I don't post as often here as I do at wordpress.

However, this post is important enough to merit posting here.

I currently have no books available for sale. This is because a) I demanded and got all the rights back to my ebooks from Renebooks; b) the testing period is over on Serpent's Quest.

However, I do have a Chimquar story in issue Flashing Swords Magazine. This is the last issue put out by CrystalWizard.

Issue #12 will be the first issue since I acquired the magazine and Mike Brendan became editor.

The following email was sent to all of the contracted writers of Blu Phi'er publishers by the owner/publisher, Micheal Bernoudy Junior. I received copies from several of his authors.

From: phierstarter@bluphier.com
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:36:00 +0000
Subject: Final Group Email
As you can tell from the subject, from here out I plan on ceasing with the group emails. I will send out an email each month concerning book sales and pay royalties accordingly. If you have relevant questions concerning your book, or marketing thereof, feel free to contact me.

Due to many of the emails I've received, I have to reiterate that I need you to limit your communications to relevant issues.

Me owing you money for editing. Relevant.

Your book not appearning on Amazon. Relevant.

Your book not selling to your expectations, yet you have only done one signing in 3 years. Irrelevant.

You wanting out of your contract once your book is in print. Not going to happen.

You needing contributor copies. Relevant.

Over the past year and a half our author base has nearly trippled. We've gotten some great authors and great people out of the deal. That being said, we've also gotten some assholes. I have no problem dealing with assholes I do it on a daily basis. However, many of you are older than me and have children of your own. I should not have to babysit adults. Especially when the adults are COSTING me money as opposed to making any.

Only two authors we currently have in print can say they responded to ads I placed in 2005 looking for new authors. Only one author can state they have sent a dime towards the publication of their own book. Everyone else, has asked me to spend my money to publish their books.

Some of you work your asses off and make decent book sells. Some of you think because you wrote a book the sells and money just automatically roll in. You feel that if the money is not rolling in, apparently I've done something wrong. The simple fact of the matter is, many of you are lazy.

Over the past several months I've come to the conclusion that some of you just can't be helped. That being said, I still have valid contracts with you, I still have expended substantial funds towards your books, and we will continue or efforts. However, if you aren't going to lift a finger to promote your own book so be it. Technically you're in breach of your contracts, but I'll just chalk it up as a loss.

For those of you who are trying, feel free to contact me and I'll help in any way I can. Many of you have asked for copies on consignment and when the fees were available we have provided. I can't think of anyone who has asked for money for marketing or had a valid idea we have refused. I will continue to do what I can to support you productive authors.

For you upcoming authors, think carefully about what you are doing with requesting us to publish your books. Once your book is in print we are in bed together, for better or worse.

MLBjr
_____________________________________________________________________

This is why it is so important to support Preditors & Editors. There are too many shysters like this dipshit out there taking advantage of vulnerable young writers.

I read the original NYT's article, Given a shovel, Americans dig deeper into debt because I subscribe to the times.

I also use bloglines to keep track of a lot of informational blogs that I enjoy reading. Today, I checked my subs on bloglines and came up with this article about the NYT article, that goes even further in talking about how Americans find themselves in difficult circumstances. "The Article Everyone is Talking About Today" on the "I will Teach you to be rich site" is an excellent expansion on the difficulties.

I have one credit card and a charge account at an online store. That's all. I don't want more. Can't afford more. I try to keep them paid down, but there are months when it is harder than others to make the extra payments I prefer doing so I have to pay the minimum due.

When I was a kid, if you had too many credit cards, you could not get another one after a certain point and people looked at you like you were a poor dumb slob for having too many. How many was too many? Mama and Papa had three. At one point they had four. When Mama discovered that Papa was using the Mastercard to buy liquor, she had the card turned off.

The other three were store accounts, Sears, Penny's, and Montgomery Wards. Mama always said that paying bills made her sick to her stomach, so she kept the cards paid down or off.


With all the rampant job losses that we are currently seeing in this country, credit too easy to come by, and the cuts in benefits that once helped Americans through difficult times, it is no wonder than many members of the Middle Class, are sinking into the ranks of the working poor -- assuming they can even find jobs to begin with.

