Looking back to last year's reading

OK, didn't want to make this academic exercise, but thought it wasn't fair for those who did, nor to the people mentioned here...

So, here you are:

Great books read : tons.

Shitty books read : Since I didn't pay much, tons of first chapters, but none to the end.

Great Twitter friends met : Some, but great ones.

Great Writers discovered : Some, but much more than without my ereader.

OK, last one I'll detail some (in no particular order except language):

[English]Andrea K Höst * (http://www.andreakhost.com/) Author of the YA SF Touchstone trilogy and of a few other also great (and more adult) Fantasy novels.

[English]Michael J. Sullivan (http://www.riyria.blogspot.com/) Author of the Riyria Revelations (Soone tra,nslated to French and sold by the great French Milady/Bragelonne publisher)

[English]Debora Geary (http://www.deborageary.com/), Author of the "Modern Witch" series

[English]Nathan Lowell * (http://solarclipper.com/ et http://www.lammaswood.com/) Author of Science Fiction (Solar Clipper) and Fantasy (Tanyth Fairport), who tell extraordinary stories of ordinary people (or the reverse).

[French]Jeff Balek * (http://jeffbalek.com/ ) The short and precise phrases virtusoso, mastering both humorous Comics (Le Plup),  SF (Le Waldganger), and litterary ebooks(Macadam Gonzo) ...

[French]Pauline Doudelet * (http://www.paumadou.com/) OK, I admit I prefer her short/diverting stories to her more profound ones. She knows it, and I hope she doesn't mind ;-) 

Authors with an * are available for now at the best retailers (no DRMs/no Amazon), but I loves the other ones too !

Please note that EVERY ones of these writers is (or has been) self-published (or pure-player published), that at least a third of them live from their Electronic Books writing, and that I would never have "discovered" them if not for ebooks.

I have a few candidates for this new year, we'll see where they take me...

I also fear that my deliberate choice to not buy from Amazon anymore will "cost" me too much in "non-discovery", that I'll miss too much, so my only e-reading resolution for this new year will be to stand by this decision !

Petit bilan lecture de l'année écoulée...

Bon, j'voulais pas l'écrire, et puis je me suis dit que ce n'était pas sympa pour tous ceux qui l'ont fait , ni pour les personnes concernées.

Alors voilà :
Super livres lus : Des tas
Super navets lus : Comme j'avais pas payé grand chose, beaucoup de premiers chapitres, mais aucun jusqu'au bout
Supers copains/copines Twitter rencontrés : Quelques uns, mais de vraies bonnes rencontres
Supers Auteurs Découverts : Quelques uns, mais beaucoup plus que sans liseuse.


Allez, celui là je le décortique un peu :

[Anglais]Andrea K Höst * (http://www.andreakhost.com/) auteur de la trilogie YA SF Touchstone, et de quelques autres très bons (et plus adultes) romans de Fantasy

[Anglais]Michael J. Sullivan (http://www.riyria.blogspot.com/) auteur de Riyria Revelation (bientôt traduit en Français et diffusé par Milady/Bragelonne)

[Anglais]Debora Geary (http://www.deborageary.com/), auteur de la série des Sorcières Modernes

[Anglais]Nathan Lowell * (http://solarclipper.com/ et http://www.lammaswood.com/) un auteur de SF (Solar Clipper) et Fantasy (Tanyth Fairport), qui raconte les aventures extraordinaires de gens ordinaires (ou le contraire).

Jeff Balek * (http://jeffbalek.com/ ) Un virtuose des phrases courtes et précises, auteur entre autre du Plup, du Waldganger, de Macadam Gonzo ...

Pauline Doudelet * (http://www.paumadou.com/) Allez, là j'avoue, j'accroche beaucoup plus à ses histoires courtes ou divertissantes qu'à ses oeuvres plus travaillées. Elle le sait, et j'espère qu'elle ne m'en veut pas ;)

Les auteurs marqués d'* sont dispo actuellement dans les meilleurs crèmeries (sans DRMs, sans Amazon), mais j'aime énormément les autres quand même !

A noter que TOUS ces auteurs sont (ou ont été) auto-publiés (ou pure-player publiés), qu'au moins un tiers d'entre eux vivent de leur plume grâce à la lecture numérique, et que je ne les aurais jamais découverts sans les ebooks !

J'ai quelques pistes pour cette année, on verra où elles me mèneront ;-)

J'ai peur que mon choix de me passer d'Amazon ne me "coute" trop en terme de non-découvertes l'année prochaine, qu'elle ne me privera trop, et ma seule résolution #lirenum pour l'année sera de rester fort et de m'en tenir à cette décision !

Smashwords and Agents

Yesterday evening, I saw the latest Smashwords blog post "Smashwords Launches Ebook Publishing Service for Literary Agents", and had to read it twice, making sure I hadn't missed anything, and well understood what was written. Well, let's say that I'm not really impressed by their latest move. The Passive Guy and Dean Wesley Smith must have transmitted me at least some kind of germs through the web, because I now have some kind of "aggressiveness" towards agents that I didn't have earlier (I barely knew they existed  ...)


So, here is the comment I posted : 


Mark,
as you may know, I'm a fervent Smashwords supporter, and will remain so. Still, this new service seems to me a little bit dodgy.

If I refer to the Publisher and Agent's doc, (http://www.smashwords.com/about/publisherdocs)you give roughly the same role to agents as you do to publishers.
I'm not sure it's in everyone's interest as it is right now.

I follow (along with a great number of self-publishers I think) closely a few blogs, among others that of Dean Wesley Smith, and of "The Passive Guy", and they BOTH concur on one point : if you have an agent, insit on "split" royalties and walk away if they don't allow that.

I think they have enough experience to grant them at least some consideration, and that you should allow that "split royalties" option in case some "agented" author wants to publish through Smashwords, but insists on split royalties.

One way to allow that would be, when a book is attached to both an author's account (no ghost)  and an agent's one, for them to "fix" the "repartition". If both don't coincide, books sells are blocked .
Also, an author should have to approve a book's reassignment by the agent to an other author or ghost account before it takes effect.

Note also that this option could also help publishers by having the "royalties distribution" done at your level directly. If you don't want to allow that, a "lock" keeping an agent from switching to publisher if "split books are attached would also need to be implemented.

Of course, if the author doesn't have a real account, all the money should go to the agent, as is the case now.

Hope you don't mind (again) me giving my 2 cents and "criticizing" Smashwords, but at the moment, I don't think this new service is really on par with what you've accustomed us.