Free tomorrow too on Amazon as an ebook. It has 4.5 stars out of 12 reviews but could use some more feedback...

Here is the link: http://amzn.to/t462bT

My cult thriller, The Prophet Motive, was my first attempt at fiction writing; but, after having written my second novel, I went back and revised it and turned it into an ebook. It's doing fairly well based on the Amazon reviewers, and it just won a Red Adept Reviews Indie Award for Thrillers/Suspense, 2011.

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Well my co-written thriller, Frame-Up, has now been rejected by most of the relevant imprints in New York after about a year of submissions. (That keeps us in good company, though. All of New York passed on John Grisham's The Firm the first time around as well as countless other novels that later enjoyed success.) We've now self-published the book:

 

http://amzn.to/t462bT

 

For those authors who haven't experienced…

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And I still feel obscure ...

Yep, there just might be something to this Kindle thingie.

Scottish author and literary agent Allan Guthrie has started a new blog advertising popular ebooks. (One of my books is featured there currently.) Here's the link:

 

http://ebooks-that-sell.blogspot.com/

There's a popular book blog called Red Adept Reviews (the name is in honor of author Piers Anthony) that focuses on self-published or "indie" books (though not exclusively). It started up in late 2009 and this year for the first time the site owner gave out annual awards in various book categories. I'm proud to report that my novel, Crack-Up, won first place in the mystery category from over 200 reviewed books in that category. Here's the link to the site's homepage:

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We've all had books repped by Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. Continue

You might get run over. The Kindle version of my psychological thriller, Crack-Up, has been on sale for a while now at just 99 cents, but now Amazon has decided on its own to discount it further to 79 cents, and that little discount more than doubled sales today. Who'd of thunk? Continue

Six months ago I self-published my thriller, "Crack-Up," on Kindle and--with virtually no efforts at marketing and not a penny spent--passed 1,000 in units sold yesterday. At my price point of $1.99 the book is consistently in the top five or ten in rank among all independently published novels in the mystery/suspense category.



So the experiment is a success in my eyes. It's been fun to track the sales and to hear from readers through reviews.



Oh, and I was recently… Continue

Just got back last night from a vacation in California, the last half of it in San Francisco. While my wife attended an academic conference, I made a four or five block pilgrimage to the corner of Post and Hyde streets to view the apartment where Dashiell Hammett lived from 1926 to 1929, where he wrote most of his short stories and his first three novels, the last being one of my very best favorites, The Maltese Falcon. (He lived in the top floor corner unit in the photo… Continue

Well after the recent discussion here on Kindle publishing, I decided to stick one of my novels up there, even though I don't own the device.



It's a thriller and it got me my first agent but never sold to a major house, though it came close in a couple places. I've made one sale in the first days it's been available, first time I've ever been paid for my work.



(Weird feeling!) Below is the pitch and the link ...



Argus Ward is a former U.S. Secret Service… Continue

A tad bittersweet coming in second though...



Just found out that "Frame-Up," my recently completed crime thriller co-written with Brad Schoenfeld took first runner up in a well-known British-based competition for unpublished writers in all genres.



The contest is run by a site called YouWriteOn, or YWO for short, which is sponsored by the British Arts Council. It's at http://www.youwriteon.com/



One gets nominated by one's peers at the site (and there must be a… Continue

Hey I've decided my new WIP is going to be a Gothic thriller that takes place in a spooky mansion during the course of one night. I'm trying to get more familiar with the sub-genre. I've been turned on to Britain's Patrick McGrath but can you recommend any other writers working in this area?



Just for kicks, here's the (very short) prologue. See if it catches your interest ...



I, Miles Trenowyth, write down this record at the goading of Dr. Horace James, practitioner in… Continue

This is the second time in a week I've run across a quote from uber-agent Esther Newberg in some article on the current state of publishing that suggests it's a bad time for writers (and presumably others) to be breaking into the business: “It is seriously going to be a time for known commodities ... I would hate to be starting out in the business.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/books/26rich.html?_r=1&ref=arts



Sounds a bit self-serving to me. Guess who primarily… Continue

I've had a request for the novelist-related quotes I collect from authors and sometimes artists. So here they are below. I've got 68 now, which I've been collecting off and on for the last few years, grouped into a few topic areas. A close reading will reveal that some of the quotes contradict, while some reinforce others. Hope you find something useful ...

ON DEDICATION…

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