"real."

I keep selling my books out of my store when I work.

I also make connections I wouldn't ordinarily.  Yesterday, I had a guy I vaguely remembered talking to a year ago about writing, so I asked.  He'd bought one of my books and read it.

I probably wasn't paying enough attention last time, but this time I got what he was saying.  Steven C. Schlozman, M.D.  He's a professor at Harvard Medical school and he wrote a book called The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks From The Apocalypse.

I had the book on my shelves.

He said he was watching a zombie movie one night and was inspired to sit down and write a book about what it would be like to autopsy a "real" zombie. 

Told a funny story about how his faculty head told him he had to disavow his writing because too many people thought it was "real."

So his book has been optioned by George Romero, and he talked about the real bonus of writing was being able to pal around with George at conventions and such.

I made a comment about him being a "real" writer.

"No, no, so are you.  A good one too."

So that was cool, and I immediately asked if he'd be willing to blurb one of my upcoming books and he said, "Sure!"

Meanwhile, after he left, I realized he had a world class number of blurbs on his book.  George Romero, Chuck Palahniuk, Seth Grahme-Smith, and Jonathan Maberry.

Fun.  Always interesting who I meet in the store.

Books are cash flow proof for me.

I have assembled a massive -- for me -- book order.

Every book I've sold over the last ... well, since I last did an order, plus new books, plus filling in on some series.

Thing is -- books sales haven't dropped even though I've been out of Catcher in the Rye and Game of Thrones and To Kill a Mockingbird for some time.

Wow. Is this the way other stores work?  Because that is not the way my store has ever worked.  I've always had to buy the new material on a regular basis or see sales drop through the floor.  Comics and cards were most of my sales for decades, and they were periodicals, entirely dependent on the weekly shipments.  The good thing about this has been that it given me a steady, regular clientele.  The bad thing was that I've always had to buy them whether I could afford them or not.

But in books, toys, and to a lessor extent, games, it doesn't seem to matter as much.  With the important caveat that you have good books (games/toys) in stock.  You can be out of many of the standards and still sell.  Which is kind of cool, you know?

(Admittedly, this probably wouldn't be true if these categories were 80% of my business instead of 40%.)

What it does is allow me to make orders when I can afford them, when the cash flow gives me an opportunity. Instead of having to order whether or not the cash flow can handle them.

Cash flow is having the money on hand to pay for the product.  It took me a very long time to realize that I could be making a nice profit overall and still be short of cash when I needed it. It's easy to fall into the trap of spending to keep big sales up, and then having nothing on hand when sales drop.  Which they do, on a regular but unpredictable basis.

I finally got secure enough to have money in reserve, and smart enough not to use too much credit and to replace the reserve when it is depleted.

Plus, downtown finally became the place it always promised to be -- lots of people walking around, dropping in, buying on impulse.  Very cool.  I'd have to say most of my book and toy sales are impulse sales to strangers, and a high percentage of my game sales.  So all I need is a steady flow of customers, which downtown is providing.

Wasn't always that way -- wasn't that way for a good 20 out of the 35 years I've been doing this.

I give myself credit for recognizing the change in customers, and adapting my store to it.  I give myself even more credit for expanding into games and books just as the Great Recession was starting and sticking to it.  Having 20 years of experience by then was invaluable.

Especially for a dolt like me who seems to only learn not to touch the oven by burning my fingers a few times.

Me no understand the maths.

Time is just my perception of movement in the space/time continuum.  (I feel like I should add a Dudist "man" to the end of that.)

Blows my mind...man.

If I understand this at all, which I probably don't.

I like to read the occasional popular science book, even though they make me feel as dumb as a bag of hammers.  I'm currently reading Coming Of Age In The Milky Way, by Timothy Ferris, which is a history of astronomy.

Sometimes I get just an inkling of what I'm reading, like I'm licking the frosting on a cake and getting a taste sensation.  But I'm not sure I really understand it.

The book went from Newton to Einstein in two successive chapters, as I understood less and less.  But, you know, I get a glimmer, man. I get a sense of it.  I get a small clue. 

It's something I wish I understood better.  But not hard enough to really work at it. 

You know, when you're talking to your cat and it seems almost as if they can understand what you're saying? 

I'm the cat, man.  Dude, what you're saying sounds really important, but...whatever.  I've got a hairball to worry about. 
 

Getting ahead of myself?

I asked Mike Corley if he would do the cover to The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles, and he agreed to do it.  Which is kind of him, considering he has a brand new baby. 

Since I haven't even offered this book to a publisher yet, I might be getting ahead of myself a little.  (The publisher is responsible for the cover, usually.)  But I just want this book ready to go, ready to be put into an available slot.  I'm doing it on my own dime, which is probably crazy.

I really like this book.  It has a lot of heart, I liked all the characters in it, the bad guys as well as the good guys and the good guys as well as the bad guys.  (Since it sometimes harder to write interesting good guys than interesting bad guys.)

I feel like it's different, quirkier, than anything else I've read.  I know there is probably other supernatural noir out there -- of course there is -- but this feels a little different.  Not sure there are many Golem books out there.

