It’s been 60 days since my last book launch, and that must mean that it’s time for…another novel!

Blood of the Assassin launches March 5. As part of the kick-off, I’m taking part in a mega book launch with six other cool authors, many of whom are offering specials on their new books, as well as free swag. See the banner and the blurbs at the end of this blog for more on that.

But back to Blood. I’m particularly proud of it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because of the approach I took writing it. I wrote it differently than my other sequel novels – Blood can be read as a stand-alone novel, much as Da Vinci could be read as a stand-alone, not requiring you to read the four prior books in the series, and it worked nicely. That’s a departure for me, in that you don’t really want to read JET IV until you’ve read the first three.

Not so, Blood.

In it, I pit El Rey, the Mexican super-assassin known as the King of Swords, against a German assassin who is going to execute a visiting head of state. Much of the interest, for me, comes not only from the character development of El Rey during the book, but also the character development of Captain Romero Cruz of the Federales, who is forced to work with his nemesis, El Rey, to stop the unthinkable from occurring on his watch. It’s the interplay between Cruz and El Rey, as well as with his wife, and the bureaucracy he’s saddled with, that adds the depth I had hoped for.

It’s also the longest in the Assassin series, coming in at around 95K words – edited down from 110, as is my style. But it moves like a racehorse right out of the gate, and doesn’t quit until the last page, so my existing readership shouldn’t be disappointed. My editor says she thinks this is my best to date, other than Geronimo Breach, which is a favorite with many because of the MC, Al Ross. I tend to think she might be right. Which would be nice – one is expected to improve over time if one’s applying oneself, no? Be a shame if my books started sucking after a certain point, although there will always be the odd reader who thinks they all do – and I don’t begrudge them their opinion, sitting in their single-wide surrounded by cats, swigging generic bourbon from a coffee mug while scraping hardened Twinkie filling from the kindle screen. After all – I’m not here to judge.

Much.

See below for the promo for the launch. Click on the banner to go to the launch site.

“[TRACES OF KARA] Psychological suspense at its best, weaving a tight-knit plot, unrelenting action, and tense moments that don’t let up, ending in a fiery, unpredictable revelation.”  Midwest Book Reviews

“…she really stepped up her craft skills if that were even possible. [Roland] is really, really just a terrific talented writer.” Joni Rodgers, NY Times bestselling author

“Russell Blake writes with a brisk intensity and pulse-pounding power. Jump in and hang on for a nonstop thrill ride.”  Scott Nicholson, Liquid Fear

“Giacomo Giammatteo may be the Mario Puzo of our time.” eNovel Reviews

“Claude Bouchard guides you step by step through a seamy, dangerous world, while never allowing you to lose hope.” John Locke, NYT Best-selling author

“Submerged reads like an approaching storm, full of darkness, dread and electricity. Prepare for your skin to crawl.” Andrew Gross, New York Times Bestselling Author

“Rivaling both Stephen King and Thomas Harris, without doubt, the edgy and provocative Luke Romyn is destined to emerge as the 21^st Century’s new Master-of-Horror.” Dee Marie, Award-winning author

DOWNLOAD YOUR BOOKS HERE

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Amazon sent out a communique to its affiliates stating that as of March 1, if it determines that the affiliate is primarily involved in touting free ebooks, or it has over 20K downloads of free ebooks through its affiliate links, it is ineligible to receive payment for that month.

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BREAKING NEWS: I’m featured as the lead quote on Forbes.com in an article on the future of book discoverability. How cool is that? Would appreciate you sharing it via facebook, twitter, etc. Easy to do with the buttons on the left.

NEWS: A brand new interview on self-publishing with yours truly at Worpreneur.com. Worth a look!

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That means that all the sites that have sprung up to push free ebooks will now fade away. Unless they don’t care about the affiliate revenues. Which some might not. But the lion’s share will. So their business model just collapsed.

[***UPDATE*** Here is the actual language of the change to the Amazon TOC - I have discovered an interesting loophole that could be exploited by the free sites to remain compliant and still go about their business:

“In addition, notwithstanding the advertising fee rates described on this page or anything to the contrary contained in this Operating Agreement, if we determine you are primarily promoting free Kindle eBooks (i.e., eBooks for which the customer purchase price is $0.00), YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN ANY ADVERTISING FEES DURING ANY MONTH IN WHICH YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
(a) 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links; and
(b) At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks.”

What they could do is just do all free books through NON-AFFILIATE links! Because the verbiage specifically calls out Special Links. So just use non-special (i.e. ordinary links) for the free books and you've complied.***]

What has the reaction been? From readers, it’s mostly akin to taking a bottle away from a drunk – they don’t like it. Most don’t seem to understand that there will still be free ebooks – they are responding as though Amazon has stopped allowing free ebooks. That’s not the case. But no matter how often they are told, most still keep reacting the same way: “It’s an outrage! Bad Amazon!!!”

Here’s my take. Free content will still be available. You will just have to spend a minute of your precious time finding it. Instead of having it nicely delivered to you on a silver platter, you’ll actually have to invest a tiny amount of effort. Now, I know, to a populace that is hooked on entitlements, any time you propose that those receiving the benefit have to work to get it, the howling rivals a wolf pack at midnight. Guess what? You want free crap, you’ll have to spend some time to find it. Boo hoo. Poor you.

As an author, I celebrate Amazon trying to pull away from free. They created a monster. And they know that free is impacting their sales. They’re not stupid. Free has created an environment where there is a whole sub-culture of readers who believe that they shouldn’t have to pay for books – that the author, the editor, the formatter, the proofreader and the cover designer should all work for free, as should Amazon. And Amazon is basically trying to close the door on that notion. Bravo Amazon, I say. It was fun while it lasted, but the ride is over.

I have built a large following using free. I heart free. Or rather, I did. I started turning less positive on free last late spring, if you go back and read my blogs – it occurred to me that while I was personally working the free thing about as well as it had ever been worked, that it was hurting the overall market as a whole. In short, it’s a bad long term strategy, except for on the first book in a series.

And before I get countless agonized comments about how free has allowed you to discover new authors, myself included, go back and reread the part about free still being available. As in, you can still discover new authors by reading their free books. But you’ll need to do some work. That’s the part everyone is crying about. The work part. Because a tiny amount of difficulty has been introduced in order to obtain something for free. Repeat. You can still get free books. That hasn’t changed.

So my take is that this is a strong positive for authors, and for Amazon. Because guess what? New authors were getting discovered before the free promos, and they will still get discovered after they’re a thing of the past. The glut of free material has helped some, but it has hurt most. Now authors have to go back to traditional, old fashioned marketing – they can no longer spend 20 minutes alerting 15 sites about their freebie and call it a day.

And the freeloaders will have to put in a little effort to get their free lunch. My hunch is that Amazon knows full well that most people are too lazy to exert the slightest effort, so free will drop off dramatically. Which is what they’re after, I believe.

Having said that, did I mention that JET is currently FREE on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple, etc.? I’d hurry and pick up a copy, because soon, you won’t be able to find it easily for free, either.

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A name popped into my head the other day. And no, it wasn’t Mr. Satan again. Although I suppose it could have been. But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. He usually brings tequila.

