Be Nicholson's Agent: $200 giveaway by Scott Nicholson

Winners selected: $100, Betty; $50, Donna S; $10, Mary, Trace, Rita, Tammi, Leslie.

FIRST WEEK: LIKE ME FOR MONEY!

Okay, you might be as lazy as I am. I want to give you $200, and I don't want a lot of hassle. So here's all you have to do between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8. You can do this all at once or a little at a time, all of them or a few, but the more you share, the better your odds of winning:

Go to the list of my books at Amazon or in the sidebar to the right, and for each book, click the little "Like" button and then share on Facebook and Twitter (takes two clicks--one click on the "Like," and then a click on the "F" and then click on the "T"). This shows your friends my books.Count the number of books you share--this is your number of entries.

Go to my list of books at Barnes and Noble or in the sidebar on the right. Click the Facebook "Like" and "Google+" buttons for each book, which shares that book with your Facebook and Google+ friends. Please click only on books where I am listed as author--not anthologies or people using my name. Count the number of books you share--this is your number of entries.

Add your Amazon shares to your BN.com shares. Email benicholsonsagent@yahoo.com and put in the subject line "Shares: XX," with XX being the number of your total shares. That's all you have to do except sit back and pop the bubbly.

I will add up the shares on Sept. 9, then randomly select a $100 winner, a $50 winner, and five $10 winners, paid in your choice of Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift cards. I'm going to trust you, because who wants to waste time verifying, even though I could probably track you down on Facebook or Twitter? If I get lots of emails but don't ever see the books popping up on Facebook or Twitter, then I will never trust humans again...(oh, how many times have I said that?)

I think that's simple enough. No purchase necessary. If you have any problems, email me or comment below. Thanks for helping, and be sure to check out the Be Nicholson's Agent support blogs for other giveaways and events. The total giveaway goal is $1,000--if I sell about $6,500 worth of books. I usually sell more than that, so this is the giveaway that keeps on giving. I'd love to give away a truckload, with your help.

EVENT BLOGS

Kindle Obsessed ...Liquid Fear

Rex Robot Reviews ...October Girls

Wendy’s Minding Spot ...Speed Dating with the Dead

Bewitched Bookworms ...Disintegration

Fictitious Musings ...Crime Beat

My Reading Room ...The Skull Ring

What Book Is That? ...Burial to Follow

JoJo’s Book Corner ...Transparent Lovers

Vvb32 Reads ...Zombie Bits

Booked Up (UK) ...Creative Spirit

Candace’s Book Blog ...The Red Church

Curling Up By The Fire ...Ghost Box

Parajunkee's View ...The Harvest

Jenn’s Bookshelves ...Drummer Boy
Book Faery ...Flowers
Great Minds Think Aloud ...Gateway Drug
Fang-tastic Books ...Ethereal Messenger

Motherlode ...These Things Happened
I Smell Sheep ...Head Cases
Insatiable Readers ...Nicholson's Ghost Stories
Kindle on the Cheap...The First
The Top Shelf...Ashes

Castle Macabre...American Horror 

Earths Book Nook...Curtains

Kindle in the Wind...As I Die Lying 


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Be Nicholson's Agent! Win 15 percent of my money

I've announced this a little but it's time to get serious. In traditional publishing, an agent earns 15 percent for selling a book to a publisher. I think my readers who help sell my books to other readers also deserve 15 percent.

So, in September, I am giving away 15 percent of my ebook revenues in the form of gift cards to Amazon and BN.com, as well as prizes to supporting blogs. It's simple. Watch this blog for different ways you can enter, simply by spreading the word about my books.

Each one of my books also has a blog serving as its rep, with guest posts, events, and special giveaways at those blogs. There will be other ways to win gift cards, too. No complicated, seven-step keys to entry. Each giveaway will be for one specific action. And this is one to tell your friends about, because the bigger it gets, the more I give away. And in this economy, who doesn't like free money?

I am also looking for core volunteers to serve on Team Scott and help out with the promotion. In return, you get inside tips on marketing and, for authors, a 50-word listing of your book in one of my books for three months. Plus you're still eligible for all the giveaways. Email benicholsonsagent AT yahoo.com to volunteer for Team Scott.

The best way to stay clued in for giveaways is to follow this blog, sign up for my newsletter at scottsinnercircle-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Google+. Big, fun, and easy, just like me. Be Nicholson's Agent and we all win.

