[Mark Ledbetter]

Friends at Kindleboards, it's been a while. Dealing with history (and linguistics) rather than literature, I've always had trouble finding topics interesting enough to build myself a presence here, but I love the site and its unabashed support of kindle indies.

Which is what brings me back. I've put up a new book, a collection of reviews of kindle indies that I have written over the past year. In hopes of supporting kindle indies, and with a little self-promotion thrown in, I put together, ta duh…

Akayoshi's Contrarian Compendium of Cool Indies!

It was originally 'Kindle' Indies, but smashwords wouldn't allow that, so 'kindle' became 'cool'. The word 'kindle' is a problem because Akayoshi's was always intended to be free. But I discovered when publishing that 'free' is not as simple as choosing 0 cents as your price. 99 cents is the minimum. I gather that you can only make a kindle book free if it's free somewhere else, and smashwords seems to be the somewhere else that all those hankering after 'free' go to. To get it up on smashwords I had to ditch the word 'kindle.'

So it's free on smashwords. Sadly, though, it's still 99 cents on kindle. I have no idea what to do next on my road to 'free'dom. If I knew how, and if it were unusually easy to do, I would make Akayoshi's free in an instant. But I don't know how, and I don't suppose it's likely to be super easy. (Super easy is essential. My own book covers, which I assume will pop up beautifully at the bottom of this missive, were facilitated by the wonderful and patient folks at kindleboards, Betsy and Ann, as I recall. After many attempts at explaining how I might automatically insert those covers myself, they gave in to exasperation and somehow did it for me. Eternal thanks!, and a bit of red-faced embarrassment.)

Anyway, those interested, take a look at Akayoshi's Contrarian Compendium of Cool Indies, free from smashwords or a buck from Kindle. A few of you will even find your books reviewed. And, as I propose to put out a new, expanded (and hopefully free) version each year, maybe you'll be in the next one.

I'm also playing around with the idea of opening up future editions of Akayoshi's to other reviewers of kindle indies, with a section for each reviewer. Each reviewer's section would include (as mine does) both the reviews that that writer has written for others, and also reviews that others have written for that writer's books.

G' day to you all from Japan!

Mark David Ledbetter
http://www.amazon.com/Akayoshis-Contrarian-Compendium-Indies-ebook/dp/B0054JINDS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1310208683&sr=1-1

 

[gsjohnston]

Hi Mark

That's a great idea and very generous.  If you are planning a second edition I would love it if you included my novel.  Shameless, aren't I.

 

[MariaESchneider]

You're going to get in trouble for posting this here in the corner Mark!  It probably should be in the bazaar.  That said, welcome back.  Nice to see you!

 

[Ann in Arlington]

Hi Mark, and congratulations on your book! The thread has been moved to the book bazaar.

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[JimC1946]

Glad to see you back on KB, Mark! I know that you had some serious health problems some months back, and I hope you're doing much better now.

Hey, I just 1-clicked Akayoshi!

 

[Mark Ledbetter]

Maria and Jim (and those are two top-selling indies, ladies and gents! Take a look if you want to see how it’s done!)…

So, Maria and Jim, great to have a chance to say hey again. And Jim, no worries. Though I’m minus a prostate now, health repercussions have been minimal and short term.

G.S., I’ll take a look at your book. No guarantees! To be meaningful, Akayoshi’s must separate being nice and/or friendship from honest evaluations of a book’s merits. Of course, being nice is more important than writing a good book (IMO). Better for your soul. Possibly better for the world. But Akayoshi’s is not about what’s good and right, it’s about good indie books (or tries to be, anyway, though of course it is only one man’s opinion). Anyway, I’ve downloaded the sample and will get to it soon. This Akayoshi’s project is something new, but not high priority. Work (the kind that earns enough to live on!) and family come first, then my own books, then Akayoshi’s. But if I like Consumption, you can be sure I’ll review it, put the review up on Amazon, and include it in the next edition of Akayoshi’s. That is, if there’s enough interest to justify a next edition. Great cover, btw!