The Last Thing I’ll Ask You to Do for Badge

About a year ago, I started letting you know about the Kickstarter campaign for Badge. Since then, the campaign has fulfilled, I’ve published Badge, promoted it online, and have had events in five different cities to support it. All this has gone about as well as I could’ve hoped, and it’s because of you I was able to do it, so thanks again. By the comments I’ve gotten from many of you about Badge, you’re digging the book too.

(Wait, you mean you haven't bought Badge yet? Go here.)

The next phase of promoting Badge focuses on ebook sales. This is the one sect of the publishing industry that’s growing, and also where readers are most likely to give a new fiction writer the time of day. There are a few good entities out there that will help you advertise your ebook, and one of them requires your book to have a certain number of Amazon reviews to qualify.

That’s where you come in. If you’ve read Badge, please take a moment to review it at Amazon. It doesn’t have to be a long review, and you don’t have to be Shakespeare. Just rate Badge, tell what you like about it, what you don’t, and hit return. That’s it. From there, it’s simple to cut and paste your review from Amazon to Badge’s Goodreads page, so you might as well do that too.

If I have any hope of not having to Kickstart Novel Four, it falls largely on my ability to find new readers for Badge now, and that might not happen without your help.

So thanks again. Badge could end today and be a huge success, but with a little help from my friends, it could keep going too.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



Buy Badge.

Badge is Now Available for Your Kindle Devices, plus Upcoming Portland Badge Event!!!

It's been a great week here at Badge central. I'm getting lots of comments from people digging Badge, and it really feels wonderful. I work on these things for so long, it's almost surprising when someone comments on it. For a second I'm like, "How do they know that?"

Anyway, love the comments. Please keep them coming, and feel free to review Badge at GoodReads. That's very helpful to me at this stage.

For you ebook fanatics, I have great news. Badge is now available for your Kindle devices. That's a week before its publication date! Get yours now!

Also, I need to start prepping you for a Badge-related Portland event coming up in just nine days:

It's on Wednesday, Feb. 5th, at everyone's favorite NE Portland bookstore Broadway Books. I'll be taking the podium with two really amazing Portland writers/people: Monica Drake, whose The Stud Book is a must-read for those who love our fair city; and Mark Russell, whose God is Disappointed in You might be the most important book you read this year. And the best part is, all writers will have a multimedia element to their reading/presentation! This will not be boring.

Badge aside, it will be kind of a special day for me. It's been over a decade since my last reading at a Portland bookstore. Here's a photo of that day.



Were any of you at this reading at 23rd Avenue Books in August 2003? There were 12 of you (yes, I counted).

So, plan on Wednesday 2/5 at Broadway Books at 7 PM. (Free!) I'll be the one with the perma-grin.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



Buy Badge.

Get Ghost Notes as an ebook for 99 Cents!

I just published a piece at the Nervous Breakdown dealing with, among other things, my feelings about Amanda Hocking's success via ebook. (In short, yee haw!) Come join the fun.

And speaking of Amanda Hocking, Ghost Notes, my award-winning second novel, is now available for 99 cents as an ebook! You can read it on your ebook reading device, or as a .pdf on your computer. And for you Kindle-philes, I've reduced the Kindle version of Ghost Notes as low as it can go, which is $2.99, which makes it the same price as the Kindle version of Stuck Outside of Phoenix. If you've ever been the least bit curious about my work, now is the time to jump aboard. I can't promise these deals will last forever.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.



Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Stuck Outside of Phoenix, the Movie and more for 2011

Here's my 2011 newsletter, which just went out to my email list this past weekend.

So much going on in my neck o' the woods in 2011.

First, I've finished my third novel, which is called Badge, which you can read the blurb of here. Badge is out at a few places right now, and I hope to have some good news for you soon. (Where would we be without hope of good news soon?)

Second, I just finished the screenplay adaptation of my first novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix, which will be made into a feature film by Nico Holthaus. Nico is best known for directing the movies Mill Avenue Inc., Beneath the Beauty and the very recent DVD project with Krist Novoselic, Ralph Nader, and other world leaders in Direct Democracy. I've always liked and sympathized with Nico's films, which is why I approached him in 2010 with the idea of Stuck the Movie. Nico can be trusted with Stuck because he lived and breathed the Tempe music scene in the early 1990s, which is where and when the story takes place, and because he can talk Dungeons & Dragons until the cows come home, which has nothing to do with the project but, you know, is kind of cool. When will the movie be ready for you? Let's let Nico do his thing, but know it's being shot this spring, and know it will kick booty. Think Singles but better.

