Issue 45 Power to the Indie Booksellers

Hello!

I’m proud to announce that Surrender is available at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. If you’re around Pasadena, stop by and get your own copy.

Indie Bookstores

My distribution and marketing plan for Surrender was an experiment, and one that’s paid off. I’ve published five non-fiction books before this, and they were all Amazon-focused distribution plans. But this time, I wanted to try focusing on indie bookshops, physical bookstores, and libraries. I’ve sold more books through Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org than on Amazon. I had a sense that Surrender was going to be the kind of book the reader would want to encounter in a bookstore, to read in paperback or hardcover, instead of as an ebook.

Here’s another indie bookstore story for you. Karen Kinney is the author of Doorways to Transformation, a book of wisdom for the creative soul. When she said she was ordering my book at Diesel, a bookstore here, I told her I would order her book there as well. Hint: The more we all order our friends’ books at indie bookstores, the more likely they will be to keep them in stock. Indiebound is a great website for this. Pop a book you want into the search bar on the site, and it will show you where you can get it locally.

Apple Books

Apple Books is carrying Surrender now as well.

Can a Novel Really Change Anything?

I wrote an essay for Lit Reviews about novels as delivery systems for ideas that can change the world. I think novels can, because facts are great, but people aren’t convinced by facts (even though they should be!) They are convinced by stories, and often by the stories in novels. I give a few examples in the essay, so you can bulk up your reading list.

A Guest on Calming the Chaos Podcast

I went on the Calming the Chaos Podcast to talk about eco-anxiety and my journey into writing Surrender. The host asked what I’ve been doing for the last thirty years, and like anyone who likes to tell stories, I told her. But I kept it short and snappy.

The FutureX Podcast

When Ever Gonzalez and I founded FutureX, it was going to be a podcast network, and it was going to have a podcast of its own. FutureX has developed into a media platform for generating dialogue and building community around science fiction projects that imagine a positive view of the future. The FutureX Podcast finally launches next week. I’m interviewing platform creators, authors, and publishers about how they are creating, building, and sustaining positive online communities.

If you know of an author promoting their work online, or a platform creator who wants to discuss how they’re building community, let me know about them. I’ve got almost all my guest slots filled, but am still looking for a few interviews.

Thanks for reading,

Lee