My paperback publisher, Lulu.com, just told me that they'll be deleting my Science Fiction for Thinkers at Lulu storefront 30 days from now. They said they'll be replacing my old, customized, personalized storefront with a new "Author Spotlight" page.
I had the option to sit back and do nothing and just let Lulu.com move my published content 30 days from now or to do it myself before then and maybe add a few touches of my own. Being a self-published author, I naturally chose self-flagellation over being flogged by somebody else.
Being a veteran P.O.D. author, I also know when an author-and-pony show hoop is being held out for me so, naturally, I hopped right through this new author hoop without hesitation. The sad news is that my old storefront sure beat the pants off this newfangled "Author Spotlight" page and it had a lot more to offer, too. The new page looks generic while my old storefront had me written all over it (too bad you can only see the screenshot and not the whole storefront). R.I.P.
My new "spotlight" page doesn't allow me to add blog feeds or customized text content or HTML content, like the old storefront format. The new format allows me to add a few links, a logo and a single YouTube video on an impossibly small screen. You can click on it if you want to watch the real thing at YouTube. Since my professional videos are at Photobucket and not at YouTube, this new video option is about as useful to me as tits on a boar.
So, Science Fiction for Thinkers at Lulu is now as dead as a fish and Michael Casher's "Author Spotlight" Page is, unfortunately, alive and well on the Author-and-Pony Show circuit.
Being a veteran P.O.D. author, I also know when an author-and-pony show hoop is being held out for me so, naturally, I hopped right through this new author hoop without hesitation. The sad news is that my old storefront sure beat the pants off this newfangled "Author Spotlight" page and it had a lot more to offer, too. The new page looks generic while my old storefront had me written all over it (too bad you can only see the screenshot and not the whole storefront). R.I.P.
My new "spotlight" page doesn't allow me to add blog feeds or customized text content or HTML content, like the old storefront format. The new format allows me to add a few links, a logo and a single YouTube video on an impossibly small screen. You can click on it if you want to watch the real thing at YouTube. Since my professional videos are at Photobucket and not at YouTube, this new video option is about as useful to me as tits on a boar.
So, Science Fiction for Thinkers at Lulu is now as dead as a fish and Michael Casher's "Author Spotlight" Page is, unfortunately, alive and well on the Author-and-Pony Show circuit.
My new Author Spotlight page at Lulu.com
Click on the image above to buy my paperback books at Lulu.com or to just check out the latest hoop I happened to hop through on my way to that big Pearly Hoop in the sky.
My Old Lulu.com Storefront
Dead as a fish.
September 7, 2011 update: In August 2011 I created a YouTube account for SciFiForThinkers and uploaded the four professional videos I made so far to YouTube. I did this so I could have a video on my Author Spotlight page at Lulu since I can't have blog feeds or other custom content there. Plus, YouTube gives me an online backup for these videos. My Photobucket page is pretty classy so I finally customized my YouTube channel. Snazzy is as close as I could come to classy at YouTube so snazzy will have to do. There are now seven professional videos at both sites. And, no, these promotional videos have nothing to do with my Junk TV videos. A Junk TV video is a horse of a different color.
July 28, 2012 update: I removed all my videos and photos from Photobucket and deleted my Photobucket account earlier this year because of all the Flash ads people had to wade through in order to watch my videos. Photobucket is permanently in my rearview mirror.
July 28, 2012 update: I removed all my videos and photos from Photobucket and deleted my Photobucket account earlier this year because of all the Flash ads people had to wade through in order to watch my videos. Photobucket is permanently in my rearview mirror.
