A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation – Candidate Press Release

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Mandated Memoranda

Mandated Memoranda Publishing Announces Fourth Book

A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation, By Adolphus Writer, Exclusively on Amazon as a Kindle Edition, a Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC release.

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Dec. 20, 2014 /PR Company TBD/ — A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation is the old Dickens’s favorite—A Christmas Carol—reimagined. We now face a monstrous egotist who questions the very premise of his existence and ours.

We no longer believe in ghosts, do we? I thought not. But we invest our time and attention in the promise of virtual reality for entertainment and, as some might wish it, our evolutionary destiny. Of course, this is only the latest manifestation of our desire to create our own heaven, on our own terms, here on earth.

A Digital Carol is Dickens’s A Christmas Carol retold with new forms and modern perspectives. No longer do we read a tale of a mean miser who, through sorrowful experiences, becomes kindly. We now face a monstrous egotist who teeters between damnation and redemption.

This speculative fiction story’s goal is not to inspire a more joyous holiday or a more generous spirit, but to question the very premise of our existence. Are we too far into the dark night of the soul for anything but drastic measures?

Quotes

“No one anticipated the unfortunate events that have taken place, sir. They would rather die than subject their families to these horrors.”—Solicitor for community charity

“Perhaps it’s best that they do die. It reduces the surplus population. We have no need of them all anymore. Not one of them. Worldwide.”—Eli Benjamin Ezer (aka E. Ben. Ezer)

Review

“Writer’s (Tragic Wonders, 2013…) novella reimagines Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as a cautionary sci-fi tale…Writer’s interpretation is an intriguing retelling, as it does much more than merely change the classic tale’s setting and style.” —Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Adolphus Writer holds a doctorate in theoretical physics. After he graduated, he took a job at a large US defense firm applying his creative and analytical skills to pressing problems. He married Ninja (NEEN–yuh) S. Writer after she completed her service with the German Federal Defense forces.

During the economic downturn spanning the first and second decades of the twenty–first century, his job was eliminated and he was terminated. In early 2012, Adolphus established Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC as a way to support the lifestyle to which he and his family had become accustomed. He says they like to eat on a daily basis and stay debt–free.

About the Publisher

Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC published Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven as a Kindle edition in June 2013. It is an everyman’s spy adventure – a reluctant journalist’s tale of economic calamity, geologic catastrophe, geopolitical power shifts, and the beginnings of a hands–on surveillance state.

Our second Kindle Edition is Tragic Wonders – Stories, Poems, and Essays to Ponder which presents faith in Christ as a plausible alternative through brief narratives of realism, thriller, and science fiction. It was published on Amazon in December 2013.

Our upcoming fourth Kindle edition, Who Shall Be God, is a fictional account of the struggles between two families, the Stadists and the Libertas, who live in an east coast US city, north and south of the 38th parallel, respectively. It will be published on Amazon in late 2015 or early 2016.

We plan to release a fifth Kindle edition in late 2016 or early 2017. The working title for this book is China Dream. The book’s still in process, as is the dream itself. However, could the dream tragically turn into a nightmare instead?

Book details

A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation

By Adolphus Writer

amazon.com/dp/B00PVFS5AQ

Genre: science fiction, Christian futuristic

1st edition, released November 19, 2014

By Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC

Exclusively as an Amazon Kindle Edition

ASIN: B00PVFS5AQ

ISBN: 978-0-9855327-2-7

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited

90 pages (estimated)

Connect with us online

On Twitter (@AdolphusWriter)

On Amazon (Inside the Book available)

On Google+

On Facebook

On Goodreads (Excerpt available)

On Booklife

Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC

mandatedmemorandainquiry at outlook dot com

ADC Punch List

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Mandated Memoranda

No, it’s not something that one makes before sitting down around the Thanksgiving table. From Wikipedia, a punch list:

…Takes its name from the historical process of punching a hole in the margin of the document, next to one of the items on the list. This indicated that the work was completed for that particular construction task. Two copies of the list were punched at the same time to provide an identical record for the architect and contractor. ^{[citation needed]}

Although, I suppose, a punch list could be used for nefarious purposes, Mandated Memoranda Publishing formulated and used one to develop and market our newest book: A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation. We refer to it as ADC.

