Month: October 2023

Bob Stories

My very, very old friend Bob is nearing the last days of his life. He may be gone by the time I publish this, or he may hang on a little longer. In his late eighties, he would joke about death. “I could go at any time. The suspense is killing me.”

He was not only an avid reader, but a great story-teller. I aim to reconstruct a few of his stories now and then. I feel as if I know a huge cast of characters from his long life, people from his childhood in upstate New York, his years in the Marine Corps during the Korean war, his life in Philadelphia after he got out of the Marines, and his move out West. I can’t keep track of all the jobs he’s had. Or all the times he could have died but somehow didn’t.

One evening, we were talking about I-forget-what, and he said, “I’ve lost two wives. That’s hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I know other people who’ve been through worse, with wars and all … I’m lucky. Two good marriages. We had good times.”

He said that if he could have either of his wives alive again and with him, it would be his first wife. Not that he didn’t love the second wife. It’s just how he feels. He says his first wife civilized him. I try to picture their lives when they first met in 1960s Philadelphia. He was a young white man just out of the Marines; she was African American, ten years older than him, and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He couldn’t believe she agreed to go out with him, let alone marry him. She was level-headed, practical, and organized. He was adventurous. And from the stories he’s told me, she had a great sense of humor. A city girl, she never understood his need to go camping. “We work this hard to have a nice house, and you go sleep in the woods.” But as long as he came back with fresh-caught fish, she was okay with his camping. After the first fifteen of their twenty-four years, he says, he finally understood just how much he loved her.

Is there an “other side?” Do people meet again? Bob and I agreed on not knowing; we agreed that the transition would be a surprise. I like to imagine the surprise as a reunion with the beloved women who went before him. Who may have met already and been sharing Bob stories.

This picture was meant to feature the T or C Litter Pickers’ trash can art project. Bob, pausing to rest on a bench in front of the drugstore, photo-bombed. And I’m glad he did. It may be the last picture taken of him. Age 88, late summer 2023.

Why I now sell paperbacks direct—and not on Amazon

I am now selling my paperbacks on my web site, where they’re priced the same as they were on Amazon, but my price includes tax and shipping. You don’t have to buy extra stuff to get free shipping (or pay to be in Prime). For $16.99 or $10.99, you get the book. Signed, if you like. The books are also available in some in small, independent shops.

Here’s why I took them off Amazon:

Amazon has been manipulating paperback prices in order to lower eBook royalties.

After I ran a hugely successful first-in-series free promotion of the eBook of The Calling, Amazon discounted the paperback of book two, Shamans’ Blues, so steeply that they could discount the eBook. They pay full royalties on the paperback no matter how low the price, but if they “price match” the eBook to the paperback, they reduce the royalties on the eBook. That’s their rule. I did everything I could to fight it, but with no success. The eBook should have been $4.99 and the paperback $16.99, the same prices as the rest of the series, but Amazon dropped both to $3.49—below printing costs—and kept it that way for over a year. Like most indie authors, I sell primarily eBooks. Therefore, I lost significant royalties on sales of book two. I didn’t sell tons of cheap paperbacks. Readers saw both at the same price and still bought the eBook. Amazon’s price also made me feel obligated to keep the eBook at a lower price on other online stores, so customers there wouldn’t be unhappy about paying more. Book eight, Chloride Canyon came down to $4.88, and I had no ability to stop Amazon from lowering it even more and discounting the eBook as long as my paperbacks were on their site. Taking the paperbacks off Amazon was the only way I could get back control of eBook pricing. My one-woman strike for fair pay.

Amazon has been lowering paperback prices to make you buy more stuff in order to get free shipping while undercutting independent stores that can’t afford to discount a book below what they paid for it. I believe in supporting small businesses. They keep local downtowns and communities alive.

I expect I will publish paperbacks again through another print-on-demand printer in a year or so when the next book comes out or when my stock of books is depleted. However, because most of my books are long, the price of all that paper makes them more expensive to sell on any site that isn’t also the printer (like KDP print on Amazon). So, books from D2D Print or Ingram will cost more.

Or I may do a brief republication on KDP to make them less expensive, restock to sell direct, hope to dodge the price-match hassle, and unpublish again.

Of course, you can look for used copies of my work wherever you buy used books.

And a few new paperbacks may remain on Amazon, though not for long. After I thought I’d wrapped everything up and ended the chance of another $3.49  problem, they sent this message:

“Upon investigation, I see that your Paperback Book “The Calling”, currently has 1 copy still in Amazon’s inventory. I also see your Paperback Book “Shaman’s Blues” has 3 copies, the Paperback Book “Gifts and Thefts” has 1 copy and the Paperback Book “Small Awakenings” also has 1 copy left in Amazon’s inventory. If you’d like to clear out Amazon’s inventory, you could order those copies.”

Is that a good ending for this chapter?