Anyway, the name was Gunner. A new character for a new series. The last name of a Hollywood PI with anger management issue, many for good reason – his hippy parents named him Artemus Gunner (dad’s fave TV show in the 60s was the Wild Wild West, and he loved Artemus Gordon – the number two guy, not even the number one guy, so when it game time to name Gunner…you can probably guess the rest), he joined the army when he was 16, forging his parents’ signature so as to piss them off when he announced, “I’m Going To Go KILL!!!”, but they just wished him well and told him they hoped his head would get into a more loving space and sent him on his way with a flower power T-shirt and an acoustic guitar. He got dishonorably discharged after 5 years due to disciplinary issues, and then grew his hair long and became a rock musician in Hollywood, where he met his 18 year old soon-to-be-wife and singer (with pipes like Joplin) who would take his band to stardom.

Of course, things didn’t go right for him, and after landing a record deal with the band to record the songs he’d penned and on the eve of the album’s release and their first tour opening for Nirvana, he got into a bar fight and broke his hand. The record company replaced him, and because he’d signed over all the songwriting credits to his wife (because she still technically lived in a trailer near a whorehouse in Elko, Nevada) in order to cheat the California tax authority out of their slice, he got nothing from the record (which went on to become one of the biggest sellers of the 90s) except $50K of hush money from a smarmy attorney who handled the shotgun negotiation, then assisted his wife in divorcing him (for which she thanked him by shacking up with the attorney). She’s now as famous as Beyonce, rich beyond imagination, and makes Madonna seem easy to get along with.

Gunner’s life post-rock god phase was a series of misadventures, where he frittered his paltry nest egg away on a series of disastrous businesses – a MLM supplement scam (he still has a room full of 15 year old shark cartilage), a dog walking/training biz (that went nowhere because dogs tended to hate him and bite him), a carpet cleaning business where he ruined a Beverly Hills home’s irreplaceable persian carpets, and finally a limo business that looked promising until a starlet OD’d in the back while he was driving her to the Grammies (he was busy telling her a story about a famous producer he’d worked with and didn’t notice she was dead ’till he pulled up to the red carpet area and the flashbulbs started going off).

His old army buddies, one of whom is a cop, another of whom is an entertainment attorney, helped him out and committed to getting him business if he got his PI license, which he did – barely. So now he’s the PI to the stars, and he’s reasonably good at it – not good enough to make any kind of real money, of course, but good enough to have developed a reputation.

He’s forty-something, retro everything, pictures himself as Bogey but doesn’t quite hit the right notes, is perennially trying to quit smoking (and is enraged by California’s restrictive anti-smoking ordinances), drives a convertible 73 Eldorado that barely runs (but is what a pimping LA PI should drive, in his opinion), and is basically kind of a twat. He’s working on his rage issues with a therapist who is angrier than he is. He prefers to speak in wisecracks, his communication skills somewhat lacking. His assistant is a hot twenty-something wannabe rock singer who despises him, the job, her life, but there’s some sexual chemistry/tension there. She lives with her tattoo artist boyfriend, who she suspects cheats on her constantly. She’s also very good at the job she hates – and she also hates the 70s and 80s music Gunner tends to favor, his 1940s styling, and his overall approach to life. Her nickname for him is “douche.” He tells himself it’s endearing – the way kids talk nowadays and all.

Each book is a new case brought to him by the attorney or the cop, which he must solve. There will probably also be a love interest each book. And a cat. A fat one named Mugsy that also hates him even though he is nothing but good to it (though he pretends indifference, he adores the cat and is secretly hurt that it dislikes him).

The parents, Spring and Chakra Skywalker, live in Berkeley, and for them it’s still the Summer of Love. Everything’s groovy, baby, peace and love. They wear Berkenstocks and Grateful Dead shirts and are oblivious to the passage of time, as well as reality – but through a quirk, Spring’s handmade soap business took off big in the late 90s and was bought by a conglomerate, so they’re rich. And dad put the money into Apple, knowing nothing about what the company did but liking the logo, man. Every book finds them working on some new improbable business that becomes mega, through no fault of their own. They live in a $10 million home in the Berkeley hills now and lecture Gunner about how money means nothing and it’s all about your energy meridians while he struggles to get by (he’s too proud to ask for a dime), and each new hair-brained idea (handmade candles, lava lamps, magnets for spiritual alignment, etc.) winds up making another fortune, further adding to Gunner’s black humor and rage at the universe at the unfairness of it all.

The attorney friend will be a combination of every politically correct, LA idiocy I can think of – he’s nipped and tucked and plugged and spray tanned, metro, a pathological liar, calls everyone baby and dude, name drops constantly, etc. The cop friend will be a decent sort who agonizes over his young bride’s depression over how the world doesn’t understand her. Hilarity ensues.

So that’s what I do when I’m in the bathroom. One of the things I do. And now that I have Gunner in my head, I feel compelled to write his adventures. So much for my lighter publishing schedule in 2013. Look for the first Gunner book by summer. Titled, appropriately, Gunner. Maybe a noir cover, reminiscent of the era. I actually sort of already know what I want it to look like. Copper colored, maybe a black line drawing of a guy wearing a fedora in profile, but just from the shoulders up, the collar of his trench coat (which he wears, but you never need to in L.A.) turned up.

Gunner.

I’m scaring myself with this.

But in a good way.

Anyway, my new publishing schedule will probably now change to seven books, maybe eight, in 2013, which is what I swore, SWORE, I wouldn’t ever do again.

But Mugsy and Gunner and the rest must be birthed. And you read about it here first, as it was gelling. Whatever the hell that means…

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I’m pretty excited about something that showed up at my house about two weeks ago. And no, it’s not a spirited soul named Stormy who’s younger than many of my socks. Although I wouldn’t be heartbroken if that happened. Just saying, if you’re listening, Stormy, and frankly, that can be an alias. I’m not here to judge.

No, what I’m tickled, tickled by, I say, is my new answer to the sedentary life of the author.

By way of preamble, I’ve always said that if I want to get my heart rate up I’ll just buy a carton of Marlboros, have a XL triple cheese and meat pizza, and invite the IRS to audit me.

But I’ve changed my evil ways. At least, one of them.

What the hell is he talking about, you’re probably asking yourself right about now – and well you should be. The anticipation will simply make my revelation even better. Trust me on that.

Are you ready? Wait for it…wait for it…

I got a treadmill desk.

And it is Godhead. My life has completely changed since it showed up. Seriously.

After 18 months of sitting in one spot for 15 hours a day, I was starting to get, well, dare I say it, curmudgeonly. No doubt due to my lack of any exercise – and all because you people are such greedy word whores and can only think of yourselves, putting nothing but pressure on me to continue writing the next one, and the next after that. Novels. Not words. Although novels are certainly composed of words. Mine simply happen to contain many of the same ones. Like kill. And blood. But I digress.

The point is that the new treadmill desk has made me a new man, or at least a slightly less used one. While the first few days were filled with growing pains (the vibration from my shambling steps was vibrating the tequila bottle off the edge of the desk after a certain amount of inattention, and the ashtray kept sliding onto the belt, which wasn’t so much of a problem until I turned the damned thing on and it was moving), by the end of the week I was walking to nowhere for hours a day, like a pro. Assuming there are pro treadmill walkers. Which I doubt there are. For good reason, actually.

