The First Light Chronicles Omnibus - Celebration Sale

In the spirit of celebrating seven science fiction novellas and novels in the Spinward Fringe series, the First Light Chronicles Omnibus, which contains the Freeground, Limbo, and Starfree Port novellas, is on sale for $1.00 on Mobipocket and Lulu. It'll remain at that price until July 24, 2009 and will never again be marked down.

There are other reasons why this is happening. A lot of my readers have friends with smart phones who refuse to try Mobipocket and one of the initial hurtles to getting them on board is price. Well, here's your opportunity to tell them to give it a try with one of the top 3 science fiction books on the site (the other two books in the top are from the same series).

Fans spreading the word have been a massive help to me and this sale is a way for me to make it easier for all my mobipocket and lulu non-DRM PDF readers to do just that. This week they can share the First Light Chronicles and Spinward Fringe series' with friends. I know I enjoy a series more when I can talk to someone else whose read it. That could be just a writer's thing, but I doubt it.

So, for better or worse, the book is on sale for one week! Tell your fellow fiction fans!

[Mobipocket Link] [Lulu Link (DRM Free PDF)]

RL

A special thanks to Somacow for mentioning this event on their radio show, which happens to be the greatest Internet radio show, ever. Check them out: SOMACOW

Spinward Fringe Frontline: Available at Lulu.com

I had no idea, but there's apparently a demand for the Spinward Fringe Books in .pdf format. That came as a a surprise since I barely ever use .pdf. I find them pretty inflexible.

Regardless of that, I'm happy to announce that Spinward Fringe Frontline is now available in DRM free .pdf format here.

Sadly, Lulu.com has started charging for providing international print distribution, so I won't be able to use that avenue to get printed editions out to people in the UK. I'm still looking for someone to carry my printed titles out there and in Canada, I'm hoping to find a self publishing partner or publisher soon.

If you don't want to wait for Amazon.com to list Frontline, you can purchase a printed copy from Lulu.com for 19.99.

It's always good to see this book appear in different places and different formats. When I think of Frontline I can't help but compare it to Triton where quality of storytelling is concerned. They were both very serious books that moved the characters along quite a bit and it's hard for me to pick between the two when I try to think of which one I like more.

It'll take a while longer for Amazon.com to begin listing this book and I'll announce its availability the moment it appears.

Thank you to the two readers who told me that they were looking to purchase .pdf versions of my work, I'm glad Lulu.com was able to give me the ability to provide.

As an additional note, I'd like to thank the recent donor and everyone else who has purchased copies of my work and gotten others interested. I would be in a call center cubicle if it weren't for you guys! Keep spreading the word and there's no limit to where this series can go!

RL

Spinward Fringe: Publisher Offers $3,500 US For Rights

Some writers dream of a publisher coming along and saying; "Hello! We want to buy your book! We'll publish them, you can do signings, get recognition for your work and be eligible for awards!"

To be honest, I wouldn't mind. Despite my love of being independent, able to do whatever I like on the page and release what I like where I want, when I want, the living isn't fantastic. I'm very thankful for the income and support I have, don't get me wrong, but even with stable EBook sales on one website (Mobipocket my books aren't actually popular anywhere else), I'm barely making a living. Amazon sales are nonexistent (literally, I sold one book last week. Hope you're enjoying that Jason! Thanks for picking it up!). Aside from that I haven't been able to get a single vendor for IPhone EBooks to pick up the First Light Chronicles or Spinward Fringe series. Most of them just ignore my emails.

Now, I'm not belly aching, like I said, I make a very small living that's provided to me by Mobipocket customers and a couple of donators to whom I'm so thankful I can't put it into words, you make it possible to do this full time. I'm just explaining what was behind me responding to an email from a publisher yesterday (after the announcement that my science fiction books took the top 4 spots in Mobipocket's Science Fiction section yesterday, again, thank you Mobipocket and even more; thank you readers!!).

I replied to their email and got a call from one of their account reps, who put the offer on the table. I thought that was a little unussual, to be honest. Normally an offer on a book or a series takes a bit longer, or so I thought. According to him that's not the way it works though, and after a little prodding I got a little more info and eventually he even sent me a proposal contract.

For legal reasons I won't post the publishers name or the contract online but I can tell you that the publisher was not in the US or world top 10, and I'll give you the gist of the contract:

They offered a $3,500.00 US dollar advance on the entire Spinward Fringe series that included Freeground, Limbo, Starfree Port (actually in the First Light Chronicles Series, which the publisher didn't seem to notice), Resurrection + Awakening (they refferenced the ISBN assigned to the combined book available through Amazon.com, so I'm assuming they consider this one volume, not two books), and Triton. The royalty they were offering was also very, very low but would grow as they sold more books to a size that I still thought was really very low, but not quite as bad. The contract included printed books, EBooks, Television, Film and all other resulting merchandise, so I'd really be selling all rights and control.

I would also be obligated to work with an editor on the existing work (how much revision they wanted wasn't mentioned), and they'd take over branding, the covers (which could be a good thing), and publicity.

You know, I'm not in great financial shape, it's true, but after looking at the contract I wouldn't give them the rights to ONE book for those terms, let alone the WHOLE SERIES! Not only that, but I would be surrending a great deal of creative control and if I'm not mistaken I'd have to submit the book I'm working on now (Spinward Fringe Frontline), to them for approval, editing and then they'd probably drag their feet on getting it to press and into Ebook format IF they wanted to publish it at all. People waiting for it now would most likely not see it for a year if it hit the market at all.

