so you want to be a writer – Sharon Lee, Writer

List of books affected by price increase

Business first, in answer to pleas for a list. Below are the books affected by Amazon’s new Minimum List Price Rule. Note that these are PAPER BOOKS ONLY, and yes those would be CHAPbooks.

NOTE: CHAPBOOKS. Because in Olden Times such things were thin, cheap pamphlets and/or small books and they were sold by traveling vendors called CHAPmen. CHAPmen sold CHAPbooks. The name stuck even when chapbooks became pamphlets/small books self-published by philosophers, poets, and impoverished writers, to distinguish them from, err, real books.

So, once more, the list below includes the Pinbeam Books chapbooks in paper, only. Prices on these items are going up (“Love in an Elevator” is playing in the background — no, really. This morning’s soundtrack has been pretty good.) ON MONDAY, May 19 2025.
Ebook prices remain (for the moment) unaffected.

The Gift of Magic
Courier Run
Surfside
Shout of Honor
Degrees of Separation
Legacy Systems
Change Management
Heirs to Trouble
Sleeping with the Enemy
Fortune’s Favors
Due Diligence
Ambient Conditions
Moon’s Honor
Technical Details
Spell Bound
Cultivar
The Gate that Locks the Tree

Attention Pinbeam Books readers

What went before, short form: Amazon sent me a letter informing me of changes to its royalty structure. PRINT titles that have a cover price of less than $9.99 will experience a reduced royalty — from 60% to 50%. Some other books will receive NO ROYALTIES AT ALL. Amazon was writing to me because I have titles that fall into the NO ROYALTIES AT ALL zone, and I have until June 10 to Fix This.

NOTE: This is paper books only from Pinbeam Books, the Lee-and-Miller indie publishing side of It All.

NOTE TWO: Pinbeam’s paper books are produced and distributed by Amazon, so even if you buy one of Pinbeam’s print book from another bookstore, you are still buying it from Amazon.

Wednesday. Anything can happen day.

Please join me in a moment of silence as we contemplate this irony.

Right.

Sunny and going to hit the low 70sF. Windows my office are OPEN. Bathroom window is NOT OPEN.

The caffeine has done its work; and I’ve traveled through the Land Of O!God O!God, what the PHUCK am I going to do? I don’t have TIME for this and we’re going to be living in a tent by the river, and the Cats &c&c&c — which is the toll I pay for having a bent brain — and have arrived at A Place of Thinking.

So.

I’ve gone through the list of titles affected by Amazon’s newest flexing of its muscles. It is Less Bad than the first reading/panic attack made it seem. There are 22 Pinbeam Books titles affected by this…new arrangement.

Despite the explanation in their letter, five of Pinbeam’s 22 affected titles are listed at $10 (aka above the Magic $9.99); the rest are listed at $8.

I need to research what’s going on with those five $10 titles; also — there’s a separate problem with The Tomorrow Log, which someone seems to have hijacked. However Amazon’s system is for some reason a little overwhelmed at the moment, and I can’t actually GET to TTL‘s publisher listing to see what’s going on there.

Focusing on the below-magic-list-price titles . . . 17 @ $8. Here, I have three choices: (1) I can let Amazon continue to sell them and pay me nothing; (2) I can increase the cover of all titles to $10, or (3) I can take them off-sale.

(1) is Right Out.

Frankly, (2) and (3) both pretty much add up to $0. People can’t buy a book that’s not listed, and! I doubt anybody will buy these titles in paper at $10. However, exposure is a thing, and keeping the titles in view has benefit.

So (2) it is.

I will be increasing the price of the affected titles on Monday, May 19, so people still have time to buy these titles at the older, lower price.

Why am I doing this so quickly, since Amazon isn’t implementing their changes until June 10?

Because I will be traveling, and then I will be exhausted from traveling, and having to catch up with All The Rest of the stuff that somehow piles up when you’re traveling, even if you’re — ahem — old, widowed, and Have Nothing To Do All Day.

And that’s Anything Can Happen Day so far at the Confusion Factory.

I’m going to go get a third cup of tea, and what’s left of that chocolate mint brownie. Panic really uses up calories.

I trust that everyone is abiding in a state of Calm Peacefulness this morning?

In good news, the cat tree was in bloom this morning.

Speed bonny boat, like a bird on the wing

What went before: And, the first Steve Miller’s death has killed the Liaden Universe®; the latest book is filler: boring, stupid, and includes icky girl stuff¹ commentary has landed. I’m kind of surprised it took this long. And, no, I did not seek it out.

