Chapter 9

  Bianca is about to lead a discussion on market/publication advice along with submission strategies. I’m really not interested in the business side of the book market. I firmly believe that the vast majority of writers would write, whether or not they were paid for their work. The few that write strictly for profit, well I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed their work anyway.

  If we do decide to have an eBook publishing company I wonder if we shouldn’t freely give away the eBooks, a pay what you wish site, where we encourage the reader to read the book then come back to the site to pay the writer what they wish to pay. Would any writer be brave enough to do it? I know that Cory Doctorow has released most if not all of his books for free and gone on to become an award winning bestselling author. Wouldn’t the people who loved your book want to pay to support you writing another.

  We would be out Patroning Patron. Instead of asking for money to produce a product, we would freely give the product with the last page to a link to pay for the book after you read it. Perhaps a little message to guilt the reader into paying.

  From the editor:

  The author has spent hundreds of hours crafting this book, you just spent four or five hours reading it. Isn’t that worth five dollars or more? Please give if you’d like the author to produce more books like this one. Ninety two percent of the money sent goes directly to the author. The other eight percent goes towards hosting fees and other publishing expenses.

  I’d run it by Bianca to see what she thinks of it. I don’t want to cheat the writers into giving away a free book, I just wonder if people who actually read the book wouldn’t pay more for an eBook where they knew the writer was getting the vast majority of the money. I think most book pirates read a lot but they are also data hoarders. They would probably have to live to be five hundred to read all the books they have already pirated. Like music pirates they don’t see themselves as hurting authors they see themselves as a sort of Robin Hood who steals from a corporation. But if they read that the author was getting more than ninety percent of their money, I think they’d pay.

  Eve told me not to engage with Sven, but I want to talk to him for just a minute, because I want to gauge how he is doing and that is easier done by talking to him. I doubt he has an acting bone in his body. The two times that he was angry at me, I could almost feel the heat radiating off of him. The righteous are always like that. Even though he is a skinhead nazi, I have no doubt that he sees himself as righteous.

  “Sven, how is the laptop working out for you? Do you have any questions about it? I have to go into the store to take care of some business, but I wanted to check before I go in.”

  “No it’s working fine, it’s pretty much like Word, just like you said.” he replied gruffly.

  “Good, well if you need anything I’ll just be in the store.”

  I wouldn’t have liked this rude jerk if he was the biggest hippie in the world. Of course being a nazi was worse than being rude. I mean Trump is rude and a racist, posting memes of the Obama’s as apes. Rude, racist, fascist yep, Trump is a nazi. Him and Sven would probably get along like brothers.

  I wanted to talk to Lucy while Monique’s idea of a history of the collective and Genre’s was fresh in my head, but when I got inside, Lucy was slammed with customers. A tour bus had dropped off shoppers in town and eventually they made their way to our store. So instead of a conversation, we worked steadily for about twenty minutes clearing the store. Lucy said even before the rush we were having a very good day. The writers from the workshop had bought a lot of books. I guess the only people who buy more books than readers do are writers.

  Once the store had been cleared I noticed that Zoe and Liz were busy installing bookshelves at the end of genre aisles.

  “It’s only temporary, I just wanted to get a smattering of the used books out there so that people know we now stock, both new and used. Once we get the books into the computer we can pull them from the stockroom on request. I’ll make up signs for each used endcap bookcase.”

  “Look Lucy, there is no rush, you have the rest of your life to sell used books. Just make a list of what needs to be done and prioritize what you want done first. You have a lot of balls in the air for a first time juggler. I’m going to add one more, but you set the priority of how and when things get done. I was speaking with Monique and I told her how much we liked her classic covers and how you downloaded them and added an attribution page to the eBook pointing to her webpage. She also suggested to me that we add a page about the history of the writer’s collective and Genre’s. I think that would be a great idea and this week I’ll write it and before we start selling or giving away books, I’d like those pages added to the ebooks.”

  She dragged out a list, she had already started and added it to the bottom.

  “I’m glad you thought of it now, it is a lot easier to add a couple pages to each eBook as we are ready to release the it would be to go back and add the pages on. While you are writing the material, try and think of anything else that you’d like included.”

  Actually my mind was a thousand miles away, I was trying to figure out how to find out where Jade’s brother was and I think I had an idea. So I texted Anais

  Laura: Anais, I think I figured out how to find the camp

  Anais: Laura, don’t do anything, Eve is busy negotiating for you and Jade, don’t make this harder than it already is.

  Laura: We just drop a burner phone in his car, then we use one of those find my phone apps.

