Jim Webster, (In On a Chance! ) Showing 4,701-4,750 of 5,147

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

As long as its your wine...

[Jim]

if somebody buys their own drinks, are they a poet?

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Hmmm... it doesn't really address that thorny question here...

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/poet

Neither does the Urban Dictionary, but it has a more interesting take on it. And a thing about mugs...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define...

[Jim]

are poets microwave and dishwasher safe? Somehow I don't think so

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Well you could try by getting a mug with a picture of Tallis on one side and some of his sublime verse on the other.

[Jim]

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Well you could try by getting a mug with a picture of Tallis on one side and some of his sublime verse on the other."

it's a thought.
Although a wine glass might be more appropriate :-)

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

It can be done

https://www.customink.com/custom/pers...

[M.T.]

Sent a mail shot out about Tallis tonight. Got this reply pretty much straight off.

'about Tallis Steelyard - I took a look at his epistles on Amazon, and promptly bought them all (I think). The blog looks to be highly entertaining, too; I started with him at the Great Library and will gradually wend my way through more.'

So there you go.

Cheers

MTM

[Jim]

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "It can be done

https://www.customink.com/custom/pers..."

good grief!

[Jim]

M.T. wrote: "Sent a mail shot out about Tallis tonight. Got this reply pretty much straight off.

'about Tallis Steelyard - I took a look at his epistles on Amazon, and promptly bought them all (I think). The blog looks to be highly entertaining, too; I started with him at the Great Library and will gradually wend my way through more.'.."

wow, thanks MTM!

I'm beginning to think that Tallis is so different to the normal 'Fantasy' story that he's something of an acquired taste. I'd not go so far as to say 'marmite' because nobody seems to actively dislike him.
I think I'm slowly building up a 'fan base' for him because those who love him love him to bits. It's all a matter of getting people to read the stories and letting the stories and characters grow on them.
Then of course they move into the Port Naain Intelligencer stories as well and ideally from there to the books. :-)

[Will]

That's a great result, Jim.

Quality will always appeal.

[Jim]

that's my hope.
Alas H.L.Mencken tends to suggest another approach might be more viable

'No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.'

We should be writing dino-porn :-)

[M.T.]

I sent out the email about Tallis on Friday. So far, 212 have looked at the page for Professionally Angry and 157 have downloaded it. That's a 74% conversion rate, which is about on a level with my beta readers on the K'Barthan Box Set and well ahead of any of my other books. ;-)

There will be more, it takes some weeks for everyone to get round to it.

Cheers

MTM

[Jim]

thanks MT
Did you say there was a small cost as well?

Jim

[M.T.]

Jim wrote: "thanks MT
Did you say there was a small cost as well?

Jim"

Nope, although I'll send you the word template next time and you can just plop the ebook in! ;-) It's really hard to give .epub and .mobi files away as sites like Wordpress make them non downloadable to protect copyright. So you have to use a file download place and then nobody can do it, so these days I just make a quick ebook, convert them and pop them on Bookfunnel. I've made you into one of my pen names though, so I will probably have to remove it at some point. I'll try to let you know when that time comes. ;-)

Cheers

MTM

[M.T.]

Dammit! That's where I missed a trick and should have said 'yes'!

[Jim]

I found bookfunnel as a writer, but how do I find it as a reader to get to see all these wonderful books?

[M.T.]

You don't in the same way. I think you can sign up and they send you stuff you tell them you like, alternatively they follow authors and the authors give them the book links. The place to go as a reader to get books is instafreebie.

[Jim]

interesting way of doing it

[Will]

main question of course:
how much does it all cost?

[Jim]

OK
cheapskates unlimited have come up with a book cover and I wanted opinions

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

hmmmmm - colour me intrigued!

[Jim]

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "hmmmmm - colour me intrigued!"

ah, but I want something that intrigues people enough to grab them warmly by the throat and make them buy the book

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Arrghh! I'm choking! Get it off, get it off! I can't buy it if I'm unconscious!

[M.T.]

Will wrote: "main question of course:
how much does it all cost?"

$20 a month for an author, for readers it's free.

[M.T.]

Jim wrote: "OK
cheapskates unlimited have come up with a book cover and I wanted opinions

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group..."

Looks like a thriller cover to me and I'm not sure about that font. And the white dots looked strange.

[Jim]

the background is a cloth that's supposed to look like an idealised star field

[M.T.]

Hmm... I think it's that it looks like a star field and so the gun jars a bit. BUT ... It may just be that the bits of paper look too straight. Because they're in the photo, having the bits on them that you want to read lined up with the text looks strange. If they were at an angle, so you could still see the things on them that you need us to read but so they looked as if they'd been thrown there it might do it. I like the flower in the gun. But it doesn't work as well for me as your three seas and port Nain intelligencer ones.

[Jim]

the advantage the Port Naain Intelligence stuff had was that it was done by competent professionals :-(

[Jim]

I've rejigged things

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

[Will]

There's something missing in it, but I can't put my finger on it. it isn't drawing me in yet

[Will]

M.T. wrote: "Will wrote: "main question of course:
how much does it all cost?"

$20 a month for an author, for readers it's free."

That's for Bookfunnel or for instafreebie?

[Jim]

Will wrote: "There's something missing in it, but I can't put my finger on it. it isn't drawing me in yet"

spelling my own name right would have been a good start!

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

[Jim]

M.T. wrote: "Will wrote: "main question of course:
how much does it all cost?"

$20 a month for an author, for readers it's free."

is there any way I can say to a reader, 'click on this page to download this freebie'?

[Kath]

The flower puzzles me. In the pointy end (don't understand guns) it usually implies peace, or someone's wish for it. In the back end - I don't know why it's there? Is there even a hole there?

