Have you noticed that almost every new movie that is being released lately comes with the tag “One of the best movies of the year”? And when you release a movie on January 1, you may truly call it “The best movie of the year so far!”

Sometimes you wonder about those people who are in the business of promoting movies and their display of lack of originality. It’s in the same class as, for instance, “But wait! If you order within the next five minutes…” My point is, those slogans, as much as they did their job the first few times, are being overused and thus lose their effectiveness to a point that they might as well read as “Handle with caution!” Now, there is a slogan that didn’t lose its verve…

Another new term, that is in the same danger of being annoyingly overused, is… Unputdownable!

Well, by maintaining this very website I am in the business of posting numerous book reviews during the day, and this term… Unputdownable… has come up more and more frequently.

Unputdownable…

Is this one of those unique and ingenious American-made terms that will have the same impact on a customer as a whole sentence (or even two) in previous times? Is it one of those modern-world words out of the management dictionary that (like manager, suicide, midlife crisis, flat rate, and more) will make it into the Duden, the German equivalent of Webster’s Dictionary? Should the person, who invented the word, trademark it? Think of the guy who trademarked “Are you ready to rumble?”

Unputdownable…

Just sit down, relax, close your eyes, and discover the emotions that evolve when you think of… Unputdownable…

Does it create a shiver of excitement that slowly and teasingly spirals down your spine? Or does it create an involuntary cramping of your stomach followed by pulsing, acid reflexes, and the desire to run into the kitchen to get some TUMS?

But, after all, it’s all a matter of taste, and I would be thrilled if you found my post “unputdownable.” But on second thought… Nuh! I will just thrive in humble delight, knowing you read my blabbering, and hoping you pass it on to a friend or even to somebody you don’t like.

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

Gauthama who had been known as Buddha and Siddhartha after getting ‘Light of Knowledge’ was born in Lumbini.  It is in Kapilavassthu, which is situating in the north part of Basthi district in Uthar Pradesh.  He took birth as the son of the King Suddhodana.

From the very childhood Gauthama showed the mood of a very thinker.  King Suddhodana was very anxious about his son.  He made Gauthama in his sixteenth old, the husband of a beautiful princes Yasodhara.  She tried to do her level best for making the prince happy.

Suddhodana had taken great care for not witnessing Gauthama any inauspicious event Suddhodana thought that such things would make his son more contemplative and nervous.

One day while the prince was travelling in a horse cart, he saw a group coming against him carrying something. He had never seen such a scene before.  The servant who had been travelling upon a horse tried to transfer the attention of the prince from it, in futile.  Gauthama wanted to know the fact.  Looking at the passing crowd, the servant told the prince that it was an old man’s dead body and his relatives and friends were taking it to a burial place.  From the words of servant Gauthama was grasping a truth, all the people would die when they become old.  The servant revealed about the death of younger people due to illness.

The heart of the prince filled with unlimited sadness.  He felt that all the things of the world being mortal and perishable.  Many people were suffering from poverty and ailments.  Love and compassion had become rare among the rich people.  Gauthama had fallen into a dilemma. He did not know what to do.  Every night bloomed before him with shivering giving bad dreams.  Yasodhara tried to console her darling-mate by telling smooth words. In fact all her words were falling in scorched loose sand.  She bewailed in her solitidues.

Suddhodana and his queen were in endless grief seeing their son’s growing gloominess and thoughts.  They too tried for his happiness in vain.

Once Gauthama saw a man with long whiskers and hair.  He had worn only necessary clothes for covering his body.  The prince ordered the horse carter for stopping the cart.  Then he approached the man and asked him about him.  The stranger introduced himself as a Rishi or an Ascetic who had left all the worldly pleasures for doing the works of the Almighty. While talking with him Gauthama felt as a river of calmness and happiness smooching his soul.

With a contentful heart, he returned to his palace. Seeing change Yasodhara became happy. She thought that it would be a stagnant mood.

The prince had decided to assume the lifestyle of a Rishi throwing away all his worldly comforts and happiness. But he did not divulge the fact before his wife.  He had been in his age of twenty nine. And in that time he had a child in Yasodhara.

One midnight when his wife Yasodhara and son Raahulan and the total world were in sound sleep Gauthama left the place with the aim of finding out the ‘Eternal Truth’.

He wished to have a preceptor for guiding him the correct way.  But his effort had become fruitless. So he was forced to reach the aim by his own exertion. He went to the city of ‘Uruvela’ and sat under a huge fig tree in meditation for six years. From there he could get the ‘Light of Knowledge’.  He decided to pour it into the souls of other people.  He believed that by that dealing he would be able to release them from all kinds of sufferings.  He advised them ‘Ashtaamgamaargam’. His first disciples were three brothers who had converted into ‘Budhism’, openly.  Followers began to increase and Gauthama sent them all over the world for propagating his ideas. Even his son Raahulan had approached Buddha and he too was recognized a disciple.

Not only common people but also great men as King Suddhodana become the followers of Siddardha. Disseminating ‘Dharma’ (Charity) he travelled all over the world for forty five years. At last covering Naalanda he reached at Vaisaali and stayed in the house of a famous ‘Devadaasi’. Then he went to the City of Kusi where he stayed under a Banyan tree.  In BC 544 on a Vaisaakhapournami day his soul left the cage of his body.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

January of 2012 marks the 150^th Birth Anniversary day of Swami Vivekananda, the Greatest Holy Sage of India.

He is known as a ‘Karmayogi’ who had done his duties without expecting any reward.  He had been blowing as a whirlwind all over the word.

He was born in 1863 January 12 in Calcutta in a Kayastha family.  His father was a famous Attorney in the High Court of Calcutta. And his mother was a devotee of Lord Siva and such Deities.  Narendra Nath was his name, which was given by his prarents.  The name Vivekananda was changed by the Khethri King of Rajputana Ajith Singh while the young sage reached his palace.

After passing matriculation Narendra Nath joined the Presidency College first and then the Assemblies Institution which is now known as Scotish Church College for continuing education.  He could pass BA Degree from the college.  For two years he had studied law but did not appear the examination.

When he was a student, his mind had askewed towards the thoughts about the Almighty.  He went to see several famous sages for talking about Spiritual subjects.  For some time, he had been a member of the Brahmasamaja.  Until meeting with Sriramakrishna Parama Hamsa his mind was turbulent.  He was in search of getting the proximity of the Supreme Soul.  In 1882 he went to Dakshineswara and met with Sriramakrishna Parama Hamsa.  At first sight Vivekananda felt that he had been searching for such a preceptor.  The ‘Guru’ too was impressed with the personality of Vivekananda.

In 1884, his father died.  His family fell into the hearth of miseries, which troubled him a lot.  He was between two main problems.  One was connecting with Spirituality.  The other was of the miseries of the family.  He presented the matters before the Guru and got an advice from him for leaving his mother and the family members under the mercy of ‘Jagadamba’, the World Mother.  In 1886 his preceptor left the mortal earth.

Then Vivekananda constituted a Group of Sages.

He wanted to know the original color of living of different kind of people in Indian villages.  So he began journey from North to South East to west.  In 1892 he visited Kanyakumari of Tamil Nadu.  He saw a mountain in the sea and swam towards it. Sitting on the rock in meditation he thought how to solve the miseries of India.  By purifying the Eternal Religion India would get salvation, was the invention of his mind.

In 1893 he started to America with the decision of participating the Big Religious Assembly, which was congregated in Chicago.  When he was in America he could get helps from Professor J H Wright and Mrs. Hail.  In September 11 he made a small oration before the foreign crowd with a beginning “My Sisters and Brothers of America….” It had stirred up the people a lot.

Following it he was invited for making several speeches there.  The newspapers of America propagated his ideas by giving big coverage.

Then he travelled all over the world for giving the people the knowledge on Indian Ideology and the never fading Culture of the country.  So many foreigners became his disciples.  He could acquaint with many great men of the World.

In 1897 Swami installed in Calcutta ‘Sriramakrishna Sangham’ in memoriam of his preceptor Sriramakrishna Parama Hamsa.  It has started a number of hospitals, schools, and charitable institutions all over India for the progress of poor ones.

Swami Vivekananda had wished not to die even a dog due to starvation.  He worked for the Physical and Spiritual progress of Indians.  Moreover he was in the effort of making an India without poverty, illiteracy bad customs and superstitions and inhuman dealings connecting with castes and religions.  In 1902 in the age of 39, the Holy Sage left his Country and people forever.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Is B & N competing with Amazon for Bad Customer Service?

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

You are probably well aware of the issues we’ve been having with Amazon.com removing our (along with many others’) reviews and banning us from posting.

We contemplated on posting all the reviews on BarnesAndNoble.com but their system is not user friendly nor are reviews a focal point. I contacted B & N to see if I can speak to someone that may consider making some changes to their site and actually was able to communicate with a person in their headquarters in the U.S.  She asked me to send her an email and she assured me it will be directed to the appropriate department.  Well, not to make this story long, it just didn’t happen.  My contact said she forwarded the email but it seems the suits aren’t interested in responding or talking to me.  End of story. Oh well, I tried.

Phony Book Reviews and How to Avoid Them

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

Authors need book reviews to sell books, and readers like book reviews that help them make informed buying decisions about what books to read. However, many fake book reviews and reviewers are out there, and when authors hire people to write reviews, not knowing the reviewer will not actually read the book, or when readers buy books based on fake reviews, the result can be displeased readers who might then be angry enough to post their own negative reviews about the book.

Print publications continue to discontinue running book reviews and are even going out of business as more and more readers turn to the Internet to get their information. In the past, advertising in print publications covered the cost of book reviews, but today, authors generally have to pay for publicity packages to receive book reviews, or give a nominal fee to compensate the reviewer for his or her time.

The result is that people can make money off writing book reviews, and some so-called reviewers are doing so without actually reading the books. Why would anyone write a fake book review? Because it takes many hours to read a book, and the more book reviews you can write, the more money you can make, so why not just save time by not reading the books and instead just write the reviews and collect the payments so you can make more money. Trust me; this situation happens all the time.

Check out the top reviewers on Amazon.com—some of them review several books a day—do you really believe they are speed-readers? In fact, I did a cursory check for August 30, 2011 and the Amazon’s top reviewer (now called Hall of Fame Reviewers) had posted 77 book reviews for that day. I suspect though she was behind in writing them, since she had only posted about two dozen in the previous week. She must have been too busy reading all those books to write about them each day. But, wait, on January 3, 2012 she posted a total of 67 reviews. The previous postings were on December 31st, 2011. Do you really think a human is able to read 67 books in a matter of two days? (And spend the time writing reviews on Amazon.com as well as her own blog and posting on other sites?)

Other reviewers do not charge for reviews but they request multiple copies of books. Why do they need multiple copies when they don’t read those books? So they can resell them online and make more money while writing fake reviews.

But won’t people catch on to these fake reviews? Yes, most people should, but not everyone does. Most of these fake reviewers consist of the so-called reviewer copying and paraphrasing what’s on the back cover and then adding some flowery caveat like “This book is a must-read for its thrilling action” or “An enjoyable and moving love story you won’t want to miss” to make it look like the reviewer actually read the book. Of course, whether the book is thrilling or enjoyable or not, the reviewer has no idea—he may not even have cracked open the book.

So how can you as an author, who wants legitimate reviews, or as a reader wanting a good book to read, actually tell if a review is legitimate? Here are five simple guidelines for spotting fake book reviews:

1. Ignore reviews written by authors, their friends, and family: I cringe whenever I see a five star review written by the author; usually it’s done under the guise of the author wanting to provide readers with more information about the book, but the place for that is in the product description. Any author who gives his own book five stars is clueless about the publishing industry and what is ethical, or he’s just tactless. Sometimes a legitimate review will be written by a colleague, such as “I have known Barbara for fifteen years and I know her business advice works because….” But I’ve also seen ones that say things like, “This book is a lot of fun because it describes the places the author and I used to hang out as kids when we were growing up.” That’s great but it’s not a reason why you should read the book.

2. Be skeptical of totally positive reviews. Okay, don’t be totally skeptical, but beyond the “Best book ever” and “a wonderful, compelling story” comments, look for signs that the positive review is legitimate—discussions of the characters and plot that make it clear the book was read. After all, there are good books out there that deserve positive reviews. Don’t be satisfied with “This wonderful story” but look for explanations of why the story is wonderful.

