The First Book Blogger Review of Driving to BelAir!

Posted on October 5, 2011 by William G.

Blogger and author Nicole Storey posted a review of Driving to BelAir today, and it’s such a great review. Here’s an excerpt (I almost cried with joy when I read it):

As for the characters themselves, I started out feeling one way about them and by the end of the story, I saw them in a totally different light.  Each one had a past; something that happened in their lives that made me feel compassion for them, but I also couldn’t stand a few of them to begin with, including the main character.  By the end of this story, most of the characters do a complete 180 and only one stays the same.  I like it when I think I have a character all figured out, only to discover that my perceptions were all wrong!  To me, that takes a lot of skill on the author’s part and William G. Jones handled it as easily as a magician waving a wand and saying “Presto!”

Check out the rest of the review, and if you’re in the mood for some fantasy, check out her book, THE CHOSEN ONE.

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Interview with G.W. Jefferies

Posted on October 3, 2011 by William G.

G.W. JefferiesToday I have a special treat, an interview with author and poet G.W. Jefferies.

Tell us about your latest book and where readers can buy it.

It’s called The Strange Fall of Marlon Applewood and it goes something like this: After a freak accident, Tim Combes is thrown back to a town he thought was his home. But everything is different and nothing is making any sense. Read more »

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Driving to BelAir – 99 cents This Weekend

Posted on September 30, 2011 by William G.

This weekend, Driving to BelAir is just 99 cents on  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. If you haven’t read it, this is a great opportunity to pick it up at a bargain price.

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Driving to BelAir – First Reader Reviews Are In!

Posted on September 29, 2011 by William G.

So, DRIVING TO BELAIR has officially been live on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords for one month as of today. And it’s gotten three terrific reviews so far. Since I don’t really have anything else to blog about at the moment, I thought I’d share those reviews and my thoughts on each of them. Read more »

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So, I did it. I ordered an Amazon Fire.

Posted on September 29, 2011 by William G.

Yesterday at 10:00 am CST, I ordered an Amazon fire. Pretty much the instant the link came up in the live blog I was following, I clicked and ordered. Now I have to ask myself, why? Read more »

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My First Month as an eBook Author

Posted on September 24, 2011 by William G.

Four weeks ago, I uploaded DRIVING TO BELAIR to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

So, I thought it would be fun to talk about the last four weeks and everything that’s happened since I clicked publish. The numbers are real, though the presentation is not quite linear. Read more »

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More on Amazon’s Quality Crackdown…

Posted on September 21, 2011 by William G.

Yesterday, I told the story of a KindleBoards author who was chastened by Amazon for errors in his book that weren’t really errors. Today comes even more news, this time through the blogasphere, from author D.D. Scott, whose novel LIP GLOCK has been climbing the Kindle charts.

The story is much the same as yesterday’s. What’s interesting, however, is the response from Amazon that D.D. posted: Read more »

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Amazon Crackdown on eBook Quality?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by William G.

 

Some odd reports are coming in with regards to Amazon and eBook quality. I’ve noticed OCR errors in books before, particularly with the copy of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS I bought on my Kindle the first hour I had it. Apparently this is an even bigger issue than I thought (odd, because you’d think publishing now is mostly digital on the back end anyway). This week, a post came through on Reddit about  a reader finding 26 typos in the eBook version of a big publishing novel originally released in 1990 and receiving a $5 gift card to Amazon for the trouble.

Of course, Amazon has been facing some criticism for their free-for-all approach to self publishing all year, ever since Amanda Hocking broke onto the scene as a real-life Kindle millionaire author. It wasn’t long before scammers figured out they could copy and paste portions of public domain works to create “instant” Kindle books, and every wannabe writer with a rejected manuscript put it up for sale on this new goldrush platform. Yes, a lot of readers have gotten burned buying books that at best, weren’t ready for public consumption, and at worst, were works of near fraud. Still, Amazon offers a 7-day no-questions-asked refund for readers who feel ripped off, as well as offering a review system for readers to share their opinions of the books.

In theory, this allows readers to be the gatekeepers of the indie revolution. But is that what’s happening? Or is Amazon trying to step in and take control over their new platform?

Yesterday, word came through a post on KindleBoards that Amazon is running quality assurance checks on books and requesting authors to make changes to the books based on these checks. Read more »

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It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Posted on September 8, 2011 by William G.

Isn’t funny how much of life can be summed up as an enigma? Conflicting realities that collide, creating contrast and conflict. My self-published novella, Driving to BelAir, just hit #1 on the Smashwords bestseller list today—an amazing feat, considering it’s only been available for ten days—and yet I am heartbroken, depressed, and a little unsure of what to do next.

You see, Monday night, I lost the girl I thought I was going to marry. Read more »

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How I Chose to Self-Publish

Posted on August 29, 2011 by William G.

A few months ago, I posted an open apology to the self-publishing community on a message board I use to frequent. I adapted that apology into one of my first blog posts here, a post that still gets mentioned on Twitter from time to time (and has been mentioned several times in the last few days alone).

Now, my first commercially available work, Driving to BelAir: A Novella, is on sale for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and at Smashwords, it seems like a good time for me to follow up with a more in-depth look at why I made the decision to self publish. Read more »

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