Tag Archives: eBooks

To Amazon.com or Not to Amazon.com?

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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.

Ten Years Post 9/11: Alva at Last a Real Company

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Alva Press, Inc., celebrates the fact that she is a real company at last!

In a trek that began with my search for knowledge as to how I, my loved ones, and finally, the community, might effectively respond to any Mass Event, I researched and wrote Jolt: a rural noir. To further the word on post mass event and general survival techniques, two and a half years ago Alva Press, Inc, became an online entity. My blog at http://alvapressinc.com/robertamroyonnuclearsurvival is the product of that intent. And now ten years post 9/11 ALVA commemorates the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 with the release of Jolt: a rural noir in ePub and Mobi eBook forms and recognizes just how far Alva Press, Inc., has come in the process.

No longer is Alva a one-person enterprise. ALVA now includes integrated professional support services in the area of technical support, writing and editing, design, public relations, advertising and distribution. And recently ALVA started a small copying service which is housed at Gallery Ottaviani, 214 Hooker Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY. (845) 452-9227.

ALVA aims not only to please the readers and writers of the world, but to the extent it can, to also serve the community.

READERS

can now purchase eBooks as well as soft and hard cover traditional forms.

WRITERS

can arrange to have their books and manuscripts converted into eBooks for distribution through the ALVA site and any others they so choose.

COMMUNITY

As ALVA is yet a very tiny entity with limited resources, its expression of community care is similarly limited. Nonetheless, ALVA reaches out to help in these small ways:

READERS – Enjoy the variety of three blogs ALVA supports:The Writer Publisher’s WebBlog and Roberta M. Roy’s Personal Blog and the Nuclear Survival Blog — morphed over time into more of a healthy living and general survival informational one.

WRITERS – ALVA offers the first three lucky writers who qualify, the opportunity for free book or manuscript conversion of to an eBook for presentation and distribution through ALVA’s website.

COMMUNITY – ALVA is committed to dedicating $2 from the sale of each of the next 500 books she sells through the ALVA site to the ‘Making Cocoa with Kristina’ Fund. The Making Cocoa with Kristina Fund’s moneies will go toward the purchase of a motorized wheelchair for the young mother and writer, Kristina Jackson. (See Purchase eBooks and Books Here page for more details.)

Have you heard the song “Turning toward Morning” by Gordon Bok? These years and times since 9/11 have been and remain so much a challenge. And while we are not perhaps quite where we would like to be, signs of hope must always be welcomed.

ALVA is but a small, hopeful sprout in a large universe. But I believe that as long as hope springs anew, new answers will emerge. Not only for ALVA and me and Kristina, but also for you, my gentle reader.

Roberta, In Po-Town, Lookin’ toward the Mornin’

*For the complete lyrics to Gordon Bok’s song about how the world always turns toward morning, please go to http://ahistoricality.blogspot.com/2005/08/thursday-lyric-turning-toward-morning.html

Feeling Tentative

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Having been officially welcomed to the world of WordPress.com, I haven’t settled in completely. But I do want to try the water. I just don’t want to make a complete fool of myself first thing out.

So here’s the pickle. I both want to have fun but I also want to be me–like I want to feature the logo for Alva Press, Inc. so everyone will get to know it. (You see I can’t imagine me without Alva, my publishing company. Also I would like everyone recognize the Alva brand wherever her logo appears.)

Right away, that brings me to another twist. The ‘her.’ Why ‘her’? Well, Alva is far too important for me to refer to her as ‘it’, so whenever I refer to Alva its like talking about my sister or a friend and ‘she’ it is–or ‘her’.

Well, now that that’s been cleared up, the next thing I need to tell you is that Alva will definitely be coming out with her first eBook soon. Just in time for the tenth anniversary of 9/11. After all, if we had not suffered the shock of 9/11, I never would have bothered to do all that research into survival and Natalie and Thaw would never have been born or Jolt: a rural noir been written. And I would never have become a 2011 Living Now Awards Medalist in Inspirational Fiction and Alva would not have even considered publishing eBooks–not only for me, but she also wants to do it for others. All of which brings me around to the theme of Jolt: a rural noir and how survival can contribute to new answers and the renewal of happiness. At least it did for the residents of Lochlee after Magdum Heights went down. And it has for Alva and me since I incorporated her in 2004.

So on behalf of Alva and me, I do hope you will contact Alva and order a copy of Jolt: a rural noir. The story is set in set in an imaginary tri-state area in the northern USA. Great characters. And lots of good stuff about how to respond in the event of a nuclear meltdown.

Well, I did it! My first blog. Do let me know what you think!

Roberta in Po-Town on the Hudson in NYS