Saturday, July 23, 2011

Naked Self-Promotion

Back in 1994, I had an experience which changed my life. Naturally, as soon as I could get to the keyboard, I wrote it all down, although I knew that nobody would ever publish it: it didn't fit the American stereotype of Germans, and, well, it was too long.

Three Americans, one in search of his roots, a village of 400 people on the German-Polish border, none of whom has ever seen an American, and just me and my taxi-driver friend from Berlin to aid in the linguistic and cultural translations that are necessary. History and Chicago pizza ensues. It was amazing.

Now, sixteen years later, along comes Amazon with its Kindle Publishing wing. I submitted it to Kindle Singles, but the editor wanted something a little newer. While I worked on that, I figured I'd just publish this myself. That happened yesterday, and so, in a fit of naked self-promotion (plus the fact that I've been writing professionally since I was 16, have authored two books, and this is the first time I've written anything that pays royalties), I present you with The Bar at the End of the Regime.

You don't have to have a Kindle to read it: you can get a Kindle app for any computer platform, smart-phone or tablet. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. And if this works out, there will be more.

Hope you like it.


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15 comments:

  1. jnfrJuly 23, 2011 at 3:51 PM

    Still waiting on the naked here!

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  2. Ed WardJuly 23, 2011 at 5:29 PM

    If I don't sell enough...well, I don't want to threaten...

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  3. OlivierJuly 23, 2011 at 7:12 PM

    I'd buy one if you offered it in alternative formats (e.g., PDF or ePub) on your own web site or blog. Amazon's Kindle program is a little too big brother-ish for my taste: there was a hubbub a couple of years ago when they went out and erased a book from the Kindles of all purchasers. Me, I want to *own* my books, even the digital ones, not have them on loan at the discretion of Amazon, thank you. Their bully tactics with publishers of all stripes are worrisome, too.

    I buy a lot of hardcopy books from Amazon but I think that as a digital publisher they are a menace to the ecosystem.

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  4. Ed WardJuly 24, 2011 at 2:19 PM

    I partially agree with you, but I'm not just a consumer here: I'm also a creator, and since it's become nearly impossible to get paying writing work I, and a number of my friends, are trying other ways of doing it. There aren't many yet, so this is a trial run. I think Amazon is well aware of how badly they stepped in it with the 1984 brouhaha, but they do provide an easy way to do this and make their software available for others to use. Personally, I'd rather deal with another seller than what's becoming the WalMart of cyberspace, but I just couldn't turn this opportunity down, and am awaiting the results.

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  5. dlwilson26July 24, 2011 at 4:41 PM

    I think this is great move for you to get your work out to more people and to reap a payday as well.

    One suggestion though: you should include a link to the piece on Amazon and also a link to the Kindle app with a simple how-to guide.

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  6. jBeckJuly 24, 2011 at 5:16 PM

    unrelated to this subject.....I was just listening to an NPR piece about Ace Records. (I love New Orleans and worked there for Habitat several years ago.) Ed Ward? Where have I......? Ah yes. A year we decided to move to Montpellier from Zurich area Switzerland. I started following City on a Hill. We're here now. And today when Mr. NPR said Ed Ward lives in France I remembered where I had heard the name.
    Great story about Ace and enjoy the blog. JoAnne

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  7. Ed WardJuly 24, 2011 at 5:23 PM

    Are you not seeing the link at the bottom of the blog post? That goes straight to the place you can buy it, and that page also has download buttons for all the Kindle apps for various platforms.

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  8. Ed WardJuly 24, 2011 at 5:26 PM

    jBeck: Ever been to the Estivales? What are you folks doing on Friday?

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  9. dlwilson26July 24, 2011 at 5:55 PM

    Ed I'm reading it with Google Reader. Doesn't show the link. Then I opened up the site directly to the page and still no links.

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  10. jBeckJuly 24, 2011 at 6:33 PM

    No plans. It would be fun to meet. Let's make a plan.

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  11. jBeckJuly 24, 2011 at 7:24 PM

    We have no plans. It would be fun to meet. Let's make a plan.

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  12. lendieJuly 25, 2011 at 2:23 AM

    Ed, embed a link within the post. A lot of people read blogs but don't go to your actual blog page.

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  13. Sara LouiseJuly 25, 2011 at 10:43 AM

    Cheers to naked self promotion!! Congratulations on another published work :-)
    I'm tweeting this.

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  14. Ed WardJuly 25, 2011 at 12:29 PM

    @ Lendie: done!

    @ Sara Louise: Thanks! I'm Twitter-hopeless, so thanks for getting it out there.

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  15. AnonymousJuly 26, 2011 at 10:56 AM

    Wow, from one writer to another, good for you!! I may just have to follow your example ....

    @ Sara Louise, thanks for passing this along! :-)

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