Monthly Archives: October 2011

Waiting for Karl Rove – Self-Publishing Controversial Titles

By “controversial” I mean, “books I can’t imagine traditional publishers taking a risk on in this dicey economy.”

Waiting for Karl Rove is one of those books. It’s irreverent satire, chock full of politically incorrect content, and the “characters” (aside from ourselves) are public figures, mainly in the political arena. Not to mention that it’s kind of a lampoon against the publishing industry, as a whole. So, yeah, risky.

We did get some good feedback from a few agents and small publishers, who chuckled at the cheeky query letter, and wished us good luck, Godspeed, and many happy returns (probably […]

2020-02-21T07:18:17+02:00October 9th, 2011|Categories: Interviews|

Author Willow Polson Says Hello

As with everything on the interwebtubes, I discovered SPR through a series of clicks. I saw that a fellow author, R.J. Keller, had “Liked” my Facebook page for Triune, and she was a mutual friend with fellow author Rob Kroese of Mercury Falls fame, so I looked at her website, which brought me to Backwords Books, which led me here. I love how all this stuff works, and I can see the writing on the wall (no pun intended).

Traditional publishing is either one big gentlemen’s club or the Cretaceous Period, or perhaps both in the form of a […]

2011-10-09T09:33:38+02:00October 9th, 2011|Categories: Interviews, Member Blog|

Enterprise Authors: Rethinking the E-Book Revolution

There is something happening in the publishing industry right now. Something seismic. Regular men and women – children even! – are beginning to self-publish. The internet has given them the keys to a once gated empire – and the gatekeepers are not happy. There is a system in place for writers, a proven process that filters “the talentless hacks” from the Stephen Kings, JK Rowlings, and Stephanie Meyers of the world. And by sidestepping it, so-called ‘vanity’ authors are essentially flooding the market with a deluge of sub par fiction and nonfiction alike. This attitude has created an enormous tide […]

2020-02-21T03:57:25+02:00October 9th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: |

Review: Von Lagerhaus by Dave DiGrazie

A group of strangers traveling through a surreal afterlife learn about themselves and each other as they seek a mysterious man named Von Lagerhaus.

One minute Rawanzel Johnson was in a Buffalo, N.Y., crack house, getting high, the next she was shivering next to a two-lane road in the middle of a mysterious pine forest. Soon she runs into Karen, a pretty television journalist from North Carolina who says that moments ago she’d run a red light and somehow ended up in the woods. The two find a note on the ground from someone named “G. Von Lagerhaus” welcoming them […]

2019-01-23T12:40:27+02:00October 8th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Review: Legacy of the Light by Todd A. Gipstein

In an attempt to redeem his family’s honor, a man returns to keep the lighthouse where his father had failed to do his duty.

Keepers of the lonely lighthouse on Race Rock, off the shore of New London, Conn., had to learn to deal with intense isolation. The wife of Nathaniel Bowen, a keeper in the early 1900s, could not, so she left Nathaniel, taking their young son, Caleb, with her. Nathaniel was devastated, but continued to do his duty, until one night, consumed by grief over his absent family, he drank too much whiskey and failed to light the […]

2019-01-23T12:40:39+02:00October 8th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Review: The Jaguar Dances by Barbara Winther

In Winther’s thriller, a vacation goes perilously awry when two friends encounter danger, intrigue and drug smugglers in the exotic resorts and mountain villages of Peru.

Along with her best friend Carrie, legal secretary Jan Fielding arrives in Peru hoping for a relaxing, glamorous vacation away from the office. But almost immediately it’s anything but peaceful. Gun-toting soldiers patrol the streets, Carrie’s suitcase is broken into while the girls are in the hotel bar and there’s something odd about their tour guide, Luis, the son of a business associate of Carrie’s father. Worse, Jan feels an attraction toward him that […]

2019-01-23T12:40:50+02:00October 8th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Barry Eisler Ditches Self-Publishing

OK, that title is a little tough, but Eisler, who briefly was the poster boy for self-publishing for turning down a traditional deal to self-publish, is now going a more-traditional route.  Granted, it’s an untraditional, traditional route.  Via an interview on NPR (audio at the link as well):

“Amazon read about it and approached me with what is essentially a hybrid deal, the best of both worlds,” Eisler tells NPR’s Lynn Neary. Eisler retained control over packaging and business decisions that were important to him. The digital title was released about a month after the manuscript was finished. And he

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2011-10-07T16:50:49+02:00October 7th, 2011|Categories: News|

A New Self-Published Acquisition: Traci Hohenstein

Via David Gaughran’s blog: Indie Author Traci Hohenstein Signs Four-Book Deal With Amazon.

I published Burn Out on April 1, 2011. I thought April Fool’s day was a fitting date to try self-publishing my first novel. That was a short five months ago and since then my world has been turned upside down. My sales went something like this.

124 in April

375 in May

2339 in June

6762 in July

10K in August

In July I finally hit the Top 100 paid sales chart. I have been bouncing around in the Top 10 in Action/Adventure and Top 20

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2011-10-07T18:59:54+02:00October 7th, 2011|Categories: News|
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