“The 70 authors on Operation Ebook Drop asked me to say: More Troops please.

We have dropped approximately 4000 Free discount coupons linking our brave men and women deployed in the Armed Forces to some of the finest Indie novels in the industry to keep their reading devices filled with a variety of genres and styles. If you are a troop who has received an ebook drop, sound off here, so your comrades can step up and request our gifts.

If you want to participate and are a deployed member of the coalition Armed Forces, just drop me (edwpat at att.net) an email with your name, unit and location (and a little feedback – our authors enjoy some feedback), and I’ll set you up on the program.

If you’re an author and want to join the ranks of the givers, publish your book(s) on Smashwords and set up a 100% discount coupon and then drop me a line at edwpat at att.net and I’ll forward you the troop list and set you up for all new incoming troop book requests.

This program is only a month old and happened by chance here in the Kindle community. Indie authors care and we want to make a difference by thanking our troops for their efforts.

 Edward C. Patterson former Sp5 E. Patterson, USAR 6th Batallion, 60 th Artillery (1966-68)”

The cashiers at our store are required to swipe each bill of $10 or higher with a special counterfeit detection pen. If the bill is real, the pen mark will be light-to-dark yellow. If it’s fake, the mark will be black; almost like a permanent marker. It’s kind of a pain in the ass, and makes the process of cashing out a customer that much longer, but it’s what we’re supposed to do, so we do it.

Yesterday, a group of hunters from Connecticut came into the store to buy hunting  supplies (Bud Light, Jack Daniels, chips…) and paid with a hundred dollar bill. As per company policy, I swiped it with my trusty pen. This elicited a chorus of hearty chuckles.

“What’s so funny?”

“That pen,” said Hunter #1. “As if you’d find any counterfeit bills up here.” Then he laughed some more.

You could say that this comment left me feeling rather indignant. In fact, you could say that it pissed me off. Who did these ignorant pinheads think they were, coming up here, polluting our fair state with their ugly, gas-guzzling Hummer, hunting our deer, and insulting us like that? Did they think Mainers don’t have the know-how to fashion realistic facsimiles of legal tender? Did they think we we’re without computers and printers and ink and internet access? Did they think we have no brains at all? 

I felt it necessary to put these Mighty Men of Arrow and Bow in their places.

“I’ll have you know,” I began, drawing myself up to my full five foot three inches and giving him an icy stare, “that Maine sees LOTS of counterfeit bills. Lots! We’ve gotten some in this very store! In fact, last month the cops raided a house just a few miles down the road that turned out to belong to the head of a counterfeiting ring!” Then I gave him a curt nod that said So There! and tossed him his change. 

Just imagine my reaction if they had scoffed at our citizens’ newfound commitment to having an increased share in the opiate trade…

Behold the new “Waiting For Spring” book trailer! If you want to share it with family and friends – or post it on your blog – I would be VERY appreciative!

  Do you have boobs?

Then go schedule a mammogram.

Do it today.

…to enter the Backword Books contest. You could win SEVEN signed paperback books. Here’s how ya do it:

The rules: We want to hear your thoughts about self-publishing in a blog post. What is your general opinion of it? How likely are you to do it?  Do you think it will change the face of publishing in the future? That sort of thing.  The drawbacks of self-publishing are welcome as well – if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. But include your reasoning, while keeping in mind that a scathing attack on self-publishing probably isn’t going to do it for us.  You know…just keep it polite.

The main requirements for the contest are:

1. The post links back to www.backwordbooks.com, as well as the URL for this contest. If you don’t have a blog, you can post it as a note on your facebook page. Or MySpace, if you’re on MySpace.

2.  We’d also like to hear which book you’d most like to receive from our list – perhaps where you heard about the book first and why it interests you. This will help us choose where to send books for second prize winners.

