Danika D. Potts's Blog, page 5

Rabbit in the Road Anniversary Freebie Giveaway: The Customer Is Not Always Right, But Is Most Important

You get a Rabbit and you get a Rabbit and WE ALL GET RABBITS! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!*
*Oprah totally did not read this book, does not endorse it, and probably has no clue what it is. But photoshop hilarity is fun.

This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of Rabbit in the Road being released (specifically, October the 14th)! Because of that, I thought it would make good sense for us to come out of our hidey-holes and talk and do some fun stuff!  I decided that the best course of action would be to… give it to you guys for free again all weekend! That’s right, same as before. No catches, no funny stuff. Just go grab it and enjoy it (and by the way, I’ve already seen what it looks like on the Kindle Fire HD; it looks FANTASTIC).

But there’s more! We also decided to drop the price of the paperback PERMANENTLY to $9.99! Wow!

But wait! THERE’S MORE! In the vein of having a nice, fun conversation with  friends and fans alike, I’m having a 100% open to the public BSery session on facebook. You can find it RIGHT HERE. Yep, just jump on over there and yammer away, ask whatever you’d like. I promise I don’t bite; I’m just a little weird, is all. But DO be civil; I won’t have all kinds of shenanigans runnin’ amok!

Okay, now with all my typical silliness out of the way, I figured for today’s post I would actually talk about one of my favorite topics again, and something that I’ve learned a great deal about over the past year: Customer service. Here’s the top things I’ve learned in the past year as an independent author that might be helpful to you, in the future:

Take care of your customers. Don’t shut them out, let them IN. THEY are the ones who are excited about what you do. They’re the ones that are going to talk about your product more than anyone else on the planet, possibly including yourself.
Don’t screw your customers over. For whatever reason, they came to you and invested in your product because they feel like they can trust you. They’ve given you their money, which is quite literally the equivalent of their time, of which we all have a limited quantity. Respect that shit. After all, YOU are someone else’s customer in some way, shape, or form. Treat your own customers like you would want to be treated as one.
If you’re going to make a decision that might step on a whole bunch of toes? Just ask them first. Your fanbase will be, strangely enough, INCREDIBLY honest with you if you given them the opportunity. And why? Because they DO have something to lose: Their time.
Keep your most dedicated and loyal customers on the inside track. If you’re going to do something cool? Let them know first. They absolutely HATE being the last to find out about what you’re working on or a deal, and if it wasn’t for them, you probably wouldn’t be in that advantageous position in the first place. Take care of them, and they will sing your praises for a long time to come.
Listen to your customers. You don’t have to agree with them, or even implement a single thing that they suggest, or want. But you DO have to acknowledge their concerns. Something as simple as, “I hear what you’re saying and I’m noting it down” goes a long way. Nobody likes shouting into a void.
Sometimes, you’re going to have to take a short-term loss for a long-term gain. It’s worth it to go out of your way to take care of ONE customer (in this case, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” does not apply). It shows them that the individual, and their experience with your product, MATTERS TO YOU. True, it’s impossible to please every single customer. But no one is going to fault you for at least trying to the best of your ability.

~Oliver

An Anniversary Missed and Surgery

Hey folks, Mr. Oliver here. It’s been a while, so I thought I would get you caught up to speed.

So it appears that our 1 year anniversary of running this blog was last month. Whoops! Super exciting, but we missed it for a good reason.

If you didn’t know already, way back in January during a routine dental visit it was revealed to me that I had an unknown mass lurking inside of my sinuses. The past 9 months have been, for lack of a better description, emotional hell.

Combine that with moving all the way across the country to Washington State and all the way BACK to Iowa while dealing with that hasn’t been a lick of fun at all!

However, after fighting for 9 months to get the medical industry to even pay attention to me, I finally had surgery in my head (inside of the maxillary sinus, to be specific) to get the mass removed last week. Here is a very gross picture of me all swollen up post surgery.

Storing up for the winter.

Gross!

Surgery was crazy, but I had some good support for that. Just had my follow up with my surgeon after the fact and I’ve got a clean bill of health, and the pathology came back on the mass (just a cyst and not cancerous in any way), so looks like I’ll be able to get back on the horse here soon enough.

Well, technically I AM back on the horse since I’m writing this post, but let’s not argue semantics here and instead look at my handsome mug, 9 days after surgery.

