It's Just Bad Business

Now, this is only peripherally a writerly type post, but bear with me...

Earlier this week, I got an email from Goodreads telling me that I have a credit on my marketing account or some such thing and that I needed to do something about it. 

First off, I thought it was a spoof email and I sure as hell wasn't clicking any links* in it.  Why did I think it was a spoof?  Because, to the best of my knowledge, I had never marketed with Goodreads or put any money into an account with them, so how could I have a credit?

Well, it turns out that at some point in 2015, I had done something.  My best guess?  They offered me a $1 credit to play with.  So, I used the credit to set up an ad for Dying Embers.  One person clicked the ad and then the ad was done.  Leaving a whopping 50c in my account with them.

According to the email, that 50c is going to become the property of the state of Delaware if I don't claim it.  (From what I gathered, I can contact support at Goodreads and have the money transferred into my bank account.)

Delaware?  But Goodreads is in CA.  Hubs says a lot of companies incorporate in DE, so that explains that.  :shrug:

Anyway, I've already wasted more than 50c of my time dealing with this, so I moved the email into the Archives so I wouldn't have to look at it anymore. But it stayed in my head. 

This is bad business.  It's also bad government, but I won't get into that here.  Think about it... Goodreads - a business - offers its customers a credit (not real money) to encourage sales of its marketing but when the credit isn't used in its entirety, they're willing to send the remaining credit as actual money to either the customer or, according to the laws of the state of Delaware, to the state of Delaware.  But it was never actual money.

I never gave Goodreads my account number.  I never transferred any money to them via bank or credit card.  It's not my money.

And it's not the state of Delaware's money.

It's Goodreads' own money.  Because even though it wasn't actual money when they gave me the credit, it's actual money now - ready to be plopped into a bank account somewhere.  Sure, it's only 50c for me.  But what if 1000 authors received the $1 credit and never put it to use?  10000?  Now we're talking money any one of us would certainly like in our own pockets.  Drop in the bucket for Goodreads, right?  Probably, but that's not the point.  It's bad business. 

And it's bad government because I'm sure this thing where they're offering to give the money back - well, not really 'back', per se - is driven by some strange ass law in DE. 

Part of me wants to claim the damn 50c because I don't want the state of Delaware to have it.  It doesn't belong to them.  But it doesn't belong to me either.  It belongs to silly-ass Goodreads.  And it always has.

Frankly, I'm surprised that a business like Goodreads would make such a gaff.  Especially since it's now owned by Amazon.  But the credit was given before the takeover, so maybe that's the answer.  :shrug:

Any of you get a letter like that from Goodreads?  Have you ever used Goodreads to market anything?  How'd that work for you?

* I don't click links in emails unless I know exactly who it's from, why I'm getting a link, and where it's going to take me.  In this case, I went directly to Goodreads and checked my marketing account (not easy to find, BTW) to verify that the email was correct.  No link clicking necessary.

Events and Fears

This morning I read another excellent post over at Elizabeth Spann Craig's blog - 3 Things You're Probably Not Doing on Goodreads That You Should.  And I hung my head in shame.  They're really not hard things to do and as into Goodreads as I am, I probably should've already been doing them. 

To that end, I created an event for my upcoming sale on the Dennis Haggarty Mysteries.  If you got an invite, great.  If you didn't, you can click the link and join along.  It's my first 'event', so don't be surprised if I did something wrong. 

Now, as for invites.  I sat here for the longest time, trapped in a fearful place and wondering whether I should send invites at all.  I really don't want to irritate people.  Really.  Don't.  So much so that I am loathe to send invites to anybody for anything. 

And that is really stupid on my part. 

People follow me on Goodreads and Facebook because they WANT TO KNOW what's going on with me and/or my books.  So it stands to reason that receiving an invite from me would not be irritating.  Right?

So, I bit the bullet and invited like 200 people.  Pretty much everyone I'm friends with (with the exception of one super bestselling author and one gal I know did not have a fond appreciation for AD.)  If you got an invite, feel free to share it around. 

If you don't follow me on Goodreads, please do.  I'll try to be more active on there. And I'll try not to be such a putz when it comes to inviting you to things.  Hell, I haven't even invited my friends on FB to like my Pages.  Derp.  Maybe I'll suck it up and do that over the weekend.  Baby steps.

News and Stuff

AWE (Awesome Wonderful Editor) got my edits back to me yesterday morning.  I hit them hard last night and I'm already through chapter 3, so I'm ahead of schedule to meet my self-imposed deadline of September 14th.  If I get it done sooner, you'll get a chance to buy it sooner.  Yay!

If you want an Advance Review Copy - one without all of the final edits, but still pretty much done - let me know and I'll shoot you a PDF.  I give you a copy, you give me an honest review.  K?

Oh, and since I didn't mention it, it's the ARC for Up Wish Creek (Once Upon a Djinn #3).  Here's the blurb I came up with:

For Jo Mayweather, genie life is far from perfect, but it was finally beginning to settle down after the incident where she accidentally glassed over part of the Florida Panhandle.  Her enemies have been quiet.  The Djinn Council has left her alone.  Her traitorous ex-lover has disappeared.  Finally, she has time to figure out who’s behind the conspiracy to ruin her life.  But setting her feet on that trail means discovering things from her past she’d rather not know, facing her parents in their newest incarnations, and getting a mission from the gods that she’s not sure she can complete.  All in a day’s work, right?  Sometimes Jo wishes she had a different occupation.  Too bad wishes don’t work that way.

It's up at Goodreads, if you want to add it to your 'Want to Read' list.

Right now, the other two books in the series - Wish in One Hand and In Deep Wish - are still 99 cents each.  I'll be making Up Wish Creek 99 cents, too, but only for a limited time.  Shop early, shop often.  Of course, when I raise prices again, they'll only be $2.99 each, so if you miss the sale, you won't be killing yourself.

I will be putting a newsletter out.  Eventually.  It'll have stuff in it.  If you want to see what kinds of stuff, click the newsletter button up there near the top, fill out the form, submit.  Easy peasy. 

And just for reading all the way to here, I'll give you a chance to win a paperback copy of one of my books.  Just comment and I'll draw a name next week. 

Goodreads Contest, Etc.

For those of you who don't follow me elsewhere, I had a Goodreads contest start this morning for a paperback copy of BloodFlow.  It's so pretty in paperback form.  All shiny and new.  Well, not shiny, since it has a matte cover.  But it's definitely pet-able. 

452 pages of thrillery goodness.  Signed by me.  Natch.  And although the contest doesn't say so, it'll have a postcard and a bookmark along with it.  (Not mentioned because I didn't have those in hand when I set up the contest.  But I have them now.  Yay.) 

The postcards are basically the cover on one side with the blurb on the other and plenty of space if you want to send it to someone.  The bookmarks highlight all four of my books this time.  Basically, the image is the same as my FB Page header:

With contact info on the back. 

Anyway, that's about it today.  Oh, wait, I did get In Deep Wish to the Awesome Wonderful Editor last night.  So, I've got that going for me.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you're interested in receiving a postcard or a bookmark, say so in the comments and I'll do some kind of drawing.  I'll send out five.  If I get less than five comments, everyone wins.  More than five, I'll draw names out of a hat or something. 

Have a great day!  Me, I'm going to take the day off.  Read something, maybe.  Veg in front of the TV.  I'll still be around the computer, but no workie for me.  (Okay, probably some marketing because I can't help it.)