Seven Seas Mysteries Collection is now LIVE on Amazon!

Seven Seas Mysteries

The release of the much anticipated Seven Seas Mysteries has just occurred.

For a couple of weeks now, I've been working with six other writers to put together a Christmas gift for our readers. If you enjoyed reading my books, you'll like this collection of seven nautical thrillers. How do I know? Simple, I write what I like to read and I enjoyed reading their books. Which is why I agreed to join in with them.

I've gotten to know these other writers in a private Facebook page where, in only 16 days, we've hammered out all the details to put this together. Imagine that for just a second. Seven creative minds agreeing and organizing the dozens of details large and small in just a couple of weeks. It was a lot of fun and I'm proud to have been able to work with these story tellers.

Here's the books:
A Dangerous Harbor - RP Dahlke
Blue Water Killer - CLR Dougherty
Fallen Out - Wayne Stinnett
The Inside Passage - Pendleton Wallace
Trawler Trash - Ed Robinson
Troubled Sea -  Jinx Schwartz
Wood's Relic - Steven Becker

This set is now available on Amazon for only $.99 at the link below. The individual book's settings range from the tropical Caribbean, to the sunny Sea of Cortz, to the icy coast of Western Canada. Together, the seven of us have more than sixty novels. Enough to keep even the most voracious reader warm through the cold winter. So build a fire in the fireplace and take a little sail with us. These seven novels are available individually on Amazon for a total of  $22.93, so you're saving almost $22 with this collection.

While I'm sure some of you may have read some of these already, you'll still want the Seven Seas Mysteries collection, even if there's only one in it that you haven't read. All seven are regularly priced from $2.99 to $3.99.

This offer will only last a short while and 100% of the royalties after the cost of production will be donated to Veterans Writing Project, a non-profit organization that helps Vets to write about their experiences, not just as a possible second income, but also as a means to deal with the adjustment back to civilian life.

Okay, here's the link. Just click the cover.

Seven Seas Mysteries: A Collection of Nautical Thrillers

The release of the much anticipated Seven Seas Mysteries is just hours away.

For a couple of weeks now, I've been working with six other writers to put together a Christmas gift for our readers. If you enjoyed reading my books, you'll like this collection of seven nautical thrillers. How do I know? Simple, I write what I like to read and I enjoyed reading their books. Which is why I agreed to join in with them.

I've gotten to know these other writers on a private Facebook page where, in only 16 days, we've hammered out all the details to put this together. Imagine that for just a second. Seven creative minds agreeing and organizing the dozens of details large and small in just a couple of weeks. It was a lot of fun and I'm proud to be able to say I was able to work with these story tellers.

Here's the books:
A Dangerous Harbor - RP Dahlke
Blue Water Killer - CLR Dougherty
Fallen Out - Wayne Stinnett
The Inside Passage - Pendleton Wallace
Trawler Trash - Ed Robinson
Troubled Sea -  Jinx Schwartz
Wood's Relic - Steven Becker

This set will likely be available by the end of the day. The settings are from the tropical Caribbean, to the sunny Sea of Cortz, to the icy coast of Western Canada. Together, the seven of us have more than sixty novels. Enough to keep even the most voracious reader warm through the cold winter. So build a fire in the fireplace and take a little sail with us.

While I'm sure some of you may have read some of these already, you'll still want the Seven Seas Mysteries collection. This offer will only last a while and 100% of the royalties after the cost of production will be donated to Veterans Writing Project, a non-profit organization that helps Vets to write about their experiences, not just as a possible second income, but also as a means to deal with the adjustment back to civilian life.
http://veteranswriting.org/

In Writing, Are You a Hobbyest or a Business Person?

In a number of discussion forums and blogs, I've seen this topic come up. It amazes me how many writers think of their work as a hobby until they reach a certain level of success. That level for them might be anywhere between being able to pay for a night out with their spouse to doubling or tripling the income from their day job. But, at some point they have to concede that it is a business.

I've got news for you. That point is with the sell of your first book. It's not some lofty goal "that I'm working toward". It's the minute you sell your very first book. How important do you treat your business? Many will still continue to call what they do a hobby, even after writing and publishing half a dozen books or more. The truth is, as long as they look at it like a hobby, which it clearly isn't, their success won't come. Success is measured in book sales. Bottom line.

