Competent Prose and Clean Copy

I have read short story submissions for contests and magazines as well as mentoring new writers. The biggest complaint of this reader? Getting what is clearly a too-early-draft. Plot holes or plots that clearly fizzle out into nothingness, grammatical troubles of the fourth-grade order. Misspelled words. Writers who misspell their own names (think it doesn't happen?).

The occasional mistake is nothing of course. We all make them. But if I read a dozen clear problems in a thousand words, I begin to think the author didn't care or is infected with texting and twittering, and the general "I don't care" of the ephemera we all produce each day. Hard to fight that. My own blog posts have their maladies.

Still...

The reader who is afraid to buy a self-published work might be afraid because of this. People don't edit themselves as well as they edit others. Happens to my students all the time - a student may have a dozen errors on a page and not see any of them. Ask them to trade with the student next to them and suddenly the red pencils find employment.

If you are a writer, please consider that editors* and readers are hampered by what a less generous soul might call sloppiness. They simply can't enjoy the story if there's a pothole in every paragraph. Let alone plot holes.

* You might ask "but isn't it the editors job to edit? Put in the missing commas, fix spelling and such?" In short: No. If the writer can't be bothered...

The Blake Crouch Edition

I've known Blake Crouch for a number of years - we both wrote novels for St. Martins/Minotaur, and we've met at Bouchercons. I've been a fan since reading his first book Desert Places and if I want to be seriously creeped out, I turn to Blake's writing. He's also been collaborating with Joe Konrath with titles like Serial Uncut. Recently, I read his novella The Pain of Others in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Frankly, I think the story is pretty much pitch-perfect, the pacing, the vocabulary, the descriptions, everything works in this story. At first, I thought it was going to be a great thrill-ride without the characteristic chills I've come to expect from Blake. Let me tell you, the chills are there. Wait for them.


1 - Just finished your story "The Pain of Others." You certainly know how to build up the tension, but I kept waiting for the turn into Bizarro-land that I've come to expect from a Blake Crouch story. Obviously, I can't say what happens, but the wait definitely paid off. Is the delay part of the suspense technique or just the way the story rolled out this time?

It’s just the way the story came this time. Without ruining anything, I really wanted to drive home the whole “no good deed” concept.

2 - Letty is quite the character. You gave her a pretty full backstory. I'm wondering if there are other stories in print or in a desk drawer that features her. Also, how'd you come up with her?

Thanks, Steven! This is my first story with Letty. I love her. She is so much fun to write. I have no doubt that I will write about her again, either as the anti-heroine of a novel, or in future stories. Letty actually came to me out of trying to solve a plot problem (see below).

3 - What was the process for getting this story together? Did it all come to you in a flash? Did it take a year? Dreams? Snippets of overheard conversations? Did you have to wait for any missing pieces to fall into place?

I’d tried half a dozen times to execute what I thought was a cool idea...what if in the course of your daily life, you accidentally intercepted a hit, a contract killing—maybe you discovered that a hitman was going to knock someone off, or you were mistakenly tasked with carrying out the hit. I kept trying to attack this idea and kept striking out. I couldn’t get any traction, and I was starting to become really frustrated. This was the problem (I realized in hindsight): in all my failed attempts to write this story, my everyman, the person who accidentally gets themselves involved, was a good person. Which meant that logic dictated they would simply go straight to the police, identify the bad guy, save the good guy, story over. And that’s no fun.

The breakthrough for me on this story was when I realized that my hero couldn’t go to the police. That I would have to make that impossible. So I decided to make them a thief, on probation, and to have them in the midst of committing a crime when they discover the hitman and his intentions. Sometimes you get lucky and characters come fully-formed and ready to talk to you. Letty Dobesh, the anti-hero of “The Pain of Others” did not disappoint. She truly wrote herself.

4 - Plenty of novelists wouldn't touch short story writing with a ten-foot pole - it just doesn't pay: You'd have to write a hundred short stories to equal the money you could make with one novel. Do you expect that the ebook trade in short stories will make that format financially competitive with novels?

