I didn’t think about it on the walk, although I was certainly aware of it yesterday. I was just reminded when I set the map this morning. Woohoo!
I did talk about my miserable word count yesterday and a long conversation I had with the people at Kindle Desktop Publishing. Also the short story I did for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is out as a Kindle Single. You can now read “The Astonishing Amulet of Amenartas” for yourself.
Yesterday’s Word Count: 36
Starting Count Today: 8130
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I’m in agreement with you on the Amazon-only thing. Those 300 folks will find you wherever you are, and as long as it can be converted, there is no problem. Amazon is doing better in promoting you. If they will give you more money and you are selling most items there, it doesn’t take rocket science.
Oh, the amazon-only thing is fair enough. However, the problem for some people with Amazon lies in actually getting to download the file. It’s not as simple as simply picking “download” and getting a link to a file that actually downloads – at least, as far as I’ve been able to determine – unless you actually have a kindle *device*.
To download any e-book from Amazon, you have to have registered *either* a kindle device, or a kindle e-reader program. And if you’ve registered with a kindle e-reader program, you do *not* get the option to download the file directly – you *must* go into the program and sync up. Once you do that, sure, you can find a file tucked away in the subdirectories of the kindle program, but I was already in my web browser to start with – why did I need to start up a *second* program to get the file? (BTW, I have copied all of the files in there away from the kindle directory, as I really don’t want Amazon just deleting them because they say so.)
It’s just one more aggravation, much like the one so many people have for their e-books to be exactly like paper books. Pagination doesn’t really make sense for an e-book, and why should the e-book contain margin-setting instructions? And yet, so many many many do.
Sell the books where-ever. I’ll get copies, one way or another.
Oh, and by the way – one difficulty in counting is those who buy at two places – I ended up buying A Light In The Dark on both Amazon and Smashwords.
Math does not lie. What ever gives you the best deal do it. Works for me I have four Kindles and one nook in my family.
Unless I’m missing something you don’t have a section on any of your websites that lists all of the works you have written or read (at least not an easy to find one). From reading the blogs and listening to tommw I know you’ve read for at least 2-3 people and have written a few shorts, but … you might want to look into making all of that information more easily available to your fans.
That’s correct, Tony. I don’t.
I probably should make a master list of works along with links of where they can be found and the kind of work it is. I’ve got interviews (text and audio), shorts in various media, novels, plus the voice acting for other people’s podcasts. Those would have to go on the Nathan Lowell site because they don’t fall into any logical assignment in my themed websites. I probably should re-do that anyway because it’s kinda sad with all those pictures of ME staring out.
I was working up a new theme that seems like it would work well. I’ll have to look at that again.
That would be great to see. You could just put a link on all your sites, saying something like “My other voice work: Novels, short stories, and interviews.” There’s probably enough interest across all your sites that a lot of people in each place would enjoy this.
Regarding today’s word count, there is a story about Oscar Wilde:
—–
At lunch, a friend asked him, “What did you do all morning?”
“I added a comma,” he answered.
That afternoon, he worked just as hard, and at supper, the same friend asked, “So what did you do all afternoon? Add another comma?”
“No, of course not!” the poet said. “I took it out.”
—–
So 36 words is actually blazing along rather quickly!
I agree completely on the kindle only issue. It really all comes down to numbers in the end. Both money and readers, what is going to have the best bottom line for you.
To be honest in this day and age I don’t see selling in kindle only as that much different than physical books that aren’t available at your local bookstore but are via online purchase. Sure you can generally have the bookstore special order the book…. but that still is added steps.
So I personally think that buying as kindle and converting is basically the e-equivalent of having to special order.