Last month, I got the shock of my life (well, relatively speaking) when I downloaded my December blog report and saw that my income had been cut in half - not because of them arbitrarily cutting the price of my blogs in half, they'd done that several months ago - but half of my blog subscriptions were missing.
Just downloaded the January report, and all of my blogs are back to previous levels, so I'll be getting a $300 payment next month (as opposed to $100 this month).
I'd really like to know how I could get 400 subscriptions to my Rush Limbaugh report in one month? Obviously they're something fishy going on here, considering that the "daily" report has shown my Limbaugh blog going up and up steadily...and no way in hell that I dropped 200-400 subscriptions in any month.
On the other hand, I don't want to complain too much. Of all my income streams, Kindle blogs are giving me the best return.
I had spoken about my Science Fiction quiz book a couple of weeks ago - that's been a bust. 2 purchases. For a book that only cost $1.99!
I'm working on another book, which I should have published tomorrow. When it goes live I'll talk more about it...I, again, have high hopes for it, and again, my hopes are temporized by the fact that I know they'll probably be dashed....
But that doens't matter. You've got to keep keepin' on, until you can't keep on any more.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure HuntersRush Limbaugh Report
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Someone has bought "The College of Sci Fi Knowledge Quiz Book!"
Just one person so far, so while it has made me happy...I'd be happier if more people bought it.
The book has been available for about 3 days, the description info just showed up today. I find that so annoying. The same thing happens with blogs, and it just makes no sense. Once it's avaiable for sale, why isn't the description there automatically. What is it about the submission system that makes half of the info show up 2 days later than the first half of the info?
Anyway, more on its publication.
This is actually the second version of The College of Sci Fi Knowledge that I had published. When I uploaded the first version, I went entirely by what the book looked like on my computer screen, and it was fine. When I uploaded it and checked the preview, it was all hosed up. But I didn't believe my eyes. I thought that the preview version was hosed up. So I published it.
Then, a couple of days later, when it became avaiable for sale, I bought it and looked at it and the problems were there. There were blank pages, and questions showed up after photos, when I'd put page breaks between photos and questions just so that wouldn't happen.
So I went back to the master in word. It looked fine. So I figured, well, maybe if I convert it using MobiPocket, that will take care of the problem.
So I spent a couple of hours working with MobiPocket, with no luck. MobiPocket converts your document into HTML, and you're supposed to be able to have photos in there as well, but for the life of me I could not get those photos to show up.
So I went back to my master in Word and started pressing the "delete" key before and after various photos and questions where, in the book, it showed blank pages or no page breaks. And sure enough, the delete key got rid of the extra spaces (I could tell this because even though I hit delete, the page text didnt' go up to the previous page. So after I putzed around, I got out all the extra spaces that weren't visible but were there!, and then re-uploaded the text.
MobiPocket is therefore no good for using photos - as far as I can see, but when it comes to text, it does make the text look better. So when I do books that are strictly text, I'll be using it.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
The book has been available for about 3 days, the description info just showed up today. I find that so annoying. The same thing happens with blogs, and it just makes no sense. Once it's avaiable for sale, why isn't the description there automatically. What is it about the submission system that makes half of the info show up 2 days later than the first half of the info?
Anyway, more on its publication.
This is actually the second version of The College of Sci Fi Knowledge that I had published. When I uploaded the first version, I went entirely by what the book looked like on my computer screen, and it was fine. When I uploaded it and checked the preview, it was all hosed up. But I didn't believe my eyes. I thought that the preview version was hosed up. So I published it.
Then, a couple of days later, when it became avaiable for sale, I bought it and looked at it and the problems were there. There were blank pages, and questions showed up after photos, when I'd put page breaks between photos and questions just so that wouldn't happen.
So I went back to the master in word. It looked fine. So I figured, well, maybe if I convert it using MobiPocket, that will take care of the problem.
So I spent a couple of hours working with MobiPocket, with no luck. MobiPocket converts your document into HTML, and you're supposed to be able to have photos in there as well, but for the life of me I could not get those photos to show up.
So I went back to my master in Word and started pressing the "delete" key before and after various photos and questions where, in the book, it showed blank pages or no page breaks. And sure enough, the delete key got rid of the extra spaces (I could tell this because even though I hit delete, the page text didnt' go up to the previous page. So after I putzed around, I got out all the extra spaces that weren't visible but were there!, and then re-uploaded the text.
MobiPocket is therefore no good for using photos - as far as I can see, but when it comes to text, it does make the text look better. So when I do books that are strictly text, I'll be using it.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Pause Before You Publish
Up until about 5 days ago, I'd spent the last two weeks working on a Quiz Book - the College of Sci Fi Knowledge Quiz Book.
I finished it...as in finished writing it... and was so pleased at having done so that I immedately published it.
The book is full of illustrations, so when the book had uploaded I "previewed" it and immediately saw that it was not formatting properly.
