My first stop on this mini tour is Joe Schreiber's blog, where I discuss my romanticism with first novels and how The Calling is not just my debut novel, but my true first novel. Please check it out, and while you're there, check out some of Joe's novels if you're not familiar with his work (Chasing the Dead is one of my favorite horror novels of the past decade and I highly recommend it).
The Calling Official Release Day
While it's been live for a little bit, today is The Calling’s official release day. What does this mean exactly? Nothing, really. E-books don't necessarily have to have release days, not like regular books. But over the course of a week and a half, there's one thing I've learned -- novels sell a hell of a lot better than short stories and novellas when it comes to e-books. At least for me. The Calling has already sold more units than any of my other e-books combined, and the number keeps going up. I want to thank everyone who's purchased a copy so far, and those who are planning to purchase a copy. After all, I launched this at a 99 cent introductory price, people!
Description:
When eighteen-year-old Christopher Myers’ parents are murdered, something is written on his bedroom door, a mark in his parents’ blood that convinces the police the killer has targeted Christopher as the next victim. To keep him safe, he travels away with his estranged grandmother and uncle to the small town of Bridgton, New York. And it’s in Bridgton that he meets an extraordinary young man who has come with his father to stop an unrelenting evil. Soon Christopher learns of the town’s deep dark secret, and how his parents’ murder was no accident, and how he has been brought to Bridgton by forces beyond his power—forces that just may threaten the destruction of all mankind.
Purchase this e-book for $0.99:
- Kindle (US)
- Kindle (UK)
- Nook
- Smashwords
- XinXii
Advance Praise:
“The Calling is a powerful, gripping and terrifying novel, the sort that possesses your whole life while you’re reading it; it’ll stalk you through the day, and inform your dreams. Swartwood has delivered a novel that will become a classic.”
— Tim Lebbon
“Robert Swartwood’s The Calling is a diabolical rocket sled of a psychological thriller. Told through the vivid, almost druggy point of view of a young man on the edge, tangled in a web of tragedy and surreal horror, Swartwood’s novel gets under the skin and stays there. Highly recommended.”
— Jay Bonansinga
Linkage:
The Calling will, at some point, be made available at other e-bookstores such as the Kobo and Sony. For now, if you have one of those e-readers and want to read The Calling, you can download the appropriate format at Smashwords and just transfer the file.
Over the next two weeks I'll be going on "tour" to help promote The Calling. I mentioned how I plan to release a few more e-books this year, but don't worry, I don't plan to "tour" for all of those too. But The Calling is the first novel I'm releasing, and it's my true first novel, so it holds a special place in my heart. A big thank you to everyone who was kind enough to host me at their blogs for a day. Here's the schedule:
- 4/5 - Joe Schreiber
- 4/6 - Z. Constance Frost
- 4/7 - David B. Silva
- 4/8 - Barry Napier
- 4/11 - Tim Lebbon
- 4/12 - Kip Hanson
- 4/13 - Maurice Broaddus
- 4/14 - Samuel Rippey
I decided to take the 15th off, as it's officially Tax Day here in America, though the IRS apparently pushed it back to Monday, which is also unfortunate for some, as that's when I'll be doing a live reading here at my website.
Yes, you read that right: I'll be doing a live reading here at my website. It starts at 7 pm EST and will go for about a half hour to an hour. I'll read some of The Calling and then take some questions that are submitted via the comments section of the post. Plus, I will make an exciting announcement. Oh, and to create some good Internet viralness, a few cute animals may make an appearance too. Isn't technology great?
Tom Petty Was Right
Waiting sucks, doesn't it? And I'm not just talking about the movie, though it had its moments. I'm talking about what a writer does a lot of -- just waits. Waits to hear back from magazines, from agents, from publishers. And then, if accepted, waits for the story or novel to actually be published. And then once it's published, waits for someone to actually read your story or buy your novel and maybe email to let you know they liked it or hated it. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
The other week I had a very long conversation with Blake Crouch. We talked a lot about publishing and self-publishing and I mentioned how I was releasing The Calling soon and that I was going to wait a few months before I released my next book.
"Why?" he said.
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Well, because ... I guess I'm not sure why."
"There's no reason to wait," he said. "Waiting between release dates is old school thinking."
And of course he's right. Traditional publishing doesn't want to oversaturate the market with just one writer. They want to drag it out. Release the hardcover and wait a year for the paperback. Then release another hardcover and wait another year for the paperback. Again and again. But if you're trying to build an audience, having as many e-books available is the thing to do. And if that means you have books ready to go, it makes no sense to just sit on them for a month or two or three. After all, just imagine the potential sales you could be missing.
This isn't to say you should always rush into self-publishing your e-book, if self-publishing your e-book is what you want to do. You should always wait until it's the best it can be. But when it is, why wait? This is why over the course of the next year I hope to release at least two, if not three, more e-books. These are all books that are already written and have been collecting dust on my hard drive. I just now need to go back through them and dust them off and get them prepped.
In terms of The Calling, the "official" release date isn't until Monday, but I thought you might like to know it's now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords (a special thanks to Horace Torys for the last minute notes). It includes a sneak preview of my next novel, too. All for a special introductory price of 99 cents (that's dirt cheap, people!). Or, as always, you can pay with a tweet or Facebook post. Check her out. In the meantime, see you next week.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZX0f4CL-T8
Two Weeks Away ...
... until the launch of The Calling. Are you excited? You should be (or at least I would like you to be). Anyway, with the release date fast approaching, I'm reminded about the pros and cons of self-publishing. Yes, it's nice being in control of practically everything -- price, layout, cover art, etc. -- and it's nice being able to distribute to practically every e-reading device, but the fact remains that marketing is essential. Because you can publish your novel, but if nobody reads it, does it really exist? A major publisher can send advanced reader copies to hundreds of trade publications where the book can be reviewed and brought to the attention of potentially thousands and thousands of readers. Not the case here. There are a handful of places that do review self-published books, but they are no doubt overloaded. So what is a poor writer left to count on? Why, the wonderful magic of word of mouth, of course -- and that, my dear blog readers, is where you come in.
I'm looking for two things:
- For anyone willing to request an advanced reader copy of The Calling (well, more of an uncorrected proof PDF) and read the book in the next two weeks and post your review at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, etc. The book is lengthy, almost 100,000 words, so I understand if time is an issue. Even if it's a week or two into April, that's fine too, but I don't want requests from people who aren't serious and willing to read and review the book. And understand that I'm talking about honest reviews here. If you love it, great. If you think it's okay, that's fine. If it's not your cup of tea, that's totally understandable. None of it will hurt my feelings; I'm just appreciative that you would take the time to read some words that I've strung together.
- I'm going to try my hand at a mini blog tour for the first two weeks of April. I have some dates and sites already set up but would be happy to visit anyone's blog where I could do a guest post, an interview, talk about the book or publishing or whatever. Do keep in mind that The Calling is a supernatural thriller, so it's targeted more to readers who like that kind of genre, but if your blog is focused mainly on robotic erotica and you'd like me to stop by, then sure, I'm game.
So if either of those two things -- if not both -- appeal to you, please e-mail me at robert (at) robertswartwood (dot) com and let me know what you're thinking. This is, like everything else in life, an experiment, so we won't know whether it'll be successful until it happens. And of course I can't do that without your help and support. Thank you.
On Frustration
Okay, I'll admit it: I'm frustrated.
This shouldn't be surprising -- a lot of writers are sharing my frustration recently -- but this is my blog so I figure I should tell you how I'm feeling. I'm cynical by nature and always expect the worse but there's still a small part of me that is always hoping for the best. The part of me that kept writing novel after novel, that eventually signed with an agent, that eventually left that agent and then eventually signed with a new one. That part of me that didn't let the continuous rejections get me down, knowing that each novel was good but just wasn't right for the publishers for various reasons. Always so close until the day the whole Hint Fiction thing happened and I sort of found a secret backdoor into the publishing world. Hell, I wasn't going to say no, so I stepped inside, thinking that this was it, that the next book was definitely going to sell this time.
And, who knows, maybe it will. My agent is currently reading the revision on a new thriller, and he tells me he's liking it. Which means that in the next few weeks, if all goes well, he will be taking it out to publishers. And my feelings toward this? I'm not totally sure. Every day that passes I feel less and less comfortable with the idea of signing all the rights to a novel away. Because before, what was the main thing publishers offered? A way to get into bookstores, to reach readers. But bookstores -- at least the major chains -- are fading away (publishers are even looking elsewhere to try to sell books). And even if they weren't, the average shelf-life of a book is, what, two months? After that the only way readers can find your work is by ordering it from, say, Amazon. And of course they can always buy the e-book version (like from, say, Amazon), which would earn me, by industry standards, only 25% royalties ... and that's not after everyone (like the agent) takes their share.
I've never been opposed to self-publishing; I just didn't see it as a viable option. After all, the main thing -- distribution -- just wasn't there. But now it is.
I've been with two agents who have shopped two novels each -- novels that, in one way or another, received very kind words from editors. One editor at Doubleday said she loved the book ... but just didn't feel it was right for the line. And so on and so forth.
Such is life.
The response from each agent after the novels had made their rounds was always the same: We can always revisit them later once you get a book deal.
But at this point, I figure, why wait? I know the books are good enough. And right now they're doing nothing more than collecting dust on my hard drive, so ... again, why wait?
What's so frustrating is I feel like I've finally made it to the threshold of publishing, right to the place I've always wanted to be ... but it's starting to slip away. The entire business model is shifting right before my eyes. It's a good time and a bad time to be a writer, depending on your point of view. Does this mean I have forsaken traditional publishing? Well, there's a funny story to that.
Last fall I applied to three MFA programs. I only applied to three because the two I really wanted to attend didn't require GREs and I had just assumed -- yes, yes, I know the saying -- that all creative writing MFAs didn't require GREs. Boy how I was wrong. But anyway, I applied and have just been waiting and waiting until today when I received a phone call from one of the schools telling me I have been accepted into the program and that they would like to consider me for a TA position. Next week I interview for the position, and hopefully all will go well. Long story short, if I do continue with a program and eventually graduate with a MFA in creative writing and I want to teach writing at a university, it's in my best interest to be published by a major publisher. Sure, I have the Hint Fiction anthology under my belt, but an actual novel is more ideal. Thing is, though, it's making more and more sense not to publish with a major publisher.
See my frustration?
Am I against possibly selling my work to major publishers? Not completely. I'll let my agent go out with this new book and we'll see what's what. Maybe there will be an incredible jaw-dropping offer. Maybe there will be a small insulting offer. Maybe there will be no offer at all. So for now I'm keeping my cynical fingers crossed and hoping for the best. But I'm also taking charge in a few different ways, like releasing those novels that I've been sitting on for years with the idea of "revisiting them later." I've already released four e-books -- the most recent Spooky Nook in case you didn't know (plus *cough cough* there's a contest) -- and the next one, a full-fledged novel, is soon on its way. In fact, here's the finalized cover.