NEPAT Overflow

NicoleJLeBoeuf said:

Well, meh! I probably wouldn't have had much sympathy for you if I were around when you were behaving badly, either!

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"Nothing in human nature is foreign to me."
(I think this quote is Plutarch. If I recall correctly, he wrote this in response to what he thought of all the people whose histories he recorded. If I'm wrong, please correct me.)

cj

Jenna,

Your review of Willie's book is still up! You've got 16 out of 17 "helpful" hits. Humm...can't imagine who did the one non-helpful Humm... Sock Puppit must be on the prowl!



Hey, all, where is Mac these days? I've not seen that supper-mod around in awhile.

Hi, Mac! Glad to hear things are okay with you and you found everyone you know safe from Katrina. Thanks for your volunteer service, and for responding to let me know all is well with you.

Everyone I know is well too! Something to be thankful for.

Minor request here -- every time you search on Wild Willie's book could you also search on Atlanta Nights and Ten Percent of Nothing? Thanks.

James D. Macdonald said:

Minor request here -- every time you search on Wild Willie's book could you also search on Atlanta Nights and Ten Percent of Nothing? Thanks.

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Wow. That really does make a difference. Will ya look at that?

FWIW...Jenna's dead-bang review of Willie's tome is still up on amazon. So it appears we have one for, one against. Maybe that's their new philosophy: they'll keep up one review that tells the unvarnished truth for every clueless sycophantic blurb.

Hey, it's a start.

Perhaps it's because she makes it clear she has bought and read the book...tough to complain that she's just being cruel.

Rob

robeiae said:

Perhaps it's because she makes it clear she has bought and read the book...tough to complain that she's just being cruel.

Rob

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I believe that helps.

Minor request here -- every time you search on Wild Willie's book could you also search on Atlanta Nights and Ten Percent of Nothing? Thanks.

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Well I hope this isn't some kind of hint, but quite often when I go to check my book ranking, it's listed as " People who looked at Ellie also looked at" Meiner's book. Excuse the pun, but it gives me the Willies to see my book grouped with his.

But thanks for looking.

robeiae said:

Perhaps it's because she makes it clear she has bought and read the book...tough to complain that she's just being cruel.

Rob

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I particularly liked the pro-Mieners review that included the fact that she found only two mispelled words in his book.

THAT should tell the world something.....I think reviews should focus more on the spelling and editing and less on the content, storyline, and competency of the author.

As a matter of fact, I sorta wish the NYT ranking was based on fewest mispelled words. Those are the great books.

Sheesh...... and great job, Jenna.

BTW, at this precise moment, there are hundreds of PA authors about to get disappointed when they check their mail....hundreds. Most of them will be expecting their second check to dwarf the first thanks to the 90 day hoax.

PA lurkers, believe this...there is no ninety day delay. It does not exist when you and bookstore purchasers are paying with CC.

BTW, you'd think that any business with 14,000 happy cusotmers would be clamoring to get them together to help tell the story. Any word on another convention of PA authors?

I didn't think so.

I beleive there was another convention planned, but now with the ongoing problems of getting oil, it seems tar is in short supply. Owing to the popularity of chicken wings, however, feathers appear to plentiful, so perhaps ingenuity will come to the fore.

After all, get 14,000 deliriously "happy" authors in the same room with Willie, Larry, and Miranda, and I'd bet we'd be surprised at how inventive those authors could be.

John

Collector's Edition Atlanta Nights:

http://evilrooster.com/items/2005/09/atlanta_nights.html

I'll let y'all know when the auction is, soon's I find out.

James D. Macdonald said:

Collector's Edition Atlanta Nights:

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OUCH: "It is bound cross-grained, out of non-archival and archivally hostile materials. The book block has been trimmed entirely off square, so that there are no right angles on the pages. Most of the adhesive used in the book is highly acidic woodworking glue...."

I want it for my birthday.

James D. Macdonald said:

Collector's Edition Atlanta Nights:

http://evilrooster.com/items/2005/09/atlanta_nights.html

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Oooh, that's eeevil, and I mean that as a compliment.

