Vincent Zandri's Blog, page 13
September 23, 2011
Is Rejection Good for You?
The following blog is now appearing at the Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
There's been a lot of chatter lately about the e-Book market being flooded with crappy books from writers who would, under traditional publishing circumstances, not only be rejected by major publishers but also by most discerning agents. In other words, their writing sucks. But being able to publish your own book these days means you don't have to go through the often terrible trials that most editors can put upon a budding author by lambasting said literary neophyte with rejection after rejection.
Like my dad always says, "But that's the job."
I entered into the literary arena as a traditionalist back in the early '90s, having started out at a local newspaper, then working my way up to regional magazines, and eventually national publications. I wrote my first publishable short story in 1991 after four or five years of writing nothing that was publishable. Or, at least, nothing that was ever accepted by a decent literary magazine or journal. Then I went to writing school where I began my first full-length novel that was to become As Catch Can and later, The Innocent. It sold to Delacorte almost immediately upon my graduation and for a time, it looked like rejection, and the ugly horse she road in on, was a thing of the past. Forever.
Then came the dismantling of my publishing house, and "Catch" was largely forgotten about. I published one more novel with the biggies, Godchild, but by then, the Big 6 were already entering into a tailspin of consolidation and house cleaning. Having earned a major six-figure advance I was now out on my ass as they say, and only as good as my next manuscript.
I wrote that manuscript and while my agent loved it, it was rejected by the big six. So I wrote another one. That one got rejected. It wasn't the quality of the writing I was told, it was my having not earned out my advance. But that wasn't my fault I bellowed. No one wanted to hear it. My argument was rejected.
Still I labored on, and wrote yet one more novel. Same story. No one would take me on.
In the meantime, other forms of rejection awaited me. Friends rejected me for being down in the dumps. My max'd out credit cards rejected me. My emptying bank accounts rejected me. A good night's sleep rejected me. Health rejected me. My ability to quit smoking rejected me (I've since been smoke free for 6 years, but bear with me) Even my new lovely wife, who was growing inpatient with my inability to make a living, rejected the crap out of me. So did her family. They wanted me to give up full-time writing and go to work for my dad's business, whom I had worked for in the past while honing my skills. Problem was, if I worked full-time, I couldn't write. And I knew in my heart that the only way to break through the hell-hole of rejection was to write. Not write "on the side" as some of them were saying.
So I persevered, even when my wife divorced me. My life might have entered into a tailspin of rejection and humiliation for a year or so, but always, the writing was my constant. It was the light I could rely upon in the midst of all that darkness.
When Moonlight Falls got accepted by a small press, and did very well I was elated. Later when The Remains was accepted by StoneHouse Ink and produced as an e-Book first, I was entirely skeptical that anything good could come out of it. I had no idea about e-Books and initially rejected the notion that they would replace paper as the dominant manner of reading. But when it eventually hit the Top 100 and then the Top 20, I was hooked.
You would think that I might cut the cord at that point, and kick rejection in the ass and simply self publish from that point forward. But something in my gut told me to continue with the traditional route. The process, while grueling and often times frustrating, still worked for me. Which is why I prefer to continue working with an agent who reads my manuscripts first for their quality and promise. Later on, my publisher will do the very same thing. If they reject it, there's probably a good reason. You know, like it sucks or something (Luckily this hasn't happened yet...I'm on a roll as they say).
Now I'm not only working with StoneHouse Ink, but I'm signing a 7 book deal with Thomas & Mercer, potentially the biggest powerhouse publisher on the block. I have many more novels in me that will have to be read by my agent first and then my editor at T&M. Even though I could simply publish the novels myself, I choose to go this route and risk being rejected yet again.
Why?
Because for me...and I speak only for me...risking rejection makes me a better writer. And it's more important for me to have a reader tell me Concrete Pearl or Scream Catcher was "brilliantly written," than to be in the Amazon Top 10. Ok, well, I lie, that rocks too (The Innocent graced the Top 10 for 7 weeks...). But if I'm going to be a writer who not only has staying power, but whose audience continues to grow and expand all over the globe, then every now and then, a little ass kicking might do me some good.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
There's been a lot of chatter lately about the e-Book market being flooded with crappy books from writers who would, under traditional publishing circumstances, not only be rejected by major publishers but also by most discerning agents. In other words, their writing sucks. But being able to publish your own book these days means you don't have to go through the often terrible trials that most editors can put upon a budding author by lambasting said literary neophyte with rejection after rejection.
Like my dad always says, "But that's the job."
I entered into the literary arena as a traditionalist back in the early '90s, having started out at a local newspaper, then working my way up to regional magazines, and eventually national publications. I wrote my first publishable short story in 1991 after four or five years of writing nothing that was publishable. Or, at least, nothing that was ever accepted by a decent literary magazine or journal. Then I went to writing school where I began my first full-length novel that was to become As Catch Can and later, The Innocent. It sold to Delacorte almost immediately upon my graduation and for a time, it looked like rejection, and the ugly horse she road in on, was a thing of the past. Forever.
Then came the dismantling of my publishing house, and "Catch" was largely forgotten about. I published one more novel with the biggies, Godchild, but by then, the Big 6 were already entering into a tailspin of consolidation and house cleaning. Having earned a major six-figure advance I was now out on my ass as they say, and only as good as my next manuscript.
I wrote that manuscript and while my agent loved it, it was rejected by the big six. So I wrote another one. That one got rejected. It wasn't the quality of the writing I was told, it was my having not earned out my advance. But that wasn't my fault I bellowed. No one wanted to hear it. My argument was rejected.
Still I labored on, and wrote yet one more novel. Same story. No one would take me on.
In the meantime, other forms of rejection awaited me. Friends rejected me for being down in the dumps. My max'd out credit cards rejected me. My emptying bank accounts rejected me. A good night's sleep rejected me. Health rejected me. My ability to quit smoking rejected me (I've since been smoke free for 6 years, but bear with me) Even my new lovely wife, who was growing inpatient with my inability to make a living, rejected the crap out of me. So did her family. They wanted me to give up full-time writing and go to work for my dad's business, whom I had worked for in the past while honing my skills. Problem was, if I worked full-time, I couldn't write. And I knew in my heart that the only way to break through the hell-hole of rejection was to write. Not write "on the side" as some of them were saying.
So I persevered, even when my wife divorced me. My life might have entered into a tailspin of rejection and humiliation for a year or so, but always, the writing was my constant. It was the light I could rely upon in the midst of all that darkness.
When Moonlight Falls got accepted by a small press, and did very well I was elated. Later when The Remains was accepted by StoneHouse Ink and produced as an e-Book first, I was entirely skeptical that anything good could come out of it. I had no idea about e-Books and initially rejected the notion that they would replace paper as the dominant manner of reading. But when it eventually hit the Top 100 and then the Top 20, I was hooked.
You would think that I might cut the cord at that point, and kick rejection in the ass and simply self publish from that point forward. But something in my gut told me to continue with the traditional route. The process, while grueling and often times frustrating, still worked for me. Which is why I prefer to continue working with an agent who reads my manuscripts first for their quality and promise. Later on, my publisher will do the very same thing. If they reject it, there's probably a good reason. You know, like it sucks or something (Luckily this hasn't happened yet...I'm on a roll as they say).
