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and thick and fast they came at last
Dec. 15th, 2013 08:56 amI was just announcing happily to everyone that the book is now in print at Amazon (cheaper than at CreateSpace, who knew?) when I realized it's also available both in print and as an ebook at Barnes and Noble. It's also at Kobo, if anyone shops there. Doesn't seem to be at iTunes yet, and I am too exhausted to check anywhere else (but if you see it, let me know).
Now I just have to get people to actually buy the thing. I had an interesting discussion with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
penwiper26 the other day about book prices, starting with a quote from John Dunning about a book costing about the same as a good restaurant meal (or 3-4 Starbucks drinks, or a couple of fancy cocktails). But often there's a reluctance to purchase - not just my book, but any book that's not by an author you've sampled before, that's an unpredictable experience. And I do this too, hemming and hawing and saying wow, I'm just not sure. Whereas I've had bad or so-so meals before, even in restaurants that got good reviews, and it hasn't stopped me from eating out. You'd think people would be more willing to spring for a book, because it's a possession one doesn't digest and lose through excretion, and okay, I know some people never reread books, but the paper ones you can pass on (or even sell, possibly). And ebooks are pretty cheap: more like a Starbucks drink and a bagel, or less. Of course some people just simply don't have the money at all, but I'm talking about people who do.
So the reluctance to jump right in and buy what sounds like a good book I tend to attribute to one of several conscious or unconscious motives. One, books are time-consuming, so people wait till they're sure they'll have the hours available. Two, for paper copies there's the space issue; this is currently stopping me from buying anything but ebooks for the most part, and even though ebooks take up no space, I suppose if you already have a large catalog of them it feels like things are getting crowded on your reading device. Three, even though buying and reading a book is not exactly the equivalent to putting a political sign in your front yard or friending someone in public on Facebook, it does feel a bit like… taking something on. Adjusting the color shades of your soul a bit. Books are insidious, and they do things to you. You are what you eat, but even more you are what you read, and I have hesitated sometimes to be the person who reads that book, even if it's not the reason I have in the front of my mind for not pressing the Buy Now button. It's this weirdly profound act that's a lot less simple than saying "the spinach enchiladas, please."
But not that hard, okay? *g*
Now I just have to get people to actually buy the thing. I had an interesting discussion with
penwiper26 the other day about book prices, starting with a quote from John Dunning about a book costing about the same as a good restaurant meal (or 3-4 Starbucks drinks, or a couple of fancy cocktails). But often there's a reluctance to purchase - not just my book, but any book that's not by an author you've sampled before, that's an unpredictable experience. And I do this too, hemming and hawing and saying wow, I'm just not sure. Whereas I've had bad or so-so meals before, even in restaurants that got good reviews, and it hasn't stopped me from eating out. You'd think people would be more willing to spring for a book, because it's a possession one doesn't digest and lose through excretion, and okay, I know some people never reread books, but the paper ones you can pass on (or even sell, possibly). And ebooks are pretty cheap: more like a Starbucks drink and a bagel, or less. Of course some people just simply don't have the money at all, but I'm talking about people who do.So the reluctance to jump right in and buy what sounds like a good book I tend to attribute to one of several conscious or unconscious motives. One, books are time-consuming, so people wait till they're sure they'll have the hours available. Two, for paper copies there's the space issue; this is currently stopping me from buying anything but ebooks for the most part, and even though ebooks take up no space, I suppose if you already have a large catalog of them it feels like things are getting crowded on your reading device. Three, even though buying and reading a book is not exactly the equivalent to putting a political sign in your front yard or friending someone in public on Facebook, it does feel a bit like… taking something on. Adjusting the color shades of your soul a bit. Books are insidious, and they do things to you. You are what you eat, but even more you are what you read, and I have hesitated sometimes to be the person who reads that book, even if it's not the reason I have in the front of my mind for not pressing the Buy Now button. It's this weirdly profound act that's a lot less simple than saying "the spinach enchiladas, please."
But not that hard, okay? *g*
