Late To The Party But Better Late Than Never

To introduce readers to Newcastlewest Books, we lowered the price on one of our digital titles. Lowered it to free, in fact, to make it an irresistible offer. Lowered to free where we could, that is. Amazon wouldn't let us drop the price below 99 cent.

Readers who download e-books via Smashwords were able to take advantage of the offer and have been enjoying THE KING OF THE IRISH for several weeks.

Those who limit their downloading to Amazon's Kindle or Kindle app have not been able to get that price. We wanted to make THE KING OF THE IRISH free for everyone, but Amazon does what it wants when it comes to pricing books by small independent publishers.

Free at last, free at last

Non-Amazon users have been introduced to the sordid beginnings of Chicago's political machine through the story of Daniel Coughlin, a police detective who was charged with murder in 1889. He was a pawn in a larger game, a loyal second-generation Irish-American who took up the cause that his father championed. The connection between Chicago and Ireland's nationalist movement was strong, and Dan Coughlin was one small part of the vast and complex machinery. That he got caught up in it was a consequence not anticipated. How he was crushed by it is the heart of the tale. How the leaders of the movement manipulated government to achieve their goals forms the backdrop of the novel.

Suddenly, Amazon has noticed that a novel is available for a lower price than what they are offering. Readers could get THE KING OF THE IRISH for free if they went through iTunes or Barnes and Noble. They could not let the competition get the better of them.

Without warning, Amazon dropped the price on THE KING OF THE IRISH so that it is now free for downloading from Amazon.

We wanted to do it ourselves, back when we first thought of promoting our list by giving away a title.

It was not our choice to make. It was Amazon's decision, out of our hands.

The deed is done, although it would have been easier to promote from our end if we could have set our own price. That is not how publishing works in Amazon's world, where the small presses must sign on to Amazon's exclusivity deal to be allowed to give a book away, and even at that it's all up to Amazon.

Thanks for noticing the price change, Amazon. Readers can now discover Newcastlewest Books through THE KING OF THE IRISH, finally available for free downloading at Amazon. Just like it's been available via iTunes for free. A bit late to the party, but at least Amazon is finally on board. Without that exclusivity deal that makes no sense for publishers or authors.