iTunes ebook page numbers misleading.

Have you ever made a decision to purchase a book on iTunes based upon the number of pages shown for that ebook? If you have you have been mislead by Apple.

In my opinion it makes no sense to list page size for digital devices when file size or even word count would be more meaningful to a user.

I first noticed this rotten worm in Apple iTunes when checking out one of my picture ebooks for children. It seems Apple doesn’t consider pictures as part of a book and only counts words.

If an ebook on iTunes contains a high number of pictures, like a travel book, a picture book or an art book, pages containing pictures are not counted towards how many actual pages the ebook contains.

Every one of my ebooks, and likely every book by any author on Apple containing images, is much larger than indicated by the number of pages listed by Apple in their iTunes ebook shop.

One iTunes my 5-Letter Word Puzzles is shown as 24 pages. This ebook contains one image. On Amazon the same ebook is shown as 39 pages. The original MSWord document is 32 pages.

The difference in page length between the original MSWord and Amazon is that the original had to be altered to include several page breaks to conform with Amazon Kindle formatting regarding Title, Copyright, Table of Contents, etc. This difference applies to all Amazon ebooks and my original document I sent to Smashwords.

On iTunes my picture ebook for children titled “Bubble Trouble” is shown as 4 pages. On Amazon the same ebook is listed as 22 pages. The original MSWord document is 18 pages. This ebook contains thirteen color pictures within the story, and the appendix has six black and white pictures from the story in 8.5 x 11 pages for printing out and coloring by a child.

A reader viewing one of my ebooks or any ebook containing pictures is drawn towards the data for that book. If they see a low number of pages they probably bypass that book and look for a different book with a larger number of pages.

Apple’s use of misleading page sizes hurts potential sales for authors such as I, but also robs the reader of discovering a new author or enjoying the ebook itself when a purchase decision is influenced by inaccurate page size data.

My advice for any Apple owner is to disregard the indicated pages for an ebook. If you are really curious about the size of a book then check it out on another retail outlet like Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, or even Amazon.

My advice for Apple is to join the digital age and replace their iTunes page size data with something more useful for readers, such as file size or number of words.

Dog killer celebrates Easter teaching children in Port Moody

For several years and numerous events for children The Port Moody Station Museum has hired a dog killer to teach children; a women who openly lied to a vet in order to have her husbands’ dog killed during her divorce and who repeatedly refused to obey court orders to explain what she had done with all the money she had removed from a joint bank account before she filed for divorce.

This past Easter The Port Moody Station Museum again hired this dog killer to teach children and parents how to build Easter hats.

In the coming months the Port Moody Museum or other organization in BC may well hire her to teach children. Parents should know something about the people instructing their children, especially those whose values include killing innocent animals, theft, and defying multiple court orders.

The dog killers name is Liz Summerfield. My lawyer wrote a letter to the BCSPCA warning them about her, and I wrote a fictional story based in part upon my divorce from her titled “Final Decree. A Dead Dog Divorce”.

German Word Search Puzzles Volume 2

My German Language Word Search Puzzles Volume 2 is now available at most major online retailers.

More challenging than regular English language word search puzzles, this Volume 2 of German language puzzles really tease your brain just like Volume 1.

Choose from 51 games in easy, medium, and hard levels of play. Puzzles are laid out 1 to a page, with large print for easy reading and solving. These puzzles were previously published, and are now available to you as an inexpensive ebook.

All puzzles are graphic images and can be printed out or solved on any device that allows drawing on images. You’ll have hours of fun solving these puzzles, whether or not you speak German. Happy puzzling, Ted.

Available at the following online retailers for $0.99.

Barnes & Noble for the Nook ereader.  

Kobo ereader devices.

At Smashwords for Apple products, Kindle products, and Sony products.

More 5-Letter Word Puzzles

I’ve just published my second 5-letter puzzle ebook, “More 5-Letter Word Puzzles”.

This new word puzzle ebook has 320 new words and phrases to test your word knowledge and really give your brain a workout.

The challenge? You try to make as many 5-letter words from a word or phrase I give you, then compare your words with the ones I found. Each puzzle has the number of words I found, but sometimes the smaller number of words are the hardest to solve. My 5-letter word puzzles and my 4-letter word puzzles really give your brain a good workout, while increasing your word knowledge and your heart beat.

To view a free sample of More 5-Letter Word Puzzles, or purchase for your Apple, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony, PC or Mac, just click here. Happy puzzling, Ted.

