Monday 26 March 2012

EFFORTLESS MARKETING: How I Sold Thousands of eBooks, Landed an Agent and a Book Deal in Just 10 Minutes a Day Using Message BoardsEFFORTLESS MARKETING: How I Sold Thousands of eBooks, Landed an Agent and a Book Deal in Just 10 Minutes a Day Using Message Boards by Jeff Rivera My rating: 4 of 5 stars Can a book give any decent help or advice if it only cost a dollar? Answer: Yes. Jeff delivers a system, not the best choice of words to use, but that is what it will become. In fact, what he gives you is a guide of how to conduct your life in general. When I was young, I learned to make friends face to face, you had to be polite, and likeable if you wanted friends. People did not have like buttons that created faceless friends that you would never meet. We had to talk and get to know each other, some of those people are still friends over 30 years later. I doubt that many of my online friends will be there for me when I am old gray. The one thing that you success will depend upon through using this book is relationships. If you do not know how to relate to people, how to value them and not see them as another sale, then walk away now. Do not even consider buying this guide if you want to be rich and famous tomorrow: this is about setting a foundation. A foundation that will only be as strong as you are. You will have to stick to the rules to make it work. You are going to have your character tested, which will be the most important thing that you will develop through all of this. Without good character, you will have nothing to give when it comes to interacting with your future fans. I really enjoyed reading this short book. Jeff has worked on himself, to become who is, that is why he is successful. He deserves it, quite frankly. If you want to hear him speak, read the book: over and over. Hats off to you Jeff and may your success continue to grow. After I've worked my way through the steps, I suspect that I will come back and give it a 5th star. View all my reviews

Monday 19 March 2012

How to Speak Dragonese

Once again there is trouble in the Viking archipelago and a hero is needed. Enter the rather weedy looking boy with the tinniest of dragons: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third and Toothless the Useless, his pet dragon.
Dragons are being rounded up by the Romans aided by the soon to arch rival of Hiccup, Alvin the Treacherous. The second book of the How to Train Your Dragon series begins with a beginners lesson in How to Board and Enemy Ship, which goes about as wrong as it possibly could.
I will not say any more on the plot as it will just spoil the story for you. This book is every bit as good as the first and builds on the characters brilliantly. Once again Hiccup is forced into heroism along with his weird mate Fishlegs. Toothless, Hiccup’s ever present, disobedient, and a bit hopeless, dragon adds to Hiccup’s problems at every turn. A loveable book that will be over far too soon, and have you rushing out to buy the next one (which I did).
With all that said I can only say that I already hope that this is a never ending saga as they are so much fun to read, with audio books that are brilliantly voiced by David Tennant.

Sunday 18 March 2012

The End of Mor

 

It is incredible that I keep on forgetting I have this blog. I keep my own site updated but forget to come here and update the posts. 
I have finally managed to complete my final edit, sort out the covers, format the text and even get a copy delivered to my Kindle, Though I have yet to get the updated file as Kindle formats text different to Smashwords.
Now that it is all done I just need to get my head around the marketing side of things which is so much harder than all the authoring stuff. I say that because telling the stories comes natural to me. With a bit of effort, I can get to grips with the editing, many thanks to grammarly.co for a fine piece of software and also to my friends Phil Hollis and Anna Walls, who both contributed to the texts. 
This is the first time that I have truly labored over a lengthy piece of work, wanting it to be as best as I could get it before I ever release. I have done that in the past and released things that are less (being generous) than ready. Though, I must say that to date; they have had over 12 000 downloads in the last year and show no signs of slowing. If only I can repeat that success with one. If you want to read my old tat for free, you can here. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll endeavour to keep this site up to date from now on.