Theodore’s Comments (group member since Apr 01, 2017)

Theodore’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Amy wrote: "I don't know how long Createspace has left, but I can't see Amazon running that and their paperback Beta."

I haven't seen any problems with CS...just published a book with them yesterday (illustrated children's storybook) and have another in proof now. No hint of an attempt to move me to another platform.

Carole wrote: "It's a whole new venue for people to sell books. Translating their books brings them to a foreign audience. My son translated Just Ask the Universe- but the sales don't compare to his English versi..."

I found this on a search for Author Central countries:

Amazon.co.jp Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de Amazon.fr
Amazon.com

http://www.kboards.com/index.php?topi...

Still looking for mx, es

I also found and confirmed this:

"Amazon.in (india) apparently has author pages, but unlike the rest it is actually (happily) just pulling straight from your Amazon.com author page so you don't have to do a separate set up!"

USA – https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/l...?

UK – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/gp...?

Germany – https://authorcentral.amazon.de/gp/la...?

France – https://authorcentral.amazon.fr/gp/la...?

Japan – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.jp/gp...?

https://susanleighnoble.wordpress.com...


So let’s first review countries that do not have Author Central pages set up.

Brazil
Canada
China
Mexico
Netherlands

https://www.amarketingexpert.com/over...

Looks like mx and es are not options at this point. fr looks good, when the time comes.

Carole wrote: "It's a whole new venue for people to sell books. Translating their books brings them to a foreign audience. My son translated Just Ask the Universe- but the sales don't compare to his English versi..."

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to look into setting up those pages. And your suggestion re home schooling is a good one. Thank you!!!

Carole wrote: "People have asked why I didn't translate my books- I know there is a huge market- but I had a hard enough time with mistakes in English- It would be hard to catch mistakes in another language. Kudo..."

Thanks. I learned Spanish in high school, used in South America and the Chilean Antarctic, had a lot of fun with it on Amateur Radio, and even convinced my major professor to let me use it as one of two languages need for my doctorate. "Ha," he says, "you can use Spanish, but the other language must be Russian." That one was a little tougher.

You can get close with the translation using the capabilities available today on the Internet and some knowledge of the language itself. Beyond that, you need the help of an editor or native speaker to file off the rough edges.

What pained me, of course, is that much of the verse in the English edition is lost. (Interestingly, some survived, though the cadence is off a bit). Verse or not, the story still carries the message.

As for the French version, Liz Carr found a teacher on PE Island who will scrub that version in the next week or so.

Carole wrote: "Looks amazing! Good luck with it."

Thanks, Carole. Finding someone willing to help me edit was a problem, but a friend of my daughter's finally volunteered. Liz Carr is helping with the French edition.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom & Writer) wrote: "Congratulations, Theodore! Wishing you sales and success! Hugs!!"

Thanks, Sam. That's so kind of you.

Erica wrote: "Congrats! I will be sure to let my teacher friends know. :)"

Thanks. I'm also working on a French edition with Liz Carr, Penny Minding Mom.

Just want the gang to know that the Spanish edition of Pepe Builds a Nest is now up an running in paperback on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545552258

Details submitted to the Goodreads' librarians are below:

* Title: Pepe Construye un Nido (Historias para los Primeros Años) (Volume 1)
* Author(s) name(s): Theodore Jerome Cohen
* ISBN (or ASIN): 978-1545552254
* Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 4, 2017)
* Publication date: May 4, 2017
* Format: Paperback
* Description: ¡Una maravillosa historia sobre cómo tomar las decisiones correctas y lidiar con los matones! Pepe, el pingüino, necesita construir un nido para la señorita Amber y para él. Pero Otto, el matón, sigue robando sus piedras. Vea cómo Pepe y otros resuelven el problema, finalmente reuniendo a Pepe y Otto como amigos.
* Page count: 48

It may take a week or so for my Webmaster to catch up with me and update my Website, but in the meantime, for those who have an interest in these things, I thought I'd put the word out.

Anna Faversham wrote: "Didn't one of your earlier posts say something about if God is for it, who can be against it!"

Unfortunately, G_d's plan for the universe did not include making me rich.

Here are mine:

https://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Jerom...

https://www.amazon.com/Alyssa-Devine/...

Mary Ellen wrote: "I make playlists in much the same way Justin described above. These appear in the back of the book on a chapter by chapter basis for my contemporary novels. My contemporaries usually mention songs ..."

