Category Archives: writing/blogging/publishing related

writing, blogging, publishing

You See What I Did Here

writing/blogging/publishing related

Simmons was drinking alone and waiting for opportunity, which soon arrived in the form of a slim dark-haired beauty who brushed past him – deliberately he thought – then sat at a stool one over from his.

The first thing that struck him was her scent, probably some fancy perfume – fresh, floral but not heavy. It reminded him of something, but he couldn’t place it. Subtle. She looked his way. Their eyes met briefly, and she turned her head.

“Could I buy you a drink?” He asked.

“I suppose,” she said, in a tone that implied surprise at finding herself in a hotel bar in midtown at two in the morning on a weeknight, as though the whole concept was somehow amusing.

He took in more of her as the bartender came over. Her dark hair had a hint of auburn, more visible when the light hit it or when she moved her head. She wore it loose, below her shoulders, slightly unkempt, but in a way that seemed deliberate. Bedroom hair, he thought. She was leggy, though not exceptionally tall. He didn’t know much about clothes, but sensed her black dress wasn’t cheap. Nothing about her seemed cheap, but he knew she was a whore nevertheless.

“The lady’ll have …” he looked at her, waiting.

Continue reading You See What I Did Here →

Failure to Launch — Are Goodreads Giveaways Terrible?

writing/blogging/publishing related, , ,


Natl LampoonIf you’re looking for advice on how not to sell your book, you’ve probably come to the right place. I vacillate between believing Blood Diva is not a bestseller because of factors completely outside of my control AND/OR it sucks. This despite several loyal readers whom I’ve acquired who may drop in to tell me otherwise. Thank you, loyal readers! You are keeping me alive. Literally! But let’s not go there, lest we summon the mental health police. (If you want to learn more about how to not sell your book, please read the rest of this VERY IMPORTANT THINK PIECE over at the Blood Diva blog.)

Kindle Unlimited Not a Great Deal for Readers or Authors

writing/blogging/publishing related, , ,

One of my Goodreads friends recently asked if he could find my works on Amazon’s recently launched Kindle Unlimited scheme. Here is what I told him:

My books aren’t enrolled in Kindle Select and won’t be. Authors who participate are mostly losing money compared to before. Authors who aren’t in it are also seeing sales drop. Everyone is losing money but Amazon. There are now 700,000 books on Kindle Unlimited. That may sound like a lot, but unless you only read indies, most books you want to read are not there. Traditional publishers can put books into Kindle Unlimited and still sell those  books in other venues like Nook Books and Kobo. However, indies have to also be enrolled in Kindle Select to be on Kindle Unlimited, which means they have to sell those ebooks exclusively on Kindle, and many authors (and readers) feel that that lack of competition is not a good thing.

Here’s are some more  reasons why Kindle Unlimited is bad for authors: Readers can use Kindle Select as a private (but expensive) library. They can borrow your book, but if they don’t bother to actually read it, you get NOTHING. If they do read more than 10%, you get something, but it’s far less than if they bought it. It’s a flat fee — not sure how it works, but what you want to charge or the length of the book has nothing to do with it. I’d still have the same issue of making mine stand out and get noticed, but then even if someone noticed it, I wouldn’t get paid much. The ranking on Amazon, which is important because a higher ranking means Amazon shows your books to more people won’t be spike from a borrow the same as it will from a sale. It’s not like I’m making much now, but I would  make less using Select. That’s the experience of authors so far. It only makes sense if you are using it for the first in a series — the kind you could write quickly, or for some short stories or something. Because most  books in Kindle Unlimited ARE indies, it further keeps my books in the “indie jail” where mainstream readers won’t even see them.

Here’s why it’s a bad deal for readers: (1) You could buy all the works I have on Kindle for THE SAME MONEY as enrolling for one month on Kindle Unlimited, and they’d be yours forever. Most indie books are very inexpensive even now, and there are plenty of ways to save more money on books, such as:  (2) You can decide to buy a Kindle book after you read a sample, so you could save money just by downloading and reading the samples before you buy. (3) If you buy a book — even an ebook, it is yours theoretically forever. If you use Unlimited you can only borrow a limited number of books to read at a time. They aren’t on your cloud, and if don’t get to them and want more, you have to return the unused ones. You also lose them if you quit the program, so if you haven’t gotten to them after one month, you’re still paying a kind of “storage fee” for them the next month. (4) Most traditionally published new books are NOT available on Kindle Unlimited, and not all indie books are, so the “select” part of Indie Select is not great. (5) Here are even more better ways of getting books cheap and/or for free: (a) Read more indie books! They are mostly priced between 99 cents and $4.99! (b) Many indie authors will give away their books in exchange for honest reviews,so you can write and ask (c) Become a reviewer for NetGalley. If you review books regularly on Goodreads, they will consider you a “professional” and even offer you new traditionally published books. (d) Public libraries exist for trad published books and have a wider selection than Kindle Unlimited — including ebooks — although there might be wait times. (e) If you read paper as well as digitally, Amazon has many used books for only the postage costs,  and if you are lucky enough to live near a used book store, you’ll find tons of bargains there. (f) A lot of ebooks — including both indies and traditionally published ones have limited time sales for really low prices and even ebook giveaways. You can subscribe FREE to services like BookBub that email you alerting you to sales or services like E-Reader IQ that will track the prices of books you want to read!