We’ve become fairly practiced at generating Kindle books. We’ve reported on our eBook development for previous books: Tragic Wonders – Stories, Poems, and Essays to Ponder and Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven.

Earlier descriptions give more insight into the detailed development. As we’ve said before, your mileage may vary. Please consider this list as what it is: steps in a conditional and evolving process meant for adaptation and improvisation.

As an amusing aside, we helped surface a software bug in the Kindle Fire HD device’s Kindle Reader application (version 9.5_1190027510 (before Oct. 28, 2014) progressing to 9.5_1190027710 (as of Dec. 4, 2014)). According to some Amazon Customer Service representatives, it’s been widely reported from multiple users. I managed to send Amazon a device log to examine (using the Fire HD device’s help service). Additionally, one worker was able to duplicate the issue on her Fire HD device with her own book selection. It seems to occur generally with all Kindle eBooks.

We assured ourselves it was a device application issue by downloading our eBook (the AZW file) to our PC. Then we ran Kindle Previewer, version 2.923 in Fire HD emulation mode to check the book cover under midnight, sepia, and normal backgrounds. It rendered correctly and repeatedly in emulation mode. We also tested four randomly selected books we had purchased before the update (system update 4.5.1) was installed.

This testing followed running the original KDP generated MOBI file of our own book through a full Quality Assurance schedule using Kindle Previewer in E-Ink, Fire, and iPad (w/ side-loading) modes. We also tested the original KDP generated MOBI with the Kindle PC application and an AZK file side-loaded onto an iPad. Our book rendered correctly on all platforms but the Fire HD device. We almost halted publication because of the issue but went through with it anyway based on our intuition and experience.

What happens when the issue occurs is that any eBook’s cover (the JPG or GIF image at the book front) renders correctly when the selected background is midnight. It renders incorrectly when the background is changed to sepia or normal (white). The cover is surrounded by a background toned frame but the cover is either blacked (or whited) out or obscured by a dark semitransparent overlay.

The phenomenon is repeatable so long as the book is open. Once the book is closed and reopened, the issue changes. In this second instance, the cover renders correctly with sepia and normal background, but this time the midnight background obscures the cover.

One Amazon Customer Service rep said the issue was viewed as content related (i.e., the eBooks were at fault). She recognized the issue was a device application issue.

The best analogy I can give is this. Pretend you’ve taken a photo with your phone. You view the photo with the camera app and it looks good. You decide to improve how the photo looks so you open a photo-enhancement app on the phone. There, the photo is blacked out. Puzzled, you reopen the camera app. The photo is there and seems unchanged from when you took it. You close the camera app and reopen the enhancement app. This time the photo is whited out. Concerned, you email the photo to your PC where it looks just as colorful as it did in the camera app. Clearly, the enhancement app on the phone is at fault, not the photograph itself.

The photo represents all Kindle eBooks. The camera app and the PC app represent all Kindle Reader apps except the one on the Fire HD device. The enhancement app on the phone represents the Kindle Reader app on the Fire HD device. It is the Kindle Reader app on the Fire HD device that is at fault.

I hope Amazon Software personnel find and fix the bug (perhaps a test software artifact left active after product release?). Not resolving the issue could adversely affect all Amazon eBook sales this Christmas buying season. I wouldn’t want to be on the customer service staff if it is not fixed.

Obviously, these are our personal observations and opinions. EBook development seems never to be without excitement. Maybe it will be different next year? We resolved the previous bug we reported on our own (a rectifiable Windows ‘run with graphics processor’ selection for Kindle Previewer’s phantomjs_mobi82html executable file). Not so with this one, I’m afraid. As of yesterday, I think they still think it’s a data (or user!) issue. Such is the way of medium to large-sized software organizations.

POST UPDATE (12182014): Amazon has upgraded the Kindle Fire HD (3^rd Gen) System software version to 4.5.2 and the HD device’s Kindle Reader to 9.6_1190216910. The reader was updated before the system software and appears to have resolved the cover rendering problem. This puts Amazon software in the ranks of Microsoft who actually fix their issues in a timely manner rather than letting them linger for weeks, months, and years.

