A VERY long post, so please hang with me here. Just exactly, what happened today (Tuesday) with all those free per-orders that appeared ever so briefly in the Kindle Store? I sure wish I knew!
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Here’s what I do know: When I went to the Kindle Store at 5:00am Central time (US) this morning, there were a bunch of free pre-order books available. Those books were not there when I had checked the Kindle Store at 2:00am. I quickly made a post of twelve of them, sent it out to the site, and then made a post of the remaining nine.
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From there I took my husband to the hospital as he had a major procedure scheduled this morning. While he was in surgery, I checked the Kindle Store again. The original 21 were still free plus an additional three. Out went the post so you could get them while they were free. I then visited with the surgeon about the extent of my husband’s medical issue, discussed next steps, and asked 50 questions because I’m not in the least bashful.
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Then back to the waiting room, smiling at the other folks waiting for word on their loved ones and giving them the idea that all was well. If I were to look distressed, they would start imagining bad news about their patient and we would all be in tears. I stuck my face in my laptop and went back to the Kindle Store. ARG! The Case for Christmas was now free. Not ARG about the book, but rather we had featured that on a Sunday post, so another post with information for those who had just purchased it on how to get it free.
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Then five more free books from Zondervan, so another post goes up and I re-schedule the regular posts as it is getting rather crowded on the site. I then got word my husband was being moved to a room, so I headed upstairs and fired up the laptop while I waited for him to arrive.
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WHAT! A comment and an e-mail that the pre-orders were no longer free! I really didn’t need the publishers doing this today.
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Speculation is rampant that the publishers made some grave errors when they put the books out there for free. Others think that the publishers were only going to give away so many copies and when those were taken, back to regular pricing. Or it may have been a conspiracy by the big publishers to make Kindle owners mad and give website owners ulcers. As if they haven’t done enough already.
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I’m very sorry if you missed those free pre-orders. Amazon doesn’t tell me anything it doesn’t tell the general public about what it is posting, so I have no inside scoop. You could always get on-line first thing in the morning and see what’s out there. But the last time we had disappearing free books was in the late afternoon, so that might not help.
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Maybe the best advice I can give you is to say that a free book is a wonderful little pleasure that we enjoy and savor and appreciate. But when the surgeon looks you straight in the eye and says, “I have no doubt your husband will have a full recovery,” what’s missing a free book? It’s all perspective.
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UPDATE: JANUARY 26: PRICE IS NOW $7.99
I cannot make those books free again, but I did find this great cheap read that I’m posting for you. Hope it helps make up a bit for the problem of the pre-orders. . . .For only 99 cents you can have The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman.
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Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed.
The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking that they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.
Click here to purchase The Ritual Bath