J.M. Hardin, Author at My Two Lives

Smashwords gets a major redesign

December 18, 2013

Smashwords, the company that puts my ebooks into so many major retailers, threw the switch on a major redesign of their website. The new site is bright and shiny, and it’s even easier to see the information on the books you’re looking at. The screenshot on the right, from Smashword’s announcement of the redesign on their blog, shows a bit of how much cleaner the site looks, and when you go to an ebook’s page you can see just how much cleaner it looks, as you can see in this screenshot of the page for my ebook He’s With the Band. more “Smashwords gets a major redesign” …

[Updated] Give the gift of an ebook from Smashwords

December 16, 2013

(Updated 30 December to include screenshots from the newly redesigned Smashwords website. I apologize for not having these screenshots posted sooner.)

So many people have ebook readers and love them, and for those that do some of the best gifts you can give them are more ebooks. Except not only do you have to decide which ebooks to give them, but you also have to make sure you give it to them in the right format for their device. If you’re an iPad user and the person you’re shopping for is a Kindle or Nook user any ebooks from iBooks could be useless to them, and vice versa. But Smashwords has just the thing for you.

(Full disclosure: Smashwords distributes my ebooks to iBooks, Barns & Noble, Kobo, Diesel, and many other ebook stores. They can also distribute to Amazon’s Kindle store but I upload my ebooks directly to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program.) more “[Updated] Give the gift of an ebook from Smashwords” …

My bad

December 12, 2013

I realized this morning that I created a new page for the re-titled No Budget, No Pay but I forgot to change the image and link on the right hand side of the site. In the process of updating that I realized that I had rearranged how the pages for my books appear on the site but I didn’t update the sidebar links. It’s all fixed now, and I apologize for any problems my oversight caused.

Kobo makes it a sweep with all of the major ebookstores carrying all of my ebooks

December 11, 2013

As many of you know, I distribute my ebooks via Smashwords, a company that was created for the sole purpose of helping independent ebook authors get their ebooks into ebookstores so that readers can find their ebooks. As you can see from the screenshot below if you have your ebooks in the Smashwords Premium Catalog they can put your ebooks in most, if not all, the major stores where readers will look for ebooks, including libraries. more “Kobo makes it a sweep with all of the major ebookstores carrying all of my ebooks” …

It’s official. My federal budget ebook is now called “No Budget, No Pay.”

December 9, 2013

Thanks to those who let me know their opinion on the new title and cover. I’m currently uploading the new book and cover to Smashwords and Amazon and once it makes its way through their uploading process it will be available for purchase at the new price of $2.99. My apologies to those who haven’t bought it yet but if you’ve already bought it you should be able to get the updated version at no additional charge. more “It’s official. My federal budget ebook is now called “No Budget, No Pay.”” …

Review: Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion

December 9, 2013

Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Anyone who loves good soul music should clear time from your days to curl up with this book. Robert Gordon takes us all the way through the history of Stax Records, from back when it was just a glimmer in Jim Stewart’s eye all the way through the forced closure. if you want a feel good story this isn’t for you, but if you’re willing to see both the very good and the very bad, and everything in between, this may be just the book for you.

For best results make sure you’ve got some of your favorite Stax family music handy to play while reading. There’s nothing like reading how one of your favorite songs was written while hearing the final result. And don’t just give it a single read, this one deserves to be ready twice, once straight through and a second time checking the notes in the back.

View all my reviews

Sony finally has all three of my ebooks

December 3, 2013

One of the things I get to do when I publish a new ebook or an update to an existing ebook is to watch for when Smashwords sends the new version to their retail partners. When I see that a retailer has been sent the ebook or update I start checking each retailer’s website to find it so I can post a link on each book’s page. It can go very quickly and with some retailers it can go slowly due to how they handle each new ebook or update. more “Sony finally has all three of my ebooks” …

As we enter the last part of the year

November 27, 2013

Updated 21 November 2015 to point the link to the repost of the article on this site.

As we get into the meat of Hal-giv-hanu-mas-za-year I want to take a moment and wish everyone a happy, safe and joyful holiday season. Regardless of what holidays you celebrate and which ones you ignore, I want to thank everyone who’s discovered my writing and chose to look for more from me, both as ebooks and on this site. Knowing people enjoy what I write makes me want to write better stories to reward you for your time and energy spent keeping up with my writing. There are a lot of ebooks and websites you could read so I don’t take a single reader for granted. more “As we enter the last part of the year” …

Should I make this available as a desktop wallpaper that can be downloaded?

My virtual workspace

November 22, 2013

Updated 1 July: I have an updated image I’m using for my wallpaper and I’ve put a sample of that after the jump. Should I make it available as a desktop wallpaper that can be downloaded?

Back in September I mentioned that I was thinking about creating some desktop wallpapers, two based on images for He’s With the Band and one image showing my virtual workspace. As I was answering the questions for the Smashwords author interview I saw that one of the questions was about my workspace. I didn’t answer that one since I don’t really have a workspace that the moment but it reminded me that I wanted to update the workspace wallpaper image to show the books I’ve released since last August and to show the online stores that carry my ebooks. more “My virtual workspace” …