Well, I can tell you that what’s happening with ebooks has made short story writing profitable for me. I have nine stories up on Kindle, grouped together in three different collections. They’re more than paying my mortgage every month. What I fear is the future of magazines like EQMM and AHMM. They do pay well, they're amazing, and I hope they find a way to live forever. But it takes so long for stories to get to market (almost a year and a half from submitting this story to it showing up in the magazine). The question is, is it worth it to wait that long?

5 - You seem to have three different hats on as a writer - novels, short stories, and collaborations. Do you see your career this way? And what role do you have for your short stories - are they written when you get a specific story for them or do you try to put together short stories regularly?

That’s a good point, and definitely the track I’ve adopted. In terms of short fiction, I’ve gotten to the point where I will only write a story if the idea is so strong, so compact, and I’m dying to do it. I can’t force them. I look at them as gateways to my novels. And let’s be honest, they’re just a blast to write when the idea is there.

6 - I've noticed that you've got a lot of material up on Kindle and other ebook formats. I've cried for years over the fact that there are only two mystery magazines that pay professional rates - EQMM and AHMM, both very fine outlets. I'm wondering if you see a time pretty soon when writers will send stories out to those markets and if rejected head straight to Kindle and cut out fine ezines like PLOTS WITH GUNS which don't pay? Thoughts? Will ebooks be changing the way short stories get consumed or do you expect that high-quality, free material will always be out there?

As I alluded to above, I will not submit a short story to any magazine in the future unless I maintain my right to epublish right away. It doesn’t make financial sense to sit on great work for over a year and lose thousands of dollars. I love working with these magazine and the brilliant editors there, so I hope some common ground can be reached. In terms of non-paying magazine, it's even bleaker. However, I think it's important for writers to publish there, because it's great cred.

So there you have it. Help this man pay his mortgage and get creeped out:
Locked Doors
Perfect Little Town
Break You: A Novella of Terror

Title again...

Just one last check - anyone think I should follow up my first anthology Killing Ways: Stories with Killing Ways 2: Urban Stories? It makes a certain amount of sense. Then the third collection could be Killing Ways 3: Precinct Puerto Rico Stories and the last collection could be Killing Ways 4: Oddball Stories that don't fit anywhere else.... But then I'm worried that the sequels may not do as well as the first collection. That's 5 sales so far. You laugh, but I'll be laughing all the way to the bank with about $10.25 of royalties...

Should I fear the downward spiral? Or should I assume there's some sort of branding power to Killing Ways 2?

Borders yesterday

Well, it's official. My local Borders is about as dead as can be. I went to vulturize yesterday. The classical music section was pretty much empty. The children's books were just about gone - I helped to make them even more gone, buying up 5 hardcovers (Madeline, Thumbelina, The Snowy Day, among others).

If anyone wants to say that my daughter and I will simply browse through Amazon's children's book section online and that it will be the same thing simply doesn't know children. Or books. Or the online experience.

Of course, there was a time when only monks had access to books. Shakespeare died leaving 37 books in his possession. None of them were Caldecott Award winners. Or even nominees.

My daughter (2.4 years old) was having a fit last night. I think it started with a piece of lint... Though I didn't think any of the books I had bought her would be useful to her this year, I decided to sit with her and Madeline. She loved it. It was the experience with the book and her father. There were some lines she understood - the girls brush their teeth and go to sleep. There were lines she didn't have a clue about - the girls also "break bread." At the end, "there is no more", she asked for more. I wound up reading Madeline five times. On a loop, essentially.

Some things remain the same while others fade away.

Title Contest - I Win!

Creating titles is hard work. Frankly, I'd rather just write the stories. Still, I got a fair bit of input both here and emailed to me and after all was said and done (and because I don't want to hold up the release of this collection any further) I decided to stick with what I originally had - Stoop the Thief and The Temple of Doom...er, Stoop the Thief and Other Urban Heroes. It should be available for purchase in a few days.

Still, to show how it can be valuable to enter all online contests... One person who didn't change my mind about the title will be getting a copy of The Cloud Pavilion by Laura Joh Rowland anyway.

Then there's the next collection. I'm looking to put that together on my own. I think I've done a fair job of setting up the table of contents. But I'll need artwork. I'll need to figure out how to do cool things with artwork and then how to embed them into the file for uploading to Kindle. I'm running ahead of my own self-imposed schedule for the release of these stories, so I'm not too worried. Yet...

