Vincent Zandri's Blog, page 17

The Zandri Report: Last Month's 100 K Sales in a Nutshell

It's May 2nd, the day after May Day, and since I haven't spoken to my accountant yet, I wanted to speak to well, you, the general public about the past month's sales. For reasons of brevity I'm only going to concentrate on the three major books I have going with StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink.

First, THE INNOCENT: It finished up the month with 62,000 in Kindle sales alone while priced to sell at $.99. It also spent four solid weeks in the Top Ten Amazon Bestselling Kindle E-Book List.

Second, GODCHILD: It sold around 15,000 units in Kindle at a $.99 price tag. It's been selling in the Top 100 for over a month now.

Lastly, THE REMAINS, my steady tried and true bread and butter stand alone novel. At $2.99 it sold around 5,500 copies. I could live nicely off this one book alone. It consistently ranks around 150 to 160...
...Get the rest of the Scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...

The Innocent

How I sold 100,000 E-Books in 60 Days: A Letter to my Mom

Dear Mom,
For the one-thousandth time, NO, I'M NOT GOING TO GET A 'REAL JOB!' I don't need to. I just sold over 100,000 E-Books in 60 days. Yah, that's right mom. That's not a typo. No I'm not drunk again, and no I'm not smoking crack or puffing on whacky weed. I don't do drugs.

But I sold 100,000 books and I did it with the help of my new publisher StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink. Ok, I know, I've had publishers before. Big publishers who gave me a quarter-million bucks in advance for a couple of books that barely made it off the runway before crashing and burning. I know the embarrassment it caused you at the beauty parlor while all those chatty women kept asking you, "Whatever happened to your son? Does he still write?" Well, now you can tell them I hit the 100,000 book club, and when they look at you with disbelieving eyes from under the bulbous transparent hair-dryers and ask you how on earth I did it, you can tell them this:

....Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...

Mommy Blogs More Powerful than The New York Times

It's not only the golden age of publishing for indie published and self-published authors, it's become the heyday of the so-called, "Mommy Blog." The Mommy Blog differs from the likes of the New York Times Book Review in that these are blogs that are run primarily by amateurs. In other words, no conglomerate owner sitting in a tall tower with a brainless babe on his right hand and an accountant on the other, is cutting a check to them for reading, evaluating, writing, and posting reviews of the latest novels.

There is a freedom that comes with being a Mommy Blogger that one might not appreciate as a professional in that they are not told what to review, nor are they influenced in any way in what to review simply because a major publisher is paying for a quarter page ad in the paper. They simply do what they want to do out of love for the game. And some of them, like Cheryl of CMASH LOVES TO READ BLOG SPOT, are not only making their voices heard across the cyber-book review continuum, they are drawing a huge following not only of readers and writers, but also indie publishers and Big 6 legacy publishers.

I often give speeches and talks regarding the new age of publishing, especially that of E-Books vs. paper. And I am always going on about how the Mommy Blog circuit is more important than being reviewed in The New York Times...

Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:

http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...

The Innocent

James Frey Sees the Future of Paper...And It's Good

You guys have all heard of James Frey no doubt. You remember, the dude who wrote a supposed alcoholic-turned-redeemed-recovering alcoholic memoir A Million Little Pieces which one the Oprah Award and was later debunked as a "Million Little Lies" when it came to light that he made most of the story up?

Ok, bear with me here.

I'm not about to comment a whole lot on what happened five years ago and what Big NYC was thinking when they marketed "Pieces" as nonfiction when I as a writer knew from the get-go that it was fiction. In fact, I liked the book a lot and I continue to like Frey's writing a lot. I think he's got chops and was seriously mistreated by his publisher and made to act as a fall guy for a big corporate conglomerate. None of this however prevented Oprah from stripping him of his award and spanking him over her meaty thighs in front of millions of people (she has since apologized for this and has invited Frey back on her show).

While jealous novelists who couldn't begin sell their way through a wet paper sacks were ganging up on James Frey and kicking him while he was down, shouting, "You're fried in this town, Frey!!!" I sort of had the feeling the dude would have staying power...
...Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox

http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...



The Innocent

Aaron Patterson: My Bestselling Big Little Bro and Maverick Indie Publisher

About a year ago I decided that I would be content with publishing the occasional novel, maybe selling a few copies here and there, gathering some good reviews, and that would be that. I'd continue with my freelance journalism, travel, maybe down the road teach at a creative writing program. But the thought of once more making a living as a fiction writer no longer seemed like reality.

Then my agent at the time, Janet Benrey, told me that she was working on a deal for me with Aaron Patterson of StoneHouse Ink. StoneHouse was an E-Book-first publisher who also published in trade paper, but only after the E-Books made a splash. I remember being not only skeptical about the whole thing, I also remember being sort of, well, pissed off. E-Books??? You kidding? Are E-Books even real?

In the end however, I agreed to give it a shot. My career was going nowhere anyway, so what could it hurt?...
....Get the rest of the story at The Vincent Zandri Vox:

http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...

