Update October 6th 2004

I've been informed that we still have one card yet to play in the effort to save this novel series, but I have been told to keep the details of that information to myself.  What this means is there may still be some small glimmer of hope to save this novel series.  Every time we have a book signing, every time we meet people who read and have read our novels we are commended for our efforts.  It would no be possible to post all of the favorable quotes people tell us on behalf of this novel series.

We had a good time at our book signing in Shawnee, OK Walden Books.  They now carry this novel series for their readers.  Walden Books in Fort Smith, AR also carries this novel series.  Barns & Noble in Rogers and Fayetteville, AR have carried our novels but we do not know if they still have any in stock or not.  Of course Chestnut Books in Fort Smith, AR also stocks our novels.

Update September 4th 2004

"The Adventures of Megan Martin" novel series may be going out of print on September 1st 2005!

I've had fans who have learned we may be going out of print tell me "I don't care if you type it up and print it on printer paper I want to read the rest of your wonderful novel series!"  It breaks my heart to tell them that if something doesn't change for the better in this business real soon there may not be any future novels in this series.

A well kept secret large publishers do not want you to know.  Why aren't authors and smaller publishers exposing these dirty secrets?  Those who expose these secrets to the mass public run the risk of never being published by a large publisher, EVER!  Just by posting this news on our website we also run the risk of being ruined for life in this business.  I'm typing his up and telling you here and now on this website because I feel that others need to know that such a thing can and does happen in America.

Monday we received a letter from our publisher telling us she was going out of business.  The reason she gave was that large publishers were pressuring Ingrams and their printer Lightning Press to put the smaller publishers out of business by driving the costs of printing beyond their reach.  The printing of POD novels through Lightning Press by small publishers is more than double what it is for a large publisher.  Each year they raise their rates.  At the same time they do everything they can to prevent small publishers from getting their books and novels into the chain book stores.

A large percentage of readers are not aware that many chain book stores make the majority of their money by renting floor space, wall space, and shelf space to large publishers.  Some book chains like Hastings actually have computers nicknamed "The Grim Reapers" that scan the book inventory in all of their stores and when they find novels there that are not published by their "white list publishers" they are called from the shelves and destroyed without a second thought.  This actually happened to us one day before a book signing at the local Hastings store.  Wed. our books were there and Saturday, the day of the book signing they were gone.  The book manager finally told us what happened to them and even tried to get Hastings corporate to put my books on the white list even if just only for his store.  He made a trip to Amarillo, Texas to accomplish this only to come back and tell me that he was unsuccessful.  I met two other men who had worked for Hastings, one working for Books A Million now and the other had worked in the Hastings corporate office who told me "Hastings is run by an evil family who do things exactly how they want to regardless of who it hurts."  I was informed they were motivated by the money and someone, most likely the large publishers, were paying Hastings to run the Grim Reaper computers.  Hastings lost entire families of customers by their bad business practices.  They don't care because someone else is paying them not to care.  Who might that be?  The large publishers is the most obvious answer.

We were invited by Borders books in Germantown, TN to hold a book signing there.  We drove 5 hours one way to get there only to have them tell us they changed their minds after they discovered we were POD published.  The same company who owns Borders books also owns Waldenbooks, but we have two Walden stores who stock and sell our novels.  One is in Fort Smith, AR and the other is in OK.  I've heard other horror stories from our publisher about other authors who had had nightmare experiences dealing with Borders and Hastings book stores.  One author holding a book signing at Borders knew his books were in the store ready for his book signing.  When he got there they only had 2 or 3 of his books.  He asked them where the other books were and they didn't know.  He set up to do his book signing with his 2 or 3 books and when no one was looking he was able to slip into the storage room and found his entire box of books, which he promptly carried out to his table in the store.  They knew all along where the books were but for some reason didn't want him selling them in their store.  Preventing him from selling the books was costing them the sales of these books.  They offered no explanation for their actions, but from past experiences we know why they did this.  They did it because they receive more money from the large publishers to keep the smaller publishers' authors out of their stores.  There's nothing wrong with the books, people, it's the large publishers who do not want to compete with the smaller publishers and the large publishers have the resources to put a foot on the smaller publishers where it really hurts.

The day before yesterday I was in the last independently owned book store in the city.  The owner there said she was thinking about selling her store that she has owned for many many years.  She said "Someone should boycott Books A Million for all the evil they are involved with."  My ordeal with Books A Million about 4 years ago was when I learned how Books A Million didn't make their money selling books, but renting space to large publishers.  The manager there said, "We will sell your books to someone if they order them and will ship the book to their homes, but we do not want your books in our store."  Books A Million is like a huge version of Hastings.  They know where the real money is, it's not in selling books, it is in keeping the large publishers happy by keeping the smaller publishers out of their stores.  Once again they lost the business of entire families and friends because of it, but they do not care because they are being paid not to care.  Our family and some of our friends have not set foot in a Books A Million or Hastings since we discovered how they do business.

