A modest proposal for a flat tax for a regular citizen

I preface this by saying I’m a news/political junkie, avid Social Media user (Twitter junkie @robertropars), but in no way an economist. But having watching the debt ceiling debacle and the stupefying right wing clamoring to avoid any increase in revenue on the wealthiest Americans just frosts my flakes (roasts my chestnuts? burns my toast? you get the point).

So I did some research wondering about the flat tax (aka sales tax) approach brought up a few years ago and off/on since. I wondered if a tiered approach to taxing would help us and make things more fair. I started by trying to see a breakdown of Americans by salaries and found this page.

From there I came up with the following. Is it right? Wrong? Best for all? Fair? I think it’s at least an idea. Would love to get some feedback/discussion as to what people think of this and how it might help our country get out of debt and back on track (where we left off as former president Clinton left office and we had an actual SURPLUS).

1-Decrease size/scope/nature of IRS. Taxes come off paychecks right into government revenue no need to file each year.

2-With the following tiered flat/sales tax approach, most Americans would have less taxes coming off paychecks – more to spend/save every paycheck. If right now 28-30% of your check is going to taxes-imagine only 10-20% coming off and instead being actual money you have now, not a year from now as part of a refund.

Deductions maybe change for community service, environmental investment, saving at least x% of annual salary in a year and/or at least x% invested in retirement fund in a year, etc. Military service would reduce tax by half for each tier for successful service?

0-$25,000 – 28.22% of households – 0%

$25,001-50,000 – 26.65% of households – 10% tax off paychecks

$50,001-75,000 – 18.27% of households – 20% tax off paychecks

$75,001-100,000 – 10.93% of households – 25% tax off paychecks

$100,001-250,000 – 15.73% of households – 30% tax off paychecks

$250,001+ – 1.5% of households – 35% tax off paychecks

As for corporations, not sure what to do but hey the Supreme Court said you’re people too, so pitch in!!

US corporations – 35%
Foreign corporations – 40%
Companies can get breaks for job creation, environmental compliance, community investment, etc.

I’m really just trying to get some constructive dialogue out there and hope this is helpful to someone out there. Let me know what you think!

From Enterprise to Atlantis – a few thoughts on the end of the Space Shuttle program

It was with some very real sadness I watched the footage and viewed the images of the final Space Shuttle missing (Atlantis).  Here’s a great shot of the final touchdown:

Final Atantis touchdown

What it’s reminding me of is the first Space Shuttle, the Enterprise.  Named after the USS Enterprise of Star Trek legend (thanks to the many Star Trek fans both within/without NASA), this mockup/test model never actually made it into space.  But it was tested for entry/re-entry and did a few solo flights/landings.  It paved the way for the program and after the second shuttle disaster (Columbia), parts were removed to test the theory that foam debris could damage the heat resistant underbelly tiles helping solve the mystery of that tragedy.

Original Star Trek cast & Gene Roddenberry at NASA

But what many Americans may not know/remember was something that NASA did with Enterprise.  At some point (haven’t been able to trace the actual dates so far) around 1978-80, they flew the Enterprise across the country on the back of a modified 747!  Sort of PR tour to build American excitement, they came to Tulsa.  We weren’t able to go to the airport to see it, however our house was directly under the flight path for approaching/departing flights.  So we saw it fly over as it arrived.  I remember stores were selling little space shuttle toys and running around the yard playing astronaut (I was 8-10 at this point).  My imagination already wild with the sci-fi/fantasy I watched and read was engulfed.  We were finally going up and away and going to really explore space.

Enterprise atop the special 747

The most exciting moment was when the tour moved on and the flight took off from the Tulsa airport.  I have no idea where it was headed next, but I was in the backyard randomly when it came over.  And boy did it do something that burned the memory forever into my mind.  It’s so vividly impacted me, that I can see it in mind’s eye to this day so many years later.

As I heard the sound of a roaring plane engine I looked up to the sky to see the 747 coming over.  It apparently needed to turn to head whichever direction it was going and the plan tilted (to my kid’s mind/memory nearly vertical).  I remember a feeling of awe and panic staring up at the massive objects above me.  I remember my heart soaring that I really got to see it since we couldn’t go to the airport for some reason (which was heartbreaking).  There it was above me.  The space shuttle.  So close, yet so far.