Godchild

Intitial Impressions and Gut Wrenching Feelings: My story of the first time I met Vincent Zandri

This might qualify as one of the more unusual guest blogs you're ever going to read at the Vox or anywhere else for that matter. But it was the brainchild of Boise-based author, Bri Clark, who herself is one of those rare creatures who not only possess both brains and beauty, but her talent and sharp wit can reduce a more humble soul like myself to a wet pile of rags and bones. Her subject today is the first impression she brought away from our initial meeting in Boise last Fall for the first annual Boise Book Expo. Like Bri will point out in her piece, I had just signed with StoneHouse Ink and StoneGate Ink, and my books were selling OK, but nothing like they would a few months later when THE INNOCENT would land on the Top Ten Amazon Kindle E-Book Bestseller List, with GODCHILD and THE REMAINS following close on its tail. But I recall seeing this tall, strawberry blond drink-of-water who inquisitively inquired about the recent trade paper release of THE REMAINS. I believe I asked her to check me... I mean, it out, while at the same time trying to catch a glimpse of her "ring finger" which was sadly occupied with a wedding band. Hey, you can't blame a bachelor writer guy from New York for trying. But we did hit it off in every bit of that east happily meets west way,and have maintained a close friendship and mini-support group ever since. We're both writers, parents, dreamers, wise-asses, and restless individuals and I guess in a way that makes us soul mates. The Blond Bombshell of Boise, and the Bulldog Bachelor from New York. With that, I give you Bri Clark! ...
...Get the rest of the scoop from The Vincent Zandri Vox...:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...

The Innocent

Thinking Outside the Box While Living Inside the Box

I’m an artist. Ok, not a visual artist, but I am a writer. A full-time writer who was groomed for the commercial construction business and who, for a time, worked as a project manager for said construction business.

My dad, a commercial construction business owner, taught me to think “inside the box” as it were. Because after all, this was a business of straight lines that were supposed to come together and/or intersect at precise, planned points; a business of bottom-lines, efficient use of space and time, apples and apples, oranges and oranges.

I hated it.

Being very different from my dad, I insisted on thinking “outside the box,” simply because that was my nature. In a word, I have always been very uncomfortable with thinking inside the box, finding instead a sort of comfort in my attraction to all things, well, outside the box. In high school, I was the kid who befriended the outsiders who wore black, and styled their hair into spiky Mohawks. I dug punk rock and new wave instead of classic rock. I dreamed of living in Europe rather than the burbs, and I took to the construction business like a fish takes to a dry desert environment...

Get the rest of the scoop at the "Vox":
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...

The Innocent

GODCHILD:A "True" Sequel

I rarely...OK never...re-post a review of one of my books on my own blog site, simply because they get enough play over the cyber-waves on their own. But this review by Heath Lowrance on GODCHILD is different for several reasons. First off, Heath is not only a magnificent noir author in his own right (THE BASTARD HAND, New Pulp Press), he is a highly regarded, if not one of the most highly regarded, noir critics of his generation, so I can’t tell you what a good review from him means to me. Second, Heath knows me better more than any other reviewer, and he is able to comment on the condition I might have been in at the time I was writing a particular book, as he was able to do in the case of GODCHILD. Finally, GODCHILD is the "true" sequel to THE INNOCENT which has not only spent the past month in the Amazon Top 100 Kindle Books, it has spent two weeks of that in the Top Ten Amazon Kindle Books; one week of that in the Top 5. That said, I want readers and fans alike to know that GODCHILD is not just another Jack Marconi story. It is a “true” sequel in that it not only takes off from where THE INNOCENT ends, it offers answers to questions posed in the first book, the most significant of which is, who murdered Keeper’s wife?
...Get the rest of the story from The Vincent Zandri Vox!
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild

New York TImes....Helllooooo???

I'm selling more books than Stephen King right now.
Ok....E-Books.
Kindle E-Books to be even more specific.
And I have been for about a month now since THE INNOCENT broke the Amazon Kindle TOP 100 and settled into the TOP 10 where it's been holding under the No. 5 spot for more than two weeks.

You with me here????

Believe me when I tell you, I am super proud of this accomplishment. So is my indie publisher, StoneGate Ink. But here's where it gets a little sticky for me. When I look at The New York Times Bestseller list for "E-Books," it lists the first two bestsellers, The Lincoln Lawyer, followed by Water for Elephants, but then it skips me and lists The Land of Painted Caves as next in line...far as I can tell, "Painted Caves" doesn't appear anywhere on the Amazon Top Ten.

What am I missing here?

....Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...

The Innocent

The Remains

A Trip Back to the Old School

I was the guest speaker at my old high school yesterday afternoon as a part of their quote, "Distinguished Alumni," unquote program. It's a little hard to swallow being referred to as a distinguished anything in Vin World, considering I put my socks on one at a time just like everyone else, the only difference being my socks probably have holes in them and maybe I've been wearing them for a couple of days now. I'm a bachelor. You gotta let me slide on certain things, like clean clothes for instance.

Ok, back to school.

A little background. My old school, The Albany Academy, was once a private, all boys, military academy. It's also old. Really old, having been established in 1813. When I attended the place from 1978-1982, the military component was still in full swing. We wore uniforms that matched West Point's, and drilled on a daily basis. The halls of our bottom floor were lined not with posters of peace, love, and understanding, but Springfield 03-A3 rifles. We had a shooting range upstairs, a Major, a Colonel, and strict haircut regulations. Anyone who received a certain amount of demerits at inspection was expected to march around the front "flag-pole"circle, even if it was raining.

It was all good fun...Wink...
...For the rest of the story head to The Vincent Zandri Vox:

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THE TOP TEN AMAZON KINDLE BESTSELLER
The Innocent