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All posts tagged ebook

Hey, It’s Read an E-Book Week!

Posted by george on March 7, 2011
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , . 5 comments
What a great week! What a great time to be an author!
I’ll preface this post by saying that I love books. The physical ones. I have shelves of them. They are tangible and each has their own persona. I hope they never go away and I truly believe in my heart of hearts that they never will.
With that out of the way, the traditional book publishing industry is in danger of dying. Who is wielding the sword? They are.
I want you to have a look at the slide presentation below. It is put together by Mark Coker of Smashwords. Long time readers of this blog know that I love Smashwords and I’ve posted articles here espousing my undying love for those guys.

In this presentation, Mark pulls no punches. If you are an author struggling to rise above the muck and become a successful, published author then you need to watch this!

In the comments section, let me know your thoughts. Also, I am starting a series for e-book published authors. I want them to tell us their e-book publishing story. If you are interested and have a story to tell, please email me at george@tumblemoose.com

For the Read an E-Book Week, my books at Smashwords are half off!

The Short Book of Short Shorts

The Writing Experience

A Grand Grand

Posted by george on August 12, 2010
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 15 comments

On several occasions I’ve posted about my love for Smashwords.com I’ve several E-books published over there and just this last week, one of them topped the 1000 downloads mark.  The others that I have there are doing pretty well, too and overall Smashwords has exposed me to about 3000 folks who have downloaded one E-book or another of mine.  Heck, the last time I  was exposed to 3000 folks I got a public indecency charge. (pending) :-)

If you have an E-book and you’ve been wondering where to publish the thing, look no further.  Seriously, Smashwords is the way to go.  Do you have a collection of short stories or flash fiction that you’ve been waiting to publish?  Get off your duff and get on over to Smashwords.  The sign up is free.  The process is straightforward and easy as pie.

Take my word for it, just this once.  This Saturday afternoon, you could be emailing all your buddies about having your E-Book published.

#DREAMtweet: Rock and Roll meets Twitter

Posted by george on March 24, 2010
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , . 7 comments

When Teresa Morrow of Key Business Partners, LLC asked me if I would be interested in reviewing #DREAMtweet by Joe Heuer, I was completely intrigued.  I mean, what could a self-proclaimed Rock and Roll Guru have to say about dream living?  Teresa sent me the e-book and I soon found out.  As it turns out, the author has lots to say about living your dream.

#DREAMtweet is one of a series of books from Thinkaha that uses a 140 character Twitter-style format.  The advantages to this style is that for anyone who uses Twitter, they will recognize and find comfort in the format immediately.  This style also works for non-Twitterfolk in that keeping concepts and statement limited to 140 characters makes for a lean read.  No extra words allowed.

Waaaay back in the 1980s, I was a stage manager for a big-hair band in Los Angeles.  They played the club scene and I spent many a Friday night humping Marshall cabs in and out of the Roxy, The Troubador, Gazzaris and the like.  Loved the music (still do) loved everything about the rock and roll biz.  So it’s easy to see how #DREAMtweet could pique my interest.

Getting to the heart of the matter, this is why Joe wrote the book:

I am incredibly blessed to be living my rock & roll dream, and
my mission involves helping other people to live their dreams
and have more fun.
I absolutely love living the dream, and I want to share my love
with the world.
Joe Heuer, @RockandRollGuru

Like the book, his reasoning is simple and straightforward.  As I spent time reading this book, I found little pearls and gems scattered throughout.  One of my favorites is:

The Blues Brothers said,
“We’re on a mission from
God.” If it doesn’t feel that
way, it isn’t your dream.

It’s that kind of wisdom that makes me smile.  That kind of wisdom hits home.

#DREAMtweet is not just so much twitfluff.  Reading the book, I could sense the sincerity and the true mission of the author.  I found the information in the book useful and inspiring.  The book being written in a rock and roll theme was just a bonus.

You can get #DREAMtweet by heading on over to Joe’s web site: http://www.rockandrollguru.com/

Smashwords Means Ebooks Galore!

Posted by george on January 13, 2010
Posted in: Fiction, Writing. Tagged: , , , . 13 comments

Long time readers of this blog know that I love Smashwords.  I’ve written about it on several occasions and I truly believe that it is one of the best tools out there to get your writing work noticed.  I won’t go into great detail here because I’ve done that in a previous post.  I will give a thumbnail sketch of how it works though.

Smashwords has a conversion interface that takes your word document  and converts it to virtually all ebook formats.  You name it.  You add a description, a cover, set your price and you are set.  The owner of Smashwords is Mark Coker and he and his team work tirelessly to help make certain your work is available through an astounding collection of markets.

I want to let you know of the books I’ve got listed at Smashwords.  Most are free, and a couple of them you set the price for what you would like to pay for the ebook.

The Writing Experience – An Inspiring Guide for Aspiring Authors

Description – “The Writing Experience… offers the beginning writer down-to-earth and proactive advice for how to start—and succeed—in writing. Dozens of clever writing prompts are guaranteed to get your pen or keyboard moving!” – Maria Schneider, Former editor of Writer’s Digest magazine.

Price – Set your own!

The Inspired Query Letter

Despcription – A short and sweet little e-book filled with powerful information about how to write the perfect query letter. As a writer, if you can’t write a good query letter, you’ll never be able to market your work. The Inspired Query Letter e-book will help make your query letters shine.

Price – Free!

Flashy Fiction – Under A Thousand

Description – A wonderful collection of Flash Fiction Stories, all under a thousand words.

Price – Set your own!

The Vanity of it All – A Collection of Vanity Plate Shorts

Description – A hard-hitting, surprising set of short stories based on Vanity Plates from around the US. The authors are: Matt from SmallBizBee, Steven Male, Matt Hayward, George Angus

Price – Free!

As a writer, you owe it to yourself to go over to Smashwords and sign up.  It’s absolutely free and it’s easy as pie.

For my Kindle friends, The Writing Experience is available for download here.

I hope you’ll take the time to go over and download some of these and I hope you enjoy the stories contained within.

How To Be Rich and Happy – A Book Review

Posted by george on October 28, 2009
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , . 15 comments

rich-and-happy-bookA few weeks back, Tim Brownson DM’d me on Twitter and asked if I would have a look at the new E-book that he and John P. Strelecky had written.  I know that Tim is a wonderful life coach and that he has helped at least one friend of mine so I said, “Of course!”.

Disclaimer:  I get nothing from this review other than the warm fuzzies of helping out a friend.  I am not an affiliate.  I do recommend the book for purchase and if you plan on doing so, head on over to Tracy O’Connor at I Hate My Message Board and go through her affiliate link – she deserves it.

The first thing you need to know is that this is not a 30 page E-book that was written over a weekend. If you are serious about the topic then you need to know that this is a serious book.  It’s 218 pages.  It’s professionally edited and written.  The layout is slick and enticing.  In short, the package is impressive.

How To Be Rich and Happy is not simply a re-hash of stale blog posts.  The information is cutting edge and backed by research and real world tools designed to help you examine where you currently stand and the path you need to take to get where you want to be.

Make no mistake:  This is no get rich quick scheme whereby !HIDDEN SECRETS ARE REVEALED!  If you’ve been sucked in by other things in the past, go forward into this book with no trepidation whatsoever.  There is no danger here.

I’m in the process of following the methods outlined in the book and I know that it is going to take me some time.  The important thing is that this book has allowed me to build a solid foundation upon which the house I build will be strong, sturdy and exactly what I want.

Do yourself a big, fat favor.  Go get this book, put in the effort that is required.  In the end, you will be on the right path to being Rich and Happy.