OBS does Chapter by Chapter Review of Never Ceese.

In October of 2009 the Open Book Society contacted me about doing a chapter by chapter discussion of Never Ceese along with an interview. It was great fun and a wonderful way to see just how folks get excited about my Thirsting for Blood Series. Here's the link to read the fun and learn more about Never Ceese. I will tell you though, MANY, MANY spoilers here!!! ;) If I'm not mistaken, you can still add your own input to the questions. Here's the link: OBS Reviews Never Ceese. I've added the link to the sidebar on the left as well.

Electric Angel NOW available!!!

***This just in: One customer, when ordering, had to use Internet Explorer as the WONDERFUL Google Chrome couldn't cut it. So if you're having problems ordering, ditch the Chrome if that's what you're using. ;) ***

In case you miss it when you order an e-book, this is how it works at Black Bed Sheet Books:

THE WAY IT WORKS:

Make a selection and proceed through your shopping cart purchase. We will process your order and send your purchase as an attachment to your email address within 2 business days, but most likely sooner, like within 24 hours, but we say 2 days in case of emergency.

All ebooks available on this site, no matter what format, costs five U.S. dollars plus twenty-five American cents, or cheaper, ladies and gentlemen, or what equals that amount in foreign currency.

This is front and center on the E-book ordering page. This information does not print out on the receipt you get. In an age where instant gratification is usually key to securing a sale, I felt it was important to point this out. The check out program Black Bed Sheet Book uses doesn't presently support instant download capability but will very soon. If you think BBS should get a better check out program then buy their books so they can pay for one. For the record the receipt may very well boast the same message shortly. Again, thanks for being patient as we iron out the kinks.

On sale starting today for a VERY limited time at Black Bed Sheet Books!

ONLY $10.00

It will be available for sale anywhere books are sold but NONE of those sites or stores will be able to give you this kind of deal!!! And NO, you won't see it on the shelf of any large bookstore because I refuse to shoot myself in the head with my own gun by making my books returnable which is the only way one gets into large bookstores.

They can order my books so that's all you need to know. Folks, small publishers do not see the books that large bookstores order, and then return because they can,and are therefore out the print cost of the book and the shipping cost for the book which they never see again. I WILL NOT subscribe to such lunacy just to say my book is in a large bookstore. Get over it!!!

For all my good Christian readers, the ones who favor work put out by targeted denominational publishers like Thomas Nelson, Zondervan etc . . . Electric Angel will also be available through Spring Arbor. That means large Christian Bookstores CAN order it but like large general market bookstores won't put it on the shelf.

Best bet, go to Black Bed Sheet Books to place your order. And here's a nice perk. Electric Angel is also available in Kindle format, Nook Format, Microsoft Reader Format WITH additional pictures added from the photo shoot with Jim Sorfleet of sNs-photo.net of Ron Fitzgerald the cover model. For an additional amount I will even sign the e-book copy of your choice.

No the Kindle won't be through Amazon and the Nook won't be through Barnes & Noble. Why would I do that when they give away an authors e-book for free. Don't think that's gonna be happening.

Here's a link to the page at Black Bed Sheet Books where you can purchase a Kindle or Nook or whatever! :D (Thanks Caprice!)

But yes, I put a LOT of time, effort and money into each MS, including paying for a high-quality professional edit with reviews from past work to prove that it's worth it. So I ain't gonna say it again. Go buy the darn thing! ;D

** Please be patient as we're still working out a few kinks we didn't know about in the ordering process. You can now order an e-book WITHOUT having to choose a shipping method. LOL It is charging tax though but I believe this will be fixed shortly. Also a message will be added, once you purchase the e-book to state that the file will be sent to you within 24-48 hours after purchase. It does say this on the Black Bed Sheet site but one can easily miss this so the message will be added to the receipt you recieve. Thanks so much for all y'all's patience!! Especially you Caprice. ;)***

Gotta love these groups! NOT!

So I get an email solicitation today. Here it is:

Greetings Sue Dent,

We thought you might be interested in our site for authors!

Author & Book Promotions promotes literary works by best-selling and new authors wanting greater online book publicity! A&BP have worked with authors across the globe including Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Caribbean, and the United States.

Our mission is to bring as much publicity to Authors of all stages and expose their books to readers around the world! We not only want to support those whose works are in print, we also seek to guide those who aspire to become authors in the book marketing process.

For authors wanting greater exposure, a Featured Books section is available. It is a service that A&BP is providing to best-selling and new authors seeking an increase in their online book publicity.