But it was a bit scary at the same moment.  As it was tilted nearly vertical (well pretty vertical) and engines strained as it turned and accelerated to change direction, I had some panic.  The Enterprise was attached by some kind of tether to the 747, but what if it broke.  A part of imagined the Enterprise breaking free and crashing down onto our home and me.  Years later watching Donnie Darko I had some serious flashbacks to that moment.

The 747 made the turn, the Enterprise went on to get things rolling and we had 30 years of a space program with some highs and real lows (Challenger/Columbia).  But although the space exploration program is entering a reduced new phase, I remain ever confident and inspired that humans will expand, explore and colonize our solar system and beyond.  As Earth continues to run out of room, resources and be devastated by our pollution and abuse, we will need to find new room to evolve and grow.

And as Stephen Hawking has noted, by staying Earth-bound, as a species we’re putting all of our eggs in one basket.  Assuming there are aliens, some being hostile, and some being far more advanced, if they come and attack do we all want to be in one spot?  Exploring and expanding into space will go a long way to ensuring humanity survives farther into the future than we could hope otherwise.

Think of this some night when you take a moment and stare up at the stars.  I know I do.

A Few Modest Proposals to Help our Economy & Country

Here’s an idea that hasn’t been mentioned during the back/forth on the debt ceiling: Congressional pay.

Did you know that a rank-and-file member of Congress has a current base salary of $174,000 per year? How does that compare to what you’re making currently? Here’s some other thoughts to ponder:

• During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin argued that elected government officials shouldn’t be given a salary.  The infamous “Founding Fathers” thought otherwise.
• Between 1789 and 1855, Congressmen received a daily payment of $6, after 1855 they began receiving $3,000 a year.
• A senior member of Congress gets a higher salary than the rank-and-file members:

Senate Leadership
Majority Party Leader – $193,400
Minority Party Leader – $193,400
House Leadership

Speaker of the House – $223,500
Majority Leader – $193,400
Minority Leader – $193,400

• Since 1983, all members of Congress contribute to and receive benefits from the Social Security system.  When they retire, they receive Social Security or a combination with a federal pension.
• Congress routinely votes itself raises annually.  Since 1990, congressional pay has increased from $98,400 to $174,000 currently (for a rank-and-file member)-a 76.83% increase-how has your salary fared since 1990?

So while the President and Congress debate, squabble, fight, threaten and bully, not once have any of them talked about sharing the pain of the average American worker.  How about a salary freeze for all government employees of all three branches?  How a temporary salary reduction as well?  Why are American non-government workers always the ones who must do more with less?

On a related note, much of the b.s. we see is related to people trying to stay in office for as long as possible and their focus is on that not governing and taking care of the country and its people.  As I’ve heard, presidents spend their first term trying to get re-elected and their second term trying to be remembered.  Congress members are re-elected at an insanely high rate.  Between their high pay, medical/retirement benefits and various perks, it’s a lucrative “career” instead of a patriotic duty and responsibility.  How about this:

President – set a limit of one six-year term – focus on being president and no concerns about being re-elected as a distraction and is compromise between 4 and 8 years.

Senate – set a limit of two five-year terms – a decade is long enough (if re-elected midway through this period) to do your duty and have an impact.

House of Representatives – set a limit of two four-year terms and 1/3 of the members (or some percentage to be determined) should be drafted citizens like jury duty for one-year terms.  Get people involved as a duty and bring outside non-lobby suckling individuals into the federal system to represent local interests.  I realize this is a complicated item (what about their jobs for example), but just seems like people would care more if they knew they might be (or end up being) part of the system instead of hearing emotionally manipulative sound bites on TV.

Guess that’s enough ranting, but food for thought I hope.

Source of data:  http://usgovinfo.about.com/

Excerpt – Dead Woman’s Curve – new horror ebook coming soon!

Cover of Dead Woman's Curve

The cafeteria was dark. Security lights were mounted sporadically on the walls, and they punctuated the inky blackness with a few small pools of illumination. A young woman cowered in the corner away from the light. She was shaking and tears were streaming down her cheeks. Her eyes were darting frenetically back and forth, up and down searching for someone…some thing.

