My Book About the Vietnam War is Getting Delayed

I'm putting together a book about stories of individuals during the Vietnam War.  The original focus of the book was supposed to be South Vietnamese soldiers.  I then started learning the stories of some American soldiers and went those have to be reported.  And more recently I've learned of stories of civilians, in particular the boat people who tried to escape after the North Vietnamese took over.

As I've been learning these stories I've begun feeling a responsibility as an American and as a human being to put together this book.  It's not a book about the politics or whether or not the war was right or wrong, it's about the lives involved in the conflict, what they experienced, and how it affected them.  I really think people need to read about these things.

It's been hard for me to continue sometimes, however.  While I had great hopes for writing nonfiction and getting it out there to the public, after Two Gun's poor sales, my confidence has waned considerably.  It's not the story or the writing; everyone who talks about it loves it.  But despite their enthusiasm for the book, it's barely made any money.  I literally have to go out to Rotary Clubs and tell everyone the story before people buy it.

Added to this is the fact that I've learned over the past year or so that series are what bring in readers to independent books.  You give them the first one for free, get them on a mailing list, then sell them the rest.  You also get it into a niche audience toward which you can direct all your energy.

So I just don't have a huge amount of hope for the success of this book, or any other book that isn't part of a series.  I feel like I need to put more of my time and energy into Relic Worlds.  But this one is too important.

The reason for the Vietnam book's delay is not because of this discouragement.  I am doing it.  However, while I was in Lincoln, I made a bunch more connections, and I want to make sure to collect as many stories and do as much research as I can before putting it together.  When I do, I'll be going through InkShares.  I'll be very interested to see how that goes.

My Wondercon Experience - Sunday

Sunday is known as the dead day at any convention, but it’s a very overlooked day.  This is actually the day that people are most likely to buy.  The ones who are there for the whole convention spent Friday looking around, then Saturday making the big purchases from major companies.  Then Sunday is the day they’re buying everything else that they’ve been taking a look at.

That’s not exactly the way it worked for me.  I made a few sales on Sunday, but Saturday morning was the big one.  And on Saturday afternoon someone bought the whole series.  However, Sunday was the day when more people picked up the flyers and other things, and wanted to take it home to look at it.  So it’s a great networking day.

It’s also a good day to network with other vendors at the convention.  Since it’s the day the convention is wrapping up, they’re less busy.  I managed to talk with some people at the Nerdist, and they took a copy of one of the Relic Worlds books to consider it for a story or a review.  One of the people from Joss Whedon’s company came over and took a look at Relic Worlds.  He seemed to be considering something, but I don’t know what.

And I had a great personal moment as I reconnected with Amber Benson.  She had been the first person I cast in my project The American Game in 1996 when I was first trying to make it into a movie.  I brought her a copy of the book.  She was signing copies of her book, but I told her that this one was for her, and that… I got only part way through talking when she leaped from her chair and gave me a big hug with a huge smile.  She was super excited to see me, and I was excited to see her.  I gave her my card and said I’d like to reconnect, and she said she would.

At last, at the end, I had a lot of time to contemplate how the convention had gone, and what I would do differently.  I figured out a lot of what I have said in these past few posts, and in general about independent publishing.  I realized that the convention is not about selling, but about getting followers.  And you need to make that task as easy as possible.  You’re going to lose money doing a convention, but if you do it right, you’re going to build your numbers.

And when you combine this with online promotions, it will pay off.  In this case, I had a KDP free promotion going on during the same weekend, so one of the flyers I was giving away was a link to where one could download it for free.  I had also done social media marketing and advertisements regarding the free book promotion.  Next week, I’ll talk about that.

All in all, I would say that my experience at Wondercon overall was what I had expected, but not what I had hoped.  I had expected to grow awareness of the Relic Worlds brand, but I had hoped to have a few more sales.  Oh well.

But the bottom line is, if you do a convention to raise your numbers, and combine that with online social networking and promotions, as long as you’re doing a series in a niche market, you have a chance.

Running Two Books on Sale in Tandem on KDP Select

The first two Relic Worlds books went on sale today on Kindle, and they'll be on sale through the end of the week.  I made the first one free, and the second one on sale for 99 cents.  The idea is to entice readers with the first, and since the second is just a buck, hopefully the audience will just go ahead and buy it.

I'm going to monitor its progress and report how it goes, continuing to try to figure out how this self-promotion thing goes.

Here's how I prepared this time.

Two weeks before the sale, I applied for the big guys.  That's Bookbub, Ereader News Today, and Digital Book Today.  As usual, Bookbub and Ereader turned me down, but Digital Book took it.

One week before the sale, I went tot he paid sites that seemed to do pretty well before.  This includes Book Butterfly, Free Booksy, Book Sends, and Ebooks Habit.  I also posted it for free in Awesomegang, Indie Book of the Day, Ignite Your Book, and OHFB, and for $3 at Free Ebooks Daily.  In every case I chose one of teh books to post except for one of the sites, Ebooks Habit.  They were low price enough that I posted both.  The hope is that someone will see one, then the other, and realize they can get a couple books in the series for a deal.

Throughout the week before the sale I was very active in Facebook groups that I belong to which involve sci fi books and Kindle reads.  This was to sort of prime the pump, and for people not to think I'm just going to post my book and am not interested in what they had to say.  I didn't just post on these sites, I reacted to what other people said.  I made my presence known as much as I could.