Now, I’ve been walking 6 to 8 miles a day as I write. No exaggeration. I pace myself at around 2.3 miles per hour, and go for three to four hours – one on, two off, one on, two off. My dogs think I’m insane, but F them, as well as my neighbors, who are still testy about the incident with their children, my homemade napalm, and the claymores.

My biggest fear going into the full time writing thing, besides having to quit drinking (thankfully, not required), was that I would lose my girlish figure and have to work all the harder to qualify for my old gig dancing in the man thong at Jalapeno Heat for the tourist ladies. The featured soloist positions, especially, are in hot demand, and the competition is fierce. I don’t think I could bear the rejection if Pancho and Gerardo declined me in open auditions, choosing a younger, firmer dancer for the premier position in the most heralded all-male boylesque revue in Mazatlan. But now that I have the treadmill desk, those fears have been rendered groundless, and I’m confident I can be on the pole again whenever I like, shaking my money maker to I Can’t Go For That dressed as a construction worker, or naughty cowboy, or saucy sailor, or whatnot.

So what have we learned here? That dreams are important, and we should cherish ours, even if they involve demeaning and humiliating gyrations for middle-aged gringa women with shameless hunger in their inebriated eyes and the need for a decent manicure (ladies – the hangnails are a hazard – that’s all I’m saying). And that physical fitness should not be cast aside as we labor away on the next 50 Shades of Yarn for Mister Whiskers. No, thanks to technology, and about $1500, we can have it all – the joy of wallowing in obscurity as well as reasonable fitness, assuming that you view walking at a moderate pace as the most strenuous workout you’re likely to do.

In all seriousness, if you’re an author, do yourself a favor and check this baby out. I had mine painted with black lacquer and flames, but that’s just because I’m all that and you know how I roll. It changed my life, as well as my electric bill, but that’s a whole ‘nother topic, and I’m not complaining. Much.

Oh, and JETis seeing record downloads since I took it free in the US and UK. If you haven’t read it, you basically suck and should be completely ashamed of yourself, and should go download it immediately, because otherwise clowns will boogarize you and you’ll die cold and alone of brain ebola while lying in a drainage ditch, mocked by your triumphant enemies and jeered by the few people you thought actually cared about you, as a harsh, uncaring God turns his back on your misery and the Devil peels your living flesh from your bones while you roast in eternal hell. Don’t let that happen. It’s free. Don’t risk it. Especially not the boogarizing. Nobody wants clown boogarizing.

Nobody.

On a side note, I was going to start including gratuitous snaps of adorable kitties in a basket or cute puppies wearing funny party hats on my blog as a shameless attempt to curry favor and boost traffic, but instead, I decided on this:

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Hugh Howey is one of the resonating success stories of the indie publishing movement. His Wool series is a massive hit, and he recently signed a deal with Simon and Schuster where he retained his ebook rights, in a move that was hailed as groundbreaking only a short time before Colleen Hoover did the same. The landscape is apparently changing so fast that last week’s news is this week’s legend, but one thing that seems to be consistent is that readers are embracing well-written indie-published books with enthusiasm. Hugh is a wonderfully warm and down to earth author whose talent is only exceeded by his humility. He’s a fitting model for the industry, and it’s with great pleasure that I welcome him to the blog.

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NEWS: A great review for Silver Justice from Sheila Deeth is a must-read!

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RB: Hugh, your Wool series is a blockbuster. To what do you attribute its success?

HH:  I attribute its success to the readers. They are the ones who read the first Wool and demanded more. I wouldn’t have written the rest of the series without their feedback and reviews clamoring for me to continue the saga. And everything since then has been a product of their enthusiasm, their telling family and friends, and all the great buzz they’ve created. For some reason, this story resonates with people. They’ve done the rest.

RB: You’re not exactly an overnight sensation. How long have you been at this, and what was your journey?

HH: It feels practically overnight! I’ve been writing seriously for four years. I had six novels and a short story published before Wool took off. The last year has been insane. This time a year ago, I worked in a bookstore shelving other people’s books.

RB: Your recent deal with Simon & Schuster where you kept your ebook rights was considered a landmark for indie authors. Do you see this becoming the norm moving forward?

HH: I sure hope so. It might not become the norm, but it should become more common. Colleen Hoover recently received a similar deal. And before us there was Bella Andre with Harlequin. Publishers are much more flexible than they get credit for. I think they’ve been fortunate to watch and learn from the film and movie industries. They are adjusting faster than those businesses did.

RB: Let’s talk process. Do you outline, plot and structure, or do you just sit down and write? How long between when a book idea comes to you, and when it’s ready to be written?

HH: I plot and structure, but I leave room for my characters to meander and inform the plot as they go. It’s a wide path I lay out. But I know where it’s headed. I have to have the final scene in my head before I start. Otherwise, I think readers can sense when a story is wandering aimlessly.

RB: Do you have a set schedule for writing? What’s your typical writer’s day like?

HH: I get most of my writing done in the morning. I aim for 2,000 words a day. I can usually get this done between 6 and 11 in the morning.

RB: Do you have monthly or annual word goals? How’s your discipline?

HH: My annual goals are to publish around 200,000 words. That might be three short novels or two long ones. I wrote five novels over 60,000 words each last year, which I consider a success.

RB: Longhand or computer? Any trick software you favor for writing?

HH: Oh, computer. My hand cramps after the first page of longhand. My software of choice is Apple’s Pages, because of how clean the fullscreen mode is. Too bad Apple has abandoned the application. I would love an update.

RB: How do you come up with your characters? Based on real people, pure invention, or a combo?

HH: It has to be a combo. I pull from people I know and all the fictional characters I’ve encountered over the years. And probably too much from myself.

RB: Do you ever have issues with motivation? Writer’s block? If so, how do you move past it?

HH: No, I can always write. The problem these days is finding the time! I have way too much business-related stuff to handle. It was easier writing around my day job, because when I wasn’t working, I didn’t have anything on my mind other than the book in progress. These days, I can’t stop thinking about the emails piling up, the books to sign and ship, the upcoming travels, and so much more. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but I would have thought when I quit my day job that all I’d have to do is sit around and write!

RB: Describe your work environment. Quiet? Music? Window? What is it like?

HH: Silence. Me and my laptop and my dog. I can be on the sofa or out in the back yard or in the bed. All I see is my laptop and all I hear is my dog grunting to be taken for a walk.

RB: How many hours a day do you write? Are you consistent every day, or is it sporadic?

HH: I try to spend 3-4 hours writing a day. I’m pretty consistent. Except when travel intrudes. And then I try to cram it into plane rides and gate waits.

RB: How many times do you polish before your manuscript is ready for edit – how many drafts?

HH: I aim for 7-8 complete drafts. The last one or two are light edits, but those are often the most important.

RB: Adverbs. Satan’s foot soldiers, or valuable tools?

HH: Valuable tools! Man, what’s up with all the rules for writers? Just say what you want to say. Convey information. We are writing for readers, not English majors. What’s strange is getting an email from an aspiring writer with some sample of their material attached. The email is invariably a better read than the writing. We put too much pressure on ourselves. Just write. Use your own voice. Forget complete sentences and how many –ing and –ly words you’re using.

