News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #21…
#123: FREE & NEW EBOOK! Special St. Patrick’s Day promotion: free download from Amazon KDP of the new thriller Angels Need Not Apply—3 days only (today Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). This is a sequel to The Midas Bomb—NYPD Detectives Chen and Castilblanco battle terrorists and a Mexican cartel. Ex-Navy SEAL Castilblanco shows he still knows how to fight and Ex-Army Ranger Chen shows she knows how to be both tough and sexy. Download and enjoy with your Guinness or Jameson’s—promotion ends Monday.
#124: See young adult author H. M. Prévost’s review of The Secret Lab and my interview with her. The Secret Lab, my sci-fi thriller for young adults and adults young-at-heart, is still only $0.99—a bargain download from all of your favorite eBook online dealers. Even if you’re allergic to cats, you will fall in love with the arrogant and aloof Mr. Paws. Enjoy. (Ms. Prévost is the author of the YA novel Desert Fire.)
#125: Coming soon! I’m into the final editing of Sing a Samba Galactica, the sequel to Survivors of the Chaos that you have been waiting for. What happened to Wong and Posada? Who did those bones on Saturn’s moon Helene belong to? Can Humans stop the invasion of the fascist teddy bears? These questions and more are answered. This should be great sci-fi fun for all…and good summer reading, along with Angels Need Not Apply.
#126: Jill Elizabeth has reposted my article “The Internet and the Ebook.” See: http://blog.jill-elizabeth.com/2012/03/12/guest-post-the-internet-and-the-e-book-by-steven-moore/ In a comment to my own article (on Jill’s website, of course), I pointed out how writing an Amazon bestseller (even more so for a NY Times bestseller, if you’re still playing by the rules of the legacy publishing paradigm) is a matter of having a good product and tremendous luck…sort of like winning a lottery or a Nobel prize. Even a mediocre product will work if your luck is excellent (see the next news item). The book market is fickle. You have your Amanda Hocking and E. L. James, but no one—absolutely no one—can predict the future and tell you if your book is going to win big. You just have to play the game and hope that the roulette wheel stops on your number sometime—there are too many authors with too many books, and not enough readers!
#127: Montclair, NJ, where I live, has something of a reputation as a writers and editors’ town. We’re just thirteen miles from the Lincoln Tunnel, the gateway to the Big Six and many other NYC publishing houses. (It’s also a bedroom community for artists like Stephen Colbert and Wall Street bankers’ families.) Now our tiny Watchung Booksellers, who weren’t very welcoming when I moved here (many small bookstores aren’t welcoming to indie authors and publishers—they believe we’re their nemesis), appeared last weekend in the NY Times in an article about Fifty Shades of Grey, that “mommy porn” erotic novel by E. L. James that seems to turn on suburban women, even causing some of them to vow that it has improved their sex life (I guess men read it too?). The bookstore also appeared in the segment about the book on ABC’s Good Morning America Tuesday morning (ABC News’ Dr. Richard Besser is also a Montclair resident, by the way).
Nothing like erotica to put a suburban, hole-in-the-wall, snooty-staffed bookstore on the map—administering some (hot breath?) CPR before the grim reaper hits? Don’t get me wrong—erotica has its place. Human beings are sexual creatures and stories about their sexual appetites and foibles are at least as old as The Canterbury Tales and The Decameron. Erotica done right is filet mignon compared to porn’s hamburger—of course, the former can become kinky with S&M and the latter can become very perverted. My new sci-fi thriller, Angels Need Not Apply, has some erotic sex in it (see Detective Chen in a new light), but erotica is that genre where all the emphasis is on that human activity—plot, characterization, and setting. There are more important issues to write about than sex, erotica or porn, but that’s just my humble opinion. Different strokes for different folks (and don’t take that literally)…but I wonder if Watchung Booksellers will help their customers find that little indie mystery you’ve been wanting to read?
#128: I’m beginning to get my muses off my back for a bit, I hope. Angels Need Not Apply has been released, thanks to Donna Carrick’s (of Carrick Publishing) dedicated work ethic in formatting the eBook and producing the cover; and Sing a Samba Galactica is in final editing. Phew! Those muses know I have many stories left in me. Nevertheless, they have begun to realize I’m only human, not ethereal wraiths like them. Maybe they’ll let me take a few deep breaths of ocean air down on the New Jersey shore this summer?
Maybe this is the time to list my books and their Amazon prices, although you can certainly see a better presentation on my Amazon author’s page (my own website has more lag):
The Secret Lab eBook $0.99
Full Medical eBook $4.99* pBook $10.98 (first edition)
Evil Agenda eBook $2.99
The Midas Bomb eBook $7.69 pBook $11.74
Angels Need Not Apply eBook $4.99*
Soldiers of God pBook $17.94
Survivors of the Chaos eBook $8.95 pBook $13.20
Sing a Samba Galactica eBook $4.99**
[All prices are current Amazon prices as of March 14.]
*KDP Select—this means you can participate in the Amazon Prime borrowing program and that there I might do some promotions from time to time.
**Will soon be available in KDP Select.
Note: Angels Need Not Apply will be free today, March 16, Saturday, and Sunday, as a special St. Patrick’s Day promotion!
#129: By the way, Donna Carrick and husband Alex are both great writers in their own right and have delighted thousands of readers. See the Carrick Publishing website for their opus. There are many hours of reading enjoyment to be had there. Load up your Kindles for summer reading. You’ll be happy you did!
In libris libertas…
