Paperbacks at Barnes and Noble

By Elaine L. Orr

Beginning May 14^th, all paperback books published through Barnes and Noble Press were required to be priced at $14.99 or more. BN Press is the in-house publishing firm that self published authors use for ebooks and paperbacks at Barnes and Noble. I suppose some smaller publishing companies use it, too.

The rationale is that BN needs the higher price to run a quality business. (That is my shorthand.)

 I have taken down all of my standard-sized paperbacks, which I sold for $9 or $10.99 – less for shorter books or novellas. I love my books, but I don’t feel right about selling them for 9.99 on Amazon and then upping the price by $5 just to have them on Barnes and Noble. I will start putting my large print books on BN. They are longer books and I don’t mind selling them for that price. They will still be cheaper on Amazon.

I expect that Barnes and Noble will pick up my books via Ingram. At least I have not heard that they are trying to tell Ingram what to do! Ingram’s price point was a bit higher than my Barnes and Noble prices because that’s what they required. However I don’t think anything was as much as $14.99.

 So sad. I have listed books on BN since February 2012. My ebooks will always be on BN for Nook.

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

Make the Words Act for Your Characters

By Elaine L. Orr

Words on a page do bring stories alive. Action words give them a reason to keep living.

As I wrote Rekindling Motives more than two decades ago, I concurrently took an online class in outlining a book -- something I don't do well. The instructor read portions of the book and thought the opening wouldn't grab a reader. Here's the original opening.

I had not intended to go to the Ocean Alley High School reunion.  Wait, that’s too mild.  I would have preferred to walk barefoot on the boardwalk in January.  However, Scoobie and Ramona combined their charms, and I was in the so-called ballroom of Ocean Alley’s largest hotel, Beachcomber’s Alley.

Here's what evolved based on the instructor's comments. (He may have said something about walking on glass, but I don't remember back to 2005. I'm lucky to have stored an early manuscripts in my Yahoo Mail account.)

I WOULD RATHER HAVE WALKED barefoot over shards of glass on the boardwalk in January than go to the Ocean Alley High School reunion. However, Scoobie and Ramona combined their charms, so on the Saturday after Thanksgiving I was in the so-called ballroom of Ocean Alley’s largest hotel, Beachcomber’s Alley. I'm such a wuss.

Several things changed, as you can tell.

• There's no reason to highlight the intention and then say Jolie's preference for an activity. The uncomfortable action she would rather not take is what counts.
• Walking barefoot over shards of glass on the boardwalk in January is a much better visual image than simply walking barefoot in the cold.
• The opening now indicates when the reunion takes place -- Thanksgiving weekend. 
• "I'm such a wuss" tells you that Jolie knows she can't always resist being browbeaten, but also that she can laugh at herself.

That lesson stayed with me and I reevaluate the first paragraph of each book many times.

More Ideas for Fresh Writing

Every author has her style and every character their distinct way of speaking. That said, we sometimes overuse words or use less precise ones. Not a crime, but here are some things to think about.

My critique group pointed out that I use 'look,' 'walk,' and 'and' a lot. I now do word searches for 'look' and 'walk.' You don't want to sound as if you swallowed a Thesarus, but someone who trudges up the steps after work conveys something different than the person who bounds up the stairs. (And not just that the bounder has better knees.)

As she reviewed draft chapters of The Handyman's Last Bite, my colleague Sue Ade counted the word 'and' 200 times in one chapter. Yikes! Upon review, I changed some longer independent clauses into two sentences, so no need to connect them with a conjunction. 

I also used 'and' when an infinitive could be used. For example, "She turned and hustled away," could be "She turned to hustle away." Either way is fine, but if you use 'and' 200 times in fifteen pages, look for at least some alternatives.

About that Outline...

All that outlining? As I got to the last couple of chapters of Rekindling Motives, my fingers flew as they do when I am very certain about my ideas. I didn't consult the outline, just kept moving. As you might imagine, the ending was different than I had outlined it. I liked the new ending. I might have liked the outline a bit better, but I wasn't going to rewrite two chapters that I thought worked well.

The moral could be: "Don't outline." It could also be, "It's OK to run with a good idea." My own habits have evolved such that I make notes before I start to write and I do bulleted summaries of each chapter as I go. At the bottom of my chapter summaries I have notes about continuing the story. Not an outline, but I do see my ideas on paper before I write the full text. I find that helpful.

As many writers say when asked for advice, stop talking and put your tail on the chair and do it.

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

More Attention to Shore Shenanigans

By Elaine L. Orr

In July of 2025 I published Fired up and Feisty, the first book in the Shore Shenanigans series. It is in the same Jersey shore town in which the Jolie Gentil series takes place. Ocean Alley, so named because the town is long and narrow.

I'd been preparing for the series for some time, which I don't always do. (I'd like to say I always plan ahead but it's not my best quality.) In this case, the character George in the Jolie Gentil series was a newspaper reporter who was fired in book 7 (of the 14) because he showed compassion in covering a story. He then worked for an insurance company as an investigator for two years, which helped him qualify to be a private investigator.

So, here comes PI George Winters.

Each book in the Shore Shenanigans Series features small groups of visitors to Ocean Alley, all of them staying at Mayor Madge's Cozy Corner B&B. As the primary sleuth, George discovers whatever is churning. 

He's usually paid to investigate more mundane things (think background checks for big corporations), so he's quick to dive into issues B&B guests bring with them to the Jersey Shore. A few familiar faces from other Jersey Shore books stroll in from time to time, but you won't see as much of them as in my other mystery series.

Fired Up and Feisty puts that year's Ocean Alley High School Reunion front and center. The Golden Grads (alums from long ago) end up at the Cozy Corner B&B after a fire at the hotel. Well, not all of them -- one is found on the floor in the room where the fire started. 

Did smoldering high school resentments lead to Preston McKinley's demise? Or maybe his prior business dealings? George Winters is pulled into the fray, assisted by Cozy Corner B&B owner Aunt Madge (a.k.a. Mayor Madge). With lots of input from snooty and down-to-earth seniors. 

Why Write About Fired Up and Feisty Now?

I've learned (the hard way?) that my books featuring amateur sleuths sell better than those in the two series with professionals -- Shore Shenanigans and the Logland Series, which has a female college town police chief as the main player.

Why? There is an established audience for cozy mysteries. There are not such audiences for private investigator and police chief mysteries written with a cozy feel. That's my marketing tagline. The books are certainly read and they get good reviews. But they are not purchased as much as my cozy series, and I like to sell books. That isn't being crass, just a reflection of wanting to put my time to good use.

But here's the thing. I never did a blog post about Fired Up and Feisty. Why not? Perhaps some subliminal messaging that told me it would be hard to write about a series that is a harder to categorize  Not too bright, right? Plus, I didn't notice until recently when I looked for such a post and didn't find one!

There's no time like the present. Fans of the Jolie Gentil series will enjoy the Shore Shenanigans series. Similar humor, occasional appearances by Jolie and Scoobie and their four-year-old twins, as well as George's long-time girlfriend, artist Ramona Argrow. Aunt Madge and her husband Harry, however, are very much front and center because much action takes place in their Cozy Corner B&B. 

In fact, I originally called it the Senior Shenanigans series, but I decided that was too narrow a group of reprobates for the stories.

Come back to Ocean Alley from a different perspective but similar mischief. Here are some places to find Fired Up and Feisty.

                     Amazon  Apple Nook  Everand  Google  Kobo  Smashwords

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.