A better time for flowers…

I must admit that in my 13 years of marriage, we’ve never once celebrated Valentine’s Day.

When newly engaged, I informed my future groom that I detested the very idea of being told when I could receive flowers and chocolate, or celebrate the concept of love.

“The best time to get those,” I said, “Is when I really need them, like when I am sick or depressed… or when something very special happens.”

Contrary to the popular misconception that guys ‘don’t listen’, instead of flowers he’d care for me when I was sick with tenderness. In the hospital, when each of our lovely babies was born, he’d bring me exquisite chocolates and gorgeous roses, right when I could MOST appreciate them.

The best part was that no one ‘instructed’ him to do so, and the day was ours alone to cherish.

This week: A Look at eBooks

This week’s column: eBook demographics, statistics, reader devices and quite a bit of mixed commentary.

Live link: Click Here

Meredith Greene

A Second Round in the eBook Ring…

Next week marks the two-year anniversary of my husband and I embarking on a journey into self-publishing, offering eBooks for sale on a newly-launched website. The first year we sold over 1,000 eBooks on different platforms and using various promotions. While the downturn in the economy affected this year’s sales–compared to the first year—the reduction was not as vast as we feared it would be. In fact, folks with less spending cash seemed to like the idea of paying less than half for an eBook than in buying a paper book at a retail store, and being able to read said eBook on a plethora of devices, from laptops to PC, smart-phone to Kindle.

Pairing PayPal and Payloadz was the trick to seamless delivery and payment, we found; said companies made a smart move in offering no-up-front costs to self-publishers for selling digital content, merely taking a reasonable percentage of each transaction. Advertising has been the trickiest part of self-publishing our eBooks, for chasing clients around with the whiffle bat of SPAM credits no one. Instead, joining literary communities online, answering book & author questions on Yahoo Answers and posting in related Facebook groups have been instrumental in slowly compiling a wee heap of notoriety for ourselves, without clogging up virtual spaces with ads.

Joining writer-sharing websites also helped get the word out, so to speak; Writerscafe.org and Fictionpress.com were both useful in providing the priceless feedback on story popularity, along with any needed changes, which had escaped our notice. Writerscafe, in particular, offers poetry and story contests as well as writing courses, all for free.

A few months ago, our eBooks attracted the notice of a company responsible for the new iPhone e-reader, Iceberg. They signed a three-year distribution agreement with us, offering upcoming uber-svelte renderings of our novels for iPhone & iPod Touch users. We only spent a couple weeks re-working the PDFs into EPUB and working out the correct metadata. On the other end of the reader scale, uploading our books into the The Kindle Store proved a slow, but profitable endeavor, though–like Mobipocket–they do not pay until you’ve racked up at least $150 in royalties.

This year also included a nod to a traditional publishing option: paperbacks. After several requests, we spent several weeks re-working the eBooks into 6’x9’ paperback interior template and designing covers. Authorcrossing.com had by far the lowest on-demand-self-publishing cost, as well as professional staffers available to answer questions and no up-front fees to pay. After two years of selling inexpensive eBooks, however, the costs of paper publishing seem appallingly high, but there is just something about the lure and satisfaction of holding a ‘real’ book. I doubt folks will ever really give them up, despite the convenience and small cost of digital content. The other 99% of the time though, we’ll be right there to provide eBooks to those with slender budgets and equally slender reading-devices.

Book Reviews Galore!

More books than ever were reviewed this month; I shall be distributing a large stack of free books out to my friends and family in the coming weeks.

Feel free to follow the links and review my reviews… comments keep me in good with the boss, whether good or ill. Happy reading!

Link to all reviews: Click Here

Book Titles reviewed:

The Dancing Plague
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
Hands off My Belly! (a pregnant woman’s survival guide)
The American Revolution 100
Do-It-Yourself Organizing for Dummies
Ciao Italia
Bread Matters (bread enthusiasts must have this book)
Photography Unplugged
Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy
The Fallen Sky (poetic research on meteorites)
Marcus Aurelius, a Life
The Alchemy of Color Knitting
The Story About the Story, by J. C. Hallman

Cheers,
Meredith Greene

Hidden in Monotony…

I’ve often heard it said that humans are creatures of habit. Whether habit or no, many are the daily tasks that one must perform in order to ensure Order be kept, maintained and, occasionally, given an extra polish.