It's a growing concern in America and there are no easy solutions.

I originally created Daverana Enterprises in 2006 to offer a free download and an at cost print edition of my Compendium of Daverana. The purpose was to produce promotional materials to go along with my ebooks. The complexity of the world can be overwhelming when someone decides to start in the middle of a series instead of starting at the beginning. It can be bewildering any way at times.

The new compendium is entitled "Bodisaniwi's Bodacious Universal Dictionary of Daverana" and will again be offered as a free download and an at cost print edition. The editor, Mark Prins, is close to finishing it. An atlas of Daverana is planned.

I have been setting stories and novels on the world of Daverana since 1978. The Chimquar stories take place on this world.

Other materials will be offered as I go along.

Last February, I decided to make Daverana Enterprises a real publishing company and began to acquire books by other authors. I like where it is going.

I am certain that some of you wonder why I decided to do my own print editions. When I signed with Renaissance Ebooks, a California-based indie ebook publisher, in 2004, I was promised print editions. They were not in the contract. Renebooks only purchased the electronic rights. However, I had a verbal agreement with Jean Marie Stine (who runs the company) that they were going to start doing PoD print runs of each of their best selling titles.

Four years later, even though I am one of their best-selling authors, all I have is empty promises and no sign of that changing. I have learned in the meantime that it is nearly impossible to sell print rights on a book that is already out in ebook.

One good aspect about doing it this way is that I can put back in the material that was cut from the books because of length, and in some cases I can restore the books to the way they were originally intended to be.

Jean Marie likes to break the books up when they run to 100k. The first three volumes of the Dark Brothers of the Light series was originally a single volume that weighed in at 175k. My then agent, Jack Byrne, advised me that it was too long to sell in today's market and wanted me to basically eviscerate the book. Judging from my sales on the series, I made the right decision to go with Jean Marie rather than gut the books.

However, the electronic rights are tied up for the next four years. I did manage to get the rights back on two books, my collection and Mother Damnation. Jean Marie balked at returning any of the other rights.

So there it is.

Either an eight year wait (in total) or do it myself.

For a limited time only, the print edition of Serpent's Quest is available during the test marketing phase at a $2.00 discount.

On August 19th, the book will be made generally available through Lightning Source and at that time it will be carried through their distribution channels and the cover price will go up.

While the ebook can still be ordered through Fictionwise; the print edition contains an additional 10,000 words that is not in the electronic edition. And the print volume contains a map of Red Wolf by dungeoneer.

Next year will be the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of my first Chimquar the Lionhawk story. It appeared in Amazons, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. The anthology went on to garner the World Fantasy Award for best anthology in 1980. It is still considered a seminal work in feminist fiction.

Crystalwizard at Cyberwizard productions will be bringing out a special hardcover collector's edition of the Chimquar stories, including two brand new tales, in November of 2009 for Chimquar's thirtieth anniversary.

I'm currently reading "Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War" by Charles Bracelen Flood. And it hit me that this long quote I am going to make from the book sounds like the internet.

"Returning home [following the Battle of Shiloh], Stanton wrote a diatribe against the Union Generals, not mentioning Sherman by name but referring to 'the blundering stupidity and negligence' of Grant.

An incensed Sherman entered the fray with a letter to Stanton. Early in it he set the tone: "The accusatory part of your statement is all false, false in general, false in every particular, and I repeat, you could not have failed to know it false when you published that statement .... Shame on you!"

.... Stanton replied to this with another diatribe, this time mentioning Sherman by name, and the fight was on. The Sherman team went to work: Sherman's brother Senator John Sherman, Sherman's famous and well-regarded father in law, Thomas Ewing, and Ellen's [Sherman's wife] brother, the influential lawyer Philemon Ewing, all Ohioans, filled newspaper columns with criticism of Stanton, with Stanton responding every time; before the storm ran its course, both sides were printing pamphlets setting forth their views."

Internet is just another form of the same old thing.

The Official launch date for Daverana Enterprises is August 19th.

We are proud to present a collection by Angeline Hawkes, Symphony for the Forgotten.

And here is the cover.