Award-winning ‘Kathi Humphries Design & New Media’ has agreed to design the final book cover.

For a very long time I’ve wanted to write a novel that focuses on New Orleans – the home of my teen-age years. New Orleans is where I discovered Tarot Cards, tealeaves, and held my Quinceanera (although I am French-Canadian and Scot, not Latin – I still got the party!) The swirl of French, Latin, and Caribbean cultures made my five-year Big Easy Experience ‘lifetime memorable’.

One day last year, well before NaNoWriMo 2012 took place, I was listening to an NPR program about New Orleans’ Voodoo Queen, Maria Laveau. The program caught my attention because of the Voodoo Queen’s connection to my hometown of New Orleans. Images of the filigreed French Quarter, Black Magic and Voodoo, a grab for wealth, and the vagaries of the Catholic Church began to swirl in my mind, and ‘Losing Sight: New Orleans in The Voodoo Era’ took shape. By November 2012 it was in the cards that I devote myself to a NaNoWriMo novel that combined the rich colors, and magical essence, of The Big Easy.

I have just completed the first re-write of ‘Losing Sight: New Orleans in The Voodoo Era’. Before its ‘Day of the Dead’ release it’s going to take two more re-writes and an editor’s assistance to get this dizzying Mardi Gras carnival of a story through its exciting paces. Readers will visualize, in story form, the deep purple and vibrant green, the strands of gold, and strings of pearls that symbolize my New Orleans hometown.

WANT A GLIMPSE into how the novel begins? I hope so! Here is the first rough-cut of 1,500 words of ‘Losing Sight: New Orleans in The Voodoo Era’

* * *

Chapter One:
1853 ~ New Orleans’ Garden District

It all occurred in the Garden District of New Orleans – where beautiful estates hide in the shade of tree-lined boulevards. The year was 1853, when family secrets were guarded vigilantly – some even from beyond the grave.

Dusky light streamed into the bedroom of young heiress, Victoria Calais. The pinkish effect cast the room in that late afternoon hue that foreshadows an evening storm. Flying toward the Crescent City was the kind of disturbance that causes shutters to bang against the houses and the shadows of gnarled oaks to bob and weave across expansive lawns. The squall would cause lightning bolts to dance along darkened carriage lanes, like skeletons frolicking at the undertaker’s ball.

Victoria was seated in front of the mirror – unable to make out her own reflection. Her fingertips, like the feelers of an ant, followed along the edges of each item that was laid out on the embroidered runner that decorated her vanity. The debutante straightened each article. The brush was lined up with the comb, and the comb lined up with the curling iron. She ran the palm of her hand over each colorful cosmetic jar. The jar lids were decorated with a different textured bauble or jewel – either pearls, or sequins, or precious stones.

From memory Victoria tapped her fingernails on the glass container of carmine – to her left. Next, the texture of seed pearls greeted her fingertips. To the right of the carmine sat a tin of charcoal, to darken her brunette lashes. Sequins decorated that container – easily distinguishable. A square-cut amber adorned the dainty container of beeswax. A place for everything and everything in its place, that is the only way it can be – from now on.

A gentle breeze rustled through Victoria’s bedroom reminding her that she was not alone. She craned her neck. “Hello?”

No answer. The budding ingénue shook her head, and her lustrous brunette curls bounced slightly. Am I mistaken? (She was prone to second-guessing herself.) My instincts need to be honed even more. This calling out, like an insecure child must stop soon, she admonished herself. Whoever is there will not answer, and I cannot expect Grandmother to be beside me every moment of the day.

As her room continued to cool off with the approaching evening, the wind rustled the palm fronds outside her open bedroom window. The fragrance of gardenias wafted up from the estate’s gardens as the curtains billowed and curled in the gentle breeze.

Victoria reached across her vanity and touched the cool surface of the mirror. “Dear God, I am indeed going blind. I stare into a milky abyss that spreads further across my field of vision with each passing day. For all intents and purposes I am blind right now.” She traced the outline of her own face – from memory.

A tear rolled slowly down Victoria’s cheek. Dr. Faust’s diagnosis, delivered the previous week, had been devastating. Hysterical blindness was his prognosis.

“There’s nothing I can do. A psychologist would be better suited for what Victoria is going through,” he stated brusquely to Victoria’s grandmother, Madame Calais, as he snapped the clasp on his medical bag.

The diagnosis did not sit well with Madame Calais, if her outburst was any indication. “You fool! That’s ridiculous! She’s not hysterical. Look at her! If anything she’s depressed.”
Victoria’s cheeks grew hot knowing that she was being scrutinized as though she were a laboratory specimen.

Well, whatever the cause of Victoria’s blindness – whether from disease, or a psychological cause – the effect was the same. Two months ago, quite suddenly, and just days after Yellow Fever took the lives of her sister and parents – Victoria began losing her sight.

Putting the doctor’s distressing words out of her mind for a few moments, the young woman pushed back her wicker stool and stood up. She placed her tortoise shell comb back on the embroidered runner. Poised and balanced, with the back of her knees pressing against the little stool, she lined up her feet – a dainty stance. Squaring her shoulders, Victoria moved forward with the practiced intention of crossing her room from the vanity to the bed. She had done it hundreds of times over the past months. She was careful – with just a touch of apprehension. An opaque void stretched out in front of her. Right foot first, then left foot; counting the steps aloud she proceeded.

