March, 2015
I apologize for not getting a Saturday Night Special up tonight. It fell through the proverbial cracks.
However, I do want to make it known that you can now get the print edition of Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover through Barnes and Noble. They are not stocking the shelves with it, but if you ask they can order for you.
I was in Little Rock to buy a new cell phone today and thought I would drop by the nearby Barnes and Noble. I have always loved to hang out in the cafe with an iced tea or coffee and write or peruse the stacks. I went in for that purpose and while I was there I inquired about what are the most popular books (this is just for the Little Rock location on Chenal). I found out that for about two years they have had a problem staying supplied with Where the Crawdads Sing and that the most popular horror writer they sell there is Darcy Oates. I looked at some of her books. They appear interesting. I may have to get one soon.
As you probably know, I have been looking at using someone other than Amazon to publish the print editions of the my works. One factor I have to consider is each of the publishing platform’s distribution. Amazon distributes to Barnes and Noble along with many others. So, I wondered if someone could order my works through B&N.
I went to the counter and asked the lady if she could order A Tale of Hell… She said no, it didn’t appear in her search results. So I went back to perusing the shelves, studying cover design, etc. Then I thought, let me see if she can order by my last name. To my surprise, she said the print edition Nocturne was available. I almost fainted. I had published it only a few days ago. I told her I was the author and asked a few more questions of her. She said it had probably appeared because it was a new work. My other works, she said, they would have to order through Amazon and were print on demand. This was excellent news to me, because my latest edition of A Tale of Hell… should be coming out by the 17th if not sooner. It seems that Amazon has changed their distribution procedures and now print editions go out to the stores. That’s my assumption. I won’t know for certain until I do more research.
Now, I plan to issue new print editions of all my works, except for Alien Embrace and Diabolical. These are included in A Tale of Hell…. I published these separately only so that readers can sample my work in a specific genre. These smaller collections are also cheap in terms of print costs, so that I can hand out samples of my works at little cost to me.
I am thinking I will also have to rethink how I produce collections. The new print edition of A Tale of Hell… is about 300 pages and at $14,.95 is priced approximately the same as other books of that length, if not a little cheaper. But I think I am going to have to come out with a more professional cover design, if it can now be placed on shelves at places like Barnes and Noble. So, there will be another edition of it coming out soon, and I may included Click in it as a bonus story, simply because at this time I have no other similar stories of that genre to collect into one volume. I might as well use it to increase the size of A Tale of Hell… and keep the price the same to that the reader gets more for their money.
I am considering grouping Nocturne and The Scent and Other Stories together to make a bigger volume, but I am not certain how I would do that, as they are so different thematically. I may through my stories and see if there are a few more that I might include or that would not take much to finish them, so that I can include them.
Of course, I am also considering just grouping everything together in one big volume, but I am not certain how that would work because the genres are so different.
Anyway, those are some initial thoughts.
I am going to now come up with a plan to get local stores, and by “local” I mean at stores between Texarkana and Memphis. If I can do that, I might have toehold on getting even more widespread distribution.
So, I have a lot to think about.
If you have suggestions, please let me know, I welcome suggestions and recommendations.
Of course, if you are a book dealer and would like to sell my print editions, please contact me or go through whatever distribution connections you have with Amazon. And, if you sell books, I would be happy to discuss a book signing and/or reading with you.
Hasta luego. Please leave any comments, thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations below.
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 