News

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Oh, Yeah, My New Book Came Out

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Seriously, I am the worst at keeping up with this blog. The worst!

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So yeah, my newest thriller The Killing Room came out two weeks ago, and … I guess it’s going okay?

Typically when I release a book, I have access to immediate sales data — even my Amazon Publishing stuff has a real-time sales numbers dashboard — but not here.

Oh, trad publishing, you so silly.

A few days after The Killing Room was released, I was a guest on my local news’s daytime morning show to pimp the book and my signing at Midtown Scholar that took place that weekend.

Speaking of Midtown Scholar, if you’d still like to order a signed copy and get one of the very few remaining limited-edition prequel chapbooks, you can do so here.

The signing went as well as could be, and I even had a special guest show up!

Marshal Zeringue was kind enough to ask me some questions about The Killing Room and take the Page 69 Test.

Oh, and if you’re an audiobook fan, be sure to check out the audiobook which is narrated by the one and only Edoardo Ballerini.

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What else, what else …

Oh!

Barnes & Noble Press named The Killing Room as one of their top five favorite ebooks of the week!

And then even better, the ebook managed to get this special tag for a few days.

And for whatever crazy reason, today I learned that on Amazon (in the US at least) the hardcover and paperback are priced at 50% off, so now’s the best time to grab physical copies if you’d like — plus, it helps build my print sales track record, as I was told the reason Barnes & Noble decided not to place an order for the book was due to the fact my sales track record is primarily in digital sales.

Again: oh, trad publishing, you so crazy.

Finally, today The Big Thrill (the monthly magazine for the International Thriller Writers) had this very nice review of The Killing Room, in part which says “An ultra-fast-paced thriller, claustrophobic in its essence and as suspenseful as they come...possesses all the merits of a top-notch thriller destined to leave the readers reeling. Excitement guaranteed.”

Sweet!

And … I think that’s it for now.

Does anyone actually look at this thing?

If so, be a dear and leave a comment so I know I’m not wasting my time.

Blogs are so, like, 2015.

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Two Months Away!

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Almost two months away until Blackstone Publishing releases my newest thriller The Killing Room.

It’s the first book in a new series, and if you’re so inclined to preorder, that would be amazing.

Why?

Well, preorders show publishers, booksellers, algorithms, and more that there's enthusiasm for an author's work and they deserve more visibility. Based on the strength of preorders, a lot of things can happen or not happen for an author's career: book tours, advertising, media attention, etc.

And as this will be my very first novel widely available in bookstores, I want to promote the hell of it.

Which is why I wrote an exclusive prequel story that clocks in at just over 9,000 words. And if you preorder the hardcover or trade paperback, I'll send you the story as a limited edition chapbook. (More on that below.)

The Killing Room is being released in hardcover and trade paperback, as well as ebook and audio. Ebook links will be available at a later date, but below are the links for the hardcover.

I also teamed up with my local independent bookstore, Midtown Scholar, which is taking preorders for signed and personalized copies. You can preorder the hardcover or trade paperback, and they'll include the chapbook with the order. Easy peasy!

So as I mentioned, I wrote a special short story that's a prequel to the novel. I have no plans for it to be republished anywhere, so the only way to read it is to preorder The Killing Room.

Again, if you preorder the hardcover or trade paperback, you'll get a limited edition signed chapbook.

If you preorder the audiobook or ebook (again, ebook links coming at a later date), then you can still get the story, though only as an ebook.

Once again, if you preorder from Midtown Scholar, the chapbook will be included with the book. If you preorder elsewhere — Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Amazon, your own independent bookstore — we'll mail you the chapbook, along with a signed bookplate (a label with my signature that can be affixed to the inside of the book; I'll even personalize the bookplate if you'd like).

All you have to do when you preorder is forward the confirmation email to me at robert (at) robertswartwood (dot) com along with your address. That's it.

In fact, even if you order directly from Midtown Scholar, please forward along the confirmation so that way we can keep track of how many chapbooks we'll need to print, as the print run will depend on the number of preorders.

Chapbooks and bookplates will be mailed out the first week of September. Which is ideal, because while Maniac is a prequel to the book, it's highly recommended you read the novel first as otherwise the story will spoil a major twist in the book.

Trust me, it'll all make sense in due time.

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Preorder my new thriller THE KILLING ROOM — and receive a FREE chapbook!

