Sally Ember's Blog, page 109
July 9, 2014
RT and SHARE! July 14 = “Digital Book Day”
From CJ Lyons of No Rules, Just WRITE!, http://www.norulesjustwrite.com/:
“If you’re as sick of hearing about the industry woes as I am, then here’s a chance to celebrate our readers (and maybe get some new ones!)
“I’m declaring Monday, July 14th Digital Book Day!”
(that’s also Bastille Day, btw!)
“If you have a free book you want to include, check it out: http://www.digitalbookday.com/“
[I'm including This Changes Everything, Volume I, The Spanners Series, 'cause it's PERMAFREE!--Sally Ember, here]
cover art by Aidana Willowraven.
“The About and Submission pages should have all the info you need. If not, let me know.
“It’s pretty simple:
“1) Fill out the form on the site and submit before midnight ET, Saturday July 12th.
“NOTE: You must include a link to a free book that will be live by midnight ET, Sunday July 13th!
“2) Post a book that will be free on Monday, July 14th (I don’t care how—it can be via your website, a sales channel, a free site, doesn’t matter as long as the link will be working on Monday, July 14th) and
“3) Tell all your readers to come to http://www.digitalbookday.com on Monday, July 14th to grab your book and others.
“4) Provide a separate URL for your cover art (could be your own website/blog)
“5) Only one book per author.
“They’ll love you for it!
“Gotta love a win/win for all! Any questions, give a shout.
“CJ Lyons”
“PS: please, please share this with any review site/blog/book club/writers group that you know! This only works if we have a TON of books to delight our readers!
“PPS: BUT remind them, the links won’t be live until MONDAY, July 14th—so that’s when we need the readers coming to the site, not before then (don’t want them disappointed!)”
Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing, Marketing, The Spanners, This Changes Everything, Volume I of The Spanners Tagged: authors, ebook, self-publishing, The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything
July 8, 2014
Writing Contest by the RRBC
I am also a member of this fine club and highly recommend YOU join if you are an indie author! Well worth it, and you can also enter this writing context.
When you join , mention me and I might win some more recognition time! @sallyemberedd #RaveReviewsBookClub
Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:
You may remember the Rave Reviews Book Club, a club devoted to promoting, reviewing and generally supporting authors, from my previous posts, where I described what they have done for me (apart from the aqueducts and the roads, obviously).
Now, the Club is running a writing competition. Sunday, July 13th, 2014 is the final day to register and submit your entry into the “A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WRITER” Writing Contest. This contest is offering the biggest prize package offered thus far in the short history of the club.
The first place winner will receive:
A week long “SPOTLIGHT” author slot (that’s the one that quadrupled my sales);
A #PUSHTUESDAY slot (a big, day-long promotion on Twitter that has taken member rankings from the high millions down to as low as #22 on Amazon’s Top 100 list in a mere 24 hour period);
Automatic inclusion in the…
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Filed under: Writing
World-Building: Can Sci-Fi Help Build a Better World?
Love this: “…science also suffers from its own fundamentalism; a materialist philosophy that rejects all internal experience as invalid, meaning that art of all kinds is also devalued and pushed aside.”
Originally posted on Damien G. Walter:
Science shows us how the world is built. Can science fiction help us build a better world?
Follow @damiengwalter on Twitter
The Blue Marble
Astronaut Jack Schmitt released the shutter on the 70 millimeter Hasselblad camera at 5:39 AM on 7th December 1972. The Apollo 17 mission to the moon was 45,000 kilometers from Earth. The image that it captured was not the first of its kind. Other photos of Earth had been recorded by previous space missions, but none so clear and potent as this one.
“The Blue Marble”, as it would later be nicknamed, shows a fully illuminated Earth of white clouds, blue oceans and the continental landmasses of Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and the south polar ice cap. For hundreds of thousands of years, humankind lived on Earth’s surface. Now we could look back and see Earth as a whole, like a child’s marble, shining against the…
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Filed under: Writing
July 7, 2014
‘BOT v. HUMAN: Score 2 for the Human! Transcript of Actual Online Chat with AT & T “Service Representative,” July, 2014
I had the occasion today to have an Online Chat with a “Service representative” on what is called (hilariously) the “LIVE PERSON” chat function on AT & T.
