Here again, gone again, back again, free again.
These two novels from religious publisher Zondervan were free in the Kindle Store a week ago, then paid, and this morning they are free again. Why ask why?
, Free!For seventeen years, before his thrillers landed him on The New York Times Bestseller list, Kevin O’Brien made his living as a railroad inspector and did all his writing at night. His second novel, Only Son (1996), was optioned for film rights, thanks to interest from Tom Hanks. It was also chosen by Readers Digest for its Select Editions along with John Grisham’s The Partner and John Nance’s Medusa’s Child.
Kevin has been writing full time ever since.
The Next to Die, Kevin O’Brien’s third novel–and first thriller–was a USA Today Bestseller. So if on occassion, you find a scene in a Kevin O’Brien thriller in which a dead body is discovered in an old railroad yard or depot, well, now you know why.
Kevin O’Brien’s last four thrillers have all been New York Times Bestsellers. The most recent is Final Breath. Kevin lives in Seattle, loves Hitchcock movies, and is hard at work on his new thriller, Vicious, which will be available in May, 2010.
- “Free” in the Kindle Store refers, for now, to the price for download to US-based Kindles. Amazon adds charges for Kindles based beyond US borders.
- Originally posted to Kindle Nation Daily 5.26.2010.
- Click here (or type “kindle nation daily” in your Kindle’s Kindle Store search field) to have Free Book Alerts pushed directly to your Kindle 24/7 with a 14-day free trial to the Kindle edition of Kindle Nation Daily, the #1 bestselling blog in the Kindle Store.
- Click here to see RECENT KINDLE NATION DAILY FREE BOOK ALERTS
The best way to find out about these free listings right away, when they occur, is to subscribe to the Kindle edition of Kindle Nation Daily
, which pushes Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alerts directly to your Kindle Home screen 24/7. And in the case of many free listings that disappear within a matter of hours or days, “right away” is often just in time.
No Kindle Required: Whether you are a long-time Kindle owner or you’ve just acquired an iPad and are filling it with ebooks for the first time or you are reading Kindle books on a PC, Mac, BlackBerry, iPhone or iPad Touch, you can get any and all of these titles absolutely free on your Kindle-compatible device of choice! Click here to download a free Kindle App for your device.
Click here for Kindle Nation’s archive page with links for over 2 million free books!
Here are our other updated free promotional listings in the Kindle Store as of May 26:
An AmazonEncore title leads the list of free Kindle Store offerings on this lovely Spring morning, not that there’s anything wrong with that:
Strings Attached
(Kindle Edition)
by Nick Nolan (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $9.99 What’s this?  |
| Print List Price: | $12.99 |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| You Save: | $12.99 (100%) |
|
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Closeted teenager Jeremy is sent to live with wealthy relatives after his mother enters rehab. Struggling to fit into the posh world of Ballena Beach, Jeremy joins the high school swim team, dates a popular girl, and begins to think he may have landed in paradise—until his great aunt Katharine starts to dictate his every move … and a late-night phone call insinuates that his father’s accidental death was not so accidental after all.
As Jeremy grows accustomed to the veneer of a fabulous life, so grows his need for answers—as well as the danger of immeasurable harm. Weaving together a murder mystery, sexual ambiguity, and characters with hidden identities and agendas , Nick Nolan offers readers a deliciously witty page-turner about the “puppet” who wishes only to be a real boy. Strings Attached is also a surprisingly heartfelt story about coming-of-age and coming out—not necessarily in that order.
A Q&A; with Author Nick Nolan
Question: Tell us more about 17-year-old Jeremy Tyler, and how you created your lead character? Nick Nolan: I set out to create someone with a dazzling character arc; someone that people–gay or straight–could relate to and root for. And I’ve always loved the sort of conflict that arises with a “fish out of water” storyline–watching how someone adapts to a cataclysmic life change is fascinating. And one’s teen years are inherently cataclysmic, so poor Jeremy is nearly overwhelmed. He goes from being poor and fatherless and hopeless to rich and fabulous and sought-after–but still miserable because he isn’t being himself. I believe that he’s a protagonist that most people will sympathize with.
Question: Strings Attached touches on themes of betrayal, greed, wealth, lust, beauty, love, and temptation. That is a lot for a young man to deal with. Would you explain how you weave these into the plot?
Nick Nolan: Lust is desire mixed with obsession, and many of the characters in this story can’t separate the two–sometimes to their great detriment. Each of these elements is related: those in possession of beauty and wealth can tempt those without to lust and temptation and greed, but seldom to love. These are all tied-up inside the human experience of “wanting.” In the book, Jeremy’s father tells him–in a dream–that one needs to be selfish with respect to what one needs, but to pursue judiciously that which one wants–it’s a paradox that few ever take the time to understand.
Question: Your book is a loose reinvention of the classic Pinocchio story. Would you tell us a little more about your connection with the Pinocchio tale, and your decision to work it into your story? Who is struggling with ‘strings attached’?
