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Showing posts from June, 2011

Happy Canada Day Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is July 1st,  Canada day,  and hopefully the weather will co operate with all of the festivities held across the country.  I think most Canadians can remember when it was just about the only holiday festivity we had in the summer months.  Now,  there is a festival celebration usually in each and every village in New Brunswick.  This is probably the same for everywhere throughout the world!  Which is good,  to get the people out and about and out of the house! My favorite would be the beer festival in a little community in Bertrand, N.B.  Then in Caraquet, they have the wine festival,  an art festival, and then the Acadien festival to name a few.  In Bathurst,  their most famous hospitality days. Campbellton has their salmon festival,  but also celebrates Canada Day as well usually with fireworks.  We can only hope the weather will warm up a bit for all of these events. As far as my book goes,  no progress really to report yet.  Same ole,  same ole...

Part 3 of the Supermarket Guy?

I believed that a Part 3 would be impossible...  But now it is halfway there...  Yesterday,  an idea came to me by the grace of God.  Well,  of course, so far it is just the main idea.  There is then allot of work to do around the main idea.  But the main characters from Part 2 would have to re enter into part 3.  This makes it much more interesting. I see that my book is still in the 4/5th from the top in Dog Ear Publishing ranks.  Not much change from Canada, the U.S.,  or England.  The Relevance ranking did not change much, as well.  Still very high.  Working night shift,  will have to sleep most of the day.  I usually get a good 5 to 6 hours of sleep,  and that is enough.  I do not feel drowsy on nights,  but usually there is one time in the night where you feel drowsy.  I do remember when nights were busy,  sometimes I would have a hard time keeping my eyes open on a dark road.  Over a long period of time,  the sleep bank gets less and less...  Till tomorrow...

Beautiful June weather is finally here!

The weather out today is fantastic.  As was yesterday,  as June seemed to pass by fleetingly.  We recieved mostly rain for the month of June,  and the lobster season will end in New Brunswick within a few days of now. We can only hope that July will bring us allot of that summer sunshine before the snow arrives.  The Bay temperature is 16.5 C,  in the Bay of Chaleur.  Soon we will be able to swim in the Bay if we get a few hot days of weather. The Canada Post strike is over in Canada as well.  Legislation has forced them back to work.  I expect my office box to be overflowing with mail.  My ITIN information,  a process which I will have to start all over again.  But if my book never sells,  I will never need one at any rate.  My Part 2 is all spell checked,  but I will read it over a few times to see if everything is in order.  I typically find spell checking helps with new ideas to go through the main body of the text.  As I make corrections in reading a sentence,  I try to say, now

The Supermarket Guy Part 2

The Supermarket Guy Part 2,  the cover is not full of sun.  It does not have the beautiful green pastures in the background,  or the blue sky lined with silver gleaming clouds.  People are no where to be seen to witness the event.  It is just too dangerous for pedestrians to be caught there in the middle. Its backgroud is full of  Lightning and Smoke!  Two men deuling on the cover.  Fighting for their literal lives.  Rain falling everywhere.  Destruction all around.  The cover,  as in the first,  will depict the situation in the second part.  It could be even more humorous than the first,  and it has that kind of James Bond slice to it.  But,  I still have some spellchecking to do....  Have a great day!

Back from Bas Caraquet!

My small vacation from Bas Caraquet was wonderful.  Even though it was cloudy at times and rained the whole time through.  We visited allot of relatives,  and my wife broke the news about my books release.  First,  the father in law did not believe it,  and said that it was someone else with the same name that done the book.  The others were suprised,  but welcomed the effort. Once again,  I have to spellcheck the part 2 of the Supermarket Guy.  I have to have it on the ready,  in case I actually achieve my thousand sales.  It may take 5 years,  but I know I can achieve it...  Well, maybe.  So later on tonight,  I will be erasing the double spacing from the periods, and doing the spellchecking as best I can.  The less mistakes I make,   the less Dog Ear will charge me per copy after it is done.  I better get to work...  Till then...

Rain for the weekend, lots of rain!

