Phil Giunta's Blog, page 64

Coming to You LIVE from the Middle of Eternity!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce volume two of the Middle of Eternity anthology series that began in 2014 with Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity. The idea behind this project is to introduce new writers in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal.

Volume Two will be called Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity and you can help us bring it to fruition. We have launched a Kickstarter to help fund the project and allow us to compensate the writers and artists and cover production costs.

This collection from Firebringer Press will bring you stories from Parsec and Mark Time award-winner Steven H. Wilson (publisher), Phil Giunta (editor), Daniel Patrick Corcoran, Michael Critzer, Melissa Carta Miller, Susanna Reilly, Stuart Roth, and Lance Woods.

Cover and interior art by Allentown artist, Michael Riehl.

Final book layout by Bethlehem artist, Christopher Winner.

Click here for more information, watch the video, and please consider supporting this small press publication. Thank you so much!

 

Return With Us to the Middle of Eternity!

May is here and that means our second voyage through the Middle of Eternity will soon begin! In 2014, I was proud to release Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity through Firebringer Press. I had pitched this collection of SF, Fantasy, and Paranormal tales as a way to introduce as-yet unpublished writers to the reading public.

We had an amazing book launch at Shore Leave 36 and the collection has since been well-received. So…we’re doing it again! Look for news about Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity by the end of the week including a Kickstarter to help fund the book’s publication. We plan to launch the anthology at Shore Leave 38.

Returning from volume one are Daniel Patrick Corcoran, Michael Critzer, Susanna Reilly, Stuart Roth, Steven H. Wilson, Lance Woods, and myself as editor and contributor.

Joining us for the first time will be Melissa Carta Miller and April Welles.

Click here to check out our first volume on Amazon.

Click here for info on the Shore Leave SF convention.

Please spread the word and thank you for supporting indie and small press writers!

Sacrifice Play is Fully Funded!

Congratulations to writer pal and publisher, Steven H. Wilson, on the success of his Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication and audio performance of his upcoming science fiction novel, Sacrifice Play: A Tale from the Arbiter Chronicles!

The novel will launch at Shore Leave 38 science fiction convention in July in Hunt Valley, MD.

Thank you to all who donated! Click here to read the update from Steve…

Con Recap: The Great Philadelphia Comic Con

I had the pleasure of attending The Great Philadelphia Comic Con as a writer guest for the past two days and I can honestly say that I will absolutely return next year.  The celebrity guests were fantastic, the convention was extremely organized and well-attended, the cosplayers were outstanding, and the table I shared with writer pal Joe Berenato was perfectly located.

Over the years of attending conventions and book events, I’ve noticed that my sales are vasty better in venues where I have the opportunity to speak, whether in a discussion panel with other writers or presenting solo. The Great Philadelphia Comic Con proved to be an exception. Though I had no discussion panels or presentations, my sales far exceeded expectations.

Check out the images below. I was honored to meet actors Julian Glover, Glenn Morshower, and John Paragon. The cosplayers pictured here were only a fraction of the amazing characters in attendance. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Amazicon & A Day at Rehoboth Beach

Just spent a fantastic weekend with friends Steve and Renee Wilson at Amazicon in Wilmington, DE. We stayed at the convention on Friday evening through Saturday.

Since the con was slow and we weren’t moving books, we decided to pack it in Saturday evening and take off for a day in Rehoboth Beach on Sunday morning.  All told, it was a fun weekend!

Write Here, Write Now is Available!

The second annual anthology from the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group (GLVWG) is now available from Amazon!

WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW contains an eclectic and engaging selection of short stories, poems, and essays from members of the group. In these pages, you’ll find humor, inspiration, thrills, and chills from new and veteran writers alike.

It is currently available in trade paperback with the Kindle version forthcoming.

GLVWG is a non-profit organization that seeks to encourage writers at all levels and to connect readers in the community with great books. We appreciate your support!

Book Review: Rise of the Machines by Kristen Lamb

There was once a time when an author’s only true concern was producing the best quality manuscript.

Over the last decade, that has changed drastically with the advent of social media and blogging. Now, writers are expected to have a platform—including a strong online presence—well before their first book is published.

What’s more, unless you’re of the stature of Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, no longer can published authors simply sit back and let others do the work of promotion and marketing. These days, the onus is ON US.

Enter Kristen Lamb, social media Jedi and author of Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World. I had the pleasure of hosting Kristen as the keynote at the 2015 Write Stuff writers conference in Allentown, PA where I purchased her book. I was curious to learn more about how to properly leverage social media and my blog to bolster my platform.

In her book, Kristen divides her lessons into five sections, providing a brief history of the publishing industry, the changes that have occurred (and are still occurring), and fascinating insights into human psychology and communication. She also explains why the traditional marketing methods are no longer effective today.

Before delving into specifics about social media sites, Kristen leads the reader through very focused chapters and sections about identifying your short term and long term goals, creating your writers platform, creating your brand, the types of friends and followers who will help writers with these efforts, and what it means to “go viral.”

With those concepts understood, we then delve into specifics about a few of the hottest social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition to providing advice on how to manage your time and content, Kristen also offers tips on social media etiquette, how to avoid conflict and potentially sensitive topics, and handling internet “trolls” who insult and harass rather than politely disagreeing with something you post.

