You’ve all heard of Kickstarter. This is where people with admirable projects -- a film, a new organic baby food, a portrait of President Obama created using only thumbtacks and used contact lenses -- and who need a little financial kick to get going, put their proposal online and ask friends and relatives and relative strangers to send them anywhere from a dollar or two or ten, to thousands of the digital greenbacks. And what do people get for doing so? Well, depending on the level of your contribution, you might get a “shout out” on a Facebook page, your name on the wall of a micro brewery, two tickets to a film yet to be made and maybe a character named after you, or the actual product (a neat tee shirt?) when it is finished. Kickstarter has become quite popular and newsworthy, and now it seems that everybody is doing it.
I was musing on this the other day and it occurred to me that I, the author of novels, don’t really need a kickstart -- novels are not expensive products to create. And I’ve never really had a problem in starting (or finishing) them. But having three novels I’m very proud of available for sale in various formats (print; e-book; audiobook) at that great supermarket in the Cloud, Amazon, what I need is not a kickstart. I need a bloody kick forward. You might even say I need a good swift kick in the books.
Why? Because it would be great to get boku sales of my books in a concentrated period of time in order to send up a flag of triumph to Amazon thereby possibly spurring them on to feature and market my work, which would, it is hoped, lead to more sales. Wouldn’t that be lovely?
So I drop all pretensions to decorum and audaciously presume upon all your good natures to help.
I’ve decided to declare the week of February 17 to 23 GIVE STEVEN PAUL LEIVA A GOOD SWIFT KICK IN HIS BOOKS WEEK. If you want to help that week -- buy one (or more, he hastened to add) of my books.
And just what is that going to cost me, Leiva?
Well, my e-books are priced at $2.99 and $3.99 -- cheaper than a Latte at Starbucks.
I have one book at the moment in print (more to come), and it’s only $14.99 -- cheaper than red lobster at the Red Lobster. And my one audiobook is under 20 bucks -- cheaper than a new pair of jeans at a discount fashion store.
(You can check out all my books, read reviews from people of distinction and readers of taste, see videos and listen to an audiobook excerpt at my new MY BOOKS page on my blog http://stevenpaulleivasthisnthat.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html.)
And for your “donation” what do you get? Well -- you get one of my books!! Hey, it’s like old-fashion 20th Century commerce, you give me money I give you the product. It’s very simple. Not a lot of cool, post-modern bells and whistles, but what the hell?
But I don’t have a Kindle, Leiva.
No Problem. You can download Free Kindle Reading Apps at Amazon. With these apt apps you can read my books in the Amazon Cloud Reader, on your smartphone, computer or tablet.
But I don’t want to read your books, Leiva.
Fine, I’m not asking you to read them, just buy them. That’s what’s so audacious about this proposal. Just buy it, download it, then trash it if you wish. You won’t even be wasting paper. Just think of it as buying me a discounted Latte at Starbucks so we can sit down and snicker at all the wannabe screenwriters sweating over their laptops.
But -- should you choose to read one of my books I’m pretty confident you’ll enjoy it. Others have. My Hollywood friends would enjoy my Hollywood satiric thrillers, "Blood is Pretty" and "Hollywood is an All-Volunteer Army." Although my Hollywood enemies might not. For those of you not employed in Hollywood, don’t let that put you off. I know you know enough about Hollywood to get it. Plus, who doesn’t like thrills? As to my sci-fi satire, "Traveling in Space," a sometimes comic look at humankind’s place in the universe: Are you a human? Are you in the Universe? Enough said.
Or buy me the equivalent of a cheap dinner and purchase the print edition of "Traveling in Space." You’ll get to hold a “real” book in your hands and get high smelling the ink. Or the audiobook of "Blood is Pretty." Take it on a long drive. You’ll enjoy Jonah Cummings’ fine reading.
If you ever wanted to give me a good swift kick in the butt -- and I’m sure several of you have -- now you can do it metaphorically by giving my books a good swift kick forward. So run (with your key-clicking digits) don’t walk to the MY BOOKS section of my blog (http://stevenpaulleivasthisnthat.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html) and check out my books. Then click on the Amazon links provided and -- check out my books. You will get the deep satisfaction of helping an author under six foot, but who tries to stand tall nonetheless, you will get literary value for your dollar, and you will get my undying gratitude.
And if this decorum-less and audacious invasion into your consciousness works and my books do indeed get kicked forward, I will be happy to tell each and everyone of you individually that you -- and you alone -- made me the success I will be tomorrow.
P.S. And go ahead, forward this on to friends and family; share this on Facebook; put up a billboard in the town square. Just how many people will you really alienate?
GIVE STEVEN PAUL LEIVA A GOOD SWIFT KICK IN HIS BOOKS WEEK FEBRUARY 17 TO 23
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