AA RReeaaddeerr''ss RRooaaddmmaapp FFoorr TThhee 2211sstt CCeennttuurryy Sick of reading re-hashed versions of last year's best seller? Tired of reaching page 20 of your favourite author's latest, only to realize you've read something like this before? The maverick’s guide to finding bloody good fiction -- no matter where you are! by Tracy Cooper-Posey A Reader’s Roadmap 2 About the Author. Tracy Cooper-Posey has been writing popular fiction since she saw the original Star Wars movie and was so moved by it, she wrote an unofficial sequel. She’s been trying to move audiences the way George Lucas touched her soul, ever since. She had the great good fortune to have been born in Australia, travelled extensively, and lived in two other countries, besides. Now a resident of Canada, she has been able to dig deep into English-speaking popular fiction around the globe. She’s a national award winning author of fourteen titles, including e- books, hard covers, POD titles, mass market paperbacks, and two trade paperbacks released by the Canadian publisher, Turnstone Press. You can find details about all her novels at her website: http://www.TracyCooperPosey.com. You can email her at [email protected]. This electronic edition. First published April 2005. This edition published January 2007 Copyright © Tracy Cooper-Posey 2007 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Tracy Cooper-Posey www.TracyCooperPosey.com A Reader’s Roadmap 3 Contents. ABOUT THE AUTHOR. 2 This electronic edition. 2 CONTENTS. 3 WELCOME TO A BRAVE NEW WORLD. 4 Why you can't find anything new on the shelves. 6 The real problem. 6 Where to find damned good fiction. 9 Buying Paperbacks On-Line. 10 Lend Me Your Ears. 13 HOW YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE CAN HELP YOU. 15 PAYING THE PIPER. 15 PAYING THE PIPER. 16 Put it into practice now. 18 RESOURCES. 18 RESOURCES. 19 Rating the publishers on-line. 19 Publishers in alphabetical order. 19 Review sites on-line. 20 On-line Booksellers. 21 Tracy Cooper-Posey www.TracyCooperPosey.com A Reader’s Roadmap 4 Welcome to a Brave New World. As you're taking the time to read this, I feel safe in making some assumptions about you. You’re one of possibly two types of people who may chose to read this. It may be that you don’t read fiction very much, but the title of this booklet has tweaked your curiosity. Possibly, you’re sitting in a doctor’s office or (worse!) dentist’s office, desperately looking for distraction before a moment of pain. (Sorry about the reminder, there!) It’s the idea that you were going to read something about the state of popular fiction in the world today that made you flip the cover. That means that you like reading fiction and probably did read it regularly a long time ago. These days, however, you believe you don’t have time, or have simply got out of the habit for one reason or another. You’ve drifted away from a pleasant occupation and this little booklet has just reminded you of those hours you once spent daydreaming. If this isn’t you, then.... You're a fiction lover. You've been reading novels for years and years, probably since you were turned onto them as a kid, or else you got the bug when you happened to read a damned good novel. Despite when you started reading fiction, the fact is, you can't quite bring yourself to stop reading. Despite busier days, distractions like TV and movies and every electronic device known to man — despite these busier times, you still manage to make your way through a novel or two. You're probably not reading as many novels as you used to. And you've noticed that your keeper shelf is the only thing that hasn't been super-sized recently. (If there's one thing in common with habitual readers, it's that we've all got some sort of “keeper” shelf – even if it's room-sized.) In fact, it's been a while since you read a book that grabbed you so hard you Tracy Cooper-Posey www.TracyCooperPosey.com A Reader’s Roadmap 5 rushed out to buy anything else by that author, now, at once – and told everyone you know about the fabulous book you just read. Actually, come to think of it, it's been a long while since you were thrilled by even your favourite authors. You keep going back to your keeper shelf and re-reading the oldies, sighing over them. You may even have vaguely wished these authors would hurry up and write another one as good so you'd have the pleasure of reading it. But some of your favourite authors seem to be off their stride lately; nothing they write seems to ring with the same joy as the older ones. You wander the aisles of your local bookstore, probably a superstore chain, and lately, you wander with an unsettled feeling; where are all the good books? How am I going to find them in this morass of paper? Why don't I enjoy reading the way I used to? Did I guess right? I know I did, because I'm you, too. I'm a dedicated reader of good stories. I read across the genres; science fiction, romance, mystery, spy thrillers, horror, fantasy and lots in-between and around them. There is nothing, nothing, that equals that blown-away-by-a-book feeling that chokes you up when you finish a great read, is there? Even good sex fails to match the power and compulsion of a tale and characters that linger in your mind for days and weeks. Years later they will pop back to remind you of that fabulous story. I'm like you because I, too, got tired of the same-old-same-old that appears on the bookshelves as the “latest release”. I had a small advantage, however. I'm also a writer, so I could write damned good stories and get my fix that way. But I still missed the joy of reading a book with an ending I didn’t know. Because I'm a writer, though, I learned very quickly where all the good books hang out these days. That's why I'm writing this little essay. I want to pass the information along. I want readers to find new favourite authors and damned good stories. And there is hope. Tracy Cooper-Posey www.TracyCooperPosey.com A Reader’s Roadmap 6 Why you can't find anything new on the shelves. Let me give you a nutshell explanation for what appears to you to be a dearth of good books out there. First of all; it’s not your fault! You've not got too old and cynical to enjoy fairy tales anymore. It's not because you're too busy to slow down and savour the tale. Turkey droppings. If the story grabbed you enough, you'd enjoy it no matter what your day has in it. There isn’t a single one of us here who hasn’t been grabbed by the throat by a really good book and managed to creatively duck commitments and responsibilities until the book was done. So it’s not that. The fault doesn't lie with you. The real problem. The problem stems from the structure of the book publishing industry, which has its roots clear back to medieval times, when Guttenberg set up his first printing press. Copying books suddenly became a mechanical and speedy possibility. Before then, monks used to copy books by hand, hunched over parchment lit by tallows and scratching away with quills. Guttenberg changed all that and created the seed that would sprout into the modern day book industry. The modern book industry is very peculiar. Booksellers (that includes your favourite bookstore) can order in books by the dozens and if they don’t sell, they get to return them. Bizarre huh? Can you imagine your local Wal-Mart store returning spanners because they didn’t sell? Or the local art gallery trying to return a painting to an art dealer because nobody except the gallery owner took a liking to it? Yet that’s exactly what happens with books. Worse; with mass market paperbacks (those are the small ones that fit in your pocket) it’s not the books that get returned, it’s just the covers … which get torn off the book. The guts of the book, minus the cover, gets thrown away so that nobody else can use it, read it or sell it. That’s where the industry tips over into the realms of la-la-land. Is it any wonder the book industry constantly teeters on the point of going belly-up and doomsters have been crying the end of the traditional book for a couple of decades? The real wonder is that the industry keeps ticking along at all – but that’s because readers will never give up buying books and hoping they’ve found a damned good story. I won’t. Nor, I suspect, will you. Tracy Cooper-Posey www.TracyCooperPosey.com A Reader’s Roadmap 7 One of the results of this peculiar way of doing business is that traditional publishers (the sort that get their products – books – onto the shelves of your local Chapters and Barnes & Noble superstores) are very wary of, or downright allergic to, taking a chance on what they publish. There’s two reasons for this reluctance. First up; It’s horribly expensive to print and bind books (I know this because I worked for a national printer for a couple of years and I’ve seen the bills).