Hi peeeps! Still hard at it here, finishing off the new book, but have also put aside a little time here and there to keep an eye on the blogI. One thing I have noted, checking through the visitor log of late, is that a number of folk are presently linking in from a bulletin board someplace looking specifically for spanking magazine reader's letters page scans. As many of you regulars will know, I have posted quite a few over time from 'Janus' and the Blushes / Whispers magazine stable, some those scanned by 'yours truly', some contributed by Alan (I hope – I have a terrible memory for names). Now, I have not always been as consistent as I might have with my use of 'tags', using insiprations (in error, obviously), inspiration, inspirational letters, Inspirations and letters pages as tags in various combinations. To help those searching for letters pages scans I carried out a little experimentation using the search window facility (look over there in the right-hand side bar). Where it says 'search tis blog' simply type in 'letters' (minus the apostrophes of course!) – this search-term was found to produce the best results – you can always then click on any of the tags that come up with the results to find related postings.
Talking of links: Quite a few folk are still attempting to follow the 'album' links in the sidebar. These all link to Picasaweb albums but as I said last time; Picasaweb have taken down all my albums. 
I am slowly replacing these with links to 'Dropbox' albums and at present have created 'Dropbox' albums containing spanking artwork from Thorn / Hobbs and women's workwear / uniform catalog scans from Garoulds of London and Hewett 1980s and 1960s (of these only the link to the Thorn / Hobbs artwork album is actually in place at present). There may yet be issues with 'dropbox' – I found Thorn / Hobbs artwork album to have somehow been deleted when I visited yesterday (now reinstated) – but we'll see how it goes. If necessary once the new book is completed I'll create a series of standalone pages to hold the various collections that once resided on Picasaweb – and more besides! Meanwhile, to save further confusion / disappointment, later today I am going to delete all the old Picasaweb links from the sidebar – good riddance; there's nothing worse / more irritating than a broken link.
"A number of folk are presently linking in from a bulletin board someplace looking specifically for spanking magazine reader's letters page scans".
ReplyDeleteIt may be due to my sending here the spanking library readers who were looking for "scans from a number of old, defunct magazines that featured letters to the editor with spanking content".
I went to "All Romance books" and didn't leave a comment as I would have had to register first and I'm getting quite allergic to leaving my trail here and there.
ReplyDeleteBut I left a comment on Lulu. I wanted to do the same on Amazon but they don't have "Institutionalised 2"! Didn't you send it there?
I noticed there are now only two copies left of volume 1.
Thanks for that, Orage. The more visitors I get the better, I always think. Even better if they contribute something such as a comment or article posted here or something to add to the content by email - and I'm always looking for inspiration as you know.
ReplyDeleteNo I didn't bother with Amazon for volume 2, as the sales through Amazon et al have been so low for volume 1 and to get a book distributed in that way through LULU costs money! Volume 2 is available in ebook / Kindle format via Amazon though, through my publisher; Andrews UK LTD
"Volume 2 is available in ebook / Kindle format via Amazon"
ReplyDeleteMy mistake! I was speaking of Amazon.fr and I clean forgot Amazon.uk where I've just been and posted the same comment as on Lulu.
BTW on Lulu they ask for your name and then your user name. So I typed both. And now it's my real name which appears. I asked them to edit that and they agreed, but will they?
Hi Orage and thanks - that really helps a lot! I had a hell of a lot of really great comments and reviews on Lulu at one point. Then they 'restructured' and 'improved' their site and all but a couple of the reviews disappeared - including all the best and most erudite! Very disheartening - and I have never had a satisfactory explanation from them either!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry about your name appearing anyway. It's most unlikely anyone who knows you will ever see it. And if you have only used your first name, then it could be anyone.
Actually, I just took a look on Lulu and there is no sign of your review! I think there may have been a misunderstanding and they have edited it out altogether, Indeed there seems no reviews at all for volume 2 there now!
I am not sure what is going on with Lulu - no copies at all sold in December, after quite stable monthly sales (with one exception) up to that point, Then it all returned to normal over the new year with 2 or 3 downloads most days of volume 2. Now it has dried up again. The 'one exception' I mentioned above was through part of August after which they emailed saying there had been a problem resulting in my book not appearing in searches - it makes one think!
"Actually, I just took a look on Lulu and there is no sign of your review!"
ReplyDeleteYes, so I put it right back again and checked later and it appears...with my real name already mentioned. Well, never mind!
Hi Orage, thanks for that. Curiouser and curiouser. I really think something odd is going on with Lulu. Not only have sales dried up completely (again) after a flurry of sales for a couple of weeks over the festive period and the period immediately following but there is absolutely no trace of your review, although mysteriously the number of 'ratings' has incremented by one - presumably yours. Both the print and electronic download versions state "There are no reviews for this item".
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what is going on with Lulu. If you visit do you still see your review? I am just wondering whether there are mirror sites or something that differ in some manner.
I know it's clutching at straws but I just can't get my head around what is going on with them. As I said before; last year at one point they emailed me an apology stating that for 'technical reasons' one of my titles had not been appearing in search results for 'some time' - I am rapidly becoming convinced that something similar is occurring again. My inclination at this point is not to bother with Lulu as far as the new book is concerned and to wait until that is completed and then search out alternative avenues and then do some work generally on promoting all three properly.
After typing "Institutionalised 2", you've got to click on "more detail" under the pic of the book. That's where you find the review, both for the file download and the same one for the paperback.
ReplyDeleteHi Orage! That's even weirder then, because when I go in to LULU - even as an anonymous customer - I don't see anything labelled 'more detail' underneath the book cover picture and whatever I click on it comes up as 'yet to be reviewed'.
ReplyDeleteI did spot that when I did a search using one or two search terms only the print version was flagged up with the fact that it is also available as a much cheaper download hiden away in quite small print - which doesn't help matters.
I also noted that when one does a search and the book turns up in the results it says 3 people have rated it, but when I click on the picture for a more detailed view it then says that 4 people have rated it. It said two when I looked earlier today.