The Supermarket Guy

I looked at similar contests for bigger name books, that just outpaced my own in contestants to win a free book. Most of them have over a 100 contestants to 400 contestants, and only give away one free copy or up to 5. The huge majority of the lot. Although, probably one or two per page give 10 or 30 books away per contest. This is analyzing the time frames on the first two pages, which blow my book away also, for the same time period. I have now 43 contestants to win 10 books, and it is rare but I did find a few other books with below 43 contestants. It is interesting also, how allot of these contests take place with the release date in September. I did not know, you could start a contest before the book was even published. This can give an author a big push, to the front starting gate as well. Something, I was in the dark about. Important reviews, discussion on your book, can come about with these contests. I wish I would have been more ready, with Part 1 than I was with Par

Goodreads giveaway, now has 39 people that has signed up for a chance of winning a book. I am advertising on twitter every so often, to try to help that number good. I gained none for a period of 18 or so hours, and then had to get back on the foghorn to get people aware of it again. The contest gets further down the line, as new contests pop up. I am assuming that it goes down the list so far, and that maybe people do not go down that far to check it out.. Goodreads does offer advertising as well, for 500 dollars for advertising to an audience of 9 million people. I am unsure of all the details, but it could be a future step to try to put the word out. Allot of rain here, in New Brunswick, in the past week. Totally opposite weather from two weeks ago. The rivers are swollen again, and the grass will be a little greener. Have a great evening, till next time.

I have noticed, something in my book contest on Goodreads! That over 82 % of contestants thus far have under 30 friends. Allot are newcomers, possibly 24 % from that number for certain. This tells me that, the majority of contestants that joined the contest, are not the established Goodreads folks of many years gone by. Yet, approx. 18 % of them are. Unless the sites demographics represent approximately the same numbers, or, allot of the established Goodreads people who have 100s of friends with 100s of books on their plate, are too busy to join a contest. And, true enough, allot of them do have many stacks upon stacks of books to read. I am friends with a few Goodreads veterans, who do have an extraordinary list of Books To Read. Very interesting results, and to remember as how coincidental it was that I too, started off with not many friends. Strange how some of the loners (Not all), are supporting the loner. Spending time on goodreads, will definitely bring you more friends i

My contest for "The Supermarket Guy 2: Rise of the Market Overlord" is going great. I have over 34 entries so far. This is fantastic! And the numbers will continue to climb, just until the 28 th of July. I found while doing my contests on twitter, I had a hard time to give out the total books that I advertised on the site. Yet, I knew the time frames were not as long, but still. I could not give, the books away, for all I tried. Compare it to if the time frame was a day or even half a day, I would have given out the 5 books in total as advertised on twitter, if it had the same effect as Goodreads. I was advertising on twitter, in the book channels, as well. Twitter did not fill my contest chances to the brim, as sometimes I was trying to give away 5 books and had only 3 true responses for the book. While on Goodreads, the first day or morning I would have had 8 out of 10 books given away in 5 or so hours. Twice as fast as the twitter contest. Now I understand, when

You could win a signed autographed copy of "The Supermarket Guy 2: Rise of the Market Overlord",  at Goodreads. Below is the link to get to the contest, as my contest will get buried under other contests that pop up every so often. You need to be a member of Goodreads to win. http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/28025-the-supermarket-guy-ii-rise-of-the-market-overlord That link should take you there, and if you are into books allot, there are allot of bonuses to being a Goodreads member. Many giveaways, interaction, and news on new book releases to name a few. You can even become a critic yourself, and give reviews to the books that you have read. It is all in the name of heavenly book bliss! If you join up at Goodreads, you may not only sign up for a chance to win my book, you could win other authors books in other giveaways as well! They have a system where their program picks out the winners, so it takes the work out of it for many of us authors who try to make a

Fishing in New Brunswick. Everybody got a favorite hole, or a secret place, nestled away somewhere deep in the forest. You can try to edge it out of some avid fishermen at work, but they have a hard time to explain just where their secret holes are located. It is just, too many right and left turns, and if you take the wrong turn, you maybe lost for hours... All my father and I used to do, was walk right up the river. Now is about the time, to actually do it. No rubber boots required. A little bit of bank walking, to get past the large pools. But usually, you can get by with some sneakers (an old pair that you do not mind losing to the big fish), and just enjoy the quietness and the scenery. Peacefulness. You do not even have to catch anything, it somehow, just feels, great. My mother would always worry about the black bears. In all my time fishing the rivers, I fortunately never ran into one. But it wears on you, and as you get older in life, you think about it a bit more. I am n

