Massimo Marino's Blog: The Ramblings and the Rumblings, page 33
September 28, 2012
The Author Marketing Club
The digital book business is booming! New and existing authors need marketing help more than ever, as well as more readers to ensure a successful book selling campaign. The Author Marketing Club is a matchmaking service between authors that need things like reviews and sales and marketing help, with readers who want to get a first look at new books. All for free.
The Author Marketing Club also assists authors with marketing help, providing tools and resources and online learning and training to authors so they can have a successful book marketing campaign and launch.
Find their resources here: http://authormarketingclub.com
The Author Marketing Club also assists authors with marketing help, providing tools and resources and online learning and training to authors so they can have a successful book marketing campaign and launch.
Find their resources here: http://authormarketingclub.com
Editing fest celebration
Help me celebrate: After intense copyediting and proofreading, together with fellow author Rebecca Stroud, the NEW Edition of Daimones is out!
Get the NEW Edition at http://amzn.com/B0083IHV5I and if you spot a typo or a grammar mistake in the novel, send me a private message with its details and I'll personally gift you a book in Amazon within the same price range of Daimones. It is an incentive to read and discover good authors and titles, Daimones included.
I hope you will like the end result as much as we do. Especially you, early-readers of the ARC edition.
In that case, tweet for it with #Support4Authors and #RT, and please do write a review if you like, too. Not necessarily only if you loved the story: Lovers and Haters are what make the success of a novel. Passion, and strong feelings. Both are great.
Thanks in advance to all who will take up the challenge and read Daimones.
Daimones is an approx. 95,000 words sci-fi, PA novel.
Brief synopsis
------------
Dan Amenta and his family woke up one morning to discover the world had changed. The Apocalypse had arrived.
They were surrounded by death, yet they were untouched by it. More and more they sensed that some sort of supernatural power had left them the only living people on Earth. They were wrong.
The efforts to survive and find other people brought Dan to discover the disturbing truth about the extermination of humankind.
Dan and his family meet Laura, who brings revelations about this catastrophe. The presence of Laura, a sexy, young, and disruptive girl, raises questions about what is right and ethical in this new reality.
Other survivors report what they have seen, forcing Dan to seek explanations in his own past. Ancient hallucinations strike Dan with the force of a sledgehammer. They bring him face-to-face with his new role in a scenario with roots millions of years old.
Earth is in the hands of a higher, older power, but not the one Dan had ever envisioned.
Get the NEW Edition at http://amzn.com/B0083IHV5I and if you spot a typo or a grammar mistake in the novel, send me a private message with its details and I'll personally gift you a book in Amazon within the same price range of Daimones. It is an incentive to read and discover good authors and titles, Daimones included.
I hope you will like the end result as much as we do. Especially you, early-readers of the ARC edition.
In that case, tweet for it with #Support4Authors and #RT, and please do write a review if you like, too. Not necessarily only if you loved the story: Lovers and Haters are what make the success of a novel. Passion, and strong feelings. Both are great.
Thanks in advance to all who will take up the challenge and read Daimones.
Daimones is an approx. 95,000 words sci-fi, PA novel.
Brief synopsis
------------
Dan Amenta and his family woke up one morning to discover the world had changed. The Apocalypse had arrived.
They were surrounded by death, yet they were untouched by it. More and more they sensed that some sort of supernatural power had left them the only living people on Earth. They were wrong.
The efforts to survive and find other people brought Dan to discover the disturbing truth about the extermination of humankind.
Dan and his family meet Laura, who brings revelations about this catastrophe. The presence of Laura, a sexy, young, and disruptive girl, raises questions about what is right and ethical in this new reality.
Other survivors report what they have seen, forcing Dan to seek explanations in his own past. Ancient hallucinations strike Dan with the force of a sledgehammer. They bring him face-to-face with his new role in a scenario with roots millions of years old.
Earth is in the hands of a higher, older power, but not the one Dan had ever envisioned.
September 25, 2012
The Never Ending Giveaway
Zephania 1:1-3
“The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah. I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, says the LORD. I will sweep away humans and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will make the wicked stumble. I will cut off humanity from the face of the earth, says the LORD.”
