Boycott {insert publisher of choice}

A new trend? It does seem to be the case. But I've found, at least so far, that the publishers being singled out by their authors don't operate much differently than all the other traditional presses out there.

They're attempting to play the game as set up by the money controlling "big dog" publishers without considering that doing so means certain death. The publishing industry rules only work for the larger publishers. Small presses need a completely different set of rules to survive.

So do I agree with boycotting small traditional houses? Not really (and I've been with two who went under due to believing they could actually operate under the rules set in place by large publishers.) And boycotting large houses is futile because they control the industry and are far tooooo big to be touched by our rock throwing. Readers aren't being affected by authors being "screwed" so life will go on.

And just in case you think I don't have a dog in the hunt, there are over 4000 hard-back copies of Never Ceese out there that I'll never see a penny from. Not one cent will come to me . . . ever. Gotta love that. ;)

HorrorHound Weekend! What a blast!!!

At the last minute I decided to drive from Mississippi to Indianapolis because there was simply too much horror to ignore. Boy am I glad I did. In spite of the drive, I was not disappointed and if you missed it, well you missed a lot of fun and well . . . horror!!!!

The picture to the right is none other than Master Gothic-ish Magician Ron Fitzgerald and company whom my daughter ran up to at once and proclaimed, "set me on fire!" That's what I get for letting her watch videos of Ron's magic acts. LOL

And of course I have to post my picture with Ron! Nice to finally meet him after chatting with him on Francy and Friends Blogtalk Radio Show.

The video below is of "the reaper" who has a lovely singing voice and apparently will come to your party . . . for a price. LOL

The rest of Lincoln Crisler!

Besides God and my family, the only things that really matter to me in life are reading, writing and music. I played music on and off for seventeen years; in school bands, garage bands and church bands. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and getting published, in school magazines, community magazines, school newspapers, real newspapers, and books. I always have a book or two around and have been reading on my own since about the age of three. If somehow music, books, or writing were removed from my life I would cease to be Lincoln Crisler. This holds true now and at any point in my life to date. Those three things have always been there, whether I was full or starving, clean or dirty, married, divorced or separated, living with my family, my friends or on my own. Forever and ever amen.

Now here's the kicker: Russ gave me those things. He was into all the seventies and eighties rock you could think of. There was always rock and roll playing in the house. He brought home recordings of Nik and the Nice Guys shows when they went out of town and brought me to local shows. I even played on stage one time, strumming a beat-to-hell guitar as part of the Air Guitar Army. My birthday and Christmas gifts always consisted, at least in part, of bootleg cassettes of albums by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Journey, Fleetwood Mac, Reo Speedwagon and many other bands. Most importantly, he introduced me to the music of Rush. To this day, they’re my favorite band. If I woke up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidneys missing, I’d call it good as long as the bathtub was center-stage front row at a Rush concert. To this day if I were to come up with a setlist to play on a half-hour’s notice, most of it would be music I first listened to while my mother and I lived with Russ.

He introduced me to all of my favorite authors. He gave me Piers Anthony’s Incarnations and Mode series’. He gave me the first seven books of Terry Brooks’ Shannara series. He gave me Eddings’ Belgariad, Elenium and Tamuli (though not the Mallorean, and though I now own it, I still haven’t read it). He gave me my first Poul Anderson, Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffery and Stephen King books. He bought me my first copy of The Lord of the Rings. I pick up new books by most of these authors to this day. I still read the old ones he gave me seventeen years ago. Today I write and publish science fiction, fantasy and horror almost exclusively, and I think most of that comes from all the great books from those genres I read when I was young and impressionable.

The monster of my childhood created a monster himself. In his own image, but better in some ways. Perhaps in the way that Frankenstein’s monster could be said to be better than the Doctor. I don’t beat women, for instance, but I definitely write about worse things than he ever acted out. Instead of working behind the scenes, I’ve been on the stage. If I saw him right now, I can’t say with any certainty whether I’d hit my knees and thank him or kick him in the scrotum.

So much damned gray area. Such is life.

Lincoln Crisler - continued!