Gluten intolerance, was the first time I heard about the problem that maybe 1 in 133 people suffer from, on the Dr. Oz show. I heard of the gluten free products before, vaguely on television, and just walking down the aisles of a large supermarket center. In these huge centers, you will find in the organic section, non gluten: breads, pasta, pudding, cereals, and sweets. My mother suffers from osteoarthritis, and heard on the Dr. Oz show that it could be one of the symptoms for it. You can get a blood test, to determine if you have a gluten intolerance. The doctor has a check off sheet, where it is rarely tested for. On a blood test, there are many things, that you could test for. And many different sheets to boot. Usually a doctor will just test for what he thinks is wrong with you, but you could request a test for this also. Especially if you have stomach cramps, weakness, constipation, and diarrhea to name a few. Some of the symptoms are mild. The real name for this is Celiac Dis

Awareness. It is something all authors need, to survive. People have to be aware of our product, that it is out there, on the beaten road. It is just getting passed over allot. How do you create that awareness? Especially when you do not possess the huge marketing dollars, of other entities. I know I had my back to the wall a long time. Living in a small rural community, the odds are against me from making inroads into the larger markets. Small, rural, New Brunswick. If I had lived in New York, maybe things would have been much easier. Easier to reach large bookstores, and population. Being a new author, it is a tough journey. You have to start from zero. Then, you always wonder in the back of your mind, if your genre is up to what the public wants. Then, the experience level of it all. I have, zero experience, with selling a book. And you are afraid that if you do make that one mistake, people will remember it, and there is no going back. That is, with your style of advertising. Do

Thanks Phil from Dallas, Sue from Quezon Phillipines, and Dave from Victoria. The three Supermarket Guy series winners! The contest has come to a close, but keep tuning in. Next time, you never know, you could win!

This is just an instantaneous, giveaway contest, which can just end at any moment. Just like the 2012 predictions! It just starts, This June 21st tonight. You could win The Supermarket Guy 1 or 2 . I will be giving away a total of 5 Supermarket Guy Books, again! All you have to do, is specify the book you would like to put on your mantle piece. Part 1 or Part 2, then e mail me your mailing address so I can send you  the free signed book at This is an International contest, so e mail me now, while you still got a chance to win! Once the 5 books are gone, or I fall asleep at the keyboard, i will end the contest then. If you see me advertising on twitter, you still got a chance to win one of the greatest comedy books of all time (My opinion). # Rules subject to change at any second. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Daren+Doucet My series are on Amazon, and there is a quick link at the top to preview the first parts, if you

I put in my own garden just the other day. It is approximately a 8 by 8 box, made of ceder planks. The ceder is 6 by 2 inch material, nailed at the ends. I done this on June 21st, a late date by my fathers wisdom. I found some plants, still left over at the greenhouse. I had found some beans, brussel sprouts, tomato, cucumber, zucchini and shard. They were all grown in the greenhouses, and available here. Mind you, I had to go find a greenhouse that had little traffic to it. I found one, on a back road, where some people may have had a hard time from the City to locate. These are plants that are up about 2 to 3 inches from the small containers they came from. The zucchini was a huge plant. My tomatoes are about 7 inches high, but you can buy them a few feet high at these greenhouses, with tomatoes already on them. It will cost more, as we all know. The nice functionality about this garden, is that you can use every ounce of space you can. There are no drills to walk in between of. I

Caterpillars, we all know they turn into beautiful, majestic butterflies as time moves on. They say it is a beautiful event, which I never had time to watch. Or, even because it was at times hard to find one, that was transforming into one. I should check out the dates, and try to watch it happen sometime. As it would seem I could have a chance. Like yesterday, we were walking through the local park here, as I watched on the ground the many caterpillars crossing the trail. I became wary, and tried not to step on them. Then I looked over at the tree, a birch tree, and seen it covered in caterpillars. I found that was very interesting. Smothered in caterpillars. Then, as I moved on, I noticed all the birch trees were covered with, caterpillars. Phenomenal,  I thought. Then I looked up, and seen that all the leaves were gone. Interesting. I gazed out farther into the distance on top of a hill overlooking the park. Wow. All the leaves, are gone. Many acres, eaten up! You walk throug

