Monday, 24 May 2021

Bookstores - How to cash-in on ebooks!

Bookshops everywhere are worried. There's a revolution going on and they are losing sales because of it. The revolution is that of ebooks!

Oh I know there are those who say 'I love the feel and smell of a proper book' but these are mostly people who have not yet got an ebook reader. Once these people have got their hands on one it doesn't take long for them to change their minds. That means fewer sales of paper books.

Yet we all still like going to the library and browsing the books in a bookstore. Having found the book we like do we then buy the paper format or simply make a note of it and look it up at Amazon later to get it in ebook format? I have to admit, I've done the latter many times but felt guilty that I've denied the bookseller a profit from the sale. He/she has, after all, helped me in my book purchase.

So how can the bookstore make money from ebooks? I think there is an answer, and one which is simple to put in practice.

How a bookstore can cash-in on ebooks

(Authors - read this and the bit at the bottom too.)

The bookseller makes use of Amazon's affiliate program. Here's how to do this:

If you, the bookseller, have not already joined Amazon's associate program then sign up for it at:
UK - https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/
US - https://affiliate-program.amazon.com
Ca - https://associates.amazon.ca/
If you do not have a Twitter account then sign up for that at
https://twitter.com/
Add the site stripe to your Amazon account
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/landing/tools.html
On your computer navigate to a book's page at Amazon and click the Twitter button on the associate site stripe toolbar

Copy the text as far as the 'via@...
Paste that text into a QL generator page on Internet. I use the QR Code generator at http://goqr.me/

At this stage you can edit the text to include the price and any other details you wish to include.
Copy the QR code generated and paste it into Word for further editing as follows:
Print this out on a self adhesive label and fix it inside the back cover (or on the back if there's space). You might also need to make a few posters advertising your ebook service and where the customer can get a free QR code scanner app for their mobile phone. (Try QR Droid)

Customers browsing your books can scan the QR codes and buy the books immediately using Amazon's 'one touch'. You get the commission on the sale.

Of course there is no reason why this should be restricted to using Amazon as an ebook provider. If an author comes into your store promoting his/her books negotiate a deal with them to sell their ebooks through Smashwords - Not only do they support more reading devices but they provide a higher royalty rate to the author - 85% and the affiliate rate can be set so that you get a higher commission on the sale than you would get from Amazon 30-40% would seem fair. Creating affiliate links to Smashwords books is ridiculously simple compared to Amazon links too. I give a 35% rate on all my ebooks there

You might even end up making more money from ebooks than you do from paper books and you won't have to do a thing at the till!

Now the bit for Authors

Consider getting some bookmarks printed on thin card which you can give away free to bookstores, libraries and elsewhere. You can create a QR code to add to the bottom. Bookstores can print a label to replace this with their own QR code which would give them an affiliate fee if someone downloads a book. You might even offer to print personalized bookmarks for individual bookstores/libraries.

Here's some examples I produced to be printed on thin card using a colour laser printer. Once printed they can be guillotined apart. I get seven bookmarks per A4 sheet.

The bookstore can give these away when someone buys a paper book. Readers like them!

Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Immortality Gene

Is it possible that one day humans could have a greatly extended lifespan and be effectively immortal? There are many scientists who think this is not only possible but will happen during our lifetimes.

Discoveries so far:

Telomeres are areas at the end of DNA strands which get shorter as we age and seem to protect the DNA strand as it replicates itself.
What was formerly called 'Junk' DNA, seems to protect DNA strands from ionising radiation and oxidising agents.
We are under constant attack by viruses. When a cell is infected it usually dies and is replaced but in some cells your DNA is slightly damaged and survives like that. The accumulation of damaged DNA produces the symptoms of aging. Every time you catch a cold - it makes you that little bit older!
There's something in young mice blood which rejuvenates old mice. It's absent in the blood of older mice and if removed from young mice, they age quickly.
There is an immortality gene. As you get older it seems to be switched off. As our understanding of DNA grows we hope to switch it back on.
Foods containing anti-oxidising agents seem to slow down aging.

Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation believes that the first person to live to age 1,000 is alive now.

Even if all the medical research comes to nothing, others believe it will be possible to download a human mind into a computer soon—within the next 25 years. That mind can then control a robotic body which won't have out biological frailties (but will have replaceable mechanical parts).

Either way—what's the point?

No one wants to live a long and unhappy life. Few people want to work forever. Will you get tired of your job and find it becomes a chore? Will you get tired of friends and partners?

In each case we are thinking in 'three score and ten' mentality. We have a fear of getting old.

We assume that with age comes infirmity. What if this is not the case?
We assume that we'll look older. What if you could revert back to looking age 25 and stay that way?
We assume we will have just one career. With a greatly extended lifespan you have time to change careers many times.
We assume that we will get tired of partners leading to divorce. There are people in the world who have found the perfect partner and have long and happy marriages. You might now have time to find that person.
We assume we'll get bored. With an extended lifespan you have time to learn new skills; time for leisure; time to explore new things.
We assume life will be a constant struggle with money. Put away the equivalent of $5.00 per month and by the time you are 1,667 you'll have the equivalent of $100,000 even if you earn no interest. As Albert Einstein famously stated: “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it... he who doesn’t... pays it.”

What is an immortal's lifespan?

Unfortunately it's not forever. Insurance tables tell us that if all other causes of death were removed, you would probably face a fatal accident within 1729 years. Being immortal won't stop that (although downloads might allow you to be resurrected). In any event entropy exists and eventually the stars providing our energy will run down. We'll then face something like Isaac Asimov's short story 'The last question'.
Incidentally did you know my Twitter name is @JChapman1729?

What can we do with immortality?

We can save all life on earth. At the moment we are very vulnerable to extinction level events such as the one which wiped out the dinosaurs. Just because it happened a long time ago doesn't mean it won't happen again. When it happens we and the other large animals are likely to be made extinct.
We're also vulnerable to the sort of impact which created the moon. If another one of those occurred all life on earth would be destroyed. This is the underlying theme of our 'A Vested Interest' book series, the first of which, 'Immortality Gene' is free.
A passing rogue neutron star or wandering black hole will also destroy all life without hitting the earth. It would move the earth out of the 'Goldilocks zone' making life impossible.

