Gerald Dean Rice's Blog, page 75
October 20, 2012
46 Top Websites to Promote Your Book for FREE
Reblogged from Savvy Writers & e-Books online:
Stand out Against Thousands of Books
.
1. Goodreads
Use your free membership to promote yourself and your books. Reviews are essential and reviews on Goodreads site help your book to really stand out to millions of visitors.
2. Wattpad
Wattpad has experienced explosive growth since its inception and has become the world’s most popular destination to publish and read e-books.
October 15, 2012
No New Dethm8
Relax. Relaaaaax. It’s not ending quite yet. I’m just not able to write Dethm8 as regularly as I have been. I’ve taken on a freelance editing job and I’m working on that. I’m going to be done by around the end of the month and I’m hoping to get an installment or two done before NaNoWriMo. I have a couple competing ideas I want to do for that, but we’ll see which one pans out. But do not despair! The last episode was the end of the first act, but I should be able to do an ‘epilogue’ for the first act. And of course, not everyone will survive. I had a whole lot of people in The Spoon and it was about time to start peeling some of them off. But you’ll find that not just the three ladies who are a bit different from everybody else.
October 12, 2012
The Best Night of the Year
Available now from Razorline Press!
The weird kid joins in on the trick-or-treating fun and two cops get some goodies of their own.
The Best Night of the Year
99¢
Two police officers make a routine yearly stop and get a treat that will last them the rest of their lives. A man trying to bond with his stepson while trick-or-treating welcomes a lone child to join them. But some costumes are better disguises than others.
EXCERPT
“Well if it isn’t Superjack,” he began, looking at Andy. It was hard to listen to him speak with his poorly fitting dentures clicking around in his mouth. I chewed on my upper lip as a distraction. “And you are?” he asked the kid.
“I’m a freak!” the kid said in that too excited voice.
“Oh, really? But what is your name?”
“Just give him the damn candy,” I mumbled to myself.
“Oh, I don’t have a name. They didn’t give me one.”
I silently wished he’d make one up.
“Sorry, little boy,” The old man put a couple handfuls of candy into Andy’s bag. “No name, no candy.”
“Oh.” The way he said it made me want to kick Rockford in the balls. “I’m sorry.”
The way the kid just stood there looked funny. His body language didn’t match his voice. He should have been stooped over or something. He should have been hanging his head or something.
Later Sledge, I thought, turning away when he looked up at me like I was responsible for the kid’s costume. I was steamed The Scrounger had gypped the kid, I grabbed Andy’s shoulder and let him pass.
“Hey, give him a couple pieces.” Andy opened his mouth to complain but kept silent when I raised my eyebrows at him.
But Cash McCall had gotten me to thinking—who was he with?
“Hey kid,” I scratched my neck, nervous about talking to strange children. Even if you were the Mahatma it looks kind of creepy for a grown man to be speaking to a child he doesn’t know. “Where’s your momma?”
He turned his whole body to face me.
“Momma didn’t bring me. I came by myself. It’s the only day I get to come outside and I can stay out aaaaaaaaaaaall night as long as I want. It’s the best night of the whole year!”
You can read the whole story by ordering it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and
Smashwords.
October 9, 2012
Review of Tales from an Apartment
Got a pretty good review from The Deepening yesterday. Read it here:
http://www.thedeepening.com/2012/10/08/cc-bye-reviews-tales-from-an-apartment-by-gerald-dean-rice/
October 8, 2012
New Bio
I just updated my bio on my Amazon page:
I’ve always been into horror. When I was in kindergarten my mother took me right from school to see Creepshow. I saw a ton of stuff I shouldn’t have when I was a kid.
I got a book of ghost stories when I was 11 for Christmas. These were the days before YA novels, unless you picked up one of those namby-pamby VC Andrews books. Okay, scratch that; I’ve never actually read a VC Andrews book, they could be thoroughly excellent for all I know.
But the more I read and the older I got the more I wanted to write my own tales. I tried my hand at writing comic book stories with my best friend in high school, but we had no clue how to break into comics. I submitted my first story to Cemetery Dance back in 2000. It took somewhere around 7 months for them to finally reject me. I was so proud.
My first novel, “The Ghost Toucher”, was published in 2010. It was born out of several failed novel-writing attempts when it finally clicked for me. I’ve since put out a couple short collections of my own and a few zombie shorts, including my novella, “Fleshbags”.
My newest project, “The Zombie Show” was released June of this year. I’m currently working on my first vampire story and any number of other tales.
http://www.amazon.com/Gerald-Rice/e/B0043GCYOM/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1349731006&sr=8-2-ent
October 4, 2012
Still lovin it
Just got this email from a newfound fan (actually, she’s someone I know, but she just found out I write books). She’s talking about The Ghost Toucher.
Just thought I’d let you know… still lovin’ the book. I’ll have to get all your books. I read the short stories are really good. Maybe I’ll do that one next. And I’m spreading the word.
You can find my whole booklist right here.
Higher Priced Books
Take a look at this. That’s my first novel on sale on Barnes and Noble. It retails for $13.95 in paperback. Just below that is a price of $14.90. I’ve seen something similar on Amazon and I wonder how whoever this other seller is justifies the extra $0.85. I mean B&N is selling it new. The only thing it could be, which is tremendously flattering but most likely unlikely is this more expensive book is signed. I did a few signings in the months following TGT’s release in 2010, but even before then these books were showing up. I wonder if they even sell.
