That’s how much his blog article turned me on.

I did find a pic or few of him, and immediately ceased my pin up poster search.  Oh well.  For a smart woman, a man’s mind is a bigger turn on than the bod.  At least, so we claim.  As long as he doesn’t have skinny fingers.

But this has nothing to do with his article.  The man is paying his frickin’ bills selling Kindle books!  Why isn’t every writer out there blogging on this?

And I got this link from Lee Goldberg, a dude who used to be as down on self pubs as anybody.  And now he’s self-pubbing e-books too?  I get out of the loop for a year or so, and the sky falls!  (Pause to see if he has any underwear pics online.  Nope).

My point is these are smart guys into making some money.  It behooves us to watch what they’re doing and learn.  Here’s Joe’s advice as far as the e-book self-pub path to bucks.

If you really want my ebook sales, here’s the only path I know to duplicate them.

1. Write 9 unpublished novels and get over 500 rejections.

2. Sign a six figure print deal.

3. Mail out 7000 letters to libraries, visit 1200 bookstores, and travel to 39 states speaking at writing conferences, conventions, and book fairs.

4. Write a blog that gets half a million hits per year.

5. Sign six more book deals.

6. Get one of your big print publishers to release an ebook for free.

7. Study the market so hard your spouse thinks you’re crazy, then take your early rejected books, make sure they’re perfect, and upload them to Kindle along with several short story collections and collaborations.

8. Cross your fingers.

My ideas are a bit different.  I think you need to write books people want to read.  This is far harder than it sounds. Write books that your niche market wants to read, and put them out for low cost.  Red Rose has a point with their business model, but leaning hard on quantity might be a mistake.  There are way too many books-that-suck out there.  Quality is key.  I’m not meaning NYT, PW or reviewer pleasing quality necessarily, but consistently pleasing your particular readers.  If you can guarantee a book that isn’t boring, that will take the reader along for the ride for your niche market, and offer enough of them at low cost…maybe there is actual money to be made?

‘Cause face it, New York ain’t giving authors crap, but those select few, and they are very few.  E-book pubs do take care of the cover and formatting and maybe that might be worth using some of them. Bottom line, I’m about money. Look at the cut the pub is taking and MOST important, how long they keep the rights to your work.

I believe e-books and self-pubbing are the future.  The market will weed out the crabgrass. Don’t fool yourself that the market isn’t one tough mutha.

I’m charmed by Michael Jordan’s Twitter account.

I sometimes wonder what’s going on in Australia. Or, maybe Japan. Life must be a lot different over there.

I don’t think I need to try any new fruit.  I’ve had enough different kinds for now.

A cactus is kind of a shitty houseplant.

But that’s not why I’d do him.  It’s because ever since his underwear commercial, I always imagine Michael Jordan in underwear.   It’s always a nice thought.

David Beckham’s personality doesn’t charm me at all, seems as if all he twits about is football (or soccer, if you prefer to refer to it as that) but his photo charms the knickers off me.

There’s a great deal for you at the end of this page!

But first, LaConnie asked me this question:

You have just met a man and your relationship with him is like . . . nothing you have experienced before! Without a doubt, you know this man is your soul mate, yet not long into the relationship he learns he has a life-threatening illness. He shares his news with you and even wants to break off the relationship because he may, or may not, survive. What do you do? Do you stay, or do you walk away?

If I Were Your Woman, I . . .

…would first freak out.  Then I’d be I would be racked with pain for my man and what he’s enduring and worse, going to have to endure.

I’m an RN.  I worked a short time in oncology.  I’m happy there are blessed caregivers whose calling is to help and assist people in their final transition, but at the time it wasn’t me.  I did fine while I was there as far as caring for others, but I was ground down past the bone, down to my soul.  I eventually transferred to another service.

The pain, both psychic and physical was horrible, crushing.  So much was terribly unfair.  A young man dying, his pain barely controlled so he could hold on to lucidity his last days of life, his dreams unfulfilled.  A mother leaving her children too soon, agonizing over their futures.  A father leaving his family behind, knowing there’s no insurance, huge medical bills–and no longer any bread winner.  A lively  79 year old woman with cancer metastasized through her gut, her feeding tube pulled, with maybe a week or so to live, a month on the outside.  ”Monica, I had a good life, and a long one.  But, inside my head, I’m still a young woman.  I’m not ready to leave this world.  I want to live.”  I’d go into the bathroom stall and cry through my break.

So first, there would be grief.

Then I’d think, “Talk about Monica Jackson luck!  I meet my soul mate Mr. Wonderful and learn off the bat that he’s soon to be Mr. Dead and Wonderful.  I’d be a tad pissed at the universe.  Anger would follow.

But no, I wouldn’t walk away or allow him to do so.   Some things simply have to be the way they have to be.  And that would be me being strong and blessed enough to help him in the best way I know how, through his transition.  It’s a transition we will all have to eventually make, and one we hopefully won’t have to make alone.

Now the goodies!  A special gift from LaConnie…Do you want a FREE copy of CHARM ME, BABY?

If you enjoy contemporary romances that – make you laugh out loud, tackle sensitive life issues with compassion and grace, and introduce you to passionate couples who make you feel . . . love really does conquer all — then join me in the celebration of LaConnie Taylor-Jones’ new release, IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN!

For a limited time today –8 AM to 12 NOON EST– visit LaConnie Taylor-Jones’ website to purchase a copy of IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN and use my promotional code name (MONICA) to receive a download of my latest ebook, CHARM ME, BABY, absolutely FREE!

In addition to receiving a FREE download of my book, CHARM ME, BABY, your purchase enters you in a drawing for a FREE Amazon Kindle to be given away on Saturday, March 13, 2010 @ 12 NOON PST/2 PM CST/ 3 PM EST via LaConnie’s official blog website at http://www.laconnietaylorjones.com/blog/

I do it once in a while. I want a more static site for a few reasons. One is I lack inspiration as far as blogging, particularly on writing.   This is where I want to post stuff for reading and discuss books. At least for now.

Monica Jackson wrote books and still does. So, I want to deal with books here now.

I moved the site…annoying for those who follow it on rss. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t get it to load behind the Flashy stuff…and I was obsessed with conquering Flash for a second there.

I wanted to see what I could do. The music (I loaded a few seconds of Brown Sugar by D’Angelo), was apropos,but annoying as hell on a loop. I ended up deleting the looped notes, and just left some swishes on start up…then blessed silence. The Enter link comes up first, before any Flash, so folks don’t have to mess with it if they don’t want to do so.  (ADDED:  I took all that stuff down).

I have some ideas for the site and all the thousands upon thousands of words here. I know, I love messing with stuff

ADDED: The Flash was getting on my nerves.  And it didn’t make a lot of sense to reroute everything because of an annoying Flash splash.  I put everything back and did a look loosely based on my latest book.  Hope you like it.

Check it out.

This is a grand experiment.  I like e-books, but do they like me?

Download the mobi format if you have a Kindle.

Anybody want a full sample of Monica Jackson first? Sign up for my newsletter list and get The Choice pdf download link. (I removed it because Genesis re-released it, nope, still haven’t gotten a red cent for it). It’s still an excerpt of the book, so don’t bother me, albeit a hella big one.

You’ll get a newsletter at least once a month. With freebies and news!

I can try to change The Choice to mobi for Kindle if you request it, but sometimes that doesn’t work out so well.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to PBW for her shout out!