with an extra column added for books I’ve read. I have Calibre installed on every computer I own and port my settings across, then plug in the devices and add new books and take read ones off it. Works for me. But for some people, syncing is a big deal.

So here’s what I’ve tried so far:

Aldiko Reader -
It has – 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11
It renders really well, that is, the print is nice and clear. Its bookshelf is pretty, and I believe you can categorise it, though I’ve never worked out how. It’s fairly fast. The two big downsides for me are that you can’t make notes, although you can share, using Evernote or Facebook (but I don’t want to share, and I’m not always online. If it could link to an internal notetaking program, that would work for me). And you have to import all your books to the SD card if you want to see them on your bookshelves. That is a major inconvenience for me. However, it does render books properly, with italics and bolds, and I usually use it as a backup, if a book goes a bit daft on me in another program. Or if I just want to read for pleasure.

Amazon Kindle -
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11
I use this solely to read my Amazon books on because it uses a proprietary format, and everything else I use is epub. Amazon uses a locked form of mobipocket so it doesn’t play with other devices. However, you can read from your device without connecting, and you can download from your Amazon store to read offline. What you can’t do is read your NetGalley ARCs, if you’re a reviewer, because NetGalley only sends to your first device (not Kindle’s fault). I haven’t found a way of reordering the bookshelves, but they are nice. You can’t choose your own font, but it’s actually a pretty nice font so I don’t mind that so much. It’s smooth and it works, and I wish it read epub.

Anyview -
Not a clue. The interface is nice, but I’ve never been able to open a book in it.

Nook (the android one)
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11
Very much like the reader software, except it has flip animation, yay! The margins are too wide for me, and there’s no way I’ve discovered of making them narrower. And the cover art doesn’t show on my bookshelves, even if I do the Calibre thing (if you don’t now what I’m talking about, you re-convert within Calibre and that often solves the problem). Nook Color has to have the books in its own folder, which is irritating. The list of fonts you can use isn’t a full one, but it includes Georgia, so I’m good. But it renders really well, and I do use it sometimes. You can’t add shelves of your own, which is a pity.

Blio -
3, 5, 6, 7, 6, 9, 10, 11
This has some nice features and is worth considering. The shelf shows the book cover larger than most readers, so it’s very clear. I like the footer with the basic information and the extended footer, which you call up with a screen press. The options are limited, though, and you can’t set your own font and the default font is sans serif. And it leaves a space between paragraphs, which I really don’t like.

Bluefire reader -
I’ve just downloaded this one and I love the shelves on it, but I haven’t really played with it enough to comment significantly. I’d have to read a book or two on it before I can make up my mind.

Cool Reader -
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
If it will take it, this is my reader of choice. It renders italics and bold properly. It has a reasonable, though not pretty, bookshelf that you can reorder by several things, including tags, and it reads books from the internal memory of the Nook, so I don’t have to faff about importing. It can be temperamental with one or two books, I have no idea why, and that’s when I read on another app. It’s fast and smooth and it has so many options you could spend all your time playing with them. If you put a few ttf (true type fonts) on the SD card, it will let you choose the font you want. It renders well. It even has a battery indicator in the top bar.
I’d like a nicer bookshelf, the opportunity to create shelves of my own (so that I could, for instance, put the books I’ve read there, put the ARCs I really should be reading soon on their own shelf, etc.) and a real flip animation would be nice, too. But I’m sure they’ll come in time.

DNL reader -
I’ve only just started playing with this one, so I really don’t know what it can do yet. Anyone?

FBReader -
1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10,11
One of the oldest apps, and still a good one. Its big downfall, to me, is the inability to read italics and bolds. It really makes a difference. But the interface is smooth, it reads off your internal memory and you can at least make bookmarks. Some readers love this one because you can sort any which way, and that is pretty awesome. I would love it if it would just render the italics and get the note taking sorted out. The flip animation is the most fun you’ll have with a book without actually reading it. The way you can set different taps on different areas to do different things is cool, too.

