APub.com is a well kept secret to a lot of people, including writers and publishers, because it is supposedly the top publishing brand of Amazon.com. While the KDP Direct is open to the general public - to publish their ebooks - APub is directly the opposite. In order for any writer to become a member of APub, he or she must first be a bestselling author, whether independently or traditionally. And the advantage of becoming an APub author is tremendous. Why? Because Amazon.com will promote your book for you, to their millions of subscribers. 

Listed below are the 14 book publishing imprints currently operating under APub:

• AmazonEncore (Rediscovered Works)
• AmazonCrossing (Translated Works)
• Thomas & Mercer (Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense)
• Montlake Romance (Romance)
• 47North (Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror)
• Little A (Literary Fiction)
• Skyscape (Teen and Young Adult)
• Two Lions (Children's Picture Books, Chapter Books, and Novels)
• Jet City Comics (Comics and Graphic Novels)
• Lake Union Publishing (Contemporary and Historical Fiction, Memoir and Popular Nonfiction)
• StoryFront (Short Fiction)
• Grand Harbor Press (Personal Growth and Self-Help)
• Waterfall Press (Christian Nonfiction and Fiction)
• Amazon Publishing (Nonfiction, Memoirs, and General Fiction)

The whole Apub.com is still under development, and Amazon is currently looking for writers fill its spots; meaning that they are looking for the next potential bestsellers to sign.

Below is a sample proposal that Amazon has been sending to potential writers who may qualify for this new apub program, be mindful that this is not KDP related at all.

"We want you to be one of the first authors to hear about a new program that will help you kick-start your book and potentially earn a new publishing contract with Amazon - in 45 days or less. We'll be officially announcing this program soon. In the meantime we wanted to share how it will work.

Authors will be asked to submit their complete, never-before-published book and cover.

After a few days, we will post the first pages of each book on a new website for readers to preview and nominate their favorites.

Books with the most nominations will be reviewed by our team for potential publication.

Should you be selected for publication you will receive benefits that include:

Guaranteed advance & competitive royalties: You will receive a guaranteed $1,500 advance and 50% royalties on net eBook revenue.
Focused formats: We acquire worldwide publication rights for eBook and audio formats in all languages. You retain all other rights, including print.
5-year renewable terms, $5,000 in royalties: If your book doesn’t earn $5,000 in royalties during your initial 5-year contract term, and any 5-year renewal term after that, you can choose to stop publishing with us.
Easy reversions: After two years, your rights in any format or language that remains unpublished, or all rights for any book that earns less than $500 in total royalties in the preceding 12-month period, can be reverted upon request – no questions asked.
Early downloads & reviews: One week prior to release date, everyone who nominated your book will receive a free, early copy to help build momentum and customer reviews."

To receive a copy of this notification letter from amazon.com and apply for the apub program go here, http://www.amazon.com/gp/gss/detail/29134490/ref=pe_1148920_123694410_pe_button/1. Click on the subscribe button to sign up.

Special Discounted Offer!!

With the secret revealed by AnyAudience, and the combined skills gathered from KdXray, we can now effectively advertise any book to at least 100,000 active Facebook users (members of Amazon Book Clubs, Reviewers Roundup, Books, Books and more Books, FREE Ebooks -- Reviews & Promotion etc) for as low as $50. Guaranteed downloads and sales. Even Facebook's advertising rate can not match what we are offering you, and that's because we know how to crack and greatly reduce their advertising rates. If you are a long-time follower of our network, Indie Writers Support, then you will know that we have cracked a few other codes of Facebook, and other networks, FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF INDIE WRITERS. 

Some proofs and methods of this Facebook advertising loopholes are provided in this Youtube video,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjczVOL7jKo.

The pictures below will show you two different samples of our Facebook Ad for Author Donalie Beltran, 'Murder is a Family Affair.'

Don't be surprise if you see a similar advert like this one on your Facebook page when you log in, because we have included all members of Indie Writers Support (who also have an account with Facebook) to our targeted list - for our Facebook adverts.

The circled portions of the pictures above show the book displays, and will be replace with your book cover for the Facebook Users to see. We will handle the design and typesetting of the your Facebook advert, and even provide a weekly analysis of the promotion so that you will know how many clicks and news-feeds-impressions were made of your book-cover.

Developers Can Now Target Amazon Fire Tablet Users With Facebook’s App Install Ads

Learn how to use this Facebook + Amazon app here

The way we'll categorize your promotion (if you hire us) is so special, that your chance of becoming a bestseller can become very real with continual usage. Okay, let's say your book or eBook is titled, 'Android Robot'. What we will do to promote 'Android Robot' is extract 100,000 UIDs and Facebook emails from Facebook groups and Pages such as ( Sci-Fi,Horror,Fantasy,Paranormal,Fiction,true Story Authors, Lovers,  Sci fi fantasy and book lovers,  Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America etc) who are very much interested in your book's genre. We will then run an advert of your book to all members of this groups and pages. Your book-cover, along with its Amazon.com buy link, will display on their news-feed and homepage every time they log into Facebook. You will see the advertising evident yourself, because we will include your UID (Facebook User ID) in the promotion before it starts.

We want to make this promotion affordable for every writer, so we have lowered it to $50 to get your book promoted to 1,000s of Facebook users everyday for a duration of one month. If you want to be promoted for six month, then you should change the quantity of your order to 6. A one year's promotion will means 12 quantity order. Get started and apply at; http://j.mp/X0lEXb.

Want a fuller exposure, to at least 500,000 readers? Upgrade to our V.I.P Services, provided at, http://j.mp/X0l5wk.

This post was recently published on our website: ianmooremorrans.com

    At left  you'll see a photo of "editor me" at my desk on one of the last days before retirement (in 2004) as Editor of Esprit magazine and Program Director for Evangelical Lutheran Women at our office on the second floor of Portage Place in Winnipeg. In addition I've included a photo of the gift I received at my retirement party in July 2004. As Ian and I were preparing to take off  for a retirement adventure driving down to Mexico in our newly acquired 35-foot motorhome, my boss chose to wrap an assortment of "helps" for that trip inside or underneath a large box decorated to look like our motorhome - complete with photos of Ian as driver and me as passenger.

After several years in Mexico, with trips up to Manitoba to maintain our Canadian residency, we returned to Canada for good. I hope to start blogging about our Mexico sojourn in the near future. Time will tell if I ever get to it. While there in Mexico I began editing Ian's writings and am continuing that in our present home in British Columbia, as well as now contributing to his writings. Here my desk is in our little den and I look out the window at the low mountains surrounding our part of the Okanagan Valley. The desk is different from the one at ELW, but just as messy. That's the way I work. I do not like a messy final product, however, and decided that it was time for me to have an editor's rant about what I am seeing on some web blogs and in many comments that come into our site.

I don't think I'm unique in claiming frustration when reading some comments on web blogs or even some particular web blogs which are so full of errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation or just plain English that I feel compelled to edit them as I'm reading. Sometimes even understanding them is impossible, so I quit reading and trash the comment or close the web blog.

As I routinely check out other web blogs, I am more-often-than-not impressed by so many varied topics and excellent writing, but am also occasionally appalled by the lack of English writing skills by some bloggers. In those cases, I cross those web blogs off the list of ones I want to follow, no matter how interesting the topic might be. I find it painful to read something when I feel a need to correct practically every sentence. (As an aside: I lived in Germany for 18 years and ended up speaking passable German but would never in my life think of hosting a blog in German! I wouldn't feel confident enough to do a decent job of it. My late husband who worked in a profession there, could easily have hosted a blog in German. Obviously his language skills were much superior to mine.)

My motto is: "check, double-check and recheck anything you post", for it is easy to miss a word here or there if one doesn't do so. I always try to self-edit any of my blogs and usually have Ian read through them before posting. That isn't to say that I might not post a small grammatical or spelling error from time to time. It happens to the best of us. Almost inevitably after checking and re-checking the magazine I edited and having our executive director and a professional copy editor go over everything before publishing, I would find some little thing wrong when reading the issue after publication.

In the past I've found myself editing a lot of comments that come in on this web blog so that they can be understood. I conclude that quite a few of those who comment on posts do not have English as their first language and are obviously using an English-to-another-language dictionary when they make their comments. Perhaps they are taking an ESL course and have been given an assignment to comment on specific web posts. (Comments often come from the same site with different email addresses.) If that is the case, how I wish the instructor would at least give them some help in making the comments understandable. It is nice to get compliments or constructive criticism, but not if the comment cannot be readily understood and if the blogger receiving the comment has to edit it extensively in order to print it. WordPress usually identifies these type of comments as "spam"; in the past I've looked at every comment and sometimes chose to "un-spam"a few because I'd like to honour the intent. I have edited them for comprehension, though. I'm wondering if other bloggers have chosen to do this or if these type of comments simply get trashed. Here's an example of one comment we recently received, showing the places where I have cut out more than half of the words and added clarifying words in order to get what I think the commenter intended.