Up here on the North Shore of New Brunswick,  we are going to get some rain and allot of it.  Here I am chewing on a Jersey Milk Bar ( The most delicious bar out there),  thinking about what the heck to put in my blog.  I finished my shift at work today,  and got burned by a steam line a little bit.  2400 psi steam line,  that I de-isolated from a permit,  when opening the valve up my arm over reached and it put a nice red line across my skins surface!  The skin bubbles with water after 12 hours or so.  Then it rips,  and becomes even redder.  I got a few  steam line marks before,  and sometimes take weeks to go a little invisible!  But,  we Canadians are not only hearty,  we are tough as anywhere else!  This weekend I will be away from this blog,  so I wish my ten fans a great weekend ( and anyone else who may travel through!).  I will be back soon enough,  and by then after my retreat I may have some news to offer...  Till then...

The Super market guy?

One thing I can say about the whole process,  is that I thought the search for my book,  or website would have included the words supermarket together. Instead,  I have to separate the words.  The Super Market Guy.  And,  I have to do this no matter where.  I go to Amazon.com, ca, uk, it is all the same.  I go to search for my website,  and I have to enter The Super Market Guy.  I did get a website with my package,  but in the end,  so far until I get some sales results,  I am not even sure if it was worth it.  Only time will tell.  Maybe it will be in the end,  or maybe I am just misreading the whole thing. Just the fact is,  any book over a hundred thousand place in Amazon,  you could maybe sell one book a month.  While,  sales are increasing for Amazon for my kind of book, as the digitial book shelf increases on their site.   This means,  sure, they may have a few hundred thousand books on their site, but in the end it all helps,  as a passing wanderer will someday pick up som

The Supermarket Guy Ranks High In Relevance...

Relevance.  They say your book has to have credibility and relevance to sell.  At least,  I know the public or whoever rates the book, thinks it has,  relevance.  My book ranks # 1 in Dog Ear Publishing 90 day as a new release relevance in the U.K.  And when you go through the 700s, in Dog Ear Fiction,  my book can fall anywhere from under 50 to 25 from the top. Relevance is all about being current.  Pertinent,  having to do with todays social issues,  having to deal with todays society. As far as credibility,  I can honestly say it is intrically put together.  Just the fact that the main character could and should have been fired several times in the book, and at the end it comes to a head.  The boss fires a warning shot, better be here at such and such a time or you will regret it.  And he does not appear that night.  How many second chances does a guy get?  Credibility also has to deal with the moral of the book,  which in plain sight can be seen, no one really gets fired.  Ever

One of the owners of Dog Ear Publishing

Yes,  I forgot to mention,  about Mr. Robinson.  How many companies,  can you actually talk to one of the owners when you got a problem or question?  Not too many,  right?  I e mailed Ray Robinson two or three times during the process of book publication.  And, I recieved a prompt e mail back within 8 to a 16 hour period of time.  I found this to be very considerate and thoughtful,  in a world where even today we have a hard time getting a hold of someone to take care of changes or an error in one of our monthly bills! In that kind of avenue,  a certain kind of distance or respect must be maintained.  If I or others would abuse this e mail capability,  then perhaps he would then cut out the service.  Let the middlemen look after the problem,  afterall,  he is running a company that has produced close to two thousand books.  I think. So, in ending, we must always only e mail the top dog whenever we have a major problem.  I know he has allot of responsibility and work to do to keep t

Dog Ear Publishing Contract

What I find absolutely beautiful about doing business with Dog Ear,  is that I keep exclusive rights to my work.  The other thing,  is I can cancel the deal at anytime.  And they will send me back all digital storage of my work, as if it all never was. They prefer the arbitration process would go through mediators first,  before going to a court,  should a disagreement arise.  It does state that every other alternative should be tried before going to a court, should any problem arise. The only thing with Dog Ear Publishing,  is that they do not do much advertising for an author.  They give tips, or if you pay 2000 dollars they can send your information to 10 000 media outlets.  If you pay 2650 approx,  you can get a New York Times review.   With the masterpiece package I took,  it was sent to 1000 media outlets.  I would think, if and when I produce Part 2,  it would help Part 1.  Usually a sequel could do better than the first,  or bring in more attention to the first.  But,  th

