Hasta La Gadget!

First the good news.

For indie (self-published) authors, there’s never been a better time to publish an ebook. Thanks to an ever-growing global market for ebooks, your books are a couple clicks away from over one billion potential readers on smart phones, tablets and e-readers.

As a self-published author, you have access to tools, distribution and best practices knowledge to publish ebooks faster, smarter and less expensively than large publishers. In the world of ebooks, the playing field is tilted to the indie author’s advantage because you can provide readers high-quality books at much lower prices and you earn 60-80 percent of the list price vs the low 12-17 percent list earned by traditionally published ebook authors.

Now the bad news.

Everything gets more difficult from here. You face an uphill battle. With a couple exceptions, most major ebook retailers have suffered anemic or declining sales over the last 12-18 months.

The gravy train of exponential sales growth is over. Indies have hit a brick wall and are scrambling to make sense of it. In recent weeks, for example, I’ve heard a number of indie authors report that their sales at Amazon dropped significantly since July after Amazon launched their ebook subscription service, Kindle Unlimited. For $9.99 per month, Kindle Unlimited offers readers unlimited access to over 700,000 books — most of which are supplied by indie authors.

Amazon’s power reader customers now have 700,000 fewer reasons to purchase individual books.

Some authors are considering quitting. It’s heartbreaking to hear this, but I’m not surprised either. When authors hit hard times, sometimes the reasons to quit seem to outnumber the reasons to power on. Often these voices come from friends and family who admire our authorship but question the financial sensibility of it all.

The writer’s life is not an easy one, especially when you’re measuring your success in dollars. If you’re relying on your earnings to put food on your family’s table, a career as an indie author feels all the more precarious.

At times like this, it’s important for all writers to take a deep breath and find their grounding. Remember why you became an author in the first place. It’s times like this that test an author.

Don’t fail the test.

Back in December, in my annual publishing predictions for 2014, I speculated that growth in the ebook market would stall out in 2014. I wrote that after a decade of exponential growth in ebooks with indies partying like it was 1999, growth would slow.

I wrote that the hazard of fast-growing markets — the hazard of the rapid rise of ebooks – is that rapid growth can mask flaws in business models. It can cause players to misinterpret the reasons for their success, and the assumptions upon which they build and execute their publishing strategy. Who are these players? I’m talking about authors, publishers, retailers, distributors and service providers — all of us. It’s easy to succeed when everything’s growing like gangbusters. It’s when things slow down that your beliefs and underlying assumptions are tested.

I urged authors to embrace the coming shakeout rather than fear it. Let it spur you on to become a better, more competitive player in the months and years ahead. Players who survive shakeouts usually emerge stronger out the other end.

What’s causing the slowdown?

I see three primary drivers for the slower growth.

1. There’s a glut of high-quality ebooks

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing by self-publishing naysayers who criticize the indie publishing movement for causing the release of a “tsunami of drek” (actually, they use a more profane word than “drek”) that makes it difficult for readers to find the good books. Yes, indie publishing is enabling a tsunami of poor-quality books, but critics who fixate on drek are blinded to the bigger picture. Drek quickly becomes invisible because readers ignore or reject it. The other, more important side of this story is that self-publishing is unleashing a tsunami of high-quality works. When you view drek in the broader context, you realize that drek is irrelevant. In fact, drek is yin to quality’s yang. You must have one to have the other. Self-publishing platforms like Smashwords have transferred editorial curation from agents and publishers to readers, and in the process has enabled publication of a greater quantity and diversity of high-quality content then ever possible before.

The biggest threat faced by every indie or traditionally-published author is the glut of high-quality, low-cost works. The quality and potency of competition has increased dramatically thanks to self-publishing, and the competition will grow stiffer from this day forward.

