Ok, so I should know better. It’s the internet, asking people to pay for stuff is a stretch. And I do thank all of you that have supported me by purchasing the digital or the paperback copy of Zemlya.
For any of you that, for some crazy reason, want me to write something in a paperback, please contact me. I have a few copies that I ordered for print checking that I can sign and ship for about the same price as ordering a paperback.
Otherwise, do yourself a favour and get the paperback! Doom’s cover looks great. Or jump over to one of the other subreddits like /r/cyberpunk (for upvoting) or /r/books (for posting a new thread – self promotion is banned there). Reddit has the greatest pull-through to this blog of all of the other channels that I frequent, so that always helps.
But I wanted to ask a slightly more serious question here. Of the people that found this blog due to various posts, about half will then click the Amazon link. But after that… nothing.
So, I’m curious. What’s stopping you guys? Is it the blurb? The format (e.g. would you prefer Kobo?)? Or, please no, the price?
I’m happy to make some changes. The Paperback is about as low as it can get (due to the print on demand nature), and the digital edition has to stay at the same price for 6 weeks (Amazon does some kind of auto-promotion thing). But it would be really great to know why the trail runs cold at the Amazon page…
Cheers!
Cpl Crud's Writings 
Personall, I’m waiting/hoping for a kobo version or some other way to purchase an epub/mobi version. Being able to read TZC on amazon and associated sites is fine and all, but for someone who is more used to other formats (eg. ebook readers or paperback), it isn’t very attractive.
I can’t really comment on the paperback version as I havent ordered paperback in over a year (due to a serious lack of storage space), but the price seems to be comparable to other similar books.
I’ve got 2 hypothesis for why people are visiting the blog, then amazon, then disappearing.
1) People came here wanting to see more Hanako/4LS. TZC is anything but a romance novel (presumably), so thye don’t pick it up.
2) People are looking for (digital) pirated copies.
TLDR: waiting for digital version, no space for paperback, people are picky consumers
Yeah, I might look into Kobo soon. Amazon is nice as you can combine the sales of both digital and physical formats to get a higher selling ranking. I read most things on my tablet so it’s not been an issue…
Do people actually pirate books? and if so, why would they come to the creator in order to pirate it? Or am I overestimating humanity again?
(see your skype)
Yes, people pirate books. There are quite a few places to do so including, but not limited to, irc, torrents, various upload sites floating around.
I suppose people could be coming to this site to see what all the fuss is about, then heading to amazon to look at reviews and stuff, but I haven’t the foggiest idea why they’d go to the creator to pirate it.
I’ve just realised you’re on Rizon… and that I haven’t been there in probably close to a decade….
tbh I’m barely there. every other messenger is more reliable, e-mail even more so.
fb, whatsapp, skype, line, discord, steam (still active)
wechat & viber.. (uninstalled) etc
Yeah the numerous ways of being contacted is annoying at times, but apart from Slack or Discord, there aren’t many that have the easy group speak like IRC
The pricing is not unreasonable. If I was able to purchase entertainment items at the moment it would be on my buy list. As for people in general, books are so often available for free in various legit ways that people refuse to pay for them at all or feel no guilt about illegal ways to get them for free. Another thought is said buy list I mentioned. Some have a list of things they intend to buy at some point but something added to the list is likely behind other items already being budgeted for.
Fair enough.
I know that there has been about 2-3 people that have read through Kindle Unlimited, which I think is a subscription service, but there was some other free option as well.