Only by creating a colony of life away from earth can we ensure life's survival. Such a colony has to be around a different star and in the absence of faster than light travel, it will take a lot longer than a 'normal' lifespan to get there. We need to construct a habitat in which people can live, play and enjoy their lives. A long term Ark of all lifeforms on earth. Now isn't that a better idea than trying to kill each other?

Thursday, 6 September 2018

If Humans Were Immortal...

If humans were immortal... (Updated)

Let's suppose a medical research team did discover a way of reversing old age and the effects of illness, effectively making people immortal. What should they do with their 'fix'?

Should they sell it at a huge price so that only the rich could afford it?
Should they make it freely available to everyone by using a life virus to infect everyone it comes in contact with?
Should they make it available for a small fee to anyone who wants it on condition they are sterilized first?
Should immortality be reserved for those who have proved they deserve it?
Should they hide their discovery in fear of the chaos it would cause?

I think you'll agree that option 1 is just simply wrong. The only way it would be successful would be for the discovery to remain a top secret. Once the knowledge got out - and it would get out - those who had benefited would be universally hated and would die at the hands of a mob probably.

Option 2 takes away the right of people to choose. There would be some who would say that this was playing god and was just wrong. Expect riots from these people; they would be quoting a verse from Genesis:

Genesis 6:3: "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years."

Another group would resent their lack of choice and would press for assisted suicide programs.
Can you see option 3 being popular? What if the 'fix' undid the sterilization. Would people pay to have this reversed once they were immortal?
Who chooses the 'worthy' in option 4? What if you are a worthy individual but never got a chance to prove it?
Would any doctor agree to option 5? Isn't the whole purpose of medicine to extend human life? Do people have the moral right to hide such a discovery?
A Vested Interest story chooses option 2. If the story in 'A Vested Interest' were to become reality, just what would be the effect?

If Humans Had a lifespan of 1,000+ Years

What is immortality?

Our book suggests a lifetime of 1729 years. That's not immortal but assumes a human will stay healthy until killed by an accident, starvation, war, an 'Extinction Level Event' (ELE) or some other overwhelming event. According to insurance tables that would happen on average in 1729 years. (Hey - did you know my Twitter name is @JChapman1729?)

Damaged tissue would be regenerated. An amputee would re-grow a limb, hair would re-grow on the bald, lost teeth would be replaced and body parts lost through surgery would be replaced. That includes contraceptive surgery! Cosmetic surgery would be stable if it was to repair physical or age damage but would reverse if it were done to change appearance.
What would happen to the population of the world? The population could be expected to soar initially putting a huge strain on the food supply and the demand for resources and energy. Many millions would starve. However, gradually the desperate 'urge' driving us to reproduce and replace ourselves would be brought under control - we would, after all, have plenty of time for that 'later' when we felt more secure. Eventually the population would be brought under control at a level a great deal higher than it is now..
Food would be scarce initially but again this would be resolved as more areas became cultivated including sea farms, 'arid' areas and underground. It's likely that new food sources would be developed including bacterial cultures, fungal sources and direct synthesis. Cellulose from plants - wheat straw, bamboo, kelp and grasses would be converted to edible food. Real meat will be grown in laborartory factories without killing the animals the initial cells came from with less enviromental impact and in a shorter time.
Water would be scarce in many areas for some time. A grid taking water from where it is plentiful to other areas would eventually be created.
The natural inclination would be to fight for food, land and resources. Initially that's exactly what would happen but we would eventually learn that cooperation produces better results.
Soldiers would think twice before fighting for any other principles - it is one thing to give up 30-40 years of life but an entirely different thing to give up 1000+ years. Those who didn't see things this way would probably not be missed!
A career would probably not be a lifetime decision. It would be changed many times. You would not want to stay in a hated job and would have plenty of time to learn new skills. The demand for education would be high as older generations go back to school to learn new skills. As far as normal K12 education was concerned the pressure would be off and there would be more time for 'fun' in school with lessons being devoted to leisure activities and non-vocational skills. K12 would become K20?
Politicians would want to remain in power for much longer, the climb up the political ladder would be much harder. Maybe we would someday elect 'reluctant politicians' who would see it as their civic duty to serve for a time rather than out of a desire for power. After all; anyone who wants to lead a country is probably the last person you should give the job to!
Premeditated crimes of violence would eventually decrease. Those inclined to violence would, over time, be eliminated from the gene pool by that very violence. Crimes of passion would no doubt continue!
The urge to move to a better place would be overwhelming - even if that meant transforming a harsh environment to make it livable.
Undersea and underground communities would be set up - anywhere there is space available. The Earth's surface might eventually become a park for leisure.
Space would be colonized; the Moon and asteroids first, followed by Mars, the satellites of other planets and finally other solar systems.
Raw materials and energy would be at a premium. Both will cause problems initially but will be solved as nuclear fusion, deep robotic mining and resources from space become available. Getting space resources using rockets would be found impractical and space elevators would be constructed.
Waste heat would become a major problem. Much of it will be recycled though.
Recycling of waste would be a major industry.
Concerns about global warming would soar for a while, then prove unfounded as people realize that sea levels just are not rising abnormally and temperatures start to fall around 2040 as we enter the next ice age. (Try reading Michael Crichton's 'State of Fear'). The drive to reduce carbon emissions would continue though since we wouldn't be able to burn fossil fuels needed as raw materials.
Technology will continue to develop at an ever faster rate. Computers and nanotechnology especially. Look forward to a personal computer you can talk to, carry with you, display within your eyes and hear through your teeth!
The average intelligence of the population would increase slowly. A surprising number of 'Darwin Award' candidates would fail to breed.
Most medical staff apart from those dealing with accidents and research would be out of a job. An end perhaps to the ridiculous hours they work?
Retirement and pensions would be a thing of the past. The working week would be shorter and holidays longer.
There would be less 'haste' in everyday life. You now have 'plenty of time'.
Leisure demand would soar. A huge number of people would be employed by it.
Drug companies would mostly convert to biotechnology, go out of business or convert to supplying chemical resources and producing food.
People would have an increased awareness of natural disasters and put more energy into averting them.
Languages would be less of a problem, people would have the time to learn them and eventually we could see a common language developing from bits of all.
Euthanasia centers would be accepted. Who wants to live a long and unhappy life?
We would run out of fossil fuels and resort to biotechnology, nanotechnology and asteroid mining to replace them. Biofuels from products such as corn would prove to be a dead end since the raw materials would be needed to produce food. Algae farming would become important.

