I’m publicly tracking preorders on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man. The novel has already earned a Publishers Weekly starred review, and several glowing endorsements from other writers. But how is it doing in the marketplace? Not all that well, honestly.

My goal is 500 preorders. Here are the current statistics:

(?) Over the weekend and early in the week pre-orders were moving along slowly but steadily. My guess as to why is that Amazon may have begun including the title in their daily emails to potentially interested customers. But the pace slowed considerably after Tuesday.

**Around 350 subscribers have been long-time subscribers. The others are mostly new to my work, having signed on during recent promotional events. Only 39% of emails sent track as having been opened.

Find all related posts here.

Find preorder links and info here.

Over the years my books have won a devoted following and that’s been so very gratifying. Still, they’ve never sold well. Not when I’ve put them out myself and not when they’ve been New York published. Of course, there has never been a real publicity campaign behind any of my work.

With my forthcoming novel, The Last Good Man, I’m doing the publicity myself and I’m doing what I can, but this time around I’ve decided to stop pretending. A friend of mine once said that even if a writer isn’t doing well in the market, it’s important to try to maintain “the illusion of momentum” — that is, to give the appearance that one’s career is steadily improving. I’ve tried to do this in the past, but I’m not going to anymore. I’m going to share facts instead.

To start, I’m going to chart preorders here on my blog. I’ll update weekly. Keep in mind that my net on each ebook is at most 70% of the list price (exact amount varies by vendor and country) and that I’ve spent more than a year working on this novel while paying out-of-pocket for the services of editors, a copyeditor, and a cover artist. I’m not complaining about the expenses. A business requires investment, after all. But a business also requires enough income to cover expenses with something left over for profit.

So here are the current statistics:

My goal is 500 preorders. The publication date for The Last Good Man is June 20, just a little over five weeks away.

Visit this page to learn more about the novel. You’ll find a link to the Publishers Weekly starred review, blurbs from early readers, and the opening chapter.

More discussion of the reason behind this do-or-die push is here.

**Around 350 subscribers have been long-time subscribers. The others are mostly new to my work, having signed on during recent promotional events. Only 39% of emails sent track as having been opened.

Or should I say, “Read the opening chapter and preorder!”

Yes, yes, I’m pushing this book AND I’m pushing preorders. I’ll be blunt and say that I’ve come to see this as a do-or-die novel for me. (See my “On Promotion” post.) Either New York publishing was right in deciding that my work cannot earn a reasonable return on the investment, or they made a big mistake when they gave me the opportunity to publish The Last Good Man on my own. All of you, the readers (the potential readers), get to decide which it is.

Do you want to talk numbers? We can. So far — five days after preorder links went up — I’ve pre-sold thirty-one ebook copies. Thank you, THANK YOU, to everyone who has preordered.

Can I persuade more of you to do so?

Visit this page to see what early readers have said about the story and then scroll down to read the opening chapter.

Does The Last Good Man strike you as a story that would appeal to you? If so, please consider a preorder. And please mention The Last Good Man to your reading friends.

Thank you.

Artist Philippe McNally posted this photo showing some of the preliminary work preceding the final design for the cover of The Last Good Man. I repost it here with permission. (click the image to see a larger version)

Philippe was a pleasure to work with. Here’s a post on the cover design process.

Contact him if you’re looking for book-cover art.

I needed InDesign to layout the print edition of The Last Good Man, so I’m renting the use of it on a month-to-month basis. And since I’m paying for it anyway I decided to go ahead and create a print edition of my recent short story collection Light and Shadow.

So if you prefer print to ebook, go get it!

It’s a slim volume, just 156 pages, but I like to think it’s a solid group of stories. Find all the details here on my website.

Update: Now available for pre-order at iBooks and Kobo.

The release date for The Last Good Man is June 20, but preorder links are going up — so far only for the ebook and only at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but expect to see it at Kobo and iBooks before long.

There will also be a print edition. I’m hoping that will be available to order through bookstores within a week. I’ll post more information here when I have it, and I’ll also update links on my website.

By preordering, you’ll get your copy of The Last Good Man automatically — so there’s no way you’ll forget — and that’s good for you AND me.

Pre-order the ebook at:
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
iBooks/Apple
Amazon – USA
Amazon – UK
Amazon – AUS
Amazon – CA
(Also available at other Amazon stores.)

Update on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man

One of the challenging things, for me, about publishing a novel under my own imprint is maintaining my confidence throughout the process. In traditional publishing an author can always fall back on the fact that a professional editor thought enough of their book to pay an advance and to dedicate a chunk of the corporation’s financial resources toward publication, publicity, and distribution. That’s part of the reason writers — especially new writers — talk about the “validation” of traditional publishing. After all, if someone experienced in a for-profit business thinks money can be made off your work, then it is, by definition, worth something. Right?

But when I shift from writer to publisher, I lose the validation of that third-party professional opinion. It’s all on me to decide if the manuscript is ready, if the cover will work, if I’m justified in sending it off to reviewers and pro-writers… That’s when it helps to remember all the positive responses The Last Good Man has picked up along the way.

So where am I in the publication process? I’ve continued to send out review copies and, since there is a small demand for it, I’ve created a print ARC (advance reader copy). Those are still being printed, but I should have them in hand by the end of the month.

The manuscript is presently with the copyeditor. When I get it back I’ll need to input corrections to my master manuscript and when that’s done, I get to create the ebook and the print edition all over again. ::sigh:: 🙁 There are always a lot of chores in this business.

So, the big news: The cover art is done! One of my tasks for the upcoming week is setting up the cover reveal.

More soon…

This website is in danger of turning into a ghost town, so I thought I’d post a brief progress report.

I’d like to say that I’ve been writing, but it isn’t true. Since at least the beginning of the year my efforts have focused on getting my forthcoming novel, The Last Good Man, ready for publication while working on promotional strategies for all of my books.

So what’s the status of The Last Good Man? The pre-copyedit draft is done. I coded the manuscript to create ebooks for advance readers and I’ve begun to send out review copies. I also did a quick and dirty print layout to determine the likely page count and price of the print edition. And cover art is on the way! We’ve agreed on the rough design, and now await the finished illustration.

Promotion continues, as you’ve probably noticed from the events I’ve been participating in. I’m working on connecting with more new-to-me readers by encouraging people to sign up for my email newsletter.

By the way, if you already subscribe to my newsletter, do be sure to check your spam folders and if you find one of my newsletters there, please whitelist it. I’ll have a new story out in an anthology next month, I have several promotions coming up, and of course The Last Good Man will be released in June, so there will be a lot of news!

One thing I’ve learned is that book promotion really is a full-time job — and most of that work falls on the author, regardless of whether the novel is traditionally published or indie published. So, onward!

Look what showed up in the mail today!

This is the German-language edition of The Red, translated by Helga Parmiter and published by Amigo Grafik. Translations of The Trials and Going Dark will follow.

The Red is also available in Polish and Italian editions.

It seemed timely, so I posted this snippet from THE TRIALS, book 2 of The Red trilogy on Twitter a couple of days ago, and now I’ll repost it here: