How To Read Amazon Review Graphs - GalleyCat

Panzer loves GalleyCat!

Can you guess why? (Sure you can. Meow!)

Here's a great post about Amazon Reviews and what they really mean. If you haven't heard about the paid ebook reviews at Amazon, there's a link included in the post to the article that lead to this review explanation.

Head on over to Panzer's friends at GalleyCat and learn the truth at  How To Read Amazon Review Graphs - GalleyCat
 

The Spirit of Poe a major bust

Panzer is not happy. 

He went to visit Jason Dark today and got some very disturbing news. Guido Henkel has a warning for all of us over at his blog.

Henkel and several other writers submitted stories to a proposed charity book to raise money for the Edgar Allan Poe house. The book publisher has turned out to be nothing but trouble for the writers involved.

Panzer says you need to read what happened to our fellow writers. Pass the word around about this situation with your tweets, on your Facebook page and your blog.

Tootle on over to Henkel's  The Spirit of Poe a major bust .

Remember: you never want to make this black cat mad!

Selling Ebooks from Your Website?

Panzer was tootling around the catosphere and he found some useful information for you.

Over at Author E.M.S. there's an interesting post about the pros and cons of selling your ebooks from your website instead of using a retailer.

The Pros? Greater gross profits for you.

The Cons? Fees. Fees. Fees.

There's also a section on Resources like Paypal, Clickbank, Cashie, and Digital Content Center that's worth checking out too.

So ... my bad boy says head on over to Author E.M.S. and see if selling from your website is for you.

Book Review: Homecoming

It's been a long time since Panzer and I have done a book review here. It's been really hard for my bad boy to find an ebook he could really enjoy.

But, he finally has one: Homecoming by Janet Wellington.

And ... are you ready for it? It has CATS ... not just one cat, but nine CATS. We have cats with names like Max and Oscar and cats with names like Petunia and Leona. (Panzer says, "Janet, Janet. What were you thinking with embarrassing names like Petunia and Leona?")

To be totally truthful, this is not a story about cats. It's a story about Cory and Jake's romance. Cory and Jake knew each other in high school, went off to have different lives, and have now come back together.

Where did the nine cats come from? Well, you'll just have read the ebook to find out!

The end of the  ebook has a great website to visit to answer a question a day to donate food to cat rescue organizations and Panzer says that alone makes this a four paws up review!

Panzer gives this a PG rating for its sex scene (one).

Homecoming is available at Amazon for the Kindle.

Time to rethink Kindle content generation

We stopped in at Guido Henkel's blog to see what's happening in Jason Dark's World today.
 

Henkel is posting about the new Kindle Fire and what it means for ebook layout (yours and mine). And ... according to him, it isn't pretty.

He also addresses Amazon's shortsightedness, as well as their lack of preparedness, for multiple platforms: i.e. the Kindle (the old) and the Kindle Fire (the new).

There's some pretty interesting information here for those of us who do our own layouts for the Kindle(s).

Tootle on over to Time to rethink Kindle content generation, but Panzer says be prepared because this is a long post (rant).

New Pricing For Ebooks In 2013?

Panzer and I were out in the catosphere today and we stopped in at Dean Wesley Smith's blog The Writings and Opinions of Dean Wesley Smith. My bad boy wanted to see what Smith's take is on the new ebook pricing model. Now that the dust is starting to settle as the big traditional publishers begin their settlements with the government Smith discusses what that means for you and me as indie publishers and our ebook prices.

Smith has it all nicely broken down by word count and how much he suggests the pricing should be for novels, short stories and collections of short stories.

So, tootle on over to Pricing 2013 and see if you need to increase the price on your ebooks!

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Word

Panzer found a great post over at BubbleCow.  (He just loves that name and checks in there whenever he's out in the catosphere.)

The post is titled 14 Free Alternatives to Microsoft Word. We all know how much Panzer loves free stuff! There are links to online word processors (like Google) or downloadable word processor software here. Whichever you prefer.

So, tootle on over to BubbleCow and make your choice.

Panzer says, "Free is always good. Right?"

Free Photo Editing Tools

Today Panzer and I were out tootling around the catosphere just having a good time and looking for nothing in particular.

We happened to find Caitlin Muir's post at Author Media about using free photo editing tools.

Neither Panzer nor I have ever heard of the four free editing tools she describes: PicMonkey, FotoFlexer, BeFunky or Citrify.

Believe me, if you don't have thumbs (like Panzer) or you're all thumbs (like me), you can imagine what our photos look like and you'll know why we love these editing tools!

Tootle on over to 4 Free Photo Editing Tools You'll Love and take a look.

 Oh, Panzer wants me to tell you to read all the way to the end of Caitlin's post, she's also got some links for photos too.

Smashwords: Smashwords Acquires 100,000 New ISBNs

 Woo hoo! Panzer is doing the happy cat dance. If you've spent any amount of time around his blog, you know how much he loves Smashwords.

He remembers not that long ago when Smashwords was the little guy on the block. But, he's been watching their distribution channel increase over the years. And their author numbers going up each year.

Look at them now.  Woo hoo is right. They're not the little guy any more. Buying 100,000 ISBNs for all the new ebooks they'll be putting out!

Read about it here Smashwords: Smashwords Acquires 100,000 New ISBNs: Smashwords this week acquired 100,000 new ISBNs from Bowker to accommodate strong growth in the Smashwords catalog. We provide these ISB...

Selling Flash Fiction Via E-Mail—Successfully

Panzer and I were out in the catosphere today and he found Jane Friedman has a great guest post by flash fiction writer Bruce Holland Rogers. Panzer does love flash fiction! Short. Sweet. And to the (bullet) point.

Rogers explains how he built his monthly privishing flash fiction email newsletter.

Privishing! (Ralph Keyes)

Panzer is doing the happy cat dance. He just loves it when writers make up their own words!

Read all about privishing at Selling Flash Fiction Via E-Mail—Successfully