A.H. Pellett's Blog, page 4

What's "Sleeping with Snow with Bears" about?

My new novel, Sleeping in Snow with Bears , is now available in ebook form on Amazon.com and will soon be coming to most other major ebook retailers.  So what's the genre and what is it about?

Honestly, I've struggled with this because the plot is a lot deeper than the description I've drafted for the ebook stores. That description is targeted at the reader browsing for a thriller. If you want to read that version of the description click here or on the book cover to the right of this page, you'll see what I mean. It comes across a little bit thin.

I prefer to think Bears (my shorthand for the novel) is bigger and better than that description. Speaking more exactly, Bears is a suspenseful action packed thriller spanning the exotic locales of two continents, featuring an epic story of one nation's survival, another's awakening, two beautiful love stories + a mystical sub-text from beginning to end.  It's a tale told by a paparazzi you can read about in the ebook description cited above.

I hope you'll take a look at the description and consider downloading a free sample.

My Novel is Now Available ... In Limited Locations

After over eight years in the conceiving, writing, re-writing and editing stages, this past Monday I finally uploaded my novel, Sleeping in Snow with Bears, to Smashwords.com.
So far this uploading has been the easiest part of this whole writing process and very rewarding after so many years in the prep stage. Since I carefully followed their guidelines, all the formats converted on the first try. I am currently waiting on approval for the site's Premium Catalog (a manual review as I understand it) which would then make the title available in other ebookstores.

If anyone is interested, they can check out the book jacket and story description at this Smashwords link.  If you go there, thanks in advance for checking it out.  A sample of the first 20 percent of the book is there too, for free.  Let me know what you think.

QR Codes - What are they and how can they help authors

Once in a while I'll take off my writers hat to share what I do in my day job - advertising development and market research.  This post is of that variety.  
All of a sudden, QR codes are being used by marketers across the globe.  So why can't authors get in on the act too? Fact is, they most certainly can.

QR codes is the techy name for those stamp like blocks that appear often at the foot advertisements.  They look sort of like a scattered bar codes, and like bar codes they can contain one of four different types of information - URL, text, phone number or SMS.  The end user who sees a QR code can snap a picture of it with their smart phone and get the pertinent info it contains using a QR code app they most likely would already have.

Here is a QR code that ties to this blog:

For the author seeking to get visitors to his/her web page, the QR code may be the way to go.  Not everyone may remember a name, title, or web page URL, but the QR code can be useful way for them to input that info into their smart phones for current or later reference.  You can embed QR codes most anywhere (think biz cards, bookmarks, promotional fliers, etc.).

For a great article on QR codes and how to use them, I'll refer you to this piece written by Daniela Baker.

If you want help doing this yourself, or want someone to help you do it, drop me an email or tweet.

My War and Peace Test of Kindle

I just finished reading War and Peace, by Tolstoy. I read it all using a Kindle and 1250 page clicks later, I can truly say I am impressed with Amazon's ebook reader (not to forget the story - I liked it too!).  These are my overall thoughts on the experience.

There were pluses and minus to the adventure, but on the whole I am glad I read the book in this format rather than have a overly thick paperback (or other) to have to fight for a month or two.  Using the Kindle was a truly enjoyable experience.  Not only was it easier to lay in my lap with my hands behind my head, but I could travel with it with ease, keeping my carry-on baggage weight manageable (until Kindle-time, I generally carried two or three weighty books and magazines everywhere I traveled).  On the minus side, the W+P version I read had a lot of asterisks following the innumerable French passages, which apparently were for the translations, but they were not in my version, and there was nothing to indicate that (not that I can complain, it was one of the free classics, so I struggled from time to time, but managed to get the idea of each passage without too much guessing).  I imagine this will be a similar challenge for works that have footnotes in the back of the book.  As a fix, I recommend Amazon come up with a way to bounce between bookmarks.

I've now started the next book from my pile of "waiting to be read titles" and I'm back to a trade-paperback, and while it is one-sixth the size of W+P, I must say I miss the Kindle experience.

I wish there were a way that one could prove you have (or own) the hard copy, so you could get the Kindle version for free (I'd even pay a small fee if I could be in an "Amazon club" where I could do this).  I'd switch to all-Kindle in a second.

Are you right for self-publishing? - Try this

Self-publishing may be right for you, but are your right for self-publishing?  This post shows how I investigated whether I was right for self-publishing and how you can find out for yourself, too.

 Quick link to the assessment tool
Like many of you who have completed a novel or work of non-fiction only to see it largely ignored, lying dormant in countless agents' and publishers' slush piles, I too am struggling with getting the attention of the mainstream publishing industry. Meanwhile, I'm seeing this burgeoning self-publishing industry exploding before my eyes, and it's been very tempting to go ahead and plunge right in throwing all caution to the wind.
Caution to the wind? Ha! Sadly, I'm more of a cautious type, so I went through all the pros and cons of self-publishing; and even then, decided that this still wasn't enough.
To get the right answer for myself, I really needed to decide who I am and what I am all about. Self-publishing seemed right for me, but am I really right for self-publishing?
I do market research in my other life, so I thought I should be able to figure this out rationally. That said, I fired up the survey software I use on a daily basis and came up with an extensive list of questions to ask myself (about me) with the goal that the software would tabulate my answers and tell me if self-publishing was the right choice for me.
Well, I found this exercise so helpful, I decided to share it with others going through this same legacy vs. self-publishing dilemma.
Since I took the assessment initially, I have embellished it with commentary so you know where each question is coming from. Today, I think it's a better tool than I originally started with and if I get productive feedback, I'll keep improving it.
As I've put a lot of time into this assessment tool's development, some time in the future, I may charge a minor fee for its use. But as it is currently new, largely untested, and probably not as comprehensive as it could be, I'm making this version of the self-publishing assessment tool available for free.  Try it out for yourself and see if you are a good fit for self-publishing.
Enjoy and let me know what you think of it.
BEGIN FREE PERSONAL ASSESSMENT