Year: 2011

Cotillion, Georgette Heyer (read aloud with Steve)
The Shattered Vine, Laura Anne Gilman
The Convenient Marriage, Georgette Heyer (read out loud with Steve)
Desdaemona, Ben Macallan (e)
The Sleeping Partner, Madeleine E. Robins
My Life, Deleted: A Memoir, by Scott Bolzan, Joan Bolzan, and Caitlin Rother (e)
Across the Great Barrier, Patricia C. Wrede
Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini (e)
Destroyer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Magic Under Glass, Jaclyn Dolamore (e)
Silver Borne, Patricia Briggs (e)
Warrior Sheep One: Quest of the Warrior Sheep, Christine and Christopher Russell
Phoenix Rising, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (e)
Crown Jewels, Walter Jon Williams (e)
Explorer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Defender, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Bond of Blood, Roberta Gellis (e)
Inheritor, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
I Don’t Want to Kill You, Dan Wells
Invader, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Library Wars Volume 1: Love and War, Kiiro Yumi
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Edie Ernst, USO Singer — Allied Spy, Brooke McEldowney
Silver Phoenix, Cindy Pon
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (e)
Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Right-Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (e)
American Rose, Karen Abbott
The Bull God, Roberta Gellis (e)
Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (e)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (e)
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (e)
Unseen, Rachel Caine
Total Eclipse, Rachel Caine
Weight of Stone, Laura Anne Gilman
The Story of Chicago May, Nuala O’Faolain

Today is Amazon.com’s bounty-hunting day. If you’d like to read more about what other folks think of this adorable trick, here’s what American Booksellers Association has to say.

Here’s the link to the petition, again, for those who are interested.

There’s also a cogent discussion of Amazon’s Thrilling! New! Project! KDP Select.

As it happened, Steve and I had some shopping to do on Waterville Main Street today, so off we took ourselves, to the post office, which was a Zoo; to Joka’s; to Juliet’s Bakery — which were, thankfully, not a Zoo; to The Framemaker’s where Bill admired the Dragon Ship art, and suggested The Perfect Frame.

Now, I want to pause here and say that, indeed, it was the perfect frame. Right up to the point where Bill came back from running the numbers, looking a little shaken, and said, “This is the most expensive frame we have in the store. I’m not kidding.”

So, we three put our heads together again, found a very nice, and appropriate! frame, and settled on a price for mat, glass, frame, and labor that came in a couple of pennies less than one-third of what it would have cost for the frame alone of the other stuff.

That pleasant chore accomplished, we walked down to Barrels to renew our annual membership and chat with the crew. After that, it was Hannaford, and some moderate food shopping, then home to a quiche-and-green-salad lunch, and so to the desks.

…now back after a cookie break. Juliet? Makes a darn good gingerbread cookie.

I wanted to touch on something that first came up during the autographed books discussion we had a couple weeks ago. There seems to be a belief among people who don’t work in bookstores, or as publishers, or as writers, that Amazon’s prices are the norm and that indie bookstores mark their books up to an outrageous level, and that’s um…just not now it works.

How it works is like this: Rolanni Publications publishes Living High on SciFi by S. Lee. Based the cost of art, typesetting, copy editing, what the market will bear, &c, &c the publisher sets the price and prints it on the cover. This is called the “cover price” or “retail price.”

Now, in order to get LHSF into bookstores, the publisher offers it at a “bookstore discount.” This discount has been, for as long as I’ve been aware of these things, 40% of cover. This means that, if the cover price for LHSF is $30, the bookstore will pay $18. The
bookstore will then sell the book to you for cover price, thus earning $12 per book sold.

For the purposes of this discussion, we’re not going to get into returns and all the rest of bookselling’s arcane and endearing little traditions. We’re just going to do arithmetic.

So, are we clear on the above? — $30 cover price, publisher places with bookstores at 40% discount, bookstore takes the difference between 40% discount and cover price as their income (i.e., the cash that’s used to keep the lights on, the heat up, the employees and the owner paid).

Hokay. So, that’s how it works, normally.

Enter Amazon.

Amazon doesn’t want to take a 40% discount. They need to earn more money than that, so they can pay lawyers to help them avoid paying sales tax to the states in which they do business. Amazon wants a 50, 60, and I heard from at least one small press, a 65% discount off of cover. And they’re huge. If you’re a publisher, you’ve got to move books, so you hope to ghu that you can earn enough on volume to make this work. If your publishing enterprise is big enough, of course. A 60% off cover bookseller discount would be unsupportable at Rolanni Publications. Just sayin’.

