Is There Such a Thing as a Best Day to Promote Your Ebooks

I've been fortunate to meet some really cool people in the ebook industry in the last year or so. Many have been extremely generous, helpful, motivating, and all around kind. One of those folks is Anthony Wessel from digitalbooktoday.com 

Anthony spent several years working in the book industry, overseeing multiple book stores. Part of his job was to study sales trends. He's been an invaluable resource and friend. Today I'm going to serve up some information he shared with me in a phone conversation, and in a comment on my previous post. 

A question we often hear is, "When is the best time to promote?" The easy answer is ALWAYS. The sarcastic answer is, "When you feel like it." But in Anthony's experience, there are basic sales trends that can indicate peak selling days and seasons. The most obvious time to expect a greater return on your marketing efforts is Christmas. But is that the only holiday to consider? No way. There is a year full of opportunity for indie authors.

Look at your Calender. Watch for every holiday. Have you noticed how every few weeks your local grocery and retail stores switch from one holiday to the next? Well, as marketers, authors should take these peak "promotional days" into consideration. It's worked for retail, so it should work for book sales, right? The way Anthony puts it is, there is always a promotion gong on. And isn't the the concept behind KDP Select; offering a "free" promotion, or "price leader" on a regular basis.

So how do you target your promotions? In my opinion, you have a window of oportunity that varies with each holiday.

Personally, I think there's a lag time for ebook sales; "lag" being the day(s) following a holiday. This lag, I believe is the time period between the actual holiday and the days and week that follow when new Kindle owners begin playing with their gadgets and actually start buying books. I saw this after my first KDP free day on Dec 24th. My sales increased on Christmas Day and continued to rise for the next few days, not slowing down after the first of the year.

For a rundown of the holidays that remain in 2012, look at the list below. Mark your calender and plan your promotions accordingly. You should also consider how your book is unique to the holiday. For example, if you write books that take place in Mexico, you might throw some extra promotion the first week of May in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Olay!

April:

April 15 ~ Tax Day

April 22 ~ Earth Day

May:

May 5    ~ Cinco de Mayo

May 13  ~ Mother's Day

May 28  ~ Memorial Day

June:

June 14 ~ Flag Day

June 17 ~ Father's Day

July:

Independence Day

August:

Back to School Deals

September:

Sept. 3   ~ Labor Day

Sept. 11 ~ Patriot Day

October:

Oct. 8   ~ Columbus Day

Oct. 31 ~ Halloween

November:

Nov. 6   ~ Election Day

Nov. 11 ~ Veteran's Day

Nov. 22 ~ Thanksgiving

December:

Dec. 24 ~ Christmas Eve

Dec 25  ~ Christmas

Dec. 31 ~ New Year's Eve

Jan. 1    ~ New Year's Day

Obviously there are other holidays between January and April. Planning ahead for these events takes some serious forethought because many promotional sites like The Kindle Book Review, KindleNationDaily.com, digitalbooktoday.com, WorldLiteraryCafe.com fill up a month in advance so you can't promote effectively if you wait until the last minute.

Hopefully, looking at the big picture might help you navigate your marketing plan. What's that? You do have a plan right? Anyway, Happy promoting. And welcome to the new world of today's author, where we do it all, writing, selling, accounting, analyzing, and marketing.

Speaking of promotion, if you'd like to enter your book in The Kindle Book Review's Best Indie Books of 2012 Contest, go here ~> CONTEST. We are awarding cash, promotion packages, and giving away a Kindle Fire loaded with tons of the best Indie Books! Everyone wins; authors and readers.

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

Indie Author Contest Starts April 1st ~ And That's No Joke!

When I started blogging a couple of years ago, all I could think about is how I could benefit. Sometimes I still do, but not always. 

Now I'm on a more important mission. 

Today, I not only want to sell more of my books, but I want the indie author movement to grow and gain credibility. I want to prove to the world that independent authors are writing excellent books, and worthy of recognition. I want readers to begin taking a chance, not only on my books, but on yours, too. Why? Because many of you write excellent novels, and if you can prove to even one staunch "trad pub reader" that your work is top notch, then maybe they will read another indie book, and then another, until finally they read mine.

This is the crux of cross promotion. We must look at the big picture, and understand that we are all in this together. This is why I established The Kindle Book Review.