Manuel Ramos

So I'm happy with my Kindle success so far - Amazon now officially owes me money instead of the other way around - but I'm also thinking things like "Who else should really get in on this?" Well, everybody who writes for money, really. but I come up with a name that makes me think "Perfect!" Manuel Ramos.

Do you know Manuel Ramos? Good chance you don't but if you like mystery/crime stories, you really ought to get to know him. Lyrical, jazzy prose. That's what I think when I think of Ramos. And one of the great noir novels - Moony's Road to Hell. Just gut wrenching. The fact that the book is hard to find or out of print is pretty much criminal.
Try this novel: Blues for the Buffalo. Still in print.

You think I'm kidding when I say this guy needs to be read? Here's some stuff I grabbed off of Amazon:
From Publishers Weekly
Noir fans won't want to miss Moony's Road to Hell, by Denver attorney Manuel Ramos (Blues for the Buffalo and three other books in his Luis Montez series). The murder of an INS agent sends Denver PI Danny "Moony" Mora on a body-strewn quest that involves Mora's old enemy, lawyer Victor Delgado, and reaches back to the 1970s, when Chicano activism was at its peak.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
...brings to mind the big-screen crime stories of the '40s with...complicated heroes and sinister situations...defies easy comparisons. -- The Houston Chronicle, October 4, 2002

Like Chandler ... the structure ... is less a plot, and more a straight, inexorable march to ruin... Ramos pulls no punches. -- San Antonio Express-News, November 17, 2002

Ramos has skillfully built a theme of dramatic and disturbing betrayals...engaging, a page-turner...a skillfully crafted tale.... -- The Bloomsbury Review, May/June 2003

Ramos spins a...darker...more violent tale here than in his previous books; noir fans will revel in the journey. -- Southwest BookViews, Spring 2003

The book's strength lies in the carefully observed people who vividly live their lives in its pages. -- The Rocky Mountain News, September 6, 2002

I'm not just making this stuff up. Don't need to. His work speaks for itself. Anyway. There's someone you have to be able to get on Kindle.

Learn more about the man and his work here.

I haven't read his latest - King of the Chicanos - but I most certainly will.

Title Contest - Last Call

I really need a title for my next collection of short stories. Here's what I said earlier today:

It has a total of six stories (Revolver? Six-Shooters?) Two stories star Stupendous Jones (aka Stoop the Thief) a young boy who lives by his wits on the streets of NYC. Real heartbreakers, I think.

Two other stories are about Ray Cruz, a real tough guy, hired killer who has no qualms beating the living p**p out of you to get what he wants.

Another story is called "Elena Speaks of the City, Under Siege." Probably one of my best stories, it's about a young woman trying to keep it together in a Sarajevo-like environment. What is Sarajevo-like? It's a city under siege, of course.

And lastly, I have a story called "Early Fall." It's about a woman who tries to save a very young prostitute from her own addictions and the meanness of the streets. The woman has her own demons to wrestle with and the police are not too helpful either.

My first thought was something like Stoop the Thief and Other Urban Heroes but that somehow sounds a bit bland. Here are other attempts:

City without Mercy: Stories
Mercy Free Zone: Stories
Pitiless City

You see I'm no good at this. Stop me. Come up with a title I can use, and I'll send you a book.

The books I have on hand include signed hardcovers by SJ Rozan, Laura Joh Rowland, Alafair Burke, and if it's testaterone your crave, how about a Lee Child paperback?

Title Time, Redux

I really am straining for a title for my next Kindle collection. It has a total of six stories (Revolver? Six-Shooters?) Two stories star Stupendous Jones (aka Stoop the Thief) a young boy who lives by his wits on the streets of NYC. Real heartbreakers, I think.

Two other stories are about Ray Cruz, a real tough guy, hired killer who has no qualms beating the living p**p out of you to get what he wants.

Another story is called "Elena Speaks of the City, Under Siege." Probably one of my best stories, it's about a young woman trying to keep it together in a Sarajevo-like environment. What is Sarajevo-like? It's a city under siege, of course.

And lastly, I have a story called "Early Fall." It's about a woman who tries to save a very young prostitute from her own addictions and the meanness of the streets. The woman has her own demons to wrestle with and the police are not too helpful either.

