Story Telling

A long time ago, don't ask me how long, I'm not an anthropologist, some hairy ancestor of ours grunted. His buddy or mate heard him and was curious. Soon they were both grunting. In time, certain grunts had certain meanings, known only to others in that clan. A spoken language was developed and mankind evolved.

Shortly after, again don't ask me how long, could have been two weeks or ten thousand years, but in terms of evolution, it was shortly after, some caveman heard a wolf howling in the moonlight and he tried to imitate it. Another heard him and being curious critters, he tried it too. Soon, they developed a range of howls and learned the next clan's spoken language, applying words to their howling. Singing was developed and mankind evolved.

You know the drill, the following weekend? Okay, maybe a few months go by, then some simian ancestor, gnawing on a fire-cooked deer leg, dropped the bone on a skin that was stretched out to dry. The bone bounced off the deer skin and made a deep, resonant sound. Curious, the hairy, grunting beast picked up his bone, brushed the dirt off, and chewed the last bit of flesh off the animals knee-bone. Then he tapped the bone against the stretched skin. He smiled, and began making thunder noises in the primordial jungle. His mate came out of the cave, curious about the coming storm and saw her mate beating his bone on the skin. She picked up a dried, discarded gourd and started tapping it with a stick, making a high, hollow sound. A percussion section was developed and mankind evolved.

Fast forward a bunch of years. I don't know, you guess. The talking and singing clans meet the percussion clan and beat on skins, gourds, logs, and rocks, singing to the moon. Across the valley, another clan hears the sound. This group is still grunting and dragging their mates around by the hair. One accidentally plucks at a tasty morsel, crawling in his mate's hair, and the plucked hair rang. Later, he used a bow and stretched many hairs on it. He listened to the other clans across the valley at night, softly plucking at his bow strings, trying to mimic the strange words he heard. A string section was developed and mankind evolved.

Then once a year, at the annual harvest, or whatever these grunting, beating, plucking, and singing clans did, they got together for a big concert in the forest. The singing people developed their voices and sang in harmony. The percussion section dried different skins and stretched them over hollowed out logs. The string section tried all kinds of dried animal parts and stretched them across planks they fashioned with rudimentary tools and hollowed them out to get a distinct sound. They played Otis Redding, and Jimi Hendrix. They played Bill Monroe and Bob Marley. A band was developed and mankind evolved. Okay, so maybe they didn't know about Otis's work yet.

The talking clan, whose only development to the betterment of mankind was teaching the howlers to use their words, felt left out. They could communicate ideas and teach the howlers, beaters, and pluckers the words, but they still felt left out at the yearly shin-dig. So, they started making up stories. They told stories about the trees, and the earth, and the sky, and the stars in the sky. They told stories of great feats that the gods in the sky accomplished. Soon, the howlers, beaters, and pluckers wanted to hear the stores more and more. Every year at the big gathering, the storytellers started off the concert, with a story of sorrow, happiness, beaches, and rum. The many bands within the several clans loved the stories and used them in song. The storyteller developed and mankind evolved.

Soon, there was a divergence, a parting of the ways. Some went on to tell wonderful stories of great length. People learned the stories and acted them out on stages and in arenas. But, when other storytellers tried to retell the story they'd heard, they got parts wrong. This wouldn't do, so the storytellers developed marks on tree bark, using charred wood from a dead fire. The marks became more intricate and soon a written language was developed and mankind evolved.

The howlers, beaters, and pluckers also needed a way to record their sounds for posterity. They watched the storytellers from the shadows and learned their way of making marks on bark to mean this and that. They went back to their fires and did the same with sound, matching certain marks with certain sounds, so everyone's sound would work with everyone else's sound. They went on to write great masterpieces of music. Written music developed and mankind evolved.

If y'all are still reading this, you're probably wondering why, after more than a year without a blog post, is this raving novelist writing about cave people grunting in the jungle. Well, in my humble opinion, the two clans haven't evolved so far apart that the bridge can't be gapped. The long-winded story teller can find a counter-part in the micro-stories of the song-writer. And the song-writer might find an audience through literature.

Song-writers have been putting the written story to music for a long, long time. No, I don't know how long; I told you I'm not an anthropologist. I'm a storyteller. I'm not a writer, though. I have no training in the art. But, I like to tell stories. And I like listening to music. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I like good music.

Over the years, my musical taste has gone from the classic honky-tonk country music of the fifties and sixties, to rock & roll, to jazz and blues, to reggae. Then a long time ago; this one I know, it was 1973, I discovered Jimmy Buffett, a storyteller who can tell a whole story in three and a half minutes. He's been followed by dozens of talented trop-rock musicians and song-writers, telling their stories through their music, singing of the sea, the beach, the islands, the boats, and the girls.

My friend, Eric Stone is among them. Eric is an amazing musician and songwriter, but more important his reptile brain is that of the grunter, the communicator, the storyteller. Eric has a bunch of original music on a bunch of CDs. Don't ask me how many, I'm not a music producer, but a whole bunch. And I have them all. Great stories, wonderful humor, and a light island beat.

