The Writing Bomb

eBook Pricing is Driving Kindle Readers to Indie Authors!

2012-02-27T01:54:00.000-08:00

If you think that indie authors are just driving down the price of ebooks, think again.

What's really happening is that 99¢ and $2.99 ebooks are driving readers to INDIE AUTHORS.

I recently read a newsletter from Steve Windwalker, the founder of Kindle Nation Daily where he listed the results from their annual survey. If you're an indie author or a reader, you'll want to listen up because Steve discovered that ebook pricing is changing the habits of kindle readers… in a good way.

If you love facts and figures, you'll love this article, especially the full report. But if numbers make you cringe, I'll try to give you a few of the highlights, although I just can't do the report justice with a short post.

In a nut shell, Steve sent out his Kindle Nation Citizen Survey to his many followers and 2,360 readers responed. I don't know how much you know about statistics but 2,360 is an impressive response by any scientific standard. So please do not shrug off these results; they could be very important to you.

Below are a few of the results of this survey. These results show the current trends in ebook pricing and reader preferences regarding what they are reading. And just so you know, I'm a huge proponent of the 99¢-$3.99 price point strategy and I tell you why in my book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. I also tell you how to use a pricing strategy I call, Floatation Pricing. This method is very helpful in not only getting you a higher ranking, but could get you closer to Amazon's Top 100.

I'm also a huge believer in the Amazon KDP Select program. I believe authors have a unique opportunity to reach the Top 100 thanks to the Select "free promotion", so this report is also valuable in understanding where you should spend your marketing time and resources.

After reading this report, you'll want to find out what I think about ebook marketing. I've written a clear, and so far, effective marketing plan in The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe, so I am glad to report that my ideas about promoting books are in line with the results of this survey.

Here are a few snippets that might interest you….

Survey Results:
(taken directly from the newsletter)

Statement #1:

"Higher prices for new releases from big publishers have driven me to try more and more indie authors, and I like what I have found.

Results:

61% agreed with that statement, and only 14% disagreed. Just to make sure, we also flipped the statement.

Statement #2:

Higher prices for new releases from big publishers have driven me to try some indie authors but I haven't found much quality there so I have gone back to paying higher prices.

Results:

Only 7% agreed with that statement, and a whopping 65% disagreed."

That's good news for indie authors! We are making a difference. But don't stop working hard; we still have 35% more to go!

Here are some other results…

"Among our survey respondents, sources such as newspaper, magazine book reviews, and mentions on the electronic media are less and less influencial. Just 8% of our respondents are driven to buy ebooks once a month or more from these influences. How about brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries? You see a book on display and download the ebook, right? Not so much. Only 9% of our respondants are driven to buy ebooks once a month or more by these influences."

~ 11% of the respondents buy ebooks once a month or more based on the influences of friends, colleagues and relatives.

~ 17% say they buy ebooks after noticing them on the best-seller list!

WOW! That is important news for indie authors; not only in how readers view us, but also in helping us plan our attack. There are more stats, but these really stuck out in my mind.

I highly recommend you read this article.

But before you do, I suggest grabbing a copy of my newly released book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe so you'll know how to apply these statistics and what they mean to you as an author. The survey is the "what" and the book is the "what now?"

Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion, and Creepy
The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is only $3.99 on Amazon for a limited time for my readers!

The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is Ready for Lift Off!

2012-02-25T00:41:00.001-08:00

The universe is filled with anomalies and mysteries, from black holes to dark energy. For some authors who are new to publishing, getting their books in the hands of readers is equally baffling. In truth, writing a book from cover to cover is a huge task, but an even greater obstacle is finding an audience.

The Indie Author’s Guide to the Universe is meant to help any author, whether they are traditionally published or self-published, to take one step further in their journey. This book is designed to encourage and inspire authors in their craft, and the daily lives of those who dare to explore the new galaxies in publishing. At the core of this universe is a black hole, a black hole that is sucking readers and time away from you. The gravitational pull is overpowering, and it’s your job to find the strength and tools to get them back into your gravitational field. The journey is not for the faint of heart. The task is not for the weak and thin-skinned writer.

I want to be clear from the very start, however, that the lessons in this book will in no way, shape, or alien life form turn an automatic key to selling your books. It is not a definitive guide in marketing and selling. It is not a guide to the craft—Lord knows I could never teach that.

The Indie Author’s Guide to the Universe is about nudging new authors through the publishing process and offering helpful advice and encouragement in an environment that can be extremely draining. The guide may inspire, coach, and motivate you to go the distance, but it will not solve the problem of lackluster sales without serious effort on your part. This book will teach you what I’ve done on the road to Amazon’s Top 100 and give you indie-publishing wisdom, including tips and thoughts from some of the best-selling indie authors out there.

Any author who has experience in this industry will tell you that there are many excellent books that just aren’t selling. There are many reasons why some books sell and others don’t, but overall, it’s about luck, timing, and many other dynamics that come into play. No empty promises here. This book is based solely on my experience, my blog posts, and lessons I’ve learned along the way.

I’ve asked several other best-selling authors to add their two cents; authors like Scott Nicholson, Joanna Penn, Blake Crouch, Robert Bidinotto, Bob Mayer, Richard Bard, Ann Charles, Saffina Desforges, and more. Their advice paints a clear picture of what you can expect as an indie author. Hopefully, you’ll find comfort in knowing that successful indie authors understand the struggles that come with the freedom of independence, and that you are not alone in your quest for bestsellerdom.

What will you find in this book?

How to Build a Blog Tour

Your Role as Marketer

Marketing Strategies

Your Role as Publisher

Author Blogging

The Ultimate Book Promotion

Understanding "Floatation Pricing"

How to Build an Author Platform

Selling and Price-point Strategies

Strategies for Navigating Amazon's KDP Select Program

Understanding the Indie Author Movement

Helpful links

Tips From Best-selling Indie Authors Like Scott Nicholson, Bob Mayer, Joanna Penn, Blake Crouch, Robert Bidinotto, Richard Bard, Amber Scott, Melissa Foster, Saffina Desforges and many more!

Now, time to get back to the control panel. We are ready for lift off in five, four, three, two, one!

Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion, and Creepy
The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is only $3.99 on Amazon for a limited time for my readers!

Writing About The Dark Side of Humanity

2012-02-23T21:19:00.001-08:00

"Stop it! You're hurting her!"

Those words cut to the core of my being.
Chilling words aren't they?
I can imagine the scene. I can hear the slap, the thud, tumbling chairs and pretty little things breaking.

When it comes to domestic abuse, I want to make the big bad abuser feel 10x the pain that has been doled out.

At the very least, I need to write about it.

As a novelist, my imagination has a funny way of taking the things in life that don't make sense and turning them into stories. When it comes to abusers I've managed to weave them into two of my novels, Reunion and Twisted Vengeance. The first time I did this, the abuse was threaded into the backstory of a troubled teen. Most recently, I not only built a storyline around domestic violence, but created themes and subplots that damage the people in the story, giving them scars from their past, and obstacles to overcome.

My immediate family has many stories to tell about abuse, both physical and sexual, so I know a little about what it means to hurt, even decades after the abuse has stopped. Hence, cutting to the core of my being. I hate abuse. I hate the cycles it produces. Fortunately, it can stop.

I've had hands-on-experience with an abuser. I watched him hurt his family and listened to the never ending, "I'm sorry", "I love you", "I've changed", "Can you forgive me?" bull crap, only to see it happen again, and again.

I feel called to tell the dark stories that lie beneath the surface, and to tell the stories of real people, with real pain, with no voice. Of course I want to entertain. Of course I want to create substance, and a compelling read. But I have a strong conviction to tell the tales that are often overlooked, disregarded, misjudged, and forgotten.

The wounded, the molested, the bruised, and neglected. These are the stories that you hear about on the news, but only the cases that are discovered and manage to hit the headlines. Rarely are they they extreme cases. Little do we know that abuse of all kinds is running rampant. There are women, teens, girls and boys in your neighborhood right now who are silently suffering from physical, psychological and sexual abuse. There are parents who are "done with their kids", "had enough" and ready to sign them over to the state, and families that are disintegrating because the pain of abuse is misunderstood.

Teens are hiding their hurt. Boys and girls down the street feel ashamed and wonder if they are to blame.

So of all the things I could write about, why this? Why write about something I hate? Why write about a topic that we'd rather not think about? My answer: because it is necessary, because we cannot forget, because turning a blind eye is wrong.

Conflict is in the center of every good book. At the heart of conflict is the protagonist's inner conflict that drives his or her greatest desires. And at the heart of every writer is a need to tell the truth about life, to reveal secrets, to expose societies, and to heal people who are broken inside.

Twisted Vengeance is that kind of story. There are twists and turns and mysterious characters. No one is who you think they are, and no one is innocent until the truth is revealed; much like the society we live in. But there is more to this tale. There is life. There is pain. There is vengeance. And there is truth. And the truth is... sometimes life sucks; sometimes life doesn't make sense; sometimes we want to grab a shot gun and blow the balls off the sons-of-bitches that hurt the innocent.

This why I can never stop writing. Communicating these messages is a labor of love for me. Telling the truth about the human race through twisted plot lines and dark villains is just too important, and too much fun. How could I ever do anything else?

That's all. Sometimes I have to vent. Sometimes I have to rage. And sometimes I write a damn good story.

You can read reviews Here.

Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion, and Creepy
The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe will be available on 2-25

Amazon is Publishing Reviews? Will You be Next?

2012-02-19T05:56:00.000-08:00

You may already know that book reviews can be extremely sweet, or bitter as a mouthful of moth balls. You may also know that a bad review can sit on your book page, festering, scaring readers away until it falls out of sight. But did you know there are some reviews that can be posted to the "Editorial Review" section of your Amazon book page without your consent?

And did you further realize that these reviews are posted via Amazon at the very top of your page… before your product description?

The real kicker is, it doesn't matter if the review is good or bad, once it's published, there's nothing you can do about it.

How do I know this? I was helping an author spruce up his book page this week. I did my thing and saved the changes and told him that the updates should show up in a day or two as usual. They didn't. I didn't understand. I went to his Amazon page and noticed that there were two reviews posted at the TOP. In fact, the product description was pushed out of sight because of the length of the reviews.

I was pleased that one review was a starred review, but the first review was extremely critical. The Good review was published by Booklist and the bad review was posted by Publishers Weekly.

What shocked me more than the fact that the author had a bad review on his page, was that the review wasn't even accessable in the author's "Author Central" account. This is supposed to be the page where an author and/or publisher can access the complete book information, and make changes after intial publication.

I told the author that I couldn't delete that review if it wasn't in his book details. I told him to contact Amazon and have them remove it. Keep in mind, I believe in freedom of opinion, but not on the product description page! That's where the author should be able to pitch his book. The review section should be where reviews are posted.

Here's Amazon's reply to my writer friend:
"My name is Chantel from Author Central.

Publishers Weekly [reviews] are considered licensed content, provided to Amazon.com and owned by the publication. In order to keep Editorial Reviews objective and informative, we rely on many sources to provide content for this section. The reviews may be positive or negative; that is not a factor in our decision. We work to create a diversity of opinion on our site, and this may include negative reviews, when they arise.

While we're glad to offer you the option to add to this section or to correct typos, licensed reviews already appearing on your book's Product Detail page cannot be removed or moved to a different place on the Detail page."

Wow! That's a big deal!

Has this happened to you? Have you submitted your book to these sites for review? If you did, you better hope that they like it because a review by a reputable publication posted at THE TOP OF YOUR PRODUCT PAGE can be as damaging as a shot in your book's head. And you could be next.

If you have experience this, did you resolve it? If so I'd love to know what transpired. Here's a little bit of information (taken from each website) about two of the publications that Amazon is using for this valuable "content". Like I said, I'm all for diversity of opinion, and I'm all for Amazon finding professional methods of weeding out books that are not what they say they are, or riddled with gross errors and poorly edited material. But I think they should be a little more courteous to the author/publisher and let the reader find out what the story is about before they post any review good or bad.

Publishers Weekly is the international journal of book publishing and bookselling, including business news, reviews and bestseller lists  targeted at publishers, booksellers, librarians and literary agents.

Booklist, the magazine the New York Times calls "an acquisitions bible for public and school librarians nationwide," is the review journal of the American Library Association. It recommends works of fiction, nonfiction, children's books, reference books, and media to its 30,000 institutional and personal subscribers. In-house editors and contributing reviewers from around the country review more than 7,500 books each year, most before publication.

Here's an update on The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe: I am getting the book back from Neal Hock (editor) tonight, and will make corrections and format this week. That means it shoul be available in digital formats this weekend. I will make it available in all ebook formats and sell it on B&N, Amazon and Smashwords for now. BOOM!

Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion, and Creepy

A Book Marketing Experiment That's Actually Working

2012-02-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

So far my marketing experiment is working.

I mentioned in my last post that I had worked with Soren Petrek, author of Cold Lonely Courage, helping to send his book into Amazon’s top 100 a few weeks ago. He reached #76, and is currently holding around #2,200. He is still ranked in a category list, and was previously in the six digits.

My next client, Laura Rizio, just went through a coaching session a couple weeks ago. When she approached me, she was ranked over #100,000. After evaluating her platform, book page, cover, etc, I saw a few things she had going for her and a few things that she needed to change. She is now ranked #120. She hit #96 over the weekend and has held her ground on the strength of her excellent reviews.

As you can imagine, Laura was ecstatic. Here’s what she had to say:

"Jeff Bennington of the Kindle Book Review is the BOMB. I was fortunate to stumble on the Kindle Book Review site looking for a way to promote my book, Blood Money. I knew that the book was good and had promise but no one was seeing it.

I was lost, literally.

A few books sold here and there but this was not where I knew I should be. I needed to advertise the book but found no good way to do this. The other venues, which I won't mention, were a waste of time and money. I needed a road map to break through to Amazon Kindle readers—to let them know that I existed.

Jeff was there for me all the way, from creating a dynamic book cover to a road map which brought Blood Money from 12 sales in January to over 25,000 downloads as of this writing.

Here are a few things that we did:

Re-designed my cover
Re-designed my product description page and fixed a few typos.
Re-designed my print cover to match the new ebook cover.
Enrolled in the KDP Select program.
Changed my price to make my KDP Select promotion more successful.
Layered my marketing as I rolled back into Amazon's paid store when my promo ended

I couldn’t have found a more professional service or a better mentor. Lucky me." ~ Laura Rizio

And that, my friends, is what I'm hoping to accomplish with my next three(3) author apprentices. Yes, I said three. When I posted the previous blog entry, I had already decided to help Bert Carson, author of Fourth and Forever. I've also made a decision with the final two authors who dared to sign up last weekend.

And the winners, based on the quality and quantity of reviews are….drum roll please…
Deborah Hughes, author of Be still my Love, and Robbi Bryant, author of The Beautiful Evil.

Both books have received rave reviews but their sales have much room for improvement, which makes the task ahead even more of a challenge. I chose these books to demonstrate that the best thing you can do to sell is to have a great story and good editing. Those two items will always come first. The rest is where many authors fail: packaging and promotion. After reading through the Amazon samples, I believe these two books have what it takes to excel.

A Beautiful Evil is currently ranked #381,778 has 14 reviews and a 4.9-star rating.
Be Still, My Love is ranked #120,546 and has 17 reviews and a 5.0 star rating.

My goal is to give each of these authors over 20,000 new readers two to three weeks and help them to sustain a better sales rank by simply changing a few things that I think can make a big difference. Everything that I do with these authors is in my book, The Indie Authors Guide to the Universe.

If I did not pick you, it was not because I didn't think your book has potential. All of you have excellent reviews and if you tweak just a few things, I think you could see an increase in sales and readership. But since you took a chance on me, I want to give each one of you a FREE copy of The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. When you read it, I hope you are motivated to stay in the game, encouraged to meet the challenges that indie publishing brings, and learn how you can effectively price and promote your books. If you posted your book in my contest, go to my "Contact" page and send me an email.

Jeff Bennington
Author of Reunion, Creepy, and Twisted Vengeance
Founder of The Kindle Book Review

Wanted: Two Indie Authors Who Want to Become Bestsellers.

2012-02-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

If you're an independent author, and published on Amazon, I want to Talk to you.

I am going to experiment with two authors who've published no more than three titles, received rave reviews, but are still having trouble selling. If you fit that description, I want to teach you the principles in my forthcoming book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe, and help turn your ship around.

