Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot, a Featured Work eBook on Wattpad.com is now over 20,00 reads at Wattpad. Well, the original pdocast is up to 100,000 downloads at Podiobooks.com. Flores Girl is a prehistoric science fiction novel combining elements of adventure and speculative fiction, oh before I forget romance eBook that is available for free on Wattpad, the World’s Most Popular EBook Sharing Community. Wattpad delivers free eBook novels to your iPhone, BlackBerry, SmartPhones and other mobile devices. Join the thousands of readers that are following the adventures of Sarah and Richard as they unwittingly introduce a small tribe of prehistoric people living in isolation for a half million years to the ultimate modern predator: humanity.  And you can do so right from your iPhone, BlackBerry or other SmartPhone! Flores Girl:The Children God Forgot is now available as a free ebook novel on the iPhone!

http://www.wattpad.com/125445-Flores-Girl-The-Children-God-Forgot-Part-1

Or try these sites for the free novel download:

WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM

WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI

WWW.iPhone-Novel.com

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In my alerts messages I came across a two year old article Kathryn Lively wrote titled “Can Book Giveaways Hurt Sales?”
(http://www.articlesbase.com/publishing-articles/can-book-giveaways-hurt-sales-86384.html) how about giveaways can hurt sales. It was a fairly amusing, almost quaint read and here are a few excerpts:

“That said, incentives are usually offered to fill the chat rooms with readers. Authors may give away a prize to one lucky reader, like a small gift or a free book. The question of whether or not it is prudent to distribute complimentary books as prizes has long been argued among authors, particularly in the eBook industry….Some authors condone the practice on the premise that a book in the hands of a reader may encourage that reader to buy more books.”

This is the amusing part…

“On the other hand, such generosity may backfire, according to other authors who condemn the practice. When you consider the tightly knit readership of eBooks, particularly in the romance genre, authors may tend to see the same Internet nicknames populating chats. If word gets around enough that free books are the prizes, an author might soon discover that he or she is giving away her entire catalog to the same readers without seeing any profits. An author can feel frustrated with the practice, and wonder if such regular contest winners will ever buy his/her book. …Should an author feel trapped, however? The answer is an emphatic no.”

“There are ways to successfully offer giveaways without giving away everything. While gifts like soaps, teas, and other trinkets can add up over time (though they are tax-deductible, authors, make notes!), there is one giveaway trick that can help stimulate sales. The next time you participate in a chat, write a one to two-thousand word story that reads as a supplement to your novel. It could be a sequel, a prequel, or a side story with supporting characters. Have it formatted as in eBook in HTML or PDF and offer it as an exclusive prize to one winner. Give it a try, and watch your readership grow.”

Not a bad idea but let’s be honest authors are a dime a dozen and we are more than willing to work as scabs to garner a reasonable readers base. It’s either that or go unread.  The article was only two years old but seemed like it was from another era. I replied to her with the following comment:

“I don’t know but with so many new electronic formats and delivery systems being created new authors kind of take it for granted that a giveaway is necessary to build a reader base. Basically, it is marketing 101 for the Internet. Of course, the same electronic revolution has created a flood of words that tends to overwhelm the limited pool of readers. The old self-publishing model is giving way to innovative sites such as Podiobooks.com that allow authors to give their work away as recorded audio podcasts while other sites such as Wattpad, Stanza and Scribd allow authors to giveaway select ebook works, all in hope of building a faithful audience. How authors can monetize their efforts is going to be an interesting challenge that I find myself wrestling with. My own novel, Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot became the inaugural featured novel at Wattpad and thousands are busily reading the novel on their iPhones. But to be honest with you reading novels on their iPhones, I mean who would have thunk it? It’s a brave new world in publishing and a giveaway is the least of the author’s and publisher’s problems!”

Cheers,
Erik John Bertel, Author Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot
floresgirl.com

Kathy wasn’t amused with my observations nor with my obvious efforts at self-promotion and she promptly deleted my comment. Still the point is valid; if you are worried about the couple of bucks you are going to miss with a giveaway then you have no clue about marketing in today’s Web 2.0. That’s why most books sell just a few thousand copies and why most authors go unread and unnoticed. If you are a new author, get the audience first and then worry about monetizing your writings. The days of the big advance and the old publishing machine are in the distant past. I’m not saying today is better and sure you will have to work two jobs for a while but hey, welcome to the machine. Nowadays, the Web 2.0 eats dinosaurs like the publishing and newspaper industry for breakfast!