Is This Real?

Is it possible? According to Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation, an organisation dedicated to ending ageing, the first person to live to 1,000 is probably alive now. Watch his TED talk on this subject or his interview with 'Hardtalk' at the BBC.

Will this happen soon?

It's already starting to take place. In 2015 a biotech company used genetic engineering to treat a woman, Liz Parrish. As a result her telomeres increased in length by 9%. That's equivalent to reversing 20 years of aging. Find out more at Bioviva. On March 9th 2015 a document was published detailing research into 'Senolytics' You can read the technical medical document here or read a simpler version at The Independent

If this post has helped or entertained, will you help us? Download a FREE copy of our book 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi
Even if you never read it (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.

And your views...?

Have I answered the question "What if humans were immortal?"
Now it's your turn. Please use the comments to tell us what you think will happen. Would 'immortality' be a blessing, a curse or somewhere in between?

Want more information? Check out these related 'immortality gene' sites:

Immortality Gene Discovered | Science
Stem cell 'immortality' gene found | New Scientist
Biological immortality - Wikipedia
Bioengineering immortality - Understanding Genetics - TheTech.org
Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality - Live Science
Immortality, Regenerative Medicine, and the Origin of Death - UK NHS
Immortality and Society: The Consequences of Ending Aging - Senescence.info

Sunday, 22 April 2018

No wonder 'free' is synonymous with 'valueless'

Browsing the free Sci-Fi books at Smashwords I came across a book which looked interesting, apparently about genetic manipulation of DNA producing monstrous people. Since genetic manipulation is the subject of my book series, I downloaded it and started reading.

The first page put me off and by the time I got to page seven that was enough. I should have known better; here's the book's description:

Today we use viruses to change people’s genetics to fix that which evolution tossed for them at the moment of creation the moment two reproductive cells came together to make a whole cell exploding with life and promise These things can improve a life immensely But men are never satisfied, never ever satisfied with Just a little of a good thing no they must have control they want everything

Notice the punctuation? The absence of periods at the end of sentences, missing commas, capitals in the middle and that last bit?

The content of the book was just the same. You could make out what the author wanted to say but, without sticking to any rules of grammar, it was very hard to read. On the first page of the story I found:

'the contracts id signed would get me severe penalties jail time at the very least'

Ignoring the 'id', lack of a semicolon or a period, I decided it was obviously written in first person viewpoint. A few pages later the viewpoint changed to third person omnipotent. By that time, I had learnt that the hero was 'Bill' or sometimes 'bill', that the author didn't always close speech marks, that he didn't know the difference between 'loose' and 'lose' and that he didn't start speech with a capital letter or use any punctuation at its end.

I read no further. I didn't leave a review or comment since I had read so little. Neither am I going to identify the book or the author. I'm sure you'll be able to find it if you are interested enough. I see the author has now raised the price to $3.00 - I wish him good luck with that!
How, in this day and age, can a book be put out with so many grammar errors? Most word processors will draw attention to errors like this. MS Word, by far the most common word processor, certainly will. Surely the author is aware of his grammar inadequacy? Wouldn't you think he would have it checked?

If this book's author does, by any chance, read this - please - invest in a grammar checker. Try Grammarly.com, Autocrit.com or Ginger.com. All offer free trials

Postscript

I delayed three years before making this post to give the author concerned time to fix things. But - no change and the book is now available elsewhere, mostly as the very worst form of ebook - a PDF. I still have not left a review as I didn't continue reading it and can't comment on the story.

Please - don't base your view of independent publishing on books like this. There are many excellent indie books, but many are drowning in a sea of dross.

Saturday, 18 February 2017

The Message

Can You Decode the 'Stones, Stars and Solutions' Document?

In the Triplet Family an impossible document has been passed down through the generations since 1099 when it was captured during the sack of Jerusalem in the first Crusade. The Triplet family are quite sure it is genuine and not a modern creation.

It's impossible because it contains languages from all over the world and dates from a time when these civilizations didn't know about each other.

We've translated the words for you:

(There's a bigger version shown below which may be easier to read)

The original was supposed to be written on thin sheets of gold but it was copied onto parchment. It consists of 4199 words written in a total of 13 languages.

The languages used are from all over the world and are:

Hieroglyphs - Egyptian 3200 BCE – 400 CE deciphered 1820
Cuneiform - Sumerian 3000 BCE - 100 CE deciphered 1836
Old Chinese - Chinese 1200 BCE - 300 BCE
Phoenician - Now Lebanon & Syria 1000 BCE - 250 BCE
Latin - Roman 650 BCE onwards
Greek - Greece 800 BCE onwards
Hebrew - Israel 2000 BCE onwards
Middle Aramaic - Arabia 200 CE - 1200 CE
Mayan - Guatemala & Belize 200 BCE - 1700 CE deciphered 1980
Tibetan - Tibet 650 CE onwards
Punic - Tunisia (Carthage) 900 BCE - 300 CE
Sanskrit (Brahmi) - India 300 BCE - 200 CE deciphered
An unknown language.

The message appears to be written in blocks of 323 words. The words written in known languages are repeated in each block but apparently in a random order and different languages are used. The words written in the unknown language do not appear to be repeated.

The same two hieroglyph words are written in each 323 word block.

this one is translated as Anubis

and this one is Order.

This symbol is used as a word three times in each 323 block of text. They occur in the same positions in each 323 word block. This symbol does not appear to be a character of the unknown language - it would be too slow to draw.

All of the words written in the unknown language are exactly 8 symbols long.

323 = 17 x 19. If the words are arrainged in a 17 x 19 grid then the last 323 block of text would appear as follows (The languages have been translated for you and you'll have to scroll it to see it all).

Arranged like this the word Anubis always appears at the right hand side of the grid.

There are 22 symbols used in the unknown language including a • which is possibly used as as a separator. The symbol

is also possibly used as some form of punctuation.

