The Mini-Hearse is ready to roll again!!!

The Mini-Hearse is ready to roll again! This time to "Bellbrook on Lockdown" to finally meet up with my good friends Chris Matheny and Kimberly Brouillette of RIP!!! Y'all come. But if you can't, don't tell me why you couldn't. LOL I'll see you if I see you. ;)



Headed out tomorrow. If y'all see me on the road . . . show me your V-fangs-V!!!! ;D

Honest Amazon strikes again!

Wow! I wondered why a notable "Best Selling" author in that circle of publishing that targets a specific denomination took down the resounding review of Never Ceese they left on Amazon. It had been up for nearly two years.

Not only do I wonder that, I also wonder HOW they did it.

I thought it was because perhaps they were done doing reviews but I just learned that this isn't the case at all. They just posted a new one.

How then? I can't even get Amazon to remove a 1 star review of a book that isn't even published anymore and no longer exists!!!!!

So how does this author get to remove a resounding review?

Hey Amazon!!!! What gives? Playing favorites again? Of course they are. This novelist scribes for one of those "bigger publishers" just in that targeted "Christian" market. That's how they earned the title "best-selling" novelists.

Oh well. So goes life.

Congrats Amazon! I'd shake your hand only I don't want to get it all slimy and stuff!!!

Oh and this author also put my name in the back of one of their books in a list of acknowledgements: those who helped support their writing. I was neither asked if my name could be put there nor do I support their writing as at the time they wrote for a large Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson, who openly discriminates against writers who don't write for their targeted audience of Christians.

Now, thanks to my name being there, my books show up with theirs wherever they're listed on-line!!!! ARGHHHHH!

John Grisham on FOX!

I love to see and hear large published authors such as John Grisham get on Fox news and try to talk about their massive literary windfall as though it were something they earned. Oh yes. There are just that few "great" authors in the world. And they're just "gosh-darn" glad to be one of them.

Only a handful get in with a big publisher (and rarely through an agent) where they can be sure to make a gazillion dollars. Really? Is the world that starved of literary talent? Just makes me sick to my stomach when I think of all the "grand" talent that will never get the chance.

Did you ever wonder why you never hear of authors who just make a living writing and selling their books?

It's because there are none. It doesn't happen. You either find a *cough, cough* way in with the big dogs or you go flat broke.

*Storm trooper speaking* "Nothing to see hear. These aren't the droids you were looking for."

Yes. Just keep believing that.

And the fact that anyone can "name a few authors" who in fact make a living only works to define the disaster.

A few?

There should be so many you couldn't possibly name them all.

What a shame!

Leaving for "Lockdown at Bellbrook" Thursday!!

Here's the linkage "Lockdown at Bellbrook" to prove I'll be there along with my friends of RIP Chris Matheny and Kimberly Brouillette. You can check the link to see who else will be in attendance. Much of what is going on this "spooktacular" weekend will be televised--well that should be interesting--for your viewing pleasure.

I of course will be there selling and signing my books, one of the rare opportunities you'll have to actually visit and talk with me and we all know you want to do that!!!!!

Why rare?

Well because no large bookstore will let ANY author in unless they sign on to make their books returnable via a return policy (designed to save bookstores during the depression) that will sink all small publishers eventually and is actually taking its toll on large publishers now. Yes. My books are returnable but not in regards to that insane "industry standard" return policy so not even the local Barnes & Noble in Dayton Ohio will allow me to visit you there. Way to go B&N!! You so RAWK! *Sue wipes sarcasm spittle from mouth with back of hand.*

So Bellbrook is just another effort on my part to "get out there." So come visit and come buy. I'll have my 2007 Bram Stoker short-listed Black Bed Sheet books edition of Never Ceese as well as that "electrifying" Electric Angel.

For the record, even though B&N won't order my books to carry in their store, you can order ALL DAY LONG at Blackbedsheet.goshopper.net (you can order it at ANY bookstore including B&N I'd just prefer if you not order it from those scumbags if you're going to order.) In fact, this is the only place you should buy my books as they can give you the best price AND you can order any of my books in a variety of instantly downloadable e-book formats there as well including but not limited to Kindle and Nook. I don't list my Kindle e-book on Amazon and never will. I don't list my Nook e-books on B&N and never will. Of course that means it will never show up on a "best sellers" list even though it may sell well enough to deserve to be there but HEY, it ain't about the numbers anyway. Or is it?

Enough already! ;D

Come to "Lockdown at Bellbrook" and we can talk there!!!

All for now!

B&N and Amazon Bullies are Fightin' it out!

Check it out for yourself:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/barnes-noble-dc-comics-kindle-fire,news-12815.html

Classic line from Big Bully Barnes & Noble:

"We will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format. . . "

Classic "bully" behavior and they keep getting away with it. What next? Are they going to ask and get a government bailout when their bullying ways finally, and very soon, send them down the proverbial road Border's just went down because Large publishers aren't going to lift a finger to help bookstores the way they did during the depression.