Cheers Erik John Bertel

Speaking of Web 2.0 try these sites for the free Flores Girl novel download:
WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM
WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI
WWW.iPhone-Novel.com
Technorati Profile

http://www.wattpad.com/125445-Flores-Girl-The-Children-God-Forgot-Part-1

Flores Girl Wattpad Press Release

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Speculative fiction is not fantasy fiction, as it rules out the use of anything as material which violates established scientific fact, laws of nature, call it what you will, i.e., it must [be] possible to the universe as we know it. – Robert A. Heinlein

A little while back I wrote:

One of the worst aspects of publishing work in a Web 2.0 world is the myriad tasks the author must undertake. Besides writing the novel the writer must undertake numerous sleazy marketing efforts. In the past that been relegated to the obligatory series of interviews and book signing, assuming that is if the author was lucky enough in his career or her to get to that point.

Today the challenges are different and far more varied. Most of the work still revolves around the writing, editing and marketing of the work. However the marketing piece of the puzzle is a bit of a quandary and requires the greatest flexibility on the part of the fledgling writer. Worse, it is also damn time consuming.

If you go the route of podcasting, which has its myriad appeals and challenges, it requires the author to do production work and possibly the biggest challenge of all: narrating the actual work. The web work can involve a site or minimally a blog for the author’s various fans to turn into. Besides words, structures these endeavors typically require some type of graphics, Search engine optimization and knowledge of key words; all daunting challenges for the uninitiated. If you have money you could have somebody else do it but you still must manage the ongoing mess.

The biggest marketing challenge could be the designation of your work into one of the existing genres. Why? That’s because the genre designation ultimately determines your readers and finally your choices among agents and publishers.

My problem was what the hell do you call Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot? Scif-Fi? Adventure? Romance?  It has all of those elements but what is best for marketing?  An adventure story sort of describes it but there were some science fiction elements as well to the story. After all the core of the story is about the survival of Homo floresiensis on a small tropical island and that is speculative at best. In actuality these small three-foot tall hominids died out 12,000 years ago or maybe as recently as 400 years ago based on some early historical accounts. In any case, nobody expects them to be found alive and well today, at least not with the way China is clear cutting the forests of Southeast Asia. To call it science fiction would really disappoint the hardcore science fiction fans; you know not enough hardware and overall fantasy elements to keep them enthralled to be quite honest with you. I mean if you can’t have sex with an alien then why bother calling it science fiction?

Then I came across the term speculative fiction and the Robert Heinlein definition. The definition seems appropriate for my book but its usage and acceptance as part of the vernacular is no where near as universally accepted as science fiction. As a measure of popularity I did a search fro speculative fiction and turned up only a couple of million hits in Google. Compare that with science fiction with nearly 140 million hits and you have yourself a huge disparity in overall acceptance. So which sandbox do you want to play in, the larger one where you won’t get noticed or the smaller one with a much smaller audience? As I found out perhaps the genre designation is a bit old school and my recent experience with the good folks at Wattpad has drastically changed my perception of the marektplace. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.

Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot is now a Featured Work on Wattpad.com. Flores Girl is a prehistoric science fiction-adventure-speculative fiction, oh before I forget romance eBook that is available for free on Wattpad, the World’s Most Popular EBook Sharing Community. Wattpad delivers free eBook novels to your iPhone, BlackBerry, SmartPhones and other mobile devices. Join the thousands of readers that are following the adventures of Sarah and Richard as they unwittingly introduce a small tribe of prehistoric people living in isolation for a half million years to the ultimate modern predator: humanity.  And you can do so right from your iPhone, BlackBerry or other SmartPhone! Flores Girl:The Children God Forgot is now available as a free ebook novel on the iPhone!

http://www.wattpad.com/125445-Flores-Girl-The-Children-God-Forgot-Part-1

Or try these sites for the free novel download:

WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM

WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI

WWW.iPhone-Novel.com

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2009-04-27 07:55:48 -

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wattpad’s Got Talent!

