Me … in watercolor
The awesome Tacoma artist Chandler O’Leary painted a watercolor portrait of me in her sketchbook last month. I’ve been meaning to post it here, but if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll see it there too. Chandler, among other projects, has a cool new site called “Drawn the Road Again” that is a watercolor/sketchbook travelogue. The whole site is illustrated and painted and it looks fantastic. (Side x Side helped her out with building it, hence the awesome portrait as a thank you). You can also expect to see Chandler’s artistic sense on the cover for my science Read more…
Quick to Market Isn't Always a Good Thing
I’ve always liked Longfellow’s poem “A Psalm of Life,” which I first read in high school. Here’s the last stanza: Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. When I first read it, the last word felt wrong to me. In a poem that is all about how time is fleeting and how we must be a hero in the strife, it seemed weird to end the poem with an admonishment to learn to wait. Since then, I think I’ve come around to better understanding the Read more…
What is "Frank Herbert Park?"
I remember as a kid opening up “Dune” and seeing a picture of Frank Herbert, with his big bushy beard. His short author bio listed him as being from Tacoma. I was blown away. I was pretty young, and for some reason it hadn’t occurred to me that someone “famous” would have come from Tacoma. For some reason, I’ve always held that with me: Frank Herbert was a Tacoman. Which is why I was so excited to read his biography and discover what a life he lived while here, and how important Tacoma was to him and his writing. I Read more…
The Three Book Multipack
If you haven’t read one of my mysteries, have I got a deal for you. Here’s all three books in the Beautyman series put together as a single Kindle edition. It’s $6.99, which is a savings of four bucks if you bought them all individually. That’s The Saints Go Dying, The Marinara Murders, and The Con Before Christmas, back to back to back. Three books to read. No extra downloads. Save some money. Such a deal! On Kindle, Nook , and Kobo.
Martin Van Buren … #8
One of the things that happens when you read biographies of all the presidents is that you read about vaguely boring Presidents like Martin Van Buren. (For a less boring taken on Van Buren, here’s Seinfeld and “the Van Buren Boys.”) But he did some interesting things, usually not while President though, as his administration was crippled by the Panic of 1837, the worst economic crisis until the Great Depression, at a time when no one had invented the tools for a government to address them. He was very much the founder of the modern political party system. He was Read more…
The Little Book of Likes, now available!
I’m happy to say that The Little Book of Likes is now available on all major book sites: Kindle Paperback Nook Kobo The Little Book of Likes is dedicated to helping small (and very small) nonprofits build an audience of readers–and potential donors and volunteers–on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This short guide leads Executive Directors and nonprofit marketing managers through the ins and outs of a simple social media strategy that is effective and sustainable. With real-world practical advice, it recognizes that nonprofit managers usually have better things to be doing than updating Facebook. Like The Little Read more…
Ask An Author: Are Audiobooks Worth It?
For the last four months, I’ve had my non-profit fundraising guide for sale as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes. The decision to put it there was a bit of an experiment, and I’m happy to report that it’s gone quite well. Sales Report After four months of sales, I’ve paid for the upfront production costs of the book, which is–quite honestly–much faster than I expected. It’s been a high percentage of sales too. Since I do love making charts and graphs, here’s the last four months of sales of the book, by format. As you can see, the paperback Read more…
The most-read books of the last 100 years
This is an interesting project: Gabe Habash is reading the most popular books of every year, from 1913 to 2013. Here’s his reading list. Surprising how few of these books I’ve read, let alone heard of. What was popular in 1924 doesn’t mean that anyone will read it today (likewise, it’s hard to imagine in 80 years that anyone will have heard of 50 Shades of Grey–the most read book of 2012–let alone have read it). But it’s an intriguing way to access history and culture. Some things I noticed: I’ve read 8 of the 94 books (it’s not 100 Read more…
What next for “Free” books in KDP Select?
Last year, I had one of my biggest weeks of sales ever for The Marinara Murders by making it free. The book was enrolled in Amazon’s KDP Select, which meant that in exchange for 90 days of exclusivity with Amazon, I got some marketing benefits–the biggest of which, was the ability to make the book free for 5 days. I tested this with modest success, until last March when the website EReaderNewsToday.com listed my book as a free one. I went from a few hundred free downloads to 11,000. Sales of The Saints Go Dying boomed, and then in the Read more…
Tacoma Reads Together
I’ve been the chair of Tacoma Reads Together for 3 years. I think this year’s book is the best so far. Wonder is a Young Adult novel by R.J. Palacio. Her novel tells the story of a young man born with a severe facial deformity who, at the age of 10, leaves the safety of his parents’ homeschooling and begins the 5th grade. My name is August, by the way. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking it’s probably worse. You can read the book very quickly, but I think it will stick with you for awhile. Read more…
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