3. Be skeptical of totally negative reviews. Some reviewers and customers have axes to grind. I can’t tell you how many ridiculous reviews I have seen at Amazon.com where books are given one-star because “the book never arrived.” That’s Amazon’s fault, not the author or book’s fault. At other times, a person may just not like the author so he wants to slam the book, or he may not like the subject matter, saying something like, “Homosexuality is a sin and there’s a gay couple in this book so I gave it one star” or “The main character had an abortion. That’s wrong! One star.” You may even agree with the reviewers on these issues but are these reviews really fair? Do they take into account the book’s plot, characters, structure, style, originality, or themes to provide a thorough or accurate review?

4. Watch out for plot summaries. A book review is not an elementary school book report. Yes, there are lots of readers out there posting book reviews who don’t know how to write well or how to write a book review, but there are also phony reviewers who simply copy the text off the back cover that summarizes the plot to write a review. A good review will mention a detail in the plot or even quote an effective passage from the book. It will also tell you not only what happens in the book but how the reader felt (was moved) by what happened.

5. If a review looks like a fake, look to see what other books the person has reviewed. Are all the person’s reviews short and glowing? It’s possible this one review could just be a badly written, fake-looking one while other reviews look well-written and are legitimate. Has the reviewer posted more than one book review today, or been posting several every day? (Seriously, how many books can a person read in a week?) And don’t be afraid to google the reviewer to see whether you can find complaints about him or her online. When I googled Amazon’s top reviewer, I found quite a few articles dating back to 2003, complaining about how she is a fake. Unbelievable, yet all these years Amazon.com lets her get away with it!

Now that you know how to spot a fake review, and even that fake reviews exist, you may feel a bit outraged—I know I do. So what can you do about such reviews? Here are a few suggestions:

1. If you are an author and you get a fake review, call the reviewer on it—especially if you paid for a review. But even if the person reviews the book by his own decision, without having contact with you, if the review is fake, you can request that Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever it was posted, have it removed. Decide whether the situation is worth getting into an argument with the phony reviewer. Will the review hurt your book’s credibility? If it is negative but shows evidence that the book was not read, it might. You might also feel called upon to fight the good fight for the rest of the authors out there who could suffer as a result of the reviewer’s behavior.

2. If you are a reader, check to see verification of purchase, which is a fairly new feature at Amazon and I suspect will appear in the future at other online bookstores. If the person bought the book, it’s likely he or she read it. That said, remember that reviewers generally receive complimentary copies. However, to get around this situation, I know some authors have requested reviewers purchase their books at Amazon and then the author has compensated the reviewer for the price of the book so the verified purchase notification shows up on the review.

3. If you are an author or a reader, often you can vote on whether the review was helpful or not, so go ahead and click that NO button. This form of voting helps determine the placement of the review as at the top or bottom of the reviews so it is more or less likely to be seen by others. And don’t forget to vote YES for the well-written positive reviews, or even the well-written legitimate negative reviews.
Fake reviews do not help anyone except for the con-reviewers (aka shysters and scoundrels) who write them. Even glowing fake reviews hurt authors and readers by getting people to buy books that turn out to be mediocre, which only then result in readers feeling misled and hurt and more likely to write their own negative reviews. Avoid phony reviewers and you will avoid a lot of frustration.

Have you experienced fake reviews? How did you handle them? I’d like to hear from you here.

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Amazon’s business model is deceptively simple: Make online shopping so easy and convenient that customers won’t think twice. It can almost be summed up by the button on every page: “Buy now with one click.”

Why has Amazon been so successful? Much of it has to do with Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder, whose unique combination of character traits and business strategy have driven Amazon to the top of the online retail world.

Richard Brandt charts Bezos’s rise from computer nerd to world- changing entrepreneur. His success can be credited to his forward-looking insights and ruthless business sense. Brandt explains:

• Why Bezos decided to allow negative product reviews, correctly guessing that the earned trust would outweigh possible lost sales.
• Why Amazon zealously guards some patents yet freely shares others.
• Why Bezos called becoming profitable the “dumbest” thing they could do in 1997.
• How Amazon.com became one of the only dotcoms to survive the bust of the early 2000s.
• Where the company is headed next.

Through interviews with Amazon employees, competitors, and observers, Brandt has deciphered how Bezos makes decisions. The story of Amazon’s ongoing evolution is a case study in how to reinvent an entire industry, and one that anyone in business today ignores at their peril.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Richard L. Brandt

Richard L. Brandt is an award-winning journalist who has been writing about Silicon Valley for more than two decades. He is well known in the technology community as a former correspondent for BusinessWeek, where he won a National Magazine Award. He is also the author of The Google Guys about the founders of Google. He lives in San Francisco.

Editorial Review

As any bibliophile knows, the birth of Amazon in the mid ’90s represented both a blessing and a curse to everyone involved in the book industry, from authors and publishers to bookshops and readers. It was a blessing because more than 1 million titles, many rare and hard-to-find, were suddenly available to anyone with a modem and a credit card; a curse because man local mom-and-pop booksellers folded because they couldn’t compete with the deep discounts and extremely customer-friendly policies Amazon offered. Whether readers view Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos as an entrepreneurial genius or a ruthless capitalist, there’s no denying that Amazon has grown from a three-guys-in-a-garage operation to one of the most powerful and recognized e-commerce sites on the Internet. Brandt (The Google Guys, 2011, etc.), a reporter on all things Silicon Valley for the past 20-plus years, traces Amazon’s sometimes-rocky ascent by interviewing past employees, mentors and competitors of the site. He also mines Bezos’ speeches and interviews to determine the thought process of the man behind the empire. Unfortunately, the result is skeletal and unsatisfying, mainly because Brandt never actually interviewed Bezos directly. The source material is largely what Bezos has allowed into the public realm and seems carefully polished, much like the image of Amazon.com.

Suffices as a bare-bones account of a highly successful startup but fails to deliver on the inner workings of a website that changed e-commerce forever. – Kirkus Reviews

A slim, pale, unsatisfying look at Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

The Washington Post Book Review – January 6, 2012 (Excerpt)

Pity poor Jeff Bezos. He can’t get any respect from major American cultural outlets, the sort that canonize business leaders. While the late Steve Jobs’s chiseled mug stares out from the cover of Walter Isaacson’s monumental biography in the front of every major book store in the country, the networks televise hearings about Google in Washington and Brussels, and the stirring visual rhythm of David Fincher’s film “The Social Network” has made Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg seem much more interesting than he really is, Bezos has to settle for the occasional appreciative magazine cover story from the likes of Wired and Fast Company.

No one dreams of making a film about the founding of Amazon. Privacy officials don’t call Amazon officials in for hearings. And the only recent book about Bezos and Amazon is this pale and lifeless summary of well-known events in his life and career.

In “One Click” journalist Richard L. Brandt manages to reveal just about nothing new about the founder or his company. While he mentions and summarizes some of the major conflicts and questions that Amazon has raised — the future of books, the future of bookstores, antitrust issues, overly broad business-method patents, etc. — Brandt does not fully describe just how influential Amazon has been on our daily lives or on the ways in which American companies do business. [Read the full article...]

Advertisement

THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

Taxila, an ancient Indian scholastic centre, which is known as Takshasila among the people of India is now in Pakistan.  After India was partitioned into two, the place was included there.  30 kilometers northeast from Raavalpindi, there is Saraikala which is beside Bheerkunnu where Taxila, the scholastic centre was situated.

In Mahabharata, the name of Taxila is mentioned.  In BC 326, Alexander the Great was moving towards India.  In that time Taxila was a separate country, which was ruled by the King  Ambhi.  He heard about the coming of Alexander.  Knowing the fact about the strength of the Masidonean King, Ambhi wanted to cooperate with him.  So Ambhi invited the King to his country.  In the aim of becoming Alexander’s dependant Ambhi gave him a warm reception.  At that time Porus was the ruler of Punjab, the neighbour country of Taxila.  Ambhi hated him so much that he wanted to see the declination of Porus.  The King Porus had been staying on the bank of Jhalum River with a huge military force.  He was ready to defend the enemies.  Alaxander was not only a warrior, but also a person of military skill.  He could get join the soldiers of Ambhi too with the military force of him.

A horrible fight began with the two military forces. Many soldiers were killed and a lot became wounded.  At last Porus was defeated.  He was caught and taken beside the winner Alexander. But Porus stood with bravery and virility before the enemy.  He showed the sense of his liberty.  Alexander was shocked seeing the qualities of Porus.  He did not wish to have the country of Porus as his own.  Alexander gave the country back and left the place.  A Greek person with the name of Onesikutos had been following Alexander while he was entering India.  He could witness the fighting of two military forces and the declination of Porus in the end.  Onesikutos has recorded all the events taken before him.  After the departure of Alexander Taxila remained as an independent country under Porus.

When Mourya Empire was installed, Taxila became a part of it.  Chandragupta Mourya was the founder of the Empire.  In Taxila, there lived a scholar and Philospoher named Chaanakya. When Chandragupta was a boy, Chaanakya took him to his place and gave him learning in Veda Sastras and Martial Arts.  The boy could study the Art and science of Governance too from Chaanakya.  After it with the help of Chaanakya, Chandragupta was installing Mourya Empire.  In the time of Bindusaara, there happened a revolt in Taxila and for suppressing it, he sent his son Asoka.  After it Asoka became the ruler of Taxila for some time.  In the period of Mouryaas Budhism was spread in Taxila.  So many Budhist Centres were started. Taxila became the main place of Budhist studies.

When the ruling of the Mouryas were ended Taxila became a part of the Empire of Harsha.  When the King Durlabhavardhana was ruling this place. It had become a part of the country of Kashmir too.  The strength of Budhism had declined. From the write ups of Huaansaang, you can come to the fact.  Almost all the castles and buildings connected with Budhism were collapsed. People began to come out from Budhist Religion.  It is believed that the invasion of Hunas in the fifth century must have caused the tragedy.

When the Hindu religion was in strength the Hindu Vedas and such ideologies had flourished.  In the time of Mouryas Budhist philosophy got prominence.  Scholars who were able to teach such subjects had been living in Taxila.  So many colleges and universities were founded.  Not only Indians but also people from abroad came for learning several subjects and Martial Arts.  It had become a knowledge giving place of the total world.

So many excavations were conducted in the remaining place of the past scholastic centre.  Geologists could have got a lot of valuable remnants connecting with the past history of Taxila.  Letters of Asoka and coins made in silver and gold were excavated. So many idols and statues proving the example of Gaandhaara sculpturing had been discovered.  The ‘Dharamaraajika Stoopam’ which is believed to have made by Asoka was in the remainings.  All the stuff which got from inside the Bheerkunnu are kept in a museum of the place.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Book Marketing Techniques That Don’t Work

by Irene Watson

As authors, whether we are self-published or published by a publishing firm, small press, or a large publishing house, getting noticed is one of our primary challenges.  Some publishers offer marketing support, either as prepaid services or part of the publishing contract.  Yet, if you are self-published you are entirely on your own.

The Internet is inundated with promotional services, marketing companies, advice from other authors and publicity gurus.

And, there are hundreds of publicists offering their services.  Options range from expensive (most publicists charge between $10,000 to $30,000 for a three month contract) to overpriced (services offered by most publishing firms which could range anywhere between $500 and $10,000) to free (social media you do yourself.)  As well, arm-chair experts, through blogs, offer their expertise on “what you should do” usually for free.  Yet, much of this information is regurgitated from others’ and they offer nothing new.

I’ve noticed recently that email campaigns are re-emerging.  For awhile, when social media marketing was the “new” wave these campaigns slowed down but I assume most companies are finding that social media isn’t as effective as anticipated.  Beg to differ?  If you are an author and you are on FaceBook or Twitter, how many books did you buy from your “followers”?  And, I bet you are just as inundated as I am with posts about their fantastic books and that you should buy them, but how many of these people actually purchased your book?  Enough said.

Email campaigns come in different forms and from different sources.  There are many email blast companies online; even the credit score monitoring company Experian offers email campaigns. You can also buy your own software to send out blasts. And, you can purchase or rent email lists from the hundreds of companies online and send them out yourself.

