E-books !!!!

James O. Born

Walking Money

Like many published authors, I have a backlist.  Tying several of my posts together, I can say that two of my mentors (Paul Levine and James W. Hall) talked to me almost two years ago about regaining the rights to my early books and posting them on Amazon in e-book form.  I do not ignore advice from anyone, especially two men who tend to be right on the money when it comes to all things publishing.  And in Jim Hall's case, I never considered him a “tech guy” and he gave me confidence to think that he was able to get his books up on Amazon with little trouble.  In Paul's case, I knew that he was so successful with his e-books he's become a wild playboy, notorious throughout the Miami area.  (I'm just going by what one of my friend’s mothers told me.)

Shock Wave

So I started the long and surprisingly difficult process of regaining the publishing rights to my early books, which were out of print.  My first book, Walking Money, was published in June of 2004.  The paperback came out about a year later.  Each year after that I published a hardback novel with Putnam that was followed by a paperback reprint from Berkeley.  As I've stated many times, I enjoyed working for the company and never had the first problem.  Until I tried to get my rights back.  Even that process wasn't too bad.  It was just slow.  Finally, last May, I received a letter through e-mail and the U.S. Postal Service saying that I now owned all the publishing rights to my first five novels.

Escape Clause

Then the work really began.  I shouldn’t make it sound like I worked my fingers to the bone, when, in fact, I wrote checks.  But for a cheapskate like me that hurt worse than working my fingers to the bone.  Creating the covers for the new editions was one of the most difficult tasks for me.  I have never been particularly strong at determining a good cover and I leaned heavily on my friends, including those at this blog, to get their opinions.  As result, here are the five covers of my new e-books.

Field of Fire

I am new to e-book promotion, but I did sign up to have Walking Money in a countdown sales promotion with Amazon starting today for $.99.  That is an incredible $3 off.  (I'd do the percentage for you but it's my son who is the accountant.)  

I'm open to any other ideas people might have to jump-start my new e-book career. 

I still have books coming out from publishers, including, Scent of Murder, in April of 2015, from Forge/Macmillan.

Here are easy links to each e-book on Amazon:

Walking Money

Burn Zone

Shock Wave
Escape Clause
Field of Fire
Burn Zone

What do you think of the covers? As always, you can also email me at contactjimborn@comcast.net.

My Author's Facebook page is: here 

My Amazon page is : here

Today's quote is:

“Judging books by their covers is seriously underrated, and any book nerd who claims never to have done it is probably lying.”  ― Amy Smith, All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane