Releasing to Multiple E-Readers

Today was spent releasing my book The Great Heist to all the e-readers (in addition to Kindle, in which it was already available.)  I was intending for this pots to be the announcement that it's available on all these readers, but I had forgotten what a bureaucratic mess it all is, and how long it takes for the book to become available on the other sites.

First, I should explain the top places to release your e-book.  They are:

Kindle

Smashwords

Google Play

Goodreads

Drivethru Fiction

Scribd

I have placed them in the order in which I do them based on a delicate balance of value for you vs. how much of a headache they are.  Below I list each one and how I feel about them.

Kindle is the number one spot for independent writers/publishers.  It just is.  There are other places with a great independent spirit, like Smashwords, but the simple fact is that Kindle makes it easiest for independent writers/publishers, and they help promote them the most.  By placing our books in Amazon alongside larger publishers' books, we get the same respect and potential sales as anyone else.  Amazon also recommends our e-books when someone buys something similar.  But most important to this particular blog post, the publishing process is easy.  First of all, it's a very streamlined process.  The amount you need to do to prepare your document is rather minimal, and when you upload it, their program will help fix little problems you may have, and you can check it right away, seeing how it looks on various readers immediately.  And if there are any problems, you can call them and they'll actually talk to you!  Many other distributors complain about Kindle having unfair competitive policies, but there's a reason they're ahead, and rather than complain about them, other e-readers and distribution channels should learn from Kindle and maybe do what they do.  It's for these reasons that I typically start my books on the KDP Select exclusive deal with Kindle for the first 90 days before making it available on other readers.  I'd love to open up to the other sites right away, but Kindle is just simply the most supportive and easiest to deal with.

Smashwords is the second place to go.  And in some ways, one could go with just being on Kindle and Smashwords and be fine.  When you publish something through Smashwords, it goes out to just about everyone except Kindle, so everyone you want to carry the book has it.  It's run by Mark Coker, probably the largest supporter of independent books.  It's because he's so supportive of independent artists that I want to go to Smashwords first, but in order to upload to them, a publisher has to go through a whole bureaucratic process that's extremely complicated and frustrating.  The good news is that when you finally get it right, it's formatted for a whole bunch of different readers, so you only have to do it once.  This is true, and it's nice to not have to do it multiple times, but by the time you prepare this one file,  you'll feel like you've done it a bunch of times.  Smashwords provides a guide to help you prepare your document... that's literally more than a hundred pages long.  And if you get lost, there's no one to call; just a note that tells you that it's wrong after you upload it.  You can't even preview it to see what it looks like and where the problem is exactly.  The excuse for this is simply that it's publishing, and therefore complicated.  I would accept that if it wasn't for the fact that Kindle is so easy to publish onto.  I don't blame Coker or the team at Smashwords.  I think they're doing their best to make it easy on us.  I think it's the fault of the companies it gets distributed to, like Barnes & Noble, Sony, etc.; these companies that complain about Amazon having unfair business practices rather than learning from them and improving their services.

Google Play is fast becoming an important distribution platform, particularly because of the Android tablets they sell to.  Also, the way Google is growing, it's got its fingers in many areas.  Personally, I like the convenience.  I know some people feel like it intrudes on their personal lives, but I really like the way I can connect all my various projects and jump between them with ease.  I can have a book trailer on Youtube that connects to these blogs which connect to my calendar which connect to my email, etc.  And now my books can be part of this mix.  The biggest problem has been a very poorly organized site with which to upload the books.  Every single time I used the system I had problems.  Links were broken, instructions were incorrect, it was a mess.  Worst of all, they had no phone number to call for help.  I could email and maybe get a response sometime that week, but that's all.  I often begged the people to give me some phone number because the issues were usually easily solvable in less than a minute over the phone, but they took more than a month by email.  I write all this in past tense, however, as they seem to be solving their problems now.  Let's hope it gets better... and that they start to have phone support!

