Some Good News and Some Bad News

Bad news first. . .Kindle Press is no longer taking submissions. As of today, the Kindle Scout Program, which was the one way to get into Kindle Press, is shutting its doors. Kindle Press will continue to market the 200+ books it already has on its list.

So it looks like The Last Hotel Room and The Case of the Purloined Pyramid will be the only books I will have with Kindle Press. While I am disappointed that I won't be able to launch a campaign for The Case of the Shifting Sarcophagus later this month like I intended, I can't say I'm all that surprised. Kindle Scout always felt like an experiment. Amazon was trying out various marketing strategies (with us as paid guinea pigs) to see what works and what doesn't. I suppose after more than two years in operation, they got their data and are moving on.

The Case of the Shifting Sarcophagus, the next in my Cairo detective series, is now with the beta readers and will come out in a month or so via Kindle Direct Publishing.

In other news, The Case of the Purloined Pyramid is on sale in the Amazon US store only for $1.99 until the end of April. So if you didn't vote for it during the Kindle Scout campaign, here's a chance to grab it. A big thank you to all my readers who helped support my two campaigns. I wouldn't have been publishing with Kindle Press without you!

The Case of the Purloined Pyramid Has Been Selected For Publication!

My detective novel The Case of the Purloined Pyramid has been selected for publication by Kindle Press. Thanks to everyone who voted for it during my Kindle Scout campaign, and a big thanks to my brother-in-law Andrés for the great cover! Everyone who voted for it will get a free ebook copy when it comes out in a couple of months. When I have an exact publication date I'll post it here.

Thanks a million!

I'm off to Cairo in December to write the next book. More on that later. . .

Last Few Days to Nominate The Case of the Purloined Pyramid!

I'm in the final few days of the Kindle Scout push for my latest novel, The Case of the Purloined Pyramid. If Kindle Press decides to publish it, those who voted for it get a free copy of the ebook. It's the same contest that got The Last Hotel Room a contract.

I could really use some help for the final push. You can sign in with your Amazon account (or take two minutes to create one) and nominate me. Also check out some of the other good books on there. A blurb is below.

An ancient mystery. A modern murder.

Sir Augustus Wall, a horribly mutilated veteran of the Great War, has left Europe behind to open an antiquities shop in Cairo. But Europe’s troubles follow him as a priceless inscription is stolen and those who know its secrets start turning up dead. Teaming up with Egyptology expert Moustafa Ghani, and Faisal, an irritating street urchin he just can't shake, Sir Wall must unravel an ancient secret and face his own dark past.

You can check out the book's page and read a sample here.

Thanks!!!

Help Me Win Another Book Contract Through Kindle Scout!

I've just launched a campaign for my latest novel, The Case of the Purloined Pyramid, on Kindle Scout. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the program, writers upload their unpublished book for 30 days, and readers get to vote on them. Those with the most votes are considered for electronic publication via Amazon, with a $1500 advance and 50% royalties. If the book is published, those who voted for it get a free copy of the ebook. It's the same contest that got The Last Hotel Room a contract.

My new book is the one I was writing while in Cairo. It's the first in a mystery/suspense series titled The Masked Man of Cairo in which each book is a standalone novel. A blurb is below.

An ancient mystery. A modern murder.

Sir Augustus Wall, a horribly mutilated veteran of the Great War, has left Europe behind to open an antiquities shop in Cairo. But Europe’s troubles follow him as a priceless inscription is stolen and those who know its secrets start turning up dead. Teaming up with Egyptology expert Moustafa Ghani, and Faisal, an irritating street urchin he just can't shake, Sir Wall must unravel an ancient secret and face his own dark past.

You can check out the book's page and read a sample here. Voting requires you to sign in to your Amazon account or create one if you don't have one. Also check out the other titles, there are some good ones.

Blurb and Cover Help Please!

My brother-in-law is designing the cover for my next book, a historical adventure/mystery. Which of these do you prefer?

I'm also working on the tagline and blurb, to be submitted to the Kindle Scout Program. The tagline can be no more than 45 characters, while the blurb can be no more than 500. Here's what I have so far:

An ancient mystery, a modern murder.

Sir Augustus Wall, a horribly mutilated veteran of the Great War, has left Europe behind to open an antiquities shop in Cairo. But Europe's troubles follow him as a priceless inscription is stolen and those who know its secrets start turning up dead. Teaming up with Egyptology expert Moustafa Ghani, and Faisal, a street urchin who knows all the city's hidden places, Sir Wall must unravel an ancient secret, and face his own dark past.

Massive Kindle Scout Anniversary Sale With All Ebooks 99 cents!

Kindle Scout is celebrating its second year of reader-powered publishing by running a promotion on the entire Kindle Scout catalog on Amazon.com. All Scout-discovered titles are available for purchase for $0.99 from March 20 through April 3. This includes, of course, my novel about the Syrian refugee crisis The Last Hotel Room, which was published last September after getting enough support on Kindle Scout to win a contract with Kindle Press.

I have big hopes for this sale. Kindle Press did a similar promotion for my book for all of February and my ranking leaped up to 10,000 for much of the time, and even reached 6,000 for a few days. Here's hoping I'll top that this time.

