I subbed in preschool this week, always an interesting experience. One very cute little girl told me she's going to be a princess when she grows up. I replied by telling her that would be a fun job. She told me, "Being a princess is not a job. It's who you are. I'm gonna stay at home and take care of my babies so my prince can go to his job."
In your face, women's lib.
Autumn Piper
Got romance?
USA Today Best of 2012
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Something Old... but New For Me
Last night, Google gave me an interesting tidbit. Somebody on a file-sharing site for ebooks (think Napster) posted a request to anybody who has All Fore Revenge.
Hmm. First reaction? (oh, aside from the fact that she misspelled All as Al? heh, Al Fore Revenge – gives me a picture of that Tim Allen show, Home Improvement. Can totally see his helper Al going after him with a seven iron on the green…) Now where were we? Oh. First reaction. I thought, “Whoa. Somebody really wants my book. Somebody who doesn’t even know me! (hopefully, cause it would be totally scummy if this person did know me and was trying to steal my book).”
And then I thought, “Hey. It’s kinda scummy that anybody is trying to steal a $5.50 ebook anyway. Especially when the book will last forever and is the latest greatest technology in reading. Especially when it’s from a brand-new, struggling writer(not saying starving, cause that would be an outright lie, which anybody could tell by looking at my waistline or lack thereof).” I wonder if the people who set up these forums have any idea what we make?
I mean, if you’ve published a book, you’re like, set for life! Right?
Well, let’s do the math. I get 40% royalties off each ebook sale. Which sounds like a lot. It’s $2.20 for each ebook sold thru the LIP bookstore. Less if it goes via a third party retailer. Like, $1.10 for Kindle editions. Which still sounds like big bucks. Except, I’ve only got 3 cousins and 4 friends. (I’m kidding of course. I have sold a few more than that. But not many.) And now I’ve got to really meet people and beg them to buy my book. In other words, work for each and every sale. Because, have you seen how many books are out there for sale? Where do you even start deciding which to buy? And then there’s my poor editor. She gets like $0.45 for each copy, and about half that if it’s on Kindle or through somewhere like Fictionwise. As you can guess, she’s already considering stock options. No, not Wall Street stock – pantry stock. And with her check, her options would be, “Iodized, or not iodized?”
Although I wrote All Fore Revenge pretty quickly, I’ve got at least 300 hours into it writing, revising, querying, submitting, editing, creating the trailer, and promoting. So far. When I divide what I’ve earned by this number of hours, I get a very sad hourly rate, probably the minimum wage when they invented coins. And I’ve spent more on advertising than my royalties thus far. Some might ask why bother writing, then? To me, it’s an investment in my future. Writers are, after all, optimists by nature. How else could we toil for months over something without any certainty that it’ll ever be published?
So I guess for those determined to read books and not pay for them, all I can say is, “Visit the library, already!” At least the library pays for the books before it loans them out. And librarians track the number of times books are borrowed – highly used titles mean the author’s next book will be purchased, too. Most libraries now even have ebook programs. Best of all – they’re LEGAL.
Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!
Hmm. First reaction? (oh, aside from the fact that she misspelled All as Al? heh, Al Fore Revenge – gives me a picture of that Tim Allen show, Home Improvement. Can totally see his helper Al going after him with a seven iron on the green…) Now where were we? Oh. First reaction. I thought, “Whoa. Somebody really wants my book. Somebody who doesn’t even know me! (hopefully, cause it would be totally scummy if this person did know me and was trying to steal my book).”
And then I thought, “Hey. It’s kinda scummy that anybody is trying to steal a $5.50 ebook anyway. Especially when the book will last forever and is the latest greatest technology in reading. Especially when it’s from a brand-new, struggling writer(not saying starving, cause that would be an outright lie, which anybody could tell by looking at my waistline or lack thereof).” I wonder if the people who set up these forums have any idea what we make?
I mean, if you’ve published a book, you’re like, set for life! Right?