Heritage Hat Making with Liz Summerfield.

Did you attend the Sea to Sky Regional Heritage Fair at the Lynn Valley Library & Village in the City of North Vancouver on Friday, May 11, 2012?

Did you or your children partake in Heritage Hat Making with Liz Summerfield?

Did you know you or your children were instructed by a dog killer?

Did you know you or your children were being instructed by a woman who refused to comply with multiple court orders to provide evidence of where all the money was she stole?

Did you know you or your children were being instructed by a woman who lied to a veterinary doctor in order to have a dog killed during multiple court orders demanding proof of where she was hiding all the money she stole?

Did the City of North Vancouver and/or the Lynn Valley Library know they were hiring a dog killer to teach children?

Read the notice written by my lawyer to the SPCA warning them of Liz and any future adoption of animals.

Target drops Kindle.

Target Corp. has decided to drop Kindle products, including Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet, its range of Kindle e-readers and all accessories for the devices, including covers and chargers, says Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder.

Target will still sell other e-readers and tablets, including the Nook from Barnes & Noble , Snyder added.

“This is evidence that Target is getting more serious about Amazon as an enemy rather than a partner,” said Matt Nemer, an analyst at Wells Fargo.

Amazon ran Target’s website for several years, but that relationship ended last year amid a legal battle.

“That’s probably something Target now regrets,” Mr. Nemer said. “It put them behind in the world of multi-channel retail and let a serious competitor learn a lot about their business.”

Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, will keep selling Kindles, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. An Amazon spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

Target’s move comes as the retailer outfits some of its stores with special displays of Apple Inc. products, including the iPad, which competes with Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet.

Source: Globe and Mail

Marketing ebooks in the 21st century

I love Speed Bump. Here’s one for all ebook authors:

Using data to fine-tune ebook sales and reach.

Mark Coker, of Smashwords fame, dug deep into the Smashwords data vault and found some useful ‘stuff’ for authors:

I analyzed a nine-month chunk of Smashwords sales data, aggregated across multiple Smashwords retailers, to determine if there were potential data-driven metrics that might reveal new viral catalysts that authors can put to work.  The data encompassed millions of dollars in book sales for a collection of slightly more than 50,000 books.  My study began with a series of questions that I thought could reveal potentially useful answers.

These questions included:

• Do authors who change prices frequently sell more books?
• If ebooks are immortal, how do sales develop over time?
• How do individual titles develop at a retailer?
• What’s the ideal word count for ebooks?
• What word count do romance readers prefer?
• What word count do erotica readers prefer?
• What impact does price have on unit sales?
• How are Smashwords authors pricing their books?
• What are the most common price points?
• What price range earns the author the most money?
• What does the indie ebook sales distribution curve look like?
• What’s the optimal price per word?

To learn the answers to these questions, I presented Henry House on our technical team with a massive wishlist for data dumps, and then I crunched his numbers in a spreadsheet.  Some of the findings were eye-opening and useful, and others were simply fun.

 

How Data-Driven Decisions *Might* Help Indie Ebook Authors Reach More Readers

View more Data Driven Decisions from Smashwords, Inc.

When the sizzle fizzles. Author Russ Crossley at the Murrayville library.

This is a review of Russ Crossley discussing print and ebook publishing at the Murrayville Library in Langley on April 19th. It is the viewpoint of this former reporter.

Russ Crossley provided some useful information for authors considering publishing in ebook or print format. He also provided a lot of misinformation.

Some authors write because they enjoy it and want to share their works with others. Some authors write because they hope to become rich. If your sole purpose of writing is to earn money, then you should not waste your time writing. From reviewing what others have written about works by Russ it appears he is writing ebooks solely for money.

My background isn’t in writing books, for I have a degree in Broadcast Journalism and am a former member of the Radio/Television News Directors Association. I also wrote a number of puppet plays, and taught public speaking for several years in the Surrey/White Rock area. My writing has been for the ear and not the eye. But I know bad writing/editing when I see it. (You, dear reader, may even find errors in this post for I don’t profess to be a print journalist.)

Russ is like many authors flooding the ebook market; poor writing skills, poor editing skills, but good at self-promotion.

Russ talked about the 100 books he and his wife have published. This is not such a big deal when more than a few of his ebooks are 30 pages or less – some only 14-18 pages – including copyright page and other front matter. Or when some of his works are collections of works he and his wife already published under one of their many aliases. Or when an author uses bits and pieces of already published works to kludge together another ebook.

