ICRS 2011 in Atlanta (part 2)

The show ended today. I am tired! But it was such a great experience. I made new contacts and met people who I'd previously only known online. I think I signed around 150 books.

I have two bits of news that are awesome, and one that is disappointing:

1. Swords of the Six is selling very well! So well, in fact, that it is right behind Bryan Davis's two new novels and ahead of all their other fiction. Praise God! ...I'll give more details later as I discover them.
2. AMG Publishers wants to sign me on for the rest of The Sword of the Dragon series. They are very happy with how it has been received and I feel honored to write for them.
3. Now the other bit of news isn't calamitous, but it does sock me a financial blow that is hard to swallow at this time. A few book buyers have complained that they find the cover for my second novel to be offensive. I don't see it, but in order to keep those buyers happy I am commissioning a different piece of art to be used on the cover. Hopefully it will turn out as good or better than the first one. But this sets back the release of the novel, so don't expect it before August.

Tomorrow morning my wife and I are driving back to North Carolina, and from there we'll head home. It has been a wonderful trip. I feel that I know the people at AMG a whole lot better now and understand better how to work with them.

I signed a lot of books. They were free, so as long as people lined up they received copies. I handed out lots of business cards ahead of time and it paid off. There were a lot of book buyers and store managers in the lines.

This last picture is of me and the designer of my original novel cover, Kirk DouPonce. It was really one of those moments when I felt I had met a new friend. Some people in the industry are a great to know, others leave an impression... He is such a great guy!

ICRS 2011 in Atlanta (part 1)

Wow has this been an exciting couple of days! So far I've met a lot of other authors, spoken to book buyers, and received a lot of Free books (totally something that I didn't expect). I am pictured above with Jenny L. Cote, and below with Ted Dekker.
Since I was young I've enjoyed episodes of the tv series Touched by an Angel, and my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Roma Downey!
Ah, yes, and here is proof that I finally met Wayne Thomas Batson! ....I'll have more news later. Right now I need to get upstairs and spend some time with our wonderful hosts here in Atlanta, GA.

Henny Penny in Saybrook, CT

I finished a book signing today at the Henny Penny gas station in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. This weekend, I sold 34 books! My average sales at the gas stations have been right around that number and I'm very happy with the results. The Saybrook store is one of the 'tighter' locations. I had to put the banner behind my little display in order to fit, and I frequently had to dive to the side to let customers and employees pass. But the advantage to that was the customers couldn't miss me! The picture below will gives a better angle of the store's interior (as you can see, it is rather narrow).Next weekend I'll be heading to Atlanta for the International Christian Retail Show . . . I can't wait! But in the mean time, I have to finish edits for The Sword of the Dragon-book 2-Offspring.

First Fruits of my Endeavors!

June has been a full month. Every weekend I've had a couple book signing, with most being at Henny Penny gas stations. Through the gas stations alone over 300 copies of Swords of the Six have sold, and that number continues to climb!

I am starting to see the fruits of all my marketing push. A lot of people have heard about my book because they saw it somewhere (most often at the gas stations) or because someone told them about it. So far since the book's release March 1st I have handed out over 2,000 business cards. These cards have my book cover on the face, with the website, my email, and book teaser on the reverse. They are super cheap to print (because I order 10,000 at a time) and are very effective in getting the word out.

Next month I will be at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, CT. They are expecting over 2,500 people for the boyscouts sleepover and I will be holding a book signing there. More on this later.

Also, I'm really enjoying the occasional review of my novel. Today AMG sent me this link to a review by a Christian teacher in Oregon. Enjoy!

The Challenge of Making a Living as a Writer

Only a few thousand fiction writers in the US make their entire income off of their writing. The rest, like me, have a day or night job. I have been doing the math and have come to the conclusion that I average only 50 cents per book sold through my publisher. In contrast to that, when I self-published Swords of the Six, I made a few dollars off each copy sold.

Digital books (such as Kindle) offer the opportunity for authors to make more money off each copy sold. I can make 70% on a Kindle book. So even if I sell it for only a few dollars I make good return. This is exciting!

So does this mean that I should throw out the traditional publishing market? After all, many authors are now talking about self-publishing their books instead of continuing with their traditional publishing houses. But these authors already have an established market; people know to look for their books because the traditional houses have already spread word to their markets.

My plan is to do both. I am going to continue writing for traditional publishing houses to grow my readership, and I'm going to self-publish other titles on the side. Hopefully between the two I can bring my writing income to where it needs to be, sooner rather than later.

May trip to Indiana and New Hampshire

This week I made a trip to northern Indiana to speak to middle school students. Pictured above, I stand with the students at Lakeview Middle School in Warsaw, IN. The newspaper did an interview, which article here: http://www.timesuniononline.com/main.asp?SectionID=82&SubSectionID=353&ArticleID=55023

This last picture is after a successful signing at Barnes & Noble in Manchester, NH. My wife and I (and my son) had a crazy week. We went to a middle school in Indiana on Friday morning, then drove about 16 hours to make it in time for my booksigning at the store on Saturday. The store had 40 books in stock and I sold 36 of them! Praise God!

But today I am relieved to be back at home. The trip was good, but I'm ready to run a bit slower for a little while.

The trick to combining speech tags with action beats

Speech tags and action beats are a sometimes hotly debated subject. I know that in my personal experience I go back and forth on how to best utilize them.

Recently something happened that spotlighted this issue for me:
I was driving back from a book signing in New York. I was tired and a bored, so I stopped at a Barnes & Noble in Albany. There I purchased a mocha and the Star Wars: Deceived audiobook. The first thing that stuck out as I listened to the phenomenal read-aloud was the numerous instances where the author used speech tags, and often combined them with his action beats. I thought at first "This is distracting" but the more I listened the more I realized how well this worked. The writing was strong even with the numerous speech tags, stronger perhaps than it would have been without them. When I arrived home and returned to writing my novel, I let my mind flow freely, as if I was verbally telling the story. This worked extremely well. At least, I am happy with the results.
Below are a couple instances from my 2012 novel The Key of Living Fire (AMG Publishers):

Action beat only:
Cromlin laughed and the sound of it chilled Specter’s bones. “The power of living fire resides here, doesn’t it?” The creature slowly turned its massive head and gazed at Specter. “Were you attempting to stop this man from escaping with the Key [spoiler removed]?”

Action beat with speech tag:
The dragon was silent for a long while, then he angled his boney head downward and said, " I believe our beloved Specter followed the traitorous Auron into... [spoiler removed]"

Q4U: What is your opinion on this? Do you prefer no speech tags, few, or do you like them? Do you enjoy the combination of speech tag and action beat?