Getting ITIN number from the United States

When I first recieved my authors contract from Dog Ear,  I also recieved an W8BEN sheet.  This was the form to fill after to the publisher,  I but I needed to get an ITIN by filling out a W-7 form first.  The ITIN is like a social security number for people outside of the United States, in order to gain access to some treaty rights.  The treaty rights between Canada and the United States on royalties for books, when having an ITIN is between 0 % and whatever rate they determine by their taxation laws.  Without the ITIN,  I would be charged 30 % interest on my revenues ( mind that it has to be over 1000 dollars,  before any taxation occurs in the U.S.). So I filled out the W-7 form,  and gave the appropriate identification.  You can have just alone your passport,  or both your drivers license and another piece of identification as listed on their website.  You can go to a magistrate,  to make copies of them if you wish.  The IRS will send back the identification,  so everyone says,  b

30mm of rain today, for Northern NB, and midway thru the lobster season!

We need the rain.  Just hopefully we will have some summer, and not a full month of it.  They say the lobster catches are not too bad this year,  and the price is still 2 to 3 dollars lower than average per pound.  Another month and the season for lobster will close,  thus ending another lobster fishing season. I sent my book out to a movie producer in California a week and a half ago.  Now,  four things could possibly happen here.  Can you think of a fifth?  One, he could just not like it, ( and I am open to criticism, nothing is perfect),  and toss it into the waste bin.  Second, he could use it to balance his uneven furniture in his house.  Thirdly, one of his workers could take it home,  without his even knowing, and take it for a good read.  Lastly,  he could like it,  and actually do something with it. The fifth thing,  and I only though of this now while my sausages are cooking,  is that he could send it to a freind of his that does that certain kind of genre to produce it. 

What gave me the reason for writing, and oh yeah, the new poll.

I was sitting down somewhere,  watching some comedy on tv.  I found at that time it was hard to find a good comedy out there.  I must admit,  today I love the Office.  And,  way back when,  I loved Threes Company with John Ritter.  I remembered,  my freind saying to me one time,  it just takes 50 pages for to create a manuscript.  Then,  I thought about how one time I read a one page weekly thing in the front of class,  and I remembered how everyone laughed.  In the end,  I said I have to give it a try.  And The Supermarket Guy is a culmunation of those thoughts. The newest poll out,  is actually what you think when you haul up a chair in here and visit.  Since I could not post the June 15 th results because the book had come out to early ( first results out on July 15 th),  I said I might as well make it longer and make it interesting to see what the public things,  and how close they are to my numbers.  I will post the numbers from the Oct. 15th book volume sales as soon as possibl

Here are some standing results just the same.

Canada, my native country,  gave me the worst standing today.  619 out of 622 books Dog Ear Fiction standing,  from 532 out of 617 on the 6th of June. The United States of America, 598 out of 663 Dog Ear Publishing fiction.  This is from 546 out of 612  on June 6th. The United Kingdom, 667 out of 772 books Dog Ear Publishing.  This is from a June 9 th result of 662-765.  The worst change was in Canada. The next step for the Conservative government is to send me to their secret concentration camp located near the North Pole...  No,  actually it is in Toronto... Ahh, just kidding, I love Toronto!!  The other groups, such as in the U.S. is still 60+ over,  and in the UK still 100 + over.  I do not know why the amount of books totals varies per search,  some of it is due to new arrivals perhaps.  Like I told the Lady from Dog Ear Publishing today,  if I can sell a thousand copies then I would produce part 2.  In case my website is too far down to get off of the Blog List,  it is www.

More about the cover page, and sales...

