I'm Afraid of Getting Shot Down in Flames

[Just4kix]

Thanks Jehane. I tried to do it your way but I didn't know what spaces to omit. I'm afraid I'm useless at this.
I took out the pic hoping to give me more characters. It still says I've used too many characters when I want to add my other books.
Kindleboards have a link-maker which makes it very easy for the techno-challenged. Will have to keep trying.

[Worldwalker]

Try this for your signature:

My website. My Kindle books: Breadwinners (family saga) - But Can You Drink the Water? (humor) - Leon Chameleon P.I. (animal story for 7-12)

That should work. The code, with # inserted to break tags (use search and replace in your favorite text editor to remove), is as follows:

My [#URL="www.just4kix.jimdo.com"][#B]website[#/B][#/URL]. My Kindle books: [#URL="http://www.amazon.com/The-Breadwinne...0365639&sr=1-1"][#B]Breadwinners[#/B][#/URL] (family saga) - [#URL="http://www.amazon.com/But-Can-Drink-...0365675&sr=1-1"][#B]But Can You Drink the Water?[#/B][#/URL] (humor) - [#URL="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LRPRFQ"][#B]Leon Chameleon P.I.[#/B][#/URL] (animal story for 7-12)

Obviously, you can tweak that as needed.

[DocNoir]

I tried Smashwords and didn't like the format. So for the new novel, I went to Amazon and BN.com directly. So there's an e-pub and a Kindle version, *and* I did not engage the DRM, so it can be reformatted. I figured that was the best way to make sure more people had a chance at it.

[Just4kix]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Try this for your signature:



That should work. The code, with # inserted to break tags (use search and replace in your favorite text editor to remove), is as follows:



Obviously, you can tweak that as needed.

Thanks.

I clicked on the 'my website' and 'Leon Chameleon' and it took me to the correct places, but when I clicked on 'The Breadwinners' and 'But can You... ' it said the page was not available. I tried it a few times and it still didn't work.

[LCF]

There you go. Just hit the "quote" button on my post and (in the editor) copy the text between the two *'s as your signature.

*

My website. My Kindle books: Breadwinners (family saga)- But Can You Drink the Water? (humor) - Leon Chameleon P.I. (animal story for 7-12)

*

[jehane]

Originally Posted by DocNoir

I tried Smashwords and didn't like the format. So for the new novel, I went to Amazon and BN.com directly. So there's an e-pub and a Kindle version, *and* I did not engage the DRM, so it can be reformatted. I figured that was the best way to make sure more people had a chance at it.

DocNoir, it's good to see that you have both epub and Kindle versions, however I will point out that BN has pretty much zero international presence. So you may be missing a large audience who never look at BN either because it often won't sell to them, or they may never have heard of it. There will also be those that won't use BN because of their unique DRM - nookbooks won't work on other readers and unless they are willing to regularly go to the effort of checking compatibility, you may be missing out on another reader audience.

I want to stress that I am not trying to disparage anyone's efforts, I just want to point out that if you (generic), as an author, don't make it easy for a wide range of readers to access your work, then a lot just won't bother. It's a very competitive marketplace out there and if you want people to *pay* to read your books, don't make them jump through too many hoops to do so. Most of us won't.

[Just4kix]

Originally Posted by LCF

There you go. Just hit the "quote" button on my post and (in the editor) copy the text between the two *'s as your signature.

*

My website. My Kindle books: Breadwinners (family saga)- But Can You Drink the Water? (humor) - Leon Chameleon P.I. (animal story for 7-12)

*

Aha! Success.

Will there still be enough space to add 'Mystery at Ocean Drive' (YA adventure)
http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-at-Oce...3192013&sr=1-1

and 'Something to Read on the Plane' humour/travel/gift.
http://www.amazon.com/Something-Read...tt_at_ep_dpi_1

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

There are several reasons people get irked at Amazon-only authors. ...

Great post nicely analyzing various aspects.

