Everett Ephraim Johnson, Adoption Finalized

Our son has come home.

One year ago today I would have told you I was not only resistant to adopting again, I was anti-…

God has a way of accomplishing his plans, though, and now one young man about to age out of the system, doomed to a life among the feeble and insane forever, instead has a family.

Apologies from our end for the scant number of photos and updates, not only here but on FB. We are scrambling with the new adoption adjustments, getting ready to leave home for a month (annual meetings, medical, and vacation in Thailand), and…now on top of that, preparations for a quick trip to Xi’an for Everett’s Thai visa. He’ll be traveling on his Chinese passport (which we don’t even have yet––hoping for today or tomorrow!) and will need a 30-day visa from the Thai Consulate in Xi’an.

So please forgive the continued paucity of pictures and updates! We’ll get them out when we can. Thanks for remembering our family during this time.

 

Lily Was the Valley Pre-sale a Great Success

The Lily Was the Valley: Undone by Adoption pre-sale is complete. (I see this is the first time the official book cover has made an appearance on this site––the complete cover can be seen at the bottom of the post.) Just under $2400 (what I’d spent on the book by the beginning of the pre-sale) in reward-level purchases came in, containing a total of 230 softcover and ebook copies of the book! Thank you, pre-sale participants! I’ve been told that less than 2% of all books (self- and traditionally published) ever sell even one hundred copies… It’s been a great start.

Over the holidays I will be completing the final details, fixing those last pesky little typos that for the most part snuck into places other than the manuscript text (and therefore missed the excellent eye-work of all my advance readers). I’m thankful for all these pre-sale readers to help catch those before the first print book rolls off the press before the end of the year! 

The book will be available for pre-purchase again (softcover and Kindle formats) soon on Amazon.com. Get your announcement via this blog by signing up for “New Post! notify” in the side margin.

I have made the decision to go exclusive with KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select for ebook sales. It means the book will be made available in more countries and also to Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Though I know many of you use iBooks and other ebook-selling platforms, I’ve decided that going this route will enable me to reach the greatest number of readers with the least amount of complication––something I need at this point. Even those of us who use Apple devices, for instance, have the great Kindle App at our disposal…

After the 3 months of exclusivity are up, the book may be offered on more platforms. Would you like to see that? Which platform(s)? Do you have an opinion about KDP Select? Reasons you wouldn’t have gone (or didn’t go) that route? I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts in the comments below…

Wishing you and yours a VERY Merry Christmas. 

Dann Robert Johnson

First-time author. Officially.

 

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