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J.A. Konrath, who writes a series of popular thrillers, announced last week that if the electronic version of his book Origin made it into the Top 100 on Amazon’s Kindle store, he’d donate $500 to First Book. Origin cracked the Top 100 easily, and, true to his word, Konrath sent us a check.

The response on Konrath’s blog was spirited, and a number of authors commented that they’d like to do something similar. Inspired by this, they created the Indie Authors First Book Project: a group of independent e-book publishers who have pledged donations to First Book if their book cracks the Top 100 on the Kindle store.

“As writers, this cause is close to our hearts,” said Donna Burgess, author of Darklands. “So we just want to contribute as much as we can.”

So if you’re an e-reader (Can people be e-readers? Is that right?), pick up some of these titles. You’ll have a great new book to read, and you’ll be helping First Book get more books into the hands of kids in need.

I rarely write about the publishing industry, about eBooks and that of-the-moment stuff. Fact is, I’m not that knowledgeable about it. My writing process is pretty unique. Since I’m a major league luddite, I write all my books by nautical flag. I string them up on a schooner that I sail down the Hudson River. The editors at Random House all stand at their windows, eyes to spyglasses, and they take turns calling out what they see:

“Blue stripey one!”

“Like the Swiss flag, only with yellow instead of white.”

Meanwhile the great-great-grandson of Jack London, who interns there, jots it all down and translates.

“…and they all lived happily ever after…except for Darius…on account of the yellow fever.”

Once the book is transcribed, and my schooner finds a favorable tact, they send their edits back by morse code using a naval spotlight. And the process starts over.

It seems hard to believe, but I assure you it’s true. Which also means, of course, that this blog has not been written by me on a computer. I always whisper my thoughts into a tin can attached to a string, which travels across an alley, through a window and into another tin can that’s manned by my best pal Tommy McNulty. Tommy listens, memorizes, and then relays my blog post into his CB radio. A long-haul trucker with the handle Hokum N. Jokum, writes the words on cans of vienna sausages that he delivers to a convenience store about 45 miles south of Boise, ID.

Here’s where things get tricky. There is just one person who eats vienna sausages from this convenience store, a charming senior citizen named Beatrice who also happens to be the widow of Eugene “Porky” Lee of Little Rascals fame. Beatrice’s diet consists almost entirely of milk and vienna sausages, but her appetite is lilliputian. Hokum N. Jokum, who I’m told has the most elegant handwriting in the freight industry, can usually fit a single blog post on eleven cans of vienna sausages. Beatrice only eats one can a day, and since she’s on a fixed income, she only buys one can a day. So it’s usually a week and a half before she’s collected an entire blog post (and people say I should blog more often!). At this point, Beatrice hands the empty cans off to her milk man. He brings them home and gives them to his children to read, because he doesn’t believe in television and can’t be bothered to get a library card. These kids are major brats, not to mention eco-terrorists. The nasty little buggers invariably proceed to proclaim their love of pasteurization, which is about the worst thing you can say in front of your milk man father. Then they throw the cans out their bedroom windows.

The cans typically roll around the neighborhood for a day or two, until a boy scout named Bucky Weeks picks them up. Bucky has all the merit badges except for two. The first is the Swearing Badge, which is typically the easiest badge to procure, but Bucky’s lisp is severe and the “sh” sound is one he may never master. The second is the Vienna Sausage Badge, which no scout has ever earned. To receive the Vienna Sausage Badge, a scout must retrieve 15,000 empty cans of Vienna Sausages and mail them to 728 Garfield Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. At last count, there were only 14,327 cans of vienna sausages in distribution in the world, so this badge is basically a fool’s errand. Which makes sense, because it’s something I made up and slipped into the Boy Scout charter during a clandestine infiltration of their h

Going into the Austin SCBWI chapter’s annual conference this weekend — it was great, by the way — I was curious to find out how middle-grade novels are selling in ebooks, as that’s what I write. I’ve seen lots of articles in the Publishers Lunch enewsletter saying that ebook sales are rocketing in adult books and even taking off in young adult, but I suspected that middle-grade was behind. According to Egmont‘s Elizabeth Law, I was right. She said they’re not seeing noticeable ebook sales in middle grade.

Megg Jensen's self-published YA novel Anathema

Even though MG is slower to this technology, it’s great to see ebooks being embraced so quickly. As I wrote in January, sales of ereaders were stellar for the Christmas season, with many places selling out. Although I still love — LOVE — physical books, whether a book is printed on paper or eink, it’s still a story. And if this new technology is enticing more readers to stories, that can only be good.

The new technology also is changing the publishing landscape. With ebooks, it’s easier than ever — and less expensive — to self-publish books. Author J.A. Konrath has written about this extensively on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog. He had gone the traditional route before he started publishing his books on his own as ebooks, but he gives good arguments of why that doesn’t matter. YA author Amanda Hocking is an example, selling more than 185,000 ebook copies of her self-published novels.

Now, I’m not saying all writers should stop submitting to agents and editors of traditional publishing houses and go it alone. There are definite advantages to being signed by an agent and getting your work published by someone else. Let’s face it, most writers are not so great at the business end. And throwing an ebook on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever doesn’t automatically mean it will sell; there’s marketing, publicity … oh, and the book should be good (editors are invaluable) or repeat sales won’t be much.

But the advent of ebooks has made it easier for writers to take the publishing of their work into their own hands, and blogs and social networking make it easier to build publicity.

YA author Megg Jensen is trying just that with her novel Anathema. And so far, it looks like she’s off to a great start. The book launched on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday, she had already sold 50 copies. She’s hosting a contest right now where people can guess how many books she will have sold by March 11, and the main prize? An ereader. Now that’s what I call promoting future business.

What do you think? Would you be willing to read a book if it’s se

Fascinating article by Jeffrey Trachtenberg in today’s Wall Street Journal on the changing face of publishing and one Cinderella story.

Writer Karen McQuestion spent nearly a decade trying without success to persuade a New York publisher to print one of her books. In July, the 49-year-old mother of three decided to publish it herself, online. Eleven months later, Ms. McQuestion has sold 36,000 e-books through Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle e-bookstore and has a film option with a Hollywood producer. In August, Amazon will publish a paperback version of her first novel, “A Scattered Life.”