First of all, if you have a non-delivery problem or a glitch in the site, write to us at:
authors@closed-circle.net and we will establish a ‘case’ with all the proper linkage to our book delivery system, and get working on it.
If you have a question, suggestion, or problem, either technical, about the site, or about a purchase, please comment, and I’ll try to fix/answer it.
Here are some FAQs about Closed Circle, off the top of my head.
1. We offer 2 download packages: the regular or “FULL” contains 11 formats predone. At least one of these should enable you to view the file without further ado. The MINIME download, or “MINI” contains 3: mobi, e-Pub, and pdf, if you like a faster download. You can turn these into just about anything.
2. MAKE BACKUP COPIES! We’ll work with you if you have a problem with a download, but once you’ve got it, please back up your original download file and keep your e-library backed up on more than one device. Losing that download file AND your reading copy is the same as losing a book. We are selling the files to you, for use in your immediate household. Please do not lend copies: we are trying to make a living on this, and every little bit helps.
3. All income from Closed Circle goes straight to the writer in question.
4. Nobody but Closed Circle can sell these files. If you see them elsewhere, they’re pirated: don’t patronize thieves. Again: we have to pay our light bills—please respect a creator’s rights.
5. If you are a writer and want to do what we’re doing, we’ll be happy to tell you how, particularly if you find us at a convention and buy us a drink. We are glad to link to fellow writers. Closed Circle has taken a massive slice of our writing time to plan and set up, but once set up, it should be a matter of producing e-books and putting them up.
6. Use the post office box given on the most current CC downloads if you need a physical address. NOTE: IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT EUROPEAN PAYPAL ALLOWS ONLY 10 CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS PER CREDIT CARD, AND THEN YOU HAVE TO USE A NEW CREDIT CARD. BUMMER! WE WILL ACCEPT INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDERS MADE OUT TO THE SPECIFIC WRITER—NOT TO CLOSED CIRCLE, WHICH HAS NO BANK ACCOUNT AND CANNOT CASH ANYTHING!!!—AND INCLUDE YOUR E-MAIL ADDY IF YOU ARE NOT A REGISTERED BLOG MEMBER—SO WE CAN SEND YOU THAT DOWNLOAD LINK.
IF YOU ARE A REGULAR ON OUR BLOGS AND WE KNOW YOU, JUST E-MAIL US THAT YOU’RE SENDING US A MONEY ORDER AND WE’LL SHORTCUT THE USUAL PROCESS AND GIVE YOU YOUR DOWNLOAD LINK BY RETURN E-MAIL, TRUSTING YOUR PAYMENT WILL REACH US AT OUR PO BOX.
7. Yes, we will be writing things directly for CC. It will take a while. Writing does take time. But be patient.
Is Closed Circle working at the moment? I’ve added “Faery Moon” to my basket, but when I click “Check out with PayPal” I get this error:
Fatal error: Call to a member function getUserInfo() on a non-object in /home/lynnabbe/public_html/closedcircle/WhereItsAt/wp-content/plugins/wp-cart-for-digital-products/eStore_payment_submission.php on line 362
My browser is Firefox 3.5.6 on WinXP SP3.
Ouch. Jane just updated the ‘basket’ and there may be an issue. Thank you for telling us. I’m going to ask her, and we will get this worked out asap. I trust Paypal took your money but didn’t give you a download and didn’t give us an e-mail.
E-mail us a complaint at authors@closed-circle.net and we will establish a ‘case’ and get you your book.
The error came before I even got to PayPal, so no money was taken! But now that the problem has been fixed, I tried it again, and it worked. Thank you.
I am reading REGENESIS and need to ask about the remediation program; I am early in the book, and thought I have scanned back, I cannot find the reference to it. I cannot remember what it is about, where it is located and what signifigance it has. I just need a basic reminder, not a spoiler. Thanks
It’s a reference to later on in Cyteen, where Justin is referencing dieoff zones and the threatened extinction of native Cyteen life. The conditions got bad enough that there is now a move to try to re-tilt the balance, before they have an atmospheric crisis. When Justin was younger, for instance, they could reach the river directly; now there are barriers in the way.
