READERS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN SALES.

Amazing deduction, right? So why did it take me 3 months to arrive at this conclusion.

Fear, probably, is the biggest reason. ePub is all ready looked at as being less legit than 'legacy publishing' so why devalue my writing even more? $2.99 isn't $17.99, but it sure as heck isn't a giveaway. $2.99 is J.A. Konrath's magic number, and if that's good enough for him it's good enough for me.

At some point between Monday morning and last night it occurred to me that I wasn't writing to make money. Maybe it had something to do with summer idealism and the ability to write in a stress-free environment for the next few months. Most likely the angle of the sun and the smell of honeysuckle in the evening reminded me of all the good things that come with summer. Playing my guitar in our porch swing. Fireflys. Getting muddy on some of West Virginia's finest singletrack.

Dave Matthews Band.

What?

Yup. Going back to 1994 or 1995, Dave Matthews Band had been my official summer soundtrack, and even if I don't listen to them nearly as much as I used to, something about this time of year makes me want to hear stuff from the first 2 or 3 CDs again.

I didn't get into Dave until CRASH came out, and by then he was certainly mainstream. But I knew that tapes of his early live shows existed, and tried to get my hands on some of the more legendary ones. DMB's early manager, Coran Capshaw, had toured extensively with the Grateful Dead and knew the importance letting tapers record and distribute, through one-to-one trades, Dave Matthews Band's early shows. Students from Charlottesville and Richmond came to their first concerts knowing the words to most or all of Dave's songs. Students from Richmond and UVA would pass out tapes to friends at other universities so when the band showed up for the first time at a city they'd never played in, they played to full houses of fans who knew all the words.

DMB gave their music away, because they knew the importance of building those relationships, something I'd forgotten until the sounds of the summer city waking up through an open window shook me back into reason.

So I'm dropping the price of THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK to $0.99 on Amazon and Smashwords (because Amazon won't let you give the book away, and Heidi says it should have some value) for the next few weeks. All I ask is that, if you like the book, tell somebody about it by leaving a review or sharing it with somebody who'll read it. If you're on Goodreads write a brief review or talk about it on a message board. If you bought it on Amazon leave a few words saying what you liked, or didn't. Doesn't have to be a doctoral dissertation. Just a few lines.

As a thank you I'm going to start posting my next book, HELLBENDER, chapter by chapter here on the blog. Look for the tab at the top of the page by the end of the day.

And to everybody who has read the book and has said kind things to me or to others about the book-thank you! These interactions are the reason I'm dropping the price. Down the road these will have more value than any money I would've gotten from sales.