As well, many of the self-publishing firms also sell email services. These could range anywhere from $350 for an eblast to $10,000 for a tailored campaign which would include 10 million addresses.
This all may sound fine-and-dandy, but are you aware of the CAN-SPAM ACTreleased in 2004, with updates in 2008, by the Federal Trade Commission?  It is the official law that governs the transmission of business related (yes, your book is a business) emails. SPAM is defined by the act as unsolicited marketing emails.  So…what does all this mean?  Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) (also known as Spam) is prohibited and email campaigns should only be sent to 100% opt-in lists. This means that anyone you send an email campaign to must have agreed to receive information from you. This also means that you can’t barter or purchase/rent lists to legally send out email campaigns.

Sure, you can possibly get around the spam aspect through one of these campaigns by using the campaign company to send out the emails but most of these lists wouldn’t be targeted, despite of what they might promise.  Do you really think that there are 10 million people that signed up to receive notification of a book published about making purple widgets? Doubtful.  Or do you think that 1000 book reviewers are eager to review your yellow widget book? Doubtful.  Also, be skeptical if you are told 10 million people opted-in to receive information about your book.  Doubtful.  I once heard someone saying that sending out an email campaign through a service is equivalent to dropping your book announcement off the top of building and hoping it lands in front of someone that might be interested. Be wary if you are swayed into buying an email campaign service because it’s doubtful the list contains a selective list of interested readers; it’s mainly a list of people that probably aren’t even interested in your book, or a list of harvested email addresses to pump up the numbers.

This is a technique that doesn’t work so don’t waste your money. But, there is a technique that could work and is a cheap way to get your message out to your potential readers.  First of all, start creating your own list of those in your personal email address list because these people have already consented to getting your emails. (Be discerning because not all of your friends or family want to get eblasted continually about your book. Put yourself in their place and ask yourself how often you want to hear from them about their book, and what should that email look like.)  Also, your website visitors are your potential readers so it’s important to provide them the option to subscribe to your mailings. (Remember to use the captcha to prevent bots filling out the form automatically.  The captcha requires a human to fill out.) However, just putting up a sign-up form doesn’t work; you have to give a solid reason to have the visitors give you their email address.  Explain clearly what they will receive for their email address: news, tips, promotions, etc.  Dismiss the skepticism and provide something of value. And when I say value, it doesn’t mean the first chapter of your book or a poem you have written. It has to be something the visitor wants or needs. For e.g., on my personal author website I provide a full version of an ebook to anyone that signs up.

If you do have a legitimate list (one that you created yourself from your opt-in list) there a few things you also need to know to comply with the CAN-SPAM ACT:

1.  The From “Address” and/or From “Name” must be recognizable by the recipient.
2.  Do not offer the recipient an incentive (awards, discounts, money) to forward the email to their list.
3.  The opt-out link must be available and not complicated.
4.  Your physical postal address must be visible in the message.
5.  Subject line must be straightforward and not misleading.

Yes, you have to put all those items in the email campaigns you send out – even if it is only 25 or 100 on your list; if you are promoting your book, you have to comply with the CAN-SPAM ACT.

Comments?  I’d like to hear from you here.

If you think about ancient India, two names will ascend in your minds, Naalanda and Thakshasila.  First the name of Naalanada can be considered for attention. The word Naalanda has  a meaning ‘Insatiable in giving.’

Naalanda University situated in the Southern part of Bihar, near Raajgeer.  In Bargaon village, several excavations were made. Many remainings were seen of the university a basement, which was of a huge building with a height of ninety one meters, which was built by Narasimha Guptan, eight statutes known as ‘Ashtadhaathuvigrahangal’, which were made using a mixture of eight metals, an idol of a female Deity with the name of ‘Thaara’, which with eighteen hands, a female.  Deity named as ‘Vaageeswari’ sitting on a lion and different kinds of stamps and write-ups of Kings. Likewise many such remainings were found out there.  From AD 630 to AD 644 Huaansaang, a famous Chinese traveler as well as a Budhist Monk was in India.  At that time Naalanda was in the extreme stage of fame.  Huaasansaang has recorded about it.  He has written that ‘Sakraadityan’ who was belonged in the later branch family of Gupta Kings had installed the Naalanda University.  In the beginning it was a small one and slowly began to flourish into big.  The son of Sakraadityan named Buddha Guptan, his follower Narasimha Guptan (Baalaadithyan) and his son Vajraguptan had built many buildings for the needs of students and teachers.  And they gifted villages for the expenditure of running the University.  After Huaasnaang came, a Budhist Monk named Ithsing lived in Naalanda for studies and taking the copies of Buddhist Books.  From 675 to 685, he lived there.  He too has written a lot about Naalanda University.  Harsha and the Kings of Paala of Bengal too had done a lot for the progress of the University.

In the University, there was a big college surrounded with eight universities in the compound. Ten thousand students were learning there.  They not only listened the lessons from their teachers, but also read and thought a lot and researched.  There was all kinds of facilities for improving knowledge.

Mahayaanam, Heenayaanam and Thanthrayaanam were taught there.  (Buddhist philosophies). Mathematics, Astrology and Ayurvedam were included in their curriculum.  Hindu philosophy too was taught there.  Huaansaang has recorded that not even a student had behaved against the discipline of the University.  Due to its fame, students came from Tibet, Greece, Persia, China, Malaya, Java and Sri Lanka for studies.  All were admitted after passing a strict entrance examination. Only twenty or thirty percent passed the examination.

Those who studied in the university became very famous all over the world. So many scholars went to foreign countries for propagating about Buddhist Ideology.

In the Eleventh Century, the King who installed the Second Paala Empire Mahipaalan had maintained the University and built a new Vihaaraa.  It is believed that due to a great fire, the University was collapsed.

Naalanda was ransacked and destroyed by invaders came from outside India.  The great library of Naalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the invaders set fire to it.  All the monasteries were burned and the monks were driven away from their sites.

In 2006 India, Singapore, China, Japan and other nations announced a proposed plan to restore and revive the ancient place as ‘Naalanda International University’.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

“Stuff” in the Life of a Book Reviewer

by Irene Watson

Justifications by Editor Why Book was Published with Editing Issues

We recently reviewed a book and the reviewer pointed out the copious amounts of editing issues in the book.  I got a response from the editor of the book:

As her editor, I was aware that [author's name removed] book went to print containing grammatical flaws. However, it was my desire and intent to get her story out to the world as expeditiously as possible.

My response:

Your comment “As her editor, …” is disconcerting to me.  In fact, I’m appalled that an editor would even recommend to an author the book be published with grammatical flaws.  I do realize no book is perfect, even when it has two or three passes by different editors, but for an editor to allow a book to be published knowing there are errors is totally unfair to the author.
Unfortunately, readers don’t even consider that an editor may have allowed a book with editing issues  to be published but they would assume the author didn’t get the book edited at all. As I mentioned to the editor, this is unfair to the author. (btw – the email from the editor was riddled with typos.)

Accusing the Reviewer of Not Reading the Book
A few days ago, I got an extra long and an extra angry email from an author.  She made a point of writing in UPPER CASE (which denotes screaming in the Internet world) and large font, various colors of font, bold font, and yellow highlighting.  I guess she was on a mission to get her point across to me that “HE DID NOT READ THIS BOOK!”   (Dark fushia colored font – not only was this screaming, it was raging!)

I forwarded the email to the reviewer and his comment was:

I am very sorry the author was so upset by my review. Yes, I read the book… I enjoyed many of its gifts and I tried to mention, within the constraints of my honest, personal thoughts, my positive reactions to the book.

The author also took the opportunity to slam-blast a review that was given in 2008 on a previous book submitted in for review.  The book or review had nothing to do with the present review but accused the previous reviewer of a “negative crusade.”  Can you imagine living in a body that has bottled up anger about a review given back in 2008?

Furthermore, the author accused the current reviewer of taking content from the review of a book that was previously written.  The author also alluded that both reviewers referred to her as a male.  The reviewer’s response was:

Based on the title of the first book, [title removed,] my expectations were that this sequel would be an adventure as well. In fact, I found it to be more like a nature ramble. It is this personal perception, not the reference in the [reviewer's name removed] review of [title removed,] which prompted my comment. In fact, I did read her review, only because it was the only review of either book I could find. And my primary purpose for doing so was in hopes of finding some background on [author's name removed.] Her home page includes no bio or mention of the author’s sex. Nor is there a bio in the book.  I assumed [name removed] to be a male in the lack of any bio information and recall being confused by the references to [name removed] as “her” My confusion about this seemed not worthy of mention in the review.

Since this book was entered into our Literary Awards Program we had an extra copy of the book in the office so I decided to check on some of the issues present by the reviewer. Yes, the reviewer is right; there is no author bio and there is no indication the writer is female. As for the rest of the content I can’t comment because I haven’t read the book.  But, one thing I did notice is there is no content on the back of the book which I find odd since this is the second place (first being the front cover) that potential readers look at.  The artwork is lovely but gives no synopsis, no blurbs, and no bio.  It never ceases to amaze me that authors don’t adhere to industry standards when self-publishing their books.  Is it because they don’t read books themselves and have no idea what the standards are?

Not Being Able to Find a Posted Review
Oih vey!  At least once a week I get an email telling me that the author couldn’t find his or her review on our site.  This is usually in response to an email I sent to the author attaching the tear sheet and saying the review has been posted.

Searching any site is simple – it’s no different than going to a library years ago and looking at a Card Index.  Believe it or not, we all do the same thing – searching should be easy because most of us list the books by title and author’s last name.  Some of us even have genre listings of the books. Not only that, our site has a specific link to “search site.”

Not Being Able to Open Word Documents or View a Video
Yes, I know…it does seem odd that some people can’t open a Word document.  I find this specific issue with those that have extremely old computers and have not taken the time and effort to update them.  Most computers have a lifespan of about four years and need to be replaced or updated.

Granted, I am expressing some frustration here, and I have to admit I get frustrated myself with computers and how programs are continually being upgraded or you need to install new programs. Technology, however, is in many respects a necessary evil, and if we don’t keep up with it, we are going to fall behind, which will be detrimental for promoting our books and our author career.

Taking it Upon the Self to Tell the Website Owner How to Make it Look
Yep, you got it.  And no, this isn’t by a company that builds websites – it’s an author that couldn’t find the “contact us” tab.  To save future embarrassment the standard places this link goes is:

*upper right hand corner, or,
*on a tab in the menu bar, or,
*either on the right or left side bar, or,
*at the bottom of the page

I’ve had authors go on and on telling me how I should change the website.  The suggestions are nothing close to standards but reflections of a “homemade” website.  Homemade looking chocolate chip cookies are great but homemade looking websites are a turn-off.

Not Being Computer Savvy
Authors write me:

I don’t know how to attach a file. Please phone me and tell me how to do that.
I don’t know how to make a pdf file.
I don’t know how to make a zip file.

Yikes!   If you are one of these authors, please take note that your lack of computer skills are not the fault, priority, concern, or responsibility of others. We are not computer instructors and we have enough to do without having to get on the phone with you and spend an hour trying to help you figure out how to attach a file or make a zip file. Please use your “help” tab your program provides or do a search on the Internet on how to do specific things like attaching a file. Or, enroll in a simple Computer 101 class to learn the simple basics.

And Then There is:
A friend of mines is building my web site for free, so is their still a charge for the free review. If not, I will mail the book out on tomorrow.

Huh?  What does this query mean?  Does it mean that since a friend is building a website for free we should review the book for free? But then, it says “If not…”  If not what?  If it’s not free she will mail the book but if it’s free she wouldn’t?  Your guess is as good as mine.  From an email like that I wonder what the content of the book is like.

There you go, a little glimpse into a reviewer’s life…but, let’s not discount the authors/publishers that are grateful, courteous, lovely, attentive, and are on a mission to produce the best product they possibly can. Those are the ones that make the end of my day feel like it has been worthwhile and I look forward to the next day.

Comments?  I’d like to hear them here.

There are many circumstances that keep me from pursuing my most favorite hobby of writing novels. Some of these circumstances can be annoying, some of them are quite pleasant. One of the most pleasant activities, right after hanging out with my family, is publishing a good book. Yes, I do this every now and then…

The last example of such a good book is Vampire’s Trill, a novel by Lorelei Bell. After re-checking the necessary PDF files – including a last scan through 322 pages – I just uploaded the cover and the book block to the Lightning Source (An Ingram business unit) website, and, provided everything goes well, we should have a proof copy within a few days. Yes, it can go that fast, because my business, Copperhill Media, is officially a micro-publishing business. We can do in a few months what takes a traditional publisher at least a year, if not two.