  Anais: I repeat, do not do anything. We will suggest that to the assistant district attorney right now. Leave the Nazi’s to the police, unless you want to see the writers, Amy and Lucy put in harm's way by a bunch of maniacs with guns. Have I made my point or do I need to come over there with a squirt gun to show you just how easy it would be to kill you all. Please respond that for once in your life you will actually listen to my advice.

  She was absolutely right. I had no right to put anyone in harm's way. If it was just myself that would be one thing but the collective, our guest writers, Lucy, Liz and Zoe and Amy, I just couldn’t bear to see anything happen to any of them especially if I was the cause of their being harmed.

  Laura: Thank you Anais, no need for the squirt gun. You talked me down. We are all going to the Brew House for beers after the workshop wraps up around ten. Please meet us there. I owe you a beer for talking me down.

  Anais: I’ll see you at ten.

  “Lucy, have you heard from Willow?”

  “Yes, she said you can call her anytime, on her cell she went down to the salvage yard to have some work done on Urge.”

  “Who or what is Urge?”

  “Urge is a she and Willow said that Urge was an integral part of the new business that you and she would be running together. Urge must be some hippy woman that lives in Woodstock, I would guess.”

  “But I never agreed to run a business with Willow.”

  “Aparently you have, Laura, you just didn’t know it, yet. I’m sure you’ll agree. Willow is pretty brilliant so if she has an idea it must be good. At the very least it’ll be fun.”

  Well I better give her a call and see just what she has up her sleeve, it’s not very fair of her to just assume that I’ll agree to a business plan with her. I mean I don’t want to make a profit, so opening another business just seems like a bad idea right. Willow probably wants to make some money. She doesn’t have any? I have to talk to her about her writer’s collective. I wonder if they are pulling her store down like ours was doing to Genres due to outdated agreements. Maybe Bianca could look over her paperwork for her. I called Willow’s mobile.

  “Hello, Willow’s phone, Phoebe speaking.”

  “Hi Phoebe, it’s Laura, is Willow there?”

  “Yes she’s working on Urge with Pappy and a bunch of his friends. Thank you so much for hiring me. I wanted to quit the Renaissance Festival to spend more time with Pappy. Ha, listen to me. Calling him Pappy. Little Bobby has become Pappy. You’d think I had some kind of Electra complex or something. Here’s Willow, and thanks again for hiring me, Laura.”

  “Phoebe, I’m sorry but I didn’t hire you, I just hired someone else and I can’t just fire them to hire you.”

  “No, Laura, it’s me Willow, Phoebe had already handed me the phone.”

  “Look Willow I’m sorry, but I already hired Zoe and bought all of her stock, I can’t very well fire her on the same day. So you’ll have to tell Phoebe that it was a misunderstanding. I’m sorry.”

  “Laura listen, this woman has been traveling for years, she’s been apart from the boy that she loved for the past fifty plus years. Don’t let your pride stand in the way of helping someone out. I thought we were family. Ha Ha Ha.” she laughed.

  “Willow, did you just throw my words back in my face? If you weren’t such a nice person, you’d be terrifying. Weaponizing family. Next you’ll be telling me if I don’t take the business offer, I’ll make a puppy sad or someone will throw cold water on a cat.”

  “Laura, Fred is not a puppy but he does look extremely sad right now.”

  I laughed, “Well honey you better tell me what kind of business we are opening together.”

  “A bookstore. A wonderful hippie bookstore.”

  “Willow we already have bookstores, why do we need another?”

  “Laura, we have two hippie bookstores who meet in the summer of love. My store is the male, all manly non fiction, your’s is the liberated woman, all fiction. Two bookstores in love and nine days later they give birth to a little baby bookstore, the baby loves daddy and the baby also loves mommy so our new bookstore has both. Fiction and nonfiction.”

  “If we wanted to stock both we don’t need to buy a new store, besides I thought you didn’t have any money, you didn’t even want to buy the books a few hours ago. Besides honey, if you open another bookstore in town you are only going to be competing with yourself.”

  “That’s why we aren’t going to open in Woodstock.”

  “Well, Willow, I don’t want to compete with it in Lake Placid either.”

  “Nope, not opening in Lake Placid, either.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Where are you thinking of opening it, Willow?”

  “Catskill, Albany, Saratoga, Glens Falls, Lake George, Long Lake, Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake.”

  “Willow you are nuts. You want to open a chain of bookstores stretching from Woodstock to Lake Placid. Ten stores, I couldn’t afford that even if I sold the collective. Willow, tell me you didn’t sell your collective.”

