Celebrating blogs and books...
It's a celebration week! It’s been five years since I started this blog… five years and 225 articles! And I’ve learned a lot about writing as well as health along the way. My style has changed from quite “clinical” in early blogs (just the facts, ma'am!) to a much more personal and, I hope, more entertaining style.
My goals have been to keep being curious about health, to continue to read and learn as I did in my years as an active pharmacist… and to get you curious and interested in learning how to be healthier--and live longer and better--too. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as I have.
To celebrate my milestone, I ordered some author paperback copies of my newest book, The Pharmacist is IN; Answers to Health Questions You Didn’t Know You Had, just for fun. There’s something about holding a book in your hands, isn’t there? Especially one that you've written yourself! If you didn’t get a chance to look it up when it was first published as an e-book in May, the book is a sampling of my blogs, gathered together in an interesting way, to be sold inexpensively (or given away!) to “showcase” and introduce people to my blog, while getting them to focus more their health.
Not on Amazon this time…
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, Amazon has changed its rules regarding books made from previously published blogs. "Blogged" books aren’t allowed on their platform now, although I’ve bought books there made this way in the past and thoroughly enjoyed them (even knowing I could have found the same material in bits and pieces for free by spending time searching for it).
Strangely, my book shows up in an Amazon search, but only as an “out of stock” paperback. However, it’s available as an e-book at many other online retailers. The paperback version is also available to local bookstores, to order in through their regular wholesalers, on request. I was disappointed that there don't seem to be other online stores that do "print on demand" (printing and shipping single copies for individual customers). If you know of one, please let me know--many of my readers prefer print books!
So, to celebrate my 5 years as a (somewhat) serious writer, I’ve put the e-book version on sale (for free!) for anyone who is interested for a few weeks. Here is the link to all stores where it’s available as an e-book: https://books2read.com/u/bwoB1Z (Note: all links work except the Amazon one, so you can go to Kobo, Apple, Google Play Books, Barnes and Noble or others—all have my book for $0.00 for the next few weeks). Feel free to share the link with anyone who might be interested (or who you think ought to be thinking more about their health 😊)
Have you tried audiobooks?
I also decided to create an audiobook and it's available now too through all major online bookstores (except Amazon!). I did this for 2 reasons: it helps me edit better when I read the material out loud, and my children (and, I’m learning, many others!) love the audiobook format because they can listen on their smart phone, usually with headphones, while doing other things like walking the dog, driving to work or doing the laundry!
The audiobook publishing company I use also provides 100 codes I can give away to provide free copies. So, if you’d like to listen instead of read, or are just interested in trying out the format, email me and I’ll send you a code for a free copy!
The audiobook, like the e-book, can be loaded onto any smart phone, tablet or computer and, I understand, the program to listen is built into the code link (I'm new to this...let me know if you have any problems and I'll find the answers!). The free app to read the e-book format can be downloaded by clicking a link on the page (usually at the bottom) of any of the online stores, so they make it easy to try out e-books and audiobooks!
I have both the Kobo and Kindle (Amazon) apps on my phone and tablet. Of course, reading on a tablet is more like reading a book because of the size of the screen, but I like having a few books on my phone too, in case I end up sitting in a waiting room somewhere, with nothing to do. I also have a storage card in my phone for extra space to download lots of books, although it's not necessary. I find the apps very easy to use, and both of the apps I have work in a similar manner.
Extra benefits of e-books...
The great thing with e-books is, when you’ve finished reading a book, you can have another one ready to go. And, when you go on vacation, it’s much easier to pack all those juicy beach reads! There are tons of books that are free or very inexpensive in e-book form. I subscribe to two services, Kindle Buffet (all the books you can eat!) and The Fussy Librarian, that send a selection in book categories of your choice every day.
And library books too!
You can also access library e-books, through a program called Libby, using your local library card number. Hoopla is another library service that works similarly--my first book, Can I Speak to the Hormone Lady? Managing Menopause and Hormone Imbalances, is available there and The Pharmacist is IN has been submitted to Hoopla, too, and should be available soon. I've been a library user since I was a child and love to support libraries!
Lastly, I’ll let you in on a little secret—online companies monitor how many times a book is looked up, downloaded and commented on (or “reviewed”) and they use this information to decide how often they will show the book to people who are browsing their site. So, if you find my compilation of blogs interesting, I hope you will leave a little comment to help others find it.
And THANK YOU in advance! Every little bit helps…
Here are the links to get the e-book or audiobook for free:
The Pharmacist is IN e-book https://books2read.com/u/bwoB1Z
My email to request a code for a free copy of the audiobook: Jeannie.Beaudin@gmail.com
