I'm quite pleased with my effort in writing The God Conclusion, but I will be the first to admit it is not a perfect book. It was thoroughly and professionally edited, of course, but even so, I've found a couple of minor mistakes post-publication. For example, I only intended for one quote to be repeated in the manuscript, but in the final published version somehow two other quotes were accidentally repeated. I believe the problem was due to copy-and-paste versus cut-and-paste, and I wonder if many people even noticed, but all that really matters is that I noticed. The mistakes seem to be a little more obvious in the audiobook. However, one mistake stands out as my worst. I admit that I had some difficulty finding the right words to describe the ultimate dichotomy that must be applied to our existential questions if we are ever going to have any hope of finding some real answers. What were the right words? In my book, I didn't know, so I tried several: God versus good luck (which I also called good fortune and serendipity.) Order versus chaos. Intelligent Design versus evolution. Accident versus on purpose. Lots of oppositional words. In other words, I had no idea of what were the best words to use in describing this dichotomy, so I used too many "other" words. Even when it came to a dichotomy like God versus good luck, I'd substitute other words for God like "supernatural intelligence" and for luck I'd use "good fortune" or "serendipity." Probably the biggest problem was that my choices were often not truly oppositional words. The logical alternative … [Read more...]
Golden years
When I think about the current run of the Georgia Bulldogs, the lyrics to a great song by David Bowie pops into my head: Golden Years. "Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere..." Indeed. This team has taken "us" (meaning the fan base) to the very top, as reigning national champions. Some of us have jumped on the bandwagon rather recently, while others have been loyal fans since the last national championship, won 41 years earlier. The song's lyrics also reflect the fickle nature of fans: "Last night they loved you, opening doors and pulling some strings..." Of course, many of these same "new" fans will be the first ones to curse the current leadership and demand heads to roll should another game be lost anytime soon. The idea of "winning with integrity and losing with dignity" has been replaced in the minds of some with "win at all costs." Life doesn't work that way. Losses will come -- perhaps not this season, but in seasons to come. We don't have to like them, but we should learn to accept them. Otherwise, we'll become no better than Alabama fans. In 2008, Georgia played Alabama in Athens. The previous year, Georgia had defeated Alabama in Tuscaloosa in an overtime win and began the preseason ranked #1. The Dawgs dropped a few spots by the time they met the Crimson Tide in Sanford Stadium, and the team led by Mark Richt came out to play wearing black jerseys for inspiration. Instead of an inspired effort, a Crimson Tide defense led by first year coordinator Kirby Smart absolutely embarrassed the Bulldogs, leading 31-0 at halftime … [Read more...]
How can you support The God Conclusion Facebook page?
Sometimes it seems like the more I write, the less you people read, so I'm going to get right to the point today. If this page that exists to promote The God Conclusion is going to continue to exist, it needs to produce more income than I'm currently earning from book sales. I don't really mind donating my time in an effort to entertain you, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to at least break even if I'm going to sustain this effort. Again, if we were selling enough books to offset expenses this wouldn't be an issue. Currently, the most you can do is buy a book and maybe then write an Amazon review, but someone would need to buy more than a thousand books just to stop my budget from bleeding red. That isn't a very realistic goal, so I need to come up with a new plan. One option I mentioned yesterday is this new feature called Facebook subscriptions, where I sell some of you premium memberships to the page and reduce the content flow available to every visitor. However, the more I think about that option, the less I like it. The first thing I noticed was the suggested subscription price per month was five dollars, which seems kind of high when I can't even sell enough eight dollar ebooks to meet expenses. Another option I'm now investigating is introducing "stars" -- basically, if you like something I post, Facebook will sell you stars at a penny apiece, and then you give the stars to me, and Facebook pays me for them. Seems like a bit of a racket where Facebook takes a cut, but that would seem to give you, the visitor, the ability to support my work without … [Read more...]
Facebook subscriptions
As you (probably) know, the purpose of this Facebook page is to promote the book I most recently wrote, also titled The God Conclusion. The book is listed at #19 in the Religious Studies: Science and Religion category, but it is merely #112,259 overall in the Kindle Store. Translated into numbers, I've sold several hundred books, but that is only a small fraction of the people who allegedly like my Facebook page. Sixteen thousand people like my Facebook page, and seventeen thousand follow it, but I can't even sell one thousand books. If even half of the 16k people who "liked" this page had also bought my book, we wouldn't even be having this conversation because I wouldn't be several thousand dollars underwater on my advertising campaigns. I'm not complaining; I'm stating facts. For whatever reason, there seems to be a major disconnect between the people who follow this Facebook page and my book, even though this Facebook page primarily exists to promote my book. While I have never expected nor intended to become rich from royalty payments, I confess I have become somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of going broke trying to sell an $8 ebook ($14 for the print copy.) I don't even mind breaking even, but I'm not interested in prolonged deficit spending. I'm rapidly approaching retirement age, and I'm never going to be able to retire if my work costs more to produce than it earns. Now, if you've been holding out for the audiobook, you won't have to wait much longer. Once the book has passed Audible's quality control check, it will be available for sale. If … [Read more...]
Amazon reviews
When I start having negative thoughts and feel like we might be entering the end times predicted in the Book of Revelation, Amazon usually pops into my head. Why? Revelation 13:17 claims that no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the Beast on them. My book is being marketed on Facebook. Why? Because that's really the only game in town when it comes to reaching a large audience on a low budget. Do I like Facebook being my best (and only real) option? Do I like giving Mark Zuckerberg money that he can turn around and use in direct efforts that conflict with my best interests? No, of course not. But like it or not, Facebook is the best place to spend advertising dollars on the Internet. I mean, you could go to Instagram instead, but both are owned by the same guy, so what difference does it make at the end of the day? The same is true of Amazon. Whether I like it or not, I have no real choice. If I want to sell my book, it must be listed on Amazon. I don't like giving Jeff Bezos power over me any more than I like giving power to Mark Zuckerberg, but if I want to sell my book, I'd better learn to like it. The author is powerless on Amazon. I've given away free books to people in exchange for their honest review, only to have at least two of them rejected because, according to Amazon, the reviewer hadn't spent enough money using their service to warrant publishing their review. Conversely, the brutal one-star review written by someone trashing my book almost certainly without reading it has been displayed more prominently than the mostly negative … [Read more...]