The day it started, I registered for any site that only takes submissions on the day, such as Facebook groups that do free Kindle promotions.  Most importantly, though, I posted the announcement to Relic Worlds' Facebook page and I shared that with other groups.  The first step is very important; to post in my own page first and share it.  When I post in other groups, it links back to me.  But when I share from my page, it links back to the page, which is the series I want them to get into.

So that's where we are right now.  It's 4:30 and I'm at 635 free downloads of book 1, but 0 purchases of book 2.  Strangely, there have been a couple downloads of my other books, but that might be just coincidence.  I'mhoping the actual sales pick up.  I'll let you know as it continues.

For now, here are the links to the books on sale:

Relic Worlds, Book 1:
https://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Search-Promised-ebook/dp/B00JSW7EBY?ie=UTF8&keywords=Relic%20Worlds&qid=1465240389&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Relic Worlds, Book 2:
http://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Secret-Padrone/dp/1530464692/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465240389&sr=8-2&keywords=Relic+Worlds

The Secret to Independent Publishing... Series! Part 2

Last week I talked about my journey through independent publishing learning what was working and what was not.  I had started with writing non-fiction and one-off novels, and found that the promoting of them was very difficult, particularly because, once I had promoted them, I was done.  There was no series which I could build over time.

What I’ve done with this blog post, in splitting it up, is illustrate part of what works.  If you can generate some interest and say the story will continue, that draws an audience in.  It also helps because it’s spread over two areas.  Some of you will undoubtedly see this post first, and go back to the last one to see where I began while many of you will have seen that first, and come here.  This is called casting a wider net.  If I had another one come out next week, some people would undoubtedly see that and trace it back to see where it all began.  And when people make sure to read all the way through, that counts as three views to my blog per person rather than just one.

In short, having a series builds an audience over time, something independent authors desperately need.  The more reasons you have to post about your series, the more opportunities others have to find it.  And by having multiple books come out, you can have something new to talk about regarding your series as time goes along.  It’s especially helpful when you have short stories that take place throughout as well, as you can post and talk about those for free, and they’re tiny amounts of your story that people can digest without a huge investment of time.

In my case, I’ve chosen to do my series Relic Worlds, about an anthropologist searching for ancient artifacts in the ruins of distant planets to learn what happened to alien civilizations in the galaxy.  Sort of Indiana Jones in space, if you will.  This series has a novel once a year, and a bunch of short stories in between each novel.  There are also games, choose your own adventures, and other interactive materials that come out for it all the time.

By having so many different elements, I’m able to talk about what’s happening in the series on an ongoing basis.  This is a huge departure from my other books where the only update I could give was, “book’s still out on Amazon and waiting for you to buy.”  As an ongoing tale, I can keep everyone up to date on the latest products and stories in the ongoing adventure.  And I can bring everyone along for the ride like they’re involved.

I bring them along by being a part of their discussions on Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc.  Being sci fi and adventure, those are the groups I belong to; and I enjoy the discussions.  I can get involved in what they’re saying about other sci fi and adventure stories, and I build trust and engagement with them.  So when I say, hey guys, something else has come out from Relic Worlds, I’m not just appearing out of nowhere and trying to sell them something.  Hell, I’m not even selling to them, I’m giving away most of what I’m talking about for free.

Speaking of which, it’s best to make the first book free as well.  This pulls people into the story as they’re likely to get the first book for free just to see what it is, then they’ll get curious where the characters go from there.  I made sure to end the first book by giving a sense of where everyone was going, but leaving it open-ended enough to make everyone curious.  With my one-off books, when I gave them away for free, that was it.  They had the product and didn’t need to buy anything else.

And then there’s the conventions.  While it was difficult for me to find conventions to sell my other books, with sci fi, there are plenty of conventions dedicated to just that, or to the “popular arts,” which generally includes sci fi and fantasy along with comic books.  Now, at these conventions you’ll generally spend a lot of money getting a booth and decorating it, but then you’ll hardly have any sales.  So why are they worth it?  Because that’s where you build your following.  They may not want to spend money at your booth because they’re spending it all on Batman and Star Wars paraphernalia.  But since they met you, they’ll go home and look at your stuff, and possibly buy it later.  They’re also pretty willing to join your mailing list.

This mailing list, I’ve learned, is perhaps the most important element.  By having it, I can contact them directly to remind them I exist rather than counting on people to look up my page and start following along.  Again, with a one-off book, all I can do is tell them what’s in the book and hope they buy it, or maybe tell them about new books I’m writing, which may or may not be of a genre they’re interested in.  But by having an ongoing sci fi series, they will stay connected, and follow the story that matches their interest.

So, the plan for Relic Worlds going forward is basically in two parts: online and at conventions.

Online I interact with others in their groups and on my pages, twitter, blog, etc.  I tell them what’s new in the world of Relic Worlds while interacting with them about other subjects in sci fi and adventure.  (Even throwing in a lot about real science and archaeology.)  This is all centered on the newsletter that I send out once a month to the people on the email list.

Meanwhile, I go to whatever conventions I can get to and afford, and I build my email list, as well as give out flyers to get people involved in the series.  So far it’s done well to generate some interest.  Few sales have come from it, but I’ve just started, so hopefully this will work.  I’ll post later about how it continues.

