If Blogging was a Crime...

Here's a fun fact I found today on Self-PublishingReview.com:

FACT: If blogging was a crime, and in some cases it very much should be, it would be the number one source of criminal activity in the land.” Adam Brown, FreeLanceSwitch Site, 01/07/09.

Smashwords

Smashwords is a great place to publish your ebooks. If you meticulously follow their Style Guide requirements, your ebooks will be distributed through their premium catalog. The premium catalog gets forwarded to sites like Sony eReader, Kobo, B&N and soon the Apple ipad.

Smashwords, said today it has signed a distribution deal with Apple to put its books into the iPad iBookstore. Mark Coker, chief executive of Smashwords, said in an email to authors that his company has been working on the deal ever since the iPad was announced.

Luckily, I got both books, "Quest for Nobility" and "The Crystal Facade" formatted, uploaded and accepted into the premium catalog which means they will be available on the Apple ipad. Dave and I are very happy. How cool is that?

Otharia website redesigned

Our author pages, Otharia.com, have been totally redesigned. Thanks Dave. If you get a chance, go over and take a look and tell us what you think. You can send an email to info@otharia.com with your comments.

It's Been A Great Week

Both Dave and I are thrilled that our ebooks are now live at the Amazon Kindle Store. The best part of all, however, is that we have SALES!!!! What a rush! I know that it's not the same as getting a contract from a big fancy NY publisher, but our goal has always been to write what we love and get it out there so others could enjoy it too!

Well, we accomplished our goals and we are happy. Now it's back to work on our next book. We still can't decide which one to write yet. We have 3 novels started at the moment. We'll just have to see how the mood strikes us.

Thank you to our fans who have been reading our first book over on our author pages, Otharia.com. If you want to see what happens to Darius and Dyla, you can find the link to download "The Crystal Facade" in the right sidebar of the blog. You won't be disappointed.

Our Ebooks are live

Dave and I are happy to report that both "Quest for Nobility," Book 1 in the Rule of Otharia series and "The Crystal Facade", Book 2 in the same series are now live on Amazon. They are available to buy for $1.99. There's only a few days left to read Book 1 over on our author pages, Otharia.com, because we will be taking down all the chapters except for Chapter 1.

For our fans who have followed the Telkur twins' journey in book 1, now's your chance to find out what happens to Darius and Dyla, and their incredible friend Eclair in the aftermath of their Grand Council testimony.

You can find the links and buy the books here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CC1KI4

and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CC1KK2

The Meaning of Hell

I'm sure that many of you have seen this before, but it's just too good not to pass along again.

The following is an question given on a University of Washington chemistry midterm.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor felt compelled to share it with colleagues. Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Student's answer: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct.......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

Done

The final chapter of "Quest for Nobility" has been posted over on our author pages, Otharia.com.

Find out what happened to our royal twins. Did they save the duchy? At what costs?

We hoped you enjoyed the book. The sequel, "The Crystal Facade" will be available soon as an e-book.

Math of E-book Publishing

The New York Times has a timely article about the actual costs of e-books for publishers. Many believe that the publishers are saving huge amounts of print costs with ebooks, but that's not necessarily the case. You can read the entire article here.

Of course, one of the biggest issues for authors are the royalty rates for ebooks, generally set around 25% depending on the publisher. With ebooks becoming the next big medium, royalty rates are the next battleground for authors.

It will be interesting to see how these issues play out in the next few years.