A noise came from within the darkness and her eyes desperately sought the source. She could hear it breathing and the raspy sound was getting closer. She strained to focus and see the creature. Her heart was beating so loudly she was sure it could be heard across the entire expanse of the cafeteria.

At that moment she saw movement, but straining to be sure she wondered if her eyes were now playing tricks. A strong smell reached her, and her nostrils flared in reaction. The smell was worse than anything she had ever experienced. As if someone had thrown up on road kill on a hot sunny day.

She bit her lower lip to keep quiet. Her eyes continued to scan left and right struggling to see it. In the near silence, she could hear the slow deliberate steps of the thing. The smell was getting stronger and she started breathing into the left arm sleeve of her shirt. She was desperate not to take a full breath.

She thought she saw it approaching in the shadows, but was still unsure. Lifting her head slightly to focus, she involuntarily inhaled. In that moment she gasped as the fetid putrescence filled her airways and she retched loudly.

“Foound youuuu….”

“No!” She screamed in panic.

She saw the creature now ahead of her in the shadows. It had stopped moving and turned her way. It stood on two legs, had the silhouette of big, curly, crazy hair and a familiar curvy feminine outline.

“Sooo hunggreeee…”

“Help! Please someone help me!”

She screamed into the darkness, as the creature that had pursued her for the past thirty minutes was suddenly moving towards her with great speed. Her arms flew up instinctively to protect herself. The creature grabbed her wrists and leaning forward bit off three fingers on her left hand.

“Oh god no!”

She screamed as her warm blood spurted into her face and began flowing down her arms. The pain was excruciating.

“Soooo hunngreee…”

The creature was chewing on her fingers with a sickening crunch as bones crumbled under its strong teeth and jaws muscles.

“Noooowww…. I feasssstttt on your flesssshhhhh….”

She screamed again as the creature lifted her by the wrists, slammed her against the wall and lunging forward bit into her face. She heard and felt the teeth tear through her left eye socket and begin tugging at her eye. Between sucking and biting, the eye came up and out enough to be wrenched free. Blood sprayed the wall, her clothes and the hideous creature.

She screamed as white-hot pain exploded in her head. She struggled with the creature, but her strength was fading quickly. The creature tossed her to the ground like a rag doll. The foul smelling beast leapt on her, its face now hovering inches from hers. Blood and debris dribbled from its mouth. With her remaining sight she watched as the creature chewed on her left eye. Some of the vitreous humor burst and sprayed her face and mouth. She screamed and sobbed violently.

Choking and starting to vomit she looked into the face in front of her. From the way its hair was hanging across its face, she could only see one of its eyes. It was black, completely black. She felt dizzy and felt the room spinning.

The creature smiled, its gore covered teeth momentarily bare. It then turned into a grimace and dove at her biting her face over and over. She tried to scream and fight but to no avail. She felt hot all over as if she was engulfed with fire.

The zombie paused its assault, moved back and tore the woman’s shirt apart with ease, its nails scratching deep into her chest and abdomen. As she managed to look downward a final time, the creature that had been a woman only hours earlier began clawing at her stomach and leaning forward began to bite, chew and swallow her exposed skin and muscle.

She shook violently and everything went black. Death was taking her away from the pain and bloody mess she had become. Her final heartbeats pounded louder and louder in her head as she swam into oblivion. As her heart beat its last rhythm, her stomach violently growled in ravenous hunger. The creature paused its chewing hearing the noise and laughed a hideous gurgling cackle. She wondered what so funny, and then she was dead.

***TO BE CONTINUED***

(C) 2011 by Robert Ropars

In nearly 50 years – 10 things we haven’t seen on Doctor Who

Been a Doctor Who fan since junior high when I stumbled across episode one of “The Ark in Space” with Tom Baker as the Doctor on a local PBS station in Ohio. This was LONG before the Internet so for all I knew as I was immediately hooked (and for each day’s next episode) it was a short series that ended with the “Invasion of Time.”

Years later I learned that I was seeing a small fraction of a series that had premiered in November 1963, that Tom Baker was the 4th actor to play the role and that I was about to embark on a lifelong love affair.

