Slightly Off the Mark: non-fiction

Showing posts with label non-fiction. Show all posts

Googling Yourself Is Strange

Yeah, I Google myself ... what's your point? And I found out things I, the Googled, um, Google-ee, never knew.

Okay, so, Haunted Noble County is available in the Netherlands. No, seriously:

https://www.bruna.nl/engelse-boeken/haunted-noble-county-indiana-9781467156066

You can read it to yourself, if you can read it. Which I can't.

If one of you can't afford the book, go Dutch.

I haven't gotten around to contacting local libraries about getting copies of our newer books (I know, my fault), but somebody has. Somebody, specifically, in the Plainfield-Guilford Twp Public Library in Plainfield, where Haunted Noble County, Indiana, Images of America: Albion and Noble County, and Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights are shelved in new local history & genealogy. Or so I'm told. It turns out all of our books are evergreens, or more specifically available through the Evergreen library system:

https://catalog.evergreenindiana.org/Union/Search?view=list&lookfor=Mark+R.+Hunter&searchIndex=Author&searchSource=local

I found our 21Alive TV interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdh8YfU6JiU

Which makes us a YouTube sensation? No? But we're there, anyway.

"Missed it by THAT much."

Our publisher posted about us on Twitter ... I mean X ... nah, it's Twitter:

https://x.com/HistoryBoooks/status/1957025429329514775

Which, I guess there's really no reason for me to know.

This is also how I discovered I'm now a top 10 Amazon author. Well, sort of: I did make it to number 8, but it was in a subcategory. But the good news is, I can just leave out that small detail.

None of this really bothers me--they're just fun surprises. It reminds me of when I did an interview at the WAWK studio in Kendallville, and right after we stopped at the nearby Walgreens to discover Images of America: Albion and Noble County on a book display. I knew the publisher was going to try to get the word out: I just didn't know when or where.

The Netherlands thing was a shock, though.

It’s really not hard to find us, even without Google:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Other than sales, an author’s favorite things are reviews and library reads.

It's Book Release Day! Sort Of.

Yes, today is the release date for Haunted Noble County, Indiana. It's hit the bookseller websites (although not as an ebook yet), and I just received a box of what may or may not be copies of the book, although I've been too busy to actually open it. In my defense I was going to take a video of me opening it, and Emily and I haven't been in one place long enough to do it.

I don't know, maybe it's something else.

Things started going right immediately, starting with a flood of people wanting a signed copy straight from us. That was also something that went wrong because--despite me constantly talking about it online--the date sneaked up on us. As of when I write this, I haven't made arrangements for a local author appearance where I can distribute copies before late September, and there are way more people wanting them than I have time to deliver to.

Which is good, if you think about it. I always worry about whether anyone will want our newest book. This is the twelfth published, and I still have imposter syndrome.

On a related note, I should have gotten another book out earlier, so the book about ghosts and hauntings would be our 13th.

I even went around taking spooky photos to promote the book with. The irony is that the Old Jail Museum--arguably the spookiest looking structure in Albion--has no ghost stories associated with it.

So, what went wrong? There were some personal and family related things that I can't talk about here. I can talk about the prep for my upcoming hand surgery, which will happen on August 18th, and I just realized the joke: I really can't hand deliver the copies.

It's minor surgery, but starting last week I had to stop taking any form of certain pain medicines. Due to the wording on the pre-op papers I was led to believe that meant all pain medicines, including acetomenoph ... aceta ... ac ... Tylenol. Specifically the paper said I couldn't take paracetamol, which is another word for, yes, acetaminophen.

As all fourteen of my regular readers now, I have chronic pain issues. I stopped all meds on the 8th, and the following weekend was really, really rough. On Monday I called the ortho doctor, because all our internet overlords said taking Tylenol was just fine. He said, "taking Tylenol is just fine!"

So I took six, then crushed a bottle full and spread them over my body, then emptied a case full into the bathtub and soaked in it for six hours.

Where were we? Oh, yeah, the book.

Long before all this started, Emily set about updating our https://www.markrhunter.com/ website, so the new book would be there along with links to buy it. You people who want it mailed to you, that's where you can go to make the order and give me your mailing address.

Except Emily realized the entire website had to be completely redone. At exactly the same time her seasonal job is at its busiest. After working on it every spare hour, she punched the domain name transfer request with one day to spare.

Except the domain name transfer doesn't happen in one day. It may, in fact, take several days, and there's no way to rush it. So I don't know when you'll be able to order it, I don't know where I'll be passing copies out, and I have to work this weekend ahead of the surgery.

And there you have it. Both an apology and a sob story, and an epic fail. Whoever knows where I live is welcome to stop by, of course, if you don't mind the clutter, and I'll update things as we go along. But in the end I can only blame myself and my hand, and my back, and sometimes my head.

I WILL keep you updated!

You can't find it on one of those sites yet, you will soon:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Ghosts can’t read, so you may have to read for them.

Haunted Video From Coast to Coast, Almost

So, is anyone thinking of buying a copy of Haunted Noble County, Indiana directly from us? I was just wondering how many author copies to order; it can get a little expensive on the front end.

I did an interview with a Fort Wayne news station a few years ago, and just discovered that, without my knowledge, it went all over the country. It appears to be from a syndicated news source, and I gave up keeping track after finding them everywhere from Vermont to West Virginia to Missouri.

It starts with a little segment about Halloween then goes to me, which is pretty cool. Here are some examples, but no need to click on more than one: They're all the same video. I thought it would be fun to list them, then stopped after I realized how many there were.

https://www.wave3.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.wvva.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.wlbt.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.ky3.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.kctv5.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.wsmv.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.fox8live.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.fox19.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.wcax.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

I didn't realize at first that the screen shot I took of of the video looks almost exactly the same as one I took of the original last year.

I know what you're thinking: How much attention did that bring to your books, Mark? None, that I know of. The thing about promotion and publicity is that only 5% of it actually works, and no one knows which 5%. So authors have to continue to give it their all in the hopes of keeping the balance sheet in the black, and that's pretty much the same for all small businesses.

It's one reason why so many authors still submit to traditional publishers. They don't do all the work, but they do a lot of it--in return to taking a much higher percentage of the sales. Meanwhile, the author still has to do a lot of promotion.

This is why many good writers choose not to publish at all.