Read the post before this if you haven't already:


Russ seemed like a dream come true for a while, especially for my mother, but for me as well. He was a long-haired rocker, ten years younger than my mother (my wife can attest to the virtues of that particular arrangement, I assure you), his family was cool as hell and above all, he was there. They got married in a mass ceremony hosted by the local hard rock station and he worked occasionally as a roadie for an Eastern US/Canada party band called Nik and the Nice Guys. I had a lot of complaints about that time of my life, but looking back it made me who I am, set me up to laugh at struggles that drive others to their knees and generally speaking, I wouldn’t trade that time for anything. The first couple years of it, at any rate.

Eventually, Russ started in with the domestic violence against my mother, just like all the others. If this was a Lincoln Crisler story, the female protag would be giving off some sort of pheromone that drove men to commit violence against her. I don’t know how many times I had to call the police, or how many times one of my mom’s friends would come over and run him off. Eventually, he moved into his own apartment on the far side of the same building and my mom filed for divorce. When we moved across town after that, we never saw Russ again except for a couple times walking around downtown Rochester, from the far side of the street. Overall, this serves as a nice, long answer to that question many of my colleagues and I face: Why do you write horror?

How the Hell could I not?

Ford Crews and now Lincoln Chrisler!

In college I knew a guy named Ford Crews. Today I'm going to introduce you to a fine, horrifically talented author who goes by the name of Lincoln Crisler (close enough to Chrysler for me. ;)

This is my blog and this is his Lincoln's tour. He did a little write up for this tour and I'm going to post it a bit at a time . . . just because I can . . . and it will have you coming back for more.

So read on:

Thank You, and I Hate You Forever

Today, for Sue's fans and readers (and hopefully a few of my own!), I offer up one of my darkest secrets. One so dark and so secret I myself didn’t know it myself until recently, though it’s been with me over half my life. When it hit me, I’m pretty sure I got a taste of what Paul did on the road to Damascus.

I owe everything I am today, to include all my creative successes and joys, to a man whose grave I’d cheerfully piss on every day for the rest of my life.

When I was eight or nine my mother started dating this guy, Russ. He was a friend of the guy she’d been dating before, and before him there was nothing and before that was my dad, who’d gotten loaded at a party hosted by one of my friends’ parents, checked into rehab and never came back (except for the occasional weekend, which looking back, I kinda sorta miss). My mom really knew how to pick ‘em: my old man liked the occasional impromptu boxing match with the old lady after a few beers and her first boyfriend after he left was a pothead, an unemployed waste and, apparently, allergic to soap. Russ liked to smoke up, but at least he washed his ass. And he worked, at least some of the time.

Shortly after they started dating, my mother could no longer afford the rent on the half-house she and my father had been renting and they moved in with some friends of Russ’. I lived with my aunt and her girlfriend for a few months, to give me some sort of stability. I really miss those days, too, incidentally, and maintain that even though my father died after not seeing me for ten years (and only missed me by an hour, too), he’s smiling down through the clouds (or up through the flames, perhaps) every time I visit his side of the family again, since being reunited at his funeral after more than a decade apart. Long story short, a few months later my mother and Russ got an apartment, and then they got me. And that’s where the adventure begins.

Sue's Virtual Book Signing makes Gothic.Net Front Page news!

And here's the page where you can read all about it!



And if you're in the are do not miss this event being thrown in honor of Gothic.net's new design. ;)

S D Enterprises asked to fill out publishing survey!

I know, right? At first I was honored but after reading the survey I was just sort of stunned. All I can say is that you should always keep in mind who is being surveyed whenever you read the results of any survey. Here's the letter I received to let me know what the survey was about and who was conducting it:

Dear Sue,

On behalf of The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and The Book Industry Study Group(BISG) we are requesting S D Enterprises to participate in our new joint industry statistics project, BookStats.

The aim of the program is to track transformational shifts in how book content is produced and sold in the age of digital. The new data product, to be released annually at first, will provide a comprehensive view of book sales aggregated by revenue, units, categories, formats and distribution channels.

Our efforts to improve the accuracy and quality of data collection rest primarily on the commitment and engagement of publishers like you. Whether large or small, we are hopeful that everyone will want to stand and be counted.

The survey is just ten questions and shouldn’t take long to complete. All data is absolutely confidential and it is important for you to know that your individual sales information will never be shared or used other than as part of the aggregate totals reported.

As a way to thank you for your time and commitment, participating publishers will receive complimentary access to the data once it is published.

First off I can't imagine how I even qualified to be asked to participate. What a joke! I know the reason though. I bought a block of ISBN's from Bowker. To be able to do this you have to set yourself up as a publisher which involves acquiring an EIN and saying you're a publisher. There are no other requirements.

