Norm Applegate's Blog: Norm Applegate's Blog, page 8

Sexual frenzy layered on graphic violence, not for vegetarians.

My latest novel, First to Die is available as an ebook and now paperback. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Smashwords. The ebook is only $2.99. Like I said in an earlier post. The ebook prices have dropped. I'm thinking this is the best novel I've written. Even the description is juicy. It will be the last horror for a while. I'm currently working on a thriller. Below is the product description. 
Link to Amazon: First to Die  
Product Description:A vampire with a sickening fetish.A gypsy she loves the kill.A CEO probably insane wants revenge.A sexually bent woman, Kim Bennett.…and they want her dead!
First to Die by Norm ApplegateThis book is not for vegetarians
A grave has been robbed. A document has been stolen. Vampires are turning on each other. The Black Testament, discloses the truth behind vampires. How to live with them, how to kill them.
A vampire has taken the document to the vaults beneath Notre Dame. Kim Bennett goes after it. It's a trap. The CEO of the organization wants to see Kim bleed. Former dominatrix, part vampire, Kim Bennett turns it up a notch. Carve in, carve out, blood leaks…
Kim battles twisted characters, a killer with a sickening fetish and a society fueled by blood lust. This novel is as much a thriller as it is blunt force trauma. Laced with sexual frenzy layered on graphic violence, this book is not for vegetarians.

Live on Triad TV Saturday Night

LIVE ON TRIADTV THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!!! TriadTV presents: 


The Triad Entertainment Hour. Join Krystal Sepulveda, Happy Gray, Horror Writer Norm Applegate and myself as we review the following films: The Crazies (1973 Original), Let the Right One In, Frontiers, and Aaah! Zombies!! DON'T MISS OUR ENTERTAINING REVIEWS!!! LIVE SATURDAY NIGHT AT 11PM EST!!!
http://www.blogtv.com/people/triadtv

Murphy's law, not now, not with my script!

The weirdest thing. I wrote the screenplay to my first novel Into the Basement with Nick Grabowsky of Halloween IV. I use Screenwriter 6, a software program. Thought it was the professional thing to do. Now I'm wondering if this really was the best choice.            Had an upgrade to the software last year. No big deal, I use a MacBook pro I have lots of programs use to updates, love it.             Got a request from, and I'm going to drop some names here. Request for the script from Marianna Palka. If you don't recognize the name you might have seen her movie "Good Dicks," a comedy staring her and Jason Ritter, the late John Ritter's son.             I sent her the script. Two weeks later a response, she didn't receive it. Someone from her production team reached out to me. I sent it again. It didn't go through. Tried again, got a thank you note. It must have gone through, right? Maybe not!            Two Foot Fred has a role in the movie. A part written for him. He's a comedian, travels with the country band Big and Rich. I ran into him in Nashville airport. We talked. He mentioned sending the script to him. He would forward to a friend. The sister of Gina Gershon, (Cocktails, Showgirls).  You know Gina Gershon, right? Well I jumped on that. Got home sent the script out. A few days later Fred sends me an email, no script. Tried a few times. No script. Phoned Nick, had him send it to Fred. Don't know if Gina ever read it.            Now the latest episode. We're talking to Lynn Lowry. She stared in the original Crazies directed by George A. Romero and the remake. She plays the older woman babbling riding a bicycle across the street. Cameo, powerful impact for a short time on screen.             I sent her the script, okay you know the story. She didn't get it. Finally got it to her through film director John Botelho.            Contacted the software manufacturer. This is the only file that will not show up when I email it and it doesn't bounce back. They were no help. I'm blown away. Maybe the most important file I have and it screws up! Of Murphy's Law in action. How can that be? If anyone has any suggestions I'm listening.
Oh yeah, I've saved it as a PDF and word document. Still will not go through my email…? Any suggestions?

Got some events coming up !!!!!

Okay here are a few things on my plate:
April 9, appearance on Triad TV
Yup, I'm doing a blog TV show with John Botelho and Happy Grey. We'll be discussing the vampire movie, "Let the Right One in." If you haven't seen this, it is being talked about as maybe the best vampire movie ever! You got to see the Swedish version.

