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In April 2014, I mentioned the creative aspects behind the cover art for our novella, Genesis: Call Sign: Wrecking Crew Slice of Life .   ...

Video courtesy of @jcallenbooks

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Latest Lessons I've learned

First lesson be sure to mention your co-author at every opportunity especially when doing your social media profiles. They tend to get quite testy. It doesn't matter that the blasted thing wouldn't let me say I'm a co-author or co-owner in the drop down menu.  Hey, I was still learning the ropes when I did LinkedIn... it never registered that they changed and that the profiles could be edited.  Kind of busy doing other things here. Issue now resolved.  David hasn't learned much about computers but he is learning how to work his phone. 

For those that don't know, David and computers do not get along.  He feels they are only good for target practice - C4 on them can't hurt either. On the other hand his spouse has a computer.  Now the plan when I was down in Houston doing the book signing, was for me to borrow his wife's computer... no joy. The Internet stopped working - or maybe it was Mr. Murphy doing his best to get in the way.  It slowed me down but did not stop me.  A FedEx Kinko's store was not far away and that's how I accessed the Internet but really quickly -they are pretty proud of their per minute usage rates. Office Depot was a big help with the stand-up poster for the book signing too.  The real kick to the rear-end was trying to do a Podcast with Deena Rae.  We had it set-up for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving via Talk Shoe since I wasn't sure about doing Skype on someone else's computer... not that I actually had access to Skype there as it turns out.  We dialed the number - input the required information.  No Deena for over a half hour.  Turns out Talk Shoe failed to tell her we were even there. 
So we rescheduled the Podcast for 18 December 2013. I got Skype on my computer. I found a microphone. The plan was to put David on speakerphone. "Best laid plans of Mice and Men..." - Deena couldn't hear him at all. I could barely hear him. So I did my best to relay questions. The problem is/was I'm not Deb nor am I, Larry (Call Sign Wrecking Crew characters). I had my hands full with hearing Deena's questions and answering them. My tongue kept getting twisted. To top it off, my speakers were making everything tinny and she was getting reverberation on her end.  Deena assures me that she will work on the sound side of things. The podcast will be posted on Bluebonnets, Bagpipes & Books  in the near future, so be looking out for it or you can just 'follow' via email.  Deena has also been working on a book for aspiring authors, so be watching for my future posts on that as well. 

CSWC Wings of Eagles
As many of you know, we published book 2, Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Wings of Eagles) in late September. We sold some books at our book signings.  Some were given as gifts.  All were autographed... so imagine my surprise when I discovered our books being sold as used on Amazon.  I couldn't and still can't see anyone who purchased books directly from us selling them used. Only one online print book purchase was registering. I knew who purchased that one.  So I queried Amazon. They basically referred me back to Create Space who assured me that no pirating was going on.  After talking to members of my inner circle it was decided that this might just be a marketing ploy.  They act like an outlet mall. Apparently some people don't pay attention to the retail price... they just presume if it is used it is marked at a lower price.  Buyer beware on that. I've also been assured that books sold through any of the Amazon Marketplace vendors should result in royalties for us.  I certainly hope so because they just don't know how the "Wrecking Crew" rolls. The results are not pretty. 

My advice to everyone reading this - monitor the books being sold and their prices. Find out what the list price is... then go from there. Used does not necessarily mean cheaper. Authors monitor your Create Space channels for royalty payments. 

Lynn Hallbrooks
co-author to David McKoy
co-owners of Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC