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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Gerard de Marigny: The Watchman of Ephraim

(Gerard is a talented writer but also an innovative, hard-working guy who believes i his message--and is smart about it! I am proud to have influenced him a little, along with other writers. We are all in a learning process, and we all can improve, which is something I learn again every day. Here's Gerard...)

What I’ve learned from Dean Wesley Smith, John Locke, and Scott Nicholson

Here are three writers from whom I’ve learned so much – Dean Wesley Smith, John Locke, and Scott Nicholson. An eclectic bunch, no doubt.

Let me give you a breakdown of what I’ve learned from each, but first, I want to thank all three for their bodies of work and for their advice and support. They are each an inspiration to me as they should be inspirations to all new writers.

Dean Wesley Smith – Dean taught me first and taught me the most about self-publishing. He destroyed the myths I held about legacy publishing and showed me a step-by-step, cost effective way to self-publish. More than that, he drilled into my head that it takes more than one published work per year to become a successful writer.

I remember falling off my chair when I read an article by him where he stated that a fiction writer should write three to four novel-lengths per year. Another newbie writer left a sardonic comment saying, “That’s impossible Dean, have YOU ever written four per year?” To which he replied, “Actually, over the last 25 years, I’ve averaged over four per year.” That’s a man I’d follow over a hill!

When I finished my debut novel in January, I was so excited I wrote to Dean to tell him. His reply to me was, “That’s great, now write another!”

I love that man … and Dean, #2 will be out in September and #3 in December … thanks brutha!

John Locke – I only came across John fairly recently when I saw a few bloggers promoting his _How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!_. I bought it, read it, and decided that the man knows his stuff when it comes to marketing! I can tell you this; the day after I read John’s book and implemented his advice - I IMMEDIATELY saw my sales numbers more than double, and my sales revenue jumped by a factor of 5! I wrote him to thank him and he replied that he’s there for me anytime. That’s not special to me though. John Locke replies to every email written to him. I admire him a lot for that too!

Scott Nicholson – I saved Scott for last because – well – I wanted to thank him especially for giving me the opportunity to write this piece and have it appear on his site – thanks Scott! He doesn’t know this but I’ve learned a lot from him too. For one – I learned about how to launch a blog tour. Actually, I learned the particulars from another writer-friend of mine, Jeff Bennington, but Jeff learned it from Scott!

I followed Scott on his last blog tour and found that you can be a prolific writer but still maintain your zaniness (Scott’s got the BEST hat collection of any writer – I can tell just from published photos of him). The man also puts me to shame. He launched a 90-date blog tour while continuing to write at a frenetic pace. In comparison, my blog tour has 45 dates. I’m only halfway in as I write this and I’m already seeing dead people. Then again, I think seeing dead people may be a normal day at the office for Scott.

Scott befriended me in the kindest way. He emailed me some encouraging words about _The Watchman of Ephraim_ and allowed me to place a link to it in two of his novels – _Liquid Fear_ and _The Skull Ring_.

I’m especially inspired by Scott every day, when I track my Amazon rankings in two of my genres – thrillers and political thrillers and see his novels peppered throughout, starting at the top of each ranking.

As far as prose and personalities go, Dean, John, and Scott are quite different but they have each helped me and inspired me a great deal. What these three successful and prolific writers taught me the most can be boiled down to this … 

To be a successful fiction writer you have to write well, write a lot … and let ‘em know you’ve written it!

Now rinse and repeat.

Author Bio

Gerard de Marigny is the author of the geopolitical thriller, _The Watchman of Ephraim_, Book 1 of THE Cris De Niro series. The sequel, _Signs of War_ is scheduled for release in September 2011.

Gerard de Marigny resides in the beautiful foothills of Las Vegas, NV with his wife Lisa and his four sons. When not bending an arm with friends at the local pub, he's putting to paper the stories and characters that are alive in his mind.

