Finally, it begins. After setting up this website five years ago—with all good intentions—now I’m finally offering up something for sale (it’s why I never marketed nor mentioned it before). My original intention was twofold: set up a website that would feature all my short stories (well, the ones I think should see the light of day) and offer most of them up for sale. Most, I said, because several are freely available online.

But after I spent quite some time setting this up, at some point I stalled. Problem was that I wanted to add extra value to the stories on sale by adding a ‘Behind-the-Scenes’ document explaining why I wrote it, the inspiration behind it, what I aimed to achieve with it, and more. An extra incentive to pay for them. I never got to that, because I was too busy. Not just with the day job (the handful of short stories I sold each year could definitely not pay the bills, not even if each and every one of them received ‘professional payment’ as determined by the SFWA), but also because I switched to writing novels.

So, from 2017 onwards, I wrote:

• Forever Curious (on sale now);

• Forever Thrilled (slated for early May, 2022);

• The Replicant in the Refugee Camp (slated for early November, 2021);

• The Replicant, the Mole & the Impostor (slated for early November, 2022);

• Third Type, Second Variety, First Contact (Work in Progress [WiP], sometime 2023);

However, I’m still sticking with my intention to deliver added value. So I wrote a piece called “Behind the Scenes of: Forever Curious”, revealing the author’s inspirations, intentions and innuendos, clocking in—eventually—at almost 12,000 words.

I’ve set up four purchase channels:

• Apple Books (priced at $8.99);

• Google Play (priced at $9.26);

• Amazon Kindle (priced at $8.99)

• Directly from the author: €6.00;

Why the difference in price?

Well, when I thought about how to price my short stories, novelettes and novellas—which all have different lengths—I figured out a rate related to word count:

• 0—5,000 words: $0.50;

• 5,000-10,000 words: $1.00;

• 10,000-15,000 words: $1.50;

• 15,000-20,000 words: $2.00;

• Etcetera: $0.50 increments per 5,000 words;

Since Forever Curious clocks in at about 58,000 words, it’s pricing would be $6.00. Which it indeed is if you buy directly from the author. On top of that you get the 11,600 ‘Behind the Scenes’ extended afterword as well (now I’m finding out that these prices are adapted to €—Euros—because I live in The Netherlands. Looking into it).

Apple Books, Google Play and Amazon charge their—by now very well-known—30% rate. So in order to receive the same amount of money for my novel from these two as I do when you buy directly from me, I calculated that I would need to charge $8.57, which I rounded off to $8.50.

Now—believe me—this is really the price I fed into the Apple Books, Google Play and Amazon stores, only to find that the actual price for which it goes up for sale is even higher. To wit: at Apple Books it goes for $8.99 and at Google Play it goes for $9.26. Why? I put them up for $8.50, so it beats me. However, the Amazon price is exactly as I put it.

Nevertheless, they’re all below $10, which I think is a fair price for a short novel.

Now, if you buy via Apple, Google, ro Amazon, you get a file that works effortlessly in their ecosystem (basically EPUB, and they do check it’s compatibility). If you buy directly rom me, you will get a ZIP file with 6 files:

• Two EPUBs for Forever Curious & Behind the Scenes: you can download this into Apple Books and Google Play;

• Two PDFs for Forever Curious & Behind the Scenes, which should download in almost any E-Reader;

• Two Mobi files for Forever Curious & Behind the Scenes, which should download in Kindle and Kindle apps;

I’ve changed my mind about Amazon. Reason because the price for Forever Curious falls within their $2.99—$9.99 range, for which they take a 30% cut. I’ll see how sales develop there and then consider again for The Replicant in the Refugee Camp. I wish to put the latter up for $17 (oh well, $16.99 in book sales circles), but that would let Amazon take a 65% cut. I’ll consider my option when I cross that bridge.

So, if you’re interested, and wish to support the author directly, check out this page: Forever Curious;