Well guess what? The Kindle Book Review is hosting what is sure to become the BIGGEST grassroots Indie Author Awards ever! We are giving away cash prizes, free publicity packages, free ebooks to readers, and a Kindle Fire. Not only can authors win cash, but they can win credibility, and bragging rights, two very important elements to an author's marketing efforts.

I've hosted two other contests at The Kindle Book Review. We had a good time, gave away some free books and prizes. Later, several of those authors became bestsellers: Robert Bidinotto, Richard Bard, Cheryl Kaye Tardiff and Monique D. Mensah, and others. They proved that indie authors can write excellent books and sell better than many traditionally published authors.

So are you up for the challenge? Are you ready to see how your work stacks up? GOOD! You should. We are planning for a really exciting event. Everyone gets a shot. Almost everyone will be recognized. No review requirements. No rating requirements.

We are simply looking for the very best of the best. And when we find them, we will tell as many readers as we can.

Interested? Click here for details and to register.

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

Writing About The Dark Side of Humanity

"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

 

Secrets of a Master Novelist

By Jeff Bennington

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 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. 


What do you think?

-Jeff Bennington

Author of REUNION & Other Thrillers

***Be sure to read my previous posts where I interview writers who are living their dream, fully commited to the craft. BOOM!

I'm Having a Book for Launch!

It's 6:59 pm on a Wednesday evening and asside from getting married and being present for the birth of my four children, I'm about to do the biggest thing in my life: an honest-to-goodness book launch, starting with a 45-day blog tour. After spending over three months preparing for April 1st, I am one day away from sharing my labor of love with tens of thousands of book blog followers and lovers of supernatural, horror, paranormal, romance thrillers. For a regular guy like me, that's frickin' scary!


The process started two years ago when the concept for REUNION flooded into my head. Like most book ideas, they seem to come out of nowhere. A year later, I had a rough draft, but was advised by an editor to put the book away for a while because I didn't write it according to the common rules of fiction.I did. 


Over the next year, I wrote my follow up thriller, Act of Vengeance (coming late 2011). When I turned my attention back to REUNION, I was also advised to focus on one protagonist, and that he mustn't be a wimp.


I couldn't do that.


REUNION is not about one brilliant superhero; it's about the suffering and recovery of a group of flawed and changed individuals - survivors. This book is not a cliched paranormal romance, there are no vampires, there are no werewolves,  no zombies and it overlaps genre boundries as if they didn't exist. But that's okay. I had to tell the story as it played out in my mind, rules or no rules.


That was work. Writing, in my opinion, however, is enjoyable work. Crafting and molding the rough story into a fully developed novel is the best part. But I didn't want this book to get stuck in literary mud, read only by surfing internet shoppers. It needed to be read and I needed to do something different with REUNION, because when I launched my first novel, I had no idea what I was doing. I still don't have it all down, but I stepped out there and worked the blogosphere and put a tour together so I could share this story with as many readers as my life could practically allow. It's not a 90-day, shoot-me-when-I'm-done Scott Nicholson Blog tour, but it is a fairly modest blog tour for a rookie. If you want to know the details about how I put it together, you can get the skinny at IndieHorror.org. I wrote a guest blog there today outlining each step. I will also write a post-tour article as a follow up sometime in late May, after I take a break with my family.


I still have several guest blogs to write, and I imagine I'll spend way too many hours obsessing over book sales the next thirty days or so, but I kind of think that that's pretty normal. I'll spend some time each day reading the blog comments and answering questions, trying not to forget what day it is, because I have to do all this while working my regular job. But WHO CARES! This is such a cool experience. I really don't mind losing sleep for the next month. I want to savor the excitement, taste the fear, and enjoy knowing that at least a few people enjoyed my work.


I think new authors believe that all you have to do is write a book, get feedback from family and friends and if everyone likes it, then it's ready to be published. In the words of Dwight Schrute from The Office...False! Getting your book uploaded into the Kindle DTP is easy. Making your book the very best it can be and creating a sturdy platform, a launching pad if you will, takes a lot of work. In my case, it took two years. But what are the results? I don't know. Time will tell. So far, REUNION has not been reviewed by any of my family members or friends, and it's getting great reviews. 


I'm nervous about reviews, but more than anything, and I mean this wholeheartedly, I want this book to impact the reader in a way that other books don't. My greatest ambition for REUNION is not book sales, but that the reader walks away from my book, shaking their head, wondering why they can't seem to forget the message, the story and the characters. Be sure to follow the tour and try to win a FREE Kindle or one of two signed copies from my Goodreads giveaway that starts on April 1st!