Along the way Kristen’s humor and anecdotes provide entertainment along with education that held my attention and prevented the material from becoming “dry”.

Although I have worked in the IT industry for over 20 years and have a solid grasp of technology, and although I am a published author who is active on social media, I came away from Kristen’s book with insights on how and where I need to improve my approach, especially to blogging.

I only wish I had known about Kristen before I published my first novel in 2009!

 

Sacrifice Play – A New Tale from Arbiter Chronicles!

Ladies and gents, if you enjoy science fiction and space opera, and you have not read or listened to Steven H. Wilson’s Arbiter Chronicles series, you are missing some of the best characters and stories in the genre. Here is your chance to get caught up.

Steven is releasing SACRIFICE PLAY, his third novel in a series of tales that spans 15 years and began as full cast audio dramas that have won both the Parsec and Mark Time Awards.

I had the honor of proofreading the manuscript for Sacrifice Play and it is a suspenseful adventure with outstanding characters. If you can spare three minutes, click here to let Steve Wilson tell you all about this latest installment of the Arbiter Chronicles in his Kickstarter.

Upcoming Appearances in April

I shall be sharing a table with Firebringer Press publisher and writer, Steven H. Wilson, at Amazicon: The Pop Culture Convention in Wilmington, DE, April 15-17. Artist pal Laura Inglis, who created the cover art for my novels, Testing the Prisoner and By Your Side, will be a guest as well. Actors, writers, comic book artists, and cosplayers will all be on hand for a fun, escapist weekend of genre entertainment. Hope to see you there!

 

The following weekend, I will be a guest at The Great Philadelphia Comic Con, April 22-24 in Oaks, PA. Celebrity guests include Bruce Boxleitner, Denise Crosby, Julian Glover, Ray Park, Robert Duncan McNeill, Garrett Wang, Roger Cross, and more! I will be sharing a table with fellow writer and pop-culture maven Joseph F. Berenato on Friday and Saturday. I will not be there on Sunday.

Hope to see you there!

 

Amazon Blocking Certain Reader Reviews?

This is a topic that came to my attention early in 2015. Although I kept it in the back of my mind, I did not pay it much heed at first, primarily because it had not yet happened to me or any of my fellow published writers. It still has not, to my knowledge, but two articles from July 2015 resurfaced on Facebook today and brought the matter back into focus. Since I have some free time on my hands today, let’s discuss…

In summary, Amazon will allegedly block a reader’s review of a writer’s book if Amazon can find proof of a relationship between the two on social media. To better understand the situation, click the links below to read the articles, then come on back.

Amazon Accused of Spying on Reviewer’s Social Media Profiles

Amazon Blocking Reviews from Authors’ Friends, Family, & Acquaintances

Amazon’s Review Policy is Creepy and Bad for Authors

All done?  Great. As stated in both articles, Amazon has an obligation to protect the integrity of its reader reviews by keeping them objective. I completely understand this, of course.

However, let me offer this scenario: A reader, Wendy, leaves an effusive review for a book on Amazon or Goodreads (owned by Amazon for the past three years). The reader then sends a friend request to the writer, Lance, on Goodreads, and Lance accepts the request. Let me be clear—Lance and Wendy have NEVER met in person.

Later, Lance releases his second novel. Wendy reads it, loves it, and tries to leave another five-star review on Amazon…but now she can’t because Amazon has blocked it with the explanation that Wendy has a relationship with Lance on social media and as a result, they cannot allow her review.

Among the many purposes of social media, is not connecting people with similar interests one of those purposes? Is not connecting fans with their favorite artists and writers another such purpose?

I would answer yes to the above questions because how the hell else are artists and writers supposed to build their platforms in the digital age?

Does that mean then that due to Amazon’s policy, I as a published author must decline friendship requests from readers, else run the risk of Amazon blocking any future reviews from them? Does Amazon block negative reviews in this case as well as positive ones?

Has anyone experienced this?  If so, I’d like to hear about it considering that so far, the only stories I’ve heard have been from articles such as those above.

Reviews are CRITICAL to a writer’s career, especially small press and indie writers as well as burgeoning writers at the beginning of their careers. By developing and enforcing this policy, how is Amazon–the champion of the indie writer–helping that writer flourish?

I am currently reading Kristen Lamb’s brilliant book, Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World.  Kristen has made it her mission in life to connect writers and readers by providing guidance to writers on how to best use social media to build community and foster friendships–one of the very purposes of social media!

Yet, how can a writer adapt these practices when Amazon might be actively blocking reviews from readers who are connected to their favorite writers online?

Again, to my knowledge, this has not yet happened with any of my books. No reader has contacted me to report it. Yet, one or two of my more savvy readers, who are connected with me on Facebook, have stated that they are hesitant to leave reviews for my books because they heard about Amazon’s policy.

I urge them to at least try.

If the articles are accurate, then Amazon’s policy seems to contradict the very nature of social media.

Writers, has this policy made you think twice about accepting friend requests from readers?  It has not stopped me, but time will tell if I’m going to lose reviews because of it.

To thank you for your time in commenting, one random responder will receive a free copy of my latest speculative fiction anthology, Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity!

Of course, if you read it and enjoy it, I hope you’ll consider leaving a review.  Thank you for your support!