Some years later we had moved to the Chicago area (during high school) and PBS stations got the rights from the BBC to show all existing episodes. Channel 11 (WTTW) in Chicago then ran all of the existing stories in order and I greedily recorded them and watched them with childlike awe. I read the Target books that novelized all the episodes (expanding on the existing ones in some cases and filling the gaps for the missing episodes – long story short the BBC was/is cheap and taped over old episodes to save money before they knew they had a cash cow).

I took part in a study abroad program in the Fall of 1989 and was actually living in England to see the latest Doctor Who with Sylvestor McCoy as the Doctor. As the final credits ran on “Survival” I was thrilled to actually have seen Doctor Who on the BBC, IN ENGLAND. I finished my trip and came home. And then heard the news-the show was canceled. Sadness and emptiness crept in, I finished college and got a full-time job.

Fast forward seven years and the news that the BBC with Fox in the US were doing a movie of Doctor Who and possibly a series (depending on the ratings). How it was going to be handled (a remake, a prequel, or a sequel) was in much debate. Fortunately the team behind it went with a continuation of the “classic” series (as it’s now referred to) and even had the decency to hire Sylvestor McCoy to open the movie and film the 7th Doctor’s “death” as a lead-in to his regeneration to 8th Doctor Paul McGann.

It wasn’t great, but it was good and at least kept your love going (it was received well in the UK, but lost out to the Bulls in the playoffs and part 2 of the Roseanne episode where Dan had a heart attack). So timing (ironically) was off and most considered the show dead and gone. It had low budgets so as people grew up from wide-eyed kids to adults there was a tendency to find the show laughable. But then it took on a wistful tone and people remembered the core of the show and their love for it.

Flash forward to 2005 and the relaunch of Doctor Who in the UK under the guidance of Russell T. Davies with Christopher Eccleston as the 9th Doctor. It was the same and yet totally different (music, pacing, quality of filming/f/x) and was extremely reverential to the original. Honestly I know that now. I was a few years behind as I was afraid to try it and what would happen. Was it good? Did it still have the magic? Was it better? While the rest of the world was awaiting Series 4 (2008) I found Series 1 (2005) on Netflix and gave episode 1 (“Rose”) a try. I blew threw Series 1 in a week, ordered it and and Series 2 and 3 (David Tennant taking over as the 10th Doctor in Series 2). The rest is again history. I am back in love and totally enjoying every moment including the 2010 Series 5 restart with the amazing Stephen Moffat producing the awesome Matt Smith and Karen Gillian as the 11th Doctor and his latest companion.

So I’ve seen greatness and wonder in over 20 years of watching. But what haven’t I seen as a general lover of sci-fi and time travel in particular? I started to ponder and thought I’d make a list to share with the other Doctor Who fans out there-add your own as comments. Maybe someone at the BBC will see these. I would have had an American episode (like one really filmed here in its entirety but they beat me to the punch as we’re only a few months away from the 2-part opener to Series 6 set in New Mexico in the 1960s).

Top 10 things we haven’t seen/unanswered in Doctor Who
1-Any real information about why someone as egomanical and oppressive as the original Time Lord Rassilon pushed so hard to create time travel and then forbade interference in the timelines of the universe. Why would someone that eager for power and glory gain the ultimate power and then tell everyone to just sit back and watch time go by? How about the Doctor meeting up with Rassilon on his first TARDIS trip and what lead him to recoil from time travel and make it taboo? Fell in love with someone on some far off/ago world and realized the impact of meddling or living longer than those we love?

2-Any solid information as to his wife/partner and the son or daughter who had Susan his reputed grand daughter.

3-With the constant mantra that Gallifrey and all of the Time Lords are gone (and he’s “the last” of them)-what happened to: Susan (his grand daughter last seen on Earth in 2150AD in love with a young rebel who had fought the Daleks with her), Romana (last seen in E-Space in “Warrior’s Gate”), Leela and K-9 Mark 1 (last seen on Gallifrey in “Invasion of Time”), the Rani (last seen in “Time and the Rani”), the Meddling Monk (last seen in “The Daleks’ Masterplan”), etc. I know some of the books and audio adventures have featured some/all of these, but it’s never 100% if they’re official or not.

