Book 2!!!

I've started to publish Book 2 in serial on pitofdestruction.blogspot.com. Basically, I'm going to publish later chapters after earlier chapters get sufficient attention. Once we reach a critical mass, I'll start posting them once a week.

Enjoy!

Joseph

Long time, no post

As one headstrong fan has noted, it has been a long time since I've updated this blog. Things have been slow, which I guess is what happens with most books. I am patient though and I think that with time the project will succeed. I'm in no rush.

I have continued to sell some books and I've had an opportunity to think about what I'm trying to accomplish with this whole exercise. I grew up thinking I would change the world with the written word, it is my single strongest talent. I was thinking I would write some powerful book that would have some powerful effect - but it never happened. I never had that sort of book in me and my viewpoints and beliefs don't translate well to that medium. Particularly if you are explicitly trying to push an angle. I'm a religious liberal (in the classical sense). I read a book many people said was a powerful book that at least had the liberal sense covered. It was one of Ayn Rands books - and I couldn't read more than a few chapters. Fundamentally, it wasn't any good.

I got to kid's books almost by accident. I understand kids. I understand how to entertain them and I guess to some extent I live in their world. A few of my brother's friends saw me playing with my nieces and nephews and thought it was kind of quaint, how I had remained entertained by childish things. I'm not sure if it was an insult or not, but it hardly matters, it was pretty accurate. Looking at myself I see a very educated person with a somewhat harsh worldview who thoroughly enjoys throwing kids around while they imagine they are on some talkative horse or tree or something.

Eventually, it had to come out on paper. That's what it did with Grobar and the follow-on books. There's a bit of seriousness. There is a fair amount of information. But fundamentally they are fun, mad escapades.

I still do want to affect the world. My teacher as a kid, Beverely Shaff, mentioned that Grobar had a quiet morality in it. I didn't see it at first, but she was right. It is about freedom, it is about responsibility, it is about taking action. It is, as I see it, about life. I certainly didn't mean it to be about all those things, but that is how it turned out, and continues to turn out.

In the longer term, I hope to sell lots of books, I hope to share this quiet morality. Impress its messages about right and wrong onto the young minds of lots of kids. Scheming, I know. But in the short term I want to help in other ways. The fact is, the world is in a bit of a war right now. And lots of people are affected. Lots of people pay attention to Israel and Lebanon and Iraq - but the impact of terror and the evil of those who back it is felt just as strongly in India, Iran, London, Indonesia, Russia, Sudan etc... etc... etc... The list just goes on and keeps getting longer. In America, there are quite a few resources for victims. But this is not the case everywhere.

And so I want to dedicate 50% of the gross profits from Grobar to charities that help kids affected by terror. I don't know what groups we'll give to yet, but there is a need and there must be some reliable groups helping out.

With this, everybody wins. Your kids (or if you're really a kid yourself, like me) will enjoy a fun book. And kids under fire in Israel, or Lebanon, or Iraq, or India, or Sri Lanka, or Bali or London or Russia or ... will get some much needed help. This is, in my opinion, an excellent way to make my writing useful in the short-term.

The books are only $10 on Amazon or B&N. If you buy from Amazon I'll be able to give $2/book to charity. If you buy from B&N or from a bookstore (almost any bookstore can order the book in overnight - no shipping fees!) I'll be able to give $1.25.

Everybody wins and G-d willing, in time, there will be war no more.

Just maybe this series will be able to make a difference.

Happiness,

Joseph

Bookstore Signing

I did my first bookstore signing at a Barnes and Noble here in Portland. They were very nice and it was great fun. With the major help of my nephew Toyam we sold like 19 books - which is pretty good for an hour and a half. And a bunch were sold to people I didn't know :)

It was a good day. Hopefully I can do more in the future :)

Happiness!

Joseph

Reading and Grobar

I don't know if you remember that kid I wrote about a while ago - the one who started reading the book by himself after I read some to him. He hated reading, primarily (I thought) because he couldn't read all that well. Well, he started reading some to himself after I stopped reading to him and then he came to me a few weeks ago and told me that HE FINISHED THE ENTIRE BOOK! It was pretty cool :) So why am I mentioning this now? Well, we went out for Shabbos dinner to another family here in Melbourne. The husband is a kollel Rabbi who is starting a new small shul and the wife is a teacher - the kid's teacher. She mentioned that she had noticed that his reading had gotten a lot better. So it wasn't just my imagination and it was a big enough effect for his teacher to notice. In fact, she liked the effect enough that she bought a copy for her own son :)

Pretty cool, no?

Happiness!

Joseph

Good Week

It has been a good week. There have been 11 individual people who have bought the book - and most of them weren't even buying it for Christmas :) It isn't a lot of sales, but it is more than I sold in all of November. Basically, I was concerned about running out of momentum and I am actually managing to build it back up some. Here's where they got sold:
1 on Amazon
3 through a kid distributor in Boston
1 at a Coffee Shop
2 in synagogue
2 at a Chanukah party
1 to a kid of a colleague at my wife's work
and 1 someplace else I can't remember...

Gotta keep pushing :)

Happiness,

Joseph

AdWords

Well, I sold 4 books through Adwords - I think. I got my first click through and then 4 sales I couldn't identify the source through. So, I'm guessing one click (at $.12) and 4 sales (at $9.95). I wish I could find a way to ramp it up :)

I am doing my first big reading tomorrow - for 50+ kids. It should be fun :)

Happiness!

Joseph

Little Distributors

I'm beginning to get some positive feedback on the little distributors. A kid here sold one to his school library, one in Boston has sold two books and I've got the payment system working (PayPal is awesome, and easy). I've sent out some more books and we'll see how it goes.

Happiness!

Joseph