Back to being a Handsome Dan. Depending on who you’re asking. Also, I’m pretty sure my name isn’t Dan.

That being said, more miniature bad news: Obviously, The Dusk Harbinger got delayed as I was bogged down in doctor appointment on top of doctor appointment. The book was SUPPOSED to be out in July, and guess what? It isn’t.

I fucked up, and for that, I apologize.

I realize that yeah, when it comes to health, whatever is going to happen is going to happen and you don’t get to have control of those kinds of things, but I still feel like I failed in my responsibility to get my product out when I thought it was going to be out.

That being said, we’re still working very, very hard on it and I have my fingers crossed to get it done in time for the 1 year anniversary of Rabbit in the Road.

When all is said and done, I am glad that we started what we’ve started, and I hope that we get to continue doing this for a long time still. The last year was hard and heavy with me being injured and ill and surgeries galore, but I guess I CAN say… if we can put out a book with me falling apart, then YOU can put one out without being sick!

I hope that we keep getting to deliver interesting and exciting content to you.

So uh… Happy Anniversary. If you have a noisemaker handy, you can blow it belatedly.

~Oliver

Interpretation

The interesting thing about this image is that many people believe that it spins to the left. Others are adamant that it spins to the right. The truth of the matter is, the image in fact spins both directions. There is not enough information presented to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt that the woman depicted is spinning in one direction. If you simply relax your eyes and imagine that she is spinning in the opposite direction of what you are currently interpreting it, she WILL spin in that direction.

Reader Ted G. wrote in to Danika and I, with an interesting point of view about Rabbit in the Road that I wanted to share with you folks. Ted writes:

“We all agreed that most people read it as Bevie being the victim, only changing at the end of the book. This was the big surprise ending for all of us. It seemed that in that final confrontation, Bevie simply had had enough of her life being upturned all the time and saw a way out.

But, we all agreed that it can be read with Bevie in the roll of villianess from almost the very beginning. It could be argued that it was she using/manipulating Ray. Also her continual callous treatment of her boyfriends is evidence of a less than stellar moral fortitude. She manipulates these men to get what she needs, then abandons them all at the drop of a hat.”

The truth of the matter is: Either interpretation is correct. Of course, the question of INTENT is something else altogether. I can tell you that the second point of view is what we intended to write, and this is true. But this does not invalidate the first point of view either. It is 100% valid.

And that’s the funny thing about creative works. They’re open to interpretation a GREAT DEAL (but not necessarily all) of the time. Quentin Tarantino made an interesting observation about the nature of superheroes (and this very post is brought to you by the casual discussion that I was having regarding this topic) in Kill Bill Vol 2, regarding Superman:

“Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there’s the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn’t become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He’s weak… he’s unsure of himself… he’s a coward. Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race.”

In the discussion we were having, someone pointed out that that isn’t what the creator intended. And this is probably true, it’s NOT what they intended. However, just like with Rabbit in the Road and a great deal of other things in the world, merely the way in which you view or receive information, can change what it means. Where have I heard that before?

I will let you in on a little secret about Rabbit in the Road, however. Rabbit in the Road is, in fact, a critique on people. Some people are victims, some are heroes, and some are villains. Rabbit in the Road was written to address that very paradigm. Many readers who have spoken to me have pointed out that they were victimized at some point in their lives and in Bevie they saw themselves and her as a victim. Quite a few others saw her as a villain, and other people saw her as the heroine.

Ultimately, because of the method of the intentionally vague presentation of Bevie, I leave you with you this:

What you will see in Beverly Foster as a character, is merely a reflection of who you view yourself to be. 

~Oliver

My Kind of Heroine

My Kind of ( ) is a series of posts about my particular taste, the things that get me wound up in narrative. I always know them when I see them; the types of characters that seem like they’re speaking just for me, the settings that send me into daydream-land for weeks, the twists and plots that make me stay up late and miss work the next day. Up next? Heroines.

If My Kind of Hero was about doubt and courage, my kind of heroine is all about loyalty. She’s loyal to herself, first. She knows who she is, and doesn’t apologize for that. She is confident in her skills, without being abrupt or rude, and she’s a willing teacher to those who show the proper respect. She’s motherly or sexy as she chooses, but never bitchy.

People don’t flock to her, begging to be near her. They just know she’ll be there when they need her, and she always delivers. She may be a mother, a sister, a sexy detective, it doesn’t matter. But she cares for her own not passionately, not insane hulk-out-ragey like an animal after its young, but with quiet determination. Caring for her own is a given, and her loyalty is a gift. Her major staggering points are when she fails them, or they fail her.