Why is it not a hobby? Consider the definition of each. A hobby is something we do in our spare time, that relaxes or invigorates us. Something we like to do, even feel passionate about. Whether we're good at it or not doesn't matter, we love to do it and we'd do it for free and eventually we'll get better at it. In fact, that's the only way it can still be a hobby. If you do it for free.

Once you produce a product and offer it for sale, you're still in the realm of a hobbyest. But, as soon as someone buys it and you're compensated in some way, usually money, it's no longer a hobby. It's a business. It fits all the parameters of a hobby up until money is exchanged. From there on, it fits all the parameters of a business. Make no mistake about it, if you're an indie writer and someone has bought your book, you're participating in the capitalist marketplace that can either eat you up or make you a success.

So how do you guarantee success? You can't really. However, there are a lot of steps you can take to minimize the resistance. Very few businesses can be started up without some kind of seed money, or venture capital. We're very fortunate that our chosen profession doesn't have a really high buy in. In fact, the biggest part of your venture capital can be time. We're indies, we do it ourselves.

We write the stories and hopefully they're the kind that people want to read. Some of us do our own cover designs, our own formatting, and our own editing. The more we can do of the former and spend less or no time at all doing the latter, the more successful we'll be. That doesn't mean a first time novelist has to spend hundreds on cover design and thousands on editing and formatting. But those expenses should be a goal. I look forward to paying my editors and cover designers over a thousand dollars. It puts me one step closer to making that money back in spades.

Story tellers all have one thing in common. We're able to tell a story and hopefully keep a person interested through to the end. Cover designers have an artistic flair that the story teller might lack. As much as we might like to tell ourselves that you can't judge a book by its cover, people do. A really good blurb needs a salesman's touch. It's basically a sales pitch, your first chance to hook the reader after they're attracted by the cover. Your cover is the first sales tool in your belt. Without it, your book won't get a second glance. The blurb is the second tool.

So how do you get a really great, eye-catching cover to adorn that first masterpiece and put together a blurb that'll make a snake oil salesman envious? You can do it yourself, right down to the individual pixel level and word choice. But, for a story teller, that'll get old real fast. There are alternatives in between doing it yourself and paying a high price for professional cover design and marketing blurb.

Look at your friends. Ask around. There are some talented people trying to break into the business that will do the job just as well but for a fraction of the price. Or you might have a buddy that can whip out a quality cover for a beer. Give a copy of your book to someone you know whose career is in sales and offer them a steak dinner to write a good blurb. Sales people love a challenge.

A network of friends that are willing to beta read your manuscript can be your first editing team. No, they won't find all of your mistakes (we all make them) and they might take weeks to get to it, but they'll find a lot of the mistakes you miss, because they don't know the story. The writer knows a line is supposed to say, "They went across the street, hand in hand" and can easily miss the fact that it actually says, "The went across they street, and in hand." Soon, you'll be able to hire someone to make it even better and make your second book even better than the first one. Your investment with using friends is minimal, financially speaking, but could be expensive in time. Take whatever time required to create a good quality product.

A small investment in time and perhaps a little money, will allow you to present a better product for sale. Don't rush. I know, the world's gonna be a much better place after people start reading your book, but they'll wait. With every sale of your first book, you're building residual income. Keep that income separate from your personal money and use it only to better your product. After a few months, when a little royalty money starts coming in, you can use it for a better cover on your next book or make the first one even better. My first book has had four cover revisions. A little more money comes in and you can use that to have a professional proofreader look at it. They'll catch more, but don't give up your betas. They can help with specialty things in the plot that the proofreader or editor might not be familiar with. As sales pick up, keep funneling the income into your business, making your product better and better.

Having a separate business account can make this a lot easier. All your book income goes into it and nothing more, while all your expenses come out of it and nothing more. Congratulations, you just made your first profit and loss statement.

It's not a hobby. It's a business. As soon as you come to grips with that, regardless of how low your sales might be, you'll start making business decisions. Make the wrong ones and the business world will let you know. Sales will falter. Make the right ones and you'll know that, as well.

But make no mistake, if you've sold even one book, you are a small business person, not a hobbiest.

Veterans Day Book Promo for Veterans Charities

Friends,

All day, from midnight to midnight on Veterans Day, 100% of the royalties earned by every author on the titles they display on the Veterans Day Challenge page will be donated to each writer's favorite Veterans charity.

