Hey! This is your last day to get “The Lunatic Memoirs”, a psychological thriller from Thatcher C. Nalley FREE…what are you waiting for?

Click on the cover to get it on Amazon!

Book Description:

From the author of LETTERS FROM THE LOONEY BIN Thatcher C Nalley brings you another piece of Psychological Fiction…

Jack Downing has become one of the most influential business tycoons in the world. 

Jack Downing also believes that God has chosen him to annihilate the entire existence of human beings. 

Convinced that God has chosen him to be “The One”, the successful Jack Downing will set out to kill off all of mankind. As he begins to carry out the plan of extinction, and with only one year left to do so, Jack begins to write on how he became God’s chosen one. 

Written in a narrative form, “The Lunatic Memoirs”, is a novel that journeys deep into the detached reasoning of a psychopathic mind. Jack Downing illuminates how the mind’s line between that which is sane and insane can be truly very thin.

My brother Travis Luedke has a new paranormal thriller coming out…anybody up for some eARC reviews?

Travis‘s books – and particularly his “Nightlife” series” – are selling like hotcakes, and now, you have the opportunity to help him with his work. 

Travis is in need of some eARC reviews for his latest novel “The Shepard”, a young-adult paranormal thriller…

Book Description – 

Mike Evans here. Sixteen year old skate punk squatting in a white-trash trailer park with my loser drunk Dad. Seems I lost most of my friends when Dad lost our home in foreclosure. Only Anita stuck by me. Worse, I keep having strange clairvoyant visions of things that always come true.

Then I almost ran over Nadia in my Geo. A passing truck finished the job – left a crumpled heap of skin and bone on the road. I fixed her. Me.

Now this fourteen year old girl won’t leave me alone. I sorta let her sneak in my window when she needs a place to crash.

I have a double life: daytime at school, Anita, skating, and then my nights with Nadia. She’s my secret friend, gives me money and listens to my problems when nobody else will.

My world is spinning out of control. Old friends have turned enemy, my grisly visions of death won’t quit, and Anita’s intentions make my head spin. Even with all that, I’ve got bigger stuff to worry about.

Nadia’s hiding something.

Click on the cover to join the party!

We could all take a lesson from Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta…

Anyone who has been writing for any length of time has had the following drummed into them:

In order to sell books you need to – 

1. Have a fantastic cover

2. Have engaging characters

3. Have an intriguing plot

I submit to you that Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – AKA Lady Gaga – has all of this nailed down pat.

The Lady has been on the music scene since 2007. Her first album, “Fame”, has sold 4.5 million albums as of August, 2013, and her second album, Born This Way, sold 1.1 million copies in its first week, becoming, according to Vulture, only the 17th record to sell that many copies since Soundscan began tracking these sort of things in 1991.

So. How does a virtual unknown rocket to the top of the music world from the beginning? Let’s revisit those intrepid rules we are so familiar with, to see if they cross over into other forms of art:

Have a fantastic cover – 

If you’ve seen Mademoiselle Gaga sans makeup, you know she’s a beautiful woman…

But you very rarely see Stefani Germanotto – do you? No…you see this…

This…

And this…

Each of her performances features more and more bizarre looks – and guess what – for our purposes, “bizarre” equals “different” in our little world, and that, my friends, is what sells books. You wanna be just like 10,483 other authors? I don’t…

Number two – 

Have engaging characters – 

If you have witnessed any of the previously mentioned onstage antics, you’ve witnessed peerless choreography, and accompanists who perfectly augment the Lady’s style and form. Devils, demons, and all types of baddies stalk across her landscape, and they capture the audience’s attention and heighten senses to a degree few acts have achieved…oh, and let’s not forget the main character, who has gone so far as imitating a motorcycle (can you say “vroom vroom“?)

Lastly, we come to plot – 

Beyond all the glitz, USDA choice dresses, and cavorting goblins, we come to the music. Let’s face it, all the other stuff would hold attention for awhile, even if the Lady sang like Yoko Ono – but she doesn’t. She has a superb voice, and it’s further heightened by songs that constantly challenge the public at large to keep up. Quite simply, she puts out great music. 