Nick Nolan: Pinocchio is a great tale, which is why everyone remembers it; I think it reflects the pan-human desire to become a better version of ourselves–the wish to become our ideal. So I studied the original story, written by Carlo Collodi many years before that famous cartoon movie. His book seems like a fairy tale, but scholars will tell you that it is steeped in social commentary–and so is my book. Jeremy really is a puppet of the adults around him–with the exception of Arthur, who plays the Blue Fairy; Arthur anticipates his every need, and at the end of the book when we find-out his true identity we learn how important his contact with Jeremy truly is. I have a villain who echoes the original antagonist in Collodi’s book, and I’ve made more plausible that wishing on a star business–I draw a parallel between that and the old Greek and Roman belief that the constellations were the gods, to whom they prayed for protection and guidance. And finally, there is a very believable twist on the original puppet’s nose-growing; something similar happens when Jeremy lies…but that’s a bit graphic for this interview.
Suffice to say that the Pinocchio parallels are there, but the similarities are subtle–and the story stands on its own without revealing them. And as for who is struggling with “strings attached”… at first one thinks that these bind Jeremy only, and then it becomes clear later on that everyone, except Arthur, in the story struggles against them, because every major theme in the story–beauty, wealth, love, betrayal, lust, greed and temptation–has consequences, or “strings,” attached to it.
Question: Nick, who is your target audience? Who would enjoy reading your book?
Nick Nolan: Initially my target audience was youngish gay men, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised that the appeal of Strings Attached crosses boundaries of age and gender and sexual preference… probably because it’s a coming-of-age story; this particular genre endures because those years are burned into every adult’s psyche. And who doesn’t relate to struggle, and misfortune, and learning to stand up for yourself? Enjoying a good read has little to do with how old you are or whom you sleep with–everyone loves a page-turner when the hero stands victorious at the end.
(This author Q&A; is adapted from an author interview conducted by Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor of Reader Views, and is republished with permission.)
Review
“Beautifully told, it grabs at your heart and emotions and does not let go…Nolan’s language is lush and his description is beautiful … His book is one to cherish and hold onto. We shall not see many like it.” –Amos Lassen, LITERARY PRIDE
“Strings Attached is a wonderful story…a multifaceted piece of fiction dealing with co-dependency, parent-child relationships, anger, violence, love, sexual exploration, and maturation…This is a fast read.” –Rich Wiesenthal, DIVERSITY RULES MAGAZINE
“Nolan’s debut novel is a kitchen sink of genres – coming of age, coming out, mystery, romance, erotica, even a dash of the supernatural – that add up to an impressive story about the passage from boyhood to manhood.” –Richard Labonte, BOOKS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Product Details
- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 471 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: AmazonEncore; Unabridged edition (March 9, 2010)
Here’s a quick free read (or text-to-speech listen) for your commute, just a little something to whet your appetite for the full release of J.A. Konrath’s latest Jack Daniels mystery, Shaken, which will be published initially in a Kindle exclusive by AmazonEncore this Fall and is available, at least for now, at a pre-order price of $2.99
Shaken (Teaser Chapters) (Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)
by J.A. Konrath (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $0.00 What’s this? |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
|
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
|
Daughter of Joy (Brides of Culdee Creek, Book 1)
(Kindle Edition)
by Kathleen Morgan (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $12.99 What’s this? |
| Print List Price: | $12.99 |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| You Save: | $12.99 (100%) |
|
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
|
|
4.7 out of 5 stars (81 customer reviews)
|
|||||
by Steve Martini – Pre-order for May 25, 2010 Release
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| This price was set by the publisher |
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 655 KB
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
- Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (May 25, 2010)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
by Jerry Weissman
by Terry J. Fadem 
by Leigh L. Thompson
Product Description
Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert for Tuesday, May 25: A “Vicious” Pre-Order Leads Dozens of Free Books in the Kindle Store
For seventeen years, before his thrillers landed him on The New York Times Bestseller list, Kevin O’Brien made his living as a railroad inspector and did all his writing at night. His second novel, Only Son (1996), was optioned for film rights, thanks to interest from Tom Hanks. It was also chosen by Readers Digest for its Select Editions along with John Grisham’s The Partner and John Nance’s Medusa’s Child.
Kevin has been writing full time ever since.
The Next to Die, Kevin O’Brien’s third novel–and first thriller–was a USA Today Bestseller. So if on occassion, you find a scene in a Kevin O’Brien thriller in which a dead body is discovered in an old railroad yard or depot, well, now you know why.
Kevin O’Brien’s last four thrillers have all been New York Times Bestsellers. The most recent is Final Breath. Kevin lives in Seattle, loves Hitchcock movies, and is hard at work on his new thriller, Vicious, which will be available in May, 2010.
- “Free” in the Kindle Store refers, for now, to the price for download to US-based Kindles. Amazon adds charges for Kindles based beyond US borders.