In his handout, which had glaring spelling errors on the first two pages, Russ included a couple of graphs on how much income you can earn from self-publishing ebooks. Those figures are nonsense, especially if you write/edit as poorly as Russ and his wife.

Writing an ebook is the easiest part of being a self-publisher. The hardest part is getting people to 1) know who you are and, 2) persuading them to download your free ebook or actually purchase your ebook. The same applies to marketing your work to a print publisher, unless you have an exceptional work that everyone knows will be a huge success ( and what author doesn’t?).

Most new authors either price their works at $0.99 or offer them for free. At the end of this note are some links on publishing, mainly from Smashwords.

Attack of the Lushites

Russ talked about his Attack of the Lushites book, which he brought to the meeting to show everyone.

Here are some reviews from Amazon on Lushites. This information was taken before Russ changed publishers – almost 1 year after first appearing on Amazon – and all the negative reviews were removed.

From March 15, 2012

Attack of the Lushites

Review by: Richaundra Patry on July 29, 2011 :

What unfortunately almost ruined it for me is the intolerable amount of what I call ‘cosmetic’ issues. In short, the book seems to have been sloppily edited. In one paragraph, the names were mixed up, (Bud is called Jal), other times sentences showed rewriting without taking out the changed part, leaving the sentences incoherent.

Review by: Jackie West on July 26, 2011 :
I do not want to be overly harsh but the only reason I fully read this “book” was because it was an Early Reviewer “book” through LibraryThing. I don’t think it is too much for me to ask that a book have gone through some basic editing and revisions as needed before being presented as a professional piece of work. This feels like it was written in a weekend. Punctuation was lacking, words were misspelled, run-on sentences abounded, descriptions were redundant, and the author couldn’t even keep the names of his characters straight! Another review I saw mentioned Bud was called Jal – well, Jack was also called Jal a couple times. I am a fan of humorous books, have read all of Hitchhikers (as this author claims to aim for). I have to say it failed miserably. It is not funny, not even slightly amusing. The author rips off several things from other franchises, most glaring being Star Trek. I wish I could say there was at least one thing I liked as I know a person wrote this and I want to be compassionate but… it was so painfully bad to read. There is nothing to redeem it.

Review by: pratchettfan on July 26, 2011 :
Attack of the Lushites is a fun story set in the far future where Fast Food Companies have taken over the Galaxy and are fighting for the highest market share. Jal Popover is just a simple mail room clerk for Heavenly Sky Burger, but when a letter from the enemy (i.e. the CEO of competitor Galaxy Pizza) arrives, he suddenly is faced with much more adventure than he bargained for.

I enjoyed reading Attack of the Lushites with its hilarious setting and strange characters and would read a follow up. What I found a bit annoying was the amount of typos, which was rather high (in the Kindle version that is) and at times disturbed the reading flow. But I was informed by the editor that they are hard at work to correct these problems which occurred during conversion to digital format. (Note by Ted: It took almost 1 year for Russ to switch to another publisher, who hopefully cleaned up the many errors in the original book.)

Review by: Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk on July 25, 2011 :
The book I received was rifled with errors making the read especially hard for me, a non-native english speaker. But apart from that, the book was also hard to read due to the lack of a clear story line. I completely missed the shift from the ‘fast food’ universe to the ‘drinking’ universe at the start leaving me wondering for quite a few pages what had happened. The (somewhat) unexpected end did not really help here either, the introduction of yet another galaxy with a focus on smoking was on the one hand to be expected, on the other hand it made the story quite unbelievable.
As a great fan of humor books with the Hithchikers guide my all time favourite, I must say I was disappointed. The book is advertised as being in the same category and has some interesting views. But the writing style / storyline somehow manages to spoil an idea that could have been great. It might be the constant reference to other SF works or the constant hammering on the obese shape of the main players, but all in all this was not the enjoying read I had hoped for!

On April 12, 2012, following Russ changing publishers for Lushites, only 1 review of Lushites was left on Amazon; all negative reviews were removed. The one review left was by Ladybug, a gushing reviewing offering 5 star rating. Ladybug has reviewed only this book. This same review of Lushites was copied to Smashwords, but under a different name.

Many readers seeing such a review will question its validity and honesty. A quick look on Smashwords found similar poor reviews for works by Russ.

