Got a couple treats coming up for you from guest poster IINFAMOUS REVIEWER GIO Probably next week, you’ll see the review right here–followed by an interview with the author.
Gio calls this a legendary tale in the tradition of Robert E. Howard.
Sounds like this book is a standout, five star read, so start the New Year off right and come back to check it out!
Part of the story has been told in previous posts. It turned out that November would be the best month for the debut of the first book in the Paradox series. When I had a publish date, my next step was to arrange a promotion.
I hate marketing; I’m not good at it; but it’s one of those pesky chores you just have to do if you want folks to know your book exists, so I did what I could. My hope was to assemble a package of promotions that would overlap and feed each other seamlessly.
The overall ranking had slipped by over 10,000 places by the time of this screen shot, but it never reached an impressive rank during this phase anyway.
The next phase began on the 21st. From early morning until about 2pm, the ranking continued to slip, down to about 220,000+ overall. Then, finally, evidence began to show up that the needle was finally moving upwards again.
Not a bestseller yet, but moving in the right direction with enough time left in the day to possibly get there. Two of my Retreads novels had already topped 
Top 100 in three categories was less than what I hoped for, but might possibly mean that the book was showing up where book shoppers could at least see it. And technically, it was now a bestseller.
Around 8pm, when the data updated again, Escaping Fate was at #6 in Time Travel Science Fiction (for the Kindle); #25 in Time Travel Fiction (all formats); and #45 in Conspiracy Thrillers (all formats). Glass was half full.
This not being my first rodeo, I remembered to go to a bestseller’s page to grab a screen shot.
Here’s where I noticed a John Scalzi book was holding the #2 spot. My first encounter with Scalzi fiction was in a library many moons ago. I knew almost nothing about the author at the time, but after a reading a chapter or two, decided it was representative of everything wrong with the pozzed, woke publishing industry. Later, after discovering Vox Day’s blog, I learned more about the author and discovered my instinctive assessment was spot-on. Long story short, I thought it would be a satisfying coup if my underdog politically incorrect heteronormative red-blooded right-wing indie novel could unseat his gatekeeper-approved Establishment Left cookie-cutter book from that #2 slot.
Lo and behold, at 11:30ish pm…
Not only was it sitting at #2 in Time Travel Science Fiction (Kindle), but it was now designated as the “#1 New Release.” So a quick re-visit to the Bestseller’s Page was in order.
And there you can see Escaping Fate sitting at #2 with Gay Time Between the SJWs coming in 3rd. I wanted to stay up and see if it would hit #1 that night, but pooped out and went to bed.
I’ll probably never know if it cracked #1 in that category for a hot second–unless one of my readers just happened to be grabbing screen shots in that corner of the Web right then, and sends me one.
It had slid down to #3 the next morning when I checked it, and held that position throughout the day–so in that respect, at least, my promotion package has managed to sustain a decent ranking for a while. Not bad for a one-man operation cutting against the grain with none of the advantages handed out to the woketard authors.
On the subject of bestsellers, it hasn’t met with the same success as my Retreads novels (yet), but it’s a pretty strong launch, and the series is just getting started. I’ll call this one a “W”.
BTW, heartfelt thanks to the readers who have posted reviews. Those help immensely with visibility. I’ve written about the importance of reviews before and elsewhere, and groused about what’s been happening to mine, so will spare you that this time.
The promotion for Escaping Fate begins tomorrow. The price of the E-book has already been reduced to 99 cents across all platforms, so if you haven’t already picked it up, there’s no better time.
The pilot book has three reviews so far, for which I’m very grateful. Motivation to complain comes a lot easier than to praise; and I’m pleased for those who are willing to expend a little effort to share their thoughts on a book they enjoyed. I know ‘Zon can make it a pain in the 4th point to post a review, too. (I’m glad Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, BookBub, etc. are not quite as painful.)
However, one of the early reviews has confirmed that one of my feared outcomes is probably in play. When I pontificated on turning Paradox into a series, one of my worries was that readers of the first book might fall under the impression that the entire series is a young adult coming-of-age story. My remedy was to try to make it obvious in the blurb that the hero is only a boy at first. (He’s a young man entering college by the end of the second book.)
Evidently it’s not so obvious in the blurb. At least not to all readers.
I’ll be pondering this in days to come.