Anyway, what all this rambling is getting to is that Eric is going to appear in my upcoming novel, Rising Fury, the 12th story in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series, due to be released right around Christmas. He'll be playing himself, playing his music at the Rusty Anchor Bar & Grill. If you've read my stories you know where that is. "Anywhere you want it to be." Eric has a strong connection to the Rusty Anchor and Marathon. He used to own Dockside, on Boot Key Harbor. Yeah, that place is real. I hope one day to make the Rusty Anchor a reality.

Not only that, Eric is going into the studio on December 18th to record what I hope will be his next big hit, The Rusty Anchor Bar & Grill. Yeah, a trop-rock song, about a fictitious trop-rock bar, straight out of my trop-fiction.

That's right folks, after billions of years of de-evolution, Eric and I are bringing the grunters, howlers, beaters, and pluckers back together again. Watch for it on my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/WayneStinnettAuthor.

And mankind evolved.

To get a taste of Eric's music, visit his website, www.islanderic.com

You'll also hear his music on Pyrate Radio, streaming at www.pyrateradio.com

Also, watch my Facebook page for an upcoming contest to win a new Kindle!

Fallen Hero has been released!

This release went a lot smoother than usual. I guess after thirteen launches, I must be getting something right. Actually, I remembered those previous launches and how stressful they were, so I set a schedule of things to do, allowing plenty of time for overages. Still, I keep waiting for a boot to drop. The manuscript breezed through beta reading, editing, proofreading, and formatting way ahead of schedule. Eleven full days ahead, in fact. The link to Fallen Hero is down on the right.

In terms of the number of books sold, the release was second only to Fallen Angel, last spring. This was due to it being released at half price, instead of the usual $.99. The difference in launch day sales was only about 10%. It also didn't debut as high as Angel, showing up in the Amazon ranks at #119 on launch day and slipping down into the 400s now, nearly three days later.

I expect it to hold steady in the 400-600 ranks for a couple more days. Then the BookBub New Release Alert will go out to nearly 2200 followers there. A few days after that, the Amazon alerts will start going out. I anticipate a climb up to about the #200 rank then, and hold there for quite a while.

I think that simply making that schedule and sticking to it, had a lot to do with the lower stress level this time. When I posted the schedule on Facebook, I still had 30,000 words to write and I set a daily writing goal to meet it. I went over that goal every day and it was a good thing, because the book ended up being almost 20,000 words longer than planned.

Fallen Out is only $.99! Book 1 of 10 in the series.

In anticipation of the release of the tenth novel in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series next month, the first book, Fallen Out, is discounted to only $.99 until November 23rd. the regular priceis  $2.99. If that's not enough, if you own the Kindle version, you can buy the $19.95 audiobook for only $1.99 on Amazon.

Fallen Hero is scheduled for release on December 15th and it's sure to debut in the Amazon Bestseller ranks at better than #100. I've had dozens of reader reviews saying they were so sucked into the stories, they've read all nine novels in the series in a week. So, you have plenty of time before Fallen Hero is published. But, why wait?

The End is Near

Just a few minutes ago, I finished the rewrite of the fourth draft of Ruthless Charity after editing and just sent it to my final proofreader. While it's being proofread, I'll set things up on Kindle Direct Publishing and Create Space, in preparation for publication in ebook and paperback formats.

My final proofreader will only be a day or two on it. After a dozen beta readers and a full round of editing, it's a super clean manuscript. Once she's finished, the final draft will go to my formatter. While it's being formatted, I'll send the manuscript to my narrator for audiobook recording, write the blurb and set up the email announcement.

The ebook should be published on the 13th or 14th and I'll claim the rights on ACX, to set things up for audio production. The paperback will follow a day later. The audiobook will be recorded and uploaded to ACX within a couple of days. ACX takes about five days to release.

I started writing this 65,000 word novel in mid-March, while finishing my last novel, Fallen Angel. Angel published in late April and I turned my full attention to Ruthless Charity. For about a week. While writing at least 1000 words a day in Ruthless Charity, every weekday, I slowly started developing the idea and the first couple of chapters of Fallen Hero. I just can't seem to write one book at a time anymore.

So far, Ruthless Charity hasn't been all that expensive. Rights to the cover photo was $25 and it didn't need any tweaking at all. Cover graphics brought the total cover cost up to $100. This is about normal for my covers. Beta reading will be the cost of buying and shipping a dozen paperbacks, about $100. Editing and proofreading will wind up at around $1200 and formatting will add perhaps another $400. Audiobook narration will be about $1600.

All told, about six months of my time in writing, though many of those days were little or no actual writing, and $3400 in production costs will have gone into Ruthless Charity, to get it to market. While that might seem like a huge sum to writers just starting their careers, this is my eleventh full length novel and I have built up a pretty large fan base of eager readers, and their numbers are growing every day. I predict that Ruthless Charity will be in the black, so far as production costs, before the audiobook is released, a week after the ebook is published. The book should earn about three times the production cost in the first four weeks.

All these steps are crucial. And as I outline in Blue Collar to No Collar, I don't expect, nor do I recommend, that a new author go to such expense to get their first, or even second and third, book to market. All these things I once did myself. This isn't a sprint. It's a long series of marathons.

Take your time. Create attainable goals and make a plan to achieve those goals. Put small milestones in your plan. Mastering each step will motivate you to work harder.

Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can. You need only to find your voice, locate your audience, make them happy, and work your ass off.

Finding Time to Write

Between careers, kids, spouses, and other responsibilities, many writers find it difficult to carve out time to write. Then there are interruptions. Just when you're getting into your groove, little Billy's diaper needs changing, or the wife reminds you that the grass needs to be mowed and it's getting dark.

So how do you find quality time to let your creative side run free without interruptions. Being a full time writer, it's not quite so hard for me. I usually listen to trop-rock music when I'm just catching up on email, networking, researching, and such. But when I'm writing, I prefer soft jazz. The door to my office is always open, but my family knows that if soft jazz is playing, any interruption should be preceded with a shout of "Fire!"

Recently, a friend came up with a solution outside the box. Alison Ryan is her pen name. She has a husband and four young boys, so interruptions are part and parcel to her day. She found an office co-op. This is where a group of people go in together to rent office space, usually at a price per person per day far less than a latte at Starbucks. Everyone is there to work, not socialize. And many times, she's the only one there.

Imagine that. A quiet office where you can be alone with the voices in your head. It even comes with a coffee maker and supplies. So, how do you create an environment that's conducive with getting words out?

Blue Collar to No Collar, From Trucker to Amazon Bestselling Novelist in Two Years

After three years and ten novels, my first non-fiction book is now available on Amazon. I set out to write a short article for this blog, summarizing some past posts, but it kinda grew too big. This isn't a how-to book, I don't offer any magical incantations for success, other than common-sense planning, hard work, and determination.

What I do offer is a logical approach for aspiring and new authors to achieve their dream of earning a living as an author. No guarantees, just a few tips, observations, mistakes to avoid,  and a lot of what I hope will motivate the reader. And people tell me I'm not devoid of all humor.

So, if you've been thinking about writing your first book, or have several published and need a little motivation to keep on keeping on, I wrote this for you.

The Ship's Store is OPEN!

Readers asked for it and it took several months to make it happen, but the Gaspar's Revenge Online Ship's Store is now open, selling swag from my books.

We had to revamp my website, change hosts, servers, and email, just to get the different parts to work together. But, the net result is an autonomous system, where customers can order print on demand tee-shirts, tote bags, and coffee mugs with the Gaspar's Revenge and Rusty Anchor logos.

We'll be adding more items in the next few months, including Jesse and Rusty's favorite coffee from Hacienda La Minita in Costa Rica. Plus sunglasses, cellphone cases, hats, and whatever else my readers want. 

You can get to the Ship's Store by clicking the image above, or at either of the following links.

 www.gaspars-revenge.com

 www.store.waynestinnett.com.

I anticipate breaking even by the end of summer.

The Launch

The launch of Fallen Angel went really well. But, it could and should have gone a whole lot better. Let me explain what I wanted to happen first and why.

The goal of launching a new book is to try to get it in front of new readers. I approach this the same way I do advertising. If you do a lot of big ads, like BookBub, you know that Amazon dampers the affect of the big spike on ranking. How or why is a mystery, but it happens. Fallen Angel sold nearly 1000 copies in the first 24 hours, yet it only reached #96. That wasn't supposed to happen.

My launch strategy was to try to line up what I have control over, with what I could intelligently predict would happen beyond my control. The two major things there being BookBub's and Amazon's notification to followers. I know I have a lot of Amazon followers, I could tell from my last release. I know on my BookBub dashboard, that I have 680 followers there. I also have over 2300 subscribers to my twice monthly newsletter. The beuty about this launch plan is that it will work for any number of followers and subscribers, just on a lower or higher scale.

From my last three launches, I know that Amazon has emailed me almost precisely 72 hours after clicking Publish on KDP, asking if I want them to inform my followers. Also, I know from past experience that those emails don't go to all followers at one time. It's spaced out over several days, beginning the day after I reply that yes, I'd like Amazon to let my followers know. Amazon knows about their own spike dampener.

So, to build a launch like a promotion, I wanted to slowly ramp sales up before the big push, Amazon informing my followers. This way, the Amazon spike wouldn't be as pronounced. To do this, I had to try to guess when BookBub would inform my followers there, then split my subscriber base into ever increasing numbers and email them in increments.

BookBub's deal is pretty new, they just started it after my last release, so I had to look beyond my own data to determine when this might happen. For most writers I talked to who had recent releases and good sized BookBub followers, it was three days after entering the new book on their BookBub dashboard.

So, knowing that the third day after publishing, BookBub would tell my 680 followers and the fourth day after publishing, Amazon would begin the heavy lifting, I needed to set up a ramp of sales from the moment of publishing to the morning of the third day after publishing. I decided to break my mailing list up into several parts.

