Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Because I Need To Explain...and Vent

Let's talk.
I've been going back and forth with a few people, one on Facebook, and a couple in email, about how inconvenient the way I'm offering up the short stories is. There are complaints that I'm not offering them in print, complaints that I'm not offering them as a download, and complaints that the formatting here is not book-standard and it should be.

So, I'm addressing these issues.

  • It's cost-prohibitive for the reader if I sell these in print. Who wants to pay $5 for a 5-10 page short story? I don't. That would be seriously unfair of me.
  • Also, my editor said no
  • I've been accused of wanting the money (? I don't get this one) because I apparently won't earn enough from print. No...I don't want to charge you for these shorts. I want you to get them for free.
  • These stories will appear in print at a later date, in a single volume. Right now--and it's right there in the sidebar--I'm offering up things that are just barely 2nd draft material. They're almost where I want them, but the final draft will wait until all the stories have been finished and the order determined.
  • I can offer them as a download via Bookfunnel. If there's enough interest, I absolutely will do that. 
  • It's not easy to format here and have it book-standard; I went with what will look decent across multiple browsers. If the font is too small (and I get that, I'd like it bigger, too) you can hit CTRL + scroll and the size will increase. That works on pretty much every web page. 
Look. Anyone who has stuck with me this far knows that my royalties go toward buying as many toys at Christmas as we can, and those toys either go to Toys for Tots or toys for foster kids. (Despite my frequent whining about the people spending my money...the Man really does pay for the care and feeding of the creatures in the house, thusly can I afford to use the royalties that way.) This isn't and has never been about the money for me. But I also can't spend money out of pocket to print these and give them away (as has been suggested) nor can I offer print copies as donor gifts (as has been suggested) to dozens of people.

All I really wanted when we started kicking around the idea of a Wick website was to give something for free, something for my readers, and not as a way to make a lot of money. This site isn't monetized. I could have done that; we thought about doing that by way of advertisements, to generate the purchase of a few more toys. But damn, doods, I really wanted to do this because so many of you have been there since the beginning of The Psychokitty Speaks Out, you've bought my books, you've followed me on Facebook, and you've made doing all of this so much fun.

I want to continue doing this. But at this moment, the fun has been sucked out of it, and I feel like I'm banging my forehead on the keyboard.

I know I can't make everyone happy.

And you know what started the worst of this? The Woman's nephew is doing a charity walk, and she made the offer on FB that if he hit X-number of dollars by the end of the weekend, we'd put Wick After Dark up for free as a download. And the complaints started. One woman wanted print copies (though she didn't donate a damned thing.) Someone else complained that they'd read those already so why can't they have something else...and it went on. And on.

I have tried really hard to not lose my chit over this, but tonight someone declared they are done with me because--and I am not even kidding--I'd answered her question but apparently not the way she wanted. And all I did was explain why I can't do the shorts in print yet.

Doods, I'll bend over backwards to make things easy when I can, but I'll only take so much.

So. 

If you would like the shorts available as a download via Bookfunnel, speak up. I can do that.

If you want them in print, please be patient. I have to write them all first.

And if you think I suck, well, sorry. Not much I can do about that.

5 comments:

  1. TBH, I like reading the shorts like they are now. It isn't the mode of delivery that is important. I would actually be good with subscription/donation format to the shorts to put more $ in the Chrissymas Toy coffers and to have them available via the easiest way possible for you.

    To the people giving you grief over how they want things done... If someone is giving a gift from their heart, say thank you and shut your mouth. You don't make ridiculous demands that the person shape that gift into everything you want it to be. I hate how demanding and self serving people have become.

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  2. I can't believe people are giving you grief when you're doing something really pawesome for them. They can go suck rotten eggs.

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  3. You don't suck. I'd like to see them on bookfunnel, but I'm game to go with the site if that makes more sense. I like Elisa's idea of subscription or donation to add to the toy fund. I'll donate to help the kids regardless. What email should I use for PayPal?

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