I’m certain this was discussed in some where some time ago but it seems I can’t dig up the post/s it happened in… so – Those of your books offered by Fictionwise; are those legitimate?
Questionable: Fictionwise offered a batch of books that they had no right to offer: they thought they had—it stemmed from the collapse of a company called Peanut, who had bought the rights for THEIR edition, but the rights were not transferable. DAW got into contact with Fictionwise, as I understand, and Amazon; and there was discussion, but *I* never got paid for anything from either company, so far as I have been able to discover, nor have been paid currently, nor expect to be, I suppose. So I am not sure who to be upset with, but I can at least report I am unpaid as of the present, and this has been going on for at least a couple of years. DAW is generally very good about getting money to me, so my suspicions center on the other companies.
OK, as far as I’m concerned if you’re not getting paid they’re illegitimate. So – not buying from them, then.
Not sure if this counts as a FAQ or not, but: where did the name Closed Circle come from? Is there any significance to it, or did it just sound neat?
😆 it’s because we three aren’t up to taking submissions from novice writers or even from established writers whose business we’d have to handle: we’ll freely tell them how we do it, what softwares, what you have to do, etc, but we are just we-three, nobody else, a closed circle. Lynn used to live with us. We have a longterm trust, and literally can do business on somebody’s given word, which really shortens the paperwork.
I am very new to blogging so if I make a mistake, please tell me about it. Anyway, this is for CJ. I have wondered if you were ever going to to go further with development of the “Faded Sun” story? There are a couple of story lines i think could be pursued. I’ll shut up now.
You’re very welcome. I don’t rule it out absolutely, but during the first phase of Closed Circle, we’ll be concentrating on getting our inactive backlist out there. Then we’ll start thinking about some new things (although I am doing a new bit just for fun right now)—welcome aboard!
I wondered… if I did not already know about Closed Circle, how would I find it? So I spent a bit of time for my edification and amusement, and in the process, came up with 2 things you might be able to use.
1. The contact info on the “sff.net” links for the graphic novels’ “Basement of Books” items appears to be out of date.
http://www.sff.net/bfob/files/Cherryh,_C.J.txt
and http://www.sff.net/bfob/files/Fancher,_Jane.txt
2. Amazon has something they call “Author Pages,” each of you has one already. They say that this is free, and that authors can go in and update these pages. I well understand that there may be costs associated with this that are not counted in dollars and cents, but if you are happy with their requirements (not being an author, I have no idea what might be involved – or how much time this might take), they say that you can add a photo and a biography, have your blog posts appear there, and identify (but not link to, apparently) your website.
Hoping to have been of some help, in addition to having had fun and learning something myself. 🙂
Excellent points! I’ll pass that to Jane and Lynn, too!
Update: I now have an Author Page on Amazon: it won’t display until they crosscheck with my publishers.
For CJ
Ahhh, just wondering….. I do not normally keep up with CONS as they are generally too far for me to attend. Are there any CONS in Texas and, if so, would you be attending? Hoping you would sign my first editions of the “Faded Sun” trilogy. (I have all three books)
Google “texas fandom” and you will have listings of a number of conventions. They also exist in Oklahoma, NM, LA, and AR. As a matter of fact, google your nearest city name and fandom and you may also find conventions. Most areas have more than one a year, and you’re likely to meet some kindred souls among the locals, people you otherwise never would have linked up with.
Thanx for the info. Last time at a CON was AggieCon with Anne McCaffrey as GoH. (Many, many years ago) Now, second question, are you going to be in region any time soon?
That would have been a while ago. Last time I saw Anne was New Orleans, crom-many years ago, too…
I don’t have any plans this year to make it to Texas. Nearest con we often attend is Midsouthcon in Memphis, but not this year: too much travel. Aggie con—I know there are some in Dallas, Houston used to have one. Conestoga up in Oklahoma…
What you often find in a region is a core group of many familiar faces traveling to every con in driving distance: up here, you’ll find a lot of people going to Miscon, Radcon, Spokon, Rustycon, and Orycon…It’s almost a tradition that you don’t hunt down people to say goodbye at the end of the con, because you’re sure to see them at the next one. 😉
I find a handy rule-of-thumb to be, if there is a reasonably large college or university in a town, there is almost always a con. Lots of college students are science fiction/role-playing/comic fans, and will put on a convention for their favorite hobby.