I hope you are all on your way to a restful Thanksgiving week with loved ones. I’ll be traveling and (God willing) spending some quality time with family. But I’ll try to keep an eye on rankings and such. If the book performs well, hopefully I’ll be able to get some screen shots and share them here.
Well, this is embarrassing.
Back when I finally made the decision to break my enormous tome into a series, I somehow came to the conclusion that dividing it into books of about 20 chapters each would result in five books.
Nothing seemed obviously wrong with my calculation. I even used a calculator. And a quick browse convinced me that approximately every 20th chapter sat some sort of plot element I could tweak into a story conclusion.
Then today, while looking for that point in what is slated to become Book Four, I couldn’t find it. Huh? How come it seemed workable then, but the 20th chapter in this soon-to-be book doesn’t look remotely like anything that could be tweaked into an ending note?
Well, that’s my problem, not yours. Bottom line and long story short: looks like the series will have six books instead of five. And I’m not sweating it, because these are the kind of problems I enjoy solving.
The Paradox series is officially launched, with the publishing today of the first book in the series. Heap big thanks to those who pre-ordered.
Be advised: at the end of the book I linked to where you can leave a review on ‘Zon…but the fact that I made the link from the pre-order page caused an error. I was able to upload a correction/working link now that the E-book is live, so henceforth, no worries. But apologies for the inconvenience to those who already have your copy. I have learned my lesson and for subsequent books I will simply wait until the publish date before I try adding the review link.
I sure hope I got everything right on the paperback, because there is no more revising the content, and that publish date is on Tuesday.
…And I’m rollin’ down the line.
So ya better get outa’ my way, now…
Ahem.
E-book and paperback versions of the first Paradox book go live in just a few days. I have also edited the second book, which is scheduled to be published just before Christmas.
I used the paperback proof again this time and caught all kinds of text that needed tweaking. Funny how that works.
But wait–there’s more! I may be done with the major tweaks to the third book. Well, based on recent experience, probably not. I’m about to order the paperback proof for that one–no doubt I’ll find all kinds of stuff to edit.
The first book in the Paradox Series is close to debut. The e-book goes live on November 11, and the paperback is scheduled for November 14. Just got the proof in the mail.
Cutting it kinda’ close, I know, but I’m giving it another once-over, on a physical book this time. I dunno why this is, but I’m finding all kinds of tweaks to make now that I’m actually looking at ink on paper. The deadline’s coming up fast for final revisions, so you know what I’ll be doing this weekend and for all my spare time coming up.
I’ll be tweaking covers too, when I’m done with this. Might share the covers here in weeks/months ahead.
Notice the paperback version has the Mack Bolan-esque retro cover painted by Derrick Early. This is yet another good gift idea for somebody who likes to read about kickass operators bringing smoke on bad guys. In this case, the bad guys are modern pirates, human traffickers, a murderous black ops team, and a turncoat mercenary.
Just as with Hell and Gone, I don’t know how long this discount will last…but I do know that Christmas is coming up fast.
Apparently Amazon does this sometimes: they have been discounting my bestsellers. I thought it was a mistake, but no.
What this means right now is that you can get the Hell and Gone paperback for less than a third of it’s normal retail price. In fact, it’s the same exact price they have discounted the Kindle version to: $4.17.
No idea how long this will last so you might as well strike while the iron is cheap hot! BTW, with Christmas around the corner this is a good gift idea for anyone you know who likes military thrillers, men’s adventure, action novels, or all the above.
With what’s happening in and around Israel right now, this book might be as relevant as ever.
Happy reading!
The Big Based Book Sale ends tomorrow. You still have time to save money on some good reads by non-woke authors.
Wow–my Retreads trilogy made the top 10??!??! To think I almost didn't put them in this time… And I've been plugging the sale mostly to sci-fi and fantasy groups. https://t.co/lV3rvGqNaE
— Henry Brown (@MachineTrooper) September 12, 2023
And despite it being mostly a sci-fi/fantasy deal, my Retreads trilogy made the Top Ten in sales. If you haven’t picked up my paramilitary adventures, now’s a good time to get those for cheap, too. (Not just on Amazon, BTW. There are universal book links on the “Books” page right here at Virtual Pulp.)
My thanks to Hans Schantz for putting this sale together. Hopefully the first novel in my new series will be ready by the time of his next sale. Or the one after that…