The Secret to Independent and Self Publishing... Series!

Last week I alluded to having learned quite a few things about independent publishing lately, so this week I’m going to explain a bit about what that is.

When I started doing independent publishing, I wrote nonfiction books and single, one-off novels.  While I’m proud of these works, and the non-fictions in particular have been met with rave reviews, I’ve learned that these are precisely the sorts of books that are the hardest sells for independent authors and publishers.  What works, in short, are series for niche markets.

You see, major publishers can sell one-off books more effectively because they have a larger marketing budget, and they’re well established in the industry.  They have connections and inroads into distribution channels that give them a virtual monopoly in certain venues.  This is especially prevalent in pre-sales where they are able to get reviewed by major publications that have large subscriber bases and loyal viewers, readers, and followers.  These connections would take individual publishers and authors years to build, if they can build them at all.  Additionally, traditional publishers have large teams of people dedicated only to publishing without the distraction of writing.

Independent authors are trying to get the attention of news reporters, bloggers, show hosts, etc. while continuing to write another book and often while doing a day job as well.  And when they finally break through those barriers and get some coverage, all that effort is rewarded once, and then it’s back to the drawing board for the next story.  Sometimes people who bought one of your books will remember you for the next one.  And Amazon has been great about telling people who buy one book that there’s another book by the same author.  But this all has limited success, especially when your books are not of the same subject.

However, social media gives the author complete control over their promotions.  No longer are you dependent upon news sources to see some value in your product.  You can post about your newest creations online.  The problem with this is two-fold.  First, people don’t like to be sold to while you are on social media.  So you can’t just go on and start saying you have a book to sell.  You have to become a part of the community; like and comment on things other people are posting.  After a while, you can bring up your own book, and if you did it right, you’ll get some sales.  But then that’s it.  You’ve done what you can for that book.  And now you belong to a group you only joined because you wanted to do that one thing.

In my case, I did have three non-fiction books that were all true crime related, so I was able to be a part of the true crime community and talk about each book as it came out.  But this was limited because I couldn’t post too much about each book without giving their content away.  And, to be honest, I’ve never had that big of an interest in the whole world of true crime.  I just happened to have three stories I’m fascinated by that happen to be defined as true crime.  My posts probably reflected the fact that I just wasn’t that interested in the general subject matter.

Also, the only conventions I could take these books to were general book conventions.  There are no true crime conventions, (at least I hope there aren’t,) so I was limited to what I could do online to try to generate interest in these books.

Fiction series for a niche market, however, that’s a different story; one I will get to in my upcoming post next week…

Relic Worlds, Book 2 is Available for Pre-Order for One More Week

The second Relic Worlds novel, Lancaster James and the Secret of the Padrone Key, is available for pre-order.  You can get the Kindle version on Amazon, and you can get a hard copy or paperback on Kickstarter.  You can also get other perks by pre-ordering on Kickstarter, including the hard cover version of this second book, which might not be available after the book’s release.

The Padrone Key will be officially released to the public this Friday, March 25^th.  You will be able to find it on Amazon, or you can purchase signed copies in person at Wondercon, where we will be at booth SP-004.

Polly Courtney on Book Launch

I just got in the last edits for the book, (yes, I'm still making adjustments up to this virtual last minute,) so I need to work on those.  So I'm going to do on this blog what your teachers did when they didn't have anything prepared... show you a movie!

Actually, this woman's videos are some of the best about self-publishing.  Her work was being traditionally published, but she decided to turn her back on them when they were doing what so many publishers do, putting short term perceived gains over long-term quality.  (Yes, I said it.  Major publishers often reduce the long-term quality, not increase it.  They are often very short-sighted, much like movie studios are.)

So here's one of her videos.  I'll probably put more up on this site later when I'm maintaining it better.

Three Weeks Until Release

I missed blogging last week because I've been so swamped trying to get work done.  I even took time off my day job to try to do everything.

Part of what made me so busy was that I was promoting Relic Worlds as well, which is supposed to be more during the second half of the year, but there was an event last week where I wanted to present it.  Los Angeles's biggest game convention, Orccon, took place February 13-16.  I put on a miniatures game of Relic Worlds where I had a large table in the main room.  We had a banner at the table, books, and bookmarks to show it off.  Jamie (my girlfriend) and Rachel (a friend and soon-to-be neighbor) played the Dark Agents versus the pirates.  Artifacts were scattered around the table, as well as mundane items, traps, and monsters.  This was a way to show off the concept of the series to everyone who passed by, and gamers are a big part of our audience, so it seemed like a good fit.  I also put on a role playing game where the players got to be the pirates from the series, and their actions would affect the spinoff storyline about the pirates that I'm doing.

The effect of both of these were underwhelming.  The miniatures game would have worked better if I'd had the book trailer running, which I forgot to do.  Also, we need bigger settings to attract people's attention.  As for the role playing game, the area was run by a bunch of kids who screwed up where the game was to take place, so no one played.  It was just as well, though; only one person signed up, so that didn't really work out.

