Amazon, are email addresses profane?

Posted on June 1, 2010 by James Ashman

I finally got around to updating my Amazon profile. It is currently:

I’m a writer. A friend. A novelist and a lover of novels. A realist and a romantic. A lover of eccentrics. Decent in ideals, crazy in practice. I love humanity, but detest the individuals who ruin the experience. I am a writer; I want to write things you will enjoy. They may not be deep. They will not be your favorite. But I want to write something like this: you come home from work, angry and frustrated, and pick up my book. You engross yourself in it, laugh with it, cry with it. You forget about your worries for the time being. And then the day ends, and you look forward to your next stretch of free time. Enjoy, that’s all I want you to do. Thanks.

All these words were accepted. However, I previously had, at the very end: “Email me at Togetherwithsilver@gmail.com”

And it wouldn’t accept my profile entry due to profanity. I googled online to see if others were having this. The only thing I noticed was a blog who asked the same question, and had their website in the profile description. It was marked as profanity.

Please. If you don’t want websites or emails in that section, say it. I don’t mind! Really, I understand why! But it is confusing when you label it profanity.

I was also just told by a friend they’ve done that for a while. That’s too bad.

I wanted to use the other email: Togetherwithsilver@gmail.com – for my profile email, since my Amazon, personal account email, isn’t something I want public. I can change it, but I want to use different email addresses for different things. Ah well, I’ll deal with it. It’s really fine, and a non-important rant. It would just be nice if everything could be a little clearer. This is really unimportant overall, since I do like Amazon.

326 words better spent on a novel.

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Writing mode and immediate plans

Posted on May 31, 2010 by James Ashman

I’m back in pure writing mode. I wrote around 5k words today, on a holiday. 2k were ideas from a notebook typed and redone on the computer. The other 3k were original. And it’s a great feeling.

I’m working on the sequel to The Lupine Prince. Right now it is at 43k words. If I can really commit to it, then it should be done in 2 months. Maybe a little more or less. I should mention that this book was put on hold. I published The Lupine Prince in Oct. 2009, but during the last couple months of the editing I had started this book, and by 10/30/2009 I was up to about 30k words. From November to December was Dangerous Rainbows, and then I spent the next few months dealing with work and doing some editing for DR on the side.

Well that’s over. Tomorrow is June first, so I’m going to really devote the next couple months to getting it written. Also, I’ve started writing out the next ideas for Identity: 2064, so hopefully that will be done around March of 2011. Why March? NaNoWriMo. I doubt that I can finish the next Together with Silver book, including all the editing, with enough time to spare before November to write the rest of ID64. I will write another novella in November, about what I don’t know. I may edit it and publish it before returning to ID64. I may put it on hold. Unlikely, since I prefer to avoid having projects to both edit and write at the same time. My first was a bit of an exception, since I didn’t do editing for a week at a time while waiting for createspace to send proof copies.

I have also been reading a lot more. The Kindle helps out with that. I read 20k words today, and reading inspires me to write. Look forward to the future. I want to write 3 50k – 90k novels / novellas per year. It’ll take time, but I see now how to get there. And how necessary it is for my growth as a writer, and as someone who wants to make a living using words.

Some self-pubbers wonder if the influx of DIY books will mean everyone has a book, and everyone makes $2 since everyone’s book gets sold. That’s not a living. But the attitude is important: I’m not just here to write. I’m here to make a living, doing what I love, which is writing.

There is nothing wrong doing something you like for work. There is nothing wrong with making money for doing something you like. You do not need to work for someone else if you can grasp happiness and self-sufficiency doing what you love. It does mean you might not actually be able to accomplish it. But all business has risks. All businesses require effort. None simply “work” out of the box. And writing is a business, much like any other.

495 words I could have used in a novel.

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Use Google alerts to check yourself

Posted on May 28, 2010 by James Ashman

If you aren’t familiar with Google Alerts, get on it!

As a writer, it’s invaluable to have something like this. In fact, most people already do something similar. In the LA Times, they point out: “It’s a necessary effort to shape — and protect — your online brand.”

And alerts makes it easy. For example: a few days ago, I put Dangerous Rainbows on Mininova.org, a free download. But due to Google alerts, I’ve been notified over the past few days that 8 other websites have taken the torrent from Mininova and host it themselves. You can go to several other websites, check their books section, and I’ll be there… one of the lone legal downloads out of thousands. But there, nonetheless. And I wouldn’t have known where my book ended up without those alerts.