RB: Let’s talk pricing. How do you arrive at your pricing model, and how do you know it’s “right?” Do you see that changing over time? If so, in what way?”

HH: I’m not the right one to ask. I have zero confidence in my own writing, so it’s all I can do not to make it all free. I undervalue and therefore underprice everything I write.

RB: What do you think about the current state of trad pub vs. self-publishing? If someone came to you and asked which to do, what would you say?

HH: I think a very beautiful interplay between the two is coalescing. The stigma against self-published work has disappeared among publishers. 1 out of every 20 books sold last year was from E.L. James, who originally published on a fan fiction site. That’s mind boggling. It has publishers looking everywhere for the next bestseller.

Over a year ago, well before Wool took off, my advice to myself and my fellow writers was to view self-publishing as the new querying method. Stop wasting your time trying to prove yourself to agents and editors. That process is SLOW. Self-publish and start writing the next work. Rinse and repeat. If you work catches on with the gatekeepers who matter (the readers) the rest of the publishing world will come to you. If you can’t please the readers, going traditional isn’t going to help.

I know that sounds simplistic coming from someone who has had success, but I was harping on this before my sales took off. Of course, I was ridiculed for suggesting such a tactic. I still am. But even though I have publishers clamoring for my next work, I continue to self-publish first and wait for things to play out afterward. I can’t sit on a finished work for a year while the marketing machine warms up. Books are now published forever. There’s no longer any pressure to earn a bundle in six weeks or six months. Your book might take off ten years from now. Move on.

RB: What counsel would you offer a newbie who was interested in pursuing the author’s path? Is there anything you feel you have done that is primarily responsible for your remarkable success?

HH: I may have touched on most of my best advice above. I recommend two things, really: Write because you love to write and for no other reason. That’s the first thing. Secondly: make your work available. It doesn’t matter how. Give it away if you must. It’s not going to do anything for you unread.

RB: What’s your biggest writing regret? The one thing you wish you could do over, or differently?

HH: I wish I would’ve printed a few hundred copies of the first Wool Omnibus. Those things are going for several hundred bucks on eBay! I think I might sell the copy my wife owns. Don’t tell her.

RB: Whose work most influenced you, and why?

HH: After reading Douglas Adams, I wanted to become a writer. After reading Ender’s Game and hearing that Card was from my home state, I started to think it was possible. These days, it’s Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, and comic book writers like Geoff John, Robert Kirkman, and Joss Whedon.

RB: A question about genre. How much flexibility do you allow yourself in terms of genre-hopping? Do you have a rule of thumb you would recommend?

HH: I’m a few chapters in to my first erotica novel. I’m going to write it all. Reader beware.

RB: What’s your current project? Can you tell us anything about it?

HH: I just wrapped up the last SHIFT book and am working on DUST, which is the last book of the WOOL series.

RB: What’s the best thing about being an author?

HH: Working without getting dressed. Sorry for the mental image.

RB: You’ve been extremely gracious sharing your time and views. What advice would you leave budding authors with, if you only had thirty seconds to impart it?

HH: Stop reading my advice and go write. Entertain yourself. Enjoy the process. Dive into your characters mind and heart and reside there. Have fun and be good to one another!

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Unless you’ve been living in a cave since Xmas (and there’s nothing wrong with that – I’m not judging. OK, maybe I am, but what the hell are you doing living in a cave, anyway?) you have by now heard about the meteoric rise of indie author Colleen Hoover, whose latest novel Hopeless is selling faster than tequila in Tijuana, breaking records all over the place, and has occupied the #1 spot on Amazon most of the time since Christmas. That’s many thousands of books a day, folks. Some days, tens of thousands. And as if that wasn’t enough, she just inked a deal with Simon & Schuster for the paperback rights to Hopeless – retaining all ebook rights, which is only the third time I’ve heard of that happening (Bella Andre with Harlequin, and Hugh Howey with Wool). Remarkable for a seasoned veteran, to be sure, but how about for someone who released her first book on Amazon a year ago?

So who is this masked woman with the strength of ten indie authors? Where did she come from? Whose shirts does she wear (when she wears anything at all)? What’s her secret? How does she do that crazy thing she does? It was with these and other burning questions in mind that I hunted her down and forced her to respond to my interrogatives by pretending to be from The New Yorker, or at least from New York or some place over on that coast with an accent. I think she was so dazed from her recent Nightline appearance (see all the details at her blog) that she answered before checking to see what that release she signed actually said, and thus my latest Author Spotlight, and the first of 2013, was born.

So without any further ado, ladies and gentlemen, a remarkable success story and a very nice, down to earth lady…Colleen Hoover!

RB: Your first two novels since beginning to self-publish in 2012 were hits, and your latest, Hopeless, is a blockbuster – a huge sensation. To what do you attribute its success, and what was your journey as a writer?

CH: Obviously, the success of the books lies in the people who have read it.  Word of mouth was a huge proponent in the sales of the books.  I never paid for advertising, so I believe it’s a combination of finding your market.  And a lot of luck.

RB: How did Slammed and Point of Retreat break out and hit so big? What do you think, if there was any one thing, that pushed them past the tipping point? Or was it more of an organic build?

CH: I saw a very small increase on a weekly basis the first couple of months.  By the third month, readers were recommending the book to bloggers.  Once the bloggers began releasing reviews on it, I saw a huge increase in sales.  Especially when a blogger with a large following would review it.  I think it helps that the books are contemporary romance, which has a huge fan-base.  It also helps that before writing my first book, I had never read a contemporary romance, so SLAMMED doesn’t fit the mold.  I think it was just different enough that people were recommending it because it was different.

RB: You’ve been selling a gazillion books a week ever since Hopeless started booking orders in December. Besides just being slathered in awesome sauce, can you put your finger on why this one took off like it did? Word of mouth? Big pent up demand from your last ones? Something special with marketing?

CH: I wasn’t sure how this book would do.  I was very nervous about it.  When I wrote my first two books, I didn’t think anyone would read them, so I didn’t feel the pressure I felt writing Hopeless.  I eventually just had to tell myself that I didn’t have to publish this one if I didn’t like it, so it became fun to write.  I didn’t release the title or the cover of the book while writing, because again, I didn’t want to feel pressure to put it out there.  I also didn’t tell anyone when it would be released, so the day I announced that it was available there was a huge rush of buyers.  It broke Amazon rankings a few hours later at #6, which was a complete shock.  I wasn’t sure if it would stick or not.  I think the cover has a lot to do with the initial success.

So as far as marketing, I did absolutely zero marketing of this book before it was completed.  Readers knew I was working on a book, they just didn’t know what it was about.  So, again…I really can’t put my finger on what has made this book do as well as it has.  It could have gone either way, really.

RB: If you had to summarize what you do as a writer to a reader new to your work, how would you present it? What’s the Colleen Hoover difference?

CH: I love plot twists and shockers.  It is really difficult to explain what my books are about to new readers, because until you dive into it, I don’t really WANT people to know what they’re about.  The fact that we are required to write a blurb is my least favorite part of books.  If it were up to me, the reader would go into my books not knowing a single thing about them.  I think they’re more fun that way.

