Euftis Emery's Blog, page 4
May 30, 2016
Stress Relief
Toni sat with her girlfriends at their table during Happy Hour. They were all toasty and feeling very unnecessary. They were celebrating. Toni had just received word that she was being promoted. She was a prosecutor in the district attorney's office and she would be the second chair when the DA tried a case or she'd be the lead on super important cases. She worked very hard to get where she was and she was proud of her accomplishments.
Perhaps she worked too hard. She tried the marriage thing but she failed miserably at being a wife. As fine as she was, her husband grew frustrated at her unavailability. He left her after only a couple of years of marriage. Nowadays the 33 year old, newly single lawyer rarely dated and was very sexually repressed. The long hours at work kept her mind off of her libido.
With all the hard work and successes, Toni's star was rising in the office. But who would she share her success with? That was her dilemma. Her girlfriends had other ideas. Toni needed some dick, plain and simple. Call it stress relief but it was what it was. They didn't think it was good for her to work so hard on stressful cases then go home alone to an empty bed. Toni needed to get off they thought and they tried hooking her up with any potentially capable suitor they could find. No one tickled her fancy though.
When her promotion was announced, they took her out to celebrate. Hence their Happy Hour visit. It took a bit of convincing but they got Toni to take a couple of shots. Toni loved her co-workers, especially her legal assistant slash investigator, Mimi. Mimi was a 40 year old, hard-drinking divorcee who was just as devoted to her job as Toni was.
"Here's to my girl's success. May you have many more triumphs in your life and hopefully soon, some good dick!!!" she exclaimed, raising her drink. Toni put her face in her hands in feigned embarrassment. But she loved her girl.
"Thank you Mimi." she said appreciatively. She didn't know about the dick thing but she looked forward to many more successes in her office. Everyone raised their glasses and tossed down their drinks. Toni was feeling really good. The alcohol was doing its job as it coursed through her bloodstream and went straight to her brain. All of her stresses melted away and feel good endorphins spread throughout her body.
- Read more at: http://euftis.com/stories/stress_reli...
Perhaps she worked too hard. She tried the marriage thing but she failed miserably at being a wife. As fine as she was, her husband grew frustrated at her unavailability. He left her after only a couple of years of marriage. Nowadays the 33 year old, newly single lawyer rarely dated and was very sexually repressed. The long hours at work kept her mind off of her libido.
With all the hard work and successes, Toni's star was rising in the office. But who would she share her success with? That was her dilemma. Her girlfriends had other ideas. Toni needed some dick, plain and simple. Call it stress relief but it was what it was. They didn't think it was good for her to work so hard on stressful cases then go home alone to an empty bed. Toni needed to get off they thought and they tried hooking her up with any potentially capable suitor they could find. No one tickled her fancy though.
When her promotion was announced, they took her out to celebrate. Hence their Happy Hour visit. It took a bit of convincing but they got Toni to take a couple of shots. Toni loved her co-workers, especially her legal assistant slash investigator, Mimi. Mimi was a 40 year old, hard-drinking divorcee who was just as devoted to her job as Toni was.
"Here's to my girl's success. May you have many more triumphs in your life and hopefully soon, some good dick!!!" she exclaimed, raising her drink. Toni put her face in her hands in feigned embarrassment. But she loved her girl.
"Thank you Mimi." she said appreciatively. She didn't know about the dick thing but she looked forward to many more successes in her office. Everyone raised their glasses and tossed down their drinks. Toni was feeling really good. The alcohol was doing its job as it coursed through her bloodstream and went straight to her brain. All of her stresses melted away and feel good endorphins spread throughout her body.
- Read more at: http://euftis.com/stories/stress_reli...
May 2, 2016
Deja Vu
I was on holiday in Detroit and one of the things that I wanted to do while I was there was check out Déjà Vu in Highland Park.
Out of all the clubs in Detroit I picked that spot because Highland Park was not considered part of Detroit so it was not subject to the Holy Rollers decimation of fun times by forcing City Council to impose stupid rules on the strip clubs.
Rules like:
Topless dancers would remain six feet from the patrons and on a stage at all times.
No lap dancing and no mingling VIP rooms.