Now, I’m not suggesting that you go slapping a couple Porterhouses on your book (although the concept of grilling and reading doesn’t sound bad together), but I will say this – 

The venerable Lady sells because she is never, ever lets her audience guess what’s coming next. They bang at her door because they can’t wait to see…

Sounds like a pretty good approach – don’t you think?

GUEST POST: ‘Book covers sell the story?’ by Paula Limbaugh | Greyhart Press

Whether, online or in an actual bookstore the first thing that grabs my attention is the cover.  Walking through the aisles of B&N it’s like they are all screaming “Me, me, pick me!”    If the artwork is good I will read the synopsis, if not I will pass it up unless I recognize the author or if the title is exceptionally catchy.

Recently I was given a copy of (Click on Paula’s image below to read on)

 

Hey y’all! “Between Faith and Fear” (Captive Series Volume II), by J. A. Dennam is available on Amazon NOW…check it out!

Click on the cover to get it on Amazon!

Book Description:

TESTING THE LIMITS

Melanie Parker’s life takes a gut-wrenching turn when she wakes up in a crumbling, unfamiliar environment. Even worse, her small child is in the arms of a certifiable killer, but Rena Hellberg isn’t the only immediate threat. Melanie’s abductor lurks in the shadows, a quiet, hooded stranger who’s calling the shots. When she refuses to play the meek hostage, he reveals his darkest secrets in order to gain her cooperation.

IN A WORLD WITH NO BOUNDARIES

Though he can barely trust himself, he can’t deny his feelings for a woman he should have left alone. It wasn’t his intention to bring her into a world he’s trying to break free of, but he refuses to let it destroy her. The formidable group of enforcers who took him and made him one of their own won’t tolerate rebellion of any kind. But they’ve never dealt with such a stubborn recruit…or one with so much to live for.

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And you might want to read book one in the Captive series first – 

Click on the cover to get IT on Amazon!

Book Description:

Book 1 in J. A. Dennam’s Captive Series

A REBELLIOUS MOVE
Danny Bennett knows that most of what keeps her family feuding with the Cahill clan is baseless accusations from both parties, but that doesn’t keep her from taking sides.  After all, when her fun-loving brother, Derek – the person she idolizes the most – has been accused of murder, her loyalties lay solidly with him.  But her loyalty to her chosen future is what she puts first when she applies for a dangerous job in order to pay for her college education. Accustomed to living on the edge, Danny welcomes a good challenge…until she realizes she has unwittingly landed herself in the bowels of the enemy camp and fallen prey to her brother’s irresistibly sexy accuser.

THE FIERY CONSEQUENCES
Driven by hatred, Austin Cahill knows exactly what to do with the Bennett girl who saunters onto his job site under false pretenses: use her as a weapon against her brother, the man he holds responsible for his fiancé’s fatal drowning.  Derek Bennett must pay for his crimes, but Austin must coax a confession out of him first. His plan to “own” Derek’s beloved baby sister should break the man, but he soon discovers a much bigger obstacle…his burgeoning desire for Danny.  When Derek comes for her, will Austin be prepared to let her go in exchange for the truth?  Will his quest for vengeance destroy the woman he’s grown to care for?  Or will it be the truth that brings them all down?

3 Pillars of Selling More Books Online | Beth Bacon Digital Book World

After this one article, I’m a fan 🙂

By Beth Bacon

In the digital book marketplace, individual authors fight in the same ring with legacy publishers. The big publishers have an advantage: the power of their reputations grabs the notice of readers. Indie authors and publishers struggle for any attention at all. The “little guys” can overcome this disadvantage if they build their careers around three strategic pillars: brand curation, relationship marketing, and, finally, creating quality books.

Click on Digital Book World’s Logo to read the rest…

Family Stories. THE RESISTANCE IN THE REGION OF PARIS. THE BROTHERS MIRET MUSTÉ | By Olga Nunez Miret

As you will remember I have posted in a number of occasions about my mother’s uncles, Josep and Conrado Miret Musté, who fought both in the Spanish Civil War and later in France, taking part in the French Resistance against the occupying German forces. My cousin Joan Molet sent me another article talking in more detail about both brothers and their roles during the French resistance. I’ve translated the article below and include a link to the original article at the end. 