There! The folds of Victoria’s skirt brushed the coverlet. Victoria moved around the edge of the bed to the right. At the headboard she folded down her blankets and plumped the pillow, sweeping her hand underneath. There it is, exactly where it should be. She wound her late mother’s rosary around her fingers, clutching it for dear life.

Everything must be in order. Everything must be in order. Another mantra, repeated. The wardrobe cabinet was in the exact location as when her grandmother occupied the same Calais Estate bedroom decades earlier. Massive, and twenty steps away, it stood at the other end of the expansive room – which up until recently had been shared by two.

Victoria repeated the step-cadence that took her from her vanity to her bed and crossed from the bed to the wardrobe. One. . . two. . . three. She walked forward, steadying herself and concentrating on her stride. The tip of her right toe struck the wardrobe. She reached out for the two ornate handles of the cabinet and placed her fingertips on each, swinging the doors open wide, imagining the contents. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes – remembering. The sweet sachet of roses and tea greeted her. It overwhelmed her.

Running her hands over her dresses she recalled which ones were light-colored, and which ones were made of lace. She touched the covered buttons and the finished seams. She moved from one sachet-filled hanger to the next, left to right, until she came to her mourning gowns – all three of them – hanging at the back of the wardrobe had once belonged to her sister, Evangeline. Victoria moved the hangers, spacing the long heavy dresses uniformly across the hanging bar. The wardrobe contained so many more dresses before Evangeline’s death. Rich textures, heavy fabrics, all carrying the fragrance of rose petals. Tears welled up, collecting in Victoria’s eyelashes. Her mouth watered, and her throat felt as though it was closing. Her nose stung in her attempt to gulp back the tears.

She remembered what life had been like during the past few months. She was haunted by her sister’s plaintive whisper, “Who else will the Yellow Fever strike?” It was the question that loomed in the mind of every New Orleans resident – whether estate owner, shop keeper, or slave. Day after day the air vibrated with the peal of church bells. You will be next was Fate’s refrain. And within days her mother, her sister, and her father were dead, victims of the Fever.

Victoria stood on her tiptoes and felt along the top shelf of the wardrobe until her fingertips located Evangeline’s doll. It had been years – when they were both much younger – since they had played with the doll. Victoria’s sense of longing washed over her as she pulled the porcelain-faced fashion figure toward her. As she tugged at its skirt, the fashion doll fell over with a loud thunk, its porcelain head hitting the mahogany plank of the shelf.

Her cat cried out, startled. “Meow!”

“Oh, Bon-Bon! Did I frighten you, Mon petite Cher?”

“Meow!”

Victoria turned toward the plaintive cry just as the black and white cat bounded down from the bed and pranced across the richly woven carpet toward her. The little bell on Bon-Bon’s collar foretold her whereabouts.

The young mistress felt the weight of the feline rubbing up against her boots, entwining itself in a serpentine pattern at her feet. The cat purred loudly, a soothing, low rumble.

“Oh, my dear, don’t fret. Let’s put Evangeline’s doll on my bed, shall we? Then we will have something that reminds us of the happy times when even sisterly squabbles were better than the heavy curtain of our current day-in, day-out, silence. Bon-Bon, can you guide me back to my bed?”

Victoria heard the little bell fastened to the cat’s collar as it scampered back over to the bed.

“Who understands what has gone on in this room better than you, my attentive little sentry.”

Victoria retraced her steps, her left arm wrapped around the doll, her right arm stretched out into the unknown.

“Are you there, Bon-Bon?”

A repetitious mew guided her back toward the bed one carefully retraced step at a time.

Quite suddenly Victoria stumbled forward. It was an unexpected lurch into the cavernous uncertainty that was her new world. Victoria clawed the air as she went down, drawing the porcelain-faced doll closer. A tangled-skirt tumble would easily shatter the doll’s face into a thousand pieces. Victoria caught her awkward fall with her left hand, and cried out in pain as she landed. Her petticoats formed a billowy cloud of netting and lace; she untangled her gazelle-like legs and sat upright.

Bang! The doors of the wardrobe crashed shut. The wardrobe was once again closed off from Victoria.

“Hello! Answer me this time! Is someone there?”

An eerie, unsettling silence was the reply, as a chill crept across the room.

* * *

To stay up with my progress, I invite you to follow me on my Facebook page or Tweet me @13GhostTales

David Mamet has discovered Self-Publishing, and according to The New York Times THAT is the way he will publish his upcoming title. With long-time [marketing/promotion] partner ICM Partners he will publish a set of short stories on the topic of war.

New York Times: “The announcement by ICM and Mr. Mamet suggests that self-publishing will begin to widen its net and become attractive also to more established authors. For one thing, as traditional publishers have cut back on marketing, this route allows well-known figures like Mr. Mamet to look after their own publicity.”

Let’s drop back and make one thing clear: Self-Publishing does not equate [anymore] with Amateur Publishing. If you think you’ll make lots of money selling homemade book covers to your Tribe; and/or correcting grammatical errors as they are pointed out in reviews (ala Angela White) then, Good. On. You.