Ten years ago, publishers artificially constrained book supply by publishing a limited number of new titles each year. Agents and publishers rejected nearly everything that came in through the slush pile. Even though publishers published hundreds of thousands of new releases each year, there was an artificial scarcity of books. The supply was further constrained by the inability of physical brick and mortar bookstores to stock every title. Even big box stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders could only stock a small fraction of the titles published each year, and as such they were forced to return slow-selling books to make room for new releases.

This rapid loss of shelf space for the poor sellers forced many high-quality books out of print before they had a chance to connect with readers. This then limited the supply of available books, which limited the competition for the authors whose publishers managed to keep their books in print and on store shelves.

We’ve moved from a world of artificial scarcity to organic abundance. Readers now enjoy a virtually unlimited selection of low-cost, high quality works, and these books will become ever-more plentiful and ever-more higher-quality in the years ahead thanks to self-publishing.

2. The rate of growth in the supply of ebooks is outstripping the growth in demand for ebooks

A few things are happening here. Ebooks are immortal, so they never go out of print. Like cobwebs constructed of stainless steel, they will forever occupy the virtual shelves of ebook retailers. They are forever discoverable. This is both good and bad if you’re an author. It’s good your book is immortal, because it means you can look forward to harvesting an annuity stream of income for many years to come, especially for great fiction because fiction is timeless. But it means that every year there will be more and more books for readers to choose from. Unless the number of readers and the number of books read by readers grows faster than the number of titles released and ever-present, there will be fewer eyeballs split across more books. This means the average number of book sales for each new release will decline over time unless readership dramatically increases, or unless we see an accelerating pace of transition from print reading to screen reading.

3. The rate of reader transition from print books to ebooks is slowing

The early adopters for ebooks have adopted. The exponential growth in ebook sales over the last six years was driven by a number of factors, most notably a rapid transition from print reading to ebook reading, and the success of ebook retailers such as Amazon, iBooks and Barnes & Noble. Today, ebooks probably account for between 30 to 35 percent of dollar sales for the US book market, with genre ebook fiction a bit higher and romance quite a bit higher. Since ebooks are priced lower than print, the 30-35 percent statistic understates the amount of reading that has moved to screens. Most likely (especially when you include free ebooks), screen reading in the ebook format today probably accounts for around half or more of all book words read. But the rate of transition from print to ebooks is slowing. We’ve reached a state that might best be described as a temporary equilibrium. I think reading will continue to transition to screens, but at a much slower rate of transition than during the last six years. The slower rate of growth will therefore limit the number of new eyeballs available for the ever-growing supply of ebooks.

How to Succeed in the Future Competitive Landscape

Whether you’re an indie author or a traditionally published author, the easy days are behind you. Yet tremendous opportunities still lie ahead.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, there’s never been a better time to be an indie author. Millions of readers are waiting to discover, purchase and read their next great book.

Here’s how to succeed in the new environment.

1. Take the long view

You’re running a marathon, not a sprint. Most bestsellers slogged away in obscurity for years before they broke out. Every bestselling author you admire faced moments where it seemed more sensible to quit than to power on. They powered on.

Work today to create the future you want 10 or 20 years from now. Six years into the ebook revolution, you’re still early in the game.

In any market, whether fast-growing or slow-growing, the early movers have the advantage. Although it was easier two years ago to grow readership than it is today, today it’s still dramatically easier to grow your readership than it will be two years from now. Get out there now.

Focus now on aggressive platform building. Build a social media platform – using tools such as Facebook, Twitter, a blog and a private mailing list – that you control. You ‘ll find platform-building is the most difficult when you’re first starting out. You’ll also find as you grow your platform and your following, it gets easier and easier as your readers become your evangelists. Social media in all its forms rewards those who add value.

Authors who attract and capture the most readers today have the greatest opportunity to convert those fans to lifelong super fans. Super fans will buy everything you write and will evangelize your work through word of mouth, reviews and social media.

