To Market, To Market, Jiggety Jig

Sure hope I haven't been spamming people too bad lately, but I've discovered the last couple months that simply writing a book, throwing it out there and telling family and friends to buy it only gets you so far.

I typically got the first month release spike and then not too long later the sales flatline, so getting frustrated with the day-job and wanting to transition into ONLY writing I finally started trying to learn something about marketing rather than just hoping my books would just go viral, so I've entered the necessary evil world of marketing.

I've been listening to a variety of fantasy themed author marketing podcasts and reading more and trying to see and understand what more successful people do. And I realize I've been doing it wrong, sitting back never works, so you gotta get out there and tailor things, on the bright side it has paid off.
I got my first #1 last month in western horror for Cold Slither and yesterday (and today) #1 in Ancient Civilizations and the LDS categories for Bless the Child

Granted there are tips and tricks to everything. I've changed up Amazon categories and keywords, I've looked at best release/promotion times and just plain old experimenting too. I have found you need to tailor your promotions, target and work out how these things will come about - its a lot more than I can say in one blog post, but I'm there for you my friends if you ask, anything I can help with, I will.

The other big thing I'm working on is planning for my next big releases which I decided need to be in January so as to avoid the holiday shopping blitz - I didn't want to be screaming into that holiday madness if I could help it. That just gives me more time to polish and prepare. I've also got my mailing list going finally! I'm doing a giveaway ebook for people that sign up here
It's all a start, and I'm getting to that goal even if I still have a long way to go.

And along these lines and for the rest of the weekend my Spartan mercenary Sword and Sandals novel BLESS THE CHILD is free on kindle - It's #1 in Ancient Civilizations and top ten Historical so grab it if you haven't already here!

On top of all this new found knowledge (for me that is) I'm still open to learning everything more I can,
If you have any tips, techniques or questions, lets hear it!

Books Read Lately: Friends Edition

This batch (which I'm forever behind on) is all by people I like to call friends and I've got a round two of books by friends I'll be trying to post by the end of the month too.

Cthulhu Armageddon, by C.T. Phipps
Phipps does an amazing job of weaving the Lovecraft mythos with some hard-knuckled action. While I love the mythos as we all first read it by Ech-Pi himself, I always felt more kinship to those larger than heroes born out of Robert E. Howard's imaginings that don't just go mad by the sight of the unspeakable horror.
And here is where Phipps shines with his narrator, Booth. As the head of his unit in this post-apocalyptic wasteland Booth gives us all we need to do to know about our familiar yet horribly different and shattered world after the rising of the Old Ones. Familiar names are doled out in a reasonable non-info dump manner, so that anyone familiar with the mythos can say Oh I know what that is before Phipps can surprise us with an imaginative twist. We get to meet the grooviest ghoul of them all for example.
I enjoyed the pacing and at one point, I actually wondered - How can they top this! And we're only halfway into the book - I was afraid it was going to wrap up too soon!

IF you like action, horror and some grimdark humor, you have got to check this one out! I look forward to reading more of Phipps work!


Dream Breaker, by Jason King

This is a short by my friend Jason. He does amazing world-building (as he should being an epic fantasy author) and he get's you right in the gut with this tale of Dareth and crosing over into the dream realms where all is not what he expected. Its free at least right now on kindle so you gotta check it out. Dareth battles another Arkyn (arcane-kind) across two planes of existence as he fights to protect his client - The High Priest of Faelon - from assassination.

Murrmann, by Michael Arnzen

I got to meet and chat with Michael Arnzen at this last World Horror Con, great guy, I've read a lot of his stuff on the craft of writing (brilliant work)  and finally snagged this short to read his actual fiction stories. Murrmann is a great little sequel to Dracula capturing the quirks of Van Helsing in his own hand along with a flair for wonderful locales and real local legends. Arnzen knows both the physical territory having been there and of course the horror landscape to grip us cold. The imagery herein is amazing. Do yourself a favor and don't miss this bloody disturbing tale reminiscent of Stokers "The Squaw" along with "Dracula" too of course.

