Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Discussions of new films, books, television shows, and media indirectly related to magic and magicians. For example, there may be a book on mnemonics or theatrical technique we should know or at least know about.
Bill Mullins
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Bill Mullins » December 25th, 2019, 12:44 pm

Has Royal Road fallen into public domain?

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 25th, 2019, 12:45 pm

I believe so, because Dover sells it.
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performer
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » December 25th, 2019, 4:23 pm

Of course it bloody has! I am not a complete dodo you know. In any event both Faber and Dover are well aware of my little venture. I have had particularly pleasant contact with Faber and even gave them a link to this conversation. Or should I say the other conversation on this forum regarding the book.

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » December 25th, 2019, 4:59 pm

A historic moment has just occurred! Someone has actually purchased the Wit and Wisdom book! The Royal Road book has been selling like hot cakes. Alas where the Wit and Wisdom book is concerned the cakes have been put into the fridge.................

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » February 20th, 2020, 6:15 pm

I have just purchased a copy of my own book. I have no idea what it looks like as a paperback hard copy. I hope I haven't made a mess of it. I will know within a week or two. Here it is anyway. Purchase it at your own risk! If it comes out fine then there will be no problem. If it doesn't come out fine then let me know and if I happen to be in a good mood ( a rare event) I will try and rectify the matter in some way I know not what.

https://www.amazon.com/Wit-Wisdom-Mark- ... B084QM5CBB

If you don't want to take the risk then you can purchase it here instead in e-book form:
https://www.lybrary.com/the-wit-and-wis ... 23421.html

Stever Cobb
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Stever Cobb » February 21st, 2020, 10:36 pm

Let me know when you receive it and bless it and I will place my order!

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » February 22nd, 2020, 7:10 am

I will indeed. I think it is going to be OK but I am a bit nervous. I am not very good at this computer crap. It was an absolute nightmare just doing the cover. I figured I had better look at it first before pushing it too much, tempting though it may be.

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 6th, 2020, 11:12 pm

Stever Cobb wrote:Let me know when you receive it and bless it and I will place my order!


It has arrived! And to my astonishment it looks absolutely terrific! I have utterly no idea how it came out so well. I swore that I made a hash of the whole thing. Amazon must have figured it out properly.

https://www.amazon.com/Wit-Wisdom-Mark- ... B084QM5CBB

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chetday
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby chetday » March 7th, 2020, 12:17 pm

Mark, that's good to hear. Now, please get to work on the printed version of your annotated Royal Road because neither of us is a young whippersnapper any longer, and I don't want to take any chances of meeting the Reaper before I can learn from what you added to one of my all-time favorite card magic volumes. I'm okay with ebooks for novels, but, by gum, I want printed magic books for my library.

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 7th, 2020, 8:34 pm

I am doing things one at a time. I am not overly computer savvy and I want to be careful since the Annotated Royal Road is an important book and I don't want to screw it up with my incompetence. There is a learning curve for me to go through so this is what I have planned. I am first going to experiment with the Wit and Wisdom book until I get it right. I have to figure out the best way to produce it and market it.
Once I have succeeded with that I shall then go through the same thing with "The Lives of a Showman" perhaps bringing it out in paperback and seeing how that goes.
By the time I have finished messing about with those two books I will feel more confident about bringing out the Annotated Royal Road in printed form. I will probably have a better idea on how to go about things by that time.
Patience comes to he who waits. I don't think it will be more than a few monthis.

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 9th, 2020, 12:10 am

I have been reading my own book today and while doing it I realised that physical books have one advantage over e-books that never seems to get mentioned possibly because I am imagining it but I don't think so. Somehow the printed word seems more authoritative that words written on a computer screen. Easier to study and take seriously. I have a few e-books of various kinds but I virtually never read them. Somehow I just can't take them seriously. The words don't have the same authority.

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chetday
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby chetday » March 10th, 2020, 11:27 am

Mark, I think age has a lot to do with what you wrote about physical books having more authority than ebooks because I feel the same way. Two of my novels were published back in the 80's by Simon & Schuster's paperback division. Last year I republished them as Kindle ebooks. Out of curiosity, I pulled out my old yellowed paperback copies and read both of them; then I re-read both novels a few months later in their ebook editions on my Kindle. The experience just plain wasn't the same. For some reason (and I think it's age and the fact that I grew up and spent most of my adult life with my nose in physical books), digital reading is a diminished experience.

I find this is also true for how I read and retain info on the internet. I can read a New Yorker article online and it kind of sticks with me for a short time after reading it. On the other hand, when I read a New Yorker article printed in the magazine, the info stays with me much longer.

One final observation. Amazon rewards those who have subscribed to their Prime service to download a free ebook every month. Being an old man who likes to take advantage of any special offers that come his way, I've chosen and downloaded a free ebook (novel) every month for several years. Of those ebooks on my Kindle, I've read one. During that same period, I've ordered physical books (some novels that I wanted to read that cost less than the Kindle versions) and I've read every one of them.

It would be interesting if some people here on the forum in their 20's would comment on how they feel about this. (That's if there are any men and women in their 20's here on the Genii forum... much of the time it seems to me like the forum is mainly populated by men in the third, fourth, and fifth acts of their lives rather than in the second act.)