2. Good isn’t good enough

With the glut of high-quality books, good books aren’t good enough anymore. The books that reach the most readers are those that bring the reader to emotionally satisfying extremes. This holds true for all genre fiction and all non-fiction. If your readers aren’t giving you reviews averaging four or five star and using words in their reviews like, “wow,” “incredible” and “amazing,” then you’re probably not taking the reader to an emotionally satisfying extreme. Extreme joy and pleasure is a required reading experience if you want to turn readers into fans, and turn fans into super fans. Wow books turn readers into evangelists. Even if your book is priced at free, it must still be a wow book. Free does not guarantee readership because the competition among free books is fierce. At Smashwords nearly 50,000 of our 330,000 ebooks are priced at free (we track the number of free books in real time on our home page).

3. Write more, publish more and get better

The more you write and publish, the greater your chances of reaching readers. The more you write, the more opportunity you have to perfect your craft. What are you writing next? Get it on preorder now. Never stop writing. Never stop growing.

4. Diversify your distribution

There’s a global market for your English-language books. Avoid exclusivity. If your books are only available at a single retailer, you’re missing out. iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Oyster, Kobo and public libraries all want self published ebooks. iBooks, for example, operates stores in 51 different countries and has become the world’s second largest seller of ebooks. Each of these 51 countries represents its own unique micro-market. If you’re not there with your entire list of books, then you’ll face long term disadvantage against the majority of authors who’ve been building their fan bases for the last few years with uninterrupted global distribution.

If you don’t have all your books available at every retailer, you’ll undermine your long term potential.

At every writers conference I attend, I’m surprised by the number of indie authors who ask, “How do I decide between Amazon and the other retailers?” The question belies an unfortunate truth about the state of indie publishing – a scary large number of authors publishing at Amazon think Amazon requires exclusivity. Not true! Yes, they’ll poke and prod you to go exclusive, but you can say no. I recently wrote a short post for the IBPA (International Book Publishers Association) on this subject titled, Exclusive is Actually Optional at Amazon. Do your indie author friends a favor and help them understand the benefits of global distribution.

5. Network with fellow indies

As I wrote in my Indie Author Manifesto, indie does not mean “alone.” It takes a village to publish a professional-quality book. Network with your fellow indies at writers conferences and local writers groups. Share experiences and support one another through the good times and bad.

6. Publish multi-author box set collaborations

One of the advantages of indie authorship is that you can partner will fellow self-published authors to produce a multi-author box set. A box set is a collection of multiple full-length books by different authors. When authors publish and promote multi-author box sets, they can amplify their fan-building by cross-marketing to each participating author’s fan base. Box sets work best when every author pitches in on the promotion. Earlier this year I wrote a blog post titled, “How to Publish Box Sets for Audience-Building, Charity and Profit,” which teaches authors how to produce a box set. Partner with authors you love, and who you think your readers will love. Be a great partner!

7. Leverage professional publishing tools

Indie authors now have free access to powerful merchandising tools that were once only available to traditionally published authors. These tools give an author competitive advantage. At Smashwords, for example, self-published authors can distribute ebook preorders to iBooks, Barnes & Noble and Kobo nine to twelve months in advance of the publication date. At each of these retailers, all accumulated preorder orders credit toward the book’s first-day sales rank which causes the book to spike higher in bestseller lists. Preorders also make it easier for authors to market their books in advance of the release. Many indie authors have used preorders to hit retailer bestseller lists as well as national lists published by USA Today and the New York Times. Yet despite the availability of these tools, only a small fraction of indie authors take advantage of them.

8. Best practices bring incremental advantage

There’s no single magic bullet that will make your writing career take off. The secret is that you must do many things right and avoid mistakes that will undermine your career. The many things you must do fall under the umbrella of best practices.

In my free ebook, The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success, I introduced the concept of Viral Catalyst. A Viral Catalyst is anything that makes your book more available, more discoverable and more desirable to readers. it’s helpful to think of your book as an amorphous object, and attached to it are dozens of dials, levels and knobs that you can twist, turn and tweak to make your book more available, more discoverable and more desirable. What are these things you can tweak and adjust? I’m talking about things such as your editing, your cover, your book description, pricing, categorization, etc. Once you get the combination of settings just write, your book will start selling.