All that preparation took time away from setting up Two Gun Hart, which is going into the final stretch.  Now I'm putting everything into that.  I made some fixes to the hardcover and ordered some to take to the local bookstores.  They came in just last night.  I found a small problem in the formatting of the chapters.  It's not a big deal, so I will be taking these to the local bookstores, and I'm trying to make the fixes on Ingram Spark before anyone orders them.  (This has to be done quickly, as I made sell sheets and mailed them out, and paid $60 to have the book added to the Ingram Spark catalog.)

I will also be emailing bookstores this week to let them know about the book's availability.  However, I'm putting that off for a couple days while I get the book fixed on Ingram.  Right now the upload seems to be stuck, so hopefully that will get fixed soon here.  I still have several copies I need to send to bloggers, news outlets, and reviewers.  The time is getting very short for this, however.

I'm also setting up talks at bookstores and libraries.  Most places have been turning me down, saying that signings and appearances don't usually get many people.  I think they're being short-sighted in two ways.  First, just having a signing and appearance is an excuse for radio and newspaper promotions.  Even if no one comes to the signing, there's an excuse for marketing and free promotions.  Second, in this particular case you have a story related to something everyone's heard about, but with lots of new information.  True crime buffs and anyone familiar with Capone is going to want to see and especially interact with his nephew, and learn about this long-lost brother.  They should be seeing this as an exception, but most are not, at least in LA and, of all places, Chicago.

Corey Hart has set up a talk with the Sons of Italy in Salt Lake City.  I also have an appearance at the Burbank Library, and several in Nebraska.  It's amazing how Nebraskans seem to be a little smarter when it comes to these things, or at least less short-sighted.

Sent Books to to NPR/PBS

Today I mailed a whole slew of books to various places.  They were mostly to public television and radio locations throughout the country based on lists I had made.

I started by looking up station information in specific states:  Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois. New York, South Dakota, Idaho, and Washington.  These were all places where Richard Hart lived.  I also included California as that's where I live, and media outlets are more likely to do a story on you if you're a local.  Once I had my list of stations, I went through the website of each one, searching for the contact person to send a book to.  This would usually be programming, or sometimes a producer.  I would always look to see if there was a specific show that handled books, and sometimes I even called to ask if the station did any specials on books.  When a station looked like they only aired programming from other locations, I didn't bother with them, as I've already sent books to the main NPR and PBS production locations.

Once I had the contact information, I looked to see which seemed better, email or mail.  Email is cheaper and easier, and you get an answer without a financial investment, but it's also easier to ignore or not notice when there are hundreds of emails going to some of these locations every day.  It's also easier to say no to someone when all you see is an email IF you even get it.  It's harder when you see a nice book that came for free which has an interesting topic right there on the cover.  So I categorized many of the names on the list.  The ones that were the most important, such as Chicago's public station, and the local LA affiliate, I just automatically got the name and address so I could mail a book.  Some of the smaller ones, and some which seem to prefer doing things electronically got an email with links to the Bandwagon website.

The books that I mailed mostly went with media kits.  Even though I made the media kits to go to stations that weren't getting books, the most important locations got them in addition to the books for two reasons:  First, because they're PBS/NPR, the most likely places to feature books and therefore worth the extra effort.  Second, because at a lot of these places there will be book critics considering doing book reviews, and news departments which might do stories on Richard Hart or the Capone family.

The most important package to go out today was one to The Daily Show.  I managed to get the name of the woman in charge of booking guests, so I packaged up a media kit, a letter, and a book.  This one being a bit more important, I made sure to get a hard cover version of it made since this was so important, and typically you see John Stewart handling the hard cover rather than the paper back.

All of these places could have learned about it through the press release I sent out, but being PBS/NPR locations that regularly talk about books, I wanted to make sure I got in their faces.  So far the emails haven't had much of a response.  Let's hope the mailings have better luck.

I did a number of other things this week that aren't coming to mind right now.  The trouble with me reporting all this is that I work almost nonstop from morning through late into the night.  Many of the things I do just get done and they're not even done being wiped from my plate when I'm on to the next thing.  I almost need someone with a camera over my shoulder to show what I do, as I have no time to write them down, or to hold a camera and show people.

Although I did start one channel.  After seeing a whole bunch of bloggers and Youtubers refusing to review or even look at self-published works, (even though they are self-published,) I became infuriated, and wanted to do something about it.  I also have been aware that i need to stop making excuses and start losing weight.  (My girlfriend doesn't let me forget.)  So I decided to combine the two and I am doing a monthly Youtube program where I pick one independently published work and I read it while I'm out on walks.  At the beginning of the month, I pick the book and weigh myself, and at the end I review the book and weigh myself again.  Here is the first full episode.

January Update of Promotions

Two Gun Hart has been available for pre-order for a month now and I’ve been doing all the pre-release publicity for it.  Every day it’s been going out to various locations to get attention for it.  Since we’ve been in the first of three months of promotions, I’ve been primarily focusing on places that need time to have an effect.  They include the following:

Reviews:  I went down the list of reviewers on The Indie View (http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/) and I listed each one that showed some interest in non-fiction historical.  (Oddly enough, it’s a very small number.  Most on The Indie View are interested in sci fi and fantasy.)  I then went through each one on that list and followed their submission policy, sending the book when requested.  I was not very picky, but I weeded out any that I figured wouldn’t have much of an interest.  There was one, also, that I weeded out because her instructions were written in a way that can only be described as “bitchy.”  She almost seemed to be daring someone to ask her for a review.  I’m not afraid of bad reviews, but I don’t have time for people who have a bad attitude from the outset.  I also sent the book to several select places that would be interested in this subject, such as the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska, and a couple places in Chicago.  One of my next steps is to send it to newspapers and other places with reviewers and hope that it can get reviewed in time.