Now. Amazon, having scrod the publisher on the discount, then turns around and sells the book to you at a price significantly less than cover price. This is, a DISCOUNT. It is not the natural price of the book; the natural price of the book is the one printed on the cover.

So, yes. You will pay more at your local bookstore for LHSF — unless the store is having a sale — because you will be paying cover price. But that is not because Amazon’s price is the Real Price and your local bookstore is trying to rip you off. It’s because Amazon is willing to go to quite extraordinary lengths to be the last player left standing at the end of the game.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the Ipad question! While in theory it would be very cool to be able to walk around with my entire library, all of my contacts, and every song I’ve ever heard in my life, one does need to wonder what will happen if the infrastructure that allows one to access those things either vanishes or becomes too expensive to buy into.

I think I’ll hold the square I’m on at the moment, since I don’t find it necessary to only listen to “my” music, and I don’t mind schlepping CDs for long drives.

Speaking of infrastructures vanishing and stuff like that — we all know people who use brick-n-mortar bookstores as their personal catalog. Which is to say, they go into the bookstore, handle the stock, read half a book or half a series or whatever it is that they feel is “enough” to convince them to buy. They then make a note of that books/series/whatever, go home or pull out their cell, and proceed to buy the book from Amazon.

As if, yanno, the bookstore they’re not buying stuff from is there as a service, and doesn’t actually need sales in order to stay in business.

So, anyway, Amazon has heard of this, and, Mr. Bezos not being a man who has ever been shy of placing his own profit above EVERYTHING else, has decided to reward this behavior by paying people five entire bucks to go into a bookstore, scan a book, and buy it on Amazon.

Here’s the article

Here’s a petition, in case this makes you just a little cranky.

And now, having bought Necessary Stuff at drugstore.com; and crashed the Petco website — I have work to do!

The Shattered Vine, Laura Anne Gilman
The Convenient Marriage, Georgette Heyer (read out loud with Steve)
Desdaemona, Ben Macallan (e)
The Sleeping Partner, Madeleine E. Robins
My Life, Deleted: A Memoir, by Scott Bolzan, Joan Bolzan, and Caitlin Rother (e)
Across the Great Barrier, Patricia C. Wrede
Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini (e)
Destroyer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Magic Under Glass, Jaclyn Dolamore (e)
Silver Borne, Patricia Briggs (e)
Warrior Sheep One: Quest of the Warrior Sheep, Christine and Christopher Russell
Phoenix Rising, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (e)
Crown Jewels, Walter Jon Williams (e)
Explorer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Defender, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Bond of Blood, Roberta Gellis (e)
Inheritor, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
I Don’t Want to Kill You, Dan Wells
Invader, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Library Wars Volume 1: Love and War, Kiiro Yumi
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Edie Ernst, USO Singer — Allied Spy, Brooke McEldowney
Silver Phoenix, Cindy Pon
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (e)
Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Right-Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (e)
American Rose, Karen Abbott
The Bull God, Roberta Gellis (e)
Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (e)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (e)
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (e)
Unseen, Rachel Caine
Total Eclipse, Rachel Caine
Weight of Stone, Laura Anne Gilman
The Story of Chicago May, Nuala O’Faolain

So, who wants to explain to me what, exactly, an IPod is and why “it’s essential” that I have one?

In other news, the deck is roofed; the crew boss is due back on Monday (or Tuesday, or “early in the week”) to measure for the back-splash and install the pesky mini-blinds that refuse to acknowledge my dominion over themselves.  I think we’ll hold off on the ceiling fan; the installation sounds like too much wear-and-tear on everyone at this point.

The house is very slowly coming back into something resembling coherence.  I’m trying to sort out books, music, and knick-knacks that no longer give pleasure rather than mindlessly tossing things back where they were.  This?  Is harder than you might think.

And, yes — we are still working on Dragon Tide, which as some astute readers have noticed, is late.  Our fault entirely, for not completely grokking how much the new order of bidness would affect the old order of bidness.  We have kindly received an extension from Madame the Editor.  And I’m busy cutting-and-pasting, foreshadowing, and laying in the subplot(s).  This?  Is also harder than you might think.

So, in a few minutes, I’m off to the Word Mines.

What’re you doing today that’s fun?

Dear Friends and Readers,

Thank you all for receiving this extra long 93rd edition of the Liaden Universe® InfoDump, and special thanks to the hundred or so of you who have been with the InfoDump from Number One. Who knew when we started this little electronic newsletter well over a dozen years ago that it would still be going strong here in the second decade of the 21st century?