Author/Publisher Sites

Author's Website: www.GerarddeMarigny.com

Author's Blog: SelfPubber's Pub

Social Networking Sites

Facebook Page: www.Facebook.com/GerarddeM

Twitter: www.twitter.com/GerarddeMarigny

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/gerard_demarigny

LinkedIn: www.LinkedIn.com/in/GerarddeMarigny

MySpace: www.MySpace.com/GerarddeMarigny

Buy Links

Amazon: Gerard de Marigny Books

Barnes & Noble: Gerard de Marigny Books

Smashwords (all eBook formats): _The Watchman of Ephraim_

Personalized, signed copies are available at the author's website: www.GerarddeMarigny.com (all transactions secure via PayPal)

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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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Bookstore guilt: Not Interested

The closing of Borders led to a rash of articles like this one lamenting the loss of bookshelves, delivering the underlying message that now people will have fewer places to get books and caring people should all feel sad and depressed. Such nostalgia-driven sentiments are understandable, and you can't tell someone what they should feel nostalgia about (any more than you can tell them which faith to have or whom to fall in love with), but the arguments are logically flawed.

The reality is bookshelves are expanding at a more rapid rate than ever. The decline in new paper books is way more than offset by the avalanche of new digital titles. And it's not just the current crop of indie authors leading the charge. Small presses and digital publishers are staying fast and lean, moving rapidly to take advantage of the era's opportunities.

I don't celebrate the decline of bookstores, but I am not overly nostalgic about them, either. While I have done numerous signings in them and purchased books there, I get much of my reading material at thrift shops, yard sales, and the library. I am not a collector. Aside from a few core favorites, I read a book and then pass it on. I don't feel smarter standing in a bookstore, and even though I might discover titles by browsing, I see exponentially more titles on my computer every single day. And I don't think people are going to go out of their way to support inconvenient behaviors such as driving to the store unless they want the experience instead of the product.

My father-in-law was once CEO of a chain of 100 family-owned retail stores in the Midwest. They were expanding rapidly though the 1960s and 1970s. Then some Wal-Mart executives came to the family and showed the Sam Walton plan for market domination and made a reasonable offer to buy out the family chain, more as a courtesy than a cut-throat business move. After all, Wal-Mart planned to kill the chain one way or another and had little to gain with the offer.

My father-in-law said the family turned down the deal because Wal-Mart's plan was "impossible." The traditional retail business was built on a profit margin of 33 percent, while Wal-Mart was planning a 28 percent margin. It would never work, and even if it did, customers would remain loyal to the family chain where they'd been shopping for decades, even if they had to pay just a little bit more.

Wrong and wrong. The family chain collapsed within several years, and my father-in-law said the big shocking lesson was that people DID NOT CARE about nostalgia. They were going to go to the place that gave them the best deal at the most convenient location.

I was at a little bookstore in a small Kentucky town recently and I asked the owner if she could survive the digital revolution. She said, "People will always want books." I told her she had a great location, and she answered "This used to be the town bus station." She did not see the irony.

Just because bookstores die doesn't mean people will read any less. In fact, we are reading more, because it's cheaper, more convenient, and most of us have a device at our fingertips for reading. I am not going to feel guilty because "we didn't save the bookstores." The closing of a bookstore doesn't make us morally weaker, dumber, or less civilized. It's not a referendum on our ability to communicate or our intellectual curiosity. It's not any kind of harbinger at all except for the simple one that the bookstores are not serving our collective needs at enough volume to maintain a profit.

We aren't killing bookstores. We are birthing a new Golden Era of literature, by writing and reading and sharing ideas, and that's far, far more important.

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Today I talk about how I am not as good as I used to be over at Elizabeth White's All-Purpose Monkey blog: http://www.elizabethawhite.com/2011/07/21/the-indie-journey-by-scott-nicholson/

Also talking writing and indie publishing at the WG2E blog

And my regular Indie Reader Column this week is "The Words Are Still The Same": http://indiereader.com/2011/07/the-words-are-still-the-same/

Working on a couple of interesting deals, and I have a HUGE event coming in September--and it's going to put money and gift cards and free books in your pocket. The best way to keep up is to either follow this blog or sign up for my newsletter at scottsinnercircle-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

It's going to be so crazy even I don't believe it yet...but I am pretty sure it's never been done and is likely to fail spectacularly. Don't miss it!
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Cheryl Shireman: Summer Book Club

Cheryl's one of the dynamos behind the Summer Book Club, in which nine bestselling writers are selling and giving away a book (free at Smashwords) to raise awareness of the Joplin MO Library Relief Fund.