The book has 229 pages of motivation, encouragement, marketing, pricing, platform building strategies, and advice from over 20 bestselling independent authors like Blake Crouch, Scott Nicholson, Robert Bidinotto, Bob Mayer, Joanna Penn, and more. The principles I use in this book have helped me and a few other authors rise to Amazon's top 100 and I think they can help you, too.

I'm accepting two motivated authors who have published a book on Amazon in the last three to six months, and have ten to twenty reviews with no less than a 4-star rating. I will choose the authors with the highest ratings.

Here's what I am offering:

A free book cover makeover if needed.
A free copy of my book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.
A free over the phone training session after the participant reads the book.
Coaching through my marketing and pricing strategy.
We will enroll your book into KDP Select (if not already a member) and schedule a two to three day promotion that will utilize all of my marketing strategies.
I will give you a free "Twitterlicious" promotion through The Kindle Book Review, and participating book sites like digitalbooktoday.com, worldliterarycafe.com and pixel of ink.
I will take you through the same steps I suggest to get your book as close as possible to Amazon's Top 100.

Here's what you must do in return:

Agree to the above terms.
Follow ALL of my instructions to the "T".
Blog about your experience, journaling every step you take on your path to becoming a bestseller.
Link to my book when writing your blog posts.
Invest in one paid promotion ($139 to Kindle Nation Daily).
Write about the success of this experiment on your blog.

If this sounds like something you'd like to try, simply comment below. Leave your name, book title and link to your Amazon page. I am that confident that if your book is excellent, we can overcome the other obstacles and make you a bestseller. May the best author win!!!

Please share and tweet about this. And be sure to follow The Writing Bomb blog if you haven't already.

Jeff Bennington is the author of Reunion, Creepy & Twisted Vengeance

Can You Bring Your Book Back From the Dead?

2012-02-09T05:30:00.000-08:00

Does your book appear to be dead? Is it laying six feet under a pile of 100,000 other books or more?

If it is, there may be hope.

In the last few weeks I've worked with several authors whose books have been in the 100K zone and are now doing much better. Recently I consulted with author and Lawyer Laura Rizio. She is currently in trial on a big case against the Federal Reserve (imagine that), so she is very busy as you can imagine. Her novel, BLOOD MONEY was struggling. Her cover was in need of a face lift, and her book page was dull.

She had great reviews (19 with a 4.8-star rating) so the quality was there, but her cover screamed SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR. As a lawyer, she writes about what she knows, so the story has the strength of experience. But Laura's issues had more to do with a lack of information and experience in the publishing game.

When Laura contacted me, Blood Money was ranked over 100,000 in the Kindle store. I gave her a few recommendations, created a new cover, and convinced her to join KDP Select. One week later as of 7:16 a.m. EST, her book is ranked #4 in Amazon's free Kindle store, with the power of 20 great reviews backing her up. My political thriller, Killing the Giants, is close behind at #12.

Other authors have experienced the same results: John Betcher, author of The 19th Element, which just came off of the top 100 FREE in the Kindle store, attributes his recent success to the covers I designed for him. Watch his book, and see where it lands after it averages in today and starts rising again.

Soren Petrek, author of Cold Lonely Courage, who recently hit the Top 100 paid in kindle said, "Cold Lonely Courage is #76 paid in Kindle #4 Historical and #19 in thrillers. Great work from the folks at The Kindle Book Review. I would encourage every Indie author to explore the great promotional services they offer. I plan to use TKBR for my other kindle books Patience County War and Angels Don't Die. Jeff Bennington designed the eye catching book cover for Angels. I love it!"

Al Boudreau, author of In Memory of Greed, was also one of my clients. He said, “Jeff Bennington has an understanding of the ebook business that truly impresses me. I've taken his advice and it has made a huge difference in my career as an author." Al's book is currently ranked in the 10K range, selling at $2.99, versus the 80-100,000K range (Amazon rank) where he was a few weeks ago.

So what's happening? What are these authors doing that has brought their books back to life?

First of all, they were all open to advice. They knew something wasn't working and they were willing to listen. Secondly, none of these authors are prideful. They were willing to drop their price, change their cover, and try something new. They were aware that they were doing something wrong and were willing to change.

My prediction is that Laura Rizio, if she continues following my advice will land in the top 100 paid as well. Her success has come because she wrote a great book and had it professionally edited. That was her smartest move. The advice I gave her does not compare to her skillful writing. That is, and always will be the bottom line to a writer's level of success.

It is my belief that if an author can write a compelling story, he has a greater chance of success, now more than ever, especially with Amazon's KDP promotional tools. As always, an author's success is partly due to luck, partly due to diligence, and partly do to his or her level of skill. But the combinations of all of the above are endless. So if a book has kicked the bucket, it's up to the author to discover the cause of death.

Is there any hope for bad writing and poor editing. Only if the writer is willing to try again. In that case, I recommend taking the book off the shelf, and hire a professional editor. However, if the plot is hot, and the writing crisp and fresh, a writer need only tweak a few details to get his or her book back on track. I call this literary CPR. All you have to do is breath and pump three times. If you can do that, you can bring your book back to life.

BTW, the principles I've taught these authors are in my forthcoming book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. I also offer a consulting service. I can analyze your book, your author platform, and offer advice that can quite possibly change the course of your career. You just have to be willing to try something new. If you are wondering what your doing wrong, check out my author services page, I might be able to help you out.

Be sure to support the authors listed above. They are very talented. Then sign up for my regular blog posts by email so you don't miss anything. BOOM!

How to Have a Successful KDP Select Campaign.

2012-02-06T00:09:00.000-08:00

Are you Planning a KDP Select Promo Soon?

If you plan to promote your book through Amazon's KDP Select "Free" promotion, you can potentially receive exposure that is equivalent to a billboard standing in the middle of Times Square in New York City, or you might not.

There are several factors that can influence how well or how poorly your book fares when given such an incredible opportunity. Because the response to a promotion can vary from one title to the next, it is very important that you get everything right BEFORE you set your book loose. If you nail all of these elements, you will have a greater shot at success. If you are lacking in some or all of these elements, you might not experience the boost in sales/readership that you are hoping for.

The following is a list of key elements that will effect your biggest and best opportunity to FINALLY get noticed on the world stage:

Your Book Cover is the very first thing readers see, so it only stands to reason that it better be AWESOME. Unfortunately, many self-published authors have an unprofessional looking cover, yet expect professional results. Your cover needs to grab a reader's attention, draw them in, or create enough curiosity to earn a "click". If your book cover is lame or screams "self-published" you might get far fewer clicks than if you spent a little bit of money on a sweet cover. And in the world of KDP Select promotions, a loss of clicks can mean a loss of several hundred to several thousand dollars. So it is definitely worth the expense.

Your Book Blurb is your sales pitch, and you don't have much time to convince a book buyer to spend their dime on you. With so many books for free, and at affordable prices, your product description should be catchy, to the point, and professional. If you have misspelled words, or the layout of your product description is sloppy, too long, too short, or has bad formatting, a reader might assume that the book has similar issues. An ideal book description should include at least two quality reviews that build immediate credibility, followed by a brief, accurate, and compelling product description.

Your Price Point is critical. I mention pricing in my forthcoming book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe, in detail. But my opinion of book pricing has nothing to do with the value of your book, it has to do with the size of your audience. Therefore, if you're a newer author, and if you do not have many reviews, or awards, I would not recommend pricing your book over $2.99 during a KDP promotion. Unless your book really catches fire, a newer author is at risk of losing sales when over priced. In fact, check out the top 100; you'll notice that there are more low priced books than ever before.

Reviews sell books. The more you have, the more credibility you will have with your potential buyers. If you have very few reviews, you might not sell near as many books with your free promotion than if you had 10, 20, or more quality reviews. Likewise, if you have received poor reviews, there is a greater chance that you might not experience the same success as some authors have had with KDP Select. If you need more reviews, check out The Kindle Book Review among other sites. You can always solicit reviews from book bloggers.
Layer your Marketing. The Select free promotion is the best shot you may have to get your book promoted on a world stage. You have to throw everything you've got into this promotion. I recommend scheduling multiple promotions on the day, and days following the moment your book returns to the "paid" store. I discuss the concept of Marketing Layering in detail and provide a few websites that will coordinate this effort in my book.

So here's the deal: You have 90 days to use your 5 free days with KDP Select. If you are lacking in any of the elements listed above, I'd urge you to utilize your time and resources to get as many of these points nailed down BEFORE you offer your book for free. If you don't, you could get a whole bunch of nothing from what I consider one of the best promotional opportunities in the history of publishing.

IF YOU NEED HELP, go to my my Author Services Page. I got skills.

Finally, I am officially doing a soft release of my publishing imprint, NexGate Press. It's been here for over a year, quietly sneaking up on the publishing industry, and it's getting ready to pounce. PLEASE spread the word! You can learn more here.

Get a Poncho. Barnes and Noble's Brains are Splashing.

2012-02-03T01:28:00.000-08:00

Sell your Barnes & Noble stock! Seriously. Cash in your chips. Barnes and Noble is going to die. If you don't think it's possible, remember that we lost Borders in the not too distant past.

Gone.

Dead.

Buried.

R.I.P

In my opinion, Barnes & Noble is next on the chopping block. I may be wrong, and I hope I am. But gosh darn it, there are just too many red flags flying for me to think otherwise.

In B&N's recent announcement, chief merchandising officer, Jaime Carey said, "Their [Amazon's] actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content," Carey said. "It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest. We don’t get many requests for Amazon titles, but if customers wish to buy Amazon titles from us, we will make them available only online at bn.com.”

STOP RIGHT THERE. Barnes & Noble has just announced that they are dying. Here's why:

B&N's shot in the left foot.

"Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content,"

Really? If B&N is upset that Amazon has "prevented millions of customers from having access to content", then why would they refuse to sell books that Amazon publishes? Isn't that preventing "customers" from accessing content as well? I'm not sure if Jaime wrote that press release, but that is a serious contradiction. Does B&N really want to make all books available? Do they really care about availability? Answer: No, they do not. They just don't want to be put out of business and made to be fools by smarter Ivy League grads.

The truth is, Barnes & Noble isn't the least bit concerned about freedom of content. In fact, they have continued to squeeze books out of their inventories over the last few years, and have been closed off to providing "customers" with content in their stores. Ask any bestselling independent author who has been refused into their closed-off club of select publishers. I hate to tell you this B&N, but what goes around comes around.

B&N's shot in the right foot.

"It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest."

Wow! That is just laughable. Do the leaders at B&N actually think that Amazon and other book retailers are teaming up as a world-wide endowment of literature? No, they are not. They are in business to make money. Period. That's all they care about. That is their sole purpose. And duh, of course Amazon is in it "for their own self interest." What executive in his right mind would think otherwise. They sure as heck aren't in business for Barnes & Noble's interests. If that's the way the leadership at B&N thinks, their business is in serious trouble. Big business is not team work! It's about money and it's about trumping your competitor.

B&N's shot in the heart.

"We don’t get many requests for Amazon titles, but if customers wish to buy Amazon titles from us, we will make them available only online at bn.com."

The bigger question is, is pulling the titles that Amazon publishes from their stores a good business decision? Answer: NO, it is not. Just think about that declaration for a moment and let that sink in. Amazon is selling plenty of big name authors in their stores like King, Koontz, and Collins and titles like Steve Jobs biography. The Hunger Games is Amazon's #1, #2, and #3 top selling books at this moment. And those titles are in BN.com's top six. King and Steve Jobs are in B&N's and Amazon's top twenty. The point is, the demand for books is mirrored in both stores. So if B&N chooses not to sell self-help author Tim Ferriss' books because he is published by an Amazon imprint, I 'd wager that readers will go somewhere else to buy it. This will not help B&N's bottom line. In fact, B&N will only exclude themselves from profiting from Amazon published titles. And that's their fix?

Let me get this straight. Amazon pushes for exclusivity, and B&N's response is to further exclude themselves from available and popular books? Is that a good business decision? No.

B&N's shot in the head.

"Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole…"

In my opinion, Barnes and Noble is committing suicide because Amazon is winning, and they're using a frickin' B-52 bomber. They are crying and pouting like little babies, when what they should be doing is figuring out what they are doing wrong, or perhaps use Amazon as a template for good business. They should look at Amazon's utilization of product cross promotion, author promotion, and customer buying patterns, and figure out how to implement those tactics in their own selling algorithms, not because they want to be like Amazon, but because it is working for Amazon.

Businesses do this all the time; it's called benchmarking. It's called improving by looking at a standard, a point of reference. It's called getting off your rumpus, stop crying, and start reprogramming your stupid website!

I hate to sound cynical about all of this, because I'm a very positive person, and I really want book stores to survive and thrive. I just hate cry babies. Is it really Amazon's fault that B&N is failing? Is it Amazon's fault that B&N's online book shop is not as attractive to authors? Is it Amazon's fault that B&N can't seem to make good business decisions. No. It is not. Amazon has made smarter decisions than Barnes & Noble, simple as that.

All to say, I'm buying a poncho from Amazon for two reasons:

#1. Barnes & Nobles doesn't sell them.

#2. There's going to be a serious blood bath when B&N pulls the trigger.

What do you think? I could be wrong. Maybe you can convince me otherwise.

###

Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion, Creepy and The Indie Authors Guide to the Universe. Please buy one of these; sort of like a tip. they are mostly 99¢!

Follow by email to get my weekly posts, and then check out The Kindle Book Review, my sister site. Then come back… The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is coming soon and you won't want to miss it.

Layer Your Book Marketing Efforts for Better Results

2012-01-31T02:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to The Writing Bomb. I'm posting another excerpt from The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe, and I hope you find my marketing strategy helpful. The following information helped propel me to the Amazon Top 100 in December 2011. I hope it works for you as well.

My Favorite Marketing Strategy

One of my favorite strategies in my marketing plan is layering. Layering is the process of adding promotions in sequence. In other words, before you pay money to Kindle Nation Daily, schedule a giveaway, immediately followed by a two or three day blog hop, followed by a killer blog post at your blog, followed by a two day KDP Select giveaway. Then, wrap up your marketing blitz with a paid promotion from Digit Book Today, The Kindle Book Review, or Kindle Nation Daily, after you’ve invested some time in a series of free promotions.

Be sure to keep all of these events well publicized through Twitter and Facebook.

As I mentioned earlier, marketing isn’t about a single promotion and it isn’t always about money. Good promotion is about getting your book cover as much face time as possible. Stacking your promotions will help elevate your book into the public eye.

When I think of layering, I imagine a video game character, like Mario, jumping on a gear that propels him upward, only to land on another gear that shoots him to another gear, and so on. The idea is that each gear lifts him higher with each spin of the cogs, getting him closer to that giant mushroom in the sky. You may or may not want a bucket of golden mushrooms, but you do want to get closer to readers and that's what layering has the potential of accomplishing.

The reason I like this strategy is because it works, and because it can make your paid promotions more effective. Layering your promotions is better than spending money on an ad, hoping that a single marketing tool will bring an onslaught of sales. Sites like Kindle Nation Daily have a pretty good track record, but just think how much more effective that ad could be if you raised your Amazon ranking from 80,000 to 25,000 the day before your ad went live. An ad with KND will do a better job if you work hard at getting your sales up before the ad starts.

It’s not just important to sell more books. It’s important that you get your book on category bestseller lists where there are more eyes watching. These lists will lead you to the readers looking for your genre and your price point.

Do whatever it takes to get there, because once you're there, the attention can hold you up for an extended period of time, even after the ad has expired. If you don't hit a category list, you'll drop out of sight much faster.

Don’t depend on others to work their marketing magic with your book. You have to do your part. And the more you can do prior to a paid promotion, the greater chance you’ll have of selling!

In the weeks prior to hitting the Amazon top 100, I paid for a featured ad with The 99 Cent Networks Twelve Day's of Christmas promo that ran from December 12th to December 24th. During the course of that promotion, I wrote a couple killer blog posts here at The Writing Bomb. I also placed Reunion on The Kindle Book Review’s marquee banner during the month of December. Finally, I scheduled my first two free book promotion days with Amazon’s KDP Select. The result, thanks to Lady Luck, was the #55 spot in Amazon’s paid best-seller list. I spent $50 for each of my books to be entered in the IBC promo, but the rest was free. I used every aspect of my platform, layering each step with tweets and Facebook notifications. It cost me a few bucks, and a few hours of my time, but the pay off far exceeded the expense.

Are you sequencing your marketing? Or are you trudging through individual promotions, separated by large blocks of time? The next time you schedule a paid promotion, try layering a sequence of free promotions and see what happens. Your book is hungry for mushrooms. It's time you shoot it into the sky where it belongs.

