beta readers

In my last post I put out the call for anyone interested in being a beta reader for my next book, a paranormal thriller. It's not too late to get involved if you're interested. Send me an e-mail at ryejames77@aol.com if you're interested.

call for Beta Readers!

I'm now sending out the call for Beta Readers for my newest book, Shattered (unless I change it--which I might!). This will be Book 1 of The Evil Series. I'm interested in both other writers and just plain readers. If you're interested...or not sure...send me an email so we can talk abou it. You can have the chance to be among the first to read this story and possibly even influence it!! 

Here's a blurb (not official-and probably will be changed!) :-)
Hell wants him. Heaven wants to save him. After tragedy strikes Mike Moore, the Devil sees an opportunity to acquire another soul while he's in his darkest moments. An Angel is sent to guide him back from the lowest depths of his soul. Will he rise above the darkness or will he give in to hate and anger, seeking revenge for what he's been put through? What transpires is a man's personal struggles to do what's right or succumb to evil.

Here are some general questions if you're interested in being a beta reader:


Does any part of the story Drag?
Are their parts that you skipped to get to ‘the good part’?
Do I over-inform anywhere?
Did you Get it?
Did you understand every phrase / term I used?

Do the scenes flow?
Does one scene lead logically into the next?
Is there enough downtime between intense scenes to allow it to build to the next?
Did the actions & positions flow smoothly from one to the next, or did they jump as though something was skipped?

Is anything visually confusing?

Can you see every action clearly?
Did you have to reread any part of the action sequences to understand who was doing what?
Could you see what the characters looked like clearly?
Did I forget to describe their clothes, their hair, their eyes, any other distinctive feature that pertains to a specific character?

During DIALOGUE scenes…
Could you see what the characters were doing while talking?
Could you see where the characters were while talking?

Did the characters work?
Do the characters act realistic?
Does the dialogue sound realistic?
Do their reactions seem logical & realistic?
Could you feel the emotions between the characters?
Did the characters seem in character?

Are there any parts of the story you hated?

Would you buy this book if you saw it in a bookstore (online)?

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a nice Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy the day with your family and loved ones.

Bounty Hunter FREE for a limited time!

Yes, Bounty  Hunter is going to be free for the remainder of November on Smashwords.  Here is the link for it: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9553  Now, I don't know if Amazon or B & N will follow suit on their sites and mark it down to free as well or leave it at regular price. I've heard they will match pricing, but I don't know first hand, I guess we will see on that. Hope you check it out, and if you like it, decide to buy the others.

Assassin's up on Nook

Just wanted to let you Nook users know that The Assassin is up on The Nook now at $2.99. Have already started having sales so let's keep the ball rolling!

Also, looks like the cover for Day of the Assassin is FINALLY done. Just a few details left but the design is done and I think it looks great. Should be ready in the next week or so.

Nook

My books are finally appearing on Barnes and Noble! If you're a Nook user you can now get the books via B&N. The only one not yet available is The Assassin. Right now it's still being formatted properly so it should be up in the next week. Click on the following link to get to the pages for Bounty Hunter, Escape, Deadlock, and Day of the Assassin

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?SRT=R&WRD=rye+james&STORE=EBOOK&SZE=10&AREF=1540

Update

Wow. I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I posted last. I definitely did not intend to go so long between postings. Just to update what's going: Have not worked on Empire much lately. I've pretty much been working on Shattered non-stop for the last month. It's coming along pretty good. I'd say it's roughly 30-40% done. I'm hoping I can get the 1st draft finished by the end of October and get it into the hands of beta readers. Then maybe take a month for edits. Since it's so close to the end of the year and Christmas I am planning to release it in late December/early January...hopefully to take advantage of those with new Kindles and more sales. By the end of 2011 I'm planning on releasing 6 books. The titles are tentative and likely to change. But here they are:

Shattered (The Evil Series)    (Horror/Thriller)
Empire                                  (Fantasy)
The Woods (The Evil Series) (Horror/Thriller)
Something Wicked (The Evil Series)  (Horror/Thriller)
Something Evil (The Evil Series)  (Horror/Thriller)
Untitled                                     (Thriller)

Guest Post: Stacey Cochran

I'd like to thank bestselling author Stacey Cochran for stopping by the blog today to talk about his latest book CLAWS 2!

