The Elementary Studio Blog

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Trans-Atlantic Publications Publishes Biomedical Thriller as an E-book on Amazon
 

The Methuselah Gene, A New Jersey based biomedical thriller, the second ebook release from the popular New Millennium Writers Series, has been published on Amazon.com through the Kindle Store.
 
Philadelphia, PA, September 14, 2010 — Trans-Atlantic Publications announced today the ebook release of The Methuselah Gene, A Science Fiction Biomedical Thriller, written by New Jersey author Sal DeStefano; and the second novel from their popular New Millennium Writers series to be released in ebook form. The ebook is available now on the Amazon.com site or in the Kindle Store as a download for $5.99. 

http://www.amazon.com/Methuselah-Gene-Biomedical-ThrillerThe-ebook/dp/B0042RUKPW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&s=digital-text&qid=1284477520&sr=1-1

This unique novel, which takes place in and around Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, explores alternative, genetics-based treatments for cancer within the context of a tightly-plotted, biomedical adventure/sea monster thriller that has been compared to the works of Michael Crichton and Peter Benchley.

In New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay, two boys stumble upon a lethal marine predator that possesses remarkable healing and life-extension genes. Dr. Allen J. Johnson, a plant geneticist, finds that this animal’s mutation may save the life of his son, who has an inoperable brain tumor. But Dr. Johnson must first confront a covert government agency determined to keep the life-extending genes a secret, as well as several ruthless men who will stop at nothing — including murder — to exploit the animal’s mutations for their own selfish purposes.
 
Peter E. Glaze, Associate Editor for Ebook Publications for Trans-Atlantic Publications, said, “We are very excited to be able to release The Methuselah Gene in ebook form and look forward to the release of other ebooks in the near future. The hardcover edition of The Methuselah Gene has long been out of print, so we are delighted to be able to offer this mass-market edition as an ebook to those readers who enjoy medically themed science fiction, and suspense thrillers.”
 
Mr. Glaze further announced that, “Ebook editions of other titles will be made available in the near future for the Kindle and in other popular ebook reader formats.”
 
For additional information, contact Mr. Peter E. Glaze.
 
Trans-Atlantic Publications was started in 1985. BainBridgeBooks is an imprint of Trans-Atlantic Publications.
 
Contact:
 
Mr. Peter E. Glaze
Trans-Atlantic Publications
610-833-8053
pglaze@elementarystudio.com

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I just got finished formatting The Food Combing 2-Day Detox by Kathryn Marsden for Kindle. This has now been published to the Kindle Store for BainBridge Books (Trans-Atlantic Publications), the original publisher of the US version.

Very interesting health book, especially for Women, about Detox — cleansing the body (internally) and losing weight and improving digestive health through a few simple rules about what foods to eat (or not eat) with other foods. Very interesting stuff.

We have a pet tree frog. It’s a Whites Australian, for anybody who is into such things. Frogs eat crickets, so there’s really no way around it. Even though I hate the idea of buying living things to feed to other living things, if you have a pet frog you have to buy crickets.

I had actually started to get used to this . . . until now.

I bought a couple of dozen crickets yesterday, and put them in the special “cricket crib” place where they hang out before … you know.

Now — and I swear this has never happened before — at least one of them is chirping away, dare I say, “happily.” Hence my dilemma.

Wouldn’t it be terrible, Karma-wise, to feed a (previously) happy chirping cricket to a frog? Of course, as soon as I look at them to see which one is chirping, he stops. I yelled at him, “Don’t you understand, I’m trying to save your life!” but he (actually all of them) ignored me.

I’m not sure I can afford any bad Karma, right now.

What to do, what to do . . .

This is another in a series of cartoons I created back during the ’80s when I was but a mere “tad.”

I’ve been thinking about the recent arguments about ebook pricing at Amazon vs. Apple, etc. and had a few thoughts. Okay, maybe more than a few.

I don’t really have a problem with ebooks for new fiction titles that are only available in hardcover being priced at $14.99. After all, the hardcover is usually more than that and, besides, I don’t buy a lot of hardcovers.

My wife has a couple of authors for whom she just can’t wait until the paperback comes out, and she will end up buying the hardcover. As long as the ebook version is priced less than the hardcover, I guess we can live with that.

My stance on the ebook version of fiction paperbacks is more fixed. I have a pricepoint line in my head where if the ebook price goes above it, I probably won’t buy. That’s $5.99.

Why? Because that’s the price of a paperback at Walmart. I figure if I can buy the physical paperback at Walmart for less than the ebook, something is wrong. So that’s my price point.

But what I really want to discuss is backlist titles.

I went to the Kindle store the other day (on my Kindle, natch). I was thinking about buying ebook versions of the ancient tattered Ian Fleming/James Bond paperbacks I’ve owned forever.

I was appalled to find the price set at $9.99 each! That’s $9.99 for an ebook version of a work by a deceased author that has been out in paperback for 50 years. That is insane. It’s more than new paperbacks cost. Who would pay that?

I would scan my old paperbacks, OCR them, and make my own ebook versions (just for my own use, mind you) before I would spend that much money on ebooks of older backtitle works. I probably don’t have to though. The text is probably right out there on the Internet.

And that’s the whole point. The major publishers haven’t learned anything from the music industry. If they settle on a reasonable price point, people are willing to pay a fair amount for ebooks and will continue to buy them legitimately. However, if they are greedy, and price gouge, people will find ways to get those ebooks anyway–for free–and the big publishers will be forced to change the way they do things, or fail.

Many more authors will choose to self-publish — go indie, as many musicians are doing — or work with small, independent publishers, who will do very well. The big publishers, however, will have a very tough time of it if they don’t start paying attention.

Oh, I checked, by the way, and it’s perfectly possible for me to download the text of all the James Bond books for free and then turn them into my own epubs. I don’t want to do that. I actually want to spend money and get them for a reasonable price. Is that too much to ask?

Here is another of my “Toons from the past.”

Many, many (Naw, it can’t be that many!) years ago I tried to break into the cartooning business. I had no success at the time; however, I recently unearthed some of my cartoons from that time period. I’ll be uploading some periodically, just for fun. Thanks to my buddy, Karl Kofoed, for the caption for this one.

By the way, if you ever need a photo restorer who can truly perform miracles, Karl is your guy: http://users.rcn.com/kkofoed/newphoto.html

Here is the first cartoon.