Another good reason to be on Kindleboards as well

[Andre Jute]

If you haven't enabled your profile pages on the Kindleboards, now's a good time to do it (click at very bottom right of profile page), Check the result:
http://www.kindleboards.com/books/ind...

Go here for an explanation of Harvey's latest superb service to writers:
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php...

[K.A.]

Harvey rocks - however, it's tough to take advantage of his gagets when you can only have one thread per book.

[K.A.]

This is a good thing, but set up is proving to be a chore. That said - thanks for telling us about it.

I'm going to start a spreadsheet so I can keep track of all these sites and gizmos.

[Andre Jute]

Kat wrote: "Harvey [boss programmer of the Kindleboards] rocks - however, it's tough to take advantage of his gadgets when you can only have one thread per book."

You want to take a lateral view of the Kindleboards, Kat. Try this.

1. The PROFILE page of your book is the permanent record, used by nobody I know (but it costs you no time unless you use the bells and whistles because it is automatically set up for you).

2. The Profile page automatically enters you into the GENERAL and GENRE LISTS scanned by readers.

3. Separately, you have a DISCUSSION PAGE for each of your books that you can respond to every time a reader comments on it, or bump every seven days. If you do this with new material every week, you soon acquire a cululative readership (mine is over a thousand, and some writers, who arrived there before me, have 10K).

4. Your SIGNATURE carries linked images of your books, so that effectively you can promote in any thread you contribute to or start (about a subject other than your books). You just can't talk about your own books. So what? You soon run out of things to say about your own books, even if you have as many as I do. It is clear to me that the readers in these threads open my books and that a few buy them. It is also clear that readers are appreciative of the threads I started or contributed to, and welcome ideas rather than mere smalltalk. (This is notably different from the hostile attitude on Amazon's own fora, where every writer is assumed to be guilty of some unspecified crime.)

5. There are GENERAL SERVICE THREADS even on fora with restrictions, within which you can promote. Two threads I contribute to regularly are "Is your book in a 'Top 100' Best Seller category on Amazon NOW? List it here!" and "Have You Posted to Your Blog Recently?" Perhaps readers go there, perhaps Google catalogues them, I don't know what, but I believe I get sales and blog visits from there.

6. Lotta worthwhile writers giving good tips in the WRITER'S CAFE. This is absolutely the best group of writers concentrated anywhere on the net. (Sure, on Goodreads you can find fine writers, but there's no mechanism for concentrating them. ROBUST, for instance, isn't about writers but about freedom of expression, which just happens to be of interest to many writers.) There are a few idiot indies with chips on their shoulders on the Kindleboards, but once you put them down the mods intervene and the unpleasantness doesn't drag on, which is what wrecks so many other boards.

7. OPERATORS and MODERATORS who have grasped that without the writers their board will be much less interesting and attractive to readers. As can be seen from my list above, they bend over backwards to make the best possible showcase for writers, and thereby the most interesting environment for readers. I don't know if they were lucky, or some genius planned the divisions on that board with these factors in mind, but it works exceedingly well.

All of that makes it worth the effort of working alongside Harvey.

[K.A.]

good one - Andre.

Makes all the time I spent fixing things worth it.

[Katie]

Can someone tell me how I contact Harvey? After reading Andre's piece, I went along to my threads and 'liked' them to Facebook, something I hadn't realised I could do. Treespeaker came up with a picture of a book by Barbara Elsborg. The Dragon Box came up with a book by Chrystalla Thoma. Both great writers, both had commented on my threads. But if I'm liking my thread, it would make sense to show icons for my books!

[Andre Jute]

Harvey has an "admin" thread here:
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php...
but you may want to make a new thread in this forum for your problem:
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php...

I have the same problem, but I was just waiting for someone else to write to Harvey. You can give him another example,
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?i...
to demonstrate that it isn't only happening to you.

[Katie]

Thanks, Andre. I've posted a thread on Writer's Cafe as well as in the link you gave me. Hopefully it will get a response and Harvey will be able to fix it so I can 'like' again and get the right icon!

I wasn't sure which link on your FB page you were referring to. The link to the Book pages just goes to a general list. Were you trying to link to yours? It wasn't that link I was referring to, but the threads for each book in the Book Bazaar.

[Andre Jute]

I've removed the reference now on my Facebook page. I saw your thread in the Writer's Cafe and Harvey's reply. I'll go like the profile pages instead to get them on my Facebook pages.

[K.A.]

http://www.kindleboards.com/books/ind...

This is more like it. IF it works.

[Andre Jute]

Where are you, Kat. I only see the infamous K. A. Jordan, two books by her:

[K.A.]

'Swallow the Moon' is mine.

Not sure where the other one went. That's not MY 'Let's Do Lunch' his is a diet book.

Mine is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92...

[Andre Jute]

Where are you, Kat. I only see the infamous K. A. Jordan, two books by her:

[Andre Jute]

Duh. Grovel. Just hit the wrong button. What would I do without you?

[K.A.]

You'd be lost...reading diet books instead of my superior literature.

(snicker)

[Andre Jute]

That too.
[punchline of a prize-winning radio serial I used to write]

[Sharon]

Writer's Cafe is the only place I hang out on KB, but only occasionally these days. I just can't seem to relate. Guess it's just me...

[K.A.]

Group-think doesn't work for me.

I think for myself.

Which isn't always a good thing.

[Katie]

Kat wrote: "Group-think doesn't work for me."

Not for me, either. That's why I like this group -everyone is an individual. There's no suggestion that we should all go along with something because we're all in the same boat. I'm afraid if I got stuck on a boat with 200 other people, I'd curl up in a lifeboat and drop it into the sea. Does that make me antisocial? Probably. I'll blame my mother. Her favourite phrase when we were growing up was "You're not a sheep!"

[Sharon]

Kat wrote: "...I think for myself..."

Katie wrote: "...That's why I like this group -everyone is an individual...

And ROBUSTly so...

[Amos]

Sheep are yummy.

[Katie]

LOL, a fellow farmer talking! But you have to admit, Amos, that sheep are also pretty stupid. One runs, they all run, then stop and look around as if to say, 'Er, what were we running for?'. That's where the word 'sheepish' came from, I'm sure. :)

[Andre Jute]

I was on a cruise ship once. We left Cape Town in the morning. By noon I had discovered it had no library. "I couldn't possibly associate for three weeks with such barbarians," was the nicest thing I said to the captain, who didn't want to slow the ship to let me off. By three o'clock the helicopter dropped me at my house at Hout Bay and I stood on the point of Africa watching the sheep twitter about their deck quoits as the ship sailed by. God, I still shudder at that narrow escape. I would probably have committed suicide by no later than the evening of the second day.

[Katie]

You mean you almost became part of the live sheep trade? Definitely a lucky escape!

[Andre Jute]

I like that, Katie. A cruise ship is definitely part of the live sheep trade.

[Sharon]

Sometimes cruising is just the ticket...

[Amos]

Sheep are stupid, but sweet natured. People often don't have the second quality. And I only eat vegetarians, so most people are safe. lol.

[K.A.]

I get violently sea-sick.

I prefer Kentucky yard-bird to mutton.

Though I have threated to eat my horses on occasion. The old mare barely bats an eyelash any more. The young mare isn't sure if I'm serious. The old gelding just saunters on his way. At 16.2 and 1300lbs nothing bothers him. He's too skinny to eat.