Phoenix Renaissance Festival 2013

Well met, good friends!

Now that the holiday season is finally over, it's back to business with book signings and this year I am very lucky to do one at the Phoenix Renaissance Festival which takes place next month and runs for several weeks. As the brochure indicates: The Festival is an explosion of sights and sounds in a 30 acre village with the King and His court, castles and cottages, shops and pubs, and over 200 artisans with open air shops, plus twelve stages of non-stop music, dance, swordplay and comedy to enchant every age.

Last year I met a book dealer there, dressed in period costume, by the name of Ann Chamberlin.  She is the author of a number of books including: The Woman at the Well,  The Joan of Arc Tapestries, and Leaving Eden. A very friendly and talented lady, she invited me to join her this year by having a book signing right there at her shop. I was happy to accept. I would love to help out there at her book shop. I guess I better brush up on my Renaissance English! It will take some planning, but we have already set up a date for that day.

Realmwalkers Book Signing

at the Phoenix Renaissance Festival

February 16th!

I don't have a time yet but it will be around 10:30 - 4:00. 

I have already started sewing my cloak and outfit as it is winter and the weather can be anything from sunny to cold and rainy.  Lee and I enjoy going to the fair every two years or so. It is one of the best I have ever attended.  If you are in the area, I hope you will stop by at her bookstall and say hello. As a matter of fact, I better find out what that stall is called. When I do, I will post it here. 

I also have a couple of other book signings and craft events I plan to attend in the next few months which include Hastings Books and The Book Exchange. The dates will posted here as usual and I hope to see you if you are in the area. Be safe and keep warm this winter. 

Now I need to get back to my sewing!

Beware Booktango

It is sad to say that my experience with the new DIY eBook Publisher did not go well. After almost four weeks of  dealing with them, I am left with my damaged ebook, The Priestess and the Ravenknight. I still have good clean copies of it here on my PC and it will take me a day or so to change the Copyrights Page, get an ISBN ordered, convert the files to mobi, epub and PDF and finally get them distributed myself.

As the saying goes: If you want something done right, you may have to do it yourself.

In all fairness, the blame for my displeasure rests solely on the few reps I met with in Chat and by phone. Booktango itself may be a fine company, but their Customer Service dept needs help and further instruction. When I discovered that my ebook had been altered and rendered unusable for distribution, I tried to get their reps to fix the problems I found in the proof copy I downloaded. It did NOT happen. I tried to fix the problems myself online using their Editor program, but the Editor glitched and would not allow me to save or re-submit the corrected ebook manuscript. On their advice, I emailed the files and copies of my graphics to Customer Support.

They wanted to charge me $19 to fix my ebook. That was the final insult. THEY were the ones that added the duplicate pages and page breaks!! They were charging me to fix their mistakes! I didn't want them to do anything more than to remove what they had added and remove the extra page breaks that got placed somehow in my promotional page. I could not remove them myself as I cannot see them using their Editor program.

Well, the calls to both their Specialist and their Supervisor proved a total frustrating waste of time. They listened and sympathized. They read over my chat logs and asked the same questions over and over until I finally blew up and called their reps a bunch of young ill-trained IDIOTS!

I can't even cancel my account by phone or email. They are sending me a form to fill out and sign before they can terminate my account.  I can't help but feel in the back of my mind that someone there butchered my ebook (through carelessness or deliberately) just so I would be need to pay them to have it fixed. I can't prove anything so it's just a thought. In any case, my damaged ebook will not be fixed and I have gone and done it myself and am cancelling my account with Booktango.  Be forewarned. And if you are doing business with Booktango, good luck!