This is the official cover of the book, now. I could not cut the paperback to a lower price; the publishing service would not let me.
It is available on e-book for $11.95, however. That I could do.
Showing posts with label Pete's Garage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pete's Garage. Show all posts
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Monday, June 26, 2017
More on Pete
I'm going to talk a little more about the cover change for Pete's Garage, that I published in 2013. I've never been happy with the cover; it has been a thorn in my side these last four years, for I haven't been able to figure out an alternative ~ and frankly, did not have the resources to get another good picture shot.
However, I chanced to discover that there is tons more excellent free-use content on the internet that even three or four years ago. Amazing content, to be honest. The image I showed for the potential re-skinning of the cover yesterday was free use.
And today, I want to do a Snoopy-dance, because I found the photographer and got his personal opinion to boot, and a "photo credit would be appreciated if possible." Justin Higuchi is an L.A. music photographer, smoked port aficionado and obsessive free parker, born in Hawaii. And he shot the picture below, which can be found on Wikipedia:
Recognize it? The musician is Australia's Orianthi; she could be a character in the book. The part of the shot that I mean to use is a small part of the right-hand side, flipped.
I am so pleased. All I need now is a proper rewrite on the back of the book and I'm set to fix the cover.
However, I chanced to discover that there is tons more excellent free-use content on the internet that even three or four years ago. Amazing content, to be honest. The image I showed for the potential re-skinning of the cover yesterday was free use.
And today, I want to do a Snoopy-dance, because I found the photographer and got his personal opinion to boot, and a "photo credit would be appreciated if possible." Justin Higuchi is an L.A. music photographer, smoked port aficionado and obsessive free parker, born in Hawaii. And he shot the picture below, which can be found on Wikipedia:
Recognize it? The musician is Australia's Orianthi; she could be a character in the book. The part of the shot that I mean to use is a small part of the right-hand side, flipped.
I am so pleased. All I need now is a proper rewrite on the back of the book and I'm set to fix the cover.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
There's a Charge for the Meal
I confess. I read YDIS. I'm not going to link that, nor explain what it is for those who have never stumbled across that particular blog, because I have standards. I read YDIS because every time there's a post, someone in the comments section mentions me, or this blog, and I get a flood of people who show up here because I was mentioned there. I track the sources for my readers, so I can't help but notice.
The general sentiment on YDIS is that I am hated. Greatly. Mostly for existing. Partly for daring to produce intellectual property for money. In every respect because I am an easy target. I have an opinion, and all persons with opinions are easy targets.
I have never had anyone come here and claim to have found me through YDIS. I have never had a negative comment on this blog that reflected anything said on YDIS. I must therefore infer that readers are not affected by, nor influenced, by anything that is said there in any way. I must infer that the vitriol there has all the etching power of a furbie sliding over a gymnasium floor.
So when I read a group of idiots discussing the relevance of YDIS, as there are lately on an rpg-net thread - which I also decline to link, due to the same standards - I am amused. YDIS is keeping us 'honest,' say some. YDIS has great influence in the RPG universe, say others. Very few will step forward and say, "What a load of bunk. A bunch of bastards that will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."
Influential? As much as any troll with a bridge to sit under, I suppose. A bridge that Yahoo tolerates, for reasons that may have something to do with Yahoo employees who - up until recently - collected paycheques from home but did no work there. If YDIS depended on a blogspot bridge, there would be no YDIS.
I challenge anyone to produce an instance demonstrating any concrete influence upon the RPG universe. At best, we may influence individuals. For example, this post will influence the little furtive troll that produces YDIS. Who will write more about me. That will drive more people to this site, who will read here and perhaps comment, but certainly without any reference to YDIS. So I will expand my readership. That will in turn produce a greater ability to sell my intellectual property. Which is good for me.
Trolls are the easiest people in the world to manipulate. But then, they are the only mentally ill not provided for by a Hollywood Celebrity.
Unless that's what Pauly Shore does now.
As a writer, the facts are that to gain any recognition I must sell to someone. Freelance, I sell to editors; politically, I sell to the various national and private elements who offer prizes for work, and most often get paid nothing for it. Lulu allows me a platform on which to sell directly to the reader. My success is not determined by that platform, nor by the opinions of others who feel that platform is right or wrong, or that I am right or wrong for accessing the platform. My success is dependent upon the willingness of people who have read the book to mention the quality of the book to others. If they will read it and enjoy it, that is all well and good. If they will read it and NOT mention to others that they have, and encourage others to read, then I have failed.
