"The Shameless Promotion and Endless Plug-Your-Novel Thread"

[alvico]

Originally Posted by JamesACooke

Jumping in:

Stuck in a nursing home, widower Leo Zepka hires two actors to portray the children who never visit him. With the actors' help, Leo escapes from the home and flees to Florida -- only to have his children go after him.

That's the plot of "Rent A Family," a poignant comic work of fiction.

Check it out on Amazon Kindle.

James, do you have a link you can include in your post? Just makes it easier for people to find.

[pdurrant]

Hi James,

Welcome to Mobileread! If you're going to shamelessly promote your book properly, you really need to provide links and other info. e.g.

Rent a Family by James Aaron Cooke — only $3.99 at the Amazon Kindle store!

I think you may be pricing your story a bit high. You don't seem to be an established writer, and the very plain cover (single colour background and black text) isn't enticing.

Checking out the sample (as you suggest), the formatting of the text is irregular. You have a blank line between every paragraph, but also a first line indent on some, but not all paragraphs in no apparent pattern. And the indents that are there are not all the same size. Chapter headings are just separated by space — I always like to have chapter headings at least in bold. You don't have a table of contents, either in-line in the HTML, or available the Kindle menu.

The typography could also do with tweaking — you're using hyphens (or two hyphens, irregularly) for dashes. Some people do prefer straight quotes — I think they only belong on typewriter output, not in proper books or ebooks.

There are also various typos — missing close quotes, that sort of thing.

I attatch the sample from Amazon, and a cleaned-up version of the sample, to show exactly what I mean. (I haven't done any editing on the sample — just tidied up the formatting and corrected any missing punctuation that I noticed in passing. Nor have I added a Table of Contents.)

A little more time spent on formatting and presenting the book will pay off in the end, I'm sure.

Originally Posted by JamesACooke

That's the plot of "Rent A Family," a poignant comic work of fiction.

Check it out on Amazon Kindle.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by alvico

I uploaded Thin Blood to Amazon at the beginning of this month and it's gone from being ranked in the tens of thousands to currently #17 in the Kindle store (fiction and non-fiction). I can't explain why, how or what, but I'm certainly not complaining.

And it's now at #15. A stunning achievement. Congratulations!


(I just checked the sample out - a really good prologue to hook the reader.

Personally I prefer indented paragraphs to spaces between paragraphs and no indents, but you are pleasantly consistent. The other typography is good - quotes, dashes, italics, chapter headings.)

[alvico]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And it's now at #15. A stunning achievement. Congratulations!


(I just checked the sample out - a really good prologue to hook the reader.

Personally I prefer indented paragraphs to spaces between paragraphs and no indents, but you are pleasantly consistent. The other typography is good - quotes, dashes, italics, chapter headings.)

Thanks! I still can't believe it. I half-expect someone to jump out and yell, “Gotcha!”

And thank you, too, for the feedback on the formatting. When I first uploaded Thin Blood to Amazon, it was formatted as it is now. I then had second thoughts and uploaded a version with indented paragraphs, posting an apology to anyone who’d bought the block formatted version, offering to replace it with the indented one. I had a flurry of emails to saying that the block formatting worked well. A few said it didn’t bother them either way. Anyway, I ended up re-uploading the original version. It’s hard to know what to do. I checked a pile of samples on Kindle for PC and they differ so much.

For any MR members who bought Thin Blood on Kindle and prefer the indented paragraph format, please PM or email me. I’m be more than happy to send you a replacement copy.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by alvico

Thanks! I still can't believe it. I half-expect someone to jump out and yell, “Gotcha!”

And as I check just now, it's gone up to #14 in Kindle Books!

[Billjr13]

Congratulations #1 Mystery on Amazon Vicki, I was just on Amazon and it is up #14 in the Best sellers section. That is so cool. We are very happy for you

[EllenFisher]

That's amazing, Vicki. Congrats!

[Steve Anderson]

Hi all,

Just a quick reminder - there's less than four days left to get The Losing Role for 99 cents on Kindle and FREE on Smashwords (coupon code CJ27G). Offer expires May 31.