Speaking Engagements:  I’ve contacted a number of bookstores and libraries to have talks after the book releases.  I’ll be having an event here in Burbank when the book releases in March.  I’ll then be heading to Nebraska and Iowa in April, and will have an event in Chicago in May.  I’ll then be speaking in San Francisco near the end of May, and will have a couple more events in Nebraska and one in Austin in October.  Several places are lined up, but I’ll have more specifics later on.  In trying to plan these, I’ve discovered that a lot of locations prefer to have multiple authors do readings/signings at the same time, as individual ones don’t usually bring in crowds unless they’re somehow a celebrity.  As such, I’ve been trying to emphasize the fact that I’ll be coming with the son of Richard Hart, (and nephew of Al Capone,) via Skype.

Interviews:  I’ve been following up former leads to do interviews; people who have asked me to let them know when this specific book was coming out.  I wanted to make sure they had the first opportunity to get the story before anyone else.  One of the podcasts, Outlaw Radio, will have an interview with me the weekend before it releases, (March 14.)

Goodreads giveaway:  I began a Goodreads giveaway that will end on February 1^st.  I will then get the book to those who won it so they can start talking about it.

Press release:  I did a press release through PRWeb and got a very good response.  Tens of thousands saw it, and close to 5,000 read the article.  Then a few hundred ran the story.  It said simply in the headline “Al Capone Had Long Lost Brother Who was Prohibition Officer”.  That caught a lot of people’s attention, so it was easy to do.  This is a story that is easy to sell to news stations because it is real news.  The difficult part is then converting readers of those stories into buyers of the book.  It also helped that I purchased the $250 level from PRWeb, which expanded the viewership.  The only problem is that few people seem to have purchased the book after the story ran.  I’m thinking it might have been a little too far away from the release date.  I’ll probably run one more story, this one focusing on his involvement in getting the money back from the largest bank robbery in history, closer to the release date.  This time I’ll probably just use the $100 release.

Preparing for Bookstores:  I’ve been studying what needs to happen to get books into bookstores.  The main ingredient is getting it listed with Ingram Spark.  Ingram Spark makes it sellable at bookstores because it will take returns.  This unfortunately means I have to pay $150 to register with Ingram Spark, and another $125 for an ISBN.  This ISBN can only be used for one format, so I chose to have it be hardcover.  That way the hardcover will sell at bookstores,  the paperback will be available through Amazon, and the ebook will be available through Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords, Apple, Google, etc.

Physical pre-orders:  So far, Amazon only allows ebooks to be pre-ordered.  However, I want people to be able to purchase hard copies in pre-order.  Therefore, I’m going to be having a Kickstarter campaign which is not intended to raise money for the book, but rather to have a place where people can order paperbacks and hardbacks.  Getting the orders through Ingram Spark is expensive and difficult, so the books for this campaign are being printed through Lulu.  It doesn’t come with a barcode, but books going through them are only intended for giveaway type situations.

So January comes to a close with the initial phases of beginning word of mouth being done.  Now it'll be time to start ramping up interest in the push to release.

Pre-Sales Have Begun

I have now been in phase 2 for almost a month.  This is the phase where I try to get people to purchase the book through pre-order.  This is a difficult task as people have to pay for something they don’t get right away; something I don’t like to do, let alone people in today’s instant gratification society.  I would normally agree with them and not bother with pre-orders, but, as I mentioned in my last entry, all sales in pre-orders go toward one day, and are more likely to put you in the bestseller list.

This isn’t so much of a prestige issue as it is a practical one.  Books on top 10 lists typically get far more sales.  Plus, when mixed with the fact that a lot of people are talking about the subject when it releases, others who then see it in the top 10 list feel like they have a history with it, and are more likely to buy.

So the way I go about achieving this goal is by appearing on as many media outlets as I can.  I made a huge list of radio, television, and newspaper locations, focusing primarily in Nebraska, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Austin.  (I’ll probably add Florida to that, now that I think about it.)  I’m sending out a general press release, then emailing them afterward so they hear about it through the release, then are reminded through the email.

This book in particular plays well to this specific type of promotion, as it’s a very newsworthy story.  A long-lost Capone hardly anyone knew about has finally been discovered, and he was one of the most successful lawmen in the country.  Headlines mean the most in this step.  I want to attract the producers and editors first so they’ll have me on their show.  Then the public will hear me.

I’m following this up with sending bits of information to bloggers and podcasters to get them to pick up something about the story.  During the first part of this phase, it’s less important for people to see where my book is available to buy, and more important for them to learn that the story exists.  If everything goes as planned, they’ll have heard about the real person so much that by the time they see the pre-order, they’re already sold on purchasing it.

#Presale #Promotions #independentpublishing #selfpublishing #amazon #barnesandnoble

Pre-Publicity Phase Complete

The first quarter of this year is fully dedicated to the book Two Gun Hart, which is about Al Capone’s long-lost brother, who was a Prohibition officer in Nebraska.  It releases March 20^th, and we are right now in the pre-sale stage.

