News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #1…
To my readers,
This will appear as an occasional feature as part of my blog. In lieu of a newsletter, I will post things here that are newsworthy, little bulletins about fellow authors or yours truly. Some of these will be repeated on my Facebook Fan Page, but the FB programmers are really starting to get on my nerves, so this is the first place to check.
#1: September 24, 2011—I sent the revised and expanded version of Evil Agenda off to Donna Carrick of Carrick Publishing. Donna will provide the eBook formatting. This eBook will be available in a few weeks. It is the sequel of Full Medical (also formatted by Donna) and appeared as a serialized novel on this website. I have decided to do only eBooks from now on. Although the four trade paperbacks I’ve already released are still available on Amazon and other online retailers, including the publishers Xlibris and Infinity, efficiency, costs, and ease of marketing, as well as a similar switch by more notable authors (Konrath, Eisler, etc), have convinced me this decision is correct, at least for the time being. Oh, by the way, it maximizes my time for writing!
#2: September 24, 2011—With Evil Agenda, five of my six sci-fi thrillers will have bargain eBook versions. Here’s the list and prices:
The Secret Lab, $0.99
The Midas Bomb, $7.99
Full Medical, $4.99
Evil Agenda, $2.99
Survivors of the Chaos, $8.95
You can find these on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other online eBook retailers. I promise to turn Soldiers of God into an eBook ASAP.
#3: September 24, 2011—If you’re a young adult or an adult that is young-at-heart or a cat lover, download a copy of The Secret Lab and meet Mr. Paws and his human friends. They have adventures on the International Space Station. This eBook is an ideal gift for a young adult looking for an entertaining book to read for book reports or just for fun…but don’t ask me how you put it into his or her Christmas stocking.
#4: September 26, 2011—In the N.Y. Times, the Brazilian writer, Paulo Coelho, talks about book marketing, among other things. An interesting twist: he pirated his own books in countries where they were hard to obtain. He also gives books away for free—something to think about for authors like me trying to build name recognition.
#5: September 27, 2011—Click on http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-post-by-rick-mofina.html to read crime writer Rick Mofina’s interesting guest post on Joe Konrath’s blog. Award-winning writer Donna Carrick receives recognition for her eBook formatting skills. She is the author of The First Excellence. I will exclusively use her eBook expertise and recommend her without reservations to my fellow authors.
#6: September 27, 2011—In my new “Mini-Reviews” section of this blog, I spoke to the hype surrounding the release of Lee Child’s The Affair. Check out the full-page ad in today’s N.Y. Times. Trailers on TV will be next. If you’re a writer (I’m assuming readers will also read these news items), don’t lament about not having this kind of advertising. Konrath (see his comments on the blog post above) even argues against trailers and full-page ads. Like Joe, I’ve never bought a book because of a N.Y. Times ad or TV trailer. I generally echo his cynical view of the publishing industry. I think successful book marketing is word-of-mouth—of course, today that is hugely amplified by the internet.
#7: September 28, 2011—Coming soon: If you like detectives Castilblanco and Chen (the protagonists of The Midas Bomb), you will enjoy a collection of short stories (some were published on this website) and a new suspense novel about them that I’m working on. Of course, I’m also working on Sing a Samba Galactica, the new sci-fi thriller and sequel to Survivors of the Chaos (the first two chapters appear in the latter novel as a teaser). I’m not sure which one of these I’ll finish first, so stay tuned!
All the best,
Steve
