Author sells cheap…

  All my books (there’s only three), sell for $0.99 at Amazon (exclusively). Some friends have asked, ‘why don’t you sell your books for a higher price?’ Well, there are several reasons, but the two that I respond with most often are: 1) Ebook’s are unlike print books…they cost less to publish, and 2) I’m an unknown author, so, until I’ve written several books with many loyal followers the selling price will remain low.

  In case you didn’t know, I’m a part-time writer...not doing this as a means of financial support. My business, doing well since 1991, keeps my family clothed, sheltered and fed quite well. So, I write for the mere enjoyment of creating a story that other people might like. Not all my stories have wide reader appeal. No author has that. Not Patterson, not Roberts and not even Grisham, to my surprise. They even get 1 star reviews like me.

  Speaking of reviews…most authors love reviews. Some don’t care, those typically are the rich ones. A common belief or ‘authors policy’ heard around the writers circles is; ‘don’t believe the one star reviews and DON’T believe the five star reviews’. Personally, I like all reviews. So, if you have read my books, any of the three, then take a few moments and post a review on Amazon. (Never written a review? Here’s some help).

Garry’s Books: The Mystery Maxims of Jake Spade, click here. Bloody Omaha, click here. Character Happens! click here.

Increased book sales! Why? How?

  Recently, beginning around mid January, sales of ‘FORGIVEN’, the first case in the series of ‘The Mystery Maxims of Jake Spade’  have increased substantially for some unknown reason. How did it happen?

  I’m not complaining mind you…far from it. I just wish I knew if there exists some media exposure causing this increase in sales…where is the uptick coming from?  Is it something that Amazon is doing? Sometimes they post ‘new releases’ alongside the best sellers listing. Not the total best seller listing, but the ones that are genre specific, the sub-listings, like: Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Private Investigators. I’ve looked at these new releases for some time now but have yet spotted my book being offered there. WTH!

  If this extra exposure could be located, maybe I could influence it more with my comments (like on a blog). Or, maybe someone has said something about FORGIVEN on Goodreads? Hard to tell, I don’t surf Goodreads much. Researching where this uptick is coming from could take incredible amounts of time. Time I don’t have. Time away from writing, adding more content (and mystery twists), to the second case, ‘ABANDONED’, currently taking more time to complete than I would like.

  It’s just, you know, nice to see sales of your book increase even though you have no idea what caused it. Hopefully, those extra sales will turn into reviews. ‘Reviews,’ from everything I’ve read about the subject of reviews, help alleviate some anxiety from the book purchase. Consequently, when a book has a decent amount of reviews, sales seem to go up. Good or bad reviews, no difference. Potential readers love to peruse both the 5 star and the 1 star reviews for some unknown reason. I prefer 5 star…but that’s just me.

  If you are one of the recent buyers of my book, Thank You. You’ve made my day and month, and year. Just to remind you, FORGIVEN is the first in the series of many others to follow. It’s a shorter book (novella), so it doesn’t take much time to read. And, it’s NOT a gruesome, murderous depiction of a mystery…it’s a investigative-type piece, with twists and turns with unique resolutions to unique quandaries. Most people find it touching in its final pages. The final resolution might be something Holmes might do…except it comes from Jake, his great-great-great grandson, 120 years post Sherlock.

  It’s always a pleasure to correspond with readers about whatever it is they want to talk about; the book, where they can get it, maybe a writing or publishing question, whatever. Leave a comment here on the blog or PM me at FB, or email me at: garrymgraves at gmail dot com.

  Regards, Henry H.H. Hittlebloome, Author.

Jakes favorite tool…

  The MPA30SST 9MM ‘ghetto gun’ is Jake’s favorite power tool. He likes the attention it gets from the criminal element, ‘it gives me the professional gravitas so important in our industry,’ he boasts.

  An understatement, agreed?

  ‘The Mystery Maxims of Jake Spade,’ contains a scene where Jake brandishes his tool among four perp’s being detained for an interview. Naturally, he has their full attention. Jake avoids extraneous accessories (suppressors, laser pointers), attached to his tool, mainly because he likes positioning the short barrel into the interviewee eye socket…assuring their focus. It works great!

  The first case in the series, ‘Forgiven,’ details Jake’s, his partner Clarice Darby and the irregulars (four adventurous techies) work in solving a mystery of missing money – from the Detroit Police 2nd Precinct’s evidence holding room. Readers will enjoy twists, turns, astute deductive reasoning, all wrapped inside a modern-day technological skin (much like Chinese mystery eggroll). It’s delicious!

  The book will be of novella length, approximately 20-25 thousand words and will sell exclusively on Amazon in ebook format, for $0.99. Release is tentatively scheduled for May, 2013. Should you want a pre-release snippet, please leave your email address in the comment section of this blog post.

  Thanks for supporting ‘New Independent Authors.’

Regards, Henry H.H. Hittlebloome, Author 

Another ‘Jake Spade’ snippet…

   Thought I’d drop a little something about the progress of the thriller piece, ‘The Mystery Maxims of Jake Spade, Case #1 – Forgiven.’ 

   Well, here it is.

   It seems, from this specific point in the story, (maybe 75% through), Jake and Darby (his modern-day Dr. Watson character [like Lucy Liu in Elementary]), are on a stakeout using these ‘reach out and touch me’ earphones [parabolic hearing amplifiers shown above], listening to the perps conversation going on inside a house some distance away. It’s after midnight and as you know, ‘nothing good happens after midnight,’ sooooo, as the story continues…Darby is upset when Epic 8 [one of Jake’s irregular team members] shows up at the stakeout – Darby knowing full well 8’s history and predisposition of torturing people to make them talk – whispers in Jakes ear…

“What the hell is he doing here? Who invited him? What are you gonna do Jake?”

“Calm yourself counselor! [Darby was an attorney in a previous career] You know how readily 8 gets to the point…time requires his services.”

If my pen and morbid imagination have anything to say about the outcome of this scene [and they most assuredly do], it doesn’t look good for the perps. hehe.

Anyway, this case is reaching it’s finale, the important last 5000 words. That’s not to say the first 5000 words are crap, they’re not. And, the 20,000 words in between really set the stage, so it’s all good. Jake has a lot of clues to tie together, lot’s of plot twists to unfurl and maybe even some, okay one, big surprise revelation. Huh! Yes, I said BIG!

So, stay tuned. Or, tune in. You should enjoy this little read [novella length, between 20-25K words and it’s price, $.99], the first in a series. I know I have had a wonderful time [that’s a lie], writing it.

All for now, your writer pal, HHHH.