Wattpad Launches Featured Work Section In Its Redesigned Website

Toronto, Canada, April 27, 2009 — Wattpad, the world’s most popular ebook community, today announced that it is introducing a new “Featured Work” section in its redesigned website. Each month the “Featured Work” section will feature a writer whose work the Wattpad editorial team find interesting. In addition, Wattpad editorial team takes suggestions from members at takes suggestions from members at editor@wattpad.com and is always on the lookout for works of interest.

Writer Erik John Bertel’s new ebook “Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot” has been selected as Wattpad’s inaugural “Featured Work”. “Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot” is about two scientists who unwittingly introduce a small tribe of prehistoric people living in isolation for a million years to the ultimate modern predator: humanity. The novel is about their adventure, combining a clash of cultures, religious ardor with the oldest stories of all: the meaning of friendship and true love.

“Wattpad is an innovative platform that eliminates traditional entry barriers to publishing,” said Erik John Bertel. “The worse fate that can befall an author is to go unnoticed and to never find an appropriate audience for their work. Wattpad enables writers like me to bring my work directly to millions of readers in a click of a button. ”

More information about Wattpad is available online at www.wattpad.com.

About Wattpad

Founded in 2006, Wattpad’s mission is to revolutionize the way people publish and read written works. The material on Wattpad is created by the community of users. Anyone can upload whatever they want to read – a romantic story, a fan fiction, poetry, an essay, a joke, a novel or their own work – and share with the community. All the content can be easily accessed on Wattpad’s website (www.wattpad.com), mobile site (m.wattpad.com) or through the Wattpad application on virtually all feature phones, such as Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Sanyo, Panasonic, as well as smartphones such as Symbian, Blackberry and Apple iPhone / iPod Touch.

Wattpad has experienced explosive growth since its inception. Wattpad is now the world’s most popular destination to publish, read and share books. Wattpad has delivered billions of pages from its library of over 100,000 ebooks created by the community. With over 3 million downloads, Wattpad is the most popular mobile ebook application of all time.

For more information, please visit www.wattpad.com.
###

Press Contact
www.wattpad.com
press@wattpad.com

http://www.wattpad.com/125445-Flores-Girl-The-Children-God-Forgot-Part-1

In USA Today:

http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Places,+Geography/Towns,+Cities,+Counties/Toronto/0dUJeQLcW8bcs/1

Flores Girl:The Children God Forgot is now available as a free ebook novel on the iPhone

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Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot is now a Featured Work on Wattpad.com. Flores Girl is a prehistoric adventure novel that is available for free on Wattpad, the World’s Most Popular EBook Sharing Community. Wattpad delivers free eBook novels to your iPhone, BlackBerry, SmartPhones and other mobile devices. Join the thousands of readers that are following the adventures of Sarah and Richard as they unwittingly introduce a small tribe of prehistoric people living in isolation for a half million years to the ultimate modern predator: humanity.

http://www.wattpad.com/125445-Flores-Girl-The-Children-God-Forgot-Part-1

Or try these sites for the free novel download:

WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM

WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI

This goes into the category of who would have thunk it but since adding Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot Part 1 to Wattpad I have had over 1400 downloads with 29 recommendations. Part 2 is number 4 on “What is Hot” at Wattpad so this great news. Now its time to add Part 3 and I promise to make the entire novel available in the weeks ahead. For the uninitiated and those not that enamored of their Smart Phone, Wattpad is a site that installs a free application on your iPhone and BlackBerry allowing you to download and read free novels. I tried it myself and while this is not my preferred format for reading a book, after all I’m old school so I’m still a fan of dead trees, if you commute or are waiting forever at a doctor’s office this is a great diversion. Highly recommended to have one book saved on your smartphone just in case you face a dreaded hour of boredom and Flores Girl is just the novel to engage you.

