Category Archives: Kindle Books

Dracula — Better With Photographs

This telling of the story of Dracula is enhanced with 37 photographs of important locations, annotated old maps, and cultural artifacts. In addition, the book includes images of Dracula, female vampires, wolves, etc.

I first read Dracula as a young teenager. I remember it was Saturday afternoon, and both my parents and my sister were out of the house. The wind was making the branches scratch against my window, just like the bats in the novel, and the old house creaked. To preserve my dignity, let’s not say that I was “afraid”; let’s just say that I was “apprehensive.”

Recently I decided to read the book again. As I read, I had difficulty visualizing some of the locales and cultural artifacts that the characters mentioned. What do the Carpathian Mountains look like near dusk? Is there really an English town called “Whitby” with a ruined abbey? What did the harbor look like? What is a Kukri knife?

Accordingly, I have researched and inserted into this version of Dracula many photographs of important locations, annotated old maps, and cultural artifacts. I also considered it worthwhile to insert images of Dracula, female vampires, wolves, etc. to add a bit of color to the text.

Furthermore, I was disappointed that there were many historical, geographic, and cultural references in the text that were lost on me. As I researched these, I found that they enhanced my appreciation the story. For that reason, I have added appropriate hyperlinks that you can ignore or investigate if you are so inclined.

It’s only 99¢ in the Amazon Kindle Store.  I had a lot of fun enhancing my appreciation of this book. I hope you enjoy it as well!


Marketing blog for Kindle authors

Hi,

Check out my new blog JHOMF (just helping out my friends) that is dedicated to helping Kindle authors (like myself) promote and market their books. It’s what is called a “media” site because in addition to the posts that I write, you’ll find the most interesting, related articles that I’ve discovered on the web, plus guest posts by authors who have successfully marketed their books.

The toughest part about being an author is not writing the book. It’s selling that book. Now maybe some authors are just satisfied with getting their books published and don’t care whether anyone reads them. I’m not that kind of author, and the other authors I know aren’t like that. We want people to read our books for enjoyment, distraction, to learn about new places and cultures, to make a point about societal change, whatever, and incidentally to make a few bucks.

While jhomf.com has book promotional ideas, it also has some unusual articles you won’t see just anywhere, like George Orwell (who wrote ‘1984’) reviewing Hitler’s Mein Kampf, or a book that chronicled the causes and results of the first race riot in Washington, D.C. during Andrew Jackson’s presidency, with Francis Scott Key as the D.C. prosecutor. That one surprised me!

If you sign up for the email list at jhomf.com, you’ll also get access to a free iPhone/Android/browser app that calculates earned royalties based on Kindle Store rank, book price, and the royalty level. You’re probably only interested in that if you’re a Kindle author, but it’s a cool app that I had fun coding. (For you programmers out there, I coded the app using jQuery Mobile.)

Anyway, check out jhomf.com!

Thanks!
Dan

Oops! I screwed up … Sorry

Hi,

Amazon has this rule that an author cannot do a promotion on a book if the price of the book has been changed in the last 30 days. I scheduled promotions on both “Field Piece, The Complete Series” and “Death on Delivery” for right now, but then I decreased the regular price of “Death on Delivery“. Oh, my, what a terrible thing to do. Well, Amazon cancelled my special 99¢ promotion on “Death on Delivery“, so I’ll have to wait until September to do a cut-rate promo.

Sorry for that confusion.

But “Field Piece, The Complete Series” is still on sale until Midnight August 27 for only 99¢.

Click on the image below to buy “Field Piece, The Complete Series” on Amazon Kindle. 

Thanks!

Field Piece, Book II: Azerbaijan on sale in the Kindle Store

Hi,

My novel “Field Piece, Book I: Tehran” was on sale on Amazon Kindle last week for only 99¢.  Now “Field Piece, Book II: Azerbaijan” is on sale on Amazon Kindle for only 99¢ from July 15th through midnight July 21st.

Book I takes place in 1995 and Book II two years later, when Walker returns to Iran on another mission. Many of the characters appearing in Book I are also in Book II, including, of course, our hero, Steve Walker. Walker’s friend from graduate school, Pasdaran Colonel Kamal Taleb, shows up again, along with his brash younger brother, Massoud, and the femme fatale Jilah, who became much more than Walker’s friend in Book I.

Predictably, Walker’s nemesis, his half-brother Azrak, once again is creating havoc, this time in Azerbaijan, where he is head of the Azeri secret police.

Russian mercenaries, Muslim freedom fighters, war — Walker’s stepped into it this time . . .


Click on the image below to buy this book on Amazon Kindle for just 99¢. 

Thanks!