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Which do you want first?

Let’s start with the good news. There have been two major developments in the past week related to the Ted Saves the World Series. First and foremost, the second installment in the series, Mind Over Easy, is now available for pre-order on Amazon! While the book will normally be priced between $3.99 and $4.99, I’m keeping it $2.99 for the rest of the pre-order period (through October 18th). Buy it now to get the discount and get it delivered directly to your Kindle in 30 days! 

I’m deep in editing mode for Mind Over Easy and I think this one is going to be really special. After some help by my amazing beta readers, I turned an entertaining yarn into something I can be proud of. I can’t wait for you to see what Ted, Erica and the gang are up against next!

The second development of the week is that I’ve found a narrator for the audiobook edition of Ted Saves the World! Steven Jay Cohen, a narrator, professor and actor, has agreed to take on the task of bringing Ted Finley and his friends into your earbuds. Steven won me over with his commitment to the story and his desire to get the book far and wide to as many listeners as possible. Audiobooks take some time to get right, so keep an ear out for the book in December. If you’re already trying to come up with gift ideas for everyone you love, make sure to keep the Ted audiobook in mind.

Have you been overwhelmed with this good news? Are you dreading the bad news? Time to rip the bandaid off.

Last Friday, I received a call from my boss, telling me that I was let go from the freelance gig I’d had for the last four years. I’d written thousands of articles for the company while I was there, but the boss decided that he’d rather have the articles done by someone younger and cheaper than myself. It’s a sound business decision, but it served as a punch in the gut for me.

The freelance gig pulled in about 60 percent of my monthly revenue, several hundred dollars of which went right back into my fiction and non-fiction writing expenses. Four years earlier, if I’d never gotten the job, I might still be back at square one as an occasional author, so I’m eternally grateful. After losing it, I worried that my efforts to look for new work might cause havoc on my planned writing production schedule.

Here’s the silver lining. After hearing the news, I reached out to my friends and colleagues in the writing biz. Within a few days, I’d already gotten two new gigs that will likely bridge most of the gap created by the loss of income. I’ve also decided to pick back up an old business idea that was collecting dust on the back shelf of my mind. Even my dad offered to help out by having me write some content for a new blog. Between these four new ventures, I will have to put in twice as much time, but I believe the returns will lead to even more money that I was making at the old gig.

I’m overwhelmed by the support everyone has shown me during a difficult week. The solitary work of writing can sometimes make you feel like you’re completely alone. If you put yourself out there as an author and a friend, however, the help will be there when you need it. A huge thank you to everyone who messaged me about this most recent development. Your love further convinces me that the painstaking hours of writing and editing have all been worth it.

I hope to be a little more regular on the blog the next month or two, particularly leading up to the release of book #2. Keep an eye out for new posts!

By the way, I’ve included an excerpt from Mind Over Easy in my latest email. Subscribe to my list to get exclusive content like that going forward!

Top Image: Flickr Creative Commons Silver Lining by Bruce Turner

I’ve been off my blog posting schedule lately, but I’m going to squeeze one in here to chat about the author event I attended this past week. As some of you may know, I’m the co-host of a book marketing podcast called The Sell More Books Show with Jim Kukral. Jim is an author, marketer and a brilliant entrepreneur and his most recent brainchild was Author Marketing Live, an event for indie authors in Cleveland. Jim was kind enough to invite me to the event and to the fancy speaker dinner beforehand (see picture above).

You may not realize this about authors (sarcasm alert), but we lead pretty solitary lives. Sometimes I’ll go weeks without seeing anyone other than my wife and our cat. Generally, I’m a very social person and I love interacting with people, but getting the writing work finished often keeps me from tapping into my need for interaction. Author Marketing Live was the perfect event for connecting with others, because it allowed me to be with like-minded individuals. While there were authors of all levels on hand, nobody acted like they were above or below anybody else. From Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant of the Self Publishing Podcast to fans of the Sell More Books Show, most of the folks I came into contact with acted like friends who just hadn’t met yet.

I loved how much the event allowed me to take down the walls of social media and email to actually interact with people directly. I had lunch with a guy I’d only previously interacted with on Facebook and via email. I got drinks with two women who I’d previously come in contact with through the veil of Twitter. Heck, I hadn’t even met my podcast co-host Jim in person and the first interaction we had was a big bear hug!

