The Beast In Me SALE

Hello everyone!

Next week, The Beast In Me (The Beast And Me, #2) is going to be on sale!
In the US (Amazon link: http://amzn.to/1ZiDyPu) and
the UK (Amazon link: http://amzn.to/1OfOyag)!
we would appreciate if you had the time, to make a little noise for us!

Advice: Do's and Don't with html codes for Bloggers

1. DON'T prepare your html code in Word and then copy+ paste it to a blog, save it at html or do anything else in word first! Word does the crappiest job at translating ANYTHING to html. It adds far too much useless code that can mess up your work if used by a blogger in so many ways.
   DO prepare your text at blogger! You can even save it as a draft and reuse again!
   Writing your text, adding pictures and formatting it as a blogger-text is almost as clean as directly coding it in html! No useless codes and information. You can even teach yourself coding html by looking at that wonderfully clean html code! And some of my following DON'Ts will even be obsolete.
2. DON'T format headings by simply changing the size and bold the text or color. It will cause problems! If you still use word after my reading #1 please use at least the preset headings of word.
   DO finish formatting in a blog post and use the headings there! Better instantly use them there. Blogger uses the universal coding of <h1></h1> for "Heading" instead of defining a line height as Word does.
3. DON'T color your text. At least try not to. Many bloggers use their own designs for their blogs which includes color coding. Not every blog has a white background on which black font looks great. Some have black background or a dark one and have preset their text fonts to be white. If you define your font color you risk that your text will not be readable and bloggers either have to invest time to make changes or they simply won't!
   DO avoid presetting font colors at all costs, instead use bold or italic/cursive text, play with headings as described at #2. Bloggers will be relieved that your provided html code will not mean additional work for them!
4. DON'T use too original sizes in your html code. Typically the sizes are very large do make them look great but the size can mess with the whole design if too large.
   DO max size the picture width to 600 pixel or a height of 400. It will be large enough to be readable and will not mess around with any designs. Find in your html code "<img src="..." and add after the "img" width="600px" or height="400px"
5. DON'T put a text below a picture if it's small - like your author picture for example. It uses up far too much space when you have the chance to appear like a real professional.
   DO add to your image code (after "img"): style="float: left; margin-right: 5px;" . This beautiful code will put your picture to the left side while your description text will float along your picture like in this example:
   

Is this too much coding for you? No problem: we can prepare or recode your promo html codes for you! Just contact us. ;o)

Advice: Self-rating On Goodreads

Getting ratings and reviews is tough and frustrating, especially if you are new to the whole idea of self-publishing and self-promoting. Being independent often means: being on your own.

It is absolutely tempting to just go and write a review for your own book - which can be absolutely helpful - and of course it's tempting to move and make that little click on the five star icon. After all you're proud of your work and wouldn't have published it if you didn't believe it was an amazing read, right?

This little action however is a choice some authors already have bitterly paid for. How often have I stumbled across books that have a bad rating on Goodreads with close to no reviews? How often have I noticed that the author gave her/himself 5 stars and shortly after suddenly low ratings are posted without any explanation?

[names and pictures erased for anonymity]

I have witnessed authors being called unprofessional... or worse. 

Long story short: It might be tempting, it might seem to help you short-term to have a five star rating for your book, but readers may and will either ignore your book or even "retaliate" for no other reason than a false sense of justice. It is not worth it.

Don't rate your own work.

Link Smart: Amazon ebooks

Nothing is better than a promotional post with the purchase links attached. But no one wants these endlessly long links that you get when you use the Amazon search. Like this one:

Method 1: KDP

The easiest way as an independent author, is to use your KDP page!
Sign in, search for the title you want to promote and click on "View on Amazon"!

Now you can comfortably select the links you want to use:

You only need to delete the unnecessary information:

And you are ready to go!

Method 2: Book Page After Amazon Search

If you don't have access to a KDP page it's still not a problem to get a short link for the book you want to promote or share. Let's go back to the start:

If you looked closely, you can already see the specific elements of the short link. All we have to do is delete everything after the ASIN of the book. This is the ASIN:

Now, let's delete everything unnecessary after the ASIN:

We also do not need the title name, author name, and book definition, but if you want to, you can use this version of the link, too. Let's just delete anyway. Important! You have to delete one of the slashes (that's this sign: /).

And once again: the shortest and cleanest ebook link: