Special Price on Ker-Splash 2

Ker-Splash 2: The High Performance Powerboat Book has just arrived today at Barnes & Noble online. B&N is currently the only retailer offering this new 400-page reference guide at a discount price, $17.95 with free shipping over $25.

The title of this book can be perceived in several different ways. Yes, the Sonic 38 Cat on the cover costs more than my house and the cover does imply that this is a book about high performance offshore speedboats. The book actually covers this type of boat and many others, too, however there is a heavy page count favoring these speed-demon monsters in the last two chapters. You could also think of Ker-Splash 2 as a high performance book, since it is very detailed and complete, intended as both an entertaining read and a long-term reference. The third meaning is that there is a lot of emphasis on the drive trains of the boats. Recreational powerboats are defined and priced according to their engines and drive systems. Although there is some overlap and few absolute rules, boats are generally categorized by the particular combinations of their hulls, engines, and drives, and Ker-Splash 2 covers these interrelationships in detail.

Ker-Splash 2 will be available in Kindle and other e-book formats by the end of April, but I think the appeal of this reference work will probably always be stronger as a print version. That has certainly been the case with its predecessor, Ker-SPLASH! Recreational Power Boaters Guide. If you are in the market for a new or used boat, or you just like to read fun facts and entertaining stories about boats, grab a copy before B&N changes its mind and raises the price to the $19.95 retail like everyone else!

Ker-Splash 2 Released Today

Be the very first person to own a copy of this ultimate reading treasure for powerboat hobbyists! The cover shown is only a blown up thumbnail. The actual cover is crisp and sharp!

400 pages in a 7" x 10" format

135 large B&W photographs

152,000 words

$19.95 (plus shipping)

NIAFS Press (Nonfiction in a Fictional Style)

Available now only directly from the publisher!
Ker-Splash 2 will become available from Amazon, B&N, Kindle, and Smashwords (probably in that order) over the next several weeks. This time frame could be as long as two months, but you can get your copy in a few days! Right now my copy is the only one in existence. Yours can be the second!

Ker-Splash 2 Soon to Launch

The exciting new hobbyist/reference book, entitled Ker-Splash 2: The High Performance Powerboat Book, will be available later this month. This is Floyd M. Orr's fifth book and the sequel to Ker-SPLASH! Recreational Power Boaters Guide of 2002. This new release seeks to be the ultimate reading and reference guide for potential buyers of new or used boats, experienced powerboat owners, and recreational readers. Ker-Splash 2 contains 400 pages, over 150,000 words, and 135 B&W photos that span the width within the margins of the 7" x 10" format of the book. ISBN 978-1-449-54337-2. $19.95. Kindle and Smashwords editions are planned for later release, probably in March or April. There will have to be compromises and certain decisions made concerning the number, size, and quality of the photos to be included before the e-book editions can be released.

Ker-Splash 2 is the culmination of an intense year of research, compilation, composition, and editing. The first Ker-Splash is still in print, but the material has become quite dated since its 2002 debut. Both books include corporate contacts for all the major boat builders, but the changes, both large and small, between then and now have been numerous, to say the least! The NASDAQ crash of 2000 and the Dow crash after 9/11 set the stage for all the changes described in Ker-SPLASH! Unfortunately for all of us, Depression 2.0 reset the stage again, making the time ripe for an update on the state of the industry. One of the key purposes of both editions has been to inform both potential buyers and seasoned enthusiasts of the business status, both past and present, of the multitude of boat builders and associated companies.

Ker-Splash 2 attempts to be many different things to different readers. The main focus of the book is on the major types of recreational powerboats other than those designed primarily for fishing or any sort of utilitarian purposes. The fishing and utility types simply could not have been included without doubling the size and cost of the book. You would be shocked to learn just how many fishing boat builders there are in the USA! The major types of non-fishing boats covered are: runabouts, jet boats, jet skis, offshore performance boats, California Customs, speedboats, towboats, cabin cruisers, and deck and pontoon boats. The multitude of engines and outdrives especially designed for the various types of powerboats are described. Family tow sports are detailed in extensive instructions concerning how to teach a beginner to ski, learning to ski, towing technique and tips, and a chapter on water toys. This includes a complete breakdown of the skis, wakeboards and other towables available, tips on selecting them, and descriptions of the retailers that market them. As in the first edition, capsule historical background details of the sport, the boat types, and the brands are sprinkled throughout. Many brands that have been out of business for years are at least briefly described, including the most recent contact information in case a reader is trying to track down a rare part or service. Also as in the first edition, the author entertains his readers with humorous, autobiographical anecdotes and socioeconomic commentary. That's why the book, the series, and this blog are called Nonfiction in a Fictional Style!

