What about my blog Followers/readers?

Here we are in late September and my mind is running wild on how to make the biggest sales impact with my novel Swords of the Six. It will be released in February 2011... only four and a half months away.

I want to spring a large number of pre-orders (a few hundred would do the trick). I'm thinking if I can get half of my facebook fans to commit to buying one copy each that should do the trick. I'm also going to invite my facebook friends. Between the two of those I have somewhere around six hundred people. But getting them to actually do it . . . it always sounds easier than it is.

The fact that the book is available for pre-order on Amazon for only $10 should make my task far easier. So what about all of my blog followers? Will you place a pre-order for my AMG novel? It won't cost you much and you'll be helping a good cause (-:

Here is the link to pre-order Swords of the Six from Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Swords-Six-Sword-Dragon-Book/dp/0899578608/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284236403&sr=1-1

I am going to unabashedly push this book into everyone's hands. I want it to be a hit with the publisher so that they will want another four novels to follow up the first three.

What kind of an incentive can I offer people to pre-order? Ideas . . . throw ideas at me, please!

Books, especially book covers

This post will be given in two parts Yesterday I set my mind on finishing the cover for By Sword, By Right and I'm very pleased with how it turned out! Now I am trying to decide between releasing this in hardcover for $13.99, or in softcover for $9.99. It is approximately 140 pages, not a large book but a fun size.

The original short stories that I wrote exclusively for this book include two science fiction pieces that I am really excited about:
Abacus One is a futuristic missionary tale of a world off-limits to Christians. One daring space captain takes the risk to bring the gospel to the isolated and unreached children from Earth.
The World Reborn is an imaginative, original take on space travel, where individuals travel from place to place inside space bubbles.
Carriage Angel ...I wrote this one for myself and those fans of mine who enjoy romance as well as jaunts a hundred years into the past.

Swords of the Six (AMG Publishers)
I know many of you are as eager as I am for my AMG novels to release. If you would like to pre-order the new expanded The Sword of the Dragon-book 1-Swords of the Six, it is available on amazon for a whopping $10.19 per copy! Pre-order by Click Here

Please ignore the fact that the wrong cover image is up there. AMG is creating a different, more snazzy cover.

From the Hand of God

Many of you will recall that last year my wife miscarried our first child. Perhaps that has made today's miracle even more special to me . . . to both of us. One child awaits me on the other side of death, and one I will likely precede to Christ.

At 4:46am September 12th, I caught my first-born son. My wife and I have named him Andrew Stephen Appleton. He was a long, painful delivery. My wife labored over 36-hours. But boy was it worth it! The feeling of fatherhood is still unreal, like living in a dream from which I'll never awake. God is so good. I pray he gives my wife and I the wisdom and will-power to bring 'Andy' up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

New, Fun Websites!

For quite a while now I've been shopping around the web, and among people I meet, for a great website design. That is, without success until now:

There is an awesome online software called Wix and I have used it to create new websites for both myself and for my company. Check them out:

www.TheSwordoftheDragon.com

www.FlamingPenPress.com

And, of course, let me know what you think! I was especially pleased with the way the FPP site turned out. The greatest part about the Wix software? I can easily edit both sites, change them around, etc, and as often as I like. The former Flaming Pen Press website used a Wordpress software and I could never figure out how to do anything fancy with it.