The survey questions are for "real" publishers who have "real" sales which are only large publishers. I can show you the questions and you can laugh along with me. I think I'll save that for the next post though.

So oh boy another stupid survey coming down from the publishing industry that shows absolutely NOTHING!!! Just what us small press authors need.

Never Ceese approved for premiere status on Smashwords.

Wow! What does that mean?

Well let's just explore that shall we. ;)

What that means is the content and the layout of the PDF uploaded to Smashwords to go through "their" meat grinder meets all "their" criteria to be approved for premium status which means Black Bed Sheet Books (in this instance) is officially a part of "their" distribution included but not limited to having Never Ceese (or any other approved PDF) show up in Nook format on Barnes & Noble on-line WITHOUT having to go through B&N (the bullies that they are.)

So far Smashwords hasn't been able to woo Amazon into letting them list smashword kindles on Amazon. GO FIGURE!! I'm sure it's because Amazon won't have control of those kindles and can't give them away like they want to. Also if Smashwords PDF's converted to kindle shows up on Amazon well then they'd be considered for the New York Times best selling e-book list without being associated with Amazon except they'd be listed on Amazon. But since B&N is already allowing this to happen I'm sure Amazon will eventually cave. But as far as the New York Times best sellers list for ebooks go, listing smashwords kindle won't really help small pubbed authors get on it. NYT only hits the more "popular" and large on-line booksellers who are controlled by, you guessed it, large publishers.

So whoop-di-doo!

Do keep in mind you only get the signed and personalized DRM free PDF completely convertible into any format from www.neverceese.com and soon Black Bed Sheet Books as well.

Oh and if you want it for your Ipad or Ipad 2 then don't sweat it. To the best of my knowledge PDF's can be read on the Ipad's and so can kindles and nooks and every other dang format. So what in the world is the big deal about large publishers making their work so only theirs is available in a "specific" format that sells in the Ipad store. Good grief!

But yes, if you one day see Never Ceese available for the Nook reader on B&N just keep in mind I didn't sell out. It's on there through Smashwords. I'm not beholding to B&N though just laughing at B&N and Amazon for thinking they could run the world!!!

Cleaning house on FB once more.

I know, right? And to think Social Media has become such a tool that it's important to qualify actions you take on your account. It's true though. I've many FaceBook friends and fans and sometimes I invite authors because we're all in this together.

A recent housecleaning had me getting rid of all those authors that wrote for targeted Christian publishers who, though claiming to write fiction that appeals to all Christian readers (something no one can actually do,) only write fiction for a very strict denominational segment excluding and rejecting ALL authors who submit MS's believing these publishers are something they truly aren't.

The next batch will be those authors who sell Kindle's on Amazon. I sell Kindle versions of my book (actually a DRM free PDF that the customer can convert to Kindle for free from any of the sites designed for this) but I don't sell a specific version for Amazon to steal from me. They take liberties with e-books that a distributor shouldn't be allowed to take. I've no time for that.

Actually it doesn't hurt to have author friends who publish their ebooks with Amazon as a Kindle but it hurts my heart to see Amazon promoted as the site to sell e-books. I suppose I'll keep a few of these authors has friends because they were friends first but the others have to go.

Sorry but the publishing industry has to change and while I can't change it all by my lonesome, I can choose not to see the postings of others who can't see the forest from the trees.

New York Times Best Sellers List for E-BOOKS???

Sure. Why not? And it seems some self-pubbed authors are making the list.

Oh my!

Should we be impressed?

Well, I don't know about impressed. It did make me want to go explore however. And so I did.
It should be common knowledge by now that the New York Times Best Selling print book list is determined by the number of books a publisher sells to bookstores. It should also be common knowledge that large publishers regularly ship tons of new releases to their large bookstores to ensure their numbers stay up, something small press and self-pubbed authors can't do. One, because they can't afford to play the big bookstores game of making books returnable and two, large bookstores won't order their books in large quantities. That's a deal they have with large publishers only.

Therefore the New York Times Best Sellers list for print books reflects which large publisher unloaded more books to their bookstores than say, the other large publishers that month. The number is not based on actual purchases of the books. There's no way to accurately track that.

