For Egad's Sake…buy SSS Stories, Vol. 3

I’ll be honest with you Larry – I’m a very disapointed with the sales of vol 3. I put rediculous hours into producing it last year. As it stands I think I put 3 hours of work in for each copy sold – not counting the hours the illustrators and writers spent. C’mon guys – if you haven’t bought one yet – buy one now! The future of Vol 4 relies on how this one sells!

Sorry to hear that Judy. Did you have any problems with the earlier books.

Dee, I can imagine the frustration. You–and all involved–put together a great book. I hope we can light a fire under the sales. Maybe someone could look into the problem Judy’s reporting.

I’ll give it a little shout out on Tales to Terrify.

@Dee, just to reiterate what I said on another thread: I love my HB copy of Vol. 3; it is a beautiful object, never mind the stories. Beautifully illustrated and exquisitely put together. Thanks again.

I understand it’s hard to do this as a labour of love if it seems there aren’t enough people out there to appreciate it. This is not meant as having a go at people who listen to the podcast or who frequent the forums and haven’t bought a copy. I get that not everyone wants one and they should not feel obliged to get one. People can contribute in all sorts of ways, not all of them monetary, but the book is only worth doing if a critical mass of people want it, so I will understand if you choose not to spend your valuable time doing volume 4.

If it helps anyone over the hump into buying, you can get your copy of Vol. 3 even if you have not finished volume 2. In fact, it’s possible to have not read volume 1 cover to cover and it’s still okay to put volume 3 on your shelf. Read a story here, a story there, even though they are out of their order. I happen to know someone who did that and has the world ended lately?

Judy,
oh
Larry

I just did a mention of it…a plea, really…on this coming week’s TALES TO TERRIFY, the which, if you haven’t had a listen to, well, I just don’t know! Anyway, recent concerns about sales of vol. 3 lead me to pull out my copy and reacquaint myself with it. It is really good. And it has a story of mine in it! The title story from “Drink for the Thirst to Come” is in there.

Hi guys. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings so I will start off by saying I love Starship Sofa, look forward to it greatly each week, share it friends, appreciate everything you do to make it possible, and have even donated my cold hard cash to support your awesome efforts. I know your voices by heart and would love to buy you all a drink if you’re ever through my part of the world.

That said, it completely puzzles me why you spend so much time and energy publishing (and talking about) books that very few people want to read. Your market niche is podcasting great science fiction short stories and related fun stuff like genre reviews, science news, and other goodness. You have no expertise in specialty publishing and more importantly, your loyal followers are saying very loud and clear (through our actions) that we do not value the time you are spending on these publishing projects.

With all due respect, we would much rather that you put out more great episodes of Starship Sofa than spend so many hours compiling anthologies that very few of us are interested in.

Related to the point of reading, I suspect that many of your other listeners already have a pile of science fiction books and magazines that they want to read, like I do. Turning my head here, I see a stack of Asimov’s and Analog magazines, two large “year’s best” anthologies, and several novels that friends (and you) have recommended. Why on Earth would I want to buy and read a book of short stories that I’ve already heard?

It just makes no sense, unless the goal is to “support Starship Sofa,” and if that is the case I think you would likely get a much better return on the investment of your time to come up with other fundraising techniques.

To sum up and answer Larry’s question about why it hasn’t sold better, these are the three reasons I haven’t bought it:

1. Regular listeners have already heard the stories
2. Regular listeners come to Starship Sofa to listen, not to read
3. Marketing the book to those who are not regular listeners is likely to be extremely difficult. There is a huge amount of competition for eyeballs and wallets when it comes to high quality science fiction short stories.

I hope this made sense and that you see my comments as constructive and caring, which is how I intend them. If you want to discuss fundraising ideas sometime I’d be happy to give you my two cents there and also would point you to the great work Norm Sherman is doing at the Drabblecast in terms of building a community of regular supporters.