There are plenty of other great books in this sale, a total of 215! You can see the entire list here.

The Last Hotel Room Selected for Publication!

My novel The Last Hotel Room has been selected for publication by Kindle Press. Thanks to everyone who voted for it during my Kindle Scout campaign, and a big thanks to my brother-in-law Andrés for the great cover! Everyone who voted for it will get a free ebook copy when it comes out in a month or two. When I have an exact publication date I'll post it here.

Thanks a million!

Last Three Days to Nominate my Novel on Kindle Scout!

I'm in the final days of the Kindle Scout contest for my novel, The Last Hotel Room. Writers upload their unpublished book for 30 days, and readers get to vote on them. Those with the most votes are considered for electronic publication via Amazon, with a $1500 advance and 50% royalties. If the book is published, those who voted for it get a free copy of the ebook.

My book is the one I was writing during all those trips to Tangier. It's set in contemporary Tangier and deals with refugee crisis. A blurb is below.

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet.
Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change?
$500 of my advance will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

You can check out the book's page and read a sample here. Voting requires you to sign in to your Amazon account or create one if you don't have one. I could use some voting love!

Insecure Writers Support Group: About to Lose A Contest

It's that time again, when the Insecure Writer's Support Group airs its angst to the world. I have two bits of angst myself. The first is that I've just come back from my writing retreat in Tangier to all the distractions and annoyances of regular daily life. In Tangier, since I had few distractions, I was hitting a daily goal of 4,000 words. Not a chance I can do that here, but I have to keep from getting discouraged.

The main discouragement is that my novel The Last Hotel Room, is not doing well over on Kindle Scout. This is an Amazon popularity contest where those books that get the most nominations are considered for a publishing contract. My book is 22 days into its 30 day voting period and it hasn't garnered enough votes to make it into the Hot & Trending column, which I suspect is what Amazon is really looking for.

Part of the reason I'm not doing well is that I'm truly craptastic at self-promotion. I'm also up against a lot of books in the "Literature and Fiction" category that are actually F/SF/H. There are separate categories for that, but people double tag their books to get more visibility. I can't do that too since my book doesn't fit into those categories. Ah, well!

If I don't win the contest at least the book will be out this month. It's ready to go.

Keep on writing!

Back from Tangier!

I just flew back from Tangier, and boy are my arms tired!

Actually it's my fingers that are tired from all the writing I did. Now that The Last Hotel Room is up for nomination on Kindle Scout (please vote!) I've been working on some new projects in my regular Moroccan writing retreat. The first is a ghostwriting project that takes the characters to Morocco, plus I'm also writing a Western. Yeah, it takes some stretching of the imagination to do that one while living in a Moroccan medina.

Anyway, I had a great time as usual, seeing old friends and making some new ones. Being away from email and editors helped me focus on the writing, getting 4,000 words done on most days. While I write for a living and usually have a good daily word count, when I'm in Madrid there always seems to be some sort of distraction or unavoidable timesuck that keeps me from usually hitting so high.

So what's next for the traveling writer? I might have a quick trip here in Spain this month, but otherwise I'll be in Madrid until mid July, when we head up to Oxford for our usual summer stay. After that maybe Turkey and definitely Tangier!

Off to Tangier!

I'm heading down to Tangier this morning for one of my regular writing retreats. I'll be there for two weeks and probably take a trip to the Atlas Mountains as well. So I won't be on this blog much, but I will be trying to promote my Tangier novel, The Last Hotel Room, which is up for voting on Kindle Scout. Click on the link and check it out.

If you vote for it and Amazon decides to publish it, you get a free copy and I'll donate $500 to a charity to help refugees. There's some stiff competition, so winning is far from assured!

See you when I get back!

Help Me Win A Book Contract Through Kindle Scout!

I've just launched a campaign for my latest novel, The Last Hotel Room, on Kindle Scout. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the program, writers upload their unpublished book for 30 days, and readers get to vote on them. Those with the most votes are considered for electronic publication via Amazon, with a $1500 advance and 50% royalties. If the book is published, those who voted for it get a free copy of the ebook.

My book is the one I was writing during all those trips to Tangier. It's set in contemporary Tangier and deals with refugee crisis. A blurb is below.

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet.
Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change?
$500 of my advance will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

You can check out the book's page and read a sample here. Voting requires you to sign in to your Amazon account or create one if you don't have one. Also check out the other titles, there are some good ones. I've already put a vote in for a science fiction novel I wouldn't mind getting for free!

Blurb and Cover Help Please!

It's that time again, when I ask my blog readers for help with the cover and blurb for my next book. This one is a bit different because I'm submitting it to Kindle Scout, where it can be voted on by Amazon customers. The books with the highest votes are considered for publication by Amazon's imprint, with a $1500 advance and 50% royalties. To submit, I have to have a one-liner of 45 characters or less and a book description of 500 characters or less. Here goes!


The front line of the refugee crisis


He came to Tangier to die, but life wasn’t done with him yet.

Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change?

$500 of my advance will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

So what do you think of the cover, one-liner, and blurb? This will be going into the Literature & Fiction section.