I’m attempting to re-publish my book, “Aimless Life, Awesome God” using Kindle Direct and Apple Books. My only interest is to make the book available to anyone who did not have a chance to get it while it was in print. I’d appreciate some feedback from you, dear readers.
- Is it worth the effort?
- What is a fair price or should it be free?
Here is the first chapter of the book; I hope it makes you want to read more.
“I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.” Psalm 118:17 ESV
Chapter 1—France, March 30, 1962
I came to lying on my back in the middle of the road, looking up at the gray sky. It was still drizzling, and the pavement was wet; rivulets of water trickled off the blacktop toward the shoulder of the road. There was no pain. “Oh God, can I move? Am I paralyzed? Is anything broken?” Gingerly I wiggled my fingers and toes, moved my arms and legs a little, then slowly I sat up. “Thank you God.” Where are the guys who were riding with me in the Jeep, and are they okay?
In fall 1961, when our outfit moved into the Sidi Brahim Caserne, a former French prison camp turned U.S. Army base, my friend Tom and I took a walk around town. He’d been in France about six months longer than I had, and was an expert on all things French. As we walked by the highway department yard, Tom pointed out the white-painted road markers stacked along a wall. “If you ever hit one of those, don’t worry,” he said. “They’re hollow.”
I had been taking two men from our outfit back to base in the late afternoon on a rural road in France, somewhere between Verdun and Etain. I liked to take shortcuts, get off the main roads and find different ways to get from point A to point B. I argued with my company commander that it would be useful to know my way around in case of war. It had been raining. The last things I remembered were the stupid vacuum windshield wipers slowing down, the crappy tactical tires losing grip, a sharp curve to the left in the road ahead and a white road marker dead-on in front of me.
As I surveyed the accident scene, it was apparent that the Jeep had gone straight off the road, hit and dislodged the white road marker, sideswiped a large tree and rolled over back onto the pavement where it came to rest on its left side, the driver’s side. I also noted that my body had been laying an arm’s length from the bottom of the Jeep, between the Jeep and the tree. The Jeep had missed landing on me by about three feet. How was it possible that I had been ejected from the Jeep but not squashed like a bug when it landed on its side?
I walked around to the top side of the Jeep and found my two riders standing dazed and looking for me. I posted one guy further around the curve to warn any oncoming drivers. The other guy walked with me back to the main highway where I hoped we could flag down an army vehicle to go for help. A truck stopped, and we explained the situation. The driver said he’d send help and asked if we needed an ambulance. I said no, but my buddy took one look at the blood flowing from the back of my head and said, “Yes, we need one.”
Help arrived, and we were all taken back to the hospital at Verdun, where we were treated for minor injuries. The MP’s (military police) questioned me thoroughly and ordered a blood test to check for alcohol. It came out clean since I didn’t drink back then. We got a ride back to our barracks in Etain, arriving about midnight. I promptly went to my buddy Tom’s bunk and shook him awake. When he opened his eyes I said, “They’re not hollow.”
That was not the only time God saved my life.
Robert Frohlich 
Robert, my first three books were published using CreateSpace, the forerunner of Kindle Direct Publishing–both are Amazon–before I switched to a traditional publisher for all my books since that time. There was a learning curve, but it got easier as I went from book to book. You can set whatever price you want, but I wouldn’t give them away. People assume there’s value for something for which they must pay, whereas they assume there’s little value for anything you’re giving away free. I set the price for one of my Amazon books really high because I wanted only family members to have it–and I gave those away as gifts. The others I set at nominal prices. (The traditional publishers set the price for the books they publish, and I had no say in the matter.) I pray you have good success with this republication effort.
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Bob, it’s certainly worth keeping in print! God has nudged me to think of writing and marketing as generosity. Yes, marketing as generosity. Being on social media certainly helps an author approachable, as you encourage others’ writings. You’d be surprised how many Christian writers are on Twitter, sharing one another’s books! I keep my ebooks at $2.99. KDP has new analytics, where I’ve noticed that there’s pretty steady reading of the ebooks.
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I honestly do not know enough to give advice Robert. I would like to red your story though.
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Wow! You are an excellent story-teller, and I will look forward to reading more of you adventures in finding The God Who Is and what happens after!
At our age, we don’t need the money, so put it online for free.
That’s what I am doing with some of my music that I have some students at Abury U producing for me.
❤️&🙏, c.a.
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I can’t give an opinion on self-publishing, I have no experience with it.
But this snippet does leave me as a reader wanting to read more––great job.
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I think this is an excellent first chapter! I do think you should publish it again. I do not think it should be free. I agree with the commenter above who said that people somehow do not appreciate the value of something we give away for free. I do not know what a ‘fair price’ is. I think it was a very good idea to let people read this first chapter…it sells itself and that is wonderful.
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I agree with other commenters that it is worth the effort. U tell a dramatic true story well.
One way to set a price would be to find some other books of roughly comparable length and tone on the platforms of interest. Consider the median price and choose a neat number that is somewhat lower, so that the book would indeed be available to people on tight budgets w/o the awkwardness of being free or dirt cheap.
Will there be a preface or foreword before Chapter 1? A preface or foreword would be a good place to tell the reader what the book is about and that it includes some close shaves that U attribute to divine intervention. With that foundation laid, U could consider ending Chapter 1 with a bang rather than a promise: “They’re not hollow.”
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Great read Rob, and definitely worth keeping! You do write nicely, and with feeling, which I believe people relate to. War stories help many others who suffered as you all did, and helps them to heal, and aids in the understanding of it all, rather than suffering in silence, and sadly the false notion that it must not be talked about. Your humour does wonders too! Terrific. Oh and I know nothing about kindle etc…sorry.
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