Goodreads is of course the place where people generally go to talk about books, but they now have an option to purchase e-books directly on their site.  This is a great thing, as the majority of people on there are book fans.  If they can instantly purchase books they've been recommended, so much the better.  The problem with this is that these services are just being implemented, and it needs vast improvement to work properly.  Like Google Play, there's no phone service, and issues that could be resolved in minutes take over a month.

Drivethru Fiction is a personal favorite of mine, but the number of people who know about it is limited.  It's nice because it's connected to several other game and comic book sites, so it attracts a lot of fantasy and sci fi fans.  What's wonderful for writers is that they have a great method of advertising.  Every month you get a certain number of points you can use to advertise.  You can get more points by doing various activities that help the community, such as reviewing other people's work.  Also, don't let the name fool you.  Just because it says "fiction" doesn't mean you can't sell non-fiction on it.

Scribd hardly needs mentioning if you do Smashwords.  It's supposed to already be distributed there if you go through Smashwords.  However, I haven't noticed many sales through Scribd when I went through Smashwords, but I have seen sales when I put things on directly, so I always upload here separately.  Scribd is a great place to get noticed.  Every time I upload I instantly get dozens of reads.  I usually have 10 to 20 before I switch from the uploading screen to the reading screen.  It seems to be the perfect place to get people to notice you so they then start purchasing.  Plus, it's easy to upload!  No bureaucratic nonsense!  Google, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Goodreads, these guys could learn a few things from Scribd and Drivethru Fiction.

2014 Release Schedule

This is going to be a busy year for me.  There are a bunch of books I've started but had to abandon for a time while I did something else.  The result is a backlog of half-finished projects which need to be completed.  Thus, I have a list of books ready to be finished and released.  Here is the schedule:

January - Pro Bono audiobook
February - Relic Worlds - Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World
July - Relic Worlds short stories
August - Two Gun Hart (Finished, but release may be later)
September - Relic Worlds Pick Your Path books
October - The American Game
December - Relic Worlds - The Last Transmission

I will also be releasing several games, but I don't know what month they'll be released.  They are:

Relic Worlds - The Lost Worlds
Command Combat: Civil War - Gettysburg (Board game)
Command Combat: Civil War - Naval combat (Board game)
Command Combat: Civil War - 1864 (Miniatures expansion)

Next year is also filling up.  I have four books and three games already in development for release.  And somewhere in all these, I need to find time for my video things, which are:

Command Combat Battle Reports
Command Combat Computer Reports
Geo-Hunters
The Bandwagon Network

You'll see everything as it comes up at: www.bandwagononline.com

How I Organize and Write Nonfiction

I was having drinks with a friend when she asked me how I put a nonfiction book together.  I thought it was an odd question because, like often happens when people ask us about things we do all the time, I thought everyone knew.  I took my knowledge for granted.  In my mind it was just a simple process of getting the information and putting it down in a narrative way.

But the more I got to telling her what I do, the more I realized how complicated it is, so I decided to put down, albeit a bit briefly, what my process is for writing nonfiction.

Obviously, the first step is getting the information.  The very first things I need to do is get the bare basics of the story; the one page pitch, as it were, to figure out what the overall story is, why it’s worth telling, and how I would describe it briefly to someone.  This often winds up being the majority of the back cover description.  I take the time here to find out if there’s enough information to cover a full length book.  Sometimes a topic is fascinating, but you can’t make a full book out of it without making things up.

The next thing I do is dive into the information.  I will read everything and watch ever documentary I can.  I take sources of information I already knew existed, including experts on the topic, and I also look at the sources of the books, documentaries, etc. to add to the list.  For instance, I’ll look in the bibliographies of books to get names, places, etc.  Of course, I’ll also Google information as well, though I don’t simply take the information I see on the internet.  Again, I look at the sources and I go to look at them.

I don’t write for a long time.  I’ll spend weeks diving through all of this information.  The difference between writing fiction and nonfiction is in fiction you lay back and think; in nonfiction you sit up and read.

