A Word From My Mind: Books, Books, Books
August 4th, 2009 |Wow. I can’t remember the last time I had a weekend that relaxing. I worked two, maybe three hours, during the entire the weekend. The rest was spent doing absolutely nothing. I read, I watched some TV, I took the wife out for a drive, it was great!
But, like I said, I did do a little work. Most of it was for a homeschool book fair I’ll be attending this Saturday, and the rest was for Rupert & Me. Honestly, it feels like that’s all I do anymore. I keep wondering if I should change this site from One Stray Word to Rupert & Me.
Anyway, so I got a bunch of scripts in order and, you’ll be pleased to know, that I’m scripted up through the beginning of November. That’s right, if you’ve been keeping count that’s over a hundred R&M scripts written. Strip #100 has the honor of being inspired by my six-year old niece, Faith. You expect it, assuming I don’t shuffle the schedule again, Oct. 20. Although, Faith will probably get to see it earlier. One of the perks of being related to the creator.
One more bit of scheduling related news: On September 24 the strip will be guest drawn by my sister-in-law Darleen. Are you reading, Darleen? Tell your friends to visit the website Sept. 24.
For those of you who may not know it, in addition to being a blogger/cartoonist, I’m also a novelist. I’ve written 5 books to date. Right before I relaunched the OSW in April, I listed my books in the Amazon Kindle Store in February. With the sole exception of the month of April (that’s gotta be ironic, right?) we’ve managed to sell some books every month. It’s never a lot. But it’s always at least one. And it’s always either Fruitbasket from Hell or it’s sequel, A is for Amnesia, B is for Bullet or both. For those of you who don’t know, these books are part of the series staring private investigator Alex Cheradon. To date we’ve sold 7 copies of Fruitbasket and 6 copies of Amnesia. I’ve got to say, even though it’s only a book or two every month, I can’t help but get excited. Complete strangers are buying my books! This is unbelievable! Sure, it’d be great if it were 500 or 600 copies a month, but just the fact that anyone is buying my books is gratifying. It’s even more gratifying when you take into consideration that Fruitbasket from Hell was my first novel and a book that several people told me to stop working on. So, to those people I say: Nayh-nayh!
Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.
I have to say, this one’s all on God. We’ve done minimal advertising for the books, mostly because we don’t know how to. It’s one thing to come up with ads for Rupert & Me. It’s another to come up with ads for my books. But, anyway, the books are selling, so praise God. If any of you happened to have purchased a copy of Fruitbasket or Amnesia, and liked them, please leave a review on Amazon. If you didn’t like them, you’re probably not visiting this website.
Some of you may be asking yourselves: If the first two Alex Cheradon novels keep selling, why haven’t I written a third one yet? And I have to say, that is a good question. Pat yourselves on your collected backs for that one. I have a loose outline for the third AC novel and an even looser outlines for the fourth and fifth one. Previously, I was merely looking for time. Now that I am my own man, plotting my own financial future, free from The Man, I have time and no excuses. If all goes well, I’ll start work on the third AC novel this month and hopefully have it finished around January-ish. As I gaze towards the future I see the house that Rupert & Alex built.
If all does not go well, I might have go back to working for The Man and who knows when the next AC book will get written.
Which brings us back to Amazon. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get one of my books into the Kindle’s top 100 bestseller list? How ‘bout all five?? Come on, you know that would be cool! Here’s the links for all 5:
A is for Amnesia, B is for Bullet
Reflections of the Pink Elephant
Here’s the deal, the more books I sell, the less I have to worry about money and more time I focus on R&M and Alex Cheradon. Also, the more digital copies I sell, the greater a chance I’ll make print copies for those of you who’d rather hold the book in your hands. So, see, it’s a win-win for everyone!
Don’t forget, you can find me on twitter. Feel free to friend me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, with any luck I’ll finish up 10 strips this week and R&M will be done for September.
i read it! geez your really bumping me back in your scedule dudeee….