Now I'm not only working with StoneHouse Ink, but I'm signing a 7 book deal with Thomas & Mercer, potentially the biggest powerhouse publisher on the block. I have many more novels in me that will have to be read by my agent first and then my editor at T&M. Even though I could simply publish the novels myself, I choose to go this route and risk being rejected yet again.
Why?
Because for me...and I speak only for me...risking rejection makes me a better writer. And it's more important for me to have a reader tell me Concrete Pearl or Scream Catcher was "brilliantly written," than to be in the Amazon Top 10. Ok, well, I lie, that rocks too (The Innocent graced the Top 10 for 7 weeks...). But if I'm going to be a writer who not only has staying power, but whose audience continues to grow and expand all over the globe, then every now and then, a little ass kicking might do me some good.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
September 16, 2011
"You'll Never Get a Major Deal Again!"
The following blog is now appearing at the Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
"You'll never get a major deal again!"
Sounds harsh doesn't it. Even cruel, especially when it comes from the mouth of a respected independent bookstore owner who operates one of the most successful bookselling operations out of Albany.
This was the scene: a year ago or so, said bookstore owner was lamenting the fact that my newest novel at the time, The Remains, was being published in trade paper and E-Book by an indie press. Due to the slowdown in paper sales because of E-Book sales and other economic factors, she didn't want to take the book on in the traditional manner by ordering it from the distributor. She wanted it on consignment. That way she wouldn't get burned down the road by having to hang on to unsold books.
When I explained to her that she could by all means return the books, she wouldn't hear of it. Ok, fair enough. These are trying economic times after all, and book stores are quickly going the way of the record store and the Blockbuster video store. Somehow our talk shifted to my original major deal with two Random House imprints back in '99 and 2000. I mentioned how my agent was going after another major deal based on the excellent E-Book sales I'd been experiencing thus far with The Remains. That's when she turned to me, looked me in the eye and said, "Vincent, you will never get a major deal again!" It wasn't like a slap to the face, it was more like a swift kick to the soft underbelly. She then backed up her statement by telling me the deal with RH had been fluke. The editors were tossing major six-figure deals around like confetti back then. Didn't matter the talent or the inherent value of the writing.
Wow, if I didn't already feel poorly enough about having to be on consignment at her shop, now I was made to feel like a total loser. I mean, I thought bookstore owners were supposed to prop up writers? Work with them? Live in harmony? You need me and I need you and all that...
Fast forward a few months.
The Innocent, Godchild and The Remains all hit the Top 100 on Amazon Kindles and eventually the Top 20. I started moving around 3,000 units per day. That's right. That's not a typo. 3,000 units. The Innocent hit the Top 10 and stayed there for seven weeks. In the meantime, I completed yet another novel, Murder by Moonlight. My agent wanted to go out to sale with it, hoping for the major deal said bookstore owner claimed would be impossible.
The Big 6 in New York all enthusiastically expressed interest in getting a read. So did another major publisher. A new major publisher that's emerged from out of Amazon. Thomas and Mercer. I'd heard about this publisher as not a major in the traditional sense, but more of a hybrid indie and major in which the author receives a terrific E-book royalty on top of being published in hardcover, audio and trade, and along with it, a nice advance or even better.
What makes this new publisher more enticing than the Big 6 however, is their direct connection to Amazon, the biggest store in the world. This publisher will not only sell your books but it is in their best interest to market them and even position them to sell. Something the Big 6 cannot guarantee.
I told my agent that if we did indeed get an offer from T&M that I wouldn't entertain a Big 6 deal, even if they offered me a much larger advance. I wanted to be at a home that represented the future of book selling. I wanted a place that would offer me security and a voice as an author. T&M, I was told would offer that and more. Then, when I heard that big name bestsellers like JA Konrath and Barry Eisler were signing contracts with T&M, that entirely iced the deal for me.
Just yesterday my agent excitedly forwarded my new contract from T&M to me for my review. There's a few details we're ironing out, but it looks great. I'm not at liberty to discuss the upfront money or the percentages, but suffice to say I'm back in the big leagues in a big way. Not only is T&M publishing Murder by Moonlight, but they are re-publishing five titles on my back-list, including The Innocent and The Remains--a first for my agent who has been in the publishing business for two decades. News will be forthcoming in all the usual trades: PW, etc. It's an exciting time for me and my entire family.
"You will never get a major deal again!" said the bookstore owner.
Sometimes I love proving people wrong.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
"You'll never get a major deal again!"
Sounds harsh doesn't it. Even cruel, especially when it comes from the mouth of a respected independent bookstore owner who operates one of the most successful bookselling operations out of Albany.
This was the scene: a year ago or so, said bookstore owner was lamenting the fact that my newest novel at the time, The Remains, was being published in trade paper and E-Book by an indie press. Due to the slowdown in paper sales because of E-Book sales and other economic factors, she didn't want to take the book on in the traditional manner by ordering it from the distributor. She wanted it on consignment. That way she wouldn't get burned down the road by having to hang on to unsold books.
When I explained to her that she could by all means return the books, she wouldn't hear of it. Ok, fair enough. These are trying economic times after all, and book stores are quickly going the way of the record store and the Blockbuster video store. Somehow our talk shifted to my original major deal with two Random House imprints back in '99 and 2000. I mentioned how my agent was going after another major deal based on the excellent E-Book sales I'd been experiencing thus far with The Remains. That's when she turned to me, looked me in the eye and said, "Vincent, you will never get a major deal again!" It wasn't like a slap to the face, it was more like a swift kick to the soft underbelly. She then backed up her statement by telling me the deal with RH had been fluke. The editors were tossing major six-figure deals around like confetti back then. Didn't matter the talent or the inherent value of the writing.
Wow, if I didn't already feel poorly enough about having to be on consignment at her shop, now I was made to feel like a total loser. I mean, I thought bookstore owners were supposed to prop up writers? Work with them? Live in harmony? You need me and I need you and all that...
Fast forward a few months.
The Innocent, Godchild and The Remains all hit the Top 100 on Amazon Kindles and eventually the Top 20. I started moving around 3,000 units per day. That's right. That's not a typo. 3,000 units. The Innocent hit the Top 10 and stayed there for seven weeks. In the meantime, I completed yet another novel, Murder by Moonlight. My agent wanted to go out to sale with it, hoping for the major deal said bookstore owner claimed would be impossible.
The Big 6 in New York all enthusiastically expressed interest in getting a read. So did another major publisher. A new major publisher that's emerged from out of Amazon. Thomas and Mercer. I'd heard about this publisher as not a major in the traditional sense, but more of a hybrid indie and major in which the author receives a terrific E-book royalty on top of being published in hardcover, audio and trade, and along with it, a nice advance or even better.
What makes this new publisher more enticing than the Big 6 however, is their direct connection to Amazon, the biggest store in the world. This publisher will not only sell your books but it is in their best interest to market them and even position them to sell. Something the Big 6 cannot guarantee.
I told my agent that if we did indeed get an offer from T&M that I wouldn't entertain a Big 6 deal, even if they offered me a much larger advance. I wanted to be at a home that represented the future of book selling. I wanted a place that would offer me security and a voice as an author. T&M, I was told would offer that and more. Then, when I heard that big name bestsellers like JA Konrath and Barry Eisler were signing contracts with T&M, that entirely iced the deal for me.