It's been done for some time now, and I've been sitting on it trying to decide what to do with it.  As I said, I really like it and I want to find it the right home.

Interestingly, I had a cover in mind:  A fedora in the middle of a puddle of blood.  I almost suggested it to Mike, but then thought, No, Let him come up with the cover.  He's the professional.

He came back with the idea of a stone fedora in the middle of blood.

So great minds think alike.  He finessed my idea by having the fedora be made of clay or stone but more or less the same idea.

Thing is, even if the basic idea is similar, I know Mike will pick the right font, and size, and design, and I bet it will look very cool.

This book is coming out one way or another.  Like I said, I'm very, very proud of it.

A small deserved break.

I finished Gargoyle Dreams on Friday.  On Saturday I tried to put it together and immediately ran into problems.  I decided to put it aside, let it sit for awhile.  Nevertheless, I have a feeling it can be a good book.

Night before last, I went to bed I feeling oddly satisfied.  That little bit of euphoria lasted the day.  This is a weird feeling for me.  I'm usually vaguely anxious and dis-satisfied.  But I'm feeling proud of myself right now.

As I Twittered/Facebooked yesterday.  "I'm happier with my books than I thought I'd be.  Not bad, man. Not bad."  And I mentioned how grateful I was for the support.

This isn't my usual way of expressing myself.

Andy was in the store on Thursday and said,  "You're funny.  You're always pointing out your faults."

Well, I don't think of it that way, but yeah.  I'm harder on myself than other people are, usually.  I've discounted my writing because it seemed to me that it was risky to be too proud of it.

I set out to see if I could just finish another book. To get it published was a bonus, to have it read by people was a bigger bonus, and to have some of those people like the book was the best bonus of all.  Then to write more books, and to feel like they are good solid stories.  That is enormously gratifying.

Every time I finish a book, I somehow try to keep going, and then almost always realize I don't have to, that I can take a small break.  Letting it all sink in.

So that's where I'm at right now.  A small deserved break.

The value of "midlist."

"Midlist is a term in the publishing industry which refers to books which are not bestsellers but are strong enough to economically justify their publication (and likely, further purchases of future books from the same author)."  Wikipedia.

I'd like to expand that definition to any kind of product that has those characteristics. 

Frankly, Pegasus Books is based on midlist.  Very few things can be bestsellers.  Even when that happens, here's the result.

1.)  The book or product is hard to get.
2.)  The big chainstores will discount it to nothing.

I don't even look at the bestseller list.  These books will be at the feeding trough in Costco, or emblazoned with "SALE!" stickers at Walmart.  Even if I discount by 20% (roughly 50% of my profits) I'm going to be considered overpriced even though I am exactly the regular marked price.

So...even if I were to have Go Set a Watchman on my shelves, I would have to "explain" to the customer that it can be got elsewhere cheaper (eliciting strange looks) or risk them getting mad at me, or thinking poorly of the store, or even returning the product.  

Anyway, the same thing is true of all high sellers.  So my strategy over the years has been counter-intuitive.  Fill the store with midlist product, the more neglected by the big players the better.  There are often bargains to be had, as well.

And some of these books are good books.  In fact, ironically, they were often earlier bestsellers.  I also don't look at sales trajectory.  Selling something four or five times in a year is rare for me.  Often I don't sell things more than once a year or every two years -- or never.

But my strategy was to absolutely fill my store with the best product I can get that is reasonably priced, not being cut-throated elsewhere, and readily available.

If I get The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, I know that I can sell it every few months and replace it easily.  I've got a satisfied customer, and I have the added bonus of making my store different and unique.

All this is a roundabout way of saying that I think the publishing industry has made a huge mistake shedding themselves of midlist.  They will regret it when others (Amazon, for one) fill that need. 

It's a mistake to go only with bestsellers.  You're vulnerable to any number of factors.  And the temptation is to go for gimmicks.

Frankly, I think the new Harper Lee and Dr. Suess books are gimmicks and I don't intend to carry them.

But there you go.  Proof that midlist is viable.  Because I can say No Thanks to the biggest sellers in the industry and still thrive.  

I doubt publisher or the big chainstores can say the same.

God, I wish I liked rewriting.

In some ways, Gargoyle Dreams turned out better than I expected.

However, it originally was going to be a different book.  It was going to be a "gothic love-story" with only two characters and one setting.

I just didn't have the chops to pull that off. 

I need my genre hooks to keep things interesting for me -- and I assume the reader.  So I brought in other characters -- even other POV characters -- and other settings.  I liked what resulted.

I have to wrestle it into shape now.  As I always say -- it's easier for me to write new material than to work on old material.  I let myself write the chapters as they came to me and as needed, but not necessarily in order.  Which can be dangerous.

But I know in my head that everything I wrote belongs, so now the job it to find a way to make it all flow.  Just requires adequate transitions, basically.  I came up with new ideas right to the end of the book, and so the rest of the book has to be brought up to speed. 

So it will be work.  God, I wish I liked rewriting.

The writing was choppy from about 70% of the to about 90% of the way, so that will need to be worked on.

I want to change a couple of names -- add some description of gargoyles and the cathedral. But I should have it ready for Lara when she returns Tuskers III.