CHoS is now on Kindle

Yes, kids, Erica struggled and clawed and complained her way into the modern age once again. It took a lot of work, considering I'd never done this before, but I reformatted my book file so that it would convert properly to an e-book reader. I'm pretty damn proud of myself, I must say. I'm always jazzed when I learn something new, computer-wise.

I had a lot of help. I had posted questions on both the Kindle Direct help forum, and in a book group on FetLife. Several people took the time to type out advice and tips, or give me links on places to go. I was on information overload for a while, but I was able to piece together what I needed and move forward. And finally, very special thanks to Korey Mae Johnson, who was kind enough to look at my Word document and then send me specific directions on what to tweak.

So here it is, the e-book version. I am hoping that now, sales will start to kick in and so will some positive reactions. It's been kind of disappointing, so far. Barely any sales of the paperback.

Yesterday, I looked at the paperback version on Amazon and saw that I'd gotten my very first review. One star. And because it was the only review, it stood out like a beacon, right there next to the title: "One review, one star." First thing anyone would see when they looked at the book. Really nice.

I read the review. A woman called it "Internet rehash" and said it didn't need to be a book, since you could read it by scanning the author's blog. Scanning? I started the CHoS in 2007, on MySpace. Who wants to go back and scan through three years of MySpace blogs, and then three more years of Blogspot blogs? That's some scan! And it wasn't like I just copied and pasted all the columns into a file and called it a book. I organized it all into categories, wrote introductory copy for each chapter, added beginning and ending material... Ugh! 

I know they say that one shouldn't comment to one's negative reviews, but I couldn't help it. What she said was so inaccurate. So I posted this:

It's a collection; yes, the material was posted on my blog. Over seven years, on two different sites. Hardly a "scan." Most people haven't read all the material, plus I added introductory copy to each chapter.

Thanks for taking the time to be unkind. Have a nice day. :-)

Probably not the most mature approach, but dammit...

Fortunately, Bobbie Jo was kind enough to drop by the site and post a review as well (she just finished her paperback) and gave me five stars, so the overall rating is now three stars instead of just one. Please, people. If you like the book, go say so. Good reviews mean the world to us writers. And they help encourage others to read our material. And if you don't like it, that's fine -- go read something you do like. Don't crap on someone's work.

Yes, I'm a little sulky. Lukewarm reaction to the book so far, blog comments and views are down, haven't been Chrossed in three weeks, and then that bit of unnecessary nastiness. Not feeling the love here. :-(

Enough. Back to work. Happy Hump Day. At least my A/C is working.