New Book Goes Live

Warbirds

Authored by Robert Larrison

List Price: $11.99

5" x 8" (12.7 x 20.32 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
240 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1468033434 (CreateSpace-Assigned) 
ISBN-10: 1468033433 
BISAC: Fiction / Science Fiction / Adventure

US President Stephanie Williams has a problem. The Hubble Telescope has just discovered a mystery planet entering our solar system, and some believe it to be the fabled Nibiru, or Planet X. On top of that, SETI antennas have picked up signals coming from a massive expeditionary force headed for Earth, and NASA has confirmed their findings.

It’s time to activate the Phoenix Project and turn the fate of our world over to a bunch of Cornell students fresh out of graduate school. Their mission is to find and activate an ancient starship capable of fighting off the invasion. Now she’s really worried!

Not recommended for children 13 and under.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3740657

Also available on Amazon.com.

New Strategy

I thought I'd try something different in the lines of promotion, write short stories taken from my books, give them away and make sure I've listed my novels at the end of the story. Seems to be working, I've given away over three hundred copies and the traffic to my novels has increased. Now I'll wait for the Christmas selling season to see if my sales increase.

Here are the links to the shorts, be sure to download the correct version for your reader. BTW, .pdf works well for computer.

Lady of the Woods:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/91252

The Garden of El Dorado:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93577

Thunder Royce: Jumped:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/91939

The Dragons of Bastogne:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/92461

Thunder Royce: A Little Help from My Friends

List Price: $11.99

5" x 8" (12.7 x 20.32 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
238 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1466358218 (CreateSpace-Assigned) 
ISBN-10: 1466358211 
BISAC: Fiction / Science Fiction / Adventure

Thunder and Sarah Royce have a new school, new friends and whole new set of problems. Join the Royce twins and their father, Air Force Major Harold Royce, on another harrowing adventure, one that introduces them to new worlds and new dangers.

An old enemy raises its head again. The birdmen of Saludia are intent on revenge, and their nemesis planet, Celestia is in their sights. Nothing is going to stop them from destroying it now that they’ve come into possession of armed, nuclear warheads, courtesy of the United States Air Force. It’s up to Thunder, Sarah and their new friend, Emily Spencer from the Alter World of Atlantis to work together to stop the Saludians’ evil plans.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3693371

Emily's Dragon Now on Sale

List Price: $9.99

5" x 8" (12.7 x 20.32 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
142 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1466298835 (CreateSpace-Assigned) 
ISBN-10: 1466298839 
BISAC: Fiction / Fantasy / General

It’s Emily Spencer's thirteenth birthday, and she’s off to school with her sister Candice, headed to Atlantis Academy to meet up with the boys on Omega Team. Their first year out and already, they’ve garnered a reputation for being daring and at times, a little careless. Join the girls as they travel the galaxy via space portals and time machines to stumble into trouble and adventure in the Alter World.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3683504

Emily's Unicorn Selling on Createspace

List Price: $6.99

5" x 8" (12.7 x 20.32 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
114 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1461044826 (CreateSpace-Assigned) 
ISBN-10: 1461044820 
BISAC: Fiction / Fantasy / General

Emily Spenser has a secret world filled with angels, pixies and unicorns, only it's not in her imagination.

Thrust into a world young girls dream about, Emily joins her grandfather in an adventure that leads them to a portal between two worlds and, along with new friends, unites their shattered family.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3588294

Trouble in Paradise or Author Beware

Actually, trouble in the Alter World of Slipstream.

In my rush to see a posted review of my work online, I googled for "review services" and came up with several sites that offered free reviews. I bit and now I wish I hadn't.

One company, Reader Views, advertised free reviews and for an extra fee, offered several other services that promised to post your review online and basically get your work "out there." I checked the wait list for free reviews and saw that some had been sitting on their site for over three months. It wasn't a stretch to come to the conclusion that it would be best to take advantage of their "Express" service, a free review and posting to the net for $95.00. Seemed good enough until I came to the clause that they would not guarantee a good review and if you got a bad one, tough luck. They'd post it anyway.

Before I continue, check out the thread I set up on Amazon for the whole picture:

http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/thread.jspa?threadID=14032&tstart=0

Needless to say, my book review came back not only negative, but vindictive as well. Marty Shaw, the reviewer is no New York Times reviewer but he came across as a wannabe.

What bothered me the most was their policy of not refraining from posting bad reviews and I got the feeling that they were angling for more money when it was suggested that I get a good editor. BTW, they do editing for an undisclosed fee.

Right about then I felt ripped off. I proceeded to post my concerns on the Amazon KDP forum and asked for a refund from Paypal. It's going to be rough but I need to pursue Reader Views for what I feel is bad business policy.

For those of you who would like to help, there's a way to get Amazon to take down Marty's review. Go to the review: http://www.amazon.com/Slipstream-1-Robert-Larrison/product-reviews/1460973062/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 and click "NO" at the bottom where it asks "Was this review helpful to you." They will take it down if enough people say "No."

