Darius Jones's Blog: A Writer Begins, page 28

It’s Fan Appreciation Day and Everything Is Free

You guys rock. No, really, you do.

As a big thank you to everyone one who has read this blog, downloaded my books, bought them, reviewed them, followed me on Twitter, mentioned me on their blog, or told their friends about me, etc., etc…I’m offering ALL my books for free TODAY ONLY on the Kindle store. Check it out:

That’s right. My short story, novella and novel are all free today. Stop by and download and spread the word.

It’s the first anniversary of the launch of The Library of Lost Books,...

Life on the Long Tail

As an Indie writer a lot of what I do falls under the radar. Call it the blessing (or curse) of the long tail.

The long tail is an old concept now. It essentially was supposed to mean the end of “hits” in music, movies and books. The idea, as put forward by Chris Anderson in Wired, was that e-retailers could turn juicy profits by selling “small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers.”

People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what’s...

A More Modest Giveaway

I gave away 93 copies of my new novella, “The Man Who Ran from God” this past weekend. It was a bit of a disappointment, after my 400-download day for The Library of Lost Books.

There may be a couple of reasons for this. The first thing I asked myself was: What did I do differently from that first giveaway? Here are the key differences I came up with:

The giveaway lasted two days, so people might have felt they had more time to download and forgot about it.
The book has the word “God” in its t...

My Novella Is Out and It’s Free

I just published my historical novella, “The Man Who Ran from God” on Kindle. It’s also free this weekend on the Amazon Kindle store (June 22 and 23, 2013).

Here’s the book’s blurb, just to pique your interest.

In a dream, the voice of God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh, capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire. Instead, he books passage to the other end of the world. A storm and a hungry whale are the least of his worries, as Jonah confronts deluded fishermen, befuddled peasants and crooked pr...

The Craft: My New Novella in 3 Drafts

[This is part of a continuing series on the art of writing fiction.]

In the interest of getting you as close to the writing process as I can, I’m going to do something new on the blog. I’m going to present three different drafts from my soon-to-be-released novella, The Man Who Ran from God.

I will include the first draft, the second draft and the final draft. The first two are raw, with spelling mistakes, punctuation errors and notes intact. It’s just a guy hammering away at a keyboard. I want...

Novel and Story Are Free this Weekend

Doing a special dual giveaway this weekend.

My fantasy novel, The Library of Lost Books and my short story, “The Truck Stop” are both free all weekend long (June 15 and 16) on the Kindle store.

And get ready for next week’s launch of my new novella. More details to come.

,Darius

Cover Reveal for My New Novella

A simple post this week. I just wanted to share the cover for my new historical novella, “The Man Who Ran from God.” Here it is.

First, thanks to Dave Fey for a great design. I really think it captures the setting of the piece: the Middle East circa 800 B.C. I like to think of the cover’s scene as the view from across the Tigris toward Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire. Nineveh is the setting for about half of the action in the novella and is the destination of the novella’s protagonist,...

Writing Becomes a Habit

I was walking to work this past Monday and I was thinking about what I would do once I got in to the office. I would get some coffee, check my Twitter feed, my Kindle Direct stats, the stats for this blog. Then, I would check the news before settling down to work.

And then suddenly it occurred to me, how natural it all was. I did the same thing every week, sometimes every day at work: Checked all the stats, just to see how the writing was going.

And I realized writing had become a habit. I ca...

Novella Set for June Launch

I’m proud to announce that my new novella, “The Man Who Ran from God,” will launch June 22 in the Amazon Kindle store.

As we approach the launch date, I will be sharing more details about the novella. I’ll post the book cover art, selections from the piece itself and selections from earlier drafts. But today, I just want to share the basics. I will answer these in FAQ style.

When will the novella be released?
June 22.

Where will it launch?
Only on the Amazon Kindle store. I wanted to take advant...

The Craft: Rules for Writing, Rule #1

[This is part of a continuing series on the art of writing fiction.]

Well, here it is, my first rule for writing. (I will be posting new rules at the original post, “Rules for Writing.”). It’s, by far, the most important rule.

There’s good news and bad news about this rule. First the good news: it’s the simplest rule. The bad news is that it’s also the hardest rule to follow.

Before the reveal, I want to tell the story behind it. It’s apocryphal, as far as I can tell. I can’t remember where I fi...