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 10th, 2020, 2:20 pm

The young have their own paths of communication.
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Joe Lyons » March 10th, 2020, 2:55 pm

chetday wrote: ……digital reading is a diminished experience.

I find this is also true for how I read and retain info on the internet. I can read a New Yorker article online and it kind of sticks with me for a short time after reading it. On the other hand, when I read a New Yorker article printed in the magazine, the info stays with me much longer.

Letters intrinsically seem to hold more import than email.

I'll read a physical book all the way, my digital ones are often abandoned halfway through and picked up much later.

For some reason the ephemeral nature of data (information, photos, videos etc.) and the cost (mostly free) diminishes their perceived quality greatly.

Throughout time, media has primarily reflected our values, today I think the internet has changed our values more than any other form of media ever has.

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 10th, 2020, 10:22 pm

I took in my sole copy of the book today to the magic shop and was greeted by great gusts of laughter by the human beings that inhabit the place when they saw the cover. It seems they were not impressed by it. I told them that it nearly didn't have a cover at all since trying to make one drove me up the bloody wall! Anyway, here is the cover in question. I don't see anything wrong with it!

https://www.amazon.com/Wit-Wisdom-Mark- ... B084QM5CBB

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 10th, 2020, 10:25 pm

It kind of looks like the magic wand is farting sparkle dust.
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 11th, 2020, 5:41 am

Richard. Do you really have to be so vulgar? Since you run this place you really should set a better example.
Anyway I tried all sorts of pictures but Amazon wouldn't accept them for technical reasons which are beyond my understanding.

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chetday
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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby chetday » March 11th, 2020, 9:35 am

Mark, I hate to be negative, but the current cover isn't going to help sales any, in my opinion.

I looked into hiring a cover designer some time ago. Here's a link to a page with links to a number of designers who could make you a really eye-catching cover that would help sales rather than decrease them. I have no financial interests with any of these designers.

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/bookcoverdesign/

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 11th, 2020, 10:56 am

It wasn't designing the cover that was the problem. It was trying to find some damn picture that Amazon wouldn't reject. In the end I got so fed up with it that I decided to use any bloody picture I could find. I thought a magic wand was better than nothing. Still, I thank you for the link and I will investigate it. I will also investigate my sales so far. Up to now I have no idea what they are and I am not sure how I am supposed to find out about it either. I really do not approve of this modern age.

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby chetday » March 11th, 2020, 3:03 pm

Mark, below is a link to the site I use to inexpensively purchase images for cover pictures for my novels. I purchased 100 pictures for $100 during a special sale last year. Now I just have to write 97 more novels or stories to get my money's worth out of the purchase. The least current expensive route is to purchase and download in one month five images for $49.

The link is https://depositphotos.com/stock-photos/magic.html and it'll show you the first page of just some of the many magic-appropriate images available for purchase. I saw a couple just on that first page that I thought you might like.

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 11th, 2020, 3:09 pm

Thanks Chet. I will certainly check it out. However, about an hour or so it occurred to me that a crappy cover might actually help me to sell MORE books. I will let the various geniuses here figure out why I say that....................

I did look at the pictures you linked to. They are very good. But why do I have to pay anything? Can't I just do what any grafter would do and simply steal whichever one I want?

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby performer » March 11th, 2020, 5:23 pm

It seems that I have used the same cover in the past! No wonder I didn't sell any!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HV7O3MG

Perhaps this video might help!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQIhl8GbG0k

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Tarotist » September 29th, 2021, 11:00 am

I came across a review of the Annotated Royal Road by one our members (Barry Allen). He gave the review to the ebook version but the book is now out and printed in hard backed cover form as befits its importance (and of course the importance of the distinguished author).
Here is where you can obtain this masterpiece: (second book down)
http://marklewisentertainment.com/html/magicians.html

And here is the review:
"If you love RRTCM then trust me, Mark Lewis's Annotated RRTCM takes it to a new level.
For the first time in my life, I purchased an eBook. It did not disappoint.
Mark Lewis has added clarification and alternatives for certain moves; and updated many of the superb effects within its pages with his own 'twists and turns'. His writing is excellent - very easy to follow. It also has a number of colour photographs added to supplement the annotations.
Most importantly, from my perspective anyway, is that the additions added by Mark Lewis are from decades of REAL WORLD experience of 'working the book'; not simply someone deciding to add personal, worthless, Marlo-esque brainfarts to an already superb card magic classic.
I think Mark was looking at a hard copy version some months ago; this may have been delayed due to the Pandemic? However, it now seems it's ready to ship.
Anyway, the Annotated Royal Road to Card Magic is unreservedly recommended and worth every Penny."

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Jonathan Townsend » September 30th, 2021, 9:54 am

@Mark, your ad copy for the paper balls routine mentions a magician named John Ramsey. There was also a magician with last name Ramsay who published a routine using Four Little Beans.

*anyone follow up on the billet reading idea mentioned in his Triple Restoration manuscript?

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Re: Mark Lewis eBook - A Review

Postby Tarotist » September 30th, 2021, 10:18 am

Same chap, Jonathon as you well know. A mere rare but understandable spelling mistake in the name. However, to remove all doubt as to who I mean this is the gentleman in question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBdPVAM6Jzo

As to your question about the billet reading I happen to know Mr Lewis quite well and have consulted with him over the matter. He informs me that he hasn't the slightest idea and neither does he particularly care.


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