But I didn't believe the evidence of my own eyes. I'd been so careful with the formatting - I'd thought. And the Preview wasn't really wiziwig...the published book would have much smaller text.
So I ignored the evidence of the Preview and published the book.
As soon as it became available for sale I purchased a copy. (You don't get royalties for this, by the way. They know!)
And to my horror the whole book was formatted wrong.
So I went into my word file and did some work on it - which I'll detail in my next post because it was such a pain - and in the pocess of fixing the formatting also noticed quite a few mistakes in the text and fixed those - and reuploaded it.
All this extra work would have been unneccessary if I'd just controlled my exciitement and enthusiasm and given the book a cooling off period of a couple days, then looked at it with fresh eyes to catch the typos.
I still might have made the mistake of uploading it even though the preview showwed the wrong formatting, though, but I've learned my lesson there and will deail that, as I say, in my next post.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
I finished it...as in finished writing it... and was so pleased at having done so that I immedately published it.
The book is full of illustrations, so when the book had uploaded I "previewed" it and immediately saw that it was not formatting properly.
But I didn't believe the evidence of my own eyes. I'd been so careful with the formatting - I'd thought. And the Preview wasn't really wiziwig...the published book would have much smaller text.
So I ignored the evidence of the Preview and published the book.
As soon as it became available for sale I purchased a copy. (You don't get royalties for this, by the way. They know!)
And to my horror the whole book was formatted wrong.
So I went into my word file and did some work on it - which I'll detail in my next post because it was such a pain - and in the pocess of fixing the formatting also noticed quite a few mistakes in the text and fixed those - and reuploaded it.
All this extra work would have been unneccessary if I'd just controlled my exciitement and enthusiasm and given the book a cooling off period of a couple days, then looked at it with fresh eyes to catch the typos.
I still might have made the mistake of uploading it even though the preview showwed the wrong formatting, though, but I've learned my lesson there and will deail that, as I say, in my next post.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Monday, January 24, 2011
Yet another body blow/heart breaker
In the 6 months or so that I've been selling my blog subscriptions for the Amazon kindle, blog subscrition - of those blogs of mine that were popular - had continued to go up. The daily report said so - even during those times when you'd have to wait 6 days or more before the "daily" report was updated, and this would be reflected in the monthly report that would tell me how much money I was going to earn.
This month, it was different.
This month, the numbers didn't match. According to the daily report, I should have had well over 400 subscriptions for my Rush Limbaugh blog... on the monthly report, I only had 200. ALl my other blogs had been cut in half as well.
So while I was confidently expecting that next month I'd top the 1000 subscription mark, total, and start getting $300 a month from Amazon, with things only getting better...my income has been cut in half again. (The first time of course when they arbitrarily changed all my blog fees from $1.99 to .99 without even telling me they were going to do it.)
I simply don't trust Amazon's numbers any more. It used to be, up until this month, that if someone purchased a subscription to your blog, it would show up in about an hour - on the Amazon subscription page. But I've got at least 2 new blogs that have, supposedly, a couple of subscribers, and they still don;t show any numbers.
Long story short, I'm heart broken and fed up.
Working as hard as I do for $300 a month was just barely worth it. Working as hard as I do for $100 a month...or however much Amazon will arbitrarily decide to give me in future...just isn't worth it.
So I'm going back to concentrating on books for the Kindle instead. To date, those at least record purchases the day they happen, and you can tell if the ungrateful creeps have returned the book the same day too. (Something I dont think should be allowed, by the way.)
But there you have it.
This month, it was different.
This month, the numbers didn't match. According to the daily report, I should have had well over 400 subscriptions for my Rush Limbaugh blog... on the monthly report, I only had 200. ALl my other blogs had been cut in half as well.
So while I was confidently expecting that next month I'd top the 1000 subscription mark, total, and start getting $300 a month from Amazon, with things only getting better...my income has been cut in half again. (The first time of course when they arbitrarily changed all my blog fees from $1.99 to .99 without even telling me they were going to do it.)
I simply don't trust Amazon's numbers any more. It used to be, up until this month, that if someone purchased a subscription to your blog, it would show up in about an hour - on the Amazon subscription page. But I've got at least 2 new blogs that have, supposedly, a couple of subscribers, and they still don;t show any numbers.
Long story short, I'm heart broken and fed up.
Working as hard as I do for $300 a month was just barely worth it. Working as hard as I do for $100 a month...or however much Amazon will arbitrarily decide to give me in future...just isn't worth it.
So I'm going back to concentrating on books for the Kindle instead. To date, those at least record purchases the day they happen, and you can tell if the ungrateful creeps have returned the book the same day too. (Something I dont think should be allowed, by the way.)
But there you have it.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Quiz Books
Quiz books are a quick and easy way to publish a book on the Kindle - assuming you know your subject.
I've been working on a science fiction quizbook which is almost ready to go into production.
