Facebook / Ads

Today, the NEW facebook fan page is finished!  Looks really good.  I had been wanting to get a website looking fan page for awhile and finally I found a website that made it easy.  If you want to create a fan page and make it pop check out Lujure.com.  So easy to do yourself and it was free!  That's right free!  So cool. They have pay for services as well that give even more functionality but for what I needed to start with the free service was perfect fit!  Check out my page:  Steve Trek Adventures  If your not a fan of the page you should land on "The Adventure Begins Here" tab, if you are a fan and land on the wall tab, simply click on the correct tab in the left pane.  Again, Lujure.com if you need help creating fan page.  Its terrific!

Ok so today I started my first Facebook ad campaign as well.  If your a facebook user keep an eye out for it.  I'm trying it as a test to see if it will actually drive new likes to the fan page and ultimately new book sales.  Wish me luck.

Next step, update the website. 

Peace.

TR

New FaceBook Page!

Created a new Facebook fan page today!  Well not new but a new and improved welcome tab.  If you need to create a tab, let me recommend Lujure.com.  Its an incredibly easy to use tool to create fabulous tabs on fan pages.  Best of all....Its FREE!  I will be tweaking it some more over the next few days to get it just right, but wow so much better.  Check it out: STEVE TREK FAN PAGE

I'm working on book two.  This time around I plan on self publishing versus using the publisher of book one.  I think having more control over pricing and ensuring immediate kindle availability is more important.  It was a good experience with Tate Publishing but I don't think they really help on selling the books at all.  That 100% up to the author.

I will post a chapter in the near future of book 2!

Peace,

TR

New Giveaway! AND Book Reviews

On Goodreads.com I have just begun a new book giveaway for 1 Hardback Collectable copy of The Galapagos Islands-Steve Trek Adventures.  Sign up for your chance to win!  Drawing will take place on August 1st 2011.

Being a new author, one of the first things you want is to see people read, hopefully enjoy and then post a review of your work.  That is a double edge sword.  If, more likely when, that first bad review is posted it cuts like a knife.  Overall the reviews to date for The Galapagos Islands have been really good, 4.15 avg out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com and even higher on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com. I am proud of the overall scores that the book is receiving.    My wish is that each of you considering reading my book or any book do so and judge the book for yourself.  Don't let others determine what you might enjoy.  Take the chance, read for yourself and make your judgement.

I hope that one day you read this first book, The Galapagos Islands and enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

Peace,

TR





 

Thank You

I wanted to congratulate all the book winners from the Goodreads.com giveaway.  I hope everyone has recieved their book.  I also wanted to thank all of you for checking it out and a special thanks to those of you posting reviews.  It is much appreciated.

I am working on the 2nd installment of the series now.  I will post some sneak peeks down the road so keep an eye out.

Thank you all again,

Peace  TR

New Book Trailer

Steve Trek Fans, here is the new book trailer.  Book is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble plus at Tate Publishing.com now.  Relases date is May 3rd.   You can follow me and find where I will be for book signings on the new website:  http://stevetrekadventures.com

Without any further ado here is the trailer:

Thanks for following me.  Peace TR

Getting the Word Out!

Now that the book is due for release in less than a month.  I am working on building that awareness that it is coming out.  I have been  researching opportunities to build the awareness.  One method I am using is Goodreads.com.  Its a wonderful site of avid readers and authors.  I am participating in a free book giveaway to build awareness and hopefully generate some additional reviews and recommendations.   I am in process of providing a review book to flamingnet.com.  This site is a teen/young adult site that provides reviews and recommendations to its membership.  I feel like this book fits well with this audience and I hope the reviewer(s) enjoy the book.  I am still working on finalizing the website ideas.  I have strong idea of what I want it to be like but trying to find someone to build it within a budget that works.

For all the fans, the book is available on tatepublishing.com now and it just started showing up on Barnes and Noble.com as a pre-order.

Additionally, I just started the process of the book trailer with the publisher so within the next 3 weeks or so we should have a book trailer for everyone to see!

