Archive for August, 2011
Play fair with your book reviews
Posted by: | CommentsI’m steaming with frustration … why? … because of a person who wrote a ’1 Star,’ obviously negative review, about one of our books … but then, was it really a negative review?! If not, why is it only 1 Star? You decide. Now that I have my own blog, on my own website, I think I am entitled to post my own opinion!!
This person starts her review with … “Started off really well, but the main problem I had was with the Lead Character” … she goes on to say that nothing bad/negative happens to this character clarifying later that it is after a certain point in the story. Perhaps she isn’t aware that some people don’t buck the system and are positive thinkers especially when they’ve already had some rough experiences. I would have hoped that she would have given the rest of the series (only 2 more books) an opportunity to change her mind before possibly damaging our reputation.
I appreciate the other reviewers who have added their more kinder comments by way of trying to negate the other with a higher number of ‘stars.’ If a reader wishes to read a book where horrid things happen to the characters … THEN FIND ANOTHER AUTHOR, Robert is not for you!
You have to appreciate our books for the stories of the characters, not the bad things that happen to them (and yes, there are bad/challenging events which do take place in our books). Robert writes adventure novels though, not horror stories.
I suppose this reviewer will judge all our books by her misguided opinion of one book and never try another of our 10 novels! Oh well, you can’t win them all and thank goodness we have thousands of fans that love our books. I can’t help but wonder if she even paid for this book (we recently had a promo giveaway).
Does this person realize, or even care, how much damage she can do by writing such a review? I wonder how many readers have/will pass up our books because of this review? I felt she could have at least given us ’3 stars’ seeing as she admitted she liked it at first … and after all she was only complaining about one character. Dare I surmise that she might possibly have enjoyed the other characters and their stories (many of which are true) but didn’t bother to mention that in her critique!
I happen to know that fortunately there are still a large number of readers out there who like to read about a variety of characters, some of them ‘nice,’ or this series and, our books in general, couldn’t have been so popular. Just because a large portion of the characters and, all of the history, locations, events and businesses are real, this series is still fiction.
Yes, we’re on eBooks!
Posted by: | CommentsThis post has been copied from the Newsletter Page on our main website at www.bestsellingbooks.ca
HOT NEWS!! EBOOKS … EBOOKS … yes, ALL OUR books are available as ebooks at Amazon/Kindle (USA, UK and Germany) and Smashwords.com (includes Kindle but here they are DRM free). Also available at your favourite ebook store (Kobo, Sony, iPad etc.).
Yes, the big news in books these days are eBooks and we are continually being asked if our books are available as eBooks. The answer is YES and we are seeing ebook sales increasing every month, especially via Kindle! The wonderful part is that readers are now able to afford to purchase more than one book … our ebooks are all under $8 and sometimes we offer specials through Smashwords and our 
Facebook FanClub page.
Formatting all our books for eReaders was Joyce and Tara’s project for 2010/11 and we’re happy to announce Kindle and Smashwords have them all. Smashwords has more up-to-date files as Joyce reads them again herself and tweaks those minor errors that are now easier/less costly to correct than on a printed book.
A TIP: unless you want to miss some of our news and future ebook specials, you must join the J Robert Whittle Fan Club
* A note on Kindle purchases … GREAT NEWS … Kindle is now giving us full commission for all purchases from Canada and UK … as Amazon bows to pressure from International authors, we are thrilled to be able to make it easier for our Kindle customers!
I have owned my own KOBO ebook Reader (Chapters Brand) since March ’11 so I can speak from experience on this subject. I simply love my Kobo, but it did have some issues early on and I was thankfully able to replace it with the new Kobo Touch which arrived in June. It’s a lot easier to read in bed now (no heavy books) and so easy to turn the page (you touch it very lightly). I even have several books on the go at the same time for the first time in my life. I have now read 3 novels which I would never have done by carrying a book around with me!
I never waste time in a doctor’s office etc. anymore … it’s great!
Everything about the New Kobo Touch is superior to the earlier model. They have done a great job. I rarely get time during the day to read, but I have everything from novels (our own included which I have never had time to re-read!), business books, motivational books etc., and with the Touch, it always leaves you the last 5 book covers to easily open next time you turn it on. It bookmarks your page so it opens to that page when you open each book.
This is also the solution for LARGE PRINT … people are discovering eReaders due to their ability to enlarge the text size and change the font, making it just right for people who previously needed large print books (I make mine larger too). So much easier to hold instead of a heavy book for my arthritic fingers.
Did You Know … you don’t have to own an eBook Reader … there are many FREE programs and Apps. available for computer, Smart Phones and iPods. One I recently discovered is Bookworm for all ePUB formats (not for Kindle). Kindle has their own FREE eReader. Adobe Digital Additions is great and free for ePub versions as well. I also recently found out about the iPod App for Kindle which a friend uses.
Grandma, look what happened to Scrapbooking!
