Walking Down The Avenue v1.0 coming next Thursday!

Dups and Aaron and the team did not defeat me.   As I had feared all along,  they did make multiple significant changes to Empire Avenue this week.   But I am pleased to say that I have just finished all of the revisions.     One more through proof-reading tomorrow or the next day and Walking Down The Avenue v 1.0  will be ready to "smash" into a real eBook.

A friend who is a retired graphic designer made the book cover for me,  using a public domain image.   I'm thrilled with the cover  (Which looks So much nicer than my very amateurish effort on the beta).  I expect that I will upload it to Smashwords on Tuesday.  Provided there are no problems with the upload and it all goes according to plan,  I may give the book's sharehloders ((e)WALKING) the first sneak peak via a shareholder mail on Wednesday.   Then starting Thursday I have a list of 14 people,  all of whom have lots and lots of shareholders,  who have agreed to send out a shareholder mail containing a 100% off coupon.

Although the price is going up from free to $2.99,  I don't expect to sell many at all at that price this first month.  I will be promoting the book with the 100% off coupon all over the place and hope to get twice as many people to download the $2.99 version as did the free version, but I'm not really expecting that many of them will pay for it.    What I hope is that Empire Avenue continues to evolve, change and grow.   To a point where a year down the line,  hundreds of newcomers each day get the book recommended to them from the first thousand or so who get to read it for free.

If you'd like to be one of those first thousand,  you might sign up for my very low volume mailing list in the sidebar.    On September 1st,  I plan to mail the 100% off coupon to my e-mail list.    It will only be the second e-mail I have ever sent out on that list,  which is really only for updates about Walking Down The Avenue.  So if you'd like to peruse the eBook when it's published next month,  please fill out the form and check your e-mail on 9/1/2011.

It seems as though...

I will just never be a consistent, regular personal blogger.    While Empire Avenue has made some changes this month,  in particular a new and improved layout for profiles and support for mobile check in service Four Square and iPhone photo sharing suite Instagram.     So I am going to have to do some re-writing and revising in the next two weeks,  for the most part the book's text will stand as written.      I am going to allow a handful of other players to send out a free coupon code for Walking Down The Avenue 1.0 via shareholder mail.     I will also send out the coupon code via shareholder mail to both my (e)LIBDRONE and (e)WALKING accounts and via e-mail to everyone who signs up for my mailing list.  (Look in the right sidebar!)    For those who do not receive a coupon code,  the list price will be $2.99.   Since I will be heavily promoting the 100% discount coupon,  I don't know how many copies I may or may not actually sell very many copies,  but I am looking forward to at least potentially beginning to make some money from the eBook.

Still to be done,  I need to get a new book cover image ready.   I also need to finalize arrangements with the folks who will be sending out the coupon codes for me,  and make those last changes and additions to the manuscript.    August 30 will be here before I know it.  (Although the book will officially launch on September 1st,  I intend to actually upload it on August 30th,  to allow time to be sure that the book is up and available on launch day.)   I am so pleased with all of the great people I am meeting on Empire Avenue and am especially grateful to the nearly 250 folks who (as of this writing) have downloaded the free beta edition of Walking Down The Avenue.    The free beta will continue to be available until approximately August 30th-- the new 1.0 version will replace the beta version on Smashwords.    If you download the beta version from Smashwords prior to the upgrade,  you will be able to re-download that beta version again for as long as Smashwords exists.    However, you will not be able to download the new 1.0 version unless you buy it,  either for $2.99 or using a coupon code as described above.

Thank you so much for your help and support.   I look forward to continuing to write and update Walking Down The Avenue for as long as Empire Avenue itself keeps going.

Getting ready for 1.0

On September 1st I will be releasing version 1.0  of my eBook Walking Down The Avenue.   At that time I will raise the price from free to 99 cents.   I feel certain that I will not distribute as many paid copies right off the bat as I did free copies,  but my  strategy with this book has been as a long term project.  If, as I hope, Empire Avenue has a nice long run and the game continues to constantly evolve and change,  I should be able to continue publishing up-dated versions every two or three months.

Actually,  I am hoping to have the new text and all of the edits done and the new and improved book cover image uploaded by August 30th or so,  so that I can make sure that everything is working correctly.   Then on September 1st I will announce the new book release in a guest blog post on a popular social media blog.   A free coupon code will be available to Empire Avenue shareholders,  both mine and those of the host of my guest blog post.     I will probably be fairly free in giving out the coupon code to shareholders.     I will also be distributing the coupon code via my e-mail list.   So if you haven't already,  you might want to sign up in the sidebar at the right.   This is a very low volume mailing list.   Every six to eight weeks, at most I will send a new message.   So far the only message I have sent was to announce the availability of the beta version of Walking. I give you my word that I will never be a spambot.

