Author of Rune of the Apprentice, Director of Apotheosis Studios, and video game aficionado.<...
Dear Friends
What better day to release The Catcher’s Trap e-book than the first day of Halloween weekend!
This afternoon you will receive an e-mail from inkshares with a link and instructions to download your digital copy of The Catcher’s Trap. Fear not, if you purchased a physical copy you will receive yours very soon. The e-book is just a nice perk Inkshares offers to their readers so you can have access to your books on the go.
You all have done so much for me already, but I have to be shameless and ask you for more. Getting reviews on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Goodreads is key for a book to succeed. There is, actually, a magic number: 100
Books with over 100 reviews are featured more prominently on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Visibility is key when you are a new author trying to make a splash in an industry that releases over 3,000 books a day.
Please follow the links and leave an honest review. Seriously, be honest. If you love The Catcher’s Trap as much as you love your mama, then leave a five stars review, but if not 4 or 3 are perfectly fine. A book with all five stars reviews looks fishy to readers.
Finally, don’t forget to join me on Thursday, November 10th, at 6 PM at North Haven Barnes and Noble, to celebrate the release of The Catcher’s Trap.
Have a thrilling weekend!
All of you have received an email from Inkshares this week informing you of a refund for ILLEGAL. It was sent out in error. I’ve been struggling to figure out what is going on and how this will be fixed and I wish I could write and tell you what will happen but I can’t. Basically the Inkshares team says they don’t know what triggered the mass refund but they can recharge credit cards and get those orders back. However, they do not want to re-issue orders that used credits--when the campaign began the platform gave you credits to encourage participation and they have since discontinued that practice. This seems unfair to me and I’m trying to reach out to them to come up with a better resolution. I don’t know what that will be but I’m also not sure how long it will take to figure out and I know many people were confused and curious about what was happening and I wanted to be transparent and share all I know. As you can imagine this is a very frustrating situation for me and I appreciate your patience and support, probably more now than ever.
A masochist is on the loose.
https://medium.com/@Warbler_Books/simone-andr%C3%A9-brun-2a704031bd39#.td2ti1rfh
Greetings from Hell frozen over, home of the World Series-hosting Chicago Cubs...
First, the good news
Okay folks, this is it. By now, if you ordered a physical book, you should have received notice that it’s in the sky or on the highway and en route to your front door. (It may have even arrived already.) The books took a little longer than we’d hoped to get from the printer to the office, but I think the wait is worth it. Speaking honestly, they look even better than I’d hoped they would. I’m delighted with the finished product, and I hope you are too when it reaches your door. (Quick note: Despite what the email said, they are jacketed hardback copies and not paperback.)
(Quick note #2: If you haven’t received a shipping notice, check your spam folder, and if nothing’s there, let me know and I’ll pass the word on to Inkshares. They’re a small but terrific group of folks and they’ll get it sorted.)
Now some bad news, followed immediately by good news
Due to circumstances and scheduling issues, there was no time to reschedule my September flight to Inkshares HQ to sign the books. But because I want to make good on that, I commissioned a big sheet of personalized illustrated bookplates (fancy word for sticker) that I’ve signed and will send out to all who want them for their copies. Just send your address to me via email (billyok@mac.com) and I’ll take care of the rest. It’s not quite the same as me writing my name in your book, but it’s close. (Alternatively, if you’re local, let’s just meet up and I’ll sign it right before your eyes.)
Now some more good news
In fact, if you’re in the Chicago area on the evening of Saturday, November 5th, you can get them signed in person by attending a launch party at one of Chicago’s best independent bookstores. I’ll be at Lincoln Square’s The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave., starting at 6 p.m. It’s right down the street from the Western Brown Line stop and there’s plenty of street parking in the vicinity as well. Come on by, say hi, and celebrate the imminent passing of this horrid election season.
And finally, a quick but hugely important favor
I’ll spare you the details and make this quick, but I cannot emphasize enough how crucial reviews are to an author’s ability to attract new readers on Amazon, Goodreads and Barnes & Noble. The benefits of receiving at least 100 ratings/reviews on each are tangible, and given how much weight those three sites carry, those benefits can be of make-or-break importance. So if you have accounts on any or all of these sites and can spare a few more minutes, I’m asking for your help in hitting that magic number. Even just a click on the star rating thing helps (though if you have some kind words to throw in, those are of course appreciated).
Here are links to take you straight to all three, all of which are accepting reviews now. Thank you so much (yet again) for whatever you can do.
— Amazon: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1942645236#customerReviews]
— Goodreads: [https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/30007120]
— Barnes & Noble: [http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/these-are-my-friends-on-politics-billy-okeefe/1123852462?ean=9781942645238]
That’s all for now. Be nice to each other. November 9 is almost here.
Halloween Update! Today’s lore is going to be about Vampires... because... well..
So... onto The Staking of Vampires
Vampires have undergone significant evolution since their initial debuts in legend. The book, Vampire Evolution from Myth to Modern Day, covers their transformation in great detail. From old tales depicting vampires as reanimated corpses, wraiths dressed in tattered burial shrouds, or even Japanese folklore. But commonly today, the stake through the heart is seen as a metaphorical silver bullet to the vampire. From catatonic immobilization to instant destruction—the current legend is flashier than its origin.
The belief was that corpses, were crawling out of their coffins, and feasting on their relatives. So burial practices simply advised nailing the corpse to the bottom of the coffin. It didn’t need to be wood or even through the heart. A steel stake or a rock, driven through the rib cage would suffice—almost like pitching a tent. Which, ultimately, seems a lot smarter than trying to stake a vampire who is currently active and wields powers of the undead. A bit of pre-emptive action and safety measures regarding the undead never hurt anyone.
Next week I’ll cover Trick-Or-Treating or the Witchfinder General. I’m saving some Seventh Age news for later and closer to launch date. So for now..
