How do they do it?
How do they do it?
Well, how? How do those Amazon gods that sell our poor words decide what genre, what category; into which barrel to place our works of art? I confess it, I am befuddled.
My novel The Melting Dead, a lovely romp of gore and comedy, features flesh eating (and by unavoidable association, blood drinking) melting zombies chasing those trapped on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. It has never spent a moment on any zombie best sellers list. Yet, The Melting Dead spent three unbroken weeks on Amazon's top 20 list of best selling vampire novels. Okay. Who am I to argue?
My Lord Ruthven Assembly (you can't get more vampire than that) fiction award nominated Dracula's Demeter (now being adapted by ThunderBall Films) is clearly a vampire novel. A direct sequel, Fangoria magazine called it a mid-quel, let's settle on 'companion piece', to the original Bram Stoker tale. This vampire epic has never seen the vampire best sellers list. But, it makes frequent visits to Amazon's list of 100 top selling Sea Adventures. Okay. Who am I to argue?
My paranormal mystery Corpses Say the Darndest Things has yet to score in the mystery or paranormal categories but has made the top 100 for, wait for it, Suspense - Occult. Occult? In six words, WTF LOL. Still, who am I to argue?
The just released Apparition Lake, an explosive bit of horror, co-written with my talented brother Daniel D. Lamoreux, concerning a vengeful American Indian spirit has already visited the top 100 Native American best sellers' list several times. Well, that makes sense. But...
The Devil's Bed, currently available for .99 cents (LAST day), and currently in the top 20 Suspense - Ghost novels on Amazon doesn't feature any ghosts. Critic Peter Schwotzer (Literary Mayhem) in his My Favorite Books For 2013 said, "The debut novel from Doug that really blew me away. Templar Knights, vampires, a battle at a haunted castle that was one of the best battles between good and evil that I read this year." He didn't mention ghosts. Because there aren't any.
I'm not complaining. I'm smiling big and wide. But I am wondering how they do it. Logic says they take the content, and the supplied keywords as tags, put it in the mincing machine, push a button and, voila, category breakdowns a la Amazon. But I'm not taking the blame and I'm not allowing my publisher, Creativia, any of the blame either. So... it isn't the tags and keywords. It is, I'm sure, drunk Phantasm dwarfs in the Amazon basement hurling javelins at the official Amazon Novel Category dart board. And now you know!
Check out the Kindle edition of The Devil's Bed, if you get a chance. Save three bucks for ONE MORE DAY. No, there aren't any ghosts. But there's plenty to scream and laugh about.
Well, how? How do those Amazon gods that sell our poor words decide what genre, what category; into which barrel to place our works of art? I confess it, I am befuddled.
My novel The Melting Dead, a lovely romp of gore and comedy, features flesh eating (and by unavoidable association, blood drinking) melting zombies chasing those trapped on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. It has never spent a moment on any zombie best sellers list. Yet, The Melting Dead spent three unbroken weeks on Amazon's top 20 list of best selling vampire novels. Okay. Who am I to argue?
My Lord Ruthven Assembly (you can't get more vampire than that) fiction award nominated Dracula's Demeter (now being adapted by ThunderBall Films) is clearly a vampire novel. A direct sequel, Fangoria magazine called it a mid-quel, let's settle on 'companion piece', to the original Bram Stoker tale. This vampire epic has never seen the vampire best sellers list. But, it makes frequent visits to Amazon's list of 100 top selling Sea Adventures. Okay. Who am I to argue?
My paranormal mystery Corpses Say the Darndest Things has yet to score in the mystery or paranormal categories but has made the top 100 for, wait for it, Suspense - Occult. Occult? In six words, WTF LOL. Still, who am I to argue?
The just released Apparition Lake, an explosive bit of horror, co-written with my talented brother Daniel D. Lamoreux, concerning a vengeful American Indian spirit has already visited the top 100 Native American best sellers' list several times. Well, that makes sense. But...
The Devil's Bed, currently available for .99 cents (LAST day), and currently in the top 20 Suspense - Ghost novels on Amazon doesn't feature any ghosts. Critic Peter Schwotzer (Literary Mayhem) in his My Favorite Books For 2013 said, "The debut novel from Doug that really blew me away. Templar Knights, vampires, a battle at a haunted castle that was one of the best battles between good and evil that I read this year." He didn't mention ghosts. Because there aren't any.
I'm not complaining. I'm smiling big and wide. But I am wondering how they do it. Logic says they take the content, and the supplied keywords as tags, put it in the mincing machine, push a button and, voila, category breakdowns a la Amazon. But I'm not taking the blame and I'm not allowing my publisher, Creativia, any of the blame either. So... it isn't the tags and keywords. It is, I'm sure, drunk Phantasm dwarfs in the Amazon basement hurling javelins at the official Amazon Novel Category dart board. And now you know!
Check out the Kindle edition of The Devil's Bed, if you get a chance. Save three bucks for ONE MORE DAY. No, there aren't any ghosts. But there's plenty to scream and laugh about.
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