Try yourself with The Animal Deaths Quiz, on pre-apocalypse events, as described in Daimones.
10 Questions, and each correct answer gives you an additional cumulative 10% discount valid for a coupon in Smashwords to download Daimones even for free, if you score a perfect 10.
Check the novel page in goodreads, scroll to the bottom right and enter the Quiz. Compare your score with others and WIN yourself a new book for your TBR list.
“The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah. I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, says the LORD. I will sweep away humans and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will make the wicked stumble. I will cut off humanity from the face of the earth, says the LORD.”
Try yourself with The Animal Deaths Quiz, on pre-apocalypse events, as described in Daimones.
10 Questions, and each correct answer gives you an additional cumulative 10% discount valid for a coupon in Smashwords to download Daimones even for free, if you score a perfect 10.
Check the novel page in goodreads, scroll to the bottom right and enter the Quiz. Compare your score with others and WIN yourself a new book for your TBR list.
September 24, 2012
Nobody knows anything
The screenwriter William Goldman is often credited for the most famous dictum about Hollywood.
“Nobody knows anything,” Goldman wrote in “Adventures in the Screen Trade” a couple of decades ago.
“Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess.”
One of the highest-grossing movies in history, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” was offered to every studio in Hollywood, Goldman writes, and every one of them turned it down except Paramount.
“Why did Paramount say yes? Be-cause nobody knows anything. And why did all the other studios say no? Because nobody knows anything. And why did Universal, the mightiest studio of all, pass on Star Wars? . . . Because nobody, no-body—not now, not ever—knows the least goddamn thing about what is or isn’t going to work at the box office.”
Writers, even the most famous, got rejected hundred of times and for the same manuscript, later to become a best-seller.
If you enjoy your writing, write. If a reader gives you a 5-star, write. If another slams you with a one-star, WRITE.
Nobody knows anything.
“Nobody knows anything,” Goldman wrote in “Adventures in the Screen Trade” a couple of decades ago.
“Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess.”
One of the highest-grossing movies in history, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” was offered to every studio in Hollywood, Goldman writes, and every one of them turned it down except Paramount.
“Why did Paramount say yes? Be-cause nobody knows anything. And why did all the other studios say no? Because nobody knows anything. And why did Universal, the mightiest studio of all, pass on Star Wars? . . . Because nobody, no-body—not now, not ever—knows the least goddamn thing about what is or isn’t going to work at the box office.”
Writers, even the most famous, got rejected hundred of times and for the same manuscript, later to become a best-seller.
If you enjoy your writing, write. If a reader gives you a 5-star, write. If another slams you with a one-star, WRITE.
Nobody knows anything.
September 3, 2012
What people know...
Today I received a very detailed email from a company I never ever had any business relationship with. Heck, not even with closely (or not) related businesses.
Still, they knew what they were doing. Their message header was:
"With a few clicks, get up to 4 customized quote:
The funeral savings
Accidental Death
Funeral organization"
Clearly they do know a lot about people. Our personal information, our habits, what we do, where we go, our eat preferences, what we read, if we are married, have kids, everything inevitably trickles in the virtual world creating an avatar of oneself which is under scrutiny for business opportunities.
When we navigate, browse leisurely around, information gets added to our marketing-target-virtual-persona we have floating online, defining us better than any friends or significant others could do.
Remember, every time you are online doing anything, things like BlueKai, CBS Interactive, ClickTale, Crowd Science, DoubleClick, Google Analytics, Twitter Button, Facebook Connect, Google Adsense, Google Analytics, Quantcast, ScoreCard Research, Beacon Visual Revenue, and many others are watching everything you do and take note.
So one day, you too will receive your "Funeral organization" discounts.
Still, they knew what they were doing. Their message header was:
"With a few clicks, get up to 4 customized quote:
The funeral savings
Accidental Death
Funeral organization"
Clearly they do know a lot about people. Our personal information, our habits, what we do, where we go, our eat preferences, what we read, if we are married, have kids, everything inevitably trickles in the virtual world creating an avatar of oneself which is under scrutiny for business opportunities.