~ Jeff Bennington is the Amazon bestselling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance and Creepy

Why No One Is Buying Your Book

2012-01-23T00:24:00.000-08:00

The following is an excerpt from The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe:

Why No One is Buying Your Book

Have you stared at your book ranking, and sales data, and wondered why no one is reading your work? Are you disappointed that your story hasn't caught fire, or hit USA Today's front page?

If you answered yes, I want to share a secret with you. I want to tell you something, and it might hurt your feelings. I don't mean to be cruel, but I have to be honest.

No one has ever heard of you.

Readers do not know that you exist.

That can change, but for now, you have to know the truth. You have to face the stark reality that you're not famous, you don't have a cult following, and you're not a New York Times bestseller, yet.

One of the biggest obstacles for indie and small press authors to overcome is finding readers. You may have a great book cover, and your prose may be razor sharp, but lets face it, you are one in a million. Hundreds of thousands of books are published every year, and as a new/newer author, it's not likely that readers will search your name or title.

Sigh.

Depressing isn't it? Well, it can be, if you're subject to resignation. But if you are the type of person who sees an obstacle as an opportunity, you may have what it takes to climb out of the literary abyss and into the public arena.

The problem with publishing is that unless you have a platform, or a method to reach out to readers, you are like a grain of sand on the beach. People will walk on you all day long, but never know you're there. If you publish on Amazon, your book is thrown into the ocean of ebooks and will splash around until readers start buying. When they purchase your book, it'll stay close to shore where other readers can see it. But if you don't plan for a beach party upon publication, your book will drift off to sea and eventually end up in the south pacific, stranded on a lifeless island.

If you publish on Barnes & Noble's Pubit!, iTunes, or Smashwords, it's even harder to get noticed because the sheer weight of new books will push you deeper into the water.

So what can you do? What does it take to lift your book above the crowd and get the notoriety you deserve? Good question. When I have the secret formula, I'll bottle it and sell it to ya for a thousand dollars per ounce. Until then, it helps to know that you are not being flat out rejected by the world, but rather, unseen. Understand that, and embrace it. Knowledge goes a long way when you are problem solving. Don't take it personally. Accept your reality and work to improve your position in the crowd.

You need to figure out how you're going to be an author that readers recognize. You have to build a platform. You have to brand yourself. You have to go into the big world, put on a pair of stilts and start shouting, "Hey, everyone, look over here! I write suspense novels with jaw-dropping twists. Anyone interested?" When you do that, someone will turn around and say yes. If you wrote a good book, they might recommend it to someone else. They could also write a review and encourage others to buy. But don't stop there. You have to keep walking clumsily through the crowd, hand selling your work to readers, bloggers, and reviewers everywhere.

If you're no good with stilts, try the trapeze. If that doesn't work, hop on a unicycle or put on a clown suit. You may not get it right the first time around, but with a little trial and error, you'll discover what works and what doesn't. Just remember, what works for me may not work for you. I'm a lion tamer and that's somewhat daunting to the vast majority, so I wouldn't recommend it. Besides, you could lose your head.

Getting noticed, especially when you only have one book published, can be a slow process, more so if you are not actively building your platform. The truth is, there is no quick answer to growing an audience. Building an author brand/platform takes time, it takes multiple books and it takes creativity.

If you look at the top right-hand side of this blog, you'll notice that I recently hit four-hundred followers. I'm excited about that because several months ago I didn't think I'd reach one hundred. Four hundred looks like a lot, but there are other blogs with a whole lot more subscribers than I have. There is always a bigger duck in the pond. But don't compare yourself to anyone else. Take an honest assessment of where you are and chart a realistic course that will keep the wind to your back, blowing you toward shore where the readers are. You might hit a sand bar on occasion, but that's okay. Authors wearing clown suits, splashing around in the ocean are likely to get a little attention.

~ Jeff Bennington, author of Reunion, an Amazon bestselling supernatural thriller.

An Excerpt from a Chapter of My Life

2012-01-21T02:52:00.000-08:00

I've never been one to share the details of my life. I'm quiet. I'm shy. I tend to withdraw when life gets tense. If you met me for the first time, you'd never guess that. You'd never profile me as a serial thinker. In fact, I'm pretty good at acting dumb, while packing mental heat at the same time.

It's not the best way to live, bottled up feelings and all. I get that.

Today, I'm breaking the mold. I'm breaking the ice. I'm going to share with you what it's like to be me. I'm going to write an excerpt from my life.

To begin with, my wife and I have four children, ages 16, 14, 12, and 10 (3 boys and 1 girl). We have been married for almost twenty years and are still dating. I take her out twice a week. As you can imagine, my wife needs to have adult time. We both do. We home educate all four of our kids, including two other boys who we've sort of adopted. Our life, as you can imagine is full of odd smells, loud noises, wrestlemania and food… lots of food and dirty dishes.

My wife is an amazing person. She works extremely hard, is a wonderful teacher, mother and friend. She takes on the brunt of our craziness.

I, on the other hand, am a writer. My mind is occupied with a million dreams. I think of new ways to create characters and twisty tales and how to package those ideas into something coherent. I have two blogs to manage. I wake up in the night and jot down my nightmares, or write a blog post to relieve some of the mental pressure. Sometimes, if I wake up to get a drink, I'll pick up my phone and check my sales when I should be sleeping.

Pathetic.

Don't get me wrong, I make every effort to spend time with each of my kids every day, asking them questions and listening to them, putting my arm around them, and observing their growth and silly, sweet things that they say. But sometimes I let this writing thing, this platform building stuff get out of hand. Sometimes I think it's too much. Sometimes I want to unplug it all and never look back. On occasion, the best thing to do in this hectic writer life of mine is to just grab an xBox controller and play call of duty for a couple of hours with my 12-year old son.

If you're a writer working a day job, and you want to be involved with your family, I'm sure you understand the pull. It's very powerful. The force will wear you down if you let it. And to be honest, I'm teetering on the brink of to-the-bone wear down. I've been feeding The Kindle Book Review Miracle Grow, I just released Twisted Vengeance a month and a half ago, and I'm about to embark on the release of The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. That's two books in two months.

That's too much.

I'm not complaining. I know what I'm doing. I manage my time and make every moment count, but doing so takes so much focus that it's physically and emotionally draining. Strange thing is, I think I thrive on the madness.

That's me. That's my life.

Now it's your turn.

Are you familiar with the insanity? If you're new to indie publishing, let me warn you; as rewarding as it can be, writing and everything that goes with it can consume you. Indie publishing has the potential to occupy your mind like moss on a fallen timber, slowly enveloping your mind until you and the soil below are one.

It's the nature of the beast. It's a mental thing. It's a monster thing.

Fortunately, writing blog posts like this remind me that I am the ruler of this animal, and why I've had this longstanding love affair with the trade. The beast is mine to control even when I've lost my grip of the leash. His teeth may sink into my flesh and begin tearing, but I can always break its neck with my words and a few quick strokes of my pen.

So there you go; I've bared my soul and spilled my guts. I'm weak. I'm faulted. I'm a writer.

~Jeff Bennington
Bestselling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy
Look for my forthcoming non-fiction, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

Writing the First Line

2012-01-16T07:59:00.000-08:00

Does your first line grab your reader's attention and never let go? Do your readers get hooked immediately? Or are you losing readers because the beginning of your book is dull and slow moving?

Today I'm posting another excerpt from The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe called Writing the First Line. But before you read on, here are a few of the other topics that you'll read in this book:

How to build a blog tour
Choosing your printing press
Your role as marketer
Your role as publisher
Author Blogging
How to build an author platform
Selling and price-point strategies
How to make the best use of KDP Select Promotions
Daily motivation
Tips from bestselling indie authors

Writing the First Line

“Be original. Think oustide the box in order to raise eyebrows with your promotions. The quality of your writing will take over from there.”

~ Richard Bard, Brain Rush & Brain Rush II

As an author I’ve learned that the most important part of any book is the first few words, the first line, and of course the first paragraph and chapter. If I can’t bait a reader with my prose and hook their attention from the beginning, I might as well pack up my writing gear and head for the hills. In the world of literature where thousands of books are published every day, readers have an abundance of choices and mine is one of many, like a solitary vapor swirling over Niagara Falls.

If I can’t grab a reader from the very beginning and get them excited about my story, I might as well fahgetaboutit.

Once I’m into the story, and parts of speech start flying like trimmed shrubbery, I can install new chapters for hours at a time. But when it’s all said and over with, it’s the beginning that I come back to. It’s the first impression, and perhaps my only opportunity to get a reader interested.
The beginning has to be perfect.
It has to be compelling and it has to attack with bear-trap-like strength.

In a May 14, 2004 issue of psychology today, Carlin Flora states that, “Our brains form first impressions by creating a composite of all the signals given off by a new experience.” When someone reads my work, they are entering into a new experience, a new world with my name stamped on it. I want their first impression to be, “Wow! This is good,” and then keep reading.

When Bill and Hillary Clinton discuss how they met at Yale's law library, they tell how after staring and flirting with each other Hillary finally walked up to Bill and said, "Look, if you're going to keep staring at me, and I'm going to keep staring back, we might as well be introduced. I'm Hillary Rodham. What's your name?" It’s said that Bill couldn't remember his name, but that’s another story.

From an artist’s perspective, I want you to remember my name: Jeff Bennington, the guy who writes incredibly engaging thrillers with knock-your-socks-off twists and turns. From a business perspective, I need you to remember my name. And that’s why I work so hard on the first line.

To demonstrate what I’m talking about, I’ll show you a few of my first lines from my novels, lines that I hope will nudge you to the next paragraph and to the next chapter and finally to the very end.

• • •

The first paragraph from Reunion:

David Ray stood in front of his mirror, dressed to kill. I look good, he thought, like the real deal, like a real killer. He narrowed his eyes, grit his teeth and unfolded his checklist. Sharp blades of black hair dangled in front of his face, covering the brownish rings that encircled his eyes. He peered at his scribbled writing and read the list as he felt his insides tense with hatred.

The first paragraph from Twisted Vengeance:

Detective Rick Burns raced into the upscale Indianapolis neighborhood, slammed on the brakes and stepped out of his rusty red Pontiac. He peered into the night and watched the crowd gather, took a deep breath and prayed to God that this murder would not be like the others. The heaviness, the blood and the darkness had finally pricked its sharp edge into his soul.

The first paragraph from Federal Underground (Coming 2012):

My legs strained up the dark and musty mineshaft as I ran from the depths of the federal underground. My left hand scraped the rocky edges, caking my fingernails with dirt and decades of filth. Every step I took injected a cold burn into my lungs; every breath thrust me beyond the point of exhaustion and terror. My red jump suit smelled of the world below and clung to my skin, wet and ragged. I stopped running for a moment, sucked in a life-giving inhalation and rested my body on the earthen wall. I tried to forget, but the images were too strong, too frightening to escape.

• • •

In my opinion, and in the opinion of the authors and editors who have taught me how to weave a harrowing tale, an author must place the reader directly in the heart of the action. Some authors spread out the details of setting and back story like a picnic blanket, the foundation on which the main course will be enjoyed. In the case of thrillers and suspense, however, I prefer action.

My goal as a thriller writer is to throw the reader into a story that screams, “What is going on here? Why is David Ray dressed to kill? What is Detective Burns about to get himself into? What is the federal underground and what did he see there? Questions need answered, and I find that if the first few lines have a compelling character with adequate tension, a reader will want to discover the answers. Besides, if I can not get you interested in reading beyond page one, why even bother with the rest of the book?
The beginning of a novel is that important to me.

After all, If I’m going ask you to give me money and dedicate hours of your precious time into my words, they better be good, especially the first line.

~Jeff Bennington, bestselling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance and Creepy

How Ghosts Have Helped My Writing Career

2012-01-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

I am very proud to say that I have 3 ghost stories in Amazon's TOP 100 ghost category. What's even better, they are all in the top 20 at the time of this writing. A couple of weeks ago, Reunion held the #1 spot for over a week Twisted Vengeance and Creepy came close at different times. If you like ghost stories, they are all 99¢ right now.

In honor of this occasion, I'm going to post one of my ghost stories, which is also an excerpt from my soon to be released non-fiction, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. Enjoy the read.

How Ghosts Have Helped My Writing Career

“No tears in the writer. No tears in the reader.

No surprise in the writer. No surprise in the reader." ~Robert Frost,Sentiments of Blake Crouch, Best selling author of Abandon and Serial

The night crept upon me like a shadow. The house was quiet and I felt the need to listen to ELO, a pop culture group that dates me but that I'm proud to say I knew well. I slipped away from my family and headed downstairs where my oldest brother's turntable sat, crying out for me to spin a sheet of vinyl under its melodic needle.

I placed the album on the record player, gingerly avoiding discovery. If I had scratched any of my brother's albums, I would've surely died. I knew that. I had learned the hard way. I had the bruises to prove it.

Mr. Blue Sky started drumming hip quarter notes and I hid under big brother's bed, feet tucked into sticky cobwebs and my hands under my chin, basking in the glory of big bro's collection of soul food... music from the 70's and 80's. The room was dark of course; I had to keep a low profile less I be found out and quickly dragged outside where I'd receive a proper thumping.

Our home was a typical tri-level from the 70's. I lay at the bottom, the rear, the caboose, the small room in the basement on the backside with a convenient set of double doors that frequently allowed us boys to escape late in the night.

I was in keyboard heaven, loving the solitude, taking in the soul food.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness that filled the room and everything took on a navy-blue sheen.

Looking straight ahead, daydreaming, as usual, something caught my attention. The adjacent room had been vacant and black. No one had entered or exited for the twenty minutes or more that I had been down there… until the shadow moved.

I lifted my eyes to see a form step out of the darkness. A full-bodied figure silently walked in front me looking forward and then abruptly turned to the right, staring down at me. There were no eyes, no face, no teeth glimmering in the darkness. The figure was made of midnight and quiet as the morning. He took another step and his body faded into eternity.

I felt cold. My heart raced. I swallowed a lump of fear so thick I nearly choked.

The music continued, Mr. Blue Sky ended, followed by Turn to Stone, which I did. I shivered as if I had been dumped in a vat of ice. I waited to hear the figure call to me, to come back, but it didn't. It had already left my world.

I tried to make sense of what had happened. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't real. But I couldn't hide from the truth; I had seen a ghost; a real G-H-O-S-T. He appeared and vanished out of thin air, lost as it were, between where he should've been and where I lay.

The realization scared the bejeepers out of me and I bolted out from under the bed, rounded the corner and raced upstairs where big brother and mom and dad sat in the living room watching a re-run of Three's Company.

I plopped down on the couch next to my mom. The color returned to my skin, but my heart continued throbbing under my ribs. I never told a soul until recently. And now you are one of the privileged few.

• • •

Looking back on that day, I've concluded that experiences like this make writing enjoyable for me. Understanding fear allows me to communicate what my characters feel and in some way, what I have felt during the creepiest of circumstances. I have a firm belief that what we see with our eyes is not all there is.

There's more to this life than living and dying. There's more to this life than laughing and crying. If you don't believe me, ask anyone who's had the privilege of tasting the afterlife. There's dark and there's light. When I die I want to see the light. I don't think eternal darkness and wandering would be all that enjoyable.

All to say, it's no wonder I've chosen to write about the supernatural. Doesn't everyone see dead people? They're everywhere.

What do you see? What has inspired you? What gives you the chills? These are the things that you should write about. Just don’t start until after you’ve read this book.

Thanks for reading. Follow The Bomb by email to stay up to date on the release of

The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. ~ Jeff Bennington

The Secret of the Master Novelist.

2012-01-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

The following post is an excerpt of my new book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe, coming February 2012.

The Indie Author’s Guide to the Universe is meant to help any author whether he or she is traditionally or self-published. This book will encourage those who travel through the easily discouraging planetary system we call publishing. It also includes tips and quotes from best selling indie authors like Scott Nicholson, Blake Crouch, Joanna Penn, Saffina Desforges and more. I'll keep you posted on the exact release date.

Secrets of the Master Novelist

“To be successful, you have to be an entrepreneur and treat your books as products.

Stop thinking of yourself as just an author. Those days are long gone.”

~ Ann Charles, Deadwood Mystery Series

Like many people, I’ve had multiple occupations in my life, scrounging through positions like a dumpster-diver, digging for the secret to my soul. I’d go to work and think about writing a book some day. Then a few years later, I’d think about it again. Sometimes I felt inspired to write a few songs or poems, but determined that I had experienced a chemical imbalance, melancholy blues, or lack of vitamin D. That was probably an accurate diagnosis, but the point is, I never noticed the red flags flying, waving, snapping their thunderous threads, clapping for my attention.

