Happy Sunday guys! Just a quick post to let you know that this month I am running a giveaway competition on Goodreads, Book Likes and Library Thing for paperback and eBook copies of The Drought and new book The Flood.
You can enter the BookLikes giveaway by clicking here for a chance to win one of 25 eBooks or one signed paperback copy of The Drought, and I have 100 eBooks to giveaway in exchange for reviews on LibraryThing. You will have to scroll down the list to find it at this link.
Here are the details of where you can enter to win one of sic signed copies of The Drought and The Flood at Goodreads:
Have you heard about that international best-selling book that doesn't have a name? You know, the one written by that anonymous author?
No? Hmmm, let me ask you another question then. Have you heard about the white-knuckle roller coaster thrill-ride sandwiched into 450 pages of blood-splattering, side-splitting wit and carnage, fused together by a hitman who has spent far too much time at the Heartbreak Hotel, a Mexican barman who is serving up more piss than Bear Grylls could handle, and an alcoholic supernatural serial killer who Van Helsing couldn't even compete with on his best day?
No? No?! In that case you had better get the hell of my blog and never return because you must have been living under some sort of literary rock to not be familiar with one of the most exciting authors of his (or hers?) generation. With comparisons to Quentin Tarantino and Hollywood queuing up to transfrom the blood-thirsty residents of Santa Mondega into a cinematic psycho's playground (not to mention Margot Robbie being a fan), the man who uses the moniker of his most famous creation is on a mission to make sure you never forget the name The Bourbon Kid.
But because I'm feeling in a charitable mood, I'll let you watch this video so you can be introduced to the best book you haven't read yet. For those of you who have already welcomed The Book With No Nameand it's three sequels (The Eye of the Moon,The Devil's Graveyardand The Book of Death) into your heart and know why you should avoid the Tapioca bar at all costs, feel free to relive the wonderful story again before reading my interview with The Bourbon Kid as he talks about his crazy creation and his new soon-to-be-a-cult-success book The Red Mohawk.
Hey Bourbon Kid, pull up a seat while I pour you a drink. So let's get down to business - Sanchez was and always will be the real star of show right?
Absolutely! Initially I stuck him in The Book With No Name just so that he could be the eyes and ears of the reader, but he ended up becoming so much more. I used to be a bartender myself, so lots of the things Sanchez sees, hears, thinks and does, are things I experienced. I never poured piss in anybody’s drink though.
You tied up all the loose ends in The Book of Death to complete the story, but do you miss Santa Mondega?
I miss it a lot. By creating a fictional city where pretty much anything goes, I was able to get away with some pretty crazy shit that readers would never accept if the stories were set in New York, London or Paris. It also gives the story more appeal to international audiences than say, a book set in a quiet English village.
Your writing style and stories have been compared to the likes of Quentin Tarantino, but where do you really get your inspiration from? Hopefully not real life experiences!
Actually some of it is from real life. In my days as a bartender I met characters like the Bourbon Kid, Rodeo Rex, Elvis and Marcus the Weasel, although I obviously exaggerated them for the book. Some of the stuff that happened in TBWNN was based on events that happened when I was working. For example, I once did see Papa Smurf get beaten up by a couple of angry nuns on a fancy dress evening. That made it into the book. But mostly my inspiration comes from movies. I like to take little pieces from lots of movies of different genres and then stick them all together and see what happens. It can be fun. In The Red Mohawk for example, I imagined what would happen if the killer from the Halloween movies showed up in Dirty Dancing.
The Red Mohawk is your latest outing about a crazy serial killer stalking the residents in the small town of B Movie Hell. Tell me where this new idea came from and is this the start of a new series of books, and if so, what can we expect from the next installment?
I was watching the movie Drive one day and there’s a scene about an hour in, where Ryan Gosling (who is the hero) sticks on a rubber mask and starts stalking Ron Perlman. And I started thinking, what if that was the opening scene of the movie? You’d think Gosling’s character was a total psycho. So I decided that it would make a good starting point for a novel. Consequently the opening scene of The Red Mohawk involves a masked serial killer stalking a police officer.
I read somewhere that you might be thinking about pairing The Bourbon Kid and The Red Mohawk together later on down the line. Any truth in that?