My first thought was something like Stoop the Thief and Other Urban Heroes but that somehow sounds a bit bland. Here are other attempts:

City without Mercy: Stories
Mercy Free Zone: Stories
Pitiless City

You see I'm no good at this. Stop me. Come up with a title I can use, and I'll send you a book.

Title Time

Part of the fun/agony of producing the ebooks I've been working on is coming up with good titles. Perhaps I've acquired some stodggy habits being an English professor for so many years, I tend toward Blah, Blah, Blah, and Other Stories. See for instance, my Killing Ways: Stories. It does the basics - it tells you there's some killing, and it tells you it's not a novel but a collection instead. but it doesn't grab you like I'm Gonna Git You Sucka*.

I've got another collection coming up. Six stories. (Makes me consider something like Revolver, but it's not like a gun plays a part in every story, just 4 out of 6). I've described them before, so I'll do it again:

Two "Stoop the Thief" stories, one published in CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE years ago and the other published in an anthology from Bleak House called UNCAGE ME! The marvellous Jennifer Jordan accepted both stories for which I'm grateful. The second story was even nominated for a prize which was an honor. It also got me a very nice mention in Publisher's Weekly.

The next two stories would be Ray Cruz stories. Ray's a meanie. In any event, the first was also published in CRIMESPREE, the second came out in PLOTS WITH GUNS.

Then there'd be another CRIMESPREE selection: "Elena Speaks of the City, Under Siege." This one actually won a prize and it may well be the only second person story you'll ever love. Or read even. They're kind of rare.

And finally, a story that was published in BRONX NOIR from Akashic Books and edited by SJ ROZAN: "Early Fall." It's quite dark and based on a real person I knew. It's sort of a tribute to a real street battler who dedicated her life to helping prostitutes and addicts get off the junk and get clean.

The title I've got so far is Stoop the Thief and Other Urban Heroes Note the slight variation on the usual style. But since they're all urban stories, I'm wondering if something like "No Mercy Zone: City Stories" or "Killer City: Stories" Or "The Pitiless Street: Stories" Or...well, you see I'm no good at this. Help me out. Give me a title I can use, and if I use it, I'll send you a book. Not one of these fake electronic books either. A real book with a signature in it. Not my signature. Maybe It'll be Alafair Burke's signature. Or Laura Joh Rowland. Or Maybe SJ Rozan. Who knows? Talk to me.


* Taken.

Original to Kindle

Many will assume that work written for self-publishing is necessarily work that has been rejected by traditional publishers. Note the plural - a work rejected by everybody in traditional publishing is not likely to be of the highest quality, no? But that is not so. While some of the works being put out there are certainly the rejects of all the world, that isn't the case with everything. Maybe Joe Konrath started by putting out material that hadn't found a home, but now he's leading a trend to put out original material - other authors are following suit.

I've made some money from publishing short stories over the years - not enough to buy a house... Or even paint a house. But I've also given a lot of stories away to online magazines. Now, however, I'll be turning to Kindle with my new short stories. I'll even be coming to Kindle with brand new, never shopped around to the NY houses, novels this year if the good Lord gives me strength.

Profit is the motive - you can simply make more with Kindle than with most traditional publishing contracts. A $2.99 Kindle sale earns the author a 70% royalty - a little over two dollars. A $25.00 hardcover sale will often NOT get you as much even if you're selling at a 15% royalty. When the publisher drops the price for the big chain stores, your royalty rate takes a hit.

Later, in a year or two or three, I expect Amazon to lower their royalty rates. They'll get the position as the biggest seller of ebooks (they probably have that now, but the ebooks are still not a majority of book sales and things could crumble quickly if they don't attract original material from the best authors). Then, when it looks like authors have no choice in the matter, they'll gradually lower their rates. Of course, there will be options - there are already options. But it won't look like there are. Amazon will have the biggest platform the way it didn't look like there was a real alternative to NYC publishing house until very recently.

That's a post for another day. For now, I have almost eleven Kindle dollars burning a hole in my pocket...

Want to see my stories on Kindle? Try this one about the devil. Or maybe this novelette about Sheriff Gonzalo before he became sheriff. Or a whole collection.

