Sponsored by Advocates for the Schuylerville Public Library (to which I'll donate some books for raffle or whatever), it will be held at the Old Saratoga American Legion on Clancy Street from 6 to 8 pm. My books will be priced from 10 to 20 dollars each, there will be time to chat, so come on down.
Meanwhile, on the bleaker front of cyberspace, Amazon for some reason listed my new novel The Detective and Dorothy Day as "Temporarily out of stock" for at least several days at the beginning of this month. I am informed this had something to do with their mysterious algorithm but didn't really mean what it said -- ie when that notice appears you can still order the book there without any serious delay in shipping -- but it has contributed to a slump in sales on that site, which presumably is not good for said algorithm. The "out of stock" notice has gone now, so I hope sales will recover.
Of course you can still order the book from a store if you want to escape Amazon's clutches. The two lines near the bottom of this Publishers Weekly ad refer to HC (hardcover, with a list price of $19.99) and EB (ebook), along with their ISBNs (international standard book numbers), which might be useful for ordering.
But the truth is non-famous writers can't escape Amazon in the modern book marketplace. That's where you'll make most of your sales, and where the book may take off if people notice it. Good reviews on Amazon are particularly helpful, especially if you bought the book there making it a "verified purchase" -- though they are also helpful on other social media, including specialized sites such as goodreads.
Alas I, being on the technologically clueless and tactless side, have been unable to successfully take control of my goodreads page, and have had limited success (despite their graciousness) on the separate site librarything. Amazon, on the other hand, is easy to navigate and I appreciate its author page. I don't plan to give up on them or urge anyone else to do so.
See you in Schuylerville, maybe.