You can get REUNION now at most online retailers, but I'd love it if you'd wait until April 15th...TAX DAY. Why? Because I'd like to skyrocket REUNION up the Amazon ranking system to take advantage of Amazon's exposure algorithms. BOOM!

Authorschizoitis!

I think I over do it sometimes.
I take that back. I know I do!

The world of a writer can be overwhelming. I've talked about this before. If my memory serves me correct, I think I said that writers are perfect candidates to be sent off to Crazyville. And if you're a writer, you know what I'm talking about, because you're probably half way there already. Today, however, I'd like to relax and take a minute to recharge my lit-thuim batteries...Get it? Lit as in literary and thium as in lithium, ah never mind! I've never been much of a humorist. Seriously. Ask anyone who knows me; I'm pretty dull, and I rarely get jokes. Guess that's why God made me a thriller/suspense writer. Anyway, I digress. But that's okay...because I'm relaxing...I'm chillin'.

That's right. I'm going to slow down for a couple of hours and stop thinking about books, and writing, and publishing, and cover art, and blog tours, and ISBN numbers, and wholesale discounts, and return policies, and blog posts (ehem), and Pixels Per Inch, and reading, and studying, and Garamond font, and setting up accounts, and web traffic, and, and, and! Whew! I really needed to throw all that junk on the table. Hope you don't mind me regurgitating my literary vomit in front of you. Sorry. I know - that's gross. But so is having a one track mind. And that's the point.

I can become pretty yucky when all I think about is writing. Ask any writer! I'm sure he or she has been there before. Writers are all too familiar with the tell-tell-signs of our friends and family going on with their lives, saddened, as we wander off into the writing abyss of MSs and all the other crap that we find ourselves wrapped up, twisted and drowning in. They have this look about them that screams "There he goes again... off into the stormy sea of words and busy work that means so little to us! Man over board! Dads lost it! Hurry! Get the life preserver. He's turning blue!"

Do you ever get that? Do you have a method to keep you in check? I don't and that's why I'm writing this post. Well I take that back. Now that I mention it, I do have this new rule that after 8:00 pm when I'm home - I'm done with all my writing stuff - everything, emails, twitter posts, facebook, etc. But other than that, I've got a bad case of authorschizoitis - as in I can't stop, 'cause I choose to embrace everything they tell us writers are supposed to do. I know. You're shaking your head. Poor, poor, Jeff.

Thank you for the sympathy. But there's no need for pity.

I'm going out on a limb here, but aren't writers supposed to embrace the more important things in life like family, balance, health and faith? Or should I ask - Can we embrace those things if we need meds for authorschizoitis?

Maybe you aren't here...yet...where I am. But when you get there, be sure to shoot off a flare, wave a white flag and RELAX. I am...for a time...and it feels good. BOOM!

Be sure to get your copy of The Red Church, by Scott Nicholson. It's the Thrill of the Week. Do you have a thriller worthy of next weeks thrill? Let me know and I'll post it FREE!

The Mistakefree Zone!

"This is your life...Are you who you want to be?".

Ahhh... words beautifuly sung by Switchfoot. Followed by..."This is your life...is it everything you dreamed that it would be...?" I think I've struggled with those questions more than any other over the course of my adulthood. For the longest time I was constantly pushing..pushing for what I thought life was meant to be...what I thought I was supposed to get from life, work, relationships, only to find that I had not met my own expectations. Asking questions like the ones above may put your selfesteem at risk, if you (like me) have had such big expectations that you unknowingly have set yourself up for disappointment.

But, hold on a minute! Why be disappointed? What can possibly be disappointing about learning from our mistakes or having opportunities to grow? I've made some ginormous mistakes in my life. There are consequences, yes, but did I learn some ultramegalifelessons? You bet! I think the best we can do is to learn from our mistakes, work hard at changing the things that are broke in us and enjoy every experience as they come especially with our family and friends.

In fact, if I hadn't made said mistakes in my life; if I hadn't sunk to the deepest, darkest holes in Hell, I might not have started to write, to meditate with words, to escape into another world, where its just me and the story - a very mistake free zone.

How about you? How do you deal with screw ups? Does writing help? Is writing or reading your mistake-free zone?  Please comment vigorously. BOOM!

Whoooo Are You?

Who are you? Really?

