Women! Underestimate them at your own peril!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Two short stories
So I took a break from writing Fall Of The Righteous to write two short stories.
The first, Pirates of the Decian Sea, takes place during David's third year aboard the Waverunner. David arranges for the crew to transport money for the royal bank, the failure of which to deliver will land the crew in indentured servitude. However, the notorious pirate, Black Jack Mulligan, has caught word of the half million in gold that the Waverunner is carrying. Can David and the Waverunner's crew defeat Mulligan when outnumbered almost four to one?
Speaking of being outnumbered, that brings me to the second short story, Trouble at the Scholar's Inn. Janelle Argos and Holle MacLeod stop by the Scholar's Inn after a hard days work. After hearing a scuffle outside, the inn is taken by ten criminals, fresh off of a botched heist. They take the girls and the Inn's owners, Kat and Will Brewer, hostage. In addition, there was an older man, who the criminals kill to show the town watch they mean business. Janelle and Holle must use their wits, their charms, and their weapons to survive the night. Women: Underestimate them at your own peril!
I will be making both available for free on Smashwords, which Amazon will eventually match. Just waiting anxiously for my cover artist to finish for Pirates. Trouble at the Scholar's Inn is with my Grammar Hammer, and will be released shortly thereafter.
The first, Pirates of the Decian Sea, takes place during David's third year aboard the Waverunner. David arranges for the crew to transport money for the royal bank, the failure of which to deliver will land the crew in indentured servitude. However, the notorious pirate, Black Jack Mulligan, has caught word of the half million in gold that the Waverunner is carrying. Can David and the Waverunner's crew defeat Mulligan when outnumbered almost four to one?
Speaking of being outnumbered, that brings me to the second short story, Trouble at the Scholar's Inn. Janelle Argos and Holle MacLeod stop by the Scholar's Inn after a hard days work. After hearing a scuffle outside, the inn is taken by ten criminals, fresh off of a botched heist. They take the girls and the Inn's owners, Kat and Will Brewer, hostage. In addition, there was an older man, who the criminals kill to show the town watch they mean business. Janelle and Holle must use their wits, their charms, and their weapons to survive the night. Women: Underestimate them at your own peril!
I will be making both available for free on Smashwords, which Amazon will eventually match. Just waiting anxiously for my cover artist to finish for Pirates. Trouble at the Scholar's Inn is with my Grammar Hammer, and will be released shortly thereafter.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Progress
I'm making some good progress in Book 2 of the Ki Kalendeen Chronicles: Fall Of The Righteous, and I'm about 1/4 of the way done. I'm looking towards a October 2012 release.
On the "Blood" front, I am going to be doing another 2 day free trial on May 3rd and 4th. Yesterday, I went to my local talk radio station and met with an advertising executive. Why conservative talk radio? Because that is the audience with whom my book seems to resonate. It is an epic story of good vs evil that conservatives can't seem to get enough of. And it is a market that is usually overlooked by the traditional publishing industry, which is dominated by liberal women.
Anyway, I'm going to be running my commercial the week before my free give-away.
Take care, all!
Jim Sandoval
On the "Blood" front, I am going to be doing another 2 day free trial on May 3rd and 4th. Yesterday, I went to my local talk radio station and met with an advertising executive. Why conservative talk radio? Because that is the audience with whom my book seems to resonate. It is an epic story of good vs evil that conservatives can't seem to get enough of. And it is a market that is usually overlooked by the traditional publishing industry, which is dominated by liberal women.
Anyway, I'm going to be running my commercial the week before my free give-away.
Take care, all!
Jim Sandoval
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Welcome To The Revolution
One of the things I see when gallivanting around the net is industry people talking about how we are in a "self-publishing bubble" and how they look forward to things settling down and going back to normal. I'm sure the buggy whip manufacturers felt the same way when the automobile started to take off.
Living in Pittsburgh, I am very familiar with this mentality, which is essentially a staunch resistance to positive change. This area started to boom after World War Two. Every single other nation with any industry of note had been decimated. We had a monopoly on manufacturing and other industry here in America. It set the stage for American dominance that would last half a century. Labor suddenly had unlimited power, and they used it to gain advantage and improve their lives. They received amazing pensions, great health benefits, and middle class salaries with nothing more than a high school education.
However, the world has now caught up. So here we are in the steel buckle of the rust belt. The once great steel town has lost its factories and mills to the right to work south, Asia, and other parts of the developing world. Labor there is cheap, and money will always go where it is treated the best. The only powerful unions left are public sector unions, who sit across the table from people who's political campaign they financially support. They hang on to the mentality that that post World War Two fantasy land is the norm, and not a once in a national life time event. They are unable and unwilling to admit change, even if their region is constantly broke because of legacy benefit expenses, such as lifetime health insurance and pensions.
I believe this is similar to what is happening in the publishing industry. This is not a bubble. It is a seismic permanent paradigm shift. Amazon has cut the "big six" off at the knees. They are putting traditional bookstores out of business. In this area, we just lost our final Borders Book Store. Barnes and Nobles was fortunate enough to develop the Nook (My book will be available on the Nook and other platforms in early June), so they are holding on. And while going to the book store is still a wonderful experience, I personally find myself going there for the social aspects and shopping a lot less. It is so much easier to just go onto Amazon and order what I want online.
So, in closing, welcome to the publishing revolution! It is a very exciting time to be an author.
Living in Pittsburgh, I am very familiar with this mentality, which is essentially a staunch resistance to positive change. This area started to boom after World War Two. Every single other nation with any industry of note had been decimated. We had a monopoly on manufacturing and other industry here in America. It set the stage for American dominance that would last half a century. Labor suddenly had unlimited power, and they used it to gain advantage and improve their lives. They received amazing pensions, great health benefits, and middle class salaries with nothing more than a high school education.
However, the world has now caught up. So here we are in the steel buckle of the rust belt. The once great steel town has lost its factories and mills to the right to work south, Asia, and other parts of the developing world. Labor there is cheap, and money will always go where it is treated the best. The only powerful unions left are public sector unions, who sit across the table from people who's political campaign they financially support. They hang on to the mentality that that post World War Two fantasy land is the norm, and not a once in a national life time event. They are unable and unwilling to admit change, even if their region is constantly broke because of legacy benefit expenses, such as lifetime health insurance and pensions.
I believe this is similar to what is happening in the publishing industry. This is not a bubble. It is a seismic permanent paradigm shift. Amazon has cut the "big six" off at the knees. They are putting traditional bookstores out of business. In this area, we just lost our final Borders Book Store. Barnes and Nobles was fortunate enough to develop the Nook (My book will be available on the Nook and other platforms in early June), so they are holding on. And while going to the book store is still a wonderful experience, I personally find myself going there for the social aspects and shopping a lot less. It is so much easier to just go onto Amazon and order what I want online.
So, in closing, welcome to the publishing revolution! It is a very exciting time to be an author.
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