Friday, December 1, 2017

38 Years Ago and Goodreads Gouging

Thirty-eight years ago today Hubby and I tied the knot. And it seems just like yesterday.

Okay, maybe not yesterday, but it is a day I remember vividly. More vividly than I remember yesterday. Haha!

We’re not doing anything special tonight. The upcoming cruise will be our special. And that’s how we came to taking cruises in December. They were anniversary presents to ourselves. Then we found out how much cheaper it is to cruise in early December vs. Christmas or summer. Almost half the price!

But unlike last year, Hubby hasn’t booked any cruises for next December. Probably because we have two already booked for 2018 and are still paying for them. Although… he is getting itchy fingers to search for a December cruise.

****
I should have known this day would come eventually, since Amazon bought Goodreads. I just didn’t think it would affect me so much. Starting in January, Goodreads will finally be able to let authors and publishers give away not only print books, but e-books as well. However, they will start charging for this feature. It’s not a cheap fee, either: $119 for “standard,” $599 for “premium.” And that’s PER giveaway! Talk about gouging an author.

I had planned on holding a giveaway for Ghostly Interlude once I got it all formatted for print. But seeing as I doubt that’ll happen before January 8th, I’ll have to scrap that plan. No way will I pay that much to give away a book. Goodreads isn’t that effective as a sales tool. I know. I’ve tried advertising there.

Not only is this disappointing as an author, it’s disappointing as a reader, too. Those e-book giveaways are for Kindle books only. I don’t own a Kindle. I own a Nook. So therefore, why bother entering the e-book giveaway? I wouldn’t be able to read it anyway.

I kind of wish I had told Goodreads about being disappointed as a reader when I took their survey, but I was too angry and disappointed as an author. I pretty much told them my money would be better spent on a Romantic Times review, and that ain’t cheap, either. But at least I know who my audience is there.

So… For you married folks, what kind of stuff do you do to celebrate your big day? Do you still give presents to each other? We never did that. We used to buy something for the house. Now it’s just the cruises. Which is fine. We don’t need anything else for the house!

Happy Friday!

Stacy

6 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Happy anniversary! Smart to take a cruise during the off season.
Charging for reviews is just wrong.

JeffO said...

Congratulations and happy anniversary! A cruise seems like a nice thing, my wife has been suggesting we should do one for our twenty-fifth, which is next year (but with one kid still in college, I'm not sure we have the money, either, even if we do it in the off season!). We don't really do presents, but we generally go out and have a nice dinner somewhere.

I don't use Goodreads so this doesn't impact me, but it's not surprising. Amazon knows how to make money. I wonder how many people will walk away from it at those prices and find some other way to get free books into people's hands. Can you get books on your Kindle that don't come through Amazon?

Maria Zannini said...

Happy anniversary!

We usually go out for a nice dinner.

Stacy McKitrick said...

Alex - Yeah, I'm not a fond of charging for reviews, but RT is big and I kind of understand why they do it. Gotta filter through the riff-raff somehow. They just don't have enough readers to review otherwise. They do NOT guarantee a good review, and the author chooses whether or not it gets published in their magazine. Huge audience, so it is something to consider.

Jeff - You can get Kindle books (mobi format) elsewhere (such as Smashwords or D2D). I believe you have to side-load it, though (there are instructions). I can also send someone a mobi format of my book and they could do the same. But Amazon is easy and most readers don't want to bother doing it otherwise.

Maria - We used to do the fancy night out bit, but then realized it's COLD in December and we're not ones to dress up! Being together is all that matters anyway. Right?

The Happy Whisk said...

38 years. Very flippin' cool. Love it. You two are so cute together. Still are.

Stacy McKitrick said...

Ivy - We are cute, aren't we? hee hee.