Item: Newsletters.  I subscribe to a few.  They come via old-fashioned email.  I’ve noticed lately that some are starting to say something like “For the full graphics experience, this newsletter has a web version.” Or “This newsletter continues on our website.”  Ha!  I knew the day would come.  When I started this newsletter, I opted to make it just a regular feature in my blog (there’s no graphics experience involved either, so everything loads nicely—I don’t do HTML and I don’t make videos).

I never like to see my email in box fill up with fluff and stuff and assume other people don’t either.  Smart readers and writers know that email newsletters are often used to generate email lists and those lead to that spam avalanche (the newsletters I subscribe to don’t do that, though).  I generally don’t collect email addresses for advertising purposes.  That makes it more difficult sometimes for PR and marketing but preserves my sanity.  (If you use the contact page at this website to request a free ebook in return for an honest review, your email is used only once to gift you that ebook—for other ebooks you want to review, you have to make a separate request.)

Item: Heavy-fisted Apple.  This is non-productive whining, so you can ignore it and go on to the next item if you’re a reader (as opposed to reader/author).  I recently had to “upgrade” some covers of my ebooks on Smashwords because Apple (they’re only one retailer Smashwords distributes to, mind you) only handles ebooks now with a certain number of pixels in the book’s cover.  Amazon never complains about covers.  I don’t know why Apple can lord it over everyone else in the publishing business.  And people think Amazon’s bad!  (That perception is basically due to Big Five publishers, of course.)  Obviously, Apple gets away with what it can until the Justice Department steps in, like they did with that price-fixing collusion with the Big Five.  Pox on their house!  Hopefully the new Samsung smart phone smacks them around a bit—they’re too uppity for my taste.  (FYI: the only Apple product I use in my house is iTunes.  It’s not connected to the iStore—or whatever it’s called—because I only use it as database software for my music library.)

Item: Endorsements.  I’ve been noticing a lot of them.  Lee Child here, James Patterson there, Douglas Preston everywhere, Douglas, Douglas, Douglas, Lee, James, others….  Their endorsements are usually zero-content one-liners (most are) that NEVER influence my book buying (in fact, they just might turn me off).  Although I love to learn from reviews of my own ebooks (that assumes an honest and complete review), I generally don’t pay attention to reviews when I’m buying either.  Smart consumers of ebooks should learn to use the “peek inside” feature on Amazon—it’s there to give you a taste of the author’s style.

Another way to do that?  Join a lending service like Amazon Prime, Oyster, Scribd, and so forth—most have a lease-and-buy-later feature where you only pay full price if you read the full ebook.  Of course, smart consumers will just buy complete indie ebooks—they’re reasonably priced and often give you more hours of entertainment than a Pay-On-Demand movie that’s the same price (better stories too, because Hollywood usually can’t tell a decent story).  Beware of swindles, though—see the next item.

I don’t do endorsements.  I’m probably the worst connection you can have on LinkedIn where people endorse me (thank you, by the way).  The protocol, I believe, is that I endorse back.  Huh?  I endorse authors by reading their books and writing a review (assuming their book had some redeeming qualities).  By your words I shall know ye.

I doubt that the afore-mentioned Big Five authors read the books they endorse, but I’m paranoid: I think this rash of endorsements is akin to those magazines where doctors pay to appear as “really great doctors.”  In other words, something designed to keep the club exclusive and perpetuate the myth that only traditionally published books are worth readers reading time.  ‘Nough said.

Item: When is a Series not a Series?  There’s been an interesting thread on Indies Unlimited.  I really don’t care for that website (I’ve explained why in earlier posts), but the authors participating in the thread aren’t the guilty parties, so I chipped in.  One reader/author was complaining that books that don’t finish (technically, they don’t have a climax and denouement), and continue the story in another .mobi or .epub file that you have to buy, are a wee bit of a swindle.  Right on!  As a reader, I hate that.  The books in an honest series (or trilogy, which is just a series with three books) should stand alone—the stories should end.  Throwing a few chapters from the next book in at the end to entice doesn’t obviate that need to end the story.

I guarantee you that all my ebooks can stand alone.  Sure, in a trilogy or series, you might increase your enjoyment by doing them in order, following the evolution of the characters (that’s bound to happen), but each new book should be a separate story about those characters (or some of them).  I’ve come across reviewers who don’t want to review one of my ebooks because they’d be jumping into the middle of a series.  They don’t know me.  I design every novel to be a self-contained story because I think that any author who doesn’t do that is just writing the literary equivalent of soap opera.  By the way, that’s NEVER permitted by the Big Five, so be a pro.  ‘Nough said.

Item: Fantastic Encores!  This short story collection joins Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java as two inexpensive ways to get to know my writing.  Both are available on Amazon for $0.99.  (If you can’t afford that, I feel for you, sister and brother—either you don’t read or you eat too many McDonald’s dollar meals).  By the way, if you like these sci-fi short stories, more speculative fiction can be found in Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape for a few bucks more (there’s a lot more content in it).  All good spring and summer reading.

Item: No takers yet.  The “Señoritas Peligrosas” (“Dangerous Misses”) offer has had zero response. (I guess buy-one-and-get-one-free campaigns don’t work for ebooks?)  These ebooks feature young, strong, smart, and energetic Hispanic women.  They are Jayashree “Jay” Sandoval from Full Medical; Alicia Castro from Angels Need Not Apply; and María José “Mary Jo” Melendez from Muddlin’ Through.  Buy one of these and forward me a copy of the Amazon confirmation via email, and I’ll send you another of ebook from this list for free.  This offer holds until the end of May.  Again, great spring and summer reading.  (I had other offers in mind, but if the response continues to be underwhelming, they won’t happen.)

Item: Phew!  I just sent More than Human: The Mensa Contagion to my beta-readers.  This is one case where I had lots of material and had to cut judiciously.  It has three parts, “Contagion,” “Colony,” and “Contact” (there wasn’t enough for a trilogy, though).  I had so much fun with it that there might be a sequel.  This is my first major sci-fi novel since the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.”  Mary Jo Melendez and Chen and Castilblanco have kept me busy.  I apologize to sci-fi fans everywhere.  Of course, C & C will get more exposure—their new case Family Affairs will be published this fall.

In elibris libertas….  

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2015 at 4:00 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.