The cover page, with Harold flying up in the air with the cart, also represents him soaring to new heights from where he started down below. The Supermarket is located down below, where he used to work.  Being new to his new found height, he is a bit scared, and his freinds are scared for him because of the new company he associates with.  Thus freinds hanging on his pants for dear life,  are the ones trying to correct his flight path, so to speak, or bring him down to earth again.  As far as sales are concerned,  I called a Dog Ear Representative today.  She checked the release date of my book,  and replied that I would have to wait until July 15 th,  since my book was released a little late for any updates in May.  I put in a suggestion,  that what if a group at Dog Ear ( authors) could voluntarily give 10 dollars a month to a marketing program.  This program could just showcase the Dog Ear brand of books over some sort of radio or other media.  She informed me that they only produ

You got to have a main theme in your book.

I was looking on a website the other day, and it said you have to have a main theme for your book to help it sell.  I asked a friend of mine,  what did they think the theme of my book was.  The reply,  goofing off will help you go far in life.  I paused and I thought about that.  I responded,  I do not think that is really the main theme of the book.  Honestly,  it is about people who lost their way from home and somehow they come back.  I mean this,  in the freind way.  Finding bad freinds,  brushing them off,  but then realizing the old freinds were there when he needed them the most,  and returning to them again.  But,  I will leave it to everyone to find a main theme to the book. I will phone Dog Ear today,  to determine where the sales information is.  I go to the sign on site,  and it is listed either under June 11 or for the year 11.  But,  they are still showing zeros.  Maybe this afternoon I will find that I have actually sold 10 books...

It ain't looking good!

Thus far,  total sales U.S. and U.K. zero,  same as kindle version...  I e mailed Dog Ear,  and they responded the sales would be out today for sure...  Hopefully they are just not printed yet...  Yikes! It could be possible,  because I did not tell any of my freinds or relatives about the book.  I just wanted to see if it would fly without biased buying... I will have to phone Dog Ear tomorrow morning, as I see no change in the Zeros.  It is 9 pm here in New Brunswick,  I am assuming 7 pm in Dog Ear time...  Oh well... Maybe I will be able to post them tomorrow...  One last check at 10 pm... 

Number of sales volume out tomorrow!

Dog Ear is exposed to put up the volume of sales today ( around June 15th, I made a mistake in reading the e mail),  to see how my fiction piece is doing.  I  expect under a hundred...  What would you expect on sales of a POD,  6 days after a press release....  It will be interesting nonetheless....  Till then...

Doing shift work and publishing a book

The book process started around January 12th,  and the press release was on June 10th.  It was a long wait,  in my view, but I am usually impatient with everything.  When I got a job to do,  and had time to do it in the afternoon,  I would try to do it as soon as possible.  It is just the way I am.  Sometimes I think this is not as good as it may seem.  The only thing tough about it,  was when I would get a spellcheck or a proof after working a night shift.  You feel droggy,  and you know you need the sleep to perform well at night.  And if you do not get enough sleep,  per 3 or 4 night shifts,  I personally found my immune system gets weaker and I was more susceptible to colds.  The mind just gets weaker,  and less focused.  They say once you get into your mid 40 s,  shift work is much harder than when you were younger.  And,  it does take years off of our lives, so the experts say. But,  when I would recieve the spellcheck or proofs after a night shift,  I would feel necessary to

The process was long in proof reading and copy editing.

There is nothing more gruelling than reading your book upteen times.  The first spellcheck and grammer work to be done,  was free with Dog Ear Publishing.  The thing is,  I would put two spaces after a period, and even that had to be corrected.  All the way through the main body of the main text... The cover was the easiest thing to approve,  and it came before all of this,  as the people at Dog Ear loved it,  which made it easier for me to approve it.  Once approved,  the first pass came through.  I could tell by the typing of the Dog Ear staff, something was up.  MAKE sure you read your book again before approving, checking for any errors,  is pretty much what she said.  Then I had to read through it yet again, looking for anything that I overlooked.  I found 5 errors,  and I did not know how to spellcheck when using a PDF file.  Just below chapter 1,  I could not believe that we missed it on the spellcheck.  There was a sentence beginning with as,  and I had it marked as Aas... 

How long did it take for myself to produce a book?