Russ repeated an often quoted statement on being a successful writer requires writing a great book in the first place. Too bad he doesn’t follow his own advice.

Here is a review on Amazon of another work by Russ.

Round Up At the Burger Bar (The Story of Trixie Pug) [Kindle Edition] Free.

Was $1.99

Print Length: 6 pages

Publisher: 53rd Street Publishing (August 27, 2011)

Review By

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) – See all my reviews

(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

This review is from: Round Up At the Burger Bar (The Story of Trixie Pug) (Kindle Edition)  1 Star

This is a poorly futuristic written tale about a fat girl in a world of obesity where everyone rides around on hover chairs as they are too fat to walk and do very little work. It tries to poke fun at the fast food world and even lazy junk food obsessed culture but just falls short. I really thought I would like this one but am glad I didn’t invest in the full length novel of which this ten minute or so length short story is a prequel. Western obsession with poor quality fast food definitely needs a good novel (or short story) to point out just how absurd our lifestyle is, this just isn’t a very well written tale.

James N. Simpson is a top 1,000 reviewer on Amazon, having reviewed at least 1975 ebooks.

It takes a lot of courage by an author to offer a 6 page book, including copyright info and possibly a cover image, for $1.99. I can see why he lowered the price to free. But asking $1.99 for 6 pages seems a slap in the face to readers.

Print on Demand books through Amazon CreateSpace

Russ talked about POD books using CreateSpace. Many print authors and ebook authors use CreateSpace to extend their presence on the Internet and in online retailers.

I haven’t used CreateSpace yet, but I may sometime in the future just to extend my Internet presence. I certainly don’t expect to make a living off any POD works.

Here are some links to CreateSpace community forum posts:

“Quality Control” a lengthy discussion on quality control of POD books and the steps some CreateSpace members take to prevent/correct issues. https://www.createspace.com/en/community/thread/19653?start=0&tstart=0

Here is a link to the main CreateSpace community forums: https://www.createspace.com/en/community/index.jspa

Link to a selection of community threads at CreateSpace dealing with formatting: https://www.createspace.com/en/community/tags?recursive=true#/?tags=formatting

Becoming a millionaire writing books and ebooks.

Russ presented a glorious couple of graphs showing how you can become a millionaire writing books and ebooks. Hogwash. The majority of authors starve. They starved when there was no such thing as the Internet, ebooks or POD, and they continue to do so today.

Is Russ earning a decent income with his Lushites ebook and POD? I seriously doubt it, comparing his Amazon sales ranking to mine.

From April 2, 2012 on Amazon for both paperback and ebooks. Rankings may have changed.

Attack of the Lushites [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (June 16, 2011)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,605,368 in Books

I looked on CreateSpace for information on ranking numbers and found some threads, a link to one thread is below.

Here is a partial quote from one CreateSpace reader in reply to another CS author who was thinking of pulling his book because it was only ranked 289. This thread from April 2011.

“…Your book is currently the 289th best-selling title, with CreateSpace named as publisher, on Amazon. And if it has sold 75 copies as you say then it is already in a tiny percentile of the most successful self-published titles, most of which seem never to get into double figures.”

If a ranking of 289 equals 75 copies, then a Lushites rank of 6 million means very few POD books sold.

CreateSpace community forum on author considering pulling book from CS is quite lengthy and worth a read…  https://www.createspace.com/en/community/thread/16195?start=0&tstart=0

Attack of the Lushites [Kindle Edition]

Product Details

• File Size: 305 KB
• Print Length: 299 pages
• Publisher: Lucky Bat Books (April 26, 2011)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,274 Paid in Kindle Store

It would appear Russ is doing much better with his Kindle ebook edition, ranking wise. But is he earning any worthwhile money?

Russ offers his Kindle edition at 8.99, about 50% discount from the POD price. This is the Amazon suggested discount.

So how well has Russ done selling his Kindle edition of Lushites? Not too good if my ranking are any comparison.

Here are the Amazon KDP (kindle) information on two of my worst selling ebooks on Amazon.

A Cookbook By Ted. Volume 2. [Kindle Edition] (9 sales) second to worst seller

• File Size: 47 KB
• Print Length: 44 pages
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,511 Paid in Kindle Store

(This cookbook ebook sells for $0.99 and was published 3 months after Lushites.)