The red flags had a message. And if you could’ve analyzed my life, and examined the evidence, you might’ve noticed that I was on the wrong track.

I didn’t see it.

I was too busy with my fledgling attempts at success to hear the call. I had strapped on a pair of fulfillment-blinders and kept my gaze firmly fixed on that which left me passionless. I was spiritually self-medicating on a false perception of what life was meant to be and who I was. I didn’t know that I was a writer. I didn’t know, although I suspected that God had gifted me in that area. Yet I had never experienced the level of satisfaction one gets when transposing his thoughts and dreams into a full-length novel.

Oh sure, I enjoyed writing college papers and telling my kids absorbing bedtime stories, but that was different. That was business. That was just being a dad.

That was also my ignorance.

I was clueless about what it meant to be a writer until sometime in 2007’ish. I’ll save you the gory details about what I’ve penned since then, because at this point, only three of those works are even worthy of discussion. However, I will tell you this; my literary reviews cover the full gamut from, “This is the best thing since bottled spring water!” to “Poor writing skills...One Star...YOU SUCK!”

Most writers can relate to the pain and joys of writing, a craft that can never be perfected, at least not in the eyes of the author. The way I see it, the craft of writing requires diligent study, loads of reading, thick skin, saint-like humility, and a consistent routine. But there is one secret that the master-craftsmen never reveal. It’s a secret that’s been kept in literary vaults since Moses locked the Ten Commandments into the Arc of the Covenant.

What’s the secret?

The secret of a master novelist is that writing, as in good writing, has nothing to do with money, it has nothing to do with an author platform, snagging an agent or getting that elusive contract. The secret every would-be, aspiring, want-to-make-it-someday author needs to know is simple; if you don’t love it, if you don’t drink literature by the gallons, if you can’t enjoy sitting still, dreaming, rewriting, plotting, taking criticism, breathing life into a new character and feeling absolutely passionate about your words and what they mean to no one else but yourself, you will never know how excellent you can be.

In my opinion, writing has less to do with the skill of carving stories out of words, and more to do with the love of the sculpture, including the pieces of stone that crumble to the ground.

~ Jeff Bennington, best selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy

Follow The Writing Bomb by email (top right) and let me know if my new book sounds interesting to you. Comment & visit often. And if you can spare a dime, buy one of my novels.

An Authors Guide to the Almighty 3% Rule

2012-01-05T23:44:00.000-08:00

If you've been in business for an extended period of time, you've probably heard about the 3% Rule. If you're an author, you'll definitely want to get a handle on this treasured tool that businesses of all kinds have used as a measuring stick of their success.

As an author I have a bad habit of reading my reviews. I probably shouldn't, but it is what it is. I take my words very seriously and personally, so when I read a review that is singing my praises I feel good. Knowing that my work had struck a chord with a reader means everything to me. Conversely, when I read a review that more or less bashes my work, I take it personally. Yeah, yeah, I know, literature is subjective, to each his own, blah blah blah. I've heard it before and have probably written it even more. But bad reviews are still a bit cutting to me. I didn't work that hard on a book that hundreds loved, just to be told that it wasn't worth $1 by a few. Really? A buck? Who says that? What kind of person---?

Anyway, Back to The 3% Rule.

As an author, indie or otherwise, you need to understand statistics. There's a rule that has rolled into common business practices called the three percent rule. This rule says that out of 100 customers, there will always be an average of 3% who are never happy, never satisfied, inconsiderate, lawsuit happy, etc.

Businesses use the 3% rule to determine when it's okay to let customers go, as in drop them from their mailing list, or to determine if they are doing something wrong. In other words, the closer their customer satisfaction rate is to 97%, the better they are doing. The further away they are from 97% satisfaction, there is a greater chance that they need to make some changes.

How does this apply to authors? Simple. Authors can use this rule to determine if their book is actually a quality product, or if it needs another round of edits, re-write, etc. Also, if you have a quality product, you don't have to take your bad reviews as personally, because you can trust that 3% of your reviews are trash worthy.

This is a statistical fact. Look it up. Good to know, huh? I thought so anyway.

So here's the deal. I took a look at Reunion, did the math, and discovered that out of 79 reviews, 70 were good to great, and nine were okay to bad. Now here's how the math works. To determine the TRUE level of customer satisfaction, you automatically throw out 3% of the bad reviews. That's right. Pitch 'em. Lose 'em. Get 'em out of your head forever. They don't count. They are the same people who live miserable lives, make everyone around them miserable and wouldn't have it any other way. Their bad review is simply a reflection of themselves.

I bet you're feeling good about yourself now, huh? Good. You should.

Anyway, Once you know the true level of dissatisfied customers, you can discover the actual quality of your product or service.

I can feel fairly confident that some of those reviewers simply picked a genre that doesn't fit their interest or got something different then what they expected. In fact, those stats are a pretty good indicator that I did a damn good job.

On a side note, I will mention that of that half of the bad reviews came after I hit The Amazon Top 100, thereby getting a much higher level of exposure. After doing a little investigation, I found that most of the reviewers who gave Reunion bad marks did not have any other reviews to their credit. Not one. They talked about how many books they've read, but they didn't have a single review, except mine.

Do you see me scratching my head? I've chatted with other bestselling indie authors and they had a similar experience. We call those reviewers "The One Hit Wonders" because they hit and run. This happens all too often.

Not sure about you, but that seemed a bit questionable to me. Made me wonder if there are peeps out there seeking indie authors, spying out free, 99¢, and $2.99 books by no name authors and targeting them, to squash the indie movement. Just a thought. But I'm moving on.

WARNING: Never, ever, ever, comment on a bad review that you receive. That is bad form. Remain silent, bite your tongue, and then smile and wave. My #1 rule of author PR: Stay as far away from drama and negativity as possible. Learn it. Live it. If you get a bad review, bite your tongue; it's comes with the territory.

All to say, the 3% rule is a great tool to help you take an honest look at your work and the value it brings to the ebook market place. If your average customer satisfaction is bordering on the 80% and under, you might want to take a good hard look at what you're doing wrong. And I'll be honest, I do listen to my reviewers, because they can have valid complaints as well as compliments.

No matter which way the wind blows your reader response, I hope the 3% rule helps you get a handle on your quality. And I wish you the very best of success in 2012. If you need any help with your books, check out my author services page. I do a few things that can make your life a bit easier. Also, watch for my soon to be released book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

~Jeff Bennington best selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy

Indie Authors: Past and Present

2012-01-03T05:50:00.000-08:00

In the not so distant past, indie authors were all about print books, and in some circles they still are. Back in the day (as in what seems like yesterday) we had to write our book, get it printed and then hand sell that puppy to any chain store or mom and pop outfit that was kind enough to put our books on consignment.

That is so yesterday.

If you are venturing into the wide world of self-publishing, and plan to get your book in stores I would urge you to stop. Please stop. You are wasting valuable energy. The phone calls, the Saturdays wasted on "Self-pubbed" book signings that at most sell a dozen copies must end. You are wasting time, and losing money—lots of money.

Independent authors need to understand something, and this is my opinion based on my experience; print books have made a turn. They, as in your books, only want to see your family, friends, reviewers who have bad eyes, and that occasional peep who can't seem to get over their love for the smell of paper.

Your book wants to be in print, but only for the chosen few, and, so you can hold it in your hand. After that, it doesn't ever want to see you again. It wants to be free. It wants to see the world. It wants to drink tea in the UK and walk under the Eiffel Tower and visit as many German breweries as possible. That's what your book wants.

You are not the Olsen twins or Ozzie or Justin Biber. You will not be welcomed into the chain stores with fanfare and raving fans (save a few). You are the guy behind the little desk with a stack of books in front of you, instead of in your reader’s hands. ~~~>>>>

Today's book has matured. It has grown up and wants to be free from your clutches.

Surely you remember your youthful desire to get away from your parents and see the world, see new places and meet interesting people? Well that's what your book wants. It's part of a new generation and the idea of sitting on a shelf collecting dust is no longer appealing to his or her kind. It needs the energy and bolt of confidence that comes through the Internet and Amazon's Whispernet technology. Your book wants and deserves readers by the thousands. And what parent would give his child a serpent when she asks for a loaf of bread? What parent would give their daughter poison when she asks for a drink of water?

We are clearly in a new age. My computer experienced the Internet for the first time is 2001, but all of my kids are growing up in a time when the Internet is commonplace. Ebooks are likewise going to become commonplace. Print, in my opinion, will not disappear, but will fade into the shadows.

If you are still working at trying to get your books in stores, I applaud you, but only because I admire your love for the printed book. Seriously, there is something about paper that is alluring to me as well. But from one author to another, I believe your time is better spent writing more and selling online.

If the business of selling ebooks is new to you, let me bring you up to speed. Unknown, independent authors, like myself, are selling thousands and tens of thousands of copies of our digital books. Gone are days when a good book signing churned out ten copies and an order for six more. Things have seriously changed. And I hope you get on board soon. If you do, I can help you get on the ship and start sailing, but I’ll warn you, the sea is rough, dangerous, turbulent and most of all an adventure like no other.

• • •

Less than a year and a half ago I sat in a writer's conference in Indianapolis and listened to a panel of experts in the local writing community go silent on ebooks unless directly asked by a member of the audience. When asked about epublishing, the pros avoided the topic as if knowledge on the subject would stain their careers. They were clueless and many still are. This post may not make you an expert on “indie publishing” but it will keep you from looking like a fool when talking ebook shop.

Do not listen to the traditionalists unless you are dead set on getting published traditionally by a major or small press. I don't have a problem with someone going down that road. We all have a right to choose our own path. But if you desire to go the indie route, know this; you will likely sell one print copy for every thousand ebooks (my personal experience). I'm not talking about the first 200 print copies that are a shoe in from Aunt Bessie and Uncle Vern. No, I'm talking about that reader in Nebraska who hasn't heard of a Kindle or Nook for every thousand who have.

The publishing business has changed. Indie authors need to think differently, faster, and stay on top of technology. We need to write the best stories we can, get them edited and get a great cover and get them out the door formatted for mobi and ePub. We need to consistently churn out great reads and stop wasting time with the traditional methods. That's how we make money. That's how we stay in business. And that's how we get read.

Time is a valuable commodity. Use it well. I recommend joining Amazon Select (at the time of this writing), staying ahead of the curve and welcoming technology with open arms, because the picture I've painted regarding the publishing business is likely to change sooner rather than later. If you don't move with the waves, you will be left on shore... on a very hot, sandy beach that will leave you parched and sun burned.

**All this from an indie author who’s gone from “no name” to “Amazon Best Seller” within nine months of deciding that I would do this on my own instead of listening to people who ONLY want my money. If you truly care about your success as an author and you don't want to wait around for that perfect agent or perfect publisher who want to take all but 8% of YOUR royalties on something YOU created, than take heed, listen to me, write more, go indie, and sell. I'm here to help.

Look for my soon to be released book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

Jeff Bennington is the best selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy

Suspense

Mystery/Suspense

True Ghost Stories

The Best Seller That Publishers Wouldn't Touch

2011-12-25T05:35:00.000-08:00

After countless form letters, hair pulling, and fear of mass rejection, I was told by agents and publishers alike, "Thanks but no thanks."

Well I have news for them, REUNION would've been a good buy.

After several months of diligent blogging, tweeting, and review peddling, my breakthrough novel had sold over 6,000 copies without their help. I did everything a publisher could've done on my behalf; the editing (Jacque Penn/Neal Hock), the cover art (me), the ebook formatting (Ted Risk) etc. I didn't think I'd have to work as hard as I did. I spent hundreds of hours promoting and guest blogging. I built a platform through The Writing Bomb and The Kindle Book Review because I had started at ground zero.

Before I go any further, I have to thank the dozens of readers and writerly friends I've met on Twitter and facebook. Indie authors will never succeed without the underlying support of others.

Perhaps my lack of "Platform" was the only reason Reunion was rejected, but I doubt it. Maybe they thought the story was too risky. Or maybe they thought the masses wouldn't be interested in a supernatural thriller about the struggling survivors of a school shooting?

Whatever the reason, they passed. It wasn't good enough for them. And honestly, I DO NOT feel any bitterness toward the publishing system. They had their reasons, and a business plan, and I didn't fit.

No worries. No skin off my back.

But you know what? I'm really glad I didn't let the old-publishing system discourage me, or make me reconsider whether Reunion could succeed. I guess I just don't like to hear "No". I never have. So I wasn't about to let their decision stop me from moving forward.

Being the industrious person that I am, like so many indie authors, I put my nose to the diamond-grit grindstone and started to figure out how I could get this book out to readers without a publisher. It took many hours of study, and blog reading, and online research, but it was so worth it. I discovered that "pay to publish" is just wrong. I discovered that the steps required to get a good product is much easier than I was led to believe. And I discovered that I didn't need a publisher to sell the story I needed to tell.

I believed that the life of a school-shooting survivor would be difficult. I believed that these teenagers lives would be dramatically altered. In my heart of hearts I felt a deep concern for the pain and hurt and scars that they must have endured. And I knew they would carry the pain with them, affecting every aspect of their adult lives.

My research proved that I was correct. Did you know that when young people go through school shootings, the effects (as in level of post-traumatic stress) are often far more severe than those of trained soldiers who experience military combat? It's true. The reason is because adolescent and teenage frontal lobes aren't always fully developed, among other reasons, so the impact of the experience is magnified, causing severe cases of ptsd. In fact, I communicated with one of the survivors of the Columbine shooting before I published and he told me that it took him 10 years before he began feeling "normal".

Interesting isn't it? Imagine the variety of experiences. Imagine the countless twists of fate?

As a writer my mind took my concerns and went wild. The result was Reunion, a supernatural thriller that has since become an Amazon best seller as of yesterday (December 24, 2011), a day I will never forget.

That day has changed my life, but not for the reasons that you might think. Yesterday is so special because it proved that I'm worthy of respect as a writer no matter what the publishers say. AND because it proves that YOU are too...if you are diligent.

Every time an independent author makes the best seller list, it proves that the old system is broken. Best selling indies are clear evidence that publishing houses don't always have the best eye for what will sell. Making the Amazon Best Seller List also proves that publishers do not know how to weigh the value of an author's level of determination, and commitment.

I think I have a great story, and I know I have determination. Had they only but asked, I could've communicated why I was going to be a best seller with or without them.

But Amazon Select did it? Never mind Amazon Select. I made the decision to join while others didn't . I made the decision to go on a 45-day blog tour. I made the decision to price my book at 99¢ until the time was right to change. There are many great books and Amazon and an agent will never never help fate choose who wins. Publishing success is more complicated that one simple program. It's my beief that prayer and God's good graces have more power than any online program. And I know there was plenty of that over the course of the last several months.

All to say, I feel like I won the wager between me and the publishing industry. I don't care if Reunion falls out of the Top 100 before I finish this post. I still won. Indies everywhere won in 2011 and 2012 is looking even better. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

~ Jeff Bennington is the (Best Selling) author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy.

4.4 Stars

5 Stars

Are You Ready for the NEW Black Friday?

2011-12-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

It's coming! Can you hear it? It's a happy sound. It's the sound of wrapping paper crumpling, tape tearing and the oohs and aahs of readers around the world opening their much anticipated Kindle, Kindle Touch or Kindle Fire?

It's a sweet sound; the sound of Kindle love. And is there any better gift?

If you're an author, I hope you're listening to the joy, because the next week, in my humble opinion, is going to be the equivalent of Black Friday. Excited Kindle readers will tinker with their new toys and spend their Amazon gift cards on our books. Did you hear that? On our books...yours and mine.

These are very exciting times. Indie authors have so much to be thankful for. We're experiencing a time when technology has caught up with big business, an unbelievable opportunity to show the world that there are writers with exceptional talent, and worthy of notoriety with or without a publisher.

There are so many reasons why this is good news for writers and especially good for readers, but I don't want to beat a dead horse; Joe Konrath has covered the pros and cons of indie publishing.

My question is, are you ready for the NEW Black Friday?
Is your bookstore looking as good as it should? Is your hook catchy? Is your cover attractive? Are your editorial shelves in order? Have you put your best deals out front, in a nice display for all to see?

What's that? At least one of your books are on sale, right? You know, your "leader", your introductory book set at a bargain price, enticing readers to try more of your work?

Okay. Maybe you only have one book. Fair enough. But while we're on the subject, lets talk pricing.

Did you set the price at 99¢, $1.99, $2.99, $4 or more? This is an interesting question that many people are talking about. However, in my opinion, we shouldn't be debating whether a 99¢ book is devaluing books in general, but rather, discussing the size of an authors audience.