I know many of you would say that you are a writer if I asked what you are. And I would tell you the same if you were to ask me. At the core of my being, I am a right brained, creative type, who loves writing more than I could have ever imagined. Unfortunately, most writers, myself included, have a day job. We wake up, shower the night stink off our flesh and brush the bacteria out of our teeth like every other working stiff. We go to work, obey the man, gulp down a 5 hour energy drink or cup of Joe just to lubricate our brain, and then diligently slave away until our literary dreams have come true.

And yet...we somehow find the time, motivation, and the creative energy to write our story - maybe many stories depending on our circumstance, shuffling family, life and American Idol (can't wait to see Steve Tyler) into our shrinking schedules. Why I ask? Why do we do it? Shouldn't we be content with the work we have already chosen? Are our lives so pathetic that we write each new chapter just to cope, or as a means of escape? Maybe. Sometimes, I think my writing is somewhat fantisorical, although as frightenening as my prose can be, I'm not sure I could handle everything I throw at my little darlings. Afterall, they're not real - I am. And I don't like to get too dirty and I scare easily! (Uh, nevermind that last comment)

What really interests me though, is the face behind the authors mask. I mean, didn't everyone want to know who the Lone Ranger really was? What about Zoro? Didn't all of Me-heco want to know who the brave swordsman was hiding behing the black cloak? I did! And I still feel that way. I am still drawn to the story behind the author. I want to know what makes them tick, what their life is/was like, where they came from and where they got all their material. Admittedly, I am a sucker for a true story, and I love hearing that Mr. Poetwritesalot really works for the trash company, or that up and coming Author-X, is really a legal secretary finishing up her third courtroom thriller!

Although I'm at the risk of losing all credibility, I'll admit to having a long and dirty career working as a maintenance man, pipefitter and HVAC installer. I've worked on an assembly line, and ate transmission fluid on a daily basis just to get a paycheck. And through it all, my wife and I have been raising 4 kids, which as it turns out, is the hardest job of them all. Having said that, I can look back on my life and history and experiences and know that I can add something to my writing that no one else can. For example: in my political thriller Killing the Giants, I basically blow up a couple buildings using buried natural gas lines by adding a tiny bit of injected oxygen - a very dangerous, yet real weapon known mostly to men and women in the pipefitting trade. See? That is my experience. And it makes for a very dramatic ending if I do say so myself.

Now please, I beg of you; Please, oh please comment and tell me what you do. I know you're a writer or maybe a reader, but please tell me what your day job is, even if you are a 100% full-time writer or a janitor who works nights. Share your story and what your life brings to your writing and how it makes your work unique.

And while I'm on the subject of careers, I'd like to bring your attention to the upper right corner of your screen. Do you see the Thrill of the Week? This week, it is The Butcher's Boy, a career that, by the looks of the cover, can be quite deadly! What's the thrill of the week, you ask? It is a free book highlight that I am offering on a weekly/bi-weekly basis to writers (indie or published) who write in and around the thriller genre (And yes, I'm flexable). Why? Because we all need to cross promote and I want to set an example. Email me via my web page jeffbennington.com with a link and a jpeg and I'll get you on the schedule. BOOM!

P.S. Thank you for all the wonderful and encouraging comments on my forthcoming book cover for The Reunion. Cover #3 won by a long shot. I will tweak the final according to your input. I appreciate all of your votes!

Book Cover Selection

Cover #1

I am so excited to announce that I have a few book cover ideas for my soon to be released paranormal thriller, The Reunion. But I need your help in deciding which cover to go with. I took two covers that made it into my family's personal favorites, and then jazzed them up a bit. So if you would be so kind, please make your vote in the comment section below. To assist you, I have written a short blurb about The Reunion, and explain why I wrote it. With your input, I'm hoping to have the best possible cover.


Here's what you get...
If you vote, I will send you a free preview of The Reunion to help you get excited about the book and to start spreading the word about it via, twitter, facebook, and your blog. And perhaps, if you are willing, the cover and preview will excite you enough to write a blog review or even have me as a guest blogger at the time of its release!?!

Cover #2

The Reunion (Synopsis):
David Ray killed eight students and then turned the gun on himself. After years of abuse and peer ridicule, his inner demons had provoked him to fix his world. He thought the shooting and suicide would heal his pain – he was wrong. In a flash, he changed Tanner Khan and the other survivors forever.


Twenty years later, Tanner and his fellow classmates agree to hold a class reunion at the old school, and discover that their alma mater has a new ghost in its closet. Although they suffer from emotional numbness, panic attacks and flashbacks, the survivors all reluctantly agree to the reunion, and to revisiting their past. They are unaware, however, that the police are investigating a rash of paranormal activity surrounding the school.

