Stinz Volume One Repair Download

First of all, even though I proof these pdfs to death, there's always a page or two that get away from me. In this case, the new Stinz Collection volume 1 has a missing page - page five of "Hair of the Wolf."

So - for those of you who bought Volume 1 of the new Stinz collection, this is what I did for my OWN copy. 

You can't get these un-improved versions, any more, either. I fixed 'em on the Amazon link. I love Print-On-Demand - no more tearing our hair after a huge, expensive print run comes out. When an alert reader emails a correction, we can - correct - it!

Print this jpeg - either on your own printer or your library's - and tip it into the book, either plain or glued. You see this sometime in old books - this is proof it still happens, when a book gets as big and complex as these collections do.

And if I see you at a convention with one of these, you get a color sketch - for free. It's like a coupon.

Back-Dooring Amazon

Anybody who has worked with me knows I know how to back-door the system (thank you, U.S. Army).

If all us POD or direct-publisher authors go on Amazon, and in the reviews point out which ones make US money and which ones only make collectors money, sooner or later Amazon will cordon those off automatically.

I WON't do this is I no longer have the books - but BUY FROM THE AUTHOR FIRST. 

This isn't to run the collectors out of business. It's to make sure the authors get paid first. In the long run, this can only be good for the collectors, because the authors will be able to produce more books to sell.

Process or DRAW.

So.... do I spend all my time trying to process my books, or do I use it to make new art and pages?

I'm not getting any younger, so it may be up to others to get a lot of the additional book-processing done. I can stick smaller page counts up on Indyplanet or collections up on Amazon, but taking time to re-process into Kindle - considering my hundreds of books - is just going to eat up all my remaining years.  Flogging at publishers before starting a project just eats up hours.

A quicky sketch from many years ago. Yes, you can pay me to do anything from a scribble to an epic.

I'm not trying to be all whiny or gloomy, but there's a reality here.  Art takes time. Writing takes time. It's that or process.  Process disappears.  You can work your butt off on the ebooks and pdfs and paper versions, but all somebody has to do is fail their site or decide to change it, and years of work can disappear overnight.

So I'm sorry if all the stuff isn't going to be available everywhere all at once.  You'll get the new stuff on the easiest sites, or the most long-running sites.  I'm not going to run my head off any more to try to keep it all covered.  When somebody else figures out how to pay themselves by harnessing my author engine, you'll get the full coverage.  It can't be THAT hard, can it?

I'll try to keep updates going on the Bookstore (see it in the links, this page).  I'll very much appreciate any reports to me of problems or broken links.

In the meantime, I'll keep inking, scanning, coloring.  And taking time for commissions, because those are REAL.

I'm going to be SO rich when I'm dead.  Those people in my will to take care of my cats are going to be so happy.

Kindle's Okay, but...

In response to a message from Amazon:

"Thanks for the Kindle message. 

I automatically get an inexpensive download pdf at http://www.lulu.com/desertpeach

People can search and read it on the format I uploaded on Nook or IPad or any other device that will open a pdf.

Costs me nothing to upload. No extra machinery or reader.  And I do drawn books ("comics").  Kindle not so good with images.

Kindle's nice for prose, but it's expensive for customers, difficult to format, and people have to buy a specific device.

It's okay as the 8-track tape, but there are other trails, now, and people are taking them.

Donna Barr
Author first, publisher second"

The Desert Peach on Kindle

Readers praise the few copies of The Desert Peach up on Kindle.

Those were processed and posted by my agent, Dave Baxter.  It's interesting one reader simply downloaded the book to read on his computer.

Talk about stupid

D'uh!

That's me hitting myself in the forehead. It's just hit me that the bookstores and distributors think THEY're the point of the exercise.

I was literally told by a small bookstore owner that, "We're not looking for authors. Authors are looking for sellers."

They've also told me that if a small bookstore has to go to the extra "bother," (and I'm quoting that word), they won't get a customer a book.

I've realized the independent bookstores are where the comics stores were a few years ago -- closed-in little satrapies who got to control what the reader was able to obtain. Remember those comic stores? Dark, dirty, dank, and snotty owners? Page 45 turned that around. Admittedly a lot of comics stores run on Manga and toys but they'll help you find the books you want.

They really hate Amazon -- but Amazon is programmed to "bother" for every single reader.

So am I. Not that I'm going to write the way you tell me to -- although I will steal good quotes every time -- but I'll try to get you my books in any market.

If I owned a bookstore, I'd never return damaged or even overstocked books -- I'd use them as loss-leader giveaways to hook readers and promote word-of-mouth. Free PR, instead of more shipping and shredding!

Maybe I'm the only person with the right attitude to open a bookstore. Hm.....

"Not An Asshole Books" -- ?

And Dinosaurs are Extinct

I've been having a conversation with a guy on Facebook. He put together an "independent bookstore" group, and I happily posted my sites for getting books, including my POD contacts.

First of all, I adore little privately-owned stores. The big box places just can't compete with the ambiance.

Secondly, I am not directing this at comics shops, because YOU get it. YOU're in the 21st century, and you already know how to do this. There's a reason why more and more shops are getting shinier and nicer, and it's not just the girls buying manga (okay, so a lot of it is girls buying manga, but how is that a bad thing?).

I figured it would make privately-owned bookstores happy that they could get the books at near wholesale, including for specific customers I would be happy to drive toward their stores in their town. I can send "official dealer" labels to them as I do to my show representatives, and frequently-asked questions lists, anything to help them move product and make money for all of us.