Absolutely. I’m a little dubious of a convention put on AT a college, because the restrictions v the con culture don’t cohabit well, but there are exceptions—number one being the little con getting started at a college that has ambitions to move on to a hotel at first opportunity, and number two being the little college con whose leadership does not graduate every year, forcing the underclassmen to reinvent the wheel—
Spokane had an sf convention for many years, then lost it when the principals moved or retired; (the fannish word is gafiate…’get away from it all’, or drop out of fandom for a while) —but Spokon has sprung up at a local university and shows signs of persistence and good management. This will be their third year, and they are very good people, ime.
Aha!!! I knew there was another reason I liked your work. I, too, was one of those quirky folk who decided a piste was a more genteel arena than a large grassy sward or large wooden floor filled with rude strangers. Then, again, I had already read ‘Scaramouche’. As an udergrad, in the dim paleolithic past, I was the fencing team for my school. Tres triste.
* I haven’t been to AggieCon in ages; not since I was a student. (That was, thanks to a college buddy and my mother, when I first learned about Downbelow Station, Pride of Chanur, and Chanur’s Venture. Venture was the first or second I read.) They had a nice con at the time, complete with SCA folks (Society for Creative anacronism). At the time, I think their SF&F club was called Ceti something or other.
* I’m planning to go to ApolloCon in Houston at the end of June. See apollocon.org . I met Selina Rosen of Yard Dog Press there a couple of years ago. She was great…and slightly tipsy. (Dang, I just realized those books are still packed, must unpack and read.) — ApolloCon has had good panels, dealer room, films and other fun stuff, author panels (awesome), and since it’s Houston, you may run into real, live NASA techs or various college docs / denizens; basically, like any good con, but with occasional perks. — Er, if I get my act together, I’ll be wearing an Old West frock coat, suitable for Browncoats anywhere.
* Re ebooks — Amazon Kindle ebooks are viewable via a software app called Kindle for PC, Mac, or iPhone. There’s also Stanza for iPhone, and the new iPad ebook store and reader will be avail. for iPhone later this year. (My experience: read on a laptop or buy a real book, but the iPhone will do if you’re desperate to read. Text-to-speech would be handier.)
* A fellow Farscape fan who’s now a published author has had good things to say about SmashWords.com for ebook publishing. (Her book is called This Time, a historical science fiction story about Richard III. The author’s first name is Joan.) (She says that getting Word docs into any ebook format is an exercise in frustration and perhaps masochism.)
* Just noticed the sidebar says there’s “Gold in Aderin” by CJ at Closed Circle, and some things by Barbara Hambly and by Selina Rosen, elsewhere in the cyberverse. Neat!
PayPal says: one can pay by creditcard without having a PayPal account, but these ‘grace transactions’ are limited to 10 per card (during the entire lifetime of this credit-card-number). After that you have to register for a PayPal-account, or use another creditcard (again 10x max.).
This explains why after several succesful transactions I suddenly couldn’t buy any more from you through PayPal, as I don’t have an account. I don’t understand why they don’t just clearly state this ‘maximum 10 grace transactions per creditcard-number without a PayPal-account’ policy on their public website – at least I couldn’t find it anywhere.
After a lot of trouble I finally got an address for PayPal (by mailing to a noreply-address): it was in Luxemburg, so my mom translated my letter into French, and about a week after I sent it I got an answer in Dutch from Ireland, with (hurrah! at last!) a mail-address for Customer Service. Then when I mailed them I finally received a telephone number for Customer Service in Holland.
It really is a very international company, and not easily approachable, but they did answer fast once I managed to contact them.
