New eSerial—FIGGY-DOWDY

After a long hiatus, we are back in the business of publishing new fiction!

We've just posted a wonderful new eSerial, FIGGY-DOWDY, to our website. Written by author Frank Minogue, it's a very funny Sci-Fi story about crewman Harry Larkington of the HMS Panther, circa 1807. Part of the Royal Navy, the ship and its crew get sidetracked on their way to the Napoleonic Wars by about 300 years — to another galaxy! If only those bloody alien Vellies would just lay off the damn figgy-dowdy pudding, they might be able to take on Boney...

As you know, our eSerials are delivered daily by email as Adobe Reader files suitable for reading on a PC, Mac, PDA, e-reader, cell phone or other devices. Customers can choose between RSS and e-mail delivery, and best of all, each installment comes with a link that will send out the next installment immediately. This means that customers can read an entire eSerial in one sitting, if they so choose, or wait for the next daily installment.

The new FIGGY-DOWDY eSerial retails for $3.95, but you can get it now for just $2.77 as part of our "Better Delivery" promotion (which expires on 3/9/2008). To find out more or to sign up for a free trial subscription to the first four installments, click here.

This title will also be appearing soon in eBook and paperback formats, so stay tuned for further developments.

Virtual Tales Offers "Better Delivery & 30% Off" Promotion

It's a done deal! We've finally worked out all the bugs and our new website and improved eBook and eSerial delivery is now fully operational—and we're eager to show it all off!

Our new shopping cart now lets you download your eBooks immediately after purchase, so no more waiting for an e-mail to start reading your eBook! And we've really upped the ante with our eSerial delivery! Our eSerials used to be delivered just twice a week, but now they are delivered every single day. Plus, we've added RSS and HTML options, and best of all, you can now click a link to read the next issue immediately!

To showcase our service upgrades, we'll be offering a 30% discount off your entire purchase between Friday, February 22nd through Sunday, March 9th. Just add your selections to your shopping cart—the discount will automatically be applied.

There is no limit to the amount of titles that can be purchased at the discounted rate, and all eBook and eSerial formats are covered under the promotion. As Fictionwise Club Members normally get a 15% discount, and Kindle offers a regular 20% discount, this promotion offers the best value available anywhere—but only for a limited time. As always, visitors can sign up for a free trial to sample any story before purchasing.

Virtual Tales Appoints New Board Member

We would like to announce the appointment of Jake George to our Board of Directors! Mr. George will assume the new post of Director of Acquisitions, effective immediately. In addition, current Board member and Senior Editor June Diehl will assume the post of Editorial Director, effective immediately.

“Up to this point in our 18 month-history, we have relied on June to manage both our manuscript submission process and our new editor screening process,” said Dave A. Law, Chairman of Virtual Tales. “But our growth has been so strong that we are splitting these duties to ensure that we are able to recruit and retain talented editors while reviewing new manuscripts as promptly as possible.”

Ms. Diehl has over 20 years of technical and creative writing and editing experience. In addition to her work with Virtual Tales, she also serves as an editor, writing coach and teacher through ePress Online and various newsletters, writing groups and to individual authors. In her new post as Editorial Director, she will focus her efforts exclusively on recruiting and reviewing editor applications, administering and grading editor qualification tests, and making recommendations about new editor hires to the full Board of Directors.

Currently serving as a Senior Editor for Virtual Tales, Mr. George will now also assume responsibility for reviewing new manuscripts. He will assign those manuscripts that meet the initial submission requirements to genre review groups for further review and will present those manuscripts best suited for publication to the full Board of Directors. Mr. George is a published author of Native American novels and medical self-help works with over 20 years under his belt as an editor for the Department of Defense. He also runs Sage Words Services, a Native American owned and operated editing, proofreading and web design company.

"Jake has already made a significant contribution to Virtual Tales both as an editor and in our genre review groups for new submissions,” continued Law. "His organizational skills will help ensure that we review new story submissions as quickly as possible, and, with June’s help in recruiting more editors, we will be able to expedite the publication of new titles for our customers.”

The bottom line — this move means that we will be able to deliver more great fiction to you, faster and better than before!

Virtual Tales Scores Well in 2007 Preditors and Editors Reader's Poll

The results of the 2007 Preditors & Editors Reader's Poll are trickling in, and we are delighted to announce that Virtual Tales has placed third and fifth in the Best Book Store and Best Book Publisher categories for the 2007 Preditors & Editors Reader's Poll.