My conclusion?  I've come to realize that the "pay for review" services are not the way to go. Wait for your sales to increase and watch the honest reviews post.

Thunder Royce

List Price: $12.99

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
234 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1461014270 (CreateSpace-Assigned) 
ISBN-10: 1461014271 
BISAC: Fiction / Science Fiction / Adventure

Air Force Major Harold Royce and his family have six days to contact an alien race, discover if they are friend or foe and get them to help our government remove a dangerous device from Area 51 before it blows Nevada off the map and tilts the Earth's axis. Imagine their surprise when they meet up with the aliens and begin an adventure that takes them through time and space.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3582273

Slipstream

Slipstream - Begin the journey to another world.

The end of World War II brought the allies a treasure trove of advanced technology that sparked a frenzy of weapons development unseen for ages. Today, we soar into the sky atop rockets created by captured Nazi scientists and American engineers. Too bad we lost track of the anti-gravity UFO technology they were developing... or did we?

Lt. Joel Carpenter has learned that the Bavarian resistance fighters he's working with to destroy a Nazi super weapon are beings from an alternate world on Earth. Join him as he flies off on the back of a fire breathing dragon to fight the remains of Hitler's army who seek a refuge in a land of myth and legend lost to history for all time.

Available for Kindle, Kobo, Sony Reader, iPad and other eBook formats on Amazon.com, Smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble and Diesel.

https://www.createspace.com/3574819

Sales Information

Here are the links to my paperbacks:

Slipstream https://www.createspace.com/3574819

Pantera https://www.createspace.com/3578582

Thunder Royce https://www.createspace.com/3582273

These are direct links to my Createspace eStore. You can order the titles and they will be shipped direct to you. You can also find my titles on Amazon.com and other sites in a few more weeks.

Thank you all for your support!

Paperback Writer

As the old Beatles song goes, I'm now a Paperback Writer. Createspace, an affiliate of Amazon.com has now published Slipstream and Pantera in paperback. Both should go live in a few weeks. I'm just finishing up Thunder Royce, even obtained permission to use cover art by Lee Bogle, a fantastic artist who lives in Washington State. Book creation was easy, just follow the dots making sure that you format your text in pdf and art in jpeg. Okay, you do have to be a bit of a techno-file to accomplish this task but it's easy for most of us. Now on to promoting.

Thunder Royce Rules

Yahoo! I've just placed in the second round of the Amazon.com's award contest for best break out novel. Thunder Royce, my Young Adult/Famly saga made it through the first round. Second round judging ends on March 22. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Smashwords Process

I've found the Smashwords conversion process a better fit for eBook conversion if you follow a simple trick. Prepare your manuscript in the Smashwords .doc format for submission and when you're ready for the Kindle on Amazon.com, save your work in the filtered, HTML format. This will save time and allow you to prepare for all of the eBook formats without extra work.

Coupon Generation

Smashwords.com has an exciting feature for promotion of your book, a Coupon Generator. With this, you can set discounts of your work to a lower list price or even free if you so desire. Simply click on the "Coupon" option in your dashboard to enter the discount. The discount code is generated and the change takes effect immediately.

Here are the discount codes for my books that take the price for all down to $.99 each.

Emily's Unicorn = Coupon Code GF88G
Slipstream = Coupon Code KD88J
Pantera = Coupon Code LV59Z

The codes are not case sensitive and you can enter them when you check out.

Enjoy and thanks for reading.

Good Article on Epublishing

Just found a good "How To" on eBook publishing, has all the advice you need:
http://www.lindsayburoker.com/amazon-kindle-sales/kindle-ebook-publishing-primer/

I'm looking for good ways to publicize eBooks now.

Smashwords Conversion

The blogs on the Kindle site have been invaluable in researching other possible epublishing sites. Smashwords seems to be used by many of the posters on the site so I thought I'd give it a try. First off, the process to publishing on Smashwords is as simple as the Amazon site, only the directions are more detailed.

The process begins with the creation of your document and it's recommended that you save your work in an MSWord document, preferably, a.doc version, not the new 2010 format. I did find you need to strip out the automatically created Table of Contents and just create links to your chapter headers. Also, directions to cure the disappearing blank lines for scene changes suggested adding four stars (****) to those lines and three pound signs (###) at the end of your work.

 Posting to the site is a simple upload but the conversion process can take several minutes and up to a couple of hours depending on the amount of site traffic. Your upload is immediately available on Smashwords and once accepted in their Premium Catelogue, available on to Barnes & Noble plus the Apple site. Free ISBN numbers are issued to works that are accepted into their Premium Catalogue.

It took about three days for my work to gain acceptance into the Premium Catalogue and now I have three titles available for sale on the site. Of course,  book promotion  is my responsibility but as of now, I've sold two copies. Not a great start but a start non the less.