Folks, It’s been awhile since we’ve made a post here. We’ve found mentions of TANSTAAFL Press in our local newspaper and wanted to share.

The first one while it is on NVN page, can also be grabbed off of YouTube so I’ll use that link here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5G1QuYSBWY

Second is nothing more than a picture
http://www.yelmonline.com/image_3df54c6e-3547-11e4-a7ca-0019bb2963f4.html

The final one, unfortunately requires you pay a $1 fee to get 7 days access. I’m copying the relevant part.
http://www.yelmonline.com/news/local_news/article_d843995c-3546-11e4-82c0-0019bb2963f4.html?success=2

Publishers, Authors Fill Yelm With Books
By Steven Wyble swyble@yelmonline.com
Books help shape people’s lives. They can inform, entertain and inspire. It’s not surprising books play an important part of people’s lives, even as the Internet threatens to change the way people consume the written word.
Yelm is filled with book publishers, large and small, motivated more by spreading their message than by making money — though money is still important. The companies range in size, to authors who publish their own books. What’s clear is that Yelm is a hotbed of publishers printing all kinds of books — guides to spiritual enlightenment, epic science fiction and fantasy novels, children’s books and dictionaries. And while there’s far too many publishers to explore in depth, there are a few that illustrate the kinds of books people in the Yelm area are producing.

TANSTAAFL Press, Indie Publishing

Thomas Gondolfi’s parents were both bibliophiles, so it’s not surprising he grew up to found a small indie press in Yelm.
Gondolfi’s parents both loved western and mystery novels, but his dad had a penchant for science fiction that his mother only casually shared. But that love of science fiction rubbed off on Gondolfi. At first, his dad introduced him to the juvenile fiction of sci-fi author Robert Heinlein. As he grew up, he started getting into Heinlein’s adult fiction.
A Heinlein novel, in fact, was the inspiration for the name of Gondolfi’s company — TANSTAAFL Press.
The acronym stands for, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” a phrase popularized by Heinlein’s novel, “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.”
“I wanted to give kind of an homage to my hero, Robert Heinlein,” Gondolfi said. “Whenever I go to a (science fiction) convention, I’d say 60-70 percent of the people will come up to me and say, ‘Well, anyone with a name like TANSTAAFL Press, I half-like you already.”
The phrase — which means it’s not possible to get something for nothing — also serves as a nod to the business side of writing and selling books, Gondolfi said.
“It’s the concept that I’m giving something to other people — in this case, the twisted vision in my head, entertainment — and they’re giving me money, if you will. I consider it (money) almost applause. If you’re willing to pay me money to see what I’ve written and be entertained by me, then you’re giving applause by giving me money.”
Gondolfi has a solid scientific background having worked for Intel in DuPont and Xerox before that.
“I use my knowledge as a background, but I write what I want to write and try to make the science fit,” he said. “But at the same time, I won’t write anything illogical.”
That commitment to logic delayed the publication of his first book, “Toy Wars,” which he first wrote 15 years ago. The novel is about robotic toys fighting a war with each other on a distant planet.
“I couldn’t think of a logical reason why toys would fight toys, and so I just kept thinking about it,” he said. “What you see as the preface of the book is what I came up with, how toys would logically be fighting toys. Once I got that, it was like, ‘OK, now I can start writing the book.’”
Gondolfi considered going the traditional route and submitting his work to traditional publishers, but he didn’t look forward to the long, grueling process, he said.
When his wife gave him a book for Christmas called “The Well-fed Self Publisher” by Peter Bowerman, he realized he could publish his books himself.
TANSTAAFL Press got its business license in December 2011. It took Gondolfi about a year to put out his first book, “Toy Wars.”
Since then, TANSTAAFL Press has put out a total of five books, including two by Gondolfi’s longtime friend Bruce Graw, author of TANSTAAFL titles “Demon Holiday” and “Demon Ascendant.”
“I see it (the company) growing organically with the additional books I’ve put out,” he said.
Gondofli has learned the best way to promote books is through word-of-mouth, Gondofli said.
When he thought of how he discovered new books, he noted he either stumbled upon one in a bookstore or heard about one from someone — and between the two, word of mouth is where he’s focusing.
He’s generating that word of mouth by making himself approachable at conventions, where he often rents out booths or gives talks. He’s often accompanied by a purple teddy bear wielding a machine gun — the main character of “Toy Wars.”
“I can’t sell to a man dying of thirst,” Gondolfi said. “Never have been able to. But what I’ve learned is not to sell. I don’t sell my books. I market my books.”

While it comes as no surprise to us, the data is in and TANSTAAFL Press has grown forty percent year-over-year in total sales. We are also at a positive cash flow. To have a positive cash flow in year two is amazing for any small business. We want to thank you, the fans, for your huge support.

While TANSTAAFL is currently using black ink we are dipping into this to create a few new items you might enjoy. First, and probably least for many of you, is that sometime in the near future, TANSTAAFL will offer e-books on our own site. We won’t pull them from the other sites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble but we will be making them available for direct purchase at conventions and our site.

Second, we are working on an animated book trailer for our company and our books that we hope will entertain you! While it doesn’t directly involve the book plots, some of the characters (Don Quixote, the teddy bear and Cinnamon, the cat) will be appearing in leading roles. There is no definitive date for release at this time.

I mentioned in my previous posts that I was interviewed at Crypticon. SciFi Monkeys is a long running SciFi / Horror review blog. After they read only half of Toy Wars they came and asked to interview me.

The interview is now posted (over nine minutes — didn’t know I was that verbose). In addition they said some very nice things about Toy Wars. Go see the interview and their own words at  http://scifimonkeys.com/sfm-exclusive-ronnie-chats-with-thomas-gondolfi-author-of-toy-wars-at-crypticon-seattle/.

“Welcome all you horror honeys!” announced the Crypt Keeper himself.

Crypticon was one of the best run conventions we’ve ever attended. The staff was available, knowledgeable and courteous. The facilities were spacious and we had a great booth location. The events were well planned and professionally announced. There were good demonstrations and skits in the middle of the vendor’s area (we’re still singing “Time Warp” and “Thriller”). There were scads of guests stars that you actually KNEW and even more scads you didn’t unless you were deep in the genre — scream queens, writers, actors.. EVERYONE in the genre.

All of that being said, I won’t be going back (and I wish Crypticon would give lessons to other conventions). My products didn’t match the customers wants.

At a normal convention we am interacting with the public continuously — either bringing people in with a casual flirt or talking to someone who is showing an interest or even to booth vampires that just want to talk the day away. At Crypticon most people wouldn’t even meet our eyes. Very few folks engaged. We spent most of the con sitting there trying to think of a way to get folks to just come in and talk. It was obvious by watching their eyes that they had discounted our product, and thus us, before even getting close to our booth.

We had our worst single day convention sales (zero) and by far our worst 3 day con sales (a paultry eight books, six of which were “Toy Wars”). To our great surprise, not a single Demon Holiday or Demon Ascendant sold… at a horror convention.

On the plus side we did meet some great people… Special shout outs to Ronnie of SciFi Monkeys, “just shorten it to” Al, and some of my other writing colleagues Evil Girlfriend Media, Eloise Knapp and Tony Monchinski.