But with David Mamet entering the Self-Publishing game, and last year’s announcement that Jacqueline Susann is looking toward Self-Publishing – joining cross-over authors like Amanda Hocking, Boyd Morrison, and God knows hundreds of others (follow the trades, people!) the landscape for making money as an emerging author looks a whole lot different going into Spring 2013.

Celebrity Authors are discovering that Self-Publishing is a DIRECT hands-on method of stepping in FRONT of the royalty pay-out line – something that Indies have known for years. And with each Celebrity Author who announces that they are forsaking their long-time publisher for a direct royalty pay-out, an author joins the Self-Publishing ranks who is accustomed to quality product, high-end marketing, and celebrity level tribal sales. Again, that’s: Quality Product. High-end Marketing. Celebrity Level Sales.

So, now with Mamet on the Self-Publishing side of the fence any IndieAuthor who publishes screenplays has much steeper competition. With Jacqueline Susann now publishing her backlist of old material, erotic chick lit authors will need to watch their backs – fans will fly to grab material they – heretofore – were unable to load onto their Kindles and Nooks. And, when the first Celebrity Author publishes a set of horror stories, I will be the one quaking in my boots. My own tribe of 3,000 might say “Hi!” to me on Facebook during the holidays, but if Stephen King jumps the Self-Publishing fence it’s ‘Boo . . . Hoo’ for me.

What’s an IndieAuthor who Self-Publishes supposed to do? (A) Decide if it’s worth their time to turn a part-time avocation into a full-time passion. Because, it takes a Herculean effort to do the following: (B) Grow your Tribe of followers (Mike Wells has 25,000 Facebook friends – over-reach, or smart?); (C) Realize that the emphasis in Self-Publishing is SELF – don’t use Author Solutions, Lulu, or a similar contract-publisher and delude yourself that you are cutting in line; (D) Understand the role of ‘Publisher’ – the author role and publisher role are different. As the Publisher you MANAGE the contracts and contacts of editors, graphic artists, and marketing experts that get your book to market – you lose a WHOLE LOT of money asking LuLu to do it for you. (E) Price Point: The Tipping Point will be Price Point. My sister NEVER pays for eBooks – the market is deluged with dummmies who think being an author is giving away your work – forever, no boundaries. Their Mamet-styled screen plays and short stories will be grabbed in a match-made-in-heaven manner. But will Mamet’s higher than $4.99 price take him out of the market? (F) Know how to bring your books to market:

On Marketing: This past year I have seen the Tweets of TradPub mid-list authors that read, “I am Tweeting at the suggestion of my Publisher to let you know that I have a new book out [URL follows]”. Oy Vey! iiiiYiYi! I know that David Mamet’s book (and Jacqueline Susann’s books) will be slick, well-designed, and grammatically correct – but after the Splash! – can our Celebrity Authors put the muster on MARKETING? Cha-Ching – it’s gonna cost ‘em. I’m on the sidelines – watching the sport – and will let you know how everyone’s doing.

There are thousands of blogs on any given element of Indie-publishing — from choosing the best editor, to selecting which publishing vendor (Nook, Kindle, iBooks/iTunes) and pointing your marketing efforts.

When I begin working with clients who are just starting the journey from writer to IndieAuthor I share with them illustrations of (1) the manuscript-to-book process and (2) the marketing process.

I am sharing these two illustrations in my blog today.

I will be writing about these two processes over Spring and Summer 2013 (kind of a course-on-line with a ‘big picture’ perspective). My clients, and the Subscribers to my ‘Members Only’ page, will be receiving ‘Let’s Take It one-Step-at-a-Time’ coaching.

So! Whether you are dropping by for some quick tips, or joining my list of high-performing clients, hang on for news and views of the publishing world and how to make writing and publishing efficient, easy, and lucrative.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

I will be on holiday – and not available to eMail or webNews – from 21 February to 10 April 2013.

See you all as soon as I get back to work mid-April!

~*~ Want YOUR message to be waiting for me upon my return to Seattle?
~*~ eMail me! info[at]avHarrison-Publishing[dot]com

~*~ COMMENTS are ‘Open’ again ~*~ Thanks to aKismet for clearing out my WordPress Spam!
~*~ FOLLOW! See the Orange Square that looks like a Summer CreamScicle – Click it …and Follow!

Ghost Stories and The Unexplained ~ Bundled on Nook & Kindle

Link:
Ghost Stories and The Unexplained: Book One and Book Two

I signed up for a workshop a couple of months ago, the purpose of which was to introduce new packaging and promotion ideas to authors.  The workshop facilitator, whose own book is a play on the slogan, All Roads Lead to Rome, was pointing out the fact that most on-line eBook vendors run a banner on an author’s product page that features either (1) books by that same author, or (2) SAME-genre books/eBooks by other authors.

The objective of this workshop facilitator was to show us how ‘All Roads’ can Lead to YOUR Books!

There are a couple of approaches that will ensure that your second – or third – book shows up in a ticker-tape banner on the product page of your FIRST book.  It begins with writing a SECOND book – or third.

