YOUR Book Filling the Page January 5, 2011March 21, 2017 JANUARY 5 Greg Lawton: “Some thirty years ago, I picked up the first edition of The Only Investment Guide . . . and discovered a radical new concept in investment ideas, i.e., spend less than you make and save the rest. Surprise – it works.” ☞ I was going to take an Andy day – busy week – but how can I fail to note that today is the official publication date of the new edition? But that Amazon has a policy of displaying the cheapest version of any book it sells, so if you search on mine, you get the 2005 edition. Until they fix this, the only way to find the 2011 edition is to really hunt for it – or click here. And do beware the Kindle edition they offer. Though it bears a July 2010 pub date, it is also the 2005 edition. The publisher is rushing to get them the new one. Meanwhile – tired of my relentless self promotion? PUBLISH YOUR OWN DAMN BOOK It’s easy. (Except perhaps the writing part of it.) Mark L.: “Go to dtp.amazon.com, and log in using your Amazon account info (email and password). From there you can upload the content (in Word or better yet html format). You also have to supply the text for the ad on Amazon, set a price, etc. You have to give them your bank account info or where to send the check. And make sure you did not sign off e-book rights to your publisher [if you already have a publisher, which if you just decided to write the book after reading this post, you do not]. Doing this is pretty easy and cuts out the middle man. Plus you get a 70% royalty if you keep the price between $2.99 and $9.99. Your publisher must have done this for the 2005 edition. You really should tell them to remove or update it, since a lot of people (like me) are disappointed about getting the old version. At least Amazon refunded my money and took the e-book back.” ☞ Here’s Amazon’s self-publishing FAQ. NOTHING TO SAY? In Word, type =rand (7, 3), says Toby Grundtner of Toby’s Tips, and then press ENTER. Out will come seven paragraphs of three random sentences each. Or type =rand (25, 2), say, and get 25 paragraphs of two sentences each. Why would you want to do this? No one knows.* *Actually, it can be helpful in dummying up layouts. And now, if you type =rand (200, 9) a few times, you would have written a more or less standard-length book ready for e-publication in under a minute.