It’s what’s coming next. It’s called The Plot To Kill the Pope and it’s already been a success in Europe and it will be out here in a matter of weeks. It’s pretty insane and features the Bourbon Kid, the Red Mohawk, Elvis, Rodeo Rex and a plot to kill the Pope that also involves Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll. I’m pretty sure there’s never been a book like it before, which is always my aim when I write something. If it turns out there is already a book like it, I’ll be livid.
The characters you have created are all very unique and endearing (in that serial killing, blood thirsty, anti-hero type of way). Which one is your favourite character and why?
It’s a toss up between Sanchez and the Bourbon Kid. They’re actually very similar characters except that Sanchez is a coward who pours piss in people’s drinks if he doesn’t like them, whereas the Bourbon Kid kills them. But also in The Plot to Kill the Pope there is a character called Jasmine who first appeared in The Red Mohawk. She’s great fun and provides the comic relief that’s normally reserved for Sanchez.
The Book With No Name was commissioned for a TV series called Pulp. What happened with that and is it true that Tobey Maguire’s Material Pictures are developing The Red Mohawk into a film?
Unfortunately Pulp got cancelled before it really got off the ground which was a big disappointment. But the rights for The Book With No Name are now in the hands of a company called Belga Films. I’ve worked with them on the script for a movie. I’m really happy with what they’ve done and it’s already caught the eye of one of my absolute favourite Hollywood A-listers (although I can’t say who just yet!). And Tobey Maguire’s Material Pictures are working on a TV series based on The Red Mohawk. So it’s all looking very good at the moment. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that at least one of these projects makes it to the screen.
You made that successful transition from self-published author to best selling author. What is the best advice you would give to all aspiring indie authors?
I guess from my own personal experience I would say, "Don’t write what you think publishers want. And don’t try to write like anyone else. No one can write like you better than you can, so do that instead! And cut out all the boring bits."
Your books have received quite a cult following over the past decade. What is the strangest thing you have had a fan ask you or request?
I’ve had quite a few people pitch me their idea for a novel and then offer to split the royalties with me if I write it for them. Can you imagine that? Cheeky bastards.
Tell me about it. Hey, how about in your next book Dan Hilles from my novel The Drought teams up with The Bourbon Kid and they go around killing every girl who refuses to sleep with Dan? You can write it and then I'll help with the administrative side of things like looking after the bank accounts. What do you think? Why are you looking at me like that? Oh no, please put the bourbon down! Let's wrap this up before you do something stupid! Finally, what can we expect next from you?
Well The Plot To Kill the Pope will be out soon. And that will be followed by a new one I’m writing which is currently called The Roman That Followed Jason. But it will probably end up being called something else. But it’s got Sanchez in it, so it’ll be good fun.
Sounds amazing - I can't wait to read it! Thanks again for agreeing to do this interview. I'm genuinely a huge fan of your books - The Bourbon Kid series is definitely up there in my top 5!
My pleasure. And I wish you all the best success with your novels The Drought and The Flood.
For more information on The Bourbon Kid and my book reviews click in the links throughout this article and make sure you check out this amazing rogues gallery of Santa Mondega's finest.
If you have taken a look around this blog, you'll notice I have a bit of a crush on The Bourbon Kid. It's not what you're thinking, I don't like him like that. It's more like a loving respect you feel for someone who goes around killing werewolves and vampires at will after going on a 12-hour whiskey bender. You know what I mean?
I was lucky enough to recently interview the author behind The Bourbon Kid and during my research for the interview I came across this wonderful set of character images of the residents of Santa Mondega; that wonderfully hellish town in The Book With No Name, drawn by a talented artist by the name of Gait44 on website Deviant Art. Enjoy...
That man has done it again! The best-selling author of The Bourbon Kid series is back with another belter of a book, caked with blood, action, bullets, hookers, dirty cops and a psychopathic killer in a skull mask with a red mohawk - and that's just the first couple of chapters!
Without doubt, the author behind his very own mask is one of my favourites. His blend of violence and dark humour never fails to disappoint, and in his first outing since wrapping up the Santa Mondega stories, it might have been easy to take his foot off the pedal. After all, so much went into making Santa Mondega the wonderful dysfunctional community it was
But step forward the residents of B Movie Hell (yes, that's the name of the town). They might not have a barman like Sanchez, but they do have an egotistical ex-porn movie producer who now runs a brothel (and pretty much everything else in town), and he has been pretty much left to do as he pleases since he bought and renamed the small town.
