My Book is Available? Really? Where?

Before you keep reading, go ahead and search for Flagrant Foul on any other book site besides Amazon...

Now, if you found it somewhere else, you clearly have been eyesight than I do.

For months, since I slapped an ISBN on the Foul as part of Published by Lulu, I at least figured that the cycle would have come around where it would be all over the place.

And then I came to a startling discovery.

One of the indie bookstores I follow on Twitter pointed out that it wasn't on their database, Indiebound. That led me to check around to some of the other stores.

Barnes & Noble? No.

Borders? No.

Books-A-Million? No.

While I don't doubt there's a way to try and get Flagrant Foul onto their site and the Indiebound database, I have yet to find it. Most sites like this don't necessarily come with a step-by-step instruction manual. And the question I sent to Indiebound has, at current, gone unanswered.

So, what's the deal? I can't believe that only showing up on Amazon is my penance for not having the $99.95 to shell out for my own ISBN.

Can it?

iSoap on NewFiction.com - The Future?

This is the textbook definition of early adoption, especially when Questers are hearing the worst of news.

While trolling around Twitter, I came across this gem from New York Magazine, openly wondering about the demise of publishing as we know it. As many Questers can attest to, the publishing business was already tough to break into. Now, if the pundits are right, the business will be dead and buried before long.

But it probably won't. Like the first rule of chemistry, matter is neither created nor destroyed, just changing form. With the advent of e-books and readers from Amazon, Sony and soon, Plastic Logic, those of us trying to get our writing out there will have just as many places to go as ever. And, as in the case of Amazon Digital Text Platform, with a little bit of tech savvy, we, as writers, can cut out the middleman altogether.

That's not all. While making my regular stop on LinkedIn, I can across a question in one of my groups from a gentleman named Tom Lopilato seeking fiction stories for his venture, NewFiction.com. Out of sheer curiosity, I took a look at the site.

What I saw could very well be the future of publishing. NewFiction is the creator of the iSoap, a publishing hybrid that marries the format of old-school weekly radio shows and the technology behind podcasting. Throw in a e-book PDF text format for good measure, and they really could be onto something.

Needless to say, I've already sent them Flagrant Foul. If ever there was a book to have in this format, this would be it.

Then again, perhaps I should have went with Dilemma...

A Long Overdue E-Book Introduction

It had to be done...

Months after I converted Dilemma into an e-Book, thanks to the folks at Mobipocket, and after months of struggling to figure out why it was a good idea to hold off for so long, I finally made the right move and put Flagrant Foul into the same format.

We all know what this means, of course. Within the next week or so, Flagrant Foul should grace the pages of Amazon finally as an e-book for the ever-popular Kindle device.

If, as you're reading, you think that I'm touting Kindle to be the iPod for books, well, you're probably right.

Of course, I own neither a Kindle nor an iPod. But hey, I don't begrudge those of you out there that do!

So, if you've got a Kindle and have some extra cash, give this book a shot!

And for those that don't, it is still available in paperback at Lulu...

After All That???

Now that it's the beginning of August, I must take personal stock in how the Quest is going.

Um, not so good...

Sales so far:

Flagrant Foul (from lulu.com): 0
Dilemma (from lulu.com): 0
Dilemma (from Mobipocket/Amazon): 0
Average daily hits on http://www.flagrantfoul.com/ (Main site, not the Quest): 1.17

So, I take this to mean one of three things. Either...

A. I'm not applying myself.
B. My books really are crap.
C. This is a tough, tough racket to break into.

For the time being, I'm going to choose Answer C, and press on. And instead of moping, I'm going to just turn it over to you guys. How has your Quest been going? What's your experience been like so far. I've got a couple of different Quest reports posted already. Come join in! I know I'm not the only one!

Then Again... Maybe Not!

I finally received my proof copy of Dilemma in the mail. From a self-publishing standpoint, it's good, because you have final say on what becomes public...

Then I looked at it...

...and looked at it...

...and looked at it...

Then I begin to wonder...

Is this really worth $14.50?

Realistically, I like the story and all, but the retail mark-up for this short a book is killer!

Not that I blame Lulu, really. Pocket books, of course, aren't really that big a revenue generator for anyone!

And as I've already mentioned, Dilemma was to be just one of two stories in Volume 1 of the Stories of the Forester.

That's not to say that I'll be taking Dilemma off the shelves. Once I approve it, it'll be available everywhere!

All I'm saying is, erm, download the e-book, either through Lulu or as an Amazon Kindle book. It's way cheaper!

Get Back in Line!

As I'm patiently waiting for my proof copy of Dilemma to show up at my doorstep, I am often brought back to the original question of why this book got in front of the ISBN line instead of Flagrant Foul, which is the basis of the Quest. As I've posted previously, I thought it to be a test of what an ISBN could do to increase exposure (Paraphrasing, of course).

But now, maybe that's not the real reason...

While the Quest, along with every other bit of promotion (radio, reviews, etc.), is primarily dedicated to Flagrant Foul, Dilemma remains, in fact, the first story in the Forester rotation. And as such, there is ample justification as to why it is already available on Amazon as a Kindle Book, along with the aforementioned Published by Lulu venture.

Regardless, the Quest will continue, now for both books. The question that remains, of course, will be which one will come out of the gates of popularity first?

A Quest Test - Dilemma - Published by Lulu

As some of you are aware, Lulu.com recently announced that they will now be offering their Published by Lulu Distribution Service free of charge. My guess is that this was likely a reaction to the fact that Amazon's Createspace was doing the same thing. In a nutshell, the Published by Lulu service allows users to have an ISBN, with Lulu as the named publisher.

While this sounds quite appealing to me, since, after all, this is what my Quest is all about, I'm a little leery of the deal. This is undoubtedly the mindset of many out there. So, instead of arbitrarily dropping Flagrant Foul into this program, I'm going to test it out with another story of mine.

For those scoring at home, I have been offering the first story from the Forester series, Dilemma, as an e-book, not only through Lulu.com, but also through Mobipocket and Amazon for their new Kindle device. To be honest, I had never intended Dilemma to be a standalone book, rather one of two stories that I was going to enventually package together in one volume (In case you were wondering, I'm about a quarter of the way through writing the second story, Unwritten. Stay tuned!).

However, with this new development, what's the harm in seeing what comes of it? So, after re-formatting the Word file and re-designing the front and back cover, the print edition of Dilemma will be on my doorstep later on this week for me to look over and approve.

So, we'll see how it goes!