I BURNED MY BRA FOR THIS? ONE WOMAN’S FANTASY

I’m a Baby Boomer. Which means that I remember bell-bottoms, Happy Days, and having only three channels on the television. I played Donny Osmond albums on a record player. My parents watched Gunsmoke, and on Sunday nights we all watched The Wonderful World of Disney. In the living room. Together. On the only television we owned. Imagine that! I remember the first time I saw Bonanza in color. I remember the first time I heard about remote controls for televisions. The whole idea seemed ridiculous. With three channels, really, how often would it be needed? I remember the Watergate hearings playing on the television when I came home from school.  

I also remember watching feminists (does anyone use that word anymore?) burn their bras and march for equal rights. I grew up believing that a woman deserves equal pay for equal work and that a woman is not defined by the man she marries or by the children she gives birth to. In fact, we were told that both men and children were optional. The idea seemed revolutionary at the time. It still does. Women were mad as hell and they weren’t taking it anymore. We called it Women’s Liberation, and though it was never said, it was certainly implied (and believed in most circles) that a woman who did not work was a bit inferior to a career woman.

That was when such women were called housewives and not “stay at home” moms. Women were divided into two groups – those who worked and those who didn’t. Back then, no one thought that staying home and taking care of a family and home was work. The women of my generation wanted more, demanded more, and believed we were entitled to just that – more. We sometimes looked at our own mothers, most of whom did not have real jobs, as women who simply did not understand that there was more to life than being a mother. If truth be told, we thought they were a bit simple-minded and we secretly vowed to do more with our lives. 

And yet…as this Baby Boomer looks at her life, I realize nothing I have ever done, or will ever do, is as important as being a mother. Not career, volunteer work, graduate school, or any creative pursuit. Nothing else even comes close to being a mother. Period.

One of my children lives half an hour away, another is one state away, and the third is on the other side of the world in Denmark. Yesterday, my husband and I spent the entire day with our two-year-old granddaughter. She then spent the night. As I write this, I hear her gentle breathing in the baby monitor positioned atop the table close to where I sit.

To say that my children, and now my granddaughter, have filled my life with love and joy is an understatement. As children, they expanded my heart in ways I could never have imagined. For the first time in my life, I not only understood, but received unconditional love. As adults, they are three people that I know I can always count on. They will always be there for me. Just as I will always be there for them. Can you say the same about your career?

There used to be a tv show called Fantasy Island. People visited the island and lived out their fantasies – no matter how wild (okay, not that wild – this was primetime family tv in the seventies). Not too long ago, my husband and I had a discussion about that old tv show and asked each other – What would your fantasy be? Mine was easy. If I could have a Fantasy Island day, I would relive one day with my children. My son would be 10, which would make my daughters 4 and 2. We would spend the day doing whatever they wanted. Going to the park, going to the movies, playing games, baking cookies, or just sitting on the floor playing with Legos and Barbies. I would hug them a lot. And kiss the tops of their heads. And take tons of pictures. I wouldn’t cook. I wouldn’t clean. And I wouldn’t worry about my career.

I would watch my son show his younger sisters how to do things, like he always did in his older brother sort of way. I would watch my 2 year-old daughter follow her older 4 year-old sister around the room, shadowing her every move. Just as she did, even through their college years when they shared an apartment near Indiana University. I would watch the older sister taking care of her younger sister, as if she were her baby. Which is what she called her when she was born – my baby.

Bedtime would be later than usual on that fantasy night. I would tuck them into their beds, fresh from baths and smelling of shampoo. The girls smelling like baby lotion. My son would hug me goodnight with his long skinny arms and tell me he loves me. And I would feel the truth in that. I would tuck in my girls and tell them it is time to go to sleep. I would take extra care in covering the older girl’s feet, because she always kicked her blankets off during the night. I would kiss the baby and hold her a little longer, because I would know that, as I type this she is in Denmark which makes visiting tough.

And, as I walk down the hall and turn out the lights, I would call out to all of them, as I always did… “Goodnight. Love you. Sweet dreams. See you in the morning.”

And that would be my fantasy day. Oddly enough, it has nothing to do with my career as a writer. Even though being a writer has always been my dream. My first novel, Life is But a Dream, was published earlier this year. The main character, Grace Adams, is a woman facing an empty nest and the possible demise of her marriage. Grace withdraws to a secluded lake cabin to redefine her life and try to find a reason to continue living. While at the lake, Grace not only finds renewed purpose and hope, but when things take a turn for the worse at the lake, she finds a strength she never knew she possessed. The novel is thought-provoking, sometimes frightening, and often funny (just like life). It is also, very definitely, fiction. 