Just yesterday my agent excitedly forwarded my new contract from T&M to me for my review. There's a few details we're ironing out, but it looks great. I'm not at liberty to discuss the upfront money or the percentages, but suffice to say I'm back in the big leagues in a big way. Not only is T&M publishing Murder by Moonlight, but they are re-publishing five titles on my back-list, including The Innocent and The Remains--a first for my agent who has been in the publishing business for two decades. News will be forthcoming in all the usual trades: PW, etc. It's an exciting time for me and my entire family.
"You will never get a major deal again!" said the bookstore owner.
Sometimes I love proving people wrong.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
September 11, 2011
Remember 9/11 Today and Then Move On With Your Life
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
After a divorce or a breakup or a death to someone close to you, a professional therapist will almost always suggest that you try and recall the good things about that person, then move on. Obviously you will never forget and often be reminded of the individual who at one time was very close and special to you. But now that person is gone and they are never coming back to you. The bond is broken forever. Despite the immediate and sometimes agonizing pain, the loss means one thing and one thing only: it's time to reinvent your life.
Today is 9/11, the tenth anniversary of an event that we will never nor should we ever forget, when a Mickey Mouse organization called Al Qaeda comprised primarily of murderous Islamic extremists got very, very lucky, and managed to pull off the mass murder of the century. Since that time the country and much of the world has been tossed into economic turmoil, travel by airplane has become difficult and full of security hassle, many American lives have been lost on the fields of battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, we've tolerantly learned to live with degrees of fear defined by color coded bar charts, and we've tried in every politically correct way possible to understand why Muslim Radicals might hate us so much. We've even come close on occasion to apologizing for just plain being us. Well, I'm not apologizing. I don't say "I'm sorry" to bullies and homicidal maniacs.
Other things have happened in the past ten years. Good things.
Osama, the Al Qaeda chief thug, is dead. A man who lived by the gun and died by the gun. Another thug, Saddam Hussein has been tried and hanged. We now have active counter-terrorism organizations operating both inside and outside the U.S. and in turn, we are better able to protect and defend ourselves. The internet has exploded with social media sights like Twitter and Facebook spreading messages of freedom and democracy to citizens of Egypt, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, making it just a little more difficult in this day and age for a Mafia style thug like Saddam to rule over a country of frightened people. No we didn't uncover weapons of mass destruction in his country prior to entering into the second Iraq War, but that never disguised the fact that they did in fact possess them and had used them before in the form of poison gas on innocent Kurds and had been in the process of acquiring light water for their nuclear processing plants which were being reconstructed.
But it's ten years since 9/11.
Nearly 3,000 innocent people lost their lives on that day, and we shall never forget a single one of them. While it pains my soul to try and imagine the unspeakable sorrow and horrors each of these people went through on that sunny Monday morning, these days I prefer to think about the passengers of Flight 43 bound for San Francisco who decided to re-take their hijacked plane even though it was almost certainly going to mean sacrificing their lives in the process. But somehow they knew that given the choice of being a victim or a defender, they all chose defender. They are heros and saints.
So what shall we do over the course of the next ten years?
Move on. Remember what occurred all those years ago on September 11, 2001 and move on with reconstructing your life.
No more apologies for who or what we are as Americans. We have our faults but we are a strong people whose spirit will always be one of defending the right to be free.
Be tolerant. There will be many more people of the Muslim faith moving to America who are as far removed from the murderers of 9/11 as you and I are from Charlie Manson. They just want a fair shake at living the American Dream. So part of moving on is to move on with people you might have formerly harbored a distrust for.
Be vigilant. There as many domestic terrorists at work in the United States as there are foreign terrorists who want to kill Westerners, Christians, Jews and people of color. Yup, they want to kill little children too. Let's force them out of their rat holes and put these haters behind bars.
Work harder. No one single U.S. President can bear the unspeakable burden of creating jobs for us. As Americans we've always found a way to not only to make a living, but to create new industries. Lets stop complaining, stop collecting unemployment and other "entitlements" and get the hell back to work. Now!
Fight back. It's not only probable that another terrorist attack will occur in the US, it's inevitable. And when it does, we find out the party responsible, and we don't hold back. This time we retaliate with a "police action" not with one arm tied behind our backs, but with everything we've got. We take terror to the terrorists and eliminate every single one of them in as swift a manner as possible. We send a message to the world that we will not be bullied anymore.
Most of all, we must live and re-invent ourselves as free people who love not only our country but the entire world and beyond.
Let's take today to remember the past. But then let's pick ourselves back up, dust ourselves off, and move on with life.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Moonlight Rises
After a divorce or a breakup or a death to someone close to you, a professional therapist will almost always suggest that you try and recall the good things about that person, then move on. Obviously you will never forget and often be reminded of the individual who at one time was very close and special to you. But now that person is gone and they are never coming back to you. The bond is broken forever. Despite the immediate and sometimes agonizing pain, the loss means one thing and one thing only: it's time to reinvent your life.
Today is 9/11, the tenth anniversary of an event that we will never nor should we ever forget, when a Mickey Mouse organization called Al Qaeda comprised primarily of murderous Islamic extremists got very, very lucky, and managed to pull off the mass murder of the century. Since that time the country and much of the world has been tossed into economic turmoil, travel by airplane has become difficult and full of security hassle, many American lives have been lost on the fields of battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, we've tolerantly learned to live with degrees of fear defined by color coded bar charts, and we've tried in every politically correct way possible to understand why Muslim Radicals might hate us so much. We've even come close on occasion to apologizing for just plain being us. Well, I'm not apologizing. I don't say "I'm sorry" to bullies and homicidal maniacs.
Other things have happened in the past ten years. Good things.
Osama, the Al Qaeda chief thug, is dead. A man who lived by the gun and died by the gun. Another thug, Saddam Hussein has been tried and hanged. We now have active counter-terrorism organizations operating both inside and outside the U.S. and in turn, we are better able to protect and defend ourselves. The internet has exploded with social media sights like Twitter and Facebook spreading messages of freedom and democracy to citizens of Egypt, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, making it just a little more difficult in this day and age for a Mafia style thug like Saddam to rule over a country of frightened people. No we didn't uncover weapons of mass destruction in his country prior to entering into the second Iraq War, but that never disguised the fact that they did in fact possess them and had used them before in the form of poison gas on innocent Kurds and had been in the process of acquiring light water for their nuclear processing plants which were being reconstructed.
But it's ten years since 9/11.
Nearly 3,000 innocent people lost their lives on that day, and we shall never forget a single one of them. While it pains my soul to try and imagine the unspeakable sorrow and horrors each of these people went through on that sunny Monday morning, these days I prefer to think about the passengers of Flight 43 bound for San Francisco who decided to re-take their hijacked plane even though it was almost certainly going to mean sacrificing their lives in the process. But somehow they knew that given the choice of being a victim or a defender, they all chose defender. They are heros and saints.
So what shall we do over the course of the next ten years?
Move on. Remember what occurred all those years ago on September 11, 2001 and move on with reconstructing your life.
No more apologies for who or what we are as Americans. We have our faults but we are a strong people whose spirit will always be one of defending the right to be free.
Be tolerant. There will be many more people of the Muslim faith moving to America who are as far removed from the murderers of 9/11 as you and I are from Charlie Manson. They just want a fair shake at living the American Dream. So part of moving on is to move on with people you might have formerly harbored a distrust for.
Be vigilant. There as many domestic terrorists at work in the United States as there are foreign terrorists who want to kill Westerners, Christians, Jews and people of color. Yup, they want to kill little children too. Let's force them out of their rat holes and put these haters behind bars.