There is one more thing to consider.
Overseas customers pay $2 extra for "wireless delivery", even if they have wifi only version of Kindle, or even when they purchase via Kindle for PC.
So, the price of your book But Can You Drink The Water? is $3.44 in my country. This is more than double the price. Would your potential readers buy it anyway?

[DocNoir]

Originally Posted by jehane

DocNoir, it's good to see that you have both epub and Kindle versions, however I will point out that BN has pretty much zero international presence. So you may be missing a large audience who never look at BN either because it often won't sell to them, or they may never have heard of it. There will also be those that won't use BN because of their unique DRM - nookbooks won't work on other readers and unless they are willing to regularly go to the effort of checking compatibility, you may be missing out on another reader audience.

Thanks for giving me something to think about. I'm definitely interested in finding the easiest way to allow readers to get the book, so maybe I'll give Smashwords another shot. I wish there was an alternative, though.

[LCF]

Yep.

*

My website. My Kindle books: Breadwinners (family saga) - But Can You Drink the Water? (humor) - Leon Chameleon P.I. (animal story for 7-12) - Mystery at Ocean Drive (YA adventure) - Something to Read on the Plane (humour/travel/gift)

*

A quick "do it yourself" tutorial:

• Open the webpage you want to link to (say mobileread.com).
• Copy the address from the address bar.
• In the signature editor type the description for it (The greatest forum on the web).
• Than select The greatest forum on the web and click the Bold button.
• After that click on the "Insert link" button and paste the webpage addres (http://mobileread.com)
• That's it. Now clicking on "The greatest forum on the web" will link to mobileread.com

[Just4kix]

Originally Posted by kacir

Great post nicely analyzing various aspects.

There is one more thing to consider.
Overseas customers pay $2 extra for "wireless delivery", even if they have wifi only version of Kindle, or even when they purchase via Kindle for PC.
So, the price of your book But Can You Drink The Water? is $3.44 in my country. This is more than double the price. Would your potential readers buy it anyway?

It's also an extra $2 for me in SA, which is why I priced my books at 99c (Amazon even charged me $2.99 when I gifted them to someone in the US. I was pretty miffed about that!) But it is selling very well on Amazon UK.
Leon is more expensive because I am sharing royalties with the publisher and the illustrator, but we will be uploading another book in the series and are considering lowering that price as it's actually the first in the series.

[Just4kix]

Originally Posted by LCF

Yep.

*

My website. My Kindle books: Breadwinners (family saga) - But Can You Drink the Water? (humor) - Leon Chameleon P.I. (animal story for 7-12) - Mystery at Ocean Drive (YA adventure) - Something to Read on the Plane (humour/travel/gift)

*

A quick "do it yourself" tutorial:

• Open the webpage you want to link to (say mobileread.com).
• Copy the address from the address bar.
• In the signature editor type the description for it (The greatest forum on the web).
• Than select The greatest forum on the web and click the Bold button.
• After that click on the "Insert link" button and paste the webpage addres (http://mobileread.com)
• That's it. Now clicking on "The greatest forum on the web" will link to mobileread.com

Thanks so much for going to all that trouble.
I have copied and pasted your instructions for future use. I was even brave enough to tweak the signature.

[mathewferguson]

I wish a clever and trustworthy USian would offer up their services to help publish us non-US writers. I have a PayPal account so Amazon and Smashwords are fine and everywhere Smashwords distributes but I would like to be able to publish direct to Kobo, etc.

It's a little frustrating that my own books aren't available in my own country (Australia) for some of the eReaders.

[CJ Archer]

Originally Posted by mathewferguson

I have a PayPal account so Amazon and Smashwords are fine and everywhere Smashwords distributes but I would like to be able to publish direct to Kobo, etc.

It's a little frustrating that my own books aren't available in my own country (Australia) for some of the eReaders.

As another Aussie author, I agree! The other problem with Amazon, however, is that they don't use Paypal. Not only is this frustrating as a read but also as a writer. My bank takes a whopping $20 fee off every international cheque I deposit.