Alex Hughes's Blog, page 13

Ask a Question… Get an Awesome Answer

This week a reader from Australia, Matt, found me on Twitter wanting to know why my book wasn’t available for Kindle for him. I asked the publisher about it, and they said there’s normally a 3 month delay for UK / Australia / South Africa, but that there had been a technical glitch. Matt and I were both a little bummed it hadn’t gone through.

But, this morning I found out from the publisher that, as a result of the question, they’d tracked down the glitch, and it should be available for purchase in the next few days.

Epic win, Matt. Thank you so much for saying something!

Results of the Survey Are In – Reader Bonus Time

Hello fabulous readers,

As promised, I’m sharing the results of my survey from September 30th. I asked you guys to tell me what kind of reader bonus you’d like, and this is what you responded:

25% (5) voted for Full-length new short stories once or twice a quarter through the email list
10% (2) voted for Blog posts once or twice a week about my (Alex’s) life
10% (2) voted for Blog posts once or twice a week about cool science and research I’ve been doing
10% (2) voted for More Tweets & Facebook posts (maybe even Google Plus!)
0% (0) voted for Short flash fiction once a week or so on the blog
35% (7) voted for Put deleted scenes from the novels up on the website
10% (2) voted for None of these. Write more novels

Overwhelmingly, the group wanted deleted scenes from the novels. So, guess what you guys get!  Deleted scenes from the Mindspace Investigations world.

Deleted Scene #1: Strawberry Milk

Deleted Scene #2: The Cellist

Deleted Scene #3: Handkerchief

Deleted Scene #4: Vision on the Bus

Deleted Scene #5: Interview Rooms

Please ask before reposting or sharing these. Of course you’re always welcome to link to the pages

While you’re here you’ll also want to sign up for my email newsletter. I’ve decided to also give you guys the runner-up option of full-length short stories once or twice a quarter starting in January / February. I’ll send out two flash fiction pieces before Christmas too, but all of this will only go to the email newsletter people. (There’s a quick signup form at the bottom right hand corner of my homepage if you need to join. I’m still figuring out how to update the text above the form so bear with me. As usual, I don’t spam and you can unsubscribe any time easily.) 

Thank you guys so much for taking the time to tell me what you want. I appreciate you reading, tweeting, and sharing my work with friends. Your support means everything to me, and I hope you enjoy the reader bonuses!

Marked Cover Reveal

Much love to all of you who have waited so patiently -

the cover for Book #3 of Mindspace Investigations is finally ready to share!

Feast your eyes on Marked. Oh, and the amazing quote by the News and Sentinel in West Virginia – those guys *rock.*

The background is based on the inside of the Guild building in the story… which is a lot like the inside of the Marriott Marquis building in downtown Atlanta. It looks like the great spine of some large animal, with the elevators going up into infinity while the ribs of the floors curve around. Awesome stuff.

Let me know what you think about the cover!

Alex

p.s. Yep, a lot of exclamation marks on this post. I’m excited

Shout Out to Readers

Hello awesome readers,

First off, let me say how deeply I appreciate you. Without readers, none of this would be possible. You’ve tweeted, you’ve emailed, you’ve told friends. You’ve believed. And as a result, Penguin committed to another two Mindspace Investigations books. You guys *rock.*

I’ve been working hard to write more words for you over the last few months, and I’ve just turned in the final edited manuscript for Book #3 (Marked). I’m thrilled with the book and I’m hoping, come April, you will be too. But since I have a little extra time on my hands right now, I thought I’d take a moment and ask for a favor. Well, maybe two favors.

One? (Blushes.) I’m still new! I’m figuring out this whole social media thing, the blog thing, and what readers want. Then I realized that you guys, amazing readers, know way more than I do about what readers want. So I thought I’d ask

I want to say thank you to you guys for being a part of all of this, and the best way I can think to do that is to offer you guys reader bonuses, special content I write just for you. Since I only have so much time (and you want Book #4 post haste), I thought I’d ask what kind of content you’d like most. Would you let me know by voting for one reader bonus in the survey below. I’ll keep it open until mid-October or so and let you know what the results are after that.

Vote here.

What’s the second favor, you might ask? Well, I’d love to know your opinion in the comments if you have a moment. What do you want to hear about from authors via social media? Where do you hang out (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest), and what attracts your attention there?

Thank you guys so much! I appreciate each and every one of you.

Be happy,

Alex

Books Currently on Sale

My first two books in the Mindspace Investigations series, Clean and Sharp, are currently on sale on Amazon Kindle for only $5.99 (affiliate link here). You may want to check that out.

Friend Announces Cover Reveal

I’m late to the party (as usual), but nonetheless super happy for a friend of mine, Kerry Schafer, on her awesome new cover for Wakeworld, now available for preorder. Check it out here over on her blog.

I’m loving the dragon scales on her heroine. What do you guys think?

Killer Nashville This Weekend

I’m excited to hang out with mystery and thriller writers & readers at this weekend’s Killer Nashville. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop by and see me.

I’ll be at a vendor table (with giveaway) at noon on Saturday, and

on the Cross-Genre panel at 8:30 am Sunday.

Plus I’ll be on Twitter off & on over the whole weekend if you’d like to message me. (My Twitter identity is @ahugheswriter.)

Looking forward to it!

Thunder on the Battlefield

In exciting news, one of my non-Adam short stories, “The Third Rule,” was just released as part of the new Thunder on the Battlefield 2-book anthology project. I’m the second story in the second anthology, and the project was one I worked on during Odyssey.

Even better, James R. Tuck, the editor and story writer in the anthology, is in my writer’s group, as is G. Gerome Henson, and Loriane Parker is an amazingly talented writer and friend from Odyssey as well. I got to see her story during the writing workshop and loved it. Lots of great writers and friends involved in this one. Perhaps you should buy it

Where can you buy it, you may ask? Head on over to Seventh Star Press here: http://bit.ly/18eiwHK.

Book No. 3 Turned In

I’m very excited to announce that I have turned in the manuscript for the third Mindspace Investigations novel, Marked, to the editor. We’re on track for our release date in April of next year.

Time to go break out the bubbly

Blog Tour, Day 21

Today I’m hanging out over at The Qwillery and I’m answering some questions. Stop by and enter to win a copy of Clean.

I’m also over at Wicked Readings by Tawania with another chance to win a copy of Clean.