News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #132…
Mom-and-pop bookstores. There was an interesting little article in the NY Times about how mom-and-pop bookstores are surviving through online sales. I have no idea where the Times reporters got their information (another mysterious person slipping them a brown envelope like the one containing Trump’s tax report?), but it just sounds wrong. Why would customers order online from a mom-and-pop when they have a greater inventory elsewhere? I’m guessing that the owners of the mom-and-pop are offering some services the big retailers like Amazon can’t and won’t offer, if only personalized reading recommendations (actually, Amazon offers those). Readers, please enlighten me: how is online business saving the mom-and-pop bookstores?
Print versions. They seem hardly worth it! I had enough people tell me they preferred print over ebooks that I thought it would be a good idea to start adding print versions. The second edition of The Midas Bomb and Rogue Planet have print versions as a consequence. No one’s buying them. One reason is clear: bookstores (especially the big book barns) won’t stock them or order them until customers request them. When readers peruse Amazon, most probably ignore that a print version is available, or are turned away by the price (my print version prices are less than traditional publishers’, though). I’m thinking they are only useful to me for book clubs, book fairs, book signings, and the like, where the print version is a lot more tangible than a postcard that features the ebook cover. Readers, let me know what you think.
PDF policy. The “Steve’s Shorts” category of my blog will be solely for short stories from now on. I will offer free PDFs of novellas, but they will no longer be posted to the blog. To get a free copy, shoot me off an email query using this website’s “Contact Page.” (I respect your privacy. I will never divulge your email and will delete it in fact once I respond to your request.) BTW, you can freely copy these and pass them around—just don’t sell them or steal the content (copyright laws still apply). The PDFs offer a simple, cost-effective way to try out my storytelling. “The Portal in the Pines” will be the next free PDF. This novella is a tale about first contact. I’m accepting queries for a copy now. Available PDFs will always be listed on my webpage “Free Stuff & Contests.”
Review requests. Authors, please don’t waste your time querying me directly. (1) I do my “official reviewing” with Bookpleasures, so query that website—we have a large staff of reviewers. (2) Even for books I read for R&R and like enough to review on Amazon, I won’t write an Amazon review if the book has more than 50 reviews. While most of them might only say “great!” or “this is terrible!”, I won’t play Amazon’s game where reviews are fed into a meat grinder to spit out a useless ranking—said ranking isn’t believable even if the book has 1000 reviews!
Pricing. J. C. Penney proved the fallacy in trying to say all their merchandise is already on sale. Human psychology says people want high prices and then to receive discounts. Your department store will set astronomical prices and then offer sales where the consumer more likely than not just ends up paying a price the store should have posted to begin with.
Given this psychology, I’m planning a price increase on ALL my books in January 2017. They won’t be astronomical prices, but they will be higher. And then, occasionally, I’ll put a book on sale on Smashwords (I have to be exclusive on Amazon to do that, bless their greedy little souls, so I won’t do sales via Amazon anymore). FYI: you can buy .mobi (Kindle) formatted ebooks on Smashwords—take that, Amazon! (Print versions will never be on sale—they’re expensive because it costs more to produce and sell them, but you might be able to get a discount if you see me in a book fair or for a local book club.)
Hooray! You’re a Reader! We’re an endangered species, but if you’re perusing this newsletter and/or this blog, you must be a reader, so I thank you. I do have to wonder why you don’t buy my books, though. They cover a broad spectrum of genres and themes. I always write them to entertain you—that’s my first priority. Otherwise, why bother? I have no narcissistic need to be a famous writer. I just want to entertain some readers like you with my yarns. Check out my catalog—there’s something for everyone.
Rogue Planet. What a disappointment! I had so much fun writing this, and no one is reading it. I guess readers just don’t like the mix of hard sci-fi and fantasy elements. Too bad. Prince Kaushal is one of my best characters, and the story continues the saga started in the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” It also is a warning about what can happen when a despotic theocracy rules the world. Maybe that’s a problem too—is that setting is too close to home considering ISIS and Iran? Give it another look. You might like it.
In libris libertas!