Cover #3

After a welcome home reception hosted by the locals, Tanner and his classmates enter the haunted school to courageously face their fears. Within minutes, the doors lock and they find that David’s spirit is caught in a horrifying limbo between life and death. A strange turn of events ends David’s hell on earth when his demons take matters into their own hands. Hell has come to collect a debt… will Tanner and his friends survive? 

Why would I write such a bone chilling novel?
Have you ever wondered what will become of the students who have been traumatized by a school shooter? Have you ever wondered what the long-term effects of that trauma will have on the victims? How will their lives change? What are the consequences? Who will make the most of their journey? Who will not? Who will lose faith? Who will find it? 

Cover #4

Will they ever be willing to face their demons and return to the place where they watched their friends and classmates suffer and die at the hand of a crazed and troubled teen? And finally, will the dead still be there, watching, waiting to finish what was started? These are the questions that swirled through my mind every time I’d hear of another school shooting. To the innocent lives that have been tragically snuffed out, long before their time, I offer this work of fiction in their honor. May you find peace in this broken world.

Thanks for visiting and voting. Please follow and comment rigorously. If you have any additional input or criticism, I am open to your ideas! BOOM! 

What does it take to be a REAL Writer?

Are you a writer? A real writer?
Most scribes, both literary and poetic ask that very question of themselves and often come to the same conclusion. They say to themselves...

• I'm a real writer if... I'm published by a real publisher. 
• I'm a real writer if... I have an established platform. 
• I'm a real writer if... I've written a bestseller.
• I'm a real writer if... I'm a celebrity.
• I'm a real writer if... I dress nice - professional attire. 
• I'm a real writer if... JA Konrath mentions me in his blog. 

Do you believe that garbage? Are you trapped in a world of literary falsehoods and "real writer" misnomers that have defeated and squeezed the creative juices out of you? If you are, you're not alone. Writers everywhere have this false belief that something magical has to happen before they consider themself a real writer, one that ranks up there on cloud ninety-nine with Koontz and King or Rowling.

King and Koontz are exceptional at what they do, but that doesn't mean you're not a real writer!

I've written 4 novels, 1 short story, and another awesome work in progress. Yet on more than one occasion, I've asked myself if I have what it takes. Am I the real deal? And yes, at different stages of my writing journey, I thought all of the above statements were true. I have now come to believe something very different.

Here's what I think...
I think the expectations we've put on ourselves have come from a bunch of crusty old arrogant literary professionals who are more concerned about the almighty dollar and have forgotten what writing is all about. Therefore, like all things, the definition of a real writer is changing, and should change.

Here's my List of 10 Qualities That Define a Real Writer

1. A real writer is someone who writes because he has a love for words. 
2. A real writer has an innate appreciation for what it takes to create a story and put it down on paper.
3. A real writer loves books. 
4. A real writer loves creating with his right brain.
5. A real writer enjoys constructing a new story that no one has ever read and then puts his mind to it and sees the project through. 
6. A real writer sits quietly in his bed or chair or couch late at night or early in the morning or during his lunch hour penciling in the tedious details that breathe life into his or her story or poem. 
7. A real writer writes because he loves it.  
8. A real writer writes just to read his own words. 
9. A real writer jots down silly phrases or jokes or poems in a notepad. 
10. A real writer smiles when she hands her teacher or professor her paper, while the others walk away sad and gloomy, overcome by the intricacies of indenting and completing a full sentence

Without over spiritualizing, I further believe that a real writer writes because he was created to write and hears his calling. Sometimes a real writer hears the call when he or she is very young. Sometimes, a real writer doesn't hear the calling until he's older - like me. Sometimes, a real writer never paints with her #2 graphite brush, afraid of rejection. Sometimes a real writer never writes, because the message he or she hears is so unbearably oppressive, he believes that he does not have what it takes to be a real writer.

You see... real writers are the ones who love writing because they can't help it. If you don't love it - you will never be a real writer. You may have a lot to learn. You might improve with each effort, and never feel like your last work was your best. You might get bad reviews at first. But don't we all?

Writing is a journey, and in it, writers find themselves. They discover who they are and they tell the world what they know. Writers should not be judged by book sales, or who their agent or publisher is. They should be judged by their passion for the pen. And that passion, over time, will generate sweet sounding prose. Yet one does not have to be a master craftsmen to be a writer. He need only be an artful practitioner, who at the end of the day, looks at what he has created and smiles.

