KDP Select: Part II

Last month, I mentioned I was entering EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHRIEKS into Amazon's KDP Select program.  This month, I wrote an article about the experience.  You can get yer read on over at Hellnotes.com.



Also, The Horror Writers Association has released the list of nominees for the Vampire Novel of the Century Award:

NOMINEES FOR VAMPIRE NOVEL OF THE CENTURYAWARDTheHorror Writers Association (HWA), the international association of writers,publishing professionals, and supporters of horror literature, in conjunctionwith the Bram Stoker Family Estate and the Rosenbach Museum & Library,proudly announce the nominees for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the CenturyAward, to be presented at the Bram Stoker Awards™ Banquet at World HorrorConvention in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 31, 2012. The Award will mark thecentenary of the death in 1912 of Abraham (Bram) Stoker, the author of Dracula.Ajury composed of writers and scholars selected, from a field of more than 35preliminary nominees, the six vampire novels that they believe have had thegreatest impact on the horror genre since publication of Draculain 1897. Eligible worksmust have been first published between 1912 and 2011 and published in ortranslated into English.Thenominees are:TheSoft Whisper of the Dead by Charles L. Grant(1983). Grant (1946-2006) was a prolific American writer of what he called "darkfantasy" and "quiet horror," writing under six pseudonyms aswell as his own name. Grant also edited numerous horror and fantasyanthologies. The novel is part of Grant's series of 12 books set in hisfictional small town Oxrun Station, Connecticut. Grant was a former presidentof Horror Writers Association and received its Lifetime Achievement Award in1999.Salem'sLot by Stephen King.First published in 1975, this was only the second work by the now-legendaryAmerican author of dozens of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horrorstories, comics, and novels. Set in the town of Jerusalem's Lot, it tells of aman's return to his hometown, where he finds a plague of vampirism. The bookhas twice been made into television mini-series and has been recorded by theBBC. King's work has won countless Bram Stoker Awards™ from HWA, and King(1947- ), a lifelong New England resident, was recognized with HWA's LifetimeAchievement Award in 2002.IAm Legend by Richard Matheson.First published in 1954, the novel is set in the mid-1970's, when a plague hasswept the world, bringing with it zombie-like creatures identified as vampires.Richard Neville, the book's protagonist, may be the last living human. The workhas been filmed three times under various titles, most recently in 2007, underits original title, starring Will Smith. Matheson (1926- ), an American, haswritten screenplays as well as short and long fiction, and many of his workshave been filmed or made into teleplays. He wrote frequently for The Twilight Zone in its heyday. Matheson received HWA'sLifetime Achievement Award in 1990.AnnoDracula by Kim Newman firstappeared in 1992. The novel imagines an alternate history in which Van Helsingand his cohorts failed in their attempt to rid England of Dracula. In thistimeline, Dracula went on to marry Queen Victoria, ushering in an era ofvampire aristocracy in England and elsewhere. The book is followed by two othernovels and a number of shorter works set in the Anno Dracula universe, all meticulously researchedto include numerous historical details and many characters of Victorian andmore recent popular literature. Newman (1959- ) is an English writer of fantasyand horror, as well as reference books in the field, and frequently appears asa host and critic for the BBC and other media.Interviewwith the Vampire by Southern Americanauthor Anne Rice first appeared in 1976 and achieved enormous popularity,selling more than 8 million copies. The book introduces the vampires Louis andLestat, who, along with a dozen other unique individual vampires, appear in along series by Rice known as the Vampire Chronicles. The novel was filmed in1994 starring Tom Cruise as Lestat and Brad Pitt as Louis; another work in theseries, Queen of the Damned,was filmed in 2002; the novel was also produced as a Broadway musical in 2006.Rice (1941- ) has written numerous other gothic fantasy novels, selling morethan 100 million copies worldwide, and has won many awards, including HWA'sLifetime Achievement Award in 2003.HotelTransylvania by Chelsea QuinnYarbro, published in 1978, is the first of a 25-book (so far) series featuringle Comte de Saint Germain, a 2000+-year-old vampire, whose adventures in manyhistorical periods are recounted. This novel overlaps in many details with thehistorical facts of le Comte de Saint-Germain, a mysterious figure. An Americanwriter, Yarbro (1942- ) publishes three or four books a year, under variouspseudonyms, in a variety of genres, including mysteries and romance tales. Shewas awarded HWA's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.Thewinning book will be announced on March 31, 2012. HWA will also celebrate itstwenty-fifth anniversary on that date.Formore information, please contact Leslie S.Klinger, chair of the Bram StokerVampire Novel of the Century jury.TheVampire Novel of the Century Award is sponsored by Jeremy Wagner.