Camille Marchetta’s The River by Moonlight has been honored by receiving the 2008 Eric Hoffer Award for General Fiction.

Click here to read her award announcement.

In case you haven’t heard the buzz about this, here is the letter we sent out to our authors today:

Hi everyone!
Hate to bug you, but we have some very important news to pass along.

As you probably know, Amazon.com purchased POD publisher/printer Booksurge a few years ago. Since then, they have contacted us from time to time about listing some titles through Booksurge. We had used Booksurge a few times in the past and were not happy with the print quality of the books. So we always politely passed on the various offers and went about our way using Lightning Source (LSI) as our printer (and having the books distributed through Ingram, owner of LSI).

Despite ownership of Booksurge, Amazon continued to order print-on-demand titles through Ingram/LSI (LSI even drop-shipped the books for Amazon). So everything worked smoothly until last week, when we received an email from Booksurge/Amazon asking for a call. Assuming it would be another pitch of their services, I picked up the phone (unaware of the slap in the face I was about to receive). This time, however, the Booksurge/Amazon rep told me they wanted us to send all of our titles to them so future Amazon orders could easily be printed and shipped through them. After a bit of prodding, the rep revealed that only print-on-demand softcovers and color books that were printed by Booksurge would be available directly through Amazon in the future. And since they are such nice guys, they have decided to waive all setup costs for our current titles.

That alone was shocking. However, it was eventually learned that we would have to recreate all of our current titles into files that met their specs and all future titles would cost $50 to set up. Obviously, we would still need to set up each title with LSI/Ingram, so that means double the work for each new book. And all current books would have to be located in archive files and reprocessed. The time and labor involved in this task would be daunting and would practically shut down production of new titles.

This move would also force publishers to increase the retail price of books, since Booksurge/Amazon is going to charge for the printing of the book AND take 48% of the net (although some have been told 48% of the retail)!

I’m going to refrain from editorializing on this move, since any talk of a monopoly could be dangerous (wink, wink). Instead, I just want you to think of what this could do to your title(s) and, eventually, your pocketbook. When you let everyone know your book was available, many of them probably went to Amazon to purchase it. If this new move (I won’t say threat) goes through, the only way readers will be able to purchase POD titles that haven’t also been set up through Booksurge/Amazon is through a reseller. The availability of your title will be choked, readers won’t be able to take advantage of free shipping (when the requirements are met) and the retail price will skyrocket (and just do a web search on the complaints about Booksurge’s quality).

A number of publishers have been discussing this, and some of us have decided to release this news to the public today. Obviously it won’t be released by Amazon, so we thought it would be a good idea to let the proverbial kitty out of the bag with the hope that public backlash could change Amazon’s mind.

If you have a blog, an email list or just a loud voice, please let everyone know about this unfair situation. You can also write Amazon’s Investor Relations via email at ir@amazon.com or at:

Amazon.com Investor Relations
P.O. Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108-1226

Marcia Ball, author of Christmas Fais Do-Do is scheduled to be on the “Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keller on Saturday February 23. The show will be broadcast live from Winona State University in Winona, MN from 5-7 p.m. CT.

More about the Grammy-nominated blues musician can be found at her official website, MarciaBall.com.

Ruben Uriarte and Noe Torres, authors of Mexico’s Roswell, will be appearing on the new season of the History Channel’s show, “UFO Hunters.” Ruben and Noe were technical advisers for a segment filmed in Chihuahua, Mexico investigating a reported mid-air collision between an airplane and UFO in 1974. They will appear on screen during the February 20th episode of the program. For a link to the promo of the show, click here. For more information on Ruben Uriarte, Noe Torres, the show and the book it was based on, go to www.mexicosroswell.com.

Camille Marchetta, author of The River, By Moonlight, has kicked off her 2008 Virtual Book Tour. Today, she was featured in an interview with American Chronicle.

Here is the rest of her schedule:
Feb. 7 - J. Kaye’s Book Blog (review)

Feb. 8 - The Book Connection (guest post)

Feb. 11 - Virtual Wordsmith (review)

Feb. 12 - The Writer’s Life (interview)

Feb. 13 - Beyond the Books (interview)

Feb. 14 - Virtual Wordsmith (interview)

Feb. 15 - Storycrafters (guest post)

Feb. 18 - Families.com

Feb. 19 - Buzz the Book (book spotlight)

Feb. 20 - The Book Stacks (guest post)

Feb. 21 - The Dark Phantom (book spotlight)

Feb. 22 - Blogcritics

Feb. 26 - Paperback Writer (interview)

Feb. 27 - Loaded Questions (interview)

Lori Bricker’s hilarious new book How Do You Milk a Moose Anyway? will be featured at three upcoming book signings:

April 12, 2008 at 1 p.m. Book Signing at Barnes and Noble, Newington, NH. For more information, go here

April 24, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. Book Talk at the Exeter Public Library, Exeter, NH. For more details, click here

May 4, 2008 at 2 p.m. Book Signing at Borders, West Lebanon, NH. For more information, click here

The February 1 issue of suburban Chicago’s Daily Herald contains an article on Tim McGlynn’s new book Now Playing at a Theater Near Me. Since the area is covered with snow, hopefully readers will grab the book and a cup of cocoa.

William Fox, author of Winters and Eaton, was recently featured in The Ironton Tribune in Virginia. The book is a history of the ancestors and descendants of Belden Leslie Winters (1873-1928) and his wife Anna Ora Eaton (1875-1956).

If your book is ever mentioned in a newspaper or magazine article, on the radio, etc., don’t forget to let us know.

Authors should take a good look at Amazon Shorts. If your short story is accepted, they will sell it for a .49 download… but it’s great publicity.

T. Lee Tabone, author of The Light of Cin, has just had her story “The Odd Odyssey” accepted and posted. You can check it out here.

Lara Bricker, author of the hilarious new book How Do You Milk a Moose Anyway? will be on Portsmouth Community Radio, 106.1, Friday January 11, 2007 at 6 p.m. on the show “Wine Me, Dine Me.” Bricker will discuss the moose milk and moose cheese industry and her new book. Click here to listen to the broadcast live.