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I've got a new thriller coming out this August from Blackstone Publishing, the first book in a new series, and if you’re so inclined to preorder, that would be amazing.

Why?

Well, preorders show publishers, booksellers, algorithms, and more that there's enthusiasm for an author's work and they deserve more visibility. Based on the strength of preorders, a lot of things can happen or not happen for an author's career: book tours, advertising, media attention, etc.

And as this will be my very first novel widely available in bookstores, I want to promote the hell of it.

Which is why I wrote an exclusive prequel story that clocks in at just over 9,000 words. And if you preorder the hardcover or trade paperback, I'll send you the story as a limited edition chapbook. (More on that below.)

The Killing Room is being released in hardcover and trade paperback, as well as ebook and audio. Ebook links will be available at a later date, but below are the links for the hardcover.

I also teamed up with my local independent bookstore, Midtown Scholar, which is taking preorders for signed and personalized copies. You can preorder the hardcover or trade paperback, and they'll include the chapbook with the order. Easy peasy!

So as I mentioned, I wrote a special short story that's a prequel to the novel. I have no plans for it to be republished anywhere, so the only way to read it is to preorder The Killing Room.

Again, if you preorder the hardcover or trade paperback, you'll get a limited edition signed chapbook.

If you preorder the audiobook or ebook (again, ebook links coming at a later date), then you can still get the story, though only as an ebook.

Once again, if you preorder from Midtown Scholar, the chapbook will be included with the book. If you preorder elsewhere — Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Amazon, your own independent bookstore — we'll mail you the chapbook, along with a signed bookplate (a label with my signature that can be affixed to the inside of the book; I'll even personalize the bookplate if you'd like).

All you have to do when you preorder is forward the confirmation email to me at robert (at) robertswartwood (dot) com along with your address. That's it.

In fact, even if you order directly from Midtown Scholar, please forward along the confirmation so that way we can keep track of how many chapbooks we'll need to print, as the print run will depend on the number of preorders.

Chapbooks and bookplates will be mailed out the first week of September. Which is ideal, because while Maniac is a prequel to the book, it's highly recommended you read the novel first as otherwise the story will spoil a major twist in the book.

Trust me, it'll all make sense in due time.

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My Newest Book

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*tap tap*

Is this thing on?

*clears throat*

So it’s been a minute, hasn’t it? I’ve mostly abandoned this blog in favor of social media — Twitter, for the most part.

But if you’ve been paying attention to, well, the world, you know just how much of a shitshow Twitter has become (and will inevitably continue to be) so I figured I might as well dust off this here ol’ blog and see if I can squeeze any juice out of it.

And so, without any further fanfare, I should note that my newest book is out!

BULLET COUNTRY, the second book in the Nova Bartkowski series (a spin-off of the Holly Lin series) came out a few weeks ago.

Kindle • Nook • Kobo • Apple • Google Play

While BULLET COUNTRY — like the previous Nova Bartkowski thriller BULLET RAIN — is part of the Holly Lin series, readers do not need to have read any of the books in that series to enjoy it. For those readers interested in the overall series timeline, the events of BULLET COUNTRY take place between THE DEVIL YOU KNOW and HOLLOW POINT.

It occurred to me the other day that this is the first thriller under my own name that I've published in two years, as END GAME came out at the beginning of 2020. Granted, I've been publishing books under my pen name in the meantime, but still. Two years!

(Oh, yeah, for those who have only been keeping an eye out on this dusty blog, for the past several years I’ve been publishing psychological suspense under the pen name Avery Bishop. I’ve published two novels so far, GIRL GONE MAD and ONE YEAR AGO, as well as a novella published by Audible which I later released as an ebook and paperback. And for fans of the AB stuff, fear not: there will be more coming in 2023!)

Anyway, I talked a bit about the new book in the latest issue of The Big Thrill, and I was a recent guest on the Brutal Dudes podcast where I discussed the book as well.

So … I guess that’s it for now. I’m going to try to remember I still have this blog moving forward and update it on a regular basis (especially as I have a new thriller being published next year by Blackstone Publishing), but for those just dying to keep up with me on a day-by-day basis, definitely check me out on Twitter. I’ll be there until the site dies or I get suspended because, well, Fox News recently labeled me as a “liberal writer.” On the plus side about that, new blurb!