U. A. Q.

Un-Asked Questions

Help! Why can’t I find your E-Book at my e-reader’s bookstore?
You may need to disable an Adult Content filter at your retailer’s catalog site. If Irish Firebrands were a movie, perhaps it would be rated R, so some sellers just lump it with books like Forty-nine-and-a-half Shades of Pomegranate and Puce. Also, I chose not to sign over exclusive E-Book publication rights to A Major Online Retailer whose e-readers use .mobi format. If your reader needs a book with that filename extension, you can get it from Smashwords.

Everybody else offers free books. Why don’t you?
As an independent publisher, it was a lot of work to format the manuscript for printing; then to re-format it for distribution as an E-Book, and I agree with the Biblical admonition that the laborer is worthy of his hire. I’m also operating as a registered retail business in the State of Indiana. I donate autographed copies for charitable causes, and I help promote other authors by exchanging autographed books with them. My capacity to distribute free copies is limited to stock on hand in Indiana, and I have to pay Use Tax on every book I give away. Unless I receive royalty income from online sales, I can’t afford to print or distribute any complementary merchandise.

How can I purchase an autographed copy?
When available, autographed copies are offered for sale on eBay, with secure transactions through PayPal.

I have an E-Book. I want an autograph, too!
I bought a paperback online. I want an autograph, too!
Thank you both, for your support! I’ve designed Special Supplements that I’ll autograph for loyal fans like you. Contact me via the Guestbook page, and I’ll let you know how to get one.

Our Book Club wants to discuss your book. What kind of deal can we get?
Great idea! A Major Online Retailer is offering the paperback at a 10% discount, and if you order several copies at once and have them delivered in the same shipment, this Retailer currently offers free shipping. Book Club participants who prefer to recycle their purchases can re-sell them at A Major Online Retailer, on eBay, or to a used bookstore, such as Half Price Books. Alternatively, they could donate them to Better World Books, a nursing home, or a Friends of the Library book sale. And there’s always the option of a rummage sale or a car boot sale. Otherwise, with the cover taped shut, the book would make a sturdy and attractive paperweight or doorstop.

I know you’re a starving artist, but my budget’s tight, too. How do I get your book from my public library?
Ask the acquisitions committee to order a paperback from Ingram, or Baker & Taylor, or an E-book from Smashwords library distribution. Or try getting it through Interlibrary Loan (ISBN-13 978-1484165706, ISBN-10 1484165705). The more fans who ask for it, the more likely copies will become available.

When is the audiobook going to come out?
I can’t say, yet, but I’m still working on the Text-to-Speech conversion. If you’d like to be a beta-listener and help the process along, contact me via the Guestbook page, and I’ll e-mail you free chapters as they become available.

How do I know your book is worth what you’re asking for it?
Good question! How does anybody put a value on art? Well, to begin with, the printer won’t produce it for less than a minimum retail price. Then, the amount of work and resources the artist invested in producing it surely play a part (in my case, about 4 years and upwards of $5,000). The size of the artwork may be a factor (at 199,230 words and 480 pages in a 1-inch-thick, 6×9-inch trade paperback, Irish Firebrands weighs in at 1 lb 12 oz). Esthetics can count: The gorgeous digital-painting cover endows the book with a commanding presence on a coffee table. But the real test is the enjoyment the patron gets from owning a work of art: Whatever you’re looking for in your next reading experience – romance, literary melodrama, inspiration, mystery, history, social controversy, escape to an exotic locale – Irish Firebrands is devoted to deliver.

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