If I provide advertising for the book, then I am buying from someone else who is selling their product - air, space, interconnectivity, call it what you will. I am contributing my wealth to someone else's business in order to expand my own. If I were a restauranteur, would I be less of a business person if I did not accede to the dominance of a restaurant chain who told me how to manage my business? Would it be unfair for me to sell to customers, who had to take it on faith that I could cook? If you, the gentle reader, were to walk into my establishment, you could expect to pay $20 for a meal that could turn out to be excellent or poor; you do not know for sure. You judge my establishment on the appearance, the decor, the smell of the food emerging from the kitchen. You have perhaps read advertising I have purchased telling you to come to my restaurant. If you are disappointed, you won't return. You will still be $20 poorer. If the food is well, then you will return, and you will spend another $20.
The business is the same, though I provide a book rather than a meal. I still ask for $20. I give the book a name, Pete's Garage. It is a friendly name. It is a somewhat busy, but odd cover, featuring an old speaker, a blue Les Paul and a wrench. I tell you it is a book about musicians. I tell you that its funny. I offer a preview that's found under the box art on the linked page. I write this blog day-by-day so you will know that I am able to write. That the meal I offer will be rich and tasty and that it will stick to your ribs. I trust you will enjoy the meal so you will return and buy another.
I am a small business owner, with a small business owner's concerns. I also happen to like D&D. I also happen to enjoy history and debate and a certain amount of philosophy. I'm a character. I'm odd and mixed in my tone. I'm a softly played Les Paul. I'm a hard-hitting pipe wrench. I'd like for you, O Gentle Reader, to buy my book. Why? Because I think you might enjoy it. Because I think it might make me richer. And in so doing, because I believe we will both be better off.
I'm selling a book.
YDIS is selling nonsense. He's clearly getting a lot of buyers, but what he has to sell doesn't cost anything, and can be produced out of your own mouth at will. What I'm selling is rare and hard to find.
Reader, make up your mind.
The general sentiment on YDIS is that I am hated. Greatly. Mostly for existing. Partly for daring to produce intellectual property for money. In every respect because I am an easy target. I have an opinion, and all persons with opinions are easy targets.
I have never had anyone come here and claim to have found me through YDIS. I have never had a negative comment on this blog that reflected anything said on YDIS. I must therefore infer that readers are not affected by, nor influenced, by anything that is said there in any way. I must infer that the vitriol there has all the etching power of a furbie sliding over a gymnasium floor.
So when I read a group of idiots discussing the relevance of YDIS, as there are lately on an rpg-net thread - which I also decline to link, due to the same standards - I am amused. YDIS is keeping us 'honest,' say some. YDIS has great influence in the RPG universe, say others. Very few will step forward and say, "What a load of bunk. A bunch of bastards that will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."
Influential? As much as any troll with a bridge to sit under, I suppose. A bridge that Yahoo tolerates, for reasons that may have something to do with Yahoo employees who - up until recently - collected paycheques from home but did no work there. If YDIS depended on a blogspot bridge, there would be no YDIS.
I challenge anyone to produce an instance demonstrating any concrete influence upon the RPG universe. At best, we may influence individuals. For example, this post will influence the little furtive troll that produces YDIS. Who will write more about me. That will drive more people to this site, who will read here and perhaps comment, but certainly without any reference to YDIS. So I will expand my readership. That will in turn produce a greater ability to sell my intellectual property. Which is good for me.
Trolls are the easiest people in the world to manipulate. But then, they are the only mentally ill not provided for by a Hollywood Celebrity.
Unless that's what Pauly Shore does now.
As a writer, the facts are that to gain any recognition I must sell to someone. Freelance, I sell to editors; politically, I sell to the various national and private elements who offer prizes for work, and most often get paid nothing for it. Lulu allows me a platform on which to sell directly to the reader. My success is not determined by that platform, nor by the opinions of others who feel that platform is right or wrong, or that I am right or wrong for accessing the platform. My success is dependent upon the willingness of people who have read the book to mention the quality of the book to others. If they will read it and enjoy it, that is all well and good. If they will read it and NOT mention to others that they have, and encourage others to read, then I have failed.
If I provide advertising for the book, then I am buying from someone else who is selling their product - air, space, interconnectivity, call it what you will. I am contributing my wealth to someone else's business in order to expand my own. If I were a restauranteur, would I be less of a business person if I did not accede to the dominance of a restaurant chain who told me how to manage my business? Would it be unfair for me to sell to customers, who had to take it on faith that I could cook? If you, the gentle reader, were to walk into my establishment, you could expect to pay $20 for a meal that could turn out to be excellent or poor; you do not know for sure. You judge my establishment on the appearance, the decor, the smell of the food emerging from the kitchen. You have perhaps read advertising I have purchased telling you to come to my restaurant. If you are disappointed, you won't return. You will still be $20 poorer. If the food is well, then you will return, and you will spend another $20.