Here's step-by-step what I planned to do:
1) Click Publish around noon Eastern time. Once it goes live, I'd have control..
2) Do nothing for quite a few hours, knowing that some people are gonna find it anyway. I did in fact get several sales early on, without mentioning it to a soul.
3) Very early on Day Two, and I'm talking paper-route way-before-the-sun early, send the newsletter about the release to the top 20 subscribers with the highest and earliest click rates. This takes some work in figuring out and needs to be done well ahead of time.
4) Send the same newsletter to the next 50 highest subscribers at noon on Day Two and post the link on my Facebook author page.
5) Send the same newsletter to the next 50 subscribers at 6pm and post the link on my personal Facebook page. My highest sales hours and page reads occur between 6pm and midnight.
6) Send the same newsletter to the next 200 subscribers about midnight on Day Two. There are some insomniacs in my group and sales would be good through the night.
7) Send the same newsletter to the next 500 subscribers at 6am on Day Three. By now, I've used up 820 of my 2300 subscribers, but all of them are 5 star subscribers with high open and click rates. These 500 are a bit less of the click-within-minutes subscribers like the earlier ones. Many of these buy, but usually hours after the email is sent.
8) Send the same newsletter to the next 700 subscribers at 6pm on Day Three. Now, I'm getting into the 4 star subscribers.
9) Send the same newsletter to the remaining 800+ subscribers at 9pm on Day Three. Many of these are new and untested, so there will be a good many quick buyers among the ones that buy more infrequently, or just plain don't use the links I provide.
10) BookBub takes over on the morning of Day Four.
11) Amazon takes over on the morning of Day Five.

My goal was to get a trickle of sales during the overnight hours after publishing and I did indeed get 12 sales before telling anyone. The top subscribers, the ones who click within minutes of getting the email regardless of time of day, get their email on their phones. So the newsletters sent out at four different times on Day Two, will be bought up within minutes. The emails on Day Three will become more sporadic, as I get down into the 3 and 2 star subscribers.This approach, in my mind, would produce steadily climbing sales numbers throughout the period before BookBub and Amazon start making spikes.

A well thought out plan? I thought so. But, just like a battle plan, which begins to devolve and fall apart upon first friction with the enemy. my launch plan was doomed from the start. First off, I usually launch at $.99 for my subscribers, then raise it to full price after a day. I messed up and clicked Publish with the price set at full price. Being in review, I couldn't do anything until morning. So, those 12 overnight sales were at full price.

Come morning on Day Two, I lowered the price and waited anxiously. Usually a price change takes a while to update on Amazon, so I panicked and merged the many groups, thinking I wouldn't be able to tell my subscribers until later in the day. However, the price change took affect within an hour. Then I screwed up again and sent the email to the whole 2300 subscribers.

The result was six sales on Day One, another six at full price overnight into Day Two, then a huge spike of nearly 1000 sales by the end of Day Two. I left the price at $.99 until noon on Day Three, but only garnered another 82 sales, some at the reduced price and some at full price. Big spike and deep trough. Just what I wanted to avoid. Still, I sold 992 copies in 24 hours,  with a 71% open rate and 53% click rate. My subscribers are engaged.

So, back to writing and sharpening up this launch plan for the next time. That'll be with the launch of Ruthless Charity, sometime in June or July.

Fallen Angel is now available on Amazon! Volume 9 in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series.

With our move to Beaufort and me probably spending too much time on the water, it's taken longer to get Fallen Angel to market than any of my other books. I apologize for that, but I am enjoying my time on the boat.

This book was so much fun to write. My other books are set in places where I once lived or visited, but with the exception of the Keys, it's been many years and my memories are worn. So, why not send Jesse up to Beaufort, South Carolina to solve a problem?

I was able to write things that are fresh in my mind with this one. And if I needed to see something closer, I didn't have to emply Google maps. Instead, I launched Pescador and went there to explore the scenery Jesse would be passing through, first hand.

Anyway, I hope you like the book. Both the Kindle and paperback versions are available, now. The price will be only $.99 for a very short time. The audiobook version was completed last night and should be available in a few days.

Buy One Action Novel, Get Two Free!

With the publication date of my latest novel, Fallen Angel, quickly approaching, Amazon is offering the box set of the first three ebooks for the price of just the first one. For THREE BUCKS you get Fallen Out, regularly $2.99, Fallen Palm, regularly $3.99, and Fallen Hunter, also $3.99. I'll do the math cor ya. If bought separately, the price would be $10.97, for a savings of almost $8 off regular price. As you can see, it's even more than half off the regular price of the box set. Click the link below, to take advantage of this three day only deal.

This is nothing but a blatant display of commercialism, y'all. I want you to read these three, so that by the time you finish the next five in the series, you'll be ready to buy the new book, when it comes out. Fallen Angel will premier on Amazon on April 29th, so get to reading.

Back on The Water Again.

April is here, spring has sprung, and I'm back to work. A whole lot has happened since publishing Fallen Tide, almost five months ago. I started writing two new books immediately after the release, but had to put everything on the back burner for a while. Thanksgiving and Christmas came, we got the go ahead to move into our new house before closing, we've been trying desperately to sell our old house, and I've been distracted by the water, spending a lot of time out on my new (to me) boat.

Most of that stress is gone now. We closed on the house last month, but still haven't sold the old one. But, I'm back to writing. The first draft of Fallen Angel, the ninth book in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series, is now nearing completion. Later this month, iIt'll go through a week of beta reading, then a week of editing, before it goes to the final proofreader and formatter. I expect it to be published on May 9th.

Ruthless Charity is only about 30% complete, but while Fallen Angel is going through the editing process, I'll be working on Ruthless. I hope to have it published in early June.