Even though my “nest” is empty, I am enjoying this time and this new focus on my career. I am not suicidal or lacking in purpose. My husband and I both work from home (he designs websites), we live on a lake, and our schedule is our own. It is truly a wonderful time in our lives. Sometimes I have popcorn for dinner. Enough said. 

But, would my current life be as wonderful if I had not pursued career and graduate school and developed the skills I am using now? Probably not. I managed to combine work and school and motherhood. I believed I could have it all, and do it all, but to be honest – the kids always came first. And being a mother is the strongest and best part of my identity. It is the thing I am most proud of. My greatest achievement. And, once in a while, I miss those days when toys where scattered across the floor, the washer was always running, and we bought eight gallons of milk a week.

If you have children at home, cherish those simple every-day moments with them. They really will be gone in the blink of an eye – sooner than you can possibly imagine. Get off of your computer. Now. Go sit on the floor and play a game. Pop some popcorn, put on one of their favorite movies, and cuddle up on the couch. Live that “fantasy” right now. You will never be able to recapture these moments again. Enjoy them now. There is no greater gift than the love of your children. Spend the rest of your day letting it pour over you. And pour your love right back over them.

As I type this, I can hear my granddaughter waking up. I am shutting my computer off, too. Right now, I am going to go upstairs and scoop her up from her crib. She will probably wrap her little arms around my neck and ask, “Play blocks, Bomb Bomb?”

And we will play blocks.

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Cheryl Shireman is the author of Life is But a Dream which can be purchased as an ebook for 99 cents at Amazon US  Amazon UK  Barnes&Noble  or as a paperback for 11.99 at the Amazon locations. Learn more about Cheryl at her website and blog at http://www.cherylshireman.com or by following her on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/cherylshireman or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/cherylshireman or her books page http://www.facebook.com/cherylshiremanbooks
 
She will be doing a live Facebook chat on Saturday July 9^th at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time at http://www.facebook.com/summerbookclub  Please join us with your questions for Cheryl!
 (thanks for stopping by, Cheryl!)

Self-Publishing Agents: Unnecessary Evils

Two prominent names in self-publishing (Barry Eisler and J.A. Konrath) are presenting the case that agents have a desirable role as facilitators for authors who choose to self-publish. Barry makes a rational argument at Joe's blog, and Joe himself is trying it with his existing agent. The basic premise is the agent handles the cover, the formatting, and the uploading and derives a 15 percent commission (the same commission the agent would make selling a book to a U.S. publisher). Joe calls them "estributors" but they are not distributing the book to readers, they are distributing them to distributors, which puts them more in a wholesale role, except of course they aren't selling anything.

I respect their experience (Barry is married to an agent, and he'd probably BE a good agent if he so chose), and Joe is probably the most educated self-pubber on the planet, but I just don't see why agents should be considered ideal candidates for this task. What is an agent's current job and experience? To assess a manuscript and find a market.

In self-publishing, they do neither. Their assessment skills have zero value in self-publishing. Right now they assess with one measure: can I sell this to one of the few dozen editors in New York? Self-publishing requires no assessment, unless the agent says, "Whoa, this is crap, you can't publish this!" And who is going to lose their 15 percent to be that blunt? The agent's second role and experience is also rendered useless. The market is already there, and it's the millions of readers owning electronic devices or ordering print-on-demand books.

Presumably they aren't editing the manuscript (which is a different skill that an agent may or may not be qualified for), but it's certainly not a task the facilitator is handling. Let's assume the facilitator knows cover artists. You still have to describe the book, send suggestions, approve the cover file, and basically DO EVERYTHING you would have done on your own except make the first contact (find your own designer) and the last (upload the final file). And you're paying for it, I assume, unless the facilitator is footing some risk and cost.

Okay, the agent can format your file, or have that service arranged. Ted Risk at Dellaster Design will do a very clean epub and mobi for $89. A one-time fee with a fast turnaround time. The "facilitated" author still has to email the MS Word file to the agent/self-pub facilitator, who then sends it to a formatter or has one in-house. The author has merely saved two steps: (1) receiving the formatted file back from the formatting service and (2) uploading it to the markets.