Another example: I posted a review a while ago, and then the author commented on it. It was pretty awesome of Mr. Resnick to do that. But how did he know? Was he just randomly googling himself and stumbled across me? Or, was there a Google alert set up, alerting him to when his name appeared on a new website.

Another similar thing, Ars Technica has an article about young people being guarded about what they put online, based on a Pew study. As careful as that is, what about what others put online about you? As a writer, audience interaction is critical. I know that if I like an author, I get as much of their stuff as possible. A fan speaks about those they read. And author interaction with those fans builds a good rapport with readers.

Probably, many have already figured this out. But if you haven’t, do it. Just remember to use the minus sign to eliminate words and phrases that could be associated with objects not related to your name, novel, etc. For example, I had an alert for both “The Lupine Prince” and “Together with Silver” – there was a problem with the second. Antique dealers. Silver spoons. Gold together with silver. I had so many minus signs to eliminate everything antique related, and then something else would pop up. Unfortunately, those three words are too common to use in an alert. So if you’re John Smith, an alert on that won’t help. But if your someone like James Ashman (and not the doctor… that was an interesting alert), with a relatively unique combination of titles and names, get on it! Especially if you self-publish.

419 words I could have used in a novel.

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Free ebooks with physical book

Posted on May 25, 2010 by James Ashman

I saw a post on the Kindle forums asking “Will Amazon offer free to Kindle users, the hardcovers they have purchased?” and the obvious answer is no, since it’s not Amazon’s decision. Books you buy are not just the words of a story, no matter how ideal that would be. You’re purchasing a product, and a lease to use (read) that product in a certain environment. It’s not the words themselves that are being purchased. That’s how traditional publishers are treating digital books.

But I’m not part of a traditional publisher. And neither are indie/self-publishers.

I recently purchased a Kindle, and now see how my books can be converted and appear on it. So, if anyone ever asks, I would personally make them an .azw file for their Kindle, a PDF for their computer, etc., of any book of mine they had purchased. One might be free on Smashwords, but due to Amazon’s requirements, it’ll be .99 to buy on Kindle. Just ask. If a paperback copy of any book is purchased, ask for an e-version for a reading device instead of paying the 1 to 3 dollars to get it.

This isn’t something we should charge extra for. Goodness no! I made only a couple changes to a word document to switch it from my physical book format to a compatible e-format, to say it takes more than a few minutes is ridiculous! Well, I shouldn’t say that. Formatting all versions does take some work, but nothing a few hours won’t settle. It’s not the hundreds spent on the original writing, after all. And then to be distilled down to a $3 ebook… well, volume is what matters, not individual pricing. That’s a discussion for another time.

Ebooks free with purchase of a physical version! Or really, even additional e-versions for free if a single e-version in a different format is purchased. Isn’t that the kind of convenience customers should have always had?

328 words I could have used in a novel.

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40000 book downloads, kinda

Posted on May 24, 2010 by James Ashman

A while ago, a major torrent site for P2P downloads went legal. Removed all infringing content and only hosts, currently, user-created, original, and usually independent work. That is Mininova.org. They went from being one of the most trafficked sites in all the world… to less trafficked. But since all the stuff they host, now, is indie creations, I took a few chapters of The Lupine Prince, PDF’d them, and put them up for download on Mininova. I did 3, spaced a few weeks apart, back in Oct and Nov 2009. And now, well, the screenshot below…

… isn’t something I’m going to fix properly. It’s a screenie… so I’ll write what’s most important about it: “Your torrents have been downloaded 39,830 times in total.” That’s impressive, but what does it mean? Assuming that, since there are three chapters, 1 person made three downloads, then at most, 10,000 people read the first three chapters of my book. And what does that translate to, into sales? Zero, but that’s not important. What is important, is that probably 10k people read it, and it’s possible many, many more downloaded at least one chapter. Why is that important if it’s still zero conversion into actual sales of the physical book? Because what if I was giving away my entire book for free? Several artists and authors do that with different works. I’ll be doing that with other works as well, probably.

This isn’t really something I’m able to analyze and make a point of; I just wanted to say: That’s cool. That’s distribution, with no marketing, no work, no bandwidth, and a possible reward. There’s something rather fulfilling about it, and gives me several ideas for the future. Giving something away, for free, means it will end up in many more hands than if it cost something. Even $0.01 is entirely different from free. I need to write more. Much, much more. And then, do something!

Welcome to Monday. It’s one of those days.

331 words I could have used in a novel.

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