In answer to some readers' questions:

I've made The President's Henchman available for free on four platforms: Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Nook, but all my other ebooks are available only on Amazon. The reason for this is simple: That's how I make the most revenue. I'm pretty sure, though, that you can get a Kindle app for just about any electronic device, maybe even your microwave oven. 

Regarding audio books: I just don't do them because the overhead is too high and the royalties are too low, from my POV. When you do an audio book — I had one done when I was published by Bantam Books — you need to hire "talent," i.e. an actor to read your book; you have to pay for recording studio time; you need a recording engineer; and it's not a bad idea to hire a producer, too, to make sure the whole thing comes together. All that gets expensive fast.

The President's Henchman, the first book in my Jim McGill series, just reached 1,200 Amazon reader reviews. For indie authors/publishers, favorable reader reviews are critical to success. 

So to all of you who have helped the cause, please accept my heartfelt thanks. If you've read and enjoyed the book, but haven't yet posted a review, please do. A review can be as brief and as to the point as you like. If you prefer to be expansive, so much the better. 

As always, please be sure to tell family and friends that TPH in ebook edition is available to them for FREE. Thanks for your interest and your help.

The Latest School Massacre

As an author, I'm lucky to have many devoted readers. What I'm about to write now may well piss off a few of you. Maybe more than a few. How do I know that? Well, I used to have a very enthusiastic fan with the initials RF. He loved all my books right up until the time he read McGill #7, "The Good Guy with a Gun." Once RF read that book, he was through with me. He hated my take on gun laws so much he said he'd never read anything else I wrote.

So be it. Here comes more.

I still feel if someone wants to have a hunting rifle or two, that's fine. There are laws defining when, where and what animals you can shoot. If someone wants to use a rifle or handgun for marksmanship competitions, I'm okay with that. If, God help us, someone needs a firearm in their home because they live in a dangerous place, that's regrettable but also understandable.

What's completely wrong, though, is allowing the public sale of assault weapons. Their very name tells you that these weapons are meant to be used offensively not defensively. They are military weapons meant to be used in combat against hostile armed forces.

In our country, though, they are marketed to any civilian who has the money to purchase one. We've all seen what happens as a result. The most ordinary places from schools to movie theaters to nightclubs become combat zones. People die and are maimed by the dozens or even the hundreds.

Governments — local, state and federal — are given the responsibility of protecting us against such horrific losses of life. With rare exceptions, all levels of government have failed us. The horrific death tolls and the frequency of mass shootings are only increasing.

In the end, though, it's our own damn fault. We continue to elect people who refuse to end gun violence. We are told that more laws are not the solution. Bullshit. Other countries that we consider to be modern and democratic have strict gun laws and none of them have the scale of gun violence we do.

The problem with our country is money trumps everything else, at least up to a point. The money made from selling as many guns as possible is what funds the NRA, the gun-makers most powerful lobbying group. They, in turn, fund the election campaigns of politicians who will prevent any meaningful gun laws from being passed.

These cowards in Congress and state legislatures are also the first ones to tell us any time there is a mass killing that now is not the time to talk about it. That's crap. This is exactly the right time to talk about it.

More importantly, it's the right time to start planning to vote against it. That planning has to start with changing the terms of the debate. Don't talk about the gun lobby; protest against the murder lobby. Don't talk about gun-rights politicians, brand them the murder caucus. Don't tolerate a president who won't stand up to protect schoolchildren, label him the murder enabler in chief.

Some misguided people will say we can't do anything about this horrific situation because of the Second Amendment. Bullshit. Warren Burger, the late, Republican Chief Justice of the United States said: The idea that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of an individual to own a gun is a fraud.

The people of our country are still the ultimate power when it comes to deciding how we will live. If we want to live in peace we will have to stop the sale of assault weapons and outlaw the ones in private hands; buy them back from the willing and let the unwilling know they'll face long prison sentences if they're ever caught with them.

But never threaten to seize them from people's homes, unless there's a sign of imminent danger. After a buy-back deadline passes, allow people to turn in weapons anonymously.

So, it's up to us to seize the power from the murder lobby, the murder caucus in Congress and state legislatures. Don't vote for anyone who takes money from the NRA or other murder lobbyists.

If you do, you'll share in the guilt of the next mass murder at a school, a movie, a nightclub or anywhere else.

x

Finding Political Unity

Five days ago, 10/13/17, the Vox website published an article about what top political scientists think of the future of American democracy. An academic from Harvard said: “If current trends continue for another 20 or 30 years, democracy will be toast.” You can find the rest of the article at this link: http://bit.ly/2i8OMvT

In 20 years, I'll be, at best, a spry geezer. In 30 years, I likely will be a fond memory to my closest relatives. So this downward trend is going to affect me less than it will younger people. You know, assuming that the Harvard guy knows what he's talking about.

On the chance that he has at least the general direction of things right, I'd say it's time for some intervention. Luckily for us, as we've seen when the GOP tried to screw with Obamacare, people will rise up and bombard their members of Congress with righteous and raucous protest. Being people who, for the most part, want to cling to their jobs, they respond appropriately, i.e. doing what their constituents demand.

That being the case, are there any issues which can unite a broad spectrum of voters to disregard party lines and even long-held biases? I believe there are. For one thing, huge majorities of people, whatever their political affiliation, have high, wide and durable contempt for Congress.

Many people feel that our federal legislators are running, and often ruining, our lives. They are regarded as the middle management of public life, people interested only in their own advancement, who will make everyone else miserable if that's what it takes for them to get ahead. You know, seven-figure salaries as lobbyists once they leave office.

The truth is, though, they are supposed to be public SERVANTS. That leads me to ask: What kind of servants get to raise their own pay? None that I know of, especially in the highly praised private sector of our economy.

If thinking of Congress-people as servants seems a bit quaint, the members of Congress are still public-payroll workers. So the above question is still apt: What kind of workers get to raise their own pay? Taking another step in that direction: What kind of workers get to do their jobs indefinitely without being subject to performance reviews?

Some might argue that elections constitute such reviews, but they lack useful specificity, such as exactly where did this Senator or that Representative fall short? That would be useful information for a voter to have in advance of casting a ballot.

