The MP3 of Sybil’s radio interview earlier this week can now be downloaded from her website by right-clicking here.
Appearances by Sybil Baker
Sybil has a radio interview airing tomorrow, February 25th, on WUTC Chattanooga, during the Around and About Show, which broadcasts at 10 a.m. Eastern and again at 2 p.m. Eastern. You can listen to it online here.
Then, on March 5th, 2009, there’s a book release party for The Life Plan scheduled for 7 p.m. at Rock Point Books at 401 Broad Street, Chattanooga.
On Saturday, March 14th, from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m., Sybil will give a reading at the Georgia Writer’s Association at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA.
On Thursday, March 19th, from 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Sybil will give a reading at the Meacham Writers’ Workshop at Chattanooga State Community College.
On Wednesday, March 25th, from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Sybil will give a reading at the Blue Elephant Book Shop, 2091 N Decatur Rd, Decatur, GA.
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Author Appearance: William Walsh
William Walsh will be reading on Wednesday, February 25th at 7:30 p.m. at 60nobscot‘s Waking Dream Press Reading Series at 60 Nobscot Road, Sudbury, MA 01776. Check it out if you can!
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Valentine’s Day Sale!
As promised, I temporarily adjusted the prices loaded in PayPal for most of our inventory for a big one-day sale! These prices will stay in effect until I go to bed tonight or we run out of stock, whichever happens first. When you click on the “Add to cart” button for these items, you should see the price listed below in effect today, rather than our list price.
Adagio – $7.99
And Now for a Story… – $6.99
End Credits – $7.99
Motor City Blues – $5.99
Mouth of the Lion – $5.99
Rock Dance – $6.99
Sound + Noise – $6.99
Without Wax – $7.99
And as a special bonus item, we’re raffling off a copy of the forthcoming The Life Plan to one of the orders received today.
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Appearance by Sybil Baker
Forgot to mention this yesterday: Sybil is reading at AWP 2009 this Thursday, February 12, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. at The Book Cellar, 4736 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL. If you’re in the general area, why not check it out?
The Life Plan Book Trailer & Queries
There’s a great little trailer for Sybil Baker’s The Life Plan on YouTube now. Check it out!
The other thing I’m a bit puzzled by is that over the past few weeks, we’ve requested manuscript samples from three different authors who’ve queried us–all of which have failed to materialize. I know the e-mail is working (we’re getting other mail), but it does rather make you wonder.
So here it is: as of Sunday, we’d responded to all open queries. If you did query us before Sunday and haven’t received a response, then that response must have gotten lost in the ether. Please e-mail and we’ll get right on it.
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Shipping and Valentine’s Day Promotion
The US Postal Service very sneakily raised its rates for international priority mail and domestic priority mail shipments, so we have adjusted our pricing for those services accordingly. Rates for media mail shipments in the United States remain the same, at least for the time being (according to the USPS, we can expect a rate hike on those in May). International readers wishing to buy a single title might want to check pricing on their local(ish) online retailer’s sites first, since that might save on shipping cost. For example, in Europe, our titles can be ordered from Amazon Germany quite easily.
In other news, Valentine’s Day this year falls on a Saturday, so to show our love to our readership, we’ll be putting various titles on sale Saturday morning and leaving them on sale until we go to bed or we run out of stock, whichever happens first. I won’t be messing with modifying the website for a 1-day sale, instead, I’ll be adjusting the pricing loaded in PayPal when I wake up Saturday morning and then announcing on this blog. So check back here Saturday the 14th of February if you’d like to snag up some of our books cheap and spread the word. It’s going to be a great sale!
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Marketing Advice from Curt Smith
Since I often refer authors asking for marketing advice to Curt Smith, I asked Curt to write a short blog post detailing his marketing approach. Here it is:
Curt Smith on Marketing
So you’ve gotten your first manuscript accepted? Congratulations. But unless you’re signing with a big press (and for many these days, even if you are), a whole new set of responsibilities and challenges awaits. Now comes the task of connecting with the reading public. We writers tend to be a solitary lot—it’s how we get our work done, after all—but this new dynamic of having your work go public means we, too, have to go public.
