Mocha Mind

Apple has announced its new iTunes Store for textbooks. Their iTunes University app links students to e-textbook libraries where they can purchase ebooks at a cost of $15 or less.

The e-textbooks are more interactive than e-books. You can read, listen to audio portions and watch video.

Apple is offering textbooks by major publishers, McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through iTunes. Schools will be able to purchase e-textbooks in bulk.

Keep an eye out for this revolutionary offering!

For more info, view the Apple video at http://www.apple.com/education/#video-textbooks

NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS

$75 ENTRY FEE ($50 for subsequent entries).
Open to all indie book authors and publishers – including small
presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses,
e-book publishers, and self-published authors. Entry Deadline
February 24, 2012.

$1,500 cash prize and trophy awarded to the best Fiction Book
and Non-Fiction Book

$750 cash prize and trophy awarded to the second best Fiction
Book and Non-Fiction Book

$500 cash prize and trophy awarded to the third best Fiction
Book and Non-Fiction Book

$250 cash prize and trophy awarded to the Best Design Book

$100 Cash Prize and a Gold Medal awarded to the winner of
each of the 60 categories

Finalist Medals will be awarded to up to four finalists in
each of the 60 categories.

For details, please visit http://www.IndieBookAwards.com

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.

~Jessamyn West

The wait is over! The Plague Within has been released as an ebook.

Gioya McRae’s debut novel, presents is an urban sci-fi event.

In 2050 Chad Summers lives in a world where a disease decimates Black communities, the government isolates and deserts them, and they’re left to build their own societies. Set in the urban community of Adamsberg, New Jersey, The Plague Within details how one man struggles against a controlling Regime and the traitors within his community to lead a society to unity while fighting a devastating disease. Can Chad rebuild his life and the lives of a population betrayed?

THE PLAGUE WITHIN

by Gioya McRae

ISBN 978-0-977-45421-1

Download at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/122798 for $1.99!

We writers tend to focus on our current project, whether it be a book, an article or a poem. When we get stuck, we freeze up and don’t do anything. Mistake!

I know we love writing, but we all have other sides. Do you love to bake cookies or ride motorcycles? First take a break from your current writing project and do the other things you love. This will clear your mind.

When you returned to writing, write an article for a small publication that focuses on your interest. Incorporate the things you love to do with your writing. This keeps your skills fresh and sparks your creative juices.

Spread your creative wings. You’ll be surprised where your hobbies and interests take you.

-Gioya McRae

© Gioya McRae 2011

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.

~Anais Nin

Each year, Writer’s Digest honors self-published authors with the Annual Self-Published Book Awards.We’re proud to be in our 20th year of spotlighting today’s self-published works. This could be your year. Whether you’re a professional writer, a part-time freelancer or a self-starting student, here’s your chance to enter the only competition exclusively for self-published books.

Win $3,000 cash and a trip to Writer’s Digest Conference in NYC!

Gain national exposure for your work!

Catch the attention of prospective editors and publishers!

DEADLINE: April 20, 2012

PRIZES:

~ONE GRAND PRIZE WINNER will be awarded $3,000 cash and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City.

~10 FIRST-PLACE WINNERS will receive $1000 cash and promotion in Writer’s Digest.

~HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS will receive promotion at www.writersdigest.com, $50 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and a Notable Award Certificate.

For more details and to enter, please visit http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/selfpublished

By DAVID STREITFELD

SEATTLE — Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers.

Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers.

“Everyone’s afraid of Amazon,” said Richard Curtis, a longtime agent who is also an e-book publisher. “If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out.”

Read the entire article NY Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html