The world has many POD (Print On Demand) authors and publishers who have wonderful stories and books of all kinds, but the big publishers do not want the general public to ever become aware of this.  They do not want the American public to ever know how they do business and how they put the competition out of business.

"The Medallion Mystery" manuscript was turned down by Scholastic for 2 years straight stating that it was too large to be a children's novel.  First of all it's not a children's novel, it's mainstream.  Have you read any of the Harry Potter novels?  Have you seen how large they are?  Did you know how the Harry Potter fans who read "The Adventures of Megan Martin" novels rave about them telling us they are as good as, and some say even better than Harry Potter?  If they are that good why did Scholastic turn them down for two years straight?  These novels are not as large as the Harry Potter novels yet Scholastic not only accepted Harry Potter but paid J.K. Rowling more than any other author in the history of Scholastic publishing.  What's the trick there?  Harry Potter was already a success in the UK and that's why Scholastic was wanting a piece of the pie and willing to break their own rules to get it.  What they refuse to realize is there are a multitude of people who refuse to read Harry Potter for religious reasons because it's "powered by witchcraft."  "The Adventures of Megan Martin" is loved just as well by Harry Potter fans and it's not powered by witchcraft.  Meaning they could acquire the readership not only of Harry Potter fans but of those who refused to read Harry Potter for religious reasons.  They look at the fact sheets and see how long we have been in print and see how many books we sold and it looks like they don't sell that well, but it's because the large publishers are preventing our novels from being placed in the stores.  It's because they do not have the PR that Harry Potter has.  But in the right hands they have even greater potential than Harry Potter because they appeal to a wider range of readers.  At the same time this novel series is being adapted to screenplay format at the request of the manager of a very popular young star.  If they buy the series for movie or TV series the PR will be taken care of.  The second screenplay is finished and should be at the copyright office now.

Update July 31

The Medallion Screenplay is finished and is now in the hands of an interested perspective.  The Underworld screenplay is being edited.

"Dark Matter" is now in print.

Update June 19, 2004

The book signing at Walden's books went very well. :-)  We sold and autographed novels for visitors and posed for pictures.

Everyone loves to meet the girls on the covers of these novels.  If you think you might be interested in having us pay a visit to your school, library, book store, etc. you should be aware of certain things.  I love to bring the "characters" of these fun novels with me when I visit but this ability is a limited time thing.  Laura (Megan Martin) has a job now.  Kristy (Brianna) is looking for a job.  Amber (May Lynx) is difficult to contact and usually has other things going on and is unable to join us.  Morgan (MiKayla) has been faithful from the very start but she is moving to the Saint Louis, MO area next week.  The girls grow up, they get jobs, they move away.  If you wish to have us pay a visit to your establishment please notify us right away of your intentions.  This time next year I may not be able to bring any of the girls with me on book signings and school visits.  My own time being limited and being deeply involved in adapting this novel series to screenplay format I will not be available as frequently as I have in the past.  Everything is run on a schedule here.  Call, make an appointment for a visit and we will do what we can at this end.

Victory Monroe, a celebrity in Reno, NV has taken up the character of Xeba in novel #6, "Dark Matter."  You will see her picture on the front cover of "Dark Matter."

One of our visitors to the book signing asked "Will there be a novel 7."  She's been reading the website here and the news and she is aware of all the problems we have had trying to get the book stores to carry our novels.  The problem is chain book stores prefer to carry novels they can tear the covers off off and mail them back for a refund.  They prefer to work with LARGE publishers who pay to rent shelf space in their stores.  We can't afford to do that so despite the high quality and wonderful stories we offer most of the chain stores do not wish to do business with us.  Because of this and because I've been asked to adapt these novels to screenplay format for a certain very popular young star, that's what I'm doing.  While adapting novels to screenplay format I am not able to write novel 7 of this adventure series at this time.  Doing this kind of work is very time consuming.  Writing a novel can take more than a year.  Adapting a novel to screenplay format can take several months to a year.  This summer I will have 6 novels in print.  I have 6 novels to adapt to screenplay format.  I have "The Medallion Mystery" in the final stages of editing.  I have "The Underworld" in the editing process.  I have 4 more to adapt to screenplay format after the first two are finished.  I love this series and I love to write.  When I sell these screenplays to someone I will consider returning to and writing novel 7 of this series.  In this case the novel may be an adaptation of the screenplay.  ;-)

...Bryon Smith and the cast and crew of "The Adventures of Megan Martin."