There have been three stages to these promotions:

Pre-publicity – Where I get the first draft of galleys printed and sent to the people who will give it initial buzz, such as experts in the subject, listings, reviewers, and a few people who can give us blurbs to put on the book.

Pre-sale – Where the book is available for people to order so they’ll get it on the day it’s released.

Release – Where the book is available for sale, and I give talks and book signings.

The first stage was done during the last few months of 2014.  From 6-4 months before release, I gave out these early copies of the book to places that will list it, such as Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and ForeWord Reviews, as well as some places that will want to review it early.  As I mentioned earlier, it also went to people who could give it early buzz, such as experts, and people who have followings relevant to the book.  Many of these people I want to get blurbs from, but some of them I want to see it because they’ll start telling other people about it, and this was the point to start generating early buzz about it; just getting people to initially learn that the story, and soon the book, exist.  I’m also giving copies out to friends to put up reviews on Amazon.  The more that are up before the book releases, the better.  Reviews on Amazon, and on some other sites, are what sell a book more than any publicity can do.

In addition to all of this, I’ve begun spreading the word by putting up the cover on my own Facebook timeline as well as others’ groups.  There’s also an ad now running on Goodreads which gets close to 10,000 views a day.

All of this was just to get people talking.  That’s started, and now it’s time to move on to the next phase.  The book has gone onto pre-order as of Christmas Eve, so now the big work begins, getting everyone to pre-order.  The important part of this phase is to get people to make that purchase before it’s released.  The reason this is important is because all sales that happen during pre-order are considered as occurring on one day in relation to the bestseller lists, such as the ones in the New York Times and on Amazon.

#Prepublicity #Presales #Kindle #Amazon #Barnesandnoble 

My Big Push

This year is my big push.  One can always say that every year is their big push, and New Year resolutions are as cheap as paper and dissolve as easily, too.  But this year is a true make or break year for me.

For one thing, it marks my 20 year anniversary in southern California.  I’ll have been here longer than I’ve ever been anywhere before.  And it’s getting a bit ridiculous having struggled for so long and still not having a career.  The film career didn’t really go anywhere, (you can read more about that in my blog “Tales of a Failed Filmmaker”,) so now it’s on to the writing career.  I don’t want that to linger in the same way, so I placed a limit on it.  Succeed at writing, (or one of my other two possible careers: video producing or gaming,) or choose another career on which to live.

Don’t get me wrong.  My writing will always be there, and I’ll always have a passion for games and videos; but if, at the end of this year, I’m still having to supplement my income with a “day job,” then I will at last admit that I cannot succeed financially in any of my passions.  I know that others can, and I know that it’s possible; and I’m hoping that I will number among them as I want to be able to finish work and be done.  I’d rather not have one career job in the day, and try to cram all my passions into the evenings and weekends.  I’d rather do them during the day and have my free time be mine; with my family and friends.  But I can’t live like this forever, so I have to make things work now or surrender.

This year will tell.  This blog will follow that journey as I put my books together and try to promote them.  First up is Two Gun Hart, (about Al Capone’s long-lost brother who was a Prohibition officer in Nebraska,) which is currently in pre-order and will become available to the public March 20^th.  I will be touring after that, then going on to Relic Worlds the rest of the year.  (Relic Worlds is about an anthropologist searching for long-last alien relics.)  If you follow along, you can see how it goes.  I’ll be talking about other areas of this push in my other blogs:

Jeff McArthur

Relic Worlds

Tales of a Failed Filmmaker

Command Combat

#Ambition #Author #Independentpublishing #Independentfilmmaking #Gamedesign

Bloggers Who Have Forgotten Their Roots

As I’ve tried to get my books spoken about and reviewed by bloggers, I’ve come across the same problem so many times:  Signs on the blogging websites that say they will not take any self-published books.  They review or write only about traditionally published books.

I’ve got a little piece of news for all you bloggers who say that.  YOU ARE SELF PUBLISHED!!!!

Yes, that’s right.  As you’re sitting there behind your keyboard all holier than thou, taking only the “legitimately” published books, you are forgetting that one basic fact.  You are not in a magazine, a periodical, or any other “legitimate,” or “traditionally” published manuscript.  You are SELF-FUCKING-PUBLISHED!!!

I have been rejected by magazines, radio stations, and television stations.  While I’m disappointed, I’m not surprised and I don’t hold it against them.  They have a world of their own, and they want to stick to it.  I hope they’ll open themselves up to us independents, (and some of them have,) but if they don’t, they’re merely sticking to their kind.

You bloggers who won’t talk about or review self-published works are downright hypocrites.

If we have to be traditionally published to be good enough for you, why shouldn’t you have to be traditionally published in a magazine in order to be good enough for us?

I have made a determination, and I call on everyone to do the same.  Whenever I look at blogs, even if I’m not in any way considering sending my books to them, I take a look at their submission policy.  If the blogger refuses to have anything to do with self-published works, either for stories, reviews, or whatever, I tag that blog and never return.  I also make it a point to tell people not to go to that blog.