That is until the FBI turn up to investigate the mysterious serial killer who dons the frightening halloween mask with a red strip of hair who is hacking anyone up who gets in his way.
Agents Jack Munson and Milena Fonseca have been put on to the top secret case to capture the escaped mental patient, but they're not exactly welcomed with open arms in B Movie Hell. What starts to unravel is a town full of dirty little secrets, including one very big secret the FBI have been keeping for nearly two decades.
There are some awesome movie references used in this book, sometimes so subtle you'll want to re-read to make sure you have spotted them all. And then there are some pretty obvious ones, like the Dirty Dancing loving prostitute called Baby.
It's wonderfully paced and the author is brilliant at piecing all of his characters together one way or another and has a knack of making you fall in love with the biggest anti-heroes of them all. It's the cartoon circus of American wrestling in the 80s and 90s combined with cult slasher movies from yesteryear all rolled into one. Go buy it!
Let's cut to the chase - people like free shit. The problem is there are quite a few of us indie authors willing to give away our shit, and a lot of what is given away is probably, well, shit.
But reports have shown that "over one-third of the respondents report that they were enticed to try a new author because of a free book giveaway." So it's definitely worth a shot.
Besides, I have had a bit of success offering my debut novel The Droughtfor free to readers on Goodreads in exchange for reviews to get the word out, but the one thing I have learned is that you need to persevere. Most readers will accept your free shit but it doesn't mean they'll read it and spread the good word. Your going to need patience - and lots of it.
Sabrina Ricci at Digital Pubbing suggests the following sites to check out for free promotions and giveaways:
BookLikes
Goodreads Giveaway
LibraryThing Member Giveaway
Noise Trade
Rafflecopter
Story Cartel
BookLikes is a site where you can create your own book blog, Goodreads is basically the Facebook for book lovers and LibraryThing allows you to catalog all of your books online. All have really big communities and all allow you to post and promote giveaways to their members.
I was already a member of all three sites so this one was a no brainer. BookLikes allows you to post copies of paperback and digital eBook downloads, so I went with one paperback and 25 eBooks giveaways for The Drought. After 4 days 9 people have requested the paperback and 4 people have requested the eBook.
Goodreads allows you to giveaway paperback copies only (up to 10), but the uptake is much higher. Last time I ran a giveaway on Goodreads 996 people entered. I am giving away three copies of The Drought and three copies of The Flood. Both open for entries of March 11 and run for a month.
And as for LibraryThing - well that site just bloody confuses me! I think I've listed a giveaway for up to 100 eBook copies of The Drought but I'll be darned if I can find the damn listing on the site! Hmmm, guess I'll just have to wait that one out.
Noise Trade started as a platform for musicians and artists to promote their music but has since expanded to allow authors to offer certain chapters or the whole book for free. But seeing as I'm signed up with the Amazon KDP programme, this is a conflict of interest so I won't be using Noise Trade.
The same goes for Story Cartel, which allows you to offer your book for free for a limited period of time in exchange for reviews. Rafflecopter allows you to create and embed giveaway competitions on your own blog. I decided not to do this as I wanted to put my focus into promoting the giveaways on BookLikes, Goodreads and LibraryThing across social media and by interacting with members directly. For this I'll be using this great list of hashtags to promote across Twitter and Facebook.
On Goodreads I have had a decent amount of success contact members directly asking if they would like to receive a free copy in exchange for review. If you're doing this be careful not to spam members as Goodreads frowns upon this, and make sure you do your homework and pick readers who have read similar books to yours. I found this out the hard way!
There are also various forums on Goodreads where you can post asking for readers to review your book. All in all, I have managed to get about 90 odd ratings and 50 reviews on Goodreads doing this over the last couple of years.
And last but by no means least, I am going to offer The Drought and then eventually The Flood for free for five days on Amazon as part of the KDP programme. Digital Book Today offer some good advice on how to maximise your KDP Select days so I'll be taking some of these tips on board.