I’m continuing my discussion with them about whether it’s possible to register for a PayPal account based on a creditcard instead of a bankaccount (yes, in theory it should be possible, but …): if I find out how that works I’ll post it here as well, as others may in time run into the same problem with their CC purchases.
Good to know (and utterly annoying).
Back in the day, when PayPal (the European branch) was still rather young, it was possible to register with only a credit card, I know I did. My first transaction was for Foreigner, Invader and Inheritor, the hardcover versions.
I have since decided that I don’t like them (I think there were some changes to their TOS involved which I found not my liking) and closed my account with them.
Weird! Thank you for explaining that! You CAN pay us directly by check, Money Order, or International Money Order if you like, and for those of you that are familiar faces on Wave or Face or The Captain, we will just shoot you a code for the file(s) and trust your check, etc, will find its way to our mailbox in Spokane. I’m going to amend that statement immediately.
It’s an interesting story but I much prefer you have the
checks in your hand first.
Long, long ago I sent off for a certain set of graphic
novels. I had been a regular reader of the old log of
adventures of CJ.
This disappeared into the mails and was never seen again.
Eventually the log described elements of household turmoil
that may have let the post office off the hook…GRIN
This was in the days before the current direct sales setup
and the shiny new Wave without a Shore. It remains one of
the mysteries, but I since prefer that you get the payment
then I get the material (or ebooks).
There’s nothing wrong with your policy either.
Tyr, did you ever, ever, ever get those books?
[[blush]]
Good heavens, Tyr…was the check cashed? Horrors!
Hanneke…We had no idea!!!! I’m going to try to contact PayPal tomorrow when I have a brain (not easy for us, either) and see if I can get the entire scoop on this. It’s totally counter productive…So sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks so much for your persistence in getting an answer!
@Sabina: I tried it again, and this time it was very clearly indicated, once I reached that stage of the ‘register an account’-process (on the Dutch PayPal site) that I could choose to link a credit-card instead of a bank account. So I did, and immediately used it on CC, and it looks like it worked.
They need your mail-address, home address and telephone no. as well as all the creditcard-info, but at least this way one can keep buying while only using the limited creditcard on the Internet, and not exposing the bank-account.
The CC ladies are flexible, but all the other interesting new authors that CJ is linking to also use PayPal, so now at last I can start trying some of their books as well.
Ok, this might be a really stupid question, given what I’ve just read on Closed Circle about publishers and publishing issues, but I have to ask. Given the difficulty of finding most of your titles in SF bookshops (and I live in Oakland, CA, so it must be even harder for those not in metropolitan areas) to find your books- especially older ones, why does DAW (or your other publishers) not participate in Kindle? I do find it very convenient- for someone like me, who reads 6-8 titles a month. Is it a copyright issue? Is Amazon a total evil empire? (I mean, of course it is, but is it so bad that reputable publishers can’t strike agreements with them). Really, really a fan. Have been for a long time and I’d love to read on the Kindle some of those older books I can’t find. Just bought Heavy Time on CC and had no idea it even existed.
They do—or did. But Amazon turned out not to have the rights but had put out books; so did Fictionwise. The publisher rightly wanted those editions pulled. Then Amazon and Penguin (DAW’s parent house) went head to head. If you go to the Penguin site, you can find several; and that’s the best I can do. Now publishers are refusing to give up e-rights, and are getting really violent about it; I do have e-rights on some of my books and am working at getting them out under my own logo (with Jane Fancher and Lynn Abbey, two writers/friends who have similar problems), which is where it all sits.
In short, welcome, kick back, and watch the new age of books be born in all the usual confusion.
Dear CJ
Do you have e-book rights for Downbelow Station?
It is the one title I have been chasing for years and never managed to track down. If I could buy an electronic version I think it completes my collection of Merchanter/Alliance/Union titles (except Regenesis which is waiting for enough cash to materialize).
Closed Circle is a brilliant idea and I have already started buying Jane Fancher’s titles. I don’t want publishers to go out of business but I do prefer my hard earned cash to arrive at the creator’s door, not diluted by all the middlemen.
Alas, no, i don’t. It is available in PB. It originally came out in PB and there is an English hb, but no American one.