Journeyman

Today in "You can find me on Amazon" ... My first book was called TimeRags-- and a recent revised version is still available from a few booksellers. The original came out in 1975


When it came into print electronically it vaulted me into the ranks of Amazon's bestselling Modern American poets on Kindle -- I was in the top 100 for several weeks. That means we sold over 100 copies!

Sigh. Poetry is not big business in America, and really, we're all better off with me writing science fiction.
TimeRags II [https://www.amazon.com/timerags-ii-steve-miller-ebook/dp/b0054sllmy/ref%3dsr_1_1%3fs%3dbooks%26ie%3dutf8%26qid%3d1498572497%26sr%3d1-1%26keywords%3dsteve%2bmiller%2bpoetry&h=atpwwdtqknpqtvev_faluby5ng7tg4yjxuxf-ox8qrw7sqgk8ozisx7dxzwxbxrpaobthhgk_m8w9_41_lgnflfzq5h_v1uh4vf6gnssx9yoklswx71enmffklewyjt3gnwqm_2d&enc=aznmeewyhctiv_x59an1u6ig09l3k7a4u3r-d4aufzt_rw5cylb4msfw5pndb423lvsoqhzqqc0z9n0vwykgpconf177xvoclfffkfkktdcyleuuduc_dspqfmme9e2trrfowtq9lqbe8jtm_5gik-_xpz5yl1ucajp6dilbnfqz5r-7gy9wpvddypqoiz7md6e&s=1_green]
Steve Miller is rapidly approaching one of those milestones many writers never reach -- one million words in print. He's written science fiction, been a reporter, edited newspapers, and written articles for newspapers.As a drama critic Steve's covered…
amazon.com

Book signings are always a gamble -- you take time out of your life hoping that you'll sell enough books or make enough connections to make the time and effort worthwhile. The same can be said of going to conventions. These are public moments, and public moments take energy, risking one of the writer's important internal power sources -- ego. On the other hand, there's always the chance that you can turn commercial opportunity into community.

Young writers -- which is to say young at the business and not necessarily young in age -- may have a harder time than people who've been at it awhile, since they're often pushing to sell! sell! sell! and aren't sure what works. That means they sometimes over promise, over sell, smile too brightly ... .sigh.

And that means writers like that can't relax into the moment, where real personality gets a chance to come to the fore and where long term connections can be made.

When we were first offered a chance to be professional Guests Of Honor at an SF convention we asked more experienced hands for advice. Several congratulated us on being offered the chance, one complained that they were being ignored by fans and thus would return the favor and avoid fans, others said simply "do it!"

One well-known author boiled it down to this for us: Have a good time, eat well, and sell the book. Travel light, talk to people, sell the book. Enjoy your moment in the sun, sell yourself, sell the book."

Saturday was not a convention day for us, but it was a book signing day at Barnes & Noble in Augusta, Maine. Unlike panels at conventions, where there's often leeway in how much selling you do, book signings do tend to aim at that "sell the book" goal. But, but, but ... this was probably our dozenth signing at that particular store, and we were both relatively mellow about the goal since it was beautiful Saturday and we both knew that most of the people coming into B&N already had a goal in mind -- and we were not it.

We arrived early, found the set up in place, and had fun. I wrote a note, aimed in our direction, to sit on the table. It was a reminder for us. It said "Goshwow!"

Some of the folks coming in the door cold were great about talking to us, some ignored us, forging straight ahead, eyes averted, as if we held unwanted religious tract in their direction. One young lady told us she was "all about sci-fi" but amended that to say, "No, I mean real sci-fi, like dystopia. Not into space at all." I guess we should have told her Carousel Tides was dystopic, to make a sale, but we didn't, and they all sold anyway.

Sigh.

On the other hand we had several previously only electron-connected FB friends motor on by -- and the first person in the door at 1:00:01 was a gentleman from Augusta who'd been reading our work for years and never knew we were local. His wife had pointed to our photo in the window several weeks before -- and they came, we signed his book (an already purchased The Gathering Edge) and sold him another one or two, and they grabbed a photo of the gentleman standing between us, as if we were celebrities or something.

Goshwow?

Yeah, we had a number of goshwow moments, or at least shared them. Two were women who heard us when we were doing variations of our "Get your fresh hot Sci-fi and fantasy!" chants. One, looked at the Carousel Tides cover and just about gave Sharon 10 seconds to talk about it before grabbing the book up, holding it to her chest like a treasure, and then demanding a signature. Another heard Sharon say "haunted carousel" while she was talking to someone else, and stood staring at the three Carousel books before demanding, "Which one's first?" and then enthusing to the world -- "You had me at 'haunted carousel'! She also stood between us for a photo.

Then there was the young man who stood over the Liaden side of the table patiently as I told someone else about my time as a university library Curator of SF -- needing a book for a friend -- and after we signed that for him he grabbed another one and said -- "I probably need one too, if you'll sign it."

So we had fun, we sold the book multiple times. We shared goshwow. We shared community with inline friends and we started into community with some new readers.

Me? I think it a shame that new writers think that the number they need to take away from their first signing or two is "How many did you sell?" rather than "How many did you meet?" Over the years meeting people has worked better for us than simply pushing books. We like it that way. Goshwow!

