James Bailey's Blog, page 11

Win a Kindle copy of Nine Bucks a Pound

Once again, I’m underwhelmed by the results of a Goodreads Giveaway. Two years ago, when The Greatest Show on Dirt came out, I gave away eight copies to Goodreads readers. Of those lucky winners, just three of them actually rated it, one of whom couldn’t be bothered to write a review. I suspect the book didn’t interest the other five, as they didn’t have any other baseball books on their shelves or indicate any interest in baseball. They fall into the category of “people who just like to win free stuff,” which seems to be type that typically enters these giveaways. Which sucks for an author on two fronts. First, if the point to giving away free copies of the book is to help get more reviews, that’s a fail right there. And if that’s not bad enough, I’m out of pocket for the cost of the book and the postage.

This time around I decided to give away just two copies, figuring the real value of the contest is just getting some word out on Goodreads about the book’s release. I also noted in the description, “Please note: This is a novel about a baseball player. If you don’t like baseball or reading about baseball, well, don’t say you weren’t warned.” (What I really wanted to say was, “please don’t enter, so maybe someone who does will have a better chance.”) In just over a week, 284 people entered the contest. A frighteningly high number of these folks are what I would call “virtual book hoarders.” One woman had more than 35,000 books on her Goodreads shelf, of which 45 were on her “read” shelf. Forty-five down, thirty-five thousand to go. Wow. That’s a lot. To put that in context, if you were to read a book a day it would take you 96 years to get through 35,000 books. So, yeah, I call mental illness on that one.

Anyway, the contest drew to a close in the wee hours last night. Two winners were selected, neither of whom would appear to be in my target audience given the books on their virtual shelves, but hopefully they will read and review it anyway, or maybe hand it over to someone they know who will.

I’m not holding my breath.

Instead of sitting here going blue in the face, I will stage a new contest for two copies of the Kindle version of Nine Bucks a Pound. How you enter is by commenting on this post sometime before midnight Sunday, March 9 (and with daylight savings time this weekend, that’s one less hour than you might think, so get cracking). In your post you will tell us all your favorite baseball novel and what you liked best about it. One winner will be chosen based on the best response, the other by random selection from all those who entered (assuming more than one person does). Your obligation, should you be so fortunate as to win this book, is to write an honest review on Amazon.com (and Goodreads if you so happen to frequent it).

Here’s a description of Nine Bucks a Pound:

For every A-Rod or Manny Ramirez seeking to boost his game to elite levels via illegal means, there have been scores of unheralded players toiling in the minor leagues, desperate to impress the brass enough to simply survive and advance. Young men who have dreamed of playing in the big leagues since they were old enough to swing a bat. When their natural ability alone isn’t enough, the black and white blurs to gray, their fear of getting caught using banned substances outweighed by a more consuming fear of failure.

Three seasons into his professional career, Del Tanner can read the writing on the wall. A contact hitter at a power position, he recognizes his days in the Twins organization are numbered if he can’t match the production of the other first basemen in the system. When his aspiring agent suggests he try steroids, Del makes a choice that will shadow him for the rest of his career.

In his second novel, James Bailey (The Greatest Show on Dirt, 2012) humanizes the players fans are so often quick to demonize. Nine Bucks a Pound ponders life on baseball’s fringe and the dreams that tempt a young man to heed the devil on his shoulder. ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark says, “Bailey hasn’t just given us a great read. He’s given us an important window into a topic we can’t seem to stop talking about.” Adds Russell Rowland, author of High and Inside, “Bailey expertly explores how the desire to succeed at any price can lead to unexpected consequences, mostly involving a man’s relationships with others, not to mention with his own conscience. This is a powerful story about the perils of success at any price.”

Sound interesting? Have at it, for your chance to win a Kindle copy. (Note: If you don’t have a Kindle or a Kindle app, you are welcome to buy a print copy from Amazon for a mere $12.56.) And if you can overlook the fact that you’re actually hurting your own odds in a sense (don’t be selfish, now, kids), please share this post.

