This book is also a section found in the more comprehensive resource titled: "Advice and Cautions for Independent Publishing Authors". Within the chapters of this book, I offer tips to other indie/independent authors who are considering publishing their eBooks with sellers such as the Amazon KDP and Nook (Barnes & Noble) publishing platforms. I additionally include some information regarding my personal experiences writing for content websites (sites that publish articles in exchange for ad-revenue shares). Many indie publishers begin their writing experience with these type venues before advancing onward to eBook publishing. While I may at times have straightforward things to say about advantages or disadvantages involved in publishing and selling through these types of venues, I do not resort to degrading language toward those I have had less-than-positive experiences with. I will also be frank regarding sales or publishing issues I have experienced, as an independent author. Since I do share much of this information from a personal perspective, there will be a few inevitable rants and raves added-in from time to time. My best publishing experiences have been with the Amazon company, both their Kindle Direct Publishing (eBooks) and their CreateSpace (paperbacks) divisions. This doesn't mean that I don't have good things to say about other publishing platforms because I certainly do but the outcomes I experienced do not reflect what every independent publisher will experience with same venues or platforms. Many factors are involved in publishing success, including the genres one plans to cover (types and subjects of eBooks being published) and how one plans to promote them. At the same time, I feel there are also things we can learn from fellow-publisher experiences. If you're a publisher, especially of the indie type, I believe you will find my shared experiences to be interesting (some more than others but with each hopefully conveying a "lesson learned"). It is my hope that readers of this book, will glean a few helpful nuggets of information that will lend positively toward their own ongoing publishing experiences. This includes advice regarding cautions that should sometimes be taken when proceeding with the different types of venues that are available for developing authors. CHAPTER ONE Publish Your eBook Free on Amazon KDP CHAPTER TWO The BooksOnBoard eBook Publishing Platform CHAPTER THREE Mean-Spirited Spam Book and eBook Reviews CHAPTER FOUR Amazon's KDP Select: A Sales Boom for Me! CHAPTER FIVE Is it a Good Thing to Write for Content Websites? CHAPTER SIX My Unusually Negative Experience on a Publishers Help Board CHAPTER SEVEN Content Farms: Authors Beware! CHAPTER EIGHT Why I Write Short Subject Health eBooks/Books
About the Author: I am a husband, father, grandfather and lifetime contract salesman, with experience in health writing that began in 2004. I completed theological studies with Liberty University in 1996. I formerly served as editor and forum moderator of Thyroid Health for a major multi-topic content site and as a general health writer for another, where I received Editor's Choice Awards for my articles on health subjects. In 2003 I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism; "Hashimoto's thyroiditis" being the cause. This autoimmune form of thyroid disease that causes destruction of the thyroid gland resulted in my also developing "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome", due to a compromised immune system with severe co-morbid "Adrenal Fatigue". I also suffered severe anxiety symptoms, including panic attacks early into the onset of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (Hashitoxicosis). A common heart murmur I was diagnosed with in my teens called "Mitral Valve Prolapse", also worsened in severity of symptoms, with the development of these other health disorders. My eventual receiving of diagnoses was a difficult process with proper diagnostic testing not being ordered by the first doctors I sought treatment from. These types of issues were inspiration for me to become proactive in my own health care and to self-educate myself on these health disorders, which I have done extensively since 2003. I now enjoy sharing this information with other patients experiencing my same health disorders. During the early 1990s, I marketed an outdoors product I invented and that I formed a small corporation to patent, manufacture and sell called the "Rod Floater" (now a registered Trademark). I traveled the U.S. making presentations to groups of Wal-Mart zone and district managers and received authorization to sell the product in two regions of Wal-Mart stores for five years. I also sold the product to Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's and Academy Stores, all of which still carry the product and I landed a national promotion for the product with Kerr-McGee Oil Company who began using the product to promote their outboard motor oil in 1992. In 1996 I licensed the product to TTI-Blakemore, a major fishing tackle conglomerate, from which I am still paid royalties from sales of the product. I invented and marketed five additional outdoors products, also getting these into Wal-Mart stores and afterward sold them outright rather than licensing them. I was featured in the May 2001 issue of Inventors digest magazine.