Best practices are what separate the indie author professionals from the indie author wannabees. Be the pro! Even if you’re already a bestseller, challenge yourself to do better. Find those things you’re not doing and do them.

So here’s some good news for you. Although the indie author community is more professional and sophisticated than it was five years ago, the fact remains that most indie authors don’t fully exploit the power of best practices. There’s plenty of low-hanging fruit on the best practices tree that most indie authors ignore. This means if you fully exploit best practices, you’ll have a significant advantage over the majority of authors who do not.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the most commonly underutilized best practices:

• Many indies release their books without professional editing and proofreading.
• A surprising number of authors end their book with a period and that’s it, and not with enhanced back matter and navigation that drives readers to your other books and drives the growth of your social media platforms.
• Although indie authors are releasing books with better quality covers than ever before, a surprising number of authors still release books with low-quality homemade covers.
• A lot of series writers haven’t yet experimented with free series starters, even though we’ve found that free series starters are proven to drive more readers into series and yield higher overall series earnings.
• Even though there’s strong evidence that longer ebooks sell better than shorter ebooks, some authors still divide full length books into shorter books that can disappoint readers.
• Sloppy descriptions. You’d be surprised at the number of self-published book descriptions that have typographic errors, or improper casing or punctuation. Readers pick up on this stuff. Mistakes like this are like a slap in the face of your prospective reader.

Last year I wrote a post titled, Five Steps to Boost eBook Sales. It’s a self-assessment checklist that prompts you to take an honest look at your reviews, your cover images, your categorization and targeting. With some simple questions and honest answers, you’ll be ready to give your books a makeover.

If you want a refresher on best practices, I created a series of ebook publishing tutorial videos at YouTube based on the workshops I give at writers conferences around the world.

9. You’re running a business

Let’s call these Mark’s Unconventional Rules for Running at Publishing Business:

• Be a nice person. Treat partners, fellow authors and readers with kindness, respect and integrity. You’ll find as you develop your career, the publishing industry will feel smaller and smaller as you get to know everyone, and as everyone gets to know you. It takes a village to reach readers. All these people – readers, fellow authors, critique partners, beta readers, editors, publishers, cover designers, publicists, media, bloggers, retailers, distributors – have the power to open doors for you. Don’t be the angry, bullying indie author. No one likes an angry person.

  I love this quote from NY Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry in which he cautions authors to avoid online rants (source: Jonathan Maberry on the Convergence of Traditional and Indie Publishing):

  If you want to vent, do it over beers at the next [Bram] Stoker banquet. We’ll all listen. But don’t put it online.

  So, what do you put out there? Think about a party. If there’s someone who is bitching and moaning and someone else who’s getting folks to laugh and loosen up, which way do you drift? If a kid in a playground is constantly bitching about the quality of the toys, and another kid has turned a cardboard box into a sideshow funhouse, who’s getting more attention? Who’s going to be remembered in a positive way?

  And, even if you are a naturally cranky, snarky, sour-tempered pain in the ass, for god’s sake share that with your therapist or priest. When you go online to promote yourself and therefore your products, try not to actually scare people off your lawn.

• Be honest. What a radical idea! Business relationships are built on trust and honesty. The fastest way to destroy a relationship is to be dishonest.
• Be Ethical. Don’t cheat. Do unto others as you’d want done unto you.
• Be Humble. Yeah, if you’re an author I think you’re super awesome. But know you can always be better. Celebrate those who help you succeed. Always know that none of us can achieve anything without the support, encouragement and love of those around us. It takes a village.