When I finally feel I understand the topic well enough, I still don’t start writing.  I make a very basic outline of how I intend to approach the topic.  I then take that outline and break it down into chapters.  This is the most important organizational tool I can use.  Though these chapters do usually wind up being the actual chapter breaks in the book, they don’t have to be.

The reason for my breaking the book into chapters at this point is simply to categorize where all the information will go.  It’s too much to tackle all the information at once, so I need to have a category for each chapter.  I actually create a separate folder in my computer for each chapter, and I’ll drop the information for that chapter only into that bin.  Sometimes I’ll have physical folders for each chapter for the physical information I have as well.

For example, in the book I’m currently writing, Two Gun Hart, I have a folder in my computer with the title of the book and the word “Chapters”.  Inside of this folder are 13 folders, each with a title number and name.  The book is being organized by dates, so I put those dates on the folder names.  This makes it MUCH easier for me to know where new information goes.  If I find something that happened in 1933, it goes in the chapter titled “1932-1939”.

I can then bite off smaller chunks at a time.  So when I write chapter 1, I’m thinking only of the information in that chapter.  Everything is made much easier.  The one problem with this is that it causes me to repeat myself in various chapters, or mention something in one chapter, then not follow it up in a next.

This fixed in the next step.  Once all the information has been placed in the appropriate chapters, and each chapter is “written” on its own, I then go through the whole book, reading through every chapter, and making corrections as I go along.  This is when I connect thoughts from one chapter to the next, take out places where I repeat myself, etc.  When this is done, I have a first draft.

The next step is basically going through the book and making corrections the way you would with any story; correcting grammar and making the flow of the story work, making everything clear, improving the way characters are developed, etc.  I call this step smoothing out.

So far, I’ve had two basic types of narrative in my historical books, one I like to call linear, the other I like to call character pieces.

Pro Bono – The 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate was a linear book.  The story began with the murders that started the whole incident, then went through the investigation, the preparation of the defense, the first trial, between the trials, the second trial, and on to the appeals.  I broke up the chapters into these parts of the story, putting in everything I knew about the media and the public during the murder spree in one folder, everything I could find about the investigation in the next, the trial transcripts into their respective trials, etc.

The Great Heist was a character piece.  Though there is a linear story, it’s told through describing each character and telling about their part in the story.  I bookended it with the first chapter being the bank robbery, and the last chapter being how it was solved and the wrap up.  I then had a folder with each main character’s name and I put in all the information about that person in that folder.  Since these characters each took part in one aspect of the story, I was also able to divide up the story elements into their names.  For instance, Gus Winkeler was responsible for getting the money back to authorities in Lincoln, Nebraska, so the information about the return of the money went into his folder.  Al Capone was dealing with the mobsters who robbed the bank, so information about the mob went into his folder, etc.

As you go through the book, you get to know the subject matter intimately, so you’ll just know what goes where, even when some things overlap, as they did in The Great Heist where sometimes a couple characters did the same thing.  However you do it, organizing the information is the main part of creating the story.  The next part, smoothing it out, is just as you would with any story, and is really the easy part, in my opinion.

Press Release Distribution

One of the most important tools in the marketing toolbox of independent publishers is the press release through as many channels as possible.  This blog post is not about the press release itself, but rather the distribution of it to as many places as possible.  Other sites that talk about how to make an effective press release include:

http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Press-Release

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-high-impact-press-releases-HA001189558.aspx

I'm not an expert in this field, but I have several experiences, of which I will explain in hopes that it helps others be able to better navigate their own distribution.

The usual method is to distribute the press release through a distribution service.  There are several that are paid subscription services, and several that are free.  Overall, I can really confirm, you get what you pay for.  It's not that the free subscription services are bad or the expensive ones will get you everything you desire, but your odds of getting good coverage definitely go up the more you pay.

