Category: holiday books

KDP Exclusives; Ricky Martin’s Wedding; Story Competition

KDP Exclusives

I wrote in the post right before this one that I have a Christmas novella, The Littlest Christmas Tree, up for free as a thank you to readers. Unfortunately, on Amazon the book will still be .99 because Amazon doesn’t give any other options with the KDP lending program. In other words, if I were to opt into the KDP lending program and I were to put the book up for free it would only be free for five days on Amazon, I would have to sign a three month exclusive with Amazon, and I wouldn’t be allowed to put the book up for free anywhere else for three months. If I were to violate this I would be in breach of contract. So I opted out of the KDP lending program this time because I want the book up for free for the holidays in as many venues as possible for as long and I as the publisher and author want to do this, and I don’t want to wait three months. The KDP lending program can be beneficial to everyone sometimes, but not always. This is one of those times I wish things were different, but it is what it is.

Amazon link here.

Side note: This is why I try to guide readers to smaller web sites where e-books are sold, and to publisher web sites.

As a big thank you to Amazon and KDP lending rules and exclusives (I HATE exclusives of any kind), I’ve asked Tony to also put another one of my previous Christmas novels up for free as well. I’ll post more details when I get them.

Story Competition

I read about a short story competition earlier today that will benefit people with autism. I like these competitions because they motivate writers to do things they normally wouldn’t do unless they were under contract with a publisher. Sometimes we need something as a motivational tool. This is a good example. You can read more here.

This Short Story competition is an amazing opportunity for new undiscovered writing talent to pursue their dreams of publication and contribute to a great cause.

All entrants will have their work judged by the internationally acclaimed authors Colin Bateman, Declan Burke, Lucille Redmond and Nathan Bransford

 Ricky Martin’s Wedding

I have to smile when I read articles like this because they refer to Ricky Martin’s longtime partner, Carlos Gonzalez, as his “beau”…as if Martin and Gonzalez have been dating all this time. It’s the hetero norm most straights don’t get about gay couples, especially now that gay marriage is becoming legal in more places. Look at it this way, if Tony and I were to say we’ve been engaged for twenty-one years wouldn’t that sound a little stupid? Tony’s not my “beau” and I’m not his. Our “beau” days ended during the Clinton administration. And until things balance out and gay dating and engagements even up with straight couples I think words should be chosen with care.

So Martin is not marrying his longtime “beau.” He’s marrying his longtime partner to make an established relationship/marriage legal because he didn’t have an opportunity to do that before.

This is where Ricky Martin would like to get married.

“I would get married,” he told King, according to Pink News. “There are many countries around the world where same-sex marriage is a right… yes, we could go to Spain and get married. We can go to Argentina and get married. But why do we have to go somewhere else? Why can’t I do it in my country where the laws are — you know, protecting me?”
 
Martin and Gonzalez, like Tony and me, can’t marry in the place where we live because Puerto Rico and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania don’t recognize same sex marriage. That’s why we’re scheduled to get married this January in Vermont…not in Pennsylvania.
 
Side note two: The comment section in this article has something interesting I’ve never seen before. Evidently, Huff Po is trying to promote more civil discussion. In order to do this you have to link to a facebook account and verify. I wonder how many Huff Po users have FB accounts. Frankly, I’d never bother because I don’t like to mingle FB and Huff Po. This is what it says:
 
To promote more civil discussion and accountability in the Huffington Post community, beginning today, all of those who wish to make a comment will be asked to verify their HuffPost account. For further info and access to the verification process, click to continue.