Posts Tagged ‘AA Blog’

Mark Coker is a Genius

Posted: October 27, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Although I keep having to explain to people to press the downloads button to get the kindle version on http://www.smashwords.com instead of on amazon.com, Mark Coker’s smashwords format is a MUCH better alternative than the kindle monopoly at Amazon, period the end, so even if I lose a few ebook sales from people who can’t find the downloads button on books4free.com or who keep going directly to the Amazon page, I believe long term smashwords will be the recognized distributor of most ebooks, so I’m sticking with Mark Coker.

Here is his latest blog, about ebook publishing, definitely worth the read.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker/the-seven-secrets-to-eboo_b_751743.html

-Jared Bryan Smith

Guerilla Publicity, Reviews, Promoting a book…

Posted: October 27, 2010 in Uncategorized
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So the initial book launch has begun to fade, and with much stress I’ve watched the title go from top 50k, to under 100k, to 200k, and now is floating somewhere around 400k top books. Which is really still sad if you think of about it considering I’ve sold only around 30 copies or so. So now the real work begins it seems.

Getting the book to reviewers, getting those 30 readers to leave Amazon reviews, making sure Amazon lists it in proper medical categories, under Hepatitis C, Addiction, alcoholism etc, all very important. And then of course writing a decent press release, getting that press release and then hopefully a Press Kit into the hands of editors, producers, etc….  All it will take is one good hit, but it may be hard to do without the aforementioned reviews, and so , again getting the book to recognized reviewers will be crucial.

There are services that will do that for you, ranging from $250 bucks to 1500, but being unemployed, having spent every dime on the http://www.books4free.com launch and not being well funded, books4free is going to need to really begin rolling up their sleeves and getting it out there.

Fortunately his pain, followed by a solemn oath to avoid love again indefinitely, should definitely free up his calender…

-Jared Bryan Smith

Amazon Mysteries Abound!!

Posted: October 21, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Wow, the print on demand arrangement still being pondered, as I wonder why they would claim on my splash page on Amazon that there are only 3 copies left, and to order soon, they throw fuel on the fire with yet another jaw dropper. The book is now for sale, not at the 24.95 I set the price at months ago, but for 17.96.

This is well below their wholesale cost on the entire book, and though I get it, would have been nice to have received an email from the publisher, Books4free.com, but I’m sure he’s too busy golfing, fishing or dating bipoloar women to keep me posted… He swears he received nothing, but who knows.

The point is that Amazon owns his ass and they can set the price wherever they like, whenever they like, and do not have any need to keep him or the author informed. Fortunately books4free.com assures us that it’s actually a good thing for our customers, that the price is down, and though it eats into Amazon costs, we will receive the same pay out per book even though its below cost.

That is where I call bullshit. What lightning source should tell have told us is that most likely Amazon has bought a bulk of the book, since it’s selling well, and hence, gotten that bulk for a cheaper cost, probably saving something like 7 or 8 bucks per book. Which basically means Lightning Source is overcharging books4free.com and myself, something in the neighborhood of 10 bucks a book as there has only been about 20 or so sold, and I bet that’s the cut off for Amazon to actually stock some books. I bet at 100 there is another bulk pricing break.

It would really be nice to be privy to all this information going in, but alas, we are not, and learning these ropes as we go along.

In the meantime, I guess we should just be grateful that the cost is done to 17.96 per book, 7 dollars cheaper than the list price we set, and go ahead and advertise on Facebook and wherever that it’s on sale! Better than a 7 dollar increase I suppose.

Now if said publisher would just stop dating crazy women, maybe he would have the time to get me on some radio and television shows like a proper publisher! Some habits die harder than others I suppose.

-Jared Bryan Smith

Only Three Left in Stock – Amazon Says?

Posted: October 20, 2010 in Uncategorized
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What the hell… I seriously thought this was Print on Demand. How strange. Also, how in the hell do you change a subtitle in Amazon to reflect that the book is about Hepatitis C. Grrr… When you search Hepatitis C books, mine is nowhere to be found, because I used an artsy title instead of a factual one…. so I tried to change the subtitle with more than a few keywords, and they freaking rejected it.

So, I, the author, don’t have authority to change my own subtitle. Maddening.

Not that I liked the title, the most unartistic, mangled drivel ever, written soley for the purposes of Amazon’s search engine… still I was proud of the amount of keywords I crammed into 200 characters…alas it was rejected:

“Current value: Hippopotamus Sea
Your suggestion: Hippopotamus Sea: My Viral Sobriety, or How I Beat Hepatitis C, Addiction, Alcoholism, & Interferon by Working the 12 Steps of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, & Recovery Stories of Drinking, LSD, & Cocaine”

* Please do not add descriptions to the title. The title should be as it appears on the book.

