Newsletter #75 — Who Knows Why
February 1, 2024
Newsletter #75 — Who Knows Why
Web Pages Updated — I've updated my web page so that anybody searching for Exit Velocity will be able to find it. Once Presale starts, I'll have to update it so that the Buy links work. And then on June 4 I'll have to update it again, to remove the parts about when the book will be published. Here's a link to how the page looks now.
Five Scrape, Rattle, and Roll — Several days ago five people (I assume it's five because the sales seem to have occurred individually) downloaded free copies of Scrape, Rattle, and Roll, one of my Blog Series books. I created my Blog Series books from (what else?) the blogs I've been writing since 2014. I offer them free on Kindle Select and I price the paperbacks low and sell them for $5 at events. Oftentimes people want to buy a book to show their appreciation for the speaker, but they don't want to spend $15. I have found that these inexpensive books do sell at such events, and I'm glad that the people who purchase them walk away with some of my writing (a lot of it humorous).
But, why five? Why now? What was the reason? There has to be a reason for people downloading five copies in one day. I pulled a copy of Scrape, Rattle, and Roll off my bookshelf and tried to guess the reason for the downloads. My best guesses are that the purchases relate to one of these four articles:
- Jack Graney and Broadcasting Beginnings
- Scrape, Rattle, and Roll — a humorous look at my compulsive collecting of idiophones
- Battery Operated: Clem and Edna Dreisewerd — a piece on major league pitcher Clem Dreisewerd and his wife Edna, who was his warmup catcher
- Baseball's Longest Game — probably my best-known poem
Note: As I was writing this newsletter, a sixth sale occurred. Obviously something is going on. Is my book being used in a writing class? A book discussion group? A college course? I doubt I'll ever know who, what, or why.
Shamus Judge — I was asked to be a judge for the Shamus Award this year. It's given out by the Private Eye Writers America, of which I'm a member (and Vice-President). I really enjoyed being a judge when I last served. Around 2014, I think.
But you may recall that I served as an Edgars judge just one year ago, for Best Juvenile, and that required reading 80-some novels, of which 20-some arrived at the tail end of the reading period. I regretfully had to say no to the Shamus request, not just because I need a couple of years between reading and evaluating all those books, but also because of all the marketing work I'm doing on Exit Velocity.
Formatting and Cover Completed! — In January I proofread the digital version of Exit Velocity. Once the four very minor corrections were made, BookBaby moved back to the cover of the print book. I had wanted testimonials on the back cover, but the cover was designed before the testimonials came in, and once they came in (about December 15), BookBaby and I were both onto other aspects of the book, so we had to wait until the end of January to re-do the print cover.
As of now, everything is completed! I want Exit Velocity to go on presale March 1, but getting one online business (BookBaby) to get a second online business (Amazon) to put files up at an exact time is almost impossible. So I suspect the book will go on presale some time in late February. Better early than late
Book Covers — My February 1 blog riffs on book covers.