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Today I sold the very first copy of the very first book I’ve ever placed on Amazon. Wow. This is a pretty cool feeling, everyone. I don’t know who bought it, or really even what they think about it. I hope they enjoy it and tell their friends.

I also hope very much that we can repeat this experience many, many times over. If we sell even a hundred copies, it’d be a nice chunk o’ change to drop in our account. If we sell as many as I hope, this could be the first drop in a waterfall about to break through the dam of frustration that’s held back my hopes for so long.

So I see there have been seven samples of Jefferson’s Road downloaded from Smashwords. This is a good thing, I think. And my views at youtube have been climbing a bit as well. It’s up to forty right now. I still don’t have any purchases yet, which is just as well, given that I found two errors last night that I had to correct. One had Peter calling the bullets “incendiary rounds” instead of “armor-piercing,” and the second was a simple typo, but one of the kind that totally changes the word, and therefore the meaning of the sentence.

I’ve uploaded the most recent versions to Amazon and Smashwords, but it’s a bit frustrating that I’m still finding things like these after having “fine-tooth combed” the manuscript so many times already. My only consolation is that the previews available on Smashwords won’t get you this far into the story line (I think I allow something like 33%), and since nobody’s purchased it yet, no one has discovered the errors in something they’ve actually paid for. But what it does do is give me an appreciation for the tremendous vetting job that gets done with traditional publishing (and even then you can still find mistakes).

Regardless, I have to move to the next stage of my “marketing” plan, which is to announce the book is available on Smashwords and will be available in Barnes and Noble, Borders, and for the I-phone within a few weeks. Also, I will be letting people know (soon) that I’ve created a fan page for the novel as well.

The goal is just to keep the book in front of people, keep reminding them that it’s out there, in the hopes that someone picks it up and actually reads it. In the meantime, I still don’t have any reviews of either the book or the video, so I may need to start actively soliciting those as well.

In about two week’s I’ll be sending out my mass email letting everyone know the book is available as an e-book, and then we’ll see what happens from there.

Meanwhile, I’m writing chapter eleven of Patriots and Tyrants.

I’m somewhere in the middle of chapter ten of Patriots and Tyrants, the next mile on Jefferson’s Road, but I thought it might be cool to show you what the cover art looks like for when the book is finished. I’ve modified it somewhat from a previous version, to reflect the font changes made to The Spirit of Resistance.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

So the newest favorite activity at the Scott home is checking to see whether or not any books have sold. After all, it’s been what, forty whole hours since I posted Jefferson’s Road online? We ought to be rolling in dough by now!

Sigh.

I try to explain to people that this takes time. I told the fam, “Give it a month,” only to hear, “What if it doesn’t sell in a month?” I said, “Give it a year, then. This won’t happen overnight, you know.”

I’m truly grateful that I’ve picked up as much exposure as I have to this point. So far, the book trailer has been viewed more than thirty-five times (and I’ve only been responsible for maybe half of them – assuming it does record me every time I log in to see how many have viewed it), and the book has had five samples downloaded from Smashwords – and that’s without me even announcing that it’s available on Smashwords.

And it’s only been 40 hours!

But we live in a microwave culture, and everyone wants what they want yesterday. Personally, I’d rather it take some time and build correctly. There are marketing steps I won’t even take until next week (like announcing the book is available on Smashwords… okay, maybe here, but not on Facebook.) and the week after (like announcing there’s a fan page on Facebook. Okay, maybe here, but not on Facebook! Not yet, anyway). The goal is to keep putting this novel in front of people every little bit at a time and pray that a few bits stick together until a snowball forms, until an avalanche starts. But it takes time, people!

Soon. Everything will come together when it’s supposed to. In the meantime, I have a second book to write. I only have nine chapters done, and I’m expecting at least fifty for this one.

And it’s in! Here is the link to Jefferson’s Road: The Spirit of Resistance on the Amazon Kindle!

Now all I have to do is let others know how to find it, and create a few more avenues on how to get it.

And just like that… the book is live and available on Amazon.com. Of course, no one can find it yet. I think it might take another day before the search function works.

Just to give you an update, I’ve checked the status on Amazon, and Jefferson’s Road is now in “Publishing” status, which means they’re converting it from a Word doc into the Kindle format. It’ll take a couple of days (assuming there are no hiccups, which from reading the forum posts, there often are), and then the book will be available for purchase. I’ve only listed it at $3.99.

Once this is done, I’ll upload the video trailer to Youtube, announce it on my Facebook page, and create a fan page.

I will also be setting up a couple of other locations in which to purchase the book for those who don’t have Kindle.

I’m still officially awaiting word from Kelly Mortimer about whether or not she’ll represent Jefferson’s Road: The Spirit of Resistance. Meanwhile, I’m hearing more and more good things about self-publishing via e-books and P.O.D., and I must confess: I’m seriously thinking about it.

For one thing, there is the chance to utterly control the content, artwork, format – everything about my book. That’s nice.

Another thing, there is the chance to earn some money sooner rather than later, and more regularly than a traditional press paying me maybe twice a year.

