Same here. In fact, I've learned a lot from you. But I wanted to send you a private message this morning -- asking about your ebook sales -- and CrimeSpace said I couldn't because we weren't 'friends." Are we official friends now?

Hi I.J.

 

Thank you.  You might be suprised at what qualifies as noir, we leave that up to the writer to define.  Keep us in mind.  Thanks,

Alan

http://noirnation.com. 

Hi Ingrid. Thanks for the kind words, and also for the reminder to stop by crimespace more often.  Ken

Hi I.J.,  the discussion on the forum about social commentary in crime fiction has gotten quite a lot of responses.  This has inspired us at Noir Nation to add a new section to the first issue of Noir Nation wherein writers opine on the following question: Must crime noir have a moral point?  The word limit is 300 to 500 words. Include short bio, and photo. There is a $25 honoraria, payable on publication. Best five get published in Issue No. 1. Send to eddie@evegaonline.com

 

-- Eddie Vega, Noir Nation editor in chief

Just reviewed "Shaken: Stories for Japan" and posted it here. I really enjoyed your Akitada short story about the horse race.

Just an FYI: Timothy Hallinan dropped me a note, saying "Shaken" isn't available for the Nook yet, but that people can e-mail him at thallinan@gmail.com after they buy the Amazon version and he'll send over an .epub that can be sideloaded into the Nook.

"Shaken" made the Fukushima Daily Update here: http://paper.li/seven_questions/1306498711#!tag-japan

I.J., thanks again for the vote of confidence.  At this time I have no plans to do anything more with the books, and don't really have an idea for a new one. Because of the painting process it sometimes takes a year ot more  to complete one. I had some sketches and a partial text for Cupid & Psyche for maybe 3 years before I actually got motivated enough to start it.  I've also revised Persephone three times since I first uploaded it;  I suppose that's the good thing about print on demand. I changed the book format from portrait to landscape and designed a new cover. I had done some of the paintings before I knew about Booksmart; originally it was going to be a series of paintings, not a book. The process of making a book was a lot of fun, though! But it seems most people don't want to spend $45 for a hardcover or $30 for soft.  I can't sell for lower than the base price, which is $29 for hard and $19 for soft for a 40-page book. If I could have been assured of volume sales, maybe---but unless people order online, it would just cost me too much, with no guarantees.  Plenty of people come to my studio and look through the ones I have there,  but so far I've only sold a couple. One loyal  friend has ordered online. I had hoped there would be a little more support than that, but perhaps it is the wrong venue. But I can't afford to spend big bucks to have Amazon carry them. They're also previewed on my Facebook page---it doesn't help.  People may think of them as children's books, but in fact, they're not. Maybe that's why adults don't buy them. One friend came into my studio, looked them over and said, "But I can't give this to my little granddaughter."    Imagine!