Here’s the structured procedure we followed in the development and marketing of A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation. We’ve also added some details on our HTML generation. This is our punch list:

Fact find from recent KDP newsletters

Kindlefy ADC version 1 – 3

Add ISBN
Spell check and search for errant spaces
Create HTML
Prepare Two Structure Files (Check To Press archive)
Create File Folders (Check To Press archive)
Update Kindle Previewer (KP)
Generate MOBI and AZK files using KP
Examine with KP (use spreadsheet for QA)
Examine on Fire, PW, and iPad
Revise original and go to 3 or Finish

Revise Blurb (do word count based page estimate ~130 pages; ASIN assignment)

Author interview, ADC Status, and MM posts: ADC status, Author interview (hit themes: Economic divide, Jobs automated, AI demons, War, and Population), Character Interview, Excerpts (?)

Dry run finalization of manuscript and generation of PDF

Recheck KF8 on HW

Start KDP entry for ADC [DO NOT SUBMIT]

Receive Copyedited Manuscript back from Kirkus (due November 17, received November 12)

Finalize manuscript, generate PDF

Submit PDF for review

Kirkus review ($575 for rush – suppressible if bad)

Books and Culture (?) – delayed

Publishers Weekly Indie aka Booklife (free if accepted)

Red City Review ($40) – delayed

Kindlefy ADC version 4

Compare new manuscript with existing HTML (Use KDP generated version)
Transcribe deltas into existing HTML
Spell check updated HTML for transcription errors
Buff em> versus i> and em> punctuation issues leave well enough alone (also French sp. not perfect; issue with images and font size, too)
Repeat general HTML check over (used IE)
Compare PDF source with HTML in Word
Update Kindle Previewer (KP)
Generate MOBI and AZK files using KP
Do Kindle Fire only QA check on KP version
Run KP MOBI (KF8) through KDP to get testable MOBI file, folders with HTML [check book data; DO NOT SUBMIT]
Generate AZK from KDP file
Examine KDP MOBI with KP (use spreadsheet for QA)
Examine on Fire, PW, and iPad
Revise and go to 3 or submit to KDP

Investigate Bowker listing?

Submit ADC for sale via KDP [Submitted to KDP Wednesday Nov 19, 2014, Published on Wednsday, Nov. 19, 2014] [ADC Pre-order unrealistic (Up to 90 days early; By Nov. 18 for 28 release?)]

Submit application for Copyright to LOC (need publication date)

Buy book and push to all devices, check out background color on cover issue

Follow up with KDP and Kindle development on this Fire HD device issue (kindle app version 9.5_1190027510).

Submit PDF for review:

Red City Review ($40)

Books and Culture (Free)

Update Author Central as necessary

Solicit reviews from Vine and other Amazon reviewers (see Dickens’s works)

Use Goodreads Authors program posts and adverts

Solicit Amazon Singles

Update Blurb/Press Release with ASIN and Amazon page estimate

Update MM Blog posts with ASIN and Amazon page estimate

Create PR Newswire Press Release from Blurb and Red City or Kirkus Reviews (Times Square and don’t forget Twitter Leisure, $400~)

Solicit other Reviews (if Kirkus Review good)

Economist

WSJ

Here’s the HTML process:

On Word file (97–2003 versions seem cleaner upon HTML conversion)

Remove cover

Reinforce styles (especially in author bio)

Substitute en dashs for hyphens (to account for Kindle rendering)

Replace book signing image with jpg

Save as ‘filtered web file’

Name: Adolphus Writer

Title: A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation

On HTML

Simplify page breaks as per KDP guidelines

Move ‘<a> </a>’ out of ‘<h1> </h1>’ for chapter titles

Change ‘a name’ to ‘a id’ in all occurrences

Fix centered stars custom style

Remove excess formatting styles (i.e., those not used in manuscript body)

Clean Styles

Add ‘../image/’ to JPGs

Add text size: 200%, 150%, and 120% to centered title, centered subtitle, and h1 respectively

Add back font variant small caps to centered title

Make sure all styles have text indent as appropriate (0pt)

Remove color, text size (except as specified above), spacing

Adjust margin left to 0in instead of 0.3in as appropriate

Replace i> with em> except for foreign words

Assure punctuation italicized appropriately (see copyedited version)

Remove font color, text size, text spacing, lang[uage] references, and all span references in text

There you have it. I wish you well in your publishing adventures.

