S.B. Knight's Blog, page 2

The Little Bundle of Horror

My very first bundle offer!




Ever walk in to a bookstore and see a bundle pack of your favorite books? You already have them but in a pack at a discount...you just can't say "no" to that. One of my goals was to have a bundle pack of my novels to offer to readers. What better time to do that than during the celebration of my debut novel's one year anniversary? Yes, a year ago Born of Blood was released and here is the bundle for a limited time.





Limited Time Offer for only $8.33


Find out what all the talk is about with this great two for one offer only at the MuseItUp Bookstore. 




Born of Blood - Voted Top 5 in the 2012 Preditors and Editors Readers' Poll for best Horror Novel.




Drago's Revenge - Nominated for best cover at the 2013 RONE awards.

March Madness!

So much happening in such a short amount of time! Right now, as you read this I have two novels available for pre-order. Yep, Demathia Rising and the paperback edition of Born of Blood is ready for you to order. The first order of paperbacks will be shipped during the first week of March. Then, March 8th will see the release of Demathia Rising. I am very excited about both of these. I am also in the running to have a short story published not to mention the interviews and guest appearances.



March is also the one year anniversary of the release of Born of Blood. To celebrate this event both Born of Blood and Drago's Revenge with be packaged together and sold as a pair. I will have more on this a little later. I will also be offering other gifts and prizes to celebrate these events.



Head on over to MuseItUpPublishing.com and check out my books. This will be a great time to get your copy.



Before I go I am very happy to announce the Born of Blood received its 13th review this weekend on Amazon. I'm very happy about that.

IndieGoGo and City of the Damned

Strong of will, soft of heart, Mikayla Hunt must learn to trust in order to survive, the City of the Damned…



Or so the series goes. City of the Damned is a 4 ebook series chronicling Mikayla’s journey to find her sister, to find love, and find a way to put the family back to together that her father tore apart fifteen years ago. At the outset of book 1 (which launches at Fandom Fest this July) Mikayla is a freed breeder who hunts Kevishians(aliens). She is seriously injured after one nasty entanglement and finds her way to an old love, half-breed Elijiah.



Over the next few weeks I’m running an Indiegogo Campaign to raise awareness of the series and cover promotional costs. How can you help? A simple like, a simple tweet, or perhaps you’d be kind enough to host my campaign with web html code on your code. Or if you’re able to make a donation there are several perks to choose from. Swag, ebooks, print books, and a cool t-shirt.



All monies raised will go towards postcards, bookmarks, ads, posters, business cards, cost of books, and table rentals at conferences and conventions. The culmination of all of this will be a HUGE SANCTIONED EVENT at Fandom Fest which will include, food, drink, books, a contest for best Mikayla Hunt costume, tie-in merchandise, and LIVE music from local Louisville rock band LAME.



Here are the links:

http://facebook.com/cityofthedamned2

http://twitter.com/kate_lyndhttp://cityofthedamned1.webs.com

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/336552/x/248957



If you want to embed the badge to your blog follow the Indiegogo link and click on embed. Again thank you for your time.

Demathia Rising on Pre-Order Now!!

I've got so much on my mind that it is difficult to focus on one thing. Well, that's not totally the honest truth. You see, I'm focused on writing. I've been working on my fourth novel and, recently, I was invited to write a short story for a collaboration with some authors I know. That has been a fun experience and I hope my short makes it into the final product. On other news though, my novel is coming along nicely. I'm at 38 thousand words and counting but, again, it is a different animal writing the third novel of a series. There are subplots to wrap up, characters to either develop or continue to build upon, and the overall plot line to continue until the end. Now that I've typed that it looks pretty simple but, let me be honest, it's not. It's a tough task. I'm enjoying the challenge though. It is a test that I welcome and I am trying to make the best of this opportunity to grow and improve my skills.



In other exciting news, Demathia Rising is gaining solid reviews as we build up to the release date. So far it has received two five star reviews and I'm waiting for more to come in. Hopefully the build up will continue and to help with those ends I have great news - Demathia Rising is now available for pre-order! Here is the link: MuseItUp Publishing Bookstore. I'm very excited for this release. It is a departure, of sorts, from the writing style I used for The Blood Chronicles.

