Barnes and Noble Is Not Friendly To Writers

Clearly not as much as Amazon.com is. It was as if I was pulling a large, cracked and bleeding molar before Barnes and Noble would even look in my direction. What I wanted to do was what I had already did do on Amazon. What I thought Barnes and Noble possessed was what was already held by Amazon. And that is an author's page from which to promote a book. Amazon couldn't be nicer and easier to me and for all writers; novice and established, treating both with dignity in the collective pursuit of selling books. But if you wish to promote your book on Barnes and Noble, the small press department imposes requirements only a manic depressive accountant and a medieval torturer would love. Bottomline: It is a rigged game in favor of established publishing houses and their writers. Upstart publishing houses and new writers cannot possibly comply, unless they self-publish and do so through Barnes and Noble. The six week review process alone cripples them. Think about that when you purchase a new book and think about, in the end, who you are helping and quelling. For my money it more adventurous to travel to the Amazon.

Boutique Project

We are looking for inclusion in a rather small anthology run. When I say small I mean small. This will be a handwritten story in a journal that includes a story with local flavor with a local souvenir scotch taped to the last page of the story. This handwritten journal will then be mailed from writer to writer until it filled. This project is the idea of 'Literary Orphans' and is a fascinating and an appealing project. Why you ask? Why would you want to take the time to do something that is so limited? One reason is the challenge of capturing my local area in an engrossing tale. The other reason being, it is art for art's sake. My writing is generally not audience aimed. I write from nightmares. Unlike many my aim is firstly not sales, but art and legacy. Foolish? Yes. I mean I could try to be a hack like most but I couldn't sleep at night giving birth to offspring resembling a lot of the crap I see on the best seller's list and juggled in the hands of those coffee suckers at Branes and Noble. We will see if the project comes off, if I am included, and if I have been run out of town with coffee stains on the back of my head.

Shopping at Barnes and Noble Not Again....

I have been buying my books lately through used bookstores, Amazon.com and eBay. The reason is there is very little new that I find appealing (my Luridlit.com gig aside). When I choose a book for myself I to want to go back in time and study whence we came. But I felt pinings and yesterday decided to visit my local Barnes and Noble. So when did they stop selling books? Between the cafe and toy sections, one quarter of the establishment is set aside for letters. This is probably a good thing since the store stunk to heaven of coffee and pastry. Just what I want in a crisp new book the aroma of food laden in its pages and binding. It is somewhat fitting that all those diet books they sell would also carry the scent. So why not start a danish diet. You will have a hankering by page 14. I also didn't realize there was a dress code. I wonder how I broke past security? I wasn't wearing a tweedy winter jacket, a non-descript blank brown baseball cap and a scarf. I wasn't wearing jeans and some hybrid between a sandal and a sneaker with fuzzy sox. I didn't hold a paper coffee cup in my left hand and had the dexterity to text in my right while I read books cover to cover. What is the point? In the twenty minutes I was there. I saw no one purchase a book. I saw a mob of people dog ear books, smudge books, and leave their empty coffee cups on top of books or stuffed in between them on shelves. After seeing this over and over I came to the conclusion that if I want smells and munge all over my reading material it would just be cheaper to have my dogs do it to my books at home. Needless to say I didn't make a purchase. Granted this is only a small portion of an hour at one store in Milford Connecticut but enough to keep me away.

TALES FOR THE TOILET Paperback version....

No jokes, while the Kindle version is available now the paperback version will hit the AMAZON.COM AND BARNES AND NOBLE shelves November 5th.