Day is done

[rolanni]

Seems awful early for day to be done, actually, but my brain is kinda marshmallowly feeling, so I think I’d better give it a rest.  It’s not like it didn’t do a little bit of work, today.

So!  Having goofed off early, I’ll goof off late, too, and go curl up on the couch with a book.  For some reason that the backbrain isn’t sharing with me, I need to reread “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”  I mean, fair enough, it’s probably been more than twenty years, but why now?

In other news, there’s a new chapter up at Carousel Tides, that being Chapter the Fifth.  As always, the link goes to the first page on the website rather than directly to the chapter, in order to avoid inadvertent spoilage.

Speaking of Carousel Tides. . .  While I was in Belfast today, I stopped by the Mr. Paperback in Reny’s Plaza and dropped off a dozen or so sampler chapbooks.  There were two people behind the counter when I came in — a man and a woman.  The man asked if he could help me, so I introduced myself, explained I was a local writer, and that I had a book coming out from Baen in November that was a Maine fantasy.  Would he be kind enough to give these samples to customers known to read Urban Fantasy and/or Maine fiction?

He took the chapbooks, making noncommittal noises, flipped one over to read the back, and suddenly said, “You’ve written other books.”

I agreed that I had written many books with my husband and that we had signed in the store some years back, with three or four other local authors, in celebration of Nebula Weekend.

“I’ll be delighted to distribute these for you.  Thank you so much,” he said.

“Thank you so much,” I replied and moved off to go, yanno, look at the books.

As I’m leaving the area, I hear the woman say, “Why are you doing this? Who is she?”  And the guy said,  “Her and her husband wrote a science fiction series.  I read them, a long time ago.  In fact, I think we have some of their stuff back in the section.  It’s OK.”

I happened past the SF/F section via the stuffies and am able to verify that, yep, there was some of our stuff in the section.

So, that was OK.

I have written today.  I’m pretty sure the word meter won’t work over here, so I’ll just report the following progress on Ghost Ship:

61,740 words/100,000 OR 61.74% complete

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

I hope I am not too biased but...

[meheyjude.livejournal.com]

...surely not just "ok".

I have better than a shelf and a half devoted to you two, not to mention multiple copies of most titles.

No, you are not "ok" you are GREAT and for that I thank you very much!

Enjoy this beautiful cooler weather... I am off to brush the Cats.

[elbales]

Uh. Wow. "Why are you doing this?" does not seem to me to be the most... advertent response to that situation.

Thanks for Chapter 5. I'm really looking forward to CT when it comes out.

Bite Them!

[claire774.livejournal.com]

No indeed not just OK. How annoying are those people? Gus would like to bite them on the butt. Well, he, being a pug, would never bite anyone. But someone should bite them on the butt. Don't let the....get you down. He who laughs last...just wait til Ghost Ship is a national best seller.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"my brain is kinda marshmallowly"

Mmm, toasted braaaaaaiiiiinsss! Sorry, been reading too much zombie fiction and also toasting marshmallows on a fire. Your brains are probably better untoasted and uneaten.

"Praising with faint damns" or something. But if he gives the chapbooks out then that's good, and at least he does have the books on the shelves.

(I'm not reading the samples, if I did then I'd only be complaining that the rest isn't there yet. I have the book on order, and it's getting closer to the release.)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Bookstores are generally, and not unreasonably, wary about accepting signings and chapbooks and the like, because the larger percentage of people wanting to set up a signing are people who have self-published Molly's Guide to Bellybutton Lint, or have written the great American novel Yesterday My Hero Was A Loser But Today He Has Superpowers And Will Be Kicking Ass. The last time I set up a signing I said, "I'll wait while you go look at the shelves," and got an embarrassed store employee who came back and said, "Sorry, I didn't know you had twelve books out, I've never heard of you." Which is perfectly reasonable, as I'm a midlist fantasy author, not a Big Name Writer. Basically unless you've got a universally recognized name (like, say, "King" or "Rowling"), bookstores are wary first and apologetic later.

Keepers

[(Anonymous)]

If the Mr. Paperback is a used bookstore I am astounded that they were able to keep any of your titles in stock. Down here in Northern Virginia, where we have a number of used bookstores, including a very very large one, I almost never see copies of your books and when they do appear, they are snatched up practically before they are shelved. I know this because I have a friend who works at one of the largest and she keeps an eye out, at my urging, for certain authors when books come in for trade. Your books are "keepers" of the first rank. Them that have 'em, keep 'em.

Anne in medium steamy Northern Virginia

Re: Bite Them!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

No, no. He was good. Really.

As mizkit says above, bookstores are being inundated with aggressive self-published authors who believe that bookstores exist to grant them privilege. A couple years ago the question managers starting asking when an author went in to pitch a book or set up a signing was, "And what was the name of your publisher's distributor?"

Now, bookstores -- and bookstore employees -- just sorta cringe when someone comes up to the desk and starts a sentence with "I'm a (local) author and. . ."

On top of that, there are many more "traditionally published" authors who are trying to promote their work at grass root, and no one can remember the names of all the writers in the world.

It's a shame that what used to be an opportunity for a pleasant chat between two people whose passion is books -- most writers love books, that's how we got into this gig -- is now tense and fraught, but that's the business, nowadays.

Re: Keepers

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Mr. Paperback is actually a local chain of new-book bookstores.

The store in Belfast is kind of an oddity. The bookstore went in with a restaurant that used to be in downtown Belfast -- called Bell the Cat; excellent sandwiches, soups, and home-baked goodies, with a vegetarian conscience -- and a music store, ditto, and they each rented a third of a much larger and more visible store than any of them could've afforded off their own bat. It's been there for many years, surviving the last minor Zombie Apocalypse, when several other Mr. Paperback stores closed, so the idea was a good one.

It's funny -- people have told us that they can't find our books in used bookstores; and other people tell us that they got hooked because they found (name your title) in their local USB, read it, went back, couldn't find any more and went on to buy the rest new. So, yanno, when the books get into the used market, they do their job :)

'sleepy hollow, why now'

[marniferous.livejournal.com]

I don't know either, but i bet there turns out to be a reason... gotta love that subconscious creative mind!

What she said...

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, it's very easy to get over-run with self-published works of
dubious saleability if you're a bookstore. I understood where he
was coming from. Bookstores have to sell enough to make the rent
and utilities and salaries, otherwise they won't be bookstores
for long...so saleability is important.

I bet he sells more of your backlist as people finish the Carousel
Tides tidbit and come back for more. There may also be a run on
Gunshy, which is also Maine-based.

Glad he remembered you
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks

[elbales]

No, I get it that they can't just merrily accept chapbooks from whoever... it sets up all kinds of expectations. What seemed not-so-advertent to me was the fact that the man remembered her—in fact, Sharon had just established that she and her husband had written a number of books together, and that they had previously signed books in that very store—and yet the woman asked this question that seemed out-to-lunch to me. Like, was she not listening?

(ETA: This is to say that the man's actions seem entirely reasonable. He asked questions; he established Sharon's bona fides, so to speak. In short, he did his job. It's the woman's question that made me smack my forehead.)

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Like, was she not listening?

I'd been thinking about this myself, and I think it might be a case of Telephone. Probably the Head Office said something on the order of, "You guys have got to double-check before accepting any freebies or signing requests that come in. Don't just say yes automatically." And that got remembered as, "Don't take freebies from people claiming to be authors and Just Say No to requests for booksignings."

[elbales]

Oh dear. That sounds dismayingly plausible. Oh, the pain.