Horror in a Portland suburb

Some poor girl just moved to Portland. 21 and pregnant. Looked for baby clothes on Craig’s List. She met a woman through a listing and went to her house – and never came out alive.

Instead the other woman killed her, cut the baby out, and tried to claim it was hers. But she had to call 911 because the baby wasn’t breathing. She and the baby got taken to the hospital, where they figured out she hadn’t had a baby recently – and the ambulance crew had noticed an awful lot of blood around the house.

The really creepy thing is she had been telling everyone, including her boyfriend, who they don't think knew what she was planning, that she was pregnant with TWINS. And the police are tracking down other women who may have had contact with the killer.

I only heard about this type of crime a few years back. Do you think if it hadn’t been in the media, then crazy women like this chick would think of it on their own?

You can read more here.

And similar cases are listed here. Notice that none of them is more than a decade old?

What will Kindle mean for books? Some eye-opening numbers

Publishers Lunch says that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said "Kindle sales are now 35 percent of books where we have Kindle editions" and print editions of the same title. PL says this is “more than three times the ratio that Amazon had reported previously, first in October and then again in February when Kindle 2 was announced. The initial reception at numerous trade publishers, executives tell us, was deep skepticism. But as sales departments crunched numbers, in many cases the data has confirmed the general range of Amazon's report.”

The most interesting part of the article was this unanswered question:
“Do Kindle Sales Cannibalize?
The big unresolved question for many houses is whether this spike in Kindle sales is additive or cannibalistic. (Amazon did not update their contention from last year that Kindle customers "buy the same number of physical books going forward as they did before they owned a Kindle. And then incrementally, they buy about 1.6 to 1.7 electronic books.") One executive believes strongly that, while their house's total Amazon sale on big books is rising when you include Kindle and print editions, the Kindle spike is taking market share away from other retailers' print versions (though this point will be hard to confirm until after returns are taken on recent releases). Other houses are just beginning to analyze the extent to which these sales are additive or cannibalistic.”

The NYT had an interesting article on ebook pricing. One sentence caught my eye: "But publishers argue that those costs, which generally run about 12.5 percent of the average hardcover retail list price, do not entirely disappear with e-books."

So if my current hardcover sells for $24.99, then as an ebook version, it should cost $21.86.

But it doesn't. It costs $9.99.

So how does that work?

Here's the answer, according to the article "For the moment, say some publishers, Amazon is effectively subsidizing the $9.99 price tag for new book titles in digital form by paying publishers the same $13 it pays them for a new hardcover title with a list price of $26. It’s a classic “loss leader” situation. Although Amazon won’t comment on the arrangement, the online bookseller is using low-price e-books as a lure to persuade consumers to pay $359 to buy a Kindle, or $489 for the new, larger Kindle DX."

But if the Kindle establishes itself as the dominant player in the ebook market, how long will Amazon be willing to pay publishers less? And if they pay do pay publishers less, you know that the publisher is giong to turn around and ask the authors to take less.

Lots more food for thought here.

Welcome to the world of $1300 a piece nausea patches or $400 a piece pain killers

Remember Bridget, this beautiful 31-year-old writer who lives in Portland? Three things happened to Bridget in February:
1. She got an agent for her young adult novel.
2. She got married.
3. She found out she has Stage Four colon cancer.

You want to know the reality of health care in American today? Bridget just found out that her "insurance" doesn't cover $1300 a piece nausea patches or $400 a piece pain killers. What would you choose? Paying rent or vomiting so much you end up back in the hospital? Buying groceries or being in agony?

But you can help. To help defray some of the costs, authors and artists all over the US have banded together to offer their goods and services in an online auction. Check out the items at the Bridget Zinn Auction at http://bridgetzinnauction.wordpress.com. The auction closes May 30.

If you live in Portland, then go to the Lucky Lab Brew Pub, 915 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Friday, May 29, 6:30-9 p.m. You don't have to RSVP. Just show up! Why did we pick that day? Because the Portland area Kidlit Bloggers decided meeting for drinks and chat on a regular basis would be a great way to network. Bridget came up with the idea to meet on the fifth Friday of a month. May 29 is a fifth Friday.