And that’s essentially how I write them.  I can’t do outlines, they never work out.  I sit down and begin writing, not knowing what to expect from the characters or how the book is going to end.  It’s a lot more fun that way.

RB: Let’s talk process. Do you outline, plot and structure, or do you just sit down and write? How long between when a book idea comes to you, and when it’s ready to be written?

CH: It’s different with every book.  With Slammed, I had ZERO idea what that book would be about.  It unfolded with each sentence.  With HOPELESS, I had an idea and even wrote an outline, but every page of that outline was thrown out once the characters started veering away from it.

I have a few books I’ve started that didn’t pan out, so it doesn’t happen every time.  I just know once I get to a certain point in my writing when the characters actions start pissing me off, that’s when I know it will be a book that will be finished.

RB: Do you have a set schedule for writing? What’s your typical writer’s day like?

CH: I have absolutely no schedule.  I write when I’m inspired.  Sometimes I write fourteen hours straight for days in a row.  With Hopeless, I hit a huge block after the first few chapters and actually went an entire three months without writing.  Then when I passed the roadblock, I picked it up and wrote every day until it was finished.  I am extremely disorganized and cannot go by a schedule for anything, especially writing.  This is why I don’t give myself deadlines or tell readers what I’m publishing next.

RB: Do you have monthly or annual word goals? How is your discipline?

CH: I have no goals.  The only goal I have is to continue to enjoy what I do. If I put three books out a year or one book out in the next ten years, I want it to be because I chose to do so.  Not because I’m on a publisher deadline or a personal deadline.  Otherwise, it would feel like work.

RB: How long have you been writing? And what prompted you to go indie versus trad pub in 2012?

CH:  I have always loved to write, but I’ve never attempted a novel until I started writing SLAMMED.  I had no intentions of publishing a book because I didn’t think I had the talent, to be honest.  Or the patience.  So I put it on Amazon so people I know could read it.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think that book would turn into a career for me.  I think if I had any idea that so many people would be reading it, I would have chickened out and never finished it.

RB: How do you come up with your characters? Based on real people, pure invention, or a combo?

CH: I don’t use real people.  I just write until they are fleshed out.

RB: Do you ever have issues with motivation? Writer’s block? If so, how do you move past it?

CH: I do.  I try not to think about it too much when it happens.  I just wait until I get a new idea that inspires me.  As long as I never give myself a deadline, I don’t feel the pressure once writer’s block occurs.

RB: Describe your work environment. Quiet? Music? A special space? What is it like?

CH: Quiet.  I need absolute quiet.  I have a small building that is detached from my house so that I can’t hear children.  I also make it a point not to bring negative energy out there.  I don’t pay bills or do “work” where I write, because I want it to remain an inspiring place to go.

RB: How many times do you polish before your manuscript is ready for edit – how many drafts?

CH: Several.  I mostly edit as I go.  I can’t continue on to another chapter until I’ve re-read and edited the previous chapters several times.

RB: You just did a deal with Simon and Schuster where you held your e-book rights. That’s the second deal like it, both with S&S, I’ve heard of. I see it as tremendously positive for authors. What can you tell us about it?

CH: I was very happy with my choice to self-publish HOPELESS.  However, I also have been very happy with the deal I made through S&S with my first two novels.  I had turned down a trad offer for Hopeless before its release, but once I self-published and it began doing well, I accepted the offer for print rights.  I did this because I did not want to give up e-book rights, but trad publishers have the ability to do things with print rights that a self-published author is unable to do on their own.  To me, it’s a win-win.

RB: I am convinced there has never been a better time to be an author. Stories like yours reinforce that conviction. Movie deals, landmark book deals…how does it all feel for you? Have you changed in any way that you feel is significant?

CH: It has been incredible.  I honestly believe that 99.9% of my success has been timing and luck.  If this had been two years ago, my manuscript would have collected dust and I never would have submitted it to anyone other than my mother.  So yes, this is definitely the time to be an author.  And I like to think I haven’t changed in any way.  I’m much busier, that’s for sure.  Other than that, I still wear my pajama pants to Wal-Mart when I run out of milk.

RB: What counsel would you offer a newbie who was interested in pursuing the author’s path? Is there anything you feel you have done that is primarily responsible for your remarkable success?

CH: I get this question a lot and I hate that I don’t have a good answer.  I have NO idea why my books have done as well as they have.  I don’t have any secrets or magic potions to share.  I write because I love to write and I hope it will remain that way.  Everything that has happened since publishing my first book has been incredible, but I have no idea what sets one book apart from another.

RB: What’s your biggest writing regret? The one thing you wish you could do over, or differently?

CH: I don’t believe in regrets.  In fact, when I sign SLAMMED, the one thing I write in every book is, “Never Regret.”  J

RB: Whose work most influenced you, and why?

CH: I don’t know that I was influenced by one particular author.  I’ve just always loved to read and feel that’s where my love for writing began.

RB: Are you working on anything you can talk about?

CH: I am always working on something.  But I’ll never talk about it before it’s ready to be released. 

RB: You’ve been extremely gracious sharing your time and views. What advice would you leave budding authors with, if you only had thirty seconds to impart it?

CH: Don’t set out to write the next bestseller.  Write because you love to write.  Readers can tell the difference.

Colleen, thanks so much for stopping in and giving the world a peek into your process and your thinking. Every author is different, although I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who holes up for 14 hours a day when writing, or wears PJs to WalMart – and yes, there’s a long restraining order story in that, but one which I’ll save for another day.

Everyone, go check out Hopeless and see why it’s taking America by storm, and while you’re at it, check out JET, which is free right now, and which has been associated with miraculous healing episodes all over the world, and which I will also soon  be redoing with a picture of a fluffy kitty on the cover, or a puppy wearing a bandit mask – not that I would ever pander, but still…

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Everybody that follows me knows that my new action thriller series JET has been wildly successful, far surpassing my expectations in its first 90 days of release. It’s gotten about 145 reviews during that time, the overwhelming number of which have been enthusiastically positive (and which I didn’t even have to pay for!), and not a day goes by now when I don’t get an e-mail from a reader asking me when the hell I’m going to stop slacking and write JET V.

JET, for those who aren’t familiar with the tale, is the story of an ex-Mossad operative who fakes her own death to get out of the game, but gets sucked back in when her past comes back to haunt her. It’s written in a breakneck style – I wanted to write the fastest-paced action thriller I’d ever heard of; something that launched from the first pages and kept accelerating right through to the end. I sort of envisioned a kind of literary equivalent to the TV show 24 – except with a female Jack Bauer, a cross between Bourne and Kill Bill, with some Lisbeth Salander seasoning and with a little Bond (shaken, not stirred) twist. In other words, a female main character with a whole lotta kick ass who can take names and deal with business.

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NEWS: Great new interview at Free Kindle Books and Tips with, well, you know who. Worth a look!

NEWS: An awesome new interview from Cellardoorians on my craft and creations. A classic. Sort of.

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I also wanted all the books to be big books that moved from exotic locale to exotic locale – as did the Bond books. I can honestly say that when I came up with the rough idea, I had no sense that I would be penning the fifth installment within as many months, and be eagerly looking forward to doing so. But there it is. That Jet. She kinda grows on you.