Apart from these two symbols and 16 other symbols which occur in the last text block all of the other symbols used consist of four other symbols only. These symbols are:

The Triplet family also hold a rectangular shape 'stone' which also bears some of these symbols, some lines and crosses:.

The message and stone are said to hold the secret to a great power. The Triplet family have been unable to completely decipher it although a great deal more progress has been made since the 1980s when the Mayan language was first translated.

Can you decode the message?

Here's some clues:

Words written in hieroglyphs can be read left to right or right to left. Find the direction animals face and read in that direction. In the message above the symbols making the words Anubis and Order face left.
Words written in Phoenician never appear at the bottom of each 17 x 19 grid
Words written in Old Chinese never appear at the left or at the bottom of the text
Words written in...

If you give up remember it remained unsolved for a thousand years AND you can cheat, because the solution is available in our book 'Stones, Stars and Solutions'.

Friday, 27 January 2017

How to make an iPad read iBooks aloud to you

Getting a Kindle Fire to read a Kindle ebook aloud to you is easy but what about iBooks on an iPad?

Apple don't make it obvious but you can make an iPad read books aloud to you also. Here's what you need to do….

First you are going to need a book in EPUB format. All iBooks are in this format already. If you don't have one - you can get the one I'm using in this image, Raging Storm, free at http://smarturl.it/ibotr You can also send EPUB files to your iCloud email address. When you get the file tap it and add it to iBooks.
On your iPad go to Settings.
At the right scroll down to 'Accessibility' and select it.
Find 'Speech' and select it.
Turn on 'Speak selection' and 'Highlight Content'. Tap 'Highlight Content' again and choose 'Words'
Use the slider on 'Speaking rate' to adjust the speed to what you want. There is a delay on this, it will start speaking when you let go of the slider.
Now leave 'Settings' and go to the iBooks app.
Load a book.
At the top right of the screen tap the AA Turn on 'scrolling view.'
Now tap the first word of the book then drag the blue drag handle (bottom right corner) as far as you want it to read.
Select 'speak' and it will read the text you have selected to you.

Happy listening.

Hey did you know that you can get the 9th book in the 'A Vested Interest' series - Dust to Dust ?

It's available for pre-order at Amazon and will be published on 1st Feb. 2017 (My birthday) Most of our ebooks are DRM free so you could convert it to EPUB using the free program 'calibre'.

Here's the Amazon link - http://smarturl.it/dtd

Sunday, 14 August 2016

Where is everyone?

Is anyone out there?

On February 1st 1985 the Search for Extraterrestrial Life - SETI began operations. Since then they have checked thousands of star systems and found - nothing.

Why is that?

There are a number of possible reasons. Let's take a look at some of them.

There isn't anyone other than us. Let's see - There are several hundred billion other stars in our Galaxy, and more than 100 billion other galaxies in the part of the universe we can see. It would be extraordinary if we were the only thinking beings in all these vast realms. If there isn't anyone else - 'that's an awful waste of space.'
There are other intelligent beings but we are the most advanced and the others haven't developed the technology we could detect. How likely is that? There's nothing remarkable about our star. Why should we be the leading civilisation?
There are other intelligent beings but they are far more advanced than us and have no desire to contact us or are unwilling to do so. That's possible, after all we on earth conceived Star Trek with it's 'prime directive.
The other civilisations are just too far away for us to detect and for them to detect us. Let's see. We've been using radio since 1880. Let's be generous and assume an intelligent race could pick up radio waves generated by our use of alternating current. We started doing that in 1832. Let's be even more generous and round that up to 200 years. Here's a picture of how far radio waves would have travelled in our galaxy in those 200 years - it's the blue dot. Not the black square!
According to some astronomers there are about 14,600 stars in that blue dot. The chances are the aliens won't be aware of us. We can see much further than 200 light years. The further away a star is, the further back in time we look. 200 years ago we were using horses and carts and just starting to use railways. Any civilisation we detect will be ahead of us in technology. That assumes they are wise enough not to have destroyed themselves.)
We are just incredibly lucky to have survived extinction level events to the point where civilisation develops. Extinction level events or ELEs happen regularly.
Extinction Level Event Occurrence

Event	Happens on average every: (years)	Years since last one
Asteroid impact (10 km+ size)	100,000,000	65,000,000
Supervolcano eruption	4,900,000	26,500
Nearby nova, supernova or gamma ray burst (A terrifying prospect because it could sterilise a whole group of stellar systems)	240,000	12,000
Ice age	100,000	110.000
Geomagnetic reversal	200,000 (varies considerably)	781,000

Advanced civilisations no longer use radio. That may be true; after all it is limited by the speed of light and the distances involved are vast. The trouble is we have no idea of what to replace radio with. Perhaps one day we will make that breakthrough and suddenly find ourselves eavesdropping on a vast interstellar communication system.

My money is on number 5. We've barely started looking though, and number 4 is a possibility.

What does this tell us?

We need to keep looking. I'm awfully afraid though, if we don't start pushing out into Space, the life on earth will not survive to ever make contact with aliens. Wouldn't it be better to spend our money pushing out from the earth than on endless silly wars that nobody wants to fight? That is the theme of our 'A Vested Interest' book series.

If this post has helped or entertained, will you help us? Download a FREE copy of our book 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi It's part of a series dealing with our need to push out into Space.
Even if you never read it (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.

And your views...?

Now it's your turn. Please use the comments to tell us why you think we haven't detected signs of intelligent life in Space. (Yes - I know. We haven't detected signs of it on earth either!)

Monday, 17 March 2014

Your agent submission was rejected?

One thing you should be prepared for though; agents are absolutely inundated with submissions. They probably will take a while to look at what you wrote and may very well return your submission. Few are accepted. If that happens – don’t give up, try a different agent. I've seen reports that an average agent accepts just 2% of authors who approach.

The chances are that sooner or later you’ll probably get discouraged by rejections. At that point you should take a serious look at what you've submitted.