Also, to celebrate the coming film, I've reduced the price of the ebook version of Stuck Outside of Phoenix to $2.99. That's right. For less than the cost of a trip to Starbucks you can be read and enjoy the hell out of Stuck on your fav ebook reading device, or on your computer! Get a head start on the movie. Try it here.

Third, the latest incarnation of my Rock and Roll Writing Course at the Basement Writing Workshop is set to launch! March 28th is the start date. If you follow the publishing industry at all, you'll recognize a lot more noise coming from the rock lit camp these days. (And here's to Jennifer Egan for winning the National Book Critics Circle Award this past week for her rock novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, which beat out Jonathan Franzen's Freedom for the honor). Do you want to be part of the rock lit revolution? Well, it can only happen if you write well, and that's what this class is all about. Click here to sign up.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

The End of the (Paper Books) World as we Know It?

Hello, readers.

My morsel for this week? A bold prediction.

Here we are, three months after the big iPad launch, and I'd just like to put my cards on the table about ebooks and book-books and the future of the biz.

Here are my cards:

I bet real-life books aren't going anywhere.

That's right. I said that real paper books are here to stay, that ebooks, while certainly part of the industry, will never be the industry.

I know this cuts against the normal aura of unpredictability offered up at most publishing-related blogs. The usual spiel goes something like this:

"The iPad and the like will revolutionize publishing, and after so many years, who knows if paper books will even exist anymore?"

I know. They will.

How can I make such a bold declaration? What makes me think I know?

I have many reasons, but they really boil down to one. And that reason is this:

Real books aren't computers.

All the real book really needs to insure its continued existence is that it not start acting like a computer anytime soon. Many people who prefer real books (by some estimates 97% of the book-buying population) don't want to look at a computer for another stretch of time in their day. I look at a computer for (at least) eight hours a day, and one of the reasons I love reading books is that I'm not looking at something with a distinct computer-y essence.

In other words, digital will always be digital, with all the upside and downside that entails.

Think of bowling.

We can play bowling games on the computer, even to the point where one mimics the physical language of bowling in one's living room. But all of that can't replace getting into your car, driving to the bowling alley, renting some shoes, picking out a ball and giving it a go. It's a different experience--some might say better, but definitely different--with its own advantages and disadvantages.

As long as digital is digital (and I don't think there's any threat of digital not being digital any time soon), real books will always have a place in this world.

I will be taking next week off this blog, but get ready for a semi-big announcement (at least for me) in the early part of July.

Enjoy your summer. Second half of 2010, coming up.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art



Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

2010 Already Kicks Ass/Boogle Review

That's right. You've found yourself at the beginning of one humdinger of a year.

First of all, Ghost Notes has already been reviewed in 2010! Mark McGinty at The Boogle was kind enough to start the year with a slam-dunk review of Ghost Notes. Here's a snippet:

"Each word [of Ghost Notes] fits almost perfectly into place. And while we celebrate rock, we also look at ourselves. Where we’ve been. Why we’ve been. And what’s next? There is real feeling here, as if this book has some cosmic purpose."

See, I wasn't kidding. Check out the rest of the review here.

Because this review put me in such a great mood, I've decided to extend the Five Bucks Sale! That's right. You can still buy Ghost Notes, Songs from Memory or Stuck Outside of Phoenix at my website for only $5! Get them while it lasts. I might get ornery and change it back.

So, Kel and I are in our new house, and things have relaxed enough to get back to work. I will (you can feel a New Year's resolution coming, can't you?) finish my third novel, Good Night to the Rock 'n' Roll Era, by the end of the year. It will have been over four years since I started it, and it's time to get it out into the world. This will require a lot of my 2010 attention, but that's not all I have planned for the year.

I also want to release Ghost Notes and Stuck Outside of Phoenix as ebooks. Besides Amazon's Kindle, a device where both novels are already available, this release will allow you to read about Hote's adventures on your iPhone, iPod Touch, Sony Reader or IRex Iliad and (I think) your home computer. Look for these ebooks in the first quarter of 2010. I'll announce their arrivals here and elsewhere.

What else? You'll have to wait until next week to find out. Until then, could someone please tell to me why I can't stop watching this video?





Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Buy Ghost Notes, the novel or brand new audio book.



Buy Songs from Memory, the album


Buy Stuck Outside of Phoenix, the novel