Some have said that JET is my best work. It’s certainly sold enough – 20K copies in 90 days – so why the hell would I ever want to give it away for free? I mean, it’s a real novel – almost 90K words, not some teaser. A book that earns substantial revenue. So what, have I lost my mind? Do I just hate money? Have I gone altruistic on your ass? Am I swearing off all worldly reward?

Not hardly. The way I see it, 2013 is the year where I need to broaden my audience, and increase my visibility – my reach. My novels have found acceptance with a decent sized crowd, for which I am grateful, and I believe that if more people knew about them, they would do even better. But how to gain broad market visibility absent Random House coming in, offering me a whopping contract, and then spending millions advertising them? Simple. Give one of my best books away.

My confidence in the work is such that I’m betting that most who read JET will want to read more, if only to see whether the writing and pacing was a fluke. My second bet is that once they finish with the series and realize that it’s not a fluke, they’ll move to my other series (the Assassin series), which begins with King of Swords. And then once they devour that, they’ll give my stand-alone novels a whirl.

And hopefully, tell a friend or two.

I also want to have 2013 be the year where my sales on platforms other than Amazon take off, and by keeping the JET series available across all vendors, I believe I can begin to really see some movement in the Apple, Kobo, Sony and B&N stores. Time will tell whether this was a good strategy – as of this writing, my giving away JET equates to investing about $250 a day in making it free. That seems like a lot, and I man have second thoughts after a month, but for now, I’m going to give it a whirl. My thinking is I’ll need to give away 250K copies to get 10K new readers. I’ve already given away 75K from promos, so I’m almost halfway there. Frankly, I’d just as soon have a million copies of JET out there, as I’m not as interested in sales as I am in getting readers. A sale is a one-time event. A reader is a relationship.

And I want that relationship.

If you haven’t picked up JET yet on Amazon, or on B&N or Apple or Smashwords, to see what all the fuss is about, please do, with my compliments. And here’s to hoping 2013 is as good as 2012 was. So far, so good.

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It’s been nagging at me. Every year, I resolve to create resolutions that will empower me, and then I lose motivation and don’t. But this time is going to be different. Really. I’ve turned over a new leaf, seen the error of my ways, and now that I’m a name in the indie publishing industry, I’ve decided that I need to step up and serve as a good example, if nothing else, for the children.

To that end, I’ve come up with some desperately needed steps I shall take, without delay, in order to improve, not just as an author, but as a human being. So without further preamble, here’s my list:

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BREAKING NEW: Bestselling action thriller sensation JET is now FREE for a limited time! Get it while you can!

UPDATE: JET was voted the must read book of the month at Goodreads! So if you haven’t read it, all your dreams will die, for good reason.

NEWS: An awesome new interview from Cellardoorians on my craft and creations. Because it’s all about me in my head, 24/7.

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1) Get a bitchin’ moniker. If you want to be well known, you have to have a moniker, and I don’t mean some wussy nickname that has eyes rolling. I’m talking something with major league, awe-inspiring, I’ll pimp-slap-you-if-you-so-much-as-look-at-me-wrong heft. To that end, I’ve decided that I’ll refer to myself by the moniker…Silk. I shall also take to affecting wide brim hats and an alpaca coat, and carrying a bejeweled walking stick. Alternatively, my lime-green man thong and an ermine cape. But either way, the hat stays. With the sun down here in Mexico, you don’t want to take chances. I shall also wear at least four ostentatious nugget jewelry rings, including two panky rings, and respond to all comments and inquiries with the eloquently-simple rejoinder, “Word.”

2) Surround myself with suck-ups. A coterie of yes-man quislings is a must for any emerging talent, and I recognize that you’re only as good as your entourage. To that end, I intend to enlist a racially and sexually diverse group of hangers-on to celebrate my every utterance. I’m still debating the idea of midgets dressed as cherubs tossing rose petals before me as I walk to the liquor store or into the local watering hole for a few pops. I have to check to find out about labor laws here, and whether there are any ordinances against that sort of thing. I doubt it, and certainly hope not, as I believe that if you wish to be taken seriously, you need to show that you can open up a big can of ‘check my shit out, biatch’ and sling it with the best of them.

3) Pepper my interviews with off-color remarks and my pet philosophical beliefs. Everyone loves a colorful character, and I intend to raise the bar for eyebrow cocking quips and ‘what the hell is he talking about’ inscrutability. Any publicity is good publicity, and by tackling topic others are afraid to, like the looming danger of world takeover by clowns, I shall establish myself as a credible source of wisdom. I shall further that foothold by making obscure references and using indecipherable similes and metaphors at every opportunity, like a swarm of honey badgers all the way down. I think fans require depth in their icons, and I can deliver on that front. Nobody does it like Silk. Word.

4) Drink more tequila. This was so obvious, it was right in front of me. Not that I don’t already enjoy a regular, if not cordial, relationship with the agave nectar, but I think I should be looking at increasing my alcohol intake commensurate with any success I attain. And my body is telling me this is the right step. I invariably feel younger, smarter, richer and sexier when I’ve had a half liter of meanstreak, but can feel moody and out of sorts the next morning. The solution is simple. Incorporate a disciplined plan to start earlier, like with my cereal. Or better yet, skip the cereal part. Silk don’t need no extra calories. Word.

5) Support the government in these difficult times. Whatever the hell it is that we’re over in those God-forsaken hellholes fighting for, defending our way of life and spreading the good news of consumption or democracy or whatever by killing hundreds of thousands of the citizens we’re freeing (or defending – I always get those confused, but enjoy the bombing footage on Youtube nonetheless), I intend to be respectful and unquestioning in the need to ruthlessly butcher anyone the bureaucrats that tell me what I can and can’t do declare that I’m threatened by. I don’t have time to research this crap, so I’ll  take their word for it. They’ve done such a good job with the postal service and Amtrak and the DMV and the economy and protecting the rights of the American Indian, I see no reason to think they might not be completely truthful about why we shouldn’t strike first and hard at any real or imagined threats. ‘Just in case’ is as good a reason as I can think of, so don’t be an ass hat. Anyone who doesn’t believe that all those foreigners hate us for our freedoms (and not because we routinely invade their countries, support oppressive regimes that favor our corporate interests, declare neutrality before supporting the side we like best, etc.), is a traitor, and should be waterboarded with the oil from a boxcar worth of ‘freedom fries’ for raising divisive doubts. We have been in a necessary state of emergency for twelve years because of the actions of Afghani and Iraqi (and I think Iranian, too) terrorists, and if it takes fifty years more of emergency measures where we ‘temporarily’ abrogate the Constitution and trample the Bill of Rights so we can be safe, and another two or three trillion dollars of emergency funding for undeclared wars against oil and heroin producing countries to make the world a better place for us and our banks, I’m all for it. Kill ‘em all, and let the 72 virgins sort em out. Silk will be creating bumper stickers to that effect. We can ‘give peace a chance’ after we’ve won the wars we need to fight so we can have peace – and if we need to nuke anyone who’s against peace, we’ll do it – don’t forget who the only country to use nukes was, not once, but twice, against the bloodthirsty civilian populations of…oh, never mind. All of this was explained to me as being like spending your way out of debt or drinking your way to sobriety, and while I don’t remember all the details, I support freedom. If you can’t see why we’re on a prudent course, you’re probably an insurgent, or traitorous. Or a clown. Which is probably worse.