Closing up shop for the day. Dr. Who up in 3…2…1…

Everybody stay safe.

¹<fe>Assuredly the first Liaden book ever to include icky girl stuff</fe>

* * *

So. Did he bring her to that desolate Welsh hilltop on purpose?

Tuesday. Sunny and already kind of warm, pardoning the slight, cool breeze. The ‘beans are looking for 70F/21C, so I might actually be able to sit out on the deck for a little while this afternoon in Actual Sunshine.

Trash is at the curb, but not recycling, since there’s no recycling pickup this week, those trucks being needed to haul in the junk for the City Cleanup.

Breakfast was — don’t judge me — leftover mashed potatoes with egg, onions, and cheese. Lunch will be a burger and … something. Or, yanno, not.

I have a letter from the hospital that’s closing next week. It appears that I can fill out a form to see if my PCP will accept me into his new practice — in Bath. I’m required to fill the form in and fax it to the practice, which is going to be a challenge. I note that Bath is, eh, an hour away, maybe?

However, in Actual Good News, the Walk-In Clinic is not closing. At least, not yet.

The letter is dense — in layout and in information, so I’ll be reading it again. I also have a bill from the plumber for the Installation Fiasco, and it is less — even much less — than I had feared. So — qualified good news there.

I’ve some other this, that, and t’other things to look after, and tonight is the second meeting of the fiber craft group at the library.

“My life makes perfect sense: drugs and booze, and violence.” Possibly my least favorite Dire Straits song.

Thanks to everyone for the outpouring of love for our writing, and for Diviner’s Bow. I should perhaps have given a paraphrase warning, and I now let the world know that “icky girl stuff” is romance/relationship content. Which, yes, the Liaden Universe® has embraced — cough — from the beginning, and it always amazes me that people who preface their Disappointed Remarks on our Sudden Wokeness with “I’ve been reading this series from the beginning,” managed to miss this for nearly 40 years. I can only believe that reading is very difficult for them, and I admire their perseverance.

The windows are open — only not the bathroom window, which will have to do penance for a while yet — and the cats are strategically deployed to take advantage of the Smells Of Outdoors.

Do you know where your cats are?

Today’s blog post title comes to you via Dr. Who (“Kiss-Kiss”), “Skye Boat Song,” the linked performance from Celtic Thunder.

This ain’t no kind of living for an honest workin’ man

Monday. Dim and cool. Temps said to be heading for 38F/3C.

Breakfast was a blueberry muffin and brie. Cup of tea to hand. Lunch will likely be some of the store-bought quiche.

We here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory are in a state of emergency — Rolanni Code Red. There are no cookies in the house.

No, I don’t know how this was allowed to happen, either. I suppose I’ll just have to do what Steve did when there weren’t any cookies in the house and! bake some.

Today I have phone calls to make and errands to run. Also, perhaps, some writing to get done. When last seen, Jen Sin had just arrived in his office and does not yet know that there’s a delightful letter from Shan awaiting him, and I really don’t want to keep him too long from his treat.

Yesterday’s conversation with Eileen Stevens was delightful, as always. We have another chat scheduled for Tuesday evening.

For those coming in late — Eileen is narrating Diviner’s Bow, which will be coming from Audible. We don’t have a date yet, but given the drop-deadline for the first cut, the best guess is close to the release of the hardcover.

Meanwhile, in another part of the jungle, Alex Picard will be narrating Ribbon Dance, which, it says here, is to be published by Tantor on August 12.

I do see Ribbon Dance in Audible’s catalog of Liaden books (link scroll to the bottom, just under Diviner’s Bow), so it looks like folks who buy their books from Audible will be able to download it from their Usual Supplier.

Note: The above constitutes the Entire Contents of My Head regarding upcoming audiobooks. If you have Questions beyond what I’ve told you, I can’t answer them. No, really; I can’t.

In so-called Real Life, Informed Delivery, FedEx and UPS all say that I’ll be getting deliveries today — no, wait! tomorrow! Er? Maybe? Sometime?

Of course, the thing I most care about — my keyboard — seems to have gone missing entirely, after apparently sampling the night life in Tacoma WA for a week. And I’m apparently taking delivery of another package from Petco, which — I think Petco has lost count, somewhere. Not that I’m about to turn back cat litter; it’s not going to go bad, after all.

So, the adventurous and slightly confused life of a writer.

How’s your life this morning?

Today’s title brought to you by Jude Cole, “Start the Car”

How many cats are in this picture?