4-Ok we’ve got a US story coming, but I’ll still say it-I know we’ve got a lot less history to work with than the UK, but hopefully the massive fan base and popularity will allow for more US-based stories which can play with famous US authors interacting (like the British authors showcased like H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, etc.). I could dream of an X-Files or Twin Peaks crossover, but seriously, plenty of US mysteries and UFO stuff to play off of and historical figures to interact with. Just make sure to cast great American actors.

5-The Doctor encounter and interact with a younger Master. He and the Master always meet in chronological order-why? They’re f’ing time travelers? He’s met his younger/older selves so why not a younger Master?

6-Speaking of the Master, what happened to the Master’s TARDIS? He still had it as late as 1984′s “Planet of Fire” and presumably in 1985′s “Mark of the Rani.” But in 1989′s “Survival” he faced the 7th Doctor on a dying planet and appeared to have been killed when the Doctor escaped and left him there. In the “1989″ movie, the opening sequence detailed that the Master bizarrely had been captured, tried and executed by the Daleks. Since then he’s returned in the new series, but never with a TARDIS (though he stole the Doctor’s). It’s implied that he was still dead, but in the final days of the last great Time War, the Time Lords brought him back to fight the Daleks, he panicked and fled to the farther place in the universe at the end of time and made himself human to hide (which suppressed his memories). So where did it go? Could imagine a team hunting for the Master’s TARDIS and the Doctor in a race to stop them.

7-Anything of substance about the Doctor’s parents.

8-The Doctor’s real name (don’t really want to know) and more importantly-why “The Doctor” as an alias?

9-The Doctor is definitely in love with Earth, the UK in particular. But only recently Wales and nothing really taking place in Ireland or Scotland? They’re literally right there and both have rich histories (and several actors playing the Doctor were even Scottish!). And great actors! How about getting Sean Connery, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Colin Farrell or Pierce Brosnan on the show (I know a leap)?

10-Any stories set on a world outside of the Milky Way galaxy? The universe is infinite and his TARDIS can go anywhere in time and space. With the exception of “Utopia” when the Master is found at the end of time on the edge of the universe and a few other moments, there hasn’t been an attempt to explore much of this galaxy’s billions of stars/planets let alone another galaxy. How about the Andromeda Galaxy which is one of the biggest galaxies in proximity to the Milky Way? It was mentioned in 1986′s “The Mysterious Planet” (the first part of the full season “The Trial of a Time Lord” season) that Time Lord secrets had been stolen by the “Sleepers of Andromeda.” Never mentioned before or since. Just seems like we could see some really amazing stuff (granted budgets are an issue) exploring really alien worlds, really far from “home.”

Well just my random two cents-any other ideas?

dark-bites-four-tales-of-horror

A new year, a new mission

I can’t believe we’re in 2011 already.  2009 was the year from hell with my father’s battle with cancer coming to a dreadful ending.  Out of that was months and months or mourning (well do you ever stop mourning?) into 2010.  So a year ago…not in a good place at all.  But kept focused on family and work and moving forward (as my dad told me years ago when he got the diagnosis “what else can you do but move forward?”

The horrors of watching someone I love waste away into literal living death (undead even) was pure horror.  It was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced watching the slow erosion and destruction of someone over years ending in a rapid descent in the final 6 months.  Granted, he was literally a superman who fought esophageal cancer for something like 7 years where most people can die within 1.  He was in life and death unique and raised the bar for perserverance.

Coming out of this, I started to write and the horror genre seemed to be an instant and natural fit.  I researched self publishing (which I had used for my previous two books of poetry) and ebooks/ereaders.  I soon learned that the industry was opening up for self published authors and ereaders/ebooks were to be the way of the future.

I also found out some suggestions from those who have had some success.  First I read that you should look into using Smashwords.com for your epublishing needs.  They will take your one Word document (format using their guidelines) and make all the various formats needed for the ereaders out there.  They then push this document to the major ebookstores out there and track sales through their interface.  This includes Apple’s iBookstore, B&N’s Nook, Borders’ Kobo, Sony’s E-Reader, and Diesel.  As of today they’re not yet hooked up with Amazon (soon apparently), but I just published a Kindle version directly through their Digital Text Platform portal.