She’s confident, calm, and cool under pressure. She’s smooth,  never needy, but still an emotional creature of needs and wants. She’s loyal to her own goals, before those of any other. For me, the best written heroines aren’t written as women. They’re written as people first, as fully-fleshed out as any male character, as driven, as deep. Their motivations aren’t just weddings and children. Their motivations are as faceted as those of any man. Sometimes their machinations are political, or interpersonal, or they’re ambitious or wounded. They aren’t simple creatures, not one-trick ponies. They resonate.

She’s rarely a heavy hitter that comes at a problem straight on, but her brain is always working, finding the chinks in the armor, the weak spots, the unprotected flanks. She’s the one with the knitted brow, the frown, the constant a-ha moments. She isn’t snap-judging and reacting, she’s working it all out, looking for the pattern and the weave in events. She’s logical without being robotic, and emotional without being hysterical.

She’s tough but flexible,  finding ways through and around obstacles. Her reactions are smooth, soft like water, but unyielding like stone. Question her abilities and she doesn’t push back. She doesn’t have to. She is perfectly calm while she demonstrates her skill, proving her worth without hot retort or witty banter. She doesn’t have to be a bitch to be right, and she doesn’t spend all of her time scoring points off male characters. She’s not about reducing male characters to one note, any more than she could be reduced herself.

My kind of heroine is a rock when all around her is sifting sand. She’s her own best asset, and she uses all the tools at her disposal. I always know her when I see her- she’s the one who silently, steadily handles the business at hand, a calm island of Cool when things get crazy and hot.

 

So tell me about your kind of heroine. Who is she? How do you know her when you see her?

 

-Danika

My Kind of Hero

My Kind of ( ) is a series of posts about my particular taste, the things that get me wound up in narrative. I always know them when I see them; the types of characters that seem like they’re speaking just for me, the settings that send me into daydream-land for weeks, the twists and plots that make me stay up late and miss work the next day. For the first? Heroes.

My kind of hero carries his emotional baggage awkwardly. He’s tortured by his past  failures. He may be haunted by lost loves, missed opportunities, or just the gradual fading of unrecognized glory days. But he never lets these failures cripple him. They just make him hesitate, falter, and doubt.

My kind of hero is full of doubt. The plan may not work, but he pushes on anyway. The companions may not be trustworthy, but no one else will help him. Or worse- he may not be man enough to get the job done. I love watching a hero wrestle with his own portrait of himself, and then repaint that image through sheer doggedness.

He keeps on, when anyone else would have quit. He’s tenacious to a fault, to the point of being ridiculous. He can’t manage to quit, even when seized by doubt. He doesn’t know how to stop being a hero, even when he probably should.

My kind of hero is a normal man forced by circumstances into change. That change is usually catastrophic to his Life Before. His shift is tectonic, massive, shaking everything around him to its foundations.

He is brutal when he must be, and merciful when he can afford it. He doesn’t savor cruelty, though he can careless and callous. He can be a bit of a buffoon, and there’s always an unhealthy amount of charm hiding under his gruff exterior.  He may be full of contradictions, but I always know my kind of hero when I see him.

My kind of hero is unsure, imperfect, and still embodies all the things we all hope to be:  in his golden, shining moment of greatness, he is the best of himself in the worst of circumstances.

-Danika

So tell me about your kind of hero. Who is he? What grabs you about him?

Next up in My Kind of… Heroines.

An Open Letter to the Reader That Hated Rabbit in the Road As Much As The Lord of the Flies

You hated my book? THANK YOU!

Dear Annette M.  from San Francisco,

Thank you for taking the time to read my book on Amazon, Rabbit in the Road. 

I noticed that after you finished reading my book, you left a one-star review that said the following:

“Haven’t hated a book so much since 30 years ago in high school when they made us read “Lord of the Flies”. Terrible book, bad plot, not logical, and I didn’t care about any of the characters. Blach!”

And after that, when another reader raised questions about your review, you said the following:

“So, if I understand you, my overwhelming feeling after finishing the book to punch the authors, needs more explanation? Because it was a terrible book!”

I’m sorry that you did not enjoy your experience with Rabbit in the Road. Not every product can please every customer, and for that I apologize. I noticed that you said you wished that you could get your time back. It pains me to tell you that unfortunately, I do not believe that Amazon provides refunds on time lost.