Do you know anyone struggling with their writorical self-image? Are you? Please comment vigorously, share your story, and share this post with all your reading and writing friends. They might appreciate the truth and learn to differentiate between real writers and those who are cherry picked by the Big 6. BOOM!

Gotta Start Somewhere

Stephen King started writing stories for a school paper. Dean Koontz started his publishing career in 1968 writing science fiction and porn. Charles Dickens started writing for newspapers. All wonderful writers - all gifted storytellers - and all started at the bottom with a long way to the top.

If you haven't read On Writing, by Stephen King, you should. It tells the truth about what it takes to get published, the long hours and energy put forth into a passion nearly abandoned and how close Stephen came to quitting (God help us all). In the book, he confesses that he was ready to quit his pursuit, that he threw his breakthrough novel, Carrie, in the trash, and that he prepared to return to teaching full time frustrated by his lack of success.

We all know the end of King's story, and it turns out quite well, however, it was a long and tiresome road. As I thought about King's start I realized how different today's society is from the time he was a boy. In those days, people worked harder, had fewer toys, fewer expectations and dreams that seemed bigger than themselves. Today, we live in a world where we expect everything 4G, high speed and on demand. We see reality tv stars popping up every new season and major contracts and book deals coming out of Simon & Schusters ask! If that's the way things are, I'm cool with that. The problem is, as writers we have been infected by the "I want it now" mentality and it is causing us to rush into the publishing scene to our discredit. No judgment here, I'm as guilty as anyone.

We all know that when we finish our masterpiece, we look at it as if it's made of 99.9% pure gold. I don't know exactly how that works, but we seem to see what we want to see in our early work and have this perception that if we write something, we deserve to be published. Period. Then we go though this period of getting our feelings hurt and our pride smashed when we realize we were wrong, when rejection letters come in by the thousands, and when we realize no one wants to buy our book other than a few compassionate friends and family. When that happens we either plow straight through the criticism, angry and disillusioned, or we pursue the craft with even greater eagerness, through study and peer review with an open mind.

Enter the world of POD publishers, ebooks and online self-publishers. They make the dream of publishing seem so real, so close, so tangible, promising world-wide distribution and marketing assistance to get our book out into the four corners of the globe! Oh, brother, give me a break. The road to publishing is not fast and furious. It's slow. It's relational. It's tedious. It's a crescendo.

It has taken me a couple of years to figure this out. My writing keeps improving with every stroke of my pen, but I still don't have the deal, even though I think I should. And don't we all? But hey, no matter what happens, I'm not going to quit writing and neither should you. We can decide to self-publish or stay the course, navigating our way to a book deal, but the writing must continue. We have to walk through the kiln, the purifying flames of the craft, until we have no more words inside. Should we take advantage of today's technology and hurry up and get our PDF's formatted for Kindle? Maybe. Maybe we'll miss a very big bandwagon if we don't. However, let's never forget that writers are part of a trade that requires us to put in our time, training, building relationships, and much study if we want our very best in print. So no matter how you share your work...go the distance and give your readers what they deserve...your best. BOOM!

PS- I will have a few guest bloggers discussing their writing journeys over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more encouragement and tips!

Write About Life...When it Happens.

Nothing enlivens my spirit more than when my kids do something funny or my family shares a rolling-on-the-floor-laughing experience. And that, my friends, is the perfect time to write...in the heat of the moment...immediately following the excitement...while falling from the cliff. Well, that might not be the best idea, but you get what I'm sayin'.

Available ONLY in Kindle Format

In following this rule I have to tell you about a short story I wrote based on actual events that I experienced with my family. 


Here's what happened...I took my family camping in the summer of 2010 and fully expected nice weather. However, when a dangerous storm blew in, and I mean seriously dark billowing clouds, we were ushered into a camp store cellar with the other vacationers. It was cramped and cold and my kids began asking about the other campers, wondering if they were safe - some of them were a little scary - some of them had creepy beety eyes. I couldn't resist, the story teller in me weaved the terrifying tale of The Rumblin'. 

This horrific short-story is not about murder and violence, although it certainly contains its fair share of brutality, it does underscore the fact that we all have a dark side, but also that good will reign over evil.