Now lets look at how they're judging (or not judging) sales of ebooks. Here's what it says on the bottom of the list if you look:

E-book rankings reflect sales from leading online vendors of e-books in a variety of popular e-reader formats.

You don't say. Leading on-line vendors. Hmm . . . who would that be I wonder. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the very few on-line sites that cater to and are associated with large publishers. I noticed a few e-books on the list from authors who self-pubbed at Lulu. I thought, wow, they're considering books that Lulu sells. Then I decided that since all small press and self-pubbed authors end up on Amazon, whether they like it or not, that this is where the ranking comes from.

"Big deal," you say. "It still made the list."

You have a point there but the point is lost with me as I'll not list my ebooks on Amazon or Barnes & Noble because they still don't embrace small press or self-pubbed authors and never have. Well, to be fair, Amazon makes an attempt but usually succumbs to the barking big dog publishers when it comes down to it. Also both Amazon and Barnes & Noble take liberties with the e-books they list such as offering returns? or giving them away for free in an effort to sell their e-reader?

Therefore my ebooks will never show up on the New York Times ebook best seller's list even if I sell a million copies at my virtual book signing on March 20th. And neither will thousands of other authors who choose to distribute their work through sites that aren't considered "leading online vendors" and who don't take liberties with the work that they are only supposed to be distributing. EGADS!

And so it continues!!

So nope. For right now, I'm not impressed that a self-pubbed author makes the NYT best-sellers ebook lists but you can be impressed if you want to be.

Concerning Virtual Book Signings . . .

From press release:

Concerning the idea of a virtual book signing Sue says, "It's a very real solution to a very real problem. Large chain book stores are distribution centers for large publishers. They don't embrace small published authors and certainly not self-pubbed ones. Most of us aren't even allowed to do signings. The reason? We have to play it smart and make our books "non-returnable" so bookstores don't eat us alive. Large book stores won't order your books if you make them non-returnable which means you don't get a book signing. A virtual book signing means we don't have to worry about dealing with these bullies anymore and we can sell face to face with folks all over the world!"

Making books non-returnable to survive in large bookstores set up to only distribute large publishers books is a bad idea anyway. The scenario of these bookstores ordering thousands of books (to subsequently push large publishers books to the top of best seller's lists) and sending all most all of them back for FREE isn't a scenario that will EVER work for small press or self-pubbed authors. It will take them down and has in record numbers.

And because I've neither the funds nor the "connections" to advertise my book signing the way each and every large publisher does, I MIGHT sell five books. Thank you large publishers for taking over the world with your money. I guess that means you WIN!

Not your usual LAME Virtual Book Signing!

That's right. There have been a few others ATTEMPTING to do a BRICK & MORTAR book signing and broadcasting it live via whatever platform providing the guest with a signed electronic CARD or label they can PASTE into their PRINT book should that be what they order.

My Virtual Book Singing will be the first ever and probably only one of its kind for quite a while where you receive, shortly after the signing, your very own personally signed DRM Free PDF to be converted into whatever format is your preference via one of many sites out there that allow this.

The up side, I don't have to go near a large "bully" book store and YOU get an ebook signed to YOU or to whoever you'd like it signed to with a personalized message. Just wanted to clarify that. No other author or publisher has offered this to date.

Here's the link once more in case you need it. ;D

Hope to see you there!

Press Release for ebook signing of Never Ceese!

Oh Let's do dicuss Random House shall we!

Alternante-Title: How many times do we have to watch large publishers go down this road?

New article out and hot of the press. What are large publishers doing now besides running around blindly as they hit wall after wall after wall. Well here ya go! A nice article on Random House's goings on.

Again just a link to support my discussion about parts of it. ;)

Random House, one of the largest book publishers in the world, has finally joined its peers in coming on board to Apple's digital e-book platform, the last of the major publishers to do so.

Oh boy! Small publishers of the world rejoice as one. The large publishers who could care less about your existence and step on you at every turn have now ALL decided on a way to hopefully keep you locked out of the market.

Random House books do appear on the Kindle and Nook stores . . .

No! Really? Of course they showed up on Kinde and Nook stores. The Nook is Barnes & Nobles ereader format. Barnes & Noble is a chain bookstore set up to distribute books published by large publishers. DUH! And Amazon . . . well, they're just Amazon and for Random House another safe haven because the books are DRM encrypted (which really means very little if you know anything about anything.)