The business is the same, though I provide a book rather than a meal. I still ask for $20. I give the book a name, Pete's Garage. It is a friendly name. It is a somewhat busy, but odd cover, featuring an old speaker, a blue Les Paul and a wrench. I tell you it is a book about musicians. I tell you that its funny. I offer a preview that's found under the box art on the linked page. I write this blog day-by-day so you will know that I am able to write. That the meal I offer will be rich and tasty and that it will stick to your ribs. I trust you will enjoy the meal so you will return and buy another.
I am a small business owner, with a small business owner's concerns. I also happen to like D&D. I also happen to enjoy history and debate and a certain amount of philosophy. I'm a character. I'm odd and mixed in my tone. I'm a softly played Les Paul. I'm a hard-hitting pipe wrench. I'd like for you, O Gentle Reader, to buy my book. Why? Because I think you might enjoy it. Because I think it might make me richer. And in so doing, because I believe we will both be better off.
I'm selling a book.
YDIS is selling nonsense. He's clearly getting a lot of buyers, but what he has to sell doesn't cost anything, and can be produced out of your own mouth at will. What I'm selling is rare and hard to find.
Reader, make up your mind.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The Experience Of Change
I had a staggeringly productive last week, with things to put up on the wiki that haven't been, because I haven't taken any time for it. Overall, I was most pleased to work on a number of illusionist spells, weapons, some notes for combat rules, the treasure system and the weather systems I did post (both needed a tweak and the existing files need replacing), plus bits and pieces here and there for future projects. Someone should pay me a lot of money so I can take every week off. A bit more money and I can hire someone to do the grunt work. Ah, fantasies.
So I'm content with the content I've been providing lately. I worry, occasionally, that this blog gets to be too much about my random thoughts and not enough about the nuts and bolts of the game ... but after a week of both, I feel content to stretch out a bit and even to talk about something other than D&D.
I took some time off my new book, Act of God. This is a story about a terrorist who threatens to release a pestilence-causing toxin into a heavily populated river system with the intent of killing millions of people, and goes into the whys and the callous brutality of making a decision like that. The theme is in part about the manner we dismiss the deaths of people we don't know ... such as learning that 200,000 people died of famine in a country of which most have never heard.
I conceived the story a long time ago, back in 1994, and after several failed attempts to complete the project I finally worked continuously in a burst late in 1998, after finally pulling all the threads together. Afterwards I worked now and then on the 2nd draft while taking part in other ventures, and a 3rd draft which I finished in early 2000. I began shipping it around to publishers - and as it happened, even secured myself an agent for a time. That, unfortunately, led to three further rewrites (to satisfy the agency), a misplaced loyalty on my part and much prevarication on theirs, ending in my being dropped because they were representing "too many thriller titles" that year. This I saw as an obvious proof that I had written a bad book, and for a time I plunged into a depression where it came to writing. People told me the book was good, but I did not believe them ... I never believe the opininon of anyone who knows me where it comes to my writing.
The depression lifted when I fell into a number of magazine contracts in 2002, followed by a newsmagazine where I joined the staff in 2004, and I began to feel better. I worked at various projects for a time, began rebuilding my D&D world along the map-making structure that this blog has talked about ... overall, since I was being paid by people who told me the writing was good (and that the word they were getting from the street was very positive), I began to feel better about my talent. Money always has that effect.
Pete's Garage began as a project for the 2008 November Novel Writing Challenge, and I did end in writing the entire novel, virtually with all the plot-lines the book now possesses, in 33 days (I didn't get it in under the time of the month, but it was 63,000 words at the end, 13,000 more than the NoNo expectation). I left it for awhile after that, to get some distance on it, and began working on the 2nd draft in March of '09. Then the magazine I worked for went under (many publications were, that was the 08/09 financial crash) because it turned out one of the partners had been embezzling 40K a year - without advertising coming in, that shit hit the fan and all the partners lost thousands and thousands of dollars. I was lucky I was merely an employee.
A lot of 2009 was hard. My writing of this blog dropped, the right work proved hard to find and as anyone will tell you, living on employment insurance is not encouraging to one's creativity. So Pete's Garage languished until 2010, when I got work and began to get my life back in order. I finished off the second draft, then proceeded to work hard on the first three chapters, once again intending to beat the bushes for a publisher.