CLAWS 2


Thanks so much, Rye, for hosting me today on your blog. As you know I am in the midst of a 3-month Blog Tour to help spread the word about my latest novel CLAWS 2. The book is an animal thriller set in southwest Colorado featuring a wildlife biologist Dr. Angie Rippard. The story centers around the issue of a re-emerging grizzly bear population in the area. The true life story of grizzlies in Colorado ostensibly came to an end in 1979, when bow-hunter Ed Wiseman killed the last one with a handheld arrow (he was defending himself during an attack). That said, recent sightings in the past five years suggest a population may be migrating south from Wyoming where conservation efforts have had a positive impact.


Of course, CLAWS 2 is the second book in the series. (The first book CLAWS features Angie and mountain lions and is set in Arizona.)


So I thought I would start by discussing why I wrote the books, and then how I wrote them.

The motivation to write the first novel came about because I was living in a remote mountain town in Arizona called Oracle. While there, a number of human/mountain lion encounters began popping up in the Tucson papers. At one point, authorities even had to close an elementary school near Ventana Canyon because a cougar was repeatedly stalking children.


The issue regarding how to handle a predatory animal stalking schoolchildren was contentious, and so I wanted to explore the problem in a novel.

The first draft of the book took about nine months to write. I typically wrote about 800 to 1500 words a day, but there were periodic spells when I didn’t write for several days (or a week or two). Once completed, the first draft went in front a writing group I was in at the time, and I took the group’s feedback and applied it to a major revision.


The following year I was able to get a literary agent who worked further with me to revise the manuscript, and then shopped it around to everyone in the business. Nearly everyone she pitched it to gave us feedback, but they all ultimately passed and the novel went into the trunk.

Because I had read that it was wise to have a second book ready to go once you sold your first, I was about halfway through the sequel when we shopped it around to editors. When everybody passed on the book and the agent dropped me, it was difficult to finish CLAWS 2. But I did it anyways because I never stop a novel mid-project no matter how difficult or pointless it seems at the time.

Both books went into the trunk for a few years while I continued to self-publish other novels, and eventually CLAWS found its way into the rotation in 2009 to be self-published.

To my astonishment, the eBook version of CLAWS became a bestseller within weeks of its release. Reviews started trickling in, and everything just continued to build momentum throughout last year.


In December I started getting contacted by a handful of independent film production companies about the book and its sequel. It was a wild ride (though no one has optioned the books yet).


So, this summer (2010) I launched CLAWS 2. It immediately became a bestseller, shooting up to #213 in the Kindle store and #1 in all of the genre categories. Interestingly, the first book saw a dramatic surge in sales, too, spiking in the low 100s overall in the Kindle store in July.


For now, there are only the two CLAWS books. That said, I have notes for a CLAWS 3 which would feature spotted leopards in Arizona and New Mexico… the so-called Sonoran jaguar. I could possibly see doing a 4th and 5th novel maybe set in the Appalachians and Alaska respectively and featuring eastern cougars and wolves, but I doubt I will write these unless I am able to sell the series to a major publisher and/or earn a film option.




Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/CLAWS-2-ebook/dp/B003TU20HE


I hope you've enjoyed today's post from Stacey. I may start having regular posts/interviews with other authors once or twice a week so stay tuned for further info on that.

Updates

It's been a few weeks and I just wanted to update everyone on what I've been working on. I've been working on Empire a little, but I hit the wall with it a little bit, so I've taken a break from it for the last week. So for the last week I've been working on Shattered, coming up with more storyline ideas, trying to blend it together. The first chapter is done, but I'm editing it, and adding to it. I also started some short stories that I've talked about previously. I'm really excited about Shattered and think that it could be one of those breakout books that gets some attention. I'm hopeful anyway. Also, seeing as how's it's book one of at least 4....should be interesting.