The “connected world” we live in has made real connection more difficult. I’m so glad that events like this exist so that authors like me don’t go crazy in their offices.

While I was learning the tactics (not tricks) of the trade in Cleveland, my cover designer James was putting together some magic for book #2 of the Ted Saves the World Series. I’d love to share the cover with you here. Check it out!

Mind Over Easy is scheduled for release on Wednesday, October 15. Start getting excited!

Let me know what you think of live events and the cover in the comments below. I hope everybody is having a great last couple of weeks of summer!

I enjoy my free time. My wife and I like to binge watch TV shows and go to the movies. I have a group of friends I play soccer with on the weekends. When I’m out of town, there’s nothing I’d rather do than see friends, hang out with family members and explore the sights and sounds that come with travel.

When it comes to my true passion, however, I am a downright workaholic. These days, I like to spend about 80 hours a week on my work. There are 20-25 hours that I have to put toward my paid freelance work, but the vast majority goes toward fiction, marketing and blogging. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My wife and friends don’t understand it. Frankly, five years ago, I wouldn’t have understood it either. I worked several terrible gigs before I settled on my writing career. My longest tenure was as a barista at Starbucks. I enjoyed that job too, particularly the times I was able to connect with customers. For a guy who occasionally falls into the category of “unintentional outsider” it was nice having a few hundred forced friends per week. Spending time as a coffee shop chatterbox taught me a lot about people, work and general psychology. But learning and conversation wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to grow and improve as a person, and that wasn’t going to happen if I hopped on the management train.

The other reason I didn’t love my pre-writing careers was that I didn’t have much control. I can be obsessed with control, and that infatuation almost led to me becoming a theatre or film director. When I have the ability to shape all sides of a project, I feel like it’s truly mine. I never even cared all that much about finishing the projects. It was the hard working journey that got me excited.

The combination of growth potential and never-ending hard work made becoming an author the clear path for me.

When I get excited about a fiction project, like I am for book #2 of the Ted Saves the World Series, I can put in a full 14-hour day without much rest. It’s that passion energy that pushes me to find reserves I never even knew I had.

I’m not alone in this sentiment. I’ve heard of dozens of authors who feel the same way and often push themselves too hard. I’m in danger of that; no question. But the potential for burnout is totally worth it, as I get to spend so many hours per week working on a platform that will hopefully deliver my words to as many people as possible. If I need to take a second honeymoon to Cancun to mellow me out once I hit the breaking point, so be it.

Top Image: Flickr Creative Commons Hard Day at the Office by Tash Lampard 

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This has been one heck of a week. I didn’t have high expectations for the release of Ted Saves the World on July 17th. Since the book is my first novel and the first in a series, I figured most people wouldn’t buy it until future books had been released. Boy was I wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the book was released, I’ve sold more than 700 copies at 99 cents a piece. Twice in the past week alone, I sold more than 50 copies per day. Per day! I’ve never had sales numbers like that without paying for a boost of advertising. I’m amazed by the response and kind of baffled by it. More than anything else though, I’m completely grateful. To all of you who have bought the book or spread the word about it, I’m truly in your debt. I will repay this debt by continuing to write my tail feather off until I finish the series.

I’m more than halfway through the first draft of book two. In some ways, I feel more comfortable than when I put together book one. I understand what all the characters are doing and why they’re doing it. When I try to take Ted or Erica in a direction that doesn’t make sense, they make it known pretty quickly that I’m on the wrong track. I realize this phenomenon may make me sound crazy, but I assure you, it’s a good thing.

The sales of the first book are encouraging me to get book two out as quickly as possible. During a meeting with some like-minded indie authors last week, my fellow writers told me the best way to take advantage of my sales was to get book two out to market and fast. They even suggested trying to get a short story out there to bridge the gap if I can. It’s a cool idea, though it might be too much work for me to handle. Either way, I’m trying to get book two out before November 1. Here’s to hoping!

Have you had a chance to pick up Ted Saves the World? If so, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. If not, pick up a copy today!

Top Image: Flickr Creative Commons Hotcakes with Strawberries by Ari Helminen. 

