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.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
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!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
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/
Here's the site:
http://litandlaundry.blogspot.com/
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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!
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!
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