Category: Literary/Ebooks
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A blogger prepares to say goodbye — Links, Links, Links
Reflecting on the blog of Jake Seliger. By Robert Nagle
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Magical to Me: Childhood Books and their influence
What book or books ensnared you when you were young? Texas author Robert Nagle offer his answer.
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Reader’s Guide to the Fiction of Clay Reynolds (1949-2022): A Literary Appreciation
A “cheatsheet” about how to start reading the literary works of Texas author Clay Reynolds. (19
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Reading & romance: why book titles on your Facebook profile don’t matter
By TX litblogger Robert Nagle
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Interview with Harvey Havel (Novelist)
I first stumbled upon the novels of Harvey Havel during a recent ebook sale. Since that time, I’ve reviewed one of his novels and talked to him over the phone a few times. Personville Press is in the process of re-publishing ebook versions of two Havel novels which were previously released in print (apparently the…
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My Literary Shame
As an ebook lover, it may surprise people to learn how attached I am to my book collection. They are like pets or longtime companions. I don’t feel nostalgic about books — I gave away all my pre-1923 books without guilt. But some (many!) books are there to remind me of my longtime ambitions to…
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Tips & Advice for New & Indie Authors
(Last Update Jan 3 2023). Over the last decade I have run a side business editing and marketing ebooks. From time to time I am contacted by new writers about how to publish and promote a book. I get contacted so often about this that I have starting keeping a compendium of tips. As of…
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Map to the stars: The secret delights of annotated bibliographies
Silly me, I realized that I forgot to link to an annotated bibliography (AB) I made of US Civil War fiction a few years ago. I did this as an appendix to a story collection ebook by Jack Matthews I edited a few years ago. This ebook sells for $3 on Amazon and $1.50 on…
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Smashwords vs. Amazon: An ebook comparison
Sept 2022 Update: Reflected to show the combined merger of Smashwords + Draft2Digital. The next two days will feature posts about ebook distribution and affiliate marketing for blogs. Today’s post will compare two leading ebook distributors (Amazon and Smashwords). Tomorrow’s post (which is here) will explore the dilemmas faced by a blogger in promoting purchases…
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Copyright Ghosts of 1923 Come Alive Tomorrow!
(I originally posted this on Teleread in 2007. The horrifying decision to freeze the public domain for 20 extra years has increased costs to libraries, schools, students and scholars. The works below would have gone into the public domain in 1999; instead, they will go into the public domain tomorrow! The openculture blog has more).…
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My Policy on Writing Book Reviews
(Occasionally I am contacted about my availability to write book reviews. Here’s something I wrote up to explain my policies and preferences). For over 4 years I’ve been posting a monthly column called Robert’s Roundup of Ebook Deals , a roundup of indie ebooks. This column includes both brief mentions of ebooks that sounded interesting,…
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A kind of stupid — My tribute to Coleen Grissom
Below is a short tribute I wrote for Coleen Grissom’s 80th birthday. Grissom is a literature teacher I had at college. Besides being a great teacher, she was also just hilarious all the time. (Even the lecture on the youtube link shows her being very fast and sharp). Her sense of humor was sometimes terrifying,…
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Are fiction writers conscious of how their stories will be interpreted? Hell, yes!
A few decades ago, a high school student sent surveys to well known writers and asked them how conscious were they about symbolism and interpretation for what they were writing. The answers were varied and interesting. Here’s my perspective as a fiction writer and editor. “Symbolism” is much too strong a word, but I would…
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Free short story collection by Jack Matthews
Regular visitors may already know that my small ebook publishing company (Personville Press) has been publishing several ebooks by the Ohio author Jack Matthews. I have actually been working hard on doing that (which explains why I post so rarely here). I am actually working on several titles with Mr. Matthews now (the most recent…
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Jade: Outlaw By Robert Flynn (Book Review)
Jade: Outlaw by Robert Flynn (2010), JoSara MeDia, 190 pages. Author’s Website and Blog (with RSS feed) Ebook: Amazon/BN (now at 99 cents!) Print Editions: Used copies are available, but with ebooks so cheap, why bother? Summary: A Western tale about a 19th century Texas town that is harsh, spiritual and profound. Recommended if you…