Roger Alan Bonner's Blog

Now that the election is behind us, I am running a three-week promo: from February 3 to February 24, THE VOTE TRADER will be free at most major ebook platforms.

THE VOTE TRADER is a novella, a warm little adult story in social science fiction. Hector, a gray market financial expert, lives in Brooklyn. Though apolitical, he loves and lives with Sarah, a political operator trying to defeat New York’s corrupt senior Senator. When New York allows residents to buy and sell votes in political elections, Hector dives into the turbulent mix of money and power. Hijinks ensue, and Hector’s greed runs face-first into his sense of humanity and community.

I hope that people will read THE VOTE TRADER and provide a rating and a brief candid review to Goodreads and/or their ebook platform.

THE VOTE TRADER can be found at:

Amazon The Vote Trader – Kindle edition by Bonner, Roger Alan. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Angus & Robertson The Vote Trader | Angus & Robertson

Apple ‎The Vote Trader on Apple Books

Barnes The Vote Trader by Roger Alan Bonner | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Books2read https://books2read.com/u/b5krX7

Kobo The Vote Trader eBook by Roger Alan Bonner – 9781393675167 | Rakuten Kobo United States

Mondadori.it The Vote Trader – Roger Alan Bonner – eBook – Mondadori Store

Scribd Read The Vote Trader Online by Roger Alan Bonner | Books (scribd.com)

Thalia.de The Vote Trader von Roger Alan Bonner – eBook | Thalia

Vivlio.fr The Vote Trader – Roger Alan Bonner – Vivlio – Librairie ebook

Thanks much. Happy reading.

Roger Alan Bonner

Hi folks,

As some of you might know, I wrote a science fiction series, the Belt Stories. Originally, there were four volumes, beginning with Milky Way Tango, ending with Milky Way Gala. You might have noticed, volume three, “Milky Way March,” has been missing.

Not to worry. The material from Milky Way March has been moved into the other volumes. Several readers complained that the volumes were too short. Proceeding on my belief that the customer is always – repeat, always – right, I removed the third volume and made the other volumes longer.

Problem solved.

You see, that’s a great thing about e-books, especially for a new author. If readers want a different presentation than the original, it’s easy to give that to them. So over time, the series or the novel gets better. It also lets an author use reader comments and reviews to improve the book.

So, a plea to all readers: if you like a book, especially an ebook by a new author, please write a review. Three sentences is all it takes – one to describe the story, another to say what you liked, a third to say what you did not like. Learn pith.

And don’t tell me to piss on pith. That joke is older than I am.

Seriously, even a few sentences can help the author improve the book.

I should admit, by means of disclosure, I do not act on every comment I receive. But neither do I complain or argue. Remember…

… the customer is always right.

Thanks for reading. Roger Alan Bonner

Hey, folks,

I wish to announce, I’m editing a new two-volume science fiction story. At this writing, the story occupies 850 pages. The lead volume (of two) is entitled “Thirds.” Its underlying theme is discrimination based on physical characteristics such as race or sex. I hope to begin first sales of both volumes on or near December 1.

Does everyone remember “Prince and the Pauper,” by Mark Twain? Twain used that story to criticize the plight of the poor in eighteenth-century Britain. The book generated such discussion and distaste that it led the British to improve their treatment of the poor. It is an ingenious story, written with courage and beauty.

Twain used individual perspective to carry his story – in London, there are two adolescent boys who, though unrelated, look and sound like identical twins. One is a crown prince of England; the other, a pauper living on the streets of London. As a critical narrative device, through an accident the two exchange places, the prince thrown onto the streets and the pauper installed in the Royal Court.

The reader then sees both the streets and the Royal Palace through the eyes of a visitor, an alien, if you will.

“Thirds” aspires to do something similar with respect to discrimination. In this story, humans have become a space-faring race and are exploring the galaxy. They encounter a tri-sexual society called Surana, where biological reproduction relies on cooperation among three distinct sexes – males, females, and tris (thus the title). The humans and the Suranans begin to pursue normal cultural, political, and economic relations. Driven largely but not entirely by the biology of the two species, a political environment, with imperatives and obstacles, develops. In this environment the story takes its course, with occasional shocks from biological events and news.

What I like about the story is that biology and politics drive the characters and the plot. I just think that’s cool.

If this sounds like your cup of tea – sorry, I’m on a British kick this week; do they still drink tea, or is that a stupid question? – then look for “Thirds” around December 1 at Amazon, Apple, Walmart (Kobo), Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Draft2Digital.

In the meantime, stay safe and keep reading something you enjoy.