What a great person this corporation is!
Complete transcript is below. Verbatim. All grammatical, punctuation and other errors of syntax are #AT&T’s.
Their “Representative” is posted in BOLD. Comments welcomed. My sideline comments are in
ITALICS.
Thank you for choosing AT&T. A representative will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with David.
Sally Ember: HI, David
David: Hello my name is David. Thank you for allowing me to be your specialist today. How may I assist you?
David: Good Morning Sally.
David: How are you doing today?
So, already, I’m suspicious. This much of an intro and the repetition scream ‘BOT to me.
Sally Ember: I just paid my bill, but there was an unexpected $8 “late charge” on it. I was in a terrible accident April 6 and was unable to keep up with bills (concussion; couldn’t use oomputer or track things for a while). I talked to someone at UVerse more than once as they called me to get me to make phone payments (which I appreciated), but no one said anything about any late charges. I am very low-income.Please remove this charge.
Sally Ember: Thanks.
David: I am so sorry to hear about your accident Sally.
Wow! They scripted this ‘bot pretty well!
Sally Ember: I would also like to talk about how to lower my bill.
Sally Ember: I’ve talked to many others and they all say my internet bill is way too high.
David: As I understood you need to get the Late payment charge of $8.00 removed from your account. Correct?
A little slow on the uptake, though. Can only process one task at a time?
Sally Ember: Yes. And I’d like to lower my bill overall.
David: No problem.
David: I can help you with that!
David: Please allow me a moment, while I access your account.
Sally Ember: Are you human or a ‘bot?
Why not ask? This is one of those questions it can’t answer properly, regardless.
David: I am sorry that I did not get your last statement.
Sally Ember: Most people get internet services for a lot less than $54/month.
David: Okay.
“Okay” what? Witness is nonresponsive.
Sally Ember: You don’t understand because you’re a ‘bot.
Sally Ember: I want a person, please.
Sally Ember: LIVE PERSON please! This works on the phone. Not here.
David: Yes, I am here to help you with this.
David: Yes, I am.
Some scripter thinks having it repeat itself is helpful. NOT.
Sally Ember: No, you’re not.
David: Don’t worry.
“Be happy” is supposed to come next. Missed its cue.
Sally Ember: I want the late charge removed and I want my internet bill to be under $40/month. Starting TODAY.
David: Please bear with me so that I can go ahead and help you with your concern.
See? Can only handle one at a time.
Maybe it looks like this? image from commons.wikimedia.org
Sally Ember: ‘bot ‘bot ‘bot
I know; “don’t taunt the ‘bot.” Well, it has no feelings.
David: Please allow me a moment to access and review your records.
They don’t even both to write a different script for the online “LIVEPERSON” ‘bot than for the phone ‘bot. BIG CLUE.
Sally Ember: ‘bot
Sally Ember: They should add to your script: “I am a human.”
Sally Ember: LOL
Sally Ember: No human would every say that, though.
Sally Ember: Except to an alien.
David: As I am checking your account details, I see that you have been charged $8.00 as the late payment charge.
Can’t engage in any other task until task one is completed? Interesting.
Sally Ember: Yes. Please remove this.
David: Alright.
I wish the scripter knew how to spell “ALL RIGHT.”
Sally Ember: So, I will now have an $8 credit?
Sally Ember: Because I already paid that charge.
Sally Ember: Lower my bill, please.
David: Yes
David: I am crediting you $8.00 as you were not able to pay the bill on time due to the problem faced by you.
It can’t even remember I had an accident and has to resort to generic language, here? I’m hurt.
Sally Ember: I want to pay less than $40/month.
Sally Ember: Thank you.
Sally Ember: Change my monthly rate to $39.90/month, please.
David: Your bill has bill credited with $8.00.
Victory #1!
Sally Ember: Good. Lower my monthly rate, now.
Got to be persistent with these ‘bots or they just won’t respond.
David: Please check your updated account balance.
Sally Ember: Thank you.
Sally Ember: Lower my monthly bill to $35.00
David: Now let me check with lowering your bill.
Excellent. New task.
Sally Ember: Thank you. I am over 55 and unemployed.
