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Fiction, Food, and Foolishness
THE EAGLES HAVE FLOWN
Baby Eagles
Well, not yet. But they will soon. Each year a pair of Eagles nest near my house and today I took some pictures of the three babies. If you look closely, you can see just the beak and head of one on the far left, then the other two are clearly visible.
One of the adults took flight shortly after I got my camera out and I wanted to get a picture of it, but I was too slow. Last year, the pair only produced one offspring, so to see three this year was great.
They attract quite a lot of bird watchers from around the state, because I see photographers with cameras with huge lenses on tripods taking pictures all the time.
They will fly soon. Maybe another week or two and they’ll be gone until next year!
Amazon KDP Program
Free today!
This is my second offering of Laid Out and Candle Lit for FREE. The Kindle edition will be a free download today, April 11, and the next two days…April 12 & 13.
Here are the results from the first time I offered a free download back in Febuary.
I recently did a free two day promotion for my first book, LAID OUT AND CANDLE LIT, via Amazon’s KDP program and wanted to share the results. Here are the statistics.
During the two days, Laid Out was downloaded 7,050 times.
The week following the promotion, both books combined were downloaded 125 times at regular price. That’s 125 sales in six days. Not bad.
I also received over 20 combined (both books) reviews.
When you sign up for the program, you do so for 90 days and during that time you have the opportunity to offer your book for free or at a discounted rate for 5 days. You can do the days all at one time or split them up, or only use part of them. I used two days during Feb. I plan to use the other 3 days during April.
During the Feb. free promotion, I sent our massive emails to my contact lists, posted once a day on Facebook and Tweeted once during those two days and asked friends to share the post. Many did. I also did free advertising on several book sites like Snickslist, Free Kindle Fiction, Pixel of Ink, KindleBoards Free Book Promo, etc.
If you’re considering a KDP promotion, go to:
http://www.unearthlytales.com/does-kdp-select-work.html
There you will find a list of the free sites and instructions for posting. Paid sites are also listed.
Another helpful source is:
http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/content/maximizing-free-days-kindle-select-kdp-select
On this site, you’ll get information of how to make the program work for you.
Reasons for using the program:
1. GET YOUR BOOK ON KINDLES in different parts of the country. Mine was downloaded in every state as well as almost every foreign country.
2. MOVE BOOK UP IN RANKINGS***naturally the number of sales affects the rank, but Amazon gives weight to everything. So, if my book is only sold in Texas, my rank won’t be as high as another book with widespread sales, that’s why getting your book into many different areas helps. Just remember, Amazon updates rankings hourly, so although you may move up quickly, you can also plummet in the same amount of time!
3. MAKE SALES OF BACKLIST (The more books you have published, the higher your sales will be)**All who take advantage of your free offer are taken to your Amazon page to claim it, so your other books get exposure…just think, over 7,000 people looked at my page during those two days! Amazon updates your sales info every hour, so it’s exciting to see how many downloads are happening and where they’re being downloaded.
4. GAIN REVIEWS*** Amazon gives more power to certain reviews…another words, a 5 star from someone who has only reviewed a few things, will not help you as much as a 3 star from a top twenty reviewer on Amazon. Also, reviews from different states/countries move your book up faster than if all your reviews come from…let’s say the south, or a limited region.
5. NAME RECOGNITION…visits to your website***if readers like your work, they’ll visit your website. I saw a significant increase in visitors after my promotion.
The best part of all is the promotion is FREE. So, think of the advertising Amazon is giving you for nothing more than your promise to only sell your eBook on their site during those 90 days. Since most eBooks are bought on their site anyway, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal!
A DIET THAT WORKS
Many of you know I’ve been working on a cookbook for a while now. Since it will only contain dessert recipes, I’ve baked over a hundred and photographed them. Because of all those sweets lying around, I’ve eaten the finished products and sadly gained an extra fifteen pounds. I decided to take a break from the book and try to lose the additional weight.
Once I made my mind up to commit to it, I researched the internet to find the best diet to lose the most weight in the shortest amount of time.
It took a while to sort through all of those offered. I read the reviews and visited their chat sites. The South Beach Diet was the winner. It guaranteed you’d lose 9-15 pounds in two weeks! The teaser on the back of the book claimed…It’s not low fat. It’s not low carb. It teaches you how to eat the right fat and the right carbs. Sounded good to me, so I decided to put it to the test.
For those of you not familiar with the plan, it’s divided into three phases. Phase one lasts two weeks and is fairly stringent. You can’t even eat fruit during those fourteen days.
Phase two allows you to add some foods back that you’ve been doing without.
Phase three is the one you should follow for the rest of your life in order to maintain the smaller you.
I won’t list the menus for phase one, but I will tell you, it had things on it I don’t like. Tomato juice…yuck. Jello…yuck. Egg substitute…yuck. Plus, the hardest thing for me was giving up my Diet Dr. Peppers. By day two, my caffeine withdrawal was so bad, I was ready to troll for street drugs!! Oh my Lord. It was awful, I was in agony, but I was determined to prove this diet WOULDN’T work.
Here’s the breakdown of my progress of weight loss:
Day two—1 ½ pounds
Day three-3 pounds
Day four-no change
Day five-no change
Day six- 1 pound
Day seven-no change
Day eight- 1 pound
Day nine-1/2 pound
Day ten- ½ pound
Day eleven-1 ½ pounds
Day twelve-Gained ½ pound
Day thirteen-no change
Day fourteen-no change
SO, that was a total of 9 pounds in 14 days. (I lost that ½ pound I gained on day 15) I moved on to phase two and during that time, I lost seven more pounds for a total of 16 pounds. I’m happy with that amount. I still loosely follow the plan…basically no bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar….for the most part. I LOVE bread, so that’s my weakness and I do eat a biscuit or roll here and there, but the next day I’m back at it.
