The Business Of Writing

I had no idea when I first entered the publishing world as an author how much I did not know about what went into selling books. I naively believed that all you had to do is write something that people like to read and voila.

Luckily, I signed with a small independent publisher – Black Rose Writing – whose owner, Reagan Rothe, has a guerilla warfare marketing approach. Because BRW is a small family, and I love families, I get to watch how they do things. They keep moving the marketing resources around each month to maximize the return on investment and get their writers before new potential readers. Selective and surgical precision advertising on Face Book, Amazon, Book Bub is the core of this process.

It must be working. All of my books continue to be bestsellers on Amazon.

The latest advertising venture, seen above – Bargain Booksy – is geared towards exposing this amazing, limited, $2.99 sale for the Kindle combo collection of The Wise Ass, An Alien Appeal, and Kissing My Ass Goodbye to readers who love to read and enjoy a great deal. Welcome to The Claire Trilogy. Those are the first three books of what has now expanded into a five book series called The Claire Saga. Those first three books introduce you to the core group of lovable mystical misfits all built around a magical mule named Claire. She does exist.

You, as a reader, get to see how those unique and fully developed TCT characters are found and forged into a family.

As a business model, this $2.99 sale will hopefully entice a number of new readers to take a chance on this old, but yet new to the business, writer. I mean, you buy the three books that started it all for less than a Starbucks.

Won’t put any money in my pocket, but it will get the books out there.

If I am ever going to have a cult following, it has to start somewhere.

Fingers crossed. And now some backstory.

Once that main story of TCT was up and running, Reagan asked me if there was more to the tale. There was.

I wanted to show the readers what went into the formation of the character Jimmy McCarthy/Moran, so I wrote the prequel to TCT, called Finding Jimmy Moran. I wanted the readers to know that the magic that becomes so prevalent throughout the story started long before Jimmy fell in with the mob.

Where TCT is my homage to my new found home, Colorado, and my intergalactic vacation homes beyond, and the wonderful characters that I’ve met along the way, FJM is my homage to my first and forever home, Riverdale, Da Bronx, and all of the incredible people I knew and loved growing up.

But I believed the best way to experience the entire Claire storyline was for the reader to first become emotionally invested in the once human character, Jimmy, that the loveable and mystical Claire chose, from among all others, as her best and eternal friend. That requires that you first read TCT. You see, the story in this saga only matters as it connects to Claire. She really is the Alpha and Omega. But you don’t fully understand Claire if you don’t fully understand what Claire saw in Jimmy. Hence FJM.

So this $2.99 sale comes just at the right time and hopefully will compel the new Bargain Booksy readers to burn through TCT, be totally hooked, then finish FJM before Christmas and come looking for more. A cheap shot of literary crack. And there is more coming. See, more business.

Given how my erratic mind works, once I finished my book of Genesis, FJM, I was ready to write my book of Revelations. I wanted to show the readers how the story about Claire and her family of mystical misfits plays out. So I sat down and wrote Where The Ley Lines Meet, just as Claire dictated it.

I just finished WTLLM‘s edits and I have seen the final cover, which I plan to reveal in the not so distant future. Fuego! I love all my books, but I truly believe WTLLM is my best work. And that’s how it should be. A writer should get better each time he/she writes. And no one ever knows if they’ll get to write the next book. So I try to leave it all on the playing field, every game.

As I look back on it, FJM prevents the onset of series fatigue. The respite of history before a push to the final conclusion.

With WTLLM, I’ve brought back together all of the characters the readers of TCT and FJM have come to love. The readers themselves who have invested in these books are now part of this story, they are friends with these characters. We have all sat down and broke bread together. We have laughed and cried together. I ask you now to all come along with me and see how it ends.

This book kicks ass, figuratively and literally. It’s the Claire Universe’s version of Ragnarok.

Hopefully pre-sales will begin around Christmas.

So, back to the business that reflects the above substance, as reflected through the following substance.

I was told early on in my writer’s incarnation that I had to establish a social media presence so that people out here on the internet would learn who I am.