Apple has tweaked its guidelines and enforcement for apps like Kindle and Nook, which means it may soon not be possible to buy e-books on an iPad from any place other than the official iBooks outlet. . .

What? What? What?

Oh YEAH!!!! Another distributor attempting to corner the market by making something digital impossible to buy from anyone but them. *Sue chanting* "Go Apple, it's your birthday . . . go Apple . . .!"

I'm so glad all the large publishers know what they're doing. Aren't y'all? All I can say about this particular news is that, well, the APPLE doesn't fall far from the tree! HA!

Did you really think large publishers weren't going to band together to try and form some sort of alliance. They did it during the depression to survive with Simon and Schuster going out on that proverbial limb to extend that insane return policy to keep their bookstores from going under. All the other publishers of the day had to follow suit or go under.

Just keep this in mind. When it says large publishers have all joined together to do something, it doesn't mean they all agree. It simply means they don't trust each other. They're all in heated competition and each one is so influential that if something works for one of them the others are sure to fail if they don't go along with it.

This should all be very interesting to watch. *Sue sits back with her bucket of popcorn.* Very interesting indeed.

Listen to the "big dogs" bark on ebooks!

Yes, I believe ebooks are another wonderful way to get your books to your customers. It isn't the end-all to everything but technology has certainly made it a fun venture. It's also done a FINE and glorious job of leveling the publishing playing field.

Perhaps the MOST entertaining part of this technology for me has been watching the "big dog" publishers react. With profit margins flying out the window, they're hard-pressed to justify charging as much as they do for ebook versions of their print book. How do they explain where the money goes when EVERYONE knows there is NO real cost involved in creating an ebook.

On to the heart of this blog. Someone posted this story on FB today. I read it. It tickled me to know end. I'm not going to explain the article. I'll simply post the link if you wish to enjoy it as much as I did. Here's the link.

I will say it's an article about HarperCollins so that the comment I post next will make sense. Here's the comment made by Harper Collins.

He also said that the book publishing world has been fortunate in agreeing early an international standard around the ePub e-book format, . . .

Wow! Really? The "book publishing world" is "agreeing" on things such as an international standard for ebooks? Did Amazon not get the memo? Did anyone outside of HarperCollins get the memo? Sure they did. Do you want to guess who comprises "the book publishing world" mentioned here? It ain't us small publishers I can tell you that. And according to them EPUB is an international standard?

Well slap me twice and hand me to my momma!

*Sue pats HarperCollins on the back.* Okay, y'all just hold onto that thought. Who are we to dispute what you and the "book publishing world" agree on. Y'all got all the money!

So yeah, if you want an ebook of Never Ceese show up 3-20-2011 at my virtual book signing to get your DRM free PDF signed and personalized and convertible to your ebook format of choice EVEN the apparent INTERNATIONAL STANDARD. Y'all gonna sit back and let the "big dogs" determine what the international standard is? Go ahead on then.

Now everyone's jumping in on my cash cow! LOL

LOL I set up a Virtual Book Signing where I will sign and personalize e-books and the next thing you know some company in Florida has this nifty way to *wait for it* sign e-books. Well, sort of anyway. All I have to say is that it ain't rocket science and the way I do it is a lot easier than the way they're proposing to do it for ONE reader. My will work for all readers available and for readers to come. How cool is that!!!! AND I can show each and every publisher/author how to do it for free. Even cooler.

Aw but y'all can come to my Virtual Booksigning to learn more. Press Release coming Wednesday. ;)

Trust me, I have no cash cow! LOL I DO however offer signed and personalized ebook and would be more than happy to share how to provide this for every possible format available for *drum roll please* FREEEEEEEE!!!!

For such a smart lot, authors do tend to be a bit technologically challenged. Not me. I LOVE IT!

Buy from www.neverceese.com! ;D

I've been working quite a bit on my website to get ready for my virtual book signing March 20th so do go check it out.

At the top right you will now find a button to click to purchase both a DRM free and personalized PDF along with a personalized print version of Never Ceese. You may also click on the large Black Bed Sheet book image on the home screen to purchase a non-personalized copy of Never Ceese straight from Black Bed Sheet books. Black Bed Sheet Books also has TONS of really cool stuff like a coffee mug, tee-shirt etc . . .