Five points you need to check:

Does it have that ‘hook’ to catch interest? In other words does it catch your interest in the very beginning? Think of how you browse for books in a bookstore. Would you buy your book based on the content of the first three pages?
Here’s the opening paragraphs from ‘The Power Trip’ by Jackie Collins as an example:
Would that make you want to keep reading?
Get someone else to read the synopsis you include. Do they find it interesting?
Does it have a prologue? If so get rid of it. For many agents a prologue is an instant turn-off. Oh – before someone points out that those Jackie Collins lines come from the start of a prologue, it seems a very short prologue – more like a very short chapter which Jackie didn't dare call ‘Chapter 1’.
Is the story the right length? It should be 60,000 -120,000 words. Any shorter and publishers will be reluctant to publish it because setting it up will be too expensive. Any longer and it will be too expensive to edit and they’ll be reluctant to invest so much in an untried author.
Is your accompanying letter good enough? Try including in your cover letter a one paragraph story synopsis starting with 'When..' and using this formula.

[Protagonist] who finds himself/herself in [situation] from which he/she tries to free himself/herself by [goal]. However, the [antagonist] wants to stop [protagonist] from this, and if successful, will cause the [protagonist] to experience [disastrous result].

Here’s an example of its use:

When a young girl moves to live with her father in a small town in Washington, she meets the boy of her dreams. He has a dark secret which she discovers. In doing so, she finds herself at risk of death from people like him. She is rescued by her new boyfriend, but still is at risk from others like him who want to kill her. She knows that all will be solved if she shares her boyfriend’s secret, but he is reluctant to allow this since he fears it will turn her into a monster.

Recognize the story? Twilight?

If you are confident that you have met all these requirements, continue making multiple submissions to agents at the same time rather than one at a time. Agents don’t really like you doing this but often it’s the only way to cut submission times from years to months.

The one thing you shouldn't do is to allow yourself to be discouraged to the point where your book is never published ‘because it isn't any good’. Repeated rejections are quite normal. Few authors ever find success immediately. I know of one successful author who bound all her rejection letters into a long roll and when she’s asked to speak about the process dramatically allows it to unroll across the room.

By the time you've had 30 rejections it's time to consider going down the self-publishing route. Maybe you should have done that first?

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Do You Prefer E-Books or Print?

I'll choose e-readers - no contest.

Whilst I too love the smell and feel of a book, we buy them for their content not their smell and feel. If the lack of 'paper smell' bothers you you can buy a 'book smell' perfume to spray on your e-reader.
I'd much rather carry an e-reader than the complete Encyclopaedia Britannica. I think my library of 3,000+ paper books probably weighs about a ton. Most of them could fit on my Kindle Keyboard
I've just finished reading a hardback book I've had since 2009. Stephen King's 'Under the Dome.' I had not read it because it weighs 1.3 kilograms (2.3 pounds) - too heavy to read unsupported. (Enjoyable book if you want to read it - get the e-book at B&N because Amazon seem to have a problem with it's publisher)
Putting another book on the bookshelf may satisfy some people but I have trouble finding a space for an extra book on my shelves. I've used up all the normal space (two books deep) and have run out of space between the book tops and the next shelf!
I like to read relaxing in a bath. I may fall asleep and a soggy book is not easy to salvage. Your e-reader may not like water either but you can read it inside a ziplock plastic bag far easier than a paper copy!
My e-readers play music and can read my book to me. The only paper book I have that does that was bought years ago for my children.
Can you get Internet on a paper book? Maybe this will be possible in the future when flexible screens become available. My Nexus 7 has full Internet, plays movies, makes video calls and takes pictures also. (OK - not excellent ones)
Price? In general e-books cost less than a new book. Second-hand paper books may cost even less but that may change.
When you buy an e-book you buy a licence to read it. Most people are not keen on this but if you face a disaster which destroys your library - a fire, your ebooks will still be there in the cloud whereas your paper books will be in the smoke.
The 'wicked bible' error.

Few books are perfect. They contain typos, spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, timeline errors, sentences which could be phrased better. Once you've bought a paper book - you're stuck with the errors but ebooks can be updated.

That's my choice. What about you?

Friday, 8 March 2013

What if science discovered a way to stop and reverse ageing?

If humans were immortal...

Get it at Amazon http://smarturl.it/avi
or iTunes http://smarturl.it/iavi

Let's suppose a medical research team did discover a way of reversing old age and the effects of illness, effectively making people immortal. What should they do with their 'fix'?

Should they sell it at a huge price so that only the rich could afford it?
Should they make it freely available to everyone by using a life virus to infect everyone it comes in contact with?
Should they make it available for a small fee to anyone who wants it on condition they are sterilized first?
Should immortality be reserved for those who have proved they deserve it?
Should they hide their discovery in fear of the chaos it would cause?

Option 2 takes away the right of people to choose. There would be some who would say that this was playing God and was just wrong. Expect riots from these people. Another group would resent their lack of choice and would press for assisted suicide programs - who wants to live a long and unhappy life?

Can you see option 3 being popular? What if the 'fix' undid the sterilization. Would people pay to have this reversed once they were immortal?

Who chooses the 'worthy' in option 4? What if you are a worthy individual but never got a chance to prove it?

Would any doctor agree to option 5? Isn't the whole purpose of medicine to extend human life? Do people have the moral right to hide such a discovery?

In our book A Vested Interest - Immortality Gene the story chooses option 2. If the story in 'A Vested Interest' were to become reality, just what would be the effect?