Up until that moment, I was an enigma with an email and a dormant Twitter account. I am a Luddite.

Desperation lead me to figure out how to set up this web page and start blogging. At the beginning, I asked my dear friend, Irish writer and film auteur, Colin Broderick, what I should write about in the blogs. He wisely told me to write about Claire, and to write about myself, past and present. He said, don’t lead with the books (a rule I just broke, above). He told me that if the people reading your blog like who you are, and like how you write about your life, they will go find your books.

Colin, of course, was right. No wonder his memoirs Orangutan and That’s That are so memorable.

So, I wake up each morning wondering what it is I will write about. It’s almost like a diary that I just happen to leave open on the kitchen table. I don’t know who will read it. And I never know what a reader’s response will be. But the beauty of being old is that you have to have lived a long time to get there. So I can always find something to muse about. It helps that I’m shameless.

But, I’m too old to have the luxury of carefully crafting an alluring persona. There isn’t time for a slow build. I have to put it all out there, right here, right now. This is who I am. Very rough around the edges.

The Slip Mahoney of writers.

So it’s no surprise that I don’t fit the New Yorker or New York Times model of the next flavor of the month. I am not built for Italian suits. I hate wearing shoes. I am not the type the Glitterati will fawn over. I’m just an old BIC who got lucky enough to survive his childhood, scrape out an education, become a lawyer, marry a wonderful woman, raise three great kids and towards the end of a four decade career in a really interesting area of law, moved to Colorado and, oh yeah, met my magical mule named Claire.

But what my writing, books and blogs, has taught me, is that who I am does not matter. What matters is that I’ve been blessed by so many unique, diverse and wonderful characters I have met and collected along the way. You see, most people go through life not realizing just how special they are. I got to see them up close and personal. And every one of them left their mark.

God has blessed me with the ability to recognize the uniqueness in everyone I meet. I really see each individual’s beauty and that has enriched my life in countless ways. To be honest, some of that enrichment has been selfishly driven. I am not a saint. To the extent that my selfishness has caused anyone else any pain, I apologize. I mean that. My writing has reminded me of my many imperfections.

I remember what I love about all of the very real people and creatures that form the basis for my central literary characters and I try to get that down on the page. If I have a writer’s magic trick, that is it. I want the reader to feel what I feel. To care as much as I do. And I do love and care for all of the characters in The Claire Saga and the people behind them. With all of my heart. To this day.

I may not remember where I left my wallet, glasses or car keys, but if you made me smile, laugh, and/or cry, or made my heart ache or skip a beat, or if we shared any other emotion, at any time in my life, I remember you.

For some reason, during all of the fun, sad and crazy shit that has happened in my life, there’s been a little voice in my head that always talked to me, right when everything was hitting the fan, and said, “you are going to remember this!”

Of course, now the lawyer voice in my head has to interject – quite sternly – to repeat that everything I write is completely fictional. I made it all up. Even this. Really. It’s all bullshit.

Now, that out of the way, you see, following Colin’s advice, my blog, including today’s edition, tells you fine, five readers who I am. Warts and all. Never much to look at but fun to be around. And as part of the business of writing, I hope this makes you want to read The Claire Saga.

So, please buy my books. There’s an AMAZING sale going on to get you started.

And if Hollywood is listening – come get your next LOTR.

Where The Ley Lines Meet. Coming on April 16, 2024, but keep your eyes peeled for that pre-sale.

Spoiler alert, I left the door open at the end of WTLLM for the New Testament.

If The Claire Saga becomes a blockbuster film series, I’ll have the time to write it.

Now I must leave my morning writer’s gym and return to reality.

I appreciate you fine, five readers (Claire’s Theorem – on each and any given day, there will never be more than 5) coming along each day to spot me during the heavy lifting.

Thank God it’s Friday. You all know what to do.

Get out there and fuck off at work until you can sneak out and start your weekend.

I’m going to go out and cuddle some kitties and make my rounds.

But whatever we do, let us make today a great one.

And maybe I’ll meet my next favorite character.