There is one service I want to get out of the way right off the bat.  DO NOT USE INEWSWIRE.  IT IS A SCAM.  They will seem convenient and pleasant and will look legitimate until it comes time to actually do something, or more disturbingly, when you decide to stop using their service.  When you try to cancel service, they keep charing your credit card.  When you email them, they do not respond.  When you call them, they do not answer their phones.  It took me several months to cancel my credit card and get a little of my money back.  If you don't catch them doing this, you will continue to be charged every month until you at last cancel your credit card and reset everything.  It's a huge headache.

Okay, now on to the free services.  These are the ones I use:

http://www.pressmethod.com

http://www.webnewswire.com

http://www.prlog.org

http://news.eboomwebsolutions.com/addnews.php

A few of these services have a paid option as well, but they seem to work best in their standard free distribution.  Don’t expect a lot from them, but I think it’s a good idea to send my press release to them because they don’t take a lot of time, and you never know who’s going to get them that might like them.

The paid services that work best are the ones you see the most.

PRWeb ($100 +)

PRWeb is right there at the top.  It sucks to spend $100 or more when no one picks up the story, but at least your odds are the best.  Also, they have a wonderful service that allows you to see how many people are reading the story, and a good analysis on what’s being done with it.  You can also see some of the places where the story’s playing.  They are at:

http://www.prweb.com

PRLeap ($80 - $100)

PRLeap is simple and easy to use, though I had more trouble seeing where my press release was picked up, and how effective it was.  Frankly, I prefer to go the extra few bucks to PRWeb, but if you’re really tight on the budget, or you’re wanting to do a few releases, this might be your best bet.

http://www.prleap.com/

I had INewswire as the third one on here, but like I said, THEY ARE A SCAM.  Stay away from them.  It’s dumb of them, also.  If they were not so seedy, they would be right here on the list as the economical plan, and I would use them as much as I use PRWeb.  In making the quick buck, they’ve lost far more money than they have gained.

Interestingly, the most effective method I’ve had has been simply contacting the news media myself.  This is very time consuming, of course, and rather tiring.  In fact, I switched to online distribution methods for the very reason that it was taking me so long to send it out myself that it was more cost effective to simply pay someone to do it.

However, as I analyzed how many people picked my story up, I found that contacting them directly, especially when I was able to send it to a reporter, editor, or producer by name, I had a lot more luck than when it was sent out through any mass distribution service.

What I do is I create an Excel sheet to keep track of the different places I’m sending it.  On the far left, I list the names of the places, and in the following fields to the right I enter contact information, names, notes, etc.  I then color code them based on the type of media it is.  For instance, I list reviews in purple, radio in blue, newspapers in white, etc.  These are the categories I always do:

Radio

Newspaper

Television

Magazine

Review

Podcast

Blog

I make a list of 50 to 100 places, usually getting their contact information off the internet, specifically Google.

Once I have the list completed, I go down the list, usually picking one color to focus on each day.  I create a form letter that I’m going to send, but then I alter it based on who I’m contacting.  The letter starts the email, and the press release ends it.  As always, never send the press release as an attachment; always put it in the body of the letter after putting ### at the end of the letter.

But the rest of this would belong in a blog about press releases.

Getting Reviews in Newspapers

Once again, I was going to do a blog about press releases, but I just learned today that my book The Great Heist got a wonderful review in the newspaper, so I'm going to talk a little about newspaper reviews.

Many people say that newspapers are going out of fashion, and will be gone soon.  I disagree.  In fact, I believe they are one of the four best resources for writers.  (The others are radio stations, blogs, and podcasts.)  Though they have lost a lot of revenue over the past couple decades, and their staffs have unfortunately declined significantly, they are still relevant with a certain audience.  More importantly, they still have ways to survive.

