The Dark Side of Publishing

Recently, when a friend asked me if my first book was available as an e-book on Amazon I said yes. In the past, whenever the print version was available I immediately worked on the electronic version (it's harder to format than you might think) and got it ready to go. Electronic versions, once formatted, can be distributed quickly. Usually within a week my e-version would be ready and would go live shortly thereafter. I have been working with a site called Smashwords and they have been very good about getting books out to a lot of electronic distributors. One of those distributors had been Amazon–the name most people think of when they want to buy a book online. Lately, however, Amazon has started dragging their enormous feet on the ground and causing small tremors as they do so. They don't seem to want to distribute from places like Smashwords anymore. Why?

Because they have started their own ebook publishing and distribution serve, of course. OK, so what? Well, they require exclusivity of their others. Something no one else would dare do. Any author that wants to be part of their service must commit to a minimum of 90 days whe and are they will not allow anyone else to publish the work. This means that people with readers other than a Kindle or Kindle app will not be able to read it. So, the question for authors as it stands now is to go with a wide range of distributors like the Kobo reader, Apple iBooks, and so on, or to go with just Amazon and be chained to them like a prisoner on a chain gang.

I chose the chains for at least 90 days. Let's see if it makes any difference.

The Concord Book Shop

I have been having some success in getting my book into several of the local bookshops around my hometown of Maynard MA. I decided to try my luck at some bookstores in nearby towns so I headed on over to Concord MA. You'd think that I had traveled from Kevutu to another planet. I entered the Concord Bookshop and asked if they carried books by local authors. From the first look from the guy behind the desk I knew I was in for trouble. He had this look like: "Oh no! Not another one!" I guess there are a lot of writers in Concord. Yea, I know it's the town of Thoreau and Emerson and all the rest but if they had been given that kind of look from their booksellers we might have never heard of them. Maybe everyone who thinks she is the new Thoreau or Emerson has moved to Concord and now hounds the local bookstores.

When I was directed to another person in the shop I was given a piece of paper stating the policy guidelines for getting books on consignment. The first line told me that I would have to pay a $100 fee just to be considered. The paper explained that the money was necessary for paying for shelf space and the time and energy it took to put that book on said shelf space. Really? I want that job.

Is this what bookstores have come to? They are losing sales from customers so they are going to make it up by dousing struggling authors. I know I'm no Thoreau or Emerson but I'm no Trump or Buffet either. I'm lucky if I make a couple of bucks from a single book sale. How many books would I have to sell to justify paying a $100 shelf fee. What if all the bookstores adopted this policy?

The internet may ring the death knell of bookstores and may be the only saving grace left for authors.

My first Amazon review

I just returned from a week's vacation in Provincetown. My current chapter of Book 2 involves a sea battle between the Wesuran corp and the freedom fighters of Kethix so it was fun to look out across Cape Cod and imagine the battle taking place in those beautiful blue waters.

I am happy to report that I got a positive review on Amazon for my first book. I will quote it here.

"This book captured my imagination. I loved the author’s creativity, character development, philosophies, story line and even some poetry mixed in too. Dialogue, flow and imagery all move nicely through the book and kept me wanting to see how the story would unfold and resolve. The fantasy of a different world and time were simply a backdrop to the real story of people solving life's challenges and problems."

Life on other planets

Is there life on other planets? Assuming we agree on what defines life then we must consider the possibility that there are. Consider this. There are 125 billion galaxies that have been detected by our own telescopes. If only 10% of all stars have orbiting planets, there would be more than 6 x 10(with 18 zeros) possible planets. Even if only 1% of those planets could sustain life there would still be billions and billions of possible planets.

What if we discovered such life tomorrow. How would it impact us here? Would we panic? Would we be curious. Would we have to rethink the majority of world religions that claim that they're people are the only chosen ones of the universe? Creation stories of almost all cultures mention the beginnings of mankind, the animals, and the earth but none mention that the creator also made green globules of living matter on a planet millions of light years away. It is more comforting to believe we are the only ones.

That's what the Kevutians have always believed as well. There was never a need for any other beings. They alone were created for the purpose of seeking perfection in the universe. What happens to a society when its long standing sense of self importance is shattered?

The Seven Sisters

In both the first and the current book there are references to something called The Seven Sisters. They are only mentioned briefly in the first book. They appear in some of the opening quotes and only a few times by the characters themselves. Only at the end are the Seven Sisters mentioned as being seven bright lights that appear in the night sky.

In the second book they play a more significant role. You learn that there is a religious connection to them. The residents of Pa'Kevutu believe the Sisters are all just bright stars until circumstances cause them to actually go out and explore one - a heretical act in itself. The idea of the Seven Sisters has always been part of the original (an unrevealed) back story for the entire collection of asteroids called The Milleran Cluster. Although it is not mentioned much in the first text it was always part of the original idea. That idea began over a year ago on the shores of an idyllic lake in Vermont.

Imagine my surprise when I began reading Neal Stephenson's newest book Seveneves. The title of the second chapter is The Seven Sisters. In his book he refers to seven parts of our moon which have just recently and mysteriously broken apart. These seven fragments threaten to break apart and eventually destroy all life on earth.

My sisters are a little less mischievous.

Willow Books

I am proud to announce that Willow Books in Acton, MA has agreed to carry some of my first book.

The Return of the Ancients

The concept that there is a race of wise and powerful ancient people is a theme that runs across many story lines and movie plots. Some of those plots have appeared in the television series Stargate, Doctor Who, and Star Trek: The Next Generation (think Q); the videos games World of Warcraft and Ninjago; movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the Alien series; and in literature think the Cthulu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft or Contact by Carl Sagan. They go by many names: the Illuminati, The Templars, The Ancient Egyptians, Atlanteans, etc. If you want to get a real flavor for a fervor for ancient ones, look up the Annunaki.

What in our psyche creates in us a desire for an older and wiser race of people? Is it a cosmic extension of our own childhoods? Do we seek some imagined wise parent that will come and teach us the secrets of the universe and then buy us a cosmic ice cream cone to make us all feel better? Maybe it's spiritual. We desire a connection to the beginnings of the universe and ideal these powers in physical forms we can relate to. Is it that we don't trust ourselves enough to try and figure out the answers on our own. How nice it would be for an anthropomorphized version of the Wikipedia of the Universe to appear and guide us through the rough waters.

The people of Pa'Chot also wait for the Ancient Ones but their elders of history are not mythical creatures. They are simply human though from another world. They have been waiting a long time for them to return and when they think they finally have returned, they are jubilant. The truth, however, will not be a chance for celebration.