Apple wants to make me a millionaire in a hurry

I just checked my latest mini-tome “Buy This Book. Make Me A Millionaire” on iTunes and it has my ebook listed at $1.99 instead of my suggested price of $0,99. Apple obviously knows a great value when it sees one.

Anyone or any reader of this post who purchases “Buy This Book. Make Me A Millionaire.” on Apple iTunes for $1.99 before the price is corrected may email me with proof of purchase (copy of iTunes invoice will be sufficient) and I will email them free of charge any two (2) of my ebooks he/she indicates in the email as my way of saying thanks.

I notified Smashwords of the pricing error and hopefully the correct price will appear soon. Computers, eh.

Kindle ebook author on route to 3 million in sales

Soon to join other celebrity ebook authors is renown raconteur Ted Summerfield, who recently sold on Amazon for Kindle devices the first of 3 million ebooks necessary for him to become a millionaire by earning pennies per sale of his latest micro-tome “Buy This Book. Make Me a Millionaire”.

When asked how he felt about this phenomenal achievement which overcame the derision of friends and family for his actually begging people to purchase his latest masterpiece he had this to say, “It proves my point; write something people want, write it well, and offer it at a fair price for its contents.”

When this interviewer pointed out he actually made 3 points instead of the one inferred by his saying “It proves my point”, Mr. Summerfield blew his nose and said “You, sir, would have to make an impossibly large leap upwards in humanity before you could even dream of becoming a mere minion.”

But one cannot deride the success of “Buy This Book. Make Me A Millionaire”. In a matter of hours of being published on Amazon for Kindle devices, one savvy investor took Mr. Summerfield at his word and purchased a copy as an investment in the future wealth of his/her great grandchildren – as clearly explained in the ebook description and the last paragraph of a prior article here.

Available at Amazon and Smashwords now, and soon at all major online retailers, this interviewer urges readers to get their copy before they are all gone.

How can an ebook be ‘gone’? Aren’t they digital and around forever? Well, technically, maybe. However, Mr. Summerfield has promised to unpublish “Buy This Book. Make Me A Millionaire” once the pennies from each sale total one million dollars. No other author makes such a dramatic claim to protect an ebook investment.

Join the other savvy investor and get your copy before it’s too late.

Buy This Book. Make Me A Millionaire

Buy This Book Make Me A Millionaire is the perfect gift for someone who has everything, and for those who want absolutely nothing.

Although the cover indicates there is nothing worthwhile inside this ebook there are some readers who will purchase this ebook and feel it is the best darn money they ever spent. I know I will.

What’s inside the book? 23 pages of “Nothing Here But My Thanks”, and now and then an image of a kiss or something similar, images of an animal or animals, some pithy words under the pictures, and some other stuff.

I think the words under the pictures are pithy but you may think otherwise.

To be completely honest, for it is your money and not mine, (well, not mine until you buy this ebook and then a smidgeon of your money becomes mine, but that is beside the point) inside are pictures of dogs and other animals, which every advertiser will tell you is necessary for bonding the viewer to your product or service.

So let’s bond. You buy, I’ll accept your offer to bond and throw in some animal pictures plus some words you’ve probably never before seen beneath a picture.

Tell your friends and family to buy this ebook right now because when I become a millionaire from earning just pennies from each sale of this ebook I’m going to stop publishing it.

Why is that such a great benefit to you and your friends? When I stop publishing this ebook it will instantly become a collectors item, a golden goose for you and your friends to hand down from generation to generation. So don’t wait, start protecting the future happiness of your great grandchildren right now and buy this ebook.

Available today at Smashwords right here for the unbelievably low price of US99 cents. Also on Amazon as of today at this link. Available soon at other retailers.

Arabic Alphabet Sudoku Puzzles

Maintain your brain with these 66 challenging Arabic Alphabet Sudoku Puzzles. Many times more mentally stimulating than regular English language style sudoku puzzles.

66 Arabic Alphabet Sudoku Puzzles in easy, medium and hard levels of play, and in 9×9 and 16×16 grid sizes. 54 9×9 grid size puzzles and 12 16×16 grid size games, both grid sizes in easy, medium and hard levels of play. 2 puzzles per page means large, easy to read, easy to fill in sudoku puzzles.

Give your brain a terrific workout with my new Arabic Alphabet Sudoku Puzzles for only $1.99 and available here today at Smashwords. Available at other leading online retailers, except Amazon, in late March or early April.

Kindle .mobi version available now at Smashwords.

6-Letter Word Puzzles ebook now available

Maintain your brain with these 320 fun ways to test your vocabulary knowledge and perhaps discover new words in a challenging word puzzle game.

