Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff's Blog, page 19
January 24, 2012
My Dad, Barry Nemcoff, Shaking Hands with Nixon
It should be noted that my dad, Barry Nemcoff, couldn't stand Nixon. Hated the man's politics… but when you are asked to shake the hand of the leader of the free world, you do so with respect and honor. Funny thing was that I think my father was ashamed of this photo and I never even saw it until I came across it in a box of his old pictures after he died. I suppose most people would have framed it and put it up on a wall. He hid it away and never told anybody. Before spending decades in television news, my dad was in the foreign service and although I heard a number of stories about what he did while serving overseas, I still think there are some secrets he never told anybody.
I actually remember being in Washington D.C. with my father on August 8th, 1974. I recall we were staying in a hotel that had a view of either the White House or the Capitol Building, I can't remember exactly though it seems unlikely that it was the White House… I remember we watched Nixon resign from office on the TV set. I couldn't tell you why we were there other than my dad was there covering the story.
UPDATE: The Internet is a wonderful thing. A quick check of the Nixon archives leads me to believe this photo was taken in the White House on June 18th, 1971.
January 21, 2012
January 20, 2012
ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF on the Kindle Bestseller list for "Self-Esteem"
The first day it officially goes on sale for $1.99, I'm happy to see ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF on the Kindle bestseller list in the category of "Self Esteem!" (It had previously hit #2 on the list for "FREE" books this past Tuesday, but now it hits on the more important "paid books" list!)
I'm proud to say this means every single non-fiction book I've ever released has hit it's category bestseller list at some point.
Thanks to Everyone Who Downloaded ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF
Thank you to all who participated in the FREE Amazon download event for the launch of ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF. I heard from a number of you who have read it already and have begun to dig in and love it so far. I'm very grateful.
And hey, if you downloaded ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF for free and dig it, you can help this indie writer's cause by leaving a review or by gifting a copy to someone you care about. Just $1.99 in the Kindle Store.
January 16, 2012
ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF – Free eBook Launch Event!
I just wanted to let you know that I've released a new Rev. MYN book just in time to help you along with those pesky New Year's resolutions. And I'm giving it away for FREE for 3 days only!
Are you your own worst enemy?
The obstacles in your life do not prevent you from living your life. The obstacles in your life ARE your life…
Do you find yourself constantly getting in the way of your own happiness? Then ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF is the reality check about your self-image that will arm you with the mental tools you need to get from where you are in life to where you want to be.
GET IT FREE – 3 DAYS ONLY! (January 17-19th)
Exclusively in Amazon's Kindle store. To celebrate the release of a brand new Rev. MYN book, I'm giving away Kindle copies of ADMIT YOU HATE YOURSELF for FREE! from Jan 17th to Jan 19th. Regularly $1.99 and AMAZON PRIME members can always read it for FREE!
No Kindle? No problem… Read Kindle books on Your Web Browser, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android Phone with FREE Kindle apps! Read More
January 13, 2012
PISSED beats Sh*t, F**k and A******s. Thanks Canada.
From iBookstore Canada… "Pissed Off" is beating "Sh*t My Dad Says", "Go the F**k to Sleep" and "A******s Finish First"
Currently #161 overall on the Canadian iBookstore bestseller list for ALL iBooks.
Link to "PISSED OFF" in the Canadian iBookstore
Link to "PISSED OFF" in the US iBookstore
January 8, 2012
Self Publishing Diary: The Real Promotional Value of Amazon's KDP Select Program
So I enrolled my thriller-tastic novel THE DOOMSDAY CLUB into Amazon's Kindle KDP Select program and I have to say the results of that experiment were quite eye-opening.
One of the interesting aspects of the KDP Select program was the ability to put my book up as a free download for a short period of time. From the KDP Select promo control panel window, I chose 12/31 to 1/2, knowing there'd be a good amount of traffic on Amazon over the New Year's holiday weekend.
You don't accrue sales royalties for free books downloaded, but I figured there would be some good branding opportunities to be had by getting in front of new readers. That seemed obvious.
What didn't hit me until a couple of days later was that the REAL promotional value is not so much in the hope that free book downloaders will come back and buy more of my stuff BUT instead now THE DOOMSDAY CLUB is now newly associated with dozens of other similar genre books thanks to Amazon's brilliant discover mechanism otherwise known as: Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
You probably can't see it because the screenshot has compressed to fit this window, but now THE DOOMSDAY CLUB is part of the buying history of 13 pages of associated books. (That's 8 books per "page"). I can't tell you exactly how many "pages" of associated similar genre books were there before. I think it was less than four.
Over the course of the free promo, TDC was downloaded for free over 1,000 times and rose to #4 on the charts for free books in the sub-category of "Men's Adventure" so I think the exposure it received during the free giveaway period was pretty decent. However, because I believe the real value in this promotional tool is that whenever someone happens to look up one of many other books listed in the "Customers Also Bought" list for TDC, my book will come up on that page as something similar-minded genre fiction consumers picked up.
Now, I have seen new paid downloads after TDC went back to $2.99 so I think it will help this book get more visibility in a very crowded market for thrillers… HOWEVER… and I'll let you in on a little secret that you can now be partly privy to if you've managed to read this far…
Last year, on top of the 11 other books of mine I released, I also wrote and published two other books under secret pseudonyms. (One non-fiction, one fiction… and no, don't ask because I personally find it much more amusing to keep it a secret for reasons that are interesting only to me.) The purpose of this particular experiment was to see if I could release books that would get zero social media mentions and have no website. Basically, I was just releasing these books on Amazon, etc… to see if they would sell. So, I did the same KDP Select promo with one of them during the same exact period and have now seen the paid downloads really take off for the same reasons I expect TDC is now getting more traffic.
So yes, I'm becoming a fan of KDP Select and I'm contemplating enrolling more of my books into the program to enhance their discovery potential by Amazon consumers. I especially think I may make all of my new titles exclusive to Amazon for their initial three months in release. We'll see…
Stay tuned…
January 4, 2012
January 3, 2012
Who's Ready for the Next Rev. MYN Book?
That's right.. the Rev. MYN is back and "Admit You Hate Yourself", the sequel to "Go Forth and Kick Some Ass" is almost ready. I'm giving it one final polish before it goes to the editor. With a little luck, it'll be out soon… stay tuned!