[Jim]

the flower is in the pointy end. The gun is a model but looks 'real' in that I had to go to the bank so I dropped it back off to the owner before I visited the bank rather than have an unfortunate incident.

[M.T.]

Jim wrote: "M.T. wrote: "Will wrote: "main question of course:
how much does it all cost?"

$20 a month for an author, for readers it's free."

is there any way I can say to a reader, 'click on this page to do..."

Both do that. Bookfunnel is cheaper if you go to the starving author option I pay a small yearly fee for that and then I can upload my books to it and yes, say to people, here's a link to download this book.

If I want to give them a book in return for their email address, it costs $20 a month.

Instafreebie is free if you just want to give your book away but if you want to collect emails it's $20 a month. However, instafreebie is there to serve readers too and it has a lively and wide ranging community of folks who are signed up to receive emails from it about free books. Bookfunnel was originally a way to deliver free books to people because you can't download .mobi or .epub files from wordpress. So I've not tried bookfunnel for email collecting.

Bookfunnel is way better for giving away a free book.

Instafreebie is much easier for collecting email addresses AND there are lots of group promos you can join where bunches of authors in your genre are doing it, etc. I'm doing a comedy one soon: http://karlbourdiec.co.uk/cmu/

Sorry Jim, going off sideways.

Cheers

MTM

[M.T.]

Jim wrote: "I've rejigged things

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group..."

That's miles better, but the photo is not 100% in focus. Maybe turn the gun over and have the end with the flower sticking out at the top. Otherwise the angles and stuff are a vast improvement. Still think that the material jars a bit, it might work better on a stone slab or a wooden table. Might be worth trying.

Still not sure about the font but yeh, loads better! ;-)

[Will]

Jim, it might be worth your while having a root about on Shutterstock?

I'm just going to recover The Showing to make the image more scary, more in keeping with the material, and hazel has found me a series of images there to choose from.

[Kath]

Jim wrote: "the flower is in the pointy end. The gun is a model but looks 'real' in that I had to go to the bank so I dropped it back off to the owner before I visited the bank rather than have an unfortunate ..."

So never trust me with a gun. I'll shoot meself!

[Kath]

Will wrote: "Jim, it might be worth your while having a root about on Shutterstock?

I'm just going to recover The Showing to make the image more scary, more in keeping with the material, and hazel has found me..."

IStock has plenty too.

[Jim]

Kath wrote: "IStock has plenty too...."


problem is they tend to charge for them. Also the only software I've got is 'Paint' and dropping one imagine onto another is tricky because paint carries it in on a rectangular outline :-(

[Jim]

M.T. wrote: "Jim wrote: "I've rejigged things

That's miles better, but the photo is not 100% in focus. Maybe turn the gun over and have the end with the flower sticking out at the top. Otherwise the angles and stuff are a vast improvement. Still think that the material jars a bit, it might work better on a stone slab or a wooden table. Might be worth trying.

Still not sure about the font but yeh, loads better! ;-) ..."

which bit isn't in focus?
The printing on the paper that the gun is holding down is supposed to look as if it's been put through a cheap printer on draft quality :-)

They're disposable chits you collect from the depot to work out what cargo you can get together

[David]

Jim wrote: "Kath wrote: "IStock has plenty too...."


problem is they tend to charge for them. Also the only software I've got is 'Paint' and dropping one imagine onto another is tricky because paint carries i..."

There's a free image manipulation program that's a lot more powerful than Paint. It takes a bit of practice to get handy with, but you can do a lot more with it. Not that you have lots of time to learn a new software package, I'm sure.
https://www.gimp.org/

There are tons of free star shot photos out there. Most images from NASA are public domain. Pixabay and Morgue File have free images as well, although you have to register an account. But google "star field wiki commons" and click on images sometime and I think you'll be astounded.

[Jim]

the problem with downloading software is that I'm running Windows 7 on a ten year old computer, so there could be problems there. Not only that but when it comes to manipulating images, I'm not sure the machine is up to coping. The graphics card is ten years old.

The next problem is just downloading anything with our phone line and line speed. (As an aside it's one reason why we didn't make the jump to windows 10 but instead rebuilt the old computer, given the length of time the updates would take, I'd never get to use the machine :-(

With regard to the starfield, I wanted it to have a 'real feel' with the gun and chits laid on the table cloth on the galley table. I didn't go for a plastic surface because it would have been awfully reflective.
The problem is, if you have to explain a picture, it's failed :-(

[Jim]

Oh I asked somebody about running GIMP on this machine (they know the machine a bit)
They just giggled and muttered about using the heat of my frying processor to make toast :-(

[Jim]

Somebody played with it a bit for me

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

[David]

Jim wrote: "the problem with downloading software is that I'm running Windows 7 on a ten year old computer, so there could be problems there. Not only that but when it comes to manipulating images, I'm not sur..."

Rural broadband pretty much sucks everywhere, over here, too. But at least you're not writing on a DOS machine running WordPerfect like the Game of Thrones guy!

[Jim]

David wrote: "Rural broadband pretty much sucks everywhere, over here, too. But at least you're not writing on a DOS machine running WordPerfect like the Game of Thrones guy!,..."

which is something :-)
Just been dealing with BT Enhanced Support team, we've been having problems with things going slow, even for us

[David]

Jim wrote: "Just been dealing with BT Enhanced Support team, we've been having problems with things going slow, even for us..."

Help is on the way!
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/09/spacex-seeks-starlink-trademark-for-its-satellite-broadband-network/

Actually, I remain skeptical that this will ever happen. But wouldn't it be grand?