Interesting experiment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jul/19/books.booksnews?CMP=twt_gu

There was an interesting experiment done with the works of Jane Austen that highlights exactly how difficult it is to get an agent or publisher to even look at an author's book. It's almost darn near impossible! Read the article for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Stacey Cochrane

Just wanted to announce that popular author Stacey Cochrane will be stopping by the blog on August 12 to promote his new book, Claws 2! Obviously, it's the sequel to Claws! I think I read somewhere recently that Stacey has sold 40,000 books on Kindle since 2009 so it seems like he's doing something right. It's available now, so swing by Amazon and check it out!

Lit and Laundry Blog

Just wanted to let everyone know I will be featured on the Lit and Laundry blog this coming friday, July 16. It will be an interview, and I'll also be stopping by the blog if anyone has questions or wants to chime in with comments...I'll be responding. So I hope to see you there!

Here's the site:

http://litandlaundry.blogspot.com/

Adding to the WIP

Just announcing a few more stories to be added to the WIP (Works In Progress) pile. Right now I'm envisioning it as a 4 book series (could be more) which could be called The Evil Series. The theme of the books I guess would be considered in the horror/thriller genre which would be my first foray into the horror field. Nothing has been written yet, except some ideas. But I think I have some really cool ideas to make it stand out.

The preliminary titles are being called:
Something Evil
Something Wicked
The Hat Man
The Woods

These are just ideas for titles I have. Some have been done before so that's always a consideration. Will talk about it more once I get more into it.

Day of the Assassin

Is now available and only 99 cents! Here are the stories and link:

Day of the Assassin

Matt Beck is back as The Assassin in this short story collection. Day of the Assassin includes 3 short stories featuring:


Noose for an Assassin-A crooked card game leads to Beck being thrown in jail. While in jail a lynch mob forms with the intention of stringing Beck up by his neck until dead. Will they succeed or will they string up the wrong man?

Revenge of the Assassin-Someone takes a shot at Beck as he's riding to the town of Everwood. Beck goes to town and hunts down the person responsible. Beck finds the culprit, but shows compassion and spares their life, before he is forced into a deadly showdown.

Assassin's Day-Beck is summoned to a town to avenge a prostitute who was raped. Beck stops at nothing to force the guilty party into a duel.

June Interview

Q: Well, we're back with another round of questions. It's been a few months since we had a Q&A session.

RJ: Yeah, I apologize to all my readers for not having the site updated in a while. I've been using AOL dial up forever and it just took a long time to do everything, or wouldn't do it at all, and it'd frustrate me to no end. I just switched to Verizon high speed and now everything comes up within seconds, so the site will definitely be updated a lot more frequently. It's pretty exciting that I don't have to wait 10 or 20 minutes for a website to come up!

Q: What else do you have planned for the site?

RJ: I'm overhauling the books page. My short stories-Day of the Assassin, Misconduct, and The Mason Files are no longer being sold on Amazon so I have to redo the page.

Q: Any particular reason for not selling them anymore?

RJ: It was Amazon's decision to drop all stories from their old Shorts program. I could republish them again today if I wanted but the mininum I could charge is .99 cents and I don't think it's reasonable to expect anyone to buy a single short story for that price. Day of the Assassin will be put into a short story compilation that I'm releasing called, Assassin's Day. The Mason Files will probably work it's way into a Mason Files story compilation at some point as well. Misconduct...I don't really have any plans for at the moment.

Q: What's there to look forward to for the rest of this year?

RJ: I expect to release Assassin's Day and Empire before the year is over.

Q: I know I read some things about you not sure whether you were going to release Assassins Day as a novel or short stories? Sounds like you've made up your mind.

RJ: Yeah, I'm going to release it as a group of short stories. I really contemplated reworking the stories into a book but I would just rather work on some other stuff since most of the stories are done.

Q: Any other plans?

