Are you curious about my new novel? Do you want to see what the cover looks like? Read the first few pages? Well, today’s your lucky day, because you can do all of that and help me out at the same time.
I’ve entered The Prophet of Marathon into the Kindle Scout program, and my campaign went live this morning. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kindle Scout, Amazon describes it as “a place where readers help decide if a book gets published.” For each book that’s entered, they post the cover, a short description, and an excerpt from the manuscript, and they invite readers to nominate the books that they would like to see published.
At the end of the thirty-day campaign, they give you a decision one way or another. Amazon never spells out, precisely, their selection criteria. Clearly, the amount of traffic that the book generates plays a role, but it appears that just getting the most nominations doesn’t guarantee you a publishing contract. My guess is that you need to attract enough interest to get the editors’ attention, and then you’ll at least have a shot.
I would love nothing more than to see what Amazon’s marketing muscle could do with this book, so I’m giving it a try.
Tacked to the wall of my office, just above the spot on my desk where the telephone sits, I keep a copy of William Faulkner’s 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech. If you’ve never read it, or if you haven’t read it lately, take a minute and Google it. In five short paragraphs, he manages to say more than I could in 50,000 words.
Faulkner gave his speech to a world that was still bleeding from the wounds of the Second World War, at a time when nuclear annihilation seemed not just likely, but imminent. Humanity had reached a point where the only relevant question seemed to be, in Faulkner’s words, “When will I be blown up?”
Thankfully, we’ve backed away from that particular precipice. I haven’t lost a lot of sleep worrying about a nuclear strike from our former Cold War adversaries. But, as I look out my window, across West Street and down onto the two memorial fountains that mark the mass grave in my neighborhood, I know that mankind’s worst self-destructive tendencies are still very much alive in the 21st Century.
Today is a day for remembering an act of almost incomprehensible evil. But, for me at least, it’s also a day to affirm my faith in humanity, not by trying to forget the evil, or pretending that we’ll never see its like again, but by staring it in the face and declaring that it will never overcome us. As will always be the case, Faulkner said it better than I could:
“I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking.
I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”
… although you wouldn’t know it if you looked at my blog. Pretty shameful stuff on my end, not having posted anything here since September. I guess that’s part of the challenge of being a part time author – it’s easy to let things slide, and before you know it, you’ve gone three months without updating your website…
The good news is that, even though I haven’t been posting, I have been writing. I finished the first draft of my second novel back in October, but then I decided to re-write the ending completely (among other edits), so I just finished a second draft today. I’m going to have Erinn and a couple of others give it a read and then we’ll see where we’re at, but I think it’s pretty close. I think I’m going to call it The Prophet of Marathon. More to come on this (hopefully) soon!
Also, earlier this fall, I finished a short story called Short-Changed. I’ve submitted it to a handful of journals and magazines, so we’ll see if it goes anywhere. One way or the other, I’ll get it out there.
As for Peripheral Involvement, the ranking boost fuled by my early September discount/promotions has faded. Sic transit gloria mundi, I suppose. I am happy to report, though, that the book has continued to sell, albeit in modest numbers.
I plan to do a better job posting here, so look for more updates soon!
So, I awoke this morning to find that Peripheral Involvement was ranked #3,138 on the Kindle Best Seller list, and #55 in the Mystery, Thriller & Suspense subcategory for Literary Fiction! It’s the first time I’ve ever cracked the top 100 in a subcategory, so I’m pretty excited!
If you recall, some months ago, I said that I hoped to finish the first draft of my second novel by the end of the summer. Since I turned on my TV last night and saw a college football game, it seems like that time has come (although, in our house, summer won’t officially end until the kids go back to school next Thursday). At any rate, I didn’t quite meet my goal – I’m up to about 85,000 words and the end is in sight, but more work needs to be done. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, in celebration of fall’s arrival, I’m putting Peripheral Involvement on sale. For the next two weeks, you can get the e-book version for just $0.99. That price will apply across all platforms – Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Google, Smashwords – wherever you can find the e-book, it’ll be $0.99. If you’ve already read it (many thanks for that, by the way), this is the perfect time to recommend it to a friend.
Quick update to my post the other day. As promised, I’ve taken my first steps outside of the Amazon universe. Peripheral Involvement is now available in the following places:
Oh… you though that I’d turned this into a full-time soccer blog? Well, I suppose I can’t blame you for that. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted on anything other than the World Cup, and now that we’re getting to the knockout rounds (with the U.S.A still alive, no less), I don’t imagine I’ll be shutting up about it any time soon. Probably not the best way to build my “brand” or my “platform,” or whatever else I”m supposed to be doing with this website, but sometimes you need to have a little fun. I hope my readers will forgive me for indulging in this passion project for a little while longer.
My head may still be in Brazil, but the publishing business doesn’t pause for the World Cup, and Peripheral Involvement continues to make its way in the world. I’m happy to report that it continues to sell, certainly not in any kind of earth-shattering numbers, but enough to make me feel like I’m slowly finding my audience. Reviews continue to trickle in (we’re up to seven on Amazon, and three on Goodreads), and they’ve been very encouraging.
When I first released it, I made the decision to sell the e-book version exclusively on Amazon. There are a couple of benefits that come with that, namely the ability to offer your book for free for a limited number of days, and the ability to run “Kindle Countdown” deals, where the e-book is offered at a discounted price for a limited time. I don’t ever see myself giving my work away for free, on principle, but I was intrigued by the idea of the Countdown promotions.
Author blogs and forums are full of opinions an the usefulness of Amazon’s free/discount tools. There are plenty who swear by free promotions, saying that it generates exposure and reviews which lead to bigger sales after the free promotion ends. Others scoff at them, and point out that every book you give away is one less that you’ll sell. Similarly, some have sold thousands of copies during Kindle Countdowns, while for others it turned out to be a damp squib.
My (very broad) takeaway from the experiences that others have shared is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to any of this. It depends on whether or not an author already has an audience, whether or not they have multiple books on offer, and whether they’re able to combine their price promotions with advertising tools that let readers know what’s going on. Dropping your price by 60% won’t get you very far if no one hears about it.
At this point, when I’ve still only got one book out there and I’m trying to attract new readers from scratch, I think that the benefits of making my work available on as many platforms as possible outweigh anything that I would get by remaining exclusively on Kindle. So, once my agreement with Amazon expires on June 30, I’m going to make the e-book version of Peripheral Involvement available on Nook, Kobo, Smashwords and elsewhere. It should start popping up all over the place next week (and, just to be clear, it will continue to be available on Kindle, just as before – it just won’t be only on Kindle).
Finally, on the contest front, a couple of months ago I entered Peripheral Involvement into Kindle Book Review’s 2014 Best Kindle Book Awards, and I understand that they’ll be announcing their semi-finalists on July 1. Of course, I will let you know how it goes. You’ll just have to wade through my thoughts on the U.S.A – Belgium game to find out.
I’m excited to announce my first Kindle Countdown promotion! From Monday, May 5 through Saturday, May 10, the Kindle edition of Peripheral Involvement will be available for just $1.99! Cheaper than a ride on the subway! If you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s your chance!
Meanwhile, you can see my interview with IndieAuthorLand.com here, and my latest review (courtesy of Big Al’s Books and Pals) here. Looks like Big Al didn’t exactly love it, but that’s fair enough. Any and all feedback is enthusiastically welcomed.