Thanks to all for visiting this blog. Once again, I received allot of hits on this site. The winners are Adreaa from Romania, Daniel from Tuscon USA, and Frank from Seattle USA. Thank you all for participating, and another one will be going in the near future. 

This is my first International contest to win a book! Total (book) prizes to be won, 5. All you have to do, is just e mail me at ----------  and from there, give me your mailing address. The Contest starts now, and I will be taking the first 5 e mails. I will only release your city of where you live and your first name. It is very important to tell me which Part you would like to have, 1 or 2. When I get the 5 e mails, I will stop advertising the contest on twitter. The Contest could run up to 10 Pm today, unless I get rid of the books fast (This rarely happens). Once this is posted, I will start advertising on twitter.. Thanks again, and to view the books online and even get an idea of what the book is about, go to this link : http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Daren+Doucet You can click on the top link above the books cover on the kindle version to get a preview..

I did not advertise Part 2, too much to my friends this time. They do know about it, but it does not do me much good to just sell it to them. Some of them were free copies, of the first series. It does not help my Amazon ranking, and it does not get me any reviews. I did not even place it in the local bookstore near here. They would definitely accept them, as they just about sold out of Part 1. I will probably stock some there, soon enough, as I should have one outlet to sell around the area. But as I have said in blogs gone by, selling on consignment in my opinion, is for the birds. Maybe it would work well if you lived in a populous area, but living in a rural area and having to burn a tank of gas to get to a big book store, does not make sense. This time, I will force my friends to buy it on the internet. It could drive up my rankings a little (not a whole lot), and get me a few reviews on the book. They do tell me they like the book in person, which is great, but if it is not

Below is the link on Amazon, for a free peek at my book. When arriving at the site, you can click the words "Click To Look Inside" over its cover, and read the first chapter, and ends where Chapter 2 begins! http://www.amazon.com/Supermarket-Guy-II-Overlord-ebook/dp/B0085YIE9W/ref=sr_1_37?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339949091&sr=1-37&keywords=Dog+Ear+Publishing This is the groove of writing you will see, throughout the book. I hope you enjoy, take a look, as it only takes a minute or two. Who knows, you may like what you see. I am glad, that they do provide links to help people decide whether or not to buy a book. The book industry has come a long way, from the traditional ways of the 80s and 90s. The Google Preview, is an essential tool for beginning writers like myself. They really propel the book at people, making an instant impression. Obviously, if you do not like the first few pages, then a writers goose is cooked. Maybe mine is cooked too! It does leave

I have to plan a vacation. It is, actually, sad to leave such a beautiful place in the summer months. The Bay of Chaleur, one of the most beautiful bays in the world... Well, I will probably head to 1. Maine, Boston  or 2. Quebec, Levi, Jardin de Metis. For approximately a week or so. Difficult decision to make. The Old Orchard beach, Portland, the outlet stores, and then the lovely panoramic New England seacoast. Or, the belle ambiance of the French Quebec atmosphere. The old city, and all of its cobble streets, its old buildings rich in history and such. The only thing going for Maine right now, is that I never ventured further than Calais Maine. I went through St Stephen, just to get across the boarder one time. This was, indeed, the time when you just had to say hello to your boarder crossing guard. The good, ole, days. Sadly enough, I think the episode of the armored car employee who shot his own employees, is a lesson for all of this high tech gadgetry. It was one from t

The weather was beautiful here in Northern NB. The sun was out, and there was just a enough wind to keep the mosquitos at bay. We traveled to Caraquet, for their annual Art Festival. In french, it is called "Festival Des Arts Visuels en Atlantic" There are some interesting local art from the area, as well as throughout Atlantic Canada too. We went into the Carrefour de le Mer, to walk through an exposition of painters centered in the large building, who were showcasing their painting talents. Some traditional, some abstract art, and each and every artist does have a unique flair to their paintings. You could bid on a painting that takes your fascination to the limit, if you liked. We purchased one next day, by a famous painter in the area. It was actually on the wall at one of the local restaurants, along the bay. Later on in the festivals duration, there are activities for children, and many other different events. You will find workshops, and artists painting within re

