Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Birthing

Well, after nearly exactly 15 months my latest book, THE END TIME is about to be birthed. The cover is complete, the blurb and pitch are complete, and I just sent all my material to Chris O'Byrne at Jetlaunch. Chris is the man who formats my manuscript for ever ereader imaginable and places the book on all the sell sites for me. Like my cover artist, Judy Bullard, I've used these same two people for all my ten published books. This gives my titles and format and consistent look. I advise all indie writers to try and do the same.

Look for THE END TIME very soon. I will be launching a huge promotional campaign once it's out.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Never pay for a review



Though I’ve touched on this subject before on this blog I think it warrants repeating. I will never pay someone to read and review one of my books. Period! Most paid reviewers give glowing reviews on the books they read even if the book is not up to par. Why? Because they want your money and repeat business. Think about it. Would you pay someone a second time if they gave your book a bad review the first time? Of course not. Would you publish the book anyway? Would you be in denial and blame the bad review on that person’s particular taste? That they just didn’t understand the story you were trying to communicate?

Fake reviews are one of the main reasons why indie books have been getting a bad rap. For sometimes enormous fees an author can get several good reviews based solely on what they paid for the review and not the content of the book. These bad books with so many good reviews hit the virtual bookshelf like a bait-and-switch sale at an appliance shop. The reader buys the book because so many other “readers” said it’s great and then is horribly disappointed by the content inside. They feel cheated and angry and become biased against indie authors.

I truly believe a good, honest review is a large part of garnering interest in the book and making it successful. You can only fake worth for so long before word gets out that something is amiss with all the praise for a crappy novel. Real reviews have passion for the story that comes across in the way the review was written. It takes time and effort for a fan of the novel to post a review, done lovingly and without reimbursement.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Creating characters from scratch




          I’m often asked by media and friends how do I create my characters? At last count I have somewhere in the neighborhood of over one hundred spread over my nine published and three unpublished books. These characters have detailed histories and vivid personalities. Some are absolutely terrifying, some are adventurous, and some are tragic. All of my characters are like my children and they all have one thing in common. They are not modeled after any single, real person that I know.

          Each of my individual characters are a conglomeration, a mix, of people I’ve known and associated with over the course of my life. This naked truth always perplexes my friends who often tell me that a certain character is just like them in every way and how much they relate to that particular character. I’ve even had an old girlfriend (before I was married) get angry with me because she thought a character in one of my novels was too much like her. I had to assure my ex that the psycho girl (who needs to be highly medicated but isn’t taking her anti-psychotic pills) in my novel was not based on her, but on at least eight different people, most of whom I went to college with. I’m not certain if she believed me or not but I recently noticed that she un-friended me on Facebook..

          When I write I transform into and become my characters. I become the clairvoyant prostitute and the daring young man fighting an alien insect invasion. I am the disfigured 9/11 hero and the dignified young woman dying of cancer. I immerse myself in these characters and their worlds and live for a time in the fantasy. It would be hard for me to pretend to be someone I know as a person, if that makes any sense.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Cover for my latest sci-fi

Here it is... drum roll please...

The cover for my newest sci-fi available in early May.