Here's a short blurb...In this short story, Phil Knite is so ready for a vacation, but he and his family get more of mother nature than they can handle. The rumblin, as described by the Camp Ranger, is something to be feared. However, Phil blows the strange redneck-ranger off and heads to bed. Later that night, when a wicked wind blows in from the north, Phil is forced to shack up with the rest of the campers and learns that the Ranger is more than crazy, but he was right about the rumblin...it's deadly! And so is this Stephen King style short story. With a small cast of fun loving characters, The Rumblin will leave you wondering if the strangers around you are out for blood, and if the next rumble of thunder is life threatening. The Rumblin is a great fireside, nailbiting, intensive read!

This short-story is based on actual events! It's creepy. It's Stephen King'ish. And it's a quick read. If you've got a Kindle, you can get it for ONLY .99. So be a Pal and share the love and get a copy. It's a great way to get aquainted with my writing, and to get excited about what I have up my sleeve...two great paranormal thrillers that are currently finding a publishing home, hoping to find their way into your hands.


All to say, be sure to keep a pad of paper and pencil handy so you can jot down your writing ideas and capture that literary Kodak moment when it really counts. Sometimes the best ideas come from real experiences. BOOM!

The Road to Craziville

Everyone's heard the old cliche', so much to do, so little time, right? Well it's true; we live in an overactive world where we throw so much stuff on our backs that we practically collapse by the weight of it all. This, I believe, is especially true for writers, most of which are still working their day jobs.

Imagine, working 40+ hours or more, taking care of your home, preparing meals, cutting the grass, doing dishes, doing the laundry, raising your kids, snuggling your spouse, and if you can imagine, writing a novel or string of short stories in your spare time. Does that sound overwhelming? Sound impossible? Oh just wait; it only gets better! The road to publication leads straight to crazyville. Trust me.

As busy and overcrowded as our social calenders are today, writers have to do soooo much more. Really, it's quite ridiculous what a dedicated, craft-perfecting,  publishing world understudy, platform building writer must do to not only get in print, but to actually sell a book or two. If you think writing 60,000-120,000 words every six months or once a year is a lot to add to your itinerary, get a load of this "To-Do List". The following is a run down of all the things that literary-artists must do throughout the process of not only writing a book, but getting it into print, into the beloved reader's hands. Major disclosure here: I only have one book in print and one short story in the Kindle store. However, I have written two other novels that are either under publisher consideration or in revision. Here's the list (wears me out just thinking about it):

• Create - We first have to create/dream up our idea, design characters, plot, research and finally write lots of words that make sense, are fun or thought provoking, and enjoyable to read.
• Next, writers have to go back through the entire manuscript with a fine-toothed-comb once, twice, three times or more, adding flavor and color and fill in the holes with meaningful and emotionally ingniting details.
• After, or perhaps while we add the salt and pepper, we have to self-edit, which of course is another realm all its own, one that requires much study and reading to really be a good self-editor.
• Once we are happy with our masterpiece (which is an oxymoron - we're never 100% happy with our work) we usually send the manuscript to a few trusted readers who will be cutthroatingly honest with us, so they can show us all the mistakes we missed. And then of course, we have to revise the work all over again. Do you see how tedious this is?
• Okay, so now the book is done, or so we think. With much excitement, we print it off and send it to a large publisher who is overjoyed that we have graced them with our wonderful story! Pffft! Yeah right! Don't even think about it, unless your a bestseller like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or some other celebrity. Oh, no. Regular writers have much to do before the manuscript gets into the hands of an editor or agent. Yes, we still have a long road ahead. 
• We have to write a query letter (Uh huh,whatever that is), a short and a long synopsis and we have to do lots of research just to find the right agent or publisher, only to discover that 90% of them will stamp a big red REJECT on our baby, our magnum opus, our  chef-d'œuvre! What are they thinking???
• Then hopefully, enter the "We'd like to read the full manuscript" response (And you'll be glad to know I have a book in that stage right now. Yes I'm excited.), which hopefully will lead to publication.
• But wait! There's more! Whether you publish traditionally or self-publish, you still have more editing, more revisions, book art, back blurbs to write, website building, Twittering, Facebooking, contact making, writer's confrerencing, press releasing, book signings, video making and blogging tours to do!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhh! Make it stop! Please, make it STOP!

See, I told you this was dangerous territory. And you know what's more? Most writers continue writing their next book in between all that other stuff. It's amazing really. Brings a tear to my eye everytime I think about it (mostly because writing has driven me bananas). Why do it then, you ask? Well, that's a bit complicated and most likely has a wide range of answers depending on the author. Some write for money or fame or creative/emotional release or just for the love of the story. For me, it's all of the above, not necessarily in that order. And yet...the writers of the world pursue their passion for the pen at their own peril. And if you're a reader, know this; in the words of Bryan Adams, we do it all for you. BOOM! 

