Author's Log: Stardate 07212012

Finally … RISE TO THE CALL is published … All praise to Him!

It took a month longer than anticipated to publish _RTTC_. That’s about my only disappointment with the project. It was a joy to write. After writing three full-length novel manuscripts before it (two were published), I feel like I know how to tell a written story now. The editing and formatting processes are also becoming smoother.

Here’s the latest:

·         Effective July 2012, JarRyJorNo Publishing (my imprint) decided to leave KDP Select. Truth is I never felt comfortable limiting my distribution. KDP was a success for me though. From December to June, it garnered me thousands of new readers, yet, I received complaints from incumbent readers. That is not an acceptable tradeoff for me. I come from a family of successful small business owners. I was taught early on to place the highest value on customers. The ranking was oldest customers = most valuable; then came new customers, followed by prospects. For the KDP Select contact period, in order to service my loyal customers who did not read Kindle, I ended up supplying free copies in other formats. That is also unacceptable. If you own a deli, you give out free samples of your cold cuts – you DON’T give away free heroes though. Which brings me to my next item …

·         JarRyJorNo Publishing has also decided to severely cut back on free copies, whether they are offered in giveaways or via distributors. Here’s my view – Tom Clancy never supplied me with one of his novels for free; nor did W.E.B. Griffin … or Jack London … or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle … or Stephen Hunter … or any of the authors of the myriad STAR TREK novels that I’ve read … or Shakespeare for that matter (I bought his complete works). I gladly paid for ALL of the novels that I ever wanted to read. As for novels that I didn’t want to read, offering me a free copy of them would not have changed my mind to read them. I’ll tell you something else – the only (really) negative reviews I have ever received have ALL come from people who received a FREE copy of one of my novels. That really makes no sense to me – people joined free giveaways for my novels and then wrote negative reviews stating at the onset that 1-they had won the novel on Goodreads, etc.; and 2-they didn’t enjoy the story (mostly because they didn’t read that type of novel). Question … why would a person join a giveaway for a counter-terrorism novel if the person doesn’t believe in punishing terrorists? For the free copy? Another question … why would that same person then go to the trouble to publish a review of that same novel? To tell the world that they had won it? To tell the world that they don’t believe in punishing terrorists? Here’s what I do: I don’t like to read puritan romance novels, SO, I don’t buy puritan romance novels. Nor do I join free giveaways for puritan romance novels … and even if I met a puritan romance author and that author offered me a complimentary copy of their novel … and even if I accepted the comp copy, so as not hurt the author’s feelings .. I certainly would NOT publish a negative review of it, starting with, “I don’t like anything about this novel …” blah blah blah. <sigh> This is not to say that I won’t offer comp copies – but I prefer to offer them to people who actually: A-like the genre of my novels; and  B-want to read my novels.

·         The audiobook editions of THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM and SIGNS OF WAR are now available on Amazon, audible.com, and in the iTunes store. I’m very pleased with the way they came out! I can’t say enough about the excellent narration by the talented actor Elijah Alexander. Standing ovation for E-bro! And a special thank you to Amazon/ACX for agreeing to pay a stipend in order to produce both works!

·         On Monday, July 23, filming of the first CRIS DE NIRO series trailer will take place … with yours truly acting in it. I tried my best to have Elijah act in it, but alas, I couldn’t make it happen. So, the part of Mr. De Niro will be played by … his creator. I would be terrified if it weren’t for the incredibly-talented director, Philip Norbert of Inklinker. Philip is also a dear friend of mine. He’s gathered an incredible production team. I place myself entirely into his hands. I’ll let you know how it turns out. By the way, it was my idea to shoot a “series” trailer, as opposed to a “book” trailer. There’s a few reasons for this – the trailer can act as a cohesive marketing tool for all of the novels in the series – and – more resources can be spent on ONE trailer that can then be attached to all of the novels in the series, resulting in a higher quality marketing piece. An idea I offered to Inklinker and one that I think will benefit other indie publishing houses in time to come.

·         I’ve started writing Book 4 of the CRIS DE NIRO series, PROJECT 111. It picks up right after the last events in RISE TO THE CALL and I’m very pleased so far. I hope to have it out by December.

·         Book 5 of the CRIS DE NIRO series is in pre-production. I won’t say more about it yet, but its title is NOTHING SO GLORIOUS. Its storyline is different than the series’ other storylines. I’m excited about expanding the scope of plots in the series. I hope to have it released in first quarter 2013.

·         Pre-production has also begun on my new fantasy-adventure series, SAGA OF THE SEVEN SEALS! It’s a seven-book saga set in the Biblical time of Revelation. I hope to have book one of S7S, THE FIRST SEAL: YEAR OF THE WHITE HORSE released by next summer.

That’s enough for now. Thanks for tuning in!