RJ: At some point after Assassins Day is released I'm going to release an e-book box set of the Westerns. So instead of buying them all individually you could get The Assassin, Asassins Day, Bounty Hunter, and Deadlock at once.

Q: What's the reasoning behind that?

RJ: Well it'd be a win-win for everybody. If a reader were to buy each story individually it'd cost them about $6.97. If I were to bundle them as a collection and it cost say $4.99, the readers would save money and I'd wind up making more money than if it was bought separate so everyone would benefit.

Q: Is that all the changes you have planned?

RJ: Nope! Readers will soon be able to order autographed copies on the website. I'll also be offering my e-books directly off the website if someone wants to purchase them through me instead of Amazon or whoever.

Works In Progress

Just figured I'd keep everybody up to date with where I'm at with what I'm working on.

Empire (Fantasy)- First off, don't get used to the name because I'm pretty sure it won't remain that once it's released. The more I keep thinking about it, the more convinced I am that I'm gonna change it. I'm not sure the name is the best fit for the book. We'll see though. Right now I'm at about 30,000 words into it so it's probably around half way done more or less.

Shattered (Paranormal Suspense/Thriller)- Once again, don't get too used to the name. Not sure about this one though. I like the title and feel it fits the book. On the other hand, I believe a few other books have been released with the same name in recent times so I may have to deviate a little. Not too far into this one yet, only about 3,500 words so far which is basically the first chapter.

Untitled (Thriller)-Had a title for this but it does not fit what the book's about at all...I mean, not at all! So it's going untitled for now. I haven't started writing this as of yet but today I started jotting down a little bit of an outline and some storyline ideas. I would imagine I'll start writing this shortly.

Assassins Day (Western)- I'm a little torn on this one. I was originally slating this to be a few short stories based on The Assassin, and releasing it sometime during the summer. But I could also re-work the short stories so the flow seamlessly into a book. Right now it's around 12,000 words. So if I decide to do it as a full book instead I have some work to do with it. If I keep it as short stories then it'll probably get released over the summer. If I decide to re-do it as a book then I'm not sure when it'd get released. Probably late this year or early next year.

I also have other stories in various stages of completion. Some I've started writing, some I've just kicked around some ideas. In the cases of all these stories they're taking a back seat to the 4 mentioned above. In any case though, I'll share to let you know what's in the works...probably 2-3 years down the line.

Legion (Fantasy)-I'm only about 1,000 words into this one. I basically know what I want to do with it. Picture Russell Crowe from Gladiator as the lead character.

Mason Files (Mystery/Detective)- About 1,000 words into this one as well. It will most likely be a short story. I've always had the goal for this character to be a series of stories. Will probably wind up packaging a few short stories together. Don't really imagine doing a full length book with this.

Down On The Farm (Baseball)-Started this a long time ago and probably have 500-1,000 words started. I'm not sure if or when I'll even look at this again as I've lost interest in it at this time. It was only meant to be a short story anyway so I didn't have big plans for it. Who knows though, maybe at some point in the future I'll regain interest in it.

Murder On The Hour (Thriller)-Another one that I'm about 1,000 words into. Have the basic outline for it. Once I'm done one or two of the main 4 I'm working on this may be one that gets put on the frontburner. I really like the ideas I have for it.

Robbery Homicide (Police)-Just have some story ideas on this. Basically envision this as a series of short stories.

Bounty Hunter (Western)-Have some ideas on some short stories. At this point I'm not planning on doing another full length book with the Bounty Hunter character but that could always change.

Wanted (Western)- Have a couple chapters of this written. This was actually going to be among the first Westerns that I released. Then I got more involved with The Assassin. Then Bounty Hunter came up and Deadlock just seemed to write itself and Wanted just got pushed back. Not sure exactly how much is written since I haven't looked at it in a while but it's probably around 10,000 words or so.

Vengeance Is Mine (Western)-Haven't put much thought into this yet. I have a basic storyline but haven't really done any plot points.

Judas (Western)-Just a vague storyline. Haven't put any time into it yet.