And if you would like to follow Bridget blog or just find out more about her, you can do so at http://www.bridgetzinn.com/blog/.

The Costco Miracle!

My agent is unfamiliar with Costco, and thought it might be similiar to Grocery Outlet, another of my favorite stores. But Costco isn't the last home for products that never sold. Instead it specializes in items, many high-end, at unbelievable prices. Seafood, meat, imported cheeses, clothes, bedding, cookware, office supplies - they might not have a lot in any one category, but the buys are incredible.

Costco stocks very little hardcover fiction. But now, thanks to being on the New York Times list, plus the hard work of our Thomas Nelson publicist, they have Face of Betrayalin stock on a trial basis in Seattle and Portland stores for only $11.99 (list is $25).

Shoot! That's even cheaper than I can authors' copies for. Yesterday I bought a couple and promptly gave them away to folks who wanted copies but for one reason or another couldn't get them.

While I was in the checkout line, I said to the checker, "See if you can figure out what's special about that book." They put your Costco card right in front of them. He looked back and forth and said in an amazed tone, "Wow! You have the same name as the author!"

Quite a coincidence!

If you live in Portland or Seattle and would like to meet Lis and I in person, see us at:
* Friday, May 29
6-8pm
Seattle Costco, Aurora Village, 1175 North 205th, Seattle

* Saturday, May 30
10am-1pm
Portland Costco (the busiest Costco in the country), Portland Warehouse, 4849 NE 138th Street, Portland

Can you help Bridget?

This is Bridget. Three things happened to Bridget in February:
1. She got an agent for her young adult novel.
2. She got married.
3. She found out she has Stage Four colon cancer.

I met Bridget a year ago at an Oregon SWCBI event. She had just moved to Portland from Wisconsin, where she was a teen librarian. She is a beautiful person, inside and out. When she found out she had an agent, she was just glowing. A few days later she went to a naturopath for headaches and vision problems. She ended up in the ER – and learned very quickly that she had cancer. Big, bad cancer.

Right now, Bridget is undergoing chemotherapy.

To help defray some of the costs, authors and artists all over the United States have banded together to offer their services in an online auction.

Are you a writer? Would you like the first pages of a manuscript critiqued? Are you ready to market a book,need a bookmark or advice on a query letter?

Are you a reader? There are dozens of signed books.

Do you like to travel? Want to get away to Torrey, Utah and take in the fabulous national parks in the area?

Are you looking for a handmade baby quilt, handmade book, jewelry and more?

Check out the items at Bridget Zinn Auction at http://bridgetzinnauction.wordpress.com. The money will help her with medical expenses.

If you could spread the word, I would be grateful.

And if you would like to follow Bridget blog or just find out more about her, you can do so at http://www.bridgetzinn.com/blog/.

I guess it wasn't a fluke

I guess it wasn't a fluke. Because Face of Betrayal is still going to be on the New York Times bestseller list May 17!

And we moved up!

And we are ahead of a James Patterson book! (Okay, one that is two months older, but still!)

Does this make up for the two years it took me to get an agent?

The fact that I had to write four books before one sold?

Being dropped by one publisher because the sales of my second book were not double the sales of my first?

Writing more books that did not sell even after I was published?

Having a few other issues that would not be politic to mention in a public post?

Um, I'm not sure.

But it helps!

If you can't say anything nice...maybe you should be a book reviewer

Or if not a book reviewer, at least post your thoughts on Amazon. An agent found some examples of negative reviews for famous books. My favorite was:

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
“I bought these books to have something nice to read to my grandkids. I had to stop, however, because the books are nothing more than advertisements for “Turkish Delight,” a candy popular in the U.K. The whole point of buying books for my grandkids was to give them a break from advertising, and here (throughout) are ads for this “Turkish Delight”! How much money is this Mr. Lewis getting from the Cadbury’s chocolate company anyway? This man must be laughing to the bank.”

Read more here.