A Kodiak Bear Mauling

[Johnny Dollar]

Will it be "Nook" available?

I was given one for Christmas.

[KodiakBeer]

Probably not. Barnes and Noble reserves the right to price Nook titles at any price they choose and to change that price any time they choose. They also pay royalties as low as 40% vs the 70% that Amazon pays.

Moreover, if B&N decides to drop the price on your book, Amazon reserves the right to match any lower price offered by anyone else, so not only can B&N screw up your profits in the Nook offering, they can screw up your profits with Amazon.

The Amazon Kindle is 80 or 90% of the Ebook market. Until that changes or B&N allows publishers to set their own prices, I'll stick with Amazon and Kindle.

[Johnny Dollar]

The Amazon Kindle is 80 or 90% of the Ebook market. Until that changes or B&N allows publishers to set their own prices, I'll stick with Amazon and Kindle.

That certainly makes sense.

[tlynch]

I was able to read it on my phone with a Kindle reader app. There may be such a thing for PCs, too.

Good luck!
Tom

[Johnny Dollar]

I was able to read it on my phone with a Kindle reader app. There may be such a thing for PCs, too.

Good luck!
Tom

Thank you,Tom for the idea! My Android HTC has the Kindle App and I just downloaded the book through Amazon for $4.99. So no need for the Nook.

I'll start reading it as soon as I finish wading through an Anthony Trollope 1875 thriller!

So another win for Kodiak.

[KodiakBeer]

I don't even know what an Android HTC is, but I hope you enjoy the book!

[Johnny Dollar]

Here it is in all its glory:



HTC Inspire 4G.

I am sure I'll be pleased with the book!

[tlynch]

The good news for Johnny Dollar is that HTC causes much less munchies than THC.

Might be more addictive, though.

Tom

[Johnny Dollar]

THC in the '70's. HTC in the '10's! Life has its passages.

Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing!

[KodiakBeer]

Thank you to everyone who downloaded the book! The book is holding steady in the top 100 of the genre (on most days). In April I'm running an ad in Alaska Magazine, which will be the first paid promotion I've tried. Until now it's just been word of mouth and the threads on THR and here selling the book.

Anyway, the ad will be out in late April. I have one more free day to offer through Amazon.com. I'll probably do that prior to the ad, in the first or second week of April. I will announce that last free offer in this thread prior to the book getting out to the general public.

So, if you're interested in the book save your money and watch this thread! Everyone on GRM will get one more chance for a free download.

[Johnny Dollar]

I did not mind paying $4.99. A published author has earned the money.

[KodiakBeer]

Thanks Johnny!

When the ad runs (it's damned expensive!) the price is probably going to go up a buck or two. The ad is going to run in the May, June and July editions when people are planning or making their Alaska trips. I suspect I'll sell a lot of books. At least, I hope so.

[Jesse]

I enjoyed reading your book. Very enlightening to me about the classic tales and makes good sense. Now I have to dig up Brother's Grimm and read them.

And I think it should be required reading for anyone visiting bear country. It feels competent, for lack of a better way to put it.

Oh, letting my friends and family know about it so maybe a sale or two will come out of it.

[KodiakBeer]

Competent is fine. Of course, others have compared me to Ernest Hemingway...



Not favorably of course; it was more like "You're no Ernest Hemingway", but still, that's technically a comparison.

[Johnny Dollar]

Not favorably of course; it was more like "You're no Ernest Hemingway", but still, that's technically a comparison.

Spare,sparse prose. It's all good!

The Sun Also Rises.1926. The best example in literary history of making every word count. From the 26 year old Ernest.

A remarkable achievement,not duplicated since,IMO.

[Selena]

it was more like "You're no Ernest Hemingway",

Neither was Jack London or Robert Gresham. By the same token Hemingway was no Kodiak Beer. Everyone is entitle to their own opinion, the only one that matters on this particular book... is yours.

Maybe, someday, I'll get the nerve to finish and publish my book. "A Long Way from Heaven." Then you will hear truly rude, crude and mean spirited criticism!

[Jesse]

Ahem,

KB, I would have to have read something other than comic books in school to compare you with Hemingway.

[pmeisel]

Just finished it this week KB, and it's a good read. Although your description of the event is well done, I really like your general scene setting better -- it flows very nicely, and reminded me a lot of some of Farley Mowat's better work.

