William Meikle--guest post on Jan. 28

Just wanted to announce I will be hosting William Meikle on Jan. 28th as he is on a blog tour. I always like to help out other writers when possible. For those who aren't familiar with him here's a bio:

William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION has been as high as #2 in the Kindle SF charts and THE VALLEY has reached #1 in the Kindle Historical Fantasy chart. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com

Escape

Just wanted to let everyone know who hasn't purchased Escape yet that the price is now just .99 cents on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. There's no timeframe for it so I expect it will remain that price for a while. Sales at $1.99 just aren't strong enough so in an attempt to get more sales I decided to lower it. I have noticed a slight uptick in the few days since the price change so hopefully it'll work.

A Soul Worth Taking---beta feedback

Well I started getting feedback this past weekend for A Soul Worth Taking. So far it's looking really good. Got the reactions that I was hoping I would get. The 1st reader stated that she cried after the first couple of chapters. That's good because it means that I did a good job of making her care about what was going on. She also said some parts "freaked her out a few times". Which is also good cause I was hoping to give the heebie jeebies...LOL. We'll see how the rest of the beta readers feel...should be getting more feedback this week. I will keep you all posted on the results.

2011 goals

As I promised yesterday, I'm back to talk of my plans for this year. First off, Shattered is officially being renamed A Soul Worth Taking. From the feedback I was getting, that was the title people seemed to prefer. And I like it. So that's what we're going with. This post will only talk generally about my goals for this year so I'll put up a post in the next couple days talking specifically about the book and when it will be released. My goal for this year is to put out 5 new releases. I think I can do it, but at the same time I'm not just gonna write up any old slop and throw it out there. A Soul Worth Taking is a definite and will be out within a couple months. Empire should be finished by the end of January and in the hands of beta readers shortly after that. That should be out no later than May. The 2nd book in The Evil Series, tentatively titled The Woods, is also being worked on now and should be finished by the end of February or March. So it's pretty easy to suggest that it'll be out by the end of the summer. I would also like to get the 3rd & 4th books of The Evil Series out by the end of the year as well. They have not been started yet, except for some outlining, but if I have the other books done by the end of February that would leave a lot of time to get those 2 done. That would give me 5 new releases for this year.

I really want the entire Evil series to be out this year as I think it has a chance to be a real success. I think it's a really interesting premise...but I am biased! The genre of the Evil series is Thriller/Suspense. Empire is Fantasy. As of right now I do not derive most of my income from writing and I really would like that to change come the end of this year. I think this series, along with Empire, has the potential to change that. Of course, you never really know how your books will be perceived so it's possible everyone will think they stink!

Assuming I get those 5 books released this year I also plan to start writing a couple of other Thrillers, along with another Fantasy, that I have in mind. So it's shaping up to be a busy year for me. Hopefully, it'll be a successful one, and I'll be able to take another step forward.

Thanks for your continued support.

2010 Sales

Now that 2010 is over I figured I'd look back at my sales figures and see how I did and the results are a little mixed. I'm still not where I'd like to be (selling thousands a month)...but sales did improve dramatically this past year. They were over 6 times better than 2009 so I am happy about that. I don't have the final Barnes and Noble figures yet as their system is down but most of my sales are from Amazon anyway so it doesn't really skewer anything. Here's how my books rank by sales. These include both paperback and e-books.

1) The Assassin
2) Escape
3) Bounty Hunter
4) Deadlock
5) Day of the Assassin

Here's how I look at it: The Assassin is by far my best seller at more than 2 to 1 over Escape and almost 3 to 1 over the #4 Deadlock. I always assumed Escape, which is a thriller, would eventually take over the sales lead since Westerns aren't as popular but it's never happened and I don't think it's ever going to. I tend to think it's because Assassin isn't a straight Western and has some Mystery elements to it so it may get some people who wouldn't have read it otherwise. Bounty Hunter and Deadlock are more straight Westerns and are pretty much where I expected them to be, though I actually thought Deadlock would be 3rd, but they're still pretty close. Day of the Assassin has sold about what I expected for a short story collection so I'm ok with its sales. E-books continue to be the bulk of my sales. In 2009, 92% of sales were from e-books. In 2010, 96% of sales were from e-books. Of course, I'm totally fine with that. The prices are much more attractive to readers, and I get just as much royalties from it as paperbacks. I'd love for the paperbacks to be less expensive but there's not much I can do to lower them. I've tried.

So all things considered 2010 was a really good year for me. Thank you to everyone who has given even one of my books a chance. It means a lot to me to know there are people out there reading my work (and hopefully enjoying them). I really can't say thank you enough. I am very appreciative of your support. I will be back with another post tomorrow outlining my goals for 2011. I am planning on this being my best year yet. I will definitely have out 3 new releases. Empire and books one and two from The Evil Series. Depending on how fast I write I might have as many as 5 or 6 though. We'll see but I'm hopeful. Hope everyone's doing well, had a good 2010, and an even better 2011. Thanks so much!

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)?