 

 

Nine Bucks a Pound is now available

I was aiming for March 1 for the release of book #2 and somehow managed to put it to bed a week ahead of schedule. Nine Bucks a Pound is now available on Amazon in both print and Kindle formats. Goodreads hasn't yet picked it up; I'm hoping that will happen in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I'll introduce it here by dusting off my GR blog.

Here's the writeup of the book from the back cover:

From the moment he’s drafted, Del Tanner shows the Twins a smooth left-handed stroke and a slick glove at first base. But his path is blocked by players who possess the one thing he lacks—power. When a teammate’s injury is the only thing to spare him on cutdown day, the message is clear: Put more balls over the fence or find a new line of work.

His aspiring agent connects him with a steroid dealer operating out of the back room of a South Florida funeral parlor. After a winter in Mexico, pumping iron by day and riding the bench by night, Del reports to spring training sporting twenty additional pounds of muscle. Suddenly a legitimate power threat, he ascends from the ranks of the unknown to American League Rookie of the Year. Within days of being so honored, allegations surface of his performance-enhancing drug use, forcing him on the defensive as he fights to restore his reputation and repair his personal relationships.

And here are some blurbs from writers who were kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules and give it a read:

“Almost everything that’s been written about PEDs and baseball reads like either a chemistry textbook or a morality play. So I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to immerse myself in a book that actually tells the human side of this story. James Bailey hasn’t just given us a great read. He’s given us an important window into a topic we can’t seem to stop talking about.” –JAYSON STARK, senior baseball writer, ESPN.com

“Nine Bucks a Pound is a timely novel, the story of Del Tanner, a minor league baseball player whose inability to break into the majors leads him to experiment with performance enhancers, just to see whether it will take him to that next level. Like many men in his position, Del soon learns that there’s a reason these drugs are banned, and popular, as his production rises dramatically. Nine Bucks a Pound is more than a sports novel, though. James Bailey expertly explores how the desire to succeed at any price can lead to unexpected consequences, mostly involving a man’s relationships with others, not to mention with his own conscience. This is a powerful story about the perils of success at any price.” –RUSSELL ROWLAND, author of High and Inside

“For most outside of baseball, the PEDs issue is black-and-white. Players who use PEDs are bad, those who don’t are good. In his wonderfully compelling novel, Nine Bucks a Pound, James Bailey puts a human face on the players tempted to give their game some artificial help. He’s not endorsing PEDs, just giving us a vision of why some players may choose to do them. Even beyond that, his novel is a hard-to-put-down, first-rate baseball story about characters who step off the page and seem very much like living, breathing, flesh-and-blood human beings.” –JOSEPH SCHUSTER, author of The Might Have Been: A Novel

“The characters make this book, but it’s also the little details. James Bailey knows the life. He understands the ups and downs and now we learn he knows the shadows as well. Nine Bucks a Pound doesn’t name names, but it’s the most inside look at the temptations of any player struggling, told he just needs to be a bit bigger, a bit stronger, often just code for find a dealer. If you love baseball, you should read this.” –Will Carroll, author of The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems and lead writer at Bleacher Report

“Nine Bucks A Pound is a worthy and terrific read, with compelling characters dealing with real life on and off the field. The baseball is awesome, but just like real life, it’s never just about baseball. Enjoy!” –ERIC KARABELL, ESPN.com senior writer

Nine Bucks a Pound now available!

I was aiming for March 1 and somehow came in ahead of schedule, even with a last-minute snafu regarding a misspelling. I will never, ever misspell the word “ventricle” again. I know it now backwards and forwards. I lay in bed last night spelling it to myself and cursing for having to re-upload the print version of my book to Amazon’s CreateSpace site. Even still, I’m more than a week ahead of where I figured I would be, so it’s hard to complain.

As of this hour the Kindle version is available for purchase. The print version should go live on Amazon this weekend. It says it could take up to five days, but I’m optimistic it won’t be nearly that long. If you want to be among the very first to read it, here is the link for the Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Bucks-Pound-James-Bailey-ebook/dp/B00IKROMOA/

Update (2/22/14): The print version is now available on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Bucks-Pound-James-Bailey/dp/0615939155/

All systems go for March 1 release date

I think I’m done. Finally. I’ve lost track how many revision passes I’ve done on Nine Bucks a Pound over the past couple of years. A couple of them were too extensive to even call revisions. They were more like rewrites. Slowly, over time, the story took the shape it’s now in, which is significantly different in all but the main concept from how it began back in the fall of 2008, when I wrote three chapters for a writing workshop. To look back on it now brings to mind Doc Brown from Back to the Future:

“It’s taken me almost thirty years and my entire family fortune to realize the vision of that day, my god, has it been that long. Things have certainly changed around here. I remember when this was all farmland as far as the eye could see. Old man Peabody, owned all of this.”

It’s not quite back to the days of Old man Peabody, but to put things in some perspective, I started writing this book a year before my son was born. He’s now four, and starting to read and spell words himself.

None of those initial three chapters survived the journey, though three of the main characters (Del Tanner, Ian Wicker, and Ryan Edsell) were concocted there. Wicker and Edsell have remained relatively true to their original form, though Del went through some changes. He came off too passive and meek in early drafts. He’s got more personality now, someone who makes, and eventually owns, his decisions instead of simply reacting to the world around him. The meek may inherit the earth, but in the meantime no one wants to read about them, because they’re too boring.

I finished checking my final (hopefully) corrections this weekend. All that’s left now is to order a proof of the book and confirm everything looks as it should on paper. Once I’m satisfied with that, I’ll convert it to ebook format and upload it to Amazon. I’ve been targeting March 1 for a release date, and I’m optimistic that I’ll make that, plus or minus a couple of days depending on how things break.

Now comes the fun part, marketing it (he says, tongue planted firmly in cheek). In theory I’m starting off ahead of where I was two years ago when The Greatest Show on Dirt was released. Now I just need to remember everything I learned along the way.

The 800 Club: Slow but steady sales pile up for ‘Dirt’

When I released The Greatest Show on Dirt in February 2012, I had no idea whether to expect 20 sales or 20,000. Pipe dreams of crashing the New York Times bestseller list aside, publishing a book independently is a daunting proposition. In some ways, writing the book isn’t the hard part. It’s the marketing and doing the things that are required for potential readers to discover your book that make me feel the most helpless.

I was fortunate to receive some nice reviews and good publicity in a variety of places in the months after my book came out. Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News reviewed it as one of his 30 Baseball Books in 30 Days feature that April. The Raleigh News & Observer ran a nice Q&A interview on Easter Sunday. I did several other interviews, including a fun one in May when I watched a Durham Bulls game with Aaron Schoonmaker of WRALSportsFan.com when I visited North Carolina for a friend’s wedding.

Each time a story ran, I could see an immediate spike in sales. That is the beauty of self-publishing. Real-time numbers. It’s a curse as well, because one quickly becomes addicted to checking the figures. When they don’t budge for three or four days, it’s a challenge to shrug off the disappointment.

Slowly but surely, however, sales of The Greatest Show on Dirt have accumulated. This week they topped 800, which the realistic part of my brain appreciates as no small achievement. (I don’t have 800 friends and family members, so most of those purchases were by people I’ve never met.)

That breaks down as 537 ebooks and 263 paperback copies, just about a 2-to-1 ratio. Over the past 12 months, however, ebook sales have outstripped print sales by 4 1/2-to-1, which is more in line with what I’ve seen other authors describe for their sales. I suspect the catalyst there is Amazon’s “Customers who bought A also bought B” engine, which essentially rewards the hot hand, which in my case is the Kindle version.

I’ll be curious to see how the release this March of my new book, Nine Bucks a Pound, affects sales of the old one. I expect they’ll feed off each other, but it could take awhile for momentum to build. Early on it will likely be Dirt propping up the new book, though in time my guess is it will work the other way around. However it unfolds, I’m excited to see what the new year brings.

Nine Bucks a Pound: Cover reveal

At long last, it’s time to unveil the cover of my second novel, Nine Bucks a Pound. Over the summer I envisioned this being ready well before December. I tend to plan ahead for just about everything, sometimes unrealistically so. I can see things bursting into being months ahead of their realistic birthdays. Some of the delay is due to external forces, some of it is on me. Mainly my indecisiveness regarding the name of the book.

