Amanda Hocking

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!!!!