All alcohol will be banned.
Are you friggin’ serious!
So since city hall was diligently working to thoroughly fuck up the strip club scene in Detroit, I decided to roll to Highland Park, which was outside of Detroit’s jurisdiction.
So I got to the spot around 7pm, which are a combination strip club, adult book and video store. The facility was shaped like a U with the entrances and parking lot inside of the U.
The strip club has two stories with the main stage on the first floor and private rooms and stage on the second floor.
There is no cover and you can't bring your own shit so if you want a drink you need to holla at one of the strippa's and get your sip on from their private stash.
I took a seat by the stage and watched the attractive sista on the stage and took the spot in. She danced for three songs and then I tripped when they called the next dancer to the stage.
The next dancer didn't walk to the stage... She dropped down from the floor above butt ass naked. Like I said.. I tripped when I saw that shit.
The first dancer stepped down from the stage and asked me if I wanted a dance. I waved her away. She was sexy but she had a uni-bush from her pussy to her asshole.
I wanted to lick some ass and didn't want to lick a hairy one. The second dancer finished and the hot, tall, butt naked, chocolate freak dropped down from the floor above.
- See more at: http://euftis.com/stories/deja_vu/#st...
Out of all the clubs in Detroit I picked that spot because Highland Park was not considered part of Detroit so it was not subject to the Holy Rollers decimation of fun times by forcing City Council to impose stupid rules on the strip clubs.
Rules like:
Topless dancers would remain six feet from the patrons and on a stage at all times.
No lap dancing and no mingling VIP rooms.
All alcohol will be banned.
Are you friggin’ serious!
So since city hall was diligently working to thoroughly fuck up the strip club scene in Detroit, I decided to roll to Highland Park, which was outside of Detroit’s jurisdiction.
So I got to the spot around 7pm, which are a combination strip club, adult book and video store. The facility was shaped like a U with the entrances and parking lot inside of the U.
The strip club has two stories with the main stage on the first floor and private rooms and stage on the second floor.
There is no cover and you can't bring your own shit so if you want a drink you need to holla at one of the strippa's and get your sip on from their private stash.
I took a seat by the stage and watched the attractive sista on the stage and took the spot in. She danced for three songs and then I tripped when they called the next dancer to the stage.
The next dancer didn't walk to the stage... She dropped down from the floor above butt ass naked. Like I said.. I tripped when I saw that shit.
The first dancer stepped down from the stage and asked me if I wanted a dance. I waved her away. She was sexy but she had a uni-bush from her pussy to her asshole.
I wanted to lick some ass and didn't want to lick a hairy one. The second dancer finished and the hot, tall, butt naked, chocolate freak dropped down from the floor above.
- See more at: http://euftis.com/stories/deja_vu/#st...
April 30, 2016
Who's your Daddy? - Very Serious
If you have a question for me send an email with Daddy or some derivation in the subject line.
Daddy,
I had a dream that I don’t understand. I hope that you can help me.
I was wearing a red nightie, no panties and I was in a room, with two couches, facing each other.
Each couch had three to four guys sitting on it.
I didn’t know any of them and they were all well hung, dressed in shirts, ties and dress slacks.
Their pants were all unzipped, with their "man parts" hanging out. I straddled one guy, facing him, and his dick got hard and I rode him for a while and at some point I put a blanket over his lap.
I also remember driving around a parking lot, having a hard time finding a space. When I did find a space, I parked and went into an auditorium, which was only about half full.
I remember freight train cars on tracks outside the auditorium door, and seeing the numbers 4 and 5.
You know... I wonder why I am always dreaming weird shit like this. You think I need professional help? And I’m very serious.
http://euftis.com/advice/whos_your_da...
Daddy,
I had a dream that I don’t understand. I hope that you can help me.
I was wearing a red nightie, no panties and I was in a room, with two couches, facing each other.
Each couch had three to four guys sitting on it.
I didn’t know any of them and they were all well hung, dressed in shirts, ties and dress slacks.
Their pants were all unzipped, with their "man parts" hanging out. I straddled one guy, facing him, and his dick got hard and I rode him for a while and at some point I put a blanket over his lap.