When both are published, they'll be priced at $.99 for a little more than one day. The announcement will go out to my newsletter subscribers first. The following day, it will be announced on my Facebook Page and Twitter. To get the deal, you really want to subscribe to the newsletter. The release won't be announced publicly, here on my blog and through an Amazon email to my followers there, until the price goes up to $5.99.

I'm really getting a kick out of writing this book. It took a turn I hadn't expected in the very first chapters and I had to completely rewrite the plot. Jesse and a few of his cohorts are coming to Beaufort, my new hometown! Of course, with Parris Island and the Marine Corps Air Station right here, it's like coming home for Jesse, as well. Nearly all the places I've written about in my books, are places I've been to or have lived in. Except for the Keys, it's been many years ago when I was in some of these places. Now, I'm writing about waterways I'm on every weekend and am becoming very familiar with.

Next week, I'll be out and about aboard Pescador (I won my daughter over on the name), looking for just the right cover photo for this new book. Since it's primarily set here, the cover should reflect this. Oh, did I mention I've done a little work on Pescador? She now sports over $1600 in electronics, a brand new T-top, and she has her name on the side. If you live in the Beaufort area and see us out on the water, wave us down. I'd be glad to share some sea stories.

Moving Sucks, But it Beats the Alternative

I've been a lot less present on the interweb for a while. We've been busy. In early October, we went to Beaufort and looked at houses. We found one we all liked and made an offer.

On Friday morning, December 18th, we got word from our Realtor that we could move in and began packing. Four days later, the movers arrived on Tuesday morning and we took down our Christmas tree. They were fast and efficient and we had everything pretty well packed, so the moving van was on the road before noon and we spent our first night in Beaufort in our new home, after a 250 mile drive. With three dogs. And six parakeets. The next morning, I went out and bought a new Christmas tree and celebrated Christmas in our new home two days later.

I had to go back about a week later, because the movers couldn't transport live plants and to pick up my motorcycle, which they didn't have room for. I rented a U-Haul trailer and got my bike and all the plants aboard, plus a bunch of other little things we didn't get packed, then did a thorough cleaning of the old house. It's for sale and the price is low, if anyone's interested. I'll even knock a little more off, if need be.

We now live on one of the sea islands on the coast of South Carolina. Lady's Island is east and south of Beaufort and across Port Royal Sound from Port Royal, with Parris Island just beyond. To the southeast is St. Helena Island, then Hunting Island, then the Atlantic Ocean. The boat ramp three miles from the house is only about seven miles from open water. 

So, I bought a boat. Nothing big or flashy, just a good solid used 1995 Grady-White center console. It's one year newer than my pickup, which will be pulling it. I've wanted a Grady ever since I was a kid and within about ten days, it'll be parked in my driveway. It's in really good shape for a twenty year old boat and the engine is a 140 HP 2002 Suzuki, with very low hours. My youngest daughter and I took it out for a sea trial this morning. It was 35* and the wind was out of the north at 20 mph, creating white caps in the creek where we launched. Out on the river, seas were 2-3 feet and choppy. The boat handled it smoothly and we didn't get wet. Well, except for the occasional snowflake. Yes, I chose the worst possible day for a sea trial. It hadn't snowed here since the Grady was new.

I made an offer before the sea trial was over. It's on consignment with Butler Marine in Beaufort and if the owner accepts my offer, the dealer is sending it to their larger shop in Charleston to have a T-top and some new electronics installed. It should be back by the first of February. By the time it gets back, temperatures will be in the upper 60s and we'll be out on the Sound enjoying our time aboard "Gravity Storm".

Up in northern Greenville County, where we moved from, they got a half inch of freezing rain the night before last and four inches of snow yesterday. Power is out at our old home and not expected to be restored until Sunday.

So, what's all this got to do with writing? Well, I'm paying cash for the boat, just like I did my pickup, and the new home is a huge step up from where we lived. None of this would have been possible if it weren't for Jesse McDermitt.

The old man has returned to the sea. I think I'm gonna like it here.

Semper Fi,
Wayne

Fallen Tide Released!

I began writing Fallen Tide and Merciless Charity at the same time, back in early July. In September, I put Tide aside and concentrated on getting Merciless finished. Once it was published, I picked right up on Tide and finished it in two weeks. It's been undergoing editing since then and was just released as the 8th novel in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series yesterday and it now has over 1000 sales and 17 reviews, 15 of which are five-star.

There's a lot of offshore action in this one, taking Jesse and his crew down to the Cay Sal Bank, between the Gulf Stream and Cuba. Jesse takes on a bit different role in this book, more solidifying himself as one of Deuce's team members.

Anyway, I hope you like it. Click the cover to go to Amazon.

Merciless Charity Released! First book in a brand new spin-off series.

Edited: Merciless Charity is now available at the regular price of $2.99. Click the cover to check it out.

 

In the wee hours of the morning on 10/10, the first book in my new Charity Styles Caribbean Thriller Series went live on Amazon. At 9am I released the news to my newsletter subscribers. Sales so far today, point to this release perhaps eclipsing the release of the 7th book in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series, this past July.