I might post that link in the ghost fiction mailing list I belong to because there are a lot of book collectors there, and they'll find that funny -- or terrifying. I'd post the link in the ghost fiction newsgroup, but that would probably result in another flamewar. (Hint: In that group you can start flamewars by doing things like staying on topic, or for that matter, by writing any post that contains articles and/or conjuctions. Or the letter e. )

robeiae said:

Perhaps it's because she makes it clear she has bought and read the book...tough to complain that she's just being cruel.

Rob

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That was precisely my plan. And guess what? It's still there!



BUT!

THEY EDITED OUT MY FINAL PARAGRAPH. Compare what's on Amazon to what I posted here. So someone did complain, and Amazon did respond...

Interesting question here, folks:

http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=5613

Saddest quote of the thread linked above:

Don't have a book released yet to get a check, but just wanted to say that, XXXXXXX, your comment about hoping no body was here to get rich was pretty negative and just shoots people down.
Maybe you feel you won't get rich, but please don't speak for all of us.

Don't mean to be rude. Just wanted to let you know.

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Contrast that with the standard PA anti-author statement: "Hah! Those whiners! They only wanted to get rich!"

Just watch -- you're going to be seeing that (or its variants) very soon.

My P.A. royalty check

This is the second royalty check for my P.A. book. Yes, the vaunted 90 day boon check.

Retail discount: -40%

Sales Price: 11.97

Quanity: 3

Royalty: 8%

Royalty amount: $2.87

P.A.'s take $33.04 From my hard work and sweat. All they did was make up a chessy cover and format it in Adobe Acrobat writer. They did no editing as it was done. They sent the electronic proofs to Lightning source who printed it and sold it back to P.A. for 2.00 dollars. They sold me 150 copies for (9.98 each.) making a profit of $1200.00 dollars. One 1,000 dollars more than it cost them to produce it. They are a very expensive vanity publisher.

Had I not purchased my own books, my royalties would be the same.

I found this post on the PA site and thought it was interesting that it didn't get got by them.


It's a crap shoot. First thing you have to sell 25 books at 8 percent commission to just recover your copyright fee.


So your down 25 books just to get started. I think that is why a number of POD authors just take their free books and then let the posting on the internet and newspaper articles, bookmarks and a few flyers do the leg work, and hope to get back to even.

If you want to really get into the game and you feel you can sell a lot of books, then you buy the minimum fifty (or more) at the 50% discount. Here's is where it gets tricky.

Suddenly a box of 50 books shows up on your doorstep. What to do? Of course you will try the local bookstores for a consignment deal; however, the bookstore mgr is not likely to like the price of your $19.95 book (or whatever), and he/she will want to cut the price to be more in line with the offerings of the shop. That means cutting the $19.95 price tag in half, which leaves you nothing, and possibly not even breaking even, if the bookstore wants a cut.

Are your driving? The price of a gallon gas averages approximately $2.65 depending on your location. To recover the cost of one gallon of gasoline requires the sale of 2 and 1/2 books.

The flyers can be produced at low cost if you have a good color printer, and the bookmarks don't cost much and the WEB sites are a nice hobby and don't cost much, but every cost has to be recovered with a book sale, and WEB sites, bookmarks and flyers don't sell books, at least not anywhere near the amount that you need to break even. Of course there is postage to consider, plus the drive to the Post Office. Did I mention the price of gas?

But it's a nice hobby, if you need a hobby that you can afford. It is probably not as expensive as golf, or woodworking, but like a crap shoot when you roll the dice you keep hoping for sevens or elevens, but unfortunately you keep getting snake eyes. The secret is knowing when to quit.


-chris

My first royalty check arrived this afternoon. I feel VERY fortunate to have enough to buy a tank of gas - $21 and pocket change - and all that on only 15 books sold! Gosh! I'm just SURE it'll be breathtaking when I get past that 90 day window and get my next one!

Or... not.

And... has anyone else noticed that they don't get bulk mail? Mine cost 'em the whole .37 to send.

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:

And... has anyone else noticed that they don't get bulk mail? Mine cost 'em the whole .37 to send.

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That's really interesting. Do they actually send out fewer than 200 royalty checks, or are they really too stupid to follow the bulk mail guidelines, or are they too ignorant to have thought about it for their six years in business?

My check was about twice the amount of the last one. There were 19 40% sales, and some UK sales @ 14% .

How accurate is it? I have not a clue.