Dean Wesley Smith (DWS) is a master of papering the prairie with his product.  In his blog he advances the notion of writing 15,000 – 25,000 word eBooks in a quick-to-market approach.  He never leaves his readers pacing on the sidelines waiting while he muses over wordsmithing.  PoP! PoP! PoP! His new books pop up every three months or so.  With 90 eBooks in his arsenal, a reader goes to one DWS book and an array of titles.  Moving along the other approaches include:  Second, stay in your original genre.  Third, stay with a similar package. Fourth, bundle your products.

Let’s look at each of these approaches now that we have ‘write your second book’ under our belt.  Why would you want to stay in your original genre?  Because of the Silo Effect of Book Marketing (I just made that term up.) There are millions of readers.  You will not be able to get the attention of ALL of them.  What you WILL be able to do is to interest a slender silo of readers who have a particular fantasy-world that needs to be populated – with characters from YOUR books.  Moving to a fresh genre is not too different from moving to a new town.  Think about it.

Third, stay with a similar package:  “They” say that readers spend nine seconds – at the most – glancing at an author’s cover design, synopsis, and pricing before they click to the next book, leaving passed-over eBooks in the dust.  Once a reader has purchased one of your books (and liked it) they are more apt to LOOK for a second book that you’ve written – packaging.  In this approach, think of Dean Koontz.  His books are designed almost identically to each other.  His named is oh, so! . . .prominent.  The shading and color scheme of each book is similar. Not convinced?  Ask Proctor and Gamble how important packaging is.

Fourth approach:  Bundling.  Readers are hot! hot! hot! for serials this season and of course my ghost stories series is perfect for bundling into a series, particularly Ghost Stories and The Unexplained: Book One, and Book Two.  But also think of Mike Wells, and a myriad of other serialized-writers.  Wells serialized ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘Lust, Money, Murder’ and because his books are well-written (think Oxford) – readers grab at anything he writes.  In serialized eBooks, readers have the option of purchasing one eBook at a time for $2.99, or two eBooks for $3.99.  By bundling you offer your readers one more option – which is friendly, because the bundled pricing gives your fans more ‘read’ for their money, if done correctly.  And, your bundled books dance across the bottom of a Product Page in front of similar titles by other authors.

How easy is bundling?

(1) In PowerPoint (ppt) insert the front cover of EACH of your books-to-be-bundled so that BOTH books show on the same slide; (2) Save that ppt to a jPeg that is approx.1450 in width (ratio 2:3).  Your new book cover is done!

(3) Pop open the Word.doc of Book One.  Pop open the Word.doc of Book Two.  (4) Combine the two books in a cut-and-paste (of course you delete all the ‘front matter’ in Book Two.  (5) Reformat your TOC so that Book One – with its Chapter Names, and Book Two – with its Chapter Names are formatted uniformly with a live-link to (at least) Book One and Book Two.

Five Steps!  That’s it!  Now you have THREE roads leading to TWO books. You can see how I have implemented these steps at the top of this blog.

Now, this all assumes you have two similar eBooks whose bundling makes sense to your readers. Time to start writing that companion book?

The discovery of a trove of Civil War letters has opened the door to an adaptation of my debut novel, Jenkins: Confederate Blockade Runner. Retitled, the work-in-original form is available as ‘The Jenkins of Baltimore‘. It is available on Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the Kindle, and through the distributor, Smashwords.

I suppose I’m just not done with the story of the Jenkins’ family – and obviously the story is not done with me. Last summer I was contacted by researcher and historian, Douglas Parsons, whose ancestral uncle, Major John Parsons of Florida had fought Union forces alongside Colonel C.T. Jenkins, the protagonist of my debut novel.

Parsons, a New Hampshire resident, had discovered the collection of Civil War correspondence, which is now catalogued in the Special Collections of University of New Hampshire.

A Letter within a Letter

Among the letters Parsons turned over to the University of New Hampshire was one written by his ancestral aunts, the Decatur sisters, and mentions in length correspondence written by “Mrs. L.C. Jenkins” of Bay Port, Florida.

Curious about Mrs. L.C. Jenkins, who couriered information from Florida to New York during the last days of the Civil War, Douglas Parsons set out to discover her identity. To my delight he came across my novel about C.T. Jenkins, the prodigal son of the Baltimore Jenkins family, and husband of Mrs. L.C. Jenkins. Mr. Parsons contacted me immediately.

Parsons’ revelation of an 1865 letter received by Abby Decatur from her sister, Anna Decatur regarding the disposition of a third sister, Susan Decatur Parsons, is the first direct link to the ingénue wife of C.T. Jenkins that I have discovered in my fifteen year research project of Baltimore’s Jenkins family.

My novel, in its original format, gives readers a perspective of the looming war from a Southerner’s perspective, which I believe will be helpful for young readers interested in how The South felt about Lincoln’s policies and states’ rights issues.

