ALVA Green Tomatoes Novelist Run Off

Enter Second Annual ALVA Green Tomatoes Novelist Run Off final submission deadline October 15, 2013. Enter now at http://www.alvapressinc.com/alva_greentomatoes.html.

ALVA Lowers eBook Editing, Design, and Publication Rates

ALVA eBook editing, design, publication, and distribution prices just took a serious plunge. If you are thinking about publishing, check them out at http://alvapressinc.com/

Even ALVA the Indie text me from D.C. where she is participating in the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the March on Washington in 1963 at which Martin Luther King gave his memorable “I Have a Dream” speech.

After reviewing the new lower ALVA prices her comment, “Yes!!! Power to the people.”

As for me, all I want is her back here and ready to help with the editing and design onslaught when the writers get a hold of the new ALVA editing, design, and publication rates!
Check ’em out at http://alvapressinc.com

Roberta in Po-Town, Ready

But Where Fled June?

July Fourth just past and only now getting to blog a bit more personally. Progress on every side–just almost no free time. Kristen Henderson’s eLit Awards gold medalist book of poems, Drum Machine, is now available in paperback as well as eBook forms. Just that for now, if you’d like a copy, you would have to request it by email through the ALVA site contact page. However, come Monday, Alyssa will list it with the other books that can be ordered on ALVA’s buy now page.

Carl Waldman’s enchanting mystery Streetscape: A Jake Soho Mystery will be released July 15 as an eBook with ALVA and if all goes as planned, Lorna Tychostup’s Tales from the Revolution.

And as for me, I’m looking toward a bit of a lull with only Charles Van Heck’s marvelously human and extensively researched historical novel, Mr. Lincoln’s Elephant Boy still in the contract completion process while the other several writers with whom I am working being either on vacation or back at the drawing boards.

Meantime the whir of a rage continues both online and in reality. Authors struggle to determine should they ‘sell’ free and starve as they in this way serve to somewhat glut the market. And then, to only further complicate the glut many are self publishing their works minus and Digital Rights Management (DRM). This in turn permits readers to pass their copyright protected books along on a ‘free-free’ basis as I call it.  The free-frees occur under the radar as readers fail to recall that somewhere some writer labored long and hard to get them the book in the first place and that hopefully that writer still holds the copyright. And if even if that copyright has been signed over to a publisher, that publisher then holds it. However, regardless, every reader is assured, someone does–usually not the reader.

As for the summer, around us all along the East Coast and Southwest, the temperatures soar, fires rage, and everyone figures as best he or she can, a way to mitigate its effects–running to the mountains (where it is also hot), baking at the beach, hiding in the cellar, remaining locked in the A/C, or like too many, just toughing it through.

At Astor Home for Children where I work, summer school reopens next week for six weeks with typically shortened days. We finish at 2:00 instead of 3:00 as kids chomp at the bit looking toward a swim in the pool and in down times observe the progress on the completion of the new sleeping units being built to guarantee each child resident a room of his or her own. As such there will be no longer a necessity for any of the already severely emotionally challenged child residents to share space and keep personal belongings separate while also wading through the ups and downs of a roommates’ behaviors and moods.

The major part of the Astor new units project  appeared to have been done by summer break. The roof was on and they were working on the interior and finishing a glassed-in sunroom of some kind. I believe the plan is for Astor Services for Children and Families to have its Rhinebeck, NY, residential placement for children’s new units ready for habitation come September. Amazing the space and variety the relatively small campus offers in its various buildings for use by staff and children.

Meantime, my two weeks summer break draws to a close, its highlights being the pleasure of my twelve year old and eight year old grandsons spending time with me when possible and the kick of having passed the above publishing milestones. And tomorrow I shall head to Cherry Valley, NY, in a one day run for the opening of colorist Ed McDaniel’s art show at Cherry Branch Gallery and the chance to spend some time with my pal Kristen Henderson and maybe chat a bit with Carl Waldman–if he makes it back in time. 

In the frying pan, a couple of projects: some research into noirs–which I would love some help with–including just possibly the chance to interview someone on the topic–maybe Carl Waldman– and what started out as a request for an interview but has ended up in quickly becoming a hefty research assignment in which I struggle to determine who is Charley Pymell?

Meanwhile I continue with my lopsided life as it flops one way and the other among my publisher, speech language pathologist, writer, family member, and friend identities. Its parts dominate the scene for lengths of anywhere from an hour to a several weeks as I constantly struggle to move back the walls of the day only to find that anything more or other than 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. just won’t work.

Roberta in Po-Town

 

Charles Plymell Critiques Henderson’s Poetry

Charley Plymell Critiques the Poetry of Kristen Henderson’s Drum Machine http://ping.fm/s22Et

Alva Celebrates Distributors and Roy-McNally Interview

Alva the Indie celebrated the regularization of the weekly distribution of 2000 copies of the ALVA newsletter by email by charting how many Opens there were for each media type. Turned out that old friends and magazines were 5% ahead of Radio, TV, Broadcast, and Print. Alva decided that was because magazines are more interested in the little press (little guy) human interest side of the news. Yeah, I suppose Alva’s guess is as good as mine and she was unwilling to accept my suggestion that the difference may have been due to probability and chance.