Sincerely,
A&BP
Author & Book Promotions

I know y'all are eager to see my response. So here it is! ;D

Sorry I've seen this group on FB and several other groups like it but it is my belief that until you STOP offering publicity to "best-selling" authors your small efforts to help new and small-pubbed authors will fall on deaf ears. Clearly "best-selling" authors don't need help, DUH! And mentioning them is pointless. They're already "best-selling" and have access to all sorts of promotion already. Also mentioning these authors sort of defeats the purpose of what you propose your little FB page is for. Just my opinion of course.

Sue Dent
Give me a break!

Best-Sellers List

Found this at the bottom of a best-sellers list compiled for the week ending January 9, 2011 to "explain" a little about how the list was compiled? I'll not list the books as I don't feel the list is NOT representative of what's actually selling. No surprise there.

"Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending January 9, 2011, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighed to represent all such outlets); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount department stores and newsstands."

I only post this to help substantiate the fact that the "sales" this list is talking about are the sales a publisher makes to a book store Independent or otherwise. The only publisher that large bookstores (the ones that make the difference in this matter) buy from are large publishers and they do so in mass quantities regardless of whether the author is a bestseller or not. This is actually how authors become best-sellers.

In the early years of publishing it was expensive to print books so publishers (only large publishers existed at the time. There were no little guys.) called upon the bookstores to help them store the large number of books they had to print as they had large print runs in order to save money. The bookstores and large publishers worked hand in hand. No surprise that things still work like this today but it is important to know otherwise you might think a best-seller is determined by how many individuals are buying it. Not so at all. There is absolutely no way to track how many books sell to individuals via bookstores or all the venues that sell books.

Ironically, all the books that bookstores buy from large publishers to secure that publishers hope of another author making it to the best-sellers list never sale at all!!! The bookstore usually returns them at some point because they can. No skin off their back. By the way, that's why you'll never see anything but larger publishers books on these list. Bookstores don't buy books from small publishers and they certainly don't when, in order to survive the insane return policy, the small publishers makes their books NON-RETURNABLE and prints through a POD.

Ahhhh, the publishing industry. Gotta love it.

I apologize if you thought I was going to post that I made the best-sellers list. I'll not make one any time soon with the requirements listed above and t hat's EVEN if I sell more books than some of those authors on the best-sellers list. Because if I sell more books it will be my small pub selling them directly to customers or me selling them myself and those sales are counted. So the real best-sellers will never be known because there's no way to accurately determine the number.

Oprah Winfrey Oprah read this Oprah Oprah Oprah

Attention non-chain Bookstores!

Chain would be Barnes & Nobles, Borders, etc . . . everyone else is non-chain. I'm about to place an order for on hand stock of my Black Bed Sheet Books paperback edition of Never Ceese. That means if you'd like to humor me and have me for a signing, which I will of course promote myself since that isn't your job, then give me a shout.

You'll be out nothing. I bring the books, you make your commission and I make mine. You can of course buy some to keep on your shelves if you'd like, I really don't care. Sixty-forty works for me. Send me an e-mail. ;D

Sorry, but "Christian" chain bookstores are out too. Nobody can get into those store without paying the Christian Booksellers Association a grand fee. I'd say that you Independent Christian Bookstores could humor me but books have to be approved by CBA's Spring Arbor (see Spring Arbor really isn't Ingram at all. It's still run by CBA and always has been)for YOU to even order them and well, while mine once were, I've pulled them from Spring Arbor. I'm no hypocrite. ;D And if you see any "Christian" chain bookstores with Never Ceese on the shelf, PLEEEEEASE contact me straight away so I can do whatever it takes to have them removed.

C. S. Lewis was dead so he couldn't stop his work from going into stores that discriminate based on specific and targeted belief systems. I'm not!!!! I'll not sit idly by if my books start showing up in bookstores who shut their doors in my face.

So yeah, call me. :D

And for the record, any chain bookstore CAN order my books and put them on the shelf but they ONLY automatically order books from the larger publishers whether they suck or not because they're never out any money when these books don't sell. They NEVER order books from small pubbed or POD publishers because most have to make their books non-returnable to survive. Chain bookstores were only ever set up for the larger publishers. I don't belong there. I don't want to be there. So don't look for me there.

BAM! Books-A-Million does it again!!!

Oh don't I love BAM! They only sell returned-from-the-bookstore books or in this case liquidated books. As par for the course, they won't place ONE book of mine that I can actually make money off of. Noooooo. They buy dirt cheap copies from a liquidator and sell those. I never see a dime. How grand!!! Thanks BAM! Merry Christmas to you. So for all you readers who actually want to keep authors writing, don't shop at BAM. Buy from publishers.