You are given a word like CARPORT or a series of words like DONALD DUCK, and you make as many 6-letter words as you can from that word or series of words using each letter only once.

Sound simple? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. Great fun and a great way to maintain your brain with these vocabulary puzzles.

View free sample at this link to Smashwords. Available in all popular formats including ePub, mobi, and PDF for just $0.99.

Smashwords Forum upgraded

The Smashwords Forum has recently been upgraded with many additional features to help authors promote their works, discuss problems and solutions with other Smashwords authors, and explore the ever-enlarging world of ePub publishing for Apple, Nook, Kobo, smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices.

Since starting the Smashwords Forum in May of 2012 on Proboards, the forum has grown to more than 400 Smashwords author members.

Membership is free and authors may promote their work in the Members Ebook section of the site, and ask questions/provide answers in the Help, General Discussion, or ePub Discussion sections.

If you are a Smashwords author you should also be a member of the Smashwords Forum. Join for free today.

Amazon removes Kindle ebooks

Yesterday Amazon removed 5 of my puzzle ebooks from the Kindle ebook store because the ebooks were printable instead of playable on Kindle devices.

The problem as I see it is Amazon only removed my puzzle ebooks. I just checked Amazon and found similar ebooks for sale, all non-interactive and mostly more expensive than similar puzzle ebooks of mine on Amazon. Some of those puzzle ebooks now for sale on Amazon for Kindle devices have been on sale there far longer than mine. Why they weren’t removed is a question I’ve asked Kindle: Either have a level playing field and return my puzzle ebooks to sale status or remove all similar non-interactive puzzle or game ebooks.

Here is a copy of the email I received from Amazon:

Hello,

During a quality assurance review of your KDP catalog we found that 
the following book(s) you have published are intended to be interactive 
but require additional resources aside from a Kindle device or Kindle 
application (phone/Mac/PC). The game or app experience must work 
entirely inside the Kindle reader, without the use of the browser or 
manual work such as a copy machine or screen capture program. As a 
result, the following books have been removed from sale in the Kindle 
store.

Star Sudoku Puzzles. Volume 1. (ASIN: B008D5AV9O)
Alphabet Sudoku Puzzles Multi-lingual Edition (ASIN: B009AHSZGA)
Star Sudoku Puzzles. Volume 2. (ASIN: B009FHSZ88)
Spanish Word Search Puzzles (Spanish Edition) (ASIN: B0099A2RY4)
German Word Search Puzzles (German Edition) (ASIN: B009AFYJWQ)

If you are interested in providing games or other interactive content, 
please consider applying for our Kindle Active Content program: 

http://kdk.amazon.com/gp/vendor/kindlepubs/kdk/gateway

If you have any questions regarding our quality assurance review 
process, please write to kdp-quality@amazon.com.

Best regards,

Kindle Direct Publishing

The problematic ebooks were 1/3 to 1/4 the price of puzzle apps for Kindle devices, and were designed to be printed out by a Kindle owner as explained in the front matter of each ebook if their particular device didn’t allow typing/drawing over graphic images.

My sales on Amazon for Kindle devices never came close to sales for ePub devices, but the puzzle ebooks were beginning to generate some steady sales. Amazon was earning almost twice as much as I earned from each sale, so it’s not like Amazon was ever losing money on each sale.

Why Amazon would remove my ebooks when there are many more non-interactive puzzle ebooks offered for sale on Amazon, and have been offered for sale much longer than my puzzle ebooks, and chose not remove these other offending ebooks is very strange. After all, it took me but a few seconds to find them in the Kindle ebook store by performing a simple search. If I can find them then surely Amazon can too.

Owners of Kindle devices wanting inexpensive puzzle ebooks like those listed above can still purchase the Kindle version from Smashwords, or purchase the PDF version from Smashwords if they wish, by clicking on this link to my ebooks on Smashwords.

I’ll post an update if Amazon reverses its decision and returns my puzzle ebooks to sale status for Kindle ebooks. Or if they actually remove all similar offending puzzle ebooks.

Update: Amazon replies.

The Kindle Swindle. Content farming and ebooks.

Back in May of 2011 Laura Hazard Owen wrote an article titled “The Kindle Swindle” about Mike Essex, a Search Specialist at UK digital marketing agency Koozai. Mike believes that ebooks are the next frontier for content farmers, and is already noticing an increasing number of spam e-books hitting ebook stores like the Kindle Store.

Read Laura’s full article at Publishing Trends here.

Mike originally wrote about his discovery on the Koozai blog. In his article Mike said “It’s true most eBook platforms review the content they receive, however it will be little more than a cursory check by automated software with thousands of eBooks published every day across multiple platforms. I tested this by publishing an eBook with content taken from my own blog on Amazon, this didn’t set off a single detector or warning. You have to tick a box to confirm you have permission to use the content, but tick boxes have never stopped scammers from lying before.