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Author Keith Latch

I've crossed paths with Keith Latch a bit in the horror genre over the last oh so many years, and I am pleased to have him guesting today. Keith describes himself as happily married, a father of one, career-minded and a little bit of a square. Nonetheless, at times, he finds himself looking to the stars for orbiting alien spacecraft and has been known to carry an enchanted sword in the trunk of his car. Oh, and that hockey mask and machete in the backseat…that’s just for Halloween…

 

1. You've been working in the small press a while. What's happening there as the digital revolution takes hold?

Well, I have to say that I was fortunate enough to find an excellent small press to publish my work. However, that was a different time, almost five years ago, which in publishing can be a lifetime. I enjoyed the experience and learned a lot from it, but now with the digital revolution, I can get the same things: editing, cover art, distribution completed on a timetable that fits me much better.  It’s also a little ironic that you ask. I’ve actually just yesterday received the rights back for three of my backlist books, at my request, from the publisher so that I can actually place those titles up for sale, independently, by mid-summer.

2. What do you see happening with the horror genre at the moment?

In my opinion, horror has always been a niche market. While it has a roller coaster market history, the actual horror fans are a small, yet loyal, group whether it is books, film, or whatever. It may come in vogue every few years, but the swelling in the marketplace that occurs when horror is the new fad…again and again…is a good thing, it allows new writers to emerge. When the bubble bursts, we see only the best and brightest continue to produce work, which in the end is a big win for the reader.

3. You've had ebooks out even before the Kindle revolution, right? What kind of difference has it made?

 I self-published A Ghost Story back in 2006, way before self-pubbing was acceptable. But through word-of-mouth and loyal readers, I actually moved enough copies to attract a small publisher. However, the first version of my first contracted novel Cemetery Things came out in ebook several months before the paperback. For a while, it did not feel like a real book. I still relish the day I got my first print copies. I was caught up with the nostalgia of the printed pulp. I wanted to hold the book in my hand. Back in that time, 2007 it would have been, ebooks were more a novelty than anything. However, there were a few ebook readers available. I actually picked one up from Fictionwise and tried it out. I liked it but the ease in which we have today to purchase and load books just wasn’t there. As time progressed, and the electronic market caught on, I saw more and more readers for the ebook versions of my novels versus the print.

Now, with self-publishing catching on, and the ease in which we can publish, I gain more readers each month than I did in a year with the small press.

At first I considered the ebook revolution both a curse and a blessing. We had more affordable content and a much more diverse catalog to browse. Unfortunately, I also knew that any ninny with a computer could type a few hundred pages, purchase a stock photo, and say they had themselves a literary masterpiece. After the last several months, I‘ve decided that was not so horrible. Instead of the so-called “gatekeepers” of traditional publishing, we could now use our own free will to decide what content we’d like to purchase and read. So I sample a few books, erase what I don’t like, and buy and then read what I do. That’s left me with many options as a reader and just as many as a writer because with the money finally flowing towards the writer, and a much better percentage, I am satisfied with a much smaller readership than I would have needed to be successful in the mass market paperback or even hardcover arena.

4. You write in multiple genres. Do you just follow your moods, an intention to reach different audiences, or is it a wide range of interests? And do you feel if that's made it harder to build what they keep calling the "author brand" these days?

I do dabble in many different genres; horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, and even a little romance (that one was a dare from my wife just to see if I could do it…she now thinks I can). I’ve even done a comic book project with Steve Wands, who has among many other things worked on a run of Green Lantern for DC and Mike Fiortentino, a very gifted artist. I actually write the way I like to read. I read voraciously everything from Scott Nicholson (editors note--I didn't pay him to say that but the 15 percent is in the mail) to Stephen King, to Brandon Sanderson, to Clive Cussler, to John Varley. As I write, I like to explore new terrain and seek out new stories that can sometimes be challenging. I feel that keeps the writing fresh and entertaining for the reader.

While it may limit my “branding” in certain aspects, I hope that my readers can identify in all my works, regardless of genre, that the stories are actually about people, relationships, and hope. No matter if it’s a horde of hungry zombies, a mysterious killer stalking the streets of Memphis, or the return of a long-lost friend who believes that all your success in life is due to him and he’s ready for his cut of the pie even if it means your death, I do think the same themes permeate my writing. I also hope readers begin to identify my name with a good story versus a category of fiction. 

Also, I think the ebook revolution has and technology in general has given writers a way to build a common community with not only other writers but also readers and even potential readers and I love the idea of that.

