And here's the eNews

The revenues made from eBook sale as reported by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). AAP’s estimated numbers for industry wide net sale is provided alongside in brackets.

2006 : $25.2 million ($54 million)
2007 : $31.7 million ($67 million)
2008 : $61.3 million ($113 million)
2009 : $169.5 million

The Guardian (UK) have published an interesting article looking at the ecological case for eBooks - The ability to buy something I wouldn't be able to get in a better format elsewhere (so long as the UK remains starved of the glory of the Sunday NYT delivery) even makes me think I might possibly find a use for an e-reader. Up until now, they've struck me as less pleasant than books, far more problematic in terms of copyright theft and – at least for personal use – rather decadent. They're a big computer that can only read books and so, I've always assumed, a waste of resources. But a bit of research has led me to question even that assumption. FULL STORY

Writer Ron Hogan is living proof that giving away free eBooks can build a paying audience - Hogan revealed his audience-building strategy: "When I was first putting it up, I went around to all the websites that I could find that had information about Taoism and I basically offered them the link as something they might want to add to their blogroll. I was lucky in that a number of sites that collated translations added me to their sites. One of the biggest developments was when I edited the link into the Wikipedia page for the Tao Te Ching as part of the resources available there--so people were discovering it through Wikipedia." LISTEN TO A FULL AUDIO INTERVIEW HERE

Can't resist an ePlug among all this eBook news - my mystery/crime novel, A Policeman's Lot will debut as an eBoo

k this summer from Hearts on Fire Press. The readers report on the book went: Fascinating concept, setting, and characters. Set in Wales during Buffalo Bill’s 1903/1904 tour of the United Kingdom, the story begins with Inspector Frank Parade carrying out his daily duties in the town of Pontypridd, duties complicated by the unprecedented presence of 500 members of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show encamped outsid

e the town, not to mention the thousands attending the show every day. A series of depraved murders quickly makes things even more com

plicated. Buffalo Bill stands squarely in his path when Parade tries to investigate the likely possibility that one of the hundreds of show members is involved. And soon enough Parade’s own superiors are blocking his inquires, too. Still more deaths occur as Parade sifts th

rough the thin evidence available and finds a trail that may lead to the perpetrator of the most heinous crime of the 19^th Century—London’s “Ripper” murders. Before the story is done, Parade develops a dramatic theory that may solve the Ripper mystery, as well as the murders he faces in idyllic Pontypridd. The story itself is wonderful—clever and intense. IT'S 1904 SOUTH WALES AND THE MOST INFAMOUS MURDERS IN HISTORY ARE ABOUT TO BE SOLVED BY A WELSH COPPER AND AN AMERICAN ICON.