Click on the image to continue reading…

 

Who’s Afraid To Market Their Book? – The Writer’s Shack

By Ms. Bianca Sloane –

Tips for promoting your book when you have no idea where to start (or are too scared).

Part One

Dip into any writer’s forum on the web and guaranteed, one of the hot topics will be about the dreaded “M” word: Marketing.

The mere mention of it can send some Indie authors straight to the floor in the fetal position.  It usually comes down to 1) not knowing where to start or 2) being skeeved out by the idea of having to “sell” yourself.  

Sometimes it’s both.  

Secretly, (most, not all) Indies harbor fantasies of a traditional publisher scooping them up and showering them with gobs of ad dollars and a lascivious PR team to do their bidding while they sit quietly in a corner tapping out the next book on their laptop.

A nice fantasy, but totally unrealistic.  Even if you have a contract with a traditional publisher, unless you’re one of the top two percent of authors (from a sales standpoint), those ad dollars won’t be raining down on you, so the bulk of the marketing for your book(s) will fall in your lap anyway (even if you do have a publisher’s ad dollars raining down on you, you will STILL need to do some measure of your own marketing).   

So, how DO you market your book when you have no idea where to start and hate promoting yourself?  

Click on the image to read on…

 

What Ever Happened to Book Editors? By Marjorie Braman, independent editor and consultant…

I blame my parents for my love of reading, but I blame Scott Berg’s biography of Maxwell Perkins (Max Perkins: Editor of Genius) for my desire to become an editor. Fitzgerald! Hemmingway! Thomas Wolfe! Encouraging one novelist to drink less and write more; massaging the ego of another; wrestling the wild imagination of a third into readable form. Was Perkins a collaborator? No. Cowriter? Absolutely not. But he was an invaluable “second eye,” trusted sounding board, and gentle critic. It sounded to me like my true calling. But in my time, editing for a publishing house wasn’t quite so simple.

A publisher once said to me, almost in passing, “We don’t pay you to edit.” The real message was: “Editing is not crucial. If you’re an editor, what matters is acquiring.” After I’d left in-house editing and was being courted by an agency, the owner/agent said to me, “Remember, you can’t sit in your office and edit.” In other words, “If you’re an agent, what matters is selling.” One thing these comments imply is that editing is no longer the editor’s main function; editing is done on your own time. But that has been true since I went into the business 28 years ago.

As a freelance editor, these models no longer apply to my work. I no longer have to jump on every promising submission overnight. I no longer need to be looking over my shoulder, hoping for the approval of the marketing, publicity, and sales departments. I no longer have to determine the worth of any particular project a year before publication (and we know how often publishers get that right!). The burden on the freelance editor consists solely of helping the author write his or her best possible book.

Click on Marjorie’s image to read more…

 

A little warm-your-heart homecoming video to start your Wednesday off right…

After telling his mother (me) he couldn’t make it home from deployment after over a year and a half of being away, Michael came home and surprised me and his sister on Christmas Eve. Lidiya asked all of us to sit in the living room because she had a message from Michael to read to us and this is what he said:

“Hey, everyone. I asked Lidiya to do me a favor and read this message. I want to let you know that I love each and every one of you very much. I would give up everything to be home with you all this Christmas. It’s really hard being away from family during the holidays. Mom, I got your surprise; Jocelyn gave it to me this morning. Thank you so much. It really helps being able to open gifts, but I want to tell everyone something. Christmas isn’t about the material things like the presents under the tree. To me, it’s about being with your family and being thankful to have one another and to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, so I asked Lidiya to give everyone a hug and kiss for me. I sent everyone a gift. You should be getting them soon. I’ve been tracking them, I hope you all like it! Tomorrow, on your Christmas Day, I’m going to try and Skype with everyone. I want to see you all open gifts, so this way I can feel like I’m there. Well, I have to get going now. I love you all so much! I hope you have an amazing Christmas and I’ll talk to you soon. I just have one last question to ask… Do you Believe in Santa? Because I do… The only thing I asked Santa for this year was to be home with my family. SURPRISE!!!!!

And he came walking into the living room! “OH MY GOD!” haha.  Can you count how many times I said it? I hope you enjoy our video. I was in complete shock.  The best surprise EVER!

-Laurie C.