New Spirit War Logo
First, about the new logo at the top of the left sidebar. The Spirit War trilogy goes out into the world from this author’s dual roots – Costa Rica and the USA. This logo shows Christ’s cross shining out from the union of these countries’ flags. Just what is happening with the three Spirit War books and this website. Hope you like it.
2020 Editions of all three books
2019 was a hectic year for this author. My wife Maru and I moved house. Saying goodbye to a great 40 year nest was tough. But we found the small townhouse we needed only 500 meters away. We’re blessed to live in a great new neighborhood in our favorite area of San José.
The Spirit War got complicated along with the house move. All my 2019 Spirit War electronic files got wiped out in the course of a hard disk upgrade. So there was nothing for it but to re-do 2018 and 2019 style corrections, from printed books into 2018 electronic files. The result is an even smoother reading experience, but no character or plot changes from the 2018 versions.
The Spirit War in Kindle e-book format
Getting The Spirit War into ebooks of acceptable quality has been an odyssey. My first attempts were in 2018 on CreateSpace, Amazon’s first venture into direct book printing. This author was not satisfied with the quality of their paperback and ebook products. So I abandoned the change to CreateSpace and continued with Lightning Source / Ingram Spark. In 2018 LS/IS did produce very nice ebooks under Barnes&Nobles’s Nook platform. These electronic 2018 Nook editions are still available from B&N.
Amazon didn’t give up on ebook publishing, despite their unsatisfactory CreateSpace experience. Instead of incremental improvements, they went radical with a clean break. In December 2018 Amazon closed CreateSpace and launched Kindle Direct Publishing. KDP is great. They provide their own free, easy-to-learn application for generating and publishing Kindle files from Word files. Best of all, from an author’s point of view, there is no charge for updates. So there’s no longer an out-of-pocket cost for small changes like correcting typos. And if you want big changes like restructuring your book or adding chapters, no charge for that, either.
For readers, the big Kindle breakthrough is price. Every Spirit War ebook sells for only $3.oo, so the entire trilogy costs only $9.oo. And all SW ebooks are available on Kindle Unlimited – Amazon’s Kindle reader subscription service. KU subscribers can download any number of ebooks for a flat monthly charge. So under Kindle Unlimited, you can read the entire Spirit War trilogy as part of your monthly charge.
The Paperback print-on-demand Jungle
For paperback print-on-demand pricing, the industry standard charge from book distributors is 55%. So only 45% of the book price has to cover printing costs plus author’s margin. Under these terms, Spirit War paperback prices work out to $12.oo, $14.oo and $16.oo for Books 1, 2 and 3 of the trilogy. These are the print industry catalog prices charged by Barnes&Noble for the latest 2020 editions. Amazon, always with the lowest prices, charges $9.oo, $12.oo and $15.oo.
When paperback print-on-demand titles go up on Amazon, a whole infrastructure of private book peddlers comes out of the woodwork.
You would think that authors should welcome any bookstore wanting to sell his or her product. But some private book sellers act against readers’ best interests. And they never go away. So older editions of Spirit War books, from third party sellers, can appear at significant discounts on Amazon without notification that newer versions are available. Other third party sellers take an opposite, more disruptive path. They offer old versions at ridiculous prices, as if they were classic out-of-print editions by famous authors.
Right now, on Amazon, there is a 2018 Spirit War Complete Trilogy single book binding of all three Spirit War titles selling for $366.97. This version of The Spirit War still exists on Ingram Spark’s servers – at the print industry catalog price of $40.oo. But because the new 3 book version supersedes it, yours truly has blocked its availability from the printer. At this time, the price for all three 2020 edition Spirit War books is $42.oo from Barnes&Noble or $36.oo from Amazon. Buyer beware: as proud as this author is of The Spirit War, $366.97 for an older paperback edition looks like a rip-off. Yes, this 2018 version is out of print. But new, better versions are available for much less, The Spirit War is not yet a classic, and this author is not yet famous or dead.
To get the best 2020 paperback editions of The Spirit War, follow the links in the left sidebar when ordering. These editions have the recently style-corrected text and the beautiful, professionally done covers. To help you make sure, the ISBN numbers for the most current Spirit War paperbacks are listed in the left sidebar.
Could the covid lockdown be an opportunity for you to really learn what Jesus Christ did for us all? Find out in a truly enjoyable way – through The Spirit War.
Dear reader, better-than-ever Spirit War editions are now available as beautiful, moderately priced paperbacks, or first class but dirt-cheap ebooks. You don’t even need a computer. A tablet or a smart phone, plus free ebook reader apps, can open The Spirit War for you at three bucks per book. Links for downloading e-reader apps are in the left sidebar. You could be starting on Book 1 – Betrayal and Hope in ten minutes.