Dopey Stories [Kindle Edition] (2 sales) worst seller

• File Size: 102 KB
• Print Length: 24 pages
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,593 Paid in Kindle Store

(This ebook sells for $1.99 and went on sale at Amazon on April 2011.)

I looked on Amazon for rankings of other works by Russ and they were all high, which is not a great indicator of success when a ranking of 289 on CS equals only 75 books.

My Barnes & Noble sales through Smashwords have always exceeded sales on Amazon, by a far margin. Both Amazon and B&N are well-known brand names, both sell books and ebooks, both have ereader devices. As of today over 6,100 of my 23 ebooks on B&N have been downloaded/sold through B&N this year.

6,100+ may sound like a great number for one retailer, and it is pretty good, but probably 30% of that figure is actual paid sales.

I started publishing ebooks in August of 2010, with Smashwords. But I started promoting myself and my ebooks in 2005 when I created my first forum on ebooks. In March 2010 I started this WordPress blog.

I suggest any author considering ebooks or POD to create a blog and start writing on it long before you publish your first work. That way you’ll have some built-in audience for your works.

Good stuff for authors considering publishing ebooks or POD:

“The Secrets To Ebook Publishing Success” has great information for new authors and is a good opportunity for established authors to review their marketing efforts.

You can download your copy from Smashwords here https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145431

“How to publish on Smashwords” has information for authors considering publishing ebooks http://www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords

“Smashwords Style Guide” has information on formatting ebooks for Smashwords   http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52

“Smashwords Marketing Guide” contains tips from 30+ tips on marketing your ebooks http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/305

Link to CreateSpace main web page https://www.createspace.com/

Link to Amazon KDP (Kindle ebooks) publishing site https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help

Summary

I enjoyed the brief discussion Russ gave at the library and his handout had some helpful information on other blogs by authors.

It’s too bad Russ felt the royalty rates between Smashwords and Amazon Kindle KDP were the same. They are not the same as Smashwords has never offered a 35% royalty, and in fact offers a much higher royalty rate than Amazon for ebooks sold on Smashwords itself; or that he couldn’t take the time to correct glaring errors in the handout; and provided unrealistic expectations for what an author can expect to earn self-publishing.

50 Spanish language Word Search Printable Puzzles.

Here’s a way to step out of your comfort zone while giving your brain some exercise. More challenging than regular English language word search puzzles, these Spanish language puzzles really tease your brain. Choose from 50 games in easy, medium, and hard levels of play. Puzzles are laid out 1 to a page, with large print for easy reading and solving. These puzzles were previously published, and are now available to you as an inexpensive ebook. All puzzles are graphic images and can be printed out or solved on any device that allows drawing on images. You’ll have hours of fun solving these puzzles, whether or not you speak Spanish. Happy puzzling, Ted.

View a free sample, or purchase ebook in any popular format, from Smashwords here.

Available soon at other major online retailers. Check this post for updates when this ebook is available at other major retails like Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Diesel, or select libraries in your area.

Amazon Kindle owners may download this ebook from Smashwords for Kindle devices that allow drawing on images. Download to your PC or Mac, then email ebook to your Kindle device.

The rise of e-reading. Pew Research Centre report.

The rise of e-books in American culture is part of a larger story about a shift from printed to digital material. Using a broader definition of e-content in a survey ending in December 2011, some 43% of Americans age 16 and older say they have either read an e-book in the past year or have read other long-form content such as magazines, journals, and news articles in digital format on an e-book reader, tablet computer, regular computer, or cell phone.

In a head-to-head competition, people prefer e-books to printed books when they want speedy access and portability, but print wins out when people are reading to children and sharing books with others. We asked a series of questions about format preferences among the 14% of Americans age 16 and up who in the past 12 months have read both printed books and e-books.

As a rule, dual-platform readers preferred e-books when they wanted to get a book quickly, when they were traveling or commuting, and when they were looking for a wide selection. However, print was strongly preferred over e-books when it came to reading to children and sharing books with others. When asked about reading books in bed, the verdict was split: 45% prefer reading e-books in bed, while 43% prefer print.

You may read more about the growth of e-reading and download the Pew report from this link.

Amazon enforcing ebook exclusivity requirements.

Last week Amazon started enforcing its KDP Select exclusivity, which prevents ebook authors from offering their work anywhere but on Amazon.

In other words, your title must be 100% exclusive to Amazon.