Kicking Buttercup Butt

Shannyn Moore is finally, really mad! She is kicking Buttercup's butt all over her radio show right now! It's time to remove Shannyn from my Chicken Suit List. She may not yet be ready to talk publicly about Buttercup's faked pregnancy, but she certainly is discussing The Wild Ride and the free pass to oblivion that the MSM has provided for the Wicked Witch who wasn't PG in the first place! To quote the only phrase coined by Shannyn better than guano crazy, "Suck it up, Buttercup!!"

Going Rouge

I am pleased to announce that Going Rouge: An American Nightmare has finally been released at Amazon. I reported in my post entitled Fumbling Towards Ecstasy on October 24th that the publisher had no plans to sell the book at Amazon. Although I pleaded with Mr. Oakes then to reconsider his decision, the plan at that time was to sell the book only directly from O/R Books. Now that the publisher has made the smart move, I encourage everyone to order a copy for Christmas right now. The $15.95 price is the same as on the website and you can add another item to your order to get free shipping at Amazon. May I suggest Max Blumenthal's Republican Gomorrah or Frank Schaeffer's Crazy for God? For a quick read and a big laugh, you could add this other Going Rouge to your order. Here is my review of that other Going Rouge at PODBRAM. You can also pre-order the paperback edition of Republican Gomorrah from Amazon now if you want to barely squeak over the $25 line!

Update: Amazon has just dropped the price of Going Rouge: An American Nightmare to $9.32. A combo order with Republican Gomorrah in paperback will not get you free shipping, but the price of Going Rouge from Amazon is now even lower than the price directly from the publisher!

Bikini Orange

Kindle & Smashwords Editions

I have recently discovered a few discrepancies among my e-books between the Kindle and Smashwords editions, but these have been rectified. If you have seen one of my earlier Kindle editions displaying double line spaces where single line spaces should have been, this problem has been corrected. All versions of all my books should display correctly now, although the Kindle and Smashwords editions will never be identical.

There are two separate versions of each of my four books now. The Kindle Editions have paragraph indents, but the Smashwords Editions have single line spaces between paragraphs. This is because the Smashwords versions have to be compatible with more than a single type of e-book reader. The Kindle Editions are priced a little higher because they have been specifically formatted for the Kindle only. Some of you may already be aware that the Smashwords Editions have been available directly from the Smashwords website for some time. They recently were added to B&N online and other sites, and soon will be available at Amazon. All the print versions of my current books will continue to be available everywhere.

Here is an update on the release of my upcoming book, Ker-Splash 2: The High Performance Powerboat Book. Initially at least, this book will be available only as a CreateSpace printed edition at Amazon. It is still on schedule to be released 1/1/10 or very soon thereafter. Ker-Splash 2 will be my biggest book yet, featuring a total word count much higher than my previous books and at least seventy photos, mostly of boats, of course. While awaiting the arrival of some key photos for Ker-Splash 2 from a particular boat builder, I took advantage of the break to work on the previously mentioned updates to the electronic versions of my current books. There has coincidentally been a bit of face-stuffing activity with old friends during this time period, too!

I call the photo above Bikini Orange. This is a 2009 Commander 28-foot catamaran in a mid-cabin design. This small boutique builder of California Custom Boats will be included in Ker-Splash 2. This photo is one of the outtakes that did not quite make the cut: a better shot is in the book!

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

With apologies to Sarah McLachlan for stealing the title of one of her best albums, I want to say a few words about this new book slated for release 11/17/09. Going Rouge is the first release from the new O/R Books, a company formed earlier this year by two very experienced New York publishing icons, John Oakes and Colin Robinson. This new book of essays is edited by Richard Kim and Betsy Reed. The writers include Jim Hightower, Naomi Klein, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Max Blumenthal, Matt Taibbi, Jane Hamsher, and many other recognizable names, all justly famous for sitting next to the windows on the left side of the airplane.

