- Joined
- Aug 1, 2018
- Location
- Nashville, TN
Free Ebook, and Why I Give it Away
Okay, first off: My nonfiction work The American Civil War WAS About Slavery: A Quick Handbook of Quotes to Reference When Debating Those Who Would Argue Otherwise is FREE through Monday, August 12, world wide. Just follow the hyperlink above and you can download it from Amazon. You can read it on your computer or smartphone. Amazon provides a free ebook reader app on the same page, or you can read it on your Kindle. There’s a paperback version too, but that you’ll have to pay for. I did try to keep the price down as much as I could to make it accessible to everyone.
Why I give it away:
First off: because I believe it is an important message. Honestly, it amazes me that we still have to address this in our modern age. But, there are those who want to distort our history to better frame their modern political sentimentalities. Clearly, there were wrongdoings on both sides and enough hypocrisy to go around, but the American Civil War happened because of slavery. The Confederate states seceded from the Union to protect the institution of slavery because a pro-abolitionist president had been elected. They said so in their declarations of secession. They then initiated the war by attacking Fort Sumter, thus forcing the hand of the remaining United States of America.
Would Abraham Lincoln have pushed for abolition had he not been dragged into a war? We’ll never know. He certainly didn’t want to force it at the end of a bayonet, but that was the situation already at hand even before his inauguration. My book, The American Civil War WAS About Slavery, makes its argument, not by my words or what I think, but the words of the people who lived through it including the Confederacy itself.
Does this mean that everyone who fought in the war did so because of slavery? Of course not. There were as many motivations for fighting as there were combatants. But many people confuse personal motivations with the overall reason the war happened. Your great-great-grandfather may have fought to protect his home from a Yankee invasion, but the cause of the war was secession and the cause of secession was to preserve the institution of African slavery.
Secondly: I want to sell books. I wrote The American Civil War WAS About Slavery while I was writing my first novel, Rampage on the River: The Battle for Island No. 10. The novel, by the way, makes no political or historical arguments. It’s an action-adventure novel set against the backdrop of real history with heroes on both sides of the conflict. In some ways, I wrote the book about slavery as the cause to set the record straight. I want people to know where I stand since many of my characters have different feelings about the subject than I do.
I also use the book as a marketing tool. At the end of it is an excerpt of my novel and link to buy it from Amazon. The hope here is that people will like it, like my writing, and be interested in getting into my novels about the American Civil War. This is why I give it away for free. Amazon allows me to do so five days out of every 90. Otherwise, it’s 99¢, or the equivalent in your own currency. I also created a paperback version if you want a hard copy for your library. I tried to keep the price down on that as well to make the decision to buy it easy for you.
In the end, I’m not looking to get rich off this simple, short, but true book. I want to gain you as a reader. I’m going to write novels for the rest of my life. My hope is someone will have to finish my last one for me because I’ll die writing it. Don’t worry, I plan that to happen many years and books from now. In the meantime, won’t you come along with me? We’re going to explore a lot of history and what it was like to be human while experiencing it together. Thank you for reading this. Please take a free ebook.
If you’d like to skip it and go straight to the novel, here you go: Rampage on the River: The Battle for Island No. 10 (2nd Michigan Cavalry Chronicles: Book 1)
or
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07PTSPD6H
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07PTSPD6H
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B07PTSPD6H
The Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B07PTSPD6H
Published by Cody C. Engdahl
I play the fiddle and write books.View all posts by Cody C. Engdahl