It’s that time again, time for another rambling blog post where I have no set agenda before I start banging away on the keyboard…if you would like to write to me, my email address is Michael at fkbooksandtips dot com (I write it out that way in a small effort to avoid the spammers).
The Blog’s Website
Sometimes you love technology, and sometimes you hate it: it seems over the last couple of months I’ve been cursing it!
About three months ago, I had to move the blog’s website from one web hosting company to another as there was too much traffic for the plan I had at the time: all in all, that’s a good thing. I moved (with a lot of assistance) the blog to a virtual private server and life was going to be good!
It started out that way, then quickly changed…for some reason, and the hosting company help desk was no-help, the blog’s website started timing out and going down about a month ago at random times as well as not-so-random times. The week of Christmas, it seemed as if every time I had a blog post the server would go down 15 minutes later: it would appear a couple of hundred people hitting the server in a 15 minute period would bring the server crashing down. Seeing as how the blog’s website is a pretty basic WordPress-enabled site, and the data throughput requirements were small (it was not like I was pushing out multi-gig movies or something), this made no sense at all.
Out of frustration, and one too many calls with the hosting provider as to what was going on, I became extremely perturbed and had the website moved again right after Christmas and things are looking good again!
If you haven’t been to the blog’s website in a while, I encourage you to go to www.fkbooksandtips.com and click away. To entice you, go click the link in the upper left-hand corner titled “Free Book Links” and give it a click: if you go to that page, click on the “All Free Kindle Books” link and take a gander at the 6,397 free Kindle books you can pick up from the Amazon site or click one of the other links to see the freebies by category.
The Kids’ Washington DC Trip
Many of you have asked me about my children’s fundraising efforts for their trip to Washington, D.C. during spring break (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/NEzWll into your web browser to read the post about their collaborative efforts in writing their first Kindle book).
Thanks to your generosity and purchases, my daughter’s trip is paid for and my son needs another 197 books to be sold (after the Amazon commission and the government’s fair share) in order to say he paid for it 100%: thank you!
For the self-plug moment, especially since it is a new year, if you would like to help support their efforts – and get a book devoted to inspirational quotes for each day of 2013 – you can grab a copy of their book, Quote of the Day 2013, if you click here or type in http://smarturl.it/qod2013 into your web browser. If you are an Amazon Prime member and haven’t had your free borrow for the month, you can borrow the book (free for you), yet Amazon will give them credit for a sale. My wife and I would appreciate it!
The Blog’s Social Media Sites
I receive several messages a week asking if the blog is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media sites. The short answer is yes, yes, yes, and I don’t have enough time for more social media sites! There are some benefits for following the blog’s Facebook site, for example, as many independent authors stop by the blog’s Facebook page and tell you about their books that are being offered for free which I think is great.
If you would like to be a part of any – or all – of the blog’s social media sites, you can check them out with the following web addresses:
Facebook page: click here or go to http://www.facebook.com/fkbooks (and give the page a “Like”)
Twitter: click here or go to http://twitter.com/FKBT (and click the “Follow” icon)
Pinterest: click here or go to http://pinterest.com/fkbooks
College Football
No, this is not Kindle-related but who is going to watch the championship game against Alabama and Notre Dame? Seeing as how my team already beat Alabama this year, I may just have a seat in the lazy chair and read for a while, which leads to…
What I’m Reading Now
Today, I am reading Scott Nicholson’s The Home which, after 27% of the way through, is a pretty good book in the horror genre; you can check it out if you click here. You may remember Scott had a guest blog post here a few weeks ago telling us a little about him and some of the influences on his writing.
If you missed the interview with Scott, or want to read it again, you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/13coDLy into your web browser.
If you would like to see all of the guest blog posts by independent authors we’ve enjoyed over the past few months, you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/UAQcb9 into your web browser. This page only displays summaries of 4 articles per page, and to see the entire post just click the title of the post. To see more than just the four posts on the page, scroll to the bottom and click the “Previous” icon to see the previous four guest blog posts.
Anyway, that’s about all I had for today…I hope each of you has a great week and even better 2013!
Michael
On another subject: about a year ago I broke my beloved Kindle Keyboard (long story) and at first replaced it with a Touch, which I hated and gave away, so bought another KK, refurbished from Amazon Warehouse Deals. It worked just fine for almost 9 mos and then froze up with funny lines on the screen. Amazon Customer Service was great and sent another out promptly. This one lasted a few weeks and the same thing happened. Also got a prompt replacement, which lasted about one week, most inconveniently freezing just as I was boarding a plane for a cross country flight and was counting on reading on it. I just got another one which again seems fine right now; let's hope it lasts at least as long as my flight to HI on Fri. My question is: do you know of such problems? Is there something fundamentally faulty with the refurbishing process? Naturally, I asked Amazon Customer Service these questions, and they basically said they didn't know anything about that. Do I need to give up on my favored KK??? If so, what do I replace it with? Thanks for your time with this lengthy message, and for all your valuable posts!
Wow, what a problem you've had with all of you replacement KK's! I'll keep my fingers crossed on your present replacement …. and NO I've never heard of anyone else ever having the same problem (s)!!! I have been using a Sony Reader (a touch screen) for numerous years (the same one!) and have totally and completely loved it.
John and I each had a Kindle go bad. They seem to expect it at Amazon. John's was still under warranty, and he got a replacement. Mine wasn't. They offered me an upgrade for I think around $70. In the meantime John had gotten an IPad so I just took his. It's been working fine.
I have just bought the kindle touch for my daughter, have a IPad but want a kindle for myself for travel because of the long battery life, do you recommend the touch or keyboard?
Re: college football…Whoop!
I'm wondering if an iPad is the answer. While my Sony reader is still working fine (and I hope it hangs in there) if it quits, I'll just use my iPad, WHICH I LOVE!
I had my kindle keyboard for a little over a year I believe and it just wouldn't turn on one day. They offered me a $30 credit on my account. I've been using a Polaroid tablet ever since. $189 for something that broke in less than 2 years vs. $99 for a tablet that does more than let you read books.
Sounds like you need to quit getting the refubished units! On a serious note, I got my Kindle Keyboard new and it lasted a year and a half before being retired (I dropped it one too many times). I still use my Keyboard version and the DX, but have been using the 8.9" tablet pretty much exclusively for the last three weeks and love it.
I would recommend the Keyboard. They aren't making the touch anymore, but if you want a touchscreen go with the new Kindle paperwhite
Thank you