I also remember driving around a parking lot, having a hard time finding a space. When I did find a space, I parked and went into an auditorium, which was only about half full.
I remember freight train cars on tracks outside the auditorium door, and seeing the numbers 4 and 5.
You know... I wonder why I am always dreaming weird shit like this. You think I need professional help? And I’m very serious.
http://euftis.com/advice/whos_your_da...
April 10, 2016
Gettin' a side chick
I am married with a child.My wife is oftentimes tired and pre-occupied with other things.As a result our sex life is slacking.I have talked to her and I have taken on more household responsibilities as well as more parenting duties with our son.
But we still haven't increased the frequency of sex.Plus she is stilled tired and is pretty much a lazy lay.I don't feel like I am willing to leave or contemplate leaving her.I don't want to keep nagging/begging.
My solution is a side piece ( no judgement ).What advice can you give me on approaching a mature woman about getting together and letting her know up front what my situation is without deceit .
I have read all of your books if you can refer me to a situation that you wrote about in one of your books that relates to this issue that would be great.
NeedtoGetMyGrooveOn
- See more at: http://euftis.com/advice/gettin_a_sid...
http://euftis.com/advice/gettin_a_sid...
But we still haven't increased the frequency of sex.Plus she is stilled tired and is pretty much a lazy lay.I don't feel like I am willing to leave or contemplate leaving her.I don't want to keep nagging/begging.
My solution is a side piece ( no judgement ).What advice can you give me on approaching a mature woman about getting together and letting her know up front what my situation is without deceit .
I have read all of your books if you can refer me to a situation that you wrote about in one of your books that relates to this issue that would be great.
NeedtoGetMyGrooveOn
- See more at: http://euftis.com/advice/gettin_a_sid...
http://euftis.com/advice/gettin_a_sid...
Oral Orgasim
I was chatting, well more listening to a co-worker who was bragging to me about an oral sex episode that he had the night before with his wife (so lame).
I was listening versus sharing because corporate America is inundated with Beta males who now view themselves as Alpha in the artificial world of money and finance.
So I’m listening to dude tell his story about his interlude with his wife and he mentions that he doesn’t want to fuck until he has had a little head.
Forgetting that I’m talking to a Beta, I agree with him stating that I don’t bother to get down unless I’ve had at least forty-five minutes to an hour worth of fellatio.
“Forty minutes!” My co-worker exclaimed in disbelief. “I’d be bustin’ after five minutes! You can’t last that long. You’re lying!”
I half-way rolled my eyes and didn’t comment letting the week little Beta think that I was pulling his leg in order to minimize his jealousy of me.
It’s best for the wolf to minimize his presence when he’s amongst the sheep. Corporate America is amusing in that it is high school turned upside down.
- See more at: http://euftis.com/advice/oral_orgasim...
http://euftis.com/advice/oral_orgasim/
I was listening versus sharing because corporate America is inundated with Beta males who now view themselves as Alpha in the artificial world of money and finance.
So I’m listening to dude tell his story about his interlude with his wife and he mentions that he doesn’t want to fuck until he has had a little head.
Forgetting that I’m talking to a Beta, I agree with him stating that I don’t bother to get down unless I’ve had at least forty-five minutes to an hour worth of fellatio.
“Forty minutes!” My co-worker exclaimed in disbelief. “I’d be bustin’ after five minutes! You can’t last that long. You’re lying!”
I half-way rolled my eyes and didn’t comment letting the week little Beta think that I was pulling his leg in order to minimize his jealousy of me.
It’s best for the wolf to minimize his presence when he’s amongst the sheep. Corporate America is amusing in that it is high school turned upside down.
- See more at: http://euftis.com/advice/oral_orgasim...
http://euftis.com/advice/oral_orgasim/
June 7, 2015
Properly Prepping your Pussy
It really irritates me listening to Beta males bragging about getting pussy. The major irritant as they tell their boring tales of 5-15 minute sex, is that from their stories it's blatantly obvious that they do not have a clue in what it takes to really turn a woman on.
Most men just rip into dry or partially moist pussy before a woman is sufficiently turned on and they think that just because she gets wet after the fact that they are doing something.
