Books – Old Official New

Some days are simply writers days. The title of the post may be overly concise, but including everything from today would be very wordy.
How about, ‘An Old Book An Official Book The Next Book‘?
Skip the suspense. Today, I got another new copy of my book about tea tales, Kettle Pot Cup; and got an official letter about my most recent sci-fi novel, Fire Race; and picked up the printed copy of the first draft for From Middle Class to Millionaire to (Mostly) Muddling By. OK, that last one needs a more concise title, too. Like I mentioned, a lot of writer’s news.

An Old Book – Kettle Pot Cup

An old book is not news. And yet, I follow mentions of it, particularly online mentions. One was a surprise. As I described in a recent post (Amazon Author Page And Central), “I use them. They are useful, but not very useful. But they are free and informative.” One random day, I noticed that my only hardcopy book, Kettle Pot Cup, was on sale for $2.61 from the list price of $34.11. That wasn’t two dollars off the price; that was a total price of $2.61. I couldn’t buy a copy on my author’s discount for so little. So, I bought it.

Such a silly thing to do, right? Yes. No. Financially, on a direct income and expense balance, it doesn’t balance. But. For $2.61 plus some significant shipping, I picked up a new copy of my book, still for less than buying it from my publisher. They were probably clearing stock. Amazon plays with pricing. I cleared their shelves (and they won’t thank me), but I also registered a sale on Amazon. A sale on Amazon pops the book’s Sales Rank, which is worth something in ad dollars. I haven’t calculated it, but even with shipping it, it becomes a cheap ad, an excuse to post it on social media, a reason to mention it here – and, as a bonus, a gift to a friend having a tough time in this weird world. $2.61? A bargain.

(Sadly, because the book is a fundraiser for the women who pick tea by hand, there’s no charitable donation except what I may provide personally.)

And I do that frequently. As I mentioned, Amazon plays pricing games. Maybe they’re researching price points (and not passing along the insights), but regardless of their motivations, I’ve restocked my inventory sporadically by doing the same thing with my other titles. The prices are so low that I don’t get royalties, but I get fresh, cheap inventory.

An Official Book – Fire Race

Welcome to the speed of the Library of Congress (and send some sympathy that way as funding gets weirder). About three months ago, I applied for the copyright to Fire Race. (See that post here: Library Of Congress – Fire Race) The letter came today. I applaud anyone trying to run a library lately, especially one that literally has an address with the words ‘Congress’ and ‘D.C.’ I won’t be popping a cork over it, but the letter does provide a closing milestone on producing a creative work. 

From here, the book has crossed the hurdle that my other books have crossed. After this, I will continue to market and promote the book, but this is the marathon phase. The pace slows, and I await auspicious opportunities rather than actively pursuing sales. That’s particularly the case with Fire Race because it is the second book in at least a trilogy.

Maybe I’ll pop a cork, or at least slug a shot this weekend.

The Next Book – From Middle Class to Millionaire to (Mostly) Muddling By

Before I get into why I had it printed, one way I already know I’ll use a shorter title is by trying to use the longer one in two places: conversations and filenames. When someone asks me the title of the book I can see their eyes search for a different topic before I’m four words into it. My fingers get their vote, too. That title is too long, realistically, for a filename. Even the acronym is cumbersome (FMCtMtMMB). I have to look it up to type it up. Filenames are drifting down to MuddlingBy. The shorter title for small talk is A Rollercoaster Ride Through America’s Wealth Classes, which is not shorter but seems to create less mental drift. I’m starting to think of Muddling By as a title, ‘From Middle Class – et al’ as a subtitle, and ‘A Rollercoaster …’ as a marketing line. I think if I put ‘Rollercoaster in the title or subtitle the book is likely to detour search engines the wrong way.

Today’s news deals with the words: ~24,000 so far, about a third or a quarter of my goal. It is the first draft, which, with science fiction, was a good time for me to dive in and start wandering through my brain inventing sciences and fictions. Muddling By (see how much easier that is to type) is personal finance, autobiography, and insights from others. 

So, why print it?

I intend to edit it in public, as in coffeeshops (drinking tea, of course), in tea shops (because Port Townsend has some), and in libraries. I want to hear public voices. Personal finance is too easily a trap for stilted wording. Autobiography is too easy to become self-referential, using a vocabulary that is mine and less universal. 

I could edit it on a computer, but early stages can work well with red pen on paper. (And green pen, and highlighter, and pencil.) Editing on paper isn’t as efficient, but it is also public. “What am I working on? My next book…” and welcome to early marketing as well as free research when they start telling me their story.

This book is also less structured, not chronological. My goal is to describe about 24 topics for three general classes of society: struggling, middle class, wealthy; and to do so in three ways: stereotypical, general anecdotes and trends, and personal experience. That’s 24 topics times 3 times 3. That’s a lot of potential shuffling to find an order that works. Doing that electronically is clean, but it is too easy for copy and paste to insert there instead of here, delete itself into the errant electrons, all while trying to fit vertical pages on a small laptop’s horizontal screen.

By the way, here’s an aside about living in a tiny house. I store most of my office supplies in a storage unit. (https://www.mytinyexperiment.com/) My pages won’t have a three-ring binder home until I drive up and visit the boxes. Details of tiny living.

1+1+1=4

I just realized that those three news items created a fourth: this post. Definitely a writer’s day for this writer.