  “Laura I promise you I didn’t sell the collective and this chain of bookstores isn’t going to cost you a dime, you already paid for the books so I’m already working on the store. I’ll send you a picture of our store front and sign.”

  I clicked on the notification as soon as it arrived, about six people were in the picture smiling at the camera, they each held a paintbrush. The yellow school bus was no longer yellow, it was green and blue and purple and red. Inside I could see Pappy and four or five other people.

  “Willow, you aren’t letting them paint over your father’s ceiling are you?”

  “No Laura, they are taking out the seats except for the first row.”

  “I don’t understand Willow.”

  My notification chimed and I opened another picture, this was a wooden plank, with ‘The Urge to Read’ painted on it.

  “Laura, this is our new bookstore, during the late spring summer and early fall it will cover all those towns I mentioned before. Late Fall through early spring we’ll cover Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Catskill, Albany, Schenectady, and Troy. I named our new store “The Urge to Read” after Divine Right’s bus Urge. I thought it would bring us good luck. Phoebe agreed to work for a ten percent cut of the profits. She already has a bus drivers license, I thought I could teach Lucy to drive it as well. Next summer she might enjoy a few days out on the roads. What do you think?”

  “Willow honestly I love it, it is so you. What’s the plan for the books, to keep them in boxes down on the floor?”

  “No, that’s what Pappy and his buddies are doing right after the last of the seats are removed. There will be three doublesided bookcases that run the length of the bus. With special strips of wood on each shelf to keep the books in place as the bus goes around steep corners.”

  “Willow I know you are a genius but how did you come up with all of this in just a few hours?”

  “I didn’t Laura, this was always the plan for me if I wanted it. My dad was going to run the stationary bookstore and I was going to run the mobile. Until he went and died on me and screwed up all of our plans. It was the one selfish thing that he did in his whole life. Dying like that.”

  I could hear her choking up.

  “It’s okay honey, he didn’t screw up your plans, you see, he just postponed them a little bit.”

  “Laura, you’ll do this with me?”

  “Of course who am I to stand in the way of you and your fathers dream.”

  “Laura, I’ll be at your store Monday morning at nine, what do you think of charging three dollars a book. And we can buy books back from people for fifty cents or seventy five cents if they want store credit.”

  “Let’s try it and see if it makes any money, you have to pay for gas and that’s not cheap.”

  “Gas yes, but no property taxes so in the end, I think it’ll be cheaper to run than my store. No property or school tax, no water or power bills. Our employee sleeps with our mechanic, so you know the bus will be well maintained and safe. A couple nights a week Phoebe or I will need a place to sleep in Lake Placid.”

  “I would have said yes sooner if you had just said that we would be seeing more of you, Willow.”

  “Well I had too much fun, playing Vaesen, catching criminals. So I had to figure out a way to come back. Maybe you could get in a fight with the church lady again. It’d be great for our new business venture if you could get us on the news again."

  “You're right about that, business went up around thirty percent and it hasn’t dropped off at all. But Zoe said her business dropped off by about twenty percent after we were on TV.”

  “Laura, that wasn’t your fault, it was the horrible church lady’s fault. You were just smart enough to save Lucy.”

  “Yeah, but it wouldn’t have gone so well if you weren’t a genius. So what do you need from me? I still have a writers workshop running tomorrow. But I have two part timers. So tell me your plan for Monday and we’ll try and prepare as best we can tomorrow.”

  She told me her plan and I called for everybody to come to the counter.

  “Zoe, do you have any kind of inventory for your store at all?”

  “No, Laura. The only order in the store is by genre for fiction and by subject for non fiction. At the prices I was paying for a book and selling it, it just didn’t make any sense to invest in expensive software. If someone came in looking for a particular book, I’d just direct them to the appropriate bookcase that it was supposed to be in.”

  “If they called to see if I had a book, which didn’t really happen a lot. I’d do my best to find it. But if they came in I’d direct them to the proper section, which worked pretty well, because they’d often stumble upon another book they wanted as they searched for the one they originally came in for. So for my store not having an inventory was a feature not a bug. Whereas your store is a lot more professional, a real bookstore.”

  “Zoe, If you had to guess how many books do you think you have?”

  “I honestly have no idea, thousands but how many thousands I’m not sure.”

  “Alright, can you, three work overtime tonight? You can order pizza on me.”

  They all agreed.

