Happy New Year everyone. 2009 is finally behind us (for better or worse, depending on your situation). Personally, I’m looking forward to 2010 because I always see a new year as a fresh start, a chance to start over.

I’m going to keep this post short. After today I’ll be back posting about writing, publishing and ebooks so stay tuned.

Have a Happy New Year and please stay safe!

P.S. I will be posting a Friday Link Love this week, but it might be a little late.

The past 10 years have seen a lot of changes in the publishing world. The biggest change of them all is ebooks. 10 years ago ebooks were a still a novelty enjoyed by mostly techies/geeks and were a popular product for online multi-level marketing schemes where ebook topics dealt mostly with get-quick-rich marketing methods and the like. The ebooks were of poor quality and filled with grammar/spelling errors. This probably did more to damage the reputation of ebooks than anything else.

Fast forward to 2009 and ebooks are becoming much more mainstream (still a small segment of the publishing industry, but growing) and publishers are now scrambling to figure out how to deal with this new form of consuming our favorite literary works. Add to that the family of ebook readers from Sony, Amazon and now Barnes & Noble, I think it’s safe to say that ebooks aren’t going anywhere.

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I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone on the intertubes a happy holiday! The snow has been falling in the Chicago area, meaning we might have a white Christmas this year – but playing havoc with the roads.  I’m planning to lay low, visit some family and try to relax as much as I can.

I also plan on getting a lot of writing done. I have two fiction projects I desperately want to finish so I can make them available on Smashwords (aff link) as soon as possible. These two works will be available for free so everyone can sample my fiction without forking over your hard earned cash

Have a great holiday over the next few days and please stay safe. I’ll back to my usual posting schedule either this weekend or early next week.

- Brad

P.S. There will be no Friday Link Love this week.

The current Brad’s Reader Giveaway contest is now closed for submissions. A winner will be picked and announced either later today or tomorrow. Thank you all who submitted an entry. I was approving your comments for as long as I could until I finally had to cut them off. As I said before, the winner will be picked completely at random.

If you don’t win today’s contest, don’t worry, there will be at least one more this month. I’m not saying what the prize will be or even how you will enter – you’ll just have to stand by.

Thanks again for all your comments. I enjoyed seeing what everyone is reading and will be adding a few of these titles to my growing reading list. I hope you visit Brad’s Reader again and write more comments, it always makes my day!

Good luck!

Black Friday is long gone and now Cyber Monday is here. With a slumping economy retailers are trying to squeeze as much business as they can during this holiday season, even if it means deeply discounting their products.

I’ve been scouring the web for the best deals around and here is what I found.

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There’s been a lot of controversy over the price wars between Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target over their recently adopted practice of selling bestsellers at deeply discounted prices (less than $9.00 for some new releases). Steve Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble appears to be unconcerned.

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Blog Action Day has arrived. This is the one day when I try to set aside posts about literature, writing, publishing and ebooks and focus on an issue that affects us all. This year that topic is climate change – a very real problem this earth is facing (and last I checked, this is the only earth we have, for now). This is a day when bloggers from all over unite on a single issue.

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I just wanted to post a quick note to say that my internet at home is currently down. We are getting some upgrades and they turned our DSL off yesterday. Should be back up by tonight, if not, then soon. Currently I’m sitting at a local Starbucks using their WiFi and enjoying a nice caffeine buzz from a mocha latte.

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While this post doesn’t directly deal with literature, writing, publishing or ebooks, I feel that it needs to be addressed. I’ve been a very strong supporter of free speech – it’s the cornerstone of an open and enlightened society. However, with free speech also comes responsibility. That can be a thin line to balance. But in the following case, the line has been crossed.

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I believe blogging is a powerful tool that is giving the mainstream media a run for its money. Blogs are becoming more accepted as a means to disseminate news and other information. This is why I think Blog Action Day 2009 is such a great idea. The event focuses on one pressing issue society faces, and this year that issue is climate change.

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