Simon Wood: It's No Accident

This guy's probably one of the more humble writers around--anyone else hitting #2 on the Kindle bestseller list behind Janet Evanovich would be screaming about how great they were. But I've known Simon Wood since before the Kindle era, and he's just a hard-working and talented writer who takes nothing for granted. A former PI and race-car driver, he's won a slew of mystery awards for his short fiction and now he's getting a wider audience with his novels after publishing in paperback with Leisure books and other presses.

His fiction features lots of twists, duplicitous characters, con men, liars, conniving females, backstabbers, and well-crafted writing.

1. First, congratulations on your success. Since we've been sharing ideas for a while, along with Debbi Mack, it's good to see we've all had some luck. And for you, it must seem like a slow grind to the top of the Kindle bestseller list, while from a distance it may seem you're an overnight success. What do you think created the tipping point to break through?

Yes, It’s been a slow haul from my point of view.

I think the success surrounding ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN came from having a game plan for the book.  I have eleven books in eBook form, but I made the decision to focus on one title at a time instead of all of them at once, because it’s too much noise for the readers if have too many titles for people to choose from.  I got ACCIDENTS out to bloggers and review sites with strong followings and provided them with copies of the book.  Their endorsements got some sales traction.  People saw that and they in turn discovered the book and recommended it and momentum took over. 

In the end, there seemed to be some website mentioning the book every day and that helped push the book in Amazon top 100 at the beginning of the month.  Then Amazon endorsed the book by sending out an email blast and it pushed the book over the top.  While there was no predicting what Amazon did, I think the tipping started three months ago when I made sure there was a grass roots following for the book.  Once people latched onto it, I helped give it a nudge.  The trick is to now repeat the success with my other titles.

2. What's the difference between being a midlist paperback writer and a successful indie author?
I’m more in touch with how well a title is performing than with my paperback books.  I won’t really know for weeks/months how well a paperback has done because the chain of custody is so long from bookstore to author, because of the delay from the bookstore, to distributor, to publisher and finally to me. In that situation, it’s hard to react to make the book a better seller.  With eBooks, I get to see how well my e-titles perform in real time and I can react accordingly.

3. Any general tips for the aspiring writers out there?
Take your writing seriously.  You may be new, but any time you put anything out for public consumption, you have a responsibility to the reader.  Make sure it’s the best work you can physically produce.  Make sure your book is edited and copy edited as good as any book put out by New York.  And remember, just because you’ve published a book, don’t think your work is done.  It won’t sell simply because it’s available.  Get it into the hands of reviewers and bloggers who will recommend it.

4. You have a diverse background. How does that spill over into your writing?
Probably the biggest way it shows up in my writing is by way of conflict.  I’ve seen firsthand and secondhand how people react to pressure situations.  Sometimes people triumph and sometimes they fail.  And failure leads to people making some spectacular errors in judgment.  This is great fuel for crime fiction.  Human fragility is always interesting.  Some people tell me they wouldn’t do what my characters do in my books, but you’d be surprised how people will react when their backs are against the wall.

5. What can readers expect next?
Print-wise, I have a new mystery series set in the world of motorsport.  The first book is called DID NOT FINISH and it’s loosely based on something that happened when I used to race.  There’ll be a paperback version of my eBook THE FALL GUY which will be out in November.  Ebook-wise, I hope to be releasing the first in the Terry Sheffield mysteries, which features an English guy who becomes a county sheriff in California.  The first book is called, NO SHOW and will be out before the end of the year.

Thanks, Simon, and best of luck--and all the other stuff besides luck!

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Der Schädelring: Romantischer Thriller

This is pretty cool. I am not a "numbers screamer," because I believe if you brag about how well you are doing when times are good, you should in all fairness be a whining, sullen, unpopular toad when your sales slide. In reality, the words are exactly the same and YOU are exactly the same. Just because you sell books doesn't make you a better writer nor a better much of anything except, for that particular moment, someone who is selling some books. And it will end. It always does. So bragging is never cool.

That said, I want to give a shout out to Christa Polkinhorn for translating The Skull Ring, because Der Schadelring is #122 in the entire German Kindle store. It is cool. But not ego-boosting, "Take that, Gunter Grass" cool, because we're only selling three or four a day. So what this tells me is the German market is very, very small right now. And I wish I had 30 German books, because the market is there for the taking. And I expect that pattern to duplicate as we make our way around the world with Amazon and Kindle. Thanks, Christa! Danke schoen. And all you translators, call me and let's avoid being toads.

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When Things Get Bloody

A guest post by J.T. Warren on his novel Blood Mountain:

I love movies like The Last House on the Left (especially the old version but the new one gets the job done) or I Spit on Your Grave where the unlucky female protagonist is besieged by madmen who rape her and leave her for dead but instead of surrendering, the traumatized woman finds the strength not only to survive, but to get some blood-drenched revenge.  These kinds of movies and novels are often pushed aside as tasteless forays into the darkest corners of the human mind where decent people would never dare to tread.

They might have a point, but I've never been one to spend all my time with the decent folk.  And when I meander down the slope into those dark caves, I always find someone there who wasn't before, someone whose curiosity got the better of them and now that they've seen what was once so taboo, they are unwilling to leave.  The view from the darkness, you see, is a glimpse of genuine truth.  It may be horrible and unpleasant at times, but it is honest.  Many people would rather ignore that.  Personally, I love settling into a cozy corner down there in the dark, waiting for my eyes to adjust, and watching what happens when people confront their fears.