April 17, Francy & Friends Blog Talk Radio
I'll be talking trash with my good friend Francy Weatherman. Listen in, phone in. We usually get foolish. You know, laugh a lot. I'm sure psycho's will call in!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/francy
May 21, Filming "Grotto," and a book trailer for "First to Die," my latest release.
Grotto is a short horror movie I wrote last year. It will be filmed in Texas by John Botelho and Happy Grey. Knowing those two guys it'll be a wacked time! We will be shooting scenes for Grotto and the First to Die book trailer on Saturday night May 21st.

Boycott of Dorchester (Leisure) Publishing...what's going on?

Wow, this is hot! I'm reposting this to draw attention to the boycott of Dorchester (Leisure) Books. Brian Keene has been out in front on this, checkout his blog for more detail. What we're seeing happen is amazing. For years I have wanted to be an author at Leisure, guess not! There is a lot of discussion lately about indie vs. mainstream publishing. After reading about this makes you wonder about the future of the big publishers. However, there is still the desire in most of us to be signed with one of the big boys. Norm Applegate author of:First to DieBlood BarInto The SpellInto The Basement

This is the link to the article from horror author Wrath James White.http://wordsofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/rape-of-genre-and-what-you-can-do-to.html
THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2011The Rape of The Genre (And What You Can Do To Stop It!)We are in a time of great transition in our industry. The old publishing models are no longer working, largely because they were idiotic to begin with, but also because of the rise of the e-book and the decline in readers overall.
The old model of publishing a ton of books by old and new writers, promoting only the biggest names while leaving all the new authors to fend for themselves, warehousing all of these books until they are distributed, and then allowing bookstores to destroy and then return what they can't sell, has failed.
Really? That sounded like such a good plan? How did it ever fail?
Let's look at it one issue at a time. First, can you name another industry that spends the most advertising dollars on its most well-known products while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars creating new products that they don't market or promote? It is absurd. Why bring on any new authors if you don't intend to promote them? As a result, hundreds of authors a year publish their first novels with print runs of 5,000 to 10,000 that no one ever hears about and no one ever buys and the publishers scratch their heads, wondering what happened. It was always stupid and always doomed to fail.
The second idiotic practice was that of allowing bookstores to return books after ripping off the book covers. Name one other industry that allows retailers to return unsold product after destroying it so it can never be resold? Pure stupidity. This is even dumber in light of the fact that there is now such a technology as Print-On-Demand. Heard of it? POD publishing allows publishers to only print what they can sell. They no longer need to print 5,000 copies unless they actually have 5,000 bookstore orders. Would you be surprised to know that the major publishers have still not embraced this technology? Really? The same industry that wants you to destroy their product and return it to them for a refund?
In the midst of all this chaos, confusion, and stupidity, there's Leisure books. Leisure was, at one time, a powerhouse in the world of horror fiction. They published more horror than any other U.S. publisher. Their advances to their authors were woefully low, but they had pretty good distribution so there was the trade off. You took the small advance in the hopes that you'd see the money in royalties once the book hit the shelves. Well, that didn't happen to me. I kept getting emails telling me that they couldn't get the books into the stores, they were having problems with distribution and, as a result, the books weren't selling. I did my part. I did radio interviews to promote the book, I did the convention circuit, I did readings and signings at bookstores. I blogged about the book, sent emails, posted on message boards, told everyone within earshot to go to their local bookstores and demand that they stock my book. Leisure? Well, I was a new author and they followed that age-old business model in publishing, promote your top-sellers and fuck the rest. But why was Leisure, who had one of the better distribution networks, having such a hard time getting my books on the shelves?
Some of it was, undoubtedly due to the extreme content of the novel. Some of it was that I was a new and unknown author. And some of it was the "love-it-or-hate-it" reviews. But there was something else going on.
The Resurrectionist came out in 2009 and the problems got worse. No one would stock it. As a result, fans couldn't find it and new readers, new would-be-fans, never saw it and never knew it existed. Wrath was sad. I assumed the failing was mine. Then, through the grapevine, I discovered that Leisure was having a hard time getting distributors to take any books from any new authors and even some established authors. Why? Well, this is purely speculation, but the rumor was that Leisure hadn't been paying its bills. I ignored the rumors. I had seen other new Leisure books on the shelves so that couldn't have been the reason. Could it? But the rumors persisted. Then came the rumors that Leisure was in serious trouble and facing bankruptcy. Then they let go of Don D'Auria, one of the most trusted and respected editors in the genre, and all hell broke loose. Authors began coming forward, announcing that they hadn't received royalties in months. Some, were still waiting on advances for novels that were already in print. The rumors were true. Leisure was in trouble.
"Uh oh. What about my books?"
It seems a lot of authors were asking that same question and many began writing to Leisure to demand their rights back. The responses from Leisure were all over the place. Some, like Brian Keene, were given their rights back in exchange for absolving Leisure of past debt. Others, like me, were completely ignored. Now, apparently, many of the authors who supposedly received their rights back have seen their books pop up in e-book format from Leisure. Essentially, they are selling books they no longer have the rights to. What gives? Leisure's Facebook page has been flooded with messages from angry fans. Many (most) of these messages have been deleted. This goes beyond the unfortunate implosion of one of the most popular publishers in the genre. Leisure Books/ Dorchester Publishing is taking its authors down with it. Brian Keene is calling for a Leisure boycott:
"*If you follow them on Twitter, please unfollow them. *If you like them on Facebook, please unlike them. *If you receive their marketing emails, please remove yourself from their list. *If you belong to one of their book clubs, please consider canceling your membership. *If you are considering publishing with them, please reconsider.*Most importantly, please don't buy their books, regardless of whether it's on their website, in the $1.99 dump bin at Wal-Mart, or available on the Kindle. If you aren't sure how to identify a Dorchester book, check the spine. It should say Leisure Fiction or Dorchester Publishing."
I am in agreement. I am recently without a day job which means I now rely solely on my writing to pay the bills. Being able to republish The Resurrectionist and Succulent Prey as ebooks would go a long way toward putting food on the family table and keeping a roof over our heads. So, if you love me then leave 'em alone until they pay us starving authors what we are owed and return our rights. FIGHT THE POWER!
This article was from horror author Wrath James White.