Veterans Day Challenge

Each author on the page is a Veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States or her allies and has pledged to donate their royalties to the charity of their choice. Many like myself already donate a portion of their royalties to their charities.

There's a short bio on each author's service, along with a link to their chosen charity and other links where you can buy their book. I urge everyone to take advantage and buy one or two books of your choice. Oh, go ahead and buy them all, even if you're not a reader. Your donation will be very much appreciated and rest assured, what you spend on these books will go a long way to helping our Veterans and their families.

If you're interested in making a separate donation to one or more of the charities, we have another page set up describing each charity and a place where you can make a pledge. Being Vets, we're 100% on the honor system. If you pledge, please follow through and donate.

Sponsor Page

If you'd like to chat with some of the authors, we set up a Google hangout where many of the authors will drop in from time to time throughout the day. You can access it through this Facebook page starting at 0900 EST.

Author Chat

Each of the above links will open in a separate page, so you won't lose your place. Please feel free to share this post on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or just pop a smoke and send smoke signals.

Lastly, this whole thing was thrown together in just a matter of days and we'll be taking submissions all through Veterans Day. If you're a Vet and an author, please join us. Better late than never. Email the organizer, Richard Peters, for instructions on how to submit. His email address is bsthing2010@hotmail.com. If you know a Vet who is an author, please forward this post to them.

Semper Fi,
Wayne

Veteran Authors Helping Veterans

A group of authors, myself included, are building a website over a period of just a few days to promote books written by Veterans. The site will go public on Veterans Day and all the royalties from the whole day's sales of each author's work will go to each author's favorite Veterans charity, as listed on the website.

Our submission criteria for promotion eligibility is simple:

1) The book must be authored by a Veteran of the Armed Froces of the United States or her allies.

2) The author must pledge to donate 100% of the promoted title's royalties accrued on 11/11/14. The proceeds are considered the net payment to the author for print/ebook/audio sales and Amazon KU/KOLL borrows recorded on 11 November, 2014.

4) Add the pledge, using whatever wording you like, in bold print on your product's description page. It's suggested, but not required, to also post the link to the main promo page listing all participating books.

5) CRUCIAL: Authors MUST post the estimated dollar amount raised for their charity to the event coordinator by midnight EST on 12 Nov 2014. This will be posted on the main promo page. You don't have to list exact sales/borrows. The receipt number is also required when payment has been made. We understand that Amazon releases the funds 60 days after the end of the calendar month, so you'll have 90 days maximum to make payment.

Our goal is to raise a total of $10,000 for the many charities the authors represent. Being Veterans, I know we'll easily surpass that goal. Anyone wishing to donate to some worthy causes, have only to buy a book, or two, or three.... Oh heck, just buy them all.

Currently, we have about fifteen different author's books listed, but hope to have more than double that number by Veterans Day. I'll be blogging the link to the site here on the morning of Veterans Day, and will be promoting it throughout the day, on Facebook and Twitter, as will all the other authors.

Any Veteran author interested in promoting his book on Veterans Day and donating the proceeds for that day, should contact Richard Peters at bsthing2010@hotmail.com as soon as possible. Time and space is limited.

A Veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable, "To My Country". For an amount, "Up to and including my life."

Great Interview with Robert Bidinotto, “The Vigilante Author”.

I've been working hard on my next novel, Fallen King, which will be available around the first of the year. In this novel, Jesse is stalked by a ruthless Haitian gang out of Miami, for reasons he can't figure out. It seems that the gang is trying to draw Jesse out, by destroying small patch reefs in the back country of Florida Bay using hand grenades and collecting the dead fish. I'm about 30% finished writing it and hope to have it in the editor's hands by Christmas.

I've taken a few days off from writing to work on a couple of projects around the house and to find a new (to me) truck. My daughter was embarrassed to be seen in my old wreck. Although my new ride is twenty years old, it looks new, has a brand new engine and should last many years. Jordy's no longer embarrassed.

A couple of days ago, we had the earliest snowfall recorded here in upstate South Carolina. Only an inch, but it foretold the kind of winter we had to look forward to. While the snow lay on the ground, I did an interview with fellow author Robert Bidinotto. Robert is a very thorough and professional interviewer. You can read the interview here: Interview with Author, Wayne Stinnett.