We’d like to take a moment more of your time, if we may, to reflect on 2011, which has been a very active year for us (and continues active, as we work to finish Dragon Ship, which is due RSN at Baen Intergalactic Headquarters in North Carolina). It been a very expensive year, and a very rewarding year; a year of decision.

Historically — in fact, since 1995 — we’d be busy at this time of year with SRM Publisher chapbooks, either sorting pre-orders or packing books. This year — this year of decision — there is no Yule chapbook to send out. We’re sorry for that. The Yule chapbook was a connection between us and you, our readers. Like sending cards to family. Yes, the mailing was a big project at a particularly busy time of year, but we miss it, and we hope you’re all well. . .as well as can be, in these uncertain times.

The decision to close down SRM Publisher wasn’t an easy one, but it was necessary. We need to concentrate on writing, and on staying healthy.

Part of the expense of this year, this 2011, was paid from Steve’s health. He was out of circulation for a number of months, with pneumonia, cardiac issues, an ICD implant…followed by rehab, and the fun game of Getting to Know Your Meds. Among it all, we lost Hexapuma, whose exploits many of you followed through Sharon’s blog, to kidney failure — and the year hasn’t exactly been easy on anybody, in terms of friends and colleagues lost.

Despite all that, Skyblaze, the 17th Adventure in the Liaden Universe(R) was written and mailed, we started a new online project in Splinter Universe, put many of our works into ebook format, did a TV interview. . .and traveled to Reno for WorldCon, where we saw so many of you! Dozens of you at once, in fact, at the wonderful Friends of Liad breakfast, which had more attendees then the first WorldCon. On the way home, we swung by Uncle Hugo’s in Minneapolis, where we signed and personalized hundreds of copies of Ghost Ship; met and talked to quite a few more of you. We were also Guests of Honor at a couple of regional conventions, where we talked to even more of you.

By that measure, then — the measure of connecting with our readers, making reasonable decisions for future health, and pursuing our long-term goal of living the writing life — 2011 has been a good year.

Thank you for helping make it so, for us. And we hope that we have, insofar as telling stories can, made your year more worthwhile, too.

A blessed Yule, a Merry Christmas, and a better New Year, to us all!

Steve and Sharon
Waterville Maine
November 30, 2011

* * *

Liaden Universe® InfoDump Number 93: The Gift Giving Edition

PINBEAM BOOKS SALE

From NOW until January 2012, you can may get the following titles from Pinbeam Books for *two bucks off* (that comes to $0.99 for each of the chapbook titles and $2.99 for The Tomorrow Log). No coupon codes, no special links. Just go to the Kindle Store, the Nook Store or to Smashwords and load up your cart.

Sale titles are:

Chariot to the Stars by Steve Miller
Includes: “Rain Day,” “The Solution,” “The Inventoried,” “The Cat’s Job,” “Charioteer”

TimeRags II by Steve Miller
Updates and expands Steve’s first volume of poetry, TimeRags, published in 1975.

Variations Three by Sharon Lee
Includes: “Coffeecat,” “The AfterImage,” and “Passionato”

Endeavors of Will by Sharon Lee
Includes: “Stolen Laughter,” “The Winter Consort,” “The Pretender,” “The Silver Pathway,” “Stormshelter,” “The Girl, The Cat, and Deviant,” “A Matter of Ceremony,” “The Handsome Prince,” and “Cards” (poem)

Master Walk by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Contains the novelette “Master Walk”

The Naming of Kinzel by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Includes: “Kinzel the Foolish,” “Kinzel the Innocent,” and “Kinzel the Arbiter”

The Tomorrow Log by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
A space opera novel detailing the adventures of master thief Gem ser Edreth

For more electronic chapbooks, including all the of the Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbooks, check out Pinbeam Books (http://www.pinbeambooks.com)

COMPLETE LEE AND MILLER NOVEL BACKLIST AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY

For those who want electronic editions of Lee-and-Miller, and Lee, novels, the entire oeuvre (barring Sharon’s mysteries, and Sword of Orion, of which more in a moment) to date can be purchased directly (http://www.webscription.net/s-117-sharon-lee.aspx) in the format(s) of your choice from Baen Books.

Sharon’s mysteries set in Wimsy, Maine, are available in the electronic format of your choice from Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/SharonLeeeBooks.htm) Sadly, Sword of Orion is not as of this writing available in eformat.

FREE STORIES!

All of the terrific stories, including Liaden story “Intelligent Design,” that have been published for free on Baen Books’ front page throughout 2011, are collected in this great electronic anthology (http://www.webscription.net/p-1387-free-short-stories-2011.aspx) which is absolutely free.