The problem is when people equate newspapers with news print.  The assumption is that as the print medium dies, so do newspapers.  Not true; and the smart newspapers have been adjusting, getting onto the web, and creating apps for their product.  Just as heralding news on the streets was replaced by the printing press, so, too, has the printing press been replaced by computers and, to a larger degree, tablets.  It's the natural progression, and there's no reason anyone should be left behind as it's simply a different method of distribution; the content doesn't really need to change, (except perhaps for some adding of interactivity.)

The problem for the newspapers is financing.  Once purchased by millions of people, it has reduced to a tiny percentage of that amount due to the internet.  Television and radio reduced the readership as they came along, but this most recent threat was bigger because it approached the same audience: readers.  While TV and radio attracted people to watch and listen to the news, newspapers retained readership; people who prefer to read for themselves about what's happening rather than having it filtered through the emotions of telecasters or radio personalities.

That's how I get to my point.  Though newspapers and blogs may have a lower readership than television and Youtube, they retain the audience that is most important, readers.  Independent book selling is really more about selling to niches than it is about going for the mainstream audience.  Even if your book will appeal to a mainstream audience, you want a niche audience to start out with.  You want them to feel special, like they have a beautiful secret before anyone else.  Then utilize that base to launch off into a wider audience.  Newspapers have that loyalty, and a reader who cares about a newspaper, (or a blog,) will care more deeply about what they say, and are more likely to read a review or a story from them.

My books have thus far been a lot about Nebraska history, and I plan to do some more fairly soon.  I've therefore become acquainted with the people in charge of book reviews at The Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha Reader.  (I have not been impressed with the Omaha World Herald.)  I've sent them stories and free copies of the books every time they've come out, and I've shown gratitude every time they do a story or a review.  I also see what's going on in town before sending them things so I can refer to current events, and talk about how these stories will be relevant.  As such, I've gotten both reviews, and regular stories written about my books and their subjects.

Once I have that base, I branch out from there into blogs, podcasts, radio stations and newspapers around the country.  But having that base from a couple local newspapers helps tremendously, as I'm able to show others that first review, that first story, and how well it went over with their readers.

To see the review of The Great Heist, go to:

http://journalstar.com/entertainment/books/book-review-great-heist-is-fantastic-tale-of-lincoln-bank/article_ca0d72de-ed14-5b38-a5c6-6225da12a8b7.html

Peter O'Toole's Passing and the Huge Affect of Lawrence of Arabia on Me

I was going to do a post today about press releases, but I learned that Peter O'Toole died, and I feel I need to do a post on how the movie he starred in, Lawrence of Arabia, greatly affected my life.  Now, I recognize that he didn't write the book or movie about Lawrence of Arabia, nor did he direct it, and this subject isn't really about what this blog is based on, but because it affected me as an artist so deeply, I want to take this moment to talk a little bit about it.

In 1991, I was studying film making at New York University, and was trying to be a screenwriter and director.  But I had gotten discouraged by a lot of elements that go into filmmaking, and was ready to quit.  Then one weekend I went into Brooklyn to see a screening of Lawrence of Arabia just for the fun of it.  It was a full, day-long event.  I sat alone in a seat near the center.  Amber lights poured down on the curtains as music from the movie lulled us into the atmosphere.  When the music rose, the lights went down, and the curtains parted.  The first two hours blew me away, and they were followed by a two hour intermission, during which the audience went out onto the lawn and had a picnic together.  We returned to the movie to finish it off.

What particularly moved me was that it mixed the worlds of adventure and intellectual storytelling.  A lot of times people tend to think you have to choose between these two.  A lot of writers and directors have bought into this belief, and the genres have separated even further.  But Lawrence of Arabia reminded us that neither excludes the other.

I left the theater re-energized.  I remember sitting on the subway platform thinking, if I can bring back that sort of movie, I will remain in film.  It became my goal to bring back the epic.  I was further inspired when I learned that Steven Spielberg had also been inspired by the same movie, and so I was probably on the right track.

Though I pursued that direction, I failed to bring back the epic, and even failed to become a filmmaker at all.  When I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I realized that Peter Jackson had achieved the goal for which I had set, and thus began my path back to books.