Lorelei submitted her novel a few months ago, and since then it underwent several proof-reading cycles. We also went through a number of potential cover designs, and, I believe, in the end it came out pretty well.

The final text file (a simple Microsoft Word document) we use for the actual publication process must be as simple as simple can be. Standard font, size 12, no header, no footers, no page numbering, no fancy formatting. We need it initially that simple to satisfy the demands of electronic reading devices like the Kindle or Nook, which also means, we publish the eBook version first to satisfy the increasing demand for eBooks.

Just yesterday, I uploaded the eBook versions right after assigning an ISBN through the Bowker system. When it comes to eBooks you don’t need an ISBN, not even a cover image. However, you can’t get into Barnes & Noble or the Apple Bookstore without an ISBN or a cover. And let’s face it, an ugly book cover, or no book cover at all, sends a message to the prospective reader that you’re amateurish, lazy or sloppy. The author spent hundreds of hours (or a lifetime) writing a book, so we don’t skimp on the cover.

We also don’t skimp on the synopsis, which is a very important first step toward promotion. Developing a synopsis takes as much time as creating the cover.

Creating the paperback version takes a few more days, which includes the final formatting of the content (now we can add the fancy stuff) and adjusting the cover design to the actual book size. Only when the final formatting is done will we know what the final number of pages will be, and that determines the final book spine size. At the same time we also assign the ISBN and create the barcode that will be placed on the back cover.

All this is a very creative process, almost as exciting as actually writing the novel. Nothing beats the feeling of writing, and Copperhill Media puts the cream on the pie by publishing the author’s work.

However, as much work as it was writing and publishing the book, the worst work is still to come: Promotion. There are literally thousands of ways to promote a novel, and there is no guarantee that either one of them will work, but damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. And that’s no complaint, just an observation. All this contributes to the thrill of publishing a new book.

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

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The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

We became victims of the removal/banning in May but after many communications back and forth we were reinstated and promised it would never happen again. Several months later, against their own word, Amazon.com removed/banned us. To this date we haven’t been able to find out exactly why they did this and why they didn’t stand behind their own word.

In the meantime, to my knowledge, 15 other sites have been banned. The surprising one is Midwest Book Review; one of the oldest and most respected review sites. I noted a review on one of my books is by MBR is still there, yet, when attempting to view them all a window comes up saying the reviews aren’t available and the profile page is empty, the same as Reader Views’. I know at one point Amazon.com removed at least 10,000 reviews posted by MBR. We had about 7500 removed.

Several months ago I contacted the other sites I knew were banned to see if they want to band together and attempt to deal with Amazon or go to the media. Eight out of the 15 responded, two saying they aren’t interested at all, 6 responded indicating they are on board, and the rest I didn’t hear from. I assume there was no interest. One of the reviewers set up a Yahoo group so that we could communicate. Each one was invited but in the end only 4 reviewers joined the group. We did hear from several others that had ideas of what “you should do” but neither was interested in spearheading the idea.

During this same time many authors contacted Amazon.com but either got a stock email that basically said nothing or didn’t get a response at all. Some even contacted the media and their legislators. But, I don’t think there is enough impact because most of the reviewers declined to contact their author/publisher list, explain the occurrence and ask them to make a noise. The support, or concern, just doesn’t seem to be there, either from other reviewers or authors/publishers. For example, Jim from Midwest Book Review posted on a self-publishing group that his reviews were removed and banned. I chimed in explaining what had happened to many others and asked for support from the group. A group “mom” rejected my post.

One author volunteered to create a FaceBook page and Twitter account titled Occupying Amazon. I, along with several other reviewers (I think,) let our list know but in the end only 16 “liked” the FaceBook page. In the meantime FaceBook removed the account and Twitter is removing the hash marks.

Personally, I’m exhausted in working diligently on attempting to get reinstated again or moving toward being noticed by the media or legislators of unfair treatment. In the end it seems like only one other reviewer and I are left to deal with the issue but I’m sure that if we were successful the others would be extremely happy and we may get a thank you…maybe. I’m not sure if it is worth it at this point. I’ve spent many hours dealing with this issue and several thousand dollars to pay staff to repost the reviews when we were reinstated the first time and then removed again.

Authors do have an option of posting an excerpt under Editorial Reviews through their Author Central account and those that have done so are happy. Some even said those seem to have more impact than the reader reviews, especially when they come from unknown people with pen names like “poop-doop” or “anonymous.” (Yes, those are for real!) Credibility in the end becomes important and Editorial Reviews offer credibility.

For us, not being able to post the reviews on Amazon.com hasn’t been an issue as orders continue to come in. I know that some of the reviewers are suffering because they aren’t asked to review books and they feel this is a direct result of not being able to post the reviews on Amazon.com. This is sad because it’s just another indication where a huge corporation can push out a small business owner in a click of a mouse.

Why we are removed/banned is still a mystery, especially when Amazon.com continues to favor some reviewers that don’t adhere to their guidelines, those that show signs of being a fake, for e.g. reviewing in the realm of 70 books per week (This is humanly impossible even for a speed-reader.), those that ask for huge charitable donations in exchange for a review or those that charge for reviews. My personal assumption is that review services like ours are in direct competition with Amazon.com for obtaining reviews since they are now offering outrageously expensive reviews through their own CreateSpace program.

So…what next? I really don’t know because two or three people can’t do it alone, and yet represent a whole gamut of others with great expectations that we can make changes. I do sincerely appreciate those of you that took the time to contact Amazon.com, write to your legislators, join the FaceBook page, sign up for Twitter, and give moral support to me. I thank you profusely.

At this point, if an occasion arises, I will make noise but I am refocusing to business at hand in creating more ways to support the authors, especially those that don’t get noticed otherwise because they are self-published, use self-publishing firms, or published by a small press and are on constrained budgets. In other words, I’m “movin’ on.”

Sincerely,

Irene

PS – be on a lookout for a “new” publicity package we will offer in the New Year. Susan, my assistant, has been diligently working on it and it will be ready to launch soon.

Qualifying a Book Reviewer: Which One do I Send My Book to?

by Irene Watson

Back in the twentieth century, when I started Reader Views, book review sites were hard to come by.  There was a handful to choose from and getting a review was like pulling hen’s teeth.  But, six years later it seems like new book review sites are popping up on a monthly basis, each one offering their service in whatever form it may be.  What I find interesting is many of the new ones are charging atrocious fees of between $400 and $500 just for a review.  What I find even more interesting is that authors are paying for them, or at least it seems like it because of the content on the site.

Because the Internet makes it possible for anyone to set up a website or blog and offer book reviews, authors should be a bit wary about whom they submit their books to for review, whether or not they are paying for a review. Below are a few guidelines for determining whether a reviewer is really qualified to review your book. Remember that these are only guidelines and while one reviewer may be a good fit for one book, the reviewer or review service may not work so well for another.

1. Find out who are the review service’s individual reviewers. In some cases, the reviewer may just be one person. In other cases, you might be contracting with a review service that has a team of reviewers. Check the reviewer’s “About Us” web page to see whether there actually is a team that reviews the books and whether the names are disclosed. If names are not disclosed, be leery. You’re better off having John Smith from Book Review Service review your book than just Book Review Service, and chances are that if names are not revealed, no one is actually reading the books.

2. Check to see where the reviews are posted. Look on the reviewer’s own website to see whether the reviews are posted there. Also check other websites where the reviewer says the reviews will be posted. If the reviewer doesn’t disclose the sites, chances are the reviews are not being posted. If the reviewer promises to send the review to 100 sites, ask for a list of the sites so you can double check that some old reviews are posted on those sites. Sending the reviews to another site and actually having them posted are two different things. In addition, the reviewer’s own website should include links to examples of reviews it has posted to other sites.

3. Check the reviewer’s past reviews. Be sure to look at multiple reviews, and preferably ones for books you may have read, to determine whether it looks like the book has been read or whether the review is merely a regurgitation of the back cover’s text—you can look at the book’s back cover yourself at online book stores to compare the back covers against the reviews. Even if there is an additional line saying how wonderful the book is, that doesn’t mean the book was read. Details about character plots or other items not obvious from the book cover are needed to verify the book was actually read. Also check to see whether there is an actual name of the reviewer on the review; if there isn’t, it’s probably a regurgitation.

4. Check whether the reviews all have 5-star ratings or whether they actually give other ratings. All 5-star ratings are a good sign the books are not read, or the reviewers are simply being paid to please the authors. If some reviews do have lower ratings, read the reviews to determine the reasons why—do they mention the books have grammatical or typographical errors, or plot issues? Or are they nitpicking and unfairly slamming the books? You want to make sure your book is read and also judged fairly by the reviewer. To find out if a review is legitimate, compare the review by this reviewer against reviews for the same book by other reviewers. A 5-star review on one site might mean the book was not read if another reviewer gives 2-stars due to editing issues, but a 5-star review by one reviewer who really liked the book compared to a 2-star by a reviewer who simply did not care for the book’s topic may reflect just a difference in readers’ opinions, making most reviews legitimate.

5. Double-check additional services reviewers offer to determine their legitimacy or value. Many review sites will offer additional services, such as written, radio, and TV interviews. If these services are offered and you are interested, ask for links to the interviews. Listen to the interviews and decide whether the interviewer sounds knowledgeable or interested in the books and authors to determine whether an interview is worth the price of the service for you.

6. Get references. Ask reviewers for references from other authors whose books they have reviewed. If they do not provide references, you may want to think twice about having the reviewer review your book. You may also decide to contact other authors on your own to see whether they have been happy with the review service and feel the contract was fulfilled. If the author is unhappy, discern the real reasons—is it because they didn’t get 5-star reviews for their books, and if so, why didn’t they? Or is it because the reviews were not posted on certain sites as promised or were there other failures to fulfill the contract?

7. Decide whether or not you want to pay for the service. Many review services charge to cover their overhead, while several others offer free reviews but recoup their expenses by selling the books. There is no getting away from expenses incurred by the reviewers, and just like you, they want to be paid for their time and work. Only you can determine whether the work they do for you, in reviewing your book or other services, is worth the price. Don’t forget to factor in both how many hours it will take the reviewer to read the book, write the review, and post it to various sites, as well as how likely you feel the review will be to increase the number of copies you sell and how many you will have to sell to recoup the cost of the review service.

8. Find out who is the book reviewer’s audience. Who reads the book reviews put out by this reviewer? Knowing the audience is vital for determining whether your review will be of value to you in selling your book. If you’re sending your book about physics to a mommy blogger, a review is probably not going to get you many sales, but if you submit it to a review agency that specializes in science-based books, with an audience of scientists and science enthusiasts, you may sell numerous copies. However, even if the reviewer’s audience may not be a good fit for your book, if the reviewer posts the review on multiple sites, and especially at online bookstores, it is likely that numerous readers beyond the reviewer’s primary audience will read the review and be persuaded to buy the book.

9. Ask about the reviewer’s correction policy. Ask the reviewer what happens if the review is negative and you would prefer not to have it posted. Is a refund offered? (In my opinion it shouldn’t be since the work is already done). What about if the review has a character’s name or even the author’s name spelled wrong or there are other errors in describing the plot? Will mistakes be corrected? Will you be allowed to approve the review before it is posted online to make sure it doesn’t contain typos or misinformation such as referring to your book as the second rather than fourth in your fantasy series?

10. Get permission to use the review to market your book. Reviews are the property of the reviewer, but the point of a review is to help readers determine whether or not to read a book, so find out upfront whether you are allowed to reproduce the review on your website or print it and mail it with your marketing materials. If you are only allowed to quote a portion of the review, how much can you use? Does the reviewer mind if you quote from the review on your website or on the back of future editions of your book? A review is not of much value if you can’t use it to help you sell your book. And believe me, I’ve had a reviewer review my personal book and then was told I couldn’t use it in whole or even an excerpt.

A lot of book reviewers are out there. By following these guidelines, you should be able to narrow down your list of reviewers to those who are legitimate and will help you get your book out to the reading public in a positive and effective manner. Oh, one more thing…be sure to look for the submission guidelines on the site first before you do anything else. Everyone has them.

What experience have you had in acquiring reviewers?  Do you have any tips to share?  I’d like to hear from you here.

Selling Books through Independent Bookstores vs. Selling through Major Online Sellers

by Irene Watson

I received an email from an angry independent bookstore owner saying:

I have unscubscibed as I resent your sending buyers to Amazon instead of independent book sellers and then have the nerve to send it to us to support.  I had assumed you were independent as well.  What a scam.

