Monday, March 7, 2016

An update on my Kindle Scout campaign!

My Kindle Scout campaign for "Sara X" ended at midnight last night and I ended up with 177 page views and 46 hours of being hot and trending. The numbers aren't great and probably inadequate, but I gave it a shot. I'll find out in the "next few business days" if Amazon picks it up or not. If they don't, then it's off to self publishing for "Sara X."

If Amazon does pick it up, then they'll reportedly send it to Kirkus for an editing review. I'll then have the option to make, or disregard the suggested edits, and Amazon will then get around to publishing the e-book version of "Sara X". I'll get a $1500 advance for the novel and then a 50% royalty on sales. I believe most Scout books are priced at $4.99 which means the royalty would be about $2.49 per book sold. It'll take about 600 sales to earn out the advance before any additional cash will be flowing.

On to other news. The seedlings are doing great! The purple wave petunias and calibrachoas are growing like weeds. I've got 144 impatiens seeds started now also along with 15 red salvia seedlings. The petunias and calibrachoas will soon be spending days outside. We're in a bit of a warm streak right now with days in the seventies, but that won't last. However, I can take advantage of those days and move the more cold tolerant seedlings outside on warmer days to get some sun and to start adjusting to the outside life.

My self-cleaning aquarium filter is now partially functional. I haven't fully automated it yet, but the system is working well. The moving roll of floss is doing its job and now I simply have to figure out how to wire in the stepper motor and program the controller for it. It looks like this will work pretty well though. If things keep progressing like this I'll build a third prototype out of acrylic in the near future that will be more of a finished product.

The silly season of the NFL season is now underway (or will be by noon when the legal tampering period of free agency starts up for real.) Expect to see lots of signings announced on Wednesday shortly after the new season officially starts at four PM. I don't expect to see the Eagles making any bold moves this free agency period. The Eagles may resign a guy or two of their own who's now a free agent if they don't find a contract to their liking and want to come back, but I don't see the Eagles being overly aggressive.

In the next few days I should hear back from Amazon on whether or not they'll pick up "Sara X". As the next group of impatiens seedlings emerge, they'll get moved to the better plant lights. It won't be long before plants are going outside for real. We're maybe six weeks away from the hardiest plants being reasonably safe going out. This is a busy time of year for me.

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