Because I do have some who subscribe to this blog and I’m not sure how to set up a subscription to the one on my domain, I’m going to update both for a time until I figure it out. Some of you have been with me a long, long time and you have no idea how much I love that. The road to publication took me a long, long time, eh? 😉
So, I’m going to share some of the harder parts of this job today.
That road to publication for some of us takes years. And there are constant roadblocks thrown into the mix. And just when you feel that maybe you’re getting somewhere in this crazy career attempt, other things happen out of your control. Some really tough stuff happened this week and it made me consider whether I should keep working at this. Yes, writing is what I love and yes, it would be cool if I could do it for free, but I can’t. It’s my job. I put as much and sometimes more time into this as anyone does in any other job out there. Every writer I know does. There’s been many a night I’ve sent an email to my good friend, Karen Mahoney–who lives 6 hours away in England–to find her up in the middle of the night there working toward a deadline.
So yesterday, I posted that ARCs of FORESWORN went out. I have a handful of reviewers I trust not to put my books up on pirate sites and I’m hopeful that the new reviewers on this list won’t either. I have new bloggers on the list because of the upcoming blog tour I’m so excited about. I’m hoping to find new readers and very excited to have new bloggers interested in trying my work. (I’m certainly not saying I don’t trust most bloggers here, btw, because I actually do. Book bloggers do this because they love books! I’ve just worked with the ones on my list from nearly the beginning or was introduced to them by publishers. 🙂 )
The time of book release is incredible. There are so many emotions authors go through. Excitement that a new book is coming out. Hope that it will sell well–every single book we release is a gamble. Nerves…what if fans are disappointed? We tell ourselves not to look at the reviews, but most of us do anyway because really, wouldn’t you want to know what someone says about your work?
But I will say that it broke my heart to see how many searches came here yesterday looking for free copies of FORESWORN. Yes, it thrills me that some are enjoying my books enough to come to my website, it does! But the books are easily available at a lot of places. Nearly all of those have them for under 3 dollars each. I don’t think $5 is much to pay for a book, but $2.99 is a great price. And all 3 for less than 10 bucks? Most will fork that over for lunch and with books, you get a lot more enjoyment time (hopefully <g>) and the ability to reread. Trust me, it takes me a lot longer to write a book than to cook a lunch.
I understand that some can’t afford all the books they want. I can’t either. But I wait until I can because I know the incredible work that goes into the making of a book. I do try to support my favorite authors by buying directly from their publisher but when money is tight–which is the norm for most writers I know–or I want to check out a new author, I will also go to one of my favorite places to buy ebooks. All Romance or OmniLit. Authors still earn from these sales.
I truly don’t care where a reader buys my book. If you can get a great deal for it, I’M ALL FOR THAT. If you find legal copies to borrow at a library, I’M ALL FOR THAT TOO!
http://www.omnilit.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Rinda+Elliott
All my books are available there at OmniLit–with the exception of FORESWORN, which isn’t yet out–and you see how there is a rebate price next to Dweller and Blood? Yes, you pay full price up front for the book–not always, but you do with rebates–but Omnilit offers these rebates often. Sometimes, they are at 50% off. At that rate, you can buy a couple of books at full price and basically earn enough back to get a third for free. I buy books there a lot. Earlier this week, I had 15 dollars in rebate bucks built up. Yeah, yeah, I’ve already spent most of those. I read a lot. <g> But I subscribe to their mailing list so I know when the rebate programs happen and I buy then. (They happen OFTEN.) Those rebate dollars build over time and it’s so cool to see a book you really want come out, check Omnilit, and realize you have enough to cover the book in your account. Plus, they take Paypal, offer all formats of ebooks and the best thing? If you have a Kindle, they have a “send to Kindle” button that emails your purchase directly to your Amazon account.
So, there are ways to save on book buying. Downloading illegal copies should never be an option. It will kill this business and it’s already forced so many authors to quit.
Here’s a wonderful article on what ebook piracy does to our business. The biggest difference for me?
So far, I’ve done all digital first publishing. This means, I do not earn advances. I only make money when a book sells. So you can imagine how hard it is to see so many of my books being downloaded illegally online.
http://www.deadlinedames.com/dame-for-a-day-jeaniene-frost/