What can the small press author do to help both his cause and that of the press which is now supporting him and his work? Here are some ideas:
- Join online networking communities. To someone like myself who still marvels over e-mail, the possibility of joining MySpace, Facebook, Fictionaut and Goodreads can be downright threatening, but they can provide many opportunities for contact with fellow writers and readers. See what your press’ other authors are doing on these sites and follow their examples.
- Get your own website. Again, a bit daunting to some of us, but with some technical help, it can be a pretty low-maintenance proposition. Post reviews and interviews, writing samples and links, and set up an e-mail account through your site. You may be surprised by the number of sales and reading invites you’ll receive.
- A few months before your books hits, start contacting local bookstores to set up dates to do signings. These gigs can be painful, but they guarantee your books will be on the shelves long after your few hours of talking to strangers are over.
- Go to meetup.com and find book clubs and writing groups in your area. Contact their organizers and volunteer to come in.
- Contact your local library: libraries often host book clubs and writers’ groups. Contact their organizers and volunteer to come in.
- Contact local colleges. Many will have a writing program or on-campus literary club. Offer to meet with them and offer discounts to students.
- Make your online presence felt. If you publish short stories or essays or poems, submit them to online journals.
The prospect of having your book hit an indifferent market can be daunting. A little bit of work on your end can increase your profile, and that can lead to increased sales.
Preditors and Editors Readers’ Poll
Dad went a little crazy nominating Casperian Books titles and covers in the Preditors and Editors Readers’ Pollfor 2008, so please take a moment to vote for your favorite Casperian Books title and spread the word. Last year, we did very well with Mind Fuck coming in fourth place in the Sci-fi & Fantasy category, and we obviously want to do even better this year!
The voting page can be found at http://www.critters.org/predpoll/ and you have until January 14th to cast your votes.
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Happy New Year!
To anyone who thought that running a small press is all about reading, editing, and creating cool books, I have just one thing to say: I spent more than nine hours today submerged in year-end accounting and tax returns. On the other hand, tax forms are going out to authors (and the IRS) tomorrow, sales tax has been filed, Q4 2008 royalty statements have been prepared, Schedule C is ready to go to the accountant, and not only did I manage to close out 2008, but I also got 2009 all set up, meaning I can spend the next three days submerging myself in that editing thing :)
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Two Things
If any of our readers were planning to leave a (US) Amazon review for Quid Pro Quo, could you back up the text somewhere and then try to leave it and let us know? We’ve had a report that a review a reader left never appeared, so we’re trying to figure out whether that was a temporary glitch or whether there’s something wrong with that particular title listing on Amazon.
The other thing is that we have only four copies of The Tea House left and the Buy button on our website will disappear either when we sell the last one, or this coming weekend, whichever happens first, so now’s your last chance to grab a copy. (And also, the title has been removed from distribution since the beginning of this month: no online retailer *cough*Amazon*cough* will be able to get any additional new copies, not even to backfill orders.)
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And Now for a Story…
Once upon a time, we asked authors with published or forthcoming novels from Casperian Books to contribute a short story representative of their writing to an anthology. The resulting ten short stories have been collected into a book titled And Now for a Story…, which is available starting today.
You may recognize some of the characters and settings of these stories as old friends: Jack Ballard’s “Requiescat in Pace” is an outtake from his mountain-climbing action novel Rock Dance, Lily Richards’ “Strays” is an epilogue of sorts to her literary novel Mouth of the Lion, and William Walsh delivers a vignette set in the fictional town of Ampersand, also the setting of his fictional biography Without Wax, in “Ice Water.” Other characters and settings will be brand-new: Gary Clites’ “Vegas Strip” takes on the adage “Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” thriller-style, Chris Owen’s “Check Your Mirrors” is a jaunt through the day of a personal assistant to the rich and powerful with one hell of a punch line, and A. F. Rützy’s “Who Needs Bobo?” is a satirical romp through the life of a down-and-out mechanic. Yet other stories are thematically similar to the authors’ novels, though the characters, settings, and plots are completely different: Paul Elwork explores the origins of ghost stories and an urban legend in the thoughtful “The Riders and the Shadow Man,” Peter Ohren revisits the theme of Michigan’s economic decline in “Golden,” Sybil Baker explores the alienation of American expatriates in Korea in “Dog House,” and Curtis Smith tackles disability and family relationships in “Without Words.”