Work harder. No one single U.S. President can bear the unspeakable burden of creating jobs for us. As Americans we've always found a way to not only to make a living, but to create new industries. Lets stop complaining, stop collecting unemployment and other "entitlements" and get the hell back to work. Now!
Fight back. It's not only probable that another terrorist attack will occur in the US, it's inevitable. And when it does, we find out the party responsible, and we don't hold back. This time we retaliate with a "police action" not with one arm tied behind our backs, but with everything we've got. We take terror to the terrorists and eliminate every single one of them in as swift a manner as possible. We send a message to the world that we will not be bullied anymore.
Most of all, we must live and re-invent ourselves as free people who love not only our country but the entire world and beyond.
Let's take today to remember the past. But then let's pick ourselves back up, dust ourselves off, and move on with life.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Moonlight Rises
September 9, 2011
How to Keep Going the Next Day
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
I'm often asked how is that I'm so prolific? The answer is simpler than you might imagine. And it came to me not in college or MFA writing school, but instead by reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. It was inside a cold water flat five or six flights above a square in the Montparnasse district of Paris that the would-be Papa wrote some of his first short stories. Stories that would come to change the literary world as we knew it.
He was able to write his stories with confidence day in and day out by following one simple rule. He would write a certain amount of words everyday and then complete the session by ending in a place where he was sure to go on the next day.
While this took severe discipline it was also liberating to know that come the next morning, you wouldn't find yourself staring at a blank piece of paper knowing that the day before you shot your wadd, as it were.
So then, I'm not Ernest Hemingway. But I do write a lot of novels, and the way to do that is not only to sit your butt in the chair and write whether you feel like it or not (this is your job after all), but also to always make sure that you end in a place that will allow you to continue the next day. The best way to do this is to simply make some small notes right on the page below your last sentence. If your character is about to enter an apartment with his ex-girlfriend in order to steal a zip-drive containing secret nuclear information her new boyfriend is about to sell to the Iranians, you might make a note about what route they take in order to get to the apartment, and the steps they take in order to get there without being spotted. That should be enough to get you moving come the next morning. The rest of the chapter should reveal itself organically for you.
Thanks Papa for making my writing life just a little bit easier. I wish I could say the same for writing school.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Moonlight Rises
I'm often asked how is that I'm so prolific? The answer is simpler than you might imagine. And it came to me not in college or MFA writing school, but instead by reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. It was inside a cold water flat five or six flights above a square in the Montparnasse district of Paris that the would-be Papa wrote some of his first short stories. Stories that would come to change the literary world as we knew it.
He was able to write his stories with confidence day in and day out by following one simple rule. He would write a certain amount of words everyday and then complete the session by ending in a place where he was sure to go on the next day.
While this took severe discipline it was also liberating to know that come the next morning, you wouldn't find yourself staring at a blank piece of paper knowing that the day before you shot your wadd, as it were.
So then, I'm not Ernest Hemingway. But I do write a lot of novels, and the way to do that is not only to sit your butt in the chair and write whether you feel like it or not (this is your job after all), but also to always make sure that you end in a place that will allow you to continue the next day. The best way to do this is to simply make some small notes right on the page below your last sentence. If your character is about to enter an apartment with his ex-girlfriend in order to steal a zip-drive containing secret nuclear information her new boyfriend is about to sell to the Iranians, you might make a note about what route they take in order to get to the apartment, and the steps they take in order to get there without being spotted. That should be enough to get you moving come the next morning. The rest of the chapter should reveal itself organically for you.
Thanks Papa for making my writing life just a little bit easier. I wish I could say the same for writing school.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Moonlight Rises
September 3, 2011
How to Sell a Lot of E-Books
The following blog is now appearing in slightly different form at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
A friends of mine who is a published author and great writer just emailed me about what it takes to sell a lot of books. E-Books in particular or so I'm assuming. At first I was ready to dig in with a two page email about marketing and social media and how important it is to maintain a constant presence on these digital mediums. I was also ready to discuss the importance of blogging two or three times a week on topics ranging from how to write a great noir novel to what I did on my summer vacation. Then there's Kindleboards, Goodreads, Crimespace, yadda...
But then it occurred to me that no matter how much I talk about these issues, none of them are really responsible for selling books, so much as they simply spread the word about your books being available for sale on the free market. Social media can definitely help you sell books but it can also hurt sales when you abuse and over-use it. After all, you shouldn't be directly selling your books in a social media setting. You should be selling you the human being.
So then, how was it I've been able to sell hundreds of thousands of e-books so far this year?
Jeeze, I'm not entirely sure how I did it.
But I do know this. If you want sell a lot of units (as they are lovingly called in the trade), you need to write great books (luckily my friend has this going for him already). You need a great cover (like me he's traditionally published so he has to rely on his team to produce this for him), a great product description and a very good if not "cheap" yup "cheap" price. As for the rest of the equation, you have to rely on a little luck here.
But then, how can you improve your luck as an author who wants to sell lots of books? The best possible way is simply to write more books. Authors like Scott Nicholson and JA Konrath are making thousands of dollars every month not on just one title, but upwards of 40 titles. These guys are sitting on a novel and rewriting it over and over again for two or three years. They are writing them in a matter of two or three months (please don't take this as gospel, I'm merely trying to make a point).
But Vin, you say, how is it possible to write a great novel in two or three months?
My answer is this: can you produce five good pages per day, five days a week? Or are you worried about writers block? If you believe in writers block, you must learn to change your beliefs. Writers block doesn't exist. If you're a writer your job is to show up at work everyday and write. Granted, there will be days when Mr. Plot and Mr. Story and Mrs. Brilliance don't show up for work, but that's just the nature of any business. You go with the flow and you keep plugging away anyhow. You take up the slack and plow through the day.
Or here's an idea that might help.
Whenever you feel like it will be impossible to write yet another book, think about your dad or mom. What did they do for a living while they were raising you trying to put clothes on your back, Hamburger Helper on your dinner plate and video games in the Play Station? If your dad was a lawyer, did he ever get lawyer's block? If your mom was a nurse, did you ever hear her complain "I've had absolutely nothing to nurse about for the past six months"? Of course not. Your parents showed up for work five days a week because that was their job. Sometimes it went well, and on occasion, when the proper support staff didn't always show up, things were hard. But by the year's end, they produced a body of work for which they were paid a significant sum.
Back to my point about selling books.
There is no tried or true answer to selling books. Sales flow in cycles. I seem to experience a few weeks of stellar bestselling sales every three or four months or so, probably due to Amazon marketing campaigns. My last great months was in July. I'm not due for another Top 100 Kindle Bestseller months until October or November. But then, this is just a guestimate. I have no control over Amazon marketing, other than signing on with their publisher, Thomas and Mercer, which I'm about to do.
So, in the final analysis, there is only one tried and true method of increasing your chances of selling books. That tried and true method is to show up for work everyday, and write more of them.
Scream Catcher
A friends of mine who is a published author and great writer just emailed me about what it takes to sell a lot of books. E-Books in particular or so I'm assuming. At first I was ready to dig in with a two page email about marketing and social media and how important it is to maintain a constant presence on these digital mediums. I was also ready to discuss the importance of blogging two or three times a week on topics ranging from how to write a great noir novel to what I did on my summer vacation. Then there's Kindleboards, Goodreads, Crimespace, yadda...
