Monday, February 6, 2012

Happy Birthday! (and a SALE!)

January of 2011 saw me preparing The House on the Corner for publication. That was a lot of work. I mean, it's a lot of work to write a book to begin with but all the little details that go into publishing a book, even self publishing a book, are somewhat overwhelming. At any rate, I spent the month working on that and got it all set up. As it happened, the official publication date for the 1st edition (it looked like this:
ended up being February 6, 2011. February 6 happens to be my birthday, so that was kind of cool, and it would never have happened if I'd been trying to plan it that way, but, because I was just going about my business, it ended up that way. It was a cool birthday present, to say the least, to hold that first copy of my book in my hands.

Of course, the book no longer looks like that. Despite all of the editing I did on the book both prior to January and in January, I missed a lot of little things. I was amazed at how much more I noticed by having the physical copy in my hand. I also discovered the importance of cover art. Of course, I've already covered all of this in previous posts, so I'm not going to go back through it now. At any rate, I spent some months going back through the book and making changes and getting some cover art (thanks to the amazing Rusty Webb! (who happens to have the best blog title ever!)), and, now, the book looks like this:

It's all the better for it.

Speaking of blogging, StrangePegs (the blog) also turned 1 year old a few days ago. That's something that I'm still trying to get my head around. One year, 125 followers, 125 posts (including this one). It seems like a lot longer than that and also a lot shorter than that. When I first started the blog, I really had no idea what I was doing. I was just kind of informed that, if I had a book, I should have a blog, so I started one. Overall, it's been a good experience. Even if one that's hard to keep up with.

Anyway...

I mentioned a sale. In honor of it being the birthday of the book, and, really, publishing a book really is kind of like giving birth, I suppose. There's a lot of work that goes into it. It spends a long time growing. There's a period of intense labor, and, finally, voila, there's a brand new book! Thankfully, books tend to cry a lot less, and you (usually) don't have to clean up after them. But I digress...

ANYWAY!

The sale! In honor of it being the one year anniversary of the publication of the 1st edition of The House on the Corner, I'm having a sale!
For the Kindle:
I've marked the price down to $0.99. Coincidentally, after I'd gone in and made the price change (but before it took effect (because it still hasn't taken effect)), Amazon also decided that House should be on sale and marked the Kindle price down to $0.99. heh
I have no idea what will happen to their price mark down when mine goes into effect.

For the physical copy:
I can't actually mark down the physical copy of the book (through Amazon) any lower than it already is, because I'm pretty close to lowest price they'll allow me to charge for it; HOWEVER, if you want a signed copy (which comes through me), I'm doing those 2-for1, right now. The listed price on my page (go back up there and click the link) is $18.00 for one copy. If you click through the link, it will say $24. For $24, you will get not one, but 2! signed copies of The House on the Corner! One for you and one to give as a gift. Now, let me explain the thing with the pricing. At $18.00, because of shipping, I'm taking a loss. Sort of. At any rate, it puts the actual price of the book down to $12.00 (rather than the $15 on Amazon). To cover the cost of shipping 2 books instead of 1, I've had to bump the price up a bit. I can ship them both to the same address or to two separate addresses, though. At any rate, it's a pretty good deal. At least, I think so.

I'll keep these SALE prices through Friday or Saturday, so don't let this chance pass you by.

15 comments:

  1. Well first, happy birthday! Second, Rusty did an awesome job with the new cover. Third, congratulations on one year of blogging. Fourth, that's really cool of you to offer House on the Corner at a discount.
    Fifth - well there is no fifth. Just all around congratulations, Andrew!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Birthday, Congratulations and I will definitely check out your book online!

    Can you direct me to the first post where you explain why you chose to go with self-publishing originally?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alex: Thanks, Alex! And, yeah, the cover Rusty did is great. Be on the look out for another cover by him soon. Hopefully, this week!