Ouch. My response was:

Your email was sent to me for attention and I’d like to respond. First of all, I appreciate your concern and know how frustrating it is to compete against sellers like Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com.  I’m very much for independent book sellers, buying local, as well as keeping jobs in our own country.

In the past I’ve attempted to work with independent books sellers but have experienced many problems in doing so.  Let me explain some of the issues:

1.  When I first started offering reviews we were listing some of the books to be purchased through an independent book seller that had the books in stock.  It worked just fine until one day they decided to close down the site because sales weren’t paying for their expenses.  Consequently, all the hundreds of pages on our site had broken links and it cost me a bundle of money to pay someone to re-link the pages to a reliable seller.  Each one had to be done individually. We spent more money correcting the links than our referral commission was since we started selling through them. Going through this once I’m not about to fork out money again.  It is doubtful that a company like Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com will shut down in any near future.

2.  You can ask any self-published author and most will give you a long rendition of how difficult it is to place a book in independent bookstores. This same goes for books published by a small press.  I’ve experienced this as an author myself, even with local independent book stores.  They tend to carry well-known authors’ books and only sometimes will carry local authors’ books. In most cases they will only order through specific distributors and require a return policy. Some will accept books on consignment from local authors.

3.  Independent bookstores don’t carry every book on the market, especially books by self-published authors.  Cathy Langer, lead buyer for the Tattered Cover bookstores in Denver, said she had been inundated by requests from self-published authors to sell their books. “People think that just because they’ve written something, there’s a market for it. It’s not true.” Even as large as Tattered Cover is, they don’t carry every book on the market but someone like Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com does. 

4.  Although independent bookstores offer to order books, it often takes 2 weeks, or longer, to receive the book. If we send potential buyers to your store you would have to order the book, have it sent to you, and then re-ship it to the buyer.  Total time could take up to 3 weeks, maybe more.  Many readers are impulse buyers and when ordering online expect the book to be delivered within a few days.

5.  Librarians, the major target of the First Chapter Plus eCatalog, will not buy books from an independent bookstore at full price. They will order through a distributor or through an Amazon reseller who often sells the book for less than the distributor.  It is doubtful that you can complete with these resellers.

I looked on your website.  Your website doesn’t provide us a quick way to download the book information – there is no automatic way of doing so.  Remember, we make very little referral fee and everything has to be done automatically and easily.  I, no different than you, have overhead and have to make enough money to pay for staff to do the work; manual referral is out of the question.

I attempted to download your catalog and wasn’t successful in doing so.  I have a high-powered computer with high-speed internet.  The first time the download timed out, and the second time it froze my computer.  I can’t send potential readers/customers where downloading a catalog is unsuccessful. As well, the last catalog on your list is for “2011 Summer.”  Your winter catalog has not been uploaded yet and should have been by now.

You don’t have an affiliate program on your site for us.  As I said, we also have overhead and we need to make money to pay for it.  Without an affiliate program we don’t get paid. If we don’t get paid, we can’t pay our staff; if we don’t have staff, we can’t run a site.

From what I can see on your site it is not updated regularly.  The last posting for the Book of the Month Club was February 2011.  We are now in November 2011. As I looked around, other areas of the website have not been updated. 

I can understand this independent bookstore owner’s frustration but on the other hand she isn’t providing a service either. It’s much easier for her to get angry at me and call me scam rather than take her own responsibility in meeting the needs of the consumer.   And, she’s not the only one.  I’ve checked many online independent book stores’ websites that have contacted us to send potential buyers to them and they fall into the same category as above.  Not only that, many are shutting down.  I do feel for them because it’s not easy to compete against large corporations when you’re a little fish in the huge pond of barracudas.  However, the bottom line for the author or publisher to consider is who will provide the best service but more so who will have the books available for impulse buyers.

By the way, the person that sent me the angry email didn’t respond to my email and she didn’t upgrade her website either.

What has been your experience with independent bookstores, as a seller or a buyer?  Would you solely list your book with an independent online bookstore that doesn’t have an updated site?  I’d like to hear your comments here.

PS – Update on Amazon.com 
Well, interestingly enough Midwest Book Review has been victimized and by the looks of it (as of this writing) 10,000 reviews removed. It’s very confusing because they left a large number of reviews intact but when attempting to get the list a window comes up saying they aren’t available. Sounds like a mind game to me.

One of the banned reviewers received an email from an author saying:

I got a “nastygram” from them [Amazon.com] two days ago telling me that if I promoted any of my book titles again in my closing of a review (I only noted one book title!) that they would permanently disengage my ability to post anything on the site. They clearly stated that promoting anything via a review or even a comment on a forum post would be grounds for revocation of my posting ability. 

An author joined our forces and has set up a FaceBook page titled Occupying Amazon.  Please go tohttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupying-Amazon/241822895879606?sk=info  and “like” it.   She has also set up a Twitter account so please go tohttp://twitter.com/#!/occupyingamazon and “follow. “Your voice needs to be heard!  As well, pass these links on to all your friends, family, followers and other authors.  We need voices. We need the reviews back up! Email address for Occupying Amazon is occupyingamazon@yahoo.com.

PSS - Be on the lookout for our Super-Duper Black Friday Special. I’ll give you a hint – it will be three-fer, meaning you can get three of something for the price of one. The only catch is that the sale is one day only so be sure you check your email box on Friday morning.

Book Advances: What Are They Really For? (And Amazon.com Update)

by Irene Watson

Hearing about an author getting a book advance from a traditional publisher, especially from a  major one, often stirs up wishful thinking in first time or unknown writers.  As authors, our ultimate goal would be to land a contract with one of these publishers and get a substantial advance.

But, there are misconceptions that revolve around an advance.  Basically, an advance is just that; it’s an advance on something to happen. Many authors don’t understand that the word “advance” means advance against royalties. This means royalties for the actual sale of books will offset the advance.   The publishers take an estimate on their projected sales for the first year.  As well, they try to estimate how much it’s going to cost them to do the editing, make the cover, pay for binding/printing, and shipping costs. Then they figure out how much the author might make based on the royalty percentage ending up with the advance they offer.  Keep in mind the typical royalty rate for paperbacks is 7.5% although some do pay as much as 10% or even as high as 12.5% if the author is very well known.  Depending on how much the book is sold for, the average royalty could be anywhere between $1.00 to $2.00 per book sold. The average royalty for a hardcover is about 15% for important authors but range between 10% to 12.5% for all the rest.

But, that’s not where it stops.  The huge misconception is that traditional/big time publishers promote authors.  They don’t…unless you have an important name.  When the author gets an “advance” it doesn’t mean the money goes into her or his pocket and he or she can take a trip they’ve always wanted to make.  It means that the marketing/publicity expense has to come out of it.  The author is expected to hire a publicist, attend signings/events (sometimes even arranged for by the publishing company,) travel, stay in hotels, promote, promote, promote, and it all has to come out of the advance. As well, the agent takes 15% off the top.  So, when we hear that an author got $800,000 advance, that’s all it is; it’s an advance for all the expenses and the higher the advance, the higher expectations for promotion by the author will be.

For example, an article in The New York Times  says:
As for his profits, Mr. Eggers’s ”Acknowledgments” provides a rough breakdown of the costs that consumed most of the $100,000 advance from his hardcover publisher, Simon & Schuster. He promised to distribute some of the remaining $39,567.68 by sending $5 checks to the first 200 readers who mailed in a proof of purchase.

The percentage of authors that make a living off writing books is pathetically small unless the names are Brown, King, Evanovich or Steel.  Because of the dismal income in the end it’s one reason many savvy writers turn to self-publishing or, those that do have traditional publishers, keep their day jobs.  After chatting with a few agents about this they all agreed that the authors get to keep less than 10% in the end.  If the author gets $8 – 10,000 out of the $100,000 advance into his or her pocket it’s exceptionally good. But, from what I hear publishers pay an average of $15 – 20,000 in advances but as low as $3 – 5,000 for first time authors.  So…do the math – in the end your take is pocket change and just blows out the window for those unbudgeted incidentals and before you know it, you’ll be dipping into your own pocket to support a book that is published by a publisher you received an advance from.

And remember, no royalty checks will be paid out to the author until the total amount of royalties and other income generated from sales exceeds the amount of the advance. This is called earning out. This means if you have a $10,000 advance, and your royalty statement shows that you have sold enough books to generate royalties of $8000, then you will not get any royalty payments until you have earned an additional $2000 to offset the advance. And, depending on the sales of your book it may not happen.

But, there are possibilities as well. An article in Writers Weekly says:

Many best-selling authors achieved their success by investing their advances in their own campaigns. Hiring your own publicist will cost $10,000. Purchasing mailing lists can cost more. By spending all or most of an advance on self-promotion, an author is banking on his or her long-term future. It’s a common practice – one that publishers are coming to expect. Dorothea Benton Frank spent over half of her $50,000 advance on postcard and flyer mailings to over 80,000 addresses and on her own regional book tour, a strategy which premiered her first novel at number nine on the New York Times best-seller list. She then signed a two-book contract for $100,000 each. 

But that outcome is rare. Peter Lance, a novelist who also began in mass paperback, spent similarly, exceeding his $8,000 advance four times over in order to pay for his own ads, travel expenses, mailings and even a personal assistant. He sold out most of his 55,000 first run quickly, but to little effect. He lost money, and his press was slow to issue a second edition. 

So…yes, an advance sounds prestigious and gives you bragging rights but the reality of it isn’t prestigious at all.  Bottom line: keep your day job.

I’d sure like to hear your comments on this topic here.

PS - Amazon Update
I received an email from Amazon UK last week telling me that we are violating the guidelines and the reviews have been removed.  The only difference from the US Amazon stock email was the writer actually had a last name.

Out of the 15 banned review sites (that I know of) only five of us want to move forward and keep making noise. (AllBooksReviews, BookPleasures,FeatheredQuillReviews, ReaderViews, RebeccasReads.)  Two declined, one has no time to get involved, two originally said they will get involved but we haven’t heard from them since even after several attempts, and the rest haven’t even responded.  I find this extremely frustrating and disheartening. Actually, it’s very discouraging but I guess I have to accept not all of us have the same goal in mind when it comes to providing reviews for authors and the reason we are here.

What’s even more disheartening is that individual reviewers are being removed/banned.  I got an email from an individual that had posted 200 reviews but isn’t connected to any site or blog. He Googled and found my article about the issue and contacted me.  In fact, he was even a Vine Reviewer (special invitation by Amazon) and got removed for “violating the guidelines.”  However, like everyone else he isn’t told what the violation is.

I also got an email from an author that posted a book trailer she had made on an author’s book page.  She received an email from Amazon.com indicating “Our posted Guidelines prohibit Paid review sites from submitting reviews. As a result, we’ve removed the reviews for these titles. Any further violations of our posted Guidelines may result in the removal of your title from our website.”  That is a blatant threat!!!  And, oh, the tagline for the signature is “Your feedback is helping us build Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.”  Huh?  A what?  An Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company??  Well…[you fill in the rest.]

Backstory on Amazon.com fiasco.

Vampire Ascending – Review by James Garcia Jr.

Source: http://jamesgarciajr.blogspot.com/

So lately, I have gotten back into the groove of reading. Today, I come to you with a couple of new voices that I have enjoyed recently. The first is my buddy, Lorelei Bell. Her and I did a book exchange. If you read about my recent vacation, the one thing I left out is the fact that I took my Kindle along on the journey, and read Vampire Ascending.

Sabrina is not thrilled about the aspect of working for vampires in Chicago, but she needs the money, and she also wants to find the gorgeous and mysterious vampire who has been turning up in her dreams. Is he the one who bit her when she was ten, marked her for his own, and turned her mother so long ago?

Little does Sabrina know that her whole life is about to change as her best friend’s fate intensifies the desperate need to find the murderer and, consequently, brings her into contact with a rogue vampire, Vasyl.”

Teaser From The Next Installment “Vampire’s Trill”

There were other offices, along this hallway, of course, and I had no idea what they were for. I only knew that vampires worked in them nightly possibly for Tremayne Enterprises. It spooked me to walk this way by myself. I normally had Dante with me. Last night had been my first time coming this way by myself. It was no less stressful tonight.