October 3, 2012
RE: Are you an Aspiring writer? (Orange County)
The Orange County Novastars are looking for 1-2 writers or journalist. Who are the Novastars? We are Orange County’s new and only professional basketball team!!!. We are a member of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and we are looking for a couple of talented writers that can cover our professional games, community events, and team activities.
If you are an aspiring writer this opportunity will give you the experience to build a professional resume while having a flexible schedule.
Thank you for your interest in our organization
Novastar Basketball
You know what else helps to build a professional resume and doesn’t require you to leave the comfort of your own home? A blog. Just go ask the Huffington Post. And there’s still an ABA??? Holy crap, there is. Hey, get a budget, guys. Pay your beat reporters.
October 2, 2012
Re: Ghost writer (Manhattan, NYC)
I found this response to an ad on Craig’s List and I couldn’t agree more. There are legit opportunities on CL, but it’s people like this who make everything look suspect.
Wait a minute, this person wants a book turned into a screenplay, two drafts, and is only willing to pay $500 for it, payable after the drafts are completed. Says that there are big name actors attached to the project, but can’t afford to pay a writer more than $500. Something is not right here.Indie film producer seeks an experienced and creative ghost writer for a feature screenplay. Writer must be familiar with New York and Los Angeles and must be skilled to write a biopic.
This is a book to script.
A trailer of the film is being completed and there are major name actors participating in this project. This is a SAG project and a great opportunity for a writer.
Please send a full resume, including education, experience, and any credits and/or awards. We will only respond to emails which include information requested ~
Please do not send emails pursuant to any other subject matters. We only request your resume and a brief bio. Please describe your writing style and provide samples of your work in the genre.
Seeking a writer to write a draft and one re-write.
October 1, 2012
Another Publisher to (Potentially) Beware of
Saw this on Craig’s List:
Stay Thirsty Publishing (http://www.staythirstypublishing.com), the digital book publishing division
of Stay Thirsty Media, Inc., a news and entertainment company with a global internet magazine
(http://www.staythirsty.com) seen in over 180 countries, seeks to sign two additional veteran authors
with new manuscripts for its Stay Thirsty Press imprint, and two debut or emerging authors with new
manuscripts and compelling personal stories for its Schiller & Wells, Ltd. imprint.
Please review our site, especially our ABOUT page (http://www.staythirstymedia.com/bookpublishing/html/about.html),
and email the first two chapters of your work, a brief synopsis and your resume to submissions@staythirstypublishing.com.
If we are interested, we will contact you.
To see some of our recent Amazon Best Sellers click this link: (http://www.staythirstymedia.com/201207-071/html/201207-best-sellers.html)
At first, this may look like a legit opportunity from a young publisher. But always be wary. Because I’m what would be described as an ‘emerging’ author I would fall into the category for authors to submit to the Schiller & Wells, Ltd. Imprint. Now that’s a nice, fancy name. Sounds like it’s been around a hundred years, doesn’t it? But they tell you right off the bat they got started in 2009. No big deal, I’m certainly not implying young publishers can’t be straightforward in their dealings (I’m a young publisher as well). But if you follow the links, you’ll wind up on a page where Stay Thirsty will inform you that “the risks of publishing debut or emerging writers are different from the risks associated with publishing veteran authors, Schiller & Wells, Ltd. authors are asked to take on a portion of the financial risk of publishing their book.” This is one of those red flag situations that should be telling you the situation may not be as good as it originally sounded. Now I do say ‘may’ simply because I don’t know enough about them to know for certain. I would say this is not a very good model for attracting fresh young talent considering there are a great deal of publishers out there who don’t require anything from authors, financially.
And to Stay Thirsty Publishing’s credit, for established authors, they state they will absorb all the cost of publishing a veteran author’s book. According to them, their magazine is read in over 170 countries (180 according to the CL post) and depending on the traffic, a great deal of promo would be done in-house, ideally. So if at least 1,000 people on average per country are reading their magazine, that’s easily 170,000 people who’d be seeing whatever kind of advertisement they’d be putting together for both veteran and emerging writers. I have no idea if I’m being liberal or conservative with my numbers as I don’t know what kind of readership they have. As of this posting, though, I’m waiting on a response as far as how much they expect unestablished authors to pay to assist in the publication of their own book. This sticks in my craw for the simple fact I seriously doubt this is going to be a nominal amount and if it’s going to range into the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, there’s no reason not to go it alone and hire one’s own editor, cover illustrator, and use a service like Book Bub or some other means of inexpensive promotion. Sure, 170,000 pairs of unique eyeballs is nice, but what’s the split so far as how much an author earns per book? I requested the information on their contact page. You can read what I wrote to them below:
Your Name: Gerald Rice
Your Email Address: Gerald.rice@xxxxx
Subject: Financial Risk?
Message: Hello, I am an emerging writer and I found your post on Craig’s List. I’m currently working on a manuscript and I saw you are accepting submissions from authors. I was reading on one of your pages that newer authors would be expected to bear part of the financial risk or publishing. Could you tell me what this amount is? Is it a percentage and if so, a percentage of what, exactly? Thank you in advance.
Again, I can’t call Stay Thirsty Publishing a scam. There is definitely a good likelihood it isn’t. I simply don’t have the proper amount of information to say one way or the other. All I have is my gut and an extreme dislike of the big boys (or at least bigger in this case) with their hands out to the little guys. I would actually love for my gut to be wrong in this one. I’ll freely admit my error in judgment and sing the praises of Stay Thirsty if it turns out everything is on the up-and-up. I’ll keep you updated when I get a response.