Now, to be clear, this is not the same as being personally rejected by a blog.  If there’s a blog which rejects me, but they take independently published works, I’ll strive to rise to their level and hope they’ll accept me in the future.  I’ll even recommend the site.

But if you reject self-published, independently published books and you’re a blogger, then I’m sorry, but I only read traditionally published magazines.

I’ve Decided to Independently Publish Two Gun Hart

It’s now official.  I will be independently publishing Two Gun Hart, the story of Al Capone’s long lost brother who was a Prohibition officer in Nebraska.  I was very torn about this, seeing positives in both traditional publishing and independently publishing.  The decision was ultimately decided for me by others.

I had been weighing the benefits of both decisions for a while.  Traditional publishing gets one into traditional bookstores, and provides a lot of publicity.  I was hoping not only to get publicity for this, but to make the connections I could use for independently published books later.  The benefits of independently publishing would include having control over it and making sure it’s done correctly.  Plus, I will not have to wait for several years to get it out there, which could prove important as I want to make sure it’s released while certain members of the family are still with us.

I wanted to at least see my options.  Publishers refuse to look at it without an agent, so I looked around, gathered information, got connections through friends, etc., and sent it out to more than 50 agents.  I waited for each to get back to me.  A few did.  Several told me they would do it if it was about Al rather than Richard.  A couple were more blatant.  They said they don’t want to do a story about an Italian American unless he’s a gangster.  These racist statements really showed me where their interests were.

Finally, I got my last rejection.  I could go after others.  There are agents out there that don’t advertise being interested in this sort of story, but I don’t see the point of trying that.  It’s strange, because every person I show this idea to is blown away by it.  The agents are the only ones who don’t get it.  It’s their loss, but it’s also sort of the public’s loss, as it will be harder for me to promote it on my own.

I have determined to go for pre-sales.  When one does that, every sale that is made over several months counts as sales in a single day.  That makes it more likely to reach a top seller list.  Every interview I go on and every place I speak, I will be telling about this book, encouraging people to go out right away and buy this as an e-book.  As long as everyone who wants it buys at that time, we’ll have a chance, and the regular publishers will simply have to stand back and watch as they see the sales that could have been theirs.  They will complain, as usual, about how e-books are unfairly taking from them, and they long for the “good old days,” but it’s their own damn fault.

A Big Decision to Make

After a couple weeks of not posting, this week I’m going to post something similar to what I wrote a while ago.  The reason for this is less laziness, (though I am a bit lazy right now,) and more because it’s a very serious decision I need to make.

After approaching more than 50 agents to try to get an upcoming book published through a traditional publisher, I had finally given up and was willing to accept that this book would be published independently as well.  I had been wanting to do this one traditionally so that I could connect with a lot of places that I couldn’t connect with on my own.  But now it was looking like it would be added to my collection of independently published books, and was making plans.

Then one single agent wrote to me and showed some interest.  I’m not sure how interested they are, as their emails have seemed pretty indifferent, but they’ve at least been wanting to take a look at more and more of the book.  So I’ve been sending it to them bit by bit.  I have meanwhile been making plans to independently publish it, so now I’m left with a dilemma.  If they say they want to represent me, should I accept it and go with them, or should I go independently anyway.  Here are the pluses and minuses of each.

Traditional Publishing:

Positives – There are two basic positives to publishing traditionally.  First, the publishers provide promotions.  Second, they get your book into places you can’t get them; namely bookstores.  They have connections at all of these places and send out regular catalogues from which materials are ordered.  These are too numerous for us to do on our own, and when we do contact them, they usually turns us down because we’re not traditional publishers.  This is true both of bookstores and promotional places, such as television and radio stations.

Negatives – To get to a publisher, you have to first sign with an agent.  While you do research on an agent and try to get one you can trust, it’s difficult to know for certain until you’ve already signed with them whether they’re going to do right by you, and by that time it’s too late to turn around and do it yourself.  There’s also no guarantee they’ll actually send it to publishers.  They could just sit on your book because it competed with one of their other books, and they didn’t want it out there in the market, or they might change their mind and not do anything with it for whatever reason.  Then there’s the possibility that even though they do pitch it to publishers, the publishers decide they don’t want it, and then you’re completely stuck, because the agent still has exclusive rights of the book, but it’s not getting published.  And in the end, either the agent or the publisher could decide that you need to revise it in ways you don’t want to revise it, and if you don’t, they still have the rights to it, and you’re not getting published.  And then, even if it is published, it could take two years or more to actually get onto the shelves.

Independent Publishing:

                Positives – Full control.  This is especially important with this piece because it’s about a family that really wants to make sure their ancestor is well represented.  Also, there are multiple places that might want to make this into a movie, and if I get it published soon, they might be serious about that.  If I wait too long, they might lose interest.

                Negatives – A lot of people close their doors to independent publishing.  It’s not right, but they do it.  Many bookstores won’t carry it; even independent bookstores, (go figure.)  As for promotions, many, many radio and TV stations won’t cover you.  Even many blogs, which are independently published themselves, won’t cover your book.  And even those radio and TV stations that criticize corporations and claim to support independent artists, (like the Colbert Report,) won’t even consider independently published books.

So there you go.  That’s my dilemma.  I don’t know which direction I’m going to go.