With my new, improved Were hearing, I could now hear a vampire’s approach, even on carpet. Two vampires, in fact. I stopped and pressed my back to the wall, allowing two male vampires in Armani suits pass. They smiled and made slight bows to me, meaning they had no intention of bothering me. Heart pounding, I cast my gaze down, allowing them to continue on. Learning the subtle rules and vampire etiquette here went far in keeping a vampire’s fangs out of me. The first thing I’d learned was to never allow a vampire to walk behind me. Never. A vampire who follows you becomes a stalker and hunter. Plain and simple. My allowing the two to pass meant I was not available to become their happy meal. Their nodding to me affirmed that they understood this. I averted my eyes quickly, just to make certain they understood I really, really wasn’t a willing donor. Looking straight into a vampire’s eyes was the next best way of becoming a victim—lesson number two. It would not help if you weren’t a registered donor, I knew they would bite first and ask questions later. I didn’t care if they had monitors, and laws in place. A vampire could get his fix and move on. At the very most they’d get fined for biting a non-donor. Also, in most cases, it would take a vampire less than two seconds to put the thrall on a human. Some older vampires could do it across the room with or without eye contact. For some even older vampires, like Tremayne, or Vasyl, it merely took a thought. Both could thrall me at a distance. Tremayne could do it even through the phone. That was scary as hell.

But then both masters had had my blood.

VAMPIRE ASCENDING
by Lorelei Bell

Exciting Hunt For A Vampire Serial Killer in Chicago

Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel. [Read More...]

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Book Sales Are Nothing to Write Home About: What is going on?

by Irene Watson

What IS going on?  Every day I get at least two emails from authors expressing concern that their books aren’t selling. They’ve done everything right:  marketing, publicity, social media, blogging, website, signings, promotion, promotion, and more promotion but it just isn’t happening.  It’s very discouraging.  Some blame it on economy and others blame it on availability of cheap (99 cent) or free e-books.

The economy may have something to do with it – I don’t know.  In a recent discussion with author Theodore Jerome Cohen on this topic he said:

It’s difficult to say. But if ePublishing is the future, and it’s so easy to bring a book to, say, Kindle, the market will be flooded…with junk! Without good reviews, the ‘indie’ book market will flounder as readers abandon it and move to the more established writers, where there is some pedigree.  Not a good thought, is it?! I certainly don’t want to put out the effort and money in the future if the response to my latest book, House of Cards, which has only seen moderate sales, is what I have to look forward to. My earlier novel, Death by Wall Street, had a much bigger jump in sales right out of the gate just a year ago. Importantly, its release was heralded by reviews on Amazon.com from Reader Views, Pacific Book Review, and Feathered Quill. Now, these three reviews have been removed by Amazon management, and no such professional reviews, though available, have been allowed on Amazon.com for House of Cards. Which doesn’t make sense, because if my books don’t sell, neither Amazon nor I make money. 

I can’t disagree with Ted, but I’m also wondering if sales are down due to the fact that we are just inundated with books right now.  For example, in 2010 near 3,100,000 (yes, that’s three million) titles were published.

In 2005 the total was 282,500. Comparing that to 2010 it’s eleven times more over a period of five years. It will be interesting to see how many titles have been published this year because it almost tripled from 2009 to 2010.  Will we see four or five times more for 2011? It’s very possible. Could it mean if we published in 2011 we are in the mix with 6 to 9 million other “new” titles?  If that’s the case, it’s not much wonder sales are low.  We end up being a tiny pebble on a huge beach and it’s only by luck that we get picked up because someone notices us. (The stats are available from Bowker.)

Not long ago I saw a book on Amazon.com that was ranked over 8 million so that means they have cataloged over that many books for sale.  But, not all books are on Amazon.com.  There are many online sites that offer e-books not available on the major sellers’ sites because they haven’t been converted for Kindle or Nook. So, taking all that into account it’s possible there could easily be 10 million or more books on the market right now.

So, what is the alternative? How do we get noticed? Is it really worthwhile publishing a book when there are no readers for it? I sure would like to hearyour comments here.

PS – Update – Removal of Reviews by Amazon
Well, this is getting from worse to worser.  (Yes, that’s a word!)  To my knowledge, as of this writing, there are 15 review sites that were victims of Amazon.com’s purge of reviews and reviewers.  I know that individual reviewers have also been removed/banned but it’s hard to know exactly how many.

The “worser” part is that Amazon.com has ceased sending response emails to queries by authors,  reviewers, and publishers except in one instance.  Norm Goldman, Book Pleasures, was the latest victim and one of the authors he did a review for contacted Amazon by phone.  He was told Norm removed the review and “They explained that any reviewer can remove a review within the first 3 months and it was done right at the 3 month mark.” What?  That’s a new angle.  I wonder how much these outsourced people get paid to make up stories.

I’ve contacted all the banned reviewers and suggested we band
together to take this to a higher level, e.g. press release to media.  Seven have responded saying they want to pursue this further, two declined to be involved, and I haven’t heard from the others. I suspect they aren’t interested. One of the reviewers is posting blog posts all the over the Internet and one has contacted the FTC.  One even suggested we create a petition.

And, we ask you to keep making noise…we want your voices heard.  Please continue to send emails to Amazon and contact FTC and your politicians.  And, if you’d like to get on board with us please let me know.  We can use all the help we can get because, as reviewers, we are busy reviewing books and maintaining our sites as support for authors.  We need help.  (Back story.)

PSS – Update – Books for Soldiers
Donations:
3363 Books
252 music CDs
15 T-shirts
16 movie DVDs
1 playing cards, 1 puzzle
2 envelopes full of drawings from children
53 pounds of candy
$10 donation to buy candy
$100 donation toward shipping

So far we’ve donated 121 boxes of books to the VFW for shipping to soldiers in Afghanistan and 21 boxes to individual soldiers or troops/chaplains requesting books through Books for Soldiers. 

And, yes, we are still accepting books! So if you have books to send, go here for the information.

Last night I received the email that I expected, but did not look forward to reading. It was from one of my authors. The background is that I was on a mission to remind a few of the authors I publish that they need to promote their works, namely their novels.

I had made it clear from the beginning that the promotion of an author’s debut novel is one of the most difficult tasks in the business world. Basically, we are talking about a product – the book – that nobody knows, by a manufacturer – the author – that nobody knows, and a quality – the writing style – that nobody knows. The simple solution is promotion, promotion, and promotion.

As a business man I am intrigued by the challenge. As a publisher – officially a micro-publisher – I need the continued support from my authors. I run a small publishing business, and the return-of-investment point comes quickly, due to a low overhead, but the passiveness of some of my authors makes even that difficult.

Coming back to the email I received, let me share the first line: “Wow! You must be having a really grouchy day today.”

Okay, what is this? Phobia? Ignorance? Apathy? In the business world you call it suicide.

I wanted to respond to that person that my reminder was not an emotional fluke; instead, I write this post. His passiveness resulted in zero sales during this past month, and I will most probably remove his book from my listing.

In contrast – just as a reference of a proper response – let me quote the answer from another author: “This sounds good. I think I’ll try and send you something soon.” Sure enough, this morning she sent me the requested information.

The catalog of very obvious and easy-to-accomplish book promotion activities includes:

• Maintain a website and update frequently
• Maintain a Facebook account and update frequently
• Whenever you add a post to your website, mention it on your Facebook page

There is nothing special about this list, and I am sorry to disappoint everybody who expected a secret formula. Be also aware of the fact that there is a myriad of promotional activities, and there is no guarantee that either one of them will work. Damned if you do; damned if you don’t. However, you can apply common sense.

One of my previous authors started to focus on promoting his novel to Hollywood movie studios and agencies, and, basically, there is nothing wrong with that. Another author concentrated merely on submitting his work to writers’ contests. And yes, everybody is allowed to dream, and, heck, if the dream comes true, I, being the publisher, will gain as well. However, don’t forget about the real life. The real life showed that their dream of greatness was not backed by the sales numbers. My assumption here is, regardless of whether the book makes it as a movie or wins first prize or is short-listed, that if the book has such potential, it should reflect in good sales numbers.

As a publisher I produce press releases and hire review services. In addition – and I believe, this is our strongest marketing tool – we maintain a strong web presence. Our flagship is this very website, FrogenYozurt.Com including its British version FrogenYozurt.co.uk, where we promote not only our authors, but a number of external guest writers (See http://frogenyozurt.com/guest-writers/apply/). A look at the statistics tells us that we enjoy a readership of roughly 2,000 unique visitors a day.

I give my authors the unique opportunity to post directly on this website. I provide them the opportunity to potentially reach 2,000 readers a day. Yes, this number is hypothetical, but frequent writers on this website reach easily up to several thousands of reads per year. Add to this that they are allowed, even encouraged, to include a hyperlink to their website and Facebook account. Also realize how hard it is to create such a daily readership with your own website.

In general, my business model works well. It is just sad that I need to deal with remarks like “”Wow! You must be having a really grouchy day today.” Remarks like this have the potential of making it a grouchy day, but, now that I am finishing this post, I feel much better now.

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A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

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The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

This morning I received an e-mail from one of my authors, Joy J. Kaimaparamban:

Dear Wilfriedji,

How are you?

I received a mail from a new international publishing house, JustFiction! Edition. They wrote they are interested in my novel, ‘The Wildfire’.

I wish to know your valuable advice regarding this matter.

The mail was from Evelyn Davis (Evelyn Davis)

Note: Yes, he addresses me as Wilfriedji, which I consider an honor.

But getting back to the matter at hand: JustFiction Edition. The e-mail he received, was:

Dear Mr Kaimaparamban,

I am writing on behalf of a new international publishing house, JustFiction! Edition.

In the course of a web-research I came across a reference of your manuscript The Wildfire and it has caught my attention.

We are a publisher recognized worldwide, whose aim it is to help talented but international yet unknown authors to publish their manuscripts supported by our experience of publishing and to make their writing available to a wider audience.

JustFiction! Edition would be especially interested in publishing your manuscript as an e-book and in the form of a printed book and all this at no cost to you, of course.

If you are interested in a co-operation I would be glad to send you an e-mail with further information in an attachment.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards
Evelyn Davis
Acquisition Editor

Just Fiction! Edition is a trademark of:
LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing GmbH & Co. KG
Dudweiler Landstr. 99
66123 Saarbrücken
Germany

Phone: +49 681 3720-310
Fax: +49 681 3720-3109
Email: e.davis@justfiction-edition.com
www.justfiction-edition.com

First of all, JustFiction Edition is a legitimate business based in Germany. Their very professional looking website contains a writing style that definitely has some slight “Germlish” elements. I should know; I am German. My thought was, if they are serious about a professional appearance, they should hire a professional whose native language is actually English. Heck! They could hire me, and I would do a better job…;-)

As I wrote, they are a legitimate business, but I strongly advice not to fall for their scheme! Remember: If it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn’t good at all.

Let me just make my case:

Most importantly, it is highly suspicious when a publisher approaches an author, saying they are interested without even having seen the manuscript.

They are interested in publishing your work as eBook. Well, go to Amazon Kindle and smashwords.com, and you’ll get the same thing. As that woman wrote, it won’t cost you a thing. Zip. Zero. Well, wait, JustFiction Edition takes their profit share on top of Amazon and smashwords.com…

The JustFiction Edition website contains virtually no information in regards to author compensation or even general terms & condition (there is a brief blurb regarding plagiarism, though).

Here comes the catch: I checked out their offerings, i.e. the attached e-commerce website. The first book I found (no specification whether it was an eBook, paperback, or hardcover; no information on book size) contains 208 pages for roughly 20 Euros. That is roughly 28 US dollars for a mere 208 pages! Even if this book is, hypothetically, a hardcover (I doubt it, though), it is definitely overpriced.

Each author should be aware that your chances of being successful as a writer are effectively terminated by such an obscene pricing policy. Remember, as an aspiring author, nobody knows you, nobody knows the product you provide, and nobody knows what quality to expect. The obstacles are high, however, not unsurmountable. But add an obscene price to the scenario, and you’re outta here.

Yes, I do believe, they will publish your book and list it at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and other online bookstores (Their cost for an ISBN is probably under $1 per publication). However, they are nothing else but a POD (Print-On-Demand; they call it PTO, but it’s the same thing) publisher with a LightningSource (an Ingram business unit) account. Nothing wrong with that. I do the same. But I don’t make it sound like it is a unique and absolutely wonderful feature.

