07-05-2010, 12:30 PM | #1 | |
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Author Issues E-Book Challenge
Michael A. Stackpole Issues E-Book Challenge To Readers I'm only just finding out about this, but it seems like something worth noting, even if it's a bit late. Many will recognize Michael Stackpole's name, he's written pretty broadly and eclectically, stretching from Battletech, through the Star Wars universe and into several flavors of epic fantasy. Some of his writings have been available as e-versions from various controlled stores such as Amazon and Sony's ebookstore, however he's recently dipped his toe into the waters of self-published e-books, with a bit of a twist. The toe-dipping part is that he's offering his backlist novels Once A Hero, and Talion: Revenant as unrestricted e-books from his website store (which takes PayPal) for $5. You read that correctly, five American Dollars. In the case of Talion, Mr. Stackpole has issued a challenge to his readers: if he can sell 10,000 e-copies of Talion: Revenant (the same number that the paper version sold) he will write and publish its sequel, Talion: Nemesis. Apparently he's had notes for the sequel for quite some time, and even part of it written, and is using the e-sales as sort of a replacement for the Advance for writing the sequel which a publisher would offer if he were following the "traditional" route. I'm particularly intrigued and impressed by some of the comments he's made about this experiment, for example: Quote:
For those interested, I encourage you to consider purchasing one or both of these books. I haven't read Once a Hero (yet!) but everything else I've read by Mr. Stackpole I've greatly enjoyed, so I have no reservations about commending his works to you. For those who would specifically like to see a Talion sequel, here's something you can do to make that more likely. For everyone, what do you think of Mr. Stackpole's perspective on e-publishing? He seems to be viewing it from a slightly different direction than I'd ever considered before, and one I think will be particularly appealing to other Authors. |
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07-05-2010, 12:54 PM | #2 |
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I was going to buy Talion but he wants too much information for a PayPal purchase. I don't want to register to buy a single book, at least not where I have to give all the information Stackpole wants. It isn't as if I'm likely to return to the website frequently. If the book is available elsewhere, perhaps I'll buy it (if I remember about it), but otherwise it's a lost sale. I wrote Stackpole and advised him of the lost sale and why.
Last edited by rhadin; 07-05-2010 at 12:57 PM. |
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07-05-2010, 12:54 PM | #3 |
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He's a gun for hire who stopped taking silver dollars from the Sherriff and wants to be hired by the townsfolk in the hopes of getting more in gold from their mine*
*I really should not have played Red Dead Redemption over the weekend. Last edited by Moejoe; 07-05-2010 at 01:02 PM. Reason: structure, spelling, Asterix the Gaul |
07-05-2010, 01:16 PM | #4 |
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Never heard or read anything from him but I might give one of his books a try. It certainly is a interesting way to turn things around when it comes to publishing.
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07-05-2010, 02:09 PM | #5 | |
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Quote:
I suppose you could create an account with bogus info, and do the paypal that way ... but I think your solution is probably the best, rhadin. |
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07-05-2010, 04:23 PM | #6 | |
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Quote:
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07-05-2010, 04:30 PM | #7 |
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A warning for people downloading the books.
The download page does not like download accelerator programs. I am using "Download Accelerator" and my first try to download one of the books (which went wrong) expired the download (you should have 3 tries). Downloading the other book without using Download Accelerator went fine. I have sent an e-mail to the website. Am I sure this will be solved. |
07-05-2010, 04:38 PM | #8 |
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Hmm, selling a book he actually published more than 20 years ago, and most of the people that like his writing actually already have.... I am not quite inclined to chip out another $5 to buy a book I already bought 15 or so years ago for $6.99. Paying $5 for a sequel seems reasonable, though.
I'd give him more chance when he would give away this book to those not knowing him and then sell the sequel for $5. |
07-05-2010, 04:59 PM | #9 | |
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Quote:
I have already received a reply from Michael Stackpole that my download has been reset. I was able to download the book without a problem this time. Good customer service! |
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07-05-2010, 06:47 PM | #10 |
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I have both books in paper, but went ahead and bought both in ebook format.
As for some of the comments, all I can say is do you want ebooks or not? The information collected is standard billing info and you can also pay by check or money order. I have yet to buy from someone who didn't ask for the normal billing info. As far as $5 for a backlist book, well do you want more books or not? If an author can't make enough money to make ends meet, then he is going to move on to a different line of work. This has already happened to several authors who I really liked. $5 is certainly less than you would pay for a paper copy of the book. Yes, I know you payed $7 bucks years ago, so what. I paid 99 cents for my original copies of Moorcock's books way back when they first came out. That's how much they cost back then. The going price for a new copy of the same books is much more now. Heck, if half the price of many ebooks. One last note. Neither book has any sort of DRM. If you like the author or haven't read the author, but like fantasy, then it's time to put up or shut up. If this doesn't work out for Stackpole and other authors point to this experiment as a reason for using DRM or not publishing their works in ebook format, then you have only yourself to blame. Last edited by pwalker8; 07-05-2010 at 06:53 PM. |
07-05-2010, 06:52 PM | #11 | |
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Bottom line is that I simply find it intrusive for no good reason. |
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07-05-2010, 08:01 PM | #12 |
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This looks neat. I might have paper copies of the books, but on the other hand, they may be in the box I gave to my nephew when I moved. It'll be easier just to buy the e-books. The print in the paperbacks kinda sucked anyway.
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07-05-2010, 08:49 PM | #13 |
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I tend to agree.. I'm usually not very paranoid about buying online (been doing it for more years than I'll admit to), but there is no valid reason to need all that data, except the software he's using for his online store requires it. Username and password should be enough to open an account. If more data is needed for the credit card, then get it later or allow Paypal to handle the intrusive stuff.
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07-05-2010, 09:50 PM | #14 |
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I've never read that book by him, but I decided to pick up the Kindle version from Amazon.
From reading his site he combines the sales from all of the places, so no need to buy straight from his site if you have an account elsewhere. |
07-05-2010, 10:49 PM | #15 |
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10,000 copies sounds very, very, very ambitious.
I'd conciser buying, but from the descriptions the books don't sound even remotely my taste. |
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