The book suggests a lifetime of 1729 years. That's not immortal but assumes a human will stay healthy until killed by an accident, starvation, war, an 'Extinction Level Event' (ELE) or some other overwhelming event. According to insurance tables I found that would happen on average in 1729 years.
Damaged tissue would be regenerated. An amputee would re-grow a limb, hair would re-grow on the bald, lost teeth would be replaced and body parts lost through surgery would be replaced. That includes contraceptive surgery! Cosmetic surgery would be stable if it was to repair physical or age damage but would reverse if it were done to change appearance.
What would happen to the population of the world? The population could be expected to soar initially putting a huge strain on the food supply and the demand for resources and energy. Many millions would starve. However, gradually the desperate 'urge' driving us to reproduce and replace ourselves would be brought under control - we would, after all, have plenty of time for that 'later' when we felt more secure. No longer would we feel the need to have children to help us in our old age. Eventually the population would be brought under control at a level a great deal higher than it is now.
Food would be scarce initially but again this would be resolved as more areas became cultivated including sea farms, 'arid' areas and underground. It's likely that new food sources would be developed including bacterial cultures, fungal sources and direct synthesis. Cellulose from plants - wheat straw, bamboo, kelp and grasses would be converted to edible food. Meat would be cultured from cells taken from living animals.
Water would be scarce in many areas for some time. A grid taking water from where it is plentiful to other areas would eventually be created.
The natural inclination would be to fight for food, land and resources. Initially that's exactly what would happen but we would eventually learn that cooperation produces better results.
Soldiers might think twice before fighting for any other principles - it is one thing to give up 30-40 years of life but an entirely different thing to give up 1000+ years. Those who didn't see things this way would probably not be missed!
A career would probably not be a lifetime decision. It would be changed many times. You would not want to stay in a hated job and would have plenty of time to learn new skills. The demand for education would be high as older generations go back to school to learn new skills. As far as normal K12 education was concerned the pressure would be off and there would be more time for 'fun' in school with lessons being devoted to leisure activities. K12 would become K15?
Politicians would want to remain in power for much longer, the climb up the political ladder would be much harder. Maybe we would someday elect 'reluctant politicians' who would see it as their civic duty to serve for a time rather than out of a desire for power. After all; anyone who wants to lead a country is probably the last person you should give the job to!
Premeditated crimes of violence would eventually decrease. Those inclined to violence would, over time, be eliminated from the gene pool by that very violence. Crimes of passion would no doubt continue!
The urge to move to a better place would be overwhelming - even if that meant transforming a harsh environment to make it liveable.
Undersea and underground communities would be set up - anywhere there is space available. The Earth's surface might eventually become a park for leisure.
Space would be colonized; the Moon and asteroids first, followed by Mars, the satellites of other planets and finally other solar systems.
Raw materials and energy would be at a premium. Both will cause problems initially but will be solved as nuclear fusion, deep robotic mining and resources from space become available.
Waste heat would become a major problem. Much of it will be recycled though.
Recycling of waste would be a major industry.
Concerns about global warming would soar for a while then prove unfounded as people realize that sea levels just are not rising. and the temperature starts to fall around 2040 as we enter the next ice age. (Try reading Michael Crichton's 'State of Fear'). The drive to reduce carbon emissions would continue though since we wouldn't be able to burn fossil fuels needed as raw materials.
Technology will continue to develop at an ever faster rate. Computers and nanotechnology especially. Look forward to a personal computer you can talk to, carry with you, display within your eyes and hear through your teeth!
The average intelligence of the population would increase slowly. A surprising number of 'Darwin Award' candidates would fail to breed.
Most medical staff apart from those dealing with accidents and research would be out of a job. An end perhaps to the ridiculous hours they work?
Retirement and pensions would be a thing of the past. The working week would be shorter and holidays longer.
There would be less 'haste' in everyday life. You now have 'plenty of time'.
Leisure demand would soar.
Drug companies would mostly convert to biotechnology, go out of business or convert to supplying chemical resources and producing food.
People would have an increased awareness of natural disasters and put more energy into averting or nullifying their effects.
Languages would be less of a problem, people would have the time to learn them and eventually we could see a common language developing from bits of all.
Euthanasia centers would be accepted. Who wants to live a long and unhappy life?
We would run out of fossil fuels and resort to biotechnology, nanotechnology and asteroid mining to replace them. Biofuels from products such as corn would prove to be a dead end since the raw materials would be needed to produce food. Algae farming would become important.
Meat (and leather) would be grown from cells extracted from living animals rather than from slaughtered animals. It would cost less and be better for the environment. Those animals still seen in the countryside, would be there to keep open grassland.

Is it possible? According to Aubrey de Grey the first person to live to 1,000 is probably alive now.

What's your view? Which of the five options above do you think would be chosen - or can you think of a sixth?

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Blogging to promote your book

What sort of blog post should an author make?

John Locke in his book How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! suggested that the best method an author could use to use blogging to promote a book was not to write about the book itself but to produce a blog post designed to go viral and which contains subtle links which encourage the reader to find out about your book. Although John is currently in 'author disgrace' over the paid for reviews issue, he's spot on with his blogging technique.

John Locke's famous blog post

John Locke

John wrote a post Why I Love Joe Paterno and my Mom! in which he blogged about how his mother encouraged him to find a role model, his choice being Joe Paterno, a longtime football coach at Penn State. The blog makes only a minor reference to John being an author but is hosted on his website where his audience can read more about his work. John promoted the blog by sending the link to it to Penn State University related bulletin boards, blogs and people tweeting about PSU. It quickly went viral, being read not just by football fans. Part of its attraction was his choice of title - we may not all know Joe Paterno but we all have a mother.

My attempt at a John Locke style post

I had a go at writing a John Locke type blog post myself. Here's what I came up with:

Bio-terrorism and the cure for the common cold

How to catch a cold

Everyone knows how easy it is to catch a cold but there are some things about the process that aren't common knowledge. Let's try an experiment. While you read this don't touch your eyes!

Imagine someone with a cold gets in a lift. They sneeze and a fine mist of spray spreads everywhere. It quickly settles though. They get to their floor and exit the lift. You call the lift from two floors down and the first thing you do when you get in is to press the button to select your floor. A button covered by a fine spray of cold virus.

So now you have the cold virus on your finger. Not a big problem, it's unlikely to get through the skin on your finger. Of course you could infect yourself with a cold by now eating something.

Touched or want to touch your eyes yet?

As you've probably found out by now, we touch our eyes all the time and as soon as you do, that virus finds a warm, moist very thin membrane and promptly infects you. Ever noticed how a cold can make your eyes sore?

Deliberately spreading contagion

Now imagine a terrorist intent on using biological warfare. A good way to spread contagion would be to spread their substance on anything which people frequently touch. Lift buttons, push plates on doors, door handles, shopping cart handles, magazines in a shop, newspapers and books in a library. Money! Forget the idea of sending letters. There are a huge number of ways of spreading any virus using things we touch.

Why there's no cure or vaccine

Now imagine a genetic researcher who has made a fantastic discovery. He/she has come up with a genetic fix which will forever stop people from catching the common cold.