I think authors should set their pricing based on demand for their work (i.e., the significance of your platform). If you're struggling to sell anything, your audience/customer base is obviously low. You should set your prices accordingly. If you're selling by the thousands, there's probably enough demand to raise your prices a bit. But whatever you do... remember to think like a business person.

But I'll warn you, if you see Stephen King's $15.99 ebook prices and then scoff at authors who have set their prices below the $2.99 mark, remember that name recognition goes a long way, and some of us don't have it. Think about it...

Do book buyers around the world know who you are?

Do you have an ever growing email list of hungry readers?

Or are you like me, fighting tooth and bloody claw to get folks to notice your kick a•• thrillers? I mean seriously, if readers knew how hard I've had to work to get my name out there, they might buy my books out of pity, or because they love rooting for the underdog, of which I am the head of the pack.

Or maybe they wouldn't.

Either way, don't take slow sales personally. Simply press on, working diligently toward your goals.

Think... Get 'em in here, dazzle 'em with my best work, my best price, and then win their business with a quality product ~ as in a well written, well-edited book, with professional ebook formatting.

Whatever your audience looks like, let this post serve as a reminder that indies are humble book-store owners, fortunate to have a relationship with the largest ebook seller in the world.

I recommend varying your prices, offering deals, and generating demand for your best work. That's how successful businesses operate. That's what I'm doing. And honestly, I couldn't do it as well without Amazon's Select program.

In fact, I can't wait to share the juicy details about what the Select program has done for me already. However, I've been invited to write a guest post at The Creative Penn after the New Year regarding KDP Select, so you'll have to wait. Sorry.

For now, polish the brass, wax the floor, and get your books in order, because Christmas is here. Millions of Kindle owners will be knocking on your door. Are you ready for them?

Below are a few tips to get your books in tip-top shape.

BONUS TIPS for Amazon success:

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Is your Cover really cool? If not, there's a million other books that will draw the attention of readers away from YOUR book. I can fix that for only $79. Look here ~> Get a face lift.

Are you lacking reviews? Reviews sell. Of course you need a GOOD book to get good REVIEWS. But if your book was professionally edited, I can fix that. ~> Send your book to The Kindle Book Review.

Discover all the services I offer. Look here. ~> Author Services.

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading. Follow my blog by email so you don't miss any posts.

~Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion and Creepy.

5 Stars

4.4 Stars

5 Stars

A Sure Fire Way to Get More Readers

2011-12-21T05:20:00.000-08:00

In this world where $ rules, there is one simple trick that will get you more readers.

But before I tell you what it is, I need to make sure we are on the same page; otherwise none of this will apply.

Page 1: I'm assuming you have a great book and that you have had it professionally edited. I'm also assuming that your writing is fresh and interesting and your plot is to die for.

Page 2: I'm assuming you have a brilliant cover, because if a reader doesn't like the art, he or she ain't gonna buy your book. (And do not give me crap about sayin' ain't... this is just a freakin' blog. Get off your high horse)

Page 3: I'm assuming you have written an eye catching and interesting blurb on your book page. If the reader isn't hooked by your "hook" (or lack thereof), why would he or she spend money on something that is not interesting?

Okay, so we're on the same page. Your book is awesome. I get that. Mine is too. Good. Now what's the secret? Simple. One word. Free. Yes, free.

Free is the new word for sales. Don't believe me? Ask any one who signed up for the KDP Select program. Ask anyone who has given away 1,000 copies of their book. Ask anyone who has received a gift that they didn't deserve. Free is good. Free is nice. Free is better. Free is word of mouth. Free is your friend.

So what's the big deal? Why even bring it up?

I'm posting this because we are embarking upon a season when we give and receive gifts. It's a time when we can all relate to how good it feels when someone gives you something you don't deserve. In fact, getting almost feels as good as giving something away.

If you've ever thought, I'm not giving away my book that I spent months and even years working on. My time and talent is far too valuable to throw my labor away like that, I'm here to tell you that you are DEAD wrong. Everyone loves a cheerful giver. Everyone loves a gift. And everyone remembers the one who gave them something for free.

So the secret to more sales is...give your book away.

Workin' the world of freebies is something that's hard for authors to understand because they're ready to recoup their publishing expenses. But as I've said in the past, indie publishing is not for the one-trick pony. It is a life-long journey; one that you cannot help to traverse once you have strapped on your boots.

Bottom line: We all want to sell our books. But remember to give your ebooks away, at random, from your blog, in contests, as gifts, to help promote your other titles and just because you like doing it. If you don't love the smiles, you'll love the boomeranging sales.

HINT: Amazon has this really cool algorithm that has a funny way of putting your book on A LOT of book pages every time you make your book free. When that happens, more eyes see your book. When that happens, if you've done everything right (i.e., we're on the same page) you will sell more books. Wink. Wink. BOOM!

Incidentally, REUNION, my #1 best selling suspense thriller is FREE today and tomorrow in the Kindle Store. If you have a Nook and would like a copy, leave your email address. I'll get you a copy asap.

~ Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion and Creepy

5 - Stars

4.4 - Stars

5.0 - Stars

Like my book covers? I designed them and I can make one for U2. See my Author Services Page.

Why My Writing SUCKED and What I Did to Fix It.

2011-12-19T04:53:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, in 2009 I published a political thriller destined to be an international best seller. It was smart, loaded with intrigue, suspense, action and it was so timely I'd say it bordered on prophetic. My family and friends agreed.

Then I published it...as in self-published with no idea what I was doing.

Sound familiar?

It didn't take long before I offered this amazing book to online readers. A few months later, reality hit me like a steel pipe across my face. The reviews started coming in and I soon discovered that what I thought was New York Times bound, in truth, had become another example of a self-publisher with poor writing skills.

I have recently unpublished that book. I can do better...much better.

So what sucked about my writing, you ask? Plenty.

The good news is, my writing is no longer what it was. I have since authored three books that are frequently in Amazon's Top 100 category lists. One of them has hit #1 in Amazon's ghost category and meandered around the top 200 on occasion.

I've read indie authors and many of them are amazing, selling, and getting incredible reviews. Unfortunately, some are not. The reasons vary, but these books suffer because of poor cover art, poor formatting, but most often because the author has much to learn. I know I did. Fortunately, I fixed my mistakes. Well, most of them anyway. Writing is an adventure, and I'm sure I'll be learning twenty years from now.

The following are some of the major mistakes I made before I knew what I was doing. If you see these mistakes in your book(s), especially if it is published, I'd urge you to fix your writing as soon as possible.

My pages were littered with "was". I've heard this described at the "fuzzy wassies". Too many was words, including were, is a sign that your writing is weak. That is because when you use "was" too often, you create a weak sentence, giving very little imagery and using unnecessary words. Fix your sentence... She was running in the woods...with She ran through the woods. This is shorter and more concise. Limit your was words to less than three per page and watch your writing come to life.

I had lengthy monologues that took the reader out of the story. I have since learned that where there is dialogue, there should be plenty of action, body movements, etc. Characters need to express themselves in shorter bursts of verbal exchanges. Include the character's thoughts and observations while another character is talking.

Over use of adjectives and other modifiers. If you have a sentence that says something like.... Barron Von Dorkenwad ran his hands through Rapunzel's golden, straw-like, crusty hair... you probably need to do a rewrite. Limiting your modifiers is a must. If you can't find one good word to describe Rapunzel's ragged hair, cut it off and make her bald. You might as well because your reader will stop reading at that point.

Boring introduction for the sake of establishing the setting. Your intro is your first impression and it better be good. If you write supernatural thrillers, as I do, you better give some kind of indication (or foreshadowing) within the first few paragraphs that your book is going to be a frightening, mysterious or disturbing story. Give a sense of the genre on page one. Raise questions in the readers mind about your protagonist that they will want to answer. Start with conflict and slow it down later. There's a reason directors start their scenes with the word, "Action!"

I had a habit of telling my reader what was happening instead of showing. Here's an example: Jane Doe had it all together. Her hair was perfect, her smile glowing and she knew everyone loved her... Try this instead: Trixie stood nose to nose with Jane and sneered. Her lips curled and with one eye squinted said, "You act like you've got it all together. But your perfect smile and..." She flicked one of Jane's curls. "...flowing hair doesn't fool me. You're a mess. And I see right through you. We all do." See how that works? Let the characters do the describing. You hear it all the time ~ Show, don't tell.

Similar words within close proximity. These words began to bother my reader. Had I thought of different words, I might have been able to prevent more of those wordy speed bumps. I think you get the idea.

I know, you want to be original. You want to stand out. But listen, dear author; great writers can break the rules because the rest of their writing, plot, and characters are spot on. When you decide that originality means not following the rules, or disregarding them altogether, you have decided that you no longer want to sell books.

There have been plenty of authors who write amazing first novels, but the vast majority do not. And in today's "anyone can publish" world, this has never been more true. Your readers want emotion, feelings, thoughts, fully-developed characters, color, believable plot lines, action, vivid yet brief descriptions, poetry and alliteration. They want a story that plays out in their minds, without speed bumps. They want words spelled correctly and used in the right context. And it is my belief that they want shorter stories.

Trust me. I learned the hard way. But guess what? There is no easy way. Writing is work... and writing well is exhausting.

Write your story for the reader ~ not for yourself. Study and take your craft to the next level.

Unpublish your book if it sucks.

If you'd like to improve your prose, check out the following books: Write Like the Masters by William Cane, On Writing by The Horror Writer's Association, Novelist's Boot Camp by Todd Stone, On Writing by Stephen King and anything you can find by James Scott Bell.

Thanks for reading. Please follow me and comment. BOOM!

~ Jeff Bennington is the author of Reunion, an Amazon #1 bestselling ghost story, Twisted Vengeance and Creepy. Jeff provides $79 book covers among other author services.

Why You Could Write the Next Best Seller.

2011-12-14T22:40:00.000-08:00

Every writer has his or her own way of carving out their masterpiece.

Some sit up in a proper position with their fingers curled just so, like a pianist, to keep from getting a crippling case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Some authors snuggle under their covers, or sit on the porch and let the breeze blow across their face while they create. I like to recline, feet up, head back, with a cup of coffee nearby. I frequently act out my scenes, bringing myself to tears as I feel my characters emotions. And yet with all of these preferences, I’ve wondered what makes my words come out different than the next prolifically fascinating author. How is it, exactly, that my “voice” is unique?

After thinking about this, I’ve come up with a list of reasons why every author has a distinct voice and therefore has a shot at becoming the next best thing because of their uniqueness. As we all know, literature is extremely subjective and trends come and go. If you’re not a vampombie loving artist, you could be writing the next trend at this very moment.

Here are a few reasons why you could be the next literary lottery winner.

You Have a Unique History! No one has ever lived your life. Your childhood and adolescence and college years have twisted together a very distinct experiential DNA. You cannot avoid the fact that you’ve traveled a road that no one else has dared to explore. It is this voyage that will carry over into your writing, making you different, fresher than the same old authors that the world reads over and over. Use your story to your advantage. Throw in your memories, your embarrassing moments and your failures into your characters lives and bring the literary world something new.

People Bore Easily. As much as I love Lemony Snicket and J.K. Rowling, there will come a time when I get bored with a series and maybe the author as well. When that time comes, I’ll move on to someone new. I might start reading another well-known author, or a not so well known literary artist waiting in the shadows. It’s a great feeling to know that someone picks up your book by accident and falls in love with your writing. After all, accidents do happen!

Literature is Subjective. Like I said earlier, one man’s trash is another man’s favorite book. With all the “I’m sorry to inform you” agent form letters I’ve received, you’d think no one would get past the first line of my work, but that’s not the case. My previous suspense thriller, REUNION, hit the #1 spot in Amazon's ghost category. How is that possible when so many agents passed on it? Easy. Literature is subjective. Sometimes agents and publishers miss the next trend, or simply enjoy other genres. And sometimes, the publishing world loses touch with what readers want.

Being Different is Good. Do you remember the kid in school with the weird haircut? You know, the one who everyone teased but deep inside you wished you could grow a pair as big as his, and do something original. Then at your ten-year reunion you discovered he’s driving a Mercedes and living on the beach in Sarasota because he invented a new design to a widget that hadn’t changed in fifty years. Originality pays. Being different is good! Unfortunately, we live in a world that breeds sameness. Our schools and social systems line us up and pin on the qualities that appeal to their needs at the time. They want citizens that stand at attention, say yes to their policies and shut up about it. In my opinion, the best thing any writer can do is break free from unoriginality, and forge a uniquely crooked trail.

The truth is, one-hit wonders come and go. Many great books have risen to the top and then sank to the bottom of the literary ocean, rusting and watching the crabs walk over their pages. If you create something new, that will not be the end of your story. You have to continue writing, creating a list of books for readers to choose from, diversifying your portfolio with as much savvy as a Wallstreet-wiz kid. Then, as soon as you have a captive audience, remake yourself. Of course, if you’re the next J.K. Rowling, don’t stop after The Sorcerer’s Stone! Learn to recognize a good thing. Just know that after you make your millions from your upcoming series, we, as in the readers of the world, will start to yawn and begin looking for the next good book that’ll scratch our story-loving itch.

~ Jeff Bennington is the author of TWISTED VENGEANCE, REUNION, CREEPY and the founder of The Kindle Book Review.

5 ~ Stars

4.4 ~ Stars

5 ~ Stars

This post was an original guest post at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog in May 2011.

The Indie Book Blowout is BIG NEWS!

2011-12-13T05:01:00.000-08:00

I'll get straight to the point. The Indie Book Blowout sponsored by the wonderful folks at The Indie Book Collective have done something amazing. They've gathered the best Indie authors out there, convinced them to price their books at 99¢ and then they do this huge, massive, mammoth event that is quite honestly, mind boggling.

They reach out to the four corners of the earth, holding a Zeppelin-sized megaphone shouting, "Look over here. We've pulled out all the stops to bring you the best indie ebooks at rock bottom prices."

With indie publishing hitting mainstream news, this is a story that needs to be shared. Is CNN hearing this? The Wall Street Journal? New York Times? Are you media peeps even paying attention here? Readers are making a turn. Readers are accepting indie authors, because the old stigma of the poor quality "self-publisher" is beginning to fade... still there some, but fading.

This event is comprised of ebooks of all genres including BRAIN RUSH from the Amazon best selling author Richard Bard, SUNDERED by Shanon Mayer, BRILLIANT PREY by Brenda Wallace and many other best selling indie authors! Did you hear that? Indie authors are on the best seller's lists.

Yeah it's big news when an indie author sells a million copies or hits the New York Times Best Seller list. But take a closer look at Amazon's top selling ebooks. Indie authors have invaded Amazon's Top 100 ebook list, and especially in the category Top 100 lists.

Trust me, I know; I have three books in the Top 100 suspense, ghost and occult categories.

And yes, I too am participating in the Indie Book Blowout. Why wouldn't I? This is the most professional and dedicated group of authors I know. They pay for quality editing, have great book covers and they know how to tell a story... just ask their readers and reviewers. Isn't that who we're writing for? Isn't the bottom line of book quality, the smile, or tear, or laughter that readers get from a good book? Yes, it is. Quality is not determined by who publishes it, but rather, by reader response.

Alright, that's all I want to say. Go to The INDIE BOOK BLOWOUT Now!

Look for CREEPY, my collection of scary stories; REUNION, my #1 Amazon best selling ghost story; and TWISTED VENGEANCE, my brand new supernatural thriller that will leave you guessing until the twisted conclusion. Also, check out my FREE short-suspense, MURDOCH'S EYES.

Supernatural/Suspense

True Ghost Stories

Paranormal Thriller

Go now... the INDIE BOOK BLOWOUT is celebrating the 12 days of Christmas from the 12th -24th of December, so it won't last forever. After the 24th, many of these titles will go back to their normal pricing.

~ Jeff Bennington (writer dude).

*** Do you like my covers? I made them and I'll make one for you too. See my "Author Services" page!

Why Santa Claus Became an Indie Author

2011-12-11T00:56:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, before the Internet, global warming and eReaders, an old friend of mine who goes by the name of St. Nicholas, aka Santa Claus, wanted to write a book. He enjoyed reading the old classics such as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Frosty the Snowman and the ever popular, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He wasn't trained in the craft of literature by any means, but he certainly had an appreciation for the literary arts.

