I traveled to the Green Mountain State (no passport required!) last week to attend a book club at my friends' house in Shelburne. If you haven't been there, it's worth a visit. Shelburne Farms is right around the corner from their place (which is steps from Lake Champlain). The farm has cute sheep, pigs and chickens, a gorgeous renovated barn, the most beautiful property (if I lived there, I'd be running on those trails every day!), and really great cheese.

I sort of expected the Vermonters to be excited that Vermont was its own country in my book. I picked Vermont because, when I enter the state, I really do feel like it's different somehow. The landscape changes. The people change. It's just different there.

Another woman from Mass had the same sentiments, but the others didn't feel it. It makes me wonder if there's something about Massachusetts that makes people love Vermont.

It was a fun trip, so a big Thank You to Doug and Lisa for hosting me!

On other business, I raised the price of my book today. The word has been getting out about The Blind Pig and a few libraries/bookstores have tried to order the book, only to find that they cannot.

Distribution management is one of the most frustrating things about self-publishing. What I would really like to do is set one price for direct sales through Amazon and CreateSpace, and set a different price for bookstores.

The reason I would like to do this is that the bookstores take a much bigger cut. So I have to raise the price of my book in order to not take a loss on every sale. I should say that I don't actually know who gets what part of the money from each sale. I just know that if the price of the book is $10, I take a loss for each sale to a bookstore. If I set it to $12, I get 19 cents per sale. The cut varies based on trim size (the size of the book) and page count.

The real question is, do I want to be in bookstores? When I first started out, the answer was No. It won't matter. An author friend of mine put it this way: Does it really help readers find me if Barnes and Noble has one copy of my book sitting on a shelf in the back corner?

She's right. It only helps readers who are specifically looking for your book. And based on the amount of time I spent at Borders the other day trying to find "Many Lives, Many Masters" by Brian Weiss (it took a long time, partly because the Paranormal section is hidden back behind the CDs and racks of bookmarks), it may help as much as it frustrates.

(Ok. I will admit that it took a long time partly because I was too embarrassed to ask for directions to the Paranormal section.)

On the other hand…I've also learned that booksellers make a huge difference because they know people. They talk to people. Knowing just one bookseller, my dear friend Jeannie who is, very sadly, closing her shop this month, has made an enormous difference for me. (If you're looking for books in volume, let me know!)

Also when people read a review of my book (like the fantastic review in Boston Book Bums yesterday!), they check the websites of their local bookstores. Borders. Barnes and Noble. Tatnuck Booksellers. The Vermont book club members all turned to The Flying Pig bookstore in Shelburne.

If The Blind Pig isn't listed, the bookstore will look it up. If they don't find it, there is an instant sense of disappointment. A feeling that maybe this book isn't the real thing. A book that a bookstore can't order? What's up with that?

So as of this morning, I've raised the price of The Blind Pig to $12 and I've begun distribution to bookstores. I'm not sure when the book will be listed in the databases they reference but I hope it will be soon.

For my friends and family and my faithful addverses readers, I have set up a discount code that gives you the happy original $10 price. To use it, buy the book here and apply this code — ZLABSVBV — at checkout.

This topic still requires more research, since I know there are other alternatives. When I have a little more time, I'll look into them and adjust accordingly. As with most things in life that aren't scripted, publishing and publicity are never ending cycles of trial, error, and correction.