- Originally posted to Kindle Nation Daily 5.25.2010.
- Click here (or type “kindle nation daily” in your Kindle’s Kindle Store search field) to have Free Book Alerts pushed directly to your Kindle 24/7 with a 14-day free trial to the Kindle edition of Kindle Nation Daily, the #1 bestselling blog in the Kindle Store.
- Click here to see RECENT KINDLE NATION DAILY FREE BOOK ALERTS
The best way to find out about these free listings right away, when they occur, is to subscribe to the Kindle edition of Kindle Nation DailyNo Kindle Required: Whether you are a long-time Kindle owner or you’ve just acquired an iPad and are filling it with ebooks for the first time or you are reading Kindle books on a PC, Mac, BlackBerry, iPhone or iPad Touch, you can get any and all of these titles absolutely free on your Kindle-compatible device of choice! Click here to download a free Kindle App for your device
Click here for Kindle Nation’s archive page with links for over 2 million free books!
Here are our other updated free promotional listings in the Kindle Store as of May 25:
An AmazonEncore title leads the list of free Kindle Store offerings on this lovely Spring morning, not that there’s anything wrong with that:
Strings Attached (Kindle Edition)
by Nick Nolan (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $9.99 What’s this? |
| Print List Price: | $12.99 |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| You Save: | $12.99 (100%) |
|
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Closeted teenager Jeremy is sent to live with wealthy relatives after his mother enters rehab. Struggling to fit into the posh world of Ballena Beach, Jeremy joins the high school swim team, dates a popular girl, and begins to think he may have landed in paradise—until his great aunt Katharine starts to dictate his every move … and a late-night phone call insinuates that his father’s accidental death was not so accidental after all.
As Jeremy grows accustomed to the veneer of a fabulous life, so grows his need for answers—as well as the danger of immeasurable harm. Weaving together a murder mystery, sexual ambiguity, and characters with hidden identities and agendas , Nick Nolan offers readers a deliciously witty page-turner about the “puppet” who wishes only to be a real boy. Strings Attached is also a surprisingly heartfelt story about coming-of-age and coming out—not necessarily in that order.
A Q&A; with Author Nick Nolan
Question: Tell us more about 17-year-old Jeremy Tyler, and how you created your lead character? Nick Nolan: I set out to create someone with a dazzling character arc; someone that people–gay or straight–could relate to and root for. And I’ve always loved the sort of conflict that arises with a “fish out of water” storyline–watching how someone adapts to a cataclysmic life change is fascinating. And one’s teen years are inherently cataclysmic, so poor Jeremy is nearly overwhelmed. He goes from being poor and fatherless and hopeless to rich and fabulous and sought-after–but still miserable because he isn’t being himself. I believe that he’s a protagonist that most people will sympathize with.
Question: Strings Attached touches on themes of betrayal, greed, wealth, lust, beauty, love, and temptation. That is a lot for a young man to deal with. Would you explain how you weave these into the plot?
Nick Nolan: Lust is desire mixed with obsession, and many of the characters in this story can’t separate the two–sometimes to their great detriment. Each of these elements is related: those in possession of beauty and wealth can tempt those without to lust and temptation and greed, but seldom to love. These are all tied-up inside the human experience of “wanting.” In the book, Jeremy’s father tells him–in a dream–that one needs to be selfish with respect to what one needs, but to pursue judiciously that which one wants–it’s a paradox that few ever take the time to understand.
Question: Your book is a loose reinvention of the classic Pinocchio story. Would you tell us a little more about your connection with the Pinocchio tale, and your decision to work it into your story? Who is struggling with ‘strings attached’?
Nick Nolan: Pinocchio is a great tale, which is why everyone remembers it; I think it reflects the pan-human desire to become a better version of ourselves–the wish to become our ideal. So I studied the original story, written by Carlo Collodi many years before that famous cartoon movie. His book seems like a fairy tale, but scholars will tell you that it is steeped in social commentary–and so is my book. Jeremy really is a puppet of the adults around him–with the exception of Arthur, who plays the Blue Fairy; Arthur anticipates his every need, and at the end of the book when we find-out his true identity we learn how important his contact with Jeremy truly is. I have a villain who echoes the original antagonist in Collodi’s book, and I’ve made more plausible that wishing on a star business–I draw a parallel between that and the old Greek and Roman belief that the constellations were the gods, to whom they prayed for protection and guidance. And finally, there is a very believable twist on the original puppet’s nose-growing; something similar happens when Jeremy lies…but that’s a bit graphic for this interview.
Suffice to say that the Pinocchio parallels are there, but the similarities are subtle–and the story stands on its own without revealing them. And as for who is struggling with “strings attached”… at first one thinks that these bind Jeremy only, and then it becomes clear later on that everyone, except Arthur, in the story struggles against them, because every major theme in the story–beauty, wealth, love, betrayal, lust, greed and temptation–has consequences, or “strings,” attached to it.