Kindle Success, Part IV

I've now sold ten ebooks. That's about as many as my traditional publishers managed to sell since 2002. I don't think any of my books has sold the five copies I've done of KILLING WAYS: STORIES. No joking. I've got about $10.75 in royalties. So far I haven't spent any money, but I have relied on the kindness of tech-savvy friends (read Graham Powell).

I've figured out how to do enough html to have a working, clickable table of contents and that makes me pretty proud. Next comes embedding a jpeg and cover design so I can be self sufficient. There are several more story collections to come I told about one of them yesterday. There's an eclectic set and a 49,000 word set of PRECINCT PUERTO RICO stories. If you can't wait for the collection, buy the novelette - "The Valley of Angustias."

Next, I try to figure out how to promote my stories...

Another Kindle Collection...

I thought I'd announce what I'm planning as the next collection of stories I get onto the Kindle. I'm thinking of a group of six previously published stories that I might call something like Stoop the Thief and Other Urban Heroes.

The first two stories would be my two "Stoop the Thief" stories, one published in CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE years ago and the other published in an anthology from Bleak House called UNCAGE ME! The marvellous Jennifer Jordan accepted both stories for which I'm grateful. The second story was even nominated for a prize which was an honor. It also got me a very nice mention in Publisher's Weekly.

The next two stories would be Ray Cruz stories. Ray's a meanie. In any event, the first was also published in CRIMESPREE, the second came out in PLOTS WITH GUNS.

Then there'd be another CRIMESPREE selection: "Elena Speaks of the City, Under Siege." This one actually won a prize and it may well be the only second person story you'll ever love. Or read even. They're kind of rare.

And finally, a story that was published in BRONX NOIR from Akashic Books and edited by SJ ROZAN: "Early Fall." It's quite dark and based on a real person I knew. It's sort of a tribute to a real street battler who dedicated her life to helping prostitutes and addicts get off the junk and get clean.

I'll certainly report back when that collection's ready to go up.

Border's Closing

Apparently I am the cause of the destruction of the publishing world. My local Borders is shutting its doors. I went yesterday. Everything is at 20-40% off. There are signs saying that the fixtures are not for sale, but I assume they will be eventually. Quite sad. Not really my fault I think. They never carried my books or hosted an event with me though I did ask several times. Not that this would have saved them. But what if they had done more for the many Connecticut authors who would have been happy to have an event there? Maybe.

Ah well. Spilled milk, etc. I've heard that the rise of the ebook was blamed by the president of Borders, but since they sell ebooks, that can't be right. I buy a ton of books every year and most of my buying was at my local Borders. (No independents near me at all.) But Borders made book buying a lot more difficult than it had to be. For instance, I always found it very difficult to find out online if a book I wanted was at my particular store. Or request a book online for pickup at the store.

I had plans for that store. In a year or so, I'll begin helping my daughter start her book collection - Make Way for Ducklings, Where The Wild Things Are, and you know the others. It was going to be a weekly trip. Now I'll have to head to Barnes and Noble.

Get her a Kindle? No. I don't think I'll do that. Not just yet.

In other news...

I'm not all about the Kindle, and I'm not about Nook and other ebook type things at all. Not yet at least. I am writing other things with hopes beyond ebooks - traditional publication is still something I'm working toward though as difficult as it was to get one five-book-long series and a standalone published, I fear it will be harder to start another series.

Not that the writing of a series would be difficult. Selling it to a publisher might be the tricky part. I've had a half-dozen novels published the traditional way and that makes me a mid-list veteran. If sales had been rising all this time, you might say I was ready to break-out, but that hasn't been the case. Sales were all right for the first book and the second book met lowered expectations and others have hovered on that low plateau despite good reviews.

So the strategy is to change fields and names. I'm trying to sell an urban fantasy novel (I thought I'd join the crowd). It's a bit early in the selling process to say whether I'll meet with success, but if I do get a taker, I've promised to use a pen name. I've been trying to come up with a name that fits two criteria:

First, I'd like a last name that starts with A. When book stores have thoses shelves with new mysteries facing out, I'd like my books to be at eye-level.

Second, I'd like the name to retain some latino flavor though perhaps not as stridently Spanish as "Torres." Something a little easier on the English-speaker's tongue. Maybe something readily familiar to most American readers.