Even once I realized Branded was well played out, I kept coming back to it because it’s what I’d called this manuscript for well over two years. It was all that really fit, at least in my head. So I came up with Nine Bucks a Pound and it seemed to work, but somewhere, in the hind quarters of my brain, doubts lingered, occasionally gathering critical mass and storming the fortress walls. “How about this one?” I kept badgering one particular co-worker. When he finally responded to one of my emails with a simple, “my condolences to your wife,” I realized it was time to get off the pot.

So here we are. Nine Bucks a Pound. Will it need some explaining? Possibly. Though as my friend pointed out, who would pick To Kill a Mockingbird off the shelf and know by its spine just what was in store? The artwork on the cover, that needle-wielding bobblehead, should do most of the heavy lifting here. Anyone who lays eyes on him and can’t immediately sense what’s in store is loitering well beyond the fringes of my target audience.

We’re getting to the part of the program where my nerves take over and I get a little twisty inside when I anticipate the release, which, if all goes well, is now just 2 1/2 months on the horizon. There’s so much to do in the interim, not least of which is getting serious about starting in on book #3.

Mining ebay for missed baseball gems

Baseball is often hailed as the most literary of American sports, perhaps because it has such a long history of romancing dreamers, dating back into the 1840s, and even earlier if you allow for ancestral versions of the game.

The market is flooded every spring with dozens upon dozens of baseball books. I read as many as I can get to, but my preference is always in the world of baseball fiction, which is probably why I enjoy writing baseball fiction as well. Of course, baseball fiction is a tough genre to score in. There are typically only a small handful of baseball novels released by major publishers each year. Thanks to the explosion of opportunities in self-publishing and ebooks, there are a lot more titles coming out each year, but it goes without saying that they vary widely in quality.

I start a lot more baseball novels than I finish. I take frequent chances on authors I've never heard of, especially if the Kindle version is only a few bucks. But dropping $2.99 and dropping 8-10 hours of my time are two different things. If a book doesn't work for me, I'll abandon it and move on. Though I write a lot of reviews, I'll usually skip it in the case of an unsatisfying read from an indie press (or self-pubbed, which is close enough to the same thing). There's no point in warning readers off a book they weren't going to read anyway.

I've given up on at least four baseball novels this year. It's probably more, but I've just put them out of mind already. Honestly, I want to find something good. I want to find that underrated, unknown book and champion it. Most people have never heard of Jeff Gillenkirk's Home, Away, but I loved it. George Jansen's The Fade Away is another that I've read a couple of times that will never cross the consciousness of most baseball readers. I talk them up at every opportunity. I would hope someone out there is doing the same for mine (The Greatest Show on Dirt). They say word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising for books, and I think that's true.

But I'm growing a little weary of digging under rocks, so it's time to go back in time instead. I've been on an absolute ebay rampage the past week, digging for baseball novels that have stood the test of a decade or more. Here's what I've ordered thus far:

The Celebrant: A Novel, Eric Rolfe Greenberg
The Dixie Association, Donald Hays
The Great American Novel, Philip Roth
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy: A Novel, W.P. Kinsella
Play for a Kingdom, Thomas Dyja
Season of the owl, Mile Wolff
The Veracruz Blues, Mark Winegardner

Most of those show up fairly regularly when people compile lists of great baseball novels. Season of the Owl is one that may not be as familiar, but Miles Wolff was my old boss with the Durham Bulls and at Baseball America (the "big" boss, as he owned both), and I should have read it long ago, so I was glad to find a copy available.

I got all of them for $5 or less, used. Shipping pushed a couple orders up toward $7-8, but hardly anything that would make me flinch. The Celebrant has already arrived. It will be first up, when I finish off the books I'm reading at the moment.

I've been thinking that it would be fun to have a proper book club to share thoughts while reading these, but I'm not optimistic that will happen. I've tried forming and joining online clubs in the past, but they tend to peter out as quickly as they start. So I'll undertake them as more of a solo endeavor and see which ones I feel like raving about when I'm done. Unless, of course, anyone wants to join me.