Kobo -
I’ve only just downloaded this one. Anyone have any comments?

Moon+ Reader -
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
You can get this in a free version or a paid version, which has text to speech. This one is immensely frustrating, because it doesn’t render italics and bolds. The notetaking is great, the shelves really nice, and it reads from your internal memory. However, in the latest version, you can opt to go to publisher defaults, and voila, there are your italics and bolds! But the font is mandatory, and it’s hideous. And on publisher defaults it scrolls rather than page turns. It will read from internal memory, although if you want to see your books on the pretty bookshelves, covers and all, you have to import them to Moon’s shelves. This one is so close. Importing the books isn’t too bad, because once you’ve done it to the internal memory, there’s an import button on the shelf page, and it will update. Get that CSS rendering right, and this is the one for me. As it stands, Cool Reader does it better right now. Oh yes, and it loads each chapter separately, which means you have to wait for a second when you turn the page for it to load the chapter. Irritating, unless you have a device with limited memory, in which case it would be a positive asset. Another irritation is the touch screen. It’s not as accurate as other readers, at least not on the Nook Color it isn’t, and attempts to go back to the author file, for instance, will find you turning back a page or a chapter. I don’t use a stylus and I don’t particularly want to.

In conclusion – right now, Cool Reader does most of what I want in an ebook reader, but I’m always looking for something better!

New Kindles have been announced.

In brief, they’re the Fire tablet, at $199, the Touch 3G at £139, the Touch at $99 and the basic Kindle at $89. The last three will all have advertisements as screensavers. There will be advertisement-free versions for a little extra.

The Fire is a tablet to rival the Nook Color, and since Barnes and Noble is about to announce a new generation of Nook Colors, the situation there will probably remain the same. If you want the details and the specs, they’re on the main pages at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
The UK is only getting the basic ad-free model at the moment, and this will cost £89, which is a big hike on the $79 US version, even if that is the all-in price.

They look good, and the range is pretty impressive. But the companies who will be really worried, IMO, is the Android tablet companies. HP recently inadvertently revealed the selling price point when they reduced the price of their now defunct tablet, but the others cost $300 and up.
The Ipad is probably safe, at the top end.

It’s the content that counts. The Fire tablet will come packed with Amazon goodness. It won’t be a fully functional Android tablet, but will have an Android base, probably 1.1, which is pretty much outdated by others, but as long as it does what it says, I don’t think many buyers will be bothered. Of course, it will be rooted the day after release, but that’s for the geeks. I recently had a lot of problems with my rooted Nook Color and decided to revert to stock. I’m pretty happy with it as it is. I bet the Fire users will like that. But it might be worth waiting, because there are rumours of a ten-inch model and an additional model later on with some improvements.

Will I be racing out to get one? Well, apart from the fact that I’m in the UK, and so only the basic model is available, not so much. I love my Kindle 3, and the screen looks to be the same one. The new model is lighter, but the one I have is light enough for me. They are keeping the current Kindle in the same range and renaming it the Kindle Keyboard, and I really like that keyboard, because it means I can make notes on the books I review.

But the price points mean that the reader is a game changer. This is now the era of the below-$100 ereader, and that will see lots of new entrants. The savings (free out of copyright books, free offers) will pay for the device. This is an almost disposable price, one where the content really does matter more than the device. Ereaders have matured, and are now easy to use and comfortable to read on. I wonder if the airlines will still make us switch off on take-off and landing?

I fully expect Barnes and Noble to follow suit, and so fulfill the usual market model of leader, second brand and, well, they are themselves generics. Sony and the other makers of readers that don’t have a considerable store or extra content will suffer, there’s no doubt about that.