JustFiction Edition copied their business model from PublishAmerica, however, with a European touch (big deal!). They will publish virtually everything; good or bad, who cares? Their focus is high-volume sales. If you can’t find a few authors with great potential like a traditional publisher, you hire a myriad of authors with low or even non-existing potential. With a 100,000 authors at hand, selling in average two books per author per month, you sell 200,000 books per month. You make roughly 10 Euros (~US$ 14) profit per book, which translates into (now I need my calculator…) 2 million Euros (~2.8 million dollars) per month!

Well, I don’t believe, they have 100,000 authors at this time, but I am sure, they’re working on it. Even if they have only 10,000 they make an annual profit (after costs of goods sold) of 2.4 million Euros (~3.4 million dollars). Believe me, that number is not unreasonable. PublishAmerica (according to their website) rapes almost 50,000 (fifty thousand) authors. After all, you now got the picture of their business model.

The side effect for you, the author, is that they don’t give a damn about you and your success.

I wrote back to Joy:

I would not try to hold you back in case a traditional publisher offers you a contract and possibly a downpayment, but in this case I suggest that you do not sign up with them. If they were, in fact, a trustful business, they would provide you more information upfront.

That being said… Stay away from JustFiction Edition! It’s a rip-off!

By Irene Watson

I got this email a few days ago:

Is it still “very bad form” to put info onto a review book that might hurt the resale value? Right now I paperclip my business card in but I’m thinking of getting a stick-on business card holder and attaching it to the inside front cover.

I addressed this issue in a previous editorial but would like to chat about it again.  I’m not going to regurgitate everything I said but will address some of the concerns: reselling and donating to libraries.

I know there are still many authors that will deface a book because they fear the reviewer will sell the book.  There is no doubt that reviewers do sell the books. This is an excerpt from a self-publishing forum to prove it:

According to an email I received from Midwest boss Jim Cox, the reason Midwest wants finished/final copies is that the reviewers “get paid” with books that they can sell after writing the reviews.
Michael N. Marcus
– author of “Become a Real Self-Publisher: Don’t be a Victim of a Vanity Press”

Perusing the guidelines I find Midwest Book Review requires two copies of the title. I’m not sure why other than selling one or both copies because it only takes one book for one review. Many reviewers feel the sale of their review copy is compensation for time spent reading/reviewing the book and I certainly can’t disagree with them.

Pete Masterson, Author of “Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers” on the same forum recently said:

Review copies you send out are considered “gifts” to the reviewers (whether they review the book or not). So there is nothing practical you can do about review copies that end up being offered for sale online… When review copies show up for sale, it’s best to have a positive attitude about it and hopefully the buyer of such a copy will be pleased and recommend it to several friends.

It boils down to a two-way street called “Give and Receive.”

But, let’s take a look at another reason not to deface, or in the case of the person writing the email above putting a stick-on business card holder inside the cover.

Many reviewers, after the books are read/reviewed, donate them to their local library.  We, for one, donate books that have not been reviewed to local libraries.  According to the librarians I talked to, the chance of the book ending up on the shelf in a library is much greater if it’s not defaced or has stickers on it.  Those that are defaced or have “review copy” on them are rejected.

There was a rumor going around one time that libraries will not shelf autographed books because they get stolen.  I called two libraries we donate to and was told they don’t have this concern.  I also asked several of my reviewers if books they donate get rejected because the book is autographed and the answer was no.  However, what I did learn is they are apt to keep the book in their personal library if the book is autographed to them personally.

What are your thoughts about defacing a book before sending it out for review? I’d like to hear from you here.

PS - Books for Soldiers Update
as of Sat. Oct. 1st we received:
1408 books
24 music CDs/6 movie DVDs
33 pounds of candy for packing
15 t-shirts with book logo
$10 donation to buy candy

Thank you to all the doners! And, yes, we are still accepting donations on an ongoing basis.

One of the advices I have for the aspiring author is to let your work sit for a week or so and re-read it. This method provides you some distance to your own writing, and it helps you to analyze your writing more effectively. I used this method when I started writing, and at times I shook my head about myself. I also learned that I didn’t want to waste my time with writing a bad novel, and re-write and re-write… Ideally – dreaming is allowed – everybody wants to pass at the first attempt.

So, what to do? The answer is simple: Write, write… and write. Also, read, read… and read. Yes, the keyword is “practice.”

My focus today is on the writing part, because here comes the next question: What should I write about? After all, I want to write about something meaningful, something that will attract readers. And, yet again, the answer is easy: Yes, you can write about anything that comes to mind, but I personally was looking for a challenge. That challenge came in form of short stories and creating the title first before I even had an idea what the story was about.

I looked at a number of Tom Waits song titles, and, as a first choice, I picked “Cemetery Polka.” The result of this little project can be found on this website at http://frogenyozurt.com/2009/12/cemetery-polka/. I also published it on AuthorsDen.com and Scribd.Com. When you write a short story, you should always look for ways to share them.

My next project is in the works, and the title is “Warm Beer And Cold Women,” soon to be seen in this theatre…;-) Again, at this time, I have no idea what it will be about. I will wait a few days and think about it, and then I will write. Not much more than 2,000 words. That should do.

And, just to tickle some thoughts, here is a list of more intriguing Tom Waits titles:

• Jockey Full Of Bourbon
• Tango Till They’re Sore
• I Hope I Don’t Fall In Love With You
• Little Drop Of Poison
• Hang On St. Christopher
• Yesterday Is Here
• Just Another Sucker On The Vine
• Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis
• Drunk On The Moon
• God’s Away On Business
• You Can’t Unring A Bell

Feel free to use any of them. I have enough work for the next months. And, if you feel inclined to do so, please send me your story, and I will publish it on this website. Log on to http://frogenyozurt.com/contact/article-submission/, fill the information, and submit it.

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

“What is Digital Sharecropping ?” you ask.  Back in 2006 Nicolas Carr coined the term when describing Web 2.0.  He claimed:

One of the fundamental economic characteristics of Web 2.0 is the distribution of production into the hands of the many and the concentration of the economic rewards into the hands of the few.

You may know the definition of sharecropping as farming practices; the landlord owns the land and takes majority of the profits while individual farmers work the land.  Digital sharecropping is no different. Landlords own the site and we, as authors, populate their sites with content.  We sow, they reap.

“Really?”  you say.  Yes, in the past five years digital sharecropping has escalated and, as authors, we have been pulled into it. Let’s use Landlord Facebook for example.  You create content, post it every day or several times a day, but in reality that content belongs to Landlord Facebook.  It’s free to post but the more we post the more valuable Landlord Facebook becomes. Who reaps the results?  Not us; Landlord Facebook does.  Don’t believe me?  How many books have you sold by posting content about your book on Landlord Facebook?  Thousands? Hundreds? Two or three?  None?  Yet the value of Landlord Facebook is going up every day and that’s because of your content.

Landlord Twitter is no different.  Wall Street Journal reported Landlord Twitter’s value is estimated between $8 billion to $10 billion.   If you tweet you are digital sharecropping; the more you tweet the higher Twitter’s value becomes. But, did your value, as an author go up using Twitter?  Did you sell thousands of books via Twitter?  Sure, you may have 3000 followers but how many of those even know who you are or purchased your book?

These types of platforms help spread the word but, if you notice, they are saturated with noise from people, brands and even spam  so much that  it’s hard to be heard.  Everyone is talking about their own thing at the same time and most very seldom participate in other people’s chatter.

Landlords come and go.  Landlord MySpace was one of the first to implement digital sharecropping in 2004. It became a huge phenomena and was the “it” place to go when online. Landlord Facebook came along in 2007 and blew Landlord MySpace out of the water. Landlord MySpace is still around but has also changed the landscape.  It’s now geared more toward the music industry.  If we, as authors, relied on digital sharecropping with Landlord MySpace we are history.  It’s just not happening anymore.

So…will  Landlord Facebook have the same fate as Landlord MySpace?  Could it become a site overflowing with viruses and sexual predators and eventually only be used to play Farmville?  Or, will Landlord Google+ override them and become the major digital sharecropping Landlord? Not only that, did you notice how often the rules change on Landlord Facebook?  Who’s to say we wouldn’t be affected in the next rule change or dumped?  At one time we had a bookshelf on Landlord Facebook and all of a sudden it disappeared; all the reviews were removed with no warning.

Or, maybe we will have to pay rent besides digital sharecropping. Time will tell. Are you willing to pay rent just to create profits for Landlords?

So, are Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ bad for your book business?  Of course not! They, along with other digital sharecroppers, are great tools to add to your marketing platform and let others know about your book.  In the era of social media it’s must.  But, the “secret” is to be your own Landlord which means:

1.  Have a well-designed website (I said “well-designed.”)
2.  Have an informative and active blog. (Yes, active. That means at least 3 to 4 posts per week.)
3.  Have an opt-in mail list with an autoresponder, or you be the diligent autoresponder.

When I say a “well-designed” website it doesn’t mean some “stuff” on your Author Central page on Amazon, a page on Author’s Den, or a page on your subsidy publisher’s site that isn’t Search Engine Optimized.  I’m talking about your own piece of real estate that you control; you are the sole Landlord.  If you have an author page elsewhere you are digital sharecropping.

If some self-proclaimed expert suggests you abandon your website or blog and only use social media RUN the other way. He or she isn’t an expert. You’ve put in a lot of time and effort into writing your book, why would you risk only using digital sharecropping with a Landlord that can delete you on a whim or change the landscape that no longer supports you?  If you do some research you’ll find the Landlord Facebook and Landlord Tumblr are notorious for deleting accounts.

Bottom line:  Use social media for what it is intended for; a tool to drive traffic to your site.  But…the most effective is to build your audience on what you create on your own real-estate:  your website and your blog. Social media is only one tool in a very huge tool box. It’s not only one thing you do in marketing, it’s everything that you do that brings intended results so use ALL of your tools.

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AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Stuart Martin Berry has only three months left to find a publisher for his first novel. In a desperate attempt to reach his goal he leaves his home to live in New York. His wife has given him free rein to do whatever it takes to get a book deal. Her only request was not to give her any details on how he got there. If he fails he will be forced to give up his dream of being a famous writer and take a regular forty hour a week job. For Stuart this is sufficient motivation to start a three month adventure full of sex, lies, and deceit, without losing focus of the ultimate goal. When he finally reaches the finish line, he has evolved and become a top expert in the publishing world.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

American Male Prostitute is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

The second book in the Write Great Fiction series, Plot and Structure offers clear and concise information on creating a believable and engaging plot that readers can’t resist. Written by award-winning thriller and suspense author James Scott Bell, this handy instruction guide provides: Easy-to-understand techniques on every aspect of plotting and structure, from brainstorming story ideas to building scenes, and from using subplots to crafting knock-out endings; Engaging exercises, perfect for writers at any level and at any stage in their novel; Practical and encouraging guidance from one of the most respected writers publishing today; Full of diagrams, plot brainstormers, and examples from popular novels, mastering plot and structure has never been so simple.

About the Author

A former trial lawyer, James Scott Bell is the award-winning author of numerous thrillers, including the Ty Buchanan series (Try Dying, Try Darkness, Try Fear). He is also the author of two other popular writing books: Revision & Self-Editing, and The Art of War for Writers. A frequent teacher and keynoter at writing conferences, he resides in Los Angeles.

Review

Bell starts from the assertion that anyone can learn to craft a good plot. Whether you prefer to plan every detail of your stories in advance or fly by the seat of your pants, you can still learn all the elements of an engaging story and use them to draw your reader in. Bell has spent a great deal of time analyzing the plot structures of those books that consistently draw people in, and he has come up with a number of systems, theories and exercises which he shares in this book.

Bell addresses just about every aspect of plotting I could think of, from “What’s a Plot, Anyway?” to generating ideas, dealing with beginnings (and middles, and endings), handling individual scenes, crafting complex plots, integrating character arc into plot, different systems of crafting plot, revising plots, plot patterns, plot problems, cures for plot problems, and even checklists to go through to make sure you’re remembering everything as you write your book.

One of Bell’s major contributions to plot theory is his “LOCK” system, which stands for Lead, Objective, Confrontation, Knockout. In order to have a gripping plot you must have a lead, he must have an objective, there must be confrontation, and the ending must have “knockout power.” There are a million-and-ten possible variations on this simple structure, but this basic idea alone can help a struggling writer to get a grip on the basics of plot.

