It's 9AM
Can you spare a dollar?
It’s weird the way we think about money, right?
I used to drop $1 on a Coke without a second thought.
.99 book, sign me up.
Even if I didn’t know the author, a buck was a good trade for trying something new.
We watched a kid play his violin on the edge of a Kroger parking lot and drove over to put a few dollar bills in his tip jar once.
And we tip every waiter, waitress and bartender who happens to serve us.
Usually without blinking.
So when someone asks for a buck in trade for entertaining us, we shouldn’t bat an eye.
Except we do.
Maybe it’s the plethora of choices we have when it comes to how we spend our time.
I didn’t grumble a bit when Netflix moved from 6.99 to 9.99 because they give me a lot of what I like to watch.
Until they went heavy international and now my choice of new flicks are leaning heavy Korean.
That’s okay, maybe I’ll indulge an Asian kink and watch some of it. (Squid Game, Train to Busan) and/or ignore the rest.
Prime just jumped from $11 to $16, and I’m reconsidering my Amazon options.
Their CEO is pissing me off, and costing me money with his bad decision making or inability to make a decision, which is worse.
But rather than bore you with stock talk, or small business talk (I have an idea for you if you don’t know what your next biz is) I want to talk about my very small book business.
I give away a ton of stuff.
A lot.
That’s probably how we met.
The hope is, you like something enough to go buy the next one, or some other one because I write in:
And I FREAKING LOVE making stories and making things to entertain you.
I know when it’s gonna work because I laugh out loud or I sniffle back a tear.
Maybe my kink isn’t Asian after all, it’s entertainment.
I like creating stuff.
I also really like talking about it and growing up and all the things in It’s 9AM.
Like my childhood sci fi crush on Battlestar Galactica yesterday, or the one that touched a lot of you, eating government cheese.
Yesterday, I made a brand new free story you can read on my wordpress site.
I put up THE MIDNIGHT COVEN after someone told me that Medium limits how you can view free stories! (I knew this, but it was back burner knowledge, not me trying to hold back or get extra $$)
I also moved five micro-stories over to clowrybooks on wordpress so you can read them free too.
Plus I wrote a substack for you AND I created two videos you can watch on Youtube for Free.
I wrote two more free stories for you that are getting posted on Thursday and Friday.
AND I worked on two novels for you, both coming out next week.
In marketing, you’re never supposed to say “I”, but always say “You” because people think it’s selfish.
Except…
All the work I do, I do for You.
So when I say we, it’s us.
And so when I say things like, buy a book, or get me coffee, you should know it’s going toward all the things YOU can enjoy.
If you send me a buck, I try to get good covers, and pay for editing and post some/all of the story for free.
I combine it with other bucks from folks, so it hits a number and then I can pay the bill.
And since Amazon stopped paying me back in February because of a misunderstanding with Substack and driving traffic toward a free book, the paying of the book bills has become a little longer.
That’s why I try to get you to upgrade on Substack. So we can do more stuff for you.
That’s why I pimp my other books in the backlist for the series, so I can do more stuff for you.
I experiment, change covers, change genres, and try stuff to find what works best for entertaining you.
Because that’s my number one goal.
And I want to do more of our goal.
BTW, I hate asking. It feels like begging, and seriously, with 102 books in the backlist going out to 5000 folks a day, the numbers should work toward being sufficient.
Except they don’t for some reason.
Which is my opportunity. I get to experiment to find out why, and what works and how to turn it into an easy to manage automated operation where:
I write a new book, put it in, and repeat.
I write a new story, put it in the rotation, and it works!
But for now, I have to ask.
Can you send me $1.
Several hundred of you who are reading and enjoy and want to support what we’re doing for 4 quarters?
If you’ve upgraded Substack or bought a book recently, then this isn’t for you. It’s for the many others.
Unless you want to buy a book, in which case, the list is below.
Or want to upgrade to a paid substack subscription, which gets you free books every single week and more.
Or just send me $1.
For:
Nova Mesa – a free sci fi audiobook
The Midnight Coven – a free urban fantasy book
Six Gun Justice – a western adventure audiobook
PLUS
Six Gun Serenade – a classic western adventure
The Orion Factor – a sci fi action adventure tale
Shadow Spell – an urban fantasy action tale
That’s like .13 cents a story! With more being added today, so stay tuned.
Come on, let’s make this happen.
Don’t forget:
Also: you can email me at Chrislowrybooks@gmail.com
Hello Chris,
Okay, I bought you a cup of coffee ($1.00). I hope you enjoy. I raise my cup, freshly ground, black and steaming just like I like it. That first sip ah now that's nice. My day starts at 2 am. I get up and the house is quiet, peaceful. I like to write then. My first hour is spent reading what I wrote before. I have short-term memory loss, so my memories never make it to long term. This is what I have to do every day to remember. I find grammar, sentence structure errors and before I know it; I am engrossed in the story. It builds itself around me, block by block, chapter after chapter. Time passes. Before I know it, 4 am my lovely wife is up and then the kids. Time to stop, but I don't want to. 7 am, Responsibility, kids call me away. It's like leaving a piece of myself behind, leaving that story on the screen. Tomorrow I will do it again. I wish sometimes to just do it all day. But there is that big bully in the room called responsibility. With a sigh, I save and close it down. Tomorrow, my love, I shall return as I brush my fingertips lightly across the now darkened keyboard and walk away.
Until tomorrow, looking forward to your next 9 am email.
James Winter