If you wish to receive a limited addition hardback of the book, send me a email at steve.trek.diveadventures@gmail.com and I will tell you how.

Peace!  TR

Steve Trek Prologue

This week I thought I would share a book excerpt.  Below is the prologue to The Galapagos Islands, The first book in the Steve Trek Adventure Series.

Steve Trek, a divemaster aboard the dive boat Under the Sea, is twenty-eight years old with twelve years of diving experience.  He has diving credentials as long as any diver in the Dive Traveler Company, including full instructor certification. Steve is a natural leader, the kind of person people gravitate to, confide in and just trust implicitly.  He has the typical ocean buff look: the sun-bleached hair, the deep tan, the very fit muscular body. His presence simply instills safety and comfort to all those around him.  His charm and good looks lead to all the ladies that dive from the Under the Sea to love him and dream of rubbing his washboard stomach between dives and during the romantic nights that happen at sea.  Steve has been diving on the Under the Sea since he joined the Dive Traveler Company in 1999 after graduating from Pro Dive Instructor School.  He has become the top divemaster in the company and is well respected in all levels of Dive Traveler.  

The Under the Sea’s current assignment has it sailing and diving the beautiful and sometime treacherous waters around the Galapagos Islands. The waters there have unbelievable diversity. On any one dive the tourist diver can see the surreal sights of marine iguanas scavenging algae from the ocean floor, to schooling hammerhead and Galapagos reef sharks numbering in the hundreds, to the enormous sight of a fifty-foot whale shark cruising by chugging the plankton-rich waters like a sailor on leave at the local bar.  That’s why the divers pay in excess of $5,000 for the weeklong trip. These pristine waters can also be as dangerous as any in the open ocean.  Raging currents can come up at a moment’s notice, switch direction, and, before you know it, you’ve been swept miles away from the dive boat. The water here is also cold to the average tropical diver. The water typically runs around sixty-eight degrees, which is quite cold compared to the eighty plus degree water of the Caribbean.  Galapagos is located along the equator, where the warm water currents from the Pacific join and merge with the cold-water currents from the Arctic creating the swirling currents and upwelling of plankton-rich water that draws in all the amazing animal life that divers have come to expect in Galapagos.

The Under the Sea is a 110 foot swath design luxury dive boat. This particular design helps minimize the wave effects on passengers, so very few ever get seasick aboard the Under the Sea. The swath design sets the main deck thirty feet above the water’s surface.  The boat has a dive deck that is designed to raise and lower from the main deck to the water’s surface so the divers may enter easily. The boat features luxury cabins for twenty-four passengers. Each cabin has hot showers, king beds, and window views that rival any beach resort in the world.  The boat is truly a luxury hotel on the water. Other amenities that the passengers enjoy during their week stay include the ten-person hot tub on the top deck, the exquisite galley with meals that would rival any top restaurant, and full photo studio. The main deck is beautiful, with the teak railing that glistens in the warm sun. There are eight other cabins for the crew. As you might guess, the crew consist of the captain, first mate, galley crew, chef, two waitresses and the divemasters-Steve, Doc, and Jeff.  The divemasters also act as bartenders and photo developers in the full photo lab that is aboard. 

For Steve and the other divemasters, life is good.  They met back at Pro Dive instructor school. After graduation each went different ways.  Jeff went to the Florida panhandle to explore the caves that have always fascinated him.  Doc, on the other hand, went off to Cozumel and worked as a divemaster for three years at Paradise Divers.  In 2002, Dive Traveler needed additional divemasters, as the operation was expanding into new waters. Steve called his buddies from dive school and they reunited as the top divemaster team aboard the Under the Sea.  In the four years since they have had wonderful times diving together, seeing things they only dreamed of as little boys, but what they prided themselves most for was that they had never lost a diver and have had no serious injuries to divers in their charge.  Today is June 2, 2006, and they are returning to port with another happy group of divers that just finished a week of successful diving in the great Galapagos Islands.

The book is now available via the link here on the blog and will be released nationally on May 5th.