As you can imagine, the Christmas season would take its toll on the old-butter ball. So after the packages were delivered, the cookies eaten and the payroll met (damn elves had formed a union and nearly brought the north pole into bankruptcy court), my holly-jolly friend would find himself kicked back in his leather BarcaLounger with a stiff drink and a good book. While reading, and slowly getting buzzed, he'd dream up his own novels. His love for the story, or perhaps his bout with ADHD, would send him into a dream state where his mind did a dance, forming new characters and worlds and plots that only he could imagine.

You see, Santa had lived quite a life. He had many stories to tell, you know, the usual world-traveler fare: fine dining, the occasional holiday mascot kidnapping/ransom thingy and Colombian cigs. Finally, his vast experiences and love of the arts had come to a head. He took one more drunken sip of his Jack-n-Coke and rang his little jingle bell that he kept near his side at all times.

The bell rang and a sexy little elf strutted into his private quarters and humbly bowed before the saint. He asked her to get him his old typewriter. She suggested he use the new MAC laptop that had recently come in from R & D. He smiled, parting his beard with his happy lips and his eyes beamed. Minutes later, after a brief tutorial, old Santa was off and running, well, typing actually.

His life-long dream of writing a hard-boiled crime fiction series had begun. Words came to him fast and furious, whipping through his thoughts and into the computer like Balzac on his sixth cup of coffee (look him up). Day after day he crafted his series, finally giving him the sense of fulfillment he had always longed for.

He once told me that bringing presents to those snot-nose brats year after year had lost its glam decades ago. But writing had ignited a spark in him. He had discovered that he wasn't a saint after all, but rather, a novelist, a gosh-darn-can-you-believe-it novelist.

He did a spell check, printed off the last page, and finally let Mrs. Claus read his manuscript. She found a few flaws, but smiled, hugged him, and patted his bottom. She was so proud of her Nikki, a hero to children around the globe and now he would add published author to his credits. What a man. What a stud! You should've seen the look in her eye. Not sure if it was dollar signs or if her second glass of chardonnay had finally kicked in, but she was getting warm...in fact, hot might be a better word.

The next morning... Santa mailed a stack of query letters to agents and publishers, most of which were on his naughty list, but he figured a personal letter of forgiveness might make things right and increase his chance of that big publishing and movie deal he'd been dreaming about.

Six months later... he received a letter in the mail. His shoulders slumped and Mrs. Claus patted his bottom again, comforting him after his first of many form letters.

The next morning... that cute elf I mentioned earlier suggested he try sending out a few electronic query letters. After all, she knew Santa had always been concerned about his bottom line. He did as she recommended. Several months later, he had received a slew of digital rejection letters, some suggesting he work on better characterization, dialogue, and that he would need a platform if he intended to be published in today's market.

"A platform?" puffed good ol' Saint Nick. He took off his big red mittens and flashed his middle finger at the stack of rejection slips, lifting each one and flipping the bird time after time until each paper had seen his answer to their suggestions.

Although he was hurt, Santa did have thick skin. He knew he had much to learn and so he buckled down and read a few books that he thought would improve his writing, such as: Write Like the Masters by William Cane, On Writing by The Horror Writer's Association, Novelist's Boot Camp by Todd Stone, On Writing by Stephen King and anything he could find by James Scott Bell. He upped his reading schedule and committed to polishing his prose.

Soon another Christmas had come and gone and Santa had revised his work several times, and even employed his staff editor to hone his MS to a fine point. By the next Christmas, Santa's books were still for sale. Times were tough in the publishing world with the onslaught of the Nook and Kindle and all. Agents and publishers just weren't taking new authors, although they had a knack for humiliating those who had decided to go it alone.

At this point, I was thinking, Come on. He's Santa for crying out loud. What the hell? Cut him a break.

Of course, Santa wasn't about to give up. Hell or high-frickin' snow drift, he wanted to share his hard-boiled crime series with the world. I mean the dude had built one of the greatest empires that had ever existed in the North Pole... surely he can figure out this publishing sh-- I mean business.

She too had written a book and a few sexy, paranormal novellas, and had been involved in an indie author support group that shared knowledge and resources.

WOW! Who knew? thought Santa. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?" he asked. She replied that she had just recently discovered the group and that it was new to her as well. She went on to say that she was about to publish her second novella as an independent author, or what used to be called self-published, a term that, as she said, meant that you were like rotting scum at the bottom of the writing pool. She just smiled and said that was starting to change. She flashed her first Amazon paycheck at her boss and winked a glittery eye lash.

The glimmer in Santa's eye and the red in his cheeks had returned.

He asked her all sorts of questions and she filled him in on the changes that had recently taken place in the world of publishing. Alas, Santa's hope of sharing his hard-boiled crime with the world had finally come to pass. He hired @TweeTheBook to create his ebook covers and format his print interior, registered with all the online sales channels and started selling. He planned his release after the first of the year, cancelling that year's trip to Sarasota with his sweetie and went on a blog tour instead.

Wouldn't you know it... Santa started selling. Day after day, he gained traction with hard boilers around the world. After a couple of months he made it into two Amazon top one-hundred categories and watched as readers moved from book one, to book two, to book three, actually paying him $2 for a book that cost him nothing to create (except the time he spent writing and pissing around with the publishers). On occasion, he broke into the top 200 which as far as he was concerned, was better than he had ever expected.

His blog, A Holly Hard-Boiled Christmas also started to gain traction, gaining followers daily. Mrs. Claus started checking his Amazon stats and frequently congratulated him in her own, very warm and very special way.

Santa had finally made it as an author. He sold over six thousand copies in six months, and projected fifteen thousand in the next year. And after hearing that he would've been lucky to sell that many copies as a "traditionally published" author, he wondered why his book didn't take with the publishing world.

"Hell," he said, "I'm getting great reviews, and people I don't even know want to read my stories. Just imagine what I could've accomplished with a publisher's global marketing budget. Maybe the gatekeepers are doing something wrong? he wondered. Maybe they don't really know what readers want? Or maybe the best thing to do is just keep writing what I love and be grateful that I live in a time when I can write and publish without someone telling me that I suck, when in fact, I do not."

Santa took a well deserved sip from his iced beverage, put his feet up and considered selling his North Pole stock. Maybe the elves can make this holiday work without me, he thought. Maybe, I'll keep writing and Christmas can take care of itself. I think I've had a good run. He sipped and chuckled as his head felt a little lighter. And then he stood up, grabbed his stack of rejection letters, shoved them in the fire and thought, I'm an author damn it. I don't need a label. My books are selling and that's all that matters.

~ Jeff Bennington
Author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion & Creepy

Why I'm Joining Amazon's KDP Select Program

2011-12-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

Amazon is playing games and they're changing the rules again. They're changing the game, and they're doing it in time for Christmas. Most Amazon authors and publishers have received an email from Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Got mine today. If you haven't, check your email, check your KDP account and check it fast.

What are they doing? They are playing the Monopoly card, hoping to sway authors to publish solely with them, forsaking all others. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to play too. Essentially, Amazon's Kindle store has set up a program called, Amazon Prime. This program costs kindle owners $79 a year, but once they are a member, they can access kindle books from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library FOR FREE.

Authors who publish on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing platform have the option to "opt-in" to the KDP Select program that will make their books available to Amazon Prime members. If an author chooses to do this, he or she will receive part of the $500,000 cash available in the program for December 2011, and the estimated $12 Million in 2012 as an additional source of royalties.

Is there a catch? Yes. You have to make your ebooks available EXCLUSIVELY through the Kindle store. You can still sell your print books anywhere, just not your ebooks. You can no longer sell them on Barnes & Noble, iBook Store, Goodreads, Smashwords, etc.

Will authors get paid for their books? No; not with traditional royalties anyway. The royalties, from what I understand, are based on the number of books borrowed divided by the amount of money in the fund. They hope to loan 100K ebooks by the end of 2011. If they reach that goal, authors whose books were borrowed will receive a proportional amount. For example: if your book is loaned 1,500 times before the end of December, and they reach their goal of 100K total books loaned, you will get 1.5% (or $7,500) of the $500,000.

Sound complicated? It sort of is. Sound risky? Yes. Could it be worth it? I think so. The way I understand it, Amazon is doing what Netflix did in the movie rental business; only with Amazon it's Pay a yearly fee and get free books all year. I think it's a great idea and a model that Libraries should follow.

After reading through the details, I found out exactly how many ebooks I've sold through my other sales channels. After doing the math, I decided that there isn't any reason why I shouldn't give this a try, because the results are so lopsided. Here's what I discovered....

Total Sales since March 2011 (Date I started selling online).
Source # books % of Sales
Kindle sales = 5866 97.0 %
Nook Sales = 114 1.8%
Smashwords = 49 .8%
Apple ibooks = 11 .2%

For me, the decision is not just about joining Amazon's KDP Select Program, it's about spending my time and resources where there is actually a return on my investment. If you sell a significant amount of books through those other sites, you might make a different decision. But for me, I'm in.

I look forward to being one of the newer and maybe few authors who participate in this program. I look forward to the extra promotion that Amazon offers as an incentive. And I look forward to another stream of royalties.

Like any new program, it's an experiment. But I'll give it a try and see how it goes. I like games. So lets play Amazon...I'm pretty good at Monopoly.

~Jeff Bennington
Author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy

I'd like to know what you think. Please comment and follow my blog if this has been helpful. To read more about the program click here. If you'd like to buy my supernatural thrillers, go here ~~~>

Turning Self-Publishing Into Self-Employed

2011-12-04T23:29:00.000-08:00

As indie publishing becomes more and more prevalent, writers will become self-employed as well as self-published.

If you've never owned a business, you might need to get a handle on a few ideas that may have eluded you when you first imagined going indie and showcasing your work through online, world-wide distribution. Your schedule will likely change because the demands of going indie are immense, much like self employment. But one of the big changes is that you are now running a business whether you like it or not.

As a published author your life will get busier, and it will get entrepreneurial. You might have one or twenty published works, but no matter how many books you manage, you need to think like a business person. With 2011 coming to a close, I thought I'd run a few ideas past you regarding your growing indie book business...
(The following tips apply to US authors and might change per IRS policies.)

You cannot hide your book income. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and any other book distributors you sell through will send you a 1099. This is a little form that these sites will use to report your income to the IRS. The days of getting paid under the table are over. And you will have to pay self-employment taxes on any income you receive that is greater than $400.

I recommend opening a separate bank account to separate your personal income/expenses from your business income/cost of doing business. You may need to get a federal tax ID number, but that isn't necessary immediately. Your social security number will do for now (But check w/ your state). Also, consider using your publishing name as your DBA ("Doing Business As"), the name of your business. I use Nexgate Press as my DBA. With this account, my book distributors can direct deposit into my business account; a very clean and efficient way of doing business.

Keep track of your expenses including everything from shipping receipts, paperclips, marketing expenses, production costs and other costs of doing business. All of these expenses will reduce your taxable income, so try not to miss anything. Be diligent in your records and you'll know for sure if you're making money... or not.

As a business owner, you have to market your book(s). You might get lucky and start selling as soon as you upload your book, but that's not likely. Selling anything requires marketing. You have to announce the publication of your work and that will take cash, so expect to spend something even if you are on a low budget. There are several ways to market your book for free but advertising in places like Kindle Nation, Night Owl Reviews, Book Buzzer and Goodreads will cost you money. Being prepared will make the pill go down easier. Expenses are inevitable. If you are new to publishing, and you haven't made your money back after initial expenses, the good news is you'll show a loss for 2011 and you'll get some of that money back.

You'll want to plan a budget for 2012. Include expenses for the works you plan to publish in 2012 even if you won't publish until later in the year. This way you can budget your future marketing and production expenses (editing, cover art, etc).

Consider writing a business plan. All successful businesses start with a business plan. This is where you take time to look ahead and think about where you want to go with your writing business. How many books would you like to publish a year? How do you plan to market your work? What will your platform look like a year from now. A business plan is a great way to put your vision on paper, so you can look at your plans objectively instead of keeping your dreams locked inside your head. This is a business remember, not a floating book idea. Write down what you plan to do and then do it, step by step, until you succeed.

HINT: If the work of publishing is overwhelming you, try hiring a friend or teen to do some of the busy work for you. Example: I pay my 16 year-old son to do some of my online work. It is very helpful and he gets a healthy $15 a week for easy work. This saves me about 3 hours a week and has freed me to do the more important things.

If you want to plan ahead for your 2011 taxes, click here. This page will inform you of the correct forms and other information you'll need for your taxes.

Here's another website to use as a resource that has helpful spreadsheet samples and more detailed tax information for writers.

Here's a website that gives detailed instructions on building financial spreadsheets for writers.

If you are in the writing/self-publishing business because you love writing, that's great, but don't let Uncle Sam catch you off guard when you start selling. Be smart and keep good records. If you need help publishing your work, I offer a few author services such as cover design and interior book formatting to lighten your load.

Good luck in 2012. BOOM!

Jeff Bennington ~ Author of all the books to the right ~~~>

When Angels & Demons Met in Haiti ~ The FULL True Story

2011-11-27T02:27:00.000-08:00

As told by Rex Byers, one of the survivors.

Edited by Jeff Bennington

On November 12, 2011, I went on a missionary trip with thirteen friends from my church to provide music, drama and testimony for a crusade held by a local church about thirty miles outside of Port Au Prince, Haiti. The work was done through an organization called Double Harvest. They provide a small medical center, ecological and humanitarian efforts to the people of this struggling nation.

Upon arrival, we had more work than we had planned. Due to a miscommunication, the stage that was supposed to be finished still needed a lot of work. We did not attend the church for services that Sunday morning, but set out to finish the canopy on the stage. The work was hard but we continued through the day, just in time to turn the stage over to the Haitians.

The next day, we completed the final touches on the platform, arranging lights and the sound system. We practiced our music and drama and had a great service with the Haitians. The days that followed consisted of an assortment of small and larger projects, including installing a tent to provide shelter for a local school.

We woke up early on Thursday (Nov. 17) to start another job and finished by 11:00 a.m. After an hour wait, we were driven back to our apartment. We were exhausted. Some took naps, and some just caught up on reading or playing cards. By the time the Crusade was ready to start that night, for some reason, we were all in a funk. We were tired from the previous day’s work as well as the work we accomplished that morning. When we stepped on stage, we found instruments in disarray; a different bass guitar and two guitars with broken strings, among other issues. But we put on our game faces and pushed through. We waited to hear Adrienne Petty’s testimony and then made an early exit to get back to our apartment.

Some of the team members took time to relax and debrief, while others were engrossed in a euchre tournament. The last group to go to bed was the card players. The rest of us were asleep by 11:15 or so.

What transpired next was the stuff movies are made of.

Bruce Donaldson, one of the veteran missionaries of the group, had been sleeping on the deck outside of our apartment to stay cool. The generator shuts off at 9:00 p.m., so there was no air conditioning or lighting. And when I say apartment, it’s really more of a commune. There are two quarters; one for the women and one for the men. These two wings run parallel and come together in two large living areas. The only thing separating the two areas is an open doorway. Bruce was asleep outside the men’s kitchen door.

At approximately 12:00 a.m., Bruce was wakened by the sound of men speaking Creole, a common Haitian language. He soon realized they were not friendly. They immediately began to bind his hands and fired a gun next to his ear, deafening and disorienting him. Fortunately, Bruce liked to sleep in the nude. As it turns out, this was a God thing because Haitian men are very macho and I think they had trouble subduing Bruce in his nakedness. Nuff said.

Anyway, they managed to lift Bruce up and press his face against the kitchen window, shinning flashlights in his eyes. We think they did this to get our attention. Their thought process must have been that we would take pity on Bruce, open the door, and let them all in.

Linda Herr was the first person to wake up and see Bruce in the window. She started for the door but then, in a God moment, realized she had no defense. She called for the others and each of the men slowly started waking up. Jason Braun, a member of our staff and Chris Herr (Linda’s husband) were the first to arrive on the scene. With what Jason describes as “Holy Ghost” strength, he opened the door, grabbed Bruce’s arm, and won the tug of war with the six gunmen.

But before Jason and Chris could get the door closed, the men outside inserted a crowbar, brick, and a broomstick between the door and the frame. At this point, Jason and Chris knew we had a serious problem on our hands, and the fight for our lives went into fill gear.

The gunmen shoved the door open, and our guys would push it back. The Haitians were relentless. They stuck the barrels of their guns through the crack in the door and started shooting. One of the bullets grazed Chris’s thumb, taking out a small chunk of skin. He started bleeding but refused to back away from the door.

When I heard the commotion I rushed out of bed. I met Linda who was following Bruce’s instructions to get knives. I took the knives from her and proceeded to slide them across the ceramic tile floor to the three men securing the door. Outside, the gunmen started to shoot through the windows, and the tempered glass shattered in a million pieces, tiny shards that we would crawl over for the duration of the attack.