Speaking of free stories, don’t forget to check out Splinter Universe (http://www.splinteruniverse.com) which right now has four complete short stories and a number of “splinters” available to be read. Donations are gratefully accepted.

WIMSY NOVELS ON SALE!

Lulu is having a sale! Yes! This means you can go here (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/wimsy ) and purchase the brand-new paper editions of Barnburner and Gunshy, the Jen Pierce Wimsy, Maine mysteries, for 25% off! Just use this coupon code: *BUYMYBOOK305*
Small print: Coupon expires December 14, 2011/$50 Max Savings

GHOST SHIP SELL OUT

We wrote to you at the end of October to let you know that Ghost Ship has sold out. Which means, in the publishing world, that there are no copies left in the Simon and Schuster warehouse. There are still copies in stores — both indie stores and big-box — and in some superstore warehouses. As of this writing, Amazon.com has sold through the stock in its warehouse and has no more Ghost Ships to sell. Barnes and Noble still appears to have stock. Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore in Minneapolis still has SIGNED copies of Ghost Ship on hand.

Long story short, if you want to give a copy of the hardcover edition of Ghost Ship to someone, or you want a(nother) copy for yourself, now is the time to buy.

The mass market edition of Ghost Ship will be published by Baen in late July/early August 2012

COMING SOON TO A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU

Carousel Tides, mass market: January 2012
Ghost Ship, mass market: July 2012
Dragon Ship, hardcover: September 2012

GOT A COUPLE MINUTES? LIKE WHAT YOU’VE BEEN READING? WRITE A READER REVIEW

If you’ve read a Lee-and-Miller, or Lee, book this year, please think about doing a customer review of that book (or books!) at Amazon, BN, or Other Online Bookstore of your choice. Fresh reviews are a nice way to spruce up the catalog pages and help other readers make a buying decision.

Books that came out (including reprints) this year are: Mouse and Dragon, The Crystal Variation, Ghost Ship, Saltation, Korval’s Game, The Agent Gambit.  Other books in play: The Dragon Variation, Fledgling,
Carousel Tides, and! All the chapbooks that were electrified just this year.

Review one, review ’em all! Thanks, everyone, for your help!

NEBULA NOMINATING PERIOD NOW OPEN

If you are an Active or Associate member of SFWA and have somehow missed the announcements elsewhere, be thou advised that the open nomination period is, err, open, and will remain so until February 15, 2012, 11:59 p.m. PST. This is the time during which titles are thrown into the hat at the rate of five per category per member; it is from these titles that the works appearing on the final Nebula ballot are drawn. Nominations are limited to those works published during the 2011 calendar year.

Lee and Miller, and Miller, have several works eligible for Nebula nomination. They are:

Short stories (published at Splinter Universe http://www.splinteruniverse.com): “Guaranteed Delivery,” “Russians In My Head” by Steve Miller —

Novelettes (published at Splinter Universe http://www.splinteruniverse.com): “Kin Ties,” “The Space at Tinsori Light”

ALSO: “Intelligent Design,” published on the Baen website.

Novella: “Skyblaze” published by SRM Publisher Ltd.

Novel: Ghost Ship, published by Baen

WHERE ON EARTH ARE LEE AND MILLER?

Chattacon 37 (http://www.chattacon.org/), January 20-22, 2012, Chattanooga TN. Lee and Miller Guests of Honor

Boskone 49 (http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/), February 17-19, 2012, Boston, MA.

Rockland Public Library, Rockland ME, Thursday, April 5, 2012

ConQuest 43 (www.conquestkc.org), May 25-27, 2012, Kansas City, MO. Lee and Miller Guests of Honor

*Support Your Local Bookstore*
Uncle Hugo’s: http://www.unclehugo.com/
University Bookstore: http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/services.taf?dept=about&category=loca
Pandemonium Books: http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/
Missing Volume: http://www.themissingvolume.com/
Borderlands: http://www.borderlands-books.com/
Flights of Fantasy: http://www.fof.net/
Mysterious Galaxy: http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/
Constellation Books: http://www.constellationbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
Children’s Book Cellar: http://www.indiebound.org/stores/childrens-book-cellar

/All of the above folks do mail order and take want lists/.