So that was the “how” of the work.  Then I was faced with the “what” to do.  I spent a lot of time looking at what is out there and my interests and came to a conclusion.  Horror is at an all-time high in terms of commercial acceptance/success and has also lost something in translation.  Horror has diverged into romantic stuff geared towards young girls or extremely graphic gore.  Each has its place I guess, but I wanted to do something  different and more classic related to some of the best horror icons:  zombies, werewolves, vampires, and ghosts.

I also have always appreciated and loved strong female heroines in movies and fiction.  Women who are smart, savvy and don’t need a man to save them after they trip while running screaming from the killer.  I tend to be a progressive in life and open to all people regardless of who they are so I wanted to be inclusive in my characters.

This took shape into a series of shorter horror novels with four different characters all set in Chicago.  The stories are separate, but intertwine and cross each other in time and place.  So while they can be read and enjoyed on their own, reading all four creates a full story of this world I was creating.  The result:  Dark Bites in four parts (Windy City of the Dead, Like Cats and Dogs, The Red Planet, and 848).  Researching online noted that you could find success by doing a series (much like early writers published novels in newspapers as serials) and then pulling them together as a collection.  To gain momentum, you space out the parts and make the first 1-2 free to get people downloading/reading and reviewing.

I also learned that pricing of ebooks is a big debate as Amazon’s hegemony was threatened by Apple’s iPad release and various publishers deals with everyone.  Some books have been published as ebooks with pricing HIGHER than the hard cover price.  To me that’s inexcusable given the fact that ebooks are purely digital and don’t have the same costs as a printed work.  But we each must take our own path.  I researched similar books selling well and compared word counts.  I found a price of $2.99 was comparable for an ebook around 42k words (and let’s be honest you get 5 stories in one).

For the print version I went with Amazon’s print-on-demand division which I had used previously (Createspace.com).  They feed of course into Amazon (and Amazon UK of course),  and then other sites as well so it gets your work out.  And as it is a print-on-demand model that satisfies the “green” in me knowing there aren’t stockpiles of my books printed out there for no reason.

Click to order

So in mid-December the ebook and print-on-demand collection “Dark Bites:  Four Tales of Horror” was released on the world.  As an added incentive, it contains an extra (fifth) story only available within the collection (a sequel to part one).  Since Fall started I’ve been working hard to connect with horror lovers out there (mainly on Twitter).  So far it’s going well with many downloads (approaching 2,000) of part one, many of part two and a lot of previews of 3, 4 and the collection.  Sales are starting to pick up as well so hopefully that will continue as I work hard to market all of this.

I’m trying to commit to a weekly update on my progress so keep watching this space for more soon!

Smashwords.com and self-publishing

Earlier this year I began work on a new fiction collection. I was reading various articles on self-publishing and came across a reference to Smashwords.com. I quickly learned that it was the fastest, easiest way to distribution my writing online in ebook format. Thanks to their numerous agreements with major ebookstores tied to the ereaders available (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Sony, etc.), you can upload one version (following their formatting guidelines) and they will convert the file into all the necessary format iterations. You set the price, percentage that can be previewed, and there’s no fees unless you sell a copy.

Smashwords.com has prepared a presentation outlining their efforts and I wanted to share this with anyone interested in exploring this exciting new world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to my works as an example of what you can do and how people will see your work:  click here.

Self-publishing in a digital world

It’s been awhile since I’ve taken “pen to paper” with this blog. The events of last year derailed me mentally and emotionally (in particular July-December). After a few months of recovery I began to get back into writing in a way I hadn’t experienced since college.

I started writing fiction and wanted to explore a variety of genres (to find my comfort zone(s)) and do novels. However, as I was moving from a long gap in writing into prose and thence into fiction I needed to build up to it. I did some deep research on the growing ebook/ereader evolution and saw that what had begun as a niche market was quickly becoming a popular pastime. People are buying ereaders by the millions and reading again. The portable digital versions of books has proven popular far beyond anyone’s wildest projections.

The introduction of the Apple iPad and the latest Kindle by Amazon (as well as Border’s Kobo and Barnes & Noble’s Nook) have widened the playing field for ereaders and the authors who feed into them. In addition, the explosion of smartphones with their ability to run “apps” has allowed every ereader manufacturer to publish their own app for ebooks.

