Skip to content

Category: Exhortations to BUY

I’M STILL HERE

Published by Tim Pratt on November 30, 2020

I’m just mostly not here here.

Most of the daily action is over at my twitter.

I also do a fair bit over at my Patreon, and even if you don’t give me money (but, please, give me money), I’ve got some public posts there, including capsule reviews of books I’ve read recently.

I am pondering doing a giant site overhaul next year, and making it all shiny and nice. In the meantime, here’s what’s new:

The Fractured Void is out now, and it’s great fun, space opera set in the world of the Twilight Imperium strategy game. It has lots of gay space crime! I’m writing another book set in that world right now.

Doors of Sleep will be out in January! It’s a multiverse adventure about a guy who ends up in a different universe every time he falls asleep. It’s certainly one of the best books I’ve ever written. Publishers Weekly says it’s “Part high adventure and part travelogue of alien locales, this sci-fi romp has plenty of YA crossover appeal and will prove just the thing for mature readers who appreciate a classic Golden Age vibe. “

Big Book Sale 2018!

Published by Tim Pratt on November 12, 2018
I’m selling signed copies of many of my books! My space operas and lots of my fantasies are available, and some anthologies I edited too.

I’ll inscribe the books to anyone you like, so they make great gifts. I hear there are some gift-related holidays coming up.

I haven’t done a sale like this in years, and won’t likely do another one anytime soon. Quantities are limited. My wife set up an online store (because she is fancy), and we’ll take orders through the end of the month. Shipping is via priority mail in the US. (If you live overseas and want something, write heathershaw@gmail.com and we’ll see what we can work out.)

Order early and often!

https://gumroad.com/tropism

The Stars Are Right! The Wrong Stars Is On Sale

Published by Tim Pratt on November 7, 2017

23319268_10155156353713861_2001170915156858370_n

Available wherever bookses are sold! Here are some places books are sold, with a special emphasis on this book:

If you want to try before you buy, here’s an excerpt!

If you like meta-thoughts, here’s an essay I did about creating alien cultures, for Uncanny magazine:

There have been some rave reviews so far. Here is one:

Go forth, and take to the stars.

My Patreon: A Story a Month for $1 a Month

Published by Tim Pratt on April 29, 2015

The short version is: I’ve set up a Patreon at www.patreon.com/timpratt. For as little as $1 a month, you can read a previously unpublished story from me a dozen times a year. (Give more if you’re feeling rich and generous or want goodies.) For those who don’t know, Patreon is a crowdfunding site, but rather than raising a bunch of money for a big project all at once (a la Kickstarter), it’s for people who want to give regular donations for open-ended or ongoing projects on a recurring basis. You become patrons, basically. I expect to make the first story available to supporters in the next couple of weeks.

The slightly longer version is: I’ve been thinking about doing this for years. I tweeted back in late 2013 that I was thinking of doing a story-a-month subscription service via Patreon, but my interest goes back much further. I’ve watched with interest things like Bruce Holland Rogers’s ShortShortShort story subscription service and Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Sirenia Digest “monthly erotic vignette subscription service,” and her subsequent collections. I’ve been thinking for ages: “Wow, I should do something like that.”

I love writing novels, but writing short stories is the closest thing I have to a calling. It’s my favorite art form to read and my favorite to write. I’m also pretty good at it. I made my name as a story writer.

The problem is, as I’ve become more successful as a writer, my time has been given more and more to novels. I’ve gone from writing twenty stories a year to maybe two or three, and then mostly only when commissioned. It’s a loss I’ve felt keenly, but, well, it just makes more financial sense to write novels.

Wanting things to make financial sense is important since I have a family to feed and all that, but it doesn’t always make for the best artistic decisions.

So I’ve been contemplating story subscriptions as a way to justify writing more short stories, but I hesitated for various reasons. The main ones are, I already crowdfund a project at least once a year, and didn’t want to be constantly going “Pay me pay me pay me” on twitter and facebook. The organizational aspect was also daunting. But with Patreon I can set a really low threshold to entry for backers — a buck a month gets you access to new stories — and a lot of the organizational stuff is handled through the site itself. It’s also an ongoing thing, so I won’t feel the need to beat the drum constantly to get interest. I’ll send out this initial announcement, and will probably mention on social media when I post a new story, but it won’t be an annoying bombardment.