Man Alone (Western)-Have a basic premise...but that's it.

Untitled (Action/Thriller)-Have a basic premise but nothing else. Think Heat.


Well there you have it. That's what I got on my plate right now. Hope you stick around with me as I finish them!

Reviews

Just wanted to talk about reviews for a little bit. Reviews are really important, especially for authors like myself who aren't published with major publishing houses. Reviews can really help sell more books and let others who aren't sure whether they'd want to purchase one of my books that they're not too bad. So I am asking those who have read my books and enjoyed them, if you could take just 5 minutes out of  your time to write a review(s) on Amazon, I would really appreciate it.

Now that that's over with...

I'll have another post up tomorrow letting everyone know what's going on with what I'm working on right now. Lots going on.

e-books

Just wanted to let everyone know that all my e-books are on sale for the month of May for only .99! This is the first time they've all ever been offered at that price so I'd encourage everyone who's interested to pick them up now while you can. The sales are going on at both www.amazon.com and www.mobipocket.com.

If you pick up a copy of any of the books, I'd appreciate any reviews. Reviews help sell more books so I'd be very thankful to any of you who decide to do so.

Assassin's Day

Just wanted to update everyone on the progress of this. I was originally stating it would probably come out towards the end of this month but it will be pushed back. Most likely it will now be released in late July. The reason for this is it felt somewhat rushed and I wanted to take a little more time on it instead of just quickly throwing something out there. So the new release date will be late July and if anything else comes up I will let you all know. I will also keep you all updated with progress and any other news.

Beta Readers

Interested in reading a book before it's released? I'm looking for 5 readers to read The Assassin short stories book that's next to be released. What I'm looking for are the readers to evaluate the story for content/storyline/editing to make sure it flows smoothly and nothing's been missed. If you're interested just send me an e-mail at ryejames77@aol.com The first 5 to respond will be chosen as long as you're able to read it within the next couple of weeks.

The Assassin short stories

The Assassin short stories will be released at 99 cents and will be exclusively sold as an e-book. It will not be released in paperback as I don't believe there's much of a market for Western short stories in paperback form. It will be released on all e-reader devices though. It will be comprised of 5 stories, which are:

Day Of The Assassin
Revenge Of The Assassin
Noose For An Assassin
Prayer For An Assassin
Bounty For An Assassin

The Assassin

Well, most of you have been able to tell by the hints I've been dropping that there will be more of The Assassin. I have said that I will not be releasing any more Westerns for a little bit while I work on some other things. But I've also said I will be releasing some short stories between books to keep new material coming out. The first stories will be a collection of short stories featuring The Assassin, Matt Beck. This collection should be released sometime in April, probably towards the middle of the month. I will have further posts with what stories will be included and what they're about in the coming weeks.

The Assassin

.....is coming.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWS1BtVE5B0

Rough Week 2

Remember last week when I said it looked like my truck was gonna be covered by the warranty? Well, I think I spoke too soon. Now it looks like it probably won't. If not, I'm trying to see if I'll be able to trade it in. Hopefully that will work if needed. Very stressful 2 weeks.

Spring Training

Well, it's that time of year! Baseball season! Pitchers and catchers have reported and the position players will be there soon. I can't wait for the start of the season. I'd say the Phillies have to be the favorite to repeat as NL Champs once again, for the 3rd straight season. Right now I'd say their competition will be the Rockies and Cardinals, though once the season starts there's always a surprise team that comes along. With this offense, Halladay should be a 20 game winner easily. I may have said this already but I can't wait for the season to get going!

Rough Week

Haven't posted anything in almost 2 weeks. Still here and kickin', just hit a bit of a rough spell. My truck broke down and the family dog(living with my parents) had a stroke. Looks like she's starting to get a little better but she's 14 so I don't know how much time she has left. She was my first dog and it's rough to see her in bad shape. The truck needs a new engine...it's only at 36,000 miles and I got the warranty on it so it looks like everything is covered...thankfully! I won't get it back till next week though but at least I'm not paying for it.

