A couple of days ago I wrote a blog post titled Busy As A Bee. So I guess the appropriate title for today’s post is Worker Bee. Because that’s what I was all day yesterday.
Miss Terry left with her mom and dad for a series of pre-op medical appointments a little before 10, and I spent a couple of hours checking and answering e-mails, mostly from readers telling me they had purchased my new book, Big Lake Blizzard. I also got several requests to get it up on Smashwords for folks who use Nook and other e-book readers. So that was the first order of business. You can find it on Smashwords at this link.
The book’s sales are exceeding my expectations, and the reviews are already starting to come in. Thanks for ordering Big Lake Blizzard
With that done, I broke out my Kindle Fire to see how the new book looked on it, since a reader e-mailed me to say the type was faint and hard to read. I didn’t see the same problem on my Fire, and a few minutes later he wrote back to say that it must have been a temporary problem, because once he rebooted his Fire it was fine.
The next order of business was to listen to an audition by a narrator for my first Big Lake
By the way, as I wrote in a blog a while back, the e-book revolution has opened up new doors not just for authors like myself, but also for people offering freelance services such as editing, proofreading, and cover design. Another new opportunity is narrating audio books. A couple of my author friends have done their own books, using simple computer programs, and were so pleased with the results that they are now doing freelance narration work on ACX.com, the production side of Audible.com. While there are narrators who have complete studios, there are others doing it all in a home office. Some work on a hourly basis, $100 an hour or more of finished reading, while others work out a 50/50 split of royalties with the author. If one narrates a few books that sell well, this could lead to a tidy little side income.
After I was done with all of that, I started working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, knocking out eleven pages by the time I knocked off for the day about 7 p.m. That’s a pretty good start.
Shortly after Terry got home, her cousin Carolyn Henley and her husband Mel stopped by for a visit. They are also fulltime RVers who are currently sidelined while Carolyn is fighting a battle with cancer. It was nice to see them and have a chance to renew acquaintances. They plan to be back up in South Dakota this summer, working at Crazy Horse Memorial as they did last year.
Today Terry will be with her parents again for more medical tests and such, and I’ll be back at my desk, knocking out more pages of the new issue.
Thought For The Day – Nothing makes me more productive than the last minute.
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Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Just got Big Lake Blizzard from Smashwords. Can’t wait to read it!
Just curious to why you haven’t published on Apple’s iBookstore? iBooks Author is a pretty slick free app for writing the book. It allows you to export in Apple’s .ibooks for the store or pdf and epub. Apple sticks with thier 70/30 split just like they do for apps. Amazon has the worst fees/split out there.
Would love to read your books in iBooks (Actually i read the 1st one in iBooks, but had to buy from Amazon, then use software to strip the drm, then convert to epub, then loaded onto my iPad) I know it can be done buying from Smashwords, but iBookstore is more convenient, plus with a few hundred million iOS devices out there should be another income source for you without too much effort.
Just wonder’in 🙂
It’s like everything else in life, Kevin, just finding enough time to do it.
true, true.
As I wrote yesterday, I just bought all 4 of the Big Lake books so I could start the series from the start. I have finished the first one and am now deeply engrossed in Big Lake Lynching. You are an amazing writer! The storyline, the twists and turns, and especially the way your characters come to life and jump right off the page. My hat is off to you sir!
Nick, I just finished Big Lake Blizzard and I think it was the best one to date, and that’s saying a lot. I love the way you build your characters and in every new book you show us more about their quirks and personalities. And I REALLY like Christine aka Hillbilly! I hope she will make an appearance(s) in future Big Lake books.
I know who Hillbilly is! As I was reading I was like “I know this person.” Then I went back and read the dedication and said “Yep!!! That’s her!” You nailed her personality exactly! Love it.!! Can I be in one of your books someday too??? This is your best one yet Nick!!
Now we have finally made it to Shiner and set up in their local park, which by the way is very nice and well kept, We do hope though that we do not get a neighbor since it will be very close quarter. They charge $20 full hookup and the views are very nice river that actually has water in. Sorry got sidetracked. Both of us have the kindle hd and have had no problems with it being hard to read. Now I am going to sit back ice pack my back and delve deeper into the Blizzard.