Books and Movies: the Competition's On

As eBookNewser put it: "Look out Netflix, Amazon announced today that Amazon Prime Members now get free access to its instant streaming service for TV and movies. Amazon Prime members pay $79 a year for free two day shipping on all orders."

Wow! So ... any takers? I love books and movies. So ... maybe ... possibly ... who knows ... ?

Or maybe I'll wait and see how this plays out across the pond.

Frankly, I've been wondering when Google and YouTube would get in on all this.

And in Further Kindle News ...

Since ebooks are becoming so popular, but print books still make up the majority in terms of format purchased, Amazon is trying to bring readers together onto the same page (so to speak), by adding page numbers to Kindle ebooks.

According to this article, the page numbers will correspond with those of the book's print edition. So what happens if the book is only published as an ebook? No answer is provided here, but I'd assume Amazon will probably simply ignore them.

The other item I wanted to share was guidance on how to copy and paste highlights and notes from your Kindle books.

I haven't personally tried out the step-by-step guide, but it looks really easy. And anything that helps make technology easy is a good thing, yes? :)

In the Ebook Age, What Happens to Signings?

Book signings are fun. They are a tradition. They are a way for authors to market and sell books. They are a way for readers to meet the author and vice versa. They are a way for the bookstore to sell its inventory and customers to get something they want. In theory, a win-win-win.

However, today ebooks are easily distributed. No more worries about shelf space or sell-through rates. Write the best story you can, simply put it up online, design an eye-catching cover, make it affordable and promote.

From an author's perspective, does it make more sense to stay home and market ebooks online or take an expensive cross-country tour (paid for out-of-pocket) and sell a few print books (here and there)? Well, duh.

So ... how likely is it that the traditional book signing will give way to this instead?

Sure, some authors will sign gadgets. Nothing wrong with that. I'd do it, too. If I had a publisher who paid the freight. But I don't.

So, the authors who do this routinely will be the A-list New York Times bestsellers and those with the heftiest advances and biggest promotional budgets. Period.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of authors will be promoting their books through means such as this site. Cute, huh? :)

PS: Even so, I still do book signings, as long as they're local like the one coming up tomorrow at Barnes & Noble in Annapolis! And, yes, my latest novel LEAST WANTED will be available for sale. (The shipment made it in on time. Whew!)

'The Monkey's Raincoat' is Some Great PI Novel

Review: THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT (Bantam Books 1987)
Author: Robert Crais

At Sleuthfest one year, I remember author Robert Crais giving a speech about how he published his first novel. It was a private eye novel released at a time when the word was that the private eye novel was dead. That novel, THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT went on to win the Anthony and Macavity Awards and get nominated for the Edgar and Shamus Awards. Some dead genre, huh? :)

The book launched a successful series of mysteries featuring detective Elvis Cole (yes, Elvis) who (according to the back of the book) "quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He's a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet who is determined never to grow up." Wow ... looks like someone at Bantam took your basic kitchen sink approach to writing that one. In any case, some detective, huh?

Anyhow, Elvis is hired by shy, quiet Ellen Lang (or is it her slightly bossy friend, Janet Simon? no, it's Ellen) to find her missing husband, Mort, and their son, Perry. This involves many stakeouts, driving around Los Angeles, glimpses of Chicanos, encounters with big guys, the exchanging of banter (witty!), more stakeouts, more Chicanos, a visit to a washed up producer, a big black guy (yikes!), he's cool (ah!), Poitras (a fat cop -- more banter), girlfriends, parties, drugs, gangsters, mix-ups ... big problems ...

This book did more than live up to my expectations. I can see how in the late 1980s when it was published how this book must have blown a breath of fresh air into a genre that had been done and done again, especially in LA. Like Robert B. Parker's Spenser, Elvis is a white knight character in the tradition of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. Ellen Lang is a woman abandoned and so incapable of handling things, at least at first, she can't even write a check without collapsing into sobs. (Keep in mind, it is the late 1980s. However, I had to suspend my disbelief just a teeny bit on that one. Even if Ellen was originally from Kansas. I mean, I know she's not in Kansas, anymore, but really? C'mon!)

Even now, though, the writing is as fresh as ever. Rather than describe, I'll quote a favorite excerpt:

"The welterweight came around the corner, firing as fast as he could pull the trigger. One of his slugs caught the doorjamb and kicked some splinters into my cheek. I shot him in the face, then shoved Ellen through the kitchen and half carried her around the house and out onto the street. The Tattooed Man popped out of the front door and fired five shots -- bapbapbapbapbap -- then dove back into the house.