Question: Nick, who is your target audience? Who would enjoy reading your book?
Nick Nolan: Initially my target audience was youngish gay men, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised that the appeal of Strings Attached crosses boundaries of age and gender and sexual preference… probably because it’s a coming-of-age story; this particular genre endures because those years are burned into every adult’s psyche. And who doesn’t relate to struggle, and misfortune, and learning to stand up for yourself? Enjoying a good read has little to do with how old you are or whom you sleep with–everyone loves a page-turner when the hero stands victorious at the end.
(This author Q&A; is adapted from an author interview conducted by Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor of Reader Views, and is republished with permission.)
Review
“Beautifully told, it grabs at your heart and emotions and does not let go…Nolan’s language is lush and his description is beautiful … His book is one to cherish and hold onto. We shall not see many like it.” –Amos Lassen, LITERARY PRIDE
“Strings Attached is a wonderful story…a multifaceted piece of fiction dealing with co-dependency, parent-child relationships, anger, violence, love, sexual exploration, and maturation…This is a fast read.” –Rich Wiesenthal, DIVERSITY RULES MAGAZINE
“Nolan’s debut novel is a kitchen sink of genres – coming of age, coming out, mystery, romance, erotica, even a dash of the supernatural – that add up to an impressive story about the passage from boyhood to manhood.” –Richard Labonte, BOOKS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Product Details
- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 471 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: AmazonEncore; Unabridged edition (March 9, 2010)
Here’s a quick free read (or text-to-speech listen) for your commute, just a little something to whet your appetite for the full release of J.A. Konrath’s latest Jack Daniels mystery, Shaken, which will be published initially in a Kindle exclusive by AmazonEncore this Fall and is available, at least for now, at a pre-order price of $2.99
Shaken (Teaser Chapters) (Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)
by J.A. Konrath (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $0.00 What’s this? |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
|
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
|
Daughter of Joy (Brides of Culdee Creek, Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
by Kathleen Morgan (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $12.99 What’s this? |
| Print List Price: | $12.99 |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| You Save: | $12.99 (100%) |
|
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
|
|
4.7 out of 5 stars (81 customer reviews)
|
|||||
by Steve Martini – Pre-order for May 25, 2010 Release
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| This price was set by the publisher |
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 655 KB
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
- Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (May 25, 2010)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
by Terry J. Fadem by Leigh L. Thompson
Product Description
Kindle Nation Daily Readers’ Alert, May 25: Kindle Books in the Media This Week
MSNBC’s Morning Joe: Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Early Show: Charla Krupp, How to Never Look Fat Again: Over 1,000 Ways to Dress Thinner–Without Dieting!
Oprah: Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Good Morning America: Louis Gossett Jr., An Actor and a Gentleman
Today Show: Danielle Staub, The Naked Truth: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewife of New Jersey–In Her Own Words
NPR’s Talk of the Nation: Scott Higham, Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery
Tavis Smiley Show: Victoria Rowell, Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva
Tavis Smiley: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations
Kindle Nation Daily Readers’ Alert, May 24: Penguin Backlist, Sex, Olen Steinhauer, The Half-Life of Kindle Freebies, and Other Highlights of the Kindle Movers and Shakers List
A few interesting tidbits from a cursory look at the Kindle Store Movers and Shakers List this morning: Kindle Store Bestsellers: Movers & Shakers (This highly volatile hour-by-hour list shows the titles from the top 400 Kindle store bestsellers that have experienced the greatest percentage jump in sales rankings during the past 24 hours. For instance, a title that has jumped from #7 to #2 will show a 250% climb).
First, now that the Kindle Store bestseller list has been divided into “paid” and “free,” we notice that titles moving from “free” to “paid” status, like this one, are counted as if entering the “paid” list for the first time, which almost inevitably would move them for the first 24 hours to the very highest levels of the Movers and Shakers List.
|
1. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 13 (previously unranked) |
 |
Every Thought Captive: Battling the Toxic Beliefs That Separate Us from the Life We Crave
 by Jerusha Clark (Author) 4.7 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
|
Next, we see that a swell of media buzz for Edgar finalist Olen Steinhauer, including a couple of New York Times mentions, has vaulted his titles into prized territory in the Kindle Store.
|
3. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 311%
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 54 (was 222 yesterday) |
 |
4.0 out of 5 stars (148 customer reviews) | 1 customer discussion
|
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5. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 230%
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 40 (was 132 yesterday) |
 |
4.4 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)
|
Tess Gerritsen and her publisher, Random House’s Ballantine Books, know how to work it in the Kindle Store. Her 2001 bestseller The Surgeon has risen from the operating table due to its hitting the value-proposition sweet spot with a $1.99 of the complete novel with bonus material
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7. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 128%
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 216 (was 494 yesterday) |
 |
3.9 out of 5 stars (89 customer reviews)
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Nothing brilliant to say about the next two titles, except they appear to be part of reader’s continuing embrace of brown-paper bag material in the Kindle Store. What, I shouldn’t notice this on the very day when Kindle Nation Daily
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13. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 63%
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 238 (was 388 yesterday) |
 |
4.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews) | 17 customer discussions
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14. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 62%
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 179 (was 290 yesterday) |
 |
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
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But that’s not the only good news for readers! There are increasing signs that the Kindle Store’s shelves are swelling more and more each day with quality backlist reads at fair prices. Many of these titles come from Penguin, which is in a great position for backlist sales through the Kindle, even if it is continuing to withhold its new releases.
