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Writer Q & A (Archived)
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Q and A with author Stephen Black
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Hello..My first time to do this...looking forward to it... Fire away!
Good morning, Stephen. What are the genres of your published books?
In case you don't know,I am promoting the three books on this link. They are Kindle ebooks and available on different days,http://www.scribd.com/doc/104923618/B...
ChristineHello!
Genres..wow! Some are easy to to define
OSW is a biography with elemnts of fact-based fiction.
CWS is history, romance and molecular cooking, as well as a lot of Singaporean history.
I will continue....
So(I a not a fast typist ;( )
Furikake is a collection of short stories, romantic, sad, dunny..again food is a part of it.. Hey! Wait a minute...can't you find this info above?
I guess I am genre defying sometimes...I am not easily pigeonholed unless I am commissioned by a magazine like Singapore architect or a travel magazine...
I should let you know that I am in Bali...it has been a long day..my typing is slower and less accurate than usual...
Hello Stephen,I see that you have a degree in Photographic Illustration, did you always harbor an interest in writing or was that something that developed after college?
-Jason
Your bio is very impressive, Stephen! What an interesting life you have. So you're testing out this unglue.it concept which looks like Indigogo and Kickstarter except there's no dollar goal posted, and I didn't see any premiums shown on your page. What made you decide to try unglue.it? I'm rather skeptical the site would really work.
Linda,,,Hi!Please go to Book Merah on facebook. There you will see quite a bit of documentation abouthow and why Amazon shut us down. Because they shut us down, the site is now not accepting any money...we will ｂe back up at the end of the month.
As far as why I tried it..it is new and interesting AND an unglued book will travel much farther than one that is not.It gets my workout to the most people in the shortest time. I think we will make it...if we don't...my life has bee enriched by the experience. Librarians and teacher are saints. OK..most of them;)
Linda..and Unglue already successfully completed one campaign...Oral Literature of Africa
hello..I aｍ in Bali... I will slee p a bit now. It is 3:40 AM...
Mod
Good evening from this side of the world. You've being living and working in Asia for many years, what do find the most interesting aspect of their culture?
Christine wrote: "Good morning, Stephen. What are the genres of your published books?"Christine..wow...I look at that reply now and it seems way too self-promotional..I should have said something like: this link will take you to some of the recent books I have completed. Hopefully their covers, descriptions and samples can give you a better idea...
I am disappointed in myself that I didn't think that one through better. Please accept my apologies...
Steve
A.F. wrote: "Stephen wrote: "good morning!"Good evening from this side of the world. You've being living and working in Asia for many years, what do find the most interesting aspect of their culture?"
WOW...where do I begin? But I have to say that your use of the word "their" doesn't feel like the best word to use.. Like everywhere else, Asia is full of variety. And "they" have many similarities, but "they " are also very different from each other. Let's look at rice. Indian curries are different from sushi and both are different from Cantonese porridge.Sometimes I think that the word Asia is so "big" that it loses its meaning...
I could go on and on... I suggest you travel if you can!
Jason wrote: "Hello Stephen,I see that you have a degree in Photographic Illustration, did you always harbor an interest in writing or was that something that developed after college?
-Jason"
I was working as a photographer, shooting weddings and basketball teams, before I could drive...
OK...I have to tell you all something which is EXTREMELY exciting. Only a few people on twitter and on LinkedIn know of this. I am now breaking every single rule about book marketing. I have a book on Kindle. It has a terrible cover. It has no reviews and no stars. I am a first time author.BUT I have decided to aim for #1 on the Kindle paid book bestseller list. And people are buying FURIKAKE!
Please do not misunderstand. I did not sign up for this to sell you something. In fact, you can get 3 Kindle downloads free by going here...http://goo.gl/6xyyo
The point is that as we are chatting, history may be being made!
A #1 book on Kindle with no reviews!?? Impossible! WRONG! People are helping me do it right now!
OK, maybe I am Don Quixote, but it is fun! I call my approach "crayon against" the machine". It is not a system for everyone...it takes a lot of work. Anyway, again, please do not think that I came here to sell...I didn't. The increase in price was a spur of the moment decision about 30 hours ago....I wanted to challenge myself.
Anyway, I am just telling you because I am so excited.. You writers out there, especially you fiction writers, know that what I am doing is very daring, to put i politely....