Well ya know what Amazon, how about you stop trying to sell Hungry Hungry Hippo to my NOT INTERESTED IN HIPPOPOTAMUS customers, you over digitized, zealous, taking the art out of writing demons!!! But I digress… I shall return in a better mood later.

At least we’re back in top 100 recovery books again… introducing another problem, how do I get classified under Hepatitis C Books?

-Jared Bryan Smith

Books4free.com – Hepatitis C, Alcoholism, Addiction Memoirs, LSD, The Grateful Dead, Amsterdam and Juvenile

Posted: October 15, 2010 in Uncategorized
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So the momentum is beginning to slow down as the facebook crowd who were awaiting books, are now reading rather than ordering I suppose. At the peak the book was in the Top 100 Alcohol and Recovery books, ranking at #67, but unfortunately I don’t know how many books that is in that given hour. On the overall ranking it’s maxed out at 32,000, which isn’t bad considering there are millions of books on Amazon, but now that it’s back in the 100-200k range, I’m scared to see where it will be in a week. Moving forward reviews, word of mouth, emails, and networking will be more influential than facebook. Guess I need to start sending to reviewers.

The book chronicles being born into alcoholic family, rebelling, dosing LSD/Acid very young, and raising hell through his teenage years, stealing, running away, wrecking cars you name it, until he finally settles down however briefly to have a son, and play family for a few years, however poorly the execution. After divorce at 22 he picks up where he left off, raising cane again, and really doesn’t even begin to slow down as his mom lies dying of cancer. After she’s gone his drinking takes on new sincerity and the challenge I really took on is towards the end of the book where I do my best to explain madness and insanity, delusions, and paranoid schizophrenia to the normal, “earth” person as we recovered alcoholics refer to the unafflicted. It’s hard to explain the color red though to a blind man, and I wonder if anyone will understand the enormity of my massive, intricate, detailed derangement. All I could do was try and explain how lost I’d gotten, how lost I stayed for so long, and how far I’d come back. It’s not a short journey, but given the number of people, just in our class of 1996, that are now dead to alcoholism, addiction  or something related, it’s a story worth reading, and worth understanding, as the solution, the 12 Steps of AA, can work on really any spiritual malady, but most especially addiction.

If the AA 12 Steps could work on me, who went to the edge of the abyss, looked in and had the abyss stare back in, invade and pay rent for years, it can seriously work on anyone. I really wrote the book I wish I’d read when I went to pick up a Million Little Pieces by James Frey. I wanted some hope, I wanted a story as dark as mine, detailed and honest, and messy with guts and humiliation, and something bigger than myself. When I lived that firsthand, I felt it was worth writing, and though a little long, as I’m beginning to hear back, it’s worth the read. If you think it’s long reading, thank God you didn’t live it!

-Jared Bryan Smith


Books4free.com – Hippopotamus Sea; My Viral Sobriety by Jared Bryan Smith

Posted: October 11, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Well the book launched yesterday! I was very excited as I didn’t realize it was basically automatic from the acceptance of the proof with Lightning Source. I was putting pressure on my graphics designer/web designer who was basically stalling and putting it right back on me, which drove me a little batty. So I was thinking books4free was going to have to call LSI, which is always a pain in the ass, and find out how to connect LSI and Amazon together. Thankfully it was all done automatically.

Hippopotamus Sea; My Viral Sobriety, written by me, Jared Bryan Smith, 2.5 years in the making, and it finally launches on 10-10-10, a sheer coincidence. Chronicling a 17 year drug and drinking binge, sobriety,  the 12 Steps of AA in their modern workings, haha, as well as, of course, the contraction of Hepatitis C, the insane costs of the treatment without insurance, the charity given by Roche, and the grueling Interferon treatment itself, it’s certainly a book anyone in recovery would appreciate.

It doesn’t sugar coat much, and cuss words are modern, and used liberally. Anyone who has Hep C, isn’t going to be offended I suspect, but it may not penetrate the staunch religious aspects of AA as some are very averse to cursing. My God doesn’t speak English exclusively so he could care less how many times I drop the F bomb. I didn’t cross the GD line though, haha. It’s a good book, regardless of anyone’s delicate sensitivities. I couldn’t write honestly and not cuss a little.

So as of yesterday my best ranking was in the top 32000 on Amazon, but today, Monday, we’ve drifted back to about 75k, so my brother just bought 3 copies to test this theory, see what happens. Very strange as a publisher books4free can’t just go and look up exactly how many copies they’ve sold, but I guess they probably just haven’t figured that out yet. I suppose books4free should call LSI regardless just to see how to do that.

I’m glad the book is up though. I used a technical editor, and in all honesty it wouldn’t shock me if later on down the road I ended up getting an editor specifically attuned to working on autobiographies, to get rid of some of the name dropping, probably crop some pages, but at this stage, it’s the very best I could do with the tools, resources, and time I had at hand. Especially the money. I would have saved thousands going through Lulu.com or any Vanity Publishing Press out there, but we wanted to use my book to launch books4free.com. We’ll see how that all plays out moving forward  I suppose.