So far, I've got "Jessica Alba." Suggestions welcome.

The Kindle Plan

Okay, I have Kindle stories, but I don't have much of a plan for my Kindle career. Chances of becoming a Kindle millionaire, then, are therefore slim. But, I do have a general outline of what I'd like to accomplish, and here it is:

1 - Learn how to put stuff on Kindle properly - that is, when it is a multi-segment work like a short story collection, it should have a table of contents that allows readers to skip to the story they want. The ebooks should have decent covers especially when it's a collection or other full length book. I figure it will take me another month to learn how to do this on my own.

2 - Put all my short stories on the Kindle. This includes a total of about 30 stories, most of them previously published either for cash or FTL*. This is about 135,000 words in short stories in a total of six files - four collections and two single stories. Hopefully I can have this all up by the end of April, but I wouldn't be upset if it turned out to be the end of May.

3 - Get back the rights to THE CONCRETE MAZE from Dorchester and bring that to Kindle this Summer (or earlier, but Dorchester has heavy, dragging feet). It's my best book so far, and I'd like people to get a chance to read it.

4 - Finish a couple of original novels and bring them online in the second half of this year.

I figure that once I have all the short stories and a novel or two out there (mid-summer?) I can expect to see real money rolling in.

You'll notice that one item completely missing from my master-plan is advertising/marketing. I hate to admit it, but I really haven't given that much thought. Maybe I should refer to the Kindles in my signature line? Maybe I should tell people I know? I don't have a mailing list - always seemed rude to intrude emails into people's lives. But maybe I should start one. Somehow.
Any thoughts?



*FTL = For the love.

Whether I am single-handedly destroying the world...

Of publishing, that is. I posted yesterday about my so-far paltry ebook sales and got a fairly irate response in the comments. Now there is a lot wrong with the world of publishing, and I might be responsible for some small portion of it - for instance, if you don't like my books, I am truly sorry. But the reader who responded seemed to suggest that ebooks were ruining the publishing business including printers and bookstores. And the (now) $7.70 I'd made in the ebook trade* was a part of the ruining process.

Normally, I would want to argue that my small sum of cash (still technically in the negative numbers) are no threat to any publisher. Moreover, so far, I've only published or republished short stories and there's not a publisher in the world who would want a collection of my short stories or my take on what happens when the Devil makes you a deal or my novelette about the start of Sheriff Luis Gonzalo's very first case (even before he was sheriff). No book publisher was ever going to make a dime off my stories.

But I won't make these arguments. Instead, I'm trying to think of ways to use the one mildly negative comment as a marketing tool. Other than this blog post, nothing has yet come to mind. Any thoughts?




* minus $8 that Amazon will charge me for cutting me a check in six months when I hit $100...

More Kindling...

Now you can buy The Valley of Angustias, a novelette (12,500 words) about my sheriff's very first case - a series of unexplained beatings in the small town of Angustias in 1964. I wasn't actually alive in 1964, but I've read books and seen movies so I think I've achieved a fair facsimile.

In any event, it was first published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and was nominated for a Derringer Award by the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Two people have already bought the story and it hasn't been returned yet, so I'm thinking they're satisfied.

If you'd like something more substantial to read, may I interest you in a collection of ten stories I have out on the Kindle called Killing Ways: Stories? Only get this if you like hardboiled fare.

Kindle Success, Part III

Okay, so now I have a total of six sales with royalties adding up to about $7 if I do my math correctly. Each ebook - Killing Ways: Stories and The Devil's Snare: A Comedy - has sold three copies. Sounds like I've made some coin off of stories that hadn't earned me any money (though a few were published previously around the web on now defunct sites). But being an old fogey, I asked Amazon to send me a check instead of routing money straight to my bank so they won't send a thing until I've reached a hundred bucks and at this rate it'll be July when that happens. And they take an $8 processing fee so right now, I owe them a dollar...

Not to mention that two friends brought copies so real sales are less than they appear, but...

In the world of short story publication, any sale is a good thing.

And I've got plenty of other stories to put out there. And when they're all out there working for me instead of taking up desktop space, I might make $7 A DAY... nothing to sneeze at since that turns into $2555 a year. Given the fact that most of the two dozen short stories I've published over the years earned $0, $2500+ would definitely be welcome.