But then it occurred to me that no matter how much I talk about these issues, none of them are really responsible for selling books, so much as they simply spread the word about your books being available for sale on the free market. Social media can definitely help you sell books but it can also hurt sales when you abuse and over-use it. After all, you shouldn't be directly selling your books in a social media setting. You should be selling you the human being.
So then, how was it I've been able to sell hundreds of thousands of e-books so far this year?
Jeeze, I'm not entirely sure how I did it.
But I do know this. If you want sell a lot of units (as they are lovingly called in the trade), you need to write great books (luckily my friend has this going for him already). You need a great cover (like me he's traditionally published so he has to rely on his team to produce this for him), a great product description and a very good if not "cheap" yup "cheap" price. As for the rest of the equation, you have to rely on a little luck here.
But then, how can you improve your luck as an author who wants to sell lots of books? The best possible way is simply to write more books. Authors like Scott Nicholson and JA Konrath are making thousands of dollars every month not on just one title, but upwards of 40 titles. These guys are sitting on a novel and rewriting it over and over again for two or three years. They are writing them in a matter of two or three months (please don't take this as gospel, I'm merely trying to make a point).
But Vin, you say, how is it possible to write a great novel in two or three months?
My answer is this: can you produce five good pages per day, five days a week? Or are you worried about writers block? If you believe in writers block, you must learn to change your beliefs. Writers block doesn't exist. If you're a writer your job is to show up at work everyday and write. Granted, there will be days when Mr. Plot and Mr. Story and Mrs. Brilliance don't show up for work, but that's just the nature of any business. You go with the flow and you keep plugging away anyhow. You take up the slack and plow through the day.
Or here's an idea that might help.
Whenever you feel like it will be impossible to write yet another book, think about your dad or mom. What did they do for a living while they were raising you trying to put clothes on your back, Hamburger Helper on your dinner plate and video games in the Play Station? If your dad was a lawyer, did he ever get lawyer's block? If your mom was a nurse, did you ever hear her complain "I've had absolutely nothing to nurse about for the past six months"? Of course not. Your parents showed up for work five days a week because that was their job. Sometimes it went well, and on occasion, when the proper support staff didn't always show up, things were hard. But by the year's end, they produced a body of work for which they were paid a significant sum.
Back to my point about selling books.
There is no tried or true answer to selling books. Sales flow in cycles. I seem to experience a few weeks of stellar bestselling sales every three or four months or so, probably due to Amazon marketing campaigns. My last great months was in July. I'm not due for another Top 100 Kindle Bestseller months until October or November. But then, this is just a guestimate. I have no control over Amazon marketing, other than signing on with their publisher, Thomas and Mercer, which I'm about to do.
So, in the final analysis, there is only one tried and true method of increasing your chances of selling books. That tried and true method is to show up for work everyday, and write more of them.
Scream Catcher
August 23, 2011
My Son: Chip Off the Old Block...Sort Of
The following blog is "now appearing" at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Did you ever find yourself watching your teenager eat and whispering softly to yourself: did I eat that much when I was his age?
My 17 year old son, Bear, and I are now entering into week 4 of our month long stay in Italy. All has been smooth sailing as they say thus far, with our having investigated every museum, church, monestary, cathedral, catacomb, and tomb in Rome, Florence and beyond. We've seen relics like bits and pieces of the true cross, pieces of Christ's thorn of crowns, Galileo's teeth and cut off fingers, and the entire mummified body of Cosimo De' Medici (he was a tiny man for having made such a monumental impact on art and architecture). We've climbed mountains, towers and domes, and navigated narrow alleyways and tunnels. We've put in 5 miles a day running along both the Arno and the Tiber and we even found an old gym to bench press and get in some dead-lifting.
All throughout I could not have asked for a better adventure companion if I'd pre-ordered one from out of an old Montgomery Ward catalog. But I have to say, man, can that boy eat. And not just your average pasta or lasagna. True to form, Bear goes for the more exotic in order to please his palate. Snails drowned in sauce. Squid and muscles soaking in a fish brine. Whole sardines sitting in a vat of olive oil and rank fish heads...It seems there is nothing the kid doesn't like or won't try.
I don't recall being that adventurous an eater when I was his age. Pizza mostly, burgers and tacos. That was about the extent of my culinary table of contents. But not the Bear. Like he said on the plane over, he wants to experience everything he can about the life here in Florence. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
It's a shame I'm here to work or we might travel to some other out of the way places along the coast. But that will have to wait until I come back in just a few months. In the meantime, Bear wants me to book tickets for us to see the pyramids in Egypt. I'm sure he'll find the pyramids as breathtaking as he did climbing to the cupola atop St. Peter's Cathedral. I'm sure he'll make us ride a camel. He'll want to climb the pyramids, block by solid block. He'll want to look out over the valley and soak it all in.
Afterwards, he'll find something exotic to eat. Something goopy, fishy, rank, and entirely dramatic. Chip off the old block...Sort of.
CHECK OUT THE NEW NOVEL: MOONLIGHT RISES!!!!! Moonlight Rises
Did you ever find yourself watching your teenager eat and whispering softly to yourself: did I eat that much when I was his age?
My 17 year old son, Bear, and I are now entering into week 4 of our month long stay in Italy. All has been smooth sailing as they say thus far, with our having investigated every museum, church, monestary, cathedral, catacomb, and tomb in Rome, Florence and beyond. We've seen relics like bits and pieces of the true cross, pieces of Christ's thorn of crowns, Galileo's teeth and cut off fingers, and the entire mummified body of Cosimo De' Medici (he was a tiny man for having made such a monumental impact on art and architecture). We've climbed mountains, towers and domes, and navigated narrow alleyways and tunnels. We've put in 5 miles a day running along both the Arno and the Tiber and we even found an old gym to bench press and get in some dead-lifting.
All throughout I could not have asked for a better adventure companion if I'd pre-ordered one from out of an old Montgomery Ward catalog. But I have to say, man, can that boy eat. And not just your average pasta or lasagna. True to form, Bear goes for the more exotic in order to please his palate. Snails drowned in sauce. Squid and muscles soaking in a fish brine. Whole sardines sitting in a vat of olive oil and rank fish heads...It seems there is nothing the kid doesn't like or won't try.
I don't recall being that adventurous an eater when I was his age. Pizza mostly, burgers and tacos. That was about the extent of my culinary table of contents. But not the Bear. Like he said on the plane over, he wants to experience everything he can about the life here in Florence. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
It's a shame I'm here to work or we might travel to some other out of the way places along the coast. But that will have to wait until I come back in just a few months. In the meantime, Bear wants me to book tickets for us to see the pyramids in Egypt. I'm sure he'll find the pyramids as breathtaking as he did climbing to the cupola atop St. Peter's Cathedral. I'm sure he'll make us ride a camel. He'll want to climb the pyramids, block by solid block. He'll want to look out over the valley and soak it all in.
Afterwards, he'll find something exotic to eat. Something goopy, fishy, rank, and entirely dramatic. Chip off the old block...Sort of.
