1. Vision: A Resource for Writers
   PDF downloads of every issue of the online magazine for writers.Topics covered in a recent issue (January 2008) included motivation, publishing vocabulary, submission tracking software, and more.
2. Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love and Money
   This massive (209 pp) e-book by novelist Holly Lisle covers the ins and outs of writing, from creating good dialogue and fleshing out your characters to finding an agent and keeping your writing career moving.
3. 60 Effective Strategies for Selling More Books
   Best-selling author Scott Jeffrey offers some effective strategies for boosting your book’s sales and building up your reputation as a writer.
4. Plug Your Book! (sample chapters)
   Steve Weber is one of the masters of online book promotion. Here, he discusses using Internet social networking to build up word of mouth about you and your writing.
5. The Easy Way to Write Short Stories That Sell!
   A good-sized (49 pages) piece on the art and craft of short stories. Opens with several pages about getting in the right mindset to write well (e.g. time management, etc.). Email list subscription required.
6. Organized Writer 2008 Calendar
   Not an e-book per se, but a downloadable 2008 calendar with quotes, highlighted dates, and todo lists especially designed to keep writers on track.
7. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published
   A collection of articles by Writersville authors about the trials and tribulations of getting published.
8. How to Write a Great Query Letter
   No surprises here; this one’s about writing great query letters. At over 100 pages, though, you can bet it’s a great deal more detailed than the typical “research your market, hook your reader, be polite, and spellcheck” howto.
9. Book Writing for Fun and Profit
   Brian Scott walks you through the process of writing and selling a book, from picking a subject and creating a title to getting an ISBN number and selling your work as an e-book. It’s loaded with ads and the layout is a little ugly, but there’s some good information in here.
10. Unleashing the Ideavirus
    Seth Godin is one of the premiere marketing experts, and writes in a clear, engaging style. Not strictly for writers, this e-book is about spreading your ideas, and is sure to help you figure out how to market yourself and your work.

The Writer’s Technology Companion Desk-Side Guide To… Writing Ebooks Covers the technical ins-and-outs of writing, formatting, distributing, and promoting ebooks. (12pp plus front matter)

Download [PDF: 312Kb]

I’ve also added an “Ebooks” page to the site. I have several 5-part series in the works, and aim to release at least one a month. I’ve decided that I am going to try to release each of these series as a free ebook after the posts run on the site, and the whole collection will be available from the “Ebooks” page.

I have been thinking about making these ebooks available as physical books through a print-on-demand service like CafePress. However, in order to cover the publishers’ base price, I’d have to price what are going to be really slim volumes at $5 or $6 US — way too much, especially when you add shipping, for such little books. But if I can work out a way to do that — maybe by putting together a “Writer’s Technology Companion Omnibus Edition”, I’ll add that option to the “Ebooks” page.

A note: Despite my best efforts, I managed to munge the base file for the ebook up pretty bad, so there’s a few typos I couldn’t fix (three, that I know of). Considering my own advice to proofread thoroughly, that’s pretty embarrassing — I hope you’ll forgive me my transgressions!

By way of thanks, I offer this little tidbit of news. This Thursday (March 27), from 11 am EST to 11am EST Friday morning(Mar 28), Audible.com is offering a selection of free audiobooks to new customers. The URL for the giveaway is www.audible.com/biglisten. Those are all the details I have right now — I don’t know if you’ll have to subscribe to their service, what books they’re offering, or anything else. There’s no page up at that address, yet, not even a “Coming Soon” page.

If you listen to This Week in Tech, this isn’t news, but if you don’t listen to TWiT, or you missed it this week, I thought you might be interested in hearing about this promotion (which is apparently a TWiT exclusive).

So have a look, and be sure to check back with The Writer’s Tech Companion next week!