In the next week or two I'll be making some announcements on some things I'm working on. I'll be releasing a few short story compilations before the next book is released so at least they'll be some new material coming out. I'll be giving out more info in the next week but I'll give a hint on one of them....some of you who've e-mailed me will be very happy as to what it is! :-)

Escape

Just wanted to let all you Kindlers know that the price of Escape has been dropped to $1.99.

Amazon.com: Escape eBook: Rye James: Kindle Store

Amazon/Macmillan thoughts

Have had a few e-mails asking my thoughts on what's going on at Amazon so I figured I'd share them here. For those that don't know Amazon has pulled all Macmillan books (ebook/paper/hardback) from their site. It will only be temporary as the publisher ultimately will charge what it wants. Macmillan doesn't like them charging only $9.99 for their e-books and from what I understand wants the price closer to $15. With Apples Ipad entering the market they are wanting to price the books from their ibookstore at closer to that price mark. Amazon is balking at that. From my vantage point I think Macmillan is making a big mistake. Amazon is trying to keep e-book prices low to encourage people to buy the Kindle and e-books in general, which I think is smart. Some people may be willing to pay $15 for an e-book but I don't understand why you would when you could get the paperback for less. If the situation continues it only will hurt Macmillan and its authors, but at the same time will help other lesser known authors get some additional sales. I do not believe people will ultimately support higher e-book prices and they will come back down anyway. I could never have an e-book listed that high as I'm completely against e-book prices being that high and firmly believe they should be a lot cheaper. We will see how it plays out.

Alternate Deadlock Cover

Just wanted to share with everyone what the alternate cover was. It came very close to being the actual cover but in the end I liked having the sheriff figure on the front so we went with the other one. But I thought this one was really good as well.

Deadlock Cover

As I mentioned before, the Deadlock cover came together at the last minute thanks to the work of my good friend, Dan over at OIDStudio. I had a cover already in place but I never really liked it, and thought it would grow on me. In the end, it never did and I just couldn't keep it. So a week or so before the release date I talked to Dan about it and he came up huge and created a great looking cover in about 2 days. Any authors out there looking for cover design or if you're looking for any type of design work, I encourage you to contact Dan and let him know what you're looking for. He's a great guy, awesome to work with, and very reasonable prices. Let him know I sent you. His website is www.oidstudio.com

Deadlock thoughts

Just wanted to throw some thoughts out there on the book. I really like the cover, I liked the alternate cover as well and will post it later just so everyone can see what it looked it. I said it in the newsletter, but I'll say it here for those who don't subscribe, that I think this is my best work yet. From start to finish, I think this is my best writing, and most complete book yet. Hopefully even those of you who aren't fans of Westerns will give the book a shot, never know, you may like it! This will probably be my last Western book for at least a year or two. I'll probably release a few short stories in that time but the next few releases will be other genres.

Deadlock Release

Here are a few links if you are so inclined to try the book out. In the next few days I will talk more about the book, the cover, and some future things.

Amazon.com: Deadlock eBook: Rye James: Kindle Store

Smashwords - Deadlock - A book by Rye James

Mobipocket eBook: "Deadlock" by Rye James

Deadlock Cover

Thanks

Before it gets too late into the new year I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported me and a big thank you to everyone who has bought one of my books. The main goal I have as an author is to just entertain the reader for the couple hours they have my book open and forget any problems they may have. Hopefully I have accomplished that. The sales of my books almost doubled from 2008 to 2009 and I can only hope I'll have similar success this year. I am very grateful and thankful to all of you.

Deadlock Charity

The official announcement is in...the charity that will be supported by Deadlock will be The World Wildlife Fund. It was a tough decision and there were many worthy organizations that I was considering, but I just thought that the WWF was the best fit at this time. If you have any ideas for a charitable organization for one of my future books, feel free to post, or e-mail me.

Deadlock

The Deadlock e-book will be released at $1.99! That is the lowest one of my books has ever been released at! Remember the date...January 17!