R.I.P., "Kiss"...

[catherineldf]

at least for the moment
My first book, "Night's Kiss" is apparently officially out of print. I found this out by Googling, incidentally, not from the publisher, hence the "apparently." "Kiss" consisted of 15 stories, including most of my published vampire oeuvre and most of my early lesbian erotica. Many of the stories had appeared in "Best Lesbian Erotica" and sundry other collections. 3 stories made it into subsequent Year's Best anthos, including "Viva Las Vegas" in "Best New Erotica 6," "Planet 10" in "Best Lesbian Erotica 2006" and "Cowgirls and Science" in "Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2006." It's still up for the as yet undecided 2007 Spectrum Awards - 3 stories in the short fiction category and the entire collection in "Other."
Not bad for a book about less than 100 people ever read, near as I can tell.
"Kiss" was my learning book. I had no idea how to promote an ebook (and am not sure I know that much now) and got very little support from my publisher. Between the two of us, we couldn't figure out how to get the word out to people who might actually read lesbian erotica. I managed to get it in the hands of a couple of reviewers (thank you, Jean Roberta!), did a few chats, handed out postcards. I took out a few ads at my own expense. None of this worked half as well as having a print collection out this year. Guess I'm better at selling things live than online.
On the bright side, promoting "Kiss" paved the way for "Crave" which in turn is paving the way for "Haunted Hearths." "Crave" is outselling "Kiss" and hopefully "HH" outsells "Crave" and each one builds on the previous one.
Still something of a bittersweet moment.
At any rate, I'm kicking around the idea of releasing a print version of "Kiss" myself if I can't get anyone interested in it. But it would be nice to know if there was any interest out there in such a thing. Thoughts?

Comments

[jean-roberta.livejournal.com]

"Night's Kiss" is a great collection!

I think you should release a print version, but then I've never been convinced that e-books are really the wave of the future. Given a choice, I always prefer a book that I can easily carry, read and shelve in my library with its title visible on its spine rather than a messy stack of printed-out pages in a large envelope or held together with a rubber band. (As a reviewer, I have a mini-library of those too.)

I've noticed that you're giving away a copy of "Crave" in a contest. Could you do the same with "Night's Kiss"? That might generate some interest.

Could you sell or give away copies of "Night's Kiss" as part of some event involving vampires or shapeshifters or species metamorphosis(as in "Planet 10") or fantasy/speculative fiction in general?

If I'm not mistaken, your Jack the Ripper story is in there. Is there some organization that commemorates the Whitechapel murders in some way, or collects material on these still-unsolved crimes? If so, could they be persuaded to post a passage from your story on their website as a teaser, with instuctions on how to order the whole book? (Of course, the org would have to be okay with Victorian-era dykes into BDSM - might be a hard sell.)

It's still early enough for you to offer to run a workshop on (erotic lesbian) spec fic at Saints & Sinners, which might raise interest in your work in general. This is all I can think of for now.

[roguelurker.livejournal.com]

That's rather disheartening to find out. Especially as I've got a short coming out with an e-publisher.

As you said, "Night's Kiss" paved the way for the next books and you've leaned from each experience in publishing. I hope you can interest the publisher for your next book in taking "Night's Kiss" as well - especially if some of the stories are shortlisted for Spectrums and in "Best Of" anthologies. Familiarlity sells.

I've known some people who package their ebooks/stories on their own in a PDF format and have sold them throuhgh thier websites (using PayPal for payments). For print versions - I've always thought that it was rather expensive to print as an "independant". I suppose you could bring print copies on whatever reading/convention you attend as people are more likely to pay money up front for a physical book than to remember to go to a website and buy online a few days later.

[jrosestar.livejournal.com]

I did a LOT of research on self-publishing before finally deciding to submit my manuscript to a publisher. If you're interested in what I learned, email me.
j_rosestar at yahoo dot com

[thaedeus.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the wide world of marketing.

I am discovering similar things with music publishing.
Easier to get it out there and available for purchase
than to let the right people know that it is.

But you learned some good things and got some exposure
for the next thing in the pipeline, so it worked out.

Good? Heck, that book almost turned me into a lesbian! :)

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

Hi, I was going to add you as a friend before but wanted to hear back about Haunted Hearths first ;) Hope you don't mind!

KW

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Now there's an endorsement of my work! :-D
Thanks!

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Hey there, no problem. Just friended you back :-)

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Well, I suspect they are but that the future's not here yet. Avon (huge romance publisher) just switched their entire line to print + ebook. I can't give away 'Kiss' without reformatting it and negotiating cover art for it since Torquere did the cover and formatting If I'm going to do that, I might as well set up and try it elsewhere.
Interesting notion about the Whitechapel stuff - I'll give that some thought. Thanks!
I'm probably skipping Saints and Sinners, barring some unexpected upswing in my finances for next year or some other as yet unforeseen event.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Sure - let me get caught up on a few other things first though. Thanks!