The podcast of the radio interview is available with Sohaib Awan is available right now. Give it a listen. Unlike the chat I posted previously, there are no embarrassing pictures of me, but you do get to hear me stammer and abandon perfectly good sentences.
Before you click and listen, though, I’d like to make one comment. This is the book I’m reading right now:
It has a female protagonist and sex, too. It’s also damn good. Just saying.
It’s the fourth day that Child of Fire has been on sale. Yes, I am still visiting Amazon.com twenty times a day. Yes, I’m still checking for new reviews. Yes, I’m still glancing at the “sales rank.”
No, you don’t need to tell me that Amazon.com’s sales rank numbers are pretty much meaningless. Really, don’t. I already know that. But it’s one of only two ways I have of judging public interest in my book (all copies at my library are checked out or on hold) so I keep looking at it.
Before the release, the sales rank was in the low six-figures. On release day and after, it hung around 3K. At this point, it’s ping-ponging between 10K and 15K. I don’t care that it isn’t a good judge of how the book is selling. It’s the only input I can look at.
Am I the sort of person who makes an excuse to wander into Borders to see if there are fewer books on the shelf? (Apparently.) Am I the sort of person to linger by the shelf because a guy is standing right next to my book with a paperback in hand? (Yes.) Did I see a complete stranger carry my book to the register? (No. Congrats on the sale, Seanan McGuire!) Am I the sort of person who buys other books to hide the fact that I’m basically skulking around the store? (Oh, hell yes. And Mastercard is damn grateful). Were there, in fact, fewer books on the shelf? (Yes!)
Anyway, it’s weird. As Betsy, my editor, mentioned in the chat I linked to earlier in the week, Del Rey acquired my book with a pre-empt–before financial deregulation sent the economy into a nosedive. There are expectations for this book, and it has come out at a time of nearly 10% unemployment.
Which… okay. Perspective: millions of out-of-work people around the world is a bigger problem than the possiblilty that my book will underperform, but I can’t help but link them.
I keep wanting input but it’s slowly fading. I’m going to have to shrug it off soon and put it behind me. Soon. Don’t I know that it’s pretty much out of my hands now? (Yeah, in fact, I do.)
In other news, I hope to finish the rough draft of book three tomorrow morning before the signing. We’ll see.
I’ll be signing copies of Child of Fire at Magnolia’s Bookstore on Saturday, 10/3, from 11 am to 1 pm.
Anyone reading this is welcome, of course. I plan to have my extrovert face on the whole time.
Andrew Wheeler discusses the pricing of e-books, especially the widely-held contention that they should cost less than ink-and-paper books because they cost so little to create.
As Wheeler points out, creating the file is a lot more complex than “Print to PDF” or a quick bit of copy pasta. It’s also not free to store or sell after the file has been created.
As an additional datapoint, someone on my LJ friends list (not named here because it’s a locked post) linked to this news report about the launch of Amazon.com’s Kindle in the UK market. Is that a good thing? Maybe not for authors, since breaking down the various rights for different markets into “World English” reduces the money writers get. (For the record, I sold world english rights when I signed my contract). Also Amazon.com has worked hard to force huge discounts from publishers, which limits my payments (assuming I earn out).
At which point I say “Hrm.” In the years leading up to my sale, I tried to learn as much as I could about publishing, but I skimped on ebooks. I don’t read them and I know sales are still quite small, despite the noise people make about them. Plus, every time you scan a discussion of electronic texts, somebody starts waving the skull and crossbones, and I’m not interested is chewing that meal for the thousandth time.
Always something new to learn.
Tomorrow is book day.
!!!!!
In a couple hours, my son and I will be going downtown for a little swim-time. After, I do not… not plan to drag his little behind to the Borders to see if the book is on the shelf yet. We’re planning to all do that tomorrow, on the actual day, and I don’t want my wife to feel left out (since she’ll be working at that time today.)
In other news, my pre-taped radio interview will air later today, if Fictional Frontier’s website is any indication. The radio station is WNJC 1350 AM in Philly, but the show will be webcast simultaneously starting 5pm EST. Here’s a link.
Don’t ask me how I’m doing, though. I’m feeling weird.
1) B&N demands authors link to their site or they will not order their books. Which… really, people? I should say that, months ago, my editor emailed me asking me to link to as many online booksellers as possible on my bookpage, which I had already done. However, unlike Amazon.com, B&N makes you go through Google to set up an affiliate account, and in general is a pain in the ass.
Still, link to our site or we won’t sell your book to our customers? What if their customers actually want that book?
2) Thorin Oakenshield as Nigerian phishing scammer.
3) Powell’s Books has only one copy of my book “left in stock at $5.50!” … four days before it is published.
4) Who knew? The London Review of Books has personal ads… and some are hilarious.
5) Our local library is having their semi-annual Friends of the Library book sale. I will not be going. Part of the reason I’m learning to read faster is to clear off some damn shelf space.
6) Finally, a confirmed sighting of Child of Fire in a brick-and-mortar bookstore. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1) Entrepreneurship and health care. “You’ve heard of learned helplessness? This is learned corporatism.”
2) Giant stuffed microbes. Just in case you wanted to cuddle up to the swine flu.
3) Want to receive free advance reader copies of Del Rey books to review on your blog? Fill out this form.
4) Limits of human endurance: in the muscles or in the brain? Crazy-interesting, and my wife will love this. via Jay Lake
5) Do you guys like these link roundups? Anything you want less/more of?
Fifth things fifth: Del Rey is giving away ten copies of Child of Fire. Here’s the money quote:
Send an e-mail with your name and address to delrey@randomhouse.com with Child of Fire in the subject line. E-mails must be received by Wednesday, October 7th. We’ll select ten e-mails at random to receive a special Advance Reader’s Edition of Child of Fire. Good luck!
It sounds like this isn’t the finished version, but the uncorrected “Docksiders” galley. It’s practically a collector’s item. And it comes pre-signed by me.
Sixth things sixth: Next Tuesday, 9/29, I’ll be participating in a live chat on Suvudu.com. Check it out.
Of course, everyone reading this is invited.
Seventh things seventh: My short essay on appearing at the San Diego Comic Con is featured in the latest Del Rey Internet Newsletter (but I can’t find it on the web site, so no link right now–mebbe later).
1) qotd: “I don’t mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface.” — James Nicoll
2) Best Fiction Generator Ever.
3) Reverse image search. Pretty cool.
4) What are the effects of killing all the pigs in Egypt? via Jay Lake
5) “Writers want to write short fiction and they’re going to keep finding ways to get them to readers. Writers seem willing to keep writing, even in the face of comparative commercial indifference.” Short fiction as loss-leaders for novels? As hobbyist activity? via matociquala
6) Real estate agent sends listing to sf/f lit agent for two and a half million dollar mountaintop retreat, because of course her millionaire genre writers will want to snap that right up. I wish she’d linked to the listing; I’ll bet Castle would look great perched on a rough wooden bench, staring thoughtfully into the morning mist.
6a) How to get rich as a writer? (geniusofevil, skip this part) Donald Maas’s free e-book has some interesting conclusions about the things writers do and don’t do to make a six-figure salary. I can’t help but wonder if he’d get the same results if he ran that survey again.
7) International Beard and Moustache Championships. Honestly, some of these make me a little sick.
8) Homes with cats 8 times more likely to contain mrsa. Not that it isn’t totally worth the risk!!! More interesting are the things listed that do not increase the germ risk.