Nords' book ...

[Bestwifeever]

That is so awesome, Nords, truly. So much work on your part to create a helpful book, and all of your proceeds going to your causes. I bow to you.

[Free To Canoe]

Yesterday I checked the Rebecca M Arthurs Library and they have my donated copy on the shelf. The Tightwad Gazette is near by. Good company to be in.

[Khan]

Seriously folks I'm lazy and generous.
How to send Nord's book to local civic or USAF library?

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khan Seriously folks I'm lazy and generous. How to send Nord's book to local civic or USAF library?

1. Buy a copy of the book. If you order multiple copies then Impact Publications will give you a bulk discount.

2. Walk into your local library and say "I want to donate this. It's been donated in over 20 other libraries nationwide, so it's probably already cataloged for you to copy to your system."

3. Call the military base for the mailing address of their base library, and then mail the books. You might also be able to determine whether you can drop off a package at the Pass & ID office. Or, if you know someone with a DoD ID card (military or DoD civilian) they should be able to drive onto the base and drop them off for you.

4. I'm available for personal appearances-- during warm weather only.

[TromboneAl]

Congratulations, Nords. Just to write a book is a major accomplishment, and to have it sell well is great. Good job on having a good idea and following through on it.

[Nords]

Three more copies logged by Amazon's Author Central last week.

Of course we now know that means the actual number is somewhere between 20 and 30 copies...

[powerplay]

The book sales are doing great and I'm sure the charities will really appreciate the donations. Great job Nords!

[Nords]

Three more books this week...

[Huston55]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords And thanks to whoever donated a copy to the Air University Library of the Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center at Maxwell AFB! Are the Air Force guys just more financially aware? Do they know something about the coming military drawdown, or have they made a research-prediction breakthrough? Or are they just that much more miserable in their service and even more motivated to seek financial independence?

Well, we all know they're just smarter and more evolved...right?

And, since AF personnel spend half their active duty time on the golf course anyway, they're already trained for ER.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huston55 Well, we all know they're just smarter and more evolved...right? And, since AF personnel spend half their active duty time on the golf course anyway, they're already trained for ER.

I've been racking my brains trying to think of Navy research centers, and the only ones I've thought of are the Naval Postgraduate School and the Naval Research Labs... neither of which seem to have a copy of the book.

I was going to make a snarky comparison between the number of research libraries a service maintains and its operational tempo!

[Nords]

Another three copies last week, which means that there've been steady sales for a month. I think I'm really going to be looking forward to the July sales reports.

WorldCat.org reports that the book is now in 26 libraries, which of course falls short of the actual total by at least three (that I know of). Here are the latest:
North Central Kansas Library
Thomas S. Power Library - Offutt AFB in Nebraska
Palm Beach County Library System

If you're going to be on Oahu next month, I'll be doing a seminar at the Kailua Library (strategically located next to the Kaneohe Marine base): 6:30 PM Thursday 23 Feb. Free copies of the book to the first five military attendees or family members, free copies of the pocket guide to the next 10, and $10 copies of the book to everyone after that.

Finally, in the extremely-long-range planning department, I've signed up for FINCON12 this 6-9 September in Denver. (#FinCon12 Registration Now Open!) It's PTMoney's annual gathering of personal-finance bloggers, but it's limited to 250 attendees. If you're blogging about money, or even thinking about blogging about money, this will help you figure out what the heck you're doing. Registration has only been open for a few days but it'll close out quickly.

I'd say that the top 10 of the 250, maybe the top 20, are making a self-employed living from PF blogging. Of the next 200, at least half are making a significant four-figure side-hustle income. Unsurprisingly, it ain't rocket science-- but it does require persistence and time management.

[Nords]

One more copy last week.

[Nords]

Four more paperback sales last week on Amazon's Author Central.

The book appears to be a steady Kindle seller, too, based on being "currently ranked #133,416 out of over one million books in the Kindle Store." I can't wait to see how that translates into royalty payments.

Thanks to whoever donated to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library!

For those of you who don't see your donated book among the 27 WorldCat.org libraries listed for the book, it might take a few months. I've donated two to the Hawaii State Public Library System and neither one shows up on the WorldCat website yet.

[Nords]

Three more last week.

[Nords]

Four more last week. Looks like a nice trend!

[Nords]

Four more last week.

At the end of April I'll total the Nov-Apr sales. During the first week of July I'll get Impact's sales report (and royalty check!) for that period. Then I should have a decent idea of Amazon's reporting percentage, and can use that to more closely estimate actual weekly sales. Their track record for May-Oct 2011 was about 11%.

[Nords]

Four more again last week. A total of 53 during the sales period which runs from November through April.

The most popular sales areas are Washington, DC, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Jacksonville, FL, and Los Angeles.

[Nords]

Quote:

Sales Info: We are experiencing a delay in updating your sales info. Rest assured that we are working to update this page as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

Guess I'll be back next week...

No new library donations noted either.

[Nords]

I had one of those days that authors dream about.

We're good friends with a dozen neighbors on our street, but I haven't told any of them about the book. Most of them can't believe I was in the military in the first place, and a couple of them might think I was marketing Amway products. So I just don't bring it up unless someone discovers it for themselves. It's also a good way to check how well the marketing is working.

I was updating the blog when an e-mail came in:

Quote:

Hi Doug, I was on Linkedin today, set up an account and your name/picture popped up. I had no idea that you're a published author, congratulations, very cool! I clicked through several links and got to read chapter one... I can almost hear you as I'm reading the written word, great stuff! I'd love to buy a copy but I don't see an e-book version, is there an e-book version? I'd gladly pay for a hard copy book but it would take so long to get here and now I'm hooked and want to read the rest! I'll gladly donate the purchase price to the military charity of your choice or buy a hard copy book, but can you forward me a soft copy so I can read the rest this weekend?

Last year a poster (who wishes to remain anonymous) donated some books for me to give away to deserving customers. I had a couple left. My neighbor's connected with a lot of military veterans, so 10 minutes after I got his e-mail I walked across the street to hand him a copy of the book. Freaked him out!

He's pretty enthused. He was opening a Linkedin account because he's concerned about some of the things happening at his employer, and he's starting to network his career contacts. It never really occurred to him that he might be able to skip ahead to the ER stage, so he's going to read the book and go over his finances and ask questions.

And then he's going to pass the book on to his military friends!

[Dreamer]

That has to make you feel good. You are helping a lot of people, most of them you will probably never even know about.