10. Pinch your pennies (for readers outside the US, this is an American saying that means, “be frugal”)

Practice expense control. Your sales will always be uncertain, but your expenses can be controlled. Jealously guard your pennies. If you can’t afford professional editing, for example, find another way to obtain it. A couple months ago at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference, I gave a presentation on best practices. To underscore my suggestion that writers find another way to get professional editing if they can’t afford it, I pointed out an editor friend in the audience and suggested that if authors couldn’t afford to pay for her services consider offering her something of value in exchange. Tongue in cheek, I said, “if you’re a professional masseuse, offer massage services.” To my surprise, I learned afterward that two professional masseuses in the audience handed the editor their business cards at the end of the presentation. You’ve got skills. Get creative. Trade editing with fellow authors. Trade services in exchange for professional cover design.

11. Time Management

Do you have too many hours in the day? Of course not. Organize your time so you’re spending more time writing and imagining, and less time with the menial grunt work. Professional cover design is usually less than $200. Ebook formatting is usually $50 or less. Use a distributor to centralize all your publishing, metadata management, sales reporting and tax reporting. Every time-saver gives you more time to write.

12. Take risks, experiment, and fail often

Success is impossible without failure. Failure is a gift. The challenge is to take a lot of little risks and make every failure a teachable moment.

13. Dream big dreams

Be ambitious. Aim high. You’re smart and you’re capable. You must believe this. Because if you don’t try, you can’t achieve. Salvador Dali said: “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”

14. Be delusional

At the Pikes Peak writers conference three years ago, I had a fun conversation with uber-agent Donald Maass. Don had just told a room full of deflated writers that self-publishing was a fine option if they didn’t want to sell any books. Later that night, we had a friendly chat at dinner. I told him I thought he was underestimating the impact self-published authors would have on the publishing industry. He told me he thought I was delusional. When someone doubts me, I feel energized. To have vision – to see what doesn’t yet exist – that’s a form of delusion. You have a vision. Not everyone is going to see it or get it. That’s okay. Know that every NY Times bestseller was absolutely nuts to write a book. Most books fail, so common sense would advise getting a job at McDonalds instead. Three months ago, three years after my conversation with Mr. Maass, Inc. Magazine named my company to its INC 500 list of America’s fastest-growing companies in recognition of our indie authors who sold over $30 million worth of books at retail last year. Indie authors have arrived. Who’s delusional now?

15. Embrace your doubters

They know not of what they speak. They’re delusional too. They can’t see what’ s in your imagination. Give ’em a hug.

16. Celebrate your fellow authors’ success

Your fellow authors’ success is your success, and yours theirs. When you achieve success, do everything you can to stop, pause a moment, and reach behind you to lift up your fellow authors to join you. A journey shared is more satisfying than a journey alone.

17. Past success is no guarantee of future success

I think about this a lot in my business. The world is cyclical. You’ll have ups and downs. When you’re having a great run, enjoy it, soak it in, bank it, pay off debts and build your savings for a rainy day. The rainy day will come. And then keep working. Never stop sprinting as fast as you can in the direction of your dreams.

18. Never Quit

Never give up. Quitting guarantees failure. If you never quit, you’ll never fail. Stamina and staying power beat the sprint. Think of the story of the tortoise and the hare. Fight for your right to pursue the best career in the universe.

19. Own Your Future

In the past, writers were dependent upon publishers. Now it’s all you. Your success or failure is your own. You’re the writer and the publisher. You decide how you publish. You choose your partners. If you succeed or fail, it’s on you. Avoid finger pointing and celebrate those who help you succeed.

20. Know that your writing is important

Books are important to the future of mankind. You are the creator of books. That makes you special, and it also burdens you with a special responsibility. No one else can create what you have within you. Your writing represents the manifestation of your life, your dreams, your soul and your talent. You’re special. Others might think you’re suffering from delusions of grandiosity but so what? What do they know? If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?

Find success and satisfaction in the journey of publishing. Know that the measure of your contribution to book culture and humanity cannot be measured by your sales alone. The moment you reach your first reader, you’ve done your part to change the world. And that’s just the beginning.

