Are traditional books dead?

Here is an interesting article about e-books: LINK

Traditional books are slowly withdrawing. There is no doubt any more. It is true that the traditional book looks prettier and more attractive, but if one thinks of how many trees are cut down each day in the woods then it is slightly different.
Everything is just a matter of habits. I was very pleasantly surprised when I first touched the Kindle. When I saw that the screen no longer shines and the man can read all day without adverse effects on the eyes, I immediately fell in love in it.

Write that which you’ve always liked reading

I want to stress once more that the most important thing is to write that which you’ve always liked reading. Future writers must ask themselves what sort of books you’ve always liked reaching for. You must also at the very beginning think about your target readership. I have a friend who wrote rather demanding, intellectual books. Later he was very disappointed by the rate at which his books were borrowed in libraries. Not to even mention the fact that he couldn’t sell a single copy. If you’ve always liked reading intellectual content, then that is what you must write. But you must be aware that you’ll reach a much smaller circle of readers. There are many writers who write a single book and then, due to disappointment, throw in the towel. If you don’t expect too much to begin with, your disappointment will be smaller. 

How many books do I sell?

I started self promotion in December 2011. Here are the sell numbers for this month:

 

I sell approximately 3.5 books per day. It is not a lot but is a gut start. I must be grateful to Amazon.com that has allowed offering each of my books for free for 5 days.

The key to success

I’ve made many mistakes in life, but they were probably all necessary for me to arrive at the knowledge I have today. I’ve realized that only strict specialization brings results and personal satisfaction. But before you specialize, you must know what you like doing. And therein usually lays the problem.

FOCUSING ==> SPECIALIZATION  ==> HIGH QUALITY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES

School and university education only give you a basic knowledge. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to begin specializing in a specific area, be it cooking, hairdressing or chemistry.

A UNIVERSITY DEGREE IS NOT A PRE-CONDITION FOR SPECIALIZATION AND YOU ARE NOT SPECIALIZED WHEN YOU GET A UNIVERSITY DEGREE.

You can find books on any subject at Amazon.com. All you have to do is find and read them. Journals and other written material on the internet are also important. I’ve realized that if you specialize, you find out after three to five years that you stand out from the average. Besides, you begin to see things that others can’t or are unable to because they don’t have the same knowledge and experience.

ENJOYMENT IN YOUR WORK è SPECIALIZATION + HARD WORK ==> SUCCESS + GOOD PAY

There are three main problems that stop most people from being more successful:

1. They have a number of interests and they can’t decide what they like doing most.
2. They can’t be bothered.
3. They’re not persistent enough.

I could be bothered and I was persistent, yet I still needed many years to find out which work I liked best.

Wonderful reviews!

Here are two reviews that have been published recently on amazon.com:

I didn't know that an author could ever express the passion felt between 2 lovers, like Mr. Fox does in this book. NO, this is not a girlie romance book. IT'S SUSPENSEFUL, breath taking , relief and surprise! I just purchased another one of Mr. Fox's books and can't wait to start it. PLEASE Mr. FOX, GIVE US MORE EMELY DONOVAN!

This book is up there on my list of one I will always remember. It was definitely a page turner. I stayed up late a couple of nights as I just couldn't put it down. The twists and turns in this book was crazy, just like a few people in this book! But that is what made it such a page turner. Great book that I highly recommend.

I liked very much the sentence: “This book is up there on my list of one I will always remember.” Those kinds of statements make me tears in my eyes and because of them I will always continue to write. 

Excelent Midwest Book Review for Promise Me Eternity

PROMISE ME ETERNITY opens with a dark, stormy night, a physician stumbling in the darkness with a syringe of insulin and a guilty conscience and murder on the mind, and a plan that moves from cheating on his wife to plotting a man's demise.

How did Dr. Patterson arrive at this literal junction in the road of his life? Chapters flash back to the events which led him from being a successful neurosurgeon to associating with a powerful mobster's wife: a relationship which immerses him deeply in the mobster's dangerous world.

Like layers of an onion, PROMISE ME ETERNITY peels back the events that influence Dr. Patterson's moves; from his personal research trying to develop an anti-aging vaccine to his growing alienation from a money-hungry wife whose own obsession with wealth eventually lands her in danger.

It's over 370 pages long, but there's not a chapter wasted nor dull: a fast progression of strong, believable protagonists keeps the plot and its events moving along quickly, with enough unexpected twists and turns to keep even seasoned mystery readers guessing about its possible outcomes and the relationships between and choices of all the protagonists.

There are even moments of humor in the midst of detailed descriptions, such as when Carlos the mob boss is breaking and entering: "He said to the other two, in an almost soundless whisper, "I hate it when people cook fish in the house. That's what restaurants are for.""

Solid dialogue, minute descriptions of setting and place, and detailed surveys of the backgrounds of all protagonists lead to a depth and complexity most mysteries simply don't offer, and will prove inviting to a more educated reader audience than most.

What at first seems a predictable progression of events in fact offers many satisfying twists towards an ending which is totally unexpected, making PROMISE ME ETERNITY a top recommendation for mystery readers who want close psychological inspection, detailed protagonist histories, and a plot that keeps readers guessing right up to the end. Bravo!

http://midwestbookreview.com/mbw/feb_12.htm#donovan

 

Education

After I completed college and specialized in power supply, which I wasn’t really interested in, I enrolled at university for a course in economics, but I finished it rather late, at the age of 28. The reason for this was that I was interested in so many other things, even though economics had always attracted me.

There was a special way of learning I used at that time, involving cassettes. I would underline the most important things in a course book and then I recorded the underlined information on tapes that were around 60 minutes long. In the end, I had over 200 tapes and I’d listened to each one up to 20 times. I don’t think many people could do that. Often, when I went out on my bicycle or for a walk, I had earphones on and listened to one of my tapes.

It wasn’t until later that I realized that this had also given me a lot of grammatical knowledge as all books must be edited. Besides, I gained a feeling for how sentences must follow each other. And as I recorded the tapes myself, I had also learnt to read out loud. A famous Russian writer once said that reading out loud greatly influenced his success. Before I started writing, I also recorded writers whom I’d always liked, such as Sidney Sheldon, Shirley Conran and Mary Higgins Clark.

There are different genres of writing and beginners must decide on one of them and find out as much about it as possible. Only later, when they’re sufficiently confident and experienced, they can create their own variant of the genre.

Vanity can cost you your career. If you’re convinced at the very beginning that you can write fantastically well and you don’t need to learn from anyone, then the cards won’t be stacked in your favor.7