Similar Posts
Recording of Dungeon Crawlers Radio interview
For those who missed the live show, you can find the recording of the Dungeon Crawlers Radio interview here or you can find a link on the DCR site. I had a great time with Malak, Revan, and Joe. Talked about the current and upcoming series and some other stuff.
Send Frank to kick some award patootie!
The Whitney Awards are open for the public to nominate books they think are great and which are written by LDS authors. Those books that get at least 5 nominations are read and rated by a panel of judges. The judges then send on the finalists in each category to the Academy for voting.Servant won an award in 2009. Awful Intent is doing well, and if the reviews piling up are any indication, it could win another.
If you liked the story, please take a few moments to nominate Frank, Sheriff Hood, and the Knitters of Death club.
1. Go to: http://whitneyawards.com/
2. Click “Nominate” in the menu at the top
3. Fill in the formLet’s hope Frank can use some guns legally this time.
Smith’s grocery update
Okay, so SERVANT is still in Smith’s. Get them before they’re gone. If you were thinking of purchasing, now’s the time (and let’s hope the trial run is a success and they take it national in their stores). They have it cheaper than anywhere else in the Utah area. I think it’s $17 or $19. That’s a great price for a new hardback. I know it’s in these stores.
- Heber, UT
- Jackson Hole, WY
- Park City, UT
- Provo, UT (by the library)
- Orem, UT (State and Center)
- Sandy, UT (benches, Bengal Blvd.)
- West Jordan, UT
- I’m sure there are other Smith stores that I’ve missed. You can check your local store to see. Let me know here if you spot it. 🙂
Life, the Universe, & Everything
For those interested I will be at the LTUE symposium at BYU all day Thursday, Feb 14th. I’ll be on the history and folklore panel at 10 AM, attending the Card workshops from 2 PM-4PM, and holding my own workshop–THE 3 THINGS YOU MUST LEARN TO WRITE KILLER STORIES–from 5PM-7PM.
It’s Valentines, so bring your object of affection. (Yes, mannequins are allowed.)
But what was I doing scheduling this on the love day to begin with? See, this is the one weakness of the male beast–he only remembers significant dates AFTER he commits himself foolishly.
New Release Sale for Curse!
Curse’s long and crooked path to publication is now over!And there was much rejoicing. To celebrate, we’re putting the book on a huge discount today and Saturday.
Big trade paperback, plus free ebook: $9.99!
(normally $18.98 if purchased separately)
AmazonEbook: $.99 cents!
(normally $3.99)
Amazon
Nook
iTunes
Kobo
SmashwordsI want to thank all of you who emailed and posted comments on the website expressing your anticipation for this book. I really hope you enjoy the story as much as I have.
Happy reading!
John
PS To get the free ebook with your purchase of the big paperback, purchase the paperback, then go to the Kindle store and click on “Kindle MatchBook” in the left sidebar. That will take you to your personal list of books you can get with the MatchBook program. Curse will appear there AFTER you make the purchase.
PPS Look for a similar sale for Raveler soon!
CONduit report & some interesting numbers
CONduit is a conference for speculative fiction writers. This year’s conference was great. I was able to see and talk to a bunch of writer friends (Dave Wolverton, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard & Sandra Tayler, Eric James Stone, Ami Chopine, Darren Egget, Skipper Ritchotte, Mette Harrison), make some new ones (Lee Modesitt, James Dashner, Julie Wright, Aprilynne Pike, Larry Correia), plus chat with a multitude of others who are trying to break in. I also got to record with the Dragon Crawlers Radio guys. Nothing better than spending a weekend with a swarm of friendly and talented folks.
I’m amazed at the success some of these people are having:
- Aprilynne Pike had an initial print run of 200,000 hardback copies and was #1 on the NY Times Best Seller list.
- James Dashner is going to be one of the main events from Random House this fall. I’m expecting an equally large print of his Maze Runner.
- Brandon Sanderson just signed a contract that was announced on Publisher’s Lunch for somewhere around 2.5 million for four books. Folks, this is amazingly large for our genre.
Of course, we already know Dave Wolverton and Lee Modesitt are some of the biggest sellers for Tor. Dan Wells is going to be big as well. And the Taylers have already got tens of thousands who read them regularly. They threw a great release party at this con.
Larry Correia has had some interesting success as well and came at it from a side alley. He self-published Monster Hunters International. He sold a few thousand copies (no mean feat, especially for a self-published book), with many of the readers coming from the armed forces in Afganistan and Iraq. The book was so good the owner of a large independent store in Minnesota, Uncle Hugo’s, called the editor of Baen Books up and told her that she was an idiot if she didn’t buy Larry’s book because he could sell the heck out of it. So she took a look, agreed, and Larry’s now under contract with a real publisher. It’s coming out in July.
In one conversation I learned the following about the Science Fiction & Fantasy genre.
- 4,000 hardback copies for a title in a year is the rough break even point for Tor. You sell more than that, you’re okay. You sell less and Tor might have to drop you.
- 10,000 hardback copies would be considered a very good seller.
- 15,000 – 30,000 hardback copies and you are hitting the top of the midlist
- Robert Jordan sold around 600,000 of each of his titles in hardback.
- Depending on the time of year, 4,000 – 5,000 hardbacks sold in a week will put you in the top ten, even the top three, on the NY Times bestseller list.
As for me, I printed up some posters and book marks using Swanland’s art. The cover got a great reaction there. And that’s huge for me because, looking at that Gallup Poll blog I wrote, the cover is going to drive a lot of sales for a new author. I had a wonderful time giving my workshop. And I think I finally figured out which part of my novel I can use for readers. Oh, and if you get a chance to hear Eric James Stone read any of his short stories, take it. I’ve listened to him twice now and both have been well worth the 20 minutes.