Updates 27.8.12

* Lots happening on Amazon. May actually break the £100 mark this month. Will tally up and report.
* I've decided I'm going to get some Dragon software (<£5) from Ebay and use this to do a new book on my system. I can then use this book as a trial run on Kindle selling. Long time readers will know I had some success with selling Ebooks on Ebay a few years back (a system which has been long since banned).
* Have you noticed that Ebay seem to be doing Zero fee weekends with much more regularity these days? They used to be once a month, now I would say they are once a fortnight.
* Was at the Edinburgh Festival yesterday to see Tim Vine and "Frisky and Mannish". Both shows were excellent. Tim Vine had roughly 200 customers at £15, with Frisky and Mannish pulling in about 250 customers at £16. These guys have both put in lots of effort and were anything but slapdash. Taking a closer look at Tim Vine's show, assuming he worked 25 shows and was sold out for each one (plausible), I make that a total gross of c £75k. Say Tim Vine clears 25% of that, he's still walking away with £18,750. Not Bad! ....... and I bet he'll be running another couple of shows as well.
* Something I noted during Tim Vine's show for the first time was his use of NLP. I am by no means an NLP expert, but I do know one (David Thompson - Genius) and I recognise the basics. On a number of occasions Tim used the phrase "You, like me......". Classic NLP basic. Nice work Tim.
* All my books are now listed on Amazon. Stage 2 is to save up the sales money I raise and use it to buy more stock. This way I can grow organically.
* I had a competition frenzy on Friday night. I must have enetered nigh on 100.
* Whilst browsing some of the many stalls that fill Edinburgh during the festival I noted how many products were duplicated amongst the so-called hobo chic homemade stalls. Could it be that two jewellery makers were knocking out the exact same designs? No, not really. I came to the realisation that these guys are actually just buying jewellery job lots from Ali Baba and getting themselves kitted out in grungey clothes so they look the part.
* If you've got any gardening skills whatsoever I'd advise you to pack your bags, sell your house and get yourself set up in Clackmannanshire. My lawnmower is on the blink so I'm looking for someone to cut my grass. The first phone number from the paper didn't reply; the second phone number didn't reply; a number from the Post Office window didn't reply; the 4th number, a referral, has replied 3 days after I got in touch and to put it mildly, can only converse in Pidgin English.