Well, let’s do the math. I get 40% royalties off each ebook sale. Which sounds like a lot. It’s $2.20 for each ebook sold thru the LIP bookstore. Less if it goes via a third party retailer. Like, $1.10 for Kindle editions. Which still sounds like big bucks. Except, I’ve only got 3 cousins and 4 friends. (I’m kidding of course. I have sold a few more than that. But not many.) And now I’ve got to really meet people and beg them to buy my book. In other words, work for each and every sale. Because, have you seen how many books are out there for sale? Where do you even start deciding which to buy? And then there’s my poor editor. She gets like $0.45 for each copy, and about half that if it’s on Kindle or through somewhere like Fictionwise. As you can guess, she’s already considering stock options. No, not Wall Street stock – pantry stock. And with her check, her options would be, “Iodized, or not iodized?”
Although I wrote All Fore Revenge pretty quickly, I’ve got at least 300 hours into it writing, revising, querying, submitting, editing, creating the trailer, and promoting. So far. When I divide what I’ve earned by this number of hours, I get a very sad hourly rate, probably the minimum wage when they invented coins. And I’ve spent more on advertising than my royalties thus far. Some might ask why bother writing, then? To me, it’s an investment in my future. Writers are, after all, optimists by nature. How else could we toil for months over something without any certainty that it’ll ever be published?
So I guess for those determined to read books and not pay for them, all I can say is, “Visit the library, already!” At least the library pays for the books before it loans them out. And librarians track the number of times books are borrowed – highly used titles mean the author’s next book will be purchased, too. Most libraries now even have ebook programs. Best of all – they’re LEGAL.
Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Wednesday Warm-up
Still reading Pigtopia, so I can't do a review on it yet. Instead, we'll light a fire on this frigid old January Wednesday with one of my new favorite heart throbs.
David Boreanaz plays agent Seeley Booth on one of my fave shows - Fox's Bones. Last week he almost gave me a heart attack when he and Dr. Brennan went undercover to the circus and he spent nearly the entire episode in a sleeveless shirt. So, for your viewing pleasure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boreanaz
In a word, YUM.
Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!
David Boreanaz plays agent Seeley Booth on one of my fave shows - Fox's Bones. Last week he almost gave me a heart attack when he and Dr. Brennan went undercover to the circus and he spent nearly the entire episode in a sleeveless shirt. So, for your viewing pleasure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boreanaz
In a word, YUM.
Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tube Tuesday
Went to see Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories this weekend. It was a blast - lots of laughs, and it's always funny to watch a Sandler movie and see where Rob Schneider turns up. Cause you know he always does! This movie is totally clean and suitable for all audiences, too. (Even though, I confess, we let our kids watch all his other movies.) I'd definitely give this movie two thumbs up!
So this week's 'Tube selection is an interview between Sandler and an Irish journalist. It's just as much fun listening to the questions as his answers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z9RTtnqVJs&feature=channel
I'll leave you with a little question. What's your favorite Sandler scene/quote? Mine has to be his scene with Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore, where they brawl and Barker is a total SOB and Happy ends the fight with the sage words, "The price is wrong, bitch!" I will always laugh out loud at that.
Happy Tuesday!
Autumn
Got romance?
So this week's 'Tube selection is an interview between Sandler and an Irish journalist. It's just as much fun listening to the questions as his answers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z9RTtnqVJs&feature=channel
I'll leave you with a little question. What's your favorite Sandler scene/quote? Mine has to be his scene with Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore, where they brawl and Barker is a total SOB and Happy ends the fight with the sage words, "The price is wrong, bitch!" I will always laugh out loud at that.
Happy Tuesday!
Autumn
Got romance?
Monday, January 26, 2009
Things That Suck More Than Mondays
This one's a real bugger for me. The sun hasn't showed its face around our house in like 4 days. Not good. Without further ado, this week's list, all worthy of the Dyson Award in my opinion:
- Rain in the winter time. Rain + snow=slush = a big sloppy mess it's impossible to drive through
- SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) - think I've got a mild case
- When your mom invites you on a trip to Mexico but you can't even get your life together enough to get a damn passport, let alone schedule all the logistics necessary to make it.
- When something gets put on the cover of your book (and its listing) because you had NO IDEA what the heck was going on.
- Trying to actually get the books you want in the correct ebook format for your fancy shmancy digital reader. It really shouldn't be hard! I'm not a techno-tard. At least I don't think so...
- Listening to somebody else's whines when you've got your own Monday issues to deal with.
Happy dealing!
Autumn
Got romance?
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