"Porch lights were coming on and someone was yelling and Wang Chung was coming out over somebody's radio. I shoved Ellen into the Corvette, fired up, and ran over two garbage cans pulling away. I was shaking and my shirt was wet with sweat and I wasn't having a great deal of luck seeing past the little silver flashes that bobbed around in front of my eyes. I drove. Slow. Steady. Just trying to get away from there. I think I ran over a dog."

Okay, you get the idea. And that's not even the wisecracking part, okay? Because that's there in abundance. Oh, plus the parts with the cat. They're priceless.

And, of course, there's Elvis' partner, Joe Pike, the totally awesome quiet, but deadly ex-Marine with an occasional thing for lipstick (don't ask -- read the book) whose office has no furniture. Some partner.

Needless to say, the story builds up to a highly suspenseful and nail-biting finish. (I'm surprised my fingers weren't reduced to bloody stumps.)

And, in the end, even if Elvis never grows up, it seems at least one of his clients might be able. :) Wow, some story!

Coffee Table Books for Foodies

In lieu of a review, I have a link to an article about a particular type of book that may be of interest.

This article combines two of my favorite topics in one: books and food. In fact, it provides a list of 40 coffee table books that discuss subjects like food, wine and/or beer, along with entertaining, travel, history, culture and/or society as well.

Now, that's a mouthful. :)

Save Our Libraries Day -- UK

Here's the thing. I don't live in the UK. However, since this is a blog about books and I write about them in between posting reviews and I don't have a review to post at this time and since I've been (just as a side note) selling a remarkable number of downloads of my book IDENTITY CRISIS and to a lesser extent my latest novel LEAST WANTED on Amazon UK (for which I am very grateful -- thank you, people of the UK for that!) ...

Um, that was just the introduction, wasn't it?

Okay, I happened to see this blog today. Well, I care about saving libraries whether they're here or in the UK or wherever. And the post about the Save Our Libraries protest in the UK seemed familiar. Then it hit me.

I'd already seen it here.

As you can see, this isn't just any news report about the protest, but the blog of an actual participant. Paul Downie who created Nik Nak's Old Peculiar actually uses the library to gather facts for the trivia questions on his blog.

In any case, it occurred to me that this is the second time I've gotten news from that blog, the first being the death of John Barry. Weird? Coincidence?

I just thought that was kind of cool. And the blog is cool, too. Take it from me, the trivia is kind of fun. I encourage you all to give it a try. Especially if you're the kind of person who likes to do online research. (No, it's not cheating. :))

And (in the interest of full disclosure) if you read the blog, you may notice a few mentions here and there of a crimewriter named Debbi. :)

Take a Wild Ride with 'The Last Horseman'

Review: THE LAST HORSEMAN (Kindle Edition 2011)
Author: Frank Zafiro

Sandy Banks is part of a team -- or was, anyway. He ends up being the last man standing of a vigilante group called The Four Horsemen. Banks has one last assignment to complete should he choose to take it. One assignment that stretches into two, actually. You know the old saw: Quit while you're ahead? Banks should probably have done just that.

The second assignment is the one that plunges Sandy into turmoil and throws his already troubled life into deeper chaos. Because now that Sandy has lost his only remaining partner-in-vigilantism Brian, he's lost his taste for doing the Horsemen's work. He wants out badly.

Meanwhile, a couple of FBI agents are on his tail. And he's not shaking them off anytime soon.

Plus, who's that guy and that woman he's screwing who gave him the second assignment, anyway?

Frank Zafiro has stepped up his game considerably in this thriller/police procedural/crime novel. The plot is packed with startling plot twists, one after the other, that knit together as a whole as seamlessly as any book I've ever read.

Even though he's a vigilante (i.e., a murderer), Sandy is a protagonist the reader can essentially like. Zafiro does an excellent job of explaining where his inner demons originated and how they motivated him to get involved with the outlaw group. In fact, there's all sorts of interesting stuff about Sandy you get to know, but to talk about it would be a spoiler, so I won't.

One more thing. The book explores the gray areas of what constitutes doing the right thing, achieving justice and how difficult it is to determine when one is crossing the line between good and evil.

This book kept me turning the pages late into the night, wondering if Sandy would end up on the hook and twisting in the wind? Or would he end up riding off into the sunset?

Highly recommended. As if I have to spell that out. :)

The Value of Literary Criticism

This article is a roundup of six pieces written by literary critics, tasked with explaining what it is they do exactly, why they do it and why it matters. (Can anyone really answer that one? :))

I think the idea here is that today so many people have opinions about books expressed freely online (such as on this blog, for instance) that one wonders if professional literary critics are still relevant. I, for one, would say they are.

Professional critics have a depth of perspective and breadth of reading experience that gives them more than the average amount of insight when judging a literary work. But that's my .02.

If you'd like to read the six literary critics pontificate on the subject at greater length, check out the article and the links to the pieces within it.

But I suspect it pretty much boils down to what I just said in one sentence. :)