Therefore there’s nothing to stop people gathering content from the web, and creating an eBook. Someone could go to a blog, grab any content they want, label it as their own and make money from another person’s content.”

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, commented on Mike’s article: “Good post, thanks. At Smashwords, we have zero tolerance for content farm garbage. We have multiple systems in place (automated and human) to detect it, and if we discover it we delete the offender’s account without warning. Per our Terms of Service, they forfeit any accrued earnings. Since we pay quarterly, it makes it even more difficult for them to earn income before we catch them.”

Mike mentioned one content farmer named Manuel Ortiz Braschi,  “who created 2,879 eBooks in just a couple of years. Many of his books have reviews listing formatting errors and he covers such as wide range of topics it’s impossible to believe he is really an expert in all these topics. Most reviewers also cite that they won’t buy an eBook again, therefore Manuel has destroyed the platform for honest creators.”

Where’s there need there’s greed.

Forbes article on Smashwords

From Forbes magazine interviewed Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, on June 7, 2012.

Smashwords publishes 127,000 titles by 44,000 writers, each of whom collects at least 60% of royalties—four times the amount offered by traditional publishers. The company takes a 10% cut of the proceeds from partner sales and 15% (after credit card fees) from books sold through its own website.

Launched in May 2008, Smashwords published 140 books in its first seven months—a number Coker found thrilling, until he looked at sales. On a good day the company was selling $6 worth of books through its website, its own take barely more than a dollar. Coker switched to a distribution model the following year, offering retailers a 30% commission in exchange for digital shelf space. After inking agreements with four major partners in a matter of months, Smashwords debuted in the iBookstore with 2,200 titles when the iPad launched in January 2010.

The company has grown at a steady clip since. Now a top supplier of titles to the iBookstore, Smashwords reached profitability in September 2010. Coker projects $12 million in revenue this year, double last year’s take.

Read the complete article here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Code Word Puzzles

Update: Code Word Puzzles now available at Smashwords. View free sample, or purchase your own copy for $0.99, here.

Later this month or early next month I’ll publish Code Word Puzzles. What are Code Word Puzzles? These particular Code Word Puzzles are made from quotes and trivia I’ve collected during the past 40 years.

These Code Word Puzzles have easy, medium, hard, and helpless levels of play. Helpless puzzles have no helpful code provided; you’re on your own.

Here is an example of an easy level Code Word Puzzle:

Q P B W B   J N S B   F N O S   D R X X C B W   P E A B

B E W T ,   L B S V R L ,   P E O S ,   E K S

P B C D C B W W   C B A B C W   N I   D C E T .

P B C D C B W W   D R X X C B W   P E A B   K N

P B C D I R C   J N S B   D O N A V S B S ;   T N R ‘ O B

N K   T N R O   N F K .

Plain:     A B C D E F G H I  J  K L M N O P Q R  S T
Cipher:  E M J S B  I H  P V G Y C L K N D U O W Q

You solve the puzzle by replacing the Cipher letters with the Plain letters. For example, cipher letters E, M, J are replaced by A, B, C, in the solution.

There is space below each line in the puzzle in which you may type or write your letter solution.

Puzzles will be available in all popular formats, including PDF for PC’s and Mac’s. Puzzles may be solved on digital devices which allow typing, or puzzles may be printed out and solved.

Easy puzzles have most of the letters of the alphabet given to you as a guide to solving the puzzle. Medium and Hard levels have fewer and fewer letters provided as a guide.

Helpless puzzles have no Plain or Cipher letters provided as a guide. Some Helpless puzzles are very long, but that also makes them easier to solve.

What’s the solution to the puzzle in the example above? Here it is:

THESE CODE WORD PUZZLES HAVE
EASY, MEDIUM, HARD, AND
HELPLESS LEVELS OF PLAY.
HELPLESS PUZZLES HAVE NO
HELPFUL CODE PROVIDED; YOU’RE
ON YOUR OWN.
***

So you think you’re smart word search puzzles.

Your brain doesn’t get a really good workout when you’re solving English language puzzles and you speak English. Here’s a way to step out of your comfort zone while giving your brain some exercise.

50 puzzles, in easy, medium and hard levels of play, all in a foreign language; German!

Previously published, these puzzles are now available as an inexpensive ebook, available in ePub, PDF, and mobi formats, and will give you’ll have hours of puzzle solving fun whether or not you speak German.

Printout these 50 ebook puzzles, or solve on your digital device if drawing on images is allowed, and check solutions in your ebook.

You may view a free sample of this ebook, or purchase for $0.99, from this Smashwords link. Available at other online retailers in the coming weeks and months.