The Greening of Gavin

eBook Writing Again!

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It has been a long while since I wrote and published an eBook.  The last one was my cheese making eBook Keep Calm and Make Cheese, which was published in April 2013.

That is 12 months ago, so I have been slack for far too long.

So what am I writing?  Well, actually dear reader, I am writing two eBooks!

The first one is an eBook idea that I tried to turn into a course, but after a fair bit of mucking around, I decided to go back to the eBook format.

It is titled The Great Kilowatt Challenge – The Step by Step Guide to Saving Easy Money off Your Power Bills.  Just to show that I am serious, I have already half written the manuscript, and have designed the cover.

The Great Kilowatt Challenge

The Great Kilowatt Challenge © 2014 Gavin Webber

I am dedicating two hours per night to get this one wrapped up.  It will only be available on my website which is a change for me.  Normally I format it for Amazon and Smashwords distribution and publish there as well, however, I have decided to up the design stakes and add a lot more information to this one.

It will only be available in Adobe Acrobat reader (PDF) format, however this can be read on all Kindle, iPad, and Android tablet devices.  My personally set deadline for this eBook is 30 April 2014.  I think that date is achievable.

The second eBook is one that I promised ages ago.  Its working title is Suburban Food Farm, but that may change as well.  I am up to the third chapter in the manuscript, but I am not happy on how it reads so far.  I want it to be something that you can only apply to small spaces that most suburban homes have.

Currently it reads like a standard gardening book, which probably doesn’t excite anyone, especially me.  It has to be unique, or not worth writing as far as I am concerned.  Anyway, leave that one with me.  I am sure that if I spend a bit of time in the garden an idea will spring forth out of my brain box.  Maybe I should just design a book cover and see what inspiration takes me.  I haven’t come up with a subtitle for the book as yet, so that will probably make all the difference once I decide upon one.

So there you have it.  It feels good to be writing again after so long.  It seems like it was an eternity since I hit that publish button!

What do you think of the titles?  Worthy additions to my eBook series?

Sustainable Living eBook Update Plus a Bonus For You

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I was talking to some friends the other day about my sustainable living eBooks and after I told them what they were about, naturally the conversation steered towards sales figures.  I think they were curious to see if there was any money in it.

Now, I didn’t really know the exact figure, and even though there is a small but steady monthly royalty from the eBooks that comes my way, I have never been in it for the money.  Therefore I couldn’t answer their question.

Additionally, they were very surprised that I give away my first book for free!  I told them it was my gift to my readers, which they really couldn’t understand.

Anyway, it got me thinking.  How many copies of my first eBook The Greening of Gavin – My First Year of Living Sustainably had I sold or given away for free (mainly free)?  It must only be a hundred or so.

So, I took the time to do the maths and was very surprised that since it was first published in June 2012, nine hundred and seven (907) people have downloaded, and hopefully read it!

I was gobsmacked.  That is so many people!  I am so grateful to all of you who have taken the time to read about my initial motivation to live this chosen lifestyle, and to learn some tips about sustainable living.

Not being one to rest on my laurels, I have decided that for every single person who signs up to receive my blog posts via email, that I would throw in a FREE copy of the eBook as a bonus.  The more the merrier I reckon.

So if you are interested in signing up to receive the blog via email (only 3 a week) and want to get the eBook for FREE as well, then please sign up here.

You’ll receive an email with a link to the book within an hour of signing up to the list.

Alternatively, you can use the embedded signup form on the right hand sidebar.  Also, if you have already subscribed, I will be sending a link later on today to all who are already on my list as a bit of a gift and a thank you.  There maybe even a little bonus surprise as well!

Whilst we are on the eBook topic, my gardening eBook manuscript is slowly plodding along which is tentatively titled Suburban Food Farm.  It is taking much longer than expected due to so many workshops and actual gardening tasks that it only gets worked on once a week.  Sorry about the delay if you are waiting for this one.

I have also been thinking of continuing my future vision stories (like yesterdays post) as a full blown novella (around 20,000 words).  What do you think?  Does it have potential?  If this project did go ahead, I would definitely require an editor as it is my first work of fiction.  Anyway, I would love some feedback as I just love writing, which you can probably tell by the frequency of my blog posts!

All the best and thanks for reading the blog so far,

Gav x

Head Down, Bottom Up and a Request

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I love writing! I find that once I declare something via this blog, I work at it furiously until complete.

My next eBook is no exception, which is about growing food on your suburban yard and is tentatively titled “The Suburban Food Farm”.  So far I have written 2776 words and I am up to the second chapter.  The first draft is coming along well, and I am pleased with the results so far.  I am writing it from the perspective of my own experience and climatic conditions here in southern Victoria, however most tips and information is generic in nature.

I have been writing during my daily commute, but only in the mornings when I am fresh.  I jot it all down on a small A5 ring bound notebook in pencil and transcribe it into MS Word when I get home.

When writing the last few books, I found myself burning the candle at both ends.  However, this time I am writing about 500 words a day (about the size of a blog post), and stopping for the day.  I find that the story and information flows much easier this way, and I am not knackered the next day.

Thanks for all the encouragement and suggestions last week when I reached out.  All of your great ideas really helped to flesh out the book plan that I had half written.  I realise now that I can always rely on your help when I need a bit of guidance.

So what else has been going on?

Well, Kim and I taught a Mozzarella and Ricotta workshop on Sunday to five lovely students.  They all walked away with very tasty balls of mozzarella, and now know how simple it is to make ricotta at home.  We really enjoyed it, and Kim took this picture of a not-so-ready Gavin to prove it.  I swear that I was just about to smile (it must be the very groovy green hair net)!

We had our first barbeque for the season on Saturday, which was nice.  However, I spent all morning cleaning and making repairs to the our old BBQ.  We found that the flame tamer had rusted through and was useless, so I bought a new part and replaced it.  Kim was adamant that I needed a new BBQ, but I would not have a bar of it.  It works fine, and will last at least another few years.

So, other than a little bit of gardening, you can see that it was just a normal week around the house of TGOG.

I would hate to see a busy one!

Oh, and can I ask a favour?  I know that some of you have purchased copies of my sustainable living eBooks over the past year, many from the major retailers that carry them.  If you have time, could I ask that you visit the web page that your bought the eBook from and write a review (you can locate the retailer links here).

Note: when clicking through to my eBookstore, under each orange ‘buy now’ button there are links to the eBook retailers i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple iBookstore etc. for each book. Click on the site you bought it from and away you go [thanks to FoodnStuff for picking that up].

Obviously if you think that the book you purchased is worth five stars then don’t hesitate to award that.  I would be most grateful.  However, if you only think it worth a few stars, then can you please mention what type of reader you think the book would benefit the most.

I realise that this request is a bit cheeky, but I have learnt many times over that if you don’t ask, you don’t get.  We all know that when buying a book, we all look at the reviews as a form of social proof that the book is a quality product.  So please, if you have time, have a go at writing a review and post it up on the retailers site.  Thanks in advance.

So, with two interviews for podcasts (one for Little Green Cheese and another for the Massachusetts Climate Action Network), a bit of cheese making on Wednesday, and an invitation to the Changing Gears book release on Thursday night, I think this week may be fun!