So the questions then become: How can we put in place the reforms needed to seize control of Congressional pay raises and impose regular, publicly available Congressional performance reviews?

The pay-raise issue will require a new amendment to the Constitution, a high hurdle to clear but not an impossible one. The performance review could be achieved as a simple piece of legislation.

Would Congress ever do either of those things? They would if confronted with a sustained, vocal demand to them: As in, "Make these changes or you're out!"

I can see both people on the left and right getting behind these issues. Imagine how voter turn-out would increase in both presidential year elections and mid-term elections if Congress proposed a raise for itself and the voters got to approve or deny it. If during a given two-year period crime was down, jobs and wages were up, health care was widely available and affordable, Congress would get a gold-star review. If the opposite were true, Congress would be found in contempt of the American people. Their pay would be cut 25% and they would be given "Strike One." Any legislator who gets three strikes is out — barred from ever holding federal office again.

Think how changes like those above would unite Americans who otherwise hold starkly different views. Things wouldn't be perfect but our democracy would have a shelf-life of more than 20-30 years.

20 of America's top political scientists gathered to discuss our democracy. They're scared.

"If current trends continue for another 20 or 30 years, democracy will be toast."

VOX.COM

Invoke the power of prayer

In a New York Times story today, 10/2/17, about the mass murder shootings in Las Vegas, five musicians were quoted invoking the power of prayer.  One respondent, a former strong 2nd amendment advocate, demanded a change in the gun laws, i.e. making them stricter. It seems to me that these two impulses might dovetail perfectly if applied in a meaningful way.  After praying for the souls of the dead and that the hearts of their loved ones might be healed, congregants who believe in the power of prayer might beseech the God they worship to ask their religious leaders to speak out mightily and ceaselessly to force Congress to ban assault rifles, as a start.  Jews, Catholics and Protestants all believe some wording of the commandment: Thou shall not kill. I imagine Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other religions have similar strictures.  So why aren't all the religious leaders in this country publicly exhorting the government to change the laws as to who can own what kind of — and how many — guns?  The politicians who are in the pocket of the gun lobbyists can easily reject pleas from politicians on the other side who'd want to enact common-sense gun control laws, but they'd have a much harder, maybe impossible, time mocking a wide array of religious leaders pushing for an end to murder by gunfire.  You'd think these men and women of the cloth, students of God's word not to kill your fellow human being, would rise to the challenge at their own initiative.  But I haven't seen any sign of this. Maybe we should all pray for them to see the light.

Building a mailing list

Right now, I'm working hard on two projects: finishing a new John Tall Wolf novel and building my mailing list. Writing a new book is always fun, even if it's challenging. Doing the business end of publishing isn't really fun but it keeps the revenue coming in, which lets my wife and me sleep easy at night. That and indulge in non-essentials like buying tickets for plays in Chicago.

Why build a mailing list?

Because when you have a new book to release it helps to have a ready audience of people who'd like to buy it. And how do you build a mailing list? Well, one way is to give away a free book to show you can write a good story. Then people will buy other books you've written, especially if the book you give away is the first in a lengthy series as my novel "The President's Henchman" is.

Giving away a book isn't as easy as it might sound. It helps to have good reader and mass market reviews. I've got those things, but you still have to let people know the book exists. To do that, you have to advertise. My main ad outlet is on Facebook. Since last June, I've added 2,000 names to my mailing list.

That's not bad, but the writer who introduced me to Facebook advertising has 75,000+ names on his list. Being the competitive guy that I am, I want to get to 100,000. I figure there are at least that many people who will enjoy my books. Wouldn't be surprised if there are a million. So I'm going to have to work harder to achieve my business goal.

The next question is, what's the best way to keep the readers who sign up for your mailing list? Some people suggest that you have to email the people on your list frequently. I'm very uneasy about that.

My point of view is to let people know when I have something substantive to say. I don't want people to see an email from me and think it's something inconsequential they don't want to bother with.

So what I'd like to know, from anyone who'd care to comment, is how often, or infrequently, would you like to hear from me via email? Only when I have a new book nearing completion? When I might post a free short story to read on my website? When I announce my retirement? Just kidding about that last one.

Seriously, though, I'd appreciate some guidelines from my readers. Any help you offer will be seriously considered.

Of course, email is one thing, but if I feel a need to spout on some subject, I'll just post it here and on Facebook with no advance warning.

The Latest on Jim McGill

It's time to provide some feedback to all the readers who have been kind enough to either buy or download "The President's Henchman," Jim McGill novel #1.

First of all, your numbers are growing, for which my co-publisher Catherine and I are very grateful. Unlike the cliché attached to many writers — that we're neurotic wretches afflicted by creative constipation — I have a grand time when I sit down at my keyboard. I live my stories as I write them. It's a vicarious experience, of course, but it's also intimately personal as it occurs within my mind.

The only thing that comes close to the joy of writing for me — other than spending time in the company of my wife and daughter — is hearing from readers that I've provided them with a good time. Reading a good review on a McGill book always brightens my day.

McGill has actually been around for quite a while now. I wrote the manuscript for "The President's Henchman" in 2003. That was back in the days when I was traditionally published, and well before Amazon came up with Kindle Direct Publishing. The publisher who brought two of my books to market, Bantam Books, rejected TPH. So did many other big name publishers. They didn't see a market for the book.

So I put Jim McGill on the shelf but never put him out of my mind. A number of years went by and a small regional publisher showed interest.

Sorry to say, things didn't work out. I got the rights back, and Jim McGill had to wait patiently once again. His time came when Amazon let authors publish their work independently through Kindle Direct Publishing.

Catherine and I jumped at the opportunity. Using a BookBub promotion, TPH shot up to #6 in the overall Kindle Paid Store. That was early last year, 2016. Then BookBub decided to emphasize traditionally published books and Catherine and I started to advertise on Facebook a couple of months ago. We were following the lead of an English writer named Mark Dawson.

Thank goodness for Mark. Before we advertised on Facebook, we had 550 people on our mailing list. Now, in a matter of weeks, we're closing in on 2,000. We had 1,600 followers on BookBub. Now, we're close to 2,000 there also.

For comparison, Mark has 75,000+ people on his mailing list. So we have a lot of room to grow, and we intend to do just that. We feel, with good reason, we think, that there are many more readers out there who would enjoy McGill's exploits just as much as you have.

So please spread the good word, not just for me but for any author whose work you enjoy. As readers/consumers, you have tremendous power. Amazon and every other smart retailer want as much feedback from you as they can get. So, please, when something — like a good book — really pleases you, write a brief but glowing review.

That's the surest way to get more of what you like.

I'm working on a new John Tall Wolf novel right now. If all goes well, there will be a first post-White House McGill book out next year, as well as some new heroes (and villains) for you to meet.

Thanks again for being a friend of McGill.

Finding common ground

In 2003, I wrote a screenplay called Let's Play Two. The storyline has the team payroll of the Chicago Cubs being stolen by a computer hacker. The team owner is in a financial bind so he can't come up with more money. The hacker who took the payroll says he'll pay each player the highest salary that Cubs' hero Ernie Banks made — a pittance by contemporary standards. Nonetheless, the team pulls together and wins the World Series in the seventh game against the New York Yankees — in a blizzard, Chicago weather being what it is.

Only 13 years later, the Cubs did win the World Series, a product of brilliant management, terrific player acquisition and coming together as a team.

That made me wonder if it would be possible to bring the American voting public together for our common good. There's so much that divides us, could any idea unite us? I think there are a few things. I'll write about one today and another next week.

In my Jim McGill novel, The Last Ballot Cast, McGill is subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Oversight. The committee's chairman doesn't like McGill's attitude and McGill is threatened with being found in contempt of Congress.

McGill's too tough to be scared by that threat, and he asks why any American might be found in contempt of Congress but Congress can't be found in contempt of the American people.

A reporter later asks McGill what the grounds might be for Congress to be found in contempt of the American people.

He responds, “Failure to do their jobs.” Then he elaborates, "Over the course of a calendar year, has the unemployment rate gone down? Has the number of jobs paying a living wage gone up? Has the number of people with substantial health insurance gone up? Has the number of people using emergency rooms for their medical needs gone down? Has the number of U.S. made manufactured goods gone up? Has the number of imported manufactured goods gone down? Has the number of students graduating from high school gone up? Has the number of dropouts gone down? Has the number of admissions to colleges, universities, technical and trade schools gone up? Has the amount of student debt gone down? Has the number of cops on patrol gone up? Has the number of crimes against persons and property gone down? Has the number of people working their way out of poverty gone up? Has the number of whining fat cats gone down?

"If Congress failed in two or more areas of critical concern they would, de facto, be cited for contempt of the American people. Every member of Congress would have his or her pay reduced by twenty-five percent, they would receive no pension contribution for that year or health care coverage for the following year and members of the leadership would be confined at minimum security prisons during Congressional recesses.

How, he was asked, would such a situation come to pass?

“Congress would have to pass a law,” he said.

After the reporters all laughed, McGill added, “The voters could make Congress do that, if they wanted.”

So what do you think? Is this an idea voters spanning the political spectrum could get behind? I think so.

The Matter at Hand

In light of a recent political uproar, a personal reminiscence:

In my first job out of college, I was walking up a staircase at an insurance company in suburban Chicago and passed a young woman on her way down the stairs. I gave her a polite nod and kept going. Then I felt a hand squeeze my backside. It wasn't just a pat; it was a full-handed grab. At first, I didn't know what the hell had just happened, but the light dawned quickly.

With understanding came a laugh. The typical roles in such a situation had been reversed, and that struck me as funny. I looked over my shoulder and saw the young woman looking back, not in the least embarrassed.

We both went about our business and that was that. Reflecting on it now, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence still seems humorous. But experiencing such trespasses on a regular basis would get old really fast.

I mean, please, introduce yourself, share a little polite conversation, see if there's any mutual interest. If all that goes well, any physical contact will have more than just shock value. Some things are funny once, for some people. Other things aren't funny at all.

Oops!

I recently received an email from a sharp-eyed reader I’ll identify as JC. The note informed me that I’d given one character, who appears in both “The Echo of the Whip” and “The Daddy’s Girl Decoy” two different names. In “Whip,” he’s named Eugene (Gene) Beck; in “Decoy,” he’s named Eugene (Gene) Ludwig.

Sigh. Over the course of nine Jim McGill novels, I’ve created a very large cast of characters. It appears they’ve finally gotten the better of me. The way all this came about is I first used the surname Ludwig for the character Auric Ludwig, the gun lobbyist. Then I attached it to Gene Ludwig. My wife, the first person to read all my work, pointed out this repetition to me.

I said, okay, I’ll change Gene’s family name to Beck, which is how it appears in “Whip.” But when I was assembling the cast for “Decoy” I used an earlier edition of the preceding novel for reference, and put Ludwig back in by mistake. None of a half-dozen proofreaders caught the glitch.

But JC did. For which I say, “Thank you.”

The writer-to-reader-to-writer loop is very important. It lets me know what you like and what you don’t. It also might tell me where I’ve messed up.

One of the nice things about ebooks is they are easily corrected. So Gene Beck, by virtue of seniority and a preponderance of appearances, will stay. Gene Ludwig is out. We’re uploading a corrected file of the book to Amazon. For those of you who already have a Gene Ludwig copy of “Decoy,” I can’t swear that it will become a collector’s item like a stamp that mistakenly got goofed up, but it might be an interesting piece of small talk.

One bit of unrelated concern: Some readers have complained about copies of “Decoy” and other of my books that seem to have continuity problems, missing sentences and the like. Please be advised that ebook files can sometimes become corrupted during downloading. The thing to do then is to delete the file of the book from your e-reader (but not from your account). Do another download and that will usually solve the problem. If it doesn’t, contact Amazon for advice.

Old Friends and New Acquaintances

Jim McGill is back today in “The Daddy’s Girl Decoy,” number nine in the White House cycle of the McGill saga. This is the e-book edition; the print version will be a month or two in coming. “Decoy” is the penultimate book in this cycle. The next title, yet to be named, will close out the second term of Patricia Grant’s presidency and Jim McGill’s position as the president’s henchman.

I’m happy to say I still enjoy exploring McGill’s character. I think he’s grown since the day he was introduced in “The President’s Henchman,” and I feel he has miles to go before he calls it quits. He’s about to embark on a career as an international businessman — without giving up his own sleuthing, of course. Patti is about to become a venture capitalist with a social conscience. The McGill kids are becoming independent adults and, who knows, one or more of them might make McGill a grandfather.

That’s the thing that keeps me interested in McGill, Patti and all the others. They age just like the rest of us. Their situations change and they have to adapt. They outgrow old circumstances and move on to new ones. Old friends depart and new ones appear. I certainly anticipate all these things as the next cycle of McGill stories are written.

One reader review of McGill on Amazon said I make the characters in the story “too perfect.” To that I plead somewhat guilty. McGill has his regrets like the rest of us, but he’s probably more fortunate than we are, too. He gets along with his ex-wife. His kids are fairly well adjusted and self-directed. His second chance at love with Patti Grant is pretty much a winning lottery ticket.

I could have made McGill a darker character, but there are plenty of novels with those guys, and there’s grim news daily in just about any newspaper that comes to hand. From my point of view, McGill and his friends, with new ones to come, help to balance the daily dose of hard reality we get delivered to our front doors (or computers) every morning.

So, one more title in the White House cycle and then on to new contexts with new characters joining the familiar favorites. One thing McGill can always use is new readers. Please continue to introduce him to anyone who enjoys a good read. You know, stories with characters who are just a bit more perfect than you are.

Famous Up and Down the Block

I've been lucky in my career as a writer. I got my first story idea on the way to my first day of college and little more than a couple of decades later I got my first publishing deal. By today's impoverished publishing standards, the money for a paperback original deal was pretty good. By the standards of the time, it was modest at best. I was thrilled anyway.

My first book, "The Concrete Inquisition," would be sold and read all over the United States. I learned from my sister who was vacationing in Mexico that a resale copy was even available south of the border. Great, I thought, I'd reached two out of three of the biggest countries in North America.

My second traditional publishing deal, a two-book deal with a combined advance adding another zero to the payout, put Canada on the list of countries my work had reached. An Italian edition was considered for one of those two books but was never completed. For all I know, though, Italy being Italy, it might still be under discussion.

With my move to indie publishing on Amazon, I went global. Today, I know that my books have sold in the U.K. (my second biggest market), Ireland, France, Germany, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand and even one book in Brazil.

So I have a global brand. With plenty of room to grow, of course.

Even so, I was surprised the other day when I took a morning run. I was on my way to the park near my home when I stopped, while running in place, in front of a neighbor's house. A woman with two small children was enjoying the pleasant weather. Her front porch had a shade/privacy screen that I admired. I said hello and asked where she got the screen.

Without having introduced myself, she nonetheless said, "Oh, you're the writer, aren't you?"

She pointed and added, "You live in that house over there, right?"

Not getting the least impression she intended to burgle me, I said she was right both times.

"What kind of books do you write?"

Her dossier on me was obviously incomplete. I told her mysteries, thrillers, the occasional comedy.

She asked where she could get them and I told her to visit my website: josephflynn.com

I thanked her for the information about the screen — she gave me the website for that — and continued on my run, asking myself how she knew about me.

I'm generally friendly with my neighbors, know a handful by name, but I'm not a big socializer. My wife, child, work and siblings take up most of my time. So having been known, somewhat, by a person down the block surprised me.

It became obvious to me almost immediately that one of the neighbors who knows what I do must have spread the word, and the woman I talked to had found it sufficiently interesting that she remembered at least some of the details.

She even said that she'd buy a book, being a mystery fan.

Who knows, someday I might be out for another run and see a front porch book club discussing my newest title. I'll have to stop by and say hello. See how many of them already know me.

Keeping Familiar Characters Fresh

One of the great things about writing novels is hearing from readers that they love the characters you create. No, that's the wrong verb. You don't create characters as much as find or discover them.

When I decided to write a private investigator novel, I had to ask myself where I wanted to set it. Many authors will stake a claim to a city or a state as their protagonist's turf. I wanted to do something different. So I thought I'd use a house as my guy's central setting. To make things interesting, I chose the White House.

That's natural for me. I have an interest in politics that started early and remains strong. But I didn't want to echo my own character directly in Jim McGill. So I went a different way. McGill is an unflagging supporter of his wife, President Patricia Grant, because he loves her above all else. Except for his kids.

He's a family man, first and foremost. I liked that because it's not typical for a tough-guy PI. Using that as a starting point, I looked for other things about McGill that would differentiate him from other characters in his genre. One of those traits was a reverence for life and a reluctance to take lives.

Sure, he'd be happy to bust someone's nose, if that's called for, but he doesn't pull his gun and shoot people willy-nilly. And when he gets in a physical confrontation, he doesn't shrug it off. Sometimes he needs the attention of massage therapists and a long soak in a hot bath to ease the pain.

Heck, he's so human he even has to submit to a colonoscopy and has pre-cancerous polyps removed.

All of that is part of discovering just who this guy is. But now we know all that. Along with his wife, McGill is now coming to the end of his time in the White House. Which is good because he's grown tired of it. The relentless pressures are wearing on everyone involved, not just him.

And as much as readers have enjoyed McGill in that context, they (you) might soon think things are getting stale. So McGill, to stay fresh, has to move on. Just as all of us do as we move through life.

He has to assume new roles: the CEO of an international detective agency, not just the head of a one-man shop; the father of children fast becoming adults, and maybe soon the role of being a grandfather; maybe someone who has to deal with an unexpected physical limitation.

I can't say for sure. I'll have to find out as I go along. Make new discoveries. That's what will keep McGill fresh for me and, I hope, enjoyable for you.

Please Tip Your Author

No, don't tip him or her over. Don't even dig in your pocket or purse for a few bucks. All we ask is a few moments of your time and as many kind words as you can spare.

When you read a book you like — one of mine or somebody else's — please show your appreciation with a favorable review on Amazon, Goodreads or the on-line forum of your choice.

Every author loves to see that readers have enjoyed what we do. On sites like Amazon, your approval can help spur the Amazon algorithm to give the book greater exposure. That means more sales and page-reads for the author. In other words more income.

Authors who don't have to scramble for every nickel and dime have more time to write. So if you post good reviews for the authors you like, you're helping to make sure the author will write another book.

FYI: I'm doing okay in the nickels-and-dimes department, but I still love to see good reviews for my books.

KDP Select, BookBub & New Developments

My first paid writing gig was at an ad agency. I started at $13,000 per year. I was elated. I got my own office, an IBM Selectric typewriter and free beer on Friday afternoons. To earn my keep all I had to do was fire up my imagination, synch it to my vocabulary and crank out copy for print ads, radio commercials and TV spots.

I had a series of wonderful creative partners, art directors, with whom I could have great conversations, bounce ideas off of, share a lot of laughs with and of course get the work done.

Once the work was done, we "creative" people had a whole network of support staff. There were illustrators, photographers, producers, directors, acting talent, voice talent, and all sorts of other people. Even a few account executives — suits — who knew what they were doing. Then there were media people who made sure the finished creative product was seen by the right audience, i.e. people who were interested in buying the goods and services we were pitching.

Flash forward to the present. Now, I'm a novelist with twenty titles for sale online. I'm also half of a Mom and Pop publishing company: Stray Dog Press, Inc. I have my own (home) office, an iMac and I can drink beer any time I want, but I have to pay for it. Mom, aka my wife, Catherine, is a wonderful creative partner. We bounce ideas off each other, laugh and have great conversations. Catherine also has an amazing number of talents and skills we put to use in our business.

But both of us know roughly zilch when it comes to doing what every successful business has to do: find its target market. Oh, we know who they are: people who like to read mysteries, thrillers and comic novels. But where do they live? What's the best way to reach them? How do we do that with far less money to spend than it costs for one second of a Super Bowl TV spot?

Here's where I do my testimonial: We heard of a potent combination from the apostle of indie publishing, Joe Konrath. He said to the multitudes: Go forth and sign up for Kindle Select. Use the five-day free promotion the Select are offered. Multiply your loaves and fishes — i.e. opportunities — with an ad on BookBub. com.

So that's what we did. We took our novel, Nailed, off all the other distributors, PubIt, iTunes, et. al., and enrolled it in Amazon Select. We scheduled a free promotion from Amazon for the period 3/28 - 4/1/13 and backed it up with a BookBub ad at a cost of $230.

Remember what I said about finding our target audience? BookBub did that for us. It sent our email ad to 360,000 mystery and thriller fans. Of that number, we downloaded 57,189 copies. Better than a 15% response. If you ask people who know about this kind of thing, they'll tell you that's a fantastic number. Here's another one. Nailed went to No.1 on the Amazon Top 100 for mysteries and thrillers. In the first five days of April, Nailed has made more money for us than all twenty of our titles did in the entire month of March.

So, it probably won't come as a big surprise that were thinking of enrolling all our books in KDP Select and planning BookBub promotions for more than a few of them. This means we'll have to take our books down from the other distributors. Fans who don't have Kindles won't be left out in the cold because there are free Kindle apps available for every device short of a cuckoo clock, and that will likely be available soon.

Now, Nailed had thirty-four reader reviews with a 4.5-star average before we enrolled it in KDP Select.   So we had reason to believe it was a good book. Not every book will do as well as Nailed. But if you're an indie writer with a book you really believe in, and can spare the money for a BookBub ad — the mystery and thriller category is the most expensive because it reaches the most readers — you might do well to look into the KDP Select/BookBub combination.

If you're a reader/fan without a Kindle, please consider getting one or at least a free app. I think a lot of your favorite writers will be taking the same path we've taken. The other distributors just aren't trying as hard as Amazon to make indie writing and publishing a paying proposition.

Of necessity, writers have to do what Willie Sutton said bank robbers do: Go where the money is.

Last but not least, Jim McGill #5 will be out within a month — God and Catherine willing.

Writing Time and Typos

My wife tells me I don’t spend enough time blogging. She’s probably right; she is about most things. Some marketing gurus tell writers that regular blog posts are critical tools for a writer to build his/her audience. Other people say blogs are a waste of time. Precious few are read by anyone beyond a writer’s immediate family and close friends.

This one draws only slightly more people than that.

But then I’ve put a bare minimum, if that, into building an audience for Committing Fiction. Truth is, I’d rather write a story than a blog post. The work is more interesting and the payoff is more immediate.

I’m fairly optimistic, though, that this post might be read by two more people than usually show up at this dusty outpost of the Internet. Two readers of my novels recently commented on my Jim McGill novels. The comments dovetail neatly from my point of view.

The first is a question that comes from Andy S.: “What is a normal, if there is one,  time frame to write a complete novel, like the Jim McGill book you will be starting, 3 months, 6 months?”

The answer is I never know how long a book will take to write. I can say that once I begin writing the first draft, I work seven days per week until I’m finished. I wish I could take more of a prima donna attitude and let nothing interrupt the work flow, but that isn’t realistic. I’m at the stage of life where my family obligations extend to both child and parent, and of course to my wife.

Family is the only thing that matters to me more than my writing. My mother and father both worked a lot harder than I do to make things right for my five siblings and me. My wife, as you’ll see below, also works very hard. I have to do what I can to hold up my end of the bargain. So, while I write every day to complete the first draft of a novel, the number of hours I have to write in a given day can vary greatly.

Then there’s the story itself. It might be complex or simple. The nature of a story determines its length. The longer the story, the greater the time it takes to tell. More words equals more pages equals more time needed at the keyboard.

I work hard at maintaining good health, so I don’t lose much time to sick days. Hardly any, really. But I’m not Superman. Toward the end of writing “The Last Ballot Cast,” I’d been at the keyboard so long, writing so persistently, that the fingers of my left hand started to spasm. That limited me in terms of the time I could spend working. This was very frustrating. I could see the end was close. I had all the words in my head. But if I pushed too hard my hand might have gotten really screwed up. I did what I needed to do; I pulled back.

Cost myself maybe an extra two weeks to complete the first draft.

There’s more to say about what happens next, but first I’ll mention the second reader comment.

Jeffrie F. posted the following comment on the Facebook page Friends of Jim McGill: “Love all 4 McGill Books. However, these last two books need a better KINDLE EDITOR. For such a great author, it is terrible to have the books not at its finest level. Way too many errors in the last two books.”

After I complete the first draft of a novel, it gets proofread, usually by five people, including me. We all find errors, often the same ones but not infrequently errors that one of us spots while the others miss them. Proofreading at a professional level is an exacting and uncommon skill. That’s why good proofreaders can charge handsome fees.

If I had hired a proofreading pro, it would have cost me $4,000-$5,000 to have a book the length of “The Last Ballot Cast” done. Sorry to say there’s no such thing as a Kindle Editor; you either do the work in-house or you hire an outside expert. The profit margin on most of my novels is two to three dollars. You can do the arithmetic to figure out how many copies I’d have to sell just to break even.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that TLBC suffered because two of my usual proofreaders were unavailable at the time. One was at summer school taking an extra course so she might graduate from college on time. The other was having back surgery. Life intrudes on everyone’s plans.

Besides what it might cost to hire an outside proofreader, there’s the matter of time it always takes to pick out at least most of the rough spots in a first draft. After I get back the corrections from my other readers and clean up those mistakes, I reread the manuscript again, polishing and making sure any continuity errors are corrected. More time.

Then the polished manuscript goes to my wife, Catherine, for formatting and page layout. Then Catherine and I have to come up with a cover design. Next, Catherine has to make the design computer ready. More time again. In short, a book’s ready when it’s ready.

Please understand, I hate finding typos in my work. So does Catherine. They make us cringe. Fortunately, e-books are infinitely revisable. If you spot mistakes we’ve missed and would care to point them out to us, please do. We will make the corrections and upload the cleaner copy.

In the meanwhile, we are looking for a sixth proofreader within the community where we live. We’ll also be checking the Net to see if there’s any good, reasonably priced software on the market that does more than check spelling. If you know of any, please let us know.

Perfection is never possible, but it’s always worth striving for.

One more thing, if you like the Jim McGill novels, please visit the Friends of Jim McGill page. I’d love to see a community of readers form there. I don’t always have the time to communicate one to one, but it would be great if McGill’s fans could start a dialogue among themselves.

Politics and Paper

A point of artistic responsibility for me is to create stories with a moral center.

The sticking point here is that people have different concepts of what's moral, and then we dress our respective senses of morality in different political clothing. To a great degree, the political discourse in our country has lost the ability to disagree without being disagreeable. Instead, we've come to relish zapping the other side.

That's what made an email I received the other day all the more remarkable. A reader named David let me know how much he enjoyed reading The Last Ballot Cast — despite the fact that his politics were considerably different than those espoused in my novel. That all but took my breath away.

If you'd care to search the reader reviews of my work on Amazon — and elsewhere, I presume — you'll find one-star reviews and accompanying diatribes that mock my work precisely because of my political views. Some people feel that the only good political thrillers are the ones that reinforce their views.

In the interest of letting you know how I feel about things, about the ideas that underlie any inspiration that might come my way, about who this guy Joseph Flynn is, here's a little bit about me.

All four of my grandparents immigrated to the United States in the early years of the 20th century. None of them came with a bankroll to get him or her off to a flying start. All four of them worked at the kinds of jobs young newcomers could find: a doorman, a streetcar conductor, a nanny, a hotel housekeeper.

They set up their households, raised and educated their children, sent their sons off to World War Two and were lucky enough to get all of them back. Their children married and set out to make their way in a country that offered more opportunities than my grandparents had been given.

My family was middle class because my dad worked sixty hours a week, and with union benefits got paid for seventy hours. His job in a steel-making plant was tiring and dangerous. He took public transportation to and from work. But even after a very long day he was so eager to see his wife and kids he would run the last half-mile home from the bus stop.

I was the first person in my immediate family to go to college. My dad wanted me to be a dentist. I thought I would become a lawyer. But on my way to my first day of college, on public transportation, I got the idea for my first short story. It came out of the blue. My first gift from the greater storyteller. After that, there was no question what I was going to do. In order to actually make money as a writer, I became a copywriter at the Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency. I was able to apply for that job because I had a college degree.

My wife and I were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, a child whose gifts make mine look pale. She became the first person in our family to go to an Ivy League college. She's fluent in French and Russian and was selected for an internship with the U.S. State Department. She also, God love her, is a fantastic writer.

The progress our family has made through a span of three generations has been matched or far exceeded by innumerable other American families. The opportunities for people of humble origins to succeed is what has made the United States great.

So, from my point of view, the most important responsibility our government has is to build, sustain and protect the broadest, deepest, most secure and most accessible middle class possible. Make it entirely possible for anyone who is not yet in the middle class or who wants to get back into the middle class to rise. Make it doable for anyone in the middle class with vision, passion and drive to rise even farther.

With that point of view, the first question that should be asked of any bill that comes before Congress is: Will this be good for the middle class?

Right now, all the Republicans and far too many Democrats place their first concern with the rich. If you have any question about that, look at the figures for increases in income over the past 30+ years and see who's done well, who's stagnated and who's falling behind.

I think the rise of the Tea Party was the first sign that the duopoly of the Democrats and the Republicans is about to yield to new parties. Occupy Wall Street was the first sign of a countervailing movement on the left, but it was too incoherent — by design apparently — to survive. But another iteration on the left will emerge. That will leave room for a centrist party or coalition to fill the middle. Then it will be up to the right or the left to see whose ideas will prove more compelling in attracting the moderate middle.

Anyway, that's how I look at politics, in part, and those will be the views reflected in my writing.

Again, I'd like to thank David for thinking well of my writing even though our political views differ.


***

Now, on to the matter of paper. A relatively small number of readers are waiting patiently, I hope, for the trade paperback edition of The Last Ballot Cast to hit the online booksellers. We plan to have this edition available by mid-September.

Let me say that I love printed books. Always have. Lately, though, I've come to love ebooks, too. When it comes to making a living as a writer, ebooks are my first love. They pay the freight. If it weren't for ebooks, there never would have been more than one Jim McGill novel.

As things stand today, the company my wife and I started, Stray Dog Press, Inc., publishes trade paperbacks as a courtesy, but we don't do it for all of our titles. It's not too hard to imagine a day arriving when only a small percentage of all titles on the market are printed.

So, dear readers, take a chance with ebooks, if you haven't already. They're really quite likable. They're becoming ever more affordable. They'll give you the opportunity to find new authors that you wouldn't have otherwise.

Please take the leap. When it comes to reading, there's no need to be monogamous. You can play the field and your literary soul will be unsullied.

One final small note: Stray Dog Press, Inc. is looking into the possibility of doing audio books. What do you think of audio books? If this turns out to be a good business idea, we'll let you know.

A Quarter-Million Words Later

I started to write The Last Ballot Cast in mid-February and finished writing it in mid-July. It came in at 942 manuscript pages. I cut that down to 912 pages. Took me five months. Didn't take a day off. I'm still tired, but I'm happy. Except for the damn typos that sharp-eyed readers find after three proofreaders missed them.

To be fair, there are usually five proofreaders for my books, but surgery and summer school knocked two out of the box. C'est la vie.

For me, writing is a solo effort. I don't collaborate. Can't imagine sharing the creation and execution of story. That said, I have a whole lot of help. My wife, Catherine, is the first reader and editor of everything I write. It's my great good fortune that she likes my stuff. It would be awfully tough for her to put in all the hours she does to bring my work to the reading public if she didn't like the material.

Let that be a lesson to all young prospective writers: Make sure you marry someone who likes what you do. If your would-be spouse isn't a fan, you probably want to keep looking.

Other than marrying well, it also helps to cultivate interesting friendships. In the first Jim McGill book, The President's Henchman, I introduce a new martial art called Dark Alley. It's pretty much an anything goes form of fighting given structure and discipline. Not long after I came up with the idea, I met Jim Sullivan who teaches the near equivalent of Dark Alley. His discipline falls under the heading of Natural Spirit International. He's helped me to develop McGill's ongoing adventures in close-quarters combat. If you're looking for a highly functional form of self-defense, Google Jim's mentor, Datu Kelly Worden.

Susan McIntyre was my medical reference person for TLBC. She knows just about every awful thing that can afflict the human body. She probably has half the doctors in AMA in her database. If she doesn't know something off-hand, she can always make a call.

People like this are good to know when you're doing research. Their knowledge lends an air of plausibility to your writing. On the other hand, I'm not writing text books. So when the mood takes me I exercise the favorite device of all writers — literary license — and shamelessly ignore reality.

But back to McGill. TLBC, Parts 1&2, conclude the first term of the McGill series. Employing another literary technique, circularity, the villain from The President's Henchman, Dr. Damon Todd, returns to threaten McGill again. This raises the question: What do you do with an SOB who didn't learn his lesson the first time? McGill is a character with a moral center. Shedding blood unnecessarily is not his thing. But neither is letting some jerk kill him or someone he loves. Forcing a character to make a tough choice is the best way to show who he is.

In order not to fall into a formulaic rut with McGill or any other recurring character I write, I have to make sure they grow, age, evolve. McGill, facing the near loss of his son, changes his ways and decides to teach all his children the vicious art of Dark Alley. Patti not only changes political parties, she makes a daring choice of a new vice president. Sweetie, after decades of celibacy, gets married. Welborn and Kira become new parents. Leo and Deke leave government service to join McGill in the private sector. As all that happens, a new face takes over the Secret Service's White House detail.

Readers don't want to see any of their favorite characters disappear, much less die, but it would be an awful mistake for a writer simply to leave them marching in place. So be forewarned, there will be more changes in future McGill books.

Regarding politics: These are political thrillers. Inevitably, they will reflect my political views. Some reader-reviewers have taken me to task for expressing liberal views. They seem to think the genre is the exclusive property of the far right. Guess again. My political views are eclectic. I'm liberal on social issues; I'm conservative on balancing the budget and paying down the national debt — but I believe the best way to do those things is to tax the rich and end welfare for the wealthy.

It's like Willie Sutton said about robbing banks: "That's where the money is."

Meeting reader expectations: Intentionally leaving a number of things hanging at the end of The K Street Killer, I felt a certain sense of obligation to resolve those situations without delay in TLBC. So I worked harder than I ever have before — and harder than I ever intend to work again. It's very flattering to have readers want your next book as soon as they finish the previous one, but after a while it gets trying. "Are we there yet, are we there?"

Patience, dear reader. All things in good time.

Regarding writing and making money: I write to honor my muse and serve the story. If I do my best, I trust that my work will find a paying audience. So it really irks me when some nitwit thinks I make a writing choice simply to serve financial purposes. That's not to say that I don't want to make money from my novels. Of course, I do. The more money I make, the more novels I must be selling. The more novels I sell, the more people must be having a good time reading them. It's a virtuous circle.

But so many writers work so hard for so long with so little reward, that it honestly pisses me off when some jerk thinks I'm trying to screw him out of a lousy $3.99. I mention that only because it happened to me recently. What a dick that guy was.

To end (almost) on a brighter note, nothing makes me happier in my professional life than to know I've made a reader happy. If you noticed the dedication to Part 1: TLBC, you saw that I acknowledged those of you who've read my books and written to me to share your feelings. Thank you.

Oh, yeah. The Friends of Jim McGill Facebook page can use more friends. Get some conversations going there with your fellow readers, will you?  Here's the link for The Friends of Jim McGill. http://www.facebook.com/TheFriendsofJimMcGill

Serial characters, cliffhanger endings and other odds and ends

Once upon a time I got a two-book deal with a major New York publisher. The advances on the two books were such that if offered to a new writer today, that writer would swoon. Money, though, was just the start. My agent of the time told me the publisher wanted to make me their next best-selling writer. It was enough to make an impressionable fellow giddy. And in the fashion of a game show, that wasn't the end of the goodies. The publisher gave me separate contracts to reprint an earlier novel, the rights to which I'd regained, and more money for the audio rights to the two books they would publish.

It was the kind of bonanza that seemed appropriate for all the years I'd toiled without making a cent from writing fiction. Then, as fairy tales must, the happy story came to an abrupt end.

A very important person at the publishing house had told me that if there was any part of the first novel — the basis of the deal and all its treasure — that I wanted to keep intact I could. Silly me, I took this promise seriously, and then I did the unthinkable. I insisted on keeping the ending of the novel as I originally wrote it.

That was a terrible mistake from the standpoint of my writing career. My relationship with the publisher was all downhill from there. Any chance of future contract, big money and more books with the publisher went right out the window.

Now, here's the thing about the ending and why the publisher wanted me to change it: I killed off the book's hero. That was a creative choice that in my opinion best served the story. It also gave my writing an edge most authors in the mystery/thriller field lacked. You'd have a harder time guessing the ending of one of my stories because I was crazy enough to kill my leading man. All that was academic to the publisher. Killing that character meant there would never be a series featuring him.

Well, hell, I thought of the book as a stand-alone novel. I never would have killed that character if I'd had more stories in mind for him. But I didn't.

Jim McGill, on the other hand, was conceived from the start as a series character. His stories would not have conclusive ends. The stories would flow from one to the next and there would always be some ambiguity to them. In The President's Henchman, the novel that introduces McGill, there's a murder that's left unresolved, and the fates of several characters, e.g. Erna Godfrey, remain to be seen. I could have had Erna executed, but that would have ended her creative possibilities.

In The K Street Killer, the fates of two of the more important characters in the series are left in doubt. This has raised the ire of some readers. In a way, that's flattering to me. I created characters who have engaged the reader emotionally to such a point that a delay in knowing what happens to them next is frustrating. Damnit, where's the resolution? It's on a notepad in my office. Not even in my computer where it might be hacked.

I need to say at this point that I'm not simply being mean. Creating suspense is part and parcel of my job. If I don't keep the reader clicking along (digital-speak for turning pages) from one chapter to the next I'm out of work. Keeping the reader moving from one book in the series to the next is simply the same process on a larger scale.

As a writer, it's also part of what makes storytelling fun for me — and, believe me, if I'm not having any fun doing the writing, you're not going to have any fun doing the reading.

There have been a few uncharitable souls who have accused me of using the cliffhanging ending in TKSK strictly for monetary reasons. Hah! If money was what moved me most, I would have knuckled under to the publisher I mentioned above and likely be a rich man now.

That is, if my muse hadn't deserted me. Which she'd have every right to do if I became a hack.

Now, let me riff a bit about series characters. I grew up reading John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels, absolutely loved them. I also devoured Gregory Mcdonald's Fletch novels. The dialogue Mcdonald wrote absolutely knocked me out and influenced my own work. But both authors wrote books in which McGee and Fletch came off flat as steamrolled pancakes.

It's simply what happens if you let your series character follow a formula you've developed for him. In TKSK, I decided before I wrote a word that there would be changes from certain patterns I followed in TPH and THC. McGill has to face the terrifying prospect of losing two of the people he loves most, not to any hokey villains but to terrors that might afflict any of us: illness and cruel twists of fate.

As he confronts his terrible choice, he doesn't know how things will turn out. (Poor guy, his fate is in my hands.) So I thought the best way to end the book would be to put the reader in the same boat as the hero. Only seemed fair.

Rest assured, all questions will be answered in The Last Ballot Cast. Well, all but one.

So, one of the ways I'm keeping McGill fresh is to throw a few change-up pitches at him, but another way to do it is by not writing his stories exclusively.

My next novel will be called Tall Man in Ray-Bans. It will feature John Tall Wolf, a special agent for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). The novel is a murder mystery set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Vancouver, British Columbia, Boston, Massachusetts, and Banff, Alberta.

John Tall Wolf will be a meta-character for me. He will have his own novels, he will be a major character in the sequel to Nailed, which I hope to publish in the second half 0f 2012 and will also figure prominently in a trilogy featuring yet another new character.

If you like my writing, despite the occasional moments of frustration, of which there are likely to be more, you're likely to have a lot more good stuff to read — God willing.

Rallying 'Round "Round Robin"

If you'll indulge me, I'd like to engage in a bit of hard sell here. I've written a book I think is absolutely wonderful. I'm not the only one who holds it in high regard. The book has twenty reader reviews on Amazon; sixteen are five-star reviews, four are four-star reviews. They range from enthusiastic to gushing approval. Problem is, this book isn't close to being part of the mystery/thriller genre in which I usually work.

"Round Robin" is described on its cover as an epic love story. If it were a movie, it would be a romantic comedy. Compared to the stories I usually write, it's a book without a body count. What it has in common with my other books is a large cast of interesting characters, smart dialogue and more than a few laughs — way more than a few laughs. It also has heart, by the ton.

The two principal characters are Robin Phinney and Manfred Welk. Robin is described as 230 pounds of bad attitude. Manfred is as big as an NFL lineman, and stronger to boot. You'll love both of them; you won't be able to help yourself.

I want to sell a lot more copies of "Round Robin" than I've been selling so far, and then I want the new readers to tell everyone they know. Then I want those people to tell everyone they know. Get the idea? The book is that good.

Don't take my word for it, though. Below are the headlines from the reader reviews on "Round Robin" and a link to its Amazon Kindle page, its B&N Nook page and its iTunes page too. Check it out. You thank me later.

A romance with comedy and depth.
Loved this book!!!!!!
Romantic, comical and heart-tugging.
Pushing Past her Self-Imposed Limits.
Plus sized Entertainment.
Fun read.
Fun Summer Read.
Fun and Entertaining.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Cute story.
Sweet, heartwarming story.
Heartwarming!
Where's the apple strudel recipe?
A wonderfully poignant and humorous novel!
Super Sized Adventure.
Thoroughly enjoyable read.
Another winner.
A sweet, fun read.
Great Read!!