This is 100% due to the energized newsletter mailing list I've cultivated. As of this writing (2:30pm EDT), just six hours after the newsletter went out to only 1550 recipients, Merciless Charity has sold over 400 copies. By comparison, Fallen Honor sold 640 in the first two days of release. Honor went live at 9pm and sold 240 copies before midnight and 400 the next day. The result of that release was a debut ranking of #283 in the Amazon store.

I'm hoping Merciless will have a debut ranking higher than that, near #200.

What constitutes an energized mailing list? The golden rule of mass mailing is to avoid the pretense of spam. People hate receiving unwanted emails. To sign up for my newsletter, the reader is informed twice that they will receive two emails every month, with an update on what I'm writing, contests, and recommendations for books by other authors.

Yes, I get unsubscribers. I average less than one unsubscriber per bi-monthly email. I also receive hundreds of responses to every email I send and have cultivated a relationship with these core readers. I know many of them on a friendly basis and we talk about other things of interest. I spend about an hour a day just responding to emails from readers. Those few unsubscribers usually have a very low, or zero, click rate, so it's no big loss.

The relationship I've developed with my core readers is worth it. In just six hours, my open rate is nearing 50%, already double the industry average, in just six hours. My click rate is nearly 30%, EIGHT TIMES the industry average. IN JUST SIX HOURS! These are people who like my work and will buy the next release as soon as they see my email in their inbox.

If you only email your subscribers when you release a new book, two or three times a year, a lot of them have already forgotten who you are and will delete the email as spam.

ETA: Yes, mangroves have a canopy that a boat can go under. And yes, old growth mangroves have large trunks and make for a sturdy emergency anchorage.

Merciless Charity and Fallen Tide cover reveals.

I just got the cover for Merciless Charity from Tim Ebaugh Graphics and Photography. The manuscript is currently with the formatter and we're estimating a release by 10/11/2015 for this 1st novel in this new series.

As always, it will be released quietly to my newsletter subscribers at $.99 for twenty-four hours. Sign up today, to be the first to get it.

Tim also finished work on the cover for Fallen Tide, the 8th novel in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series. It will be sporting this cover, when it is finally released in November. Currently, I'm about half 2/3rds through writing the first draft and should finish it up in late October.

Book signing today!

For two hours this afternoon, I'll be signing and talking about my books at Earl's Hideaway in Sebastian, Florida.

Earl's might not be the typical kind of place to have a book signing, but it was a hangout of mine many years ago and I always try to get by there, when I'm in town. It's a stone's throw from the Indian River Lagoon, just a few miles south of my hometown, Melbourne. With live music, a tiki bar, and a great view of the water, it's always attracted people from all walks of life.

But primarily, it's always been a "biker bar." My kinda folks. The bikers I know, are a different sort of people than the stereotype. You see, I ride with Patriot Guard Riders. The bikers I know will give the shirt off their back, their last dime, or a hot meal, but for the asking. We'll stand in the hot sun, or pouring rain. All day, if that's what's asked. With no more than an invitation to do so, we'll stand to honor of those who stood for us. To see them off on a deployment, we stand. To welcome them home again, we stand. To be their with their loved ones, when they go to their final duty station, we stand.

A lot of us are Veterans. I expect a large number of Vets will be at this signing. Some will have their families with them. Others who come, will be in a "biker bar" like Earl's for the first time. Some will be my friends from Space Coast Paratroopers and Homes for Warriors. Some will be people I went to school with. Some will be old friends and family. Some will be new friends, when I leave. All will be welcomed.

Bikers aren't like the outlaws you see portrayed on screen. We're just like anyone else. We're doctors, or lawyers. We're blue collar, or white collar. We're black, white, and everything in between. We're poets and writers, musicians and actors. We just like to ride on two wheels sometimes.

So, come on out to Earl's today, have a beer with some bikers. You might run into someone you know.

The High Cost of Self Publishing

The high cost isn't in the money you spend before publishing. The high cost is in the money you don't spend.

Too often, a writer will put together their manuscript and, though it may be a gripping story, it fails to take off like they hoped it would. More often than not, it's simply because they didn't put into it what's required in the fast paced and over-crowded world of self publishing. They'll be in such a rush to get their book published, they overlook many very crucial steps. Steps that can make the difference between a rank of #1,000,000 and a rank of #1000.

I know this, because it's exactly what I did when I first started. The truth is, it wasn't all that long ago. I first started writing Fallen Palm, which was my first novel, in early 2013. It was based on some short stories I'd written decades earlier, but never published. I thought it a pretty good story and it is. But, I rushed through the publishing process. The manuscript was never edited, the cover was a decent image, but too low resolution. Formatting? I didn't even know the word.

It took me six months to write and it failed miserably. My first thought was that it was simply the fact that I was an unknown with just that one book. So, I started writing a sequel, still ignorant of any and all rules for writing and publishing. The second book took only two months to write and just before publishing, a really great thing happened completely by accident.

I was posting different photos on Facebook to get my friends reactions for a possible cover. An old friend from back in my high school days, a guy who is now a professional photographer and graphics designer, went out several days in a row to capture just the image I was looking for. Rather than just offer it to me, he created the whole cover. It's basically the same cover that's on Fallen Hunter today. I insisted on paying him for it. And that began my professional relationship with Tim Ebaugh Photography and Design. Tim's dad is a retired pro photographer as well and Tim's ability to capture subject, background, and lighting is phenomenal.


