As announced on Twitter this morning, I’m super excited to tell you that Samhain is going to start offering our front and backlist in DRM-free EPUB format starting in May. We’ve got a good jump on this, we just need to give our over-worked formatter time to get it all together. Many of you know that I’m a big fan of standard formats, like EPUB, and also a huge believer in not using DRM. Samhain (and really, most epublishers that I know of) don’t use DRM and never have so for us the big announcement is really the addition of the new format, not the DRM-free.
Did you know that Samhain editors are on Twitter? www.twitter.com/samhainpub You’ll find most of the Samhain editors Twittering there, as well as our submissions coordinator. They Twitter about submissions, edits, editing, and life in general. Plus, we’re going to start doing some Twitter contests coming soon!
In the conversations from Twitter file: this past weekend I asked for recommendations for political thrillers and action adventure novels in the vein of Nelson Demille, Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum. I got some great recommendations (and am always happy for more if you have them). I started with two recs. One from agent Deidre Knight for The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano. I bought it and loaded it onto the Sony last night. And devoured it. It’s a totally compelling read. The author has a very readable narrative voice and I had to keep turning the pages to see where the story would go next. The main character is interesting, though not entirely likeable, but that actually works for the book because she’s not a perfect character, but an entirely real one with real flaws. I don’t regret spending the $10 for this book and I highly recommend it!
The other recommendation that I followed up on was James Rollins. I decided to go with Sandstorm, the first in his Sigma Force series. I read the first few chapters after I finished The Girl She Used to Be and enjoyed them. I’m looking forward to this evening when I can pick Sandstorm up and keep reading!
The Twitter pitch (twitch) post is still going strong. I’m going to pull some of the favorites and highlight them in a blog post this week.
Last, unrelated to publishing but relevant, I’m going to be traveling a lot in the month of April. We just decided (today) to road trip to my parents’ in North Dakota for Easter. We’ll leave early next week and won’t come back until the following Wednesday. I’ll have a day to pack and regroup before I head to WRW retreat and from there to RT for a week! I’m a little tired just thinking of it but excited because we’ve never gotten to spend a holiday with them since we’ve been married (or since Brianna was born) because of the distance and work schedules. So yay!
That Cristofano book is AWESOME! I devoured it too.
See you at RT!
I read the first few pages of ‘The girl she used to be’ via amazon and and it looks like a must read. Thanks for the review.
I’m a fan of James Rollins, so I’ll second that rec. He even made the novelization of the new Indiana Jones movie decent. (Not excellent, he’s not a miracle worker and he had to follow the script.) I actually think that any of the group from Sigma could announce that Indiana Jones was their grandfather and it would make perfect sense.
Also recommending Jack du Brul. His Phillip Mercer series is very Clive Cussler-like. Mercer is very much like Dirk Pitt as a geologist would be. Du Brul has been co-writing the last few entries in Cussler’s Oregon Files series.
For that same kind of action/adventure story, only way over the top, you might try Matthew Reilly. His books read like over the top action movies. The other people I know that read them do it the same way I do. While snickering and saying ‘yeah, that’d work. Not!’ But they’re fun.
Well that will be a nice Easter for you all! Have loads of fun.
Angela I hope your folks aren’t affected by the flooding and that isn’t the reason for your trip…although recent news is positive…
I’ve heard amazing things about The Girl She Used to Be–can’t wait to read it!
Have a great trip.