That didn't work out, as was evident by the end of 2011. It was at that point that my daughter, her friends, my D&D players and my life partner sat me down and gave me shit for being a stubborn, unrealistic throwback to a publishing world that didn't exist any more. They pushed me into vanity publishing, pushed me into rewriting my wife's book Poor Michael and my book Pete's Garage ... which has been a difficult, frustrating road, as I learn how difficult it is to edit and fix the errors of work one is too familiar with. There have been those who have willfully sought to help me find errors and improve the book, and to them I am very grateful.
This encouraged me in the spring of this year to get started on a How To DM book ... of which I wrote 15,000 words (some of which are here. As I worked on that book, I began to conceive how important it needed to be - how it needed to rise above the mere carping that makes a blog post, and how it had to rise above a simple how-to document. That book needs to grasp in its covers the whole conception of the roleplay experience ... and I knew for certain after the wallowing around I did that I simply did not have the right mindset yet. I needed to get some distance, think about it, puzzle out the necessary themes and establish one crystal clear theme on which to write. I'm doing so now, returning to some classic texts for inspiration and writing nothing more than a few notes here and there.
Having put down that task, knowing only that I would eventually pick it up again, it seemed the best thing to do in the meanwhile would be to apply myself to something else. That something else was the book that had been a disaster ending in 2002 - Act of God.
So here I am, 23,000 words into the book, learning how truly terrible was the writing I had done 15 years ago. Structurally, the book is sound ... but bloody blue buffalo, I am such a better writer today than I was when I wrote and rewrote this book before.
There's a number of reasons, I believe. I've written literally a million of words of blog since then; I've written a quarter of a million words for publication on a wide variety of researched topics, including upwards of 75 humour articles. Day in, day out, I have written, written, written ... but more than that, I must acknowledge the change the internet has had on me.
These last eight years particularly, where documentaries seen twenty years ago, that I felt sure I'd never see again, turned up on youtube. Where ten thousand films became available through a wide variety of sources, not just ordinary American content, but every kind of content from every part of the world. I have watched more new movies these past five years than I had watched in the previous 25, for the most part being dependent on broadcast television. Add to this the option of lost television programming, songs heard on the radio forty years ago that would never be played again on 'popular' radio, independent music, independent art ... and by the love of puddle-jumping podunks, goddamn Wikipedia.
What I mean is that not only have I been able to educate myself in a manner never before possible, even with the best of university libraries, I have had the benefit of watching thousands of other artists educating themselves and tackling the same thematic and deconstructionalist art that appeals to me. I have been astounded to see things that I would never see, if I were dependent upon this myopic culture in which I live to get around to showing me. Unlike the whole rest of my life, I'm not living IN this culture ... I'm living in a culture without boundaries, without preconceptions and without rules of legitimate human behavior or artistic expression.
Thank you World.
So however bad a writer I was all those years ago, I know how to fix everything. And as each book I produce going forward, that I lay up on web with the will to sell myself, the books will get better as I get better. From what I hear all around, the latest book is pretty damn good.
I can't comprehend why anyone would want to live in any time that has come before this one.
So I'm content with the content I've been providing lately. I worry, occasionally, that this blog gets to be too much about my random thoughts and not enough about the nuts and bolts of the game ... but after a week of both, I feel content to stretch out a bit and even to talk about something other than D&D.
I took some time off my new book, Act of God. This is a story about a terrorist who threatens to release a pestilence-causing toxin into a heavily populated river system with the intent of killing millions of people, and goes into the whys and the callous brutality of making a decision like that. The theme is in part about the manner we dismiss the deaths of people we don't know ... such as learning that 200,000 people died of famine in a country of which most have never heard.
I conceived the story a long time ago, back in 1994, and after several failed attempts to complete the project I finally worked continuously in a burst late in 1998, after finally pulling all the threads together. Afterwards I worked now and then on the 2nd draft while taking part in other ventures, and a 3rd draft which I finished in early 2000. I began shipping it around to publishers - and as it happened, even secured myself an agent for a time. That, unfortunately, led to three further rewrites (to satisfy the agency), a misplaced loyalty on my part and much prevarication on theirs, ending in my being dropped because they were representing "too many thriller titles" that year. This I saw as an obvious proof that I had written a bad book, and for a time I plunged into a depression where it came to writing. People told me the book was good, but I did not believe them ... I never believe the opininon of anyone who knows me where it comes to my writing.
