Category: Tweet Longer

What number of reviews should a book have before you consider it to have a solid reputation?

The eBooks I tweet about on my Twitter timeline and on the Twitter genre accounts I started meet a specific criteria that I decided was appropriate.

In my opinion, I tweet about highly-rated eBooks to help people wade through the abundance of eBooks available for free and for sale nowadays.

The following are the minimum requirements I came up with:

  • the eBook must be available on Amazon.com
  • the eBook must have a 4.5 out of 5 stars or better rating
  • the eBook must have at least forty-five (45) reviews

The first two criteria are non-negotiable, and the second one I’m firmly set on. If you’ve lost more than half a star, and you have over 45 reviews, then my opinion is that your book is not highly rated. Again, this is just my opinion, so it’s fine if you have a different opinion.

The point that I’m up in the air about is how many reviews should an eBook have before it is considered to have a solid reputation?

I mean, I have set the number at forty-five (45). My original threshold was fifty (50), but I lowered it to include those eBooks that were right on the cusp of 50 reviews.

I wonder, however, if the number should be higher or lower than 45.

What do you think?

Feel free to comment here or reply to the original tweet. I’d really like to know what other people think.

It’s annoying when you’ve decided to forget a debt that someone has owed you for an extended period of time, and…

then that person contacts you out of the blue and says, “I haven’t forgotten you. Send me a PayPal money request, and I’ll take care of it right away.”

Then two or three days pass, and everyday the person has some reason (s)he didn’t get around to paying you in the two or three days before.

At this point, what do you do?

Do you again just let the debt go and forget about it, or do you now start reminding him/her of the debt because (s)he brought it back up in the first place?

I got a new cellphone…

…a couple of months back, and I was going to do the “buy back” program through Sprint on my old phone. Then I decided to keep it, because it’s still a good phone and I’ll have it if something happens to my current phone.

I know people who have traded in their old phones for new phones and then about two months into their new two-year contract something happened to their new phone; they dropped them and crack the screen or something that can’t be overlooked, like a little nick or scratch.

They go back to the cellphone store, and they’re told that they can’t get a new phone because they don’t have the protection plan or the protection plan they have is the cheapest one that doesn’t cover the damage they did to the phone.

So their choices are to:

  • keep their busted phone and wait for their upgrade in over a year and a half
  • go ahead and buy a new phone at full cost or try to catch one on sale online
  • leave with a loner phone from the cellphone store, which is usually some outdated flip-phone with few features

Even though I do pay monthly for the top-tier protection plan for my phone, it still makes sense to me to keep my old phone, because I can still use a lot of its features while I’m on a WiFi connection.

Also, even with that top-tier protection plan, you can only make so many claims in any given period.

So if I do have to file a claim to get my phone replaced and then something else goes awry, my only options won’t be one of those three choices above. 😀

My latest Twitter rant to authors…

The link I keep referring to in these tweets is to an article I wrote, Do you know where your book is?, and posted on the Independent Author Index.


Continue reading My latest Twitter rant to authors…

I just wanted to let you all know I’m not ignoring…

your @mentions.

I injured my QL (quadatrus lumborum) muscle, and it’s very difficult to sit at the computer for any length of time, plus the medicine my doctor prescribed makes me extremely drowsy.

For the time being I’m mostly on autotweets, but I’ll be live on Twitter as soon as I heal up, and I’ll reply to as many @mentions as possible. 😀

I thought Adobe was going to make it hard for me to switch…

Creative Cloud Student and Teacher Edition (One Year Subscription - Monthly Price) for Mac,Winto the student/teacher version of the Creative Cloud suite.

A year ago today, I signed up for the suite using the discount code for those who were previous CS owners, which dropped the monthly fee to $29.99.

After I’d already signed up under that discount, I discovered that I could have signed up under the student/teacher special pricing of the same amount without worrying about the discount.

I decided I’d just stick with what I had, since they were the same price, and I’d switch after my year was up, which happened to be today.

That’s when I got the email from Adobe thanking me for continuing my Creative Cloud subscription at $49.99 a month. Ouch!

I immediately went on the Adobe site and logged into live chat. The customer service rep’s screen name was Bony. 😀

He had me subscribe to the student/teacher version of the Creative Cloud Suite, where I had to provide my .edu email as proof that I am associated with a school/university, and then he canceled and refunded my payment for the full-priced version.

The whole process took about 10 minutes, maybe less. Awesome!

I’ve been using my Jawbone UP for several weeks now


I’ve been using my Jawbone UP for several weeks now: http://v1s.it/1atmW1k It’s really awesome! I can shower in it and everything!

The best part is that I wear it on my wrist, like a watch.

Before the UP, I had the Fitbit Zip and the Bodymedia armband, but they were a hassle for me.

The Fibit Zip I had to remember to clip to my clothes.

The BodyMedia device I had to wear around my forearm.

With both, I’d forget to put them on, or they just felt like they were in the way.

I tried to get the Fitbit version that you wear on your wrist, but it was on backorder forever, so I canceled that order and went with the UP.

I have no complaints about making a different choice. 😀