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Welcome to the RV News and Reviews page of goin' RV Boondocking.
This is where I'll post any interesting RV news items I run across, along with reviews of relevant products or services from my own experience, or good ones I find to reprint to keep you well informed.
Be sure to drop me a line if you hear about something that you think should be passed along.
January 12, 2011 08:03 - Flying J and Pilot Announce Their New Driver Reward Program
I know a lot of Drivers, professional truckers and RV Drivers have used the Driver Loyalty programs at some of the big Nationwide fuel stops. Over the last couple of years those seem to have fallen off.
I got an email the other day from a representative of Flying J making me aware of their new program. The new 'card'/program should add a little convenience for the fuelers of big rigs as well as RV Travelers. It offers "Pump Start" which will let you use your Discount Card to start the pump if you're paying cash...
Now... if they can just sell diesel that burns at 25 miles per gallon in rigs over 15,000 lbs part of the program... :o) ... hey! a fella can Dream can't he?!
The New Program was supposed to fire up on the 3rd of January 2011...
For all the information check their News Release...
Or... if you're the more Visually oriented sort of an RVer... watch it on You Tube! :o)
Keep Your Tanks Full, Your Coffee Hot... and Your Eyes on the Horizon! Brian
December 10, 2010 09:16 - Paying Your 'Dues' and The Pricing of ebooks
Setting the price of an ebook doesn't seem like that big a deal, does it? Turns out... for a lot of writers... it's akin to giving birth! ... I'm thinking there's a lil' too much ego involved... :o)
Now, as much as I've been writing on my websites the past several years, and taking in to account, that I've published and actually sold a few little books, and now my first Novel... I'm still a lil' hesitant to call myself... A Writer! I can say... it's an ambition I have... Hopefully, one day... somebody else will compliment me with that Moniker... and then all I'll have to do is humbly agree! :o)
Anyhoo... picking the price...
Pretty much everybody knows, that Paper Publishing is in trouble. Those guys have been hanging on to a dying business model for a couple years now... but, unfortunately for them, the rate of their demise is acclerating... and there ain't a gol' darn thing they can do about it...
Proof of that, for me, is the increasing number of newspapers and magazines that are converting to electronic publication... along with the number of High Profile authors who are jumping ship... and starting to self-publish their fiction... as ebooks!
In the ebooks market there's still a lot of things to be worked out, a lot of turmoil... the dust hasn't settled and nobody really knows where it's gonna land. A few years ago Amazon tried to get $9.99 set as the "Industry average"... and for a lot of reasons... that's caving in on 'em.
Most folks know that there's radically reduced cost with epublishing. There's still "COST" but, nothing, on a per unit basis as in paper publishing... so when they see a paper book for $10... and then see some guy trying to get $12 or $15 for the electronic version... they just laugh...
My feeling? If the paper book is/was $10... I don't have much issue with the ebook copy selling at $4-5 bucks... I'm thinking that something like that is where it will all shake out at... whenever the dust settles and the long term Standard System emerges for ebooks and epublishing.
Where does all that leave me? Paying my Dues... That's Where! :o)
The creation of the self-publishing / epublishing opportunity is a great thing for aspiring writers. It removes the power, arrogance and arbitrary shenanigans of the old Traditional Publishers... but... a guy also has to realize that he's now in a Sea of Aspiring Writers! The Independent Publisher has total control of his work, but that also means... total responsibility...
So...
The first thing a guy really needs to do is set ego aside and do what's required to get his work in front of people. You can go ahead, if you want and set a $9.99 price on your great piece of fiction... but if you're unknown... It's pretty likely that you'll remain that way! Very few, if any, readers are going to take a chance on you... if they even find you down there, buried under all the "other" aspiring writers in the sea!
So, what do you do? Two things. First, I've finally swallowed my pride... got my ego under control, and set a price to make my work competitive. and second you can't just put it out there and hope people stumble across it... You have to MARKET your ebooks... That... I'm still learning the ropes on! ;o)
I originally, succumbing to ego a bit, set a price of $2.99 on my Novel and a mite less for my RV ebooks. Sold a few, but that soon petered out... a week ago, at the repeated cousnsel of a guy who HAS SUCCEEDED in selling his ebook writings... I reset my book prices to just .99 cents...
... the idea being to simply capture as many 'bargain hunters' as possible...and get some momentum going... and... Pay My Dues! ... Now, in the last few days... those numbers have started moving again...
My point? As in everything "Online"... it's all about traffic and volume... 35% of thousands... is a hell of a lot more than 70% of not much!
If you're brand spankin' new... and want to sell you ebook online at Smashwords... or Amazon... put your ego on hold for a bit... Pay Your Dues... and make 'em a deal! I am... and I'm betting it will pay off in the long run!
... and along with setting a proper price... get out and do the "Electronic Leg Work" ... to make your ebook visible to as many people as possible... and when I learn some tricks to that... I'll share them here too!
