Amazon's Dirt Cheap New Books: A Deal with the Devil You Can Win

Every so often, Amazon reduces the price of a book to almost nothing and takes a loss on the sale in order to drive independent bookstores out of business and keep their own customers hooked on clicks. While I find this business model to be generally reprehensible (and if you do too, and you have the means to support the arts community with fair price purchases, you are warmly invited to shop my books and recommendations at Bookshop.org) I kind of love the idea that my books can be accessible to anyone, hot off the press in handsome hardcover editions, for a handful of pocket change.

But there is a way to get your nearly-free book without rewarding Amazon's dastardly deeds. Smart shoppers can win a deal with the devil (as many heroes of folklore used to do, before the Grimm brothers ran their tales through a filter of Victorian Christian moralism) by taking the time to carefully fill their carts with ONLY deeply discounted items on Amazon and nothing that actually earns Amazon a profit. So let's play!

The Grove of Thorismud is frequently used as one of those naughty little tempting, forbidden almost-freebies. For limited and unpredictable windows of time, you can seize a billionaire-subsidized copy of this thorny tale of many twists. It's a deliciously demented fairy tale romp for gothic romantics and soulful horror fans, gamier and more flavorful than most literature you will find in today's risk-averse trad pub book market. Sex, blood, witchcraft, cannibalism, violence, jump scares, psychological thrills, and rude humor are woven through beautiful prose and passionate poetry from a variety of ancient peoples. See for yourself; a sample of the first six chapters is free to read. Thanks, billionaire buddy!

My other book, Leirah and the Wild Man, is a historically authentic thriller set in and around the Byzantine empire featuring lesbian pirates, Black mermaids, wigs harvested from children's heads, creepy forest spirit drag, folk horror, serial killers, toxic romances, Slavic mythology, Constantinople politics, overconfident Vikings, castration, and more menstrual blood. Do not look for either of my books in a Florida library--though you can borrow them in Michigan, where my rad local librarians have given my works their personal seal of approval.

These books make excellent gifts for the discerning reader who has become bored of the bestseller lists. My novels are personal publications created for and sold directly through a few local boutique bookstores and beloved friends around the world. But they are available for purchase by anyone, anywhere online, in both ebook and print, internationally. They make a great surprise for seekers of raw, authentically wild-grown fairy tales and folklore, medieval fiction, fantasy, less-traveled historical settings, and Byzantine and Slavic narratives. 

Prices fluctuate at the whim of the algorithms, so come back and check the links again later if you don't find a ridiculous discount. On Amazon, only buy low! Otherwise, buy local or check out my books at the library.

Snatch Leirah and the Wild Man when it goes on sale for a rob-the-rich steal.

Seize The Grove of Thorismud when its price drops like juicy windfall fruit.

Happy cozy reading!