It's On The Loose!
May. 30th, 2008 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_pretentiousYou know those final scenes in nature documentaries when the animal that's been raised in captivity gets released into the wild, and the music swells, and the voiceover narrator says something like, "The future remains uncertain for keystone predators like little Spiky," and you cheer the creature on--Go, Spiky, Go!--as the credits roll? Well, okay, maybe not everybody cheers the creature on, but I always do.
That's kind of how it feels to look for the first time at my novella for sale at the Drollerie Press Bookshop and Mobipocket.
My book has now been released into its new habitat, one of the habitats for which it evolved. Manuscripts shouldn't have to live in captivity, in proverbial trunks--they should roam wild in bookstores and readers' brains. Fortunately, Closing Arguments is not a keystone predator, or any other sort of beast that you can best help by keeping your distance. Walk right up and pet it. Take it home with you. It won't eat any of your other books, I promise.
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jeneralist asked, "Where's the best place for your friends to buy it to help it go big?" It was a kind thing to ask. I think every place where it'll be on offer has some advantage. If you buy it directly from the publisher, that gets the middleman out of the way of my eventual royalties, but Mobipocket, Fictionwise, and Amazon have more reach, and good sales figures through a big bookseller seem to breed more good sales figures. (Closing Arguments will go up on Fictionwise sometime next week, and I'm not sure about Amazon's timing, but that'll be soon, too. They carry all the exotic formats, which apparently means they always have a lag.)
What would help at least as much as buying it would be rating or reviewing it. The three big online booksellers have their various ways for customers to give public feedback. If you enjoy Closing Arguments, please consider saying so on one of their webforms.
Lots of friends have said they've never bought an e-book before, and that the whole process seems very intimidating. If you want a user-friendly way to buy Closing Arguments, and you don't want to have to read it on a screen, your best bet is to go directly to Drollerie Press and buy it in Adobe PDF, which you can then print. It's 116 pages long, fairly easy on your printer. If you run into difficulty as a newcomer to the world of e-books, you can ask for help here or email me at first name dot last name at gmail dot com. If I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does.
Thank you all so much for cheering me on in this process. Many of you have been doing your equivalent of Go, Spiky, Go! for years now. It's meant the world to me to have such great support.
That's kind of how it feels to look for the first time at my novella for sale at the Drollerie Press Bookshop and Mobipocket.
My book has now been released into its new habitat, one of the habitats for which it evolved. Manuscripts shouldn't have to live in captivity, in proverbial trunks--they should roam wild in bookstores and readers' brains. Fortunately, Closing Arguments is not a keystone predator, or any other sort of beast that you can best help by keeping your distance. Walk right up and pet it. Take it home with you. It won't eat any of your other books, I promise.
jeneralist asked, "Where's the best place for your friends to buy it to help it go big?" It was a kind thing to ask. I think every place where it'll be on offer has some advantage. If you buy it directly from the publisher, that gets the middleman out of the way of my eventual royalties, but Mobipocket, Fictionwise, and Amazon have more reach, and good sales figures through a big bookseller seem to breed more good sales figures. (Closing Arguments will go up on Fictionwise sometime next week, and I'm not sure about Amazon's timing, but that'll be soon, too. They carry all the exotic formats, which apparently means they always have a lag.)What would help at least as much as buying it would be rating or reviewing it. The three big online booksellers have their various ways for customers to give public feedback. If you enjoy Closing Arguments, please consider saying so on one of their webforms.
Lots of friends have said they've never bought an e-book before, and that the whole process seems very intimidating. If you want a user-friendly way to buy Closing Arguments, and you don't want to have to read it on a screen, your best bet is to go directly to Drollerie Press and buy it in Adobe PDF, which you can then print. It's 116 pages long, fairly easy on your printer. If you run into difficulty as a newcomer to the world of e-books, you can ask for help here or email me at first name dot last name at gmail dot com. If I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does.
Thank you all so much for cheering me on in this process. Many of you have been doing your equivalent of Go, Spiky, Go! for years now. It's meant the world to me to have such great support.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 04:18 am (UTC)It won't eat any of your other books, I promise.
Are you *positive* about that? I mean, it's just being released now -- how do you know, for sure, how it'll react around other books? Shouldn't I wait until it's had some time in the wild first, to be sure it can really handle that kind of freedom? ;)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 04:30 am (UTC)Its dietary habits are quite narrow, really. It only eats electrons and 8 1/2 x 11" paper.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 04:35 am (UTC)Henceforth, I hope all your books have cute little nicknames like "Spiky".