The depression lifted when I fell into a number of magazine contracts in 2002, followed by a newsmagazine where I joined the staff in 2004, and I began to feel better. I worked at various projects for a time, began rebuilding my D&D world along the map-making structure that this blog has talked about ... overall, since I was being paid by people who told me the writing was good (and that the word they were getting from the street was very positive), I began to feel better about my talent. Money always has that effect.
Pete's Garage began as a project for the 2008 November Novel Writing Challenge, and I did end in writing the entire novel, virtually with all the plot-lines the book now possesses, in 33 days (I didn't get it in under the time of the month, but it was 63,000 words at the end, 13,000 more than the NoNo expectation). I left it for awhile after that, to get some distance on it, and began working on the 2nd draft in March of '09. Then the magazine I worked for went under (many publications were, that was the 08/09 financial crash) because it turned out one of the partners had been embezzling 40K a year - without advertising coming in, that shit hit the fan and all the partners lost thousands and thousands of dollars. I was lucky I was merely an employee.
A lot of 2009 was hard. My writing of this blog dropped, the right work proved hard to find and as anyone will tell you, living on employment insurance is not encouraging to one's creativity. So Pete's Garage languished until 2010, when I got work and began to get my life back in order. I finished off the second draft, then proceeded to work hard on the first three chapters, once again intending to beat the bushes for a publisher.
That didn't work out, as was evident by the end of 2011. It was at that point that my daughter, her friends, my D&D players and my life partner sat me down and gave me shit for being a stubborn, unrealistic throwback to a publishing world that didn't exist any more. They pushed me into vanity publishing, pushed me into rewriting my wife's book Poor Michael and my book Pete's Garage ... which has been a difficult, frustrating road, as I learn how difficult it is to edit and fix the errors of work one is too familiar with. There have been those who have willfully sought to help me find errors and improve the book, and to them I am very grateful.
This encouraged me in the spring of this year to get started on a How To DM book ... of which I wrote 15,000 words (some of which are here. As I worked on that book, I began to conceive how important it needed to be - how it needed to rise above the mere carping that makes a blog post, and how it had to rise above a simple how-to document. That book needs to grasp in its covers the whole conception of the roleplay experience ... and I knew for certain after the wallowing around I did that I simply did not have the right mindset yet. I needed to get some distance, think about it, puzzle out the necessary themes and establish one crystal clear theme on which to write. I'm doing so now, returning to some classic texts for inspiration and writing nothing more than a few notes here and there.
Having put down that task, knowing only that I would eventually pick it up again, it seemed the best thing to do in the meanwhile would be to apply myself to something else. That something else was the book that had been a disaster ending in 2002 - Act of God.
So here I am, 23,000 words into the book, learning how truly terrible was the writing I had done 15 years ago. Structurally, the book is sound ... but bloody blue buffalo, I am such a better writer today than I was when I wrote and rewrote this book before.
There's a number of reasons, I believe. I've written literally a million of words of blog since then; I've written a quarter of a million words for publication on a wide variety of researched topics, including upwards of 75 humour articles. Day in, day out, I have written, written, written ... but more than that, I must acknowledge the change the internet has had on me.
These last eight years particularly, where documentaries seen twenty years ago, that I felt sure I'd never see again, turned up on youtube. Where ten thousand films became available through a wide variety of sources, not just ordinary American content, but every kind of content from every part of the world. I have watched more new movies these past five years than I had watched in the previous 25, for the most part being dependent on broadcast television. Add to this the option of lost television programming, songs heard on the radio forty years ago that would never be played again on 'popular' radio, independent music, independent art ... and by the love of puddle-jumping podunks, goddamn Wikipedia.
What I mean is that not only have I been able to educate myself in a manner never before possible, even with the best of university libraries, I have had the benefit of watching thousands of other artists educating themselves and tackling the same thematic and deconstructionalist art that appeals to me. I have been astounded to see things that I would never see, if I were dependent upon this myopic culture in which I live to get around to showing me. Unlike the whole rest of my life, I'm not living IN this culture ... I'm living in a culture without boundaries, without preconceptions and without rules of legitimate human behavior or artistic expression.
Thank you World.
So however bad a writer I was all those years ago, I know how to fix everything. And as each book I produce going forward, that I lay up on web with the will to sell myself, the books will get better as I get better. From what I hear all around, the latest book is pretty damn good.
