My books are taking off!!

Maybe it was because of Christmas and a lot of people bought my books as gifts. But, the vast majority of sales has been ebooks. Early in December I figured that sales of Fallen Palm and Fallen Hunter would be about the same as November and the first week it was. But, when Fallen Hunter launched in the second week of December, both books really took off. Here it is, the last day of the year, and sales of my books for the month of December are nearly 10 times Novembers sales.

How did I do it? I really don't know. I did join one of those auto tweet things and created a few book ads to go out on my twitter feed, but at the time I only had about 100 followers. Now I'm over 1100 followers and I'm still using the auto tweet thing. Could it really be that simple?

At any rate, I'm working on the third book in the Jesse McDermitt series and it's proving to be quite challenging. The first two books dealt with fighting terrorism, but this one will be about the brave men and women who fought it and as a result are now dealing with their own form of terror at home, PTSD. Furthermore, this book will partly be about a subject that's mostly unheard of in civilian circles and taboo in military circles. That being Military Veterans who left the service under "other than honorable" conditions. Yes, dishonorably discharged.

To that end, I've decided that half the proceeds of this book, Fallen Pride, will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. This non-profit organization has made a huge difference in the lives of our returning Warriors who have suffered debilitating injuries on the battlefield. From helping them to find jobs, to providing a vehicle modified for the disabled, even to providing home improvements or in some cases, a brand new home, for those Veterans with special needs.

Fallen Palm Cover.

When someone says "Don't judge a book by it's cover", there's more to it than that. Usually, this term is used to convey that a person is actually much different than they look. As a biker, I know this to be 100% true. Some of the biggest, most giving hearts I know are clad in leather, chains and beards.

It can also be taken literally. When I fist published Fallen Palm, I used a cover design and picture provided by CreateSpace. Initially, I thought it looked pretty good. Then a friend, who is a professional photographer and graphics designer, took a picture and created the cover for Fallen Hunter, for me.

I then realized the simple cover for Fallen Palm didn't convey the beauty of the Florida Keys, nor did it convey the fact that the book was an action novel. So, I went back to work, taking pointers and cues from my friend's design and created a new cover for Fallen Palm. Many of my friends said to leave it as it was, that changing it was something that writers didn't do. So, I did a little research and found that many of my favorite writers and books had changed covers.

The final result easily conveyed both the beauty of the group of islands at the southern tip of Florida and the fact that this was an action novel.

The result of the change? A more than a 300% increase in book sales over the previous month. In this case, you truly can judge the book by it's cover.

Signed Copies Available.

For a limited time only, I'm taking orders through my website for signed copies of my books, Fallen Palm and Fallen Hunter. I say signed, instead of autographed, because I'm nowhere near worthy of autographing anything. I earn my living driving a big rig and my hobby is writing.

However, many friends have asked me to sign copies for them and even a few people I don't know. Apparently, there's a group of readers that collect such things. Who knew?

Anyway, I've priced my books cheaper than what you'd pay on Amazon for them, but my shipping costs are higher. Amazon gets a much better shipping rate, due to their volume. With my lower book price, I'm within pennies of the total. But, I have to charge a little more for signed copies, to cover having books shipped to me, then me shipping them to you.

If you'd like to order my books directly from me and save a nickle or two, or order signed copies for a few dollars more, go to my website and you'll find paypal links to do just that. Right now, that's the only payment I accept, but hope to be able to process credit card payments in the near future.

www.waynestinnett.com

Fallen Hunter is Now Available.

   Fallen Hunter, the exciting sequel to Fallen Palm, is now available at Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats.
   It continues the story of Jesse McDermitt about four months after the end of Fallen Palm. Jesse is called upon by a friend to help her father, Carl Trent, who has been coerced into running drugs into Key West aboard his shrimp trawler.
   He's also called upon by his friend Deuce to ferry two of Deuce's anti-terrorist team into Cuba, to gather intelligence on a Hezbollah camp that's planning to attack innocent civilians at the annual Carnaval celebration in Little Havana. In a coincidental turn of events, the Cuban who Trent is smuggling the drugs for is also the person supplying arms to the terrorist camp.
   Once again, fast boats abound, along with some great underwater scenery, before the guns come out and all hell breaks loose from Key West, to Cozumel, Mexico, to the western tip of Cuba.

Free Kindle Download on 12/17.

Fallen Palm will be a free download on Amazon for Kindle users all day on 12/17. It's the exciting first book in the Jesse McDermitt series set in the Florida Keys. The giveaway coincides with the release of the sequel, Fallen Hunter, on 12/18. Click here: Fallen Palm on Amazon.

Four Days to Launch.

In a little over four days, Fallen Hunter is due to launch and I still haven't finished the final edit. I stayed up late last night and got the front and back cover complete, though.