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16. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 59%
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 309 (was 493 yesterday) |
 |
4.5 out of 5 stars (895 customer reviews) | 11 customer discussions
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20. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 50%
Sales Rank in Kindle Store: 272 (was 409 yesterday) |
 |
4.3 out of 5 stars (658 customer reviews)
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Amazon.com to Webcast Annual Shareholders Meeting
If you like to keep up with news, announcements, and cheerleading about Amazon — and the increasingly large portion of that news that relates in one way or another to the Kindle — you might enjoy tuning in to the live webcast of Amazon’s 2010 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held tomorrow (May 25) at 9 a.m. Pacific Time in Seattle.
Amazon.com to Webcast Annual Shareholders Meeting
SEATTLE, May 21, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced today that it will webcast its 2010 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held in Seattle on May 25, 2010, at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET.
The event will be webcast live, and the audio and associated slides will be available for at least three months thereafter, at www.amazon.com/ir.
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
As Amazon prepares for the meeting, its shares closed Friday at $122.72, down (with the rest of the market) from its all-time high of $151.09 last month, but up from about $66 when the company announced the Kindle 2 on February 9, 2009 (see comparison with Nasdaq and Dow indices below).
Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert for Monday, May 24: A New AmazonEncore Release Leads Dozens of Free Books in the Kindle Store
An AmazonEncore title leads the list of free Kindle Store offerings on this lovely Spring morning, not that there’s anything wrong with that:
Strings Attached (Kindle Edition)
by Nick Nolan (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $9.99 What’s this? |
| Print List Price: | $12.99 |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| You Save: | $12.99 (100%) |
|
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Closeted teenager Jeremy is sent to live with wealthy relatives after his mother enters rehab. Struggling to fit into the posh world of Ballena Beach, Jeremy joins the high school swim team, dates a popular girl, and begins to think he may have landed in paradise—until his great aunt Katharine starts to dictate his every move … and a late-night phone call insinuates that his father’s accidental death was not so accidental after all.
As Jeremy grows accustomed to the veneer of a fabulous life, so grows his need for answers—as well as the danger of immeasurable harm. Weaving together a murder mystery, sexual ambiguity, and characters with hidden identities and agendas , Nick Nolan offers readers a deliciously witty page-turner about the “puppet” who wishes only to be a real boy. Strings Attached is also a surprisingly heartfelt story about coming-of-age and coming out—not necessarily in that order.
A Q&A; with Author Nick Nolan
Question: Tell us more about 17-year-old Jeremy Tyler, and how you created your lead character? Nick Nolan: I set out to create someone with a dazzling character arc; someone that people–gay or straight–could relate to and root for. And I’ve always loved the sort of conflict that arises with a “fish out of water” storyline–watching how someone adapts to a cataclysmic life change is fascinating. And one’s teen years are inherently cataclysmic, so poor Jeremy is nearly overwhelmed. He goes from being poor and fatherless and hopeless to rich and fabulous and sought-after–but still miserable because he isn’t being himself. I believe that he’s a protagonist that most people will sympathize with.
Question: Strings Attached touches on themes of betrayal, greed, wealth, lust, beauty, love, and temptation. That is a lot for a young man to deal with. Would you explain how you weave these into the plot?
Nick Nolan: Lust is desire mixed with obsession, and many of the characters in this story can’t separate the two–sometimes to their great detriment. Each of these elements is related: those in possession of beauty and wealth can tempt those without to lust and temptation and greed, but seldom to love. These are all tied-up inside the human experience of “wanting.” In the book, Jeremy’s father tells him–in a dream–that one needs to be selfish with respect to what one needs, but to pursue judiciously that which one wants–it’s a paradox that few ever take the time to understand.
Question: Your book is a loose reinvention of the classic Pinocchio story. Would you tell us a little more about your connection with the Pinocchio tale, and your decision to work it into your story? Who is struggling with ‘strings attached’?