I am simultaneously humbled and beaming with pride that it took over THIRTY YEARS for someone to make you hate their book so much that you took the time out of your day to come and leave a review, the ONLY review you have ever left on any product, on Amazon. It shows me that you are very passionate about this subject.

The very fact that you are comparing me as an author to Nobel prize-winning William Golding is the most flattering thing that anyone has ever said. Let’s not even begin to mention that you comparing Rabbit in the Road to one of the most challenged books in the 20th century, and widely considered one of the best pieces of literature ever written is like shooting over the moon to me. I can’t thank you enough! It’s not every day that someone compares your book alongside other classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Flowers for Algernon, The Great Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird, and many more. This is like a dream come true!

I see here that you noticed that parts of Rabbit in the Road weren’t logical. You have a very keen eye, you are correct. This is intentional. Rabbit in the Road is about the most common thing that binds all of us together: People and the fucked-up decisions they make that make absolutely no sense. The fact that you noticed such a thing makes you an incredibly astute reader, and I tip my hat to you.

I also observed that you didn’t like any of the characters in the book. Again, very keen eye, you caught that one head-on. None of the people in the book are supposed to be liked! They’re supposed to be real, which means they make crazy decisions and do messed up things, and more often than not a lot of people are generally unlikable.  The fact that you didn’t like any of the characters means that I told this story correctly! Thank you for reaffirming the vision that I set forth when crafting this tale.

One thing that I’m curious about is that you openly express the thought of violence against my co-author and I. Many of the world’s greatest novelists and visionaries have been threatened with physical harm because of their literature, which means to me that we’re right on track to becoming noted individuals in our field!

In closing, I’d like to say thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts with me. If you haven’t picked up your paperback copy yet, you can still do so on Amazon. If you have any intention of taking my book to a bookburning, please let me know, as I would love to get pictures of that to put in my scrapbook of notable memories about my career. It would be amazing to one day tell my children that my book was hated enough to get torched.

I look forward to you hating more of my books in the future.

Sincerely,

~Oliver 

Rabbit In The Road: Signed, Sealed, Delivered To Your Front Door!

Don’t forget. Our giveaway is this weekend! Rabbit in the Road is free today and tomorrow on Amazon. It’s been downloaded over 17,000 times already, so don’t miss out.

Ready for your signed paperback copy to arrive? Hop on twitter, follow @oliverbcampbell, and send him the following message:

For the ladies:

“I’m a  #diablo3widow and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!”

For the dudes:

“I’m a #diablo3widower and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!” 

We will choose TWELVE people at random who use those tweets to receive  AUTOGRAPHED PRINT COPIES of Rabbit in the Road ! No catches, no gimmicks.

We can only give them away to people who reside in the continental United States. Winners of those copies will be contacted through direct twitter messages for shipping information!

Pass it on! Tell your friends! Remember, here’s what you’re getting:

Rabbit in the Road, Kindle edition FREE in all territories Saturday, May 19th and Sunday, May 20th 2012!
One of TWELVE  Rabbit in the Road autographed PRINT copies given away at random on Saturday, May 19th and Sunday, May 20th to those that follow and tweet ”I’m a  #diablo3widow and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!” or   “I’m a #diablo3widower and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!”  to@oliverbcampbell on Twitter!

Have you already finished Rabbit in the Road and want to talk about it? Message us! We would love to hear what you have to say.

-Danika

Rabbit in the Road Triple Birthday Giveaway Extravaganza!

Happy Birthday!

It’s such a big event, that we have to do 3 separate giveaways this week just to cover it all!

Last time we gave away Rabbit in the Road, over 10,000 people downloaded the book and are enjoying it. So why not do it again, in the name of jubilee?

1. May 16th (Wednesday) is Danika’s birthday! Because of this, we’re going to be giving away Rabbit in the Road in ALL TERRITORIES on Amazon for the Kindle completely free that day! No catches, no gimmicks. Jump up on in there and enjoy some free reading on us.

2. Diablo 3 is going to make for a very, very boring weekend (and many more weekends to come) for quite a few significant others the world over. Because of this, since you won’t have your partner to keep you company, we figured WE would keep you company. So, we’re going to give away Rabbit in the Road free ALL WEEKEND for the Kindle (May 19th – May 20th) as well! If you’re going to have to be camped out next to a computer that whole time, at least you won’t have to be bored out of your gourd!