But I am so glad Alva is back! (at least for the winter).

Last week Alva brought in a great big sheet cake she had made and decorated with B&N, Apple, Sony, Kobol, Borders, and Diesel to celebrate Alva Press’ agreement to facilitate the distribution of its eBooks on more than seventy wholesaler distribution sites. She called it our ‘Go Get’em Now’ party.

BTW: Alva thinks Chelsea’s reliability and skill in getting out the newsletter is simply awesome! As for Alva, she’d rather deliver newspapers door to door than do, as she calls it, all that computer stuff.

Do you ever wonder why ALVA keeps Alva employed here? Well, I’ll tell you why. First of all, when Alva is here she is wonderful with the phone–any opportunity to talk is a plus for her. And not to forget how (as long as we can keep her on the premises) we are assured of at least one sheet cake a week–if not to raise our consciences for a cause, then to fete our own advancements and successes like when earlier in the month Alva arrived with black masks we had to don for the party and a cake that read, “The Lone Ranger Rides Again.”

It seems Alva found out that back in November 2011 the MidWest Book Review Small Press Bookshelf had given Jolt: a rural noir a rave review on its Mystery and Suspense Shelf. Called it a ‘page-turning thriller.’ And Alva just wanted to be sure that everybody knew that despite the image of the conflagration on Jolt’s cover, Roberta really was one of the good guys! http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/nov_11.htm#Mystery/Suspense

And then when Michael Edward McNally provided Roberta M Roy with that really great interview the cake read “We Love MEdMcNally!” http://sablecity.com/2012/01/31/tag-line-tuesday-with-roberta-m-roy

So I hate to think of the noise level of the place when Alva arrives prepared to celebrate Kristen Henderson‘s book, Drum Machine, to be released as an eBook, possibly by the end of February. Do check back on that and if you have not done so already, sign up for the newsletter which will for the first 30 days will offer a 10% discount on copies of the eBook of Drum Machine ordered through the ALVA Press, Inc., website.

Roberta in Po-Town, Lookin’ up!

To Amazon.com or Not to Amazon.com?

Alva the Indie’s all upset. She has discovered that Roy’s great novel of passion and survival, Jolt: a rural noir, is now available on Amazon.com in second hand copies at a quarter the publisher’s list price. She knows it’s true because she ordered herself a copy just to prove it was not a pirated one. It arrived today. Alva immediately recognized it as a recycled courtesy copy previously distributed at no cost to an interested party. And Alva understood this. As she put it, “Just normal hooman behavior.”

But what really has Alva’s goat is how Amazon.com is able to list the paperback and hard cover editions of Jolt at lower than the publisher’s list price. Such listing has the potential to force ALVA Press, Inc., Jolt‘s publisher, to sell its beautifully designed and print versions of Jolt: a rural noir at a pricing ratio that if it were to become pervasive, would wipe out this small, striving company for which Alva the Indie works, namely, ALVA Press, Inc.

Then what next did Alva do? Exactly as she always does when hungry for more information. She googled topics related to Amazon.com’s pricing, came up with some links, read through them quickly, and at about 11:30, stomped out of the office without a word.

So much for that . . .  well, not quite. Because when I checked my email later in the day I found one Alva had sent at 11:22 that morning with nothing more than the following links in it:

http://dhamel.typepad.com/twitterlitnews/2011/06/re-twitrlit-and-the-amazon-affiliate-program.html

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/class-action-suit-targets-apple-and-five-publishers-for-price-fixing.ars

Oh, I agree it’s a mess out there–except Alva always takes things so personally.

Nonetheless Alva’s findings have put me to thinking. As CEO here at Alva Press, Inc., I am beginning to believe that it might be better to not distribute the Alva Press, Inc., eBooks on Amazon.com if in the final analysis Amazon is set to undersell Alva Press and/or force ALVA to distribute our eBooks at a rate so low as to drive us out of business. Which raises the question as to whether small presses can exist without Amazon.com.

That said, I’d love to hear what other Indie eBook publishers have to say about the issue of Amazon.com pricing practices.

Roberta in Po-Town, Muddled.

Alva’s Back,Tired but Optimistic

Alva‘s back. Someone dropped her off at my place 2:30 a.m. last night. She seemed tired but hopeful that Occupy Washington received the attention of the Congress it needed. And now she is talking about going down to Pennsylvania to protest shale drilling for gas. Says she heard one mountain collapsed because of the drilling and insists that even if it does not make the drinking water flammable, it is two much of a risk to permit communities to pursue it.