Preview of TEN DEAD, a Paranormal Thriller. Chapter 1, Scene 1

I've been working on my latest paranormal thriller, Ten Dead, and wanted to give you a glimpse into what I've been up to. I'll start sending it to editors and agents within the next few weeks. Here's a glimpse of the first scene, starting from the beginning. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Ten Dead

By Jeff Bennington                                                                                                                                     

Chapter 1

Detective Rick Burns slammed on the brakes and stepped out of his rusty red Pontiac. He gazed into the crowd, took a deep breath and recalled the other murders. The heaviness, the blood, the darkness had finally pricked its sharp edge into his soul. He peered into the night and wondered, no, he feared, that this one would be like the others.

Red and blue lights enveloped his body and danced across the frightened neighbors that had gathered together, shaking and shivering. The car door let out a lingering squeak, slammed shut and he walked forward.

Rick lifted the crime scene tape, rushed past an ambulance and heard a woman whimpering. He turned his head, continued forward and studied her face with twisted brow.

“Teary and swollen,” he whispered to himself.  “Shocked at best, but not grief stricken.”

He examined her slow, careful movements as she gingerly wiped her tears. Her eyes lacked the hollow, desperately confused grief that he’d seen far too often. Lady of the house, or mistress perhaps, it mattered not, something about her seemed amiss. He pulled his notepad and pen from his jacket pocket and scribbled a few words regarding his first suspect: female caucasian, mid-fifties, pinstriped suit, stilettos, shoulder-length red hair, five-foot-eight, no blood visible, September 23, 9:30 p.m.

The detective weaved through the crowd of wealthy onlookers wrapped in lush throw blankets, Swiss satin pajamas, and lama-lined slippers. They watched and whispered. Fearful murmurs and conjectures splashed his ears amongst the waves of apprehension. He listened to their wonderings and walked on.

As he approached the home it was clear that he stood out from the other cops. Although he had a higher pay grade than the first responding officers, his running shoes, faded jeans, wrinkled t-shirt and patchwork sport coat made him look more like a down-on-his-luck-reporter than an eight-year veteran of the Indianapolis Police Department. But that was Rick Burns. He cared little for appearances. In his line of work, he found that appearances, more often than not, were deceiving.

He walked through the moistened grass and noticed that a second story window was open and the room illuminated. The house was a lovely Meridian Street classic with intricately stacked Bedford stone, copper gables and staggered limestone quoins. He could smell the fresh scent of glory maple and the last of the purple pansies at the base of the stamped-concrete entrance. He took one last look before entering. The elegant contours, lines, and lighting looked great from the outside. To Rick Burns, however, it appeared beautifully deceiving.

The detective opened the glass entry door, observed that the doorjamb had not been tampered with, and approached a group of officers gathered at the base of the stairway.

“Which way, fellas?” he asked.

They pointed toward the stairs. Rick noticed their disturbed behavior, arms crossed, eyes reeling in fear. Officer Nick Carmichael, the rookie, had recently vomited and was busy wiping the acidic residue from his chin.

One officer called, “Hey, Burns!”

The detective stopped. “Yeah?”

The cop shook his head. “It’s not pretty.”

Rick’s eyes jetted back and forth, observing the dread in the remaining officer’s expressions. “On a scale from one to ten; what’ve we got?” he asked.

The officer scratched his forehead. “Twelve. Maybe thirteen.” He looked directly into Rick’s eyes. Rick felt as if he were trying to warn him, offering an unspoken heads-up into the dreaded scene that awaited his inspection.

The detective looked up the stairway and imagined the grisly scene. He reached into his pants pocket and grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds and popped a handful into his mouth and sucked on the salty shells. Six dead in two years, he thought. And all on my watch. He swallowed, nearly choking on the apple sized lump in his throat.

 “Game’s on, boys.” He headed up the steps and slapped his hands together. “Time to get dirty.”

Throughout his career, he knew what to say to keep his fearless detective image intact, but the words never soothed his spirit. He took a deep breath and his heart raced in anticipation of the unknown...

I'll send out a few more excerpts to my blog followers over the next few weeks.  If you know anyone interested in this type of book, share this blog with them. Thanks and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!