Plucked out of her pod by the Queen Mother of her merkingdom, Regya has been set a task: to take the potentially deadly Mermaid Storytelling Exam. She has been placed in Yrejveree, the mythical island of exiles to which many Amors have brought their Psyches. Regya narrates and weaves together the stories of the island’s most famous watermaidens: a ferahian Mer-princess who drowned an alternate Venice, an itinerant Malaysian mermaid with the magical power of song, and Aila da Silva, the current active Psyche. In that telling Regya will also discover the reason behind the war that threatens to engulf the merkingdoms of the Fourfold Realms, a reason that will undermine her own understanding of who she is. The truth is that these Amors are the Fjekres from a fifth Realm. Within the Fjekres society lies an old faction called the Amber Centipedes who are intent on claiming dominion over all of the Fourfold Realms by controlling all of the apertures between worlds. These actions by the Amber Centipedes lead to war in their world. It is a war that creeps into the Fourfold Realms, disrupting life and decimating ecosystems. Can a mermaid armed with the powers bestowed by her storytelling craft, her Javanese engineer housemate, and her mermaid landlady defeat these beings intent on conquest? Can they change the script of the island they love and claim emancipation from the seductive, powerful and eerie Fjekres?
- Buy from Barnes and Noble
- Buy from Thriftbooks
A Note About the Price
The price of the print edition is set at USD25.75 because print-on-demand is higher in cost than mass market paperbacks. That cost is absorbed into each book, which means I get very little royalty. The rest of it goes to distributors, printers and Draft 2 Digital. I thought of keeping the initial price at USD19.99 which would give me a net royalty of USD0.94 per book but then I thought of all of the years of work that went into this book and that seemed both financially and emotionally untenable. For further context: at USD25.75 I actually get around the amount of royalty I would get on a discounted (USD4.99) ebook. Which should tell you how much of a percentage of the print issue I am not getting.
For people who might think, “Even famous bestselling authors don’t charge that high”, I would like to humbly suggest that it’s not helpful to expect print-on-demand authors to match the prices of mass market publications where the publisher covers those costs (and there’s a whole other set of issues with that model where countless books get remaindered daily). In the whole supply and demand argument re indie books, some say you should set a way low price on your books/ebooks because there are way too many indie titles out there. Others say you shouldn’t devalue your work. I lean towards the latter but I will offer discount periods and I seriously suggest to people to consider your local library. I would be thrilled to have my books in libraries. I’m not doing this really for profit, despite my overthinking these things. For me it’s the principle of the thing. There’s no point in forgoing profit if people aren’t going to be buying/reading the books. It is true that people tend not to value what drops into their laps free of charge. And charging a price that means I earn something like 0.10 cents per book is not good for me, or for other indie authors. Ironically, this stance of mine means that there is a less of a possibility people will buy my book(s). I’ll take that risk! I’m betting on myself and on my craft.
If you’re still keen, for this price you get:
- 5.5″ x 8.5″ Paperback
- 514 Pages
- Cream Paper
- Glossy Finish
Again, I’m sorry about the higher-end pricing. If this is too much but you still prefer a physical book you can either wait for the discount periods or as I keep saying, order it through your library! Consider this my book version of a niche, boutique offering because I was never going to be a mainstream bestselling author anyway.
Here are those links again:
- Buy from Barnes and Noble
- Buy from Thriftbooks