"Attractive section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to assert that I acquire in fact enjoyed account your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your [web blog.] augment and even I achievement you access consistently fast."

Another recent commenter asserted that, though our blog's content was good, many of the posts were "rife with spelling issues." Well, that got my dander up! I did, however, calm down and try to address what I thought might be the problem. Here's my answer:

"We’re surprised to hear that you find several of our posts 'rife with spelling issues'. We are wondering if you might be pointing out our use of the British way of spelling English words, as opposed to the American way. (An example would be the use of “ou” in place of “o” as in “neighbour.” We are Canadians and so use the British way of spelling. I (Gayle) am the blogger and, though American-born, changed my way of spelling sometime after I emigrated to Canada and became editor of a Canadian magazine. I’ve kept up that way of spelling in retirement and, as Ian is British-born and I edit his writing, that method has worked out well for us. Then, too, Ian speaks Scottish-English so when he writes about Scotland in either his novels or memoirs, he uses what I call “Scottishisms.” Some of those words are only found in Scottish-English or may mean something entirely different in Scotland than they do in other countries where English is spoken. We’ve pointed that out in some of our posts about his memoir, “From Poverty to Poverty: A Scotsman Encounters Canada.” I had quite an education in “Scottishisms” when editing that book! In addition, I had to turn off the spell-check as my word-processing program gave up on providing corrections! Of course, even editors sometimes need to be edited; however, I try to double-check whatever I post. We’d be interested in hearing from you further so that you could point out some examples of those spelling issues. Looking forward to hearing from you." To date, we have received no further communication on this subject.

That brings up the challenge when commenting on web posts of exactly what to say. Sure it is nice to have affirmation that someone "enjoyed" a post or found it "awesome" or "educational" or "informative." But does that really help the blogger to know how they are connecting with the reader? In haste I, too, sometimes choose to just give kudos by checking the "like" button on a post; but if I take the time and REALLY like or dislike something I try to comment on it. How did I feel when I read the post? Intrigued? Scared? Amused? Why and how? Perhaps the blogger was promoting a book, a picture, a poem or a piece of music that he/she had written, drawn, photographed or performed. Did the blog catch your interest so that you plan to order the book or picture, quote the poem or obtain the recording? Did the post remind you of a happening in your own life or a person you met or an emotion you felt? Then describe that connection. You might wish to reblog the post, giving credit to the writer and quote your reaction to it on your own blog or on Facebook, Twitter or the like.

Conversely, if a post draws a negative response from me and I think it can be constructive, I'd like to think that I would be willing to document why I had that response. Although I didn't post the following comment on a novel writer's blog but instead posted it on Amazon after reading the novel, here is an example of how I could make both a positive and, I hope, constructive negative response to the novel on a writer's blog:

"You have written a well-rounded story about a group of characters, each flawed in a unique way, all seeking redemption. Your background in counseling is evident throughout; perhaps that is what makes your story so believable. Your prose is clear, yet poetic. Your descriptions of both characters and scene are captivating. I would have given this book five stars had it not been for the unnecessary profanity which I felt cheapened the narrative, especially those instances when the name of Jesus was invoked through cursing."

I send a challenge to bloggers and commenters alike: If you can't edit your own postings, please, please find someone who can do the edit for you.

Please and thanks in a spirit of kindness and mutual understanding. Keep the relevant and understandable comments coming!

Gayle Moore-Morrans
P.S. In the meantime we have recently received a comment (perhaps sent in error?) which went on for several hundred words.  The comments were obviously a multiple choice list of helps for would-be commenters who needed guidance on how to word comments they wanted to make on various posts. In the past the comments we received from that particular commenter had included, solely or partly, promotions for his web blog that included little or nothing about the post he was supposedly commenting on. Many of the multiple-choice comments he included sounded similar to many of the comments we have received from a number of people over time. Thus, in the future I intend to honour Word Press' use of Akismet to check incoming comments and rate them as "spam", then delete the spam comments without reading them. Most of us writers and editors who blog find it difficult to have enough time to do our writing or editing what with all the other duties and distractions of life. We don't need 276 comments in our "Spam Comments" section. That is the number I encountered last week after not checking the comments for about a week's time. For the first time, I chose to permanently delete all those spam comments without even looking at them.  I truly appreciate the efforts a number of commenters make in sending in compliments or kudos on our posts, or even criticisms when they are constructive. However, I'm trying to promote our books or share views on writing, photographing, reminiscing or life in general and am hoping to glean relevant information from other bloggers instead of spending valuable time reading, rewriting, replying to or trashing umpteen comments a day. I am sharing these words in hopes that others will understand my frustrations and those of other bloggers who are surely having similar problems with unwarranted comments. Perhaps some of them will attempt to correct their comments or have them edited by someone else or those who just want to advertise their own blogs will cease and desist. At least I won't have to relate to them if I trust Akismet's weeding out those comments.

I recently attended the RomCon in Denver. The cost of travelling, accommodations, registration, food reached to nearly $2,500. Was it worth it?

So far, I’d have to say in monetary return – no. That is, unless the connections I made translates into a sudden burst of sales at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Not likely.

In terms of a useful experience, maybe. The speakers ranged from terrible to great. The organization of the event could have been better. The accommodation was poor (I froze in some of the lecture rooms and my room flooded from a leak in the ceiling, etc.) Did I have fun? I’ll explain later. Did I learn anything? Not as much as I hoped.

What was good:

1. I met some amazing authors
   • Barbara Vey, http://barbaravey.com/aboutbarbara/
   • Cherry Adair, http://cherryadair.com/
   • Rebecca Grace, http://www.rebeccagrace.com/index.html
   • Jennifer Zane, http://jenniferzane.com/  http://jenniferzane.com/cover-design/
   • Marsha West, http://www.marsharwest.com/
   • Debra Holland, http://drdebraholland.com/
2. Excellent presentations on character development, plot workshop, cover design workshop, the value of independent publishing, and writing sex scenes.
3. Entertainment: My favorite event was the Mimosa Madness. Authors participated in a social event wherein participants had to complete a bingo-like card. The fun in finding the author to match the description on the card made way for a crazy and zany hour of getting to know everyone. The prizes were terrific. And the mimosa, yummy!
4. Facility (Crown Plaza Airport): food was tasty and served quickly

What could have been better:

1. Speakers should stay on topic(some speakers strayed off topic half the time)
2. Speakers should allow time for questions
3. Audio / visual equipment in working order
4. Sound system improvement (echos distract and make comprehension difficult)
5. Ensure lecture room temperatures are comfortable
6. Improve registration – ensure registrants are greeted upon arrival and understand procedures (I arrived Thursday early evening but no one had info or handouts; the next morning the registration felt chaotic)
7. The book signing event could have been two evenings instead of one short event.

One of my favorite memories:

I met Kasi and Jerrie Alexander, fellow authors published by Omnific Publishing

The worst:

My main goal was to gain insight into marketing techniques. Lo and behold, that was the worst lecture. The author talked about her experience with online dating service. I waited for the real meat and potatoes on marketing. It never came. Ugh!

The second biggest disappointment was attending the “Birds of a Feather Reader Chat & Book Giveaway.” When I entered the room and discovered piles of books on each chair, I felt overwhelmed with the generosity. This event was led by a rep from the Book Reading Gals. Casual is good but being sloppily dressed in front of your guests is an insult. After a USA chant (not being American, I felt out of place, again), the rep began to mention book titles and author names. Her favorite expression was ‘OMG’ or ‘Oh my God,’ but I don’t recall hearing why any of the books rated the ‘OMG’. This went on for the entire hour as she strutted within the circle of attendees. The attendees were mature people and deserved more than ‘OMG.’

Did I have fun? I did until the insult.

During an event someone pointed to me and told the room full of people that I was from Canada. She turned her back to me, then made a statement ending in ‘eh.’ Everyone thought it was humorous, except me. Until that point I felt just one of the many people enjoying the day. After that, I felt like an outsider and disrespected.

I’m attending one more writer’s convention this year. It’s the When Words Collide in Calgary, Alberta, August 8-10. The cost will be small as it’s only a short drive from home and a bunch of us authors are sharing the cost. Finger crossed this event will prove to be worth it.Life of a Writer

We wish you well in your journey.

Members of our PREMIUM-MEMBERSHIP group would eventually receive all of these services and more. Sign up for the membership at, indiewritersupport.com/premium-membership.

