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I've finally joined Facebook. Now I'm not really sure what to do with it. ; >) I'm guessing I'll figure it out as I go but if you have any helpful tips I'm all ears. Come visit my page S.R. Booth.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/SR-Booth/224197621092163?ref=hl

Have you ever read this book?

The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions--Today was such an interesting book!

I'm not saying it will hold the answers to everyones problems but...it might ; >)

Are there GMO's hiding in your pantry?

Sounds a little creepy, right? Do you really know what's in the food you're eating? Anytime you eat a processed food, odds are pretty good there will be something genetically modified in it. Too bad GMOs aren't labeled so WE can make an educated decision to eat them or not.

Excerpt from Scinegue (The Scinegue Series (Book 1))

“Okay, I think we need to slow down. We're jumping to some far-fetched conclusions from the little bit of actual information we have. We can’t really be thinking that plans for worldwide eugenics are being made by the company I just happen to work for, can we?”

“Why not?” Sarah asked quietly with a shrug.

Billy didn’t answer for a few minutes, then said, “Even if that’s the case, what could we do about it?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking about that before you got home. There are a lot of people online making claims that this kind of stuff is really happening, and they're written off as crazy or conspiracy theorists. As far as I can tell, no one is paying much attention to anything they're saying.” 

She considered some of the claims she’d read by these people. If they were right, then Scinegue—or people who believed as they did—had been plotting and scheming for many years, and had already put many of their ideas to reduce the population into motion. She thought of some of the plans she read about utilizing simple things—like tampered medicines or foods—to kill off people considered undesirable.

The few over the counter medicines she and Billy took recently when they’d had the flu popped into her mind, and she wondered if any of them could have been altered by one of those schemes. She thought about the processed foods even now in their pantry.

“We have to throw out all of the processed food!” she cried as she jumped up and rushed to the kitchen pantry. 

Boxes were flung to the floor as she went from shelf to shelf. “We can’t eat anything that's genetically modified. Some of the sites I read said that's one of the tools that could potentially be used to kill people off. All kinds of stuff can be done with genetic engineering. You only hear the good sides of it. Better yields, healthier crops.” Her muted voice came out of the pantry as she pulled items from the very back. “They don’t advertise the bad things that can be done with it.” 

Billy stepped over the packages on the floor and put his hands on her shoulders. “Hey, calm down,” he murmured. “We’ll work this out, okay? We don’t know if any of this is real, and there is no sense making ourselves crazy thinking it is until we have more proof.” Billy spoke soothingly and wrapped his arms around her as Sarah leaned back against him, closed her eyes, and tried to release the stress that had been building from the moment she’d deciphered that paper.

“You’re right. You’re right,” she repeated. “It might be nothing.” She pulled away slightly to loosen his grip and twisted around to look up at him. “But we are not going to eat any genetically modified foods until we have proof that they're healthy. Got it?” she asked with a firm poke to his chest.

“Got it!” He smiled and leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose. “You have such a cute nose,” he said playfully, trying to ease their tension.

Pushing him away with a snort of laughter, Sarah ran both hands through her hair. “This is not the time to be playing around. I think I just had a mini breakdown!” She tilted her head considering. “That’s probably another mark against me. ‘Breaks down easily,’” she said in a deep, announcer style voice.

“Not a breakdown," Billy consoled, "just a reaction to the world possibly being much more sinister than we thought.”

Sarah bent down and started picking up the boxes and bags of food she'd thrown to the floor. Her favorite brownie mix, instant meals, Styrofoam cups of soup. She’d grown up eating these things. Had they really changed so much over the years? Had they changed at all?

Is Perma-free a good idea?

Let me start by saying I'm still undecided. I've read over and over about authors who offer the first book in their series perma-free and have gained many readers who might not have ever taken a risk on their books at regular price. The free book offers the reader a very good sample of the writer's style and if the reader enjoys the book then they can go on to purchase additional books in the series or at least by the same author.

The down side. I just finished reading a free book, The Emperor's Edge, and really enjoyed it. It was a book that I never would have purchased because it just doesn't sound like something I would normally like to read. When it became a 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee it grabbed my attention and since it was free I gave it a try. I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it because like I said, it was good! What's bad is I don't know if I'll buy the next book in the series because I can't help but wonder which other free books are out there that I would enjoy reading.