I’m beginning to think that tablets are a bit  of a frill, and the new Amazon Fire price does reflect that. Recently my trusty netbook bit the dust, and I had the choice between buying a tablet or an ultra-light laptop for my travels. I picked the ultra light. It has a proper keyboard, it has Windows, I can tilt it to watch films on and read books, surfing the Web is no problem. It’s just more useful to me. If I’d bought a tablet, I’d have had to invest in a keyboard, case, etc. And be stuck with an Apple interface with my PC, which I didn’t like.

So what do you think? Will you be supplementing your paper library with a reader? Are you tempted?

This just in…

The Harlequin Historical authors are spreading the giving spirit of the holiday season, something you don’t want to miss!

~ Beginning December 1 visit the web page of each participating HH author listed here. You will be asked to take part in an activity – visit a Facebook page, find an ornament, comment on a blog, as examples – that author has chosen especially for her day in the contest.

~ For each day you participate, your name will be entered into a Grand Prize drawing.

~ At the end of the month on December 23, one day from the calendar will be randomly selected. One of the entrants from that selected day will be randomly selected….

~ To win what, you ask? A brand new Kindle 3-G filled to the gills with historical books! So the more days you visit, the better your chances at owning a Kindle!

~ Here’s the page you need to begin with. Bookmark it!

~ The contest is open to readers from the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.

~ Good luck!

Consider yourself flashed.

This just in…

Hurry! Get your Kindle copy of Alison Kent’s newest release — free!!!

~ With Extreme Pleasure will be available in the Kindle ebook format until November 24.

~ And the even better news is you don’t have to own a Kindle to get your free copy!

~ You can download — free! — Amazon’s Kindle for PC and read Kindle books on your computer!

~ So what are you waiting for! Time’s awastin’!

Consider yourself flashed.

Originally this was titled C is for Cookie… (And for stream of consciousness) -but I was told my subjects/titles need to be more content relevant. Who woulda thunk. So I’m trying to rein in my randomness and be a good girl. There you have it.

A “friend” described me as “[having the] focus and attention similar to that of a butterfly; memory and clarity of general explanations reminiscent of the movie Memento.” Well first he said gnat, but I wasn’t happy about that- and actually I hate butterflies (I hate all insects) but I know people generally like them so I guess I’ll live with it. I’ve also never seen Memento so I don’t quite know how to feel about this description.

C also is for an average/good book at TGTBTU. There. I’ve had my broken record moment. I almost titled this post “Give it to Me, Baby.” But then I figured Offspring was best left sprung. Maybe.

MORE IMPORTANTLY. I’m thinking about getting an e-reader. A number of books are in e-format, etc, and well, I hate reading off my computer screen. The back light contributes to my bursting capillaries (gross, I know but it happens so I just can’t let go of the concept and I’m also not thinking too hard about it). And then back pain from car accidents, and so on. And wanting to read upside down and/or in bed.

So, suggestions? I know everyone loves their Amazon Kindle, but let me be blunt. I’m poor. I’ve got those pesky things called student loans. (But last I heard/checked, Barack Obama does too – so I’m in good company… right?!) I could buy nearly 67 Chipotle burritos (and that’s with the new higher prices) with the money. And considering a burrito is a minimum of 2 meals for me, that could potentially be food for 4.5 months. And if I had to eat the same thing for 4.5 months I’d be so sick of it I’d stop (eating)- so really we’re talking maybe 5-6 months. (Or you know, 4-7 months worth of Subway, assuming I could stomach it daily.) Not only that, but I’m holding out hope for a 1) lowered price and 2) second generation Kindle. They have to come out with a newer, better, shinier, PRETTIER model at some point, don’t they? Soonish?

I considered the Sony e-reader, but wasn’t 100% impressed. A friend has one and it’s small and shiny and pretty, but the page lag would annoy me on my bad days. The ones where I want to throw a book across the room. So I’m also waiting/crossing my fingers on that being solved. Also cnet‘s review gave me pause and was slightly confusing.I know a lot of people have talked about this – but see the above butterfly comment. . *I also have to admit – since writing this post, I’ve become quite enamored with the Sony e-reader. A red one. The lag still I think would drive me batty. But it would be so much better than thinking I’ve broken my spine and permanently paralyzed myself while trying to read books on my laptop. [Honestly bad things happen and my body protests vehemently.]

