Archive
Broom 2 Now Available on Kindle
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!
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Status of Broom 3
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
Railroad Book Arrives

Jim Pettingill and Don Paulson of the Ridgway Railroad Museum hold copies of the new museum book, published by Mt. Sneffels Press
Platte Valley School Writing Workshop
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…
Web Fulfillment for Local Authors

Mt. Sneffels Press now provides web fulfillment for local authors via our Extended Catalog (click image)
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.
Telephone Number Change
New number for Mt. Sneffels Press: +1-970-901-4092 (a cell phone). We are dropping our landline—these days it’s redundant.
Successful Small Press Month Event

Marjorie Johnson, standing at far left, reads to the workshop from her book, All About Animals, which she compiled for the Friends of Cedaredge Animal Control
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!
Small Press Month in Montrose
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.