If you publish for the right reasons and you adopt best practices that make your books more available and more desirable to readers, your future is as bright as your imagination.

Thank you for everything you do.

WASHINGTON — The federal government until recently shielded big banks from criminal prosecution out of concern that convictions may damage the financial system, a top Federal Reserve official said Friday, explicitly acknowledging a policy long denied by the Obama administration.

The admission came during a tense exchange between William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) at a Senate Banking Committee hearing meant to explore the cozy relations between federal regulators and the banks they supervise.

Until May, large financial institutions investigated for wrongdoing had dodged criminal prosecution under the Obama administration, despite evidence from federal regulators and prosecutors showing that big banks had, for instance, laundered money for suspected terrorists and drug cartels; manipulated interest rate benchmarks; rigged various commodities markets; mislead investors in mortgage-linked securities; duped homeowners into taking out expensive mortgages; manipulated municipal debt markets; and broke state and federal rules when attempting to seize homes after borrowers fell behind on their payments, a scandal that became known as “robosigning.”

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have long suspected that federal prosecutors didn’t pursue guilty pleas because they were afraid the consequences — a potential unraveling of a giant bank — would endanger the global economy. Attorney General Eric Holder suggested that was the case in March 2013, but quickly walked back his comments after a public outcry.

It wasn’t until May that years of persistent criticism eventually gave way to a guilty plea by Credit Suisse, the giant Swiss bank, to allegations it helped thousands of Americans hide their wealth to evade U.S. taxes.

But until Friday, no senior federal official had acknowledged this was explicit U.S. policy.

“We were not willing to find those firms guilty before, because we were worried that if we found them guilty, that could somehow potentially destabilize the financial system,” Dudley said. “We’ve gotten past that and I think it’s really important that we got past that.”

Dudley’s admission was just one of several cringe-worthy exchanges during an hour-long appearance before a committee intent on holding him accountable for regulatory lapses.

Senate Democrats seized on recent news media and government reports that found widespread regulatory failures at the Federal Reserve, specifically at Dudley’s branch in New York. A recent report from the central bank’s inspector general found that the Fed dropped the ball on JPMorgan’s London Whale debacle, which lead to $6.2 billion in losses for the bank. Former New York Fed employee Carmen Segarra also released tapes showing higher-ups at the New York Fed ordering lower-level regulators to go easy on Goldman Sachs.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tore into Dudley over a risky transaction between Goldman and a Spanish bank, Santander, which was designed to help Santander dodge European capital rules. Dudley claimed that he did not know whether he or anyone at the New York Fed had contacted European authorities to inform them of the deal’s intent after waving it through.

WATCH Warren’s exchanges with Dudley in the video above.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) aggressively questioned Dudley’s claim that the New York Fed had helped end too big to jail with the Credit Suisse case. No human beings are actually in jail for Credit Suisse’s tax evasion scheme — either the Americans who stashed cash in secret, illegal offshore accounts, or the Credit Suisse employees who executed the scheme. The criminal investigation into Credit Suisse, Merkley emphasized, was spurred by a report from Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), not the Fed.

“You’re the regulator,” Merkley said. “Doesn’t that mean you’re asleep at the switch?”

Republicans made things hard on Dudley by not showing up. Only five senators attended the hearing, and one, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), asked no questions. The others — Sens. Brown, Warren, Merkley and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) are bank reform hawks who have long been critical of the Fed’s weak oversight.

Reed opened his questioning by taking issue with the way regional Fed presidents like Dudley are elected, noting that banks have a big say in who ultimately oversees them. Each regional fed board has three classes of directors — one selected by banks, another headed by corporate leaders selected by banks, and a third that is supposed to represent other public interests. The corporate and public interest directors choose the Fed president. Since big banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase select the corporate directors in the New York region, they exercise a great deal of influence over the process. Dudley himself is a former Goldman Sachs banker.