You reap what you sow and Amazon isn't any better when it comes to the publishing industry. Exclusivity isn't the answer and neither is it part of the problem. It IS the problem. DC comics - "What are you doing?" UGH! Did we learn nothing from the IBM personal computer era?

A fantastic blog reply from Goodread!

First off the comment was left by a fantastic author Werner Lind who wrote Lifeblood, a book I thourghly enjoyed.

Werner said in regards to my blog on the "industry standard" return policy blues:

WHOA! That's an eye-opener! I'd always surmised that "returned" books were called that because they were at least actually returned to the publisher for re-sale. But leave it to Big Business to create ever more Orwellian distortions of language. The "industry standard" return policy is beginning to stink even more pungently!

Here's my response:

I can't believe how many times I've posted about this problem and still folks act surprised. LOL That "industry" standard return policy allowed for bookstores to NEVER return books to the publisher. There was a "great" uproar about this when bookstores started trashing the books behind their bookstores as opposed to having to store "unsold" copies. All the bookstores were required to do according to that "industry standard" return policy was to return the book cover!!! That's why you see this printed in books sometimes: Do not buy this book if the cover has been removed. LOL Yeah, right!

Distributors such as Lightning Source don't work a "new" deal for small publishers either. They don't even offer for the small publisher to get the "returned from the bookstore" book back. They print you a "new" copy and charge you $2.00 for shipping which in reality is just to cover the cost of reprinting the book. So if you made 1.25 off a book you sold to B&N, you eat seventy-five cents when it's returned. AND you never see the returned-from-the-bookstore book again.

Bookmasters, a much larger distributor, says they return "return from the bookstore" books to the publishers inventory but I can tell you that they don't do this in every instance. If they did then nearly 50 copies of my now out of print Forever Richard wouldn't have ended up at Books-A-Million, a store that only shelves "returned from the bookstore" books. My publisher didn't sell the books to BAM.

Bookmasters also sent me "returned from the bookstore" books when I ordered author copies of Forever Richard. How do I know? They were signed by me and had a B&N sticker on the dang cover that said, "Signed By Author." They said I could keep them and they'd send me "new" copies. Then they asked if I'd send them back so they could show their folks what to look for next time. I said, "no thanks." I'll keep them and I'll spread the word that Bookmasters doesn't operate according to their contract. Yes it's real fun out there. UGH!

"Industry Standard" Return Policy Blues.

Have you ever wondered why large chain bookstores have sooooo many books by large published authors and not so many from any other publisher?

There's a very simple answer.

In the beginning there was no such thing as a small publisher. It took a LOT of money to produce a book and to produce just one didn't make sense. Therefore, (yes, in the beginning) large publishers printed out TONS of books and counted on bookstores to help them stock the excess inventory. The "industry standard" return policy put in place during the depression, first by Simon & Schuster and then the other publishers to keep bookstores from going under, had bookstores purchasing those books and then not charging to have them sent back. In fact, large publishers didn't care if they ever saw the book again.

Jump into the present now. It's no longer necessary to print TONS of books at a time to save on printing cost. The "Industry Standard" Return Policy for SURE doesn't work anymore, not even for the "big dog" publishers who created it. It does still work to get ALL of their authors on the New York Times best sellers list though as this is determined by book sales to "bookstores." But not even large publishers can afford to print that many books at a time and survive which is why large chain bookstores are going under (I suppose I should add, "in my opinion.")

Since printing on demand is now feasible and certainly the way to go, it would certainly make sense to "invent" a new "Industry Standard" Return Policy and put it in place. Until that happens large bookstores will only ever be havens for books put out by large publishers--until they go under the same way Borders did (again, in my opinion.)

Barnes & Nobles is one large chain bookstore I know of that no longer purchases ANY books from any publisher that doesn't sign on to that antiquated "Industry Standard" return policy. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the very publishers that created that "return" policy during the depression to save bookstores seem quite content to throw the same bookstores under the train now.

I think now is the time for Independent bookstores to rise to the occasion. There needs to be a return policy between publisher and bookstores that works better than "on consignment." Perhaps just changing the "Industry Standard" Return Policy up a bit would be best. The biggest problem I can see with the return policy as it stands is that it's anybody's guess where the "returned from the bookstore" books go. Small publishers rarely if ever see their returned books again. My guess is that since bookstores aren't required to send books back to the publisher they shuffle them of to wholesalers who dabble in "returned from the bookstore" books otherwise where would Books-A-Million be getting all of their stock since they only purchase from wholesalers who sell such books.

A "Kindle" Author interview that disses Amazon's Kindles?

So I queried David Wisehart about doing a "Kindle Author" interview with authors who sell their e-books through their publisher and not through Amazon and he said, "sure!" So here it is! Thanks agazillion David Wisehart. You are da man!

So here's a link to:

A most unlikely Kindle Author Interview

The truth will set you free and hopefully it will allow small published authors and self-published authors actually make the money that is rightfully theirs. At least those of us who are attempting to make a living with our God given talent as opposed to giving it away for free.