Writing Therapy

I'm going to share a little dark secret with you about authors. I may get in trouble and it may lead to me be abducted or asked to remove this post but I'm going to do it anyway. Authors use writing as a form of therapy. Yes, it's true. When we have a bad day we write it out of our system. When we are mad, we write aggressively and when we are angry and frustrated to the point of insanity we write with dark malice. Many may deny it but deep down they know it's true.



Everyone writes with emotion but it is the depth of that emotion that makes the writing come alive. This is why authors push outside the box or at least should attempt to. Outside the box we feel uncomfortable and on edge. This is good, it shows in the writing. It makes the story crisp and edgy.  Which emotion illicit the best writing? I'm not sure about that one. I would say aggressive writing because you're in act mode the entire time.



At the moment, I'm angry and with that said people will most likely die a painful death. It makes sense, I have a vampire in my story and it is a horror so...let the blood flow and the pain increase. Why am I doing it?  Simple, it is a release of penned up emotion. In no way could I lash out in real life nor could I truly take out my anger in any real form at the moment so, as any author worth their salt would do, I'm channeling that into my writing where it belongs. I know, somewhere Yoda is warning me about the dark side but as long as I'm writing horror I might as well use every aspect I can to make it the best it can be.



Now I need to go bolt the door before the secret author society come to take me away to some secret prison for revealing such information.

Bitten By...A Fringe Star?

My novel, Bitten, has recently been getting some traction, even earning a top 100 spot on Conversations Book Club. Its sequel, Drained, is in the works and I have been doing the rounds, letting people get to know the new heroine in horror fiction, Lauren Westlake. Here is an exclusive look at more than half of the novel for your perusal. 











I will admit it: I was a huge Fringe fan. When I first started writing Bitten, the template for Lauren Westlake was inspired greatly by Anna Torv, best known for playing Oliva Dunham. As I was reading the funny pages, I saw that Torv and Jackson were in no hurry to jump on-board a new project. So this is what I suggest: Anna Torv as the title character in a movie version of Bitten or a series that follows the adventures of Lauren Westlake called Westlake.









Who should play Dominic? Montgomery? Matthews? 







What do you think?



















About Dan O'Brien: A psychologist, author, philosopher, freelance editor, and skeptic, Dan O’Brien has published several novels and currently has many in print, including: The End of the World Playlist, Bitten, The Journey, The Ocean and the Hourglass, The Portent, The Path of the Fallen, Book of Seth, and Cerulean Dreams. 




Follow him on Twitter (@AuthorDanOBrien) 




Visit his blog at http://thedanobrienproject.blogspot.com. He is also the senior editor and marketing director at Empirical, a national magazine with a strong West Coast vibe. Find out more about the magazine at www.empiricalmagazine.com.

Promotion....What Promotion

The toughest part of being a writer, hands down, is promoting your title before, during, and after it is published. What should do? Where should you go? What service works better? Should I get book marks or business cards? The list of questions are endless...the decisions to be made are hard because, at the end of the day, money is always involved. I wrote not to long ago about book promoting but, to be honest, you can never write enough, study enough, research enough, or pay close enough attention to the what, when, where, who, and/or how of promoting. It is an ever changing beast that can devour precious time if allowed. It is also a mad hatter, it will drive you crazy because of its fickle being. Truth be told, one approach will not work for everyone. That's been said a thousand times and will be repeated a million more.



So what are we to do? We have blogs, websites, social networks. Those are good, they reach people but, and this is a big but, it takes time. All promotional strategies take time. This is way the 'experts' always say to start early and work on it daily.Of course, in the same breath, they tell you not to go overboard because no one likes spam. That is also true but seems to make a paradox for us. It's kinda like forcing a square peg into a round hole. Either your peg gets smaller or your hole gets bigger. Yep, think about that one for a little while. On second thought, don't.



We are told to place our mug shots and cover art everywhere, such as the end of our emails, on blog posts, flyers, within our profiles in social networks. That is a very good and sound idea. I highly recommend following that logic. It takes some practice, work, and dedication to build a platform and be successful at promoting anything - book, service...anything. However, there will come a time when the Internet will reach an end for you, at least for a little while. You will plateau and then you will have to push the boundaries of your exposure, fan-base, and reach. This can be difficult but it is something that has to be done. Here you must be cautious for it will be easy to build your numbers by simply connecting with other authors and writers. There is nothing wrong with that but, if you want to most bang for your buck you will search out and reach out to the readers and book lovers that follow your genre.