Here is a great web site, that lists the newest releases in the book world, and has some great book reviews. I would like to thank them, for carrying my press release on their site. Here is the link to the Book Review Store. http://www.bookreviewstore.com/?p=1896 They also have links to self publishing information, and to major book retailers. There is also recommendations for the latest in the digital readers, as well, and much more. Have a great day, till next time..

Did a little bit of a tiny blog on "Jump tags" awhile back, way back in December. Thanks "Hull Phones" for the comment under the "Jump Tag" blog, as he said he found the link about the book from Google on a "Jump Tag", and mentioned to me that the book must be good... The "Jump Tag" led him to the book. Interesting. I do not truly understand the Jump Tag phenomenon, but they are there for people to bookmark contacts, media, new products, and provide RSS feed. It also has a skype capability for use, as well. I found around 9 jump tags for my book, on at least one Jump Tag site. The one with the cute little frog on it. Is that the only site for Tags? It is going to be plus 22 C today, with a little chance of rain in the afternoon for Northern NB. The rest of the week is looking good. Sun for the rest of the week, way past the weekend. Usually the long term forecast is, off the mark though. I need the rain for my brown grass growing

Twitter is an interesting media format. It is fun, and versatile, if you know how to use it. I am still learning. In my opinion, at 1142 followers, and following probably 1240 approx people, it does bring to light allot of news tidbits and information. Probably allot of fishing as well as everywhere else, or misinformation too. Allot of sales pitches come up for services and products ranging from advertising firms, real estate, to hair salons. I am now trying to interact with some of my twitter followers. Out of the approximately 30 that I did try to interact with, I may have gotten 3 to 4 replies. One fellow said he would buy one of my books, that he did find the press release that I had attached very intriguing. Up to now, I must admit, my twitter strategy has failed me. It is either my product is not up to snuff, or that people are too busy on twitter selling their own products, that they do not have time for me, or anyone else. Or my ads are not buzzing enough attention. B

When you plant a garden, bury your onions a little bit on the top. Leave just the stem stick out. I do not understand what has been going on in the last few years, but the crows have been landing and turfing the onions to the side of the drills. Those buggers... They think it is a sort of food, but, to their dismay, it is just a stinky old onion. Those crows create allot of havoc and destruction for us small growers. I seen them, sitting on my garden while getting up, on a beautiful sun basked morning. Where, the shadows are long, and the grass is wet with dew. My garden is ok, but it happens at my fathers as well. I would run out on the deck, to shoo them away. They would not go far, until throwing a rock at them. I put up a metal plate on a stick, with a rope tied to it, to try to keep them away from my fathers garden. If the wind keeps up, it may keep them out. Also, there is a huge ground hog around my fathers garden. We will have to call the Forest Rangers to set up a trap

Here is a link for the new Press Release for Part 2, of the series. http://selfpublishingstories.com/    Please tell me what you think, or check it out and evaluate it in your own space. I think they done a good job, as the editor read the book, and gave what stuck out as the main features, to him, in the book. It is somewhat different than what I had put on the back page, for my own synopsis. But not totally. You can also compare the back page to my book, at www.supermarketguy.com I hope you all have a great day till next time..

June 8th, today, I put in some of my fathers garden. 6 drills of beans, 1 drill of cucumber, 2 drills of onions, and a drill of beets. All is left, is just to put in some tomatoes. It is a 80 feet by 15 feet garden, approximately. Mixing in 3 bags of shrimp compost, into the soil, to give it a boost. The tiller churned it all into the brown soil, masking the dark soil color as if it never was added. For our short growing season, all of these seeds are of the 55 day to 60 day growth period. In early to mid August, if the weather co operates, it all should flourish alright. This was all done in the evening, as the wind was cooler. I did not break a sweat, as the heat from the day we had was partly covered by oncoming clouds. Very happy that it was overcast at the time. The only thing was that the mosquitoes came out during a brief period, but I kept moving and the wind picked up, which eventually took them away from my gardening area. The bean pods an inch deep, and 4 inches apart. Dig