Please let us know of your entry because we want to compile them all in one place. We’ll judge entries based on…well, purely subjectively: what we think is a good, well-reasoned post.  We hope it’s a good way to get a discussion about self-publishing spreading throughout the blogosphere. Please send links to your post via the form on this page.

Deadline for the contest is September 30. That’s THIS WEDNESDAY!

It’s Friday…you know what that means! BookChatter tonight at 9PM EASTERN TIME ZONE. This week I’m moderating the chatboard, so PLEASE feel free to pop in and chat while you watch the show! Tonight’s guests: Holly Christine, Red Adept, Eric Mueller, Eddie Wright, Kevin Gerard, Dave Erickson, and Moriah Jovan.

 Backword Books is running a contest!!

Grand Prize: A package of seven books by Backword authors: Homefront by Kristen Tsetsi, Spam & Eggs by Andrew Kent, The Brightest Moon of the Century by Christopher Meeks, Threshold by Bonnie Kozek, Broken Bulbs by Eddie Wright, Waiting for Spring by RJ Keller, and North of Sunset by Henry Baum.

Second Prize: 1 of each goes to 7 different entrants.

The rules: We want to hear your thoughts about self-publishing – a blog post about the merits of self-publishing and how it might change the face of publishing in the future.   What will self-publishing look 25 years from now, 50 years from now?  How has self-publishing made strides in recent years?  That sort of thing.  The drawbacks of self-publishing are welcome as well, but a scathing attack on self-publishing probably isn’t going to do it for us.  Basically, we want to know: What’s your opinion about self-publishing?

The main requirements for the contest are:

1. The post links back to www.backwordbooks.com, as well as the URL for this contest.

2.  We’d also like to hear which book you’d most like to receive from our list – perhaps where you heard about the book first and why it interests you. This will help us choose where to send books for second prize winners.

Please let us know of your entry because we want to compile them all in one place.  We’ll judge entries based on…well, purely subjectively: what we think is a good, well-reasoned post.  We hope it’s a good way to get a discussion about self-publishing spreading throughout the blogosphere.

Deadline for the contest is September 30.  Click here for more details.

Thanks, good luck and have fun!

A group of self-published/indie authors have banded together to make their books available for free in ebook format to deployed soldiers. Detailed information is available at Mark Coker’s Smashwords blog.

If you know a soldier who has an ebook reader, or who is able to read novels on their computer (for example, I have a Mobi Reader on my PC, and I read novels in PDF directly from my computer) and might be interested in this program, please, please, PLEASE click on the above link. Or you can contact me directly either here in the comments section or via email at rjkeller.wfs@gmail.com and I will get you in touch with author Ed Patterson, who is heading up the program.

As of Sunday 800 ebooks have been ‘dropped.’ I am so excited and so proud to be a small part of this program.

Participating authors (if you know of one who is not listed, please let me know and I will gladly add him or her to the list):

Maria E Schneider
Kristen Tsetsi
L.K. Campbell
Elmore Haimes
E.J. Ruek
Leslie Nicholl
Jim Chambers
Kelly Abbell
Chuck Austen (Illustrator)
Willam Woodell
Lloyd Lofthouse
L C. Evans
R. J. Keller
Laura Eno
Moriah Jovan
Andrew Kent
Marva Dasef
Al Past
E. Patrick Dorris
Trish Lamoree
Stanley Morriss
K. Raven Rozier
Sharon Cathcart
Alan Baxter (Australia)
Susan Helene Gottfried
Brandan Carroll
Lisa Pietsch
Joshua T. Calkins-Treworgy
Eugene Docema
S.A. Rule (UK)
Holly Christine
Joe Cottonwood
Sarah Barnard (UK)
Jacamo Petersen
Mike Monahan
Randy Lalonde (Canada)
Joan Szechtman
Wally Rabini
Belinda D’Allessandro (Australia)
Olin Thompson
Jeff Hepple
Tim Chambers
&
Edward C. Patterson

In case you missed it, here’s Friday’s BookChatter.
A fun, and informative, time was had by all!