*Blogs and Other Webly Things of Note*
Theo_Waitley is the discussion group for readers of Fledgling and Saltation: http://community.livejournal.com/theo_waitley/

Where Dragons Rest: http://community.livejournal.com/liaden_readers/

Steve Miller’s blog, Journeyman: http://kinzel.livejournal.com/

Sharon Lee’s blog, Eagles over the Kennebec: http://rolanni.livejournal.com/

SRM Publisher blog: http://srmpublisher.livejournal.com/

Sharon Lee’s “Professional” blog: http://sharonleewriter.com

Splinter Universe Discussion List: http://splinterverse.livejournal.com

Facebook Connections — please feel free to add us!

http://facebook.com/kinzel — Steve Miller

http://facebook.com/rolanni — Sharon Lee

*Liaden Interest Groups on Facebook*
Clan Korval: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38719490864&ref=ts

Friends of Liad: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=16280839259&ref=ts

Flaran chamenthi: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=2213414696&ref=ts

*GoodReads*
Sharon’s Author Page:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/57980.Sharon_Lee
*Steve’s on Twitter*: http://twitter.com/bechimo
*Sharon’s on Twitter, too*: http://twitter.com/ClanKorval

*DISCLAIMER STUFF*
This InfoDump is a product of the Liaden Universe®, accept no imitations. You have received this message because you asked for it. If you wish to subscribe to the Liaden Universe® email list, go here: http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/liadenuniversenews

–30–

I have today done my duty to the gym, picked up the SRM tax paperwork from the accountant, and the curtains from Penney’s. I washed the dishes, hung the curtains, moved the couch, and the television set, wrote an InfoDump, made four phone calls in order of annoyance from futile to infuriating, answered several bidness emails, but I have of course done no actual work as yet.

Argh.

Time for a cup of strong black coffee, some dark chocolate, and a pile of manuscript pages to revise.

Look! There at the desk! With the red pen! It’s. . . Superwriter!

See y’all on the flipside.

If you’re an Active or Associate member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Nebula Nominating Period is open from now (actually, it started on November 15) until February 15, 2012. This is where titles are thrown into the hat at the rate of five per category per member, and it is from these titles that the works appearing on the final Nebula ballot are drawn.

The categories open for nomination are:

*The Nebula Awards for the best science fiction or fantasy short story, novelette, novella, and novel published during the calendar year 2010

*The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in the calendar year 2010

*The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book in the calendar year 2010
**********
Full Disclosure: Lee and Miller, and Miller, have several works eligible for nomination:

Short Stories:
“Guaranteed Delivery,” published at Splinter Universe on September 12, 2011

“Russians in My Head,” by Steve Miller. Published at Splinter Universe on October 31, 2011

Novelettes:
“Kin Ties,” published at Splinter Universe, August 12, 2011

“The Space at Tinsori Light,” published at Splinter Universe on November 10, 2011

“Intelligent Design,” published on the Baen Website in July 2011. Compilation of all the free Baen stories here (free download).

Novella:
“Skyblaze,” published by SRM Publisher, Ltd., February 2011.

Novel:
Ghost Ship, published by Baen Books, August 2011.

1. Yay! My copy of “Off the Grid” by RHR and the Wasteland Wranglers has arrived! I listened to it this morning as I drove to gym, and then to various errands. Excellent!

2. Amazon.com has sold out of Ghost Ship. For those who were planning on giving a copy to that Space Opera Reader on your gift list, but haven’t actually bought the book yet? You’re playing with fire, here. At last report, Uncle Hugo’s still had some signed copies of Ghost Ship on hand (at no extra charge!). Uncle Hugo’s does do mail order.

3. We’ve added Boskone (February 17-19, 2012) to next year’s convention dance card, in addition to our GOH appearance at Chattacon (January 20-22, 2012).

4. Waiting for the new winter coats to arrive. LL Bean says tomorrow. That would be nice. Mind you, it’s Ridiculously Warm at the moment, and more of the same called for tomorrow — 56F/13C? WTF? — but I’d rather have the coats in hand than in Chelmsford. No, I don’t know why coats warehoused in Freeport Maine, and destined for the Greater Waterville Googolplex, have to go to Chelmsford Mass first. I suppose they have relatives down south.

5. Y’all have read Laura Anne Gilman’s Vineart War trilogy, right? (If you haven’t, that’s Flesh and Fire, Weight of Stone, and The Shattered Vine. You can order them now. Yes, now. Go on, I’ll wait.) Well! It turns out that there are more stories that want to be told in the Vineart universe. Laura Anne seemed surprised by this (cue maniacal laughter). In particular, a novella, “From Whence You Came,” wanted to be written, and so Laura Anne made a deal with it — “If you get funded on Kickstarter, I’ll write you.” Well, the story is Just This Close to Winning that bet — only $440 shy of making its nut (not to mention that Laura Anne has already started to write the story, because — writers. Every single one of us is Like That). You want the story to win, right? I thought so. Why not go on over and give it a hand, then?