Monotonous work–often used synonymously with terms like ‘tedious’, ‘droning’ and ‘boring’—comprises much of my day; early rising, splash of cold water upon the face, brush hair, teeth, wake the children, make coffee, get out the breakfast items for assembly (the children help assemble), search in the garden for ripe tomatoes, pick lettuce… herbs, wipe up mess after coffee…breakfast, dishes rinse, dishes ‘en washer’, sweeping, hugs and kisses for daddy as he leaves for work, check children’s outfits for stains/holes, check backpacks for stray items, bundle older kids off to school…

From then on there is more cleaning, laundry, gardening (a fancy word for pulling weeds), lunch for my youngest, cleaning up after lunch, more sweeping, mopping, wipe down counters, cupboards, refrigerator, microwave, appliances, table, chairs, vacuuming the office floor, hallway check for stray toys, bathroom 1 cleaning, bathroom 2 cleaning, fold laundry, hang shirts, et cetera.

Reading the above even I have to admit it sounds daunting for such to be worked on in the same way, every day. However, despite the apparent repetitious nature of my diurnal endeavors, I found (some years ago) that there is–hidden in monotony–a resource far more precious than any money can buy.

Time.

Having finished these tasks there is suddenly time for play, for singing, for dancing, for reading, for writing, for smelling of roses, for sewing, for projects, for laughter and all the things that make life just a little bit better. In contrast I do have several friends whom hire people to do for them the ‘housekeeping’ work that I do daily; they arrive home each night to an enviably clean domicile… exhausted. I used to think ‘how nice it would be to–like them–have a maid and have all that time freed up’, but to my surprise they inform me that those little bits of time that I procure all but escaped them. They constantly wonder where Time has gone.

Monotony has its uses; efficiency in movements is one. Having discovered that spare time lies hidden in finished tasks, I found ways to speed up those tasks to fruition… to get them over with, as soon as humanly possible. The end result is worth it: to be able to romp and play with tiny feet just a bit more, to type a few more lines, or read a bit more prose, to laugh at one more amusement, to smell one more rose. There is an additional comfort in these monotonous toils; alongside me floats an invisible badge, the insignia of a group of women, like myself, that over the several millenniums of human existence have found joy in the lifelong career of keeping home. It is world-wide club, encompassing women of all classes, colors and clothes whom daily wash, sweep, launder, cook, comfort, mop, watch children, teach… and live.

Tedious? Droning? Boring? I think not.

Literary Advice for Surviving a Bad Economy:

1. ‘Three Cups of Tea’, from one teabag.

2. Make do with local ingredients; not everyone can drink from ‘The Cask of Amontillado’. (Indeed, it may behoove one not to…)

3. In hard times ‘Pride & Prejudice’ are last to leave, and first to return.

4. Learn ‘Of Mice and Men’ that eat them; corn-fed rodents are quite tender, actually.

5. ‘Great Expectations’ are always free, though be prepared for the possible sequel, ‘great disappointments’.

6. Berries are pricey; with diligent seeking they can be picked for free ‘Where the Red Fern Grows’.

7. A sunset can feed the soul; take a moment to enjoy ‘The Remains of the Day’.

8. ‘Robinson Crusoe’ found solace and sanity in daily labor; keep busy.

9. Making creative dinners of leftovers earns you ‘The Red Badge of Courage’.

10. Lettuce soon bolts; gather the seeds before they are ‘Gone With the Wind’.

11. ‘Little Men’ and ‘Little Women’ can do little tasks to help out.

12. Diets including ‘Leaves of Grass’–especially of wheat—provide a nutritious boost.

13. Despite the seemingly interminable rain, the ‘Sun Also Rises’.

14. If you see a ‘Cat on Hot Tin Roof’ leave it be; they’re a bit gamey.

15. ‘The Call of the Wild’ is dual-edged; there is free food to hunt, providing something is not hunting you.

16. If only briefly indulged in, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ will cost you nothing.

17. With good company, a simple picnic can be ‘A Moveable Feast’.

18. A house without laughter is ‘A Bleak House’.

19. Keep the ‘Dust Tracks on the Road’; use mats at all entrances.

20. Smaller home? Be glad of it. ‘The House of Seven Gables’ runs up quite a tab with Merry Maids.

21. At any time–but especially during bad times–one learns the ‘Importance of Being Earnest’.

22. If you are ‘In Search of Lost Time’, set the morning alarm a bit earlier.

23. The ‘Idylls of the King’ are for the king’s budget.

24. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ may suffice, but it takes six to fill a rotisserie spit.

