'Kiss'-ing with iBooks, and a Very Special Book Drop

I had the best intentions in the world of blogging by now about Dostoevsky's Eternal Husband and about Marguerite Duras (separately), but... I wish I could say, "but life got in the way," but it was more like "marketing got in the way." So, instead, let me just mention two unrelated items. Yesterday A Kiss Before You Leave Me appeared for the first time in Apple's iBookstore (for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch), and I have to say that, Kindle loyalist though I am, I was very close to being... seduced... by the look and feel of my own book in iBooks. I'm sure I'll be wrestling with this for a while....

Second item, and worthy of a new paragraph. I hope to have things to say here, one day, that will be useful to other indie authors. Today, however, I want to touch on how we indies (and indeed all authors and publishers) can do a little something extra for someone else. While reading through materials from Smashwords (about everything from formatting to, yes, marketing), I kept reading about a program that helps authors donate copies of their ebooks to Coalition military personnel deployed overseas and their dependents. There are a number of interrelated websites, but I found the clearest overview at the Smashwords blog. I've just enlisted (in a manner of speaking), and I'll post more links as the project develops. It's called Operation eBook Drop and is the brainchild of indie author Edward C. Patterson, working with the help of Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords. Operation eBook Drop may be the most worthwhile thing you google on any given day....