The link on my site in the top right hand corner will ask you who you want the book and e-book PDF personalized for once you click so don't forget to add that. Also, if I'm not mistaken, once you get to the actual paypal page there's a field to send comments to the seller (me.) Please take advantage and put any special message you want me to inscribe (via bamboo pen technology.)

Keep in mind no OTHER distribution channel offers this. After you order I will personally send the DRM free and personalized PDF straight to your e-mail. You can begin reading straight away or converting straight away. There are TONS of wonderful sites out there to use to convert. I plan on listing some soon just to be helpful.

As an added note I'd like to ask for everyone to consider buying my books from my site only or from Black Bed Sheet Books directly. Many sites have them listed but I make next to nothing if anything from the sale. To make matters worse, I didn't ask to be listed on these sites and most of them can't even get my books. Thank you large publishers for completely screwing up things for everyone else. Amazon is the worst. They have my out-of-print book Forever Richard and hard cover of Never Ceese listed as available and for sale by THEM!!! The rights of both books are mine now. There aren't even ANYMORE copies of Forever Richard out there from the distributor for Amazon to purchase and Amazon has none in stock because they only order from small press publishers when an order is made. Further more Forever Richard is MY book and they won't even un-list it at MY request. Oh but that's legal you know. After all, it's Amazon.

*Sue stops and takes a deep breath.* Oh yes. Where was I?

No publisher needs distributors anymore. They don't need to wait to be paid, they don't need to be pushed aside so the large publishers can have their never-ending day in the sun.

In spite of not needing distributors really, I will authorize buying my ebooks from Smashwords. They do take a very small cut. No big deal really. So feel free to get a DRM free PDF here as well, just not personalized.

So yeah, that's the scoop so do start buying from my site and pass the word on.

Oops! Sorry About the Shipping.

I added the two new links over in the side-bar and forgot to take the shipping off. So for all you thousands of folks who went to order the personalized DRM free PDF from the link, there is no longer any shipping added.

Same goes for those of you, (millions I'm sure) who went to order the print version of Never Ceese that comes with the same personalized DRM free PDF that you can convert ALL day long to whatever format you need.

Do keep in mind that for right now using these two links are the ONLY way to get the DRM free personalized PDF and official signed print book. But that will change shortly. ;)

Never Ceese PDF DRM free and personalized!

The future is here. Publishing is changing and publishers no longer have to depend on or even worry about seeking a distributor to get their work out there because the only thing distributors can offer small publishers and self-pubbed authors presently is nothing that the publisher can't do themselves and are already set up to do.

Examples?

Barnes & Noble and Amazon will now allow (oh how sweet of them) for small pubbed and self-pubbed authors to list their e-books in their on-line bookstores. And for that you pay them a percentage of sales to help thwart the cost (there is no cost really) of going through the process of making your book file DRM exclusive which customers hate. Oh yeah, they also handle sales transactions which small publishers already know how to do?

Has everyone forgotten that Barnes & Noble and all the other chain bookstores are the very ones who made it impossible for small publishers and self-pubbed publishers to get in their stores? Why in the world would any small press go there to list their e-book especially when they can list it themselves on their own site and get all the money from sales.

I do understand that some self-pubbed authors could benefit from the distributor handling the sales transactions but find an e-book distributor that offers your e-book to all platforms. Smashwords.com is a nice site for this and they understand what their job is.

But wait a minute! This blog is about ME!!!

You will notice a nice little addition to my sidebar on the right. It is a DRM free PDF of Never Ceese for you, the customer, to convert at will! That's right, I'm actually encouraging you to take the PDF to convert it to whatever format you need. I'll even go one step further and convert it for you if the task seems to daunting. Just let me know what format you'd like.

ALSO, the PDF will be signed and personalized. HOW COOL IS THAT! You can't beat that with a stick. This is only for the e-book you buy from the link above.

ALSO and by the end of the day I hope, I'll have things ironed out with Black Bed Sheet Books to INCLUDE this DRM free PDF with every print book purchase!!!!! Actually, if you buy a print copy from me from the link I'm about to add, (patience I'll get it up in a minute) I'll go ahead and throw the DRM free, personalized PDF in as a package deal.

So there ya go.

Stop looking to sites like Barnes & Noble and Amazon to help you as far as distribution goes. You're feeding the very folks who never recognized small press or self-pubbed authors as anything other than a nuisance. Actually, as far as I can tell, that hasn't changed. There are tons of other e-book distributors out there who will respect you.

All for now. ;)