Would you buy it assuming it's 100% safe and costs little? Of course you would!

So if this had been produced do you think you would get the opportunity? Frankly you would have as much chance as a celluloid cat being chased by an asbestos dog through the fires of Hell!

"Why?" I hear you ask. "If it was safe why wouldn't it be available?"

The answer is simple. The people who would be marketing this are the very people who make a fortune every year by selling cold remedies. Are they ever going to willingly give up those billions of dollars of regular income?

That's why there are really no serious research projects into curing or preventing the common cold. None of the so called remedies actually cure a cold. If you buy them you might, if you are lucky, get some slight relief from the symptoms ...and you can get that effect with a simple home remedy. Here's the recipe:

A home remedy

In a tall glass:

add 2 fingers depth whiskey (cheap stuff)
add 2 fingers depth honey
add 2 fingers depth lemon juice
Fill the glass with hot water, stir well and drink.
Go to bed with a good book and relax or sleep it off.

If you find your symptoms are not better after an hour or so repeat.

Now I know what some of you are going to say. "I don't like whiskey," but believe me - this tastes nothing like it. It tastes good, relieves a sore throat, relieves congestion and after three of them you won't care about the cold!

OK - free advice over; now let's consider something else.

What bio-terrorism has to do with a cure

Get it at Amazon http://smarturl.it/avi

During the course of researching our 'A Vested Interest' books I had occasion to investigate gene therapy. Imagine a genetic researcher has produced that cold cure. It really works and he knows it's safe. But he/she can't market it for the reasons explained above. He/she can't announce it either without putting their life at risk. There's a multi-billion dollar industry at stake here remember?

The researcher knows the people of the world want the cure though. Does that researcher have the right to deny them it? Should they risk the wrath of the drug companies to make it available?

I think you'll find that the researcher would adopt the bio-terrorist tactics to release his/her product.

Sooner or later some well meaning person will do this!

So how did my post do?

Well I followed the John Locke formula and wrote a post which replaced the common to all factor of 'Mum' with 'Cold' - something we've all gone through the misery of. Like John I made a subtle reference to being an author and didn't over emphasise 'the book'. I used a buzzword 'Bio-terrorism' instead of 'Joe Paterno' which played on media fear factor rather than hero worship. I even got some well known authors, including John Locke, adding comments - which I responded to. You can see the original post and comments here. My post didn't go viral however. John Locke's Joe Paterno post had 100s of comments and mine had 10. Where I failed was in promoting the blog.

I failed to seek out people posting about having a cold or bio-terrorism
I failed to use Twitter effectively. At the time John made his post he had 1000s of Twitter followers whereas I was new to Twitter, had only 200 followers and didn't know about hashtags or searching Twitter.
I didn't know about Triberr either and wasted the opportunity to have it promoted there.
My blog was hosted at blogspot rather than at my own domain and in the original post I didn't have links to my site.

In two areas my blog post was better than John's though.

I included a graphic. People like pictures - they are attention grabbers. Use relevant pictures!
I used lots of sub-headings. Subheadings allow the reader to quickly skim an article to see if it's what they are really interested in without having to read the whole thing.

What you as an author should do

Write about a blog subject which you know well and which you feel others should know about.
Don't write 'Buy my book' blog posts. Reading those is as popular as sitting down to watch just the adverts on TV.
Include subtle references to your author craft and books. Give the reader the opportunity to find out more if they wish.
Use pictures and break your blog down with subheadings.
Unless you have a massive blog following already, you are probably wasting your time if you don't have a good understanding of how to use Twitter and Triberr to promote your posts.
Seek out those who have blogged, discussed and tweeted about similar subjects and make them aware of the link to your post. Don't be afraid of posting to other authors. Authors are usually prolific readers - I read 64 books last year just on my Kindle.
Your aim is for the post to go viral!
Try and finish your blog post with a question. One which your readers will feel inclined to answer in the comments. Of course I didn't do that in my post. What do you think a good question to end on would have been?

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

What if my book on Amazon gets a bad review?

No matter how brilliant your book, sooner or later, someone will give it a bad review and you are going to hate it. You may even be convinced it's responsible for a sudden drop in sales.

Now you would expect that if the bad review was on Amazon that it would be hidden away from prospective readers to encourage sales but Amazon's policy is to be open about bad reviews and not hide them.

Why did you get a bad review?

If you read an unfavourable review you'll quickly find it will fit one of these categories:

The reader didn't like the story because it didn't match his/her expectations. Maybe they expected a medical thriller and saw only romance.
The reader wrote a detailed review pointing out flaws in the plot and explaining why they spoiled the story for them.
The review picks out spelling, grammar and formatting problems. That is your problem - make corrections urgently.
The reader had problems downloading or displaying the ebook. That hopefully should not be your problem but you might like to make Amazon aware of that.
The reader wrote a review which has nothing to do with your book! Maybe they have reviewed the wrong book?
The review is obviously hateful and indicates flaws which don't exist, trashing your book.

We've had our share of poor reviews
for our free book - Immortality Gene
(and some brilliant ones). We changed
the description, edited the book again
and bit our tongue over the #5 and 6.

If your poor review is #1 then it may be that you have to look again at your book description and the genre it's placed in. You'll quickly recognise the truth or not of what the reviewer is saying. let it be a learning experience.

For poor review #2, again learn from the review. Maybe your story needs revision? I doubt there is an author in existence who does not believe their work could be improved upon later.

Review type #3 means you are going to have to work harder at the proofreading stage or better still, employ a professional editor and a book formatter to do the job properly. One other cause for a spelling comment in a review is where the reader is unfamiliar with standard English spelling from a different country. Those writers from England, Canada and Australia often get taken to task over their spelling by reviewers from the US. They are apparently not aware that the words 'colour', 'centre', 'tyre' and 'defence' are not spelling errors.

Reviews #4 and #5 might be worth mentioning to Amazon. In the first case the reviewer should have the opportunity to download a functional copy of the book. In the second case it may be a reviewer error which can be withdrawn and applied to the correct book.