Jack Trader crept inside the last of the upstairs rooms, his flashlight gripped in his hand. The rickety floorboards groaned in protest under his weight. Considering the luck he’d had the last few months, the bottom would probably give way.

He forced his concern aside and glanced around. Pink-striped paper, tattered and faded, covered the walls of the only room on this level that showed any sign of use as a bedroom. A female’s.

Could she be the presence in the house? Or was it someone else?

“See anything, Jack?” The voice of his partner, Cody McCoy filled his left ear, the Bluetooth-type hardware transmitting with ease. The ultimate goal for his team was to catch sight of an orb of glowing energy, a sure indicator of paranormal activity.

“I’m in the last of the rooms. Give me a second.” Jack moved to the window, his eyes straining to make out anything that wasn’t illuminated by the light’s stream.

Nothing.

He glanced back toward the door.

Nope. Not a thing to indicate a ghost inhabited the house.

Maybe the reports of the old Martin place being haunted were merely rumor—blown out of proportion by a bunch of overzealous, trespassing kids. It’d hardly be the first time, or the last, for that matter. Jack was disappointed all the same. He needed something to film, or they’d have to write off this trip to the boot hills of Missouri as another wild goose chase. Specter, Inc. couldn’t afford many more of those, especially after losing their funding. A disaster he blamed on himself.

Heaving a sigh of frustration, he started for the door. In the middle of the room, a sudden chill engulfed him.

He stopped.

Was it an apparition or a simple draft?

“Cody,” he whispered, “I walked into a cold spot.” The temperature dipped lower, an arctic blast biting into his skin, and the hairs on his nape bristled.

A sharp, almost inaudible voice uttered, Get out.

Jack’s heart rate spiked.

The stories surrounding the abandoned pig farm claimed the ghost, or ghosts, involved in the haunting weren’t exactly friendly, and this seemed to fit. Those two words sure as hell didn’t sound like a, “Hello, welcome to my humble abode.”

He fumbled in his back pocket and pulled out the Tri-field EMT meter. With steady fingers, he switched the gadget on, and the red needle gave a frantic jump. A current filled the room, caused by no credible power source in the house. According to the Electrical Association’s records, there’d been no electricity running to this home in years—not since the last known resident left.

Now, if they could get their cameras set up in a hurry, they’d see what range of kinetic energy this spirit had.

“Bring up the equipment, Cody. I think we have something.”

“On my way.”

Intending to meet his partner halfway, Jack walked toward the entrance. Wham! The door slammed shut in front of him.

His heart collided with his ribcage. “Son of a...”

When the pace of his heartbeat calmed, he eased closer. He reached for the doorknob and pulled back when his palm made contact with frost. Okay, Jack, ol’ boy. Get a grip. Literally. Prepared for the cold this time, he grasped the knob and twisted, but the door refused to budge. Footsteps thudded on the stairs. Had to be Cody, on his way up.

“Where you at, Jack?”

“I’m in here,” he shouted. “I can’t get the door handle to turn.”

Glass shattered behind him, and Jack pivoted. A grayish, mist-like image hovered next to the now jagged edges in the frame of the window. An icy, gale-force wind whipped the thin sheers hanging from above.

Whoever haunted this house was pissed.

The knob behind him rattled, which prompted his attention toward the door again.

“Jack.” The hitch in Cody’s voice signaled his concern. “You okay in there?”

“We have an angry one.” Jack turned back to the window. The specter had disappeared.

Several bangs erupted from the door, and Cody charged through, his green eyes widening when they landed on the broken glass. “What the hell happened?”

“I guess it doesn’t like company.”

His partner looked around. “It?”

“The apparition I saw next to the window.”

Cody inched closer and held out the equipment bag, awe apparent in his slow stride and his hushed tone. “An actual specter? Was it in solid form, a misty image, or an orb?”

“A gray mist.” Jack reached for the bag. “We need to get everything set up, plugged in, then turn the power on in our van so we can have something to show at the Ghost Hunter’s forum in three months.”

Cody slapped his hands together and rubbed. “I can’t wait to see Giles Holland’s face when we have footage this year. It’s been such a dry spell for us. Hopefully, this will only be the beginning of what’s to come for Specter, Inc..”

Jack smiled. “From your lips to ghost’s ears.”

Facebook as we all know it is a massive trafficking tool for internet users. In today's lesson, I will show you all the tricks that Facebook has to offer to published writers.

I will show you the six most important procedures of setting up your facebook's marketing platform, and the first step is 'Setting up your Fan-Page.' If you already have a Fan Page, skip to step 11 below to learn how to optimize the Fan page for better results.

"Setting up your Fan Page"

1. Log-in to Facebook.com

2. Visit this link to set-up a page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?campaign_id=372931622610&a...

3. Choose the “Artist, Band, or Public Figure” tile—it’s in the lower-left corner

4. Select either “author” or “writer” from the drop-down menu and enter your name (see note below)

NOTE:  Other Facebook Pages that may appeal to writers include:  “book,” “book store,” “fictional character,” “library,” or “magazine” under the “Entertainment” category (the lower middle tile), and “media, news, and publishing” under the “Company, Organization, or Institution” category (upper middle tile)

5. Check the box to agree to Facebook’s Pages Terms

6. You will be greeted by the “Get Started” page, just to the right of this text, there will be a like button, click it.

7. You’ll see a numbered list of steps. Step 1: Upload a picture. People are more likely to trust a page with a picture, I think (even if it’s merely a book cover or an avatar)

8. Steps 2 and 3—invite your friends and import your contacts. When you click to invite your friends a screen will pop up with all of your existing Facebook contacts, you can search for particular friends that you think may be interested, filter your friends by the lists you’ve set up, or just go through everybody and click who you want to invite. To import your contacts, you’ll have to upload a contact list or enter your email account ID and password.

9. An alternative/supplemental approach to tap your existing fan base:  Scroll to the bottom of the left-hand column and click “share.” This will post a promo of your new site to your Facebook feed. Write a comment asking your friends to like your new page.

10. Fill in the info for your page. You’ll need to provide as much information as you can (concisely written so as not to overwhelm the page-viewer). For an author page, this will include:  name, address, affiliation, birthday, about, description, biography, awards, favorite books, gender, personal information, personal interests, email, phone, and website—obviously some of this information may be too personal to share and other categories are a bit redundant. Only fill in what you want to fill in.

"Optimizing your Fan Page"

11. Click on the “Edit Page” button located in the top right corner.

12. Go to “Apps,” it’s located on the left side-bar

13. The first app listed is “Events.” Set up an event called “Please like my author page.” Specify a longer time period like one week or one month for where list the link to your new fan page. Under the description, write something like “Won’t you please like my new author page? It will only take you a second, but it would mean the world to me. Thank you J” You may also want to write in a bit about how to like your page, step-by-step instructions—this may be required if you want your less tech-savvy friends (like your Grandma or Great Uncle Herman) to like you. Invite all of your friends to this event. This is the number one best way to get followers.

14. If you want to include discussion boards on your site, which I highly recommend for an author’s page. Go back to the “Edit Page” screen and return to the “Apps” page. Scroll down to the discussion boards and click “edit settings,” then click “add.” You can also do this to add in other standard apps like notes, videos, events, photos, and links—yes, you have to add all of that manually now, thanks to the new layout.

15. I also highly (HIGHLY) recommend adding “RSS Graffiti” to your Facebook page. I prefer this to the other, more popular “Social RSS,” because it is far more reliable. It will run your RSS feed directly to your Facebook wall. As I’ve said before, Twitter is the best way to find new followers for your blog or website; Facebook is how you’re going to keep them coming back. https://www.facebook.com/RSS.Graffiti

16. Another app for your Fan Page that gets my shining endorsement is the aptly named “Fan Appz.” You can use it to set up quizzes, polls, give-aways and much more.  https://apps.facebook.com/fanappz/

17. Link your Facebook page to your other social networks.  Add a “like me” button to the sidebar of your blog or website. Ask your Twitter family to like your page (bonus tip: if you say something like “I only need X more fans to customize my Facebook author page URL. Please “like” me. I follow back!” you are much more likely to get people to head on over to your page—don’t forget to add a link to your tweet).

18. Once you’ve secured your first 25 fans, you’ll be able to customize your page URL. To do this you need to go to https://www.facebook.com/username/Enter your desired page name, and if it’s available it’ll become yours! Make sure you choose a good name, because you won’t be able to change it once it’s set. Customizing your URL means that your link will look something like this: www.facebook.com/emlynchand

19. Add favorite pages. Go to any page you want to add as a favorite to your page. In the left column, you’ll find “add this to my page’s favorites” listed directly after the number of users who like that page. Add the page, and if you’re smart, you’ll post on its wall, saying “hey, I added your page to my page’s favorites. Any chance you’d be willing to return the favor?” Make sure to include your link with your request.

