Trapdoor Books

Welcome to the 15th puzzle challenge: Curvy Clue Grid Fill!

Today’s puzzle is based on the book The Ninth Avatar by Todd Newton, which is a great read. You can solve the puzzle without reading the book, but it’s a great read that you wouldn’t want to miss anyway.

To grab the printable copy, click the banner at left. Don’t forget to submit your answer for a Summertime Puzzle Contest code, and be a good sport: don’t posting the answer to this puzzle in the comments or elsewhere while the puzzle contest is still going on.

There was an interesting story in the NY Times yesterday entitled, “Literary Agent Plans E-Book Editions”. There are two points that raised my eyebrows when reading the article.

First, the main thrust of the story is that many traditional book publishing contracts were drawn up long before e-books existed. Since they are not specifically covered in the contract, there is some debate whether e-book rights are owned by the publisher or the author.

A new breed of publisher – one focused only on e-books – is emerging to fill this gap.

Want to know a bit more about CYBERKILL author Frank Fiore? Shelagh Watkins interviews the Trapdoor Books’ author in the newly released Literature & Fiction Interviews Volume II. The book provides entertaining and inspiring stories about authors, their books and writing. You can order a copy here. Congrats to Frank on being selected for inclusion in this edition of the book!

Frank will also be appearing live and in person at the National Robotics League event on July 30 from 10:00am to 3:30pm at the Metrocenter Mall in Phoenix, Arizona.

A NY Times article on Monday announced that sales of Kindle books outnumbered the sales of hardcover books during the period March through June 2010. All industry signs point to an acceleration of this trend. I suspect that it won’t be too many months before we see the same headline for paperback books.

The other trends that are pushing this rapid change are: a lower price point for buying an e-Book reader like the Kindle or Nook (under $200 and falling), a lower price point for buying a an e-Book ($9.99 for new releases), improved technology (sit an iPad next to a Kindle 2 to see my point), and better incentives for publishers looking to put their titles into electronic formats (we get 70% instead of 35% of e-book sales).

Hello and welcome to the first Monday challenge: Curvy Clue Grid Fill!

Today’s puzzle is based on the book The Magician of Lhasa by David Michie, which is a great read. You won’t need to read the book to solve this puzzle, but it’s worth the read anyway.

To grab the printable copy, click the banner at left. Don’t forget to submit your answer for a Summertime Puzzle Contest code, and be a good sport: don’t posting the answer to this puzzle in the comments or elsewhere while the puzzle contest is still going on.