But what I wanted to talk about here actually has more to do with a line from the movie, one that has affected my entire life in movies, books, and even my personal life.  A lot of characters are trying to figure out how to attack the town of Akaba.  Major plans are being formed with strategies and tactics involving the sea, going up the mountains to assault the flanks, etc.  Lawrence and the Arabs he's with are behind Akaba and could take it easily, but a huge desert rests between them and the city.  Lawrence takes one of the men to the edge of that desert, thrusts his finger out into it and says, "Akaba is there.  All you need to do is go and get it."

Suddenly everything became simple.  All the plans and schemes could not topple the well-defended city.  But Lawrence showed that it was really quite simple.  "Akaba is there."  Stop planning and go get it.  To me, what it reveals in life is that a lot of the big plans and plots of how we'll go about them are actually excuses to not just do them.  I hear a lot of times people talking and talking and talking about these great things they're going to do.  This talk goes on for years, and they never do them, but they have great plans!  They have forgotten, "Akaba is there.  All you need to do is go and get it."  Though sometimes one needs a plan, jumping in isn't always the best idea, the plan can become the very obstacle you're trying to overcome.  It can become tempting to fool ourselves into believing we're accomplishing something because we're making plans or following a path we've set out.  We must be careful that these are not simply excuses from doing what really needs to be done.

This is one of the things I've always disliked about the empowerment movement.  To me, these life coach sessions and empowerment meetings often teach people all these strategies and mantras by which to achieve their goals, but if the people put the same time, effort, and money into simply doing what needs to be done, they would achieve them.  Most of the time, the people I've seen who follow the empowerment movement do so as a way to procrastinate from their goals, not achieve them.  I have yet to see someone who went to one of these empowerment groups actually achieve their goals as a direct result of the groups.  They usually find themselves several months or years down the line poorer than they were before, and, frankly, further from their goals, with lots of slogans to recite, but nothing to show for their efforts.

They need to know just one thing: "Akaba is there.  All you need to do is go and get it."  Now learn what's between you and your goal, set a plan to overcome them, (this should take no more than a few hours of research and planning,) and go and get it.  If you're still planning by tomorrow and not doing, or if you're joining an empowerment group or reciting slogans or mantras rather than taking action, then you're only making excuses for yourself.

The Hypocrisy of Many Independent Bookstores

I'm a big supporter of independent business; independent in my definition being a company run by one or a few individuals without the aid of a corporation or large business.  I admire risk takers who set out to carve their own niche in our capitalism, and I'm in awe of those who can make it work on an ongoing basis.

Working in the book industry, then, one would assume that I prefer independent bookstores.  And I have, mostly, throughout my life, just as I've preferred going into other independent, small shops in my neighborhood.  I'm a big fan of supporting one's local stores.  Even though I love the online revolution, that should not keep us from shopping at stores in our areas.  Doing so supports our neighbors and friends and helps us connect with the area in which we spend our lives.

Ever since I've started publishing my own books, however, I have grown to recognize a hypocrisy in a lot of independent bookstores, which has soured my view of them.  When I began distributing, I thought that my best allies would be these smaller bookstores.  The owners would surely understand the spirit of independent business, as they themselves struggle in that difficult industry.  A few of them were supportive.  A Novel Idea in my home town of Lincoln, Nebraska, and The Bookworm in Omaha, Nebraska, have been extremely good to me, not only carrying my books, but arranging signings, and promoting my books on their websites, etc.  A few independent bookstores in San Francisco have been supportive as well.  But the majority of them have not.

When I went to independent bookstores in the area I live now, (Los Angeles,) every independent bookstore turned me down.  One of them, Vroman's, allowed me to pay them to carry it on their shelves, but they would not consider ordering them under any circumstances.  This pattern repeated itself in almost every bookstore I've approached nationwide.  The reason they all gave is because my books were not published by a major, corporate run publisher.