ebook prices are dropping

Since ebook prices are dropping, I'm trying a new approach. Kind of a mass marketing thing, seeing how this works out. I had no reason to do this in the past but I wanted to make sure you all knew about the special ebook sale I'm doing right now with my 3 horror thriller novels.
A couple of my books have been out for a few years and this month I've dropped the price on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. I decided to put them on sale for $0.99. I'm hoping that the price point will encourage a lot of new readers to check them out. I did this for two reasons. Quiet frankly, the ebook price has been dropping, a good thing for us readers. So to keep in line with this rapidly changing market I dropped the price. The second reason was because I just released my forth novel, First To Die. I'm introducing this book at $2.99. Still such a reasonable price compared to where we were last year on ebook prices.
Links to Amazon:
Into the Basement at:  Into the Basement
Into the Spell at:  Into the Spell
Blood Bar at:  Blood Bar
First to Die at:   First to Die

What Amazon Bestsellers Rank Means

Are you curious how Amazon does its ranking calculation? I pulled this from their website. It's there official explanation.
What Amazon Bestsellers Rank MeansThe Amazon Bestsellers calculation is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated hourly to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on Amazon.com.What Amazon Bestsellers Rank by Category MeansWhile the Amazon Bestsellers list is a good indicator of how well a product is selling overall, it doesn't always indicate how well an item is selling among other similar items. Category and subcategory bestseller lists were created to highlight an item's rank in the categories or subcategories where it really stands out. We choose a few of the most popular subcategories in which the item has a high ranking in relation to other items in that subcategory, and showcase the item's rank on the product page. As with the main Amazon Bestsellers list, these category rankings are based on Amazon.com sales and are updated hourly.What an Item's Actual Sales AreFor competitive reasons, Amazon.com generally does not publish this information to the public.What Paid and Free Amazon Bestsellers Lists AreFor the Kindle Store, Amazon Bestsellers lists are divided into Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free. Items in the paid bestsellers list have a value greater than $0.00. Items in the free list have a value equal to $0.00. Both lists are updated hourly.Now these are some interesting stats on book sales. Since the algorithm Amazon uses to generate its sales ranking is proprietary, the details below are extrapolated from research and field tests.I gave credit to the source at the end of the blog.If the book's average ranking is:2,000,000+ Perhaps a single inventory/consignment copy has been ordered1,000,000+ Current trends indicate total sales will most likely be under 40100,000+ Current trends indicate total sales will most likely be under 20010,000+ Estimate between 1 – 10 copies being sold per week.1,000+ Estimate between 10 – 100 copies being sold per week.100+ Estimate between 100 – 200 copies being sold per week.10+ Estimate between 200 – 1000 copies being sold per week.Under 10 Estimate over 1,000 copies per weekBrent Sampson is the President & CEO of Outskirts Press Publishing at http://www.outskirtspress.com and author of Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer. Information at http://outskirtspress.com/publishinggems