Taken together, these stories lead us into the familiar, hilarious, surprising, and sometimes frightening complications of being human–the common predicament that makes us want to share stories in the first place.
Happy reading and happy holidays!
The Casperian Books Team
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The Tea House
In rather exciting news, The Tea House has been picked up by a major publishing house and the remainder of Casperian Books’ contract bought out. Congratulations, Paul!
This means that we are currently in the process of removing The Tea House from distribution and we will cease selling the book altogether once we run out of our remaining stock or by December 22nd, whichever happens first. So if you’d like to get your original Casperian Books copy of the novel (which may become a collector’s piece!), now’s your chance.
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Our Best Sale Ever!
With the economy in the toilet and sales never quite recovering from the summer slump, we’re including every one of our titles in a Black Friday sale! Every book is $10 only while supplies last!
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Podcast
Sybil Baker read her short story “Dog House,” forthcoming in And Now for a Story… at the Meacham Writers’ Workshop last week. A free iTunes download/podcast is available if you go to this page and click on the “Subscribe to iTunes” link in the blue box near the bottom of the page.
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Rock Dance by Jack Ballard Jr.
We are pleased to announce the release of Rock Dance by Jack Ballard Jr.
In a small Colorado town, Dusty Palmberg spends his days rock climbing and volunteering with the local search-and-rescue organization.
When an airplane goes down in the backcountry, SAR volunteers do what they’ve done hundreds of times before: they head out into the wilderness to save the victims. But the pilot’s affiliation with the CIA means that what should have been a simple extraction turns into a disastrous multi-agency recovery operation in the middle of the season’s first real snowstorm, and the rescuers themselves require rescuing.
When the airplane is buried by an avalanche, something in the pilot’s luggage the CIA is desperate to get back is lost as well, and FBI agent Kelly Frey is ordered to retrieve the mysterious item. But to do that, he needs the help of somebody who really knows the backcountry, and before long, Dusty finds himself back in the wilderness.
You can read the first chapter here.
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Sound + Noise Readings
Curtis Smith has a bunch of readings scheduled in various Pennsylvania locations over the next couple of weeks:
- October 18th: speaking and reading at Push to Publish Conference, Rosemont College
- October 23rd: speaking and reading at Middletown Arts Collective, Middletown, PA 6:30-8:00 p.m.
- October 26th: reading and signing at MJ’s Coffeehouse at the Allen Theater in Annville, PA 5:00 p.m.
- November 8th: signing at Borders in Harrisburg, PA, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
- December 6th: signing at Borders in Lancaster, PA, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Check it out if you’re in the vicinity!
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Linkage
Paul Elwork has a new story up at SmokeLong Quarterly called How Anything Got Done.
Jack Ballard, whose novel Rock Dance is coming out later this month, is a musician as well. Some of his music can be found here.
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Sound + Noise Review
There is a very nice review of Sound + Noise in Gud Magazine.
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Banned Books Week
It’s the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, and the Guardian has up a little quiz to test your knowledge concerning book censorship. The ALA has also updated its challenged books list with 2007 records here, which is always an interesting (if horrifying) read.
Of course we don’t believe in banning books. The one single book my mother ever tried to stop me from reading (because it wasn’t age-appropriate), I read anyway, and really didn’t enjoy (because it wasn’t age-appropriate). It didn’t permanently scar me. No book ever has. A lot of books have opened my mind though, and a lot of books have challenged me to think. Today, I am the sum of both my experiences and the books I have read over the last thirty-odd years (and there’s a lot of them).
I personally think that people who try to have books removed from libraries aren’t really afraid that someone will be exposed to what they consider “objectionable” content. They’re really afraid that after someone is exposed to that “objectionable” content, they might think and read more and draw their own conclusions as to what to believe and feel, rather than what they’re told to think and believe and feel about any given subject. That’s the real danger of books after all: they broaden the mind.
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