5. What's coming up next for you?

As I mentioned, I just received the rights back to my books A Ghost Story, Bestseller, and No Small Thing. I hope to revise those quickly and place those up for readers by August 1. I’m also working on a very ambitious science fiction project, which I’m very excited about. More details to follow…

Visit Keith online at http://www.keithlatch.com and follow him at twitter, his username is @keithlatch1

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Five sips of Indie Kool-Aid

One of the core themes of my inspirational guide The Indie Journey: Secrets To Writing Success is "Don't expect tomorrow to look like today." A lot of indie writers are making big decisions based on the expectation that the world will remain exactly the same, which is contrary to the experience of every one of us who have lived on this planet. Here are things that could and almost certainly will affect the indie future:

1. "I'll get 70 percent forever!" Yes, and those tech stocks in the 1990s just kept shooting through the roof, didn't they? The housing market of four years ago was unstoppable, too.

2. "There will be more and more markets in the future, so competition will keep retailers offering good terms." There will be one winner who basically sets the terms for everybody. Look at Apple for music and games apps if you need convincing.

3. "Library lending opens a whole new market!" Well, actually, it may CLOSE markets. If people can check out your ebook from home, and a library only needs one digital copy, you will be very lucky to get one sale per library. That's a lot of libraries, but also no reason for anyone ever to buy your book again from a retailer.

4. "Advertising will support ebooks so  companies will pay writers to be featured in their books." It's likely advertisers will pay retailers and distributors, not the authors. No one knows what this will look like, or how revenues will be split--or even if there will be writer revenues at all. Think of the YouTube music video where you sit through the 15-second ad first.

5. "So-and-so promised all indie authors will be rich." We usually hear what we want to hear. Lottery stories are cool. But the lottery is only cool because almost nobody wins it. Including you and me.

Mantra: Since the future will be different, why not be happy now and be prepared to be happy tomorrow?

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Liquid Fear and more wild ebook predictions

I can't get enough of making a fool of myself. First, there's my crazy forecast at Ebook Endeavors, and then there's my LIQUID FEAR launch on April 1. You can click on the tab up there for details, but basically I am giving you money if you sell my book. How honest is that?

Yes, the "LIQUID FEAR fool's gold rush" is fun for the whole family. Except babies in diapers. And possibly creepy old men with Alzheimer's, but they're having fun anyway. More details to come. But if you want to know "fear," then try typing frantically on a book you haven't finished when you've planned a huge giveaway and launch blitz...heh heh. I love it.

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Transparent Lovers out

Good indie hero Brian Rathbone hosts me in an interview at Podiocaster (20 min)

Well, in all the madness I forgot to promote this here book. Private investigator Richard Steele must solve his most difficult case ever--his own murder--while torn between women on opposite sides of the grave.At Amazon and BN and Smashwords

 

Also check out my guest blog at indiereader.com

Indiereader.com

My first post in my regular blogging gig at Indiereader.com is now live. I will be doing most of my "indie commentary" there, much of it geared toward the opportunities of the new era in connecting readers and writers. The "make fun of New York" phase is pretty much over for everyone, and already things are settling out so that everyone goes on with their lives as best they can. Smart writers will adapt and smart publishers will adapt. Many, if not most, will fail. Every evolutionary phase is met with waves of extinction.

Since wiser bloggers are talking about indie writing and indie publishing, I will not be providing much nuts-and-bolts information or industry analysis. You already know the drill if you're a writer: Be as professional as possible in every single phase of your cottage industry. And if you signed with a publisher, hold it to that standard, or else get your rights back as soon as you can, and then do it right.

I'll also be doing some teasers for my April 1 launch (note: see that subtle teaser alert!) in the weeks ahead, as I frantically race toward deadline. It's going to the wire. Luckily, the book is about fear, so I should well be in the mood.
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Mystery Dance by Scott Nicholson

If you've read Crime Beat, The Skull Ring, and Disintegration (and if you haven't, you're running out of excuses), I hope you'll consider writing a review for Mystery Dance. I have a Goodreads ad campaign running on mysterious mechanisms of clicks and my Visa card, meaning I'll probably spend a thousand bucks and sell three books. So a review is most appreciated: http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Dance-Omnibus-ebook/dp/B004I8WNEQ

And, yes, a nod to Elvis Costello...


Jim McLeod gives treat as host of Ginger Nuts of Horror

Leisha is gracious enough to feature me as her first-ever interview at A Tale of Many Reviews. Thanks, Leisha!
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Book Piracy. Five reasons not to worry.