Welcome to Friday!

We went to Augusta Wednesday and bought a new Toaster oven to replace the one that was failing and while there we also picked up a new (Lasker brand) living room tower fan to replace one that died in the last heat wave of October last year.

It took a screwdriver and a few minutes of swearing at convenient unopenable packs of screws to put the base on and almost immediately the cats returned, having been put off by the sound of the box being ripped open.

Belle liked the old fan, and within moments of the new one going online yesterday she was smugly in her place at the base of it, with squinty eyes.

Today, then, is unboxing day on the new oven. First trick will be to get Sprite off the box, since she's a real fan of boxes large enough for her to stretch out on. No, wait, maybe I'll clear the counter first, and see if Sprite is still in place, and *then* open the box of she is not.

We're told to remind you all that today ... we'll be on Reddit, doing an AMA.

That's https://www.reddit.com/r/books/

We're Lee & Miller, and we're answering questions about our career, about our books and stories, about the freelance life, about our cats ... In any case, today at Noon Eastern.

Yes, it does happen. Shameless Self promotion time!

Maine folks, and nearby New England folks, especially those connected with various genre fandoms ... AK Cyrway, Patrick Shawn Bagley, Friends of Liad, NESFA, PortConMaine, Gibran Vogue Graham, Cirque du Geek, not to mention folks associated with the media .... ( Katy England hint hint, do you still have connections?, Dave Isaac got anyone you know in the literary community or a connection to the BDN or other papers for interviews? hey, Maine Writers and Publishers), heads up!

Your friendly local authors of the Liaden Universe(R) are set for a Meet and Greet-style signing at Barnes & Noble in Augusta come May 13, from 1 PM to 3 PM. Sounds good, right?

But hey, a perusal of the calendar reveals that Sunday, May 14 happens to be Mother's Day. We'd love to have a great turnout of SF fans in general and Liaden fans in particular for our event in the state capital's biggest bookstore and there's some concern that Mother's Day shopping may make it hard for folks to find out (or remember) our event.

If you can help get the word out about this, we appreciate it; if you can come on by, that'd be good, too. Could be some photo ops for you digital camera whiz-types.... If you know someone who'd be interested, please do share.

Here's the B&N link for you to share with friends, https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780061861478-0 [https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780061861478-0&h=ator7ckeyk2xamt7edafxrt8g0-guzohb70kieoz7jecxy16hv3cngfgf_8g_6-jugv_plzepujae_rwhhxn9y-gmaweukrh8ydq3g-p6km78eproolnhxuvx7ulj8-3ujx1lz70azj0&enc=azorboxrcdvvgmhtoznt49rowexsiu06v0ecmlq-eaweuhzgmv7tk9t3z5bgxza7tkf28gzfy_epi8bq49vq-al5nb195_c9punhx5swa3zqllziq4rmnth2jmv4ptqme-wbjoetyqhapyhxfhcn9ljwbcbglc4qv1-nb302kbdtqxzayrjdftofs0f-wkyrz0k&s=1_green]

If you happen to tell someone and they want to connect for a podcast, an interview, or for additional meet-the-author opportunities, you've got plenty of time to reach us.

Thanks In Advance, from both of us.

Most of this post is also over on my Facebook wall, most, but not all. Eventually I hope to get back to a double stream of Steve-stuff, with this having more blog-like entries, We'll see how that goes, yes we will.

So,today the BP *is* up somewhat, and that's a good thing.

Mixed clouds this morning, but we're promised thunderstorms at 3:30. Fingers crossed for enough to enjoy and not enough to bug the cat-kids.

I've already got dinner in the crockpot after a traditional Lee & Miller Easter breakfast of egg rolls and fresh fruit, with coffee.

Sharon's already got the contracts we signed yesterday in a packet; so yeah, that's yes for that 3-book offer Locus wrote about.

I kept busy yesterday -- the 89th birthday of my father. He died almost a dozen years ago and I still miss his Easter (and other holiday) calls -- when he'd tell me about the state of the surf and bikinis a block or two away from his year-round first floor rooms in a modest neighborhood of escapee-style retirees.

After dinner today, we've scheduled Scrabble. I do not expect to be all that active on the webz today but will point out that we *did* last night post a never before heard (I finished it yesterday!) reading by me of our first Nick-and-Nora story, A Night at the Opera, on our Patreon page. In due time that story will migrate to Splinter Universe as portion of a Splinter Universe Live offering.

That's some of the news from East Winslow. Have a good one!

And yes, I'm reorganizing my mornings.

So far this week I've managed to be at coffee by 8:00 AM two days out of three.

I've been playing behind the scenes in a bunch of internet things today; eventually I'll be back up to speed on the Word Press stuff and on Dreamwidth as well. In the meanwhile, feel free to remind me if too many days go between posts here.

Thanks,

Me

Yes.

And a quick note....

still trying to figure out why my LJ has a no-comment as the default. I did get spam-bombed once on the distanrt past...

Meanwhile, the weather for tomorrow is looking possibly very ugly -- up to 10 incehs of heavy snow turning to freezing ran and rain. Yikes ...

Will look at the new features here, RSN.