I can't comprehend why anyone would want to live in any time that has come before this one.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
I Haven't Heard A Bad Review Yet
When someone else blows my horn, I'm going to point at it. This in from Kyle:
"Literally just finished Pete's Garage. I was left wanting more. I bought the eBook to read on my tablet, so when I actually checked the page count, I was surprised to find myself a page from the end.
Pete's Garage is a wonderful read, and I can't wait for more work set in the same universe. The classical influences to some of the characters appealed to the thematic influences I have had since I was young. The humour present in your writing made me burst out laughing several times, having to explain myself to my fiance, who gave me that 'whatever' look."
Feels good, every time. Thank you Kyle.
"Literally just finished Pete's Garage. I was left wanting more. I bought the eBook to read on my tablet, so when I actually checked the page count, I was surprised to find myself a page from the end.
Pete's Garage is a wonderful read, and I can't wait for more work set in the same universe. The classical influences to some of the characters appealed to the thematic influences I have had since I was young. The humour present in your writing made me burst out laughing several times, having to explain myself to my fiance, who gave me that 'whatever' look."
Feels good, every time. Thank you Kyle.
Friday, June 28, 2013
It's All Merchandising
The sales of my book Pete's Garage continue (woke up to a pleasant increase in my Pay Pal account, thank you for all that purchased this last month!) and I am content. I do feel a bit bad that I've put off the production of my How to DM book - sorry, just needed distance on it - but I am turning my attention to what I am able to write, which is the reworking of a book called Act of God.
This is a story of a plot to quietly drop a biotoxin into the Missouri-Mississippi river systems, with the intent to kill millions of people and destroy the American heartland ... taking advantage of the fact that this can all be done from inside Canada at a place called Milk River. The Milk, it so happens, flows out of Alberta and into the Missouri River in Montana.
So ... not a funny book about musicians at all.
I find myself now at a crossroads with regards to Pete's Garage, one of those moments when it is worthwhile to write a blog post to say more than "Hey, buy this thing." The company through which I publish the book, Lulu, has stepped forward to contact me about the possibility of marketing the book through them. This has culminated in a rather remarkable conversation between one of the staff and myself, that included some surprise on their part at the success and far-reaching audience of this blog, as well as one other project I have going but which - for the moment - cannot be talked about on the web. I shouldn't even be saying this much, but I'm excited.
Here's the deal, however. Lulu is prepared to front me the cost incurred by copying the book and making it available to media contacts, but they are asking that I step forward and contribute $500 - as well as my marvelous personality should opportunities arise - towards the overall process of getting my book out there and perhaps instrumentally reviewed by a reputable critic. Obviously, I want to do this ... but I also want to do my best to source that amount.
I've never believed in Kickstarter. I think it is a damnable scam. I think there are far more people who are out there wanting to take free money out of your pocket than are actually interested in producing a product or starting a business.
I am not the Kickstarter type. I have already created a product. I have no interest in asking for any money for a product I haven't yet created. That strikes me as ridiculous.
What I'd like is for people here to buy my product - $20 paperback, $9 e-book - and help fund my pursuit of finding more people to which to sell the product.
I'm not an idiot. If anyone who has already read the book wants to show their appreciation of its goodness by kicking in a few bucks, or anyone who enjoys the content of this blog wants to help me out with the smallest contributions towards my well being, two, five or ten dollars, I'll take the damn money. I'll be happy for the help.
Mostly, however, I just want to sell the book. I want to sell it enough to make other people - Lulu, a publicist eventually, book critics and so on - want to help me sell more. That's the business. You sell something well, that makes people want to help you.
So if you can't buy this thing, for the love of this blog, if you have any, find someone on this planet who CAN buy it. Mention it to a musician. Mention it to someone who likes Greek mythology (for the book contains that). Get the book a little more attention.
Can you help me merchandise a good product?
This is a story of a plot to quietly drop a biotoxin into the Missouri-Mississippi river systems, with the intent to kill millions of people and destroy the American heartland ... taking advantage of the fact that this can all be done from inside Canada at a place called Milk River. The Milk, it so happens, flows out of Alberta and into the Missouri River in Montana.
So ... not a funny book about musicians at all.
I find myself now at a crossroads with regards to Pete's Garage, one of those moments when it is worthwhile to write a blog post to say more than "Hey, buy this thing." The company through which I publish the book, Lulu, has stepped forward to contact me about the possibility of marketing the book through them. This has culminated in a rather remarkable conversation between one of the staff and myself, that included some surprise on their part at the success and far-reaching audience of this blog, as well as one other project I have going but which - for the moment - cannot be talked about on the web. I shouldn't even be saying this much, but I'm excited.