While others apply the "lick it before sticking it" technique getting the pussy ready with saliva versus the woman's personal juices.
All of these methods are woefully inadequate to really giving a woman the mind blowing sex that she craves and dreams about.
- See more at: http://euftis.com/advice/properly_pre...
Most men just rip into dry or partially moist pussy before a woman is sufficiently turned on and they think that just because she gets wet after the fact that they are doing something.
While others apply the "lick it before sticking it" technique getting the pussy ready with saliva versus the woman's personal juices.
All of these methods are woefully inadequate to really giving a woman the mind blowing sex that she craves and dreams about.
- See more at: http://euftis.com/advice/properly_pre...
September 1, 2014
Ms. Nipples Undressed
In my novel, Revenge – Between my Lover’s Legs…, I based my character Lvette on the luscious Ms. Nipples and the images that I have of Lvette in the book are of her.
Following, is a interview that that I did with her. Reading it will give you a deeper understanding of the character Lvette and I hope you are moved by the pictures of her that I have In the book.
- See more at: http://www.euftis.com/stories/ms_nipp...
Following, is a interview that that I did with her. Reading it will give you a deeper understanding of the character Lvette and I hope you are moved by the pictures of her that I have In the book.
- See more at: http://www.euftis.com/stories/ms_nipp...
Uncensored Edition of Revenge Between my Lover's Legs Now Available
Uncensored Version
PDF edition that can be downloaded to all of your devices and shared.
Euftis is married to a mentally unstable Leata who is verbally castrating, undermines him with his children, and deprives him sexually in order to control him.
Michelle is the perfect wife married to an egotistical and manipulative husband who uses her to give him the illusion of propriety.
Euftis and Michelle will find each other and together they will both get...REVENGE.
Revenge is best served hot and sticky...
Use this link to see the video introduction to the book:
Read free excerpts from the censored editions on Apple, Barnes and Nobles, or Google Play.
- Buy it now at:
http://www.euftis.com/store/revenge_b...
PDF edition that can be downloaded to all of your devices and shared.
Euftis is married to a mentally unstable Leata who is verbally castrating, undermines him with his children, and deprives him sexually in order to control him.
Michelle is the perfect wife married to an egotistical and manipulative husband who uses her to give him the illusion of propriety.
Euftis and Michelle will find each other and together they will both get...REVENGE.
Revenge is best served hot and sticky...
Use this link to see the video introduction to the book:
Read free excerpts from the censored editions on Apple, Barnes and Nobles, or Google Play.
- Buy it now at:
http://www.euftis.com/store/revenge_b...
August 9, 2014
Amazon's KDP Newsletter against Hachette Publishing
Amazon just published a news letter listed below to all author's who published a book on Amazon's KDP platform.
The basis of the letter is an effort to get authors and book readers to email the president of Hachette directly while being pulled by the nose using Amazon's talking points.
My reply back to Amazon is as follows:
"The problem is clearly at amazons doorstep. You have the audacity to attempt to illegally price fix books at the price that....you...want.
You want to fix prices on books then start writing them and "fix" the price wherever you want.
However, as a publisher I can sell "my" product at whatever price I Damn well choose!
The...market...will determine my price. Not a monopoly seeking middleman.
I hope they sue your pants off."
Amazon is clearly not the "good guy" that they profess to be. Their goal is nothing less than gaining a monopoly of the eBook industry. Period.
The only 'benefit' of driving down the price point of eBooks to drive up sales puts money into...Amazon's...pocket. Not the author or publisher.
Now as a consumer you may feel what Amazon is doing is great. However, let's use Amazon's logic with your job or product that you sell.
If Amazon thinks they can arbitrarily set the price of a product...regardless of quality or popularity then I or anyone else should be able to do that.
If you're scratching your head cause you still don't get it here's an example:
Jay Z and Beyoncé recently came to Cincinnati and performed at the baseball stadium which my apartment overlooks.
Now as the concert went on I looked over from time to time and thought that it would have been neat if I had gone.
However, I didn't want to pay $100+ for a ticket so I didn't go. I ain't on Jay Z and Beyoncé like that...
