Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Here’s a twist on the free/cheap ebook trend.

LBF Books is giving away the first 25 copies of the ebook of LeeAnn Burke’s Deadly Secrets today. Proceeds of the print book order will be donated to the American Breast Cancer Foundation.

What totally tickles me about this book is the name of the heroine: Roxanne St-Clair. Whoa! Seems that Burke wrote the first draft of this book over 10 years ago, long before she knew of the Other Roxanne St. Clair. Seems the Other Roxanne is down with the name thing.

Mad props to Burke and to LBF for donating proceeds to the ABCF. 

The Sam Hain (not to be confused with Sam Adams, or Sam Bucca) Free Kindle book of the week has been announced: Bianca D’Arc’s MaidenFlight.

Dragon menage? No way? Yes way. Three way! 

All I’m saying is, for this much money, the Kindle better harness nuclear energy to make eggs, do laundry, and drive me to work every day. Holy shit. $6,232.00 for an EBOOK?! And that’s 20% off!

I mean, I get nervous wearing nice jewelry sometimes on the subway. Imagine having a SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR ebook on the Kindle?! I’d be afraid to touch the damn thing.

[Thanks to Student Tech News for the link.]

Sam Hain, distant cousin of Sam Bucca, has announced a Discover New Authors program, in which four eBooks have been made available on their website “for FREE!” as they say.

Visit their site and you can download My Fair Captain by JL Langley, The Bounty by Beth Williamson, Don’t Let Go by Sydney Somers and Winter’s Daughter by J.C. Wilder. In 2009, they promise one new title every Wednesday from a new author. FREE!

Well, sort of. As I pointed out in my reply, it’s not really “FREE!” because it’s only half the book. There’s a link to buy the rest if you like it, and surely half of a book is more than enough to decide if you want to keep going or stop, with nothing lost but a little bit of time. So you’ll read the first half and wonder what happens next while evaluating whether you like it enough to buy the finale.

So it’s not really “Free.” Or even “discounted.” It’s half a book. It’s more than “sample chapters” but not entirely a “Free book.” So what to call it? I mean, not that I’m in charge of marketing decisions but I’m totally pondering this like it’s my business. Hm. A Big Fat sample? More than your standard free sample? Tapas: somewhere between a free sample and a whole entree?

Then it came to me: Francium.

As a happy proponent of the Kindle-Ade, I mention frequently how much I love it. But then, I’m also someone who saved up to buy it for weeks because I had a healthy lust for it, and knew it would make reading, which is not an optional activity for me, easier and more portable. So I had a good period of anticipation before I jumped in to the tune of more than the device is currently selling for, and I was honestly very worried that my experience wouldn’t measure up to the amount of money I paid for it. It has measured up, and I’m glad that I did, but let it be known: $400 is a LOT of freaking money. $305 is also a lot of freaking money. I kept my receipt for the Kindle and double-checked the return policy because I was worried that it wouldn’t be worth it for me.

But I’m one of those people for whom reading purchases are not optional. I do visit the library, and I do borrow from friends, but I always have a book with me, purchased or borrowed, and I will sooner cut the cable in half and cut other parts of my budget than go without books. Those are, of course, my wonky priorities, and as the economy takes an express train for Shitsville, population OMG, a lot of people around me are taking a look at their expenditures and wondering what better could be done with our money as the value of it shrinks like a virgin’s protests under the punishing kisses of your nearest Greek billionaire tycoon.

So this article from The Motley Fool’s blog in which Tim Beyers takes Oprah Winfrey to task for hawking the Kindle on her recent show, particularly for recommending it in part because,