For those following the Ridgway Railroad Museum, here’s a blurb of interest if you happen to be in the area this September 12th. The book has been quite the hit—the museum asked for a reprint because they’re selling them so fast! You can check out their book and order from us by clicking on this link to our catalog. The book is available from us for $19.95 plus S&H. If your shipping address is in Colorado, there is a nominal sales tax.

Mt. Sneffels Press

Book 2 in the Flying Broomstick series, or, more formally, “The Story of the Great American Flying Broomstick Book 2: The Missing Wand,” is now available on Kindle. Click on the image to be taken to the Amazon Kindle website where you can download it to your Kindle via Whispernet for only $6.95. Check it out!

The Kindle seems to be the next great “thing” in publishing. It’s easy as pie to upload the content and I can make corrections to the text if those turn out to be required. It’s straightforward to use—my 84-year-old mother uses one.

That makes both Broom 1 and Broom 2 available on Kindle, each for $6.95. I dropped the price to something very affordable (although, to be truthful, if you can afford a Kindle, you can afford more for my books!) and I still make more money per copy than selling print editions via Amazon. I will be publishing Broom 3, “FOG at the Crossroads,” via Kindle as soon as I have it ready to go to the printer. Stay tuned!

American Flying Broomstick, Mt. Sneffels Press

You can now subscribe to this blog via e-mail. Just enter your name and e-mail address below and you’ll get new posts via e-mail. Of course, the RSS feed is also available, but often e-mail is just easier!

American Flying Broomstick, Mt. Sneffels Press

I received a query from Karen about Book 3 and whether I’d be at the Mensa AG Conference this July in Pittsburgh. In short, it’s “almost” ready and, no, I won’t be in Pittsburgh.

But…I will be at the Reno regional Mensa event in October. For sure with Broom 3!

Broom 3 is “almost” done. It’s been “almost” done for quite some time—months even! It seems there’s one little bit that didn’t satisfy a key reviewer. He thought it irrelevant. I thought it vital to set up the central problem that’ll be addressed in Broom 4. So…I’ve rewritten most of it, but still have a couple chapters to go. Once that’s done, Broom 3 will go into production, which means creating cover art and sending it off to the printer.

I was invited to Pittsburgh, but my schedule just won’t permit it. However, my good friend Randy Cassingham Read more…

American Flying Broomstick, Mt. Sneffels Press, Reader Comments

Big smiles. That’s what describes the reception the new Ridgway Railroad Museum book received when I dropped off the copies that the printer had delivered the day before. The book, full of great stories and old-time b&w photos of various railroads in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado, is now available at the museum and also through our catalog. I put the “order now” button up last night and already had orders today. Check out the catalog and the book, Narrow Gauge Railroading in the San Juan Triangle: The Rio Grande Southern, the Ouray Branch of the D&RG and Otto Mears’ Silverton RR. You’ll be delighted too!

Mt. Sneffels Press, Railroad

Loretta and I are ensconced in a hotel room at the Powderhorn Ski Resort near Mesa Colorado, preparatory to participating in a Middle School / High School writing workshop tomorrow morning. Collbran, Colorado, the school’s location, is best described as not near anything. Truly, it’s a town atop Grand Mesa at the end of a rather long and twisting road. If you have 4WD, you can go further—I’ve done it on a motorcycle.

Why the workshop? I credit a dynamic teacher, Leslie Nichols, with organizing this event. It draws students from nearby schools (nearby being a relative term) both to the workshop and the associated competition. I was told that in addition to teaching a workshop on “The Essentials of Fiction,” I (along with other workshop presenters) would judge “some” student writing. You can therefore imagine my surprise when I opened the mail and out poured dozens of submissions. A stack over an inch thick! Several evenings were devoted to crawling through each piece.