Based on a true story Jenkins: Confederate Blockade Runner features a young woman from Fair Haven, Vermont, Eliza Colburn, who vacations in Florida in 1858 and makes the acquaintance of Colonel C. T. Jenkins. Colonel Jenkins, the product of a prosperous Baltimore family, has made his home in Florida, far from northern winters. A marriage of convenience between the Baltimorean and the ingénue is arranged by Miss Colburn’s strong-willed mother. Just as the couple settles down to pineapple farming on the Homosassa River, Lincoln is elected President. Florida secedes from the Union; thus challenging Colonel Jenkins to choose between loyalty to the newly formed Confederacy and concentrating on his December-May marriage. Colonel Jenkins chooses the Confederate Cause as his first calling and participates in getting Confederate goods and supplies through the Union’s blockade of the Southern States. His decision sets a precarious course for his Vermont-reared wife life after his capture by Lincoln’s forces

The 1865 correspondence discovered by Douglas Parsons contains an inset letter from Mrs. L.C. (Eliza) Jenkins in which she describes an ocean voyage from Bay Port, Florida to New York she takes with her Mother and two small children in the waning days of the Civil War. The implied purpose of her trip is to convince her husband to sign the Oath of Allegiance that will secure his release from Fort Warren Prison, Boston, Massachusetts.

When I wrote the original ending to Jenkins: Confederate Blockade Runner it was without the benefit of the rich paper trail that C.T. Jenkins had left historians explaining his life leading up to his capture.

In my years of research on the Jenkins family of Baltimore I never was able to find personal reference to the events of Col. Jenkins’ life leading up to his capture in 1863 and his autumnal trip in 1893 to Baltimore, other than land sale papers. He wrote many light-hearted letters to the Baltimore Sun in the 1890s, but never mentioned his Civil War prison experience, or the circumstances of his release. And, I certainly was never able to locate documents penned from a Jenkins-woman’s perspective regarding the Civil War years in Florida.

The discovery of the correspondence from Mrs. L.C. (Eliza) Jenkins that is transcribed into the April 1865 letter between the Decatur sisters sheds light on the influence and resources of Civil War era women; to wit:

March-April 1865

From: Lucy Colburn Jenkins
Fair Haven, Vermont

Miss Decatur
New York City, New York

My Dear Miss Decatur

When I parted from your sister (Susan’s) company last,
I promised, if possible, to call on you when we arrived in New York
Or; if I could not see you, to write to you at my earliest convenience.

We left Bay Port Feb 4th and after a detention of five
weeks on the way and a wearing experience of perplexity & sea
sickness we arrived at New York on the 21st of March as I had
with me my Mother and my two little children, Annie and John.
I found it impossible to make my visits in New York and took the
earliest train for Fray on our way to Vermont.

I regret very much I did not see you both. Mrs. Parsons account
and my own and should have written to you some days since
but have been prevented by illness.

I found it very hard to part with Mrs. Parsons as I have become
most warmly and gratefully attached to both the Major and herself.
My thoughts go after them very frequently with a longing anxiety to
know how they are situated, and how they are in these days so
fraught with sorrow to our southern Land. . .(the letter goes on for five pages.)

I feel that to do justice to the Jenkins family I must now adapt Jenkins: Confederate Blockade Runner to reflect the discoveries contained in the 1865 letters that mentions the Jenkins’ family. In my original novel Mrs. L.C. (Eliza) Jenkins is left in Florida to fend for herself and her two children. And, in the fictionalized version, Col. Jenkins secures his own release and makes his way to a Jenkins family benefactor in Baltimore before returning to his wife and children who wait for him in Florida.

I’m setting aside other projects through Spring to complete the re-edit and adaptation of my debut novel. The new work will be titled The Jenkins of Baltimore. An updated book cover for The Jenkins of Baltimore (out now) reflects a more feminine style in keeping with my readership and the direction of this fresh project.

I hope that you will check this space again to read about my research and progress on The Jenkins of Baltimore.

First of all I would like to begin my 2012 wrap-up with a Thank You to the team of talented, dedicated people who brought this little Edmonds-based company to the international stage this year. In 2011 I assisted with the publication of twenty-two books. I took in a lot less projects in 2012 so that I could focus on (a) solving the mystery of what it takes to make a Best Seller; (b) expanding our book distribution into global markets; and (c) exploring the marketability of translated editions. We – meaning Kathi Humphries, Catherine Bedeski, Gretchen Houser, and I –accomplished all of these major publishing and distribution goals. . . and so much more!

First a salute to the books, which reflect the 2012 line from A.V. Harrison Publishing:

How Dachshunds Came To Be by Kizzie Jones
The Ghost Chaser’s Daughter by Emily Hill
Le Histories de Fantomes translated to French by Catherine Bedeski

A.V. Harrison Publishing also assisted in development of the following titles:
Hammy by Kiraya Kestin
General Hooker’s Gal by Cathy Logan

and provided marketing coaching for Maiden’s Veil by Lisa Consantino

I have always been a proponent of community involvement and was flattered when Janette Turner, a force to be reckoned with here in Edmonds, invited me to become a charter member of The EPIC Group Executive Board. As in-house publishing coach, workshop facilitator, and treasurer of this dynamic group, 2013 promises to be a very busy year for those months I am in residence.