Roger

Hey Guys and Girls,

I’ve never used beta readers on my books, not that I haven’t tried. I have encountered people saying they’re willing to read a rough draft, but they never actually got around to it. Maybe you get what you pay for. Since I am a new writer, I cannot pay much.

I thought, now that I have this blog, maybe I could use that to find a beta reader. I recently finished the first draft of a two-volume science fiction series entitled “Thirds.” The perspective of the story is political/socio-economic. In other words, it’s not about rocket ships and rapacious aliens.

Here’s how it goes: humanity has become a space culture, busily exploring the galaxy with those technologies necessary for that. They encounter another space society, and the two begin to become acquainted. The basic political considerations, from each side, seem promising, and the two investigate their prospects for normal relations (cultural exchange, tourism, trade, security alliance, etc.).

However, the other society – the Suranans, of Surana, in the Orion Nebula – are tri-sexual. In other words, their reproductive biology requires that three distinct sexual types coordinate in order to reproduce. This single condition creates a petri dish for racial discrimination and social stratification. Moreover, this condition greatly influences the overall political perspective of each society and thereby affects the robustness and the ability of that society to survive.

And that is what I really like about this story. I can say that without revealing the plot.

So, if that sounds like your cup of tea, let me know. The first draft will not be available for a couple months – I do not release anything without a substantial edit. But if you might be interested, let me know. I would love to have some early comments on the story.

A note: the story will be only in English for the time being, but I am particularly interested in the comments of those for whom English is not their first language. In particular, my writing style tends to be quite simple, and I want to know how it plays for a foreign speaker.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe.

Roger Alan Bonner

Hi folks,

I recently made some changes to the Belt stories, and I’m writing to address potential confusion about that. The Belt Stories was a four-volume science fiction series. Well, one reader wrote a bad review of the first volume, Milky Way Tango, because it was short. I guess she was used to a novel being longer than 230 pages. She also complained that the volume was written to induce the reader to buy volume two.

She was right about that.

I did not take it seriously at first. After all, the first volume was discounted to 99 cents, so where’s the harm? Then I reminded myself – the customer is always right. So, I reformatted the series into three volumes. Milky Way March, the third volume, disappeared, and its content moved into the other adjacent books (Milky Way Boogie and Milky Way Gala). Milky Way Tango became longer as well.

Here’s a glitch – these books used subtitles to indicate their position in the series, e.g. Milky Way Tango, volume one of the Belt Stories. Amazon does not permit a change in the subtitle of a book.

Consequently, though “volume three” of the series has disappeared, the content of the stories is the same as before.

I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks for reading.

Hey Guys and Girls,

I just thought I would announce a price cut. I have four full-length novels out there. They were priced at $2.99. From now on, the prices will be $1.99. I think the original prices were too high, especially given the pandemic.

My friends tell me that readers don’t buy on price. Well, just between you and me – I’m a reader, and I definitely buy on price. I like to scope around for new authors who write well and price low. Edward Robertson comes to mind (awesome sci-fi and fantasy). That’s a bit of a hobby.

A brief aside, and I’ll let you go. No surprise, I buy ebooks. The last time I bought a paper book was several years ago. I was in a well-known, bricks-and-mortar bookstore in USA (we have one left), and I found a really nice, leather-bound edition of Dickens’s novels for $20. This book was a bit of a brick, but it was a beautiful brick. Engraved leather binding, shiny, gold-embossed pages, red satin page marker.

I was in love, so I bought the thing. I still have it. However, when I tried to sit down and read Oliver Twist, it was difficult because the print was so small (I’m an old guy, so it’s beginning to be an issue).

You know, Dickens did tend to run on at times – that means small print.

Anyway, I clicked myself to a large, well-known ebook supplier and found the collected works of Charles Dickens in an ebook for $2.95, as I recall. That’s the one I read because you can adjust the print.

The ebook is handy, but the print book is beautiful. One is a computer file; the other is art.

Read on, rock on, and stay safe.

Roger

Hi Guys and Girls,

I hope everyone is staying safe. That’s all I’ll say about the virus.

It occurred to me – late, I admit – that folks could not use my blog to contact me. That’s not good, since I really enjoy – and sometimes cherish – comments from readers, even negative comments. The customer is always right, right? I was slow off the mark because my provider offered email and other services through a third party, but I don’t trust the third party.

So, I set up an email account for anyone wishing to make contact. It is

rogeralanbonnerwriter@outlook.com. Easy to remember, don’t you think?

If you send me an email, I might re-post your comments so that anyone can read them. But if you ask me not to, then I won’t.

I might clean up the language, if necessary. If your topic strays outside of writing, I might keep your comments private (unless they’re really amusing).