I do love my print books. LOVE. (E ink might be the selling point really.) I also like keeping all my books new. Pristine. Able to be traded with a new bookstore copy no problem. I experiences flashes of great sorrow when I accidentally crease a cover or… heaven forbid, step on a book. (Which happens a lot, unfortunately.) I suppose an e-reader would prevent such travesties.

And most importantly – I know a lot of you with e-readers feel very strongly about them. If I’m going to be dropping ~$400.00 I’d like to be sure. Convince me. Cajole me – which one should I buy, and why? Of course – I’m also depending on your superior knowledge and wisdom in guiding me in this large, and very important purchase. Oh – and marketing reps comments are welcome too – I wouldn’t want to preclude you from doing your jobs.

Ready? Set? GO!!! … and also – thank you in advance

***Ok – so sometimes it can be a good thing for my ponderings to not be posted quickly. In the ~two months since – I’ve finally found the news. This may not be news to you and in fact old hat – but it’s the first “proof” I’ve seen. Finally- finally with all the rumors we’ve been hearing, Amazon has the Kindle 2. Ok so its not available yet. But with the leaked pictures, it should be coming out soon. Everyone remember when the G1 Kindle pics were leaked? (Yeah, my reaction was “eeeuuuwww.”) Sadly, v2 while a bit more appealing looks like a TI graphic calculator on steroids. Honest – I had a bad flashback to Calc AP. And its even larger than the 1st Kindle. What is going on here? The Sony is much prettier. But then they did mess up a bit on the PRS 700BC. I can’t afford that anyway – so I was thinking the Sangria Red 505. But most my ebooks are in Mobipocket. And now G2 Kindle – but it’s uggleee. (Yes, yes I can be coerced into buying things because they’re prettier. And so can you. Just check Apple sales. And hello, Ipod, anyone?) What’s a girl to do?!?

.
I’ve resigned myself to never being able to have “hot” news – but I can’t think of other graphics for that last bit. So – I’ll continue to add on. For those of you who are all mad about having recently purchased a Kindle (but not yet receiving it) – try contacting Amazon. You have a number of options. You could cancel your order. You could hope that the Kindle has been sold out for so long because Amazon has been phasing out the G1 and you’ll get a G2. Or you might get a G1 with a discount or refund. Or you might not. There are a few games tech geeks play with varying degrees of success. But to play it safe – ask Amazon, and otherwise, cancel and wait.

 I’ve been involved in the epublishing market since close to its inception as a potentially profitable fiction market, ie around the late ‘90’s, early 2000’s. I slipped into it by accident – I write unabashed romance and I live in the UK, where if you write romance, it’s Mills and Boon or nothing. Sagas, which until recently filled the market, are more about a woman’s life than they are about romance and an American reader wouldn’t class them as romance.

Anyway, once M and B rejected my historical, because it’s in the first person, (“Yorkshire,”) I had nowhere to go, so someone suggested the USA. The big publishers seemed impossible, so I tried epublishing, figuring it would be a good stepping-stone. I’m still there.

But boy, has it changed! It’s no longer a stepping-stone, but an end in itself. Now what I have to say concerns certain comments I’ve seen recently by people who ought to know better, but maybe it’s because they can’t see the numbers. Any more than I can give them.

However, any study of any market will tell you that the top 20% of companies makes 80% of the profit. It’s called the Pareto rule, and although the numbers are obviously not exact, it’s true for almost every market you can think of. It’s true for New York publishing, it’s true for epublishing, too.