And that my friends is it! I will report back in one month with the results and feedback to how the results have been. Watch this space!
First off, let me start by saying I don't know the answer to this question. Hold on, wait a minute! Don't just leave - let me finish first!
I'm like most, if not all, indie authors: we're all in the same boat; stuck in the middle of a bloody big ocean caught in a bit of a storm. We think we know which way to navigate, but in truth whatever way we go it will be an adventure into the unknown.
The first thing we need on this adventure is a good boat, and I think I've got one. The Droughtwas my first novel published back in September 2011. That was nearly five years ago and since that time it has had more positive reaction than negative. Across the internet on Amazon, Goodreads and book review blogs, it's amassed in excess of 100 reviews and ratings, averaging 4 out of 5 stars.
But despite this relatively modest success, I still find myself lost at sea in choppy waters. A couple of times I've found myself the odd bit of dry land, but more often than not those islands tend to be inhabited by only a few readers at a time. They've been most welcoming and very nice, but they've been far and few between. I'm still looking for my China.
It's the 64 million dollar question for most indie authors. How can I get more people to read my book? We've seen other self-published authors get it right, so why can't we? What is their secret? What are the tricks of the trade they were able to use so effectively to make that jump?
As I am about to embark on the journey of publishing my second novel (The Flood - due for publication end of March 2016), I have frantically been trying to do my homework, and just as I found out five years ago, it's hard bloody work!
This time round I wanted to create some sort of structure; a guideline if you will, that I could follow and measure. So my first port of call was to turn to the internet, that good old faithful friend that's always there when us indie authors get a little bit lonely (not like that, you filthy git!).
I started out by typing advice for indie authors into Google. There were a lot of results (it is Google after all, what was I thinking?) ranging from an article in Publishing Weekly titled Advice for New Indie Authors from Self-Publishing Veteransto a nice piece on The Huffington Post from author and blogger AK Turner offering her Top 5 Marketing Tips for Indie Authors, and lots and lots of other sites who tell you how to market your book and how to get the best use out of social media.
All very good advice, and certainly all worth a good read. But if you are like me (day job, wife, baby, a terrible football team that ruins your weekend every week) it is sometimes incredibly difficult to work out where to start. Plus I am already five years down the line. I have done a lot of this already, including making sure you have a great book cover and spending time on the design process, to creating a social media profile and the pitfalls of getting readers to review your book.
Bingo! This was just what I was looking for - a comprehensive guide all in one place for the lazy indie author like myself. It lists advice on promotions and giveaways to crowdsourcing and advertising to interviews and reviews, and so much more! From the outset it looks and feels like an awesome place to start for any indie author.
So I have set myself a challenge. Over the next three months I am going to blog about my experience of using the advice set out in this article. I might not necessarily get around to using every single tool listed as it's a pretty long list, but I will do my utmost to follow Digital Pubbing's words right down to the wire.
Along the way I will also be using this brilliant list Ultimate List of Author-Specific Hashtagsas published by Book Marketing Services, and sharing any little tips I might have picked up myself.
I'd love to hear from any/all indie authors and fans of indie publisher along the way. You can keep up to date with how I am getting on by clicking on the label/tag The Indie Author Challenge or by following me on Twitter and Facebook.
It's sink or swim time. Hopefully by this time in three months, I'll be on dry land with thousands of book lovers :)
The eBook version will be available first on Amazon as soon as the proofreading stage is complete, followed by the paperback available at all good online book retailers.
To everyone who has been asking when the follow-up to The Droughtwould be available, thank you for your patience. It only took me four years, five months and nine days to get to this stage :)
But I hope it will be worth the wait! The first few reviews from the preview copies I sent out to readers on Goodreads have been really positive so far. You can check them out by clicking here but here are a couple of samples from those reviews:
"Oh My Gosh, Laugh Out LOUD funny! my roommate ran in the room asking what was so funny and when I told her, she laughed so hard she could no longer walk!"
"The Flood made me laugh, it made me laugh aloud and often. There are a couple of scenes on a train which contain some of the funniest writing that I have read in a long time and that's where this novel is a major success, it is just damn funny."
So hopefully it will be worth the wait. Keep checking back for official publication date and for other uploads on character bios, reader reviews and a few more surprises!