"Create Your Author-App with your Fan Page"

Perhaps one of the most crucial of all facebook apps for writers, this application will build an Amazon Buy Link for your published books with options for readers to join your mailing list or sample the book, but only after they Liked it (pressing the like button). This app is so exciting. All you will have to do is enter your ISBN numbers and the facebook app will link with your published books on Amazon.com. The step on how to set up this AuthorApp is further explained below.

1. After creating your Fan Page, go to this facebook site; http://apps.facebook.com/authorapp/ and a page will show up that says 'The Author Marketing App.' Click on the 'Let's get started-" button and the page will direct you to your established Fan Page.

2. The application will ask you to use your fan Page, and after choosing so, you will see the Author-App as an app button. It is a big red button, titled “Read My Book”. When you click it, the app takes you to a separate tabbed page. Under the Author-App tab, you can create an author profile which includes a mailing list, and an option for you to put your books for sale.

3. You can provide each book you list with the buying link URL (to Amazon or similar), price, description, cover shot image, and two fields that allow you to input an URL or upload a PDF file of your book's excerpt.  This can be entered manually, or you can add a book simply using an ISBN number.  This feature also allows you to bring in details of other books not published by you. Yes, I know, it is exciting.

Here is a Author-App page created by one of our members here at Indie Writers Support. Check it out and see what your Author-App with facebook will look like after you're finished. View the sample here; https://www.facebook.com/AuthorApp/Author-Korede-Abayomi/

We hope that you enjoy this lecture, and look forward to reading more as we continue.

"How do I invite people to like my Page via email? "

If less than 5,000 people like your Page, you can invite your email contacts to like your Page. You can upload a file containing your email contacts and Facebook will securely import them. You can also import your contacts by providing your web email address and password. You can then suggest your Page to your contacts.

To invite your email contacts:

1. Click Build Audience at the top of your Page
2. Select Invite Email Contacts...
3. Upload a contact list file or choose your email service and follow the instructions

Facebook won't store your password after importing your contacts. They may use the email addresses you upload to help people connect on Facebook. If you don't want them to store this information, you can manage your imported contacts.

Note: You can import contacts up to five times for a maximum of 7,000 contacts per day per Page. Read more about this from the facebook help center; https://www.facebook.com/help/212291088790957.

Get a list of 900,000 Facebook members in the U.S.A with profile links and email addresses at http://bit.ly/2uf42bV.

Use this tool, http://www.onlineemailextractor.net, to extract the email addresses from the 900,000 list effortlessly. Extract up to 10,000 at a time.

"Run a Facebook Contest with Fan Page"

Creating a contest hosted on your business page is a great way to create buzz about your fan page. You can run a contest through a Facebook app such as rafflecopter. You can also now run a contest directly through your business page as long as the rules and restrictions are properly outlined and that the ways to win are made clear.

"Add a Fan Gate"

What is a Fan Gate? Fan gates (also referred to as like gates) have users “Like” a page before they can see the posts, contests, or products that are offered on an application inside of your fan page. You do this by adding an app to your page. If you want to display different information to fans you can use ShortStack; if you are looking to promote a Facebook store or a daily deal you should use an app specifically for that such as ShopTab for your Facebook store or SharedDeal for your daily deal. All these apps are equipped with optional fan gates that will prompt users to like your page before they can view your deals or products.

Get a list of 900,000 Facebook members in the U.S.A with profile links and email addresses at http://bit.ly/1mixFPP

Use this tool, http://www.onlineemailextractor.net, to extract the email addresses from the 900,000 list effortlessly. Extract up to 10,000 at a time.

The number of great indie books out there is astounding – beyond what I think most people truly understand. I’ve been in this business long enough to have learned that the legacy publishers don’t always pick the greats, which leaves more for the discerning public. Every author that I have added to my “lifetime favorites” list in the past 2 years has been an indie author. The general public, they don’t quite get this yet. I think that when indie “packaging” meets a professional standard, that begins to change.

The packaging for a book comes down to just two things. The cover and the blurb. One or the other is the *only* thing you have to grab reader’s attention. They’ve both got to be well crafted and professionally honed or you *will* lose potential readers.

Most people “cover surf.” In book stores, they scan the shelves and only touch the books that have covers that they are attracted to; no touch=no chance for purchase. Similarly, on the internet, they scroll through a ton of books and only click when a cover catches their eye; no click = no chance for purchase. The cover has to catch their eye so the blurb can keep them interested. Lack of attention to either element and an author’s best tool for marketing falls flat on its face.

A book release is like its red carpet debut. What do you want it to be wearing? Would you remember a celebrity walking down the red carpet in an off-the-rack or homemade gown. Those celebrities want to be remembered for what they are wearing and how they are styled in a positive way. They take a long time planning, and spend a fortune on the way they “package” themselves for an event. They understand the marketing opportunity of their attire and they grab it and run with it.

Book covers should be considered in the same light. Possibly given even more consideration, since a book usually gets only one red carpet gown. So pay attention to what you’re dressing your books in. They’ve taken months, years, and sometimes decades to produce. Give them the packaging they deserve. Plan ahead, hire someone who knows what it takes to make a book speak for itself. Without the right cover and the right blurb, a book might walk right by the spectators and go completely unnoticed and unrecognized as the masterpiece it is.

The relationship between an author and a literary agent is multi-layered and rich. Part muse, part accountant, the agent guides the author through the unknown waters of a writing career, from the sublime to the mundane.

The cornerstone of the relationship is strength in negotiation. Basically, the agent’s commission is 15% and that is 15% of proceeds --- whatever the author gets. The agent should be able to get at least 15% more for the author than the author could get for him or herself. That means that everything else, every other benefit of the relationship is, in a sense, free.

The first benefit, aside from strength in negotiation, lies in being part of a nexus, a web of publishing relationships, the editors that the agent deals with, the other authors and even, independent publishing professionals. This web of relationships brings me into contact with online directories and, as I have time, I fill them out. Once such directory is “Who Represents…”, part of Publishers Marketplace. As I filled out an entry for A Time to Heal, a more than twenty-year old, backlist recovery book by Timmen Cermak, M.D., little did I know that a Polish recovery publisher was looking on the internet for the agent for the book, to arrange a translation.

Directories and entries that list clients, even my web site, are all little showcases of books that I represent and can lead to new opportunities in the global publishing marketplace.

Another, more obvious benefit grows out of being a creative sounding board and helping shape the author’s new work. For this, I often use the Socratic method, sitting with an author and asking questions about their experience with the topic (since I only handle nonfiction) until a mutual “light bulb” goes off and what seems obvious finally reveals itself.

I remember sitting with psychologist and dream expert, Alan Siegel, for six hours, drinking coffee, helping to shape the idea for his first book, Dreams That Can Change Your Life.
Once the idea for a new project is shaped and focused, it becomes necessary to express that idea in a blueprint known as the book proposal. rint known as the book proposal.

The Book Proposal is a convention. It is formulaic. A way of establishing common ground among diverse book concepts so they can be judged. A secondary benefit derives from the fact that if an author goes through the exercise of creating a proposal, he or she will have a thorough understanding of the book they are proposing to write. For structuring the proposal, I prefer the model established by Mike Larsen in How To Write A Book Proposal . An agent, who has written dozens of proposals, assists the author in putting their unique proposal together. Because I have experience as a publisher, I can look at a proposal from that point of view and help make it bullet-proof.

Deciding what publishers should receive each proposal is part science and part art. It is based on past relationships as well as knowledge as to who is publishing what. Today, most submissions take place electronically via email.

Assuming you have done your homework well and that there is interest in your project, you will often have to wade through a minefield of questions and qualifications like “How much is written?” “Can the author beef up their platform?”

Today, an author is expected to take the lead in online efforts and social media used to promote their book. The agent will step forward to tutor the author in social media or to suggest classes or coaches who can help them learn how to promote their book online (blogging, email marketing, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Sometimes the first question an ac acquiring editor will ask is “What is his or her platform”. The conventional wisdom is that creating your platform is at least as important as writing your book.

Negotiating the major terms of a book contract is glamorous and sexy: Advance, royalty rate and subsidiary rights splits. Negotiating the rest of the contract is tedious but necessary. Option clauses, noncompetition clauses, right to audit and so on. Agents will know which publishers can give way on which clauses.

Once the contract is signed, the editorial process takes over. Generally, agents will step back and let the creative energy flow between editor and author. However, every once in a while, there arises a profound difference of opinion between author and editor. At this point, the agent steps forward to mediate the process, essentially becoming the author’s advocate to the editor and the editor’s advocate to the author, until the situation is rectified.

The same conflict resolution function takes place during the marketing phase of the book, something that often resembles “shuttle diplomacy.”

Agents are invaluable in helping authors decide what their next book should be and how this might fit in with a longer term career plan. Nowhere else can an author go for objective advice in either of these categories.

Looked at from this point of view, the agent-author relationship is one of the great bargains in publishing. The agent works on commission. On speculation. You don’t get paid. We don’t get paid. Chances are that the commission rate will be absorbed by the negotiating strength of the agent. That is, they will obtain an offer at least 15% better than you could have gotten yourself.

The agent functions as an editor and helps shape the book idea, offers advice on how to develop and build a promotional platform, helps create the book proposal, researches potential publishers, negotiates the major terms of the contract, negotiates the minor terms, smoothes over the editorial and marketing processes and helps maintain the publishing relationship.

Agents are not just dealmakers, they are midwives to the publishing process.

Peter Beren, Literary Agent and Publishing Consultant, is the author of The Writers Legal Companion, California the Beautiful and The Golden Gate. Formerly the Publisher of Sierra Club Books, VIA Books and VP of the Palace Press Group, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. www.Peterberen.com

As an editor I, unsurprisingly, receive submissions that have been deemed, by agents or friends, much too long. While an acclaimed book like Donna Tartt’s Goldfinch can run 784 pages, I would advise most writers not to scale such heights. The desired maximum length agents frequently cite these days is 100,000 words, or 400 double-spaced manuscript pages. If you have written 160,000 words, though, you have roughly 630 manuscript pages. You have to ask yourself: are my characters and plots strong enough to support that much reading? If you are a debut author, an agent or publisher will likely tell you: don’t think so. They may not read past that figure in your initial query letter.

You can employ a variety of strategies to pare down the length. You can comb through the draft looking for extra verbiage, redundancy, and the like. That’s what I do during a line edit. You will probably not achieve as much reduction, however, as you intended. I tend to compress a great deal as a line editor, and yet I expect to take out only 10 percent of a manuscript that way. In our hypothetical example, that reduces 160,000 words to 144,000. You’re still not even in the right ballpark.

You need to think in terms of broader strokes. One useful place to start is examining characters just beyond your top circle. If you are using an omniscient narrative voice, you will have maybe three dominant narrators. A triad allows you to cover a lot of ground while at the same time limiting the number of persons in which the reader deeply invests his sympathies. A character outside that circle may appear less often, carrying 5-10 scenes, say. The truth is, you may have written further scenes for her because once you started her plot line, you had to play it out to a satisfying conclusion. That is a prime candidate for reduction.

When I suggest this strategy to authors, a common response is: I guess you’re right. I’ll just cut her out of the book. Leaving aside the distress that such an abject submission connotes, I actually feel that only the point of view needs to be addressed. This is a character whose viewpoint has been running those 5-10 scenes. Cutting a character entirely out of a book can require significant rewriting, and all you want to do is cut down the length. She could be cut down so that she appears as only a supporting character in her early scenes. That way you as the author don’t need to worry about filling out her plot line—because she has been relegated to another’s plot line.

The other consideration here is: what theme is the character embodying? Many authors devise a character to convey an underlying message. You might want to study whether one of your major characters’ portrayal can be expanded to include that theme. In so doing you are strengthening a character in which you already want readers to invest their emotions. In the name of reducing the length, you are adding power to an aspect of the book you want to enhance anyway.

Exercise: If you need major cuts, start by looking at characters just beyond the players that are carrying the novel. You may well find that you don’t even like one of these signficant characters. You had an original conception of weakness, or the like, that you wanted to include, but he has grown into an unsightly weed in your book—just because you had to keep feeding the theme. That’s your guy—slash away!

“My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.”
—Elmore Leonard

Copyright @ 2013, John Paine

If you would like to read more posts from my blog, Building a Book, please visit www.johnpaine.com.

Today I will be showing you the art of creating a sharing page, with added inputs. For those who don't get the gist of this, what I will be doing is now creating facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc website links that will direct you, the clickers, to their social media networks for easy sharing - if you like the links. It is the same method YouTube is using to increase their viewing rate, by adding the sharing snippets (facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, google+) below their video productions, the same snippets that I will now show you how to create. 

What these scripts will allow you to do is directly share your subject (published article, blog, promotional website, social links, video site etc) to multiple social media sites without leaving you page, instead of having to sign into each network and then individually posting to them. These scripts makes it easy to share directly to your network(s) without typing, just press the link and press ok. 

Developers with knowledge of php, sql, asp, html etc can decipher and better understand the language of these web-scripts.

Let's get started. These are the sharing snippets that I created for the Indie Writers Support homepage, facebook, twitter, linkedin, google+ 

(Click or copy&paste these scripts to your web browser to view them)

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.indiewritersupport.com/   (Share us with facebook)

https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%20Follow%20as%20at%20Indie%20Writers%20Support&url=http://www.indiewritersupport.com/     (Share us on twitter)

http://www.linkedin.com/cws/share?url=http://www.indiewritersupport.com/?xgi=1jq69B0jW1qnsY   (Share us on LinkedIn, must be signed in)

https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=oz&passive=1209600&continue=https://plus.google.com/share?url%3Dhttp://www.indiewritersupport.com/profiles/blog/list%26hl%3Den-US%26gpsrc%3Dframeless%26partnerid%3Dframeless&followup=https://plus.google.com/share?url%3Dhttp://www.indiewritersupport.com/?xgi=1jq69B0jW1qnsY   (Share us with Google+)

Now allow me to decipher the language of these scripts to their minimal. The first is a facebook sharing code developed by the facebook developers themselves. To make this link yours, simply replace the website link. For example; https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.indiewritersupport.com/   CAN BE   https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://amzn.com/B007C4CY6A  -----  DO YOU NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE? --------DO THIS; https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.THEWEBSITE.com

The second script is that of twitter. What's special about this twitter sharing script is that it allows you to apply subject inputs with the shaing, of anything less than 140 words of 'course.

Example; https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%20Follow%20as%20at%20Indie%20Writers%20Support&url=http://www.indiewritersupport.com/

If you copy the link to your browser, you will see that the twitter written inputs are highlighted.

Now pay attention to the changes I'm about to make, just like the previous one. Follow the inputs, they will be capitalized. 

https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%20MY%20BESTFRIEND'S%20BOOK,%20AUTHOR%20OMORUYI,%20HIGHLY%20RECOMMENDED&url=http://AMZN.COM/B007C4CY6A

The same system can be apply to the remaining two scripts for LinkedIn and Google+. Simply replace the website links and add your inputs. 

Here is one made for Author Omoruyi Uwuigiaren; facebook, twitter, linkedin, google+  

You can read more about this author here; http://bit.ly/1e0X8qR

These links are best used as hyperlinks when you attach them to your forwarding emails and your social media welcoming messages.

There is another subject that I want to touch bases on. For those who are curious about this sample shorten url for amazon, and how you can apply it to your book, simply follow this step. www.amzn.com is the shortest url link for amazon.com, with the 'a' and 'o' removed. Type the amzn.com to your browser and add your book's ISBN or ASIN number. For example, http://amzn.com/B007C4CY6A will take you directly to Author Omoruyi Uwuigiaren amazon eBook page.

http://amzn.com/(YOUR/ISBN/OR/ASIN/NUMBER)

Another pointer.   www.bn.com and www.book.com are the shortest urls for the Barnes&Noble bookstores. 

Thank you, and I hope that you enjoy this article. Don't forget to share the Indie Writers Support network (facebook, twitter, linkedin, google+).

Share this article. (facebook, twitter, linkedin, google+).

- Judd Miller

We will submit a full-length article pertaining to your book, your life & career, and your upcoming events to the top 55 Article Directory Websites for just $35.

Report will be provided for customer's satisfaction.

Our staff member Judd Miller have been performing SEO services for more than 6 years, and can guarantee your article submission to the top article submission websites.

Shown below are samples of the websites that your article will be published at.

The article, which must be compose by the buyer, should be at least 300 words long, with keywords and URLs.

The full article can contain the author's bibliography, detailed about the published titles, and book excerpt (sample). The live-links, after they published on the world-wide-web, will be pinged so that google, bing and every other search engine websites can pick them up and rank you (and your websites) high online.

