feng shui assassin

Feng Shui Assassin has sold almost one hundred copies through the various distribution methods. Amazon, Smashwords and a bricks’n'mortar place called ‘The Lexicon’ in Strand Street (Douglas, Isle of Man). Not too bad, really - and it’s a weird feeling knowing that people I don’t know have bought and read the book.

Even had the odd good review from drunken monkees in the pub!

So now I’ve a proven record for sales - I’m trying to crowbar my way into the local distributors. A wholesalers that distribute throughout the Isle of Man, allowing a presence in the other book stores (including WH Smiths and Waterstones). With self-publishing, distribution, it seems, is the key.

On his whirlwind tour of the internet, JA Konrath is promoting his latest work ‘Afraid’ with a whistlestop visit to as many blogs as will have him in the month of March. Released on the 31st March (in the USA) ‘Afraid’ is a dark, disturbing and utterly delicious horror novel written under the pseudonym Jack Kilborn (see what he did there? A surname to evoke murder and innocence - and to superbly place him next to ‘King’ on the bookshelves! Oh, the man is canny, give him that).

JA Konrath has a hugely popular blog - A Newbie’s guide to Publishing - wherein he offers tonnes of freebie’s alongside his blogging nuggets of wisdom - and today he visit’s feng shui assassin to impart some of that writerly wisdom. Welcome Joe . . .

———-

Q: Your new book, Afraid, is a horror novel that deals with isolation and terror - what are the subjects that most make you scared - and as a writer how do you go about tapping in to those emotions for the page?’

A: Thanks for having me here, Ady. While Afraid have been available in the UK in a hardcover edition for several months, it won’t be released in the US until March 31.

So far, people either love it, or hate it. But pretty much everyone thinks there’s something wrong with me for writing a book so frightening.

The feelings we associate with fear–increased pulse, hyperventilating, sweaty palms, hair standing up on edge–are hardwired into our genetic code. While real fear can be incapacitating, reading a book or watching a movie is a safe type of fear. The popularity of horror media, and Halloween, which in the US is second only to Christmas in terms of consumer spending, attests to this fact.

With my novel, Afraid, I tried to include situations that touched on everyone’s worst fears; fire, drowning, being chased, the dark, claustrophobia, pain, death, losing a loved one, being separated from your family, etc.

To evoke fear in the reader, I use a three part process.

First, I establish the threat for the reader.

Second, I establish the threat for the character.

Third, I escalate the situation and put more pressure on the character, and in doing so, cause more fear to build up in the reader.

If I did my job correctly, the reader keeps reading to see what happens next, even though they are frightened to do so.

Of course, some people don’t like to be scared, even when it is all pretend. The book is provoking a lot of extreme reactions, and some folks point to the high levels of gore gratuitous violence.

I find this fascinating, because Afraid isn’t gratuitous. While horrifying things happen in the book, I don’t describe them in any real detail. I certainly don’t linger on them. The violence isn’t there to titillate prurient interest, or gross people out.

I use just enough words for the reader to imagine the scene, then leave it alone. But it seems to be too much for some people.

Afraid also has some heart. It isn’t nihilistic torture-porn. It contains scenes of love, and bravery, and redemption, and hopefully there are a few places where the reader will cheer.

Did I go to far? You’ll have to judge for yourself…

+ + + + +

Thank you Joe, and because I was so intrigued at the premise I hopped onto the nearest online retailer and bought ‘Afraid’ by Jack Kilborn.

Afraid - a review. (some spoilers)

Nestled in the woods of Wisconsin lies the small town of Safe Haven. Miles from anywhere this town lived up to it’s name - until, that is, a helicopter crash on the outskirts of the sleepy town unleashes a manmade horror upon this peaceful location. The Army have reprogrammed serial killers with razor-edge military skills under the operation title ‘Red-Ops’. Five of these red-ops have survived the crash and head towards Safe Haven, intent on fulfilling their programming in the most bloody, horrific and terrifying way possible.

From the get-go, this novel relentlessly pursues your last nerve as it cuts a bloody swathe through the town. The horribly inventive and evil way the five create maximum terror and confusion is countered only by the few who fight back, albeit through sheer panic or selfless thought for a loved one. I particularly enjoyed the secondary characters, doomed though they may have been, as their oh-so-human flaws often led them to the jaws of gruesome death.

This is not a book for the fainthearted. It tells just enough to let your imagination fill in the gaps - and sometimes carries on regardless. It is a scary thriller, a horror in the bloody vein, and a damn good read! If you’re in the UK – go buy one now. If you’re in the US – you just have to wait til the 31st March.

A little late in the day - week - whatever - but there has been a big push for ebook retail with the ‘Read an Ebook week’ - and Feng Shui Assassin has joined the throng in an attempt to get people to read an ebook.

During this promotion - Feng Shui Assassin is available to read, in full, for Free. Yup - free, FREE, FREE.

Go and check out the promotion at Smashwords

I’ve been approached by Joe Konrath to be a part of his ‘blog tour‘ where he will visit a blog each day to help promote the release of his new book ‘Afraid’.

