LOL, Cedar and Ian have another ‘coloring book’ out- The Ratel Saga
Right now, it’s only on Kindle due to ‘issues’ with Amazon (gee, what a surprise), but the print version is coming soon! And it’s got a #1 new release tag too!!! Yay!
As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link.
The blurb-
All they wanted was to dig a pit trap and get a pet. The local African wildlife didn’t agree to either part of this plan…
A riotously funny activity book, field guide to (some)African fauna, and a story of growing up.
We strongly recommend that you do NOT try any of these things at home. However, you should definitely read where you can laugh out loud, as you should color outside the lines.
From the team that brought you Taskforce Chiweenie: The Poultry Liberation Front, The Ratel Saga is a (mostly) true story illustrated by a certified natural history illustrator who wants you to know this is moderately child friendly, even if the events depicted were a little hard on the adults involved .
Parental Supervision Advised
Now for something a little different…
Upstream Reviews has a rather interesting post on the trials and tribulations of SFWA…
As the creep of leftist identity politics has spread throughout the organization, a startling erosion of quality came with it. This is perhaps most objectively apparent in their membership qualifications, which were changed in May of 2014. Until then, to be considered for “Active membership”, an applicant had to have sold three pieces of short fiction at a 8c per word or one book for $2,000 or more in a Qualifying Professional Market (in other words, a top-tier publisher like Tor or Del Ray).
You can go read the full article, HERE on the blog. It’s well worth your time if you’ve wondered how well some of those ‘big name’ science fiction authors are doing.
Larry Correia has a nice description (no actual numbers), of how royalties work for him. And it is a great discussion of the power of the backlist, HERE, from his Monster Hunter Nation blog.
Hey Old NFO;
I had already downloaded the “Ratel Sage” but hadn’t started on it yet, have a couple of books in front of it in the que. And As far as the SFWA goes, Yeah the latest stuff from them are kinda lame…not impressed, if I want to be lectured that I suck because I am white guy, I will tune to the news and Hollywood.
OW, my ribs … still laughing. I may have to get a digital version, because I can erase art mess-ups easier in Photoshop. PLF was bad enough, but that cover look of “Peace, Love, … and Ratel”!
Hey, just a thought. P-3C carried about a half dozen torpedoes in the bomb bay, so maybe 2-3 SFWA “leedurz” at a time on demo runs? From some of the pics seen, I don’t think there’s a school locker large enough for stuffing (except maybe the entire room).
fYI, you swapped the w and f.
Somehow, I’m not surprised. So many of these groups are failing because they put politics first and only, not even trying to do the job.
At this point, sadly, it is more an issue of finding who is still good than counting the problems…
Damn. I’d thought that Mary Three Names actually had like some great sales and stuff. But looking at those numbers…
Yeah, I’ve had at least a dozen books sell more than her best lady astronaut book. Same for the numbers they put up for little Johnnie.
I thought these people sold MORE than I do. I thought these were supposed to be ‘top writers’ especially Johnnie there, with that big contract of his.
It’s kinda scary to me that in the time frame they showed in that article I’ve sold more than all of them… Combined.
And there are a LOT of people who kick my ass on the number (like Larry) who -easily- sells ten to a hundred times what I do. Same for Ringo. Or Weber.
Those numbers were not what I expected at all.
Bob- Point!
PK- LOL, no the screaming would be distracting…
Jon- Fixed, and good point
John- Yeah, I was surprised too! Hell, ‘I’ outsell some of them!!! And I’m a Z-lister…
Wow. Scalzi has sold a total of 82,000 books.
I’m pretty sure Larry has several books that have each sold better than that.
SCI-FI just ain’t what it used to be.
Daaaaang. Even I do better than several of those, and I don’t think my sales are that great. Those are the Big Sellers? Good grief! No wonder the mid-list writers are dying on the vine – they’re starving to death.
Larry, Jim, John R, they give a great story for your money, and they’re consistent. And they generally don’t beat you over the head with Message in lieu of plot. I guess I know what readers prefer.
I would say you are doing God’s work with your book-promos but that would only be true if God wanted me to buy lots of books.
McC- Yep! 🙂
Jet- Nope, not by a long shot!
TXRed- Concur… And you fall into that category too!
ERJ- LOL, I don’t put out THAT many a year!;-)
Are those the real numbers, or the numbers the publisher’s admit to? Not saying these jokers are doing great, but Hollywood accountants would blush at what some publishers pull.