I've been wanting to do a follow up post to my "line in the sand" rant but let's face it, I'm not much of a blogger. I'm going to try to get better. A lot has happened since that blog. A slightly different version of it ran in the back pages of Publisher's Weekly yesterday, thanks to Wendy Werris and Lynn Andriani. A number of Blogs also reposted the original post, sometimes only reprinting parts of it, which led to some confusion, but it also made me aware that I had left quite a bit out of the story in the first place. I'll try to fill in the gaps in the weeks to come, but right now I am working on bringing some work to the Kindle and its cousins. I'm putting together a team to help guide me through this new land. So far the most important member of this team has been Lee Goldberg, who knows just about everything there is to know about this stuff. He has been my e-Guru and has been an invaluable resource. His blog can be found here: http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/ and at the right side of this page under the title "A Writer's Life."
The second member of the Seven Samurai is JT Lindroos, who kindly dropped me a note after the blog post and said he'd like to help me with the cover designs. I sent him a photo that I wanted to use for a short story collection I'm preparing and he quickly sent me back a number of different designs. I think we've settled on the one up above. Click on it if you want to see it larger. I think he did a great job.
I'll try to post updates as I go along and introduce you to all the people it takes to do this "on your own." Right now I am editing the scanned versions of my first two novels, SHOOTERS and ANGRY MOON. The plan is to get them on Kindle, along with the short story collection, by the end of the month.
So let me know what you think of the new cover. There is still time to make changes. That's what's turning out to be the most fun about this. The quickness and flexibility of not going through committees has a lot going for it.
JT Lindroos can be found here: http://jtlindroos.carbonmade.com/
I'm following this story with great interest. The cover looks really good.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bill.
ReplyDeleteI would think that you, James Reasoner, and Ed Gorman would be millionaires by the end of the year if you could get all your works onto the e-vine, as long as you managed to cut out the middlemen. I've got a lousy four books to my name. You guys are WRITERS.
I really like that cover, Lee. Very eye catching.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jane! That means a lot coming from a graphic designer.
ReplyDeleteLee,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I am qualified to be anyone's guru, but I'm glad to help you out any way I can.
James Reasoner, Bill Crider and I (along with Mel Odom, Joel Goldman and a few others) have teamed up on a new ebook series called THE DEAD MAN. Hopefully, we'll make some of our million dollars there :-)
And Ed Gorman, Bill and I are part of the TOP SUSPENSE group, a handful of authors who have banded together to promote our ebooks. We're launching an ebook anthology in a few weeks...which we are hoping will get us the rest of our million.
There's real opportunity in ebooks for established authors right now...especially those with backlists. I can't believe how much I am making off my old backlist and can't wait to start getting new ebooks out there.
Lee
Lee, I didn't include you in my list of potential e-millionaires because I assumed you had already hit that mark!
ReplyDeleteHandsome cover. You caught my eye.
ReplyDeleteGreat Cover. Looking forward to the release.
ReplyDeleteSaw the PW piece and came here.
ReplyDeleteHave you checked out J. A. Konrath's blog (A Newbie's Guide to Publishing)? Has lots of guest posts from those who are making it self pubbing. And be sure you read the comments; some interesting discussions and ideas there, as well.
And Konrath is up front about what he's making money wise, plus pricing experiments, etc.
Might be worth a looksee.
This cover and the cover for your short story collection both look great.
All the best to you and your family,
Nancy
I like all the covers you've posted. J.T. does great work. I've done okay with the backlist stuff I have on Kindle, but I have more I want to put up as well as some originals I want to write. The trick is finding the time to work on them and still keep up with my other commitments. But hey, it's all fun.
ReplyDelete