Fantastic idea - and what a privilege.

The concept is a great approach to the old nugget of visiting bookshops to sign & promote your release. A virtual tour of related blogs will widen his audience, perhaps create a web-buzz and hopefully do the job of selling the book.

I hope he has a few big-hitting blogs he’s able to visit (Neil Gaiman or even the Kingster himself news section?) because, although JA Konrath is no slouch in the web world - it’s a bit of a one-sided match if I host his blog tour on this pokey site!

I know the virtual tour is nothing new - but it’s taken an established author to really start making an impact - and I’d love to see more of this kind of thing through the blogosphere! Publishers really do have to wake up to the internet and go above and beyond just offering e-books at inflated prices - and really take on the concept of blog tours, virtual communities and the rest of the networking potentials.

I’m reading Sherlock Holmes and the sign of Four for a book club on Litopia at the mo. And the number has stuck with me - so much so that I am gonna play it forward to kickstart the next marketing initiative. The number four echoing throughout.

1) Approach four potential reviewers (online and magazine) - send them copies with the caveat that it is self published (no-one seems to like reviewing self-pubbed books. And with good reason - cos they’re usually tat! Even if they reviewed a good self-published book - like Feng Shui Assassin - then they risk opening the floodgates to other, perhaps less rigorously edited & formatted pieces).

2) Tell four friends - email and facebook peeps with the hope that they ‘tell four friends’ who may like the book - whether they’re into reading quirky fiction,  hippyness and well-being, or just into sci-fi urban fantasy thriller-type-thing.

3) Fo(ur)tnote - gotta add a tag on the bottom of my emails with a link to Amazon. Click and buy, my friends, click and buy…

A couple of fluffer pieces for Feng Shui Assassin - the first is a great piece in the local papers - getting the old fizzog into the papers allow for old friends and colleagues to go ‘Ohh’ and perhaps get motivated to purchase a hardcopy from the local store (Or Amazon).

Feng Shui Assassin in the Isle of Man Courier

And the second is from a scraper site for Fantasy reviews. Fantasy Book reviews look like a good site - and they must have an impressive bit of code to pick up something as obscure as Feng Shui in a backwater paper. Still - I ain’t complaining

Is Boxing Day one great pun? Anyhoo - an excellent article on Cnet details 25 things you need to know about self-publishing a book. I guess it’s everything that this blog should be - and a good summation of everything I hope to capture by the end of this blog (yeah - a blog with an ending. Amen!).

The author has self-published his book ‘Knife Music, and gives us a list of his discoveries on the path to independent publishing. He’s made some choices I rejected - and seems to have spent quite a bit more then me - but his process is enlightening and he even mentions smashwords (to which my once giddy ‘top seller’ heights have now sunk to number 3 on that best seller listing).

As always with these online articles - the comments section is an interesting browse too.

An interesting post on JA Konrath’s blog about the number of writer’s he knew as he struck his first book and started doing the marketing thing - and how few of them are left nowadays.

He poses a broad question and doesn’t pretend to know the answer - although I am sure that many of his fellow writers have not been published for many reasons - the main reason, I would hazzard-a-guess, would be that the publishers failed to reach their monetary target. It’s a business, first and foremost. And if a book doesn’t sell well enough - then the second or third book by the author won’t get commissioned.

It’s a sad story - and one all too common throughout the internet.

But do the writers stop writing? I doubt it. Though I am sure they would write with greater conviction if they were able to earn directly from their fiction. An experiment I’m trying at the moment is the trialpay method. Give something away for free - and the reader signs up for a trial of another online ’something’. Not that I have spent too much time on the trialpay. I’m busy getting prepped for a marketing launch on the local scene.

In a stroke of ingenuity (read: I most likely read it somewhere and forgotten the source) I have taken five shiny covered feng shui assassin books and left them around London after visiting there on Friday.

Within the front page I wrote ‘Please read - and pass on’.

Not the greatest attempt at a viral marketing campaign, I’ll grant you - but it may just cause a bit of a buzz. Or at least amuse 5 people with whatever they happen to do with 267 soft, absorbent pages between 2 hard covers with a nice bit of artwork on the front

So - I have the final answer from booksurge for a print-ready book to be published-on-demand - $299 (plus their 35% royalties). Ouch.

After a couple of emails bouncing back and forth between their rep and myself - as they tried to ply me with editing services (already done and paid for), book cover service (already done and paid for) and any other services a new author should rightly use - the final email came back with the express program offer. $299 to make the book available through themselves (and their Amazon puppetmasters) with a 35% mark-up.

Ok - so I’m not in any great rush for a POD at the moment. I have the books in the garage (thanks to the service from Biddles) and so will be able to fulfill any order at the moment. So I can afford to continue to shop around (Createspace is next on the list) - but I just wanted to be prepared, is all!

The main interest for podding was to allow the book to be bought, cost effectively, from the American market. As the pod isn’t dependent on location - then the shipping costs can be reasonable for whereever the buyer needs the book to be delivered.