Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts now on Kindle Select

I just moved my short story collection, Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts to Kindle Select. This means the book is no longer available anywhere else, as it is now exclusive to Kindle. The good news is that Amazon prime members can now read the book for free through the Kindle Owners Lending Library. As a plus, I can now run an occasional free promo. That being said, if you are not a Amazon Prime member, you can get the book for FREE on 05/31/13-06/01/13. The promo starts and ends on midnight of said date.

Here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZSCD84

As always, I encourage readers to leave a feedback (good or bad, as long as it is honest) either here or on Amazon.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts moving exclusively to Kindle

I've decided to move my short story collection, Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts to Kindle only. Originally, the short story collection was available through B&N, iTunes, Diesel, Sony, Amazon, Smashwords, and Kobo; nevertheless, this week I started the process to withdraw the files from all retailers except Kindle. Once this is completed, I will enroll the title in the Kindle Select program, and put all my eggs (so to speak), in one basket. I'm hoping this will prove to be the right decision.

For the time being, Kindle availability remains uninterrupted, but you may find that other retailers no longer stock the title. Once the enrollment process at Kindle is completed the book will be available to Amazon Prime members through the lending library in addition to regular purchases.

  

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Escaping Barcelona Q&A thread

A reader over on GoodReads decided to review my novel, Mad Days of Me: Escaping Barcelona, one chapter at a time. Since this is a lot of work ( and completely voluntary on his part), I agreed to start a specific thread where he can post his chapter reviews and I will take questions from readers at the same time.

The thread can be found here: Escaping Barcelona chapter by chapter review

Whether you've read this book and want to discuss your own personal impressions, or whether you are just curious about it, stop by and join us for an informal Q&A.

 

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Proofs are here

The proofs for Finding Eivissa and Eluding Reality arrived today. Looking good next to the original, Escaping Barcelona.


Now begins the hard work of looking for errors, split lines, et cetera. The end, however, is near. I already have a new project brewing in my head.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Google Alerts and Internet Piracy

Yesterday, thanks to Google Alerts, I was made aware of a copyright violation concerning one of my books, Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts.

When I initially set up the Google Alerts, it was to track what websites talk about my writing, to follow on various posts, and to learn what the readers are saying. After all, we live in an interactive world, and the Internet offers the author a range of possibilities unheard of in the days before the Internet. When one of the alerts returned a link I haven't seen before, I clicked on the site.

To my surprise, it linked to a page on LiveJournal where my book was offered as a free download. Not only this download was unauthorized, but that particular books was never offered for free. The poster obviously violated my copyright, and was plainly stealing my material. As an author, I strive to reach as wide an audience as possible, while at the same time trying to balance what is a fair price vs the hard work that goes to writing a book.

I contacted LiveJournal immediately. They were very responsive, and the offending link was suspended within hours. So, a big thumbs up to LiveJournal for doing the right thing.

Thanks to Google Alerts, I was made aware of this as soon as the material was posted. Had it not been for this service, I might have never know.

I'm quite certain that there are other writers dealing with the same issue, and I hope their problems are addressed as quickly as mine was.

As a reader, I enjoy the occasional giveaway an author may host. Nevertheless, this is completely different from what the LiveJournal user did - he or she shamelessly stole my material, which, by any standards, is the wrong thing to do. I will never know how many files were downloaded or how the user obtained my files in the first place. I just want him or her to know that this is stealing.

Fellow authors, I'd encourage you to conduct an occasional search for your own work online. Fellow readers, please consider the author's rights before downloading stolen material.
   

Friday, May 3, 2013

Sequels to Mad Days of Me: Escaping Barcelona coming soon

Today, I ordered print proofs for the two sequels to Mad Days of Me: Escaping Barcelona, Finding Eivissa, and Eluding Reality. Along with that, the digital files are in the process of being converted to Kindle format, so there is some progress on the ebook front as well. I don't do my own ebook conversions - I leave that to the pros to ensure proper formatting.

At this point, I'm unsure of the release date, but I'll be updating the blog as things begin to materialize. I'd like to hear from some of you who read Escaping Barcelona...you never know, I may have a pre-release sequel available for a few randomly chosen readers.

As always, thank you for your support.