This week, I've been reading one of my favorite author's new releases. "Second Chance Gold " is the fourth novel in John H. Cunningham's exciting Buck Reilly Adventure Series. The first book in this series is "Red Right Return". All of the books in the series are guaranteed to keep any Caribbean action/adventure reader turning the pages.

Well, that's it for now.

Cultivating a Strong Mailing List to Chart in One Day.

As most of you know, I launched my fifth novel two weeks ago. It debuted in Amazon's top 1000 in less than twenty-four hours thanks to the dedicated fans I have on my newsletter mailing list. Do you have a mailing list? Do you engage with them?

During the course of writing Fallen Mangrove, I emailed my list about every two or three weeks, usually talking about how the book was coming along and recommending books that I was currently reading, but occasionally also asking for advice. My main character's new airplane was named this way. I asked for name suggestions and received nearly a hundred replies. Many readers from my mailing list correspond with me on a regular basis now. I have just over 400, but that was less than 200 when I started writing Mangrove and corresponding regularly. While that's not a huge mailing list, they are a dedicated bunch.

In the last two weeks before publication, while the manuscript was undergoing editing, I emailed them more often, culminating with two emails in the last week before publication, keeping them abreast of the editing process, getting input on the cover design and holding contests for free, signed, print copies. I set up a soft launch at $.99 for two days, where only those on my mailing list and Facebook Fan page would know about. This was a way of paying them back in advance. Do you engage your fans?

Fallen Mangrove went live on Amazon about 10 pm EDT on 9/29 and I already had the release email drafted and only needed to add the link to the book. Within the first hour after sending the email, it sold 30 copies and wound up at 87 sales in just the five hours left in the day. Amazon is on Pacific time. The next day, over a hundred more sales. Only those on my mailing list, Facebook page and those who read my blog knew about the soft launch. At 4 pm it was ranked at #10 million, but the 5 pm update had it at #1,722 and it peaked at #990.

On 10/4 the book had its public launch, with announcements on Twitter, my website and my regular Facebook page. Three days later, on 10/7, I had an ad on BookBub for Fallen Pride, the book immediately before Fallen Mangrove in the series. You can see the results of the soft launch, the public launch, and sell through from Pride on the graph below.

How important is cultivating a mailing list and engaging with them? Fallen Mangrove has never fallen below #3,700 since it launched and that was the day before the public launch. It's sold over 600 copies in twelve days, more than 400 of those at full price of $3.99. That's how important your mailing list is.

Fallen Mangrove is now available on Amazon!!

It's been a long wait for the editors to complete their tasks, but Fallen Mangrove is now available on Amazon. CLICK HERE

This is the fifth book in the Jesse McDermitt action/adventure series. Jesse and his friends are on a hunt for buried treasure on the picturesque island of Elbow Cay, in the northern Bahamas, unaware that both Gaspar's Revenge and the Rusty Anchor have been bugged and now a whole cast of bad guys (and bad women) are trying to beat them to it, or take it from them.

If you've missed any of the previous books in the series, Here are links to them on Amazon:
Fallen Out: Jesse McDermitt Series, The Beginning
Fallen Palm (Jesse McDermitt Series Book 2)
Fallen Hunter (Jesse McDermitt Series Book 3)
Fallen Pride (Jesse McDermitt Series Book 4)

How Important is Scheduling for a Writer?

I'm a scheduler. I schedule everything. It's been such an ingrained part of my daily life for so long, it's hard not to. I know that might seem strange to many, but considering the last 30 years of my life, it's understandable. 

From the mid-eighties, when I first started writing, submitting to publishers and receiving rejections, until 2002, I was a construction manager. Getting my crews and material to a job, when it was time for them to be there to do certain work was very crucial to the success of the builder and thus, my own. I scheduled well in advance and followed the progress of the trades through thousands of homes went from an empty lot to someone's dream.

From '02 until last May, I was an over the road truck driver. When assigned a load, I always asked when it was to be picked up and delivered. With a little experience and having the wonders of technology close at hand, I could plan the route from a specific place on the east coast to another on the west coast, knowing where there'd be traffic delays and where I'd stop each night. I'd respond to dispatch and ask if they could accept the load four hours early, or maybe that I couldn't get there until four hours later. A long trip, like life, can be broken down into smaller segments. In the east, 550 miles in twelve hours is good, but once across the Mississippi, I knew I could stretch that to 650 or more, giving me a very good time of arrival. I was almost always within an hour of what I'd predicted 2800 miles and five days earlier.