Aside from all that, I'd probably get that advance check and not see any more funds for a very long time, so I'd probably have to get a full time job again, which would take a lot of time away from my writing. Suffice it to say, I told politely told them that I wasn't interested and haven't heard a so much as a peep from them since.

Now, I realize that conventional publishers invest a lot of money in a book, that new authors are very high risk, and a lot of books that seem to do well still lose money or take a very long time to turn a profit. I'm not completely new to the publishing industry and I'm aware that offers, big and small, don't come often especially if the author doesn't have any kind of agency representation.

So, I'll say it now;

If there's a publisher or agent out there who can personally offer or get me a real, fair deal for the sale of any of these books and/or exclusive rights for development or publishing then I'll be happy to consider your fair offer. I'm a reasonable person, all I want is to see these books remain accessable to the public, reasonably priced, to maintain the creative freedom I need to tell a good story and I want to make enough to write full time, pay my bills and taxes. If they want to saddle me with an editor who can help me tell an even better story, or maybe suggest some good technical tune ups and tricks, that's fine too. I'm always looking to improve my craft.

I don't want awards, I don't want a mansion on the hill with two Ferrari's in the driveway, and I don't want someone to hold my hand while I'm writing or suggest sweeping revisions that make my work fit conventional moulds, even if it'll make the books more marketable. I get emails from people who enjoy my work on a weekly basis, I sell just enough to survive and have a couple of people who have so much faith in me that they donate some of their hard earned money, and I have the most intelligent, emotionally invested editor I could dream of.

Spinward Fringe Frontline will be out in April, the momentum, the story, and the readers demand it. You'll see that book on Mobipocket, maybe even on Amazon.com.

RL

P.S.

I'm all right with not being wealthy, I'm also all right with never getting another offer again as long as I have the support of my readership. I owe everything to them and truly believe that if I remember them I'll make the right decisions creatively and monetarily. Please voice your opinion of this situation below, I'd like to hear your comments.

Coming to Amazon.com Soon: Randolph Lalonde In Print

By January 17, 2009 many of my books will finally be available in print through Amazon.com. They'll be be pressing copies the day they're ordered and you can benefit from Super Saver Shipping as well as other Amazon.com specials.

It'll be nice to be working with a retailer (or Etailer in this case), that people trust and doesn't charge anyone outside of the US massive shipping fees. Here's a list of the books that will become available on or before January 17:

First Light Chronicles Freeground
First Light Chronicles Limbo
First Light Chronicles Starfree Port
First Light Chronicles Omnibus (All three of the above collected)

Spinward Fringe Resurrection
Spinward Fringe Awakening
Spinward Fringe Resurrection and Awakening (both books collected in one volume due to their individually smal size).
Spinward Fringe Triton

All of the above titles are already available through my new Amazon storefront on the Kindle (that's Amazon's proprietary reader), and through Mobipocket or Lulu.com for those of you who prefer to read your ebooks in PDF format. There are also signed copies from a very limited initial test print run I had done early in 2008 just in case you're looking to snag a collector's item or memento. (Links to all of those places are just to the right of this post).

Since I'm still an independent writer and Mobipocket users have been so loyal, I won't be waiting until printed copies of future books are available before listing titles electronically like most publishers do. So Mobipocket users will have access to my work weeks before anyone who still reads conventional print has a chance to order a copy. I'm happy to make Mobipocket a priority even though things have slowed down quite a bit. Without the users there I wouldn't be putting my work up on Amazon.com and I wouldn't have a remote shot at making a living at this.

Thank you all for your support so far, there will be an announcement when the books are officially available so you don't have to keep checking my webstore every day (don't wear out your Ctrl+R keys Paul, you'll hear the news here moments after I do!)

RL

Early Adopters: Books Are Available From Lulu.com

Since the beginning of 2008 I've been using Lulu.com as a printer. Over that time I've noticed that so many people dislike them strongly enough even to avoid the free editions of PDF books (First Light Chronicles: Freeground so far). To be honest, Lulu.com isn't the best distributor out there, they can't sell a book to save their lives and I normally just use them to get hard copies that I send out to reviewers (SomaCow is a great example), and to fans who have donated or specifically requested hard copies. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the readers I have a lot of trouble keeping copies around. There are a few people locally that have been waiting for months for copies because they sell out before I actually have a chance to meet with them. Reserving copies (according to several local people), just isn't an option.

Something that people don't really know is that you'll get the same books from Lulu.com as you will from Amazon when they're available in the new year through that outlet. If you're in the US it's a good option, so I've made sure that the selection of my books at Lulu.com is up to date and ready for anyone who wants a copy of something. I wish I had an outlet for the UK, and they'll ship there, but it'll cost you, the same goes for Canada.

The good news is, real hard copies should be available shortly through Amazon in the UK and Canada, so you won't have to pay a ton of money for shipping if you just want a hard copy. The bad news is that I have no interest whatsoever in locating my books in book stores. That end of the industry is very backwards in its thinking, the production delay would be at least four months and it would take a great quantity of cash to get the books out. Not to mention the long courtship I'd have to go through for the release of each book. Just imagine waiting an extra four months for each Spinward Fringe book just because book stores don't want digital copies made available before they have printed ones in store? I know I'm not that patient...

I'd rather set up with Lulu.com and Amazon.com and offer my friendly fans editions that I've proofed personally. That way they can just hop online and use plastic or paypal to grab a copy and that's that, after a couple days the book is in their mailbox.

So you see? If you're an early adopter of my work (and I thank you for that!), and you want a hard copy shipped to you in the US, I can actually recommend Lulu.com. They've treated everyone on that side of the border quite well.

RL

Hang in there for more info and release info on the next Spinward Fringe Broadcast!