Back on Lulu

I am back on Lulu. Last night, I learned that Lulu is having a short story contest (actually, it is flash fiction that they are asking for---just 600 words). So I decided to put together a short piece, starring Basil James, the spy-magician I created a couple of years ago during a Nanowrimo.

I honestly do not plan on selling a single copy (price floor is $1.49 currently on Lulu) considering that I set the price to $2.99. But then again, it was the contest entry that I was interested in---I could use a Barnes and Noble NOOK.

Anyways, just in case you are curious, the title of the flash piece is Magic and Bullets: A Basil James Incident.

Piracy Part 2

If you read my Golden Dawn blog, you have read some of my thoughts about the file sharing (torrent) community.

It may come to a surprise to several of you that I decided to commit piracy today. Yes, I have created a torrent of a book and posted it to one of the private torrent trackers (The Occult Bz).

In my defense, it is my own book that I decided to pirate. I own the copyright; I can give away copies if I want to.

Before finding the request last night for Golden Dawn Rituals Volume One: Neophyte Ritual Three Officer Version, I actually kicked away making a PDF of it and uploading it to that particular tracker. I always hesitated. I figured it would be viewed more as spam than legit until I saw that five people thought it would be a good file to share.

Honestly, part of it is that I wanted the upload credit. It is not much, but every little bit counts.

Then is also the fact that I got annoyed when I went to revise the book recently (spelling and grammar), and got nailed with the "Your book is 48 pages too short (because we have changed the rules) for the format that it was originally published in. And no, we are not going to let you chose a different printing style!" notice.

Plus, I suspect that the useful shelf life of the book is already over. Sales have dried up (though that might be because the book could not be printed, and no one thought to inform me).

Nevertheless, I wanted to keep that particular version of the Neophyte Ritual available, which is why I published it in the first place.

There is also the fact that I have noticed that the first PDF made of a book tends to stick around. Very seldom do you see an improved version of a file that entered the file sharing community.

And that is the really important part about what I did today.

When I made the PDF, I included a couple of links to my writing blog, my Golden Dawn blog, and to the lodge's (Bast Temple, BIORC, Denver Colorado) website. It is a trick I recently picked up.

If you are going to give something away, make sure that there is an ad inside the item.

I am not just a pirate: I am a self-promoting pirate.

Changed my Lulu Storefront again

It is a couple of days after the end of the spring semester, and I am busy trying to get back into the flow to tackle my business. My summer project, besides digging up the yard and trying to revive Bast Temple, is to work on my writing business.

So today, I decided to change my Lulu storefront's appearance yet again. I also chose to remove one of my products (the microeconomics term paper) because I decided to do something else with it. So the only book I currently have up there for sale is Golden Dawn Rituals Volume One: Neophyte Ritual Three Officer Version.

Changed my Lulu Storefront

Decided to change the layout and colors of my Lulu storefront today.

The biggest change was that I removed my Lulu blog off of it. I seldom updated it, and honestly I post better entries here and on my Golden Dawn blog. It wasn't exactly the type of thing that put my best foot forward.

I have a couple of items, research papers, from last semester that I plan on putting up there. So I figured that today was as good as a day to change things up as any.

My Lulu Blog

And am registering my Lulu Storefront Blog right now.

The sad state of book stores today

Yesterday, I was in a bookstore looking for a book. An occult book that I know exists. And it being big name chain store, naturally they did not have it.

Now those who know my tastes in occult books and the state of the book business will not be surprised by this. The occult section of big bookstores has descended into new age, sun sign astrology, and the fluffier wiccan books.

This very bookstore chain has actually canceled book signings that might offend people.

I won't name the bookstore chain; you can guess who they are. The odds of me having to do a signing for them is nil next to none; but there is still a slim chance, so I prefer not to burn any bridges.

But it reminded me of the sad state of the book market for writers of my irk. I write books on ceremonial magic--books that only a few online publishers will touch nowdays. The big pimp of occult books, again no names mentioned, a few years ago cut loose everyone who was writing the heavier, and therefore less read material. If you can't or are unwilling to write new age material, they don't want to waste their time with you.

And for me, that is a problem. Because I am an expert in the deep end of the pool, and the shallow end does not interest me that much. I would sooner consider writing a college textbook (that day may come) than writing fluff bunny material.

I am an initiated wiccan (witch) of the old school, besides being a card-carrying member of a Golden Dawn based lodge.

A lot of the stuff that I would find interesting is not being written becasue it is not economically feasible to do so. For instance, one of my favorite series was Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde series. But because of poor sales, this series will never have another addition to it.

How many good books will never be born because of the state of the current book market? I fear a lot.

But it is not all gloom and doom for the niche books. Thanks to the internet, webpages and POD (print on demand) publishers are cropping up. The internet could save niche publishing. And with companies like Lulu and Google Adsense, one can get paid something for one's niche writing--provided of course anyone can find it or cares to read it.

I, myself, have resorted to putting something up on Lulu. My revision of the Golden Dawn Neophyte Ritual for Three Officers is such a niche of a niche type of work that I felt that it was unlikely that a publisher would ever include it in their catalog. And considering that I feel that it high time for more Golden Dawn lodges to arise, I chose to get the information out there, even if only a dozen people ever saw it.

My visit to the bookstore yesterday was a sad reminder that I am pushing a large boulder uphill. I wonder how many other writers are struggling with the same burden.

This post also appears on my unofficial Golden Dawn blog.