Even if the agent/self-pub facilitator is writing the product description, that won't be written in a vacuum. The author will still have to outline it,  proof it, and suggest keywords, because even IF the agent reads the book, the agent will never understand it as well as the author (this is actually true of the cover design, too). Time saved: not much. It actually sounds like more work to me.

Employing someone in this role means giving up 15 percent for the entire life of copyright, for a book remaining on sale forever, for a job not only saving the author hardly any time at all, but possibly even CREATING MORE WORK FOR THE AUTHOR!

Yes, now you have an employee/partner to manage, and account for, and play email and phone tag with, and the money that could flow straight to your bank account every month will now be held by someone else who MAY, if you're lucky, dispense it quarterly, removing their share first. In my experience in the publishing world, the biggest risk in the entire venture is letting ANYONE handle your money when you don't have to. Too many things can go wrong. I am not saying fraud is likely, but imagine how hard it would be to audit Amazon if you thought your sales figures weren't adding up. And then imagine how hard it would be to audit an Agent/ Self-Pub Facilitator when sales figures don't add up from multiple revenue streams.

No, I am not suggesting all agents are shady and that 15 percent may magically expand to 50 percent under the table. But what would you do if it did? How are you going to audit six or 10 different distributor payments every month or three? Personally, I'd rather have my money shoot straight into my bank account. And in three years, when all the agent does is trim 15 percent before sending the rest on its way, and is not adding any new value at all, an author may just get a little bit resentful, even if everyone kept their word.

(Okay, I forgot the third role and experience of an agent: handling your money. Don't forget, agents are have no certification, degree, membership association, regulatory oversight, or even uniform code of ethics. Most are self-selecting English grads who moved to New York and hung out a shingle. There aren't a lot of accountants and MBAs on the agency rosters. But you're willing to give them your money just because they once were necessary evils?)

Okay, that being said, IF I thought such a service was valuable (and I clearly don't because my overhead on Liquid Fear was exactly $6 and a few hours of time, and it's earned me more than any book I've ever written, including ones that had dozens of fingerprints on them, and I get paid regularly, and heck, sounds like I'd be a better estributor than almost every agent on the planet, except I don't want to handle your money), I would prefer to have an experienced and downsized New York editor handle the task.

While an agent has never picked out a book cover, editors have. While an agent has never handled promotion, editors have. While an agent has never assessed a manuscript's value in the true marketplace of readers, editors have. While an agent has rarely handled layout or formatting, most editors are at least aware of the process, if not having hands-on experience. Agents handle the very front end of a book, an abstract idea with no intrinsic value. Editors are solidly on both edges of the middle of book production.

But the real question is, why would you assume anyone with experience in traditional publishing knows ANYTHING about what is happening right now? Indeed, it's the outliers who seem to be the most successful, not those who are most closely imitating the old model. I am not relishing the fact that a once-respected profession may soon be on the ropes, but I don't need my blood on the canvas to keep agents in the ring.

There's a great Harlan Ellison line in his story Mephisto in Onyx: "Don't confuse a thousand years of experience with the same year of experience a thousand times." If you want to be the monkey, you'll climb higher if you don't have a gang of carnivorous dinosaurs sinking their teeth into your back.

(Update: I talked with Joe a few days ago and under his deal, the agent pays for cover and formatting, so those costs are included in the 15 percent. Makes the deal SLIGHTLY better, but I still believe it doesn't save any work at all and adds risk and complication. Joe also foresees marketing clout one day but I have to ask, where is the agent suddenly going to learn book marketing in the digital era? Picking up a primer on social media? Writers already know more than agents. We've been forced to do so.)

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If you want more of this type of insight imbued with passion and scars and joy, why not try The Indie Journey: Secrets to Writing Success, on sale in July for $2.99 at
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/58806
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Indie-Journey-.../dp/B0050I5TXA
BN.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/indie-journey-scott-nicholson/1101046538
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A Book Bucket List from Guido Henkel

A guest post from Guido Henkel, a indie author who is generous in sharing technical information as well as delivering the spooky fun Jason Dark series)

As you are reading this, I have just released Curse of Kali, the tenth Jason Dark supernatural mystery that I have written. Taking place in Victorian England, it is once again a riveting mystery that our occult detective has to solve — though this time he has some help from a very, very famous detective of his time, also.