Limited time offer on eDirt

The run of strong reviews continues for The Greatest Show on Dirt with a flattering take by Ben Hill on MiLB.com last week. Ben covers the minor leagues extensively and has spent quite a bit of time visiting ballparks all over the country, so I’m flattered he enjoyed the book so well.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

The Greatest Show on Dirt chronicles the personal and professional confusion of 20-something protagonist Lane Hamilton as he goes through (some might say “endures”) his first season as a member of the Bulls’ front-office staff. In many respects, it’s a predictable coming-of-age tale, but Bailey’s love for and knowledge of the no-frills and oft-absurd Minor League existence makes The Greatest Show on Dirt a must-read for those interested in (or already familiar with) what life is like at the lower rungs of the professional baseball ladder.

And Bailey certainly knows what he’s writing about. He worked for the Bulls for three seasons (1990-92), and, though a work of fiction, The Greatest Show on Dirt draws heavily on these experiences.

He also has a Q&A there that we did via email about the book and my experiences.

I’ve been fortunate with the coverage the book has gotten to this point. In fact, I’d go as far as saying I’m a lot happier with the press it’s gotten than with the sales figures, which only underscores how challenging marketing is for an indie author, particularly on a first book.

As an enticement to anyone who may be on the fence, I’m offering The Greatest Show on Dirt for just $1.99 in all ebook formats through August 5. All you need to do is go to Smashwords and use the coupon code GU52K. You can then download it for whatever device you have, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, you name it. Feel free to pass it along to anyone you think might enjoy the book, but remember, it’s a limited time offer.

Update on Project Books For Troops

We're almost a week into July, so it's time for a quick update on my Books For Troops fund drive. This month I'm pledging $1 to Books For Troops for every copy of The Greatest Show on Dirt sold, in either paperback or ebook format. Considering the distractions of the holiday, sales weren't too bad. 22 copies sold as of tonight. Room for improvement, but we're on track to cut a meaningful check at the end of the month.

Aaron Schoonmaker of WRALSportsFan.com in Raleigh, NC, wrote about the drive in his column today. I was very flattered by this piece, and especially appreciated how he felt so passionate about it. With two brothers serving, he understands how important it is to let them know we haven't forgotten about them half a world away.

Buy a book, help a soldier

I read every night before bed as a means of relaxing, separating myself from whatever went on to make drifting off to sleep an easier task. Busy day at the office, higher than anticipated Visa bill, sluggish night for my fantasy baseball team, they all melt away after a couple of chapters of a good book.

My stresses don’t really rate in comparison to what our troops deployed overseas face every day. I don’t have anyone shooting at me or trying to blow me up on the way in to work every morning. I can hug my son fifty times a day and kiss my wife good night every evening. I’ve got it good. I’ve got it easy. I can’t imagine the stress soldiers face every day, and what it would be like to try to distance oneself from that just to catch some shuteye.

Like me, many service members like to unwind with a good book, something to take them oh so temporarily away from the war zone. As you might imagine, reading material can be tough to come by in Afghanistan, though thanks to a handful of organizations, books and even ereaders are regularly shipped out to appreciative soldiers.

Books for Troops, Inc., is one such group that collects and sends books to troops stationed in Afghanistan. Their primary expense is postage, as anyone who has ever shipped books might expect. The volunteer organization based in Clifton Park, N.Y., has tried promotions such as “adopt-a-box-of-books,” where donors are asked to send $12.50 to help ship a box of 30 books out, and a Kindle raffle to raise money for the cause.

I’m going to put my figurative shoulder to the wheel this month and pledge $1 for every copy of The Greatest Show on Dirt sold in July. That goes the same for paperbacks or ebooks, so even on a $2.99 Kindle copy, $1 goes to Books for Troops. Sky’s the limit. If a thousand readers are inspired to buy my book, I’ll have a mighty big check to send Books for Troops, and I’ll be glad to do it.

How you can help: Buy the book. Spread the word. And, of course, if you feel like doing more, go on over to Books for Troops’s website or Facebook page and learn how you can send a donation yourself.