I should admit, I’m not much of a blogger. There are a couple reasons – first, I really enjoy writing fiction, and I try to save time to do that. Second, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen; I’d like to spend less time doing that, not more.

Roger Alan Bonner

Hey Guys and Girls,

I’m sponsoring a promotion. Between December 5 and 24, Milky Way Tango will be free at Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Amazon usually matches a price cut, and I hope they do this time as well.

Tango is the first of a four-volume science fiction romance. If you like strong women, clever men, and ingenuity under duress, you might like Tango.

Check it out.

And Happy Holidays.

RAB

You learn something new every day. One thing I’ve always known is that my books are not for everybody. I think that’s true of almost all writers.

But lately, I’ve learned more – I’ve learned that I can predict who will like each book. I have a number of reviews now, and I noticed that men give my novel “A Thing of Dark Imaginings” (a.k.a. Dark Imaginings) higher marks than women do. That difference is reversed for “Milky Way Tango,” which women seem to like more than men.

Without discussing the plot, I think I can tell you what I think of my characters. Just my opinion, you see, and that may account for the different ratings. In Dark Imaginings, the male protagonist is psychotic; the men reading the book did not mind that, which I find interesting. On the other hand, the protagonist’s wife is a bit of a Boob. She’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. The women didn’t like that, so they dropped their grades a bit.

In the opposite direction, there are two protagonists in Milky Way Tango; they are lovers, a man and a woman. I think the man is the simpler character; the guy is a total boy scout, a brilliant, do-the-right-thing kind of guy. Well, the men did not like that much. However, the other protagonist, his girlfriend, is more complex; she is a woman who has a variety of experiences, good and bad, and no one would describe her as a girl scout. And the women like that.

So, here’s what I think – it’s an interesting, complicated, shades-of-gray world, populated by those with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. And readers like it that way. Those kind of people are fun.

That fits some of the people I like to hang out with.

Happy Holidays to all.

Earlier this week, I took part in an online discussion among writers, on the challenges of promoting ebooks. We generally agreed that there are so many ebooks out there that getting noticed is a near impossible accident having little to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of one’s writing.

I think we can all agree, there are good and bad writers out there, and good and bad literature. And I think we can all agree to disagree as to which ones are good and which ones are bad.

I didn’t think any of this was news, but others found this discovery troubling.

After that conversation, I reflected on the fact that fiction copyrights, at least in the USA, last seventy years beyond the death of the author. So maybe copyright law is set up rather like inheritance taxes on the Deferred Payment Plan. You’ll get your benefits, just later – maybe much later – than you might have hoped for.

Does it follow that the writer should not expect to enjoy the fruits of his or her labor, but rather take warmth from the thought that descendants might? That’s worth something, I suppose.

And then I reminded myself, life is a journey, not a destination. And that’s good. At this writing, I’m offering one of my ebooks for free, a promotion lasting three weeks. The book, Milky Way Tango, is the first of a four volume series – sci-fi romance – combining titillation and fantasy (remind you of anything?).

I don’t mind offering books for free. After all, it’s a good way to get the book out there, and maybe get people talking about it, and maybe even get a few reviews, which might lead to further sales. Or not.

That might look like a sacrifice, but it’s not. After all, it’s not as if the ebook sells for $100. It sells for less. Much less.

Normally, I price my novel-length ebooks at $2.99. I just checked, and that gets me off the Dollar Menu while undercutting the Big Mac. At first, I found that thought depressing – McDonald’s gets more for a hamburger than I get for a NOVEL. Now, I like Big Macs as much as the next guy, but what the hell?

Then I thought, wait a sec, the price is not what matters. What matters is the MARKUP. I bet the markup on a Big Mac is a small fraction of its price ($3.99 at this writing). After all, McDonald’s has all sorts of expenses that they must pay to prepare and distribute a Big Mac. Why, there’s bread, and the beef-baking factory, and the condiments – is it really true that the sauce on a Big Mac is designed to be addicting, or is that just another internet rumor? – and the trucking expenses to bring all that to the store, and the costs of all those lights and microwaves, not to mention the costs of building another golden arches location and staffing it to serve the motorized public. And let us not ignore – designing the Big Mac took R&D. That cost money too.

By comparison, I just have to pay an ebooks distributor to post my electronic file and execute downloads anywhere in the world. So compared with the Big Mac, my markups are HUGE! At least, I bet they are, in normal times.

Maybe that’s why there are so many ebooks, though certainly not as many as there are Big Macs.

Apparently, people eat more than they read.

For what it’s worth, I think people would be healthier if they ate less and read more. I know I would be.