The old drive inns. Nothing like experiencing the outdoor night sky, with a good film playing way out in front of your car! While enjoying the privacy, of, your car and your friends inside of, your car! In the Acadian Peninsula, we have probably 4 drive inns left. But, now that the rolls of film will soon be gone, we maybe losing allot of these great relics of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. In the summer months, the drive inns still do very good around in this area. Allot them have canteens, where you can grab a clam cup, a hamburger, and even a poutine! I will be going to the drive inn, this weekend. What a great place for people to showboat their vehicles, too. How we all wish we could go back in time, to the 60s, to see all of those great muscle cars in Americana. Well, even today, you may even see the rare Chevrolet Bel Air in the drive inn, or the famous Pontiac GTO. The memories of the drive inn. Soon they will require, 100 thousand dollar digital cameras, to keep going. Some of t

Another idea came for a Part 4, for "The Supermarket Guy" series, just recently. I thought it would have ended at Part 3 (which is collecting dust on the shelf), but I thought of another story line just a few days ago. I had to write it down on a pad, as soon as it came to me. I was afraid, it would be lost as the memory jogs through so many affairs during the day. It seems these days, we are sometimes busier than ever. So, truly, this will be a Part 4, with a Part 5 at the beginning of Part 1. I wanted to do a series of before his landing his first job, and his dealings with his life in his late teenage years. The main character, expanding before Part 1 ever come about. This will be, probably the toughest writing to get done. Part 4, is also going to be a little tough to link it all together. But, given enough time, it can all come together again. Just as it did for the first two parts. Oh, and their is a shorter book of "The Supermarket Guy" which may come out

My cousin, who is a great journalist, liked my Part 2 overwhelmingly over Part 1. This came, as a little surprise for me. As I felt, Part 1 was nearly or just about equal with Part 2. Part 1 has allot of small town action, and odd situations that occur to make the story flow. It just focuses on the life of the man character, and his struggles in his daily life.  He is truly the center of the book. Many of us, perhaps feel the same way as the main character does in the book. Things always going wrong, as if luck has passed him by. It would seem the reason, why it is probably doing so well in the Relevance scale in the UK. Our youth are having a hard time, at finding work, and the unemployment for youth is too high in many countries. Part 2 has a more continental feel to it. The seriousness of succeeding means allot more, not just on the individual scale, but on the whole business scale. It affects thousands of employees.. This book focuses more on the problems of management, compet

The Rise of the Market Overlord, is # 1 in Relevance for Dog Ear Titles only, for the 30 day new release list. This is both, so far, in the USA and the UK. Part 1 is still # 1 in Relevance, for over nearly a year, in the UK Amazon list alone. This is over a list of 2000 Dog Ear titles. These lists could change by the hour, or by the day, but for now the books are doing very well in Relevance. 

These are the contest results last night, from Twitter. I had 250 approximate views on this site. I had only, 3 winners, out of those 250 visitors. Total available books to be won was 16. A 6 % chance in winning a book, if the views had all tried, but the e mails did not come through... 1 st winner Stephen from Boston, 2nd winner Tammy from Cleveland, 3rd winner Joshua from Tampa.. You will be all sent books through snail mail, via Canada Post soon as possible. Thanks for coming and visiting this site. I am still unsure of the low turnout, to win a book. Maybe they figure there will be to many entries, and they will not win anything, so why try? It is very interesting, as if I cannot give away a free book, how will I be able to sell my books at all... This makes me feel that Twitter is still weak when it comes to doing advertising. But, I have only 1100 followers. Maybe when I get up to the tens of thousands, maybe twitter will work better for my advertising. But for now, i am

If I contacted you on twitter, for to just automatically win a book, The e mail is  _____ Send mailing info and which book you would like to have, free!  Thanks for mailing, and visiting this site!

Contest is extended until 11 pm.  All you have to do, is just send an e mail with your mailing address and name. I will only post your first name, and city where you reside in, and tell me which part of the series you want. Part 2 or Part 1. Read Below if you need more info...