When I decided to go full time with my writing career, I sat down and made a schedule. Currently, I have the months in which I'll start writing the next five books scheduled as well as when each will be published and which specific books would be promoted when, over the next fifteen months. Some haven't even been written yet. 

"But, Wayne, I'm just not inspired to write today." 

Are you a writer? Then WRITE!

Break that long schedule down into smaller, more manageable schedules. Can we call these smaller chunks of the big schedule Books? My next book, I'm scheduled to start writing in three weeks and it will be published by early February during a huge promo for the first book in my series. I hope to gain 50,000 new readers with this promo and release. If only half of those go on to read the whole series, that's 125,000 books sold next year, or almost half a million bucks! That means I have four months for me to come up with an idea, create an outline, write that crucial first sentence, finish the book, choose a cover photo, beta reading, editing, proof reading.... Well, you get the picture. Sounds daunting, huh?

"In four months?" 

Are you a writer? Then WRITE!

Four months is 120 days. Subtract 20 days for beta reading, editing and proof reading and during that time, work with the photographer and cover designer and get started with the submission process and formatting. That leaves 100 days to write a 100K word novel. That will require a minimum of 1,000 words written each day. They don't have to be perfect. They just have to be there. A couple hundred extra words will give you a day off now and then to go to the kids' ball games.

"How do you write 1,000 words a day?" 

Are you a writer? Then WRITE!

This post is just over 1,000 words long and took less than an hour to write. A thousand words isn't all that much. To a journalist, it's a column and a half. Yeah, it's just the meanderings of my mind about how I go about planning for success, but that's the point. My books are just the meanderings of an over developed imagination. Aren't yours? Just let the words pour out onto the page and arrange them later. I like to "bookmark" my writing at the end of each day. The next day, I go back two bookmark places, delete that bookmark and start reading, editing as I go. Since I'm going back two days every day, the whole manuscript is proofread by me twice when I get to those two words, "The End". It also gets my head back into the game, picking up the storyline and pacing. Doesn't matter if you're a plotter or a pantser, getting your head back to where it was when you stopped the day before will give your story flow. My bookmarks are simple. When I stop, I skip a line, type in the number of words to that point and give it a style heading, so it appears in the TOC with the chapters. That way, I can just click on it and go to where I stopped two days ago.

In eleven months, starting in late June, 2013 and ending in late May, 2014, I wrote, edited, designed, planned and published four books. My fifth book will be released on the one year anniversary of the first. That's not a coincidence. I had it scheduled almost six months ago, when I published my third book and before I started writing number four. I had no idea at all what number five would be about at the time, but I knew when it would be published. Now my schedule includes releases in February, May, September, and December of 2015. I haven't got a clue what those books will be about either, because the scheduled time to think about that hasn't arrived yet.

Well, okay, I'm cheating my schedule a bit. I know what the February release will be about. The book I'm supposed to start in five weeks already has 10K words written. Developing a good writing habit isn't something you want to break, right? Besides, I want to enjoy some family time through the upcoming holidays and possibly go down island to put my toes in the sand for a few days, enjoy some good rum and get out of the snow.

Semper Fi,
Wayne
Click here to Visit my Amazon Page to see my books.

Amazon Launches Kindle Unlimited in the UK

Right on the heels of unveiling Kindle Unlimited All-Stars, Amazon announced the launch of Kindle Unlimited in the United Kingdom today.

This is good news for avid readers across the pond. For only £7.99 a month, readers in the UK can download and enjoy as many books as they wish from the 650,000 titles available. That's a big savings if you read more than a couple of books a month.

The news of the unveiling came a week ahead of schedule, as it was originally planned for October and appeared on the companies main page this morning at http://www.amazon.co.uk/ with a video description.

Just as here in the US, readers in the UK can subscribe for 30 days at no charge to test the waters. 

My latest novel, Fallen Mangrove, is still with the editors for ten days now. I was originally told the editing process could take anywhere from a week to ten days, so I'm hoping to get it back today. Once I receive it, I'll spend a few days going over the suggested revisions, before sending it to my proofreaders for final eyes. Time is getting tight after today. My discounted soft launch (sent out to my newsletter subscribers only) is coming up very soon. The public launch at regular price is scheduled for 10/4, just ten days from today.

I'm currently working on another book, tentatively titled Fallen Reef and planning a release in early 2015.