So unless you exclusively read indie ebooks (including really short ones and ones that nobody has “discovered” yet)  and ebooks by trad publishers that are no longer selling that well, and unless you read more than $9.99 (US price) worth of these types of book per month, and can’t think of or don’t want to bother with other ways to get them that would be less costly than paying full price, I don’t think this is a bargain.

(Don’t agree? Got something to add? Comments are always welcome. Also while you are here, why not click on one of the books above in “my picks”? Or better yet, go here and check out my new novel, and its glowing reviews. Feel free to link the sh*t out of this post!)

My Work and Welcome To It

book reviews, Event, writing/blogging/publishing related, , , ,

Happy New Year.

In addition to bringing you essential information about topics like getting cheap seats at the Met Opera, and writing high quality television recaps over on Happy Nice Time People where I will be handling Downton Abbey beginning Sunday night (We yanks still haven’t seen season 5) and Better Call Saul come February, I also write the fiction.

Sometimes I even read the fiction aloud in front of people, like in this photo to your left taken at a real event in New York City!

I don’t usually come out and say “BUY MY BOOKS” because you wouldn’t listen anyway, but I am going to tell you about them now because I am desperate what the hell. You may have been coming here for years reading about my geriatric dog who had cushing’s disease, or some of my so-called “humor,” so I’m figuring you owe me would be really interested in my stuff which can generally be had in electronic form real cheap. (I can also be had in electronic form real cheap but that is another matter and you will need to email me for details.)

Here is a brief listing of the fiction o’ mine. You may be hung over and lazy today, so why don’t you go over to the Amazon and check out the reviews and upload the FREE samples:

Blood Diva –  This is the first time I have publicly come out on this blog as the author of this work. As many of you know, it feels better after you come out unless you live in one of the 29 states where you can be fired from your job for doing so. Blood Diva is a racy vampire novel for people who don’t necessarily like vampire novels. There is no “sparkling” here.  Opera lovers and classic cinema fans seem to like it as the protagonist is Marie Duplessis – the woman on whom Camille and La Traviata are based. There are cameos by Maria Callas and Louise Brooks. People who are NOT opera lovers love it too. Some people have compared it to Anne Rice and have called it a “game-changer.” The ebook is only $3.99 and the paperback is discounted on Amazon. You can read more about it and see some great offers on the book’s website.

Loisaida – Is a novel of gentrification and its discontents, set in Manhattan’s pre-gentrified East Village and inspired by true events, including the so-called “police riots” and a crime so ghastly it became the stuff of legend.  If you live in the East Village now and want to know what it was like then, this is the book for you. If you lived through New York City’s bad old days and still miss the edge, you’ll enjoy the read. The words “gritty” and “stunning” come up a lot in reviews. There is no way I can write about it without sounding insufferable, so maybe you should just read what other people had to say either on Amazon or here.

Schrodinger’s Telephone is a novella about grief and loss. Lizzie has the perfect life until one day she doesn’t. It’s nominally “speculative fiction” but mostly it’s a story you can read in one sitting on just about any electronic device, and it might make you cry. This is probably the least “controversial” of anything I’ve written. There’s no explicit sex or violence. Here is something someone said about it on Amazon:

“A beautifully-written novella, Ms Stein has captured the overwhelming loss of a loved one, along with the alternating feelings of despair, wistfulness, grief, faith, powerlessness, and hope of those left behind. The details, pacing, and construction are perfectly executed. A lovely, poignant story.”

The Death Trip is another quick read novella for those who hate to commit. It’s light reading about Big Pharma conspiracies and euthanasia. Paranoid? You’ll love it!

So, I know you got hit up a lot for charitable contributions over the last month, and I can’t offer you a tax deduction, but if you’ve ever been ENTERTAINED by any of my posts, please check out the fiction and if you don’t want to spend your hard earned monies, maybe you could tweet about one of these fine works or something. Much obliged.

What Is a Book?

book reviews, Politics and Culture, writing/blogging/publishing related, , ,

With everyone now doing at least some of their reading on devices, it may be a little late in the day to go back to the early arguments against e-books, yet Amazon itself has recently begun to point out some of the limitations of the format.

Seven years ago when the Kindle was introduced, there was a lot of talk about whether e-books and e-reading devices would even catch on at all. Kindle launched with a video of Toni Morrison – writer, editor and literary grande dame – speaking about her love for the new tschotke. She hit several important talking points that would be repeated mantra-like through the years – you could travel with a lot of books, you could read trash without other people’s knowing, you could set the print large enough so that you wouldn’t need glasses. There was other stuff too. Continue reading What Is a Book? →