Desert Storm Diaries

Something that I wanted to mention, is there is some “sailor talk” in this book. I know, shocking right? My editor Tina and I talked about this for a while. I think she wanted me to put more Sailor Talk in the book! She’s pretty cool. So, by Sailor Talk, there is some swearing, some name calling, and talking about being on liberty in port. The stuff we don’t tell our families about.

Anyway, I was like 24, 25 when I wrote the original diary, during Desert Storm. I’d been in the Navy since I was 18, so I talked like a sailor. When I wrote the diary, it was usually at the end of my shift, and I was sometimes tired and cranky. So a lot of what I wrote at the time was just blowing off steam.

Fast forward to now, 2009 (Desert Storm was 1990, 1991) so I’m a bit older, and maybe a bit wiser. I don’t really talk like that as much. Although after reading the old posts and rewriting the book this last winter, I’ve caught myself swearing more again.

I actually did clean up the book a lot, but at the same time I wanted it to be “authentic” too. Then I had an idea, just before I sent the book in for printing. And I’d like to get your feedback, as my readers.

It would be fairly easy, now that its finished, since I wrote it and edited it on a computer, to do a revised edition that would be family friendly. I’ve even thought I could change the cover art to reflect the “kinder, gentler” version. The bombs on this cover now are Yellow Striped, meaning High Explosive. I would make the family version with Blue “Smurf” bombs, blue is non explosive “inert” for practice.

Then I could have both versions of the book available, and people would have a choice. I could have a book my parents would be proud of, a book I could probably even promote to schools, and a book that to me was the way it really was. And no, I’ve decided against releasing the original diary. That was something I had thought of in the beginning, but after reading it, no, I won’t do that to you!

So, if you could email me at carlin.comm@gmail.com and put a subject line with Desert Storm Diaries, then let me know what you liked, what you didn’t, and if you’d like the idea of a cleaned up family friendly version. I can’t promise anything right now, but I think its worth making at least a short run of the second version. And if I get a lot of response, I’ll probably do it sooner rather than later!

Thanks, you have no idea how much this has meant to me!

Carlin

—-
Carlin Comm Photographer, Author, Creative Genius Renaissance Man, All around Great Guy http://carlincomm.com My main website hub
http://twitter.com/carlincomm Follow me on Twitter!

Hey all, thanks for reading and following my progress here!

I thought you might be interested in the process, and at the end I have a quick favor to ask of you ok?

Just in case you’re not familiar with the concept of “Self Published Books” here’s a quick run through, and my reasons for going this way. And to be sure, even with in Self Publishing, there are many ways to do this!

In my example, I’m using a printing company www.48hrbooks.com as my book printer. However, I got my ISBN number (ISBN – 978-0-615-29082-9) on my own, and I am officially recognized as the publisher of my own book. So, 48hrbooks.com is printing the book, and that is all. I am completely responsible for everything else, including taking orders, promoting, paying for the books, shipping the books to my customers, etc.

Now, compared to having a “real” publishing deal, this doesn’t sound like such a great deal, right? So why would I, or anyone else, do this? Not sure what everyone elses reasons are, but here’s some of mine.

• No matter what, I have control of this book.
• I can take it to another printer if I want to.
• I can release it as an e-b00k
• I can set my own prices
• I can take it off the market if I should decide to.
• I can make a movie based on it with out asking for permission from the Publisher.
• I don’t pay any royalties to anyone else.

Now granted, I do have to come up with the cost of the books up front. And here’s where things could have been done a few other ways. I know several people who are going through a different process. What they do is pay more money up front, and then their service provider handles more of the details, including registering their ISBN, putting their book on Amazon, and also printing “on demand”.

On Demand printing – litterally, you order 1 book, and one book is printed. They are not stock piling any books! This is really cool! Also, their service provider is handling all the orders, fulfillment, and shipping for them. When the book sells, they get a check. Genius!

I saw a couple issues with that, and to me personally, I like my way better, to a point. This being my first book, I may adjust my methods on the next one, we’ll see!

From my understanding, when a book is sold through Amazon, through a fulfillment center, the author is not getting any of the customer contact information. So… no “list building” and no way to contact that customer for future promotions. Good for Amazon, not so good for the Author!