Thanks, Mary Ellen. It was an honor to know Jimmy and spend time with him and his father. (His dad, by the way, was a Lt. Col. who served in Viet Nam at the same time I was in the Army.)

FYI, my fictionalized autobiography, Full Circle: A Dream Denied, a Vision Fulfilled, cites the following compositions (in order of their appearance in the novel):

Thelonious Monk, ‘Round Midnight
PyotrIlyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B Minor (“Pathetique”)
Johannes Brahms, Symphony No 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Georg Friedrich Händel, Sonata III (of six sonatas, 1742) for Violin and Piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219
Johannes Brahms, Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77
Béla Viktor János Bartók, Concerto No. 2
Gioacchino Rossini, William Tell Overture
Johan Halvorsen, Sarabande con Variazioni in G Minor (based on a theme by Georg Friedrich Händel)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola in E flat Major, K.364
Henri Rabaud: Symphonic Poem, “La Procession Nocturne,” Op. 6
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Waltz from Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48
Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, “From the New World”
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 1 in D Major
Sir Edward Elgar, Pomp and Circumstance (one of a series of five marches)
John Stafford Smith, National Anthem (the words are from a poem written by Francis Scott Key)
Richard Rodgers, Carousel
Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Meyer, If You Knew Susie
Ernest Bloch, Concerto Grosso, No. 1
Alan Hovhaness, Palm and Fugue for String Orchestra, Op. 40
Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings
Richard Rodgers, Victory at Sea Theme (as well as all music for the series)
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Symphony No. 6, Op. 54
Jean-Baptiste Accolaÿ, Concerto No. 1 in A Minor
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, Concerto in A Minor
Manuel de Falla, Suite of Spanish Folksongs
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Concerto No. IV in D Major
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch, Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26
Franz Peter Schubert, Ave Maria (Heifetz’ version)
Johann Sebastian Bach, Chaconne from the Sonata (or Partita) in D Minor for Solo Violin
Felix Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto
Josef Suk, Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra in G Minor, Op. 24
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem Mass in D Minor, K. 626
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, Requiem
Gabriel Fauré, Requiem, Op. 48
Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, two Violin Concerti, Op. 8, Nos. 11 and 12
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Aaron Copland: Third Symphony
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev, Violin Concerto No. 2

Alex wrote: "Amy wrote: "Alex wrote: "I know of one answer too, but I'm hoping it's something beyond what I suspect."

What beyond being a nutter? I mean-here's two identical things this one is quicker and chea..."

Ding, ding, ding, ding...we have a winner!

Alex wrote: "Unfortunately it isn't against their T&Cs. You see the same kind of thing all the time on eBay, people list items they don't currently possess because they only buy when they get a sale. It works i..."

"Why people pay the inflated prices some of the listings ask for, instead of buying via the official listing from us, is another question entirely, and one I'd be interested in hearing the answer to."

I'd give you my answer, but this is a family site.

Erin wrote: "Theodore wrote: "Erin wrote: "Theodore wrote: "Erin wrote: "Theodore wrote: "I will also tell you that my lead character, disabled Iraqi War veteran Det. Louis Martelli, NYPD, always listens to Cou..."

You're welcome. Let me know how he/you like the character/stories. You may find this of interest (it's the Afterword from Eighth Circle):

Afterword

I have always been puzzled by the dedications found in novels and other forms of literature, small but important ‘honors’ paid to friends or family members, mentors perhaps, or a person who played an important role in the author’s life or the birth of the literary piece that now carries the honoree’s name. For most of us—dare I say all?—the dedication often is viewed as a private matter between the author and the person honored, something to which we are not privy. It’s a communication within a society of the chosen, if you will. We don’t know the secret handshake.

You may have felt the same as you read the dedication in this book. There you saw the words ‘For Jimmy’. Perhaps you simply shrugged, guessed it was a friend of mine, someone I knew and respected, and then you moved on and (I hope) enjoyed the novel.

But there is more to this dedication than that. ‘Jimmy’ was James Francis Adamouski, Captain, United States Army, a friend of my wife Susan’s and mine, and son of our good friends, Judy and Lt. Col. Frank Adamouski, US Army (ret.). Frank and I worked together for many years, traveling occasionally from Washington, DC, to Ft. Monmouth, NJ, for our work. When in New Jersey, we took time and headed north to visit Jimmy, who was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. There, he not only excelled academically but in sports as well, soccer being his game of choice. We had many a good meal together at The Thayer Hotel, something to which I always looked forward. And what an honor it was for those who attended Jimmy and Meighan’s wedding in Savannah, GA, after his graduation to witness the solemn ceremony with its military formality and to attend the beautiful reception that followed.

