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.

‘Character Happens!’ – Amazon’s #1 FREE Golf Book

Wow! One day in Amazon’s free category and my personal development book, ‘Character Happens!’ shoots to number ONE.

If you haven’t got your copy yet, you have until midnight Sunday, 3/18/12, to capture this book, FREE.

The book has a golf storyline…but it’s about character. And virtue.

Sooooo, jump on it, now. Maybe you know someone who loves golf, or someone who needs to rediscover those important core values.

Anyway, THANKS for your support of ‘Character Happens!’

Here’s a link for those who’ve yet to acquire this book.

Many Regards, Garry M Graves

‘Character Happens!’ FREE this Friday, Saturday & Sunday

This coming Friday, Saturday & Sunday (3/16-18/12), you can download the complete eBook, ‘Character Happens! How Golf Teaches You (and your children) About—Honesty, Integrity, Courage, Compassion, Humility,’ free from Amazon.

After the 3-day FREE OFFER, the book will revert to its normal price of $2.99.

The book is about character, perhaps more specifically the fleeting nature of character, as I see it. Some individuals believe that in previous or older times a decent character was more prevalent, more recognizable. They say today’s environment, with the hustle-bustle, dog-eat-dog economy, the majority of people are two wrapped up in their own lives to display (or care about), decent character. Don’t believe it!

From a decent amount of research on the subject I’ve found little difference between present day and the older times (like the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s), relative to an individual’s virtuous make up, no matter how hard I tried to make the distinction. Character Happens! focuses on 5 character traits or virtues: Honesty, Integrity, Courage, Compassion and Humility. My research resulted in the selection of these virtues specifically from among the hundred or so other virtues commonly known, as they are widely accepted as chief traits of individuals, publicly recognized, as decent people.

HOWEVER…and that’s a big however...being recognized as a virtuous person doesn’t mean that their entire lives are influenced in such a way as to be ‘character-driven’ (with deeds and actions), all the time (24/7). Nature (living life), has a way of influencing decision-making, in ways which we are not always aware. Now that’s not a bad thing necessarily, but we surely need to be aware of this ‘fleeting’ influence (paradigm, cognition, preponderance), contained in all of us.

The book doesn’t prescribe any magic formula or process relative to character development. It only asks you to make your decisions carefully, with consideration of others. Not just your own self-interest. The book is written around a golf storyline, making it more digestible in my mind. So…if you think you’d like a book like this, now’s your chance to get it FREE!

Here’s a link to make it easier to get. Remember, you can read eBooks on your PC, your phone, tablet or ereader. Amazon has all the ‘free’ software to make it happen. 

Thanks for listening, Garry M Graves, Author

‘New’ Character Happens! “FREE” Saturday 1/4/12

  The ‘New’ Revised Edition of the Character Happens! book will be free this Saturday.

  This one-day-only-sale means you can go to Amazon and download the ebook to your ereader or  PC. Here are a couple links to speed things up.

  Amazon link:

  http://www.amazon.com/Character-About-Honesty-Integrity-Compassion-ebook/dp/B0072WEKG4/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328040095&sr=1-3

  Whether you like golf or not, you might find this ‘character’ book a fun read.

  Here’s a link to secure software from Amazon if you want to read ebooks on your PC. It’s called ‘Kindle for PC’ (you should download this software first prior to downloading the book)

  Amazon’s software, Kindle for PC

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000426311&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=7442400567&ref=pd_sl_6g97entshf_b

Thanks for your support. Please pass this info along to your family and friends, whom you think may like the book.

Introducing something 'NEW'

These old pictures illustrating the Sherlock Holmes character, I'll admit, spellbind me. Naturally, my favorite actor to have played the SH character is Jeremy Brett, (A) considered to be the definitive Holmes and not Basil Rathbone (B) IMHO. Netflix provides me with continual streaming of each story/case episode created starring Brett as Holmes and Edward Hardwicke (C) as Dr. Watson. Candidly, these two actors are appropriately envisioned when reading each adventure from my Kindle. They are superb representatives of the written character. If you ever get a chance to see one of these Sherlock Holmes cases, you'll love it.  

(A)

'The Mystery Maxims of Jake Spade,' will be the first in a series of investigative thrillers under the pen-name of Henry H.H. Hittlebloome (HHHH). This will be my first venture into the fiction genre, mystery/thriller. HHHH will write in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, noted writer/creator of the famous Sherlock Holmes stories. Jake Spade (who will portray a modern day Sherlock Holmes), will partner with female Clarice Darby, an attorney, not a medical doctor, like Dr. Watson. Even though Spade, characterized as the great-great-great grandson of Sherlock Holmes; a 28 year old bald male in 2011, sometimes channels his ggg-grandfather Holmes with similar language, speech and voice inflections. Now that should be fun to write and read. 

(B)

(C)

Darby, like Conan's Dr. Watson, will be the storyteller or narrator. She has extraordinary command of the language and captures Spade's mixture of Victorian-era uttering's one moment and modern day 2011 dialect the next. It makes for a noticeable contrast besides being somewhat humorous. Oh, I forgot, Spade is a little neurotic, not psychotic mind you... even though his behavior and antics, sometimes, might be considered borderline. He just pushes the envelope when people upset him...or things don't go his way. Picture a prim-n-proper, nineteenth century, English gentleman infused with present day mores. Scary huh? It'll be fun writing, I think, and fun reading I hope.


Presently, 'The Mystery Maxims of Jake Spade - Case #1 FORGIVEN,' is 25% done. It's progressing nicely. Comments from the beta readers are encouraging with many suggestions on it's readability and structure. Thanks to all of them (they know who they are).