In any case, here are your six free ebook leads for the week. I haven’t kept up on Random House’s free ebook releases so there are a few (I expect many of you are keeping an eye on this publisher’s Scribd channel yourselves):

The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry (PDF download) is also available as a free (for a limited time) Kindle edition:

The Templar Legacy has pretty mixed reviews on Amazon.com (click the cover image to see for yourself). It’s a Da Vinci Code sort of story. No cost to download and check it out for yourself though.

According to the Amazon.com description A Kiss of Shadows is “a supernatural fantasy with detective adventure and hot sex.” Sounds like a good escape to me especially since I’m not waiting for the last of Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series to come out.

Another book with mixed reviews according to the-online-bookseller-I-dare-not-mention (click cover to see reviews). This appears to be a YA science fiction adventure. If you are familiar with this author, the consensus seems to be that this book isn’t up to the same quality compared to her other books. On the other hand, it’s free for you to see for yourself.

A collection of short stories and poetry covering a number of genres including fantasy, humour, science fiction, and love stories (so I hear, I haven’t actually read this one either although people seem to be pretty happy with it over on, er, that site.

A science fiction novel of the military kind. A group of marines are stranded in an alien desert and have to get to safety 85 miles away across uncharted territory bristling with unfriendly locals (Wouldn’t they be using metric in the future, or will the U.S. always hold out on that? Sorry, it’s late as I write this and my mind is wandering.).

A fantasy novel complete with elves, goblins, centaurs, and giants (oh my!). I think this one is YA, but don’t quote me on that.

#1: I know naming characters is tough, but this is the first time I’ve heard of someone doing market research with Google adwords to name their character. It’s interesting to see that names do make a difference. Now I’m curious if there are class or culture biases at work with the names–too bad the author doesn’t reveal the names.

#2: Not sure what to make of this: Random House Canada and McClelland & Stewart are closing their rights departments and outsourcing subsidiary rights sales/management to an independent agency. From the article:

The Cooke Agency International will handle the selling and licensing of foreign rights, permissions, and dometic book club sales. The selling of first and second serial rights will be handled by the Publicity departments of each company.

#3: Got an iPhone or an iPod Touch? Love handmade, geeky stuff? Yummypocket over at Etsy makes some really neat holders for the iPhone including an Etch-a-Sketch holder and a cassette holder.

Subscribe to Random House’s audiobook newsletter (see right side) and they’ll give you three free audiobook downloads: Merrano of the Dry Country by Louis L’Amour, Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark, and Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades.

Karen Marie Moning has another book out in her Fever series, which means the first book in the series, Darkfever, is free again. Last year it was a free podiobook (still available); this year it’s a free ebook. I’ve enjoyed this series despite some pacing issues (not unusual in a 5-book series). I read the first two books in a single weekend!

Don’t forget to check out the sidebar on that page to see what other full books Random House has put up on Scribd. A quick look shows full copies of Queen of the Orcs: King’s Property by Morgan Howell, The Brass Bed by Jennifer Stevenson, and The Briar King by Greg Keyes as well as some other books I’ve previously mentioned.

Let me know if you read anything good.

• Stanza will be creating a free ebook catalogue for you to check out on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
• Suvudu (Random House) has started a free ebook library with free ebooks from science fiction and fantasy series.
• Tor.com will be giving away a free book (yet to be announced? I don’t have a direct link so you’ll have to look around a bit).

Those are just a few to whet your appetite. There are many, many more free ebooks to be had by going through the list of partners for Read an Ebook Week. Be sure to note that some sites are giving away a different ebook every day so it pays to hit some sites daily this week.

Let me know if you find anything good.