Now Live on Smashwords and Serendipity

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 . . . . . .