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For writers like me who are self-repubbing our backlist books as ebooks—and for that matter, for indie writers of all stripes—one tough if not impossible sell has been libraries. There simply hasn’t been a reasonable way for individual authors to get their ebooks into a system where libraries could buy them. Most library ebook (and audiobook) lending is handled through Overdrive, a distribution system you’ve probably dealt with if you’ve ever borrowed an ebook or audiobook from a library. (I myself download a lot of audiobooks, which I listen to on my Zune while walking Captain Jack or doing housework. They all come through Overdrive.) Well, Overdrive is not a friendly system to get your books into if you’re an individual author-publisher. Some of my colleagues have been trying and trying, and still don’t have their books in there.

Today Smashwords announced a distribution deal with Baker & Taylor, which has been around forever as a print book distributor, and one that many libraries order from. B&T now has an ebook distribution network called Axis360, which offers ebooks to public libraries. And books published through Smashwords will now be eligible for distribution through Axis360. This is great news for writers, and for libraries and library patrons (I hope).

The news from Smashwords also includes distribution to the Blio ebookstore and app. You can read the press release from Smashwords for more info.

If you happen to be near the Brown University campus today, specifically the Brown Bookstore, stop in and check out the SF Festival they’re having this weekend. I’ll be there in the afternoon, participating in a panel discussion at 3 p.m. Come say hello, and hear what we have to say! Other writers participating include Laird Barron, John Langan, Paul Trembley, Paul DiFilippo, and Daniel Pearlman. (I’m not sure who will be where, when, though. The bookstore website says the panel is at 4, but I was told it was at 3. Who knows?)

I’ll be driving down to Providence in the early afternoon. Here’s hoping the snowstorm doesn’t whack the I-95 corridor too badly, or too early. Nor’easter snowstorm—in October! Aiee!

I still haven’t gotten the still photos of Lexi’s graduation off the camera, but here’s a 20-second video of her receiving her diploma from Bard College. For Facebook readers, this will be a repeat. Like watching Star Trek in syndication, sort of.

http://youtu.be/rpddLRurGCM

I’m always saving links to cool stories, and sometimes I even remember to mention them while they’re still fresh and cool. (If you wonder why I seem a little scattered at times, it may be related to the fact that Allysen just started a new, full-time job, I’m still writing a new book and trying to shift to a schedule compatible with Allysen’s, we’re still recording the audiobook, still getting all the wrinkles out of the ebooks, daughter Alexandra is about to graduate from college, and…well, that’s a partial list, but you get the picture.)

News about our light bulbs
Starting next year, 100-watt incandescent light bulbs will no longer be available in the U.S. The reason, of course, is that they’re hideously inefficient in their use of electricity, and if we’re to get serious about our national energy problem, we need to get serious about using more efficient technologies. Compact fluorescents are far more efficient, but aren’t perfect, either. Now, it looks like LED replacement lights will be coming along just in time. But according to this Washington Post article, the best long-term solution will be new panel fixtures that spread the light-source over a wider area, thus allowing for heat dispersal. (Yes, even cool LED lamps have heat-dispersal problems when you cram too many together.)

Jetman flies the Grand Canyon!
If you’re like me, you’re still wishing for a personal jet-pack. Well, this guy actually has jet engines strapped to his personal flying suit. And he used it to fly over the Grand Canyon! Pictures are better than words:

My omnibus ebook, The Chaos Chronicles: Books 1-3, is a featured title today on one of the leading guides to Kindle bargains, DailyCheapReads.com. Or if it’s scrolled out of sight there, here on its own page. DailyCheapReads is a great place to visit. They feature new ebooks every day, both from indie authors and traditionally published authors doing the kind of thing I’m doing. Drop in once in a while to see what bargains are lurking! (Some of them are time-limited specials.)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in the U.S.!  And I hope all of you elsewhere in the world have a really nice day, too.  🙂

Readercon happened last weekend, and as always, it was a good time. The high points for me, this year, aside from seeing good friends and making some new ones, was a series of workshops that were held more or a less as a sideline to the main programming. Barry Longyear held one on writer’s block, Ellen Klages ran one on using improv techniques to free up creativity (which kept us laughing for two hours), and finally Mary Robinette Kowal gave excellent advice on techniques for delivering effective readings (just in time for my own reading, which followed shortly afterward). The only downside of all this was spraining my foot, while participating a little too exuberantly in one of the improv skits.

Home again, and back to the salt mines. Lucky thing they serve frozen margaritas in salt mines! I got a request to write a contribution to a remembrance of the Apollo 11 Moon landing for tor.com, which I did, appearing soon. I got the fixed-up, wide-screen version of my Sunborn video put up on my own youtube channel (which I hope to expand with some excerpts from my educational, distance-learning TV series from back in 1995, just as soon as I have time to view and edit them). I sent off a note to boingboing.net about it, because as you probably know, they compile collections of all sorts of cool things. I headed off to bed—and the next morning got a congratulatory note from a friend about my video appearing on BoingBoing! The funny thing is, it was posted—with my accompanying words—a few hours before I sent it to them! Time zones, time zones… or is it something more sinister, something… well, I won’t pursue those thoughts further.

The other thing that happened about the same time was reading of the deaths of writer Phyllis Gotlieb, and of Charles N. Brown, publisher of Locus. I didn’t really know either of them personally. But I had just seen Charlie Brown in passing at Readercon, and to read of his death the following day was quite a jolt. You can read about both of them at the Locus website, or, for that matter, on boingboing, where Cory Doctorow wrote touching tributes.

“You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.” —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

In a few months, I’ll be spending a couple of days as guest lecturer at one of the top SF/F writing workshops, the Odyssey Writing Workshop in New Hampshire. This will be my second time helping at Odyssey, and I came away from the first experience mightily impressed.

They’re now open to applications from serious, dedicated writers who are close to that point of getting published. If you’re in that category and are looking for an intensive learning experience, you might want to look into it. Here’s the info…

Odyssey is one of the most highly respected workshops for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror writers. Top authors, editors, and agents serve as guest lecturers, and fifty-three percent of graduates go on to be published. The workshop, held annually on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, combines an intensive learning and writing experience with in-depth feedback on students’ manuscripts. Odyssey is for developing writers whose work is approaching publication quality and for published writers who want to improve their work. Director Jeanne Cavelos is a former senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell and winner of the World Fantasy Award.

This summer’s workshop runs from June 8 through July 17. Guest lecturers are bestselling author Jeffrey A. Carver; award-winning authors Melissa Scott, Patricia Bray, and Jack Ketchum; and Ace/Roc Editor-in-Chief Ginjer Buchanan. The writer-in-residence is New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn. The application deadline is April 8. For more information, visit www.odysseyworkshop.org or call (603) 673-6234.

“Vigorous writing is concise.” —William Strunk, Jr.