ADC Cover quarter scale, Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved

Quo Vadis II

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Mandated Memoranda

We’re almost finished with a round of editing for Tragic Wonders. In prior posts, you’ve seen some of the stories and essays that we dropped from TW because of thematic duplication. We’ve also separated out two poems that now provide a transition from the stories to the essays. The next step is copy editing. Seems the company is geared towards Microsoft Office production but, for the money, they’ll accommodate Amazon Kindle requirements. Whew! Actually, they’ve been encouraging, cooperative, and fast. We’ll see how much we can say about them at a later date.

At this point, we plan to get TW out before Christmas (Thanksgiving is the real goal, but…). To do that, I want to have at least two professional reviews in place before issuing the press release and posting the Kindle book to Amazon and registering with the LOC and Red City Reviews usually posts to Goodreads but Goodreads requires an ASIN, Amazon’s ISBN equivalent… You get the idea, the timing will be tricky. Also, we were planning on switching from PRWeb to PR Newswire. You know, the PR firm recently hacked for customer data.

We’ve had several favorable reviews on TW’s all important cover. Yes, it turns out we do judge a book by its cover (among other things, like favorable excerpts from perhaps unfavorable professional reviews).

Right now, we have Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven priced at 99 cents. We’re going to raise the price back to $2.99 when TW comes out at 99 cents. In other news, we’ve decided to postpone publication of A Digital Carol until next Christmas. Actually, we’ll get it out before Thanksgiving 2014 to pick up on the buying season. We’ve already got the cover concept roughed in.

Yup, we’ll get this marketing thing down, yet. Hopefully, before we’re out of funds.

We plan to start Who Shall be God early in 2014 while ADC is in editing (yes, book three, that became book four, is book three again). The WSBG themes are coming together. It turns out that the 38th parallel not only runs through the Korean DMZ but through Virginia and Maryland. Hmm, I wonder if that’s significant given what DC has been doing lately?

Book five is about China. We’re still waiting for Xi and company to declare their intent after the Third Plenum meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Other news of interest is that China has twice the shale gas reserves as the US does. That should swing the balance all other things being equal. We’ll see.

And finally, we’ve updated our links page.

Is 99 Cents the New Free?

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Mandated Memoranda

I can definitely assert that using ‘free days’ in the KDP Select program to boost book sales or visibility doesn’t work after the debut offering. I’ve tried using free days prior to the July 4^th and Labor Day holidays only to realize a decrease in sales rank when the sale days were over.

I have 150 free copies out there all over the world and I know three of my four book reviewers (I have a good guess on the fourth). Each of them, likely, paid full freight.

I’ve tried other things to boost sales, too. I’ve put out a press release. Don’t be fooled by so-called ‘impressions’; only sales count. I did an author interview. It was very nicely presented but the site draws a limited audience. I have a Goodreads page. This site rejected me as an author for some reason.

I contacted Amazon Vine and Top reviewers in my book’s genre (spying & intrigue). Of the eight I contacted, one put me on his to read pile. He has a policy of not slamming books he doesn’t like; I greatly appreciate that attitude.

However, whining gets you nowhere.

I’ve got a second book in the works and I’m trying even harder than at first. Better writing. Better editing. Better marketing. Pricing based on page count. I’m sticking with KDP Select when it makes sense (70% royalty and the Lending Library program). And I’ll try to release a third book this year.

I’m going to have Red City review the first book, Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven, to find out what they think about it. We’ll have to see. There’ll be no welfare payments for this author.

Author Interview – Adolphus Writer

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Mandated Memoranda

My author interview with Jade Kerrion went live this morning. Here is the raw material we submitted. We thank Jade for the opportunity.