Here's the deal, however. Lulu is prepared to front me the cost incurred by copying the book and making it available to media contacts, but they are asking that I step forward and contribute $500 - as well as my marvelous personality should opportunities arise - towards the overall process of getting my book out there and perhaps instrumentally reviewed by a reputable critic. Obviously, I want to do this ... but I also want to do my best to source that amount.
I've never believed in Kickstarter. I think it is a damnable scam. I think there are far more people who are out there wanting to take free money out of your pocket than are actually interested in producing a product or starting a business.
I am not the Kickstarter type. I have already created a product. I have no interest in asking for any money for a product I haven't yet created. That strikes me as ridiculous.
What I'd like is for people here to buy my product - $20 paperback, $9 e-book - and help fund my pursuit of finding more people to which to sell the product.
I'm not an idiot. If anyone who has already read the book wants to show their appreciation of its goodness by kicking in a few bucks, or anyone who enjoys the content of this blog wants to help me out with the smallest contributions towards my well being, two, five or ten dollars, I'll take the damn money. I'll be happy for the help.
Mostly, however, I just want to sell the book. I want to sell it enough to make other people - Lulu, a publicist eventually, book critics and so on - want to help me sell more. That's the business. You sell something well, that makes people want to help you.
So if you can't buy this thing, for the love of this blog, if you have any, find someone on this planet who CAN buy it. Mention it to a musician. Mention it to someone who likes Greek mythology (for the book contains that). Get the book a little more attention.
Can you help me merchandise a good product?
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Don't Forget the Garage!
Here's a spectacular review of my book, Pete's Garage, posted by Vlad on my last post:
"I bought your book! ... I kind of found it every now and then, then more often, and even lost half a day of work because I couldn't keep my eyes from it ...
And it is very, very good! And then some.
Easy to follow, very pleasant to read, clear and yet quite deep ...
This real, breathing world, full of interactions and pieces coming slowly together, very interesting characters, a touch of fantasy of the right kind for the theme, behind a curtain of "normality" (reminding me of Neil Gaiman) ..."
That's fantastic. Vlad found me on facebook last night, long enough to share a few words. He's a habitant of France ... so Pete's Garage has world appeal!
Good news!
Now, another friend of mine tells me that I ought to mention that there are fantasy elements to the book, the sort which a D&D player would really appreciate. The word on that is out a bit, but I've been intentionally keeping that under wraps. I don't want to spoil the book.
Now go buy this thing. Only $9 as an e-book. Excellent quality press otherwise. It really won't cost much, and so far, I have yet to hear a single bad review.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The Book is Good! People Tell Me So
I have simply got to beg a little help. I have now heard from others who have read my book and enjoyed it. Please. Don't just tell me in private. Tell others!
Lulu requires a log-in to review the book on their site, so failing that, WRITE IT HERE.
Willing buyers want to know if the book is any good. Tell them! I'll take all the help I can get!
Lulu requires a log-in to review the book on their site, so failing that, WRITE IT HERE.
Willing buyers want to know if the book is any good. Tell them! I'll take all the help I can get!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
May I Remind You of My Book?
My viewership doubled today. People have plainly enjoyed the "How to Play" post. And so I would ask the gentle reader to consider - I've shown my ability to keep a sustained thought going, and bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.
Certainly, my book, Pete's Garage, would be a greater example of the same. It is merely the cost of four cappuccinos. It is very easy to buy. The website is clear and easy to understand. Others on this site already have their copy. Join them. Buy Pete's Garage Here.
Certainly, my book, Pete's Garage, would be a greater example of the same. It is merely the cost of four cappuccinos. It is very easy to buy. The website is clear and easy to understand. Others on this site already have their copy. Join them. Buy Pete's Garage Here.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
The Process of Selling
Something I have to compel myself to do daily now is talk about my book, Pete's Garage. And because I want to keep it real, and not turn into some hideous salesperson, I find myself struggling with the various aspects of talking about how I feel trying to hawk the book.
Several years ago, just prior to the height of the recession, I helped a debt consolidation specialist put together a technical manual that described what he did. Basically, for those of you who do not know how debt consolidation works, I'll give a brief rundown.
You get into debt. I mean, serious debt. To the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. You owe on everything, but the value of your property will cover the debt. Usually, just. At the end of your tether, you throw yourself on a debt consolidator. He puts together a sum of money through a bank and with that money you pay off your cars, your credit cards, your mortgage, etc ... and then you owe just one payment to the bank.