  “Okay, the best way to do this is to take a notebook, have one person sit with the notebook, the other two split the store in half and start opposite each other. Count ten books then shout to the notetaker. The notetaker when you hit fifty books mark with a diagonal slash. That will make it easy to tally them all at the end. When you get tired of one job then just switch off. We just want a count and we want to keep them by genre, they aren’t going into our computer. We’ll keep the books that you guys already moved but that’s it. We’ll have a small used section from now on but we won’t expand beyond that. We are now co-owners of a used bookstore and the other owner will be here Monday morning to take the majority of the stock. Whatever she can’t fit, We’ll try to fit into our stock room, then we’ll have to use the boathouse. But it’s damp out there so we'll put our worst books out there. By worst, I mean in the worst of condition. Not like the worst as in Trump’s “Art of the Deal.”

  “What about the store Laura?”

  “It’s okay Lucy, they are doing marketing at the workshop, and I hate that anyway, so I’ll just cover the store, no big deal. If you guys can get it all counted tonight, Zoe you and Lis can box up as many books as we have empty boxes for. Then Monday, they’ll go onto the bus.”

  “But Laura, you haven’t told us where the used bookstore is going to be?”

  “It’s going to be everywhere, Willow has an intricate flight plan for the bus, or I’m sure she will by Monday. The new store's name is “The Urge to Read” . It's named after the VW microbus in Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip and if you want to understand Willow and the new store I recommend that you read it. We have a copy in the Fantasy section. It probably should be in the Literary Fiction section but we don’t have one of those so I put it in fantasy because it has a sentient VW microbus and a dragon on the cover.”

  “Dibbs,” Lucy yelled and ran to the fantasy section to find it. “You guys can read it after me if you like.”

  ***

  Then they were all gone. I did envy Zoe trying to keep up with Lis and Lucy. But while I didn’t have a customer at the moment, I went over to the new endcaps they had put up to hold the used books already brought over. We must have at least a couple hundred used books for our customers to browse through now. Next we’ll get the eBook room finished while Lucy is still on summer vacation. I’ll have to ask Willow if she wants to sell and or give away free eBooks in ‘The Urge to Read’

  Jeez, my life used to be calm, hardly any customers and I got to read all day. Since I caught Lucy shoplifting my life has gotten so busy and complicated, I haven’t had time to read in the store at all lately. As I put the last of the new used books on their shelves. The door chimed, so I walked back to the counter. Eve was standing by the register. I hope she has good news.

  “Laura, you haven’t committed any new felonies while I was gone have you?”

  “No, Eve, I don’t think so?”

  “Wonderful, well you two are off the hook for the ones you committed earlier today. You may be called to trial if it ever comes to that. But that’s it. The assistant district attorney assures me that they will take it from here.”

  “That is wonderful news, thank you so much. I did want to talk to you today about something else. The third floor is done, so we are going to start having people move in here and over at Amy’s house. My question is would you prefer to live here with more of the writers or three new ones?”

  “I hope you are going to vet this batch better than the workshop vetting.”

  “I’m not doing anything, it’s entirely up to you writers, who gets to move in. But I will tell Bianca tomorrow after the workshop, about our issues this weekend. You are one of ours now so you get as much say as anyone else. I hope you are moving in here with us, then we can put four of the new writers in Amy’s.”

  “Yes, Laura, I think it’s a good idea to move in here. You get into enough trouble you’d be better off with legal counsel on the premises at all times.”

  “Eve, I promise this is the last time. I’m done with all this mystery and investigation stuff. It cuts too deeply into my reading time.”

  “Are you kidding, you are giving me fodder for mysteries, for years to come. I don’t want you to stop, that’s why I’m moving into the eye of the hurricane so I have a better view. So what’s the next plan for the collective?”

  “Well eventually I’d like to fix up the boathouse so you guys can run these workshops year round. You still could run smaller ones during the cold weather, maybe limit it to four guests. But for now the boathouse will have to wait, Willow and I are starting a new venture. I feel like Christopher Morley, we are going to have a traveling hippie bookstore. Willow will be here Monday to pick up the books.”

  “A ‘Parnassus on Wheels’ you mean?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Well I’ll be happy to draw up the contracts for you, if Anais hasn’t already done so.”

  “Oh, I don’t want any contracts between us, if Willow wants a contract that’s fine, but I trust her completely. I always thought that people who were getting married and required a contract to do so, would be much better off not getting married. So if I thought I needed a contract to go into business with Willow, I just wouldn’t do it.”

  “But you have contracts for the collective writers don’t you.”

  “Yes but not really with me, I want the collective to be more independent. I want it to survive long after I’m gone. But that is now up to you writers to figure out. ‘The Urge to Read’ that is for Lucy and Willow to figure out after I’m gone.