Plus, I'm working on bringing THE CONCRETE MAZE to Kindle.

We'll see.

Kindle Descriptions

I forgot that I was supposed to describe my Kindle projects here. Great marketing maven I am...

Here goes for a short story (4670 words) called "The Devil's Snare: A Comedy" :

While tempting 72 year old Edith Porter, the Devil gets a little more (or less) than he bargained for.

If I were to give the book a cover photo, it would be a bobble-head devil with its base in a twine noose. Can't find a booble-head devil.

Here goes for Killing Ways: Stories (about 41,000 words):

1 - The Most Dangerous Man in New York City: 1969-1977: Winter 1971 is the first Ray Cruz story, and it shows why Ray Cruz fits the description in the title. Ray takes on the Italian mob - all of it - and doesn't do too badly.

2 - Daughters is the second Ray Cruz story. In it, he gets out of jail and his old boss has some work for him. He's not too interested in returning to a life in crime, but then the man he's asked to take care of earns Ray's very violent hate.

3 - Family is my first flash fiction and it involves Viktor Petrenko, ex-Soviet special forces, current new York City tough guy in the rescue of a baby. Don't worry. The child will come out unharmed. Can't say the same for everybody else in the story.

4 – Viktor Petrenko, Bring Them to Their Knees Viktor is in South America when he’s offered a job he can’t refuse – rescuing a little girl kidnapped by a drug cartel. He’s equal to the task of killing, but can he save the girl?

5 – Viktor Petrenko, We Will Make You Beg shows Viktor in Rikers Island Prison in New York awaiting his trial for tax evasion. The prison toughs want to make him choose a side and New York detectives want him to start talking about a dismembered body they found, but all Viktor wants is to be left alone with his memories of the one love of his life - Elena.

6 – Viktor Petrenko, Have You No Mercy? Viktor is sentenced to prison for tax evasion, but a white collar crime puts him in among the country club set for the first time in his life. While the other prisoners hardly know what to make of him, Viktor spends his nights dreaming of the Balkan Wars – the first time he met the love of his life, Elena.

7 – Excerpt from Man of Disaster is a taste of a novel in progress that should be ready for the summer. In it, scientists on the run from paid assassins involve Viktor in their troubles, and when the love of his life, Elena is threatened, Viktor responds the only way he knows how – murderously.

8 – Into the Woods is the story of a man and his psychotic delusions – delusions that seem real to the people they disembowel…

9 – Long Distance is the story of a con man who claims that his non-speaking friend can retrieve the voices that have spoken on your phone lines even if the speaker is dead. One little old lady wants to hear the last word of her now departed husband, but the message he left may not be what she wanted to hear…

10 – Murder at DynaCorp is about the investigation of a death – the head of research firm DynaCorp was found in his office with his heart sitting on top of his chest, but with no incision on his body.

Some of these were published in Demolition Magazine run by Bryon Quertermous and one was published in Flashing in the Gutters. Excellent ezines that should have had much longer runs.

New Kindling

Ever since I started this Kindle venture people have been stopping me to ask "Hey, Torres, When are you going to put up a PRECINCT PUERTO RICO story?" Well, tomorrow you'll be able to buy the story that would have started it all if I had written it before the five novels. I speak of "The Valley of Angustias." This story is really a novelette* at 12,500 words, but it will only cost you 99 cents. The story's not live yet, but I'll be happy to post again when it is sizzling with electricity.

Will it break your heart? It might.



*Like towelette, but less damp.

Facebook?

I've tried figuring out ways to promote the fact that I've got stories available through Amazon's Kindle. I'll have more stories up soon. But how do I let people know? My blog doesn't get much activity. I read a series of emails today at a list-serv that suggested you had to use Myspace and Facebook. Most likely Twitter. I don't know if I can do this. After all, I suspect you need a little enthusiasm for these social networks, no? Certain amount of upkeep to stay current, no?

And what would I do once I was on Facebook? From what I understand, I would ask people to be my friend and then become friends with others and when they had birthdays, I'd send them messages. Where does the announcement of new titles come in? How is this marketing? I guess I'm afraid to say that I don't get how this would work. Enlightenment, please.