Another reason I hesitated is, since I can reliably sell stories I write on spec,why don’t I just do that? Write more stories, and send them out to magazines, instead of only writing stories when they’re commissioned? The simple answer is… I can do that, but I haven’t been. Without a deadline, writing stories on spec simply goes to the back of the queue of things to do, and so, I never do it. With a monthly deadline, and people waiting for stories from me, I’ll actually prioritize doing this thing I love.

So, if you support my Patreon: Thank you for helping me psychologically trick myself into writing more stories.

Here are links to some free stories, if you want to see what you’re getting into: http://www.timpratt.org/?page_id=10

Big Book Sale 2014

Published by Tim Pratt on November 24, 2014

The piles of author copies in my house have gotten out of control again, so I’m doing a book sale. Hey, just in time for some major gift-giving holidays, how about that.

You can get signed and/or inscribed copies for cover price (rounded up so we’re not counting pennies), plus $5 shipping per book for mass market paperbacks and $7 each for trade paperbacks/hardcovers. The listed price includes shipping costs for the US.

For shipping outside the US, add an extra $10 to the listed price. (Overseas shipping has gone way up in recent years.)

Write to timpratt@gmail.com or post in the comments here saying what you want and telling me if (and how) you want them signed and/or personalized. I’ll do the math and tell you what you owe me and where to send the PayPal money.

First-come, first-served, which is why you should comment or e-mail instead of just sending money — I’d hate for you to pay for something I already sold. (First-time comments are moderated here, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up immediately, I’ll address them in order.)

I’ll run the sale for a week and a half or so, until midnight PST on 12/3/14, coincidentally encompassing various black/cyber/etc shopping days.

Here’s what’s available. First editions, unless otherwise noted, with the number of total available copies in parentheses.

Marla Mason series:

I have ONE (1) complete set of the Marla Mason novels to sell: that’s Blood Engines, Poison Sleep, Dead Reign, Spell Games, Broken Mirrors, Grim Tides, Bride of Death, and Bone Shop. The first four are mass-market paperbacks, the last four are trade paperbacks. I’ll throw in a couple of the short story chapbooks too. $125 for the lot. Alas, it is gone.

Now for one-offs:

Mass-market paperback of Blood Engines, $12 (10 9 copies available)

Mass-market paperback of Dead Reign, $12 (7 copies)

Mass-market paperback of Spell Games, $12 (6 copies)

Trade paperback of Bride of Death, $21 (4 copies)

Standalone novels:

Trade paperback of Heirs of Grace, $22 (10 8 copies)

Hardcover of The Constantine Affliction (as by T. Aaron Payton), $34 (10 copies)

Trade paperback of The Constantine Affliction (as by T. Aaron Payton), $20 (10 9 copies)

Trade paperback of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, $19 (1 copy)

RPG fantasy novels:

Mass-market paperback of Pathfinder Tales: Reign of Stars, $15 (10 9 copies)

Mass-market paperback of Pathfinder Tales: City of the Fallen Sky, $15 (10  9 copies)

Mass-market paperback of Pathfinder Tales: Liar’s Blade, $15 (10 9 copies)

Mass-market paperback of Forgotten Realms: Venom In Her Veins, $13 (6 copies)

I’ll do an RPG bundle, too: Venom In Her Veins, City of the Fallen Sky, Liar’s Blade, and Reign of Stars for $50 if ordered all together, while supplies last etc.

Collections:

Trade paperback of collection Antiquities and Tangibles and Other Stories, $21 (3 copies)

Paperback of poetry collection If There Were Wolves, $15 (2 copies)

Trade paperback of collection Little Gods, $21 (Not the first edition that includes the poems, but the more attractive offset edition) (3 copies)

Anthologies I edited:

US hardcover of Rags and Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales (edited by me and Melissa Marr), $25 (4 2 copies)

British hardcover of Rags and Bones, $25 (4 2 copies)

Trade paperback of Sympathy for the Devil (edited by me), $23 (4 copies)

That’s it. Make your wishes known.

Dark Fantasy Story Bundle

Published by Tim Pratt on September 9, 2014

My novel Bone Shop is one of nine (9!) books you can get from the Dark Fantasy Story Bundle, a collection of DRM-free e-books available on a pay-what-you-want basis (minimum $3).  It’s got books by Steven Savile, Marie Hall, Craig Schaeffer, Harry Connolly, Susan Illene, and our impresario Joseph Nassise. You can choose to give a portion of your payment to charity, too.

Basically it is a great thing and if you people buy a bunch of them I’ll be able to take my kid to Disneyland and/or buy a lot of alcohol. It’s available until September 17, so get clickin’.