Now I'm sitting in my favorite recliner with the proofed manuscript and am ready. I was planning to go into work this morning, I've been assigned a new truck at my day job and need to move all my gear into it. But, the forecast is for rain all day.

So I'll sit here and go through the manuscript and see what my proof reader has wrought. She's a retired English teacher and truly brutal with the red pen, never missing a thing. If any of my writer friends need a good proof reader, she might be available and I highly recommend her.

Okay, enough dodging the inevitable. Time to get to work.

Most Recent Review of Fallen Palm on Amazon.

By Clear Creek Press

I write Caribbean novels for a living, so I know the good from the bad, and Wayne Stinnett is an author to watch. He writes with authority, and a clean, pure understanding of South Florida that even seasoned writers would envy. Stinnett allows you to taste and feel each situation and this debut of enticing characters and dicey situations makes for great reading. Congratulations Wayne. You're on your way!

Michael Reisig -- author of "The Road To Key West" and "Back On The Road To Key West"

Release of Fallen Hunter is 6 days away.

With less than six days until the debut of Fallen Hunter, the second book in the Jesse McDermitt series, I'm getting anxious. I'm a new author and when I published the first book, Fallen Palm,I didn't really have any idea what would happen. At best, I figured I'd buy a few copies to give to friends and family and with any luck, I might actually sell a few.

That was two months ago. Currently, Fallen Palm sits just inside the top 1000 in the action/adventure genre and just inside 50,000 overall, on Amazon's best seller list. With millions of books in print, needless to say I'm very happy with that. I've given away hundreds of copies in both paperback and Kindle format and have actually sold over 200 copies.

I'm really humbled that people would actually part with their hard earned money to read my book. I'm hoping that with the release of Fallen Hunter, more people will want to read both.

Wayne

Book Trailer.

A friend put this together for me. Thanks Charlie.

Signed Copies Available for a Short Time ONLY!!

After a lot of thought, I've decided to offer signed copies for sale on my website. It'll be problematic for anyone that knows me personally. I still work a regular job. Well, not really regular. I'm an over the road truck driver and sometimes I don't get home for several weeks. That'll make it difficult to personalize a signed copy and get it shipped right away.

To that end, I decided to experiment with it and just see how it goes, since I know that I'll be staying closer to home until after the first of the year. If anyone would like a signed copy of my books, just go to my website and click on the appropriate Paypal button.

Fallen Hunter Cover Reveal.

I asked a photographer friend, Tim Ebaugh of Melbourne, Florida if he could take a low light image of Orion setting over water for me. He not only nailed the image, but created the perfect cover for me. I'm really impressed with his skills.

Release Date for Fallen Hunter Set

Fallen Hunter will be available on Amazon, in both paperback and Kindle, on December 18, 2013. The cover is finished, proof reading is complete and it's currently undergoing editing and polishing.

Fallen Hunter is the sequel to Fallen Palm and picks up four months after it. This book will take Jesse to Key West, Cuba and Cozumel, Mexico. In typical fashion, his boat Gaspar's Revenge features prominently, along with several other fast moving, wave crashing, boat chases.

This book delves deeper (pardon the pun) into another of Jesse's passions, scuba diving. Vivid descriptions of the underwater reefs of the Florida Keys and Cozumel will make you feel like you're actually there. I worked as a divemaster in both locales and the dive sites that Jesse and his friends dive on are places I've visited many times.

Mark your calendar. It will be available for purchase on Amazon and my website by noon on the18th. Buy both books, they'll make great stocking stuffers for the action/adventure reader in your family.

As always, if you buy the paperback you can download the Kindle version for free and if you buy the Kindle version, you can share it with your friends and family for free.

New Cover for Fallen Palm

I spent several hours designing my own cover for Fallen Palm. It was tedious work, especially getting the background around the two rifle rounds that replace the two L's in Fallen. I think it looks a lot nicer and the addition of the two rifle rounds gives it more of an action/adventure feel.

The End.

Fallen Hunter, the 300 page sequel to Fallen Palm, is complete. Well, nearly so. I typed those last two words last night, leaving a cliff hanger I hope my readers will enjoy until the next book comes out in the spring. The first 14 chapters have been edited and I sent the last 4 chapters to the editor last night. She should have them back in a week to ten days. So, I'm looking at a publication date a few days before Christmas. The two book set would make a great stocking stuffer.

How do you kill a woman?

Nearing the end of Fallen Hunter. I'm writing the last chapter now and there's just one loose end to wrap up. I've been thinking about how it should be accomplished and I keep coming up empty. The trouble is, I'm a moral man. The idea of the hero killing a woman is a foreign concept. But it must be done, she's not a good person. I'm thinking it'll be in self defense when she comes after him, but how? A gun? A knife? Those have been done to death, pardon the pun.

I know I don't have many readers on this blog right now. So here's your chance to contribute.

How should Jesse arrange for the female Cuban terrorist/assassin to meet her end?