There’s a ton of housekeeping and important stuff that we thought you should know about.
“We” = the authors at Stories Rule Press. We’re writing this post collectively – more about that in a minute, along with a host of goodies and other stuff you’ll like.
How We’re All Doing
We’ve had a ton of emails from readers asking how we’re all doing here in Casa Stories Rule.
We’re all doing very well indeed because of some very fortunate timing. Tracy has been working from home for years, so the pandemic lockdowns didn’t really affect her. But Mark lost his day job on Valentine’s Day, just before the worst of the first wave of COVID hit our city and was suddenly home all day. Mark has been editing Tracy’s work for some years. So, he turned to editing for other people and has been working steadily since. He’s also publishing his own stories.
Then Terry, who also lives with us, lost his job and was suddenly home all day, too. He instantly began writing in earnest and intends to publish. He’s already sold one story to an anthology that comes out in 2021. Terry also doubled-down on learning how Tracy publishes everything and has become an indispensable assistant.
(Tracy: The biggest challenge wasn’t the suddenly-not-there money but learning to cope with having them both home all day!)
Because of this timing, we managed to miss nearly all the high-risk situations. We stay home, work our tails off, and go out of the house as little as possible, to keep that risk as low as we can.
We also hope that all of you, along with all your family and friends, are safe, well and coping with the year from hell as gracefully as possible!
“Those Publisher People”
We’ve also had a few emails from puzzled readers, mentioning “those publisher people” we’re all now publishing with. And we thought we should explain that one a bit better.
In August we all announced that we had “moved to” Stories Rule Press and would be publishing with those people from now on.
In actual fact, “those people” are us.
As we explained above, due to the pandemic we all suddenly found ourselves at home and dropping into default publishing roles. Then someone had the bright idea that we should formalize the arrangement, dump all our assets into the pot (mostly, sweat equity and brain power) and see if we could make Stories Rule Press a going concern.
Stories Rule Press Inc. was incorporated in early July and we’ve been gearing up and getting organized ever since, while also keeping to each of our individual publishing schedules. Tracy, Terry and Mark are partners in the business. Tracy is the Publisher, Mark is the CEO and Terry is the CFO, although we end up turning our hands to anything that needs to be done, most days.
In addition, we have three other non-partner authors who are “official” SRP authors: Cameron Cooper, Taylen Carver and Eliot Bishop (Eliot will have an official introduction in a few weeks). Plus, we will be publishing a range of other authors in anthologies throughout 2021.
That’s why the new release emails that go out from Stories Rule Press itself are always signed “The Authors at SRP”. Because it really is a collective of writers!
Support local and small businesses!
We’re sure you’ve heard this philosophy a lot lately. Small and local business need our help and we can support them by buying from them as much as possible.
We try to do so, as well. For example: We bought most of our Christmas gifts from local artists via Etsy and chose sellers for other gifts that were located within Canada, or at the worst, from North America. (Tracy: Last year, I had a gift arrive less than 24 hours before Christmas Day, all the way from Ukraine. Not this year!)
Here’s the thing: If you buy our books directly from us via the Stories Rule Press site, you’re also supporting a small business. 98% of the price of each book remains with us when you buy direct from us. This lets us keep the 30-40% other retailers charge as a commission. Sometimes much higher!
And that leads us very neatly to the good stuff for today:
Loyalty Rewards Points
You might be thinking “Ok, so now you’re getting paid more if I buy from you, why do I care about that?”
Well, it allows us to put out more volume, which is priority number one for all of us.
But we also want to give back to you wonderful people who agree to support small business!
This is why we’re now introduced our Loyalty Points Program and Gift Card Program! (more on that in a moment)
- It’s just like Air Miles or Kobo’s Reward Points program. By buying your favorite books directly from Stories Rule Press, you will earn 100 points for every dollar you spend! (Tax not included of course).
- We’ll also be giving you 1,000 points when you register at Stories Rule Press for the first time.
- We will also be putting on Double Points events and other promotions to help you boost those points.
- And checking your balance is very simple: login to SRP, go to your account, and you’ll see your points balance right there!
We did some research and made sure that the points you earn with us are more valuable than any other book retailer, so enjoy your rewards.
And if you’ve already been a customer of ours? Not to worry, we have retroactively added in points for every previous purchase you’ve made! You might have already seen them on your account!
Gift Card Program
“I have WAY too many cousins and friends that I buy gifts cards for, I don’t know if I can support you like that.”
Oh, we have you covered, friends!
We know holiday shopping season is here and will be for many months yet. And gift cards are one of the best ways to show someone you care without giving them a book they would rather regift.
With that in mind, we now have gift cards! Currently, we’re offering $5, $10, $25 and $50 denominations!
And remember those points we mentioned earlier? You also get points for these gift cards! So, you can spoil yourself with the rewards while you spoil your friends!
Always nice to get a win-win during the holidays isn’t it?
Check out the store and see if you have any points already, here. (Just hover over the My Account on the top right and click on Points in the drop-down menu.)
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So.
Lots to talk about!
We hope that this has helped answer some of your questions!
If you still have remaining questions or concerns, or have anything to say at all, email and tell us!
You can email all of us collectively at admin@storiesrulepress.com.
Check out all our sites here: https://storiesrulepress.com/authors/ (and Eliot will get his big intro in a few days’ time!).
Cheers,
The Authors at SRP.