USA Today's list

Lee Goldberg has an interesting piece (as he often does) concerning USA Today's bestseller list which includes self-published ebooks for the first time. He quotes one author in saying that other lists like the NY Times will need to start including self-pubbed ebooks or wind up being seen as irrelevant. I see this as happening, but...

There is also the prediction that this will mean that the major newspapers will need to start reviewing these books. That may be overly optimistic. The trend has been to shrink review space in newspapers. And that hasn't really been affected by fluctuations in book sales (or ebook sales). For the near future, I suspect the ebooks that get reviewed by major newspapers will be by mainstream authors that decide to forego traditional publishing. For instance, I can see the NY Times reviewing a Joe Konrath novel or a Lee Goldberg if he puts out a new novel in Kindle form.

The article goes on to predict that Amanda Hocking will surpass the million mark in sales at Kindle. I can see the major papers having articles about that event and what it means for publishing in general.

Sadly, my recent releases KILLING WAYS and THE DEVIL'S SNARE: A COMEDY probably won't be reviewed in the Times. Their loss, really...

Kindle Success, part II

Checked my Kindle numbers this morning. I joked yesterday that I needed two more sales to get my first Kindle dollar. Well, color me rich, I made the two sales. By my calculation, Amazon owes me $1.04. Of course, I'm rounding up a bit, but still... It's a dollar I didn't have last week. I've jumped from #69,349 to #25,458 in the paid Kindle market.

If you want to contribute to the "Make Torres Rich Fund" buy a story here. Or you can get a real bargain and buy a whole collection of stories here.

More Kindle News

I put up a collection of my stories over at Amazon's Kindle store. I called it Killing Ways: Stories and it includes some Ray Cruz stories (He's a mean one from the South Bronx) and Viktor Petrenko (he's a mean one from the Soviet Union). I also included some syfy/fantasy type things. Ten stories total. I'll update tomorrow with a fuller description or you can check up on me at Amazon.

Kindle success...

Made my first sale. Now ranked #68,349 in paid kindle sales. Totally psyched. Two more sales and I earn a dollar...

I'll be putting up a new cover in a week or two, but I actually like the one that Amazon provided. I would show it, but I don't know how to capture images from Amazon and stuff them into blog posts.

They also put up the description I gave them a few days ago. A bit of a lackluster description: While tempting 72 year old Edith Porter, the Devil gets a little more (or less) than he bargained for. It is a comedy, so you don't want to give away any punchlines. What to do, what to do?

Kindle

I Kindle-ized a short story called "The Devil's Snare." As the New York Times said* "It's a comic masterpiece." I did this to make sure that I knew how to do it, not to earn millions.

In the next day or two, the story should become something that people can buy. Or maybe that's happened already. Not quite sure. Anyway...

In the next few days, I'll be putting forth a whole collection of stories. Now that's going to make me millions...



*About some other story, I'm sure.

Coming Back... The ebook edition

It's been a while since I've visited my own blog, but I find it's still here which is reassuring. Last year's launch of the fifth PRECINCT PUERTO RICO book was, I think, as close to a disaster as a book-launch can be. St Martin's Press somehow screwed up my author photo caption, their promotional material misspelled my protagonist's name, and the material that got posted at Amazon has nothing to do with the latest book. When I asked if any of this could be addressed, I was told they could change the Amazon stuff. Ten months later, nothing. But I'm not complaining... The check cleared.

I've got a book or two doing the rounds of New York publishers, but more immediately, I'm trying to get myself into the ebook world. I thought I'd start with collections of my short stories, and if that works, I'd put up novels as I get rights back from St Martins. I'm also in the process of finishing Viktor Petrenko novel that I think has almost no chance of selling to a major firm. Not that the novel doesn't deserve publishing. It's good stuff if I do say so myself (and I do). But my sales have otherwise been lackluster regardless of quality and why would a publisher take a chance?

But how do you get people to buy an ebook when you haven't been able to get them to buy the print edition?
Still, I've been encouraged to enter the world of Kindle by Blake Crouch and assisted by Graham Powell. We'll see what they think once they've actually seen the stories...

Soon, I'll update my website, too. Haven't been there since 2007...