Sam Hain Discover New Authors Program

Sam Hain, distant cousin of Sam Bucca, has announced a Discover New Authors program, in which four eBooks have been made available on their website “for FREE!” as they say.

Visit their site and you can download My Fair Captain by JL Langley, The Bounty by Beth Williamson, Don’t Let Go by Sydney Somers and Winter’s Daughter by J.C. Wilder. In 2009, they promise one new title every Wednesday from a new author. FREE!

Well, sort of. As I pointed out in my reply, it’s not really “FREE!” because it’s only half the book. There’s a link to buy the rest if you like it, and surely half of a book is more than enough to decide if you want to keep going or stop, with nothing lost but a little bit of time. So you’ll read the first half and wonder what happens next while evaluating whether you like it enough to buy the finale.

So it’s not really “Free.” Or even “discounted.” It’s half a book. It’s more than “sample chapters” but not entirely a “Free book.”  So what to call it? I mean, not that I’m in charge of marketing decisions but I’m totally pondering this like it’s my business. Hm. A Big Fat sample? More than your standard free sample? Tapas: somewhere between a free sample and a whole entree?

Then it came to me: Francium.

FrThis is the Sam Hain Francium Discover New Authors Program. Or, “Francium” for short. Why?

Because it’s the second rarest element on the periodic table? And Sam Hain is among those rare entities: a commercially viable, professionally-behaved e-publisher? With a website that doesn’t feature a buffet of typos and non sequiturs?

No. (Francium is also the least stable of the elements, and that does not at all apply to Sam Hain).

Is it because Francium does all sorts of wildly kinky chemical things, like coprecipitate with silicotungstate, and doesn’t “silicotungstate” sound like something mildly porny? And Sam Hain is known for the kinky Hott Sexxoring Stories?

No. (But “Silicotungstate” was totally fun to type and say out loud, as was “coprecipitate.”)

Is it because Francium was invented by Marguerite Perey, a female scientist at the Curie Institute? And Sam Hain is founded and run by a team of women (plus Scott Carpenter, who I hear likes to choke a chicken on his business cards)?

Nope.

You probably already guessed – the periodic symbol for Francium is “Fr.” Which is half of the word FREE! So – half a free book to discover new authors? Francium.

No, no, Sam, don’t thank me. I’m here all week.

Comments are Closed

  1. rebyj says:

    bahahahahaha..girl what did you put in your cheerios this morning?

  2. JaneyD says:

    Baen Books has done this for years now.

    They will have half a book up on the Baen website, and should you get tired of reading on screen, there are convenient links to download or buy a hard copy.

    The trouble is, they usually have a lot of typos on the website version. Some punctuation is screwed up by the format change from MSWword to the website, which can be a minor annoyance. (Dashes left out, words running together, italics missing, can make a good book read badly.)

    OTOH it’s a fantastic marketing ploy that’s upped their sales.

    They also have BAEN’S FREE LIBRARY. You can download WHOLE books for free, no catch.

    No catch except that you’ll likely get hooked on the writer and want to buy other titles! But hey, we do that anyway!

  3. J.C. Wilder says:

    I need some aspirin after reading that…my wittle bwain hurts…

  4. Ocy says:

    I think I just learned more about Francium than I did in three years of high school chemistry.

    spamblocker: not87.  Uh, no, not yet.

  5. More drugs for Miz Sarah, stat 🙂

  6. Jessa Slade says:

    Yeah, somebody broke into the Halloween candy stash a little early.

    I think I just learned more about Francium than I did in three years of high school chemistry.

    This site has also taught me more than high school health class, junior high civics or grade school schoolyard tauntings. Thanks for continuing to expand our horizons, SB.

  7. Castiron says:

    Gee, you sound like you’ve gotten about as much sleep as I have lately :-)….

    (And I’m geek enough that it works for me!)

    (body25?  hmmm….)

  8. clessiesgirl says:

    I thought you called it Francium because of its half-life 🙂

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