Go here to get started: http://bit.ly/12zplTJ

Below is the sample of our latest submissions for author Geoff Greig:

GET THE LIST HERE ($5);   http://bit.ly/1bG32Cc

Authors! Pay attention! We have come up with the solution to your promotional needs. Indie Writers, we love your books and want to see them everywhere. We have come up with a list of over 850 book buyers (people who love books and buys them directly from publishers and book warehouses all around the United States).

If you are a writer who want to increase your readership, we highly recommend that you contact with the people in this list. They are waiting to learn about your published book. You may be the perfect gem they are looking for to increase their monthly quota.

Included in this list of 850 directories are Book Store Owners, Book Vendors, Major & Minor Book Outlets, Independent Book Sellers, Used Book Sellers, Book Club Managers, Book Publicists, Book readers/reviewers/bloggers, Learning Center Managers, University Book Stores, etc. You will get their contact names, phone/fax numbers, locations, and emails. All neatly arranged in a Microsoft Excel file.

Your wait is over.
Give your book the notoriety that it deserves. If you pitch to all of the members in this list, chances are, one of them will store your published book(s) on their book shelf for customers to browse.

Below are samples of the  Book-Stores included in the list.

http://www.eastwestbookshop.com/other/?page=tour
http://commonwealthbooks.com/
http://www.powerhousebooks.com/?page_id=918
http://brattlebookshop.com/
http://mysteryonmain.com/
http://readingfrenzymn.com/
http://www.villagelightsbooks.com/
http://192books.com/

GET THE LIST HERE;   http://bit.ly/1bG32Cc

This list will be delivered to you automatically after your payment is processed.

Want to message them all at once? You can do so by using our mass emailing software ($12) that can send out unlimited emails everyday. Order the mass emailing software here; http://ning.it/14Wzw87

Our mission at Indie Writers Support is to build the most collaborative community in the world. That said, if you have an exemplary material (excerpt) that you will like to share with us, the public, reviewers etc., go ahead and submit it to us.

We'll like to introduce you to Document Sharing (slideshare, docstoc, scribd etc). With this integrated system anyone can Print, Download, Read and Share your published work(s) directly from any internet browser. This widens the chance of many readers actually sharing your sample works, either among friends or through class rooms, and then actually ordering the book / eBook from a store if it really grabs them.

An example of this Document Sharing Publishing is embedded below.

To be included in this free sampling, submit your book's cover, a bio, the book link, and a five page sample (Microsoft Words Document) from any one of the chapters in your book. We will handle the typesetting and formatting.

A formal agreement will be needed before we can display your material on this website.

To get started, Sign Up to become a member at http://www.indiewritersupport.com/SignUp/SignIn before making your submission to us. Make sure you title the proposing email as 'Document Sharing Excerpt.'

We will not respond to writers who cannot follow simple instructions. Sorry.

We are offering this service to the public for free.

You can email the 'complete proposal' to bookclub@indiewritersupport.com

Here are list of lucrative jobs for writers that are currently open. Included in the list of employers looking to hire is Amazon.com, McGraw Hill, etc. Check to see if you fit their qualifications.

Sr. Author and Vendor Relations Manager; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6319556&trk=rj_jshp

Senior Editor; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6546779&trk=rj_jshp

Senior Acquisition Editor at AMACOM Books (AMA); http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6415459&trk=rj_jshp

Product Manager - Author & Referee Services; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6184526&trk=rj_jshp

Publishing Project Manager/Pub Editor; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6009888&trk=rj_jshp

Sr. Editor/Curator for Children's illustrated eBooks; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6339314&trk=rj_jshp

Textbook Solutions Author; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=5706094&trk=rj_jshp

Author/Researcher; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6542202&trk=rj_jshp

Technical Writer; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6436014&trk=rj_jshp

Senior Technical Author; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6272249&trk=rj_jshp

Managing Editor; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6185491&trk=rj_jshp

Technical Writer; http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=6529222&trk=rj_jshp

Have a good day.

Glenn T Langohr – Ex-con to Best Seller Author Life Story Book Interview

Why is shale gas important?

On 27 June the Department of Energy and Climate Control (DECC) released a study by the British Geological Survey (BGS) showing that the shale gas resources under a swath of northern England, called Bowland-Hodder shale, could be enough to fuel the UK for 40 years.
As a headline this is remarkable; with hopes of emulating the boom experience by the US over the last 30 years, there is much excitement that UK shale gas could bring economic prosperity to regions rich in this resource and because it could mean UK energy independence. Looking deeply into the report and other materials suggests that we may want to hold off celebrating just yet.

Where is all the gas?

The purple line shows the region studied. The green and pink areas (called prospectives) are those that are most likely to contain large volumes of shale gas that can be successfully extracted[1]
Andrews, I.J. 2013. The Carboniferous Bowland Shale gas study: geology and resource estimation. British Geological Survey for Department of Energy and Climate Change, London, UK

1. The study is not complete
The DECC / BGS estimate comes from data provided by a number of studies and by assuming that the Bowland-Hodder shale has the same characteristics as the Barnett Shale (Dallas Fort Worth area) in the US, as these shales are similar. This only gives the potential amount of gas ‘in place’ - 1329 trillion cubic feet. Recovery rates (how much we can get out) will be determined by ‘top down’ surveys (eg using exploratory wells). The numbers announced by commercial organisations, at this date, are also for gas ‘in place’.
Oil and gas companies in the US measure the financial viability of shale gas resources using thirteen criteria. Overall, in the Bowland-Hodder shale, five criteria are clearly met, two are satisfied using partial data, one fails and three are unknown. The failed criteria is the size of the ‘basins’ (small), and the high number of faults present in the UK prospectives; small basins and faults make gas extraction less productive.

2. Shale Gas is ‘fracked’ and the UK doesn’t have fracking expertise or equipment
Commercial experience of current fracking techniques[2] date back to 1996 in the US which also has a mature supply chain for equipment and chemicals. China has also – very quickly – become proficient at extracting tight gas, though it is not known how much money they have spent to develop their own fracking industry. The earliest proposed date for commercial gas production from Bowland-Hodder is 2015 and to succeed techniques specific to our geology have to be developed and proven.
3. Economic prosperity doesn’t happen automatically
In 1977 the Economist coined the term Dutch Disease or Oil Curse to describe the decline of manufacturing in the Netherlands after Natural Gas was discovered there in 1959. The full potential of the oil curse is seen in countries such as Nigeria where the wealth of oil has had no beneficial impact on the economy or the people or Venezuela where oil wealth was used to boost the economy for political ends. Some people feel that the wealth from North Sea oil and gas has been squandered in a similar way.
Given that fracking expertise and supply chains lie outside the UK, the best jobs are likely to go to foreign contractors and foreign factories will make the equipment and chemicals needed. While UK government will get income from licences and taxes, local industry will have to adapt very quickly to make the most of the boom.
Production from the Barnett shale started to ramp up in 2000 and is believed to have peaked in 2010. If the comparison is valid, then UK industry has around 10 years to build up expertise and put it in the field, because demand for equipment and experts will drop off with production.
4. What happens when the gas is all used up
As early as ten years and certainly in forty years’ time, extraction will have slowed, any economic benefits that have ‘trickled down’ will have dried up. Gas communities will face the same future as those built with coal and steel.
At the same time countries with larger reserves will be more than willing to sell gas to us…
5. Fracking is not a pretty industry
In the Barnett shale an average of 1.15 wells per km2 have been drilled. In some areas there are 6 wells per km2. Based on an average extraction rate of 1.44 billion cubic feet of gas per well, this means we will need 92 wells to extract 10% of the gas in place in the Bowland-Hodder shale. Wells sit on a pad that has space for equipment. Each well pad is a touch smaller than a football pitch. A pad can hold as many as six horizontal wells; each with a reach of up to two miles.
Good road access is needed to transport heavy equipment. Road transport may also be required to remove waste water and gas, unless the pad is connected to a gas pipeline or rail transport can be used.
If fracking licences are even-handed with quarrying and open cast mining licences, land disturbed by fracking will have to be restored when wells have stopped producing gas.
6. Safety and environmental record of the industry
Every oil and gas field has, inadvertently, let their product spill into the local environment; transport such as pipelines leak; rail and sea transport is equally prone to escapes. Methane is not like oil, it is invisible and doesn’t smell, leaks can be hard to find, with devastating consequences. The industry is not known for actively seeking to reduce such leaks, as demonstrated by our own experience.
The North Sea oil and gas fields have been active since 1851, next year will be the 50th anniversary of high volume production, this year saw the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha explosion (which killed 167 men) and during last month there were 55 reported leaks (reported to the DECC). Just over two years’ ago an explosion in a refinery in Pembrokeshire took the lives of four workers, there has been no inquest into the deaths as the enquiry into the cause of the explosion is not complete. That means there have also been no lessons learnt by the industry.
At all US fracking fields (oil and gas) burn gas in situ (flared) because it is disruptive, uneconomical to sell or because the infrastructure doesn’t exist to get the gas to market. US fracking fields can be seen from space and light pollution is one of the factors that the neighbours of fracking sites complain of the most. Noise and air pollution are also sources of disturbance.
7. Water
There are claims about methane from fractured rocks reaching underground water. None of these claims have been substantiated, however, Duke University has shown that methane escaping from poorly sealed wells has contaminated water and that injecting waste water into poorly sealed wells can result in pollution of waterways. Neighbours of fracking operations have also complained that holding ponds have leaked fracking fluid (a mix of water and chemicals).
Each well requires 20 to 30 million litres of water. Compared with Barnett shale that means we will use 2 billion litres of water (over forty years this is 0.000003% of the total amount of water we are likely to use in that time). It doesn’t sound much until you think that this means we will have to dispose of 2 billion litres of fracking fluids, contaminated with various other chemicals. In the US waste water is pumped back into old wells.
The Bowland-Hodder shale is in areas rich in cave systems and underground waterways, most of which are unmapped. It seems unlikely that this will be a suitable way of disposing of fracking fluid in the UK.
8. Local government will have to give planning permission
Outside of energy, one of the biggest issues facing the UK is a lack of housing, yet many people oppose government proposals to relax planning constraints for housing. Wind turbine projects do not leave the drawing board because of local opposition. It is likely that planning permission will be equally hard to get.
The government is already testing the water with plans to give communities a share of fracking profits (1%), but in a country where protestors live in trees to prevent road building will such pay offs work?
9. Access to land
In the US getting land to drill through is relatively easy – land prices are lower than in the UK – and in the US land owners have mineral rights, so those in fracking areas are incentivised to allow fracking on their land. The government owns all mineral rights in the UK, with one exception: the Duke of Devonshire owns oil rights for his lands in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
As you can see from the map the Bowland-Hodder region covers several urban areas; outside these areas the country is rural and includes the North Yorkshire Moors. Who is going to sell land for well pads, roads and pipelines?