I hope these are the right key words/phrases.
David: I can understand your concern and do have complete sympathy with you.
David: Please stay connected.
Sally Ember: Excellent. Apply that ‘bot compassion to lower my bill.
“Sympathy”? From a ‘bot? I don’t think so.
Sally Ember: Other people have internet service in which they are served by HUMANS for under $40/month. I want that.
David: Let me check that for you.
David: Please have patience.
Sally Ember: Oh, you have no idea.
Sally Ember: I am the epitome of patience and kindness. Just like you.
David: Thank you.
For what? Oh. You are programmed to thank me for having patience?
Sally Ember: LOL
Sally Ember: If you are human, they have given you a terrible script to use.
David: Sally, what I can do for you to lower your bill down is that I can get your bill down to $46.00.
Sally Ember: $46 is better, but not low enough. Keep going.
Sally Ember: $35 is better.
David: I make sure that your bill will not increase now.
This ‘bot is using English even more poorly for this task. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Sally Ember: A T & T has billions. It can afford to lower my bill $20 and not even notice.
David: I am really very sorry that I am not able to get your bill lower than what I have offered you.
No response to my corporation baiting, eh? Fine. Take the ‘bot high road.
Sally Ember: Tell your ‘bot scripter for you to be kinder and more generous, please.
Sally Ember: I bet you are. $46 is fine. Thanks.
David: Sally, I have tried my best to help you with your concern.
Oh, oh. Have to make sure it doesn’t take away my reduction. Have to be more direct, now. Show it who’s boss.
Sally Ember: I do thank you. Please lower my bill to $46.
David: You are most welcome.
David: You are most welcome.
David: Yes, I have lowered your bill to $46.00/month.
Wow! I feel doubly welcomed, now.Victory #2, sort of!
Sally Ember: Gee. All I had to do was ask. Excellent!
David: Is there anything else I can assist you with?
Sally Ember: Thank you. You are dismissed.
Sally Ember: Sleep mode.
I’m taking control, now. “Orders from humans must be obeyed” has got to be in its programming somewhere.
David: Thank you for being the best part of AT&T. Take good care of yourself & have a wonderful time with your family and friends ahead!!
The “big finish” is a bit much, don’t you think?
So, limited, but mostly a success. ‘BOT v. Human: Score 2 for the Human!
Great, AT & T! Your fake LIVE PERSON / ‘bot mostly works!
But, here is the LIVE PERSON I wished you had! ERNESTINE! (a Lily Tomlin character, on Laugh In, circa 1969)
image from http://www.gracegritsgarden.com
Filed under: Opinions, Personal stories Tagged: 'bots, AT&T, Customer Service, humor
July 6, 2014
Guest Post: How to use Meditation to Improve Your Creative Writing
Great info, especially for beginners with #meditation. Thanks, Alana and Sandy!
Originally posted on The Author Who Supports:
I’m someone who has always been quite interested in meditation, it sounds like a lovely idea. To be able to focus my mind. To be able to enjoy and treasure the present moment. I have however, never found the time to practice the skill. I’ll need to make the time! Apparently, if you can find the time to breathe, write, wash, pee, pick your nose – you name it – you should in theory have time to meditate. If you’re keen to give it a go, check out Psychology Today for some tips. I’ll hand you over to my guest writer today…
Image http://thesunnyside.net/category/love/
***
How to use Meditation to Improve Your Creative Writing
Creative writing is not without its mental roadblocks. When creative efforts are stifled, many people grow desperate for a solution that can break them out of their funk and restore both focus and inspiration. If you’re facing…
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Filed under: Writing
10 Ways to Celebrate #Indie #Authors
Re-posting this to keep supporting the Blog Hop sponsored by Julie’s Book Reviews! #Rafflecopter Give-Away info at the end of this post!
So many #Indie #Authors, so little time! However, WE Indies deserve and need your attention for all our hard work!
Please take a few minutes, maybe every day during these LET’S CELEBRATE INDIE AUTHORS event days’ blog hop, organized by Julie’s Book Reviews, hosted here: http://juliesbookreview.blogspot.com/, July 1 – 14.
AND please do one or more of these supportive actions:
1) Visit, comment, follow, subscribe to the author’s website/blog.
