Authors of Western Fiction Take Advantage of Unique Online Site

With a slogan "Autographed Books Make Great Gifts", WritersWest.com has a variety of authors offering unique titles.

Helena, MT -- It has been over a year since WritersWest.com appeared online, making available books about the American West. In that time, the number of authors joining this consortium of western writers has steadily increased.

WritersWest.com is an independent consignment bookstore where the books come from the western writers, and not distributors. The author sets the price and receives 75% for each title sold. Many of the authors participate in WritersWest.com's co-op advertising, which increases their visibility in venues that would be price-prohibitive for individual authors. And by signing their books, they have created a special product not found at other bookstores. Consumers are finding out about this, too; they like the fact that they don't have to click through pages of unrelated titles to get to the Western books they enjoy.

K. Follis Cheatham, author of SPOTTED FLOWER AND THE PONOKOMITA, and KANSAS DREAMER: FURY IN SUMNER COUNTY, started the Writers West site in 2003. "Online there are many retailers and used-book stores," Cheatham says, "but the author has no control and receives little or no money for sale of their books."

What type of fiction authors use WritersWest.com as an outlet? The variety is vast, and the book selection covers all western genres, as well as children's books and poetry. Readers can choose books from SPUR Award winners Lucia St. Clair Robson, Richard S. Wheeler, and Miles Swarthout, from two-time WILLA winner Gladys Smith, Romance writer Elizabeth Butler, or EPPIE Finalist Terry Burns, who writes inspirational/Christian westerns.

Also available are signed collector-edition books--several by the late Glendon Swarthout, including his classic THE SHOOTIST (which was made into John Wayne's last film). Books for young readers include an assortment of new nonfiction titles, as well as the multi-award winning STARLIGHT BOOKS ("Bringing horse lore to life") by Janet Muirhead Hill.

Along with the recognized names are traditional action westerns by Robert J. Thomas and Eugene C. Vories, contemporary western novels by L. B. Bailey, and essays, cowboy poetry and ranching tales from Echo Roy, Ken Overcast, Mike Logan and more.

"Some of the titles would be hard to find in other bookstores," Cheatham says. "Like the historical novels that cover little known facts about the West." These include Philip Swatek's THE PONTOTOC CONSPIRACY, THE BURNT DISTRICT by Ellen Gray Massey, ELECTA by D. W. Fabel, and Pat Decker Nipper's Romance, LOVE ON THE LEWIS AND CLARK TRAIL.

"The word is spreading," says Cheatham. "It's nice to go to the mailbox and find interesting books from authors I hadn't heard of. The number of fiction titles increases weekly."

Writer's West
"Autographed books make great gifts!"