But, wait, you say, why not sell through Amazon? Aw, yes… here’s my plan. For now, I’ll be doing my own shipping. You want to buy my book (you do want to buy my book right?!!) you can click a button here on my website, (don’t worry, I’ll put a link at the bottom of this post, but if that’s too slow, you can go to the Right Side over here —> and click the

Buy Stuff! Order the book Today! link and it will jump you to the order page.

Because I use PayPal for my order processing, I will have your email address, your shipping address, and later on, when I write my next book, I’ll probably let you know about it. Don’t worry, I don’t like SPAM either, but this isn’t actually SPAM, you gave me your info. Its easy to ignore, and if you really don’t want to hear from me, I’ll take you off my list ok? Simple.

Ok, now the important part. If you happened to look at the http://www.48hrbooks.com/ website, there is a cool table there where you can price your book. Let me share my numbers with you ok? This will make sense in a minute.

At present, the book is just about 300 pages. We are still on the final round of edits, but we’re looking at less than a week, as of today, which is 7 April, 2009. So lets say 300 pages. The book is 6×9, with no color pages. The cover is full color, and its awesome, if I may say so myself… I should say that I designed the cover, and actually created it myself, so if you don’t like the cover, … well, lets just not talk like that ok?

Numbers, must focus now! pages books, at 6×9, if I buy 10 books (the minimum) the books will cost me 20.48 each, plus shipping. Now I’ve decided to sell these for $17.95, so you can see I’d lose money here. Not a good plan right?

Here’s why I’m doing Pre-Orders! I’m hoping to get lots of people to order now, before I send in the first order. That way I’ll have enough money to go buy 100 copies, or even 50 copies, and then the cost per book will be much less. Lets see 50 copies, gets me way down to $9.68 per book, plus shipping. See, now I’m not losing money, so that’s better right?

Also worth noting here, I’m also not getting rich at $17.95 per book, because I’m not charging you for postage, and I’m still not covering my shipping from the printer to me. When I started this book idea, I really wanted to sell them for $9.95, but I don’t see that happening

So, if you think you’d like to buy a copy of the book, it would be really great if you could buy / order your copy before April 15th, which is when I will most likely send in the first order. I’m setting that ‘arbitrary’ date, because I’m going up to Canada the second week of May, and I promised people up there I would bring a few copies with me, and I need to account for shipping and printing time before then, etc.

Beyond that, no, I won’t beg you to go buy this book. Its a good book, and I really enjoyed writing it, and I know there will be people who really enjoy reading it. If its not for you, no big deal You’ll probably like my next book right?

So, for those awesome people who do want to read this book, go here:

http://carlincomm.com/desertstormdiaries/?p=67

And for those who haven’t made up their mind yet, look around the blog here, I have lots of cool info about the book.

Thanks for reading!

Carlin

PS Go follow me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/carlincomm

“Desert Storm Diaries – Letters From Home”
www.createspace.com/3381952

The books is available NOW! – They are “Print on Demand” which means when you order one, it gets printed, and shipped directly to you. Typically that happens pretty darn fast! Just click on the link or the picture above, to be taken to the order page at CreateSpace.com and they’ll take good care of you!

---

Can you tell that I’m happy with these??!

---

From the back cover…
From mind numbing boredom one moment to being absolutely scared to death the next…

Life at sea is always interesting!

The men and women of the Navy’s HC-5 “Providers”, Detachment 4, while deployed on the T-AE-26 Kilauea, set records, got awards, and had some fun too!

Start with helicopters hovering with explosive cargo, mix in some truly lunatic fork lift drivers, maybe grab a couple hours of sleep, if you’re lucky, have some great food and terrible coffee, grab your Walkman and your gas mask, we’ll enjoy surreal sunsets, and oh yeah, don’t forget we’re in a War Zone!

Its an Adventure, just like the Navy promised!

Told from the perspective of an aircraft mechanic who was just doing his best to hold things together, you’ll feel the salt spray on your face as the rotor wash threatens to blow you over the edge.

If you’ve ever wondered what its really like, this just might save you a 4 year enlistment!

This book is dedicated to all the people back home, who wrote the letters and let us know they hadn’t forgotten us.

Thank you. You have no idea how much it meant to get mail.

AMS2 (E-5) Carlin Comm, US Navy Veteran of Desert Shield / Desert Storm