6) Avoid controversy, and never say anything that will force people to view things differently or question their views. Part of the job of being widely read is to reinforce social conventions and moral choices while pretending to be controversial and edgy. I’m all for freedom of speech and all that shit, as long as you don’t take it too far and say things I don’t agree with – you know, cross the line (brave patriots like McCarthy understood that). In that spirit, I intend to stop introducing plausible alternative explanations for seemingly nonsensical policies in my books that would cause readers to question anything, and instead create straw man arguments that pretend to be controversial, and then collapse them by the time the pat denouement unfolds to satisfied nods, where the status quo is reinforced and everyone goes away happy and vindicated. Give people what they want, is my philosophy. I’m not in this to enlighten, I’m in it for the chicks and the cash. I intend to stick with facile bromides that would make the most cloying Hallmark sentiments seem mild.

7) Promote love and harmony. I want to be loved. I want to love others. Sometimes, in order to do that, you have to get all liquored up and use the home made napalm you cooked up on passers-by you believe to be the agents of the marauding clown hordes. And sometimes you can best express love when spewing toxic obscenities at your enemies, wishing them a lonely, painful death, cold and alone in a drainage ditch, mourned by nobody and reviled by all. It’s a kind of tough love. That’s all I’m saying. Don’t twist this and make it ugly. The world’s ugly enough.

8) Include more ponies and adorable mewling kitties and playful puppies in my work. When I’m trying to conjure up a realistic action thriller, like my next one, Blood Orgy – Slaughterfest, I’ve been told that I can broaden my audience by including scenes where a sympathetic animal is included. I’ve experimented with honey badgers (not in real life, you sick bastards), but reaction has been inconclusive to date. I’ve also toyed with cannibal pandas, or ninja beavers, but it’s hard to work them into novels that are basically about ex-CIA hit men for whom this time it’s really, really, really personal. So I will commit to gratuitously including in each novel at least one cat, from whom we all learn something of value about ourselves by the final pages, or alternatively, some puppies who teach us important life lessons, or ponies, which won’t teach us anything but will be there strictly to appease my editor, who has no cats but wishes she did, and loves ponies, including the gratuitous mention thereof in action/adventure thrillers.

9) Be a role model. Kids. Don’t snort the bath salts, or try drugs – your parents never did, and you shouldn’t, either. And other authors. You can do it! In fact, I’m so convinced you can I’m working on a “how to get ‘republican rich’ by writing” course so all million or so would-be authors on Amazon can be successful, regardless of talent, drive, abilities, willingness to invest time or money, or even the ability to read or frame a coherent thought. That’s right. In it I will lay out a mindbogglingly easy way to ascend to the highest levels of literary success – and I’ll tell you how to do it for only $4.99 – and I’ll even make it available as an audio books in case you can’t read! I’ll also be offering seminars for those who really want to turbo-charge their success, for only $129 per person, special, which will make a Tony Robbins firewalk seem like a bridge game at a nursing home. And I’ll share this treasure of tips and secrets, not to make a boatload of easy cash because my book revenues aren’t sufficient, but because I’m trying to help. I’ll also offer incredible social media hints and show you how to sell more books than the Beatles using chat rooms, e-mail and Twitter. The seminar will be titled, “I rote a gud buk and maid fat staks & so can u!” If I can do it, you can too! Whooohooo!!!

10) Be an advocate for quilting. I will confess that my home is filled with quilting paraphernalia, as well as the product of my craft. I see no reason that quilting should be vilified. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. So I am coming out, right now, publicly. I’m just sick to death of the hypocrisy. If you can’t be a quilter and hold your head high with a sense of respect, what is life really worth? I hope that I can serve as an example with this long-overdue admission. There. I said it. Wow. It’s like a weight, suddenly lifted. Or like being really drunk. Never mind.

So there it is. Quite a list, and all worth pursuing. I hope this increases my popularity and the cash starts rolling in, because some of them, like the tequila or the ring/hat/cane/coat/cape one, could get resource intensive, and the booze isn’t going to pay for itself.

Now go buy some of my books. It goes to a good cause. Mainly me. Which is my favorite charity…

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In the spirit of the season, I thought I would serve up some predictions for 2013, based on a post I wrote today. It’s targeted at indie authors, but is more of a commentary on the state of the self-publishing union at present rather than anything else.

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NEWS: A must-read new interview with Write Into Print showcases everything you ever wanted to know about, er, me!

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Many indie authors are complaining that their sales are down. That may be true. Could be any number of things causing it. I speculate as to some possible reasons in my predictions. But with all the gloom and doom, at least three success stories from December are noteworthy. First, my friend and fellow author Steven Konkoly, who I did an Author Spotlight with about a year ago, hit in the Top 100 paid on Amazon on Xmas day, and has held remarkably well with his now-over-a-year-old action thriller Black Flagged. That translates into thousands of books per day. You can do the math, but suffice it to say December is being very good to Steven. Couldn’t happen to a nicer or more talented guy, either.

The second account is R.S. Guthrie, who I also recently featured in an Author Spotlight, who released his follow-up to Blood Land (one of the best books of the year, IMO), Money Land, on Dec. 27, and watched it catapult into the Top 500. The market is volatile, so ranking will bounce around, but his other books are also selling nicely – my hunch is December is treating him well.

The third December story is my own. I don’t like to publish revenue numbers, but this month is my biggest month to date, up 30% from November, which was a huge, and I do mean huge, month for me. This, 18 months into my journey. Over 100K books sold this year, not counting free downloads. How next year goes is anyone’s guess, but for now, so far so good.

The reason for highlighting these examples is because Steve’s book was 14 or so months old when it took off on this go around. My oldest is 18 months old. Rob’s are about the same, if not a bit older. It can take a while for a title to hit, and yes, aggressive and well-timed promotions can help, but foremost, having a book worth reading in a popular genre is a big part of it. Then again, maybe not. In January I’ll be hard at work penning 50 Shades of Yarn for Mr. Mittens, an erotic cat adventure featuring a billionaire and a demure but adventurous vixen who is obsessed with knitting and kink, which I believe will blow the lid off my sales records to date.

You think I’m kidding.

Only a little.

But on to the predictions. Feel free to disagree with them, or disregard them. We can return next year around this time and see how they fared. That’s part of the fun – returning to see how much of an ass hat I was only a few short months prior.

1) The KDP Select free program will continue to wane in terms of usefulness for authors. As of Black Friday, I believe that Amazon further de-tuned their algorithm so free downloads count as even less towards ranking on the popularity lists. From what I can tell, free now has 5% or less of the impact on ranking than it originally did, meaning that if you don’t land in the Top 40, you won’t see any bump in sales. I believe this is because Amazon dislikes free as much as many authors do. It served its purpose, but now it’s hurting sales and has created an environment where a certain segment of readers no longer buy books they might have, preferring to download free books instead, even if the majority of them suck. I believe that eventually even the dimmest indie authors will figure this out, and stop putting their books free unless they have a good chance of landing in the Top 40. On December 27, there were 43K books free. You’re reading that correctly. 40 might see a post-free bump in sales. The other 42,960 titles won’t, and the authors either wasted their time or saturated their own market and diminished their likelihood of selling anything.