Posted by: | CommentsIt was March 2008 while at a small Book Fair in Victoria that I met Barbara Ashcroft, a Canadian scrapbooking consultant with Heritage Makers. She lives in Qualicum Beach, BC and teaches people how to use this remarkable system. The Heritage Makers system blew me away and by the end of the weekend I had signed as a consultant in readiness for my retirement … I think I was rushing it a mite! I’m no longer a consultant but still use the system for special projects. Here is a link to my latest scrapbook featuring photos and family history gleaned from a trip I took back to my Australian Roots in 2010. I had to squeeze too much onto some of the pages as you pay by the page with any of these books.
However, as in the rest of my life, everything had a purpose and this not only introduced me to modern digital scrapbooking, I have since made several beautiful books featuring my family using my photos and this system. This is the one system I have used that closely resembles old fashioned cut and paste methods (which I never got into because it was so time consuming.)
When I turned 65 in 2010, I decided I needed to take a break from my usual rat race, after all, everyone was retiring why shouldn’t I?! So, I began scrapbooking in earnest and couldn’t escape it’s clutches for several months. In that time, I managed to turn many hundreds of my treasured family photos into numerous, mainly hardcover, high quality scrapbooks, with no extreme expense or effort using several different online companies. I found easy programs and more involved, but still quite easy programs. Digital scrapping was catching on and every online photo company seemed to have their own scrapbooking program. The features were improving and I was in 7th Heaven! They keep getting better and better and the competition is causing these companies to compete for the latest fabulous features. I love it and so do countless millions of others now using these programs worldwide, thanks to the internet.
I now have 7 scrapbooks completed and get rave comments whenever I show them. I have scanned in hundreds of old (pre-digital photos) and still have only just begun to make a dent in my photo collection! Most of these programs are online so they archive your photos (read the fine print in their Policy) and don’t use very much of your HD memory.
I love it and it’s a great stress releaser but, as with any hobby, it’s too easy to become addicted and forget I have other important things to do … like editing my husband’s next historical novel!
Good health became instrumental to the success of our books …
Posted by: | CommentsBefore publishing and writing, I was interested in health beginning about 40 years ago. Few people realize that before my husband became a bestselling author he had a 4-year fight with Staph infection in 1994-1998. At the time, Robert was a Live Blood Analyst and he helped what became a relatively small group of people who found us mainly by word of mouth.
Once we published our first couple of books, their success soon overshadowed all other activities in our life … writing and producing new books became our focus and literally took over every aspect of our lives 24/7 for the next twelve years. I still miss the quick ‘suggestion’ (we couldn’t use the word ‘diagnosis’ as he wasn’t a doctor!) he gave, however, simply by looking at a drop of my blood. It was all quite remarkable and went a long way to helping him regain his health much quicker and me to monitor my thyroid, etc., saying goodbye to all those necessary female pokes and prods by my physician. We still visited our doctors yearly or when a more serious situation arose but otherwise he was quite amazed with our superior health having some idea of our hectic schedules.
I must search out someone in the area who can read the older blood that now courses through my veins! There was always an explanation for how we felt, sometimes more serious than others. Live Blood Analysis is a wonderful tool but sadly many practitioners now couple it with other dietary etc. services and charge exorbitant fees for their service. The days of helping people for affordable fees with basic services have all but disappeared. If I find one in my area of Victoria, BC, I will let you know!
One of my first blogs was aHealth Blog where I shared my discoveries of various wonderful alternative health products.
Look after your health and it will look after you for a long time.
A New Beginning
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome to my newly formatted website … now a blog. I will have some fun putting this together as time goes by but for now we are under construction as I learn how to put things where I want them.
I have several other blogs but this is the first fancy one which I can dress up (format) to my heart’s content! I’ll introduce you to some of the other things we do in our spare?? time and what I/we did in the past. As always, however, I must remember that I am actually working because this is all so much fun for me I sometimes forget the working aspect!
So I’ll just remind you that our main website is still BestSellingBooks.ca aka JRobertWhittle.com
This is where you will find all 10 of my talented and handsome husband, J Robert Whittle’s amazingly popular books which remain my focus and will for many years to come. Many of our novels are set in the area where we live – Victoria, BC and the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Robert still sells the books at Bastion Square and I am still publishing, producing and looking after the websites.
From the time we started writing/publishing books in 1998, our original website morphed into different things and finally ended up as our Indie-Publishing Blog Of Books, Marketing and Self-Promotion Blog with tips and links for self-publishers (the old terminology). I will eventually incorporate that blog into this one as I rarely have time to post there anymore, but that’s in the future.
If you don’t know about our books these bestselling (3) and award-winning (2) novels are the product of my husband J. Robert Whittle‘s amazing imagination and natural talent which we fortunately discovered in 1995. The books are only available through our website, craft shows and craft markets in British Columbia, Canada and a few select local bookstores in Victoria, BC and Vancouver Island. Phone calls are also welcomed (250-477-0192) and we encourage local residents or visitors to phone us and make arrangement to either pick up books (save shipping charges) or we will deliver for a much smaller fee.
To find out more about us, how I met Robert (his Bio) and why we do what we do, read both our biographies. When I published the first of our books in Dec. 1998, weren’t we surprised when people wanted more!
