Free Kobo eBook promo code for Terminally Ill: I messed up

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They say that doctors usually get sued not for medical errors, but for communication problems (i.e., for being a jerkoff).

Well, I was a jerk to my potential readers from the CBC, and I apologize profusely.

Here I was, cheerfully watching the hits accumulate on my website (over 600 in two days), not realizing that the Kobo link to Terminally Ill was BROKEN.

CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning had posted the free code, as a service to their listeners, and then readers came over here and got a 404.

So I was thinking, “Oh, look! Readers! I love you!” and they were thinking that I was pulling a bait and switch. Some of them were contacting the CBC to tell them the code was broken.

Business note to self: 1. Don’t anger readers, and 2. Don’t make trouble for the people who help put you in the Kobo Top 50. I managed to break both of those rules, inadvertently and repeatedly, for the past three days.

I’m really sorry. So, for the next 24 hours I will post the code for everyone, and then delete it. Newsletter subscribers will get the code sent right to their inbox.

Edit: The deadline has passed. The promo code has been deleted. However, if you are a CBC listener or a subscriber who missed the e-mail, contact me through olobooks [at] gmail [dot] com, and I will send you a code.

Yup, it’s that simple. Now go to the Kobo site directly here:

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/terminally-ill

If that link breaks, for any reason, just search for “Terminally Ill” or “Melissa Yi” on Kobo.com.

Once you get the code itself, some of you are having trouble entering it and getting it for free. You basically need to click “buy now” in standard checkout (or by clicking the cart icon) and enter the promo code.

terminally ill promo code Screen Shot 2014-03-27 at 10.57.46 AM

This link from Kobo may help.

I also found a tutorial on the web.

On the upside, Mark Leslie Lefebvre from Kobo (did I mention that he and his company are fantastical?), wrote this:

“Users have the option of clicking the Paypal option and getting to the PROMO CODE entry screen without ever having to enter a credit card or Paypal info.

If you need more help, please contact help@kobo.com any time.”

Or you can check out this link http://kobo.frontlinesvc.com/app/ask_NA

and call, chat or email the Kobo reps. (Edit: Please note, I’ve removed the previous contact, who received too many messages. If you’re having trouble using the code, don’t give up! You’re in good company. I’ve asked Kobo if it’s possible to make it easier to use promo codes, but in the meantime,  help@kobo.com is your friend.)

Note from me: If you absolutely can’t stand it any more, contact me at olobooks [at] gmail [dot] com and tell me what kind of file you need, and I’ll send you a file directly. Please note that I’m working heavily early- to mid-April and will be slower to respond at that time. It’s really better if you get a clean file from Kobo right away, if you can manage it.

So I messed up, but at least I’ve got a phenomenal team behind me. I hope readers and the CBC will forgive me.

And not sue me.

From Elvis to CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning

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On Saturday, “Hope Sze” successfully resuscitated “Elvis,” to great acclaim. Photo by Margaret Caldbick.

Wei Chen will interview me on CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning program tomorrow at about 8:22 a.m. So please tune in (there’s a live stream online here, on the right side bar) and/or Tweet @CBCOntmorning. I’ll reveal a secret code for a free Kobo copy of the e-book!

For anyone who’s wondering about the back story, and isn’t sick of my spam (I was going to give it a rest, but I do want you guys to listen to me on the CBC, Tweet, and pretend I’m popular. Because that would make up for, say, when I was thirteen years old and my classmates would call me bag lady):

On Saturday, the escape artist, Elvis Serratore (Mark Leslie Lefebvre) was chained and nailed in a coffin and dropped in the St. Lawrence River, but Dr. Hope Sze (moi) brought him back. In other words, we acted out the opening scene of Terminally Ill for two appreciative audiences who fought through a blizzard to get there.

Today, I struggled to write. Anastasia’s latest game is that I’m the baby and she’s the mommy, so I’m mostly supposed to lie down, cry, pretend to drink milk, and play with the toys she brings me. A little difficult to juggle my laptop at the same time.

When I did get a break, I should’ve doubled down to work on The Goa Yoga School of Slayers, but saw that I’d gotten this on Twitter:

cbc radio sandy marlowScreen Shot 2014-03-24 at 6.59.43 PM

When I called Sandy Mowat, he said, “I thought you sounded like someone with a dual career who might enjoy talking on the radio.”

“You would be right!” I exclaimed. I asked how he’d found me.

“We go through all the newspapers, and I found the article in the Standard Freeholder.”

standard freeholder todd bigger Screen Shot 2014-03-24 at 9.57.46 PM

So, as part of this book launch, I’ve had one previous article in the Standard Freeholder, one in The Seaway Valley News, one in The Seeker, and fingers crossed that I’ll get a mention in the Glengarry News (their reporter, Margaret Caldbick, took the amazing photo above at the Alexandria book launch). But it took Todd Hambleton’s latest article to get the attention of the CBC. Just like in the publishing business, you’ve got to reach critical mass before you might catch someone’s eye.

Or ear, as the case may be tomorrow, on CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning. Check us out!

Contest! Code Blues/The Devil’s in the Details

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ANNOUNCING THE CODE BLUES CONTEST:  THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS.

Do you have funny/sad/horrific/otherwise memorable medical detail that you noticed, either as a patient or a health care practitioner, that you’d like to share?
Dr. Greg Smith wrote to me after reading my medical thriller, Code Blues:
I really enjoyed Code Blues.  A bit surreal reading and picturing the areas of [our hospital] that had influenced things….I wished that the oven mitts as obstetric stirrups had made it in, but one can’t have everything, I suppose.  Maybe that was only my exam room….
In mine, they were oven mitts.  Mismatched oven mitts.  With no light, so you had to use one of those sproingy desk lamps things to case into the mysterious cavern.  When I started practice and had an actual light on my speculum, it was a true revelation when I could actually SEE the cervix.
I don’t remember any oven mitts in my exam room.
But I remember plenty of grotty details I’ve seen before and since!  Would you like to share yours?

Post your detail in the comments section at Olo Books by midnight on October 31st to win!

If you want to be anonymous, Tweet me your entry at dr_sassy and I’ll strip your ID before I post it.
If you post here or on Facebook instead, that’s fine, as long as you know that I will amalgamate all details on this page of the Olo Books website.
No purchase necessary.
Anyone aged 18 & over may enter to win.
Second & Third Prize:  your detail will be included in one of my upcoming essays/stories. In other words, everlasting literary fame and fortune.
First Prize: not only will your detail will be included in one of my essays/stories, but you have the right to name a character after yourself or someone else (slander excluded).  So, even more fame and fortune.  And…a free e-copy of Code Blues!  If you already had the good taste to buy Code Blues, you may substitute a free e-book of your choice from Olo Books.
If you want to see what details are already included in Code Blues, it’s available on the Kindle or Smashwords (the latter does all epub formats) with free samples.  The sequel, Notorious D.O.C., has just been released as well on Kindle and on Smashwords.  Or right on this website, I’ve got the first three chapters of Code Blues and Notorious D.O.C.
Just in case you were wondering, the sequel is called Notorious D.O.C. both because Hope has already become a notorious doctor and also as a reference to Notorious C.H.O., Margaret Cho’s hilarious tour, who was of course riffing on Notorious B.I.G.
Thanks for reading this, and good luck!