How else do you reach out? What about locally? What about in person? Wait, wait, come back...I know, no one wants to deal with that but this is a very important step. This is where you can make a strong impression. The kind that will linger in minds and hopefully turn into them telling others about you. As I said before, you can start with free things found on websites such as vistaprint so make sure you use your budget wisely.



Build as you go, expand as you can and continue to push the borders as much as you feel comfortable with doing. Finally, your novel is your greatest asset, use it. If you win an award, make it on a list, or if it makes headlines...use it as best as you can.

Creativity Overflow

Writing is a great experience and excercise in the arena of creativity. What I find intriguing however is that it manifests in other forms of creativity. If you think about your own experience I believe you will agree that oftentimes you think about a creative outlet or you try to make what you are doing more creative.



I think this phenomenon is natural and occurs only when we get the creative juices flowing. It is impressive to see it in action. For example, this weekend as I worked on my garage I thought about how, in a few years past, I would never have been able to frame the peg board for my tools as I just finished. Actually, my woodworking skills have increased greatly since I began writing.



I will admit that I've always been interested in and enjoyed the craft of cooking. I see it as a great outlet of expression in the art of food. Many of the dishes came out all right. I would say average at best. However, once I started writing my cooking evolved into something else. I wasn't so heavy handed. Is there a connection between the three? I'm not sure but it has to be more than a a coincidence. I'm of the opinion that one feeds off the other. They lend to each other through the channels of creativity.



Does this happen to you? Has it happened to you? Don't worry and enjoy the explosion. You can never tell where it will go or what new creative discoveries you will find.

Born of Blood - A Book Review by Yves Robichaud

This Book Review for Born of Blood was prepared by Yves Robichaud. You can learn more about Yves, his book, and his other book reviews at his site - http://yvesrobichaud.com/2013/01/18/book-review-the-blood-chronicles-born-of-blood/



The Blood Chronicles: Born of Blood

By S.B. Knight

Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Born of Blood is the first book in the Dark Fantasy trilogy The Blood Chronicles. American author S.B. Knight puts his own unique twist on a story that has been told many times. It tells the tale of a horrific family willing to stop at nothing in their quest for true immortality. For centuries, the bloodthirsty clan hunts down an enemy bloodline believing that this is the key to eternal life.

This writing is for adults only as it contains scenes that are violent and sexual in nature. It is graphic and gory but not excessively so. It is at times terrifying but mostly moving and exciting. The action-packed plot is well paced and the characters skillfully described. The author does a terrific job at keeping the tension and suspense at significant levels throughout.

Follow Jesse as she learns of the colourful past of her ancestors all while being hunted by a demented vampire. Find out if she can piece together a puzzle that gets more complicated and intriguing with every clue she uncovers. The twists and turns will keep you guessing all leading to a climactic and surprising ending.

For fans of the horror genre, this novel is highly recommended.

Perplexing Promotions!

Promoting anything can be difficult. This includes promoting a novel. The crazy thing is, what works for one person doesn't work for the next. For example, a friend of mine has book signings often and the are successful but in my area it is tough to even get a place to allow it. So, what are we to do?



I think promoting a book is like sculpting. You chip at it continuously until you get the result your looking for. I don't believe there is one grand slam theory to promoting a book. No, it is a combination of a number of things that work in unison for the common goal which is to get the attention of readers.



Everyone knows you need an Internet presence for just about everything and that will be true for a very long time. But that isn't enough, you need to reach out further. You need to think outside the box to broaden your audience. I know, you've heard it before but it's true.



But, like everything, promoting a book takes money and not many of us have a lot of money. As we all know, it takes money to make money but we don't have to spend a mint to promote our titles. Remember, it only takes a spark to start a fire. This is important to keep in mind.



The key to promotion is gaining attention and being in the eyes of readers. Who are the readers? Everyone. The bill collectors, phone operators, shoppers, people at gatherings...everyone is potentially a fan and reader. How do you reach them?



Look for reduced price or free items - cards, magnets, business cards, bookmarks, car magnets, banners...anything you can think of. Do your research, search for discounts and spend your money wisely. 500 business cards can go farther than 25 magnets.



How you use your new swag is important to think about too. I don't recommend leaving 25 business cards on a magazine rake in a grocery store. Most likely they will get thrown out. No, think of things with a better chance of someone actually seeing it.