Download a new short story: The Metronome Winds Down

The single-story e-book crusade continues with the second installment of my special summer releases available to readers for only $1.99 each. You can now download "The Metronome Winds Down" in PDF, Kindle, ePub, Mobi, Palm, or Sony reader format. Just think: for less than the cost of a cheap bottle of beer, you get yourself a nice gritty piece of storytelling.

Here is the plot: What would you do to keep your wife alive? If Pat can scrape together ten grand, he can buy his wife two more months. But he doesn't have the cash. So he comes up with a scheme to get the money. But at what price?

Now that you know the setup, click on these links to buy and download:
LuLu (PDF format) | Amazon Kindle | Scribd (PDF format) | Smash Words (PDF, ePub, Palm, LRF/Sony format) |

As with "Job in Williasmburg," this is part of my little experiment to test the idea of single-story e-book downloads. I'll be releasing a single-story e-book download each month, all priced at $1.99. I'll eventually release most of them in a single trade paperback collection. But with publishing models being stood on their head in the digital age, I don't have to wait to get these stories into your hands (or hard drives in this case). Enjoy.

And if you've never read an e-book before, click here for a quick "how to."

Download a new short story for only $1.99

Who says storytelling can't survive in the digital age? Presenting, for your reading pleasure, a brand new, never before released short story titled "Job in Williamsburg" now available for a measely $1.99.

It's the tale of Ramón, a poor painter who wants nothing more than to be a great artist. He talks to paintings. Sometimes they talk back to him. A pariah on the local art scene, who thinks he's just painted a masterpiece. But things do not go as planned. Go ahead: skip a cup a coffee, plunk down some change, and you've got yourself one hell of a short story. It's available in PDF, ePub, LRF (Sony eReader), Palm, or Amazon Kindle format; think of it as a damn good punk single.

Click on these links to buy and download:
Scribd (PDF format) | Amazon Kindle | Smash Words (PDF, ePub, Palm, LRF/Sony format) | LuLu (PDF format)

While I'm still hard at work on the next book, "No Tears for Old Scratch," I decided to try a little experiment. I'll be releasing a single-story e-book download each month, all priced at $1.99. I'll eventually release most of them in a single trade paperback collection. But with publishing models being stood on their head in the digital age, I don't have to wait to get these stories into your hands (or hard drives in this case). It's all part of my firm belief that as e-books, portable reading devices, and universal e-book file formats will be good for authors. Shorter content will become more popular again. Short stories will come back in the same way that singles came back for music, and the old pariah of the publishing world might just regain its luster.

Get The Love Book on iPhone's Kindle App

Now that you've jumped hip deep into the pool of iPhone enabled e-book reading, courtesy of Amazon's new Kindle app, go ahead and download a fantabulous collection of gritty, dark, and funny short stories: namely, The Love Book by yours truly. Consider it a value impulse buy. The Love Book is only $7.99 in the Kindle format, saving you $8.00 over the printed price (and it's under Amazon's recommended $9.99 e-book price).

Way back in January 2008, when The Love Book was released, one of the things I made sure of was that it would be available in the Amazon Kindle format. Having already seen the first edition Kindle at that time, I knew it would have an impact on the book buying market. As I write this, the web (blog posts, tweets, news articles) has been lit up with talk of the Amazon Kindle app and now, B&N's move to purchase FictionWise which works with Stanza.

Speaking of which, if you're more of a Stanza fan, you can download for free "Taking the Happy Bus on Home," the last story from The Love Book. Just follow these simple steps in the Stanza app:
1. Select "Online Catalog"
2. Select "Original Books & Stories (new authors from Feedbooks.com)"
3. Click the magnifying glass icon in the upper right, search for "happy bus" and select the story once it comes up.
4. Click the download button

Or, if you want the story in any of the other eBook formats (epub, Sony e-reader, etc.), you can grab it here.