The author, Arthur Agatston, M.D. recommends staying on phase two until you lose the amount you want, and then move to phase three. I basically stay on phase two and cheat when I get the chance!!
This took place last August, and I’m happy to say, I’ve managed to keep the weight off. However, I’m back to working on the book again, so I weigh daily and the minute I gain 2 pounds, I’m back on the diet.
So, if you want to lose some extra pounds or just avoid gaining, or lose a few to give you some play room for all the Valentine candy, I recommend this diet. It really lives up to its promises.
FEBRUARY, THE MONTH OF LOVE?
Ah, February. The month of love. Valentines Day and all that. At least it gives us a chance to eat chocolate without guilt. We’re supposed to, right? I mean, a guy gives you candy it’d just be rude not to eat and enjoy it. So go for it.
Along with Valentines, February has some other things going on as well. Did you know it’s International Expect Success Month? What about International Hoof-care month?
With all those arrows flying around from Cupid, it’s also National Condom Month. You can go to their website and learn statistics about Sexually transmitted infections and watch a condom video of how to properly get it on, before getting it on… as well as how they’re made. http://www.ashasexualhealth.org/national-condom-month.html
Good news for Walmart…it’s Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month. And also good news for women like me as we celebrate Spunky Old Broads Month!
But the funniest one of all is this one: Pull Your Sofa Off the Wall Month. Yep, it’s time to rearrange the furniture and speaking of furniture, I’d like to share a picture of a table my husband and I just made. I’d seen a Camille Console in http://www.SoftSurroundings.com at $800.00 was waaay more than I could afford, so we built our version for around $125.00 and I love it!! Go to their site and type in Camille Console and then compare it to mine. I love mine just as much as thiers…for a lot less!
As you can see from the photo, I’ve already pulled my sofa away from the wall.
That’s it for me. Enjoy some guilt free chocolate and don’t forget to use good condom sense!!
Ramblings
Didn’t everyone already know Robin Roberts was gay? I guess it’s news when people announce it to the world.
Has anyone noticed in Jason Aldean’s song “HickTown” one of the lyrics says: Well you can see the neighbors butt crack nailing on his shingles. That sounds like the butt crack is actually doing the nailing. Man, now that would be worth watching.
With January first coming up…you need to get your black-eyed peas before WalMart runs out. Check out a great Black-eyed Pea Soup recipe at southernliving.com
News Flash…after two years, Pattiecake and Sugarpie have finally finished their cookbook, SWEET THANGS. They’ll be submitting it for publication soon. They are super excited. They already have the cover!
Happy New Year!!
CHRISTMAS GIFT GAME
This is a game my Sunday school class played a few years ago. We took the word Christmas and each of us drew a letter and bought a gift that started with that letter. Now, if you have more than nine members in your class, you could use Christmas time, or Christmas season, or any other combination of greetings.
But I’m going to make suggestions for doing this for a spouse, love interest, or family member. You could give them a gift a day for the nine days prior to Christmas. It’s romantic and special.
Get creative.
C could be a deck of Cards, that you’ve pasted messages on…52 reasons I love you. (That’s also a good idea for Valentine’s Day and works for man or woman.) Of course, you can always go with Candy or Cash….but what about a China serving dish, or a Charm bracelet? What about a Cell phone, Camera, Computer, Cookbook, or something Cashmere?
For the man in your life, it could be any Car accessory, Cooking tool for the grill, or that golf Club he’s been wanting.
Hotel reservations for a week-end get-away will work for H and both genders. What about a Hunting trip or if he or she has a certain Hobby, furnish supplies for that. I’ve always wanted a Brahmin Handbag…but I’m too cheap to buy one, so maybe someone on your list wishes for a certain brand, but won’t splurge for it. OR Hire Help for either doing the yard or cleaning the House. Man, I’d sure like a House cleaning service!!
R could be for any type of Reading material…a magazine subscription or a book by his favorite author. (Come on now…you knew I’d work books in here somehow) What about giving something Red…a Corvette would be nice. You could also do something Remote controlled, Roller skates, a Racquet for either Racquetball or tennis…or a membership to a Racquetball club.
I could be any of those i things…iPad, iPhone, ipod..or covers for them. Maybe a gift card to an Ice cream parlor, or tickets to an Island…or there’s always Intimate wear…that would please the giver as well as the receiver!!
Perhaps something Silk, Satin, Silver, or Sapphire for the letter S. One year my sister gave Silver letter openers she’d had made from the knives of our grandmother’s Silver…such a lovely keepsake! Maybe a Sled for the kids in your life..or practical Slippers..or an extravagant Shopping Spree…more for your money after the holidays! Something we gave two of our older grandkids was a bowling ball with carrying case. They loved them and at the time, bowling was one of their favorite Sports…so it would work for S.
T is a hard one…maybe something to do with Tennis, Trading cards, or Tunes.
Lots of possibilities for M. Merlot…Movies…MP3 player…Mug with asst. of tea, coffee, or chocolate. Anything Monogrammed and how about some of those cute personalized M&Ms?
Last on the list is the letter A. Consider some Artwork…either bought or done by a family member or child. Something Antique…and if it’s passed down from a family member, all the better. A handmade Afghan. And of course…another book by a favorite Author! Sorry, I couldn’t resist!!
I hope some of these suggestions have gotten you to thinking outside the box…and I hope you’ll soon be done with your shopping, if you’re not already.
Happy Holidays!!
Ann Everett, Best Selling Author
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