Buy the way, those would be the hardbacks of Never Ceese and don't you dare pay retail or close to it for that book when you can get it on the internet all day long usually for under $5.00.

Actually, to give BAM some credit, those are resellers selling on BAM's on-line stores. But BAM brick and mortar won't carry my books unless it comes in as returned-from-the-bookstore because that's all their distributors supply them with. AND my books have all been made non-returnable so my publishers don't go under!!! ;)

Question from a reader!

"Hey Sue, I never found 'Forever Richard' and definitely want to read it before this one. Any ideas where I can find it?"

Well of course you can find Forever Richard anywhere BUT not on any bookstore shelf as bookstores only automatically shelf books from the "big dog" publishers and NEVER from small press publishers. Books-A-Million doesn't even shelf new books. Their distributors only sell returned-from-the-bookstore books which won't be mine because I've made them non-returnable to safeguard myself against theft. Unfortunately Books-A-Million got some copies of Forever Richard while it was returnable or rather available through Book Masters but once they're gone, they're gone. YAY!

Forever Richard isn't difficult to get at all though. You'll just have to order it. Not even local bookstores put it on the shelf. That's not to say they're picking on me. They won't shelf any small press (and heaven forbid self-published author) unless the publisher is well . . . you know. ;)

When my books start selling in numbers that matter, which may happen before I die, if I don't win the lottery and am able to compete monetarily with the "big dog" publishers, then you'll see me on the shelves of larger bookstores provided they don't ALL go under before then.

Oh and I'd prefer you buy Forever Richard from me at the moment as my second publisher has returned the rights and the only copies of Forever Richard for sell at the moment are copies BookMasters stole from that publisher--more or less. I make nothing off of them and never will because neither does my publisher. Thanks BookMasters you so RAWK!

For the record, humoring small press or self-pubbed authors by placing SOME of their books in an INDISCREET section and doing nothing to help potential book buyers understand that these authors are not privy to the big money that big publishers use to PIMP their authors is the same as not putting said book on the shelf in the first place.

The Christian Manifesto Interview

I was so proud of this interview when I was asked to do it. It isn't often that a non-affiliated (CBA) author gets to talk about appealing to that audience from outside CBA's market. Excitement quickly dwindled though as blog was shortly moved to another site and link merely reported as broken. New site doesn't show pictures and I doubt anyone ever finds it. Oh well. I tried. Here's the link to part two of the interview . . . at least until it's moved again or completely deleted.

Actually, I learned shortly after the interview was moved about the broken link, reported about it here on my blog and was told where the new link was. BUT you have to absolutely LOOK for the new link and it doesn't show up on google searches as the other one did. The only link that shows up is the broken one and it doesn't redirect you. This is such a powerful interview and was getting a LOT of attention until it was moved (with pics not showing.) It's almost as if someone gave me a gift and then took it away to give to someone else. Oh well. Here are the links for what it's worth.

http://www.thechristianmanifesto.com/index.php/2008/12/16/an-interview-with-sue-dent-author-of-forever-richard-part-1-of-2/

http://www.thechristianmanifesto.com/index.php/2008/12/19/an-interview-with-sue-dent-author-of-forever-richard-part-2-of-2/

Before this blog was moved, pulled from the original site because the interviewer went to help with another blog, or so I was told, it was getting a LOT of attention. I was so very encouraged. I've yet to figure out why the interview was "dumped" like this. Sorry. But that's just my impression. You have to pan for gold to find it now. The back links on the moved interviews don't even work.

Guess that's what I get for pegging Thomas Nelson as a fee paying CBA affiliated publisher. Though it seems like they'd be proud of this since they pay to belong and are CBA's top publisher. Or maybe it didn't bother them at all. :)

What a productive weekend!

I must say I had quite an enjoyable weekend hauling part of Ridgeland High School's forensics team down to Hattiesburg and judging as well. What a nice treat to be able to catch up with long time friend and High School acquaintance Jamie L. O'quinn. How ironic that we'd meet again due to our daughter's being involved in the same high school activity but from two separate schools. At least that was odd to me. ;)

As a result of our meeting, Mrs. O'quinn has asked if she could add the link to this here blog to her Cool Links bar. And of course, since we both are so very cool, I said yes and I shall post a blog to point to hers and add hers to my sidebar. So here's a link to her fantastical blog that you need to click on. Rumor has it that Sue Dent (hey, that's me. ;)) may actually score an interview or something. But that is just a rumor. (I know I'm clever. Hopefully my tactic won't backfire on me. LOL) It is such a very "cool" site though. Go pay it a visit.

