News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #33…
#188: Interview on “Phalanges.” Gina Fava, also an author of thrillers, interviewed me for the Q/A section of her blog called “Phalanges.” I will review her here shortly. I also look forward to having her write a guest post for this blog on various topics. Meanwhile, check out her website. (www.ginafava.com) [Also, see my interview policy on my “Join the Conversation” webpage.]
#189: Try a book. I will soon have ten books (see below). Maybe it’s time to try one. They are all sci-fi thrillers, although some are more sci-fi than thriller, or vice versa. There are three series: “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco,” “Clones and Mutants,” and “The Chaos Chronicles.” The first books in each series are The Midas Bomb, Full Medical, and Survivors of the Chaos. Try one of these. Or, introduce yourself to my fiction with the YA novel The Secret Lab (for young adults and young-at-heart adults) or the short story collection Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java—both are only $0.99. [See “Books and Short Stories.” ]
#190: Reviews needed. “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” will be completed when Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand! is released in October. Would you like to interview the entire trilogy? I can gift up all three eBooks—Survivors of the Chaos, Sing a Samba Galactica, and Cumbia, a $20 value—to up to five prospective reviewers. (Caution: All three are sci-fi thrillers, but more sci-fi than thriller.)
How do you review a trilogy on Amazon? Simple. You write the overall review, cut and paste it as the review for each eBook, and write at the top or bottom of each review: This is the nth eBook in “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” (nth if first, second, or third, of course.)
Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), you can review any of my eBooks individually and I’ll gift you a copy. My only requirement is that you write an honest, non-trivial review and meet Amazon’s review criteria. (I can only gift eBooks up to a certain point, of course.) This is a good way to start reading some of my books—for free!
[For more on my review policy, see the “Join the Conversation” webpage.]
#191: Attention: blog readers. Finding readers for my books is all about name recognition—this includes a reputation for consistent, entertaining writing. Note my emphasis here: I said readers, not book buyers. My goal as a full-time writer now is to have fun writing and to entertain you, the reader. While I’m happy to see that the number of visitors to my blog is steadily increasing, that number hasn’t translated into book purchases (the only metric available to me, in spite of my emphasis on readers, not buyers). This is a mystery.
Nevertheless, if you enjoy reading my blog posts, tell your friends—I don’t have any sign-up requirements, etc. And blog posts are freebies. Please don’t be shy—join in the conversation. If you feel that urge to comment, do so. Readers know what my opinions are, but they don’t know what yours are! Whether you agree or disagree, I respect your opinion. Please, also show your support—buy some of my eBooks. Any sales I have helps defray the costs of running this website…and my blog.
#192: Winning the lottery. What do J. K. Rowling and E. L. James have in common? Yes, they’re both intelligent English women writers. But they also won the lottery. They hit the jackpot with their books. They left most any other author you can think of in a cloud of dust, including many men (not surprising—on a whole, women are better writers).
I saw Ms. Rowling’s review on ABC’s GMA last Wednesday morning. For the most part, it was an advertising piece for her new “adult book” Casual Vacancy. It’s for adults, as opposed to young adults—don’t look for any magic except possibly in Rowling’s words. As often is the case, the distinction is a bit fuzzy between adult and young adult. Many Harry Potter readers were adults (I include myself); adults have read my YA novel The Secret Lab and enjoyed it. Ms. Rowling, of course, can afford to write anything she wants—or not. That’s what winning the lottery is all about.
One would think that Ms. James doesn’t have that cross-over problem. I suspect, though, some precocious tweenies and teens are reading or have already read the Fifty Shades trilogy. They are bombarded with adult themes every day on the internet, on cable TV, and in movies. Some can identify with Ms. Rowling’s themes of depression and cutting. With daddy and mommy (or two mommies or two daddies, or just one) holding down three or four jobs to make ends meet in this recession, kids nowadays have very little supervision. But I didn’t either, and I turned out OK (you might have a different opinion on that).
Returning to the huge success of these series, whether your metaphor is the lottery, casino gambling, or being struck by lightning, runaway bestsellers seem random and capricious. Advertising hype, especially from the Big Six publishers, wants the reader to believe the publisher is offering the next one, but the reading public has a mind of its own. No one can predict the next runaway bestseller. I’m reminded of that bank commercial where the Nobel prize winner in economics is asked whether he can predict the return on CDs a year from now. I think there’s more chance of that than predicting the next runaway bestseller.
What’s an author to do? As more books are released, whining and moaning about my chances of winning that lottery doesn’t strike me as productive. (In fact, I never play the lottery—the chances of having a reasonable number of readers seems much better.) There is only so much you can do in marketing and PR, even if you have the time and/or you’re willing to pay. My solution is just to keep writing. It’s what I love to do. Some days I’m better at it than others, but I’m always having fun—well, maybe not when I’m editing! In the process, I hope to entertain a few readers out there.
In libris libertas….
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