Stephen wrote: "Jason wrote: "Hello Stephen,I see that you have a degree in Photographic Illustration, did you always harbor an interest in writing or was that something that developed after college?
-Jason"
I..."
WRITING..you asked about...sorry. My dad is/was a book salesman. I literally grew up surrounded by books. I've always written, but it was only when I was i Tokyo that I started writing articles for magazines. Also in Tokyo I wrote my first book. I finished it and did nothing with it as it didn't feel like it was magic. I am looking forward to rewriting it..maybe next year.
Nice question. Thanks!
Mod
Good evening from this side of the world. You've being living and working in Asia for many years, what do find the most interesting aspect of their cul..."
I didn't mean offensive with the word "their", I just meant as opposed to Western culture. I'm fully aware of the differences in Asian countries. I was just wondering about your perspective on the culture of the countries you've lived in.
Nice to meet someone else with experience living in Japan. I lived there for four years, and I may be moving to China soon. I have visited Taiwan, but I would also like to visit Hong Kong. My question is what is your favorite neighborhood in Tokyo, and is there a particular place in Japan which has the power to inspire you?
I see you are working the Kindle Select program with its free days. That's a great way for new book releases to get attention and gather reviews - not as effective as when the program first started, but it still works. Very good for new authors.(I am an indie publisher, too, with a Japan WWII memoir.) It can be so difficult to get reviews out of people unless you have a ton of friends who understand the value of reviews or beg people. Good luck getting to #1! BTW, Smashwords offers an option to allow libraries to download your ebooks for free.
N. L. wrote: "Nice to meet someone else with experience living in Japan. I lived there for four years, and I may be moving to China soon. I have visited Taiwan, but I would also like to visit Hong Kong. My quest..."Hi!I lived in Shinjuku/Nakano and enkoyede itvery much. Sadly,the fantastic times I had in Fukushima are now more than a bit darkened...I had been writing about Miharu...
A.F. wrote: "Stephen wrote: "A.F. wrote: "Stephen wrote: "good morning!"
Good evening from this side of the world. You've being living and working in Asia for many years, what do find the most interesting asp..."
Linda wrote: "I see you are working the Kindle Select program with its free days. That's a great way for new book releases to get attention and gather reviews - not as effective as when the program first started..."Thanks Linda!As you know, there are always so many decisions to be made and rarely time to step back and reassess them. I think, though, at the end of the year, that is what I need to do before I put another project in the pipeline..Thanks for the info on Smashwords/libraries...
helloBefore I go to sleep, I wouldぃ絵kとたｈOOPS...I hit the Japanese key by mistake. I was about to say that I wanted to thank everyone that took the time to write in today.
If you are interested in the FURIKAKE #1 Best seller adventure, please take a look at @BookMerah on scribd. You might see a tweet or two that you could retweet! Thanks! Good night from Bali.
SB
oops that was @BookMerah on twitter!sleeeeep....
hello.. Here is what I've been up to today...http://goo.gl/BoS2nand don't forget you can get a free Obama Kindle download...see that link!
almost 3 in the morning here in Bali...I wil check and answer another day..Here's some fun+ http://goo.gl/EtoL8
THANKS EVERYONE and especially A.F. for organizing....
Missed the conversation--I was on a different side of the world. Anyway, nice to meet you, and interesting to learn more about kindle select.
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Writers and Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
obama search words (other topics)Contact With Shadow (other topics)
On Seng Poh Road (other topics)
Furikake (other topics)
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After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Photographic Illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology, he moved to Manhattan's Lower East Side where he worked for Film/Video Arts. Two years of exciting Manhattan madness concluded with a two-week trip to Tokyo. This marked the start of a lifelong Asian journey with extended stays in Hong Kong and Japan. He's been based in Singapore since 2002. Along the way, he has worked on projects with such diverse talented individuals as the legendary Japanese actress Kumiko Akiyoshi, photographer Annie Liebowitz, musician Amith Narayan, artist-curator Michael Lee, dancer Kazuo Ono, musician David Sylvian, poet Cyril Wong and hundreds of other people who amused him, made him work, made him laugh or scared the heck out of him.
He is also involved in unglue.it, a unique website that has come up with an interesting compromise for authors to offer their books free on the internet while still being compensated for their work. You can check out his book obama search words on this site here: https://unglue.it/work/88498/
Stephen's Goodreads Profile: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...