Behind-the-scenes book talk with a bestselling author and his unicorn. Join 6000+ readers of my 150 books as I share stories behind the stories, unbox the creative process, and lead a disobedient "artisan author" movement to treat readers like rockstars and make the book world suck less.
If you can't afford books, here's the answer.
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Hey all! Every once in a while, a reader will email me and say that although they love my books, they can't afford them. There are all sorts of reasons, unique to and personal to the reader, but in all cases the upshot is the same: They say they're going to have to stop reading my books because they don't fit into their budget. I always reply the same way: No worries ... You can get my books (ebooks and paperbacks) for free at the library! People tend to forget about libraries. I'm here to remind you that they're still around, still going strong, and are still a great way to get books without having to pay for them. And don't worry about the authors! Having books in libraries is super beneficial to us, too. Not only does it increase our exposure (which is always great), but we also get paid when libraries acquire our books, and/or when people check them out. The key thing to remember is that even if you search your local library for my books and come up empty, that does not mean you can't get them! You'll just need to request them from the librarian. Do that, and chances are good you'll be able to get them. I LOVE the idea that my books are in libraries ... and hell; I hope you'll request them from your local librarian even if you prefer to buy your books rather than check them out! Seeing my books in a library is as validating as seeing them in a bookstore. This simple step really helps me out, if you like the idea of helping out. I actually did this recently at my own libraries. I went in and told them I was a local author and asked how I could get into their catalog. They ended up ordering a bunch of books! It was awesome to pop into my local branch and see Pretty Killer featured right up front. They had more of my books (a few copies of a few different titles; I know the Unicorn Western Full Saga and Winter Break were among them), but I couldn't take pics of the rest because they were checked out. How cool is that? I couldn't get pictures of my other books at the library because people who've probably never heard of me before saw them and grabbed them! It's stupidly simple get my books from your local library. All you have to do is to walk up to the front desk and ask. Tell them how awesome my books are and that they should carry them, and chances are they will. (This goes for paperbacks AND ebooks, by the way!) I hope that helps you out if money is a little tight right now, which it is for a lot of people. Happy reading! JT P.S: One quick clarification from last week's email: Last week, I mentioned that almost all of my books are available as audiobooks either on my store (human-narrated) or already-available-on / coming-soon-to Apple Books (mostly AI narrated, but also cheaper). I then told a story about the audiobooks of The Beam series -- about how those audiobooks aren't available anymore. What I forgot to mention is that although the wonderful human-narrated Beam audiobooks are sadly gone, there already are or very soon will be AI-narrated audiobook versions of all five seasons of The Beam on Apple Books. The way I wrote the email, it sounded like The Beam wasn't and wouldn't be available on audiobook at all ... but it is! Sorry for the confusion. |
Literary As F**k
Behind-the-scenes book talk with a bestselling author and his unicorn. Join 6000+ readers of my 150 books as I share stories behind the stories, unbox the creative process, and lead a disobedient "artisan author" movement to treat readers like rockstars and make the book world suck less.
I’m doing something completely new for me in about a month … and this comes after doing about a billion OTHER new-for-me things over the past year and a half. You’d think there wouldn’t be any new things left, but it turns out they just keep coming. My current new thing is: I’m attending a Comic Con to sell my books. It’s both exciting and intimidating. I sell live all the time, but this will be my first convention … and cons have different rules — and require different setup equipment — than...
A friend and avid reader (Hi, Rachel!) asked me a curious question the other day ... one I'm not asked very often. It was: Do you [meaning me: Johnny] read other books? Or does it burn you out after writing your own books all day long? It's a fair question ... and a loaded one for me, because one of my favorite for-authors books is Stephen King's On Writing, and in that book King says that writers absolutely must read. He's pretty clear about how he feels. In his mind, people who don't read...
The other day I got an email from a reader named Greg, who asked about the kind of thing we authors never expect but absolutely love. He said: "For the very first time, I discovered I could buy your books directly from you ... Henceforth, that will be my process for your stuff." (He then went on to say how much he hates the word "henceforth." But I digress.) I was super pleased by Greg's email -- not only because he'd bought a book (which is always great) or because he'd bought it directly...