New Blog: Glows and Beeps

I recently started doing a new blog that looks at new technology and technology news. You can even download the first half of Ug Goes Out there on the site. Take a look!

New Blog: Glows and Beeps

I recently started doing a new blog that looks at new technology and technology news. You can even download the first half of Ug Goes Out there on the site. Take a look!

Ug Bought A House

Well, the author bought a house. As of right now, Ug can't pay for much. My wife and I are in the process of moving our stuff to the new house this week. The house is in driving distance, so we've been able to do this a little bit at at time. Today the last of the big furniture goes! Many thanks to the friend who have let us borrow his truck and the other friends who helped me lift all this furniture.

In the meantime, the emptier the apartment gets, the messier it gets. Isn't that weird?

Reports are good!

The book is being described on Amazon reviews as "a great book for ALL ages!" and "an English teacher's treasure." Initial reviews from some former professors are positive, too! Excellent!

In other news, the book is now listed on eBay!

...It's been listed on Amazon,

And of course, Lulu----------------->




Many thanks to those of you who found a copy. If you enjoyed the book, you can do me a great service by writing a review online, especially under the product listing on Amazon. And of course, tell all your friends about it!

To date, the book has sold a handful of copies, and I've recouped about half of the money I've spent so far advertising and purchasing drafts during the writing process. Not bad!

10% discount through June 30 on lulu.com!

Ok, so you already get free shipping on the book over the summer. Now factor in a 10% discount until June 30! Enter in the code: SUMMERREAD305

Amazon Step #1... COMPLETE

Ug Goes Out is now a proud resident of Amazon Marketplace, the venue through which Amazon sells other people's products and adds their own shipping rate on top of the price. This is a major step in the marketing process, as Amazon is a huge vendor! Hopefully soon the book will be endowed with an ISBN, and then I can make the shift to have Amazon listed as a regular product.

Who will go on Amazon.com and review the product for me?

Amazon: Get Ready for Ug

Ug Goes Out:
This story is written in the perspective of a caveman's journal entries, so it could be a great teaching tool to go over voice, style, and first-person perspective. The story line could also be a great tool to teach kids about identity and self worth, of which Ug begins with very little. There are illustrated cameos of me as a little boy, a guy I with whom I went to middle school, and a man who may or may not have been a part of my student teaching experience in college.

The second edition of the book came in the mail, and all the changes look excellent. The cover is now very highly detailed and not all pixely, and I fixed a grammatical error. We're all set!

I paid the fee to have lulu.com give the book an ISBN and load it onto Amazon.com, where it will hopefully reach a much wider audience. Stay tuned on that front!

Also, about my summer work interview: although I was ready to have a sales position, it turns out the position being offered was not in a store. I was to be a door-to-door kitchen knife salesman. No foul meaning if that's your job, but it's not for me. I was unpleasantly surprised, and I walked out. So will the revenue from the book be of any significance? Time will tell!

Summer Work

I interview this afternoon with a temp agency to try to get that opening they have with a summer retail position. I look forward to the change of pace from teaching for a few months until the fall... that said, an even better option would be to make a living from book sales. A would-be self-published author can dream, can't he?

Ug 2.0

So, having seen the first book print (which my students LOVED), I've made some small changes. I forgot to make the cover image 300 dpi, whereas it was a paltry 72 dpi. Tsk tsk! You could see all the little grains and pixels, but now it looks much more high-def. My mother-in-law found a typo (thank goodness for finding it now and not later), and we adjusted a bit of Ug's speech on one or two pages. We couldn't decide if Ug was capable of saying a compound sentence (two independent clauses combined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction). We decided he could do that once. On the other hand, we decided Ug knows better than to use a comma splice.

In other news, I ordered bookmarks with the image of the book cover, and I will pass them out to my students as soon as the book is available online. The bookmarks came in, and they look excellent!

Last, my wife and I brainstormed the future characters of this would-be book series and the personal trials they will all have to overcome. I don't want to give anything away yet... at least not here on the internet where someone could potentially snatch the idea before I get them on paper. Wouldn't want that, now would we?

Estimated book release date: Friday, June 11. This will allow time to order one more print to OK the changes and let the websites (Lulu, Amazon, and eBay) add the book to their catalog (best $25 I will probably ever spend).

Your Order Has Shipped

The demo book will be here any day now. I can't wait! It's my chance to preview it and OK the product for release on the whole wide world. I figure that if it sells to anyone other than myself and maybe a family member, I'll consider a booming success. Also... there are about 4 other characters I created who live in Ug's neighborhood that would be perfect to extend this little project into a whole series of children's books. Next issue: Should the book be translated into Spanish?

Ordered some sweet looking "Ug Goes Out" bookmarks that are styled after the cover of the book. Maybe they'll let me pass them out at school.

Release Date: June 4, 2010

Alright friends--
The book is uploaded. I ordered a copy so I could see for myself what the final product will look like. Because it's a big, full-color book, the price spiked, unfortunately, so the book will be $19.99. The good news is that during the summer there will be free shipping! Hooray!

It will be available as an eBook for $9.99.

The projected release date for the book will be June 4, 2010.

The illustrations are finished!

Finally! All illustrations are done!
Now I can work on formatting this baby into a real book and finally upload for the enjoyment of many.

Almost done!

Down to the last picture... this picture will have a foreground, middle, and background, so it's a doozy.

Opening day: June 30!

I'm working on the drawings now... Ug should be available on lulu.com by June 30.