Category Archives: Soapstone

Feb 28

There may not be such thing as a free lunch, but …

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In 2007, for National Novel Writing Month, I wrote a book called “Soapstone,” a work of fiction that drew heavily on my experiences on foreign mission trips to Kenya. I thought about marketing it, but I knew it wasn’t perfect, and the former professor of mine who promised to look at it and give me advice never did so. The following year, a publish-on-demand concern gave NaNoWriMo participants the chance to get a free proof copy, and I thought it might be fun to self-publish the novel.

It has been fun. I’ve probably sold about 100 copies – 35 online and the rest in person. I have been given to referring to it lately as “my bad self-published novel,” and it’s the nature of self-published stuff to be a little self-indulgent, but the truth of the matter is there are parts of it and things about it that I’m quite proud of. I also think I have another novel in me somewhere, one that maybe I can get more serious about editing and publishing.

Sales have slacked off lately, and I haven’t been actively trying to market the thing. I was debating at the end of 2011 whether or not to drop my publisher’s “pro plan” (you pay an annual fee in return for higher per-copy profits and other benefits), but they did away with the pro plan and upgraded everyone, saving me the decision.

Meanwhile, of course, I’ve bought a Kindle . I’ve enjoyed it, and I’ve benefitted greatly from various offers of free or deeply-discounted books.

I had set “Soapstone” up for Kindle sales way back when it was first published, but I don’t think I’ve sold any that way. Now that I’m a Kindle customer, I decided the book might be a dollar or two overpriced, and that led to me going onto the Kindle publishing site and making some changes in how the book was set up there. In addition to reducing the price, I switched the book from one marketing plan to another, and the second plan allowed me to give the book away for free for up to a certain number of days each year, if I think I can get some promotional benefit from it.

So I’ve decided to celebrate Leap Day, and how much I’m loving my Kindle, I will offer “Soapstone” for free all day tomorrow, Feb. 29. Amazon’s sales periods are based on the Pacific time zone, so the sale will run from midnight to midnight PST, or 2 a.m. to 2 a.m. Central time.

By the way, the changes I made this week also mean that the book can be borrowed anytime for free from the Kindle Owners Lending Library if you have an Amazon Prime account.

If you don’t own a Kindle yet, you can still benefit from this. There are free Kindle apps that will allow you to read Kindle books on your smartphone or your desktop or laptop computer. While I was waiting for my tax refund to arrive so that I could order my Kindle, I used the Windows Phone app to read two Jules Verne novels on my smartphone, and it was actually a lot better than I’d imagined it would be. (The Kindle is still way better.)

Please feel free to pass this deal along to your friends with Kindles. I have been following some of the web sites that list and link to free Kindle books, and I’m not sure exactly how they work, so I don’t know if my book will turn up on any of them or if I need to specifically ask them to list it. (If it’s the latter, I may have another free day later in the year, and promote it properly.) It will be fun to share the book with a wider community.

All I ask in return is that if you decide to buy a Kindle, you come here and click on one of the Amazon links on this site. It won’t affect your price, but I’ll get a commission.

 

Jul 30

52 short stories can’t all be bad

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If you have aspirations to creative writing, you might want to watch this. (Occasional salty language.) If anyone alive speaks from authority on this topic, it’s Ray Bradbury:

“Don’t live on your … computers and all that crap. Live in the library.” Ouch.

I need to do a lot of what he’s prescribing.

By the way, if you go to the YouTube page for the video, there’s an option to download. Click the description under the video to expand it.

Hat tip to Mental_Floss magazine.

“I’ve never worked a day in my life ….” he said. “I want you to envy me my joy.”

Mar 05

A favor to ask

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If you have recently purchased one or two copies of my novel “Soapstone” from anyone other than Amazon.com, I have a favor to ask.

I recently signed up for the “expanded distribution” channel from CreateSpace, my publish-on-demand provider. This means that my book is now available from outlets and sources where it was not previously available.

My most recent sales reports show that I’ve sold a couple of copies through expanded distribution, for the first time. If you bought one of them, please drop me a line or leave a comment below (anonymous is fine if you prefer) to let me know where, specifically, you bought it. All I’m looking for is the name of a web site or store.

Thanks!

Dec 11

Price hike

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Well, we have good news and bad news about “Soapstone,” my self-published novel.

The good news is that CreateSpace, the Amazon-owned publish-on-demand company through which I self-published the novel, now offers expanded distribution, meaning that for the first time the book can be offered by independent bookstores, libraries, and online book sites other than Amazon.