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 05:53 pm (UTC)I still think the best title I've ever come up with is for the novella you beta-read, Atlantis Cranks Need Not Apply. I'd be hard pressed to come up with a nickname as catchy as the real thing.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 04:35 am (UTC)Yay!!
Will be buying tomorrow. Too tired today to accurately enter debit card numbers.
again,
YAY!!!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 12:47 am (UTC)With my knee being bum today, I've spent a good bit of time reading my copy while icing it, I'm pleased to have it to help me pass the time!
(I love the post-it notes!)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 07:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 12:18 pm (UTC)I may well begin with my "boss" at Citizens Advice tomorrow. He is a Big Geek, and may be a good first sounding board.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 07:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 06:24 pm (UTC)I was amused to read y'all's posts about your adventures in homeownership. (English really needs a 2nd person plural.) We spent a similar weekend in our basement recently, though with fewer spiders.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 07:26 am (UTC)Proud parents
Date: 2008-05-31 01:43 pm (UTC)Re: Proud parents
Date: 2008-05-31 05:48 pm (UTC)Just had another bowl of that oxtail soup. Thank you both for coming to the rescue. I don't know what we'd have done without you.
Re: Proud parents
Date: 2008-06-01 07:22 pm (UTC)We will not be burning down the house, not even if you send us many Post-it Notes asking us to.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 06:30 pm (UTC)At some point, for one of the later novellas I have planned, I need to pick your brain about social work.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 06:59 pm (UTC)How's your cold-from-hell (the frozen bit probably)/possible pneumonia doing?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 07:11 pm (UTC)The probably-pneumonia is better. My fever's mostly gone, and the high points rarely get over 100. I can eat actual food again. As long as I don't try to exert myself physically, I feel okay, aside from the all-encompassing coughing fits. If I try to carry the baby to the changing table, though, or climb the stairs, or carry a dish to the kitchen, sometimes I have to go lie down for half an hour before the room stops spinning. For a couple of days, my milk dried up, which was awful for all three of us, but it's back now.
All of that would annoy me more if I didn't realize how close a call I had. The first time we arrived at the ER, my blood pressure was 80 over nothin'. That could have gone badly. I'm feeling pretty lucky.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 06:34 pm (UTC)Glad the pneumonia is better. It sounds like it got pretty alarming. Take care of yourself. I'm sure you've heard this lecture already but you can't take care of your little one if you don't take care of yourself.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 01:27 pm (UTC)huzzah!
Date: 2008-06-02 11:13 pm (UTC)Re: huzzah!
Date: 2008-06-02 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 12:59 am (UTC)1. Closing Arguments is very, very good and you should read it now if you haven't yet.
2. Are there other stories with the same characters? There are threads left dangling in this one.
3. It didn't go where I expected from the blurb. Is the blurb something you wrote or something the publisher or mobipocket wrote? (If the first or even the second, I'll reread looking for undercurrents I missed the first time...aw, who am I kidding: I'll reread it regardless.)
And that's all I'm going to say on a web site where people who haven't yet read the story might be reading...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 08:55 pm (UTC)1. Would you consider telling Mobipocket you liked it?
2. Jane's story, Atlantis Cranks Need Not Apply, will be coming out sometime this fall. I have bits and pieces of several other Rugosa stories, and my current work in progress is Ria's story. If all goes well, there'll be a print volume around the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009 collecting the Bob, Jane, and Ria novellas.
3. My editor wrote the blurb. Blurbs are much harder than you'd think, especially since the blurb that's most faithful to the book isn't always the blurb that's most likely to entice a stranger to give the story a chance.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 07:24 am (UTC)2. I think I saw part of this story in progress and heard the concept. And having "met" Jane in Closing Arguments, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it comes out.
3. Ah.
Congratulations
Date: 2008-06-06 04:02 pm (UTC)Good luck with your novella! ("Go, Spiky! Nail that bunny! Yay!")
I had a poetry discussion going on my blog, and someone directed me to your LJ. You seem like a fascinating person, so I have added you to my Friends list. You might want to drop by my blog -- I do a Poetry Fishbowl every month, and June's should be sometime next week.
Re: buying.. but... hehe
Date: 2008-06-11 03:59 am (UTC)