More than a few authors, including myself, haven’t joined the Amazon Select program because we prefer to offer our ebooks to everyone through Apple, Barnes & Noble,  Smashwords, Kobo, Sony and many other retailers, or even on our own personal blog or web site.

I’m glad Amazon is finally enforcing its own rules and preventing any illegal display of ebooks by KDP Select authors. After all, exclusive means just that.

Authors with Amazon KDP Select who’ve been ‘forgetful’ in removing their ebooks from their web site or blog, or Apple, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony or other retailers, will finally have to correct the error of their ways.

BCSPCA warned of dog killer.

Updated April 4, 2012.

If you love animals or care about cruelty to animals then please consider joining supporting your local SPCA or other animal rights organization.

My heart almost stopped when my son told me that his mother, Liz Summerfield, had taken my dog Punzhu to the South Burnaby Veterinary Hospital to be killed. Liz had told the veterinary clinic that Punzhu had bitten a postman and she’d been ordered to have Punzhu put down. This turned out to be a lie.

I checked with the post office and found out that Punzhu was with Liz outside her mother’s house when the postman approached. According to the postman and the post office, the postman did not file a complaint nor did the post office order Liz to destroy Punzhu.

I was very upset that the South Burnaby Veterinary Hospital killed my dog without any written documentation from the Post Office. They killed my dog on the verbal advice of my now former wife, who simply lied to them.

Below is part of a letter, which was mailed to SPCA branches in the lower mainland, prepared by my lawyer after checking the facts.

***

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

1205 East 7th Vancouver, BC

V5T 1R1

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

About four years ago I adopted a dog from the Animal Control Pound in New Westminster.

In October of 1995, my ex-wife, Elizabeth Summerfield, separated from me and left the family home, taking my dog with her. I asked my ex-wife where the dog was but she refused to tell me. I learned at the end of November, 1995, that she had had the dog euthanized at South Burnaby Veterinary Hospital on November 16, 1995.

I hope that you will not consider Elizabeth Summerfield (who may revert to her maiden name of Elizabeth Gray) as a potential adopter of animals from the SPCA in future.

Yours truly,

Ted Summerfield

***

Years ago I started making puzzles and called them Punzhu Puzzles after my dog, who died so very young and so needlessly. It is my hope the SPCA will remember the letter I mailed and not consider Liz Summerfield, aka Elizabeth Summerfield or Elizabeth Gray, as a potential adopter of animals in the future.

It was during our divorce Liz lied to the South Burnaby Veterinary Clinic in order to have my dog killed. Liz had my dog killed during the time she had refused several court orders to provide information on what she had done with the large sum of money she had removed from our joint bank accounts.

Fearing for the safety of my son, and what she might do to the other dogs and cats she had taken from our home, I immediately settled the divorce.

Liz works with children as an arts instructor at various lower mainland cities & towns, including Whister, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Richmond, Port Moody, Maple Ridge, Vancouver, Surrey, Langley, and other areas.

Liz teaches puppetry, lantern making, papier mache, masks, as well as instructing children in a variety of other arts related studies at festivals, public events, and community centers.

Parents should be aware of who is instructing their precious children.

There are other articles on Liz and our divorce on this site. Use the search box and search on divorce, or Liz.

My ebooks are now available at select libraries

I’m very pleased to announce that public libraries subscribing to Baker & Taylor’s new Axis360 digital media platform now have access to my ebooks for children, my cookbooks, non-fiction ebooks and puzzle ebooks.

Baker & Taylor, Inc., is the world’s largest distributor of digital and physical books.

23 of my 24 ebooks are presently available to public libraries using the B&T media platform, only my latest book needs to be shipped.

I’m really glad to be a small part of the revolution in library service to the public.

The Smashwords Forum has moved, part two.

ShivaWinters, a member of our old Smashwords Forum, posted on our new Smashwords Forum site that the old site had reappeared a day after it was deleted.

Yikes; two sites with the same name. That would be quite confusing to any members and visitors looking for the real Smashwords Forum.

Please note that members can not use their old username and password on the new site. Members now have a choice of 7 social networking sites they can use to register on the new forum, or they can register manually.

The Smashwords Forum is the meeting place for Smashwords authors, and authors considering self-publishing through Smashwords. The Smashwords Forum has areas for promoting your books, seeking help with editing or conversion or marketing, chatting with other authors, and doing all things Smashwords.

I started the Smashwords Forum in 2011. It is not owned or operated by Smashwords or any Smashwords employees.