 

Flytrap 12

Published by Tim Pratt on August 28, 2014

We’re doing a Kickstarter for issue #12 of our ‘zine Flytrap! The funds will go to paying artists and writers and printing and so on. Prizes include print copies (so pretty) and postcards and prints by our issue #11 artist Aislinn Quicksilver Harvey. If we get funded, we’ll open to fiction submissions in October. (We tend  to solicit non-fiction, poetry, and art.)

The issue is about one-sixth funded with 19 days to go, a rather slower start than we had last time; perhaps our potential backers are wearing body paint and feathers and tripping balls on the playa at Burning Man? If you can help spread the word, or donate, we’d appreciate it. You can read issue #11 online here.

Big Book Sale 2013

Published by Tim Pratt on August 15, 2013

Won’t somebody rid me of these troublesome books? –King Henry II, probably

The time has come for my more-or-less annual book sale. I just got another box of author copies, and books are filling up my house and tottering in dangerous piles. I also have quarterly estimated taxes due in September so money is welcome.

Here’s where you come in: Buy my books! (They make great gifts. Even if just for yourself.)

You can get signed and/or inscribed copies for cover price (I’ll round up to destroy any stray pennies), plus $5 shipping per book for mass market paperbacks and $7 each for trade paperbacks/hardcovers. The listed price includes shipping costs for the US.

For shipping outside the US, add an extra $10 to the listed price. (Overseas shipping has gone way up this year. Sorry about that. It costs nearly $20 to send a one-pound package to, say, Spain.)

Write to timpratt@gmail.com or post in the comments here saying what you want and telling me if you want them signed and/or personalized. I’ll do the math and tell you what you owe me and where to send the PayPal money.

First-come, first-served, which is why you should comment or e-mail instead of just sending money — I’d hate for you to pay for something I already sold. (First-time comments are moderated here, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up immediately.)

I’ll run the sale for a week and a bit, from now until midnight PST on Friday, August 23.

Here’s what’s available. First editions, unless otherwise noted.

Marla Mason series:

Mass-market paperback of Blood Engines, $12 (16 14 copies available)

Mass-market paperback of Dead Reign, $12 (6 copies)

Mass-market paperback of Spell Games, $12 (5 copies)

Trade Paperback of Bone Shop, $20 (This is the pretty edition with the Dan Dos Santos cover art) (2 1 copy) Sold out!

Trade Paperback of Broken Mirrors, $21 (2 1 copy) Sold out!

Trade Paperback of Grim Tides, $21 (3 1 copy)

Standalone novels:

Limited edition hardcover of Briarpatch (These are unnumbered author copies) $55  (3 1 copy)

Hardcover of The Constantine Affliction (as by T. Aaron Payton), $34 (15 14 copies)

Trade paperback of The Constantine Affliction (as by T. Aaron Payton), $20 (15 14 copies)

Trade paperback of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, $19 (7 copies)

Trade paperback of The Nex, $20 (1 copy)

Mass-market paperback of Forgotten Realms: Venom In Her Veins, $13 (20 15 copies)

Mass-market paperback of Pathfinder Tales: City of the Fallen Sky, $15 (12 10 copies)

Mass-market paperback of Pathfinder Tales: Liar’s Blade, $15 (12 10 copies)

I’ll do an RPG bundle, too: Venom In Her Veins, City of the Fallen Sky, and Liar’s Blade for $40 if ordered all together.

Collections

Paperback of poetry collection If There Were Wolves, $15 (2 1 copy)

Trade paperback of collection Little Gods, $21 (Not the first edition that includes the poems, but the more attractive offset edition) (4 copies)

Trade paperback of collection Antiquities and Tangibles and Other Stories, $21 (4 1 copy) Sold out!

Anthologies I edited or have a story in

Trade paperback of Sympathy for the Devil (edited by me, Tim Pratt!), $23 (5 4 copies)

Trade paperback of Robots: The Recent A.I. edited by Rich Horton, $22 (1 copy)

Trade paperback of Witches: Wicked, Wild & Wonderful edited by Paula Guran, $23 (1 copy)

Trade paperback of New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, edited by Paula Guran, $23 (1 copy)

Hardcover of Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, edited by Jonathan Strahan, $24 (1 copy)

Inspired by Elizabeth Bear’s book sale, I’ll throw in a bonus chapbook or ‘zine from my hoard with each order.

That’s it. Make your wishes known.