After which it will creep back up to normal (though still cheap) indie ebook prices. This hustling stuff is wearing me out ; )

Thanks!
Steve

[Kevin2960]

WAY to GO

Vicki, thats really really great news, No1 Next month ?

[Michaelbrent]

My book Billy: Messenger of Powers is currently sitting at the No. 1 Best Reviewed book on smashwords.com. I've also got two books of fairy tales that are the #2 and #3 best reviewed children's books at smashwords. Good times!

[alvico]

Originally Posted by Billjr13

Congratulations #1 Mystery on Amazon Vicki, I was just on Amazon and it is up #14 in the Best sellers section. That is so cool. We are very happy for you

Originally Posted by EllenFisher

That's amazing, Vicki. Congrats!

Originally Posted by Kevin2960

WAY to GO

Vicki, thats really really great news, No1 Next month ?

Thanks Bill, Ellen and Kevin. I'm having trouble sleeping. I wonder why.

[alvico]

Originally Posted by Michaelbrent

My book Billy: Messenger of Powers is currently sitting at the No. 1 Best Reviewed book on smashwords.com. I've also got two books of fairy tales that are the #2 and #3 best reviewed children's books at smashwords. Good times!

Welcome to MobileRead, Michael. Great reviews!

For anyone else who'd like to check out Michael's book here's the link:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/14118

Blurb:

"Billy was only thirteen years old the first time he died." And so begins Billy: Messenger of Powers. Billy leads a fairly normal life, trying to get through high school and dealing with his first crush. But all that changes when Billy discovers that Powers - witches and warlocks - walk among us. And not only that, but Billy is at the center of a magical war that endangers all humanity.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by alvico

Thanks Bill, Ellen and Kevin. I'm having trouble sleeping. I wonder why.

Probably from obsessively checking Amazon rankings. I'm just a bystander and I find myself checking your book when I'm at the computer.

Currently No. 11 in Books/Mysteries and Thrillers. (Just above Charlaine Harris's "Dead in the Family"!)

[joycedb]

Instead of repeating my blurb, I thought I'd tell you about the themes in my full-length women's fiction novel. Although Serendipity House begins and ends like a romance, in between is a multi-layered story about the diverse relationships between family members as well as strangers who become like family. Besides a mystery and a romance, the characters deal with the realization that we're all the children of imperfect parents, the growing friendships between people of dissimilar backgrounds, and the quest to be accepted and loved regardless of our flaws.

To read a blurb and the first two chapters, please visit my website, joycedebacco.com. There's also a short excerpt below in the writers' corner labeled "threads for excerpts." Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll visit Serendipity House.

Joyce

[Ed_ODell]

Hi All,

Thank you for the opportunity to introduce my work!

"Three Minutes More" is a compelling, powerful and sometimes alarming novel. Set in mid '70's Appalachia, it is an astonishing story as told by eleven year old Michael Steven.

Michael's already troubled young life has taken a sudden, dramatic turn. Severely injured, he will need a miracle if he is to survive the night.

Reflecting on the evening's horrific events, wondering if could have altered them in any way, his thoughts begin to drift. Before long, he is contemplating his remarkable life, his dysfunctional family, and the possibility that he may have to soon answer for his life to God.

In recalling some of the most amusing, bizarre, distressing and disturbing times of his life, he comes to understand "the monster you know is easier to deal with than the monster you don't."

Will he get the miracle he needs, and make it until morning? If he does make it, will he finally find peace?

His life a seemingly endless paradox, Mike has been hardened in living many unsettling experiences, yet still views the world through the eyes of an innocent eleven year old.

Laugh. Cry. Get Angry. Cheer. Reflect.

Respectfully,

Ed O’Dell

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Minutes-...dp/B003B3O0JA/

Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/11544 ($1.49 with coupon code QU52B)

“This is how you should feel after reading a book. It's perfect, appalling, heart-breaking, disgusting, raw. If I could I would give this author a standing ovation." - The Book Journal.