And while Dudley insisted that he had changed the culture of the New York Fed for the better since succeeding Timothy Geithner, who left to serve as treasury secretary, he also pushed back against calls for more aggressive oversight of the banking system. He rejected Warren’s suggestion that the Fed’s bank regulators should function as “the cop on the beat” looking out for misconduct.

“There is an enforcement element to it, but I don’t think our primary purpose as supervisors is really the cop on the beat,” Dudley said. “Now that doesn’t mean that if we see something, we should walk by and ignore it. I don’t think that’s the case at all.”

“You don’t think you should be doing any investigations?” replied an incredulous Warren. “You should wait to see if it jumps in front of you?”

“Because I think our primary focus on supervision is ensuring that the bank is safe and sound, that it’s run well,” Dudley said.

After 90 grueling minutes, the committee let Dudley go.

“Is there a cultural problem at the New York Fed?” Warren asked earlier in the hearing. “I think the evidence suggests that there is. … Either you need to fix it, Mr. Dudley, or we need to get someone who will.”

Medical bills were mounting. Kids needed glasses, cars needed repairs, and the dog needed surgery. On top of that, Christmas was almost upon us so presents needed to be purchased.

But all of that was forgotten when he overheard the tire salesman warn her she was in dire need of all new tires, as each one was completely bald. She was a young mom with kids in tow who told the salesman she simply didn’t have the money to replace more than one tire on her car. It was a dark and snowy night and my husband, Brian was waiting in our local tire shop to have his six truck tires replaced.

He saw a need that he could do something about, no matter the sacrifice it would require. You see, this man lives by the motto, “see a need, fill a need.” So Brian did what he does best. He gave what he had. My husband told the salesman that he would like to pay for a tire to be installed, opposite of the one tire this woman was able to purchase. Brian knew that even though it was just a start, this family would be much safer driving the icy roads with a balanced set of two new tires than they would with just one new tire.

The salesman was so taken aback that my husband wanted to buy a tire for a complete stranger that he immediately choked up. Eyes brimming with tears, he said that he’d never seen anything like it in his entire nine year tenure in the business.

My husband is a naturally humble, generous man who feels rewarded in the giving, not in the receiving in life. So imagine his unexpected surprise, when he later discovered the salesman had returned the entire amount spent on the extra tire to his bill! Rather than the seven tires my husband bought, the salesman only charged him for six.

The simple act of one man making the decision to share what he had, rather than worrying about what he would go without, changed things that night.

My husband’s choice changed things for the mom who felt a little safer driving her children home through the dark, icy streets.

His example changed things for the tire salesman who was so encouraged by complete strangers taking care of each other that he was inspired to quietly pay it forward on my husband’s bill.

His influence changed things for our children, who overheard the recounting of events from husband to wife upon his arrival back home.

His choice changed things for me to know that the lives of other people were impacted, all because of one small step of faith.

Join the conversation on facebook and read more at shelivesfree.com

Students at the University of Chicago say a recent controversy surrounding a racially insensitive Halloween costume is only a small part of the school’s larger “culture of intolerance.”

The controversy began when third-year Vincente Perez confronted a student dressed in a costume that stereotypes Mexicans and later spoke out over a photo he saw on social media featuring more students in similar getups. After he and other students of color presented their concerns in a letter to university officials and started a Change.org petition calling for greater cultural diversity and sensitivity on campus, Perez was named in a threatening Facebook update posted by a supposedly hacked account.

Federal authorities are reportedly investigating the Facebook post, but students say the school is not doing enough to address the broader concern that its campus is unsafe for students of color.

“I don’t feel comfortable being on this campus and I’m not comfortable with the response from the administration,” Perez told The Huffington Post. “There have been no clear ideas on actions that will happen.”