So go take a look please, if you haven’t already!

http://www.books4free.com

-Jared Bryan Smith

Graphics Designer, final final final PDF

Posted: September 27, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Well here it is September 27th 2010, well past the two weeks I thought it would take for me to finish the book, and I’ve finally come to terms with the final pdf… books4free has uploaded to Lightning Source, where we’ll be selling the hard copy prints, and since we’ll be marketing from the books4free.com website, to amazon, smashwords, and the like, I suppose we’ll just distribute all digital copies for free, and hope that it sells more hard copy books… We’ll see I suppose…

It’s been a long road, and now I’m just exhausted and hope the book isn’t terrible.

JB Smith

Smashwords release, awaiting font changes:

Posted: September 7, 2010 in Uncategorized
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So we have republished on smashwords, and for now have the price set at 9.95, as we’re not trying to push the digital copy just yet, but am just holding steady as we await the publication for hard copy, via Lightning Source. My web designer, slash graphics designer, has the final manuscript, and has to touch every single individual page in order to make the font right for Lightning Source. A  bit of a pain in the ass and another expense I didn’t see coming, in this learning curve I could have never anticipated. I wonder how much I would have saved using an independent publisher, rather than trying to do everything all myself.

Oh well, such is life, and now we wait. Still I love the cover, the final edited book, and hopefully, I’ll sell a few copies, and recoup at least some of the expenses, energy and effort, as we get closer to a launch.

There are much better memoirs, and MUCH MUCH better thorough detailed 12 step based books, but I look at this as an idiots or dummy guide to the 12 steps, if someone as lazy, slow and burnt out as me can do them, defeat alcoholism, drug addiction, Hep C, Interferon, and family crises, than truly anyone can do it.

I also one day hope to change the names to the originals, but would have to go back and get individual signatures for all the as of now anonymous characters. One day, when there is more time, I plan on doing that. Until then, it’s still a good book, chronicling a true story, just with different alias’s. Hope you enjoy.

Jared Bryan Smith

Smashwords, Books4free.com, Lightning Source, Blurb.com

Posted: July 16, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Just put down the Fortune magazine in which I saw that Blurb.com is doing 45 million in revenues already. Good for them, that definitely shows this small publishing market continues to grow and thrive. God willing Books4free.com will enjoy just a bit of that success, as it launches with my first title, Hippopotamus Sea.

The cover is done, the editing is done, and the publisher I understand now awaits the Proof book from LightningSource.com to prove that they are actually capable of printing and shipping an actual hard copy book.

After much research, the decision to use smashwords to distribute all the digital formatting of the book seems to be the wisest. They take the book, and after formatting for Mark Coker’s meatgrinder software, which I had to send off the word document to rid it of all spaces, tabs, and page numbers, we will upload to smashwords, which will then, theoritiacally make it available on ipad, epub, nook, kindle, and the like, which is a good deal for me the writer, the publisher, and hopefully the consumer…

I saw on the smashwords website the ability to give away the book 4 free to soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, so in the spirit of books4free.com, we will definitely be participating in that venture.

The journey feels like it’s getting closer to completion, but of course, the marketing and selling of the book will just be the next step. The writing, editing and bringing to market though, is hopefully almost done. Once books4free.com is complete and their is a book for sale, for read for free, and digitally, I’ll be excited… right now I’m just feeling a little overwhlemed by it all.

-JB Smith

 

Self Publishing; Lightning Source; Learning the hard way.

Posted: July 2, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Do you know the difference between Perfect Bound, Case Laminate, or Dust Jack on Grey cloth, when it comes to books. Well at $80 a change, you had better figure it out. Also, unless you are your own graphics designer, make sure you use the lightning source cover template generator, lest you submit, only to find your specs are way off. And once you figure out what the above definitions mean, rest assured, you’ll have to change that cover. God willing, you have a patient graphic designer, or a ton of patience yourself, because learning all the ways of self publishing is certainly a challenge. Also its good if you go to meetings with your publisher who is using your book to launch his site, otherwise this shit would have been expensive as hell.

Ultimately though, I’m grateful books4free.com is learning the ropes with the book Hippopotamus Sea, as the next book will surely be easier.

I’ve already got a lead on a soldier coming back from war interested in publishing his memoirs. I hope to prove my method works with Hippopotamus Sea, so I can then persuade others to submit books to books4free.com.

Until then we’ll just keep learning the ropes. Almost two years in the making my book still feels a few weeks out, while I await the final changes (hopefully) from the graphics designer… argh… Some days I wish I’d just used Lulu, or Authorhouse, rather than doing all this shit myself…. Hell even Dan Poynter couldn’t have prepared me for all of this hoop jumping.

-JB Smith

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