How much work I am going to have to do on revisions depends largely on how much Dups and the team change the game between now and around August 23rd.    I have already made some updates and revisions and begun adding new material,  but I am very much at the mercy of developments on the Avenue as to how much updating I will have to do.   I am so pleased and grateful to everyone who has downloaded and read Walking Down The Avenue and especially to the 32 of you who have subscribed and even more grateful to the 15 folks who opened the message.   So here is just a little added incentive to sign up for my mailing list-- everyone who is subscribed by August 31st will continue to receive a free coupon code for my eBook for as long as I publish it.    As I said I plan initially to be very free in handing out the free coupon code,  but just as what is now free will cost 99 cents next month,  I don't plan on giving the book away forever.   So be one of the few who have the savvy to sign up now and continue to get the most useful eBook about Empire Avenue for as long as the game goes on.

Walking Down The Avenue-- Available Now!

A day early,  and absolutely free of charge  my new eBook Walking Down The Avenue is now available on Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/70323

I  tried very hard to be clear and concise and to take as much of the confusion that seems to define Empire Avenue out of the picture.   I hope that you will take a look at it--  it's available for download in all e-reader formats as well as in .pdf   if you prefer to read on your computer screen.     I know there is at least one typo that made it past my many, many proof-readings.    I am very interested in hearing about any errors you notice as well as in getting any and all feedback you might care to share.     You can leave your feedback as a comment on this post or feel free to e-mail me privately at  writing@libdrone.info.

Here's wishing you and yours a great  Fourth of July weekend.

Almost There

I have been making much progress towards publishing my first eBook,  which I still hope is going to happen on or shortly before July 1st.      I know my homemade cover looks nothing like a professionally designed one would  (and I do hope to be able to afford a real cover at some point in the future).    It's also going to be a very short little eBook-- only about 18 word processor pages.

(I can here the snorts and derision alreadey--  'it took you a couple of months to write 18 freaking pages?!???'    Yes, actually.    Empire Avenue changes and evolves every day and many of the sections have had to be re-written multiple times as changes on the Avenue made them inaccurate,  in some cases within minutes of being written.)     I play to continue updating, revising and expanding and expect to release new versions every month or so.    I have tried to upload the book to iWriteReadRate-- my friend Adam's great new eBook site.   Unfortunately,  it did not work properly for me.   The site produced a  .pdf file that is 2700 pages long and has text in on the middle 1.5 inches or so of each page.    Adam has his tech folks looking into it and I am hopeful of being ready to sell on that site by Friday.  

Meanwhile,  my project for today is to add and link a table of contents and make a couple of other changes to comply with the Smashwords style guide,  which will enable me to upload to Smashwords, which would make my little book available via a huge number of eBook vendors including Amazon kindle, B &N Nook, etc.    I am very hopeful of finding success in the brave new world of eBooks and honestly can't wait to see what this week will bring.

Reserve a free copy of Walking Down the Avenue now!

So I'm writing a book.   About Empire Avenue as a matter of fact.   Honestly,   it is slow going.   EAv is evolving and changing so rapidly that even in the early pages of  draft,  I've had to re-write sections several times due to changes in the rules and procedures.  

I find myself very taken with Empire Avenue as I become more and more involved with and spend more and more time hanging out with great friends like Holly, Jake, Suspiria, Anise, Gina, Casey, Dirk, Scott and Ryan.   Not to mention Shannon, Travis, Hank, Carole, Stu, Sheree, Robert, Peter,  Mike, Paulo, Cyril, Caleb and Adriel.   Or Nakeva, Sharon, Michael and Jeffrey and so on and so on.   Honestly,  I've met so many people from all over the world since joining Empire Avenue that I have to mark it as a life changing experience.  My one gripe is that Empire Avenue can be very confusing to newcomers.   So much so that it  is even a bit off-putting.   Even to people who have mastered Twitter.     Which is why I decided to write a book specifically directed at Empire Avenue newcomers.   I am trying to be definitive without being verbose.   Authoritative without ever talking down to anyone.    A book that is short, useful and cheap.

I hope to have the beta edition  (this is going to be an eBook and I plan to number the frequently updated editions like software) available for sale by mid July.    If you would like to receive a copy of the beta edition, not at the amazingly low list price of  79 cents,  but instead absolutely free of charge,  please sign up for my very low volume mailing list-- using the widget in the right sidebar.   The first message I will send to this list will be when the eBook is published and ready for download,  as I said hopefully in early to mid July.   After that you can expect that I will write to you at most every four to six weeks.   (Yeah,  I am going a bit overboard to avoid being spammish*)