A quick roundup of news and mailbag questions, today.
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Lately, I’ve received a rash of emails that go something along these lines:
I don’t read ebooks. I prefer real books. You should think about putting your books in bookstores for people who like reading books. I would buy them, then.
I suspect that the emails are a result of the fact that my most recent releases have been short stories and boxes sets, neither of which have print editions, except under unusual circumstances.
I will refrain from discussing the differences between ebooks and print books and which type is “real”.
I will point out, though, that every book I have published that is longer than a short story (that is, novelettes, novellas and novels) is available in print.
The two major sources for print editions is Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And, very recently, Stories Rule Press have now also made print editions available. These are not printed by any of the retail stores, but an independent printer, BookVault, who makes very nice print editions.
With Barnes & Noble, sometimes you have to look a bit harder for the print edition as they don’t always hook up the two editions so they appear on the same page.
Amazon is better at this. You can refine your search on Amazon to look just for print editions (click on the drop down arrow next to the search bar and choose “books” rather than “kindle books”). Barnes & Noble will often cough up the print edition if you put in my name and the title of the book.
I have links to the print editions on every book’s page. That’s the fastest and most reliable way to find the print version of books you’re interested in. All my book titles are listed here, and you can click on each title to jump to that book’s page and get the link you want.
Your local bookstore should be able to order the print edition in for you, if you give them my name, and the book’s title. All my books are listed on the two most common databases that bookstores use; Baker & Taylor, and Ingram. You may have to ask nicely, though!
No brick & mortar book store will ever carry my books on their shelves, however, unless the legacy system of returns is completely abandoned. As the print-on-demand editions I have printed will not accommodate returns from the bookstores for credit, the bookstores won’t take the risk of buying them and having them not sell.
That means that ordering the print edition via the two major online book retailers, or Stories Rule Press, is your most reliable means of getting your hands on print editions of my books.
In the next couple of weeks, I will be releasing the first three books in the Imperial Hammer series in both German and Spanish editions, in both print and ebook.
The first book, Hammer and Crucible, is already available for pre-order, in both languages, at all retailers.