In response to the inflammatory Facebook posting, University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer and Provost Eric Isaacs issued a statement Wednesday, saying the Facebook post was “unacceptable and violates our core values.” The university is partnering with “federal law enforcement agencies and third-party website providers” to determine the source of the message and plans to pursue criminal prosecution and — if the poster turns out to be a student or faculty member — disciplinary action.

In a separate statement, issued later on Thursday, two more University of Chicago officials — John Boyer, dean of the college, and Karen Warren Coleman, vice president for campus life and student services — described the students’ concerns outlined in their initial letter and their Change.org petition as “serious and important” and acknowledged that the Facebook incident was “part of a larger pattern” the university is working to address.

“We know that members of the University community have experienced bias, insensitivity, and outright threats and discrimination,” the statement continued. “These situations are especially painful and frightening when they attack one’s identity. These events require our serious attention, both immediately and over time.”

Perez told HuffPost on Thursday that he is unimpressed with the administrators’ statements. Other students who spoke to HuffPost agreed, saying the school could do more.

Fourth-year Jaime Sanchez, who created the Change.org petition, also criticized administrators for focusing primarily on the alleged Facebook hacking incident and not the other concerns that students of color have communicated.

“It shouldn’t be the case where we have to talk about these cases of extreme racism and bigotry … for the university to step up,” Sanchez told HuffPost.

A number of other racial incidents have taken place on the University of Chicago campus and drawn criticism in recent years, including the creation of a “Politically Incorrect UChicago Confessions” Facebook page and a Confederate flag being hung on campus. Critics of the university previously pointed out that no one ended up being punished for the past incidents, according to campus newspaper The Chicago Maroon.

A growing coalition of student and faculty groups are speaking out on the recent incident. A group of 41 faculty members signed a letter expressing solidarity with students critical of the university’s campus climate, saying that they “find the lack of a serious response [to racial incidents on campus] by the administration to be problematic.”

On Thursday, the school’s Organization of Black Students also issued a statement of solidarity with “all victims of intolerance, marginalization, and targeted personal attacks” at the campus.

“While some may be inclined to perceive this most recent event as an isolated incident, this is instead the latest iteration of a historical trend of antagonism, symptomatic of a broader culture of intolerance,” the statement continued.

On Wednesday, Perez, Sanchez and other students of color held a demonstration inside the campus’ busy Harper Reading Room. Sanchez said participants chanted “We are here, we are here” before reading from students’ comments posted on the Change.org petition.

“Was your studying interrupted? Good. Our study environment is already disrupted.” #WeAreHere #liabilityofthemind pic.twitter.com/i7tFYQWqxu

— SJP U of Chicago (@SJPUChicago) November 19, 2014

Students are continuing the discussion on Twitter, using the hashtag #liabilityofthemind. A binder containing printouts of 1,500 of these hashtagged tweets was reportedly delivered to university administrators on Friday.

Apparently it’s not enough to say “your institution isn’t serving us and our specific needs and we are suffering” #liabilityofthemind

— Patty Fernandez (@PattyFerpi) November 21, 2014

This week I was told my claims that minority @UChicago students felt unsafe here were unsubstantiated. #liabilityofthemind

— Nissa Wan Ying (@HappyNiss) November 19, 2014

when an administrator tells you to “consider the image of the school” after your on-campus sexual assault. #liabilityofthemind #uchicago

— Nina Katemauswa (@lilyoftheflames) November 19, 2014

Sanchez told The Huffington Post he is hopeful their activism will result in substantive change at the university.

“I think we’re kind of making headway and showing administrators we’re not joking around, that this is a real problem that is not just present in these cases of extreme bigotry, but also present everyday in and out of the classroom,” he said.

Perez is feeling less confident.

“It’s disheartening that it took a very violent threat for people to care about what’s been happening to me and other students of color on this campus for years,” he said. “It shouldn’t take that for people to listen to our lived experiences. Until the university stops being reactionary in their response, these things will continue to happen.”

A University of Chicago spokesman declined to comment for this story.

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