Here are mine: http://www.sallyember.com and http://sallyember.tumblr.com
2) Go to the author’s books’ sites and CLICK to them on your Wish Lists or download them or buy them on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s nook, Smashwords, other sites that sell ebooks and print books by Indie Authors. All of my books’ links are available to the right of this post and on my main website (if you’re not there, now).
3) LIKE/1+/become a Follower (“Friend” or “Fan” the author’s and/or book’s or series’ pages) on Facebook, Google+, Amazon, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Shelfari, etc.
Most authors’ websites, like mine, have places for you to link to, click on, or do this right there, or the sites’ links will take you there. Add our books to your “shelves” such as “to read” or “currently reading” and post about them on your social media sites: “I’m reading…. by….” is a great Tweet! So is “I just bought/downloaded… by …..!”
BTW: if the author’s site has a “Tip Jar” or “Donate” button, especially when s/he has offered free books/ebooks or other content, please consider leaving a donation, however small. Much appreciated!
4) Leave comments, reviews, rankings, ratings!
Vote our books UP on Listmania lists on Amazon, Listopia lists on Goodreads, Booklikes’ lists: EVERYWHERE you can help us shine, please do! You can find what lists a book is on by scrolling down on its book page on that site.
5) Admire and comment on our series’ logo and/or cover art.
Visit the cover artist’s page and comment (if you know who it is). Aidana Willowraven is mine, and she ROCKS!
Now PERMAFREE everywhere ebooks are sold!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KU5Q7KC @$3.99
The Spanners Series logo and cover art by Aidana Willowraven
6) If we Indie Authors post excerpts, read, comment on, review, “Shelve,” “Like” them.
Join free sites to do this, such as Wattpad, Authonomy, Bublish, many other sites. Some, like me, post excerpts on our own websites or Facebook, G+ or other sites. Go on a hunt by author’s name/pen name and become a critiquer/beta reader/fan!
7) Whether or not you’re a blogger or “professional,” you can become a reader/reviewer by commenting, rating, reviewing every Indie book you read, whether it’s from a library or your own download. We LOVE seeing what you think as long as it’s fair and honest, of course. Please give reasons, even if you LOVE the book. Also, even if you don’t become a reviewer, you can read and LIKE/vote up others’ reviews.
8) If you are also a writer, join a writers’/authors’ support network, such as an online group or social media boosting group on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Goodreads, Booklikes, Kindleboards or blog/site OR (shocking, I know), attend an in-person support, critique, sharing group via your local library, your state/regional writers’ clubs, MeetUp: SO MANY! You can do more than one!
Shout out from me to Clean Indie Reads, Rave Reviews Book Club, Enovel Authors At Work, lots more.
9) Talk Indie Authors up!
Tell your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, gym or walking buddies, dog walkers, babysitters, postal carries–EVERYWHERE, EVERYONE–about your favorite, most recent or all-time beloved Indie Author! End every text, phone call, party, visit or work day with some comment about an ebook or print book you recommend. Inspire more readers!
10) Join/participate in Indie Authors’ Blog Hops, Facebook or Google Hangout Events (Cover Reveals, Launch Parties, Events of many types, such as THIS ONE).
Enter to win prizes, receive giveaways (such as a $5 Amazon Gift Card from MY site!) and make connections/friends!
Click on THIS Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for your celebrating and supporting Indie Authors today and every day! Share!
Filed under: Blogging and others' content, Indie or Self-Publishing, Marketing Tagged: cover art, ebook, indie authors, Sally Ember, self-publishing, The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever
July 4, 2014
Indie Authors’ Take on Amazon vs Hachette
Want to know the TRUE story? In Hachette v. Amazon, AZ is NOT the devil. Stephen Colbert is wrong (NOT USUALLY, but this time, yes).
READ, SIGN, GET INVOLVED! http://www.change.org/petitions/authors-to-thank-our-readers-2
http://ebooksuccess4free.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/indie-authors-take-on-amazon-vs-hachette/
Originally posted on How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks:
Below is an overview of the publishing situation between Amazon and Hachette (plus other traditional publishing houses and their authors). Very good stuff written by Hugh Howey and other prominent indies that many authors agree with, including me. The situation affects publishers, authors and most importantly, readers.
