Now Live on
Smashwords
After 90 days on Amazon’s Kindle kdpselect, 12th Man For Death Click Here is now on Mark Coker’s great ebook publishing site
Smashwords. This will allow the book to be distributed through all the other major
ebook sites, such as iBooks, Nook, Kobo, and Sony. Every venue helps.
Amazon is the strongest (if not gorilla) presence in the
retail market for ebooks and paper, they and Creatspace are the best friends a
self-publisher can have. But Smashwords and Amazon and all the others are only
shelves, they aren’t there for marketing. That, for good or bad, is the
responsibility of the author and his publisher (and if they are one in the same
– you now live in two worlds, the unlimited world of writing and the hard reality
of marketing). My respects and condolences.
A bazillion words have been written by some of the best in the national press
and another bazillion in blogs, about helping scribblers get
their work on the street. And a like number, let’s say quadrazillion, on
marketing. Every writer today is looking for a business plan that includes Fifty Shades of Grey as the success model. To
be brutally honest, I haven’t seen or even heard of one that worked for everyone. Every business plan is
unique and needs a wild card thrown in for good measure. A passing remark in a
national magazine, a drunk actor seen on the beach with a copy of your book on
the cover of the Enquirer, your book
mentioned in an article about sex aids. All good. We are talking exposure and
marketing here.
A Bit on Research
and Serendipity
I had one of those great writer's experiences this week, one that
sticks with you and makes you realize why we write. My first and second draft
of my new book Wars Amongst Lovers, were done. But there was a nagging aspect
about one of the characters and his involvement with espionage and intelligence
during the years before World War Two. In doing
some checks on intelligence agencies (i.e. MI6, MI5, CIC, OSS), I discovered a group
of American soldiers, mostly young men and Jewish, who had recently fled Germany
with their families. They became the backbone of Allied intelligence in Europe.
The Army needed them for translating, surveillance, and interrogations, and even
more clandestine stuff. Mind you my book was ready – but this tear in the story
needed fixing. There were names of some of these soldiers posted in an article I found in Wikipedia, all men and now in their 80s. I was hoping some were still with us. Took a chance, sent
an email, and I’ll be damned a response. Shivers.
The gentleman, a well-respected educator in a
post- war world very different then kind he lived through in 1943, offered his help. His sharing of experiences and those of his comrades, are changing the
trajectory of the story, making it richer, more real. And for historical fiction
that is the key. It is a story that lives within the arc of real history.
After 150,000 words, 62 chapters, characters up the old
wazoo, and a momentary belief of crossing the Rubicon, it’s now back to the
drawing board. Ain’t it great, ain’t it great, love it.
More later . . . . . .
A few weeks back, in a book review posted in the Wall
Street Journal (Article Here) I rediscovered a man who helped me in my writing. William
Zinsser’s newest book The Man Who Stayed,
is a treat and delight, the ramblings and musings of a cultural effete. For Mr.
Zinsser, the world is rushing by and he no longer cares about trying to keep up,
there is much to be said for the old and true. His book is more than that, it
is a life lived in easily digested bites. Zinsser, now in his 90s, has
lived long and large. Writer, editor, newspaperman, teacher, critic, and magazine
contributor (and the list would go on and on in infinite variations),
self-proclaimed WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant to those now culturally blind). A proud man, a man not easily convinced that progress is just that.
He has, as most of us have at one time or another,
difficulties with changing styles, words, and technology. Boogie-woogie was
scary at one time and I still remember clients demanding that I get
a FAX machine – yes, you don’t have to be 91 to be bitchie. Mr. Zinsser is a
man of style, his and his alone. Always well dressed, always with a fedora or
proper hat (baseball caps belong at the game), always sending letters (in
envelopes with stamps), always, well just always. 
Couple of updates, Wars
Amongst Lovers is in into final edit (before copy edit), and I am very,
very, happy with the results. I am making adjustments to the manuscript and
hope to have it out to my Beta readers before the end of the month. If you wish
to join the fun, drop me an email and I’ll see about adding you to the early
reader/reviewer list.