Sands, by Kevin L. Nielsen

Kevin is setting us up in a brilliantly imagined new world populated with dessert clans and their own traditions and such and of course the dramatic struggle against the genesauri—giant, flying, serpentine monsters who hunt across the desert in enormous packs. This has a new take on the epic fantasy story in that this is more son the level of man vs. nature than a dark lord. Its a refreshing new spin.

There were of course some surprises on the human end too as the desert culture of the seventeen-year-old Lhaurel's clan forbids her from even wielding a weapon in her peoples defense. Exiled she begins a new adventure to save her people and herself. This is the beginning of a trilogy that is worth checking out.

Killing Trail, by Charles Gramlich

I love Charles work, from pulpy sword and sorcery to the chilling terror to sword and planet adventure and now the old west. Gramlich has a flair for poetic language with his salty action and then just wins me over everytime. Now of course these shorts are quick and to the point with white hats and black hats but there are clever surprises you don't see coming. Highly recommended.

Weekender Kindle Sale

Today and tomorrow I've got a .99 cent sale running on my  Whispers Out of the Dust 

This was one of the most fun writing and research books I've ever done. It was inspired by a real ghost town that was buried by Lake Mead. It was a fantastic backdrop for what I wanted to do which was essentially do for the American west what M.R.James did for the English countryside and ghosts.
It was also about the fastest I've ever written a book about a month.  Granted it's short at just 53k but still an absolute labor of love.
If you haven't had a chance to check it out please do this weekend since it just a buck!
Just for a taster here is Keith West's review on Goodreads of  Whispers- I was pretty pleased with this one and it's too bad that Amazon wouldn't let him post it because it thought we were related which we're not but such is life. So here it is:

Keith West (Lubbock, TX)’s review of Whispers Out Of The Dust: A Haunted Journey Through The Lost American West

Take the Mormon settlement of the West, mix in some M. R. James and H. Russell Wakefield, throw in a healthy serving of H. P. Lovecraft and a dash of Robert E. Howard, stir in Native American lore, bake in the desert heat and wash down with a lake formed by a damn, and what you’re likely to come up with something that resembles Whispers Out of the Dust.

David J. West has begun to build a body of work in the sub-genre known as the weird western, and his most recent book is a solid addition to the field. It’s also one of his most ambitious projects to date. (And I absolutely love that cover.)

St. Thomas, Nevada was settled by Mormon pioneers, but the area had been home to the Anasazi and other tribes long before. The Mormons, many of them anyway, moved away when they discovered they were in Nevada rather than Utah and Nevada wanted to collect several years of back taxes. Still, the town survived until the Hoover Dam was built, and the waters of Lake Mead covered it up.

That much is historical fact. What David does is add a dose of fantasy which he blends so smoothly that you find yourself believing things you know can’t really be so. (At least you don’t think so.) The footnotes (end-notes, really) certainly add to the feeling of verisimilitude. David includes a number of photos he’s taken, which give you an idea of what the area looks like.

Whispers Out of the Dust traces the story of the area from the first Europeans to wander into the area until the waters cover the town. Along the way there are a number of ghosts, some cosmic horrors, and an appearance of West’s bounty hunter Porter Rockwell (“Right Hand Man”).

The voices and styles here are quite varied. Sometimes a single author collection gets pretty repetitive, and before you’re done all the stories read the same because the author only has one voice. That isn’t the case here.

You have tales told by educated men, by illiterates, by women, by cowboy poets, by Conquistadors. Some are short, and some are not so short, and “Right Hand Man” is downright long. Some ghosts are friendlier than others. Some aren’t friendly at all. There are characters who show up in more than one story, and we see them age and die.

What Whispers Out of the Dust is is supernatural slice of life in a forgotten corner of the United States. Small town and rural communities move at a pace all their own, and while that pace has increased in recent decades due to improved transportation and communication, that slow cadence that arises in an area where everyone knows everyone and people look out for their neighbors is still there. Whispers Out of the Dust catches that pace perfectly and adds a counter-tempo that can only come from a ghost or two hanging about. Or maybe it’s the drums in the hills…

If you like ghost stories, weird westerns, or both, you should definitely check out Whispers Out of the Dust. David J. West is a writer who is not afraid to stretch himself and grow and take literary risks. As I said earlier, this is one of the most ambitious projects by him that I’ve read. His risk-taking is our gain.