Using Amazon's rationale, I should have gotten together a group of like minded people, picketed the show and demanded that it was "unfair that Jay & B price fixed their ticket prices and I should be able to get a $100+ seat for $10."
That ain't gonna happen! Jay & B's...popularity...is so huge that they can set their ticket price that high and fans will pay it because they perceive that is it's...worth.
It's the same with eBook sales. Amazon's on bullshit.
Following, is their newsletter. I suggest you write Amazon versus Hachette.
Dear KDP Author,
Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.
Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive.
Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.
The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.
Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive.
Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.
But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.
And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures. And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.
We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.
We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.
Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com
Please consider including these points:
- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.
- Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
- Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue.
Thanks for your support.
The Amazon Books Team
P.S. You can also find this letter at www.readersunited.com
Dear KDP Author,
Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.
Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive.
Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.
The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.
Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive.
Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.
But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.
And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures. And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.
We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.
We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.
Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com
Please consider including these points:
The basis of the letter is an effort to get authors and book readers to email the president of Hachette directly while being pulled by the nose using Amazon's talking points.
My reply back to Amazon is as follows:
"The problem is clearly at amazons doorstep. You have the audacity to attempt to illegally price fix books at the price that....you...want.
You want to fix prices on books then start writing them and "fix" the price wherever you want.
However, as a publisher I can sell "my" product at whatever price I Damn well choose!
The...market...will determine my price. Not a monopoly seeking middleman.
I hope they sue your pants off."
Amazon is clearly not the "good guy" that they profess to be. Their goal is nothing less than gaining a monopoly of the eBook industry. Period.
The only 'benefit' of driving down the price point of eBooks to drive up sales puts money into...Amazon's...pocket. Not the author or publisher.
Now as a consumer you may feel what Amazon is doing is great. However, let's use Amazon's logic with your job or product that you sell.
If Amazon thinks they can arbitrarily set the price of a product...regardless of quality or popularity then I or anyone else should be able to do that.
If you're scratching your head cause you still don't get it here's an example:
Jay Z and Beyoncé recently came to Cincinnati and performed at the baseball stadium which my apartment overlooks.
Now as the concert went on I looked over from time to time and thought that it would have been neat if I had gone.
However, I didn't want to pay $100+ for a ticket so I didn't go. I ain't on Jay Z and Beyoncé like that...
Using Amazon's rationale, I should have gotten together a group of like minded people, picketed the show and demanded that it was "unfair that Jay & B price fixed their ticket prices and I should be able to get a $100+ seat for $10."
That ain't gonna happen! Jay & B's...popularity...is so huge that they can set their ticket price that high and fans will pay it because they perceive that is it's...worth.
It's the same with eBook sales. Amazon's on bullshit.
Following, is their newsletter. I suggest you write Amazon versus Hachette.
Dear KDP Author,
Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.
Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive.
Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.
The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.
Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive.
Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.
But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.
And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures. And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.
We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.
We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.
Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com
Please consider including these points:
- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.
- Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
- Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue.
Thanks for your support.
The Amazon Books Team
P.S. You can also find this letter at www.readersunited.com
Dear KDP Author,
Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.
Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive.
Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.
The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.
Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive.
Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.
But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.
And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures. And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.
We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.
We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.
Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com
Please consider including these points:
August 3, 2014
Give Away Promotion of Uncensored Version of I'm at it Again...
Until midnight August 6th, I will be offering free copies of the uncensored version of I'm at it Again...
Email me at euftis_emery@yahoo.com if you'd like a copy.
The uncensored eBook editions will contain images, video, audio and links and can be downloaded to any device in PDF format.
Download to your Apple or Samsung device and read it natively or download the free Adobe Reader app for enhanced reading on your phone, tablet or PC.
Editions purchased from my store are also sharable.
Censored editions will be offered via Apple, B&N and Google at a reduced price.
Email me at euftis_emery@yahoo.com if you'd like a copy.
The uncensored eBook editions will contain images, video, audio and links and can be downloaded to any device in PDF format.
Download to your Apple or Samsung device and read it natively or download the free Adobe Reader app for enhanced reading on your phone, tablet or PC.
Editions purchased from my store are also sharable.
Censored editions will be offered via Apple, B&N and Google at a reduced price.