Author: Adolphus Writer

Book Title: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven

Short author bio: Adolphus travelled to Europe, the Middle East, and Far East after graduate school. Arriving back in the USA, he took a job in a large defense firm applying his creative and analytical skills to pressing problems. In early 2012, he established Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC, as a way to support the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed. He says he likes to eat on a daily basis and stay debt–free.

Contact information:

Purchase link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9XB9ZA

Website / Blog: https://mandatedmemoranda.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/Adolphus_Writer

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adolphus-Writer/126199467485854

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdolphusWriter

Book Synopsis: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven is an everyman’s spy adventure. It is a reluctant journalist’s tale of economic calamity, geologic catastrophe, geopolitical power shifts, and the beginnings of a hands–on surveillance state. The protagonist, Michael Babbage, grows through his ordeals and comes out a more experienced, if not wiser, person. He’s supported by Buck Jefferies, his recruiter, and a mysterious organization Michael only knows as CWNS.

Desired posting date: Friday, August 30, 2013 to coincide with a free book giveaway on Amazon.

ABOUT YOUR BOOK AND WRITING PROCESS

1. Tell us a little about your book.

The primary author, Nomi T. Smith, could not be with us today. Her initial manuscript had a slightly different slant on the story. We chose to reorient the plot around Michael Babbage to gain wider acceptance for an everyman’s spy adventure. The book is not part of a series and it has political, techno–thriller, and science fiction elements to it.

2. How did you come up with the title?

While we were forming Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC, Nomi approached us with her novella. We were steeped in the idea of the Mandate of Heaven because of the research we did to name the company. We used the Chinese translation, Tiānmìng, to give the book international appeal. In a nutshell, the title fit the novella’s theme and guided the reorientation.

3. How much of the book is realistic?

Too much, I’m afraid. The book was published June 8^th, three days after the first NSA disclosure. The naval battle scenes are more dramatic than those actually occurring at–sea but the technologies we were able to discuss are accurate. Finally, scientists are making remarkable progress toward the biological–machine interfaces described in the book. I hope the rest of the story remains fiction forever.

4. What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

I can’t speak for Nomi, but I enjoy the research that goes in to a work of fiction. For Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven, we have over two gigabytes of corroborating materials covering: political, technological, editorial, and predictive analyses.

5. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?

One of our readers strongly suggested we should not have changed the focus of the story from Nomi to Michael. However, some of Nomi’s original plot line will be published as short stories in Tragic Wonders, Stories and Essays to Ponder.

6. Do you belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?

I have to thank my advance copy readers, they know who they are. Story simplification and elaboration simply wouldn’t happen without them. They drive the “show versus tell” process, even in works not due for publication until 2014. As a policy, we recruit trusted readers for every publication.

7. Did you hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

Absolutely, she gave us guidance though every step of the development process. Her mentoring was invaluable. She had prior experience as a magazine editor and as a published author. Mandated Memoranda Publishing will not issue a book without employing professional editing.

ABOUT PUBLISHING AND MARKETING

8. What factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?

We self–published Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven exclusively as a Kindle Edition to keep overhead costs low, maximize our exposure worldwide, and keep control over our property. Additionally, we are participating in the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program to maximize profits. However, we hope to keep prices low for our readers of this and future publications. Some books cost too much money; money we just don’t have any more.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

9. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

I can remember standing up in class, at age seven, and declaring I wanted to write a book about nuclear energy. I read widely in fiction and non-fiction throughout my schooling and afterwards. I had always planned on writing and publishing after retirement. The economic downturn merely accelerated the schedule.

10. Tell us your latest news.

Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC plans to release a second Kindle Edition called Tragic Wonders, Stories and Essays to Ponder, an anthology delving into our souls’ deepest fears and needs. Expect it on shelves by the fall, 2013. Book three is a retelling of a beloved story for our times. We call it A Digital Carol, due Christmas, 2013. Book four is Who Shall Be God, a fictional account of the struggles between two families, the Stadists and the Libertas, who live in a Midwestern city, north and south of 38th street, respectively. It is due in 2014.

Mandated Memoranda

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