Blog

  • Planning ahead saves time

    TIP 3: If you intend to embed your author’s website URL in the ebook, create an Author’s Website or Blog first. At the very least, get it running with minimum content. This might seem “elementary my dear Watson,” but many first time author-publishers will think of the website long after the Epub has been published. Plus you will want to test that link before finalizing the Epub. If it is a second or third book, an author usually has a website or blog in place. Planning ahead just a little bit will save valuable time and effort down the road and help ensure a quality product for your reader.

     

    In this day and age authors have their own websites and blogs. Readers who really enjoy a book, especially a good ebook, want to know more about the author; a website is a great way to maintain communication with a fan base. If a reader likes your work he or she will want to know when the next book is coming out, especially if it is the next book in a series. I recommend placing several links throughout your ebook directing readers to your author’s website. All major ereaders have the ability to hyperlink to an external webpage, even if the ereader display is black and white or shades of grey. Blogs employ a more active method of striking up a conversation with a fan base. Rather than just listing interesting information on a good-looking webpage, a blog invites the reader to enter into a two-way conversation about any topic imaginable: story lines, sample plots, character extensions, impressions of world events, or book themes, to name just a few. What is important is to keep the reader interested until your next ebook is available for sale, or to persuade the reader to purchase other works. (Greg Lundberg, Quicksilver Books, “How To Publish An Ebook For Under $350”)

    | Posted Dec 10, 2014 |

  • Keeping things legal when publishing an ebook

    TIP 2: Every piece of art, photography, illustrations, graphs, and charts in your ebook need a royalty-free license or some sort of written permission from the creator unless you create it from scratch. Do not open yourself up to liability by using someone else’s work without permission. Here are three sites that will sell you royalty-free stock photos and illustrations. Select from tens of thousands of candidates. I use Shutterstock.

    Shutterstock – http://shutterstock.com;   Fotosearch Stock Photography – http://fotosearch.com;  iStockphoto – http://istockphoto.com

     

    Here are two sites that will allow users to download royalty-free images at no cost, provided that you include a photo credit (details can be found at each site).

    FreeRangeStock – http://freerangestock.com ;  StockVault – http://stockvault.net   (Greg Lundberg, Quicksilver Books, “How To Publish An Ebook For Under $350”)

    | Posted Dec 1, 2014 |

  • New Book Series

    I am in the midst of creating a fresh new universe of science and technology to complement my next novel's characters. This universe will deal with cloning, artificial intelligence, telepathy, dark matter, and inter-species relations. T.J. Bullock, former Marine Captain, loses his family to an unprovoked attack on a research facility. Years later T.J. is a broken man, having been medically discharged and unable to move on with his life. A chance encounter with a zenophobic but technically advanced race gives him back his health and the opportunity to revive his dead wife and daughter. The human race banned cloning for good reason as T.J. is about to find out.

     

    | Posted July 1, 2014 |

  • Flying the Phoenix Class Bravo "Circuit."

    The weekend after I was officially signed off to fly Cirrus SR-22’s and SR-20’s, a friend and I flew the Phoenix Class Bravo “Circuit,” meaning that we flew touch-and-goes at all of the towered airports under the class bravo airspace except for Sky Harbor. We took off in a Cherokee Six based out of Falcon Field and did a full stop at Scottsdale Airpark, switched to my rental SR-22 G2 and flew a clockwise pattern around the valley performing touch-and-goes at Falcon Field, Williams Gateway (man those runways are HUGE), Chandler, Goodyear, Glendale, Deer Valley, and finally ending back up at Scottsdale. Clocked in 1.8 hours on the Hobbs. Then we took my friend's plane back to Falcon. It was a very technically challenging flight. Next time we'll fly the circuit counter-clockwise. I recommed all pilots in the area perform this yearly. Great fun, good practice!

    | Posted May 22, 2012 |