Nick Nolan: Pinocchio is a great tale, which is why everyone remembers it; I think it reflects the pan-human desire to become a better version of ourselves–the wish to become our ideal. So I studied the original story, written by Carlo Collodi many years before that famous cartoon movie. His book seems like a fairy tale, but scholars will tell you that it is steeped in social commentary–and so is my book. Jeremy really is a puppet of the adults around him–with the exception of Arthur, who plays the Blue Fairy; Arthur anticipates his every need, and at the end of the book when we find-out his true identity we learn how important his contact with Jeremy truly is. I have a villain who echoes the original antagonist in Collodi’s book, and I’ve made more plausible that wishing on a star business–I draw a parallel between that and the old Greek and Roman belief that the constellations were the gods, to whom they prayed for protection and guidance. And finally, there is a very believable twist on the original puppet’s nose-growing; something similar happens when Jeremy lies…but that’s a bit graphic for this interview.
Suffice to say that the Pinocchio parallels are there, but the similarities are subtle–and the story stands on its own without revealing them. And as for who is struggling with “strings attached”… at first one thinks that these bind Jeremy only, and then it becomes clear later on that everyone, except Arthur, in the story struggles against them, because every major theme in the story–beauty, wealth, love, betrayal, lust, greed and temptation–has consequences, or “strings,” attached to it.
Question: Nick, who is your target audience? Who would enjoy reading your book?
Nick Nolan: Initially my target audience was youngish gay men, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised that the appeal of Strings Attached crosses boundaries of age and gender and sexual preference… probably because it’s a coming-of-age story; this particular genre endures because those years are burned into every adult’s psyche. And who doesn’t relate to struggle, and misfortune, and learning to stand up for yourself? Enjoying a good read has little to do with how old you are or whom you sleep with–everyone loves a page-turner when the hero stands victorious at the end.
(This author Q&A; is adapted from an author interview conducted by Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor of Reader Views, and is republished with permission.)
Review
“Beautifully told, it grabs at your heart and emotions and does not let go…Nolan’s language is lush and his description is beautiful … His book is one to cherish and hold onto. We shall not see many like it.” –Amos Lassen, LITERARY PRIDE
“Strings Attached is a wonderful story…a multifaceted piece of fiction dealing with co-dependency, parent-child relationships, anger, violence, love, sexual exploration, and maturation…This is a fast read.” –Rich Wiesenthal, DIVERSITY RULES MAGAZINE
“Nolan’s debut novel is a kitchen sink of genres – coming of age, coming out, mystery, romance, erotica, even a dash of the supernatural – that add up to an impressive story about the passage from boyhood to manhood.” –Richard Labonte, BOOKS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Product Details
- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 471 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: AmazonEncore; Unabridged edition (March 9, 2010)
Here’s a quick free read (or text-to-speech listen) for your commute, just a little something to whet your appetite for the full release of J.A. Konrath’s latest Jack Daniels mystery, Shaken, which will be published initially in a Kindle exclusive by AmazonEncore this Fall and is available, at least for now, at a pre-order price of $2.99
Shaken (Teaser Chapters) (Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)
by J.A. Konrath (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $0.00 What’s this? |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
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Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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Daughter of Joy (Brides of Culdee Creek, Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
by Kathleen Morgan (Author)
| Digital List Price: | $12.99 What’s this? |
| Print List Price: | $12.99 |
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| You Save: | $12.99 (100%) |
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Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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4.7 out of 5 stars (81 customer reviews)
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by Steve Martini – Pre-order for May 25, 2010 Release
| Kindle Price: | $0.00 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| This price was set by the publisher |
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 655 KB
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
- Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (May 25, 2010)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
by Terry J. Fadem by Leigh L. Thompson
- “Free” in the Kindle Store refers, for now, to the price for download to US-based Kindles. Amazon adds charges for Kindles based beyond US borders.
- Originally posted to Kindle Nation Daily 5.24.2010.
- Click here (or type “kindle nation daily” in your Kindle’s Kindle Store search field) to have Free Book Alerts pushed directly to your Kindle 24/7 with a 14-day free trial to the Kindle edition of Kindle Nation Daily, the #1 bestselling blog in the Kindle Store.
- Click here to see RECENT KINDLE NATION DAILY FREE BOOK ALERTS
The best way to find out about these free listings right away, when they occur, is to subscribe to the Kindle edition of Kindle Nation DailyNo Kindle Required: Whether you are a long-time Kindle owner or you’ve just acquired an iPad and are filling it with ebooks for the first time or you are reading Kindle books on a PC, Mac, BlackBerry, iPhone or iPad Touch, you can get any and all of these titles absolutely free on your Kindle-compatible device of choice! Click here to download a free Kindle App for your device
Click here for Kindle Nation’s archive page with links for over 2 million free books!
Here are our other updated free promotional listings in the Kindle Store as of May 24:
Product Description
The Power of the Catalog: Kindle Undercuts Agency Model Pricing by Adding 5,000 Titles a Day, 80% of Them Priced Between $5 and $9.98
By Stephen Windwalker, Editor of Kindle Nation Daily – Originally posted 5.22.2010
- Click here to see underlying statistical analysis (Based on U.S. Kindle Store book catalog as of 5 p.m. ET 5.22.2010)
- Click here for related posts
It has been only 15 days since our last systematic look at the population of ebook price points in the Kindle Store, but there are two reasons why it makes a lot of sense to take a fresh look today:
- first, Amazon fulfilled its plan to restructure its Kindle Store bestseller lists and divide them into “paid” and “free” listings overnight last night; and
- equally important, during the past 15 days the Kindle Store catalog has experienced its most explosive growth ever, averaging over 5,000 new titles per day, with especially interesting concentrations by price point.
