I suppose this would be a good time to remind all of you that books are, by far, the best Christmas gifts. Yes, even for non-readers: In fact, books owned by people who don’t read are not only great re-gifts, but when not re-gifted they’re among the books in the best condition. No dog-ears, no food stains, no bent pages … pristine. Two hundred years from now, you can resell books in such good condition for enough money to make up for inflation, if you should happen to still be alive.
In addition to that, books:
Require no batteries. (Except e-books, and those don't kill trees. That I know of.)
Almost never rot your brains.
In hardcover editions can be used for self-defense.
Can be hollowed out to hide all sorts of contraband and/or listening devices.
Make bookcases much more useful.
Never go offline during power outages, assuming you have backup lighting. If you don’t have that in case of power outages, are you really smart enough to read?
Also, should you buy our books, you’re shopping locally. This makes me happy, and don’t you want to see me happy? I thought so.
Don't make me send the Santa Mafia after you. They're always present.
But if you’ve heard horror stories about going out shopping this time of year, you could always go to our website at http://www.markrhunter.com/books.html. This gives you a choice of several books in five or six different genres (because I just can’t seem to keep my mind on one thing), with prices ranging all the way down to free (for Strange Portals, anyway. Did you know you can send e-books as gifts?) It’s like Black Friday somehow turned into bright December.
So that’s my pitch, and if you spread the word I promise I’ll continue to be funny and entertaining.
Okay, I’ll try.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"
May be you should try to get into the Icelandic book market. I lately heard that Icelanders still love to read books, and especially love books as gifts for christmas. Look here:
On the downside, Iceland only has a population of 350,000...
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Well, they have long nights.
If 10 percent of Icelanders bought one of my books, it would be a best seller by modern standards!
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35,000 sold copies is a bestseller already? It seems the standard has dropped a lot since Hemmingway, Agatha Christie or Steven King.
The good thing is: nearly all Icelanders speak English. Or, lets say understand English. Speaking it is a different story, as you see in the video. They literally have to, because nobody else in the world can speak Icelandic. Not even the other Scandinavians understand much of it. Its more like the old Nordic language from 1000 years ago.
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You convinced me, I'm planning a trip! Actually, I'd go there in summer, I think.
I did some checking, and what makes a best seller depends on who you ask. But apparently it's more about speed than total volume: Sell 5,000 or more books in one week, and you're on some lists. Sell 5,000 in six months, and you got nothin'.
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Really? It must be a really amazing country, from what I heard. And of course you should go in summer. Then its daylight almost 24 hours a day - while it almost entirely dark around this time of the year. And don't forget to bring warm jumpers - even in summer its rarely very warm there. But don't forget to take some swimming trunks either - they have these amazing public hot bath facilities, heated by volcanic water. But if they tell you not to bathe in some pond or go to some place, you should better listen. Else you may end up as a boiled egg. :)
Well, if the time is a factor for having a best seller, it relatives things. Looking at it like that, even the Bible is not selling so great. They have sold a large number - but it took 1500 years... :)
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Well, I'm still working on seeing more of this country first! But I do like the idea of a place where it's daylight most of the time ... at least, I would until I crashed.
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In the southern region of Iceland they have a few weeks in summer when its only kind of dawn for an hoer or so, as the sun just dips behind the horizon. In the north it stays above the horizon 24 hours. Iceland is pretty big, its a bit deceiving on maps.
It can throw off your bio rythm a bit, I guess. But on vacation its not so critical - just take a nap whenever you want.
And of course its the exact opposite around this time of the year, its dark almost all day long. Which I find rather depressing. I mean, its bad enough here in Germany, with about 7 hours daylight (and often not very bright, due to crappy weather) now. But darkness all day... yuck. Well, the Icelanders got used to it, I guess.
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Yeah, right now the sun has gone down before I go to work, and it hasn't risen yet when I get off work--it's pretty miserable.
We were watching the third season of Star Trek: Discovery last night and I told my wife, "That looks like Iceland." She looked it up and sure enough--they filmed scenes around the volcanic areas and sea shores there.
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