Releasing a book is always a little like the end of school. You take a breath, sit back and just kick back for a tick, enjoying the moment with a clean slate.

For me, this usually also means I need something new to read. The past weeks have kept me busy with rewrites, edits and the preparations for the launch and I did not have a whole lot of time to read other than my own stuff.

So, as I am trying to decide upon a new book, — most likely one I’ve been pushing off for too long — it occurred to me that there should be some kind of list of books that everyone should read. I’m not talking about the classics like Dickinson, Shakespeare, Kafka or even books like Dracula where it is implied that everyone has read them. No, I’m talking about books that I have read over the years and that impressed me so much that I would like to recommend them to you with my warmest regards. They are the books I would not want to have missed out on. Of course, such a list can never be complete and reflects my own personal taste, so feel free to suggest other books that you find too valuable to be missed.

So here goes my Book Bucket List for you in no particular order

• The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Mars, by Ben Bova
• The List of Seven, by Mark Frost
• The Sword of Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
• Brimstone, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
• The Horatio Hornblower Series, bt C. S. Forrester
• Crime Beat, by Scott Nicholson (ed. note: I didn't put this in here!)
• There will be Dragons, by John Ringo
• The Seance, by John Harwood
• Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden

And then last, but not least, Curse of Kali. Yes, I know it reeks of self-promotion but if you want to know how Jason Dark and Sherlock Holmes met for the first time in their lives, you have to read this mystery. If you have only half as much fun reading it as I had writing it, we should all be in for a treat.
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Don't Quit Your Day Job

Mark this on your calendar: Feb. 19, 2011.

It's the day I became (or am becoming) a full-time fiction writer. Well, also an editor, gardener, and occasional non-fiction writer. Plus maybe other things for money. But it's cool to say, very pompously, "A-hem, I am a full-time fiction writer." Back when I was a writer, I never told people I was a writer. Now I'm a writer and I feel pretty much the same, except I wear clothes with holes in them and don't have to comb my hair.

Anyway, when they unroll the crumbling scrolls in 2049 and look back at the myth that was Scott Nicholson, this will be the birth date. I expect to fail spectacularly, but it also feels so completely natural, as if all my life has pointed and led to this, that resistance is futile. Success, come and take me. I no longer fight you, and I'm no longer afraid one way or another.

Help me celebrate by spreading the word about my fantasy collection FLOWERS,  99 cents at Amazon and BN.com.

Well, coincidentally, I babble some at Midnyte Review. 

September Zombie event

Velvet at VVB is running a zombie event for the end of September--http://vvb32reads.blogspot.com/2010/08/september-zombies-schedule-2010.html I'll be giving away a Murdermouth copy and doing some other things. Looks like some cool bloggers involved so give them some love.

Also the Pandora's Box is over 100 e-books now, sow make sure you follow me on Twitter to be eligible!

Working on a four-way novella with Steve Lockley, Steven Savile, and William Meikle, it is definitely interesting and a little different, especially since they are all Brits! They'll have ot fix my slang.


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Four Ways to Be A Better Reader

I've heard that people are more likely to read a blog with short bulleted lists because then they can skim to the most useful information. So I am leaving out all the information you don't need and hitting the high spots (but I'll bet you didn't read this because you went right to the bullets.)

1. Use your library. If you haven't been in a while, your library is not just books anymore. I love to grab audiobooks for long car trips. It's sort of like averaging an extra book per week. They also have computers!

2. Read aloud to kids. You want your kids to develop good habits and be able to educate themselves, or else they will have to rely on others for an education that's probably going to suit the educator better than it suits the child. Any reading is good reading--comics, picture books, tweets, blogs, Don't just cram down the usual "classics." MOBY DICK has killed the joy of reading in millions of teens. TWILIGHT has created millions of readers.

3. Diversify. Keep a book by the bed, by the tub, in the seat of your car for red-light stops; try e-books, you may find them convenient. While buying books supports more writing and books, free and cheap is good, too.

4. Spread the love. Tell friends about books you like and engage in conversations. You might be surprised who else has read the same book. That's a better, more intimate connection than "American Idol."

There. How to be a better reader without having to read too much about being a better reader!

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