Foray into Flash…

Using various free help available on the Internet, I’ve been teaching myself ‘Flash 8′. A far cry from merely a cartoonist’s tool to poke fun at political figures, thousands of companies and individuals use this program as part of a greater advertising plan. Among other things, I’ve seen–over the last two years–that Flash is being used more and more for making mini promotional videos to announce independently published books & film, or previously unknown products. You Tube is being utilized by said artists, writers and entrepreneurs verses hiring expensive advertising firms… and it’s working.

In the same school of thought, our little company put together a promotional video for our bestseller, ‘Draw Me a Picture’; it’s a 45-second ’short’, set to part of Mendelssohn’s Symphony #4. As fun as the program can be, using Flash presented a few difficulties: not only do the various facets of instruction require one to ’slog through’ the minute, repetitive steps, but one must possess the mind of a film director as well. i found my self asking “What do I really want to say?” to myself several times; invariably this questions would result in erasing frames and starting over. Around eleven at night I showed the finished product to the Editor, my husband and got a thumbs-up. He indicated that I’d hit my audience and that it resembled one of those movie previews for a “chick-flick”. I was elated. It’s not professional at all,but for complete amateurs the short seemed pretty good.

We put it up on You Tube this morning. A rather exciting surprise awaited us as we did so; You Tube has now connected with Twitter and Facebook to immediately let your entire list of friends/contacts know that you’ve uploaded a new video, without having to log in to those programs and update them.

Feel free to take a look at the video and let me know what you think, for I appreciate the views posted, not only on a literary plateau but a world-wide one as well:

Click Here To See The Video on You Tube

Thank you,
MG

July Reviews are up for perusal…

Several new books reviewed for July.

My favorite: The Illustrious Dead, by Stephan Talty, arguably one of the best books I’ve read in the last two years. It was a fascinating account of Napoleon’s foray into Russia, in 1812 and of what small, overlooked enemy eventually caused the defeat of the Grand Armee.

Click here to see a page of all my latest reviews.

As always the bosses love to see comments on the reviews, so don’t be shy with your opinions. Many thanks to all those here whom have taken a precious moment of their time to gander at my reviews.

Cheers,
MG

Blinking the Critical Eye…

As a freelance writer, my professional experience is limited; besides penning six novels (the seventh is currently in the works) I’ve only been reviewing books for a ‘real’ publication for five months. Before that, my expertise was limited to posting blogs on a handful of literature-inclined websites. Upon being hired as a serious reviewer, I felt eager to read as many books as possible; getting free books hot off the press adds to the ‘mystique’ of this, particular industry.

The age-old perceptions of ‘critics’ yet appears to hold true: an elite group of hallowed citizens, whose opinion is sought out by magazines and newspapers nationwide. As appealing the idea of becoming one of ‘them’ someday, I cannot forget what it feels like to receive criticism of your own hard work. A step back when reading any given piece is therefore necessary, to evaluate not only the first impression of the prose but also to hold up the goggles of creativity, to strive to see what the writer(s) meant to write. Thus, as I am reading a certain kind of mutual respect wells up within me, vying with matched force the more critical aspect of the job. The human eyelid is adept at changing perception, however; with each blink my mind’s eye travels back and forth between writer and critic. This almost yin-and-yang struggle produces a unique form of literary stress; where most read for pure pleasure or learning, the reviewer must read with squinted, hawk-like eyes, always vigilant for glaring mistakes, yet all the while striving to enjoy the book as a reader would.

I recently read an encouraging perspective on the issue of creativity VS criticism, one which re-buoyed my enthusiasm for reviewing more books; it came in the form of a prologue for a book I am reviewing for the upcoming August publication. The writer weighed critics against writers and came across so well in his prose that I was immediately at ease and able to soak in his arguments. The main premise put forth was that writers made the best critics, as they understood the anguish and sweat that goes into each beloved piece and feel passion for writing in general, unable to flippantly dismiss a piece without really looking at it… or at least finding something good to say about it.

As one-sided as his– or my own–opinion would be as a writer, reading the few lines on the subject once again affirmed in my mind the responsibility of a reviewer: to give an impression without cruelty, balanced with prior pieces read and bearing in mind the classic pieces of the ages and yet, never forgetting to return to viewing a piece with an inquisitive reader’s eye.

More book reviews for June…

More titles uploaded; this was one of my busiest reviewing months.

Chocolate, olive oil, BBQ, housecleaning, history and weeds… something for everyone:

Click Here for Link

As always feel free to leave comments on the reviews, for the Web is run by reader opinions. Enjoy.

Meredith Greene