[KodiakBeer]

You all are too kind!

I'm doing a re-write, or more accurately an expansion of the book along with some edits and corrections. There should be 20 to 25% more text and some greatly enhanced pictures of the original event. I took the original photos to a pro to have re-scanned and they look much better.

I need to get all this done before the ad campaign hits Alaska Magazine. When I announce the next freebie it will be for the new expanded version. So, even if you have the book already, feel free to download a new copy when I make that announcement.

One of the nice things about Ebooks is that you can do this, though it's also a curse because if you're undisciplined you can keep messing with the book until it makes you crazy. I've been collecting comments and corrections and story ideas since release and will put them all in at once before the book hits the big time.

I have a second book on the back burner. A few years back I did a little family book on my dads WWII service. Since I already have a huge library associated with that research, I'm going to use that as a skeleton to build a much larger book on the 30th Infantry Division in the European campaign.

This one will probably just get added to the Military History genre in Amazon as a 99 cent download. It will be particularly nice for people with the original Kindles since they only display black and white pics, and of course the huge collection of 30th Division pictures I have are all original B&W images.

.

[KodiakBeer]

Maybe, someday, I'll get the nerve to finish and publish my book. "A Long Way from Heaven." Then you will hear truly rude, crude and mean spirited criticism!

Follow this link: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

Once you register you'll find everything you need to get started, along with a forum of other writers who are happy to pass along all the little tricks and shortcuts to make it easier.

These Ebooks are a revolution in publishing and the demand is insatiable and growing by leaps and bounds as more and more people buy Kindles and various other devices that display Ebooks. There's never been a better time to break into writing. Ever.


.

[KodiakBeer]

OK, the book will be free once more on Saturday, the 31st of March. This is an expanded version (1800 kb vs 1100 kb) with a lot more pictures and about 20% more text.

So, even those who have already purchased might want to download this expanded version. I suspect you may need to delete the old copy before you download the new one, though I'd suggest trying to download before taking that step.

In this new and final version, all the pix have been upgraded to 300 dpi and there are more of them. The actual mauling pix have now been professionally scanned and replaced.

This added work is not that useful for those with the old style B&W Kindle, but the new Kindle Fire will really make these pop.

For those without a Kindle, you can download this (color) app and read the book on your PC: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...l_6g97entshf_b

The actual book download is here: http://www.amazon.com/A-Kodiak-Bear-...2693982&sr=1-1

[Johnny Dollar]

This added work is not that useful for those with the old style B&W Kindle, but the new Kindle Fire will really make these pop.

I've thinking about getting a Kindle Fire. My Barnes & Noble Nook's (which was a appreciated gift) main drawback is the extremely higher prices on new and older material compared to Amazon's Kindle.

Recently, I priced Vincent Bugliosi's massive 1600 page Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
published in 2007. I ended up finding it on Ebay in hard cover for $14.

On Nook, it was $43. On Kindle, it was $10. This is an extreme example, but the Nook prices make the Kindle look much more desirable in the long run, especially if you are a heavy reader,IMO.

And KB,thank you for the update on your book.

[KodiakBeer]

I'm looking pretty hard at that Kindle Fire also.

The real secret of Kindle is realized when you search the Amazon data base for free books. There are tens of thousands of obscure (and famous) books available for nada. Most of them are just out of copyright and some kind soul doesn't want them lost, so they scan or type them up and convert them to Kindle format for posterity.

Then, there is the unbelievable number of similar books in the data base for 99 cents.

It's this enormous library that puts Amazon/Kindle in the lead and will keep them there.

There is a lot of crap out there as well - people typing up old recipes (whatever) and throwing them in for 99 cents. In January, Amazon did a house cleaning and deleted most of the crap. I think that's going to become an annual task and an important one. It can be tedious to pore through all the crap looking for the gems.

I've got a dozen or more free and 99 cent books on my Kindle that I haven't even gotten to yet.

[Lanius]

Glad to see the book is being improved upon.

The prose is, like others say, competent. IMO, at least. Plenty of bestsellers out there with far worse writing. Of course, that is not praise, just pointing out the success of a book is not always down to the quality of the writing...

[Johnny Dollar]

Welcome back,Lanius!