I told her to get some sleep and then we’d talk. Told her ALVA needs her help and that the first mailing of the newsletter went out with all those receiving a copy having to read through the names of the other recipients before getting to the text of the newsletter. Very embarrassing I told her–except we were doing the best we knew how to do. I also told her that if she had been here like she was supposed to be, it never would have happened.

So first thing this morning what does Alva do? Mails out another clean copy of the newsletter to all those same recipients–so they know the first one was a mistake was her explanation. Even more embarrassing. Just means those newsletter recipients probably feel like we’re spamming them–yet she meant well.

Meantime Kristen Henderson has signed her contract for the publication of her book of poems, Drum Machine, to be released first thing in the new year–as an eBook and a paperback.

And Helmy Kasuma has sent his release so ALVA can publish “As I Watch You Sleeping” on the Visiting Writers’ page early next week. Kasuma lives in Jakarta Utara, Indonesia, writes in English and Indonesian, and has published two novellas: Mementoes of Mai and Cinta 3 Sisi as well as a thriller short stry, “There Is Home.” You can find out more about Kasuma and his flash fictions at http://www.helmykusuma.com.

Roberta in Po-Town, Happy Alva’s back at the ALVA office.

Why Do I Love Thee?

How silly can it be. I just love Alva the Indie–so definitely over the edge. Can’t figure out if she talks to me or I talk to her and I’m just talking to myself–all of which gives one a certain sense of freedom. I mean, think of it: On a dime, in mid-sentence I change my point of view, reconsider, revamp, and comment on myself or is it me? Or is it Alva Press? Or is it Alva the Indie? Or Roberta M. Roy, that well-known publisher and 2011 Living Now Awards Medalist in Inspirational fiction and author of Jolt: a rural noir?

Today I have chosen to be Alva Press, Inc., and here’s the reason. We need a heart-to-heart. Why? Well, you see, things here are at a standstill.

After Alva’s links were broken, readership went down and while it is gradually rebuilding it is nowhere where it used to be. Also Roy is overextended now that the school year has begun–and with a nearly all new caseload. Takes too much energy to write and keep up with her blogs and also do all the things that Alva needs done–like tell everyone that Jolt: a rural noir is now available as an eBook at http://alvapressinc.com.

Yup, truth to be told, at this time Alva Press, Inc., is a pretty much one woman operation and while readers are beginning to comment positively about Jolt: a rural noir in places like GoodReads, not much else is really happening.

Just wanted to give you a heads up on the current state of affairs and to ask you if there is anything you can think of to help–like buy or recommend Jolt: a rural noir, Alva Press, Inc. and I would really appreciate it.

Gotta go now. Roy’s calling.

Alva the Indie

Alva’s on the Prowl

Alva the Indie is on the prowl. Having suffered through the publication of Jolt: a rural noir, first in hard and soft cover and more recently in ePub and Mobi, she has decided to offer three writers the chance to publish their book as an eBook free. The only hitch is, each will need to be interesting and well-edited. Poetic, highly researched, and truly literary works would be preferred.

But, hey! Who is Alva anyway. Just some tiny little Indie trying to make her way in the overwhelmingly large world of publishing and just hoping someone would like to come and join hands with her. Let me explain.

About ten years ago Roberta M Roy began the trudge to self publishing. First she did the research. One hundred hours in face-to-face courses with the military on responding to mass events. Then she wrote the book. That was easy. Next she worked with an editor and five rewrites and five years after beginning the writing–Jolt: a rural noir was ready–ready that is for publishing.

By that time Roberta had established Alva Press, Inc., and was blogging on three blogs. And so it was I, Alva, who published Roberta’s book. My byword was quality. Was that wrong? I don’t think so. Didn’t Roberta’s book go on to become a 2011 Living Now Awards Medalist in Inspirational Fiction?

But it shouldn’t be that hard. As such, Alva has decided to play the Warren Buffet of self-publishing and reach out to three other writers by publishing one of their works as an eBook to be listed on the alvapressinc.com website for distribution. Thereafter, royalties will be paid on a monthly basis while the potential for listing with big aggregators like B&N and Amazon.com exists.

So if you or someone you know is in the place where they would like to stand up to the big guys and go with Alva, just send me an email expressing your interest. To do this go the the Contact Us page on alvapressinc.com and email me.

In other, while quality is the byword, variety is the spice of life! So all genres and mixed genres of writing are welcome.

JoltCoverwSpine.

More anon.

Alva the Indie

Win a Free Copy of Jolt: a rural noir

Please go to the alvapressinc.com site. Use the contact us page to email me in your answer to the Alva the Indie poll. First person to answer correctly will win a copy of Jolt: a rural noir and have their name and the answer they proffered announced here and on the alvapressinc.com web site.

Jolt: a rural noir is available in soft cover, hard cover, and eBook forms. The eBook may be purchased (won) in ePub format (compatible with Nook) and Mobi format (compatible with Kindle).

So tell me: Just who is Alva the Indie?

Roberta in Po-Town, Puzzlin’