Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Books Flying Through the Air


Do you remember how amazed we all were when we sent our first fax to someone? Knowing that somehow that piece of paper was floating through space to get to its destination.  Another office received our document while our original document remained steadfast in the fax in our office. We didn’t have to physically put it in an envelope and send it through the mail, yet somehow it got there.


That was the beginning of a whole new age of productless products.  Sending something to someone without actually sending anything.

Nowadays, we buy things that no one had to pack and ship to us – online music, ebooks, webinars, etc.  They ship nothing and we receive nothing, at least nothing we can actually hold in our hands. Then, we pay for it without any actual currency exchanging hands.
The computer age has done more than open up our world and broaden our horizons. It has enabled us to buy and sell productless products. We buy products with no actual money and receive in return a two dimensional nontangible item that we can’t touch, smell, or taste. And the demand for these phantom items is growing.  Amazon says eBooks are bigger sellers than print books. I don’t believe iTunes would stay in business if they weren’t so popular with people who want music piped in to them (without pipes, by the way).

I first appreciated this paradigm in selling when I wanted to make my song “Mary’s Christmas” available to the public but didn’t want to have to cut a lot of records, store them, and ship them out to buyers.  (Full disclosure: since I have no musical ability whatsoever, the song is performed by my very talented son-in-law, Curtis Willey.) By offering the song on iTunes, I could sell the song without having to ship anything. What a concept!
Now, my book, Stop Procrastinating – Get Published! is available through this phantom method of commerce. You gotta love it!  Of course, people can buy the print version and hold the book in their hands, but they can also get the eBook version that will arrive instantly on their Kindle or computer with just a few clicks on Amazon. Oh look, it's flying through the air to you!

To continue this subject of productless products, if you would like me to send you a free book (of course, without MY actually having to send it to you), go to Amazon and click on Waterbeds and Wedding Vows. The eBook will be sent to you immediately. And when you get it, you will find inside that book a place to click and get the second book in the Cranky Seniors Series, Hamburgers and Headaches, for free. They can both be read on computer, Kindle, Nook, and ePub. I can send it to you while I sip coffee in my robe, unaware that I'm sending it. What a life!
One can only guess what the future holds. It could be just a click away.

Quote of the Day: ". . . Striding the blast . . .upon the sightless couriers of the air." William Shakespeare

Sunday, October 4, 2015

I Stopped Procrastinating

This has been a very wet week in North Carolina—eight inches of rain in one week!  Sorry, California, wish I could send you some of it.

Because I didn’t feel like going outside and getting wet, I spent my time this last week at my computer finalizing my latest book, Stop Procrastinating – Get Published!: A Helpful Guide for the Beginning Writer.  I’m happy to say it has now been published through CreateSpace.  I’d been putting it off since the cruise, not ready to get back into tackling the cover and polishing up the interior. In other words, I was procrastinating. Ironic, isn’t it?
I finally decided to keep my desk chair warm until it was done.  No matter how sore my butt got!

This is a how-to book written as fiction and it’s for those who’ve thought of writing a book, writing a memoir to leave for their future generations, a collection of poems, whatever suits their fancy. This book will take your hand and lead you through the process, right up to the point of getting published. No longer do we have to beg for crumbs from publishers in hopes they’ll deem our words worthy of their time. We now have the option of self-publishing what we write. So there, big publishing houses!
The book is available on Amazon for $8.50 and on Kindle for $3.99. Think Christmas gift for the writer on your list or for yourself.  It’s a short book, packed full of information and writers’ resources.  I notice Amazon only shows the Kindle version at the moment; however, the print version should be available momentarily.

On a separate note, I’ve been having trouble with my Yahoo email so I’m changing to Gmail. Please make a note that my email address is no longer noirons@yahoo.com, but rather lindaloegel@gmail.com. Thank you for making that change in your contact list.

Quote of the Day: Procrastination is the thief of time.  Edward Young