I guess with my one example the perma-free was a good idea. I personally would not have purchased this book but since I was able to read the first in the series free and found out I liked it, I am at least considering purchasing future books in the series. If it hadn't been available for free I would have passed the series by completely.

Do you usually buy other books in a series after reading the first one free?

Self publishing with KDP Select?

I've been very happy with Kindle Direct Publishing. It is so very user friendly. Really great for someone just starting out in the self-publishing world. I wasn't quite as happy with the Select program. Not that there's anything wrong with it. I think it's a great idea. Maybe just not the best idea for new, unknown authors.

As a requirement for select you publish your work exclusively through KDP. In return you are part of their lending program and receive a share of the profits based on how many times your book is borrowed. You also have the opportunity to offer special prices on your book such as 'free' for a certain number of days or you can offer a 'Countdown deal'.

The downside is that not every reader uses Amazon. (surprising I know!) By publishing exclusively through KDP you might be missing out on readers at other sites like Apple and  Barnes and Noble who might love your work if they just had a chance to see it.

I personally, with my very limited bit of experience, believe a new author should publish to as many platforms as possible. (Maybe not the first day, in case there are a couple of last minute correction to be made. It's much easier to do that from just one site.) Once you've given each platform a fair amount of time then you can make the decision of whether or not to enter into an exclusivity contract with KDP Select.

If you are getting a lot of sales on other platforms, it's probably not a good idea to pull your books. However, if you're only getting sales from Amazon, what a great opportunity to take part in some of the special KDP Select benefits.

I'm continually learning about self-publishing and I might come across reasons why my opinion is completely wrong. (If I do I'll be sure to update this article.) But for now this is where I stand.

8/1/14 Update! I'm getting close to releasing the final book in The Scinegue Series and am hoping to attract some new readers to the series so I've taken Scinegue, the first book in the series, out of KDP select and added it to some other sites like Barnes & Nobles and Apple. I'm planning to do another promotion on it in a month or so, and after that I can judge how sales are doing at each site. I can always re-enroll in select later if I'm not getting many sales elsewhere.

Re-uploading a book file to KDP

I think I might have figured out what kept causing KDP to hang up when I would re-upload my book file after making minor changes/corrections.

A couple of times I've uploaded my book only to preview it with the KDP's online previewer and find an error. After fixing the problem I would upload the revised file and the upload wheel would just spin and spin and spin.... eventually giving me an error message that the file couldn't be uploaded and to try again.

I tried something different the last time I ran into this. Before re-uploading a corrected file, I saved my page to 'draft' status. Then I uploaded the new file and had no problems at all.

I'm not sure that's the absolute solution since I've only had the opportunity to try it once. But it's definitely the way I'll do it next time. (Because unfortunately there will be a next time...I'm far from perfect!)

How firm are your beliefs?

Scinegue, Book 1 of The Scinegue Series -

Billy Roth is an honorable man who always thought he was content just to be able to comfortably provide for his wife, Sarah. Tempted with riches and prestige beyond his imaginings he finds himself struggling to maintain his convictions, as it appears the strange disappearances of his coworkers are being orchestrated by Scinegue, the company that's offering him everything.

Scinegue claims it wants the best for every person but Sarah uncovers evidence that points to a covert agenda set to destroy all who don't meet its standards. Billy must discover the truth behind what Sarah has found if he wants to keep her safe, but when the answer he's seeking has a supernatural edge will he be able to accept it?

Does this make you wonder how firm your beliefs really are? It's easy to think we would never let ourselves give in to temptation—if we're not being tempted. But what about when you are being tempted? When that carrot is dangling within your grasp. Do you stand firm in your convictions or tweak your convictions just enough to allow you to do what you want?

Scinegue is a suspense novel but it's also about convictions. 

Billy Roth isn't a bad man, he's actually a very good one who's filled with a noble sense of right and wrong. Watching him struggle with the temptations he faces is a good reminder that being firm in your convictions isn't always as easy and straightforward as it seems.

You can read the first few chapters of Scinegue for free on Amazon.