10. The price of gas isn’t going to go down
From the previous nine points you are possibly already thinking ‘that will make UK shale gas more expensive’ and you would be right; each of the points above will increase the cost of extracting gas from Bowland-Hodder shale.
In December 2012 The Independent reported the release of a study by Wood Mackenzie[3] “Wood Mackenzie estimates that in order to develop UK shale reserves, potential operators would need a gas price of $9.68 per million British thermal units (mbtu) for the project to make economic sense. This is considerably more than this year's average UK spot price of $8.69 per mbtu and the $8 per mbtu that Bloomberg forecasts it will hover around between 2015 and 2020.” While the BGS report has the potential to improve these figures, in the US shale gas wells are closed when the gas price drops too far.
The bad news on pricing doesn’t end there. Supply and demand would suggest that, as gas replaces other fuels, ie coal and oil, it will be in greater demand and its price will rise.
Much is made of a huge price decrease in the US. I have pulled the Energy information Agency's data on prices and can't find much evidence of such a reduction. Here is that data in graphical form

Not much sign of a reduction in price since fracking started in large volumes in the late 1990s.
Data from the US Energy Information Agency (Department of Energy).
Indeed in the ten years from January 2002 to December 2012, the price increased. It increased at the well head and at hubs, it also increased for every customer type - by up to 29%. I only found five instances where a previous price was more than 3 times larger than the price in December 2012, four improved Well Head and Hub prices and one gave Commercial users a bonus (though it was ten years earlier so they could be forgiven for not noticing).

The 29% increase came in the price of natural gas sold to electricity markets - the much heralded displacement of coal. As you would expect this price increase has been passed on to all electricity markets.

From April 2003 to April 2013 US electricity prices rose by around one third.
Data from the US Energy Information Agency (Department of Energy).
Previous ‘energy’ booms have brought prosperity because they enabled trade, commerce and consumerism. Coal allowed mass production and fuelled the railways. Oil brought cheaper energy, mass and personal transportation, and incredible materials. So far, the Shale gas boom has increased the profits of oil and gas companies.
In conclusion
You might think I am anti shale gas – but you would be wrong. I am against blindly putting all our energy eggs in one basket. Some shale gas extraction – done to our standards of safety and environmental care – is necessary and could be profitable / beneficial. But shale gas is not an energy silver bullet, it is an opportunity to power investment into renewable sources of energy and, if that is how we choose to go, nuclear power. We can’t afford to let political expediency and short-term thinking blind side us into an energy cul-de-sac .
________________________________________
[1] An earlier report listed three other areas of interest, the Weald and Wessex basins (pretty much the south coast, up to London / Bristol and ending around the Devon / Dorset border) and the Midland Microcraton (a triangle north of the Weald and Wessex basins, excluding East Anglia and taking in parts of western Wales). The Weald basin is being studied by the BGS and is of interest to Boris Johnson as it includes some parts of London.
[2] Horizontal drilling was introduced in 1991 and ‘slickwater’ or fracking fluid in 1996.
[3] Wood Mackenzie are a multinational research and consultancy group, specialising in global energy, metals and mining industries.

© Michelle Spaul and Leaving the world of work, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Michelle Spaul and Leaving the world of work with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Greetings to All:  I published my first novel, Beaufort Betrayal, over one year ago.  The book has really done well, thanks to all who have read it.  I truly think that it is the result of God's prompting.  I had the same vision each night for a very long time.  Each night, I would see the same thing before going to sleep.  Finally, I prayed that God would direct me.  The result was Beaufort Betrayal.  Honestly, whenever I read the book, I am amazed that I wrote the work.  If you love small sleepy coastal towns with history of that area as well as sailing information, you will treasure this small book.  I kept the size small so that you would be able to stow it in your travel bag or beach tote.  This mystery/thriller will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat.  You will love Beaufort as well as Palm Beach, Florida.  The maid, Estelle will keep you laughing for a while but she changes.  You'll see.

My second novel is Rosemary Beach.  Set in the beautiful town of Rosemary Beach, Florida, the heroine's name is the same.  Although it is a love story of unequalled attraction, just as in life, the story changes when a jealous x- lover enters the scene.  You will be shocked at the ending but love the story of Rosemary and the handsome British born Malcolm.  This book has sold exceedingly well all over the world.

My third book: Will He? is different from the others.  It is a suspense filled tale starting with the little girl, Laura Lombardi.  Follow her life as she loses both her parents and finds that her twin brother, Lars has always hated her.  She leaves Newport, R.I. to live with her only aunt, Sophia, in Frascatti, Italy.  While there, she blossoms into a beautiful young girl both inside and out.  She learns of a hideous family secret so evil that it is never discussed.  Instead of shrinking in fear, she heads back to her Newport home to confront the brother she fears may harm her.  Fall in love with the Italian way of life but never forget that home is where the heart is.

Finally, just released is my first children's book: Dusty the Island Dog.  As you read this to the child in your life, you may find that it appeals to all ages.  The beautiful Abaco, Bahamas is the setting of island life in the Caribbean.  Dusty and her side kick, Winston, the big red dog, will keep you laughing but you will realize the importance of this book for any child who has suffered a loss from death or neglect.  You may include it in your favorite list.

Something for everyone, these books are  for sale in all major bookstores all over the world.  The sales have been unbelievable.  All are Christian books with what I hope is writing that is evolving.  May God bless you and "Happy Reading!"  Linda

http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Heavner-Gerald/e/B00B6SPNPM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Linda-Heavner-Gerald?store=allproducts&keyword=Linda+Heavner+Gerald

From my WordPress blog https://michellespaul.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/fair-trade-kenyan-green-beans-net-good-thing/

Mavis the Fat Fairy asked:

“Always intrigued about fair trade green beans from Kenya. The fact that they are flown in from Kenya scores negative points for environmental impact. But they are fair trade, so doesn’t that mean I should support them, and encourage more fair trade in supermarkets, but what if land is given over for fair trade cash crops that should be used for more sustainable farming….So fair trade Kenyan green beans, are they a net good thing or not?”

Not just yummy, Green Beans are one of your five a day
Photo used with permission by Samuel Cheney (Via morgueFile)

The straight forward answer is – it is a personal choice, depending on what is important to you; so consider these four factors and work out the net ‘goodness’ from your own perspective.

• Carbon aka climate change
• Development
• Water
• Fair Trade

Go straight to the summary

Or to have your question answered go to ‘What should I write about‘.