So that means that there is a huge market of readers out there craving digital books. But it also means being smart, strategic and patient. I happened to learn about a company called Smashwords.com earlier this summer and have had great experience using them. They sell ebooks, but also allow authors to push copies of their ebooks into the major ebookstores out there including: Diesel, Kobo, Nook, Apple’s iBookstore, and Sony.

You format a Word document according to their simple guidelines and they create HTML and PDF versions as well as versions compliant with each of the various ereaders. So one version literally becomes nearly a dozen formats without extra time/effort.

They send updates to the etailers weekly and depending on the etailer’s process, your work is there within 1 (Apple) to 8 weeks (Barnes & Noble) (the rest generally within 2 weeks). You set the price and see before publishing what your cut is (Smashwords takes a small % and the others take slightly more).

You will notice I didn’t mention Amazon-they will be pushing into Amazon’s Digital Text Platform at some point soon, but in the meantime, I just publish directly into Amazon’s site (which populates both the US and UK Amazon stores).

So you’re covered across the broad spectrum and they’ll continue to expand as more avenues arise here and abroad.

I’ve had much more activity then when I just did books as print-on-demand and feel ebooks are the way to go. I will still do print-on-demand versions via Amazon’s Createspace.com, however they will be in tandem to the ebook versions. In fact, after doing research I followed the ideas others have used.

1-Start by getting your name out there-publish your work as a series (think of the old days when authors like Arthur Conan Doyle or Charles Dickens published their works in newspapers in parts). You can always publish a collection in the end. I wanted to write horror fiction so I decided to do a collection with four parts and then put them together.

FREE ebook

2-You can get something for nothing-give stuff away for free. People are filling their smartphones and ereaders with as much as they can and free is always a winner. I made part 1 of my eseries (Windy City of the Dead) free and the other three parts a nominal price ($0.99).

3-Use Social Media to spread the word. I have made so many amazing contacts on Twitter in the last few months it’s unreal. Hundreds of people all over the world into horror (books, movies, etc.). Make sure to use proper etiquette and don’t spam them with messages to buy your books. Start connecting/following and sharing their stuff. Read their works and give them reviews. Don’t push for quid pro quo, but decent folks return the favor.

4-Let people take a peek. In addition to giving away part 1 for free, I set up parts 2-4 so they can be 50% previewed before purchasing. That lets the reader get into and hopefully hooked and want to buy the book to read more.

That’s enough for now, just getting back into the blog swing of things. I’ll keep tabs on my journey into this new world. So far nearly 250 people have downloaded my book via Smashwords.com and someone kindly gave it a nice review and 4 out of 5 stars. Looking at Barnes & Noble, 8 people have given it an average of 4 out of 5 stars. It’s great when family and friends give you the thumbs up, but as a fledgling author just getting out there, the kindness of random strangers is thrilling.

Eulogy I prepared & gave Monday, 12/21/09 for my father Dennis Ropars

Good morning and thank you for coming today. I wanted to say just a few words today. Not so much about the past, but about the future.

Today, December 21st is the Winter Solstice. Since ancient times, we humans have marked this day with awe, fear and even stone monuments aligned to catch the first rays of the morning sun.

Why? Because this day, amongst all others is the shortest day of the whole year. Today there is more darkness than light. But as they say, it’s always darkest before the dawn and light’s return. Well I say to you today, gathered here in celebration of this man’s life, my father, not mourning his loss to us-do not be fearful.

This may be the shortest day of the year, but it also means that each and every day hence will have a little more light in it. We miss him, we will continue to miss him. But each day it will get easier knowing that wherever he is, he’s making a place for mom and the rest of us to spend eternity.

And if I know my father, he’s already hard at work letting the powers-that-be know how they can run things more efficiently. He will have everything in order for us to join him.

Dad leading the way

As we’ve spent much of the last week remembering him and looking through photos something struck us. All of us have favorite photos and many of them are of dad walking down a path in the woods ahead of the family. It would be easy to see this as a sad image, one of someone always alone leaving others
behind. But I’ve realized that he never left us behind, but was guiding and leading us into the unknown ensuring the path was safe. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed.

We will follow him down this new unknown path in time knowing it’s safe and he’s waiting for us just around the bend in the path.

Thank you for being here today to honor my father, Dennis Ropars and show
such wonderful love and support for our family.

===================================

Here is a copy of Dad’s obituary: click here.