Pink Headphones

I still have signed paperbacks for sale (no boxsets yet). My Blood Approves has sold out for now, but I'll be getting more in soon. Check out the paperbacks: here.

My dog is almost three years old. When he was a puppy, I bought a pair of pink gel headphones. They were $9, and I spent almost a half debating whether or not I should buy them. I had hardly any money - as in I lived on ramen because I could afford it. But I wanted my headphones so I could listen to the radio on my phone.

I liked to listen to Back Track USA on Saturday mornings when they play 80's and 90's music, but the only way I could that was on my phone, and my phone requires headphones to listen to the radio.

So I finally caved and bought these headphones, because I really, really like music from the 80's and 90's. I came home,  used them once. Then I left my dog (then a puppy) alone in my room with my headphones while I went to the bathroom. When I returned, the headphones were destroyed.

I was so upset because I couldn't afford another pair. I literally did not have another $9 to spend.

Two weeks ago, I was at the store, looking at headphones. I have gone without headphones for the past two and half years, but since getting my laptop, I wanted to be able to listen to music on not crappy laptop speakers. So I was looking at headphones, thinking about how I didn't really need them, and blah blah... when I realized that I could afford headphones. I could just buy a pair. And I'd still have money to eat. In fact, I'd already paid all my bills for the month.

So I bought the $14 headphones. Yep. I'm living large now.

It's so weird to just be able to buy stuff. I mean, I can't buy anything I want - like a big screen TV or a Delorean. But I can buy new headphones. Or Inception on Bluray/DVD combo pack.

I actually had to save up to buy The Dark Knight when it came out. I'm not even kidding. And to this day, I don't own Star Trek the new movie because when it came out on DVD, I had no money, and now for some reason, I keep forgetting that I don't own it.

When people make an argument for raising books prices, saying we should sell ebooks for $6.99 or even sometimes $9.99, this is what I think of. It's not that I don't work hard on my books. It's not that I don't think my books are equal to traditional published books.

It's that I had to wait three months until after Claudia Gray's Hourglass came out because I had to save up for the ten or twelve bucks at Walmart. It's that when I ordered a used copy of J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey from Amazon for $2 I felt guilty because I didn't know how I was going to pay my car payment that month.

I write books, fun romance books with vampires and zombies and trolls and witches. I'm not curing cancer. I'm entertaining people. And when people are struggling to make ends meat, I can't in good conscience charge more than I already am.

And I am so grateful to you all, and to everything that's happened this year. Thank you!!!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Open QR Codes

Technology Tuesday Postponed!

Mega Giveaway! (Today only!!!)