Upon graduation, Jimmy attended flight school at Ft. Rutger, AL, where he learned to fly Black Hawk helicopters. His first overseas deployment was in support of the US efforts to quell the Kosovo conflict, where as a lay Eucharist minister in the Catholic Church, the troops took to calling him “Father Jimmy” because he conducted prayer services for his fellow soldiers.

Jimmy, who was to enter Harvard Business School in the fall of 2003, was killed in action when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed in central Iraq on April 2, 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His remains were buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery and West Point Cemetery.

If someone were to conclude Jimmy was the inspiration for the character Louis Martelli in my NYPD mystery/thriller novels, they would be correct.

Rest in peace, Jimmy. Thank you for your service to our country.



Photo courtesy of the Adamouski Family: Judy, Frank, Karen, Laura, Jaclyn, and Meighan (Jimmy's wife)

James Francis Adamouski, Captain, United States Army
2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia
Died in Central Iraq, April 2, 2003, at the age of 29

Theodore Jerome Cohen
Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Veterans Day
November 11, 2014

Erin wrote: "Theodore wrote: "Erin wrote: "Theodore wrote: "I will also tell you that my lead character, disabled Iraqi War veteran Det. Louis Martelli, NYPD, always listens to Country-Western when he's in the ..."

Here's the six-book series...they can be read in any order. I've put enough information in each such that it doesn't matter where you start. Each is based on real life or something ripped from the headlines.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06...

You'll also find more information, videos, screenplays, etc., here:

https://www.theodore-cohen-novels.com/

Erin wrote: "Theodore wrote: "I will also tell you that my lead character, disabled Iraqi War veteran Det. Louis Martelli, NYPD, always listens to Country-Western when he's in the car alone. Here's an excerpt f..."

Ah yes, Martelli is full of surprises. He is a first-class card shark, swears like a sailor (for which his wife makes him pay dearly), has friends in the Mafia, and, at times, walks on the shady side of the law. My kind of guy!

Erin wrote: "Theodore wrote: "I will respond to your question with one specific reference: the ending of my mystery/thriller End Game, the third book in Cold Blood, my Antarctic Murders Trilogy, depends critica..."

Pun accepted (;>)

I will also tell you that my lead character, disabled Iraqi War veteran Det. Louis Martelli, NYPD, always listens to Country-Western when he's in the car alone. Here's an excerpt from Death by Wall Street:

Detective Lou Martelli’s plane from New York’s LaGuardia Airport arrived in Des Moines, Iowa, on schedule. He deplaned quickly, and 30 minutes later, sat in his rental car, using his cellphone to let Stephanie know that he had arrived safely. By 10:30 AM, he had reached I-35N via Highway 5, where he turned north towards Grimes. There, he turned west on State Highway 44 for the trip to Guthrie Center.

Martelli was barely aware of what was playing on KJJY FM, 92.5 MHz, a country-western station playing music that reminded him of his old friend, William “Bat” Masterson from Memphis, and the great music Bat used to play at Camp Udairi in Kuwait before the invasion of Iraq . . . music by such artists as Alan Jackson, Lee Ann Womack and Willie Nelson, Faith Hill, Dolly Parton, and others. He and Bat used to sit and listen to Bat’s CDs for hours at a time after a full day of flying Black Hawks on practice missions over the desert.

Bat always was the first one in line for mail call, but the men never knew whether it was because of the perfumed love letters he got from his wife or the country-western CDs she included with every letter.

I will respond to your question with one specific reference: the ending of my mystery/thriller End Game, the third book in Cold Blood, my Antarctic Murders Trilogy, depends critically on the timing of the movements in Mahler's 5th Symphony.

Alex wrote: "I think the biggest problem we have is not price or quality, it's visibility. No matter how good our books are or how reasonable our prices, if people don't see them they're never going to buy them..."

You are absolutely correct. Being shut out, for the most part, from brick and mortar stores because our books are (with few, expensive exceptions) non-returnable, it's difficult to catch the readers eye. Advertising and discount promotions only go so far, but they can't sustain sales over any significant period of time. Simply put, if hard to be heard above the "noise."