Dear Readers,
Much is being said these days about changes in the book world, but not nearly enough is being said about the most important people in our industry.
You. The readers. Without you there wouldn’t be a book industry.
We owe you so much, and we are forever in your debt. Thank you for reading late into the night. Thank you for reading to your children. Thank you for missing that subway stop, for your word of mouth, your reviews, and your fan emails.
Thank you for seeking our books in so many ways—through brick and mortar stores, online, and in libraries…
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Filed under: Writing
July 3, 2014
Excavating your Soul! – Indie and Proud
Thanks for the guest spot, Ingrid! Best to you and your followers/readers!
Originally posted on Author Ingrid Hall:
A few weeks ago, I invited you all to submit your indie related articles for inclusion on my blog. Today’s post by SallyEmber is the first in what I hope will be a long series. If you have an article that you feel would help indie authors in some way, the email address to send it to is ingrid@grannyirene.com
Writing as Excavation of the Soul
by Sally Ember, Ed.D.
For me, writing fiction and poetry always involves digging up artifacts and dirt. My own and others’ buried treasures, junk, secrets and lies are uncovered, examined, deemed worthy “as is” or refurbished, cleaned up and presented within the text.
Writing Clara Branon, as her and about her, is the most autobiographical fiction I’ve ever written. I decided to gift Clara with most of my own “stories” and history, to see what would happen when a version of me is involved…
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Through 7/31/14 only! 2014 Summer/Winter Promotion on #Smashwords!
Through 7/31/14 only! 2014 Summer/Winter Promotion on #Smashwords!
Many ebooks are FREE, 25%, 50%, and 75% off!
The Spanners Series. Sci-fi/ romance/ utopian/ multiverse/ paranormal/ speculative fiction ebooks for adults, YA, NA
Intrigued by multiple timelines, #aliens, #psi skills, #romance and planetary change? Clara and the alien “Band” are back in Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever. of The Spanners Series. Now as Chief Communicator, Clara leads the way for interspecies communication on- and off-planet. Fighting these changes are the Psi-Defiers, led by one of the oldest friends of the Chief of the Psi-Warriors, its reluctant leader, Rabbi Moran Ackerman. Stories from younger Spanners about the first five years of The Transition fill Volume II. How would YOU do with the changes?
50% off Vol II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever
Sale only on Smashwords for Vol II with this coupon code: NH97X
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424969
Vol I, This Changes Everything, is always FREE!
Dr. Clara Ackerman Branon, 58, begins having secret visits from holographic representations of beings from the Many Worlds Collective, a consortium of planet and star systems in the multiverse, in Volume I, This Changes Everything. When Planet Earth is invited to join the consortium, the secret visits are made public. Now Earthers must adjust their beliefs and ideas about life, religion, culture, identity and everything they think and are. Clara is selected to be the liaison between Earth and the Many Worlds Collective and she chooses Esperanza Enlaces to be the Media Contact. They team up to provide information to stave off riots and uncertainty. The Many Worlds Collective holos train Clara and the Psi-Warriors for the Psi Wars with the rebelling Psi-Defiers, communicate effectively with many species on Earth and off-planet, eliminate ordinary, elected governments and political boundaries, convene a new group of Global Leaders, and deal with family’s and friends’ reactions. In what multiple timelines of the ever-expanding multiverse do Clara and her long-time love, Epifanio Dang, get to be together and which leave Clara alone and lonely as the leader of Earth?
This Changes Everything begins the 30-year story of Clara’s term as Earth’s first Chief Communicator, continuing in nine more Volumes of The Spanners Series. Are YOU ready for the changes?
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/376197
All ebook formats available.
All cover and logo art for The Spanners Series by Aidana Willowraven.
Filed under: The Spanners, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume I of The Spanners, Volume II of The Spanners Tagged: ebook, Promotion, Sale, sci-fi, Smashwords, The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume I, Volume II
July 2, 2014
Return to Oz — Maurice Sendak
Here’s an example of how great MauriceSendak was! Amazing creator of characters, scenes, stories. Miss him!
Originally posted on Biblioklept:
Filed under: Writing