Carbon aka climate change

(Note I will use Carbon to mean Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide Equivalents, as it is easier on the eyes)

Yes, flying beans from Kenya creates a lot of Carbon and if carbon impact was as simple as food miles then Carbon would be a clear negative for imported green beans.  But, the food miles debate is one-sided and distorts our understanding of Carbon impact, it is now largely discounted (did you know it was initially promoted in the UK through a campaign by the Farmer’s Weekly magazine?).  It is not enough to consider how far food has travelled because food production in the UK, indeed all Western nations, is Carbon intensive.

The Kenyan flag
Via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

The Carbon arguments for food imports from developing nations

In the West we use oil powered equipment vs In Africa most farms depend on manual labour

In the West we use hydrocarbon based fertilisers vs In Africa most farmers use the free fertiliser produced by cows (both produce Nitrous Oxide which is about 300 more powerful than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas, but the cows were doing that anyway)

In the West ‘out of season’ foods are grown in heated greenhouses vs In Africa the sun is enough

In the West growing seasons are prolonged with the use of polytunnels vs In Africa the sun is enough

The Carbon arguments against food imports from developing nations

In the West crop yields are three to four times greater than in Africa

Airfreight is sometimes in the ‘belly’ of passenger planes, thus reducing the cost of, and encouraging more, flights

Can we be more scientific about this?

To be scientific we need to compare the Carbon produced by both the UK and Kenyan supply chains, but this is difficult for two reasons, so even though I provide a number here, you might choose to take it with a pinch of salt.

• When calculating Carbon we have to decide how to manage the data.  In the Netherlands two studies using the same data about importing flowers from Africa drew opposing conclusions because they used the data differently.
• In his book ‘How Bad are Bananas’ Mike Berners-Lee discusses when to stop attributing Carbon to individual items, in his example he asks whether to add the Carbon produced in the manufacture of the paper clips used in an office, to the Carbon calculation for the output of a factory.  In the case of Green Beans we could debate endlessly whether to include the personal carbon footprint of the farmer.

The energy required to grow, package and transport Green Beans – UK vs Kenya

In 2011 PIP, a European forum, issued a report about Food Miles, Carbon and African Horticulture, this report shows that 59 MJ more energy is used to produce Kenyan Green Beans than UK Green Beans.  This is equal to 12 Kg of Carbon per Kg of Kenyan Green Beans.  As mentioned earlier, you might disagree with some of the assumptions made and want to take other factors into consideration.

It is worth noting that for other food stuffs the Carbon arguments are different, for example apples in cold storage in the UK create more Carbon emissions than apples flown from New Zealand.

Air Freighter
Via Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons

Other Carbon thoughts

Carbon trading; in Africa the average Carbon emission per person is 1/30 of that in the UK.  In a Carbon trading scheme – if all else remains equal – Africa could trade the Carbon emissions of flying food to Europe and still produce less Carbon per person than the amount that damages the environment.

There are many other ways of reducing your Carbon foot print which are much more effective than avoiding Kenyan Green Beans, here are a few examples*:

• In 1996 agriculture bought 0.1% of airfreight capacity – banking and finance bought 157 times as much – ask your bank what they are doing about airfreight
• A kilogram of beef releases 36.4Kg  of carbon - eat less meat
• Flying to Barcelona from London releases the same Carbon as 420 packets of Green Beans (250g), flying to New York from Liverpool uses the energy that could fly 1,200 packets of Green Beans – fly less
• The Carbon released by one packet of Beans will fuel 12 school runs – pool with other parents or educate your children nearer to home
• Driving 6.5 miles to the supermarket emits more CO₂ than airfreighting one bag of beans from Kenya – car share or buy on-line
• According to the World Bank flying in 1^st class has three times the Carbon emissions of Business, which in turn has three times the emissions of economy – if you have to fly, fly in economy
• Sea freight uses much less energy than air freight, but vegetables are refrigerated and will still not be as ‘fresh’ when they arrive (it was never going to be an easy choice)

*All these numbers and their sources can be found in the links throughout this article or in the additional reading below

Structural diagram of Carbon Dioxide
Via Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons

Development

The UK has a policy of trade not aid, when you read stories about the way that aid is sometimes spent irresponsibly or stolen this seems like a logical approach.  Countries like Kenya welcome trade and, unlike aid, the money paid for Green Beans goes directly to the farmer.  Once farmers take on an export licence they start to buy their own food from other farmers.  Taken positively this ensures that money trickles down the community; from a negative perspective farmers are forced to displace subsistence crops for cash crops.  Both arguments are valid, though the latter is mitigated by Fair Trade.

Another positive for development is that farmers are encouraged to find better ways of producing food from their land.  The exporting farmers share the techniques and skills developed to grow Green Beans with other farmers and use the same skills to improve farming for other crops.  Our demands for static, if not reducing, food prices produce the downside of development.  To reduce transaction costs some Western buyers of food promote the development of ‘Industrial Estate’ farming, this disengages small farmers from the market (and increases Carbon).

Water

The UK uses 189 million litres of African Water to get its out of season vegetables.  Given the impact of lack of water and poor sanitation has on people in all developing nations, it would seem that a good way to balance our use of their water would be to support one of the many charities that are seeking to make sure that everyone in the world has access to clean water – for example WaterAid or Toilet Twinning

Irrigation – the primary use of water in agriculture
Via WikiMedia Commons, public domain

Fair Trade

The Swedish Fair Trade logo
Via WikiMedia Commons, Public Domain

In Mavis’ question she asked if land was being given over to cash crops that should be used for sustainable farming.  Cash crops are those grown only for sale and in many developing countries the allure of cash crops has resulted in subsistence farmers relying on the income.  When the income fails people can lose their land and could starve.  At the same time cash crops are necessary to buy goods, services (eg health care) and education.  Fair Trade was founded to counter balance the potential for harm that comes from cash crops – in the words of the Fair Trade Foundation (UK).

“Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.”

Malawian farmers can be seen here talking about the impact of Fair Trade on their lives and communities.

While Fair Trade doesn’t impact the carbon effects of flying food from Africa, it does make sure that the positive benefits of trade are genuinely delivered, including environmental benefits.  It is worth noting that many farmers involved in Fair Trade comment on the improved availability of water and sanitation.

In summary

Carbon aka climate change impact

• Negative, seek to reduce your footprint elsewhere to balance this factor

Development

• Positive, will definitely remain so for Fair Trade farmers

Water

• Negative, offset by supporting a water charity

Fair Trade

• Positive, if the Green Beans are Fair Trade you are genuinely supporting development for small farmers and their communities, if not you are dependent on supermarkets to trade ethically.
  • Which is the most ethical supermarket
  • The role of supermarkets in Ethical food production

If you have a burning question and not enough time to find the answer, post your question here ‘What should I write about‘.

Additional reading

The Independent newspaper reports Kenyan Green Beans arriving in UK supermarkets for the first time

Waitrose and PIP show the source of the food on Waitrose shelves

A handy Carbon equivalents calculator – limited input units

Convert energy units into kilowatt hours so that you can use the calculator above

Pictures from WikiMedia Commons and morgueFile

By the way, this is what the Fair Trade foundation says about local vs Fair Trade

“Some people say ‘buy local’ rather than ‘buy Fairtrade’. What is the Fairtrade Foundation’s response?

The Fairtrade Foundation recognises that many farmers in the UK face similar issues to farmers elsewhere, not least ensuring that they get a decent return for upholding decent social and environmental standards in their production. We therefore support the promotion of sustainable production for UK farmers but our specific role will continue to be supporting farmers from the developing world.

Fairtrade isn’t in competition with UK farmers and the purchase of locally produced and Fairtrade products are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Fairtrade focuses by and large on tropical agricultural products such as coffee and bananas that can’t be grown in temperate climates or products that can’t be grown in sufficient quantities in the EU e.g. grapes and oranges. For some items such as honey and flowers, local supply is not able to meet the total demand – it has been estimated that both UK flowers and honey account for less than one-third of the UK market – and so imports are necessary to keep up with consumers’ shopping preferences. Other products, such as apples, are seasonal in both the UK and places like South Africa, and for as long as shoppers want to buy apples out of season, there is a demand for fruit from other countries. Often the choice facing shoppers is not necessarily between local honey and Fairtrade certified honey but between Fairtrade honey and conventional honey imported from, say, the US or China. It is up to each person to weigh up these choices and shop accordingly.

Ultimately, it is up to each person to do what they see as being in the interests of people and the planet. What is important is that we all try to make informed choices wherever possible. The Fairtrade Foundation is committed to raising awareness of ways in which buying products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark is empowering and strengthening the future for disadvantaged producers in developing countries.”

If you have a burning question and not enough time to find the answer, post your question here ‘What should I write about‘.