With the windows shot out, the gunmen had a panoramic view of the kitchen. The window above the sink had two separate panes, roughly thirty inches by thirty inches.

About this time, a bullet hit Bruce in the forearm close to his elbow and exited just above his elbow. He was bleeding quite heavily and had to leave Chris and Jason.

Moments after Bruce was shot, he began singing the chorus, Our God. This had been one of the songs we had been playing each evening. Throughout the ordeal, Bruce kept his cool, gave the rest of us instructions and brought water to those who would receive more serious wounds.

Brad Downing, a younger man on the team, came to the door to help and then Jason and Brad realized they had to do more than just hold the door. They called for Morgan Young, one of our pastors, a pretty large dude, to take their place at the door. The rest of us were praying our faces off. And I’m not talking polite, politically correct prayers, but the life and death kind: “God save us. God intercede. God help us. Jesus we need you!"

The women were struggling to keep it together. Most of us thought it was only a matter of time before the door would open, or they’d come in through the windows, or they’d realize that there was another door not being attended only eight feet away on the women’s side.

I felt so confused because I usually think five steps ahead of what I’m working on. I found out later that in extreme cases of trauma, the brain releases chemicals that are like poisons and the brain stops processing like normal. I did, however, have the clarity to realize that the window above the kitchen sink had to be blocked. At that moment, I was positioned between the two kitchens when I realized I could maneuver the upright freezer away from the wall and push it in front of the sink to block their view.

After I moved the freezer forward, I made my way behind the refrigerator. Guns were still firing. The others were still praying, shouting and crying out to God. We felt defenseless. They had guns and all we could do was react. We had knives, but we couldn’t use them, and we couldn’t make them stop shooting.

That’s when I reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a couple 20 oz. glass bottles of Coke. I thought I could hurl them through the openings in the window when I saw their flashlights, but the attempt was futile.

During this time, Joel Larrison, our youth pastor was pinned down in his room. He stuck his head out of his door long enough to feel a bullet move through his hair. Monte Sanders, our music director, had been with Joel earlier but ran to the back room to protect Cole Braun, Jason’s son who had just turned thirteen. This is the hallway where the gunmen were shooting from the front window next to the door.

Meanwhile the ladies were hunkered down behind beds in the back bedroom. Adrienne Petty and Julie Baldini, another staff member, had emptied shelves out of a cabinet and climbed inside, making peace with God and audibly saying goodbye to their families. Shelia Miller, yet another staff member, was also praying, but later shared that she never gave up hope. Most of us did. Maggie Duncan and Linda were calling out to God as well.

These five women might have been our greatest defense. So many things were going on at the same time. While I was throwing coke bottles and moving the freezer, Jason and Brad had decided it was too high to jump out of their bedroom window for help. But in a moment of sheer adrenalin, Jason bolted out of the window, landing on partial gravel and grass. This was another miracle. The jump was roughly twenty-five feet. Fortunately, there was no permanent damage to Jason’s ankles or feet.

When Jason hit the ground he proceeded to scale two gates that were ten feet tall, cross a small creek-like moat, and sprinted another quarter of a mile to get to Arthur’s home. Arthur is the missionary that manages the complex.

I kept thinking that I needed to push the freezer closer to the sink. It was stuck on the ceramic tile so I pushed as hard as I could. It moved a little and seemed like it wanted to tip over so I gave up on that idea. But before I could get back to the refrigerator, I heard a loud “pop” and I felt my leg sting. I knew in that moment I had been shot. My adrenaline allowed me to take a couple of steps before I collapsed.

Fortunately, God had already put Brad on the back porch. When I collapsed, Brad immediately grabbed me and dragged me to the veranda. Brad didn’t know what his purpose was on the trip. He soon found out. He had spent a year in pre-med and knew exactly what to do. He knew where to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. He stayed with me through the rest of the ordeal, keeping me from bleeding out.

At this time, Morgan was still pushing against the door when a shot was fired. Morgan thought, “Why does my leg feel so hot?” He felt something running down his leg and yelled, “I’ve been shot. Shit, shit. I’ve been shot.“ Thankfully he realized it was not life threatening… but the door was. He faithfully stayed at his post.

Once Jason reached the house, it took a few minutes to awaken Arthur and Becky. Arthur grabbed two pistols and his friend, Jon P, who stayed at their home, and then the three men headed toward the gunmen.

Arthur and Jon P fired their weapons toward the gunmen in complete darkness. And it’s an eerie kind of darkness in third world countries. We’re used to dusk to dawn night light, traffic lights, or lights from another city. But in Haiti there is nothing of the sort.

The gunmen returned fire and then there was silence.

Brad was still holding my main artery so tight I thought that he was causing more pain than my wound. No matter how much I whined, he would not give up. Brad shouted to Jason, “Are the police here?" But the voice returning was not one that we recognized. The voice said; “Yes. The police are here."

Jason had crawled into a bean field next to the apartment to get closer and said, “No. They’re not here.” He didn’t recognize the voice either and thought that one of the gunmen was trying to fool us. Thankfully, the gunmen did leave.

Some of the team took Morgan to the back bedroom to care for his wound and Brad stayed with me. The police arrived within minutes and the trauma was over.

Four men were shot, but there were no broken bones, no arteries struck, and no one was brought home in a body bag.

Maggie Davis was one of the ladies on the trip who was in the back praying. She said she stopped counting after she heard 30 shots.

We’ll never know how many angels and miracles God deployed that night, shielding us, holding the door closed and directing bullets away. As far as my wound is concerned, the bullet entered the front of my thigh, went around my femur, and stopped just inside my skin in the direct center of the back of my thigh.

According to Arthur, the police usually show up hours after an incident, but for some reason, they were there within 10 minutes.

While the wounded went to the hospital, Brad called his boss who owns a nine-passenger Leer jet. Before I returned from the hospital I was told that the jet was on its way and we would be home that evening with our love ones.

I’m sure that the gunmen had to think to themselves, These idiots are bringing knives and coke bottles to a gun fight. But our Lord, our protector, was probably thinking, These idiots have brought guns to a God fight.

I asked the doctor to clean the slug that hit me because I wanted to take it with me. I’m having the slug encased in a gold Ferrell with a cross standing off of it. I plan to wear this around my neck in memory of what happened that night.

I remember reading that God commanded the Israelites stack stones at different times to commemorate crucial moments in their history. I intend to use the bullet as a conversation piece, to tell people how an impossible fight was won by the power of prayer and intercession. I want to use the bullet that could have killed me as a lesson to my grandchildren of how big their God is and why they can always trust in him. My bullet will always be my altar of remembrance, reminding me of the time when Heaven and hell met in Haiti.

~ Rex Byers

HELP ME CHOOSE MY NEXT BOOK COVER.

2011-11-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

Original Cover

I'm almost ready to publishing TWISTED VENGEANCE, my latest supernatural thriller, but I'd like your input on the cover.

I've wanted to use this pic for months and I've manipulated it as much as I can. I'm still open to another cover idea, but I really like this one so I'm hoping to get some feedback from all of you. The pic to the right is the original and is a 72 dpi quality. The ones below are 300 dpi. Much clearer.

Let me know which one is most appealing to you and why.

Here's the synopsis: TWISTED VENGEANCE

Detective Rick Burns' life is falling apart. His four-year old son is dead, his brother butchered, he's in love with the one woman he can't have and he's investigating a slew of unsolved murders of violent, domestic abusers. When a mysterious boy enters his life, things only get worse.

The boy knows the victims, Rick's fears, and he knows about Debil, the serial killer with a lust for vengeance.

Determined to help the detective find the perpetrator, the boy brings Rick into a nightmarish chase where reality and the supernatural are blurred, nearly costing him his life, his love, and his reputation in a storm of supernatural vengeance that is so twisted you won’t be able to stop reading until you discover the awful truth.

Find out what happens in this plot twisting Damien meets Sixth Sense supernatural thriller..

If you vote, leave your email or twitter handle and I'll give anyone who votes a digital copy in the format of their choice (either epub, kindle, or pdf). When we decide on a cover, I'll format it right away. Thank you in advance for participating. Feel free to sign up by email and get my regular posts regarding the world of indie publishing.

#0 (I added this late)

WHAT THE HELL'S AN AUTHOR PLATFORM ANYWAY?

2011-11-14T04:53:00.000-08:00

If you're a writer, I'm sure you've scratched your head and asked, "What the hell's a platform anyway?" If so, you're not alone. The question comes with the territory.

You send out your query letters, hoping that a website and writer's group is enough to qualify for the ever coveted platform...whatever.

I struggled with the idea of a platform for the longest time. And honestly, it sort of pissed me off that as a newer author I was expected to have a platform. Really? I just finished writing a novel. Isn't that a good enough platform for ya? Huh?

Hell, I don't know anyone in my circle of family and friends who've written a novel. That's a pretty big deal don't you think? And now you expect me to have an audience of hundreds, and even thousands. Get a life.

That was then...this is now (9 months later).

I have sincerely swallowed those words several times over.

In the course of my writing journey I've learned that your platform is absolutely critical to a writer with long term writing objectives. So how do you get on? Where do you you find it? Can you buy it? Rent it?

No. You have to build.

A platform is simply the way you reach out to your readers. Like many authors, I learned that by default, or as we say in the trade, by screwing up a lot!

Over the course of the last nine months, yes I said nine months. You heard right. I did not have a platform nine months ago.
Zip.
Zilch.
Zero.
I had a book, a few family members and some friends who were sure to read it, but like many of you, I was starting from scratch...as in peel off the skin, muscle, and veins and that's where you'd find me, scratching the bare bones of my audience.

While looking up from that vantage point, I learned that every writer seemed to be doing his or her own thing. A platform, from my perspective, appeared to be vague and unattainable unless I had the readers first. This platform thingy was really confusing. I had no idea from whence would my readers come?

Ahhh, that's the trick. But wait. Building your platform really isn't a trick. It's work.

From my experience, a good structure needs a solid foundation. And since, I had set out to build a platform, the foundation was the first thing. I built. I decided to establish a presence at Goodreads, Twitter, My blog and Facebook. Great. I had a starting point. Still no followers other than my fam and homeboys.

With the four corners of my platform standing, I decided to spend a little time at each post on a regular basis. I wrote blog posts once or twice a week. I tweeted a little everyday, posting #novelines, retweeting, and meeting folks. I posted pics, covers and had contests on Facebook, and I started friending peeps on Goodreads. Days turned to weeks and weeks turned into months. And pretty soon, I had 50, then, 100 followers.

Books were selling. I kept writing. I kept revising. I kept updating my profiles and blog page, adding content that was relevant and helpful, and then it hit me. I was doing it. The walls were up. The windows were supported with cripples, and the decking was on the rafters. For the first time I could see the structure...my platform was taking shape.

Sound familiar? It should. But that's not all.

I realized that the more readers I met and the more writer friends I made, I couldn't possibly retweet them all. I couldn't "Like" every one's posts, and book pages, and God help me, I couldn't read four books a week. I had to make my platform really work for and for my readers and for my writer friends.

I needed to put some wheels on my platform. I needed an engine that would run on auto pilot. Or better yet, on solar power. Can you imagine the light bulb shining over my head? Trust me, it was there, because that's when the lights came on. That's when I conceived of The Kindle Book Review... another blog. Shah. I couldn't imagine another blog either, but this idea really got my wheels turning.

The Kindle Book Review is my ultimate platform. I connect with readers daily. I meet new authors and help them get noticed and I have a wonderful crew of reviewers as powerful as a team of horses.

So far the motor is running smooth as silk...nine months later.

What about you? At what point are you at in the building process? Are you pouring concrete or framing walls? If you're not sure, that all right. You'll get there, but like any building project, it will take time and you will sweat. You''ll hit your thumb with a hammer a few times and you might even fall from a ladder a time or two, but you'll get there.

There are many blue prints available, but only you can find the plan that works best for you. Some writers write reviews. Some writers interview authors. Some authors do a lot of retweeting, hashtag building, writer chatting, book clubbing and what not.

No matter how you construct your platform, build it plumb and build it on the level. Make it unique to your personality and keep it fun, because doing this writer platform thingy is too much work to bother with if it isn't enjoyable.

So...have you got your hammer? What about your nail pouch? Good. I can't wait to see what your building. BOOM!

Jeff Bennington is the author of Reunion, Creepy and Twisted Vengeance (coming very soon).

# # #

You can find great books, and great authors who are getting great reviews at The Kindle Book Review.

Pick a Book Cover for The 19th Element and WIN

2011-11-09T01:30:00.000-08:00

When you self publish, your book cover has to be excellent. Unfortunately, an exceptional story can be overlooked if the cover does not speak "quality" to a book buyer.

With that said, my friend and fellow thriller author, John Betcher, is on a mission to revamp his book covers. He asked me to help him brand his James Becker book series. I agreed, and came up with a few possibilities for book one.

As always, I like to get input from all my writerly and readerly peeps. So I'd appreciate hearing what you think...and so would John.

Here's the deal....John is going to give away a copy of his award winning book, The 19th Element to a lucky winner who votes and leaves their contact information (email or twitter handle). I will announce the winner 48 hours after this post goes live, in the comment section below.

So what do you think?

Which book cover for The19th Element appeals to you the most?

This is a thriller series so keep that in mind when you cast your opinion.

So what's it going to be? Which cover draws you in?

Don't forget to leave your contact information.

You can see my other book covers in my $99 Book Cover page.

Thanks for stopping by. Join by email, and comment often.

Welcome to the indie revolution. BOOM!

How to Sell More eBooks

2011-11-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

You've read all the blog posts about price points, editing, and cover art, but do you know how to sell more books by tweaking your book's product description page?

I recently read Dollars & Sense by the writerly trio of Carolyn McCray, Amber Scott, and Rachel Thompson (hitherto called the IBC girls because they are the founders of The Indie Book Collective), and I wanted to share a portion of the book with you.

One of the sections that really grabbed me was the part about the Amazon product description page.

McCray, Scott and Thompson have discovered some excellent ideas that can help GRAB your potential reader's attention, keep it, win the sale and attract them to your other books.

As the founder of The Kindle Book Review, I see way too many book descriptions that are long-block paragraphs with too many words.

Here's an example of what NOT to do, taken from a random book I found on Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two novellas, a screenplay and a novel fragment the last two previously unpublished showcase the range of multiple Hugo and Nebula winner Martin (the Song of Fire and Ice trilogy). Black and White and Red All Over, the first 100 or so pages of an ambitious novel, follows three journalists in New York in the early 1890s as they cover a big crime story: the murder of the prostitute known as Old Shakespeare. Meticulously researched, sprawling and based on a real murder, it stunningly evokes place and time, but its leisurely pace means all too little happens. In "Skin Trade," it's up to asthmatic Willie and his pal Randi to find out who's killing werewolves and removing their skins, but plots within plots collide, leading to a bloody and confusing ending. In StarPort, a never-produced, laugh-out-loud funny sci-fi police procedural, stolen weapons, a dead alien dignitary and an insane alien conspire to keep the cops in a futuristic Chicago busy. The closing fantasy novella, "Blood of the Dragon," the best of the four, tells a taut and moving coming-of-age story about a young princess sold by her brother into marriage to a warlord. Although different in tone, content and genre, all the stories have in common an unerring eye for the human condition and the kind of grand scope and large-scale world-building that make for compulsive page turning.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Although none of the four pieces in this book is new or has been previously published, all are good reading, and they provide valuable insight into what Martin was doing during the years when he apparently disappeared into the black hole of Hollywood. (He emerged at length and also in triumph with the fantasy saga Song of Ice and Fire.) "Black and White and Red All Over" is a take on the Jack the Ripper theme. "Skin Trade" is a werewolf story that draws on Martin's experience as a writer for the TV show The Beauty and the Beast. "StarPort" is a candidate for the Best Unproduced SF Pilot Script Award if ever there was one. Finally, "Blood of the Dragon" is a modest introduction to Song of Ice and Fire's formidable Princess Dany. Add an introduction by Melinda Snodgrass that attributes no virtues to Martin that the stories don't prove he has in full measure, and readers will be informed as well as entertained. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

I don't know about you, but I was done at "Publisher's Weekly". This example may seem extreme, but it's not. I see this ALL the time, and I bet there are a few authors reading this who are saying "Sh••! That's what my book description looks like."

Fear not. With the help of the IBC girls, you can fix your page and start attracting more readers faster than you can say, "Make me a bestseller."

The IBC girls suggest a layout that is ideal for securing the sale.