Final thing, there is the real opportunity to get this book out there now, rather than later, when the market conditions (read: political climate) is ripe for something like this. I feel an urgency with this book, and I don’t know if I’m willing to wait the one and a half to two years it’d take to get it out there for the world to see. Honestly, this has nothing to do with impatience on my part to see my work in print (okay, maybe a little, but a very little, I promise!). It really has to do with the urgency I felt to put together a story like this in the first place, and the warning I sought to issue about the divisive rhetoric I’m hearing on both sides of the aisle.

So what’s holding me back? Well, on the one hand, I don’t feel like withdrawing my query to Ms. Mortimer. I committed when I sent it to her, and I feel like I should honor that commitment until/unless she turns it down.

More to the point, I know enough about marketing to know that I’m no good at it. There are so many ways to do this, I’m pretty much bound to do it wrong.

I realize, of course, that that’s the fear talking, and shame on me for letting fear run my writing career. I didn’t shy away from putting the story together in the first place, I mustn’t let fear dictate my success (or lack thereof) now.

What I do need to do is this: devise a full-fledged marketing plan. Everything from step one through step one thousand about how to assemble this book, build the connections, and market it to the right people, and deliver it through the right vehicles. At this point, I don’t believe I know enough about how to do this to do it effectively, and I’m anxious to learn.

So here’s the thing: I’ll give Kelly first right of refusal on this because she asked for a partial. But in the meantime, I’m going to plan and prepare for how to publish this book myself in every way and every where I can. Who knows? Even if she says “Yes,” to it, this information may only serve to benefit my future success. And if she does turn it down, then I’ll be better prepared to go it alone, like so many other beginning and midlist authors are having to do.

Now all I gotta do is figure out the best way to do this…

Update: After several months of going back and forth with rewrites and such, Steve Laube has chosen to decline representation for The Autographs. Sigh. It’s not a big, big deal. Disappointing, sure, but I’m a big kid. I can deal.
The good news is that I now have a much stronger manuscript for the experience, and I plan to submit to a couple of smaller publishing houses in the next couple of weeks to see if I can’t get anything started there.
The Spirit of Resistance (formerly called The Spark) is awaiting notice from Kelly Mortimer, who, according to her blog post of June 23, is caught up to the end of February on her submissions. This means I might not hear anything before September. Not that I’m in a great hurry, or anything. I once PM’d Michael Snyder and made the comment that the pace of publishing was glacial. He readily agreed. It certainly feels that way, and I guess that’s just a frustration I’ll have to get used to.
I’m still working on Patriots and Tyrants, and I’m tinkering with several others – waiting for something to reach out and grab me. The books at issue are Rock of Ages – an apocalyptic thriller about an attempt to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque in order to rebuild the Jewish Temple; Waterless Places – a faerie story in the tradition of Raymond Feist’s Faerie Tale, and an untitled alien abduction story with tie-in’s to the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
BTW, if anyone wants a creepy read, you should check out the Book of Enoch. Even if we accept a second century B.C. date for the book, it still predicts a judgment upon the hybrid children of angels and humans (Genesis 5) coming in the seventieth generation from Enoch (which happens to be Jesus). Just creepy. There’s more, of course, but I don’t want to give away all the juicy tidbits which might find their way into the story line.
Anyway, four novels at once is too much for anyone to keep in their head. The ironic thing is that I have the most written on The Seven Sleepers, but I find that my characters still need a lot of development, and there’s a ton more research to do if I want to do it justice, so it’s effectively on the back burner with the fire off. Of course, if I do manage to sell The Autographs, I’ll pull it out and get working on it right away. Nothing like an upcoming sequel to help the contract along.

So, ever since abandoning this blog about a year ago, I’ve remained busy. Still active on Christian Writers forums. Most importantly, I’ve finished two novels. The first is The Autographs, which I’ve submitted to agent Steve Laube for his consideration. The second is the first installment of a political thriller series called Jefferson’s Road. The Spirit of Resistance is the first book. The sequels are entitled Patriots and Tyrants, The Tree of Liberty, God and Country, and We The People. I don’t know for certain that I can pull off so many books on essentially the same subject, but since the good ole USA keeps giving me so much material, I think it worth the attempt.

Of course, I’ve started working on Patriots and Tyrants. It picks up right where The Spirit of Resistance leaves off – though I’m not fully committed to starting it this way. I may decide to go the route Lucas took with the Star Wars series and leave a gap of several weeks, months, or even years between the books. Whichever works out better. Right now, though, I only have what I have.

Also, naturally, I have a sequel to The Autographs called The Seven Sleepers that I’ve been working on. It’s a fun adventure – not at all as serious as the Jefferson’s Road books. I’m a little better than half done at this point.

The problem with it is that I haven’t developed the characters as well, and I think I’m gonna have to go back and put some more of that in there. It just dawned on me the other day, though, so I haven’t really taken a look at how feasible this will be. No doubt, it’ll throw off the chapters and everything, but if the story is solid, it’ll be worth the effort. I have found a novel with a similar premise, which is helpful for the query (because for some reason, no one wants to see a book that’s completely original – even if it is. But then, since I’ve just found something similar, how original can I claim to be? Enough. I came up with my storyline without any awareness of this other book at all – so if I’m not original, at least I’m independent.). I plan to sign it out of the library (if available) and give it a read soon. It might spark some additional ideas, but I’d rather stay with what I have on my own.

Other than that, I am at least back to work, and I’m fortunate in that my schedule allows me time to write even while I’m at work. God is good.