Now, my client - we'll call him Doug, since being underground was about right for him - is relying on a simple reality. If you were bad at paying your debts before, you're still bad at it now. And in a few months, you're going to default on your debt consolidation payment and together with the bank, Doug will take everything you own.
Doing this, Doug gets very rich.
I spent a lot of time with Doug while we worked together. He was a marvelous speaker, but his writing was for shit and he needed someone who could help with laying out pages. He paid me a couple of thousand dollars for this, which he basically pulled out of his wallet and gave me in cash. Doug was not strapped for cash.
What's particular about Doug was that he had ceased to be human. Doug was a stuffed shirt full of salesman patter, and he could not turn it off - even when he was talking about mundane things like where he parked his car or how the scone with his coffee tasted. There is a particular tone that sales people adopt, and eventually it just becomes who they are. It's a disturbingly phony tone. I've never understood how it works to sell people, but it does. It has something to do with its cheery, confident, encouraging, non-judgmental manner. And while I spent all this time with Doug, examining it and re-examining it as he talked about how he'd bought some $300,000 car that was waiting in Vegas for him, and how he and his friend were going to drive down and get it, and spend a week there in the meantime (just one of the many stories I heard), I began to understand how it convinces people to let Doug get his hooks into them.
He sounds harmless. He sounds just a bit too stupid to be dangerous. The phoniness actually convinces them that Doug can't really be a viper, he's just too obviously trying to sell them.
I never want to be like this. I want you to buy my book. I want you to consider all the tens of thousands of words on this blog, and consider how they demonstrate beyond a shadow that I can write, and that if I turn my mind to a fiction novel, it is going to be a good one. I know that the world works in a way that I have to say to you, the reader, buy this thing. It is worth your while. It is cost of four coffees and the scones they come from. I love this book. I wasn't sure for awhile, but I did fall in love with it along the way.
From time to time I will want to reassure you. This blog and this book are not two different things. They are the same thing. They are both me, the person speaking to you now. And if you are the sort that can't get enough of what I've written today, there's 80,000 more words waiting for you.
Several years ago, just prior to the height of the recession, I helped a debt consolidation specialist put together a technical manual that described what he did. Basically, for those of you who do not know how debt consolidation works, I'll give a brief rundown.
You get into debt. I mean, serious debt. To the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. You owe on everything, but the value of your property will cover the debt. Usually, just. At the end of your tether, you throw yourself on a debt consolidator. He puts together a sum of money through a bank and with that money you pay off your cars, your credit cards, your mortgage, etc ... and then you owe just one payment to the bank.
Now, my client - we'll call him Doug, since being underground was about right for him - is relying on a simple reality. If you were bad at paying your debts before, you're still bad at it now. And in a few months, you're going to default on your debt consolidation payment and together with the bank, Doug will take everything you own.
Doing this, Doug gets very rich.
I spent a lot of time with Doug while we worked together. He was a marvelous speaker, but his writing was for shit and he needed someone who could help with laying out pages. He paid me a couple of thousand dollars for this, which he basically pulled out of his wallet and gave me in cash. Doug was not strapped for cash.
What's particular about Doug was that he had ceased to be human. Doug was a stuffed shirt full of salesman patter, and he could not turn it off - even when he was talking about mundane things like where he parked his car or how the scone with his coffee tasted. There is a particular tone that sales people adopt, and eventually it just becomes who they are. It's a disturbingly phony tone. I've never understood how it works to sell people, but it does. It has something to do with its cheery, confident, encouraging, non-judgmental manner. And while I spent all this time with Doug, examining it and re-examining it as he talked about how he'd bought some $300,000 car that was waiting in Vegas for him, and how he and his friend were going to drive down and get it, and spend a week there in the meantime (just one of the many stories I heard), I began to understand how it convinces people to let Doug get his hooks into them.
He sounds harmless. He sounds just a bit too stupid to be dangerous. The phoniness actually convinces them that Doug can't really be a viper, he's just too obviously trying to sell them.
I never want to be like this. I want you to buy my book. I want you to consider all the tens of thousands of words on this blog, and consider how they demonstrate beyond a shadow that I can write, and that if I turn my mind to a fiction novel, it is going to be a good one. I know that the world works in a way that I have to say to you, the reader, buy this thing. It is worth your while. It is cost of four coffees and the scones they come from. I love this book. I wasn't sure for awhile, but I did fall in love with it along the way.
From time to time I will want to reassure you. This blog and this book are not two different things. They are the same thing. They are both me, the person speaking to you now. And if you are the sort that can't get enough of what I've written today, there's 80,000 more words waiting for you.
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