I'm so loving this.

And Just when I think no one is paying attention.

Hello Westerfield and Meyer. Meet Sue Dent. :) Scarey, I know. More like amazing to me. Absolutely amazing.

A goodreads Listopia.

Ya'll go make me more happy and vote. Cuz we all know it's the little things in life that make the difference. I think. ;)

Richard, a Bishie! Hmmm. . .

Richard, a Bishie! Okay. I confess. I had to look it up when I saw the comment but I'm not gonna tell you what a Bishie is if you don't know. You can go to this thread a fan started for my Thirsting for Blood Series at CAA(Christian Anime Alliance) and figure it out for yourself. 

HA! I learned something new today.

A most humbling review and recent!

A most humbling review and recent. If only those who should see it would see it but the chances of that are slim to nil. So for those of you who do read it be sure and pass it on. And for those who don't know Mr. Jon Guenther, hop over to his website at www.guenfire.com and check him out. He's written many novels and sold worldwide in large numbers. I can only hope to one day write as well as he does and to have my work sell as well as his does. Here's an excerpt from his Amazon review of Never Ceese click on it to read the review in it's entirety.

". . .In a manner eerily reminiscent of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but laced with a style that need make no apologies for its freshness, Sue Dent takes us on a grand tale of Richard the vampire and Ceese the werewolf . . ."

If you not read Jon Guenther's Soul Runner, your missing something fantastic!

Never Ceese makes the top three!

I was directed toward this blog this morning (Fr. Obregon dropped a link in my inbox) and couldn't have been happier! Oh . . . the link. ;)

Here ya go!

If you're a fan of mine, do go help promote! If you're not a fan yet, go check out the link. If you're Father Obregon, thanks again! You so rock!

NEVER CEESE ebook download Dent $4.06

Check out that HOT price! NEVER CEESE ebook download Dent $4.06

All's fair in love and war I guess.

***Reworded a bit for clarity and purpose? O_o *egads* LOL

It has come to my attention, (which means no I wasn't asked nor did I know) that a best-selling CBA affiliated author has my name in their book as someone who has supported them and their efforts. While I do deem this an honor of sorts, it doesn't do much to help me get my work recognized by my intended audience.

So just in case, when you see my name in the acknowledgements, do know that I haven't sold out to CBA or ECPA because first off I can't afford to (they charge publishers a good bit to be affiliated) and second off, I write for a much broader audience as well as writing very differently. I'd be hard-pressed to give any author who writes for an exclusive market my support in that market though I'd probably support them in their overall effort to write. ;)

There. Maybe that makes more sense then what I had before. LOL

As far as that goes, Never Ceese is aslo mentioned in a book called Allure of the Vampire which features "The Vampire Don" Henrie on the front cover. From what I've read of the book it goes into the many different ideas put out there concerning vampire legend.

New Review - Christian Speculative Fiction

Y'all stop!!! LOL Nobody knows what Christian Speculative Fiction is. Okay so let me try and explain real quick (from what I've been told anyway.) Christian Speculative Fiction is a genre created by ummm-well somebody, to describe work that CBA affiliated Christian houses won't produce because they claim their "core market readers" don't want to read such fiction. That being said, Christian Speculative Fiction won't be showing up in larger affiliated Christian bookstores or at on-line affiliated Christian bookstores anytime soon because it all comes from non-affiliated Christian publishers. But as par for the course, since this genre seems to be sitting pretty well with affiliated readers, CBA is now calling some of their fiction Christian Speculative Fiction. You know, without adding the CBA part which distinguishes their work from every other non-affiliated Christian publisher out there.

Hey! Who created this genre anyway?

Didn't you make rules too?

Oh well. For the record, my series now falls into more genres than I ever imagined it would. LOL

So without further ado, you may now read this grand review from another fan who post reviews for the Christian Examiner network. This is my second so far from this group. They are so wonderful!

Hugs to Shelley.

Here's the Link!

Enjoy!

Soul Runner by Jon Guenther - My Review

And now my five-star review of Soul Runner that I recently posted on Amazon.

Look out William P. Young. Here comes Jon Guenther!, January 7, 2010 (Ridgeland, MS USA) - I was so excited to learn about Jon Guenther and was even more excited when he volunteered to send me a copy of his book. As a new writer, I don't have a lot of time to read though and I told Jon this. I explained that I'd read what I could in the carpool line at school. HA! I dare you to try to read this book in short spurts. I double-dog dare you. Can't be done. No way. I found it difficult to find a place to stop reading when I eventually had to. I finally just quit reading when not-too-much was going on. For instance at one point I left two characters in a fist fight with the outcome pending simply because the alternative was to not quit reading. LOL Heart pounding action to be sure. So wonderful to see more Christian Fiction like The Shack coming from self-published, non-affiliated Christian authors who know what they're doing. I'm so happy CBA affiliated Moody Press dumped this book instead of publishing it, backing out of the contract at the last minute. No exclusive work here. Just good, solid, heart-thumping, action-packed fiction from a very talented author. Soul Runner will keep you reading until the very end and then begging for more. And what do you know, there's more coming! I can't wait.