In New York, the big five (six?) make far more than all the other small publishers, and that’s not even thinking about the self-publishing outfits. It works the same way in epublishing, although detailed figures aren’t available and authors are constrained by their non-disclosure agreements with the publishers so they can’t give them, which is why I can’t tell you my sales and earnings in any detail. There must be a large audience of people who don’t participate on the message boards, the blogs or the loops who just buy books, because sales are now very healthy indeed.

I write for three of the biggest epublishers – Ellora’s Cave, Samhain and Loose-Id, and my income is – well it’s in five figures, which is what a midlist New York author can expect. This is not unusual for an author for the largest epub houses, and it’s no longer confined to the erotic only. My Samhain historicals are highly sensual, not erotic, and I’ve featured in the Samhain list of top ten sellers several times, as have other non-erotic authors.

I am fairly prolific, but a lot of that is reissues. My editors are as exacting as you’ll find anywhere, sometimes more so, and I have at least two for each book, and extra editing for print releases. I’m not showing off, I’m just tired of people saying that epubbed authors earn miniscule amounts, and then quoting someone from one of the smaller epubs. The majority of sales don’t lie there. Authors write for them for various reasons – to get into the market, because they’re friends with the owners, because they’re happy with the editing and cover art the house offers or because they expect the house to grow and want to grow with it.

It’s now very difficult to get a book accepted by the bigger epublishing houses. The bigger epublishers spend a great deal on cover art, the website and other incidentals, so it’s not true that it’s cheap to produce an ebook. And the author gets a bigger cut, too, than they can expect in New York. And barriers to entry are rising – art is more expensive, editors demand a proper salary, and promotion and website costs are rising, too.

However, asking a hardback price for an ebook is a marketing decision, not one of economics, and I’d be unhappy if anyone was asked to pay $12 or more for one of my ebooks, unless I’d written a book the length of “Lord of the Rings.”

Concentrate on where the majority of sales are and you’ll find an expanding, dynamic market which is changing to reflect the nature of the changing market. Ellora’s Cave now has a new website, Jasmine Jade, which encompasses all its imprints. Samhain has just acquired Linden Bay Romance, to increase its scope and its roster of authors. Harlequin has made major investments in putting its books out as ebooks, and the marketing team there is one of the sharpest you’ll find anywhere. They have good reason for doing so. I’m not even touching on the new readers like the Kindle and Sony. Suffice it to say that they’ve helped to boost sales, too.

While I’d love to write for New York or London, or both, it’s no longer my sole career path. Epublishing has been good to me, even considering the Wild West days, and I sincerely believe it’s the way of the future. Not least because last year I made the decision to get my new books in e-format whenever possible (I just ran out of space). And I no longer feel I have to defend the industry. I can afford to shrug and walk away. Just trying to put a few misconceptions right, that’s all.

Is everything hunky-dory in the epublishing world? Of course not. But it’s no longer something that can be swept under the carpet, although its position as the red-headed stepchild of the fiction market will probably stick with it for a while.

This just in…

Samhain isn’t finished with ya’ll yet for this holiday season. 

~ December 28 is Samhain giving away Kindle download! For those of you who are Kindle-ized already, on Sunday you can go here and download a free copy of Oleander House by Ally Blue. This runs through January 4, 2009.

~ Have you downloaded all the free ebooks Samhain has given away this Christmas season?

~ If not, they’re waiting for you over at The Samhellion.   Don’t delay.  The Twelve Days of Christmas are nearly gone!

Consider yourself flashed.

This just in…

Samhain Publishing is giving away ebooks for your Kindle, so head on over to Amazon.com for some FREE GOODNESS!

The title is Unbreakable from Sydney Somers. The free download period begins on Monday thru Sunday, 18 – 24 Aug 08. This title is the first in the Shadow Destroyers series from Somers.

Samhain is planning another Kindle giveaway in September. That title is The Dragon’s Demon from Marie Harte.

In fact it looks like they are planning quite a few reader giveaways.  So keep an eye out on Samhain!