A few observations: First, writing talent knows no grade. My favorite piece was by a 7th grader who wrote about the hunting trip on which he bagged his first elk. Now I’m no hunter (and, being bipolar, should stay away from firearms), but his enthusiasm burned through. His piece had “voice” and was well-written to boot. Another favorite piece was from a similarly-aged girl, who wrote about tagging along with her father on a trip to revisit Viet Nam—this time without the war.

Now, based on what I saw, I thought I’d jot down a few things I’d love to pass onto all the kids: Read more…

Mt. Sneffels Press, Writing: Style

At the recent Montrose Small Press Month workshop, I announced that I will do web fulfillment for local authors. By local I mean Delta, Gunnison, Montrose, and Ouray Counties. I’ll do it simply, too.

1. You leave a couple copies of your book with me
2. I will place information about your book into our “Extended Catalog” at list price, along with a PayPal “Buy Now” button.
3. I’ll put up an Author Profile in the “Our Extended Authors” category
4. Customers pay via PayPal; I’ll take care of shipping
5. I’ll be just like a bookstore: I keep 40% of list price, you keep 60%
6. You can pull out at any time—just drop by and pick up your books
7. If I sell out, please get additional copies to me promptly—PayPal will refuse to sell if the inventory drops to zero.

I reserve the usual rights to refuse anything for any reason. If you are interested, please use the “Contact Us” page or the comment form below.

Author Services, Mt. Sneffels Press, Our Extended Authors

New number for Mt. Sneffels Press: +1-970-901-4092 (a cell phone). We are dropping our landline—these days it’s redundant.

American Flying Broomstick, Mt. Sneffels Press

Carole London, owner of Lifetime Chronicle Press and a Montrose, Colorado, local who specializes in helping local authors through the “daunting process of self-publishing,” collaborated with Meg Nagel of the Montrose Public Library to organize a two-Saturday workshop to celebrate March as Small Press Month.

The workshop was filled to capacity and beyond both Saturdays. Carole spoke on the first Saturday about writing and self publishing and Betty McKinney spoke about submitting manuscripts.

This last Saturday, the second of the event, once again found overflow crowds. I spoke about marketing on the Internet, and intend to put the information in my presentation into posts here. This was followed by a panel discussion (I was on the panel), and the afternoon saw a reading by 20 local authors (including me) and the opportunity to sell books (I sold 16). I also donated a copy each of Broom 1 and Broom 2 to the Montrose Public Library, so stop by and check one out!

My many thanks to Carole for organizing the event!

Mt. Sneffels Press, Writing: Characterization

Lifetime Chronicle Press and the Montrose (Colorado) Regional Library District are sponsoring a two-Saturday event in the Community Room and the Montrose Library. All events are free, though space is somewhat limited, so call Carole London at 970-240-1345 to register.

Saturday, March 21st, will feature two morning presentations and one in the afternoon. Saturday, March 28th, will again feature two morning presentations, the first of which I will give on “Marketing on the Internet.” The event after mine will be a panel discussion and I’ll be part of the panel. The afternoon session features an author reception with about 20 authors (including me).

Here are topics I plan to cover in my presentation:

• Getting onto Amazon–the pros and cons
• Setting up a blog on blogspot.com or else using WordPress (free) on your own website
• How to get your own URL and how to use it–how to find a hosting provider such as Yahoo or an independent
• Web contact forms–without the spam
• Web mailing lists–meeting the legal requirements
• Posting or commenting on other author’s blogs–getting the word out
• Video–the YouTube revolution–as easy as a webcam–using XP’s built-in movie maker
• Facebook and Twitter–connecting with Millennials–and Baby Boomers!
• Setting up on-line ordering on your website or blog
• PayPal (or Google or others), with Buy Now buttons and Shopping Carts (it’s not that hard–really!)
• Shipping (UPS or else USPS Media Mail)
• Collecting and paying state sales tax for Colorado sales
• Demo of a blog (this one) to show how easy it is to post new material (I’m assuming the library’s WiFi will reach into the presentation room

See you there! Use the contact form if you have any questions.

Mt. Sneffels Press, Writing: Business