2) The environment will get tougher. Worsening economics in the U.S., greater reader discrimination (as when VCRs were new, for the first year or two the novelty of being able to watch a movie in your house meant that people bought or rented virtually anything – but as the selection grew, they became more discriminating over what they were willing to spend money on), and an ever larger supply of ebooks meeting a demand that is growing far slower than supply is, will all make it harder to rise above the clutter and get noticed, which one must do if one wishes to sell books.

3) The environment will get tougher, redux. Traditional publishers will lower prices or release some of their huge backlog of titles for which they own the ebook rights, creating even more competition for indies. Many of these books will be marginal or won’t have withstood the test of time, but supply will increase even more as trad pubs try to duke it out for dwindling reader dollars.

4) Many indies will give up. Having realized belatedly that 99% of indies fail to make any real money at this, those that don’t feel like beating their heads against a seemingly indestructible wall will go on to something more lucrative. The Gold Rush mentality of “hey, look at X, he’s a talentless twat and sold a ton; it must be easy, so I’ll throw my hat into the ring because then maybe I’ll sell a ton, too” will die, as it should. It will become abundantly obvious to even the dimmest that this is a very, very difficult business to make a living at, and that the chances of being that one in a million are close to nil.

5) Some will hit big, but nobody will be able to predict who, nor will they be able to reproduce the success. Put simply, once something works, it’s over, and those trying to follow in successful footsteps will fail to replicate the win. Which won’t stop people from trying, but it will be a pointless effort.

6) Rudimentary grasp of craft will become a prerequisite to authoring a book if you want to make more than beer money. The perceived environment where you can be illiterate and still find someone who will give your book a shot will dry up as readers demand more in exchange for their limited time. Just as agents and publishers used to be gatekeepers, more and more readers will become their own gatekeepers, and won’t suffer ill-crafted books lightly. Writing good books will become even more important as 2013 develops, although writing good books won’t in itself guarantee success of any sort. See point 4 for the actual odds, which I invented as I wrote this, but are probably optimistic at that.

7) Amazon didn’t “double down” on Select as many seem to believe, so the payout isn’t likely to be significantly more than it has been historically. What I believe they did is correctly project that, A) adding international markets will dilute the payout from the fixed pool of $700K they had set aside, reducing it to a level where most of the decent authors wouldn’t participate unless they added cash to at least somewhat maintain current payout levels, and B) they forecast the number of kindles they planned to sell between Black Friday and February, and calculated how much they would need to add to keep payouts relatively attractive. Then some bright lad in ‘Zon marketing positioned that like it was a big bonus instead of what it actually was, and a lot of folks who don’t think critically assumed the payout would go up. I don’t believe it will, but I’d love to be wrong, having seen about 1000 borrows in December. But I’m not holding my breath.

8) Amazon will continue to lean towards pushing trad pub books and their own labels, as they have most of 2012, for two reasons: Trad pub books generally cost more so they make more absolute dollars from doing so, and trad pubs pay advertising dollars back to Amazon, whereas indies don’t. This isn’t because Amazon is the great Satan. It’s because it makes better business sense to push products you’ll make more money selling, and higher-priced products from producers who will give you money to advertise tend to be more lucrative than lower-priced products from folks who produce no ad revenue. And the reason for pushing their own labels is obvious – more margin. It’s all about margin. So deal with it.

9) Other vendors like Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc. will take market share from Amazon, but unless you’re getting as good or better visibility in those venues, your odds will stay about the same. I understand that some think that more markets mean more opportunity, and on its face that would make sense, but if the odds are really about 99% against you making anything more than a few sales or ever turning a profit, the number of markets you still aren’t selling in will be slim consolation. Which is the reality of the book selling business. It’s a tough gig.

10) I am probably wrong about some or all of this. Think critically, for yourself. Come up with your own damned predictions and stop listening to pseudo-pundits on the web.

So there they are. The message is clear. In a muddled, garbled way. You can win, but the odds aren’t good. Having said that, I believe that focusing on writing, and not so much on marketing, is a good idea, but as Steven’s, Rob’s, and my own cases should indicate, a decent marketing approach can also be a game changer. I have read plenty of blogs advising folks to just focus on the writing and let the marketing handle itself, but I think that’s disastrous for new authors, and most established ones as well. My solution is different: allocate time for both, as they are both important to building a career. The best books in the world won’t sell themselves, and people need to know about them in order to buy them. Amazon won’t market them for you. None of the other sites will. So you are the marketing engine, as a book seller, who has to capture the readers’ attention and lure them into trying your books. Once they do, your job as the writer is to have crafted as compelling and well-written a product as possible, but if you wish to succeed in this business, I think you have to do both writing and marketing, not only one. I believe that notion is misguided panacea for the self-pubbing masses, and is a recipe for failure if followed to the letter. I personally devote about 80% of my time to writing, and 20% to marketing, which consists of promotions, advertising, interviews, blogging, tweeting and message board participation.

That’s all I have. I need to get back to writing now, having used up all my marketing time for the day. Have a good New Year, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Oh, and buy my books. You’ll live longer and be happier. Really. Mostly.

Both JET and King of Swords are specially priced for the holidays, so if you’re feeling Blake-curious, those would be good places to start. I know. That is probably the shortest self-promotional bit I’ve ever tossed out. For that, we are probably all grateful.

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Given that I’m flush with eggnog (if you can call tequila eggnog, which I do around the holidays, but never mind – don’t be a hater, just go with me on this), I have decided to try something new. No, not round the world with a 300 pound Samoan cook on a tramp steamer bound for Jakarta (although I am not judging). I’m actually talking about a new marketing ploy – a special-priced giveaway contest, where lucky winners can get their grubby mitts on a free Kindle Fire, or gift cards.

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NEWS: The Epic Kindle Giveaway promotion was just featured on Ereader News Today!

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I’ve never participated in one of these types of promotions before, not because I felt they were beneath me or cheapened my important work, but mainly out of laziness – it always seemed like too much trouble. Fortunately, I was contacted by some of my favorite authors and asked to participate in one, where all I would have to do is show up. That was just my speed.

And so it is that I’m participating in this three day event, from December 27-29, where among other masterpieces, my groundbreaking new thriller JET is only .99, and if you get it, you stand a chance of walking away with all kinds of swag. Since I’ve never been given anything for Xmas besides a jab in the eye with a sharp stick and an order to move along, I’m naturally going to enroll in it and see if I can win everything, perhaps ruining the experience for others, but in the end, not caring, as it’s all about me, and perhaps this is my time in the sun. Probably not, based on experience, but one never knows.

Here’s a list of the books in the promotion. There are some great ones in there, so don’t be a tightwad.

Go load up your kindle with .99 deals, and perhaps win something cool. Not a bad deal. Hope it works. Hard to pay for the bar tab with warm sentiments and reviews…

The URL for the contest can be FOUND HERE. Like Florida and Chicago elections, enter early and often! Everyone’s a winner on this one!

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