    Pish: You know, I don't remember if I've ever done a post strictly about that (and I don't have time to look back, right now). The short of it is, though, that I took a good look at the publishing industry and the hoops they make authors go through (to no purpose) and the arbitrariness with which they choose what to publish and the lack of actual support they give to (especially new) authors and chose not to play that game. Oh, yeah, and the waste involved in traditional publishing (which I've always hated). Anyway, it's more of something I've talked about on an ongoing basis rather than having one specific post on the subject, but, maybe, I should do one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rusty does have the best blog title ever. And he made a great cover for you.

    And hey, look at that, I just bought a copy of The House On The Corner...

    Best wishes for a very Happy Birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kick-ass, brother. The new cover is a home run. My Kindle needs to be unpacked and thrown on the charger, but rest assured I'll be buying House as soon as I can. Cheers and congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy Birthday. I already purchased and read it on my NOOK......The cover is amazing it is the perfect compliment to your story.

    ReplyDelete
  7. But I already own it...

    I knew two different people who put their books on sale for FREE last weekend. I had already bought them both so I felt gypped.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy Birthday! (Again). And Happy Blog Birthday, as well (belated). Exciting progress!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Happy Birthday to you, your blog and your book.

    BTW did you pass that 'period of intense labor' past your wife? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. So wait: If I understand you correctly and I'm sure I do, then people like me who bought this book a while back and who just started reading it last night as it turns out are now eligible for some sort of refund in which we get double our money back?

    You had to kind of read between the lines there to get that, but I'm pretty sure I saw a coded message promising double refunds.

    Congratulations on the 1-year thing! I had no idea this was a baby blog. Now come the terrible twos, right?

    Also: You DO get a free printed copy of "Santa, Godzilla...etc.". I need your address to mail it to. And for being so patient, if you have an e-reader I'll throw in a free version of any other of my books that are available on Kindle. Email me at thetroublewithroy[at]yahoo.com with the address and what book you'd like e-readed to you.

    My code word:

    sheapi

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy b-day, I figure that covers both blog and birthday. Ordered on kindle so is now in the library in my tbr list.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well, happy birthday to you. I find that your birthday is significant because if I'm not mistaken, you share that date with Ronald Reagan.

    Oh, and my father. Which is how I knew about Ronald. Anyway, how time flies, I can't believe you've been blogging that long already.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Congratulations on your one-year anniversary, Andrew. I like the cover that Rusty did for your book. It really makes it snap. The other one reminds me of J.D. Salinger's work "The Catcher in the Rye". Although a great book, Salinger's insistence on lack of cover art I think was weird and simply wouldn't fly today. He was a stuck up diva though.

    ReplyDelete
  14. M.J.: Thank you very much! :)

    ABftS: Thanks much :)

    Jennifer: Thank you :) and thanks for the review you did also :)

    Grumpy: Well, think of it as paying to have it first?

    Sarah P: Thanks!

    Shannon: Yeah, I guess? I'm not sure how to feel about it. It doesn't seem like a year, but it also seems like I've been doing this, well, forever.

    Michele: Thanks!
    And, um, no... she would have scoffed at me.

    Briane: Well, actually, what it earned you was that I bought a copy of your Santa story even though I'd already read it. See how -that- works? And I'll get the after sometime soon, too. As soon as I have a chance to read it.

    Nancy: Thanks! I muchly appreciate it :)

    Rusty: Yep, it's Reagan's birthday. Happy birthday to your dad, too. And my two younger kids both had kids in their classes with the same birthday, and I have 2 friends from high school with the same birthday. And someone else famous, too... a musician; although, I'm not remembering who.

    I can't believe it's been year, either.

    Michael: Well, the other one wasn't really by choice. It was because I couldn't find anything that I liked among the stock photos that CreateSpace made available.
    Hopefully, I'll have another Rusty cover to unveil on Friday. Actually, I have the cover, I just have to finish getting the story together.

    ReplyDelete