CHECK OUT THE NEW NOVEL: MOONLIGHT RISES!!!!! Moonlight Rises
August 18, 2011
The Prodigal Author and the Major Pub
The following blog is "now appearing" at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
I'm in Florence for the month working on two sets of galleys, researching a new novel, and trying to make two trade journalism deadlines. Plus my son the Bear is with me, and despite some junkets to Rome and other places, I'm really trying hard to get everything done before I have to hand back the keys to this apartment on the 31st. That said, I've been cruising through some of the more prominent lit blogs looking for a topic I can blog about quickly and effectively. Or, to be more frank, I'm more or less looking for a topic I can rob.
But all existing topics aside, there seems to be a new thread I'm noticing that's springing up amongst just what a few months ago might have been some steadfast "indie" authors, some of whom publish with indie small presses like StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink (as in my case) and some of whom DIY. The thread is this: Indie authors who are making waves in the bestseller lists are being picked up by the majors. And gladly.
Thriller writer Simon Wood is one author, who like me, has been published by the biggies in the past and while the experience wasn't by any means an end-all/be-all, he nonetheless has found great success in indie publishing, especially when Amazon directly marketed one of his titles catapulting it to the No. 2 spot on overall Amazon Kindles. You can check out his story here at JA Konrath's Blog.
Wood has to be making a great payday as an indie. I know this from personal experience. I too have reached the top ten and held tight at the No.3 spot with THE INNOCENT while at the same time, held tight with two other books in the top 100. That said, why would I want to publish any other way than indie?
But take the case of JCarson Black who has also been killing it in the top 100. She's another ultra successful indie author who has been with the biggies in the past and has recently made a return by having signed a multi-book deal with Thomas and Mercer, Amazon's new publishing house. Thing you gotta ask yourself is this: if the machine ain't broke, why try and fix it? If she was doing so well as an indie, why sign on with a big publisher?
Same story with Scott Nicholson who has literally written the book (or books) on the subject of indie publishing. Both he and Konrath have signed with the aforementioned T&M...There must be another dozen hyper-successful indie authors like these who have either willingly given up indie publishing exclusively or are contemplating it, even while kicking some serious ass with no real end in sight. Why are they doing it? Why jeopardize the relative freedom and money-making potential to once more become beholden to a big corporation?
I think the answer lies not in dollars and sense or big business vs. the little guy or even logic for that matter. I think the answer has to do with the human condition. Or to be more precise, the one thing that is most important to a professional writer: validation.
I'm not going to lie. Even after experiencing one of my lucrative years (and the year ain't over yet by a long shot) as an author since signing a mid-six-figure deal with Delacorte, I have some things on the fire. Rather my agent is working them. Soon as they are done and can be announced, you'll all hear the dinner bell clanging loudly. Suffice to day I'm open to making a return to the biggies not just for the money, but to be perfectly honest, for the pride as well. I have a perfectly good and lucrative and happy experience right now publishing with StoneHouse and StoneGate Ink, but to be offered an opportunity to do the same at another big house would only add further validation (there's that word again) not only to my recent Top 10 success, but to me as a writer also.
I wonder if a lot of indie authors out there feel the same way?
No matter what happens I plan on continuing my relationship with the "Gates," but I also want to explore the enormous marketing and distribution possibilities of once more being with a major pub.
Being an indie rocks, no doubt about it. Just me against the big bad world. But then so does belonging to something important and exclusive, like a major publishing house. I mean, what the hell, I'm only human.
Moonlight Rises
I'm in Florence for the month working on two sets of galleys, researching a new novel, and trying to make two trade journalism deadlines. Plus my son the Bear is with me, and despite some junkets to Rome and other places, I'm really trying hard to get everything done before I have to hand back the keys to this apartment on the 31st. That said, I've been cruising through some of the more prominent lit blogs looking for a topic I can blog about quickly and effectively. Or, to be more frank, I'm more or less looking for a topic I can rob.
But all existing topics aside, there seems to be a new thread I'm noticing that's springing up amongst just what a few months ago might have been some steadfast "indie" authors, some of whom publish with indie small presses like StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink (as in my case) and some of whom DIY. The thread is this: Indie authors who are making waves in the bestseller lists are being picked up by the majors. And gladly.
Thriller writer Simon Wood is one author, who like me, has been published by the biggies in the past and while the experience wasn't by any means an end-all/be-all, he nonetheless has found great success in indie publishing, especially when Amazon directly marketed one of his titles catapulting it to the No. 2 spot on overall Amazon Kindles. You can check out his story here at JA Konrath's Blog.
Wood has to be making a great payday as an indie. I know this from personal experience. I too have reached the top ten and held tight at the No.3 spot with THE INNOCENT while at the same time, held tight with two other books in the top 100. That said, why would I want to publish any other way than indie?
But take the case of JCarson Black who has also been killing it in the top 100. She's another ultra successful indie author who has been with the biggies in the past and has recently made a return by having signed a multi-book deal with Thomas and Mercer, Amazon's new publishing house. Thing you gotta ask yourself is this: if the machine ain't broke, why try and fix it? If she was doing so well as an indie, why sign on with a big publisher?
Same story with Scott Nicholson who has literally written the book (or books) on the subject of indie publishing. Both he and Konrath have signed with the aforementioned T&M...There must be another dozen hyper-successful indie authors like these who have either willingly given up indie publishing exclusively or are contemplating it, even while kicking some serious ass with no real end in sight. Why are they doing it? Why jeopardize the relative freedom and money-making potential to once more become beholden to a big corporation?
I think the answer lies not in dollars and sense or big business vs. the little guy or even logic for that matter. I think the answer has to do with the human condition. Or to be more precise, the one thing that is most important to a professional writer: validation.
I'm not going to lie. Even after experiencing one of my lucrative years (and the year ain't over yet by a long shot) as an author since signing a mid-six-figure deal with Delacorte, I have some things on the fire. Rather my agent is working them. Soon as they are done and can be announced, you'll all hear the dinner bell clanging loudly. Suffice to day I'm open to making a return to the biggies not just for the money, but to be perfectly honest, for the pride as well. I have a perfectly good and lucrative and happy experience right now publishing with StoneHouse and StoneGate Ink, but to be offered an opportunity to do the same at another big house would only add further validation (there's that word again) not only to my recent Top 10 success, but to me as a writer also.
I wonder if a lot of indie authors out there feel the same way?
No matter what happens I plan on continuing my relationship with the "Gates," but I also want to explore the enormous marketing and distribution possibilities of once more being with a major pub.
Being an indie rocks, no doubt about it. Just me against the big bad world. But then so does belonging to something important and exclusive, like a major publishing house. I mean, what the hell, I'm only human.
Moonlight Rises
August 16, 2011
All Your Moonlights in a Row
The following blog is "Now Appearing" at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
My publisher brought up a good point: Since all the Moonlights take place in sequence but can still be read as stand-alones, perhaps it would be a good idea to give you an idea of the order in which the Moonlights should be read thus far. That is, you want to read them in order. So here goes:
1. Moonlight Falls: In MOONLIGHT FALLS, novelist and photo journalist Vincent Zandri asks the question “If you knew your life could end at any moment, how far would you go to prove you murdered your lover? ” Albany, New York, is the setting of Zandri’s paranoid thriller (in the Hitchcock tradition) about Richard “Dick” Moonlight, former APD detective turned private investigator/massage therapist, who believes he killed Scarlet Montana, his illicit lover and wife of his ex-boss Chief of Detectives Jake Montana. The dilemma ... Moonlight doesn’t remember what happened!