We’ll include all the usual statistical breakdowns below, but lets look at the headlines first:
- Of the 75,345 net new titles added to the U.S. Kindle catalog since May 7, nearly 80% (59,638) are priced between $5 and $9.98, inclusive, which is clearly the new salesworthy price range not only for backlist titles but for the vast majority of titles that are otherwise available in paperback.
- While the percentage of titles priced from $5 to $9.98 grew from 17.95% to 25.81% during the past 15 days, every other price range declined in relative percentage of the Kindle catalog.
- With the extraction of free books from the Kindle Store’s main bestseller list, representation from that same $5-$9.98 price range grew from 12 to 29 of the top 100 paid titles. Representation from the $9.99 price point grew from 16 to 36 of the top 100; $10-$12.99 grew from 5 to 17; and $13-$14.99 from 3 to 5.
- The number of top 100 paid bestsellers priced from 99 cents to $2.99 grew dramatically from 2 to 12 titles. This may be a foreshadowing indication that, as the effects of the bestseller list restructuring and the coming royalty restructuring for the Kindle’s Digital Text Platform play out, we may find roughly speaking that “$2.99 is the new free” in the Kindle Store, with prices in that general range standing out in greater and more appealing relief on the Kindle Store’s paid bestseller lists, while free books could get lost in the great and growing ocean of public domain titles.
Inside the numbers there are increasing signs of chinks in the dark armor of the agency price-fixing model publishers’ alliance. That 30 to 50% increase in ebook prices for which some publishers had been salivating, and with which Steve Jobs and Apple’s iBooks Store seemed such eager anti-consumer co-conspirators, is not looking like a winning hand. After peaking at 4.24% with the launch of the iBooks Store the first week of April, the overall percentage of U.S. Kindle catalog titles priced between $10 and $14.99 has declined steadily to 4.09% on May 7 and 3.66% on May 22. This decline, along with the data points that follow, may speak more powerfully about the agency model publishers’ actual sales experience than unsourced, anecdotal, and self-serving reports that publishers have been thrilled with their iBooks sales:
- Despite the fact that 22 of the top 100 paid Kindle bestsellers are priced at $10 and up, only 5 of those (and none of the top 25) are priced in the $13-to-$14.99 range. While it may be early to say that that higher ebook price range for putative bestsellers is utterly unsustainable, there are certainly some signs that publishers are suppressing their own sales at those price levels.
- There are also increasing signs that even the agency model publishers are being lured back to $9.99 by the promise of brisk sales there. Of the 36 top 100 bestsellers that are priced at $9.99, 13 are offerings from agency model publishers. It’s true that 8 of those are otherwise available in paperbacks at print prices lower than their $9.99 Kindle versions, but 5 of the 13 are $9.99 Kindle versions where the only print version available is a hardcover. As suggested in a previous post, we may be looking at the beginning of a trend in which these collusive price-fixing publishers demonstrate about as much honor and solidarity among their own ranks as they have previously demonstrated in their dealings with readers.
The extent to which Apple’s iBooks Store can save these agency model publishers from themselves, or sustain the agency model for ebooks much past 2010, is difficult to assess when the company has been dramatically silent or circumspect about either its actual sales of paid ebooks or the size of its paid ebook catalog. In the past, if memory serves, Mr. Jobs has suggested that Amazon wasn’t boasting about its Kindle sales numbers because there was nothing to boast about. While this may or may not have been a fair inference with respect to Amazon and the Kindle, we do know from a variety of sources the following:
- The growth in the Kindle catalog for the past 15 days surpasses the only reported figures for the overall size of the iBooks catalog.
- Kindle content was reported by publishing industry representatives to hold a remarkably high market share among all ebook content, estimated at over 85 per cent, late last year, and we have yet to see evidence of any dramatic decline in Kindle market share. When it comes to selling content, after all, catalog counts.
- While the current placement of the iBooks app among the top 3 free apps for the iPad is impressive enough, the fact is that it is a free app offered and branded by the device manufacturer, and given the relative catalog sizes involved it may well be that there are as many or more paid books being purchased and downloaded via the Kindle for iPad app (currently ranked around #12 among the top free iPad apps) than via the iBooks for iPad app.
There’s no doubt that the iPad and the continued development of its smaller Apple i-siblings will be game changers when it comes to ebook content, just as they will be game changers with respect to all kinds of other content and hardware. But it remains to be seen whether they will provide the leverage that publishers require to budge Amazon away from its Kindle mission or the mass Kindle-compatible platform that will ensure the success of that mission.