This past week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hugh Howey, the bestselling author of Wool, on the Sell More Books Show. We touched on a ton of different subjects, but one of the most important was how writers can improve their craft. Howey said the best thing a writer can do to improve is to read as many books as possible.

I read a blog post a while back about the different kinds of readers. There are occasional readers who buy books once or twice a year, casual readers who will read a book if everybody else is doing it (i.e. Fault in Our Stars when the movie came out) and voracious readers who spend most of their entertainment budget on books. In middle school, I was in the voracious category, but over the years I’ve let myself slip into the occasional crowd. While I’ve read about 15-20 non-fiction books in the last couple of years, I’ve known for a while that I need to take Hugh’s advice and read more often.

One of my issues as of late has been a lack of time. Between my morning writing sessions, my afternoon freelancing and my early evening business work, finding the free time to read has been a struggle. While in transit and doing busy work, I’ve spent many hours listening to the latest self-publishing podcasts to gather tips for the Sell More Books Show. A recent decision to listen to the podcasts at double speed has freed up another 3-4 hours of listening time per week.

I’ve had an Amazon Audible subscription for over a year, which gives me the ability to download one audio book each month for a small fee. With the five credits I’ve built up from the last few months of not reading, I’ve decided to binge. Between my trial Kindle Unlimited subscription, the OverDrive library app and my audible membership, I’d like to begin reading at least a book a week to improve my writing skills and to start enjoying fiction again like I did in the old days.

How do you take your books? Some visual and some listening? All paper books and no Kindles? Let me know in the comments below.

Top Image: Flickr Creative Commons Old Book by Thalita Carvalho 

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On Friday, my wife and I saw the Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy. If you’ve been reading the blog, you can tell I’ve been quite excited about this upcoming event. In fact, I rated it #4 in my most anticipated nerdy events of all time. I won’t give too many spoilers here because I want everybody to experience all the surprises, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was funnier than most of the Marvel flicks and it did a great job of introducing the viewer to a new set of unique heroes. Also, my wife wanted to take Rocket Raccoon home and make him our pet. No word on whether he’d be allowed to bring giant anthropomorphic tree Groot along with him. I think we’ll just have to settle for a rescue cat.

Beyond the humor, beyond the great characters, there was something really important Marvel did with this movie for its entire cinematic universe. Comics are weird and many of them take place in far off mystical worlds. If Thor and the world of Asgard represented an olive branch to the weirder side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy represented an olive tree (Groot) and possibly an entire olive forest with Thanos, the Collector and a walking, talking 80s movie star who will not be named for fear of spoiling a key scene in the movie. Little by little, Marvel is coaxing the casual movie goer into the deep end of the kookiness that is the comic book world.

First, we saw that Thor could travel from Asgard to Earth (Terra) using a sweet, sweet rainbow bridge. In the Avengers, we watched Loki bring an army to Earth from the other side of the galaxy using some kind of wormhole (giving us our first glance at Thanos). In the cut scene of Thor 2, we saw two of Thor’s buddies deliver one of the infinity stones to the Collector, which connected Asgard to the world on the other side of the galaxy. Now, with Guardians, we have seen a complete story on this side of the galaxy that indirectly links Thor and the rest of the Avengers with freakin’ Rocket Raccoon and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

I was able to avoid almost all Guardians spoilers, but I’ve heard some major happenings going forward with how the Avengers may directly connect with the Guardians in future movies. While I wish I’d been able to avoid the potential plots for Avengers 3 and Guardians 2, it’s no surprise that Marvel would want to bring its super teams together. First of all, it’s more money for them (Avengers is the third highest grossing film of all time). Second, it gives Marvel the ability to tell whatever stories it wants. Can you imagine that kind of freedom as a writer for the screen? We have the technology to do weird stuff up there, but Marvel has the trust of the moviegoing public to put the strangest stuff in its comic library in theaters. Oh to be a screenwriter at Marvel right now.

Given the tectonic shift of Marvel moviemaking, I’m happy to be writing some out-there science fiction and fantasy. If Marvel calls me up, I’ll let you all know.

Top Image: Flickr Creative Commons Groot Garbage Bin by Arvell Dorsey Jr.

What’d you think of Guardians of the Galaxy? Let me know in the comments below.