I had a bit of an epiphany a few weeks ago regarding my previous novel, The Autographs. One of the sticking points for those who’ve read it had to do with the romance between Izzy and Jonathan. Given that Isabel was married to Stephen, who dies early on in the book, any thought of a relationship just felt “distasteful.” And it would be, too.

Unless Izzy wasn’t married to Stephen. Or in love with him that way at all. I finally realized that Isabel is Stephen’s sister, not wife. Thus, Jon going after Stephen’s integrity while they were in college together still calls upon Isabel’s loyalty for her brother, but as the truth comes out, she is able to soften her stand and still have room in her heart for Jon.

This done, there may be one or two edits left (like giving a few lines to Anthony about how he thinks the Autographs would disprove Jon’s belief in the reliability of scripture), but I think I’m ready to seriously start marketing this to agents.

Oh, and I’ve retitled it as well. It’s now called The Lost Scrolls. I’ve worked up some potential cover art for the book, in case I decide to self-pub or go the e-book route. Here is what it looks like now.

I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes.

Click the link above to go to my most recent article, posted courtesy of Linda Yezak.

I’m posting some of the reviews I’ve received so far from the good people at Authonomy. All in all, this is a pretty good showing for the book, given that it’s only been up there for a couple of days.

You have crafted a most intriguing and complex storyline. I like your choice to use the first person narrative voice. This allows you to convey, and you do it well, Peter’s feelings, observations and thoughts. Your character development of Martin and Peter is well done and your descriptive writing makes your work a pleasure to read. Backed.

– Liz, The Cheech Room

Hey all, the first review of Jefferson’s Road is in. I’ve copied it straight from amazon’s website.

From Linda Yezak (pprmint777)

“The reasons were compelling–reasons he’d thought of himself. Reasons he himself had written in cyberspace for all the world to see. Reasons to kill the president.

But his brother wanted him to go beyond writing about it, beyond talking about it.

His brother wanted him to pull the trigger.

Tension builds throughout this novel as discussion segues into action; suspense mounts from the question always dangling in the forefront of reader’s mind: will he do it?

Michael Scott’s masterfully written novel explores what could be the very real, very private thoughts of angry American citizens . . . and what would happen if those citizens acted on their thoughts.

Chillingly realistic; frightfully feasible.”

That nicely sums it up, IMHO. Thanks, Linda!

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.