To do this, your description should start with two or three quality "blurbs".
Followed by a brief description of your book.
Followed by more blurbs, mini reviews and maybe a bit more about the book, all in short, concise lines no longer than one or two sentences.
Finally, they recommend that you end your product description by mentioning your book and/or other indie authors that you want to support.

To see an example of what I'm talking about, and to discover the details of their concept, go to the DOLLARS & SENSE Amazon kindle page, read the product description and then buy the book. This is just one of many great ideas that are in there. Then, come back and tell me what you learned from Dollars & Sense. BOOM!

How a Clever Underdog Can Win the Publishing Game

2011-11-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Guest post By Robert Chazz Chute @RChazzChute

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." ~ Mahatma Ghandi

I am inspired by underdogs peacefully confronting authority. When the Occupy Wall Street protest began, it was a big idea among few people. The media ignored, dismissed and ridiculed them. A lot of people didn’t “get it.” But from one person to another, word spread. The movement grew until their cause could no longer be ignored. “We are the 99%,” they said. “And the super-rich 1% need to be taxed.”

When police denied protesters the use of megaphones, the 99% came up with a brilliant solution so their message could be heard. The speaker yelled his or her message to the crowd. Then whoever could hear it, shouted the phrase back to the larger masses in a loud chorus. There was a Battlestar Galactica “So say we all!” rhythm to the call and response that I loved. Underdogs must be clever to overcome obstacles and to confound authorities.

Occupy Wall Street is so inspiring to me because I’m feeling like an ignored underdog who has to be clever, too.

I just released two ebooks: Sex, Death & Mind Control (for fun and profit) and Self-help for Stoners, Stuff to Read When You’re High. When I told a woman at a conference I planned to e-publish, she asked me why I wouldn’t go with a “publisher with integrity.” I’m sure she meant “traditional publisher.” However, since I’m the publisher, I was a bit vexed that she thought I shouldn’t trust myself.

Besides oxygen and a willingness to stay very still at a desk for long periods, self-published authors need unreasonable confidence. Trust yourself. Believe your message. Hope word will spread. We don’t have big microphones. However, if our work strikes a chord, straight to the bone and heart and mind, word of mouth can make a big impact.

I don’t need or want help from Authority. Authority and I don’t get along. Instead, I prefer friends and readers and believers.

If you’re a self-published author: Breathe, chain yourself to your desk, and believe. And make some friends. Even if your noble quest fails, at least you’ll have friends.

While I don’t like people telling me what to do, people who lead by example inspire me. Director, author and raconteur Kevin Smith has attributed his success to surrounding himself with Why Not? People. There are plenty of naysayers whose automatic response to your calling and ambition is “Why?” I don’t think they get as much done.

I’ve written Self-help for Stoners. It’s a bucket of fun with twisty fiction and brain tickles. But it’s also about taking control of your life. It’s how I’m taking control of my life. I don’t want to share the wheel. I want to put on my big-boy panties and drive myself. And I don’t think I’ll need a big megaphone. My friends (thanks, Jeff!), believers and readers are enough. The word will spread. The message will grow.

~ Editor, author and journalist, Robert Chazz Chute lives in Canada’s frozen, suburban wasteland. His ebooks, Self-help for Stoners, Stuff to Read When You’re High and Sex, Death & Mind Control (for fun and profit), released across all digital platforms today.

Keys to Self-Publishing Success

2011-10-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

POD Publishing. Predators & Editors. Writer's Digest. KONRATH. Triberr. BIG 6. Agent. No Agent. CREATE SPACE. LIGHTNING SOURCE. LULU. Beta Readers. Social Media. Pay with a Tweet. Kindle Nation. Cover Art. Twitter? Facebook. Blog? Kindle. Nook. KOBO. PDF. MOBI. ePUB. Brick 'n Mortar. Linkedin. Formatting. Price Point? .wtf?

Confused about indie publishing?

Try this.

Write.

Revise.

Proofread.

Edit.

Cover.

Format.

Publish.

Repeat.

Publishing doesn't have to be complicated.

In today's rapidly-changing marketplace, the process of writing and getting published is so overwhelming it can almost make your head spin.

You have to blog, market your book, and "tweet".

You can fill your life with everything except writing if you let yourself. Writing, it seems, has become more about social connections than actual writing, which is a good thing in its own way. But the process of indie-publishing, or "going rogue" as some like to call it, can feel overwhelming, even to the point of keeping you from moving forward.

Don't let the excitement and social buzz short circuit your writing goals. Going indie is easier than you think. That's not to say that you won't work hard, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming, if you stick with the basics.

First of all, be aware that unless you get LUCKY, you may have to sell several novels before you see a regular income stream. Bestselling indie author, Dean Wesley Smith, recently told my writer friend Gerard de Marigny that if he wants to write full-time, he'll need at least 15 books published.

The keys are quality and quantity.

Don't get bogged down with the details because the process is not as difficult as it seems. If you have a good book, follow these simple and easy steps to publishing a quality product.

Step 1: Write your book.

Step 2: Revise until your book is as good as you can make it.

Step 3: Get a few proofreaders to look at your story, but DO NOT let them be your editor (my opinion).

Step 4: Hire a professional editor. You need an unbiased editor to pick your work apart line by line. Expect to pay anywhere from $5-8 per 1000 words. Don't worry about recovering the expense. Worry more about the quality of your work. I use Neal Hock. He's affordable. And he's good.

Step 5: Create a killer cover. You can do this yourself or pay someone. I make my own cover art. I do everything at picnik.com and usually get nice comments about my book covers. A professional cover usually costs $200 or more. I'll make your cover for $99.

Step 6: Get your book formatted for ebook sales. You can use smashwords.com, but I think it's a hassle. I use Ted Dellaster from Dellaster Design. It usually costs around $50-$90, depending on word count, but he'll add pictures and links to your other books or other writers in your genre if you want to cross promote. The bottom line is, I am still 100% the publisher and I am ready to upload my work to all major ebook sellers without all the formatting hassles.

Step 7: Upload your file, cover art, book details and set your price. I recommend $2.99 and under for a first-time author.

Step 8: Repeat. Start writing your next book. You can market/seek reviews when you need a break.

There, wasn't that simple?

Publishing your book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other sites can be easy. I didn't touch on marketing because that's an entirely different conversation, and can branch into many arenas depending on your budget. You can start by visiting the nice folks at Indie Book Collective for marketing tips. You can get your book reviewed at my sister blog, The Kindle Book Review. I also recommend digitalbooktoday.com for free book publicity.

Don't worry about print yet. You are going to sell far more ebooks than print, hands down.

Remain focused and think QUALITY. You never know, your story could really take off, but if it doesn't, don't let that bother you, because even the bestselling authors know that "books sell books".

Keep writing. BOOM!

P.S. ~ Feel free to check out my books to the right (ebook or print) and investigate my interior formatting. I do that myself, too.

Writing With Fibromyalgia by Jemima Valentino

2011-10-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

Book lovers and readers, please welcome my fellow indie author and friend, Jemima Valentino, author of The House on Hundred Hill.

In April 2010, after nearly 3 years of a relentless quest for answers, I was finally diagnosed with a chronic pain condition called Fibromyalgia. You may wonder what this has to do with my current blog tour to celebrate the release of my latest novella, The House on Hundred Hill. Don’t fret; I’ll come to that in just a second.

About 6 months after the birth of my youngest daughter Megan, who is now 5 years old (or 5 and a half if you were to ask her - half years are so important to children), I began to feel aches and pains all over my body: my neck, back, wrists, elbows, and especially my hips, pelvis and sciatic nerve were causing me periods of crippling agony. After several MRI’s, bone scans, x-rays, blood tests and trips to the hospital in an ambulance because my legs had given way and caused me to collapse to the floor, I was finally sent to see a rheumatologist.

During this time in my life I actually felt as if the doctors were simply not taking me seriously. I even thought at one stage, because they could not find a cause to my pain, that I was making it all up. But the pain was more real than I can ever describe, and taking pain killing off-the-shelf medication was simply not enough. My husband was beside himself with worry, and I was trying to hold down my full time management job, as well as bringing up our two young daughters. It was the not knowing what was wrong with me that was starting to kill our family from the inside out.

Then, following my appointment with the rheumatologist, I finally received the answer. For those that don’t know about this condition, Fibromyalgia is a lifelong widespread musculoskeletal pain and chronic fatigue syndrome that affects approximately 18 ‘tender’ points throughout the body, which, during a major attack or ‘flare’, can make you feel as if your whole body is on fire. It also causes enormous weakness in your arms and legs. A flare can affect practically any part of the body and leaves you incredibly tired and unable to move without pain. It also causes lack of concentration and focus and for some (including me) a form of dyslexia, especially during what I have come to nickname ‘bad pain days’.

So what has all this got to do with my budding career as an author? Well, after the diagnosis, I finally began to learn how to manage my symptoms, and become more in tune with my own body. I now know when a flare is coming and can help myself prepare for it. During these times, writing can be impossible. It’s incredibly frustrating, but the dyslexia and foggy brain brought on by the fibro flare can of course make it nearly impossible to use a keyboard, let alone hold a pen.

In June of this year, I finally made the decision to give up my full time job as my health made it intolerable to continue the full on and demanding position that I was employed to do. I have reverted back to my prior career, working with people in a period of career transition, and this enables me to work from home as a freelancer. However, it does involve a lot of time writing.

Just as I was trying to figure out a solution to my ‘unable-to-write-due-to-crippling-pain-days’, something struck me. I had heard of a great piece of voice recognition software called Dragon. After a little investigation, I purchased a copy and it’s changed my life as a writer. After a few weeks of training the software to recognise my accent and the way that I annunciate certain words, Dragon now writes to my laptop screen what I physically can’t on those days where my wrists simply won’t co-operate. Some may call it cheating, but the story ideas and the words still come from my head, but yes, it’s true, sometimes I don’t actually write them. My Dragon does it for me.

I guess if this story has a moral, it’s very simple. Don’t give up. Ever. Even when life chucks you a hand grenade, if you have your sights set on a career as an author, freelance writer or artist of any kind, there is absolutely nothing that should stop you from achieving your dreams. There are so many disabled artists that have had an impact on the lives of others - Beethoven, Stevie Wonder and Stephen Hawking to name just a few! Make sure you can add your name to your own list of heroes.

Lastly, I would just like to thank Jeff for having me on his awesome blog today as part of the tour for The House on Hundred Hill, and thank you for taking the time to read.

Jemima x

Please show Jemima some indie author love and visit her other blog stops!

Check out her super cool website.

Click here to purchase ~~> The House on Hundred Hill.

Publishing Lessons From WWII

2011-10-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

In 1943 my grandfather drove an ambulance into war and carried wounded and dead soldiers out of battle and drove them to safety.

Bullets flew past his ears, bombs exploded in the near distance; men screamed, searched for lost limbs and fought for their lives.

When he returned home, he said very little about his experience. Truth is, like milliions of other soldiers, he suffered a bout of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

War does that.

Gene Spica was one of millions who fought in WWII and returned to quietly live the rest of their days as hard working individuals. Thus, they were named the “silent generation”. They were, and continue to be strong, patriotic, hardworking and independent men and women.

Since then, much has changed. Some aspects of life are easier and some are harder. But one thing is for sure, my grandfather’s legacy has taught me how to work hard and that I can do anything if I’m willing to put forth the effort.

As an author, I’m carrying the strength of the silent generation, like many other writers I know, into the digital era. We are diligent, technically savvy, creative, and yes, independent, a word that not too long ago left readers with a bitter taste in their mouths.

The notion that “indie” or independent is a sign of weakness or poor quality is very puzzling to me. I’ve always been taught that it’s not only important, but a sign of excellence when one demonstrates a skill, coupled with the ambition to bring a project to completion on his or her own.

That’s what my grandpa taught me anyway.

Benjamin Franklin is a perfect example of a man who took his destiny into his own hands, worked to get what he wanted out of life, buying his own printing press, producing his own publication and selling his work to a world hungry for content.

And here we are in 2011; a year many thought would never come (Except the Mayans). Books are on our computers, on our phones and in small digital tablets where we can store thousands of titles in the palm of our hand. No doubt the day will come when we download ebooks directly into our minds via Amazon’s Whispernet!

Nonetheless, the time for the indie author is now.

The time for men and women to pull their manuscripts from their dusty closets has come.

The battle is on, and those who are strong, shrewd, and with the least overhead will be the victors. If you understand the qualities of the silent generation, you have what it takes.

But remember, in World War II, where there was a soldier, there was a medic; where there was a medic, there was a driver; and where there was a driver there was a doctor.

Independent doesn’t mean a solo act!

Independent musicians need bass players (God help us) and drummers (God, please help us!).

Independent filmmakers need makeup, producers, actors and key grip (whatever that is).

Being independent is not about being a rebel; it’s about being a cylinder that doesn’t fit into the square provided by traditional publishers.

All to say, don’t go indie alone. Do it with resilience and the guts to pull your story together, even if, and you should, use a team of likewise talented folks (art, editing, formatting). Then, if you play your cards right and get a nod from the Good Lord, you might even sell a few books.

I have to say, I’d probably stick with writing queries everyday, if things were not what they were, because that would simply be the right way to get published.

But I don’t have to. Times have changes. Were at war.

Besides, if I listen carefully, I can hear the ghost of my grandfather whispering to me, “Charge forward, young man. Take the bastards down and live your dream before it's too late.”

I am.

Now you might think I’m fighting alone because I claim to be an indie author, a lone soldier. The truth is, if I ever need an ambulance, I have a driver, a medic and a doctor near by at all times.

#unity #diligence #independence

Jeff Bennington @TweetTheBook is the author of Reunion, Creepy, his forthcoming supernatural suspense, Twisted Vengeance and other thrillers. He blogs here at The Writing Bomb and is the creator of The Kindle Book Review.

10 Questions Every Author Should Ask

2011-10-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

The monsters have been screaming in your head for years, scratching and clawing at your brain until you finally put pen to paper and let them out.

You had dreamed of writing a book or a series until you couldn't take it any more. The itch needed scratched and you needed to free the creatures that had taken residence in your imagination before they consumed, devoured, or worse, possessed you.

So, write you did. You worked for months, and years perfecting not only the story but your delivery through study, peer review, and finally a professional edit.

You sighed, taking in a breath of fresh air when at last you had a beautiful cover that added color and vitality to your dream.

The monsters in your brain were freed.

The story was told and then you let Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Goodreads and Smashwords in on your dirty little secret, a secret that only you knew until you finally revealed to the world that you were the next Stephen King, Agatha Christie, or J.K. Rowling.

Screeeeeeech... [enter the scratching record noises].

Now, you know the truth.

Writing is more than tapping your long-time dreams into your word processor; it's also about running a business, marketing, public relations, and accounting. And much to your surprise, there are hundreds of thousands of other writers just like you with the same vision.

And now that you still haven't hit the jackpot like John Locke, you begin to obsess over every new sale in your Amazon KDP account. You sweat over where you'll find free publicity. You run a fever at the first sign of a bad review. You notch up your social media. You pay to advertise. You lower your pricing. You write guest blogs. Pant, pant, pant.

You do everything and anything to get noticed and read until finally, you realize that indie publishing isn't what you thought it would be.

You walk to your bed, lay down and wish the monsters were back inside, safe in the cave from whence they came.

Of course you ask yourself a few questions; questions that you should've asked before your writing life went from big dreams to tiresome reality...

Can I handle subjective opinions of my work?
Do I have time to build a platform, market, engage in social media, and continue writing?
Is my family prepared and willing to lose a big part of me to a second job?
Can I afford to build a quality book: editing, cover, formatting?
Am I in this for the long haul or do I expect instant success?
Do I have time to read and hone my craft?
Am I willing to add more friends, contacts, associates and partners to my already hectic life?
Am I really ready for publication?
Am I willing to support and promote other authors for your mutual benefit?
Which is the true monster, my book, or the business of publishing?

After asking yourself these questions, you realize your eyes must have been bigger than your stomach. Even so, you decide it's a good idea to ponder your next move.

Will you give up? Can you continue at the pace you're on? Do you love writing and publishing, or are you simply infatuated with the idea of being published?

After much consideration, you shake your head, a few tiny creatures fly out of your ears and you discover that you're not done. You seem to have a knack for breeding monsters. You smile, plug the charger into your laptop and start another pot of coffee.

There's still one hour in the day to write, one more beast to command, one more book left in you. Final question: What will you do now?

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Thanks for reading. Please follow by email (top right), comment and buy one of my books to help me pay for my kids braces. You don't want the misery of their crooked teeth resting on your shoulders, do you?