Updates

New Video – Breath of Life Reading

A.F. Dery has recorded herself reading the first scene from Breath of Life.  It’s over on the YouTube channel, of course, but you can watch it here!  As always, please give comments, criticisms, or congratulations whenever you feel like it!

Winter’s Fallen Reading Video

And we’ve also just released the reading of the first scene from Winter’s Fallen over on our YouTube channel.  But you can watch it here:

New Video!

So, we decided to try out something new:  video readings!  This is the first video of A.F. Dery reading from Broken Mirrors.

KEYWORD: How-to MailChimp

So, I’m setting up an automation in MailChimp, and it’s really a bit more complicated than I thought. First, you have to define a segment, then you have to design each of the e-mails in the series. Then there’s scheduling. And last, but not least, turning the darn thing on. I had thought for the past several weeks that I had an automation turned on and it was going out on a regular basis (1st weekend after subscription, one week after that, then two weeks after that). Turns out I had forgotten to turn the darn thing on. I got it now, and this weekend it should send out the first set of e-mails, but I’m worried about whether I’ve got it setup correctly.

I will say this, though, MailChimp has some pretty awesome options for automations: you can send specific e-mails to people who have opened your e-mail or those that haven’t, those that have clicked something in your e-mail or haven’t, those that are new additions, or veteran subscribers; those that have completed an automation sequence, have unsubbed, have bought something from your store, or even based on custom attributes in your e-mail database stored with them, like demographics. It’s actually pretty cool.

On a side note: which is weirder? Being on your own mailing list, or not being on your own mailing list (I ask because I always want to know exactly what the experience is for my readers / viewers / subscribers so I can understand what’s happening if something goes wrong, and – hopefully – correct it before they notice)

Self-Publishing Formula

It is with great regret that I think we’ve decided that we’re not going to be able to afford Mark Dawson’s Advertising for Authors course this term. Wish we could, I’ve heard great things about it, but the price is just too steep at this point. Maybe next term. Ahh well…guess we’ll just have to piece it together from all his podcasts, combined with those from Johnny, Sean and Dave (the guys over at Self Publishing Podcast), and maybe throw in a little of the Smart Passive Income podcast, just to be safe.

Slowly, but surely, I’m learning how to make this thing work…maybe. #fingerscrossed

Invalid Registrations

So, thanks in large part to help from my brother and Dr. Google, we were able to identify how the invalid registrations were occurring and have probably solved the issue.  Registration is re-opened for all users, and, if anyone is using WordPress to manage their own site and needs to know how to prevent these registration issues, feel free to drop us a line at admin@ringdroppress.com.

Invalid Users

Okay, so we’ve had some issues with people registering on the website using invalid e-mail addresses. Let this be an alert to alert that 1) registering on the website doesn’t do anything for you (yet); 2). we verify all e-mail addresses that register, and, if found invalid, those users are removed (verification is separate from the internal system validation) and 3) at present, all promotions associated with registering have been terminated.

If you want to register for news and updates, please use the MailChimp registration box on the right of any of our webpages.
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