Why giving my book away on Story Cartel was a BAD idea...

I am now going to STRONGLY advise that authors do not do this until Story Cartel makes some significant security improvements to their platform. People who join their site to read and review books are not verified through any sort of third party method like the texting of a verification code etc. As a result, users can join the site, download as many books as they want and leave zero reviews. Even if Story Cartel cancels their account as a result of their behavior, nothing stops them from creating a new dummy email address, creating a new Story Cartel account, and then going right back to ripping off hard working authors.

I can say with some confidence that this is happening because of the list of email addresses I got from Story Cartel. This was a list of who had downloaded my book, and was given to me so I could email them to encourage them to leave a review. (On a side note... Why do I have to do this? I just PAID Story Cartel to list my book on their site for people to download. I would think they could throw in an automated email or two. Hell, maybe even put in a direct link to where they can leave that review?) Over 80% of those addresses were so obviously throwaway email addresses for accessing Story Cartel that they might as well have been titled "ImGoingToStealYourBook@bookstealers.com."

So chuck this service into the bin of things NOT to do in order to promote your book. Save your money and use it in a way that helps to build your subscriber email list.

Why seeing my work on the big screen was one of the greatest moments in my life as an author- but I'll never do it again...

Well, it's been a week since the book trailer for "For Every Action" began playing before all movies rated PG or higher in select theaters. To say it's been a big week would be an understatement, and on Friday the 1st it played for the last time.

Seeing my work up on the big screen has been a lifetime dream, and so the wife and I decided to make last Friday a special occasion. We got a babysitter, she got a mani-pedi, I left work early and we put on our grown up clothes for a nice dinner out. Then we headed over to the AMC Theater at Newport on the Levee here in Kentucky.

I was nervous as hell, and excited. The good people over at NCM let me know that I had gotten lucky, and that the trailer would play at some point during the "sweet spot." Apparently things that show in the last ten minutes leading up to the actual movie get the best response. We managed to find excellent seats despite it being a sold out showing of "Batman vs Superman", and I politely asked those around us not to call theater security when we recorded one of the trailers. I got more than a few strange looks, but they all laughed and were very supportive when I explained. After all, it's not like I was going to sue myself for copyright infringement.

When the moment finally came, I have to be honest - I cried. It's a pretty overwhelming thing to see when you've poured so much of yourself into something for so long. The writing of the Quantum Mechanic series is not something I took on lightly. It was the culmination of years of thinking on a variety of subjects and a way of expressing some things that I feel are very important, and often overlooked. I've given up a lot of time with my family to sit in an old recliner and tap hundreds of thousands of words out with my thumbs. Unfortunately, the first book took the life of my old Asus Slider tablet, and so the second two were birthed through a Nexus 10. It's a crazy way to write, I know, but I haven't found anything else that keeps me productive. After all, three novels amounting to more than a million words in two years is a lot to ask of a guy's thumbs.

Aside from my crying, I noticed something else happening when the trailer played. The theater fell almost completely silent. Before that there had been a general murmuring with the occasional shout or laugh. Typical pre-movie stuff in a big theater before a sold out show. But the second the trailer started all of the noise stopped and it stayed that way until the last five or six seconds. Then a collective stirring went over the crowd, as if they had all murmured "whoah", or "huh" under their breath. A second later it was over and a couple of minutes after that the movie started. So I didn't really reflect on the whole experience until later that night.

The reaction I saw that night had me eagerly anticipating a massive upsurge in book sales. After all, every piece of research out there shows that in-theater advertising is currently the most effective way to reach a targeted group of consumers. Unlike TV, you have a captive audience, no one is going to make a run to the bathroom or to the kitchen for a snack. Plus, there is a strange effect marketing researchers noticed... when we are at the theater we are far more attentive to what's on the screen. We're there to be entertained and so we suspend a lot of the frustration and resentment we feel about commercials.

But it didn't happen.

Here it is a full week later and the net result has been extremely disappointing. After an initial upsurge in readership last weekend, the numbers fell right back to normal and stayed there. A lot of time, effort, and yes - money, went into that trailer and getting it up on movie theater screens. Money that I am now wishing had been spent differently. So for all of the other authors out there contemplating in-theater advertising as a way to get your book moving towards the best seller list, don't do it. The return on investment is just not there.

As for me, although I have to admit that after seeing the numbers on Tuesday I seriously considered committing hari-kari via spork in the office kitchenette, I haven't given up hope. They say that in-theater ads pay off over the long run, and almost never generate massive sales up front. In the coming weeks, months, and possibly years, people who pick up their e-reading device and start thinking about what book they might want to read will remember the trailer.

That's what I keep telling myself, but there's spork in my desk drawer now... just in case.

Why I decided to give my book away for free

Well... not entirely free. There is a catch. you see, one of the toughest things about selling a self-published book on Amazon is getting reviews. Any reviews... good, bad, or ugly. While you can hope for good or great reviews, the hard truth is that the number of stars next to what someone says doesn't carry much weight. In fact, a book with fifty negative reviews will show up in Amazons Best Seller's ranking higher than a book with ten great reviews.

So in the end, if you want reviews to help your rankings it comes down to volume. That poses a whole new set of challenges, because it's shockingly difficult to get fiction readers to leave a review. Nonfiction, and especially self-help, don't suffer from this issue because they directly affect someone's like in some manner. People naturally feel inclined to leave a review in order to help others making a purchase decision.

But fiction doesn't have that same real-world traction. You either liked it or you didn't and once you put it down its influence on your life ends. The only trust relationship an author establishes with their readers is about time, specifically about not wasting theirs. You're promising  a good story, characters they will care about, and possibly a lesson learned in exchange for a little slice of their life. So readers will often only feel passionately enough about a book to review it if that trust was violated. There's a huge irony there, because it often gives terrible writers an undeserved leg-up in the Amazon rankings.

So in an attempt to rectify this situation I have listed my book on Story Cartel (http://bit.ly/2ForEveryAction-FREE). Story Cartel offers a unique value proposition to authors by allowing them to give their book away for free - but only to those who promise an Amazon review in return. It is my hope that For Every Action will have the same appeal to readers there as it does on Amazon, because if my reviews equaled my book sales I'd be one Amazon's front page by now.

If you're interested, the book will be available for free from today (March 10th, 2016) until March 31st 2016. You can find it on Story Cartel here - http://bit.ly/2ForEveryAction-FREE.

Digging back in, and a big announcement to be made soon

The Return of Heroes is finally back in full swing. Originally delays had been due to some health issues my editor was working through, but then they turned into my own. I'd been feeling poorly for a few months and my wife finally convinced me to see a specialist. A CAT scan of my head revealed that an infection was trapped in a small malformed sinus behind my left ear. According to the doctor, its been there for at least three years, possibly longer. So I'm currently undergoing a round of seriously intense antibiotics. Some of this stuff is what they use to kill MRSA and I have to say that at least in the short term... the cure is worse than the disease. I won't bore or revile you with the details, but it hasn't been fun and it's hard to write under those conditions. The good news is that the medication does seem to be working. I am finally feeling better and in the last few days my writing has picked back up.

In other news... there is a big announcement coming soon. I can't give out any details, but I will say this - it's connected to Batman vs Superman.  :)