First,  I thought I could not do it.  But,  I wanted to try as I had this idea in my head in a general start. I would say the first copy was the shortest,  and I felt at first it should be put to a movie.  I tried searching on several sites,  but I found that as everyone knows, it is difficult to get to movie comedy producers and studios.  Especially living in a place in Atlantic Canada, as beautiful as it is.  Approximately,  it took 8 months to complete book 1 of The Supermarket Guy.  I hung on to it,  for 7 years as I previously mentioned, due to the fact that I did not want to go first towards the book route.  It was a good thing in a way,  that I held on for 7 years because the book would have been 30 pages or so shorter than the original now out there at amazon.com.  Because of those years,  I added a little bit or finessed it.  I can remember,  just driving down the highway thinking of funny circumstances,  and how to incorporate them into my crazy book.  To be quite truthfu

Is the main character really a bad guy? A character review.

Someone asked me that the other day.  Is the main character really a bad guy?  In my opinion,  he is not really a bad guy.  He is just a little rude and quick thinking.  For instance,  the way he treats seniors is only bad when he gets worked up.  If he is calm, and the storm is passed,  he usually treats the seniors with respect and dignity,  like when things went wrong at the market.  But let there be no doubt,  the main character was placed there in order to have certain mixed reactions and wrong feelings at the wrong or right time.  The way he treats his freind Steve,  as you may notice,  is usually always a little beneath him.  But,  yet Steve plays the nice guy and lets Harry take the lead.  Steve is usually the most rational one there,  and probably could do the managing job better than everyone there at the supermarket.  But he stays in the background,  maybe it is a little lack of confidence or ambition. Lucie, on the other hand,  is the gullable school girl type character, 

The cover page for my book.

I had the cover page for my book thought out approx. 4 months before publishing.  When time came to publish,  Dog Ear asked me what I wanted for a cover.  When talking to the representatives,  they replied that they would use clip art and some background colors to try to capture what I wanted.  When describing a picture over the phone,  it is hard to do,  for anybody.  In the end,  they asked me to draw it out and scan the picture to them.  After two hours of work, it was done. The cover page had to be symbolic of what the book was all about.  The main character going for a wild ride,  taking his freinds along with him.  His hands on the cart,  flying in the air,  with his friends hanging on for dear life ( who tried to hold him down from take off in the first place).  Dog Ear wrote back that,  they loved the cover that I produced.  I gave the go ahead to place it on the front,  and they cut out the logo to the back.  It was,  what I thought was going to be the most gruelling proce

Tomorrow is another day.

Tomorrow,  a media press release will be sent out to a thousand outlets.  That is when I will see if there is any movement at all in the sale of my book.  A blip or a thud.  I just checked again and seen it was 592 out of 659 in the back of the fiction pack,  Amazon.com listings under Dog Ear fiction.  There is allot of other things I could do to.  One is radio commercial,  another is to pay for a review from a noted reviewer, or just let the book try to gather steam on its own.  I could even pay more money to send it to more media outlets ( another thousand).  But,  the  way I see it,  if it does not spread its branches like a tree,  once the word gets out,  how can you force growth... 

The Supermarket Guy, Dog Ear Publishing

Just as late,  I have checked my new books standing at dog ear.  It is 589 out of 652 standing in the fiction search for best selling overall. The real question is,  does comedy fiction sell well?  I am unsure up to this point,  as I will only know in the coming weeks.  The company did a great job with the website,  www.supermarketguy.com .   I already got some great feedback from some people,  who liked the graphics. Still,  I have qualms about publishing part 2 of the supermarket guy.  It just all depends on how well recieved the first one is.  As a wise man once said,  put your nose to what you are good at,  and to what you do not succeed at, let alone.  Maybe it was my father.  Oh well. I also have ideas for at least another 3 books,  2 of the comedy genre.  But I have not even begun to write yet.  I see the usual books in the top 100 in amazon,  the Shania Twain bio,  The little boy who went to heaven,  and Steig Larssons books,  which I consider elite books.  Browsing throu