I'll confess, when my first book was published I was checking Amazon.com sales ranking almost hourly for a month. It was a thrill to watch and hope for fleeting fame. As time went by I checked the page once a day and then once a week and now I've not looked for several months. I'm familiar with the sales curve and I've seen it cycle now three times. I still enjoy getting to see the reader review comments. It probably isn't as easy if they are not complimentary, but I've been lucky in that regard.
I dropped by today to see if the hardcover edition of When Thunder Rolled was still available. I've given away almost all of my copies and I still like to have one or two around to offer to someone who visits. That's why I was pleased to see this:
When Thunder Rolled (Kindle Edition--Sept 11, 2011)
I really never thought Smithsonian Books would get that far into the 21st Century!
Now if we can get St. Martin's Press to release Palace Cobra in Kindle edition...
6 comments:
I was listening to WBAP's personal finance guy - I think his name is Clark - the other evening, about half-heartedly between errands.
If memory serves, a lady who called in was discussing e-publishing vs. paper publishing and said that authors get better remuneration from the e-pub due to the [obviously] lower overhead costs.
I think it is probably the publisher and not the author who benefits the most financially from e-publishing. What say you Mr Ed?
Hippo-san, it is the publisher who benefits the most...end of sentence. But, without the publisher you wouldn't have most quality books. Self-publishing remains largely a vanity exercise although there are quality efforts and in a few years that might change. The real question will be whether there will be a quality differentiation to allow readers to pick worthwhile work from dreck. That has been what a good publisher has done in the past. Things evolve, however.
Speaking of books and Viet Nam, have you read about the drama that Jane Fonda is drumming up over the online garage sale outfit that decided to break ties with her?
I recall that you wrote about Hanoi Jane's visit in one of your books. Was it Palace Cobra? I don't have the book with me at the moment, but believe that you wrote that you were in country at the time and that the airmen were extremely pissed about her sitting on AAA that were firing at your counterparts.
This would be worthy of a post and an excerpt from the book.
--Flying Barrister
I have all 3 of your books in hard cover Ed. I remember your writing back in the .rec days, and even commented a time or two in some of those threads.
I'm doing a lot of kindle purchasing these days, but I still buy hard cover of authors that I have a lot of respect for. I want a "paper copy" of the important stuff in case all of my electronic "disappears."
Cheers!
Grumpy Old Badger
Just finished your book "When Thunder Rolled" as a finnish translation. I happened to pick it up at an aviation museum a few weeks ago, mostly because its cover looked great (http://www.adlibris.com/fi/product.aspx?isbn=952229103X&lang=fi) and I liked it very much. There's almost an overdose of WW2 aviation books in finnish, but not too many about the jet age. I'll probably read the rest of your books in english, as I liked the first one so much.
BR,
Lauri Kivinen / Finland
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