Tim then created a new cover for Fallen Palm, using a stock image I paid $25 for. I now had nine months of my time, mostly in the sleeper of my truck, and $75 invested in my two books. Both started to sell. Not a lot, but enough that I could put the profits back into the business. And make no mistake, if you're an indie, you're running a business. I've spoken of this at great length in other posts here.

When those two books started selling was about when the negative reviews started to appear. "Poor grammar" and "Needs editing" were cited quite a few times. So, I loaned my fledgling business $200 and hired a proofreader. Things got better, sales increased and I was writing my third novel, Fallen Pride.

The Pride manuscript was finished in March, 2014, but instead of rushing to publish, I took my time. I hired another friend, Nicole Godsey, of Nicole Godsey Photography. She's a Marine I know who is now a pro photographer. I also knew that her husband is a Wounded Warrior. Fallen Pride deals with PTSD and I wanted a certain image for the cover. That's her husband, Corey Godsey, with his head in his hands on the cover. Her image then went to Tim for the graphics.

I then learned there are several types of edits. Yeah, I'm that slow, it'd been nearly a year. There's proofreading, line editing, copy editing, developmental editing, and comprehensive editing, to name a few. Using all of January's royalties, which were paid at the end of March, I sent Fallen Pride to Eliza Dee, of Clio Editing Services, a professional editing company, for copy editing. The cost was several hundred dollars. When Pride was released in April, I had $575 invested in it and was halfway through writing the prequel to the series, Fallen Out.


This continued for nearly a year, writing and publishing Fallen Mangrove and Fallen King. Each book being more expensive than the last to produce, as I upped the level of editing. Fallen King was nearly a $1500 investment in photography, graphics, and comprehensive editing. But there was still a small piece of the puzzle I hadn't discovered yet.

Proper formatting.

"But, Wayne, KDP reformats my .doc file when I upload it." Yes, but in the reformatting, some things change. Chapter breaks, page breaks, headers, footers, and a dozen other very minor things, that individually don't amount to much. But, taken collectively, the reading experience is less than perfect.

When I released Fallen Honor, I had over $2000 invested in its success. The cover image is a stock photo by renowned photographer Ruth Peterkin, graphics overlaid by Tim Ebaugh, a full comprehensive edit by Eliza Dee and her team at Clio Editing, and the final proofreading by Donna Rich. If that weren't enough, I sent the finished manuscript, edited and proofed to Colleen Sheehan of Write. Dream. Repeat. Book Designs, for complete interior formatting into both pdf and mobi files, for paperback and ebook.


The result was Honor being published with over $2000 invested. It sold very well on the first day, over 600 copies at a discounted price and debuted in the Amazon ranks at #229. And now, five days post-publication, it's sold ove 900 copies and has had over 51,000 pages read on Kindle Unlimited. Yet it's still only produced a 50% return on the investment. I'm not worried, though. I have no doubt it will start creating a profit in just a couple more days.

Speaking of Kindle Unlimited, I learned something else recently, after sending my earlier works to WDR for formatting. I'd already sent the earlier works to Clio Editing for comprehensive editing and thought I might as well have them professionally formatted, as well. For you writers, especially those with books in Kindle Unlimited, you're probably familiar by now with the term Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count, or KENPC. You can find what this new change has done to your books page count by clicking on "Promote and Advertise" on your book in your KDP Bookshelf. I noticed that when each of my older books were properly formatted, the number of pages went up. Dramatically. This is very important in Kindle Unlimited, since now you are paid by the page read of borrowed books. I found that a properly formatted book's page count went up about 30%, with each one I republished after formatting to mobi. This is something you seriously need to look at. While it might not be true with every mobi file, it's certainly true for the ones that Write. Dream. Repeat. did for me.

Now, I know a first time writer, planning to self publish their book, might not have an extra $2000 laying around and there's no guarantee that your books will do as well as some others, but I guarantee without some level of investment, your sales will suffer.

We're writers. We make up stories to entertain people. Some of us have other gifts, like cover creation, editing, and formatting. But, it's the writing that has to take precedence. So, hire those things out and use the most professional service you can afford. You can always upgrade them later.

Lastly, I'm not suggesting you HAVE to use the professionals that I did, but I do highly recommend each one. Look around, some of your friends might be doing just these things on the side and are every bit as good.

Hope this helps.

Semper Fi,
Wayne

A very successful launch of my latest novel, Fallen Honor, Caribbean Adventure Series, Volume 7.

On 7/14, at 9 PM Eastern time, Fallen Honor went live on Amazon for $.99. As I always do with my launches, I informed only my newsletter subscribers and Facebook followers. These folks were pumped and chomping at the bit. They know the low price is only good for 24 hours and it's just my small way of saying thanks.

The next afternoon, Fallen Honor debuted in the Amazon ranks at #229, with over 600 sales in 20 hours. The price then went up to $4.99 at 9 PM.