There's a little debate going around in which writers are calculating the millions of dollars they've lost, as well as that wonderful, lofty perch on the bestseller list, because of all those meany pirates out there dumping their book files into torrents. I tweeted last week that 10,000 illegal downloads doesn't mean 10,000 lost sales, it means maybe five lost sales. And I'll bet it was because the book was overpriced to begin with. (Which almost universally means either someone else is setting your price who has their own agenda instead of the writer's best performance and income in mind, or else you have not paid one bit of attention to the digital market in the past two years. Or, in the case of New York publishing, both).

My books have been stolen for years. Ironically, it's only my corporate books that are illegally shared; my DRM-free ebooks don't show up there, yet they could easily be shared, swapped, ripped, and even rewritten. I only even notice the piracy when I do Google alerts of my name and see them in the rapidshare and torrent streams. I don't even know what those streams do, or how they work, and I don't care. It would be like sticking my thumb in a river to try to plug a dam six miles downstream. It would be a full-time job and all I would get is a wet finger. And the pirates would never even notice.

Why do I not care? It's stealing, and stealing is wrong. Anybody who says it's not stealing is wrong. I don't even make cassettes or copies of my own CDs, not even for personal use. But I am not casting stones, because I've conducted other illegal or immoral acts. None of us are without sin.

But I'm a writer, not the world's morality cop. And I have plenty of my own shortcomings. Anyway, the author has many antidotes to piracy:

1. Quit freaking out--stealing or not, this is how people communicate in the modern age. They share. They mutually create content and their shared experiences. They aren't as hung up on "ownership."

2. Take control of your content (from a corporation) and make it cheap. If your book is a buck or two, all but the most ardent thieves (who are spending their time stealing instead of reading anyway) would rather just buy the book and save the hassle. And you'll make the same amount of money, anyway. Actually, far more.

3. Find your own translators. Even if you gave up control of your English rights to a corporation, you can still seek translators on your own. If somebody cracks your book, translates it, and puts it out, that's an incredible homage--many hours of their life. This way, you can make a little money and pay them a royalty.

4. Use it as a positive. In five years, you'll be "selling" your download stats to sponsors and advertisers. And getting ripped off big-time then becomes an asset. Think of them as your future shares in the new market.

5. Why do we write in the first place? If you had told someone 100 years ago you could widely spread your ideas to millions of people at no cost, they would have said you've gone to writer heaven. Or you've gone insane. Which, when you look at it, is basically the same thing.

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new mystery release--CRIME BEAT

Hey, sign up for my free newsletter and be entered to win a limited-edition hardcover of Transparent Lovers, from PS Publishing. Also giving away used hardcover of Max Brooks' World War Z and three sealed copies of Black Static magazine. Drawing Thursday to commemorate launch of my new mystery novella Crime Beat.

Crime doesn't pay...but neither does journalism. When John Moretz takes a reporter job at a small Appalachian newspaper, a crime spree erupts that quickly escalates to serial killing. And Moretz seems to know just a little bit more than he's putting on the front page.

99 cents for a limited time at Amazon
Or at Amazon UK
For Nook at BN.com
In all formats at Smashwords

Thanks for helping spread the word.
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We did this e-book era, so now what?

If you've been at all interested in indie publishing, you read JA Konrath's blog, and he's made his latest compelling case for controlling your own content in the digital era. While I agree wholeheartedly with the underlying principal, I am not so convinced there will be eternal expansion in the e-book market. The digital book business has changed so much in a year that Joe's and Lee Goldberg's joke of "Who wants to be a Kindle millionaire?" is no longer a joke, it's just a question of who will get there first.

Barely 20 years ago, the average mass-market paperback sold 100,000 copies. Writers who planned their retirements on that expectation are probably in some low-level government job right now (like the other 40 percent of the country) or are lucky enough to be drawing unemployment like the other 10 percent. A writer who expects to continue to earn $2 per ebook for the life of copyright may meet the same fate. Though I suppose for most writers, any job pays better than writing.

I'm on record as predicting the flat-text e-book era has an outside range of five years, at least for fiction--specialized non-fiction and manuals will continue to be valuable for their content alone. I believe e-book sales will continue, but certainly not with expanding profits for all involved. Somewhere along the way, readers have to keep paying to support all this, and there won't always be a fresh army of new advocates every Christmas, and the current readers will have several lifetimes' worth of content hoarded away. That brings us to the question of "What next?"