There is a reason why I chose the McLachlan title for this post. This is a book that deserves to be read by millions, but will it be? You currently cannot order it from either Amazon or B&N.com, so where can you get it? Today, absolutely nowhere, because the ordering system is down at the O/R website, and you cannot get the book from any source other than directly from the publisher! Why should you care? Go look at the ranking number of this book, and it is at least available through Amazon, if not directly from their warehouses with free shipping. Going Rouge: An American Nightmare is nowhere to be seen at Amazon; nor is it at B&N. The publishers have done a good job of bringing publicity attention to the book; however, most of it is negative, not positive! Check out this poll at NPR, of all places.

The price of Going Rouge is $16 from the publisher's website. Can you imagine how many sales are being missed right now because this book is not paired with Going Rogue at Amazon with free shipping? Sure, the Palinbots would go crazy in the reviews of either book, even before the books are available for anyone to read. They would also toss their cookies in the Amazon discussion pages at the bottom of both books' Amazon listings. What we have right now is the 'bots going crazy at NPR while no sales of the book are even happening! In the meantime, sales of Going (Pack of Lies) Rogue are putting that book in the #2 spot at Amazon.

Quit fumbling the ball, people! Going Rouge is written by a gang of very experienced writers. Going Rogue is written by a ghostwriter and an idiot. Why must we continue to let the opposing team win? By the time An American Nightmare is even available to order, An American Pack of Lies will already have sold thousands, if not millions. What's the matter with this picture? If you think you are going to waltz into your local B&N and see the two Goings side by side on a table just inside the front door, I am afraid you are sadly mistaken. Harper Collins will have paid thousands for whatever prime store placement they have secured for Going Rogue. Unless O/R Books is a lot richer than I expect, then the best they can ever hope for are a few copies of Going Rouge placed on an alphabetized shelf somewhere in the store. If they are lucky, they may find a few B&N managers who will put copies in the close vicinity of the Harper Collins book, but can you imagine the hissy-fit an HC representative would throw if he saw even a single copy of the O/R book actually sitting on his bought-and-paid-for Harper Collins shelf? All this is not even taking into account the returnable policy so beloved by the Barnes & Noble store chain. Without a return policy, as is the case with the great majority of POD books, the most O/R can hope for are a few books ordered by a few B&N stores, not the stacks and stacks of the HC book that will blanket the B&N's all across America!

The new publishers of Going Rouge obviously know a lot more about traditional publishing than I do. They obviously have everyday contact with many writers I would love to meet, if only once to shake their hands. My expertise comes from the school of hard knocks. I got involved in the POD industry a decade ago. If you have not yet watched the video put together by John Oakes and Colin Robinson, take a look at it. These two nice guys act as if they just discovered POD! If you have not been following my other blog at PODBRAM, go check out this article. Here is another one you may wish to read. If you want to get seriously deep into the subject of marketing a POD book, go to PODBRAM and start reading the articles listed down the left column under The POD Experience. Allow me to cut to the chase: 90% (or more) of all POD books are sold through Amazon. B&N online and all the rest add up to less than 10%! I know that sounds shocking, but it's true.

A similar situation applies to Kindle. The great majority of e-books sold are currently sold through Amazon for the Kindle format. Yes, Smashwords is another good source of e-book reading material, along with a number of others, and yes, I know the B&N Nook has just been released. We'll see where that goes. The O/R website states that Going Rouge will be available in e-book form, too. Where? The publishers will probably discover that $9.99 for the electronic version might hurt sales a bit, too. Put it on Kindle and halve the price: then you'll have a mover.

I have already been in contact with Mr. Oakes concerning these issues, and can only hope that he has taken my advice to heart. He may know all about the publishing and marketing processes involved in the traditional marketplace. I know what it takes to successfully market an unknown POD or Kindle book at Amazon. Do not look at my own pitiful sales numbers and judge my knowledge accordingly. I have been trying to sell books in various genres by an unknown author, all of which are particularly difficult to market successfully. I can't help it if I'm hard headed: I write what I know, not what I know will sell. An American Nightmare is a totally different story, one that millions of Americans should read, and written by authors already familiar to millions of Americans.