3. In combination with the above two giveaways, we’re going to have a Twitter specific giveaway! Saturday and Sunday May 19th-20th, I’m going to be watching twitter for the following tweet from those who follow me @oliverbcampbell:

“I’m a  #diablo3widow and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!”

(or, if you’re a dude)

“I’m a #diablo3widower and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!” 

I will be picking TWELVE people at random who use those tweets to give AUTOGRAPHED PRINT COPIES of Rabbit in the Road ! Same thing applies, no catches, no gimmicks.

We haven’t given away ANY print copies of the book before, so this is a pretty big deal! The only thing that we can say about the autographed copies is that we can only give them away to people who reside in the continental United States. Sorry about that. Winners of those copies will be contacted through direct twitter messages for shipping information!

Let’s go down that list one more time, just to make sure things are nice and clear (and so you can mark your calender for AWESOME):

Rabbit in the Road, Kindle edition FREE in all territories Wednesday, May 16th 2012!
Rabbit in the Road, Kindle edition FREE in all territories Saturday, May 19th and Sunday, May 20th 2012!
One of TWELVE  Rabbit in the Road autographed PRINT copies given away at random on Saturday, May 19th and Sunday, May 20th to those that follow and tweet ”I’m a  #diablo3widow and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!” or  “I’m a #diablo3widower and I want to read #rabbitintheroad!”  to @oliverbcampbell on Twitter!

 Get it? Got it? Good!

And make sure you tell Danika Happy Birthday. Because, you know. I might have to hurt ya a little bit if you don’t. And don’t forget to tell your friends! It’s going to be a busy weekend!

~Oliver 

2nd Time Around the Block: Test Reading The Dusk Harbinger

I was test reading books before it was cool. And before internet.

We’re back again. So what have we been up to during our strange absence?

Well, it’s simple. We’ve started test reading again for the next book, The Dusk Harbinger. Only 6 months after Rabbit in the Road came out? THAT’S CRAZY TALK, you might say.

Surprise, I’m a little crazy.

We learned a lot from going through the process of getting Rabbit in the Road done, test read, and released to the general public. So it’s no surprise that we’re going to build from the successes of before and add more to it this time, refining and making it better.

The most important thing that we gained from releasing Rabbit wasn’t money; it was STREET CREDIBILITY. When we sit down and say, “Hey, we’ve got a book coming out,” people don’t roll their eyes and humor us and fake being polite. Now they know that we’re serious.

It should go without saying that because of this, the test reading group is at least twice as big as the group was for Rabbit. We’ve also upgraded the whole thing to collect new information that is more than likely going to be invaluable in the long run. Some of the new people are still a little shaky like some new born foal and are even a little intimidated, but I’m pretty sure that they’re just going to fall right into the process as we go along.

As more and more sections go out and we get more and more feedback, we’re going to talk a helluva lot more about our sophomore trip around the block. So… keep your eyes peeled!

~Oliver

P.S.

If you happened to miss out on the Rabbit in the Road giveaway from a few weeks back, don’t feel bad. There’s going to be another one coming up here soon in a few weeks!

Customer Service #2: Rabbit in the Road Technical Difficulties

This is a public service announcement. An issue was just reported to me and I want to know if anyone else is experiencing it.

I’m hearing that some copies of Rabbit in the Road are corrupted on their download. Of the two reports that I’ve gotten, one was that the first page of the book repeated 75 times, and the second report is that the book suddenly ends halfway through.

Of the 12,000 units that went out, I have seen 14 units be “refunded”, and I reckon this is that issue manifesting itself.

If you are experiencing bizarre behavior like this, the first thing that pops  into my mind as a solution is to just delete the file itself from your device (do NOT remove it from your account!), and re-download it. So long as you don’t remove it from your account, it SHOULD be perfectly fine and it should re-download CORRECTLY. I’ve personally checked the integrity of the file myself just now, going through it line by line and there’s nothing weird going on there. It appears to be an isolated event (It seems to be happening to 0.11% of the downloads), so I’m pretty certain that this is an issue on Amazon’s end.

Please share this with your friends and what not, and definitely have them use this post to let me know if they experienced any similar issues.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I am in the business of customer service. I care, WE CARE, and if you’re not happy, WE’RE NOT HAPPY. 

~Oliver

P.S. Thanks for the tip, Bill!