Double Happiness

It’s a delight to write this entry. Double Happiness has been winning or placing in most of the book awards it has entered.

I’ve already written about winning Best Memoir at the Paris Book Festival and attending the stateside awards ceremony (see video below).

ForeWord Book Reviews, one of the most prestigious magazines in the growing world of independent publishing, has just announced the winners of its Book of the Year Awards (recently renamed the “IndieFab Awards”). I’m honored to say that Double Happiness has been named Silver Winner in the Travel category, beating out hundreds of other titles.

Here are the awards Double Happiness has won thus far.

• ForeWord Book of the Year
  Silver Winner (TRAVEL)
  “These are the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the cherries on top a metaphorical ice cream sundae of indie books. You’ve been waiting months and now here they are, the winners of the 2013 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards.”
• Paris Book Festival
  Winner (BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY)
  “Awarding general excellence and the author’s passion for telling a good story, as well as the potential of the work to gain a wide audience in the worldwide market”
• Indie Excellence Award
  Winner (TRAVEL)
  “A proud champion of small presses, independent presses, and self-publishers that go the extra mile to produce books of excellence in every aspect.
• Eric Hoffer Award
  Honorable Mention (MEMOIR)
  “Established at the start of the 21st century as a means of opening a door to writing of significant merit. It honors the memory of the great American philosopher Eric Hoffer.”
• San Francisco Book Festival
  Honorable Mention (TRAVEL)
  “Considers entries in 18 categories. There is no date of publication restriction. “

I accepted the Paris Book Festival award at the stateside ceremony, at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco:
(apologies for the quality of the video).

Update July 21, 2014: Double Happiness has also been named a Finalist of the 2014 Readers’ Favorite Award.

Do you want to know something strange about Amazon.com?

Yes, I did too, since most of my book sales are happening there.

The biggest driver of sales at Amazon isn’t in fact advertising or rankings. It might come as a surprise to you, even if you shop frequently at the online megastore, but the truth is that the biggest driver of sales at Amazon is: Customer Reviews.

I won’t get into what I’ve learned about the powerful ways in which herd mentality still dictates a lot of what we humans deem to be “appropriate,” see as “exciting,” and judge to be “safe.” Suffice it to say, Amazon’s underlying product-display algorithms utilize Customer Reviews, both the quantity and the quality of the reviews. Thus Customer Reviews dictate how often people discover Double Happiness.

I have eleven reviews right now, all good, and I’m very grateful for them. I would love to increase the reviews.

Can you help more people discover Double Happiness? If you’ve finished the book, or read far enough to feel comfortable writing a review, please write a review! It will be extremely helpful.

How to Write an Amazon Review

If you have already written Amazon reviews, go here, godspeed, and my gratitude: www.DoubleHappy.be/review

If you haven’t written an Amazon review before, I’m happy to help you learn this new skill. Think of it like voting; you can write reviews every day of the year and materially affect the success or failure of books, ideas, and products. Here are two ways to write your first review:

Voila! So grateful for your help.

In Other News: The Fabulous Book Tour

In other news, the book tour has been a whirlwind of inspiration and connection, a sweet ride of unexpected highs and lows. In my next post, I’ll tell you all about what it’s really like to be on a book tour.

Best wishes, and may your journey always be fruitful,
Tony

Kickstarter is gloriously finally complete, and I’ve switched gears to making the book. I’m working with a professional cover designer, and we have several designs that I believe have great potential. Can you help me by voting below for the image that you think has the best potential to be the Double Happiness cover?

Imagine an Eat, Pray, Love meets Into the Wild type of journey. Which cover would draw you in? Does the cover need to inform you that the story takes place both in a classroom and outdoors on a long backpacking journey? Do you prefer simplicity? Do you want a photo of me on the cover?

Note: All the covers are of course works in progress and will improve once we choose the best one (or two) to focus on and enhance.

Essentially, I want to present a great image to attract people who would enjoy and benefit from this story — as well as to draw in those who might, you know, judge a book by its…

Vote below. To vote for your favorite, just click on it. To vote for more than one, tick the boxes and click ‘Vote.’

[[POLL CLOSED]]

Also, please leave a comment below to share why you voted the way you did.

If you don’t think any of the images are any good, and we should go back to the drawing board, do tell me that.

And for those of you who helped me choose my author photo in another poll, thank you! That photo will likely grace the book’s back cover.