I’ve closed the old site, but didn’t delete it this time. I placed a notice for visitors to the former site that the Smashwords Forum has moved to smashwordsforum.com.

The smashwordsforum.com address will take you to our new home, hosted on proboards. Please come and visit us at our new smashwordsforum.com. If you’d like to join us on the Smashwords Forum, please register here.

Smashwords Forum moves to new board. Whoopee.

Today the Smashwords Forum moved to a new home. You may view it here, or just type smashwordsforum.com in your browser address bar.

Our former site had some difficulties which resulted in the decision to move to a different home.

Our new site has many features our old site didn’t: easier to log-in or register to  our new Smashwords Forum using one of the many social networking sign-in options; ability to link to youtube, and a slew of other benefits.

I’m excited about our new home. Come and join other Smashwords authors in our new playground. Register for free here.

Join EFF and its fight against PayPal censorship

UPDATE: On March 13, 2011 PayPal modified their policies to allow legal fiction. Thanks to everyone who supported the rights of authors, publishers, and readers.

EFF has created a web page for joining its fight against PayPal censorship.

Click this link to EFF to support its fight against censorship, and you’ll join others like these organizations listed below supporting freedom of speech.

Access
ACLU of California
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
Association of American Publishers
Authors Guild
Bytes for All, Pakistan
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Feminists for Free Expression
Index on Censorship
Internet Archive
National Coalition Against Censorship
Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
Peacefire
PEN American Center
Southern California Independent Booksellers Association
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
Unlimited Publishing LLC
Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance

I’ve resigned as 2012 Global ebook awards judge.

This morning I emailed to the organizers of the 2012 Global Ebook Awards my resignation as a 2012 Global Ebook Awards judge.

There were two ebooks in the category I chose to judge; one was only for Apple iPad or other Apple devices and not available in any other format including PDF – I don’t own an Apple and so could not judge it, and the second ebook was removed shortly after I posted a review of it on the awards site.

The organization running the awards sent judges an  email requesting that only positive reviews be posted; “… We do not want negative reviews to affect the evaluation of other judges.  Please hold any less than glowing reviews until after the awards.  Thank you.“

The organizers of the 2012 Global Ebook Awards feel only positive reviews won’t ‘affect the evaluation of other judges’, but I believe all reviews should be seen by judges and others.

I didn’t feel I trashed the author, but felt the ebook “Would be suitable for readers age 3-5 if author used less words like hourglass, offshore, collided, trustworthy, encircling, etc.”

The ebook had wonderful illustrations and I wrote in my review “I look forward to other collaborations between the illustrator and author.”

I didn’t post my review on sites where his/her book is offered to the public, other than the awards site, so it wouldn’t influence any potential readers of this free ebook.

The author whom I judged paid a handsome fee to enter his/her work in the Global Ebook Awards for 2012. I hope he/she will enter another work next year.

What bothers me the most is the organizers of the Global Ebook Awards 2012 feel positive reviews won’t sway judges or readers, and that any less than glowing reviews should be posted only after the awards have been announced.

Such thinking by the organizers left me no option but to resign as a judge, and has diminished my respect for awards in which an author has to pay a handsome fee to enter their work.

UPDATE: March 12, 2012. Dan Poyntner, founder of Global Ebook Awards, responds on Goodreads to my post:

Ted,
We listened to your concerns and changed the request to judges as follows:
“Judges who are bloggers and reviewers are encouraged to review the books they read in their blogs, on Amazon, B&N.com, Midwest Book Review and other review periodicals. Please post your reviews after the awards ceremony on August 18, 2012.
We do not want reviews to affect the evaluation of other judges.”
–Dan Poynter, founder, Global Ebook Awards.”

My reply on Goodreads to Dan:

Dan,

Judges should be of independent thought and not be swayed by the opinions of others, otherwise he/she should not be a judge.

Changing the request to judges doesn’t alter the situation that you and the organizers feel the need for a complete lack of transparency during the judging process in order to protect judges from any reviews which might affect their evaluation of a work.

Posting reviews after an awards ceremony does not provide transparency. Judges, authors, and the viewing public should be treated as adults who possess the ability to think for themselves.

Here is the link to my Goodreads thread on my resignation.

Credit card companies want to censor what you read.

UPDATE: On March 13, 2011 PayPal modified their policies to allow legal fiction. Thanks to everyone who supported the rights of authors, publishers, and readers.