1.25...COMING SOON: MOONLIGHT FALLS (UNCUT): The extended and expanded edition of the bestseller, including dozens of unpublished chapters, interviews, reviews, videos links, A Dick Moonlight's Albany Walking Tour, pictures, and more.
1.5 Moonlight Mafia: In this digital short, the too often unemployed private detective is hired by an anonymous client (“John Smith”) to bring down a Mafia wise guy who’s using a used car lot as a front for illegal gambling activity. At least, that’s what Moonlight is led to believe. According to the job description, he is to answer a want ad for a salesman position at the same used car lot and thereby secretly infiltrate the illegal operation. Sounds like a piece of cake.
Problem is, when Moonlight heads over to the used car lot to answer the ad, he decides to pay a quick visit to the bar next door and have a couple of quick “Jacks” to loosen himself up. But when he opens the big heavy door on his late father’s pride and joy 1978 “Cadi” hearse, it gets away from him and dings the passenger-side of the brand spankin’ new black Dodge Ram parked beside it. What Moonlight doesn’t realize as he pretends to ignore the Ram’s damage is that the door he just dinged belongs to his new would-be boss. And his would-be boss is not only in the Mafia, he’s no stranger to torturing and killing people for fun!
2. Moonlight Rises: Dick Moonlight is dead.
Really dead this time, now that three President Obama-masked thugs dressed all in black and communicating only with hand-held voice synthesizers pressed up against their voice boxes have beat the life right out of him inside a dark, downtown Albany alley. What are the thugs after? A box. Size, weight, description unknown. They also want him to stay away from his newest and only client: a handicapped nuclear engineer of dubious Russian heritage by the same of Peter Czech.
But then, now that they’ve killed him, Moonlight’s problems seem to be over. In fact, as he undergoes an out of body experience, his soul floating above his train-wreck of a corpse inside the Albany Medical Center I.C.U., he feels pretty damned good. Great in fact. To make death all the more sweeter, his one true love, Lola, is standing by his bedside. With her long dark hair draping her chiseled face and big round Jackie O sunglasses hiding tear-filled eyes, she appears every bit the grieving sig other. Nothing could make the dead-and-gone Moonlight prouder.
But then something happens. Something bad. A man enters into the I.C.U. Some young guy. He takes hold of Lola’s hand, and pulls her into him. Together, the two share a loving embrace over Moonlight’s dead body. Now, what seemed like a peaceful death is anything but. Moonlight wants back inside his body so he can face-off Some Young Guy and find out if his true love has in fact been cheating on him. At the same time, he wants to find out the true identity of those thugs who killed him so he can exact his revenge. No doubt about it, Moonlight needs to live if he’s going to uncover some pretty painful answers and take care of business.
Like a little kid dropping down a playground slide, Moonlight slides right back inside his bruised and broken body. Opening his eyes the white light blinds him. He feels the pain of his wounds and the pain of his breaking heart.
Life sucks, then you die.
But Moonlight rises.
3. COMING SOON... Murder by Moonlight
4. COMING SOON...Blue Moonlight
Moonlight Rises
My publisher brought up a good point: Since all the Moonlights take place in sequence but can still be read as stand-alones, perhaps it would be a good idea to give you an idea of the order in which the Moonlights should be read thus far. That is, you want to read them in order. So here goes:
1. Moonlight Falls: In MOONLIGHT FALLS, novelist and photo journalist Vincent Zandri asks the question “If you knew your life could end at any moment, how far would you go to prove you murdered your lover? ” Albany, New York, is the setting of Zandri’s paranoid thriller (in the Hitchcock tradition) about Richard “Dick” Moonlight, former APD detective turned private investigator/massage therapist, who believes he killed Scarlet Montana, his illicit lover and wife of his ex-boss Chief of Detectives Jake Montana. The dilemma ... Moonlight doesn’t remember what happened!
1.25...COMING SOON: MOONLIGHT FALLS (UNCUT): The extended and expanded edition of the bestseller, including dozens of unpublished chapters, interviews, reviews, videos links, A Dick Moonlight's Albany Walking Tour, pictures, and more.
1.5 Moonlight Mafia: In this digital short, the too often unemployed private detective is hired by an anonymous client (“John Smith”) to bring down a Mafia wise guy who’s using a used car lot as a front for illegal gambling activity. At least, that’s what Moonlight is led to believe. According to the job description, he is to answer a want ad for a salesman position at the same used car lot and thereby secretly infiltrate the illegal operation. Sounds like a piece of cake.
Problem is, when Moonlight heads over to the used car lot to answer the ad, he decides to pay a quick visit to the bar next door and have a couple of quick “Jacks” to loosen himself up. But when he opens the big heavy door on his late father’s pride and joy 1978 “Cadi” hearse, it gets away from him and dings the passenger-side of the brand spankin’ new black Dodge Ram parked beside it. What Moonlight doesn’t realize as he pretends to ignore the Ram’s damage is that the door he just dinged belongs to his new would-be boss. And his would-be boss is not only in the Mafia, he’s no stranger to torturing and killing people for fun!
2. Moonlight Rises: Dick Moonlight is dead.
Really dead this time, now that three President Obama-masked thugs dressed all in black and communicating only with hand-held voice synthesizers pressed up against their voice boxes have beat the life right out of him inside a dark, downtown Albany alley. What are the thugs after? A box. Size, weight, description unknown. They also want him to stay away from his newest and only client: a handicapped nuclear engineer of dubious Russian heritage by the same of Peter Czech.
But then, now that they’ve killed him, Moonlight’s problems seem to be over. In fact, as he undergoes an out of body experience, his soul floating above his train-wreck of a corpse inside the Albany Medical Center I.C.U., he feels pretty damned good. Great in fact. To make death all the more sweeter, his one true love, Lola, is standing by his bedside. With her long dark hair draping her chiseled face and big round Jackie O sunglasses hiding tear-filled eyes, she appears every bit the grieving sig other. Nothing could make the dead-and-gone Moonlight prouder.
But then something happens. Something bad. A man enters into the I.C.U. Some young guy. He takes hold of Lola’s hand, and pulls her into him. Together, the two share a loving embrace over Moonlight’s dead body. Now, what seemed like a peaceful death is anything but. Moonlight wants back inside his body so he can face-off Some Young Guy and find out if his true love has in fact been cheating on him. At the same time, he wants to find out the true identity of those thugs who killed him so he can exact his revenge. No doubt about it, Moonlight needs to live if he’s going to uncover some pretty painful answers and take care of business.
Like a little kid dropping down a playground slide, Moonlight slides right back inside his bruised and broken body. Opening his eyes the white light blinds him. He feels the pain of his wounds and the pain of his breaking heart.
Life sucks, then you die.
But Moonlight rises.
3. COMING SOON... Murder by Moonlight
4. COMING SOON...Blue Moonlight
Moonlight Rises
August 14, 2011
"On Pricing" Redux and a Challenge to Myself....
The following blog is "now appearing" at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
It's been a few months since just about every indie author blog had something written inside it about the power of pricing. The gist of the chatter centered around $.99 being the optimum price, and authors like John Locke and Amanda Hocking were proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that books priced that low can really move. Move in mass quantities that have the potential to add up in the end to a pretty decent payday (and to book deals from major pubs!).
