Dear Loved Ones,
I've been meaning to make this offer for quite some time, and I'm finally ready to step into my coveralls, slip on the leather gloves, and get down to it:
Any of you who are currently-paid subscribers to this blog, I'd like to treat you to a signed copy of The Best of Best American Erotica 2008.
It's my last edition of the series, and it's a humdinger. I chose all my favorite erotic stories from the past fifteen years, plus my favorite new writers who I thought could stand right up to the competition.
Just send me your address by this weekend, with the Subject Line: BAE08, and I'll get cracking in my "shipping department," on Monday. I won't stop until the packing tape runs out! And yes, the postage and lipstick smudges are on me, as well.
Let me know if you'd like a PDF, or a paperback copy, and email me your proper address to ship, or email, your book to.
If YOU would like to be a sponsoring subscriber to Susie Bright's Journal, and get presents in the mail like this on a regular basis, here's how:
You pay $5 a month, or $60 for a one year subscription. There's more than one way to do it. You can cancel whenever you want. But hopefully you will be pleased as punch!
Whenever I have a new book out, or a some fun new toy, like my Clits Up! buttons, or Girly Cards, I will always spread the luv!
But more than that, by pressing a few coins in my palm, you support the ideas and writing of this blog, which I'm sure you know, are not remotely available in the mainstream media— what's left of it.
Sometimes the numbers here stagger me. I've written 700 stories for my blog, edited and published almost 8,000 comments, and passed the five million visitors mark some time ago. Yet honestly, the engine doesn't turn over without...you!
Writers didn't used to busk on the Internet streets for income, when there was a thriving magazine and newspaper business. Less than ten years ago, I would've pointed my readers to my latest story in Ms. Magazine, or Rolling Stone, or Playboy. No reader would have thought it odd to pay for a periodical. The publishers expected to pay their writers; what a concept!
Sure, beginners struggled to get in the publishing world, but once you were in the trade, it was as believable a craft and profession as being an... autoworker. Or a lumber mill worker. You get the the idea. It's like the La Brea Tar Pits.
Writers today are trying all kinds of crazy things to stay alive— blogging, like I do, is one of those endeavors. My work is read, and duplicated and downloaded by millions today— and truly, all I need is a few hundred of those readers to buy me the equivalent of a cup of coffee and a cookie once a month.
I've written on the publishing crisis before, but if you're familiar with what's happened in other "disappearing" American industries, you understand the general storyline. At every level, from the airport-bestseller novelists to the struggllng first-timers, there's been a massive drop in sales and opportunities to earn income as an author. The great middle is the group who's in the most shock, because they were accustomed— for a century!— to making a modest living with their skill and talent, and now, they're feeling like "Beauty School Drop Out."
I know, it feels odd to send a token payment directly to a writer. We're used to paying the distributors, the middlemen, the supermarket tabloid. But I'm a changed woman. Every time I feel like picking up the National Enquirer, I pinch myself, go home, and Paypal the same amount to a blogger I love!
And the response you get when you do.... we're so grateful. You'll never get a tongue bath from the tabloids like you'll get from an independent blogger!. We send you our new books, we write personal letters, our eyes light up to face another day.... Uh oh! Better not lay it too thick! But it's all rather painfully true.
Meanwhile, as I get out my autographing fountain pen, let me know if any of you want a book by Sunday, okay? I'll be doing a big ship-out early next week.
Susie