Marketing Checklist to sell more books

Marketing Checklist to sell more...
When was the last time you looked at your site on Amazon? You know, the first place a reader views your work. Does it generate the buying impulse? How about updating your product description? If you're like me it's been a while.
I release a new novel last week, First to Die. Realized my Amazon book pages need work.
I Googled. Found a blog. Read something that stuck with me.
Awareness: The most important marketing advice. You have to get your name out there. Everything else is important. But you have to get your name out there and that's means devoting time to blogging, Kindle Boards, Facebook, Twitter, you know the list…well I'm working that. So what else can an author do? Here's where the checklist comes in.
Your Cover: We've all heard people judge a book by its cover. Does any body really know what a good cover is and does it make a difference. I tried Googling but didn't hit on anything that gave me stats. I wanted to know is there a color, font size artwork, something that triggers buying based on the design of the book cover, didn't find it. Must be an industry secret. Here's what I believe: The book cover needs to look good as a thumbnail (learning that mistake from experience). Red is exciting, blue is pretty good too. The best color combination for a pay here button on a website is navy blue font on an orange rectangle background bordered by a red line? Doesn't sound good but I'm trying it out on my website, let you know if that works.
Your Product Description: I'm in the process of updating mine. It feels good. I've improved as a writer over the years so has my ability to write something that's short, quick catchy. So update your book descriptions. This helped me, if you go Amazon.com and look up your blog. You have created a blog in Amazon right? Go to Author Central. The header begins with Home. Select Books. Pulls up a list of your books. Select a book and an editing page opens up where you can update your product description, post reviews, add the back cover description all kinds of stuff.
Your Reviews: I need more reviews. That's in line with awareness. Makes sense. Good reviews have got to help.
Your Writing: How does a buyer know about your writing? Free download of the first chapters might help. I'm doing that in Goodreads. Have the first chapter of three of my books posted so far.
Price: Talked about this the other day. I've seen my sales double by dropping the price to $0.99. Maybe that's just an impulse purchase. But we want people to read our books, get the word out there. My latest novel I priced at $2.99. We'll see how that works out.
In summary:Look at your sites, Amazon, Smashwords your website and work the checklist:AwarenessYour CoverYour Product DescriptionYour ReviewsYour WritingPrice