Although each of my seven main titles have been commercially successful I believe that my storytelling ability should improve, improve, improve over the years. This past year I took a more studied approach toward what I read and also attended workshops that target writing skill. Attending WOTS [Edmonds’ ‘Write On The Sound] Conference has become an annual social and writing event for me and my beloved Perrinville Ladies Writing Group. We five ladies of Perrinville added to our skill level by attending the Whidbey Island writer’s conference this past summer – and I took the opportunity to flirt wildly with keynote speaker, Barry Eisler. Err. . .he might not have noticed, being the cool collected guy that he is.

Kim Votry, a colleague publishing coach, and Charter Secretary of The EPIC Group, inspired me to my most ambitious endeavor this year: Participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Big vow: I will never, ever do THAT again, so thank goodness I made it through the gauntlet to produce my upcoming title, “Losing Sight: New Orleans in The Voodoo Era”. Of the over 300,000 (global) writers who registered to pursue the goal of writing a novel of 50,000 words, or more, nine to fourteen per cent of them finish. I am very proud to be able to affix the ‘2012 Winner!’ decal on what I plan will be a very intriguing, and mysterious, book about the history of my home town – New Orleans. “Losing Sight: New Orleans in The Voodoo Era” mixes dark mansions, Catholic rituals, and scandalous priests with a pinch of voodoo brought to the readers in the personae of Marie Leveau. I’m excited to get the feedback of my Perrinville Ladies as I work through the plot twists and poltergeist sightings of “Losing Sight” this year. Look for a Halloween 2013 release on this title.

I was very pleased to receive invitations to appear in eight interviews, and pre-recorded TV and Podcast shows including
• Dan O’Brien’s radio show;
• Jason Matthews Google+ live-recorded ‘Indie Authors’ show;
• Shelly Wade’s “Thursday Paranormal” radio broadcast;

Print interviews and coverage of my activities were featured, generously by:
• Emlyn Chand of Novel Publicity,
• Kristi McLaren, and
• My Edmonds News, publisher Teresa Whipple.

Of course, I also wrote my own news posts! The 2012 new release roster of A.V. Harrison Publishing received 15,429 hits over the past year. The hottest news releases from A.V. Harrison Publishing were those involving – you guessed it – ghost sightings and the eerie history of cemeteries in Seattle.

Everyone I come into contact with knows that I am a social media addict. Seriously addicted! Over the past year I tripled my Facebook and Twitter-reach to 600 and over 3,000 respectively. (Remember that it was just two years ago that I was limiting my Facebook roster to thirty close-and-personal local friends – not included The Maestro). All that has certainly changed! I am happy to be trading Facebook posts with friends from France, England, India, Canada, and beyond.

But what did all of this effort net, as far as readership? By the end of 2012 my total book sales, for nine titles, passed the ten thousand mark! Yes, in the past three years I have sold exactly 10,146 books and eBooks. The numbers – by title breakout – are interesting in that the numbers (once again) substantiate industry trends. Of the 3,341 books I sold this year only fifteen of those were paperback sales; the balance of my royalty payments came from over 3,300 eBook sales.

Hidden in these statistics is the fact that one little edition, “Ghost Stories and The Unexplained: Book One” enjoyed Kindle Top Ten ranking between November 2011 and September 2012. The success of this one little eBook allowed me to enjoy a spot in the top twenty per cent of Amazon authors for eleven exhilarating months! It WAS hard work – and just like my NaNoWriMo win, it may never happen again – but I am very proud of the achievement.

I don’t want to paint a ridiculously rosy picture of my 2012 progress, however. There was one huge, over-arching disappointment in 2012 and it came from an entity that I falsely hoped would partner in my success – Amazon. For the past three years I have coached my clients from the perspective of ‘an Amazon author’. In October those of you who follow my monthly blogs knew that Amazon stumbled through a series of “technical glitches” [Bezos explanation] that took thousands of micro-publishers out of business, myself included. Beset by problems with non-functioning buy-now buttons, frozen sales screens, latency on royalty reporting, non-functioning kdp Select features, Amazon realized itself as a lumbering, clumsy gorilla wreaking havoc on vendors and indieAuthors. Amazon’s impotent response to frustrated indieAuthors was the impetus for my developing an off-campus website that aggregates Amazon’s many Operations stumbles. Taking the name from Amazon’s 2009 stupid-moves I coined my website “KindleGate.webstarts.com” and began collecting news regarding the many ‘technical glitches’ that Jeff Bezos promised to reporter Amy Martinez could become SOP for Amazon as he fast-grows his global empire. On my site KindleGate.webstarts I track Amazon’s shut down (through technical glitches. . . Opps!) of Netflix, Kickstarter, and kdp Amazon – and their now-famous passive aggressive posture toward the governments of the UK and India. Between 12 November and 12 December KindleGate.webstarts logged in more than one-hundred hits a day, slowing while I was on vacation in Mexico, and picking up again as I took up the charge for linking to the ‘Amazon Glitches Shut Down Netflix’ story in The Washington Post. One of my most notable followers of KindleGate.webstarts was Alan Kipust, VP of Amazon Operations. A public shout-out to Alan for taking an interest in what this mid-list-at-best author is up to, “Thanks, Alan, for stopping by!”

No longer the little darlin’ in my book – I am expanding my publishing prowess beyond Amazon to include geekishly-attractive Smashwords (currently the number one upload choice for my clients); and of course to the myriad of other ePub opportunities that are developing weekly. I heard that Amazon controls 45% of the ePub market – that leaves 55% to discover – and I’m ALL about discovery!