These books are simple. You ask a question on one page, and on the next page, provide the answer. Divide the quiz into ten topics, asking ten questions about each topic, and a final question so you can say, "101 questions within!"
Be professional about it. Provide a bibliography and any sources you use to come up with your questions. Phrase the questions in a humorous or some unique way, so that your readers will always recognize your quiz books.
Also, have an umbrella title for the quiz books, so that you can produce a series of them, and if someone buys one, they can search easily for the others.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
I've been working on a science fiction quizbook which is almost ready to go into production.
These books are simple. You ask a question on one page, and on the next page, provide the answer. Divide the quiz into ten topics, asking ten questions about each topic, and a final question so you can say, "101 questions within!"
Be professional about it. Provide a bibliography and any sources you use to come up with your questions. Phrase the questions in a humorous or some unique way, so that your readers will always recognize your quiz books.
Also, have an umbrella title for the quiz books, so that you can produce a series of them, and if someone buys one, they can search easily for the others.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Monday, January 3, 2011
Will Amazon ever get its act together?
It used to be that you could kind of guauge the numbers on your blog's subscription page to see if you were getting any subscriptions. But it does not seem like that any longer.
A few days ago, the blog report didn't update for about 4 days. When it did update, one of my blogs all of a sudden had 10 more subscriptions than it had before, despite the fact that, on the subscription page, there was no movement of the numbers. I started several new blogs, and each of these doesn't show that I have any subscriptions at all. (It used to be, whenever the first person subscribed to your blog, you'd get a number around 12,000 as your ranking. This would gradually go up as no one else subscribed to your blog. But if people did, then the number would continue to go down.) So I've got 4 blogs, that according to my "daily" blog report, have a handful of subscriptons, but which show no numbers at all. So for whatever reasons, those subscription pages can no longer be used for anything.
Meantime, I got my payment for November blogs a couple of days ago...exactly half of what it should have been and I dn't mind saying I swore a few times. Still I know other people are in the same point (although some blogs, as old as mine, continue to cost $1.99, which really frosts me...)
Meantime, I think a lot of people must have gotten Kindles as Christmas presents, because one of my books has started selling. Only 3 copies so far in the last 2 days, but that's a heckuva lot better than nothing!
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
A few days ago, the blog report didn't update for about 4 days. When it did update, one of my blogs all of a sudden had 10 more subscriptions than it had before, despite the fact that, on the subscription page, there was no movement of the numbers. I started several new blogs, and each of these doesn't show that I have any subscriptions at all. (It used to be, whenever the first person subscribed to your blog, you'd get a number around 12,000 as your ranking. This would gradually go up as no one else subscribed to your blog. But if people did, then the number would continue to go down.) So I've got 4 blogs, that according to my "daily" blog report, have a handful of subscriptons, but which show no numbers at all. So for whatever reasons, those subscription pages can no longer be used for anything.
Meantime, I got my payment for November blogs a couple of days ago...exactly half of what it should have been and I dn't mind saying I swore a few times. Still I know other people are in the same point (although some blogs, as old as mine, continue to cost $1.99, which really frosts me...)
Meantime, I think a lot of people must have gotten Kindles as Christmas presents, because one of my books has started selling. Only 3 copies so far in the last 2 days, but that's a heckuva lot better than nothing!
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Kindle Authors Get it In the Neck.
One thing Kindle Readers have whined about is the fact that they can't loan books to other people.
Well, Amazon listened and now they can. For free.
So a Kindle author who's trying to earn a living can now see his or her books being leant to anybody...thus losing a sale.
Of course Amazon didn't ask us small press publishers if that was alright with us. Just as with arbitrarily dropping down our blog prices in half, they just went ahead and did it. However, it is possible to opt out if we so desire, so that's something, anyway. (I'd rather be presented with the option of opting in.)
______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Well, Amazon listened and now they can. For free.
So a Kindle author who's trying to earn a living can now see his or her books being leant to anybody...thus losing a sale.
Of course Amazon didn't ask us small press publishers if that was alright with us. Just as with arbitrarily dropping down our blog prices in half, they just went ahead and did it. However, it is possible to opt out if we so desire, so that's something, anyway. (I'd rather be presented with the option of opting in.)
Dear Publisher,
We are excited to announce Kindle book lending (http://www.amazon.com/kindle-lending). The Kindle Book Lending feature allows users to lend digital books they have purchased through the Kindle Store to their friends and family. Each book may be lent once for a duration of 14 days and will not be readable by the lender during the loan period.
All DTP titles are enrolled in lending by default. For titles in the 35% royalty option, you may choose to opt out of lending by deselecting the checkbox under "Kindle Book Lending," in the "Rights and Pricing" section of the title upload/edit process. You may not choose to opt out a title if it is included in the lending program of another sales or distribution channel. For more details, see section 5.2.2 of the Term and Conditions.
For more info on how Kindle Book Lending works, see our FAQ here: http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=581
______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
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