Look what I went and did.
On my best days, I'm skeptical of the utility of social media for authors. When I'm in a good mood I can see that it probably helps, it connects readers with authors on a more personal, accessible level.
On my worst days, I think social media is a complete time-suck that leaves authors no time to attend to the MOST IMPORTANT MARKETNG we can do:
Write the next damned book.
Few writers can point to their efforts on social media and say: "For every Xth post, you will see an incremental opportunity of Y additional sales." Don't get me wrong, many indie authors have achieved unbelievable success by maintaining interesting blogs and by engaging their readership through Facebook and Twitter and Whatever The New Thing Is This Week, but these tools are only boosters. They can't prop up a "bad" book. And, like I said, it's impossible to quantify the impact of a social media presence on sales.
Im-poss-ible.
Up until now I've just been dipping my toes in occasionally. Now I'm going to wade in up to my knees. I don't want to go any further for fear of the dreaded blue balls.
How's that for extending a metaphor?
So I created a Facebook Author Page. If you like my books, please like it.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
My "latest" short story
Hey folks. Just re-released a short sci-fi story set on Mars in the near future, Frontier Justice. I wrote this a few years back and tidied it up recently. It's a fun, fast read in a universe I might expand at some point in a larger work.I've always been fascinated with the notion of terraforming and it was actually the subject of my sixth-grade science project/presentation. Philosophically (I won't go too deep, I promise), I strongly believe the human race needs to expand and colonize other worlds for a number of reasons. I hope that I live long enough to see man set foot on Mars, it would be an amazing achievement.
Here's the blurb on Frontier Justice--
Smith races against time to get the murderer, Ganston, to Oz, the Joint Penal Colony whose location on the Martian frontier is a well-guarded secret. But there are men intent on rescuing Ganston and killing Smith.
Visit Evan Ronan at his website: www.ronaniswriting.blogspot.com.
And they’re closing in.
But little do they know Smith has other plans for them, and for Ganston too…
Frontier Justice is a ~5,000 short story set on Mars in the near future.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
...the traveler...
The fifth book in the Eddie McCloskey books, The Traveler, will be out soon. I'm working with my editor on the final draft and we're pushing hard to get a March release.
Eddie is still reeling from what happened to him in The Hysteria. Out of respect for the spoiler, I won't go into details about that book (it's still fairly new!). As I've done with this series and what readers seem to really enjoy, Eddie evolves from one book to the next and to remain true to that I couldn't ignore the traumatic events in #4.
So readers will be treated to the good, old Eddie they know and have come to love, only this Eddie is suffering from new psychological issues, which will have a major impact in this story.
In The Traveler, Eddie is not only hunting a ghost. He's also hunting the person that is helping the ghost kill. It's a fun, scary, fast read and we get to peer deeper into Eddie's psyche than ever before. Look for it soon!
Eddie is still reeling from what happened to him in The Hysteria. Out of respect for the spoiler, I won't go into details about that book (it's still fairly new!). As I've done with this series and what readers seem to really enjoy, Eddie evolves from one book to the next and to remain true to that I couldn't ignore the traumatic events in #4.
So readers will be treated to the good, old Eddie they know and have come to love, only this Eddie is suffering from new psychological issues, which will have a major impact in this story.
In The Traveler, Eddie is not only hunting a ghost. He's also hunting the person that is helping the ghost kill. It's a fun, scary, fast read and we get to peer deeper into Eddie's psyche than ever before. Look for it soon!
Friday, March 20, 2015
The New Book Is On Goodreads
Language of the Bear
I am super-freaking-excited. The latest book, the best book I've been a part of (so far), is up on Goodreads and out next month.
We're still working with our kick-ass designer on the cover, and we'll have a reveal of that soon. But for now, if you're interested in the book please add it to your TBR on Goodreads. It'll help us build interest leading up to the e-release next month on Amazon.
***
Nate Green is a good friend and a gifted writer. We've both been chasing this crazy dream of writing fiction for a living for awhile. A few years back, we were in his truck, talking about stories and writing and how exciting and difficult and frustrating and interesting the process was and somewhere in that conversation we got the crazy idea to write a book together.
That book eventually became Language of the Bear.
A collaboration really appealed to me. I looked forward to doing something that for years had been a solitary, banging-your-head-against-the-wall pursuit. Working with Nate on a story he was totally invested in also gave me a great sounding board for ideas, character arcs, and story-telling. I hope I've been as helpful to him as he's been to me.
We settled on a historical novel, a good old-fashioned adventure that reminded us of the books we'd read growing up, with one notable qualification. We agreed early on we weren't going to whitewash history and we weren't going to give the characters modern sensibilities. The world would be as it was: increasingly short, often nasty, and sometimes brutish.
We shopped Language of the Bear to agents and editors and got this close several times, which was both encouraging and frustrating. But nobody bit. We passed it around to friends and family and they told us it was great, but of course you have to take the opinions of loved ones with a healthy dose of skepticism. The book, as much as we liked it, seemed doomed to live out its life on our computers.
***
Meanwhile I'd made the decision to indie publish my solo projects, and in particular my paranormal thrillers. Readers slowly but surely found The Unearthed series and once I started to see (very modest) success with it, Nate and I discussed the possibility of indie pubbing Language of the Bear as well. Eventually we decided it was a good idea. As I've said with my own books, the best judge of the work is the reader and this way readers will let us know if it's any good. ;-)
***
Nate and I had such a great time writing the book together, we decided to make it into a series and start another series as well. More to come on those books, but we're hard at work on them.
I am super-freaking-excited. The latest book, the best book I've been a part of (so far), is up on Goodreads and out next month.
We're still working with our kick-ass designer on the cover, and we'll have a reveal of that soon. But for now, if you're interested in the book please add it to your TBR on Goodreads. It'll help us build interest leading up to the e-release next month on Amazon.
***
Nate Green is a good friend and a gifted writer. We've both been chasing this crazy dream of writing fiction for a living for awhile. A few years back, we were in his truck, talking about stories and writing and how exciting and difficult and frustrating and interesting the process was and somewhere in that conversation we got the crazy idea to write a book together.
That book eventually became Language of the Bear.
A collaboration really appealed to me. I looked forward to doing something that for years had been a solitary, banging-your-head-against-the-wall pursuit. Working with Nate on a story he was totally invested in also gave me a great sounding board for ideas, character arcs, and story-telling. I hope I've been as helpful to him as he's been to me.
We settled on a historical novel, a good old-fashioned adventure that reminded us of the books we'd read growing up, with one notable qualification. We agreed early on we weren't going to whitewash history and we weren't going to give the characters modern sensibilities. The world would be as it was: increasingly short, often nasty, and sometimes brutish.
We shopped Language of the Bear to agents and editors and got this close several times, which was both encouraging and frustrating. But nobody bit. We passed it around to friends and family and they told us it was great, but of course you have to take the opinions of loved ones with a healthy dose of skepticism. The book, as much as we liked it, seemed doomed to live out its life on our computers.
***
Meanwhile I'd made the decision to indie publish my solo projects, and in particular my paranormal thrillers. Readers slowly but surely found The Unearthed series and once I started to see (very modest) success with it, Nate and I discussed the possibility of indie pubbing Language of the Bear as well. Eventually we decided it was a good idea. As I've said with my own books, the best judge of the work is the reader and this way readers will let us know if it's any good. ;-)
***
Nate and I had such a great time writing the book together, we decided to make it into a series and start another series as well. More to come on those books, but we're hard at work on them.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
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