Your Chance to Own Chriswords for $3.43! · 6:30pm Aug 22nd, 2019
I was going to post about this after Bronycon, but I thought I'd give it a week or so, so that it wouldn't get lost amidst everyone's post-Bronycon blogs. And being me, a week or so passed and I completely forgot I'd meant to post this.
But now I've been reminded, so here we go!
As you may recall, RBDash47 has been working on setting up and expanding Ponyfeather Publishing: a website where people can find high-quality downloadable and physical copies of their favorite books. One of his inaugural selections was my story, The Purloined Pony, and I've blogged before about just how awesome his treatment of it is. Trust me, if you've only read Purloined Pony on FiMFiction, then you may have read all the same words, but you haven't had the same experience. Font, illustrations, and more, all lovingly chosen to create the perfect nostalgic aesthetic!
At Bronycon, he helped me (read: did literally 100% of the work) set up a run of 40 physical copies for sale at Aquaman's Bookstore. If you were there, I hope you got a chance to buy one... though I fear you probably didn't, since I'm told they sold out pretty much first thing on Friday morning. I would not have guessed that 40 books would be a massive understock, but there ya go.
So! Maybe you missed a chance to buy it there. Maybe you didn't go at all, but still want a shockingly affordable nostalgia bomb. Regardless, I'm pleased to share that, again thanks to RBDash, you can now buy a print copy of The Purloined Pony for just $3.43!
Yeah, you read the price right. This is at-cost, print-on-demand, and it turns out that the paper stock and materials the classic CYOA books used were pretty darn cheap. You can probably afford a copy just by rooting around in your couch for loose change!
There is one catch, though: shipping costs. If you live in the US, that's gonna tack on just under $4.00. Yes, shipping is more expensive than the book itself 
Good news, though! You can knock that per-unit shipping cost way down by buying more books! Now, the best way to do this is obviously to buy more copies of my book: buy 12 copies, and the per-unit shipping cost drops to less $0.68! This is clearly the best solution.
But if, for some unfathomable reason, you don't want to own twelve identical copies of the same book (no accounting for taste, I suppose), you can accomplish the same thing by looking through some of the other great books Ponyfeather Publishing has for sale via Lulu. Quality authors abound, and in addition to those, there are more than 20 additional titles available through the friends of PFP page. Find another book or three (or ten, if you're like me...) that you'd also like to own, and get them all at once!
Or just buy The Purloined Pony by itself. Even at $7.50-ish all-in, it's still a good deal. Regardless of what you do or don't buy, though, I hope you enjoy!
[UPDATE: Sorry, no longer available]
Soooo tempted to buy goddamn everything. That would be irresponsible. I'll just buy yours, that's the adult thing to do.
(marks that sucker down for when I get my order in)
Since I sold off *every* copy of everything I wrote, I'll have to go into Lulu and print an 'authors copy' for myself and a few gifts, so I'm going to get some others while I'm at it. Yours is certainly one. Added Ponyfeather Publishing to my link page.
I picked this up in my giant horse words order (it ended up being like...$230?) and it is freaking amazing! It looks just like an old Choose Your Adventure book to a 'T'.
So glad I picked it up!
P.S. I also used a (I think) coupon code that was 15% off my whole order, so it could have been much worse.
Just ordered my copy!
It's a lot more expensive purchasing physical ponyfic from the UK* -- but I'm really quite tempted by this. Back in the 1980s I was a big gamebook fan, and though the Fighting Fantasy series was much more popular than Choose Your Own Adventure over here, I did have a few CYOA books. Is this a limited-time edition, like some of the other physical books I've seen, or are you planning on keeping it available?
* Not just for shipping, either. The base price of this book when ordering from over here is £4.20 -- about $5.15 at current exchange rates. With standard shipping, the total is $13.71.
Ordered!
I was lucky to get a copy at BronyCon, but there are several other books I'd like to get.
5110087
This is entirely your fault for not being born in Freedomland, you know.
(Seriously though, why does the book itself cost more if you're purchasing from outside of the US? That's silly, not to mention a darn shame)
As for time-sensitivity, though, it'll remain available for purchase indefinitely! As long as RBDash doesn't get C&D'd, that is.
Do recommend picking it up! Incredible how much it looks like how I remember them... Also, the illustration on page 55 is super-adorable, and the one on page 108 somehow reminds me of Helen Lovejoy. Reluctant Brony did a great job.
And thank you for signing the ones sent to Bronycon! I wasn't expecting that when I picked it up.
5110208
Fun fact! Reluctant Brony is my mom.
Picked up a stack of them: one for me and a number to distribute to my pony-positive friends. They just arrived in the mail today.
Unsurprisingly, I love them.
5110087
The solution is to find 11 other people around there who want the book and do a bulk order!
You got any left?
5113492
They're print-on-demand, so you can get one whenever you want!
(Be aware, though, that your fellow brit 5110087 found that it gets a lot pricier when you aren't buying from stateside)
5113560
What's a price on memories?
EDIT: I'll have to ask him because when I tried it just said no :(