I highly recommend “Plot & Structure” for anyone who writes or plans to write fiction. It’s been a while since I sat down to write fiction, but this book makes me want to sit and work on a novel right this moment. It’s clear, coherent, practical, and immensely useful to any student of the craft. – H. Crove, Amazon.Com Customer Review

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AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Stuart Martin Berry has only three months left to find a publisher for his first novel. In a desperate attempt to reach his goal he leaves his home to live in New York. His wife has given him free rein to do whatever it takes to get a book deal. Her only request was not to give her any details on how he got there. If he fails he will be forced to give up his dream of being a famous writer and take a regular forty hour a week job. For Stuart this is sufficient motivation to start a three month adventure full of sex, lies, and deceit, without losing focus of the ultimate goal. When he finally reaches the finish line, he has evolved and become a top expert in the publishing world.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

American Male Prostitute is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click above to download the FREE PDF document - No questions asked...

Let’s Write A Novel: The Monty Python Code

By Wilfried F. Voss

Author of The Bleeding Hills and American Male Prostitute – How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

A Practical Guide To Writing Your Own Novel
Tips & Advice from the real Writing World

Download the PDF document by clicking on the image to the left. Downloading is absolutely FREE, and there will be no entry form asking for your email-address, etc.

For further Information check out these websites:

http://www.wilfriedvoss.com

http://www.themontypythoncode.com

So, you had an idea. You want to write a novel. The story line is already in your head, and you are itching to get your hands on that keyboard. In your mind, you have already sold thousands of copies, and you are thinking about who will play the lead role in the movie version. Been there, done that, and still like it…

The harsh reality is that most aspiring authors never finish the first draft of their novel, and some start a second before the first one is not even close to completion. I personally managed to finish my first novel and publish it, but I also started writing my third novel after the second was only half finished. The major problem is that we all have too many good ideas, and it is hard to focus on one story, especially when writing it turns out to take more time than we estimated. I once calculated that, due to abundance of ideas, I could (theoretically) write four novels per year… if only I could write eight hours per day. In reality, I do have a daytime job and a family. The thought of quitting my job and leaving my wife and son didn’t appeal.

Before I explain a solution to the problem, let me add more obstacles to this Mission Impossible:

First, a good novel should have at least 60,000 words, and that will take time. When your work is finished, you need to hire an editing service to review and improve your work. Otherwise you won’t have the hint of a chance of being accepted by agents or publishers. Editing will cost you $800+.

I have written numerous posts about the daunting task of finding an agent or publisher, or, in case you self-publish, market and sell your first novel.

Promoting and selling your first novel is the most difficult task in the business world. Even traditional publishers won’t help you there, unless you have a definite Dan-Brown-Potential. So, writing should not be your only talent.

The solution to the problem is first of all perseverance, focus, and a major investment of time. And don’t ignore the much-needed blood, sweat, and tears. You may notice that I did not add talent to the formula. Talent does definitely help, but all aspiring writers believe they have it, and I won’t judge who has and who does not.

From my personal experience I can say that writing my first novel was nothing short of exciting. It was a trip into a different dimension, a different life and time. I had a good outline of my story, but it also took some surprising turns that I did not expect. A story develops while you write it, and that simple fact is absolutely fascinating. For that experience alone it was worth writing it.

So, here, based on my personal experience, are some tips:

• Don’t expect your first novel to be a bestseller. I always say that the best marketing tool for your first novel is the release of the second.
• Write for yourself, not for commercial success. Have fun!
• Write plenty! The more you write the better your style will be in the end. You don’t necessarily need to write on your novel all the time. Watch people or events and write a story about it. Post it on your blog.
• That being said, run a blog!
• Read plenty! Read online versions of the New York Times, Washington Post, etc. Read from Hemingway to Sarah Palin (Yikes!). Reading will help improving your style.
• Pace yourself to 3,000 to 5,000 words a week (some do better, some do worse).
• Don’t edit your own writing over and over. You’re losing too much time. Keep the editing for the time after your first draft is done.
• Find a place and time to do your writing on a regular basis.
• Last, but not least, download my document “Let’s Write Novel”!

Learn how to get from:

Igor Feldman kills student Hillary Pinton
Scene in a basement. Hillary is tied to a chair, blind-folded. Igor uses 20-inch knife to pierce her heart.

to:

The Monty Python Code – Chapter One

The full moon of a bitterly cold January night shed its eerie glow on the scenery in the smelly basement of the 19^th century villa on Elm Street in Grand Fenwick’s most noble neighborhood. A blindfolded girl, still dressed in her cheerleader uniform, the pom-poms lying next to her on the dirty floor, was tied to an old, wooden chair, and she started crying. If they, whoever they were, would not release her like within the next two hours, she would like miss the party at Margaret Hatcher’s house, and that was just not fair. She could lose her status as the coolest girl in college. After all, she was Hillary Pinton, daughter of Horatio Pinton, owner and editor of the Grand Fenwick Observer.

She listened to the noise around her, the groaning of the old house, the howling wind from outside, the barely noticeable tapping feet of rats looking for food, but there was nothing that would reveal a clue of what was going to happen. Then, suddenly, she felt the presence of another person in the room.

“Hello?” she called out. “Can I like go home, please? I don’t wanna play anymore.”

The short, ugly creature, dressed in a filthy black robe with a large hood hiding his blemished face, shrugged his shoulders and skillfully wiped his runny nose with his long tongue, but he did not respond to his victim’s plead. Igor Feldman was not in the mood for a conversation.

The master will be pleased, he thought. I will do what he asked me for, and he will grant me my wish.

The sweat running from his back had caused his hump to slide, and, angry about the inconvenience, he groaned and started adjusting it.

“I really need to go home, like soon,” he heard Hillary again. “It’s like late, you know.”

“In time,” he calmed her with his raspy voice. “In time, my dear.”

He weighed the twenty-inch blade, an ordinary kitchen knife he had stolen from the house, in his hands, and, dragging the black shoes over the worn basement floor, he limped toward the chair.

Pretty she is, he thought as he cocked his head and curiously watched the young woman for a few seconds. He took a deep breath as his right hand went under Hillary’s sweater, and he started counting the ribs until he found the perfect spot.

“What are you doing?” Hillary giggled.

Feldman’s pulse accelerated in anticipation as he positioned the head of the knife, maintaining an accurate ninety-degree angle to her chest.

“Ooh,” she swooned. “You pervert! I guess, we have like time for a quick…”

Using swift and powerful force Feldman thrust the cold steel into her heart. Hillary’s body surged for a fleeting moment within the restraints of the tight ropes, and then it slumped back into the chair. The killing had been fast and effective, and, besides the hissing of air leaving her body, not a single sound had left her mouth. The eyes under the blindfold were open wide, filled with terror as if she were still alive

Feldman felt her blood streaming down his wrist, warm, red, rich, and tasty. He pulled the knife as swift as he had during the killing, and he held it close in front of his face. His long tongue caressed the cold steel, and he moaned with pleasure. Then he looked at the dead body

Maybe I could, he thought, but he mastered the growing desire, suspiciously scanning the surroundings. The master’s eyes are everywhere. He knows everything.

Igor had accomplished the task as he was asked, and he was confident the master would reward him generously.

###

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AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Stuart Martin Berry has only three months left to find a publisher for his first novel. In a desperate attempt to reach his goal he leaves his home to live in New York. His wife has given him free rein to do whatever it takes to get a book deal. Her only request was not to give her any details on how he got there. If he fails he will be forced to give up his dream of being a famous writer and take a regular forty hour a week job. For Stuart this is sufficient motivation to start a three month adventure full of sex, lies, and deceit, without losing focus of the ultimate goal. When he finally reaches the finish line, he has evolved and become a top expert in the publishing world.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

American Male Prostitute is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

###

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The Bleeding Hills

A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

What is this all about, you may ask? Well, as a writer, my mind is full of ideas for new novels. Some of these ideas make it (The Bleeding Hills and American Male Prostitute), others are either put on hold or don’t make it at all. The day has only 24 hours. You may add the night, which makes another 12 hours, and you skip lunch hour. That makes 37 hours per day… if you catch my drift. Not enough time for all ideas to make it into a novel. I have kept three titles in a basket, and here are eight ideas for book titles that didn’t make it:

My Love Affair With Osama Bin Laden

What? You think, the man is not attractive? Read this book, and you will find a few secrets that even the CIA would like to learn.

Diary of an Obsessive Compulsive Bitch

Does bad sex justify murder? Doesn’t it drive you crazy when the service at Starbucks denies you your decaf soymilk latte? How do you get even with a roommate that puts glass chips into your toothpaste? This book addresses social issues not yet recognized by today’s society.

The Poop About Pregnancy

Before you read “What To Expect When You’re Expecting,” and especially before you give birth, you should read this book. There are many aspects about pregnancy that your doctor doesn’t want to tell you.

Victoria Beckham’s Interviews With Famous Authors

Yes, Victoria has never read a book in her life, but that doesn’t mean she can’t maintain a conversation (or publish her memoirs). If you are curious about how she weasels herself out of a precarious situation, you must read this book.

All US Interstates Lead To Exit

A US travel guide to almost every town in America.

Maintain Your Erection

Now that you have erected the swing for your three-year-old… What? You think the title is misleading? But it sells. Right?

Have You Filed Reincarnation Form RI-98726?

This is the true story of spirit T5648R, its quest for reincarnation, and the struggle with the “Other Side’s” bureaucracy. T5648R wants to be reborn as a human male anywhere outside of Greenfield, Massachusetts, a wish requiring proper filings of the proper papers.

The idea spawned after reading the New York Times on April 29, 2009, “Hans Holzer, Ghost Hunter, Dies at 89.” Hans Holzer was an Austrian-born, American pioneering paranormal researcher and author. He wrote well over 100 books on supernatural and occult subjects. What caught my attention was his conclusion that “the other side” is very much like this side, only with more red tape. The dead who wish to return to earth have to get permission from “spirit guides”, then wait in a queue and register with a clerk.

The Dead Candidate

One morning I read an intriguing article in the New York Times. Let me state upfront that it is not my intention to show any disrespect to the victims of the Jan. 8, 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona that left 6 people dead and 13 injured. I feel, nevertheless, disturbed by the before-mentioned article:

An Arizona Senate Race Waits to See if Giffords Emerges to Run

The New York Times, March 30, 2011 (Excerpt)

TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords is still in the hospital, but some of her most ardent backers are so enamored of the idea of her running for the Senate that they describe the inevitable campaign commercials: the deep-voiced narrator recounting what happened to her, the images of her wounded, then recovering and speaking into the camera alongside her astronaut husband to call on Arizonans to unite.

:

…several of Ms. Giffords’s longtime aides are whispering behind the scenes that she just might recover in time to run for the seat that Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, is vacating next year.

While it might be wishful thinking, Ms. Giffords’s noncampaign is already having a major effect on Arizona politics; other prospective Democratic candidates say they feel compelled not to jump in unless she bows out, allowing Republicans to get a head start organizing their campaigns.

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With a question mark beside her name in the Senate race, other Democratic hopefuls are working behind the scenes as carefully as they can, lining up support in case Ms. Giffords decides to stay out while taking care not to appear disrespectful to the candidate that the Democratic establishment here believes would have the best chance of winning.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/us/politics/31giffords.html

I, personally, find all these rumored behind-the-curtain activities despicable, to put it diplomatically. But it also shows the ruthlessness of the political system in these United States. I mean, how far will these politicians go to assure victory? And just for the record, I call myself a moderate liberal, and my wife is a registered Republican, meaning, no, I am not out to point at a specific party.

Nevertheless, here is enough material for a new novel to write for someone with knowledge of the political scenery. Being the cynic that I occasionally am, I have come up with the perfect title: The Dead Candidate, in the nature of Dead Man Walking. I believe, it would be pure fun to write about the background activities of the MYMN (Maybe Yes, Maybe No) party waiting for their candidate, who lies in a coma, to either die or run for election, while the KEA (Kill ‘em All) party is having a ball raising funds for their candidate.

In the meantime I wish Ms. Gifford and the other victims a quick recovery, physically and mentally. My thoughts are also with the people who were killed and their families.

The Monty Python Code

Professor Hubert Ringtone, America’s top specialist on religious sects, becomes an unwilling conspirator in a plot to reveal the deepest secrets of the Thetan Society, the fastest growing religious movement in the history of the world.

No! Wait! That title is already in progress… See http://frogenyozurt.com/…the-monty-python-code/

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AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the infinite supply of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent. Vanity publishers accept everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]