I had a two books priced at $.99 back in February, March, and April and while both of those hit the Amazon Top 25, one of them THE INNOCENT hit the Top 10, settling at No. 3 for nearly a couple of months. Even with paying a standard agent percentage, I still took in payday that averaged three times your normal NYC legacy publisher advance. In May my guys at StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink decided to up the prices back to more normal levels and the books naturally lost ground in terms of ranking but continued to sell very well while remaining bestsellers.
Now it's August, a traditionally slow month for publishing while everyone takes in vacation and gets ready for the upcoming school year or whatever. Sales are good, but I'm convinced they could be great again.
I'm still convinced the three major attractors to making your E-Books bestsellers are...
1. An Awesome Cover
2. A Great Product Description
3. Price, Price, Price
(4.) Great Writing
(5). Direct Marketing from online publishers like B&N and Amazon...
That said, my cats at StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink have decided to run a special on CONCRETE PEARL, my new thriller (the first in a series) starring brassy and beautiful commercial construction business owner/amateur sleuth, Ava "Spike" Harrison, and THE REMAINS, my stand-alone thriller that's been a bestseller for 15 months. Both books will be published at $.99 for at least the length of the CONCRETE PEARL virtual tour which is scheduled for September.
Having been blessed with a great 3/4s of 2011, I also want to issue this challenge to myself: if one of the books breaks the Top 100, I'm going to donate $500 to the Boston Children's Hospital which does great things for kid with all sorts of injuries, ailments, and dreadful diseases. From cancer to cutting edge operations that can make a once useless limb useful again, as was the case with my son Harrison (Bear) who suffers from brachial plexus palsy, the BCH is a Godsend to kids and their parents. It's a curing place and an emotional place and I encourage all of you to take a look at their website. We've spent a lot of time at BCH where Harrison has undergone two major surgeries to repair his left arm, the most recent being last July. If both books hit the top 100, I will donate $1,000 to the hospital.
So, like Paul Weller of the JAM once sang, "What you give is what you get!" I couldn't agree more, other than to say, better to give than receive.
Ciao, Ciao for now, from sunny Italy!!!
Concrete Pearl
It's been a few months since just about every indie author blog had something written inside it about the power of pricing. The gist of the chatter centered around $.99 being the optimum price, and authors like John Locke and Amanda Hocking were proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that books priced that low can really move. Move in mass quantities that have the potential to add up in the end to a pretty decent payday (and to book deals from major pubs!).
I had a two books priced at $.99 back in February, March, and April and while both of those hit the Amazon Top 25, one of them THE INNOCENT hit the Top 10, settling at No. 3 for nearly a couple of months. Even with paying a standard agent percentage, I still took in payday that averaged three times your normal NYC legacy publisher advance. In May my guys at StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink decided to up the prices back to more normal levels and the books naturally lost ground in terms of ranking but continued to sell very well while remaining bestsellers.
Now it's August, a traditionally slow month for publishing while everyone takes in vacation and gets ready for the upcoming school year or whatever. Sales are good, but I'm convinced they could be great again.
I'm still convinced the three major attractors to making your E-Books bestsellers are...
1. An Awesome Cover
2. A Great Product Description
3. Price, Price, Price
(4.) Great Writing
(5). Direct Marketing from online publishers like B&N and Amazon...
That said, my cats at StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink have decided to run a special on CONCRETE PEARL, my new thriller (the first in a series) starring brassy and beautiful commercial construction business owner/amateur sleuth, Ava "Spike" Harrison, and THE REMAINS, my stand-alone thriller that's been a bestseller for 15 months. Both books will be published at $.99 for at least the length of the CONCRETE PEARL virtual tour which is scheduled for September.
Having been blessed with a great 3/4s of 2011, I also want to issue this challenge to myself: if one of the books breaks the Top 100, I'm going to donate $500 to the Boston Children's Hospital which does great things for kid with all sorts of injuries, ailments, and dreadful diseases. From cancer to cutting edge operations that can make a once useless limb useful again, as was the case with my son Harrison (Bear) who suffers from brachial plexus palsy, the BCH is a Godsend to kids and their parents. It's a curing place and an emotional place and I encourage all of you to take a look at their website. We've spent a lot of time at BCH where Harrison has undergone two major surgeries to repair his left arm, the most recent being last July. If both books hit the top 100, I will donate $1,000 to the hospital.
So, like Paul Weller of the JAM once sang, "What you give is what you get!" I couldn't agree more, other than to say, better to give than receive.
Ciao, Ciao for now, from sunny Italy!!!
Concrete Pearl
August 8, 2011
Sharing a First Beer with your Son
The following blog is "Now Appearing" at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Ok, comes a time in every parent's life (most parents anyway) where they sit down and enjoy a first beer with their son or daughter. In my case, my son Harrison and I were able to experience exactly that in the Irish Bar located in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy.
Bear is 17 and a half and more than old enough to legally drink a beer here. So what a great opportunity to share something so sacred as a drink with my own son and to unwind and just talk with him in a way we rarely can back in the states.
We took a table outside that my friends who work the establishment cleared for us. The bartender Steve (an art student and all around great dude), brought us two Heineken's a piece. Setting them on the table, Bear grabbed his in his fist and took a big swig. I told him to go easy. The alcohol could go to his head. But he just shrugged his shoulders like, "No big deal, dad."
Suddenly I was reminded of that scene in the 80's comedy classic "Vacation" where Chevy Chase sits down to enjoy a first beer with his teenage son. The kid chugs the beer and crushes the can in his fist, making it plainly apparent it's obviously not his first. Now, I'm not condoning underage drinking here by any means. But what I'm talking about is a sacred right of passage. In this case, I thought I was above being the forty something naive dad, and totally in tune with my son. But when he downed his beer like it was just another glass of Pepsi, I knew that this wasn't Bear's first beer by any means.
It made me feel strange, like I didn't know him as well as I should. However, we had one more together and we entered through that rite of passage together and we talked about life and dreams and adventures and ups and downs, and all those things that make up a life worth living.
Sharing your first beer with your son isn't all about beer. It's about love.
The Remains
Ok, comes a time in every parent's life (most parents anyway) where they sit down and enjoy a first beer with their son or daughter. In my case, my son Harrison and I were able to experience exactly that in the Irish Bar located in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy.
Bear is 17 and a half and more than old enough to legally drink a beer here. So what a great opportunity to share something so sacred as a drink with my own son and to unwind and just talk with him in a way we rarely can back in the states.
We took a table outside that my friends who work the establishment cleared for us. The bartender Steve (an art student and all around great dude), brought us two Heineken's a piece. Setting them on the table, Bear grabbed his in his fist and took a big swig. I told him to go easy. The alcohol could go to his head. But he just shrugged his shoulders like, "No big deal, dad."
Suddenly I was reminded of that scene in the 80's comedy classic "Vacation" where Chevy Chase sits down to enjoy a first beer with his teenage son. The kid chugs the beer and crushes the can in his fist, making it plainly apparent it's obviously not his first. Now, I'm not condoning underage drinking here by any means. But what I'm talking about is a sacred right of passage. In this case, I thought I was above being the forty something naive dad, and totally in tune with my son. But when he downed his beer like it was just another glass of Pepsi, I knew that this wasn't Bear's first beer by any means.
It made me feel strange, like I didn't know him as well as I should. However, we had one more together and we entered through that rite of passage together and we talked about life and dreams and adventures and ups and downs, and all those things that make up a life worth living.
Sharing your first beer with your son isn't all about beer. It's about love.
The Remains