That's what I've tried to do in BLOOD MOUNTAIN.  There are some very unpleasant parts, some graphic descriptions, and, of course, an awful lot of blood.  There's a man named Victor who believes the End of Everything is fast approaching and it is his job to help "cleanse" the world for the coming Dark Time.  He wants Mercy Higgins to be his companion, his love, and he will get that love by any means necessary.  He even has a shiny collection of knives to help persuade her.  When Mercy and her father hike up the mountain outside of town, Victor believes it is his time to get what he wants.  Mercy will confront evil and discover the depths of human depravity and cruelty.  But Blood Mountain is no ordinary place.  Just look at the mysterious crows that circle the mountain and seem to lust for blood.  This is a dark place, no doubt, and in order to survive, Mercy must harness the darkness within her.  Sometimes that can be the scariest place of all. 

If you dare to travel where the decent folk would never go, please come to Blood Mountain.  Don't worry, I know the trail very well, and I know when we're being followed.  Stay close and I promise you'll make it to the end.  But you may get a little bloody. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YR8JHG

http://www.authorjtwarren.blogspot.com/

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Kindle Summer Book Club

Nine bestselling authors and one free book.

The Summer Book Club features stories, articles, and novel excerpts from thriller writers in the United States and United Kingdom, all for free at Smashwords and BN.com. The book will be 99 cents at Amazon, with all proceeds going to disaster recovery in Joplin, Mo.

Features H.P. Mallory, Cheryl Shireman, Victorine Lieske, Dan Holloway, Sibel Hodge, Mark Edwards, Louise Voss, Saffina Desforges, and J. Carson Black, as well as my own contributions. We'll have a summer of events and giveaways as well, so be sure to follow our Facebook page for the event. Mystery, paranormal, thrills, chills, and romance all in one tight little package.

Stay tuned for more!
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Loving the Hate

I've been a pretty casual sports fan most of my life, though NFL football is my main sports passion now. I got drawn back into the NBA this playoff season for the first time since the Jordan-Bird-Magic days primarily because of the drama surrounding LeBron James and his arrogant, oblivious treatment of fans and my feeling that he was a symbol of all that was wrong with sports and our modern culture.

It's hard to believe now, but when I went back to college to get my degree in the mid-1990s, my goal was to enter sportscasting or a sports-related media field. But the advent of ESPN, the cancerous me-firstism of idiots like Chris Berman, and the adoration of announcer hair gel and blustery opinion over what was actually happening on the court or field quickly repelled me.

Now here I was driven back into a "love of the game" solely because of hate. I hated LeBron James, and I cheered for his Miami Heat to lose. His life of pampered ease, his lack of loyalty, his attempting to take the easy way to a championship instead of shouldering the burden to lift a lesser team to the trophy all seemed reasons to root against him. After his team's failure in the championship series, and his poor, gutless performance, he sat in his post-game conference and chided all of us haters because we had to get up on Monday and go back to our regular, mundane lives while he went to his mansion and a summer of jet-setting celebrity ease.

And my hatred turned to sorrow. Because I realized my hate was just another form of what he was engaging in--a lack of humility and a certainty of what the universe should look like. I didn't want him to win the easy way. Now it will be hard. If he can win now, it will be because he took a deep examination of his life and the sycophants he surrounded himself with, the buffers from the reality we "normal" people face every day. Yet we all know of failure, and overcoming tough odds, and how victory is sweeter when it's tempered on the forge of hardship and sacrifice. If he can do that, I'd love to watch, and even cheer for him.

Sports may not have a lot to do with writing, but today I am incredibly grateful for my own blessings. A hillbilly nerd sitting at his keyboard can live out his dream--but failure was pretty common for many years. Rejection, bad decisions, and pure bad timing and luck all kept a goal out of my reach, even though I had enough ego and hubris to sustain me when success was elusive--there was always someone else to blame. But I never doubted. At least, never enough to stop writing. I somehow figured it would all work out, and either way, I wouldn't know what else to do.

Failure is not only always an option, it's the default setting. Today I celebrate faith, love, and possibility, so why not rise above wishing failure on someone else? Winning inside your own heart is better than winning any championship, trophy, or prize.
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American Horror at Smashwords

Bestselling urban fantasy author HP Mallory hosted me at her blog: http://urbanfantasyauthor.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-indie-author-scott.html. Check out her books, she is funny.

Heading off to the North Carolina coast for four days to do a little research for a secret project, as well as take a dip in the ocean. I won't be doing any fishing this trip but may get out on a boat or two. Also, I just released American Horror, an anthology I edited as a communal project. Featuring eight great horror stories from the likes of Maria Alexander, Joseph Nassise, Joe McKinney, Nate Kenyon, and more. Sample it at Smashwords

New column up

Latest Indie Reader column "Indier Than Thou" up at
http://indiereader.com/2011/05/indier-than-thou/ . My advice? Do whatever works best for you today, because tomorrow will change one way or another. Or maybe you will change. Still working on the Liquid Fear sequel. As they say, these stories don't write themselves.

Liquid Fear is hanging in there...51 days in the Kindle Top 100. Grab a copy while it's cheap, as I'll be raising the price once it's out of the Top 100.

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