The group owner got very angry about my promoting my books on the message board. I didn't understand why they wouldn't want all the author input they can get. I mean, these are the producers of the product they're pushing. New product could get new customers. Don't they want new customers? I know I do!

Then I got this line:

"We do not seek authors, authors seek book sellers."

These are those little brick-and-mortar self-owned stores who are screaming about Amazon. I think the guy might have been angered because I have those Amazon ads on this site, and Amazon is eating their lunches. There's a reason Amazon is stealing their cupcakes:

These must be the people who want to sit in their little store and pick put lists from publications they know, and send books back to be shredded if they can't sell them. Never mind that this keeps book prices going higher and higher, as distributors demand huge markups and make both publishers and stores pay for shipping.

These prices are making POD competitive, especially when it makes it possible for a bookstore to order only what they need into their shop, to make any customer happy. The personal touch turns customers on. Why else do they come to signings and go to shows to see their favorite authors? Keeping the prices -- and the shipping -- down certainly would have customer appeal?

Wouldn't the very private nature of an indie bookstore make it possible for an owner to deal with the authors -- more of them all the time, including the biggies -- who are building on-line customer bases? With it so easy to make promotional materials, an author and a bookstore working together could shedule all sorts of wonderful events?

A breakdown between the stores and the authors -- there's the problem. Amazon makes it possible (well, more possible -- I don't want to give them THAT many points) for authors to move book on their site and talk directly to the customers. And drive in customers in the first place.

It can't be that hard for the indie bookstores to do that? Surely they have laptops and dsl?

Aren't they nice?

Latest Amazon/Booksurge thang:

The Amazon rep called up and oh so nicely said, with the new Booksurge contract -- and a total favor to me (I should be grateful, right?) -- would be wiping the accounts I owed them because of the older model of contracts they originally had with authors. Quote: "We'll start fresh."

This makes me wonder if they're wiping all these accounts that owe them money because of the right-hand-pays, left-hand-bills model they're using.

The rep didn't want to hear about the Lulu model (customer -- including retailers if they directly to the site -- covers manufacturing costs, shipping, small profit fees to author and Lulu) that ultimately keeps the prices down for the customer. Can I say "huffy"?

He attempted to pat me on my head by telling me I didn't know about professional publishing. Yes, I think I'm quite aware of over-orders, returns and shredded books. The only professional distributors who get it right are in comic books: leftover books are sold, then discounted, finally given away as loss leaders. If a comics retailer gets a damaged book from me, they have only to GIVE it to a likely-looking customer. It never fails: a few bucks given away results in a brand-new addict rushing back in for an order that can come to $125.00 on the spot.

When I spoke to prose authors early in my career, they were quite starry-eyed about getting 50 cents a book. Now I know about manufacturing costs, shipping, etc., and considering the retail costs of books, I'd like to ask: what are the publishers and distributors doing -- shipping those books in golden boxes? Or is the money being dumped into the huge waste model of returns and shredding? It's going somewhere -- who's getting it?

Booksurge was set up by prose authors, who don't want to know. Comics authors know because of our ridiculous censorship model that put our art form in the toilet -- and which we are gradually hauling back out with the roto-rooter of independing publishing and a lot of female authors -- who have to work outside the boxes because the art form didn't give a damn about us.

Oh, and Amazon now say, "WE pay the manufacturing costs." Oh, so that's not the customer's money? Where are they getting this money they're calling "theirs?" Same place governments get theirs?

That's the customer's money. I don't want 30% of the net -- I want a rock-bottom cost that covers manufacturing, shipping, and a bit of cash to the printer, author and distributor. Customers can afford to buy more, so more money all around. More books distributed. More books in the long run.

Then again, with the new electronic-reading devices, this may all be moot anyway.

Amazon and Booksurge Are Run By Idiots

I've recently been trying to get it through the little pin heads of the actual human beings at Booksurge/Amazon that they cannot give Amazon a 55% markup AND the author a 30% cut OF THE GROSS.

This has caused massive confusion and anger among thousands of Booksurge publishers an authors, who were never told it was not out of the NET.

We've been trying to figure out for years why the publishers and authors keep getting billed for manufacturing costs, when in POD the customer is supposed to be covering those. A wienie accountant did her job recently very thoroughly -- as she's supposed to -- and sent out thousands of dunning notices for thousands of dollars, and this is when this screwup came to the surface.

I've told them to go look at how Lulu.com works -- customer pays for manufacturing and shipping, and throws a little fee at Lulu, and a couple bucks for the author, for each book. One action, one time, and every month Lulu dumps a payment into the my Paypal account. If we want to see our accounts they're right there on the site.

Booksurge CAN't cover manufacturing costs. No matter how high we mark our prices -- screwing the customer -- we can't get the costs high enough to get around that 30% cut. Later, they expect us to turn around and write them a check from the money they sent us. Since nobody's known this was from the gross, we've not budgeted to pay it back. They pay with one hand and expect it back with the other.

In real terms, this means thousands of publishers cannot pay back Booksurge. Amazon is wrapped up in these payments.

I'm glad I haven't got any stock in Amazon....

(PS; when Bank of America pulled out of Clallam Bay, I said it was to get into the mortgage bubble and have the cash to grab foreclosed properties when the crash came. I also said Soviet Union practiced "state capitalism" not "communism" {which has only ever been practiced in its true form by small villages run by women). So pay 'ttention when I start pointing. Cassandra said Troy would burn.})