Because my book is already set up under CreateSpace’s “pro” plan, this expanded distribution doesn’t cost me anything.

But the bad news is that the profit margin on these new markets is low. Very low. So, reluctantly, I have increased the online price of the novel from $11.95 to $12.95, and even that gives me a very small amount per copy when sold through any of these new markets.

The nice thing is that when I order copies to sell in person, I will still be able to get them at the same price as in the past, and so I think I will keep selling in-person copies at the old price.

Speaking of libraries, the book has already been available for many months at the library here in Shelbyville, to which I donated a copy.

Sep 24

Book report

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Well, I whined a couple of weeks ago about not having sold any novels in a while, and since that time I’ve sold two. I’m not sure whether it was the whining or whether it was my post on the health care Bible study a day later, which was linked to and resulted in a spike in visitors. Or maybe it’s just coincidence.

I went to an economic outlook conference today in Murfreesboro. Most of the speakers talked about the economy, but at one point they gave out an award to an elderly businessman and he gave an entertaining but much-longer-than-scheduled acceptance speech. It turns out that at one point, H. Jackson Brown was doing the advertising for the award winner’s car dealership in East Tennessee. That led to the award winner telling the story of how Brown ended up, almost by accident, self-publishing, and then selling, “Life’s Little Instruction Book.” It made me feel a little inadequate, and a little guilty, at my offering and at how little I’ve done to promote it.

Sep 08

At a standstill

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Why is it everyone who comes to Africa has to write a book about it? One silly beggar even dedicated his to me! Never came back or I’d have shot him in the pants!
– Johnson (played by Torin Thatcher) in “The Snows of Kilamanjaro”

I’d been meaning to post something about the novel for several days now, and when I heard that line on TCM just now it reminded me.

A couple of weeks ago, when I spoke to my nephew’s class, the teacher had suggested I talk a little about the fact I’d written a book. I looked for a nice clean copy to take with me as a Visual Aid, but I couldn’t find the three or four nice copies I had in the apartment, so I ended up having to take one of my weatherbeaten proofs, with the covers all curled up.

I found the books over the weekend; they were right out in the open, in a place I thought I had looked. I don’t know how I missed them.

I haven’t sold any copies, online or in person, for a while now. Now that the trip is over with, I need to figure out some way to get things started again, if that’s possible. Perhaps it’s not; perhaps the novel has run its course. But I keep thinking there’s something else I should be doing.

I tried not to push the novel on my mission trip teammates, though one or two of them heard about it and read it anyway. There was one who asked me about it several times during the week and I was sure he would buy one once we got back to the states; he hasn’t, and I think it would be inappropriate of me to remind him too directly. Maybe I can work it into the conversation next time I see him.

Fortunately, none of the three people to whom I have dedicated my novel has shot me in the pants. Not that I haven’t given them reason from time to time ….

Jun 24

Doldrums

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When we were all in the car headed to Nashville Friday night for our symphony concert wrapup meeting, Dawn Holley asked me how the novel was going.

It isn’t, actually. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve sold a copy in person, and longer than that since I’ve sold one online.

My North Carolina brother wants me to try to market it to a traditional publisher, but I just haven’t had time to fool with that — or to do anything more aggressive about marketing the self-published version.

I do get occasional nice comments from people who bought the thing early on and didn’t read it until later. Of course, you never know how seriously to take nice comments.

Mar 22

The author, outdoors

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100_0011

Well, the good news is that I sold seven copies of my novel today at Lorena’s in Monteagle.
The bad news is that six of them were bought by Gail Drake, the proprietor, and the seventh was bought by one of her employees.
Even so, I did better than my hometown book signing, where I sold only five. :)
Gail bought several copies to send to various supporters of LEAMIS.
It was a beautiful day, and so Gail had me set up right outside the store, across from a LEAMIS display. There are a lot worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon, believe me.
My co-worker Mary Reeves and her son Benjamin, who plays the lead in “Enter Laughing” (I play his grouchy boss) stopped by along with Mary’s youngest son, Buzz. No, they didn’t make the drive from Coffee County just to see me; they occasionally spend the weekend on some property in the Monteagle area.
Things have slowed down some with the book. I haven’t sold a single one online this month. New Covenant has sold out of the five copies I left them after the Shelbyville book signing, so I’ll be taking them my last two copies tomorrow. But at least two of the copies sold by New Covenant were bought by … my father. (“You know, you can get them from me,” I told him.)
I need to do something else to promote the book, but I’m not sure what.