When we navigate, browse leisurely around, information gets added to our marketing-target-virtual-persona we have floating online, defining us better than any friends or significant others could do.
Remember, every time you are online doing anything, things like BlueKai, CBS Interactive, ClickTale, Crowd Science, DoubleClick, Google Analytics, Twitter Button, Facebook Connect, Google Adsense, Google Analytics, Quantcast, ScoreCard Research, Beacon Visual Revenue, and many others are watching everything you do and take note.
So one day, you too will receive your "Funeral organization" discounts.
September 1, 2012
A Rhyme
We stole all decency from men,
and the source of endearment than you can dare endure.
We are Daimones, we are not men.
The end is nigh, of that we're sure.
We stole all decency from men,
looking for any sign of shelter.
We are Daimones, we are no men,
We kept Hell's gates open for Angels to enter.
Seas of Purple, Asters of Men,
We must discern them.
We stole all decency from men
for some will be saved then.
and the source of endearment than you can dare endure.
We are Daimones, we are not men.
The end is nigh, of that we're sure.
We stole all decency from men,
looking for any sign of shelter.
We are Daimones, we are no men,
We kept Hell's gates open for Angels to enter.
Seas of Purple, Asters of Men,
We must discern them.
We stole all decency from men
for some will be saved then.
August 28, 2012
Characters descriptions...
Often while writing Daimones I stopped trying to answer a question that kept bugging me: How much is too much when describing the characters.
I now found the answer while reading an author I like. He goes saying that he is "not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they are wearing".
He adds: "I can't remember many cases where I felt I had to describe what the people in a story of mine looked like—I'd rather let the reader supply the faces, the builds, and the clothing as well.
Concludes with: "So spare me, if you please, the hero's sharply intelligent blue eyesand outthrust determined chin; likewise the heroine's arrogant cheekbones. This sort of thing is bad technique and lazy writing, the equivalent of all those tiresome adverbs.
I can relate...
I now found the answer while reading an author I like. He goes saying that he is "not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they are wearing".
He adds: "I can't remember many cases where I felt I had to describe what the people in a story of mine looked like—I'd rather let the reader supply the faces, the builds, and the clothing as well.
Concludes with: "So spare me, if you please, the hero's sharply intelligent blue eyesand outthrust determined chin; likewise the heroine's arrogant cheekbones. This sort of thing is bad technique and lazy writing, the equivalent of all those tiresome adverbs.
I can relate...
August 22, 2012
Interview and Giveaway
Hi there,
is featured on the blog "Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews"
http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspo...
and it sponsors a Giveaway too.
is featured on the blog "Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews"http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspo...
and it sponsors a Giveaway too.
August 21, 2012
On the nature and beauty of brevity
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell." - William Strunk Jr.
There, so I will never forget those words.
This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell." - William Strunk Jr.
There, so I will never forget those words.
August 20, 2012
The Banishment of the existential verb
E-Prime.
This is how this linguistic discipline is called. Advocates contend that the idea of being perpetuates the assumption that things are, thus they do not change and stay the same.
Abandoning "to be" changes the logical structure of the language, thus the logical structure of thought as well.
Passive statements obscure who did what in an event, E-Prime force the inclusion of an "observer" to the event, objects and people reacquire identity and their own participation to an event.
I do not quite grasp this unless I see it. "To be" seems essential to most English constructs. Is there anything written at all without using some form of it. Any book out there written in E-Prime.
Do you E-Prime?
This is how this linguistic discipline is called. Advocates contend that the idea of being perpetuates the assumption that things are, thus they do not change and stay the same.
Abandoning "to be" changes the logical structure of the language, thus the logical structure of thought as well.
Passive statements obscure who did what in an event, E-Prime force the inclusion of an "observer" to the event, objects and people reacquire identity and their own participation to an event.
I do not quite grasp this unless I see it. "To be" seems essential to most English constructs. Is there anything written at all without using some form of it. Any book out there written in E-Prime.
Do you E-Prime?