I did consider the fact that perhaps my books were just not what they wanted, but I looked at what these bookstores carried, and aside from those people who paid Vroman's to carry their books, (and the few great bookstores like A Novel Idea,) no one carried independently published books!

These bookstores have been struggling to survive.  Large book chains like Barnes & Noble first started taking all the business away from them as many customers preferred the vast selections.  Then, with the advent of the internet, Amazon and other online stores sucked away even more business.  Finally, ebook readers have made buying so easy for the customer that it's nearly decimated the independent bookstores.  They are struggling to stay alive.

They have fought this trend with the same acumen that I presented at the beginning of this writing, that people should support their local stores.  They also argue that people should support independent retailers in general as large corporations generally are not interested in individuals, and wind up employing people at minimum wage who might otherwise run their own businesses and make a comfortable living.

So why, then, do they reverse their thinking when it comes to independent publishers?  Why is it that people who purchase books should do so at an independent bookstore, but independent bookstores should purchase only from big corporate publishers?  They are telling the public that they should avoid the convenience of online purchasing, and the variety offered at large chain stores in order to support local, independent stores, but they refuse to support local, independent artists.

It is an inexcusable hypocrisy, and one that I believe ultimately is hurting them.  As more and more authors publish independently, they are seeing which bookstores are supporting their work, and which ones are not.  And here's the ultimate irony, the companies that are being supportive of them are the big ones.

Amazon has been the biggest supporter of independent authors.  Their Createspace website gives authors the ability to publish paperback copies, and directly onto Kindle.  They then sell the books on Amazon, giving them the exact same exposure they give all other books.  When someone purchases a book similar to mine, Amazon lists my book as another possibility the purchaser might like, right along with every major publisher's work.  And they don't charge me for it.  They simply take a percentage just like anyone else would.

Barnes & Noble, while not having a service like Createspace, does carry independent books if they believe they will sell.  Doing so is a very bureaucratic set-up, but even if you don't go all the way through the system, simply making your books available to Createspace's expanded distribution service makes them available to individual Barnes & Noble chain stores who want to carry it.  For instance, when I published Pro Bono - The 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate, I first tried to go through the Barnes & Noble system.  They sent me a kind letter saying they probably would not carry it in all their stores because they prefer to have large orders that require massive stocks of product, which independent publishers can't generally afford, but the book was in their system, and individual stores could buy them.  So I went to the Barnes & Nobles in Lincoln and Omaha where the story took place, and all but one began carrying the book.

I want to support local, independent bookstores.  I love being a part of the community of A Novel Idea, even though they are more than 1,500 miles away from me.  I would like to do the same with bookstores closer to me.  But as long as this hypocrisy exists, my books will continue to sell in the larger stores.  And who do you think I'm going to be supportive of, Amazaon, who has helped me in my endeavors, Barnes & Noble, who does occasionally carry my books, A Novel Idea and The Bookworm of whom I've become a part of the community, or the majority of independent bookstores which refuse to even look at my books?

And as more and more people write and independently publish, more and more will learn that this hypocrisy exists.  And who do you think those tens of thousands of people will support?  Where do you think they'll send their customers during their promotions, radio interviews, on their blogs, and in their social media?  And if independent bookstores think people will simply buy their independent books at Amazon, but will get the books from big publishers at their stores, think again.  Once you're in Amazon and you purchase one book, they reward you for buying more there with free shipping, discounts, recommendations, etc.

If independent bookstores do not get wise soon, this will be the next wave of trouble that hits them.  And this time, I doubt they'll survive.

As for me, what I do when searching for books, I look to see if the store carries independently published books, even if I'm not going to be buying one that day.  If they are asking customers to purchase from their independent stores, who are they to turn down independent publishers?  I know they can't carry every independent book, there are far too many.  But if they will not even consider them; if they carry no independently published books, then I'll do the same thing they do; I'll turn them down because they're independently run.