Releasing to Multiple E-Readers

Today was spent releasing my book The Great Heist to all the e-readers (in addition to Kindle, in which it was already available.)  I was intending for this pots to be the announcement that it's available on all these readers, but I had forgotten what a bureaucratic mess it all is, and how long it takes for the book to become available on the other sites.

First, I should explain the top places to release your e-book.  They are:

Kindle

Smashwords

Google Play

Goodreads

Drivethru Fiction

Scribd

I have placed them in the order in which I do them based on a delicate balance of value for you vs. how much of a headache they are.  Below I list each one and how I feel about them.

Kindle is the number one spot for independent writers/publishers.  It just is.  There are other places with a great independent spirit, like Smashwords, but the simple fact is that Kindle makes it easiest for independent writers/publishers, and they help promote them the most.  By placing our books in Amazon alongside larger publishers' books, we get the same respect and potential sales as anyone else.  Amazon also recommends our e-books when someone buys something similar.  But most important to this particular blog post, the publishing process is easy.  First of all, it's a very streamlined process.  The amount you need to do to prepare your document is rather minimal, and when you upload it, their program will help fix little problems you may have, and you can check it right away, seeing how it looks on various readers immediately.  And if there are any problems, you can call them and they'll actually talk to you!  Many other distributors complain about Kindle having unfair competitive policies, but there's a reason they're ahead, and rather than complain about them, other e-readers and distribution channels should learn from Kindle and maybe do what they do.  It's for these reasons that I typically start my books on the KDP Select exclusive deal with Kindle for the first 90 days before making it available on other readers.  I'd love to open up to the other sites right away, but Kindle is just simply the most supportive and easiest to deal with.

Smashwords is the second place to go.  And in some ways, one could go with just being on Kindle and Smashwords and be fine.  When you publish something through Smashwords, it goes out to just about everyone except Kindle, so everyone you want to carry the book has it.  It's run by Mark Coker, probably the largest supporter of independent books.  It's because he's so supportive of independent artists that I want to go to Smashwords first, but in order to upload to them, a publisher has to go through a whole bureaucratic process that's extremely complicated and frustrating.  The good news is that when you finally get it right, it's formatted for a whole bunch of different readers, so you only have to do it once.  This is true, and it's nice to not have to do it multiple times, but by the time you prepare this one file,  you'll feel like you've done it a bunch of times.  Smashwords provides a guide to help you prepare your document... that's literally more than a hundred pages long.  And if you get lost, there's no one to call; just a note that tells you that it's wrong after you upload it.  You can't even preview it to see what it looks like and where the problem is exactly.  The excuse for this is simply that it's publishing, and therefore complicated.  I would accept that if it wasn't for the fact that Kindle is so easy to publish onto.  I don't blame Coker or the team at Smashwords.  I think they're doing their best to make it easy on us.  I think it's the fault of the companies it gets distributed to, like Barnes & Noble, Sony, etc.; these companies that complain about Amazon having unfair business practices rather than learning from them and improving their services.

Google Play is fast becoming an important distribution platform, particularly because of the Android tablets they sell to.  Also, the way Google is growing, it's got its fingers in many areas.  Personally, I like the convenience.  I know some people feel like it intrudes on their personal lives, but I really like the way I can connect all my various projects and jump between them with ease.  I can have a book trailer on Youtube that connects to these blogs which connect to my calendar which connect to my email, etc.  And now my books can be part of this mix.  The biggest problem has been a very poorly organized site with which to upload the books.  Every single time I used the system I had problems.  Links were broken, instructions were incorrect, it was a mess.  Worst of all, they had no phone number to call for help.  I could email and maybe get a response sometime that week, but that's all.  I often begged the people to give me some phone number because the issues were usually easily solvable in less than a minute over the phone, but they took more than a month by email.  I write all this in past tense, however, as they seem to be solving their problems now.  Let's hope it gets better... and that they start to have phone support!

Goodreads is of course the place where people generally go to talk about books, but they now have an option to purchase e-books directly on their site.  This is a great thing, as the majority of people on there are book fans.  If they can instantly purchase books they've been recommended, so much the better.  The problem with this is that these services are just being implemented, and it needs vast improvement to work properly.  Like Google Play, there's no phone service, and issues that could be resolved in minutes take over a month.

Drivethru Fiction is a personal favorite of mine, but the number of people who know about it is limited.  It's nice because it's connected to several other game and comic book sites, so it attracts a lot of fantasy and sci fi fans.  What's wonderful for writers is that they have a great method of advertising.  Every month you get a certain number of points you can use to advertise.  You can get more points by doing various activities that help the community, such as reviewing other people's work.  Also, don't let the name fool you.  Just because it says "fiction" doesn't mean you can't sell non-fiction on it.

Scribd hardly needs mentioning if you do Smashwords.  It's supposed to already be distributed there if you go through Smashwords.  However, I haven't noticed many sales through Scribd when I went through Smashwords, but I have seen sales when I put things on directly, so I always upload here separately.  Scribd is a great place to get noticed.  Every time I upload I instantly get dozens of reads.  I usually have 10 to 20 before I switch from the uploading screen to the reading screen.  It seems to be the perfect place to get people to notice you so they then start purchasing.  Plus, it's easy to upload!  No bureaucratic nonsense!  Google, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Goodreads, these guys could learn a few things from Scribd and Drivethru Fiction.