Uncial Press eBooks

The Uncial Letter, September, 2006

Okay, so we're still getting a kick out of seeing the volume and issue number up there. This is only our second issue, after all. We're entitled to chortle a bit. Eventually it will get to be old hat, and we'll forget what issue we're on.

We hope NOT! One of the reasons we started Uncial Press is that it's fun being a publisher. Most of the time, anyhow. Our philosophy is that if it's not fun, then why bother? We're going to do our best to keep this fun. With your help, of course.

What's the most fun we've had this past month? Our contest, of course. We got a gratifying number of entries and some real interesting suggestions for the name of our line of 'short reads for busy people'. All of us (staff, tech advisors, spice, and kids old enough to have an opinion) voted on their three favorite suggestions.

We wish we could tell you that we're going to use the winning suggestion, but we can't. After making our choices, we Googled them all, to make sure we wouldn't be violating any copyrights, infringing on any trademarks, or risking sending our readers to an unsavory website. Much to our chagrin, our first four choices turned out to be very popular (great minds, and all that). We're still going to award the first prize to Tessa, who suggested 'Mind Candy' a title we love, but just can't use (if you're wondering why, try Googling it). After much discussion and thought, we chose a name that's a combination of two entries. From now on , our short reads will be known as Novel Bytes. Watch for a special webpage to feature them.

So what's coming up at Uncial Press? Circle Friday, October 13 on your calendars. That's the day we go live. All of our launch titles will be for sale at our website (www.uncialpress.com, remember). We'll be offering six formats: plain old html, pdf, rb for those of you still fortunate enough to own a Rocket or a REB 1100, prc for Mobipocket Reader on your PDA, pdb (the generic Palm format), and lit for MS Readers.

A few days later, those same titles will also be on sale at www.fictionwise.com and at www.Mobipocket.com, and we'll be looking at other places to expand our distribution as time passes.

What titles? Well, drop on over to our website (once again, it's www.uncialpress.com) and see what's coming. We've nine new releases of old favorites for you in October, a couple of brand new stories in November. And just wait until you see what's coming in January, February, March...

Why old books, you ask. Well, every author wants a second chance at her books, once they're published. Nothing's ever quite perfect enough. So we've given the authors of our launch titles an opportunity to fine tune their stories, to enhance characters, to improve a scene or two, or to get rid of those pesky little errors that slip into a book when no one's watching. You'll love the results. Tighter, more entertaining stories, smoother writing, new covers--each one an all round treat. If you haven't already enjoyed them, now's your chance.

Just to remind you, in October we'll offer you TAINTED TEA FOR TWO by Susanne Marie Knight, THE RAKE'S REFLECTION by Lesley-Anne McLeod, and all seven of the "Behind the Ranges" historical romances by Judith B. Glad. Don't forget that URL (www.uncialpress.com).

Our November titles will be a special treat, one you won't want to resist.

Lesley-Anne McLeod is the debut author in our Novel Bytes line of short reads for busy people. LOVE'S LIBERTY is a heart-warming story of a man who returns from the war, marked forever by what he experienced, and the woman who waited for him with faith and love in her heart. Don't forget your hankie.

Susanne Marie Knight returns with a brand new Christmas story, but it's not your usual holly-and-mistletoe tale. You'll definitely want to share the holidays with Merry Wyatt and Jeffrey, Lord Burnett. Trouble is, you'll have to have a little magic to keep up with Merry in HAVE CHRISTMAS CARD, WILL TRAVEL...

We're not going to release any books in December. We don't know about you, but our budgets often don't have room for gifts to ourselves, and we seldom have much spare time for reading in our busy schedules. What we're going to do instead is give you all an early Holiday gift, so watch our website for when and what. We think you'll enjoy it.

Spread the word. Tell your friends about us. Encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter (uncial-letter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com). Above all, keep well and keep smiling.

Star (the Boss) & Jude (the Editor)