Here’s a price breakdown of the 587,104 book titles in the Kindle Store as of 5 p.m. EDT on May 22, 2010:
- 20,584 Kindle Books Priced “Free” (3.51%)
- 4,830 Titles Priced from a Penny to 98 Cents (0.82%)
- 55,901 Kindle Books Priced at 99 Cents (9.52%)
- 76,054 Kindle Books Priced from $1 to $2.99 (12.95%)
- 109,706 Kindle Books Priced from $3 to $4.99 (18.69%)
- 151,509 Titles Priced from $5 to $9.98 (25.81%)
- 56,059 Titles Priced at $9.99 (9.55%)
- 7,700 Titles Priced from $10 to $12.99 (1.31%)
- 13,803 Titles Priced from $13 to $14.99 (2.35%)
- 90,958 Titles Priced at $15 and Up (15.49%)
Here’s where we stood with the 511,759 book titles in the Kindle Store as of 9 a.m. EDT on May 7, 2010:
- 20,601 Kindle Books Priced “Free” (4.03%)
- 4,857 Titles Priced from a Penny to 98 Cents (0.94%)
- 53,936 Kindle Books Priced at 99 Cents (10.54%)
- 73,987 Kindle Books Priced from $1 to $2.99 (14.46%)
- 101,014 Kindle Books Priced from $3 to $4.99 (19.74%)
- 91,871 Titles Priced from $5 to $9.98 (17.95%)
- 54,342 Titles Priced at $9.99 (10.62%)
- 7,434 Titles Priced from $10 to $12.99 (1.45%)
- 13,489 Titles Priced from $13 to $14.99 (2.64%)
- 90,257 Titles Priced at $15 and Up (17.64%)
Here’s where we stood with the 487,715 book titles in the Kindle Store as of 9 a.m. EDT on April 7, 2010:
- 20,620 Kindle Books Priced “Free” (4.23%)
- 4,709 Titles Priced from a Penny to 98 Cents (0.97%)
- 46,360 Kindle Books Priced at 99 Cents (9.51%)
- 69,846 Kindle Books Priced from $1 to $2.99 (14.32%)
- 94,891 Kindle Books Priced from $3 to $4.99 (19.46%)
- 86,924 Titles Priced from $5 to $9.98 (17.82%)
- 53,705 Titles Priced at $9.99 (11.01%)
- 7,537 Titles Priced from $10 to $12.99 (1.51%)
- 13,124 Titles Priced from $13 to $14.99 (2.69%)
- 90,011 Titles Priced at $15 and Up (18.46%)
Here’s where we stood with the 480,238 book titles in the Kindle Store on April 1:
- 20,620 Kindle Books Priced “Free” (4.29%)
- 4,706 Titles Priced from a Penny to 98 Cents (0.98%)
- 43,993 Kindle Books Priced at 99 Cents (9.16%)
- 68,807 Kindle Books Priced from $1 to $2.99 (14.33%)
- 93,706 Kindle Books Priced from $3 to $4.99 (19.51%)
- 85,612 Titles Priced from $5 to $9.98 (17.83%)
- 53,124 Titles Priced at $9.99 (11.06%)
- 5,952 Titles Priced from $10 to $12.99 (1.24%)
- 14,158 Titles Priced from $13 to $14.99 (2.95%)
- 89,525 Titles Priced at $15 and Up (18.64%)
Here’s where we stood with about 463,000 Kindle Store titles on March 10:
- 20,125 Kindle Books Priced “Free” (4.34%)
- 2,588 Titles Priced from a Penny to 98 Cents (0.56%)
- 39,095 Kindle Books Priced at 99 Cents (8.44%)
- 64,105 Kindle Books Priced from $1 to $2.99 (13.84%)
- 90,580 Kindle Books Priced from $3 to $4.99 (19.55%)
- 84,055 Titles Priced from $5 to $9.98 (18.15%)
- 53,697 Titles Priced at $9.99 (11.56%)
- 5,793 Titles Priced from $10 to $12.99 (1.25%)
- 13,731 Titles Priced from $13 to $14.99 (2.96%)
- 89,448 Titles Priced at $15 and Up (19.31%)
And here’s where we stood with about 447,000 Kindle Store titles on February 25:
- 19,795 Kindle Books Priced “Free” (4.42%)
- 3,023 Titles Priced from a Penny to 98 Cents (0.67%)
- 36,370 Kindle Books Priced at 99 Cents (8.12%)
- 62,275 Kindle Books Priced from $1 to $2.99 (13.9%)
- 87,722 Kindle Books Priced from $3 to $4.99 (19.58%)
- 81,230 Titles Priced from $5 to $9.98 (18.13%)
- 55,269 Titles Priced at $9.99 (12.34%)
- 5,139 Titles Priced from $10 to $12.99 (1.15%)
- 9,331 Titles Priced from $13 to $14.99 (2.08%)
- 87,771 Titles Priced at $15 and Up (19.59%)