I see two splits, with some overlap. Bestsellers at 99 cents, and ad-supported books. At first blush, you'd think NY has an advantage, since Madison Avenue is right there. But can corporations, with their large structures, be able to compete when indie or smaller entities can react more quickly to present conditions instead of protecting some imagined status quo?

When someone like Seth Godin breaks from a publisher, it's news. But Seth Godin could snap his fingers right now and line up way more advertisers on his own (or, at least, earn a far greater share of the proceeds) than he could with a shareholder monkey on his back. If you look at what he's doing, he's basically created his own media empire. James Patterson has done the same thing but under a corporate imprint--I wouldn't be surprised if he takes his own road soon, but he may be at the age where he'd rather just ride out his momentum.


This points out the new era of the branded writer. And not just "writer," but "content creator" and even mere "idea marketer." A personality is more suited to building brand identification and audience than a publisher is. I say "James Patterson" and you get an image. I say "Random House" and what do you get? Randomness. We've seen it here locally: "Ray's Weather" is where you check the weather and "Todd's Calendar" is where you click to find what's happening in the region--and both are ad supported. You can get the free content elsewhere but you don't get the human personality attached.

I'm already experimenting with the ad model as my website undergoes redesign. I am counting on Idea Marketing being one of my foundational pillars. I am not quite sure what it all looks like right now, but I look at it this way--you don't need NY in order to give away tons of free e-books or to spread an idea or to build a social platform. I'm still honing my core beliefs, but they center around compassionate self-reliance and the exchange of ideas.

My indie experience was cited on a post by Jim C. Hines where he talks about his "failed experiment" of putting out an indie and mentions Laura Gilman's expressed fear of piracy (for a story collection, of all things--most people would be lucky to have those stolen, though mine do sell unexpectedly well). I don't blame people for sticking with what worked in the past. It all goes to how invested you are in a certain system and how the alternative looks. Publishing-industry talk on e-books uses phrases like "managing risk" and "cautious adaptation." I have nothing to lose so I can afford to go balls to the wall.


I had a talk with an Amazon DTP tech a few weeks back, and Amazon is continually exploring ways to build on the interactive experience inside the e-book. Google clearly is planning an ad-based model. And it's not going to be as clumsy as an image of a refreshing Bud Lite popping up when the main character enters a bar (though it's not unthinkable at some point.)

"I'll quit reading before I put up with that." Yes, I've heard that. I also remember saying I'd never carry a cell phone, or be on Facebook, or give up my vinyl albums, or start thinking that maybe nuclear energy is the best short-range answer to our energy addiction.

I'm not a pessimist, because I'm extremely grateful to be free enough to act as I see fit, but when "How to get free Kindle books" are the bestselling Kindle books, I feel which way the wind blows. Now, as soon as I can figure out how to give away a million sponsored ebooks, I might be in the running.

All you corporations out there that I am studiously avoiding mentioning for free, you know where to find me.

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Ads in books?

Writers are already appalled at the prospect of ads in books, but it is as inevitable as rain.

As soon as the dream of making riches as a writer fades from public consciousness (and Stephen King quits featuring bestselling writers as characters), then only a peculiar, suspect group will still be writing. For every Joe Konrath, there are 100,000 people selling a book a week or one a month. I have books ranked all up and down the scale so I have a pretty good idea of what a ranking equals in total sales. The trouble is that right now 100,000 people are reading Konrath and thinking that's going to be them.

Honestly, all those who fear the indie onslaught just need to wait a few years. 10 million slush manuscripts will be pulled from the drawer and sell nothing. Trend over.

About the same number of writers will be making a living then as now. But some of them will be different writers. Some of them will be selling ads. Some of them will do whatever it takes to be a writer and make it work. I went three years with no book deals. I lost faith in the system but never myself, and I wrote some of the best books of my life on only the dimmest of prospects. My best-selling book was never meant to be published. It was survival. I survived.

I just picture those Soviet dissidents in Siberia, scrawling classics on frozen animal skins in beet juice. Renoir, crippled with arthritis, his legacy made, but still cranking them out from his wheelchair. Socrates drinking poison instead of pleasing the crowd.

Instead of saying I will never do something, I now say "What hasn't been created yet, and how can I get to it first, and how can we share it?"

If you're interested in talking with me about promoting in books, drop me an email at hauntedcomputerbooks at Yahoo and let's brainstorm, or kick it around in the comments.
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