Added for Sue's Blog:

Jon is calling his work Christian Fiction but it isn't CBA Christian Fiction. It is therefore written with no particular market of Christian's in mind actually. This also means that his work wasn't edited for that specific market of Christians CBA was formed to create fiction for in 1950.

Also, since CBA affiliated Moody Press did break Jon's contract, Soul Runner won't automatically show up in exclusive affiliated bookstores such as Lifeway or Mardel's nor will his work show up in CBA affiliated Christian bookstores such as ChristianBook.com. I actually found it interesting to see Soul Runner on Christianbook.com as being published by Moody Press early on but as par for the course, it no longer shows up because Jon isn't CBA affiliated. I find that--interesting.

I will tell you this, if you let Soul Runner slip by because you don't see it in these bookstores, you've missed out on a fantastic read!

Amazon out of stock-at Christmas? What?

Sad to say that Amazon has done it again. Smaller than larger traditional presses and otherwise still get no help from Amazon whatsoever. Here we at Christmas time, the time of the season us authors look forward to when it comes to selling books and what do you know, Amazon is out of stock of Forever Richard!

Nope. There's no reason whatsoever why they sould be. They can get the book right away and with no problem. Why would they ever show it as out of stock then especially at Christmas? Because I don't have one of the larger publishers and therefore they don't care. The good news is Forever Richard is now selling through Amazon's affiliate sellers. The downside to that would be that these sales aren't reflected in the rankings thus making the ranking system here on Amazon seem a bit bogus.

Ah Amazon. Us smaller published authors traditional an otherwise can always count on you!

Good grief.

Local Books-A-Million - RAWKS!!!

Updated 11-12-10

The copies of Forever Richard my local BAM has are actually just returned-from-the-bookstore books that were sent back to the distributor (most likely Ingram) after BookMasters, my publishers distributor, oversold my publishers books for a commission. BAM's only sell returned-from-the-bookstore books. These book were supposed to come back to my publisher. They didn't yet my publisher had to pay for returns they never saw and are currently be sold at BAM. Buy them if you like but until Black Bed Sheet Books puts out the next copy of Forever Richard I prefer you simply buy the book from me here on this blog. If you see any of my books in any BAM just understand I don't ever see any of the money and surprisingly neither does my publisher or rather ex-publisher though I only call them that because they returned the rights of Forever Richard to me. Love them. But no, I'm not about to beg for a booksigning at a store when I make nothing off the books sold and never will.

**************************************


Local Books-A-Million - RAWKS!!!

OMG! Back in September I think it was, I walked in to my local Books-A-Million on I-55 North in Jackson, Mississippi and spoke with Jonathon, curious about what it would take to get them to shelve my books in the regional section. Before I could finish asking, Jonathan informed me he'd ordered 20 of Forever Richard. I threw my hands up. "No!" I said. Five or six but not twenty. If they don't sell you'll send them back to the distributor and my publisher will actually EAT the books." He smiled graciously and told me they never send books back but he did cut the order to ten.

I went back to that Books-A-Million two days ago and looked for my book. I couldn't find it. Had Jonathan lied. But I checked with Ingram when he said he ordered and sure enough there was an order of ten. I spoke with Jonathan yesterday. All ten copies had sold. PLUS he'd ordered ten copies of Never Ceese at the same time and they sold. My local Books-A-Million sold twenty of my books in less than two months time!

Needless to say, I think a book-signing is in order.

I'm setting one up now and will let you know more when all the details are worked out.

What a Merry Christmas!

New interview with Sue Dent up!

New Sue Dent interview and chance to win Never Ceese. Sorry but you have to pay for Forever Richard dagnabbit! How else will I be able to write if I don't make any money? ;)

Okay so go here for your chance.

I met K Dawn Byrd on Facebook after joining a group called Christian Fiction Gathering. If you're on FaceBook you should look this group up. One of the first Christian Fiction groups I've found on FaceBook that treat non-affiliated Christian authors with equal value as affiliated ones. You certainly don't find that everyday. :)

There's a question you have to answer for your chance to win but it's fairly easy.