Glamour of the God-Touched Announcement

[roncollins]

That's great . Hope it spills over into USA charts.

GGT has been rock-steady at #6 in the US Dark Fantasy list for the past 2-4 days. Volume 2 has gotten some nice comments, and has been up and down. We shall see. :)

[roncollins]

Just got you two extra paperback sales on part 2 this week ... think my friends are hooked.

Cool! Thanks so much. Tell them not to be strangers. I don't bite. Not too hard, anyway.

[roncollins]

So ...

#3 is published

#4 on pre-order

Life is moving at the speed of light, it seems. :)

[roncollins]

Yikes, I'm late with this note ...

Gathering of the God-Touched is published.

Pawn of the Planewalker is on pre-order.


:)

[Bill]

Santa brought me a hard copy version of Book 2! Unfortunately, he didn't bring me a version of Book 1... Apparently, I was on the naughty list.

Excited to get started after I get the Kindle version of Book 1.

[roncollins]

Santa brought me a hard copy version of Book 2! Unfortunately, he didn't bring me a version of Book 1... Apparently, I was on the naughty list.

Excited to get started after I get the Kindle version of Book 1.

Heh. And they say Santa has no sense of humor?

[Mike Dunn]

Book 7 in Ron's series has been released!

I am still reading part 2, so I'm a bit behind. Looking forward to all of this.

I am very frustrated though, by the number of reviews on Amazon of the kindle editions that are giving bad reviews because most installments are $3 and not .99 cents. These may be the same people who every day buy a $5 latte. I don't get it, and it makes me want to scream

I think the 99 cent apps for iOS games, the Steam sales and Humble bundles, the free eBook sites, all of this has led to a ridiculous devaluation of an artists' work -- be it an author, a musician or a game developer.

[Evas]

Book 7 in Ron's series has been released!

I am still reading part 2, so I'm a bit behind. Looking forward to all of this.

I am very frustrated though, by the number of reviews on Amazon of the kindle editions that are giving bad reviews because most installments are $3 and not .99 cents. These may be the same people who every day buy a $5 latte. I don't get it, and it makes me want to scream

I think the 99 cent apps for iOS games, the Steam sales and Humble bundles, the free eBook sites, all of this has led to a ridiculous devaluation of an artists' work -- be it an author, a musician or a game developer.

Yeah it's unfortunate to see those reviews... they don't even pretend to talk about the quality of the writing. Maybe releasing a compilation version might make some of them happy. But maybe that doesn't makes sense. I don't have a good grasp on the economics of publishing.

Ron is a very smart guy though. I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

[Mike Dunn]

..they don't even pretend to talk about the quality of the writing.....

Actually some of the complainers DO talk about the quality of the writing, and have praise for the book!

The story is good but, I feel completely ripped off. 2.99 for 80 to 90 pages. Ron seems like a fantastic writer but, he should actually write several hundred pages before he put his " books" online to sell. I feel cheated. I spent less money on Tolkien books and I was thrilled.

should only charge .99 for these books, last one I will buy at higher price. love to story though. sad

Boldface mine. Grrr. 'Love the story, but how dare he charge me three dollars! I'm so enraged I'm going to post a negative review.'

[Arroyos]

Ignore the petty nay-sayers, Ron. Congrats on your continued success! Keep cranking 'em out, man.

[Evas]

Boldface mine. Grrr. 'Love the story, but how dare he charge me three dollars! I'm so enraged I'm going to post a negative review.'

It's especially galling because who knows what the price will be at any one time. The rating doesn't go up if he has a sale. The whole idea of rating things like that is so stupid.

[Mike Dunn]

Ignore the petty nay-sayers, Ron. Congrats on your continued success! Keep cranking 'em out, man.

True, but the problem with Amazon is that other potential readers don't ignore the nay-sayers, or at least the star ratings, so they may not even know a book's rating is knocked down simply because its $3 and not $1, which is an absurd reason to knock down a rating. At least, IMHO.

[roncollins]

Thanks, guys. I'm quite excited that #7 is out and #8 is on preorder. This brings me nearly to the end of this very long publication process for this story arc. It's been a lot more consuming than I had expected it would be at the beginning. I suspect you'll see some more Lupin articles soonish. :)

The whole process of dealing with reviews in general, and Amazon reviews in specific is an interesting one--though I generally get pretty good reviews on the whole, so that makes it easier.

On the other hand, seeing as reviews and stars _do_ make a very big difference, I admit the idea of 1-staring a writer (or any other artist) due only to price is a little annoying for a few various reasons, not the least of which is the relative cost of either .99 or 2.99 for a book or in this case a novella in relation to about anything else. But, as Mike says, there exists this world out there that seems to feel artists of all types should work for essentially nothing. All you can do is shrug and move on, and look at all the folks who _are_ willing to compensate a creator well enough that he or she can continue to do so. Luckily, there are lots of them, too.

When you do that, it makes it easier to swallow those reviews that say "GREAT BOOK! TOO PRICEY! 1-STAR!"

I am taking quite a bit of pride, actually, in the fact that it seems a majority of my poor Amazon customer reviews are just that (good writing, good story, but I can't pay for that!).

[roncollins]

And so it finally ends! Whew!!!!

[John]

Read about it in today's newsletter. Congratulations on three straight months high on the charts, Ron! Onwards and upwards.