As many of you are aware, this poll is hosted annually by Anotherealm, a magazine for speculative fiction. It also runs the Preditors & Editors (P&E) website, which is best-known for its listing of known publishing scams. The annual P&E Reader's Poll is meant to be an acknowledgement of superior effort or achievement on the part of others within the publishing industry and is open for public voting between January 1-14th of each calendar year. Visitors can nominate writers, publishers, artists and works in a variety of categories.

"The category of Best Book Store is new for the 2007 Poll, and Virtual Tales ranked third on this list," said Dave A. Law, Chairman of Virtual Tales. "We also moved up in the Best Book Publisher category, from 11th place in the 2006 Poll to fifth place on the 2007 poll. When you consider that Virtual Tales opened its doors less than two years ago, It is gratifying to receive such positive recognition from authors, editors and other members of the publishing community—including readers and fans of our titles. We would like to thank everyone who voted for us."

About Preditors & Editors
Preditors & Editors (P&E's) sole purpose is to provide writers with information and contacts for the purpose of seeking publication of their work. Headquartered in Petersburg, Virginia, USA since July 1997, this resource is intended as a simple compendium for the serious writer, composer, game designer, or artist to consult for information, regardless of genre. It is best known for its listings about known scams or problems within the industry. P&E's ratings range from Highly Recommended to Strongly Not Recommended. It also hosts an annual Reader's Poll as an acknowledgement of superior effort or achievement in the publications industry.

New Website & eSerial Delivery Interruptions

What a way to start the year, with momentous good news and bad news, all at the same time!

The good news is that we were successful in launching our new, Joomla-powered website over the Christmas holidays. The new interfaces promises to provide eagerly awaited content management features such as the ability for customers and fans to post reviews, automated delivery of eBooks, enhanced shopping cart functionality and our long-awaited onsite Forum boards. Most of the feedback has been very positive, and we think it loads faster and looks great!

Of course, the dark side to all of this technological innovation has been that while we've been able to fully automate our eBook delivery, we've temporarily lost the ability to send out eSerial issues—including requests for sample subscriptions. We've heard from many of you about this, and rest assured that restoring this service is our number one priority at the moment.

We expect to have it restored sometime this week, and we will restart all effected subscriptions and free trial requests right where they left off.

We appreciate your patience and support, and we hope that once everything is fully operational that you'll agree it was worth the inconvenience!

Free Holiday Give-away Promotion

We're giving away a very special collection of holiday favorites as part of a special year-end promotion for the holiday season. Anyone who makes an eBook or eSerial purchase at the Virtual Tales website between Thanksgiving and New Year's will also receive a free collection of favorite holiday stories, including works from O. Henry, L. Frank Baum, Clement C. Moore and many others. The anthology is called A BATCH OF THE BEST HOLIDAY CLASSICS and each story comes with a foreword written by a Virtual Tales author or staff member, including P.S. Gifford, Kim Baccellia, B.J. Kibble and more.

“A BATCH OF THE BEST HOLIDAY CLASSICS will give readers everywhere easy access to some of the best-known and best-loved holiday stories written," said Dave A. Law, Chairman of Virtual Tales. “Many of these stories are hard to find, and customers can choose either an eBook or eSerial format, whichever is most convenient."

Virtual Tales has included 14 holiday stories in this volume, including The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, The Christmas Apple by Ruth Sawyer, The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson and even the the Nativity story as told by St. Luke in the Douay Rheims translation of the Bible. All of these works are in the public domain and are reprinted using text from Project Gutenberg. Customers can choose to receive an eBook version of this collection, or can spread out their holiday reading in 14 daily installments by choosing the eSerial subscription version.

You can get the first four stories in the collection absolutely free of charge by signing up for a free trial, so why not visit our website today and get started?

Now in Print: P.S. Gifford's CURIOUS ACCOUNTS OF THE IMAGINARY FRIEND

At long last, our wildly popular horror anthology, THE CURIOUS ACCOUNTS OF THE IMAGINARY FRIEND, is finally available in print. Written by noted up-and-coming horror author P.S. Gifford, CURIOUS ACCOUNTS is a warped and witty collection of horror shorts as told to the Imaginary Friend. Who is the Imaginary Friend? Why, he's the one you conjure up to talk with when you’re consumed with loneliness, greed or visions of imminent doom.

CURIOUS ACCOUNTS is available as a trade paperback through Amazon.com. The eBook version is available through the Virtual Tales website, MobiPocket and Fictionwise. It is also available as an eSerial exclusively through the Virtual Tales website.

Title: THE CURIOUS ACCOUNTS OF THE IMAGINARY FRIEND
Author: P.S. Gifford
ISBN: 978-1-897442-02-9 (Trade Paperback)
Available at: Amazon.com

ISBN: 978-0978255053 (eBook)
Available at: Virtual Tales, MobiPocket, Fictionwise