Finally, in 2012 I had the opportunity to travel to the Transylvania region of Europe. I have seen the castle that brought fame to the Dracula Family. I celebrated Halloween 2012 by writing a series of European folklore, released in paperback under the title, “The Ghost Chaser’s Daughter”. Which, after all, is who I am!

Watch for progress notes on “Losing Sight: New Orleans in The Voodoo Era” at my Facebook page

2013 edition of ‘Self-Publishing for Smart Cookies’ available on…SMASHWORDS!

Anyone who witnessed my angst over the no-apology technical glitches that Amazon stumbled through in Q4 2012 knew that the winds of change would blow through A.V. Harrison Publishing the nano-second I had an opportunity to flee the monstrosity that kdp Select Amazon has become. When recently interviewed by The Seattle Times (Amazon hometown newspaper) Jeff Bezos proclaimed to reporter Amy Martinez that the “technical glitches” (Bezos term for sector shutdowns at Amazon Q4 2013) would probably continue as Amazon expanded its global reach. With that degree of confidence in f*cking up his “partners” [Kickstarter, Netflix, IndieAuthors], I decided that I needed a more reliable eBook vendor than Jeff Bezos (and his Operations VP, Alan Kipust**) – so I’ve turned to Smashwords for expansion of my global eBook distribution in 2013!

Smashwords is the Pioneer of the eBook sales platforms. If you’re a museum curator for the eBook industry I go into a formal and professional history of ‘Smash’ in my ‘Self-Publishing for Smart Cookies‘.

Established by Mark Coker in about 2007, Smashwords and its reformatting machine, affectionately coined ‘Meat Grinder, ;D has churned out billions and billions of eBooks (I’m joking on the numbers here). My take on it is that Smashwords started out as a grunge pub. I stumbled upon it in 2009 and considered it an ‘alternative’ site with a heavy listing of hard-core erotica titles, and titles that were not well edited.

Smashwords fans did not seem to mind interpreting the intentions of Smashwords authors. And, authors seemed to only have to adhere to Mark Coker’s strict formatting guide* which remains the ‘Rule of the Day’ for Smashwords uploads. Especially Rule 22B!​ ‘Formatting over Content’ resulted in Smashwords being coined ‘the sludge pile’ by industry watchers.

All that has changed! Coker has moved Smashwords to a glittery, classy Uptown operation! First he took most of the hardcore ‘blue’ out of his eBook inventory when his ‘pay-out’ partner, PayPal, balked at Smashwords hard-core erotica offerings.

Then, more importantly, Coker snatched the Apple distribution ‘license’, leaving Jeff Bezos in the dust and making Smashwords the Total Go-To! eBook upload alternative, and gateway to international sales:

Smashwords is now a distributor now for these platforms:

Smashwords Premium Catalogue
Kobo
Sony
iBooks

It’s the fact that Smashwords was awarded the distribution license for Apple iBooks that should grab YOUR attention.

Note: My kdp Amazon sales dropped 66% from September to November 2012 even though my marketing efforts continued full steam. In December I dropped that effort, as I watched my sales screens sputter through freezes, slow payments, and the like. I now have five of my titles on Smashwords, and they are outselling my Amazon inventory, which I am not currently promoting.

I have moved all of my titles out of Amazon’s kdp Select program and feel exhilarating independence. I now choose to sell directly from my website, on Nook, Kobo, iTunes – and over the next few weeks I will show YOU how to do the same.
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** I run the website ‘KindleGate.webstarts‘ which aggregates Amazon’s many ‘technical glitches’. The website has a subscribers page ($2.99 price tag) for those who want ‘insider-information’ on formatting tips and publishing assistance. Imagine my surprise when Alan Kipust, VP Operations ~ Amazon, put down HIS $2.99, came onto my coaching site – looked around, took note – and then GRABBED his $2.99 back in a refund request – AFTER viewing the proprietary information. The insecurity over what a 3,500 sales/annually author could be saying is laughable. But, that is what kind of slimeball Operations Amazon is running now. You can understand why I would want to have alternative distribution options, yes?

2013 edition of ‘Self-Publishing for Smart Cookies’ available on…SMASHWORDS!

Jeff Bezos (Amazon innovator) has Sweetened, for the second time in recent weeks, the pot of money available to authors who sign an exclusive agreement to sell their ebooks ONLY through his eCommerce store front.

I’m kind of a cause-and-effect gal, so let me entertain you with the causality, and effect, of his move to offer authors additional money over the standard $700,000 fund, for signing an exclusive with kdp Amazon.

First, a quick refresher on what (some of) the terms are for IndieAuthors who sign up to get what amounts to $1.71 for each ‘borrow’ of their eBooks. (I say ‘IndieAuthors’ because no Big Six, or Medium Six is foolish enough to sign up for an exclusive with Bezos!)

Terms:

1. You must not share an excerpt of said signed eBook on ANY other website – not on Goodreads, not on BookBuzzr, not on your OWN website. Even Tweeting salacious sentences of your signed eBook can be seen as an infraction of the terms of agreement. The Amazon Bot is watching you more closely than the Government in Orwell’s 1984 [BTW – there’s some irony to this, for trivia and publishing-history buffs look up "Amazon" and "Orwell" "2009".)