Writing Rules

There are so many opinions about what it takes to be a successful author. I recently read an article that reminded me of the rules. I'm sure every agent, publisher or author could tell us the "rules." Here are some, these are basic, can't argue with them, so here they are:
1). Write a Good Book: That's like a no brainer. But what is a good book? I'm not going to knock any successful author but we know the list spans from poor writing to exceptional and everything in between. So I'm not really sure I can define a good book except to say, do the best you can. Find someone that's anal. Yup, get them to read your stuff looking for gaps in the story, thoughts unanswered and the stuff we miss because we're to close to the work.
2). Know the Market:This one bothers me. I think most of us write in the genre we do, because that's where we're comfortable. That's where we can visualize the story. See it like a movie and then write it. For me, to write in a genre because that genre has the biggest sales doesn't work for me. I don't see myself writing YA paranormal romance.
3). A Good Cover and Title:Can't help but agree with this one. Nick Grabowsky of Black Bed Sheet Books has done my last three book covers. I love them. Color, graphic blended images that at first you might not notice, yeah they're cool. For $0.99 they're almost worth buying just for the covers. For titles, I've always enjoyed a book that somewhere buried in a chapter, the title is used in a sentence, just kind of like that. No science behind it.
4). Competitive Price:Here's the latest thinking on price. If you self publish e-books and you're a new author, your highest price should be $2.99. This price point gives the author the 70% royalty that Amazon offers. But if you're new and like all of us, we need to grow our reader base, your first novels should be $0.99. At that price it's an impulse purchase, but if readers like your style they'll buy more. There is even an argument for offering your novels for free. This approach is in the hopes that readers will purchase the author's other works.
5). The Book Description:It has to be something that draws the potential reader to purchase the book. I'm sure there are better ones than mine. But here we go. For "Into the Spell," I wrote this:
Hypnotist, deranged…Ghost, Madame Blavatsky…Serial killer, female…Bent woman, Kim Bennett…
Into the Spell is Norm Applegate's second book. It's a paranormal thriller about a serial killer controlled by a hypnotist, who speaks to the dead.
The Mayor's daughter is murdered. Kim Bennett and FBI agent A.L. Hague are catapulted into the dark side of hypnosis, paranormal behaviors, ghosts and the occult. The situation gets worse. A .44 caliber bulldog is found. The same pistol used by the Son of Sam. It sets the clock ticking in an adventure of sex and control.
6). Write More Books:Don't know if these stats are true, but what the heck even if they're not, directionally the logic seems sound. Still think that the numbers are over inflated. But you get the point. The more books an author has for sale the more they'll sell.1 book published = 10 books sold per month 2 books published = 50 to 60 books sold per month 3 books published = 200 to 400 books sold per month 4 books published = 1,000 books sold per month 5 books published – over 10,000 books sold per month
Here are some other stats I found:·      In 2007: according to Xlibris's own internal reports, obtained by Writer Beware, 4% of its titles had sold more than 1,000 copies. That means 96% sold fewer than 1000 copies!·      A Lulu bestseller is a book that sells 500 copies. ·      The average book from a POD service sells fewer than 200 copies
7).  Market:Even if you've done all of the above, how does a potential buyer find you? You've got to market your book. Here's a short list.  You get the idea.Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, The Kindle Boards and your own blog.

Into the Spell, A Paranormal Thriller

I'm posting this because I have a new cover for Into the Spell. Nick Grabowsky of Black Bed Sheet Books designed. I love it. Normally I wouldn't change the cover on a previously published book but here's what happened. My novels for sale on Amazon and Smashwords. Amazon accepts books just like Smashwords. However, Smashwords has a premium catalog. The catalog distributes your ebook to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony and a host of other formats, even for viewing on your computer. For a book to be included in the catalog it has to meet certain quality criteria. My old cover was to small? Don't know what that means. It was rejected.  
 Amazon: Into The Spell
Smashwords: Into the Spell
Action. Called Nick, told him the situation. He delivered. Here it is. And the price only $0.99


...thought I would throw in a couple of paragraphs from Into the Spell, A Paranormal Thriller
Chapter 1
Car accidents happen. That's why they're called accidents. It was eight-fifteen in the evening. Jennifer Bernstein lunged forward. Her white Camry was hit. She was seated in the driver's seat. Hands clutching the steering wheel. She looked into the rear-view mirror. A car was backing up. It stopped. There was a man inside. He was alone. She stared at him. He stared back. She twisted to her right and popped open the glove compartment. The parking garage of the Tampa Airport Marriott was dark. It limited her sight. Her fingers searched for the first pen she could grab. Opening a brown leather folder and ripping a piece of paper from the pad, the twenty-three year was thinking about her mother and how angry she would be.Jennifer sat still for a moment, her heart fluttering. Her mind recalling what just happened. She reached for the door handle. Her fingers were slippery, sweaty. She opened the door and slide out. A composed voice in her mind softly spoke. "Take a deep slow breath and …relax."The voice was not hers. She was puzzled, confused.  She stood silent and stared.She saw a man. He was too far to have uttered the words. The stranger stood, still, quiet. Looking at her. He was tall and thin, with tanned skin and dark eyes. Mesmerizing. The eyes were powerful.He was moving, walking toward her. Took a few seconds. He reached out with his fingers and touched her forearm. "Are you alright?" the voice was confident.Jennifer, surprised by his presence felt different. Something inside, inside her head. Controlling.