Or try these sites for the download:

WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM

WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI

WWW.WattPad.com/125445-Flores-Girl-The-Children-God-Forgot-Part-1

You can almost hear the dinosaurs taking their last disgruntled breath today and, yes, I am referring to the RIAA (the old record industry association) and the publishing industry . Their outdated thinking and allegiance to both vinyl and dead trees stands in the way of progress and a seeming tsunami of technology trends. JK Rowling publishers were frothing at the mouth against Scribd, a social publishing site, for stealing their crappy Harry Potter books and sharing them online as eBooks. As far as I know, the Potter novels are not available as a legitimate eBook but I can’t say I have looked very hard other than at the Amazon site.

As a fledgling author, I made Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot free as an eBook to get an audience and the twists and turns I have seen with my own pitifully small self-publishing efforts is amazing. One of my big surprises was with my Flores Girl on Wattpad. Wattpad makes eBooks available for downloading and reading on smartphones and frankly, I never figured so many people read novels on their phones. And fortunate for me they like Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot. To me, the tiny size of an iPhone or Blackberry screen made that exercise impractical at least to my particular mode of outdated fossil thinking. On the other hand, as a former commuter, I realize that now it makes a lot of sense especially if you are blessed with a younger set of eyes. With your Smartphone you can escape to a world of music and prose away from the other human cattle you are sharing a ride with. And if you don’t like the book, you just download another.

eBooks will happen and like other authors I will have to figure out a way to monetize my writing efforts in the near future. Nobody knows how this is going to turn out but you can either get in front of the wave or drown in the resultant flood! I’ll swim, thank you!

Oh if your interested here is the link to Flores Girl on WattPad: http://www.wattpad.com/125445-Flores-Girl-The-Children-God-Forgot-Part-1

On your smart phone just sign up at Wattpad (www.wattpad.com) to install the free app and add Wattcode 125445! There have been over 2 million downloads of Wattpad to date and over a thousand fo Flores Gril.  Or you like you can go to WWW.FREE-SCIENCE-FICTION.COM

WWW.iPhone-Novel.com

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This is actually pretty exciting news at least for fans of novels. Since adding Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot Part 1 to Wattpad I have had close to 600 downloads with 10 recommendations.  It’s number 2 on what is hot at Wattpad so this great news. Now its time to add Part2 and I promise to make the entire novel available. For the uninitiated and those not that enamored of their Smart Phone, Wattpad is a site that installs a free application on your iPhone and BlackBerry allowing you to download and read free novels.  I tried it myself and while this is not my preferred format for reading a book, afterall I’m old school so I’m still a fan of dead trees,  if you commute or are waiting forever at a doctor’s office this is a great diversion. Highly recommended to have one book saved on your smartphone just in case you face a dreaded hour of boredom and Flores Girl is just the novel to engage you.  I looked at some of the other offerings and the offering du jour  appears to be more vampire stories, a sad state of affairs but hey, you know what they say about imitation.  Jeez, they suck blood and are non-human, get over it people!

Anyway take a look and try Flores Girl on Wattpad.  For fans of my rants well I’ll think of something in a little while.  Right, now it’s Obama spending our money and the Republicans attacking him while in turn offering no real alternative plans to spending trillions.  Sad state of affairs and millions of Amercians out of work.

I just made the Flores Girl:The Children God Forgot science fiction novel  available for free to read on your iPhone and BlackBerry.  On your smart phone just sign up at Wattpad (www.wattpad.com) to install the free app and add Wattcode 125445! There have been over 2 million downloads of Wattpad to date.

Let me know how the reading experience is for the iPhone and I am going to check it out on my own Blackberry. I tried to format it properly but you just never know. For example, I notice the paragraph breaks aren’t working.   For a long time I couldn’t imagine reading an entire novel on a mobile phone but if you got time to kill, such as a long tedious commute, it can be a real life saver.  Just don’t read it while driving!

For those with a Kindle my first novel in the Trilogy, Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot, is now available on Amazon at a very reasonable price: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UE6MDY

I would give it away for free for the Kindle but Amazon is funny about free giveaways!

Update:  A week later I have had over a thousand downloads!  Flores Girl is a big hit and Number 2 at Wattpad! Thanks!

WWW.iPhone-Novel.com

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