2. Authors signing up for kdp Amazon Select have a 3-month lock-in period.

Yadda, Yadda, let’s go over just these two terms for brevity.

An infraction of Term 1 can result in Amazon dismantling and discarding your WHOLE Amazon eBook Library – eBooks signed, eBooks NOT signed – no income possible there from the largest eBook distributor. Can you hold to this Exclusivity term? It’s not that easy to tout your new eBook on blog tours, etc. without an excerpt! Think about it. Imagine the mechanics of rolling out an eBook without promotional snippets, and passages of the ‘…And then…" sections. No! No!

Term No. 2 is what F**ked up most IndieAuthors in Q4 2012. And I do not use that bomb loosely. But say that one of Jeff Bezos famous ‘Technical Glitches" hits your author’s account. Like, maybe you’re selling an eBook about Medieval England – your eBook is a little hotcake over in the British Isles but your UK Sales Reporting Board suddenly disappears! It takes you a few days to realize that you are not selling in the UK, you submit a maintenance ticket, it takes another two days for the Tech Minions to tell you that it will take another 3 days to just LOOK at your problem. Maybe two weeks, or maybe three weeks later you are up and running and once again your UK sales are reporting. Well, you’ve just lost three or more weeks of income, and three or more weeks of platform building. Your auto-tweets, your FB posts, your news releases have all pointed toward a book that is not registering any sales. No! No!

Simply: There is NO reason why a Mega-Mogul would entice new Contract Serfs more money unless his kdp Amazon Select library was decimated by the departure of the last Contracted Serfs.

Think about it. The pot for hand-cuffing one’s self to the kdp Amazon Select program has been $600,000 to $700,000 each month. WHY the seemingly generous increase of $700,000 Bonus $1.5 million GLOBAL BONUS if your colleague authors were filling the ranks of a fairyland-wonderful eStore?

Then remember the fate of Pinocchio as he was being tantalized away from his rightful path toward a Land of sweets and carnivals. Sweets and Carnivals is NOT the way it turned out – is it?

Read MORE on this Topic at KindleGate.webstarts.com

Dear Mr. Bezos,

Well, on occasion the Mountain travels to Mohammed. As a publishing coach and micro-publisher who has enthusiastically steered hundreds of workshop attendees and clients to Amazon CreateSpace and kdp Amazon, this is one of those occasions.

I travel to Mohammed to say that I am woefully disheartened and disappointed over recent ‘Glitches’ and ‘technical problems’ [your terms] that Amazon has experienced that has affected the bottom line of many small businesses.

These ‘Glitches’ over the past two months include (a) the disappearance of ‘Buy Now’ from Amazon Product Pages, (b) the sales reporting screens freeze on thousands of authors pages the first of September; (c) September Monthly reports, which are contracted to reach authors by 15 September not being available until 17 September EOB (d) the UK sales column disappearing entirely from thousands of author screens; (e) the crash last week of the Kickstarter platform, which Amazon supports; (f) the technical problems that – this morning – prevented ‘Free Day’ books to not switch to gift-mode. The background of these problems are more fully discussed on http://kindlegate.webstarts.com/about.html of which I am the administrator.

These are significant issues that would concern any participant in a business relationship; especially when they add up. And when I read through the contract I entered into with Amazon, I understood that I had certain obligations – and that you had certain obligations. In extending Amazon’s contract to authors you explicitly extended a offer that I/we could trust your ability to perform in a top drawer fashion in America’s Top 100.

Now I understand, from headlines in The Seattle Times, that your business relationship problems spill to Amazon vendors and sellers; and (from other sources) even to the UK, Germany, and India governments. This is distressing.

And distressing also has been the experience of watching one IndieAuthor after another find their way to the kdp Community Board deluding themselves that is where answers to their lost business lay. With a thirty year in news media and community relations I can tell you I’ve never been associated with a business entity that would wait until 43,000 complaint-hits were lodged before responding to the chorus of disenfranchised. But, that is what Amazon did. Waited.

I’m going presume that your didn’t originally set out to generate the bad will that you now garner with your seeming “Screw You” attitude toward Amazon micro-authors; Amazon vendors and sellers; the Better Business Bureau; and the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, and India.

Only a foolish business-person would not pull their business investment away from you, once their trust is compromised. And your silence – whether based on shyness or haughtiness – does not serve you well at this point. I plugged into the kdp Amazon complaint board when it had 22,000 hits and authors were clamoring for an explanation of plummeting sales contrasted to soaring analytics on social media and marketing platforms.

The proof of Amazon’s effectiveness in handling its business relationships is in the pudding. Explanations – delivered late and falling short – have not quelled Sunday headlines, tech news gloom forecasting, or a shrinking-partners base.

In short, you’ve fallen short of a clean business relationship – with me – and with thousands of others. I am disappointed in you for that. Only ‘The Future’ knows what is in store for Amazon (next earnings quarter, and beyond) my prognostication would fall quite short – I’m sure.

You could have done better in handling your woes – of that too, I am sure.

Emily Hill