It's type #6 that is the greatest problem. If it contains swear words or personal attacks then complain to Amazon. This would be against their guidelines and aught to be removed. Amazon will not remove other reviews since everyone is entitled to their opinion. It may be the reviewer genuinely hated your book. If that's the case - why did they bother? It may be that this review was placed by a competitor in your genre who is deliberately trying to move you down the top 100 lists so that their book can take its place. Something like this would be very hard to prove. Unfortunately there are people who will do this! It's possible also that you may have offended someone and they are taking it out on your book. As an author you must learn to be very careful in what you say in social media sites. You do NOT want to create enemies on Internet who know about your books.

So what do you do to correct the #6 review?

The best advice is - do nothing! Try your best to ignore it and hope that you'll get more favourable reviews to overwhelm the poor one.

Whatever you do, don't comment on a bad review and draw it out into a discussion. All that will do is to draw further attention to the poor review and make it's position on Amazon more prominent. You might also put more people off by your attack on a review. If you really must make a comment - do so either as a separate review or better still by making reference to it in a favourable review you have. That way the favourable review will gain prominence.

Making a Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX load apps NOT in the Amazon store?

If you get a Kindle Fire as a Christmas present or as an upgrade then by now you'll probably have found its limitation - you are tied to those apps which Amazon has decided you need.

The Problem

The Nook reader on a Kindle Fire HD!

Amazon's Appstore for Android contained 50,000 apps back in early September 2012 but that was nowhere near the 700,000 offered by Google Play and Apple App Store then. The obvious solution would be for Kindle Fire owners to download Android apps from Google Play - except you can't. The Kindle Fire HD simply won't allow you to connect to the Google Play store and download the app you want - you have to get it from Amazon. That's very understandable. Amazon tell us they are not making a lot of profit from sales of their Kindle Fire. Instead they expect to make their profit from sales of books, video, music and apps. To do that they make it easy to obtain these from the Amazon site and difficult, but not impossible, to get apps from elsewhere.

The Solution

Android is an open source operating system and the Kindle Fire HD has version 4.0 of it. So most of the apps in the Google Play store should work just fine. In fact most of them do work, you just have to get them on your Kindle. Here's how to do that using a technique known as sideloading.

You are going to need some equipment, most of which you probably already have:

An Android device (we'll call this 'device 2') such as a mobile phone or tablet which you can connect to the Google Store
A USB to micro USB lead which fits your computer and Kindle Fire/device 2
A computer
Your Kindle Fire
An app - ES File Explorer installed on the Kindle Fire HD/HDX and device 2. (yes this is available from the Amazon Appstore and on Google Play. It's free!)

Now you need to know what to do. As an example I'm going to show you how I installed the Nook ebook reading app on my Kindle Fire HD and my Kindle Fire HDX. Naturally this competitor app is not an app available on the Amazon Appstore for Android but it's very useful to have if you earlier purchased a Nook ereader and want to read your Nook books or epub books on your Kindle Fire.

How to sideload an Android app to a Kindle Fire HD

Install ES file explorer on your Kindle. It's available free in the Amazon store.
Install ES file explorer on your other Android device. It's available free at Google Play
Install the Nook reader software on your other Android device from the Google Store. Again it's a free app from Google Store.
On the Kindle use More > Settings > Device and set 'Allow Installation of Applications from unknown sources' to 'On'. Accept the warning.
On the other Android device use ES File Explorer. Choose 'app manager' from settings. Long press on 'Nook' and choose backup.
Connect the other Android device to your computer using the USB cable. You should see it appears in an explorer window as an extra drive under 'Computer'.
Navigate to the Nook.apk file you just backed up. In my case, since I was using a Nexus 7 as my 'other Android device' it appeared as Computer\Nexus 7\Internal storage\backups\apps\NOOK_3.3.0.26.apk Copy this file to your PC.
Connect the Kindle fire to your PC and transfer the Nook.apk file to it. The root folder will do.
Load ES File Explorer on the Kindle Fire and find the file you just placed there. Once you select it you'll get the option to install it. Do that and try it out.
On the Kindle use More > Settings > Device and set 'Allow Installation of Applications from unknown sources' to 'Off' again.

How to sideload an Android app to a Kindle Fire HDX

The Kindle Fire HDX is even better. Ours took just one day
to arrive from Amazon at http://smarturl.it/KindleHDX

The method works for the Kindle Fire HDX with some minor modifications. I used it to install the Firefox android browser (Sorry Amazon but your browser Silk is rubbish), the Nook e-reader software, Dropbox (which Amazon insist is incompatible but works just fine), and some games not available in Amazon's store. Here's the method for the Kindle Fire HDX. Again I've used the Nook app as an example:

Install ES file explorer on your Kindle HDX. It's available free in the Amazon store.
Install ES file explorer on your other Android device. It's a free app available at Google Play
Install the Nook reader software on your other Android device from the Google Store. Again it's a free app from Google Store.
On the Kindle HDX use go to Settings > Applications and set 'Applications from unknown sources' to 'On'. Accept the warning.
On the other Android device use ES File Explorer. Choose Tools >'app manager' from settings. Long press on 'Nook' and choose backup.
Connect the other Android device to your computer using the USB cable. You should see it appears in an explorer window as an extra drive under 'Computer'.
Navigate to the Nook.apk file you just backed up. In my case, since I was using a Nexus 7 as my 'other Android device' it appeared as Computer\Nexus 7\Internal storage\backups\apps\NOOK_3.3.0.26.apk Copy this file to your PC. On a Samsung Galaxy S4 the files appeared in Computer\Galaxy S4\Phone\backups\apps
Connect the Kindle fire to your PC and transfer the Nook.apk file to it. The root folder will do.
Load ES File Explorer on the Kindle Fire and find the file you just placed there. Once you select it you'll get the option to install it. Do that and try it out.
On the Kindle use Settings > Applications and set 'Applications from unknown sources' to 'Off' again.

Whichever Kindle you're using...

It's a little involved but really quite simple.

Of course the same technique can be used to install almost any Android application which isn't available on the Amazon Appstore. There are a few which don't work, Sky Go for one. It installs and you can see what programs are available but it won't let you play them.

You can also download apps to your PC from other sources and install them BUT - a word of caution. Although the apps available from Amazon and Google are generally safe, the same can't be said for all app sources. It's unwise to download and install apps you are not certain of. You might install a rogue app which could cause a lot of problems.