So, just how do you get 600 people to buy your book in one day? Simple. Engage them. Send out updates on a regular basis and let them know when it's coming out and that it will be discounted just for them. Until Fallen Honor appeared in the Amazon ranks, very few outside of my subscribers and followers knew about it.

I answer every email and question readers ask. I send a newsletter every two weeks, letting them know how the writing, editing, formatting, and publishing is going. I ask them for input on story lines, characters and cover photos. I let them know what I'm reading myself and many times they jump right on it and buy the book, too.

I know, I know, "Wayne, all those emails are spam!"

No, they're not. On the subscription form, I tell prospective subscribers that they'll get two emails a month, at least. In the 16 months since I started my mailing list, I've sent 34 emails to them. If I started sending two emails a week, they'd be getting more than they signed up for., so yeah, that'd be spam. I have almost 1300 subscribers and in that 16 months, only 6 have unsubscribed.

In that same 16 months, I've received over 1000 replies to those 34 emails. This is engaging with your readers. They look forward to getting the "inside scoop" and when release time comes, they're ready to jump all over my new book, as evidenced in this last release. Two hours after sending the email at 10 PM, Fallen Honor had 240 sales. That's 240 sales between the hours of 10 PM and midnight on a Tuesday night.

So, get to work on your mailing list, you writers. Engage them at least once a month. Get to know the names of those who habitually write back. Learn their background. Talk to them. Make new friends.

For anyone interested, below is a link to Fallen Honor on Amazon.

Fallen Honor Cover Reveal and Boxed Set Launch

It's been a while since I've posted. I finished writing Fallen Honor, my 7th novel in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series, about two weeks ago and have already started on the 8th book in the series, as well as continuing to work on the first book in my new Charity Styles Caribbean Thrill Series. Fallen Honor is less than a week from being published and I think one of the best stories I've written.

The Fallen Series boxed set of the first three books in the series is now available and for a limited time, you can get Fallen Out, Fallen Palm, and Fallen Hunter on your Kindle for only $.99. That price will go up to $6.99 very soon. Even then, it will be $4 less than buying them separately.

Many of the old characters in earlier books aren't in Fallen Honor, but make minor or even telephone appearances. Much of the action takes place in Key West, as well as deep in the Everglades.

Several new characters actually steal the spotlight and one may even become the main character in another spinoff series next year. I'll have to wait and see how these new characters are received by my readers. Fallen Honor's beta readers really seemed to like them.

In Fallen Honor, the reality of what is going on outside of Jesse's hermit paradise gets a little too close, when a friend is accosted by "smug drugglers". Later, Jesse is contacted by an acquaintance in Key West, asking for help for her niece and the niece's boyfriend. Jesse's reluctant at first, but then he sees a picture of the protagonist, who is a threat to the boyfriend, in an online newspaper and in the background he sees the protagonists accountant, who Jesse recognizes. He agrees to help and once more becomes Stretch Buchannan, notorious bad guy and now cocaine kingpin, to lure the protagonist out of hiding.

Readers may recognize some of the new minor characters in this work. Steven Becker is author of the Mac Travis Series, set primarily in Marathon, Florida. He and I have been talking about sharing characters. Mac Travis is about Jesse McDermitt's age and they live near one another, both earning a living from the sea. Steve and I agreed that there's just no way these two wouldn't at least be acquainted, so Mac and Wood make brief appearances in Fallen Honor and Jesse will be showing up in the next Mac Travis novel.

Also, Dawn McKenna, author of the Forgotten Coast Series set in Apalachicola, Florida is a special guest as a Key West psychic and tarot card reader. She has an oyster fisherman by the name of Wayne Stinnett in her first book in the series, Low Tide.

Lastly, if you're familiar with my books, you know that Rusty's old Jamaican chef's name is Rufus. Purely by coincidence, Michael Reisig has a minor character in his Road To Key West Series. His Rufus is a thirty-something Jamaican mystic. Since Michael's books are set more than thirty years ahead of mine, he's graciously agreed to allow me to make my Rufus just a little more like his. I hope he likes what I did.

This new book will be the first that's released after having been professionally formatted. I'd done this job myself with the others, but I've learned that some things are best left to the pros. Colleen Sheehan of Raventide Books will format Fallen Honor to create a much more enjoyable reading experience in both paperback and ebook formats, as soon as the editing process is complete. Clio Editing Services should finish any day and then it will go to the final proofreader, Donna Rich. She has already reformatted the first three in the series and will be doing the others as soon as Fallen Honor is completed. Once she's finished, Colleen will only need a day to turn the interior into a real eye-catcher.

Speaking of eye-catchers, Tim Ebaugh of Tim Ebaugh Photography and Design, has once more created a really great cover, using an image by photographer Ruth Peterkin. Thanks to all of these people and more for the help and support to get this 7th novel completed on time.

Second audiobook is now LIVE!

Fallen Out was released in audiobook on 4/10 and now Fallen Palm has been released. Nick Sullivan, award winning voice, screen, and stage actor, narrates both and will be starting on Fallen Hunter in about two weeks. We hope to have all seven books available by early fall.

Fallen Honor, the seventh book in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series, will be published in paperback and ebook in early July.

Here are links to both audiobooks on Amazon, but they're also available on iTunes and Audible.