Credit card companies and/or financial institutions are telling PayPal and Smashwords authors what they can write and what readers can read.

PayPal told Smashwords that their crackdown on erotic fiction is necessary so that they can remain in compliance with the requirements of the banks and credit card associations (likely Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, though they didn’t mention them  by name).

(NOTE: PayPal’s parent company eBay sells material focusing on rape, incest or beastiality as I wrote here.)

I don’t read or publish erotic fiction, it’s not of interest to me. I do support the right of readers and authors to fight censorship.

According to Mark Corker of Smashwords fame, “PayPal is asking us to censor legal fiction.  Regardless of how one views topics of rape, bestiality and incest, these topics are pervasive in mainstream fiction.

We believe this crackdown is really targeting erotica writers.  This is unfair, and it marks a slippery slope.  We don’t want credit card companies or financial institutions telling our authors what they can write and what readers can read. Fiction is fantasy.  It’s not real.  It’s legal. “

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) have recently joined the discussion on this matter.

The EFF blogged about the issue a few days ago:  https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/legal-censorship-paypal-makes-habit-deciding-what-users-can-read

ABFFE and NCAC issued a press release:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/83549049/NCAC-ABFFE-Letter-To-PayPal-eBay-re-Ebook-Refusal-2012

How you can help:

All writers and their readers should stand up and voice their opposition to financial services companies censoring books.  Authors should have the freedom to publish legal fiction, and readers should have the freedom to read what they want.

These corporations need to hear from you.  Pick up the phone and call them.  Email them.  Start petitions.  Sign petitions.  Blog your opposition to censorship.

Encourage your readers to do the same.  Pass the word among your social networks. Contact your favorite bloggers and encourage them to follow this story.  Contact your local newspaper and offer to let them interview you so they can hear a local author’s perspective on this story of international significance. If you have connections to mainstream media, encourage them to pick up on the story.

Encourage them to call the credit card companies and pose this simple question, “PayPal says they’re trying to enforce the policies of credit card companies.  Why are you censoring legal fiction?”

Contact information for Visa

Contact information for  American Express

Contact information for MasterCard

Contact information for Discover

Contact information for Ebay (owns PayPal)

Update: On March 7th MSNBC reported on this issue with credit cards.

UPDATE: Visa Writes “This is Not Our Doing”.

Ms. Madeleine Morris of BannedWriters.com wrote to Visa. Part of  the reply from Visa: “Relevant to this situation, the sale of a limited category of extreme imagery depicting rape, bestiality and child pornography is or is very likely to be unlawful in many places and would be prohibited on the Visa system whether or not the images have formally been held to be illegal in any particular country. Visa would take no action regarding lawful material that seeks to explore erotica in a fictional or educational manner.“

You may read the complete article at the Banned Writers web site.

50% off. Smashwords read an ebook week promotion March 4th-10th.

Five of my ebooks are enrolled in the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week promotion, all at 50% off regular price.

Dopey Stories

Dopey Stores by Ted Summerfield

“Dopey Stories” is a collection of 7 short stories: Bob the Road Painter; Minnie Tushi meets her love in Bald Knob; Bob and the Dickheads; An Ordinary Man; The Dumb Clucks Who Caused All The Trouble; Sal Acious meets Tim Orous; and The Beautiful Ms. Ann Thrope. The stories may make you say “huh?”, as they are a little weird.

You may view a free sample or purchase Mar 4-10 at 50% off at this link.

Final Decree. A Dead Dog Divorce.

Final Decree. A Dead Dog Divorce by Ted Summerfield

A thieving wife, Elspith Winters, loots their joint bank accounts then convinces her friends her husband is having an affair in order to cover her tracks. Despite the years of planning she did in preparing for her Final Decree, she never once considered being outwitted by a smart female lawyer.

A story of one hellish divorce, based in part on upon my own divorce, and a cautionary tale for both men and women.

You may read a free sample, or purchase for 50% off – $0.99 – during the week of March 4-10, at this link.

Other ebooks offered for 50% off are:

Joint Effort

Read a sample or purchase at 50% during March 4-10 here.

Star Sudoku Puzzles

On sale at 50% off during March 4 to 10 at this link.

Mechanics of Confusion

A collection of poems written by a woman, about the men in her life. Contains her personal notes to 5 former lovers who didn’t have the right stuff.

Available March 4-10 for 50% off at this link.