The Week of Release

I worked in the film industry for about 20 years, and as such, I had the concept of the opening weekend ingrained in my head.  Nothing is more important than that opening weekend.  In fact, studios have gone so far with that logic that they now typically determine a movie's success or failure on the first weekend.  To be honest, they don't even wait for that opening weekend to end.  The trade magazines, like The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety reveal how well films are doing by mid-day Saturday, and everyone more or less cheers or gives up by that point.  So you really only have Friday night and Saturday morning to prove your wealth in Hollywood.

In reading up about how to get attention for your book, I had become convinced that the same mentality was true of books.  I read that the best way to get people's attention is to be on the New York Times Bestseller List.  Fair enough.  That list had been the watermark for decades to determine what books out there were being eaten up by the masses, who in turn looked at what other people were reading to determine what they would buy.  It's a cyclical process, success begets even greater success.

So of course my goal was to get on that list; and one of the best ways reportedly is to get a lot of pre-sales.  When you put a book up for pre-sale, every purchase of the book counts as being on one day.  So if you have three months of pre-sales, every purchase within those 90 days counts as being on one single day; thus shooting you up the ranks of the best seller list for that day.

Using my education from the film industry, I figured that release day should be a Friday, the day when people will want to get it so they can spend the weekend reading it.  However, about halfway through my pre-sale period, I found that the entire first week counts toward that best-seller list.  So you want the book to come out on a Monday, (because the week ends for the NYT on Sunday.)  I researched every other book company and store, and found that indeed, pretty much all books come out on Mondays; and for that very reason.  They want all the sales during that first week to count toward that all-important New York Times Bestseller List.  And if you combine good sales during that week with good sales for the past few months, you might just reach it.

I didn't unfortunately.  I spent three months talking this story up, sending it to news sources, radio stations, blogs, podcasts, and especially NPR and PBS stations.  I only heard from a select few news sources, and no NPR or PBS locations, (except the show my friend Genevieve runs.)  It's disheartening, especially when I hear hosts rail on the evils of stereotyping when here I'm trying to tell the story of a great Italian-American man who broke the mold of his family.  Then, the week it came out, I talked it up on every social media outlet I could.  I even made my profile picture the cover of the book.  Interestingly, I did start getting sales during that first week, and the word of mouth seems to be beginning to build as I'm seeing sales slowly starting to increase.  I didn't get anywhere near the numbers to be a NYT bestseller, but the post-release sales are at least promising.

And so the lesson I'm taking from this is that pre-release probably works better for the major companies that have their claws dug into the media; (that media which complains about big business, yet ignores anything in the publishing world that is not big business.)  Those of us who are independent and unknown do better to simply release the book, show everyone what we have, and build from there.

I'm still going to do pre-release in the future, but in a limited way, and I won't count on it.  It'll be more about releasing the book and getting the word of mouth moving.

I also learned a very valuable lesson about non-fiction that I'll probably go more into in a future post.  But suffice to say for now that it seems the public is less keen on seeing independently published non-fiction work.  They seem to be more anxious to read fiction from independents.  The reason I say that is because most independent authors who have made it into the NYT bestseller list, (in fact, I think all of them,) have been fiction authors.  My own non-fictions have done better than my fiction work, but I'm beginning to believe that is a fluke.

We will see as I begin working on my sci fi book Relic Worlds, book 2.

Two Gun Hart: Lawman, Cowboy, and Long-Lost Brother of Al Capone Releases Today

Today is a big day for me.  Two Gun Hart: Lawman, Cowboy, and Long-Lost Brother of Al Capone at last releases to the public.  I have been working on this story since 2008, a seven year journey.  I was lucky enough to be trusted enough by the Hart Capone family to tell the story of this incredible and brave man.  I have been honored by their willingness to let me in on the details of their family's history.  As a result of their aid, this book tells more about the Capones than any book before it.

Two Gun Hart is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as all e-readers.  It can also be ordered at any bookstore.

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Gun-Hart-Long-Lost-Brother/dp/1506124631/ref=sr_1_2_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1426534387&sr=8-2&keywords=Two+Gun+Hart

In the Final Stretch

I missed a week of describing my promotional efforts because I've been so busy getting everything done for the big, last push.  I'm in the final stretch now, just over a week before the book releases.  I've always known that March 1st to release day would be a huge time filled with a lot of work, and I'm now there.  I had hoped to be able to record it in this blog, but when you're author, publisher, promoter, distributor, etc., you have to make priorities.

The big issue is the fact that this is a merging point between pre-release promotions release promotions, and post-release promotions.  I cannot push back anything that needs to happen before release, and I need to promote things that are timely with the release.  Plus, I need to do post-release promotions on a schedule.  So everything gets jammed into this one period of time without any room for adjustment.

Additionally, all distribution has to happen now.  Many places won't consider the book once it's already been released, and if other places have already started selling it.  Therefore, most distribution has to happen at the same time.  I've been setting this up for a long time, but some elements were not ready until recently, or they got pushed back due to other things that needed to get done, like reviews.

It's finally getting under control, and I'm wrapping up the majority of promotions for Two Gun Hart.  I had to have most things done a couple weeks before release, so the week before will include mostly just contacting some news organizations, and telling the public about the release; so I'll be able to take some time to describe in greater detail what I did to promote and distribute this book since I won't be too busy doing it.

I'll be starting these blogs tomorrow, and will release them each day for the next couple weeks.  I might forget some details, but hopefully it will be enough to help anyone who might read this in the future.

The American Game is Released After 18 Years

I have finally finished and released my book The American Game after 18 years of working on it.  I first began this journey back in 1996 pitching the concept to a production company that made TV movies.  At first I only wanted to pitch the concept and move on to other things, but I slowly got sucked into it until I found myself the writer and producer of it championing it in draft after draft after draft; bouncing between studios and production companies.  There were hundreds of actors, (many of them well-known actors,) who saw it, many of whom said they wanted to be part of it.  But I couldn't get it funded.  It was at one point even listed as one of the best movies never made, a list in Hollywood of scripts that are really good, but can't find their funding.

A few years ago, I finally gave up when the production company who made Crash basically scammed me into spending a bunch of money and time to put together a proposal that they didn't intend to consider.  I was so devastated from that blow that I dropped out of the game, and finally decided to do it as a movie.

It was odd the way this story affected people in Hollywood.  It was very much like the ring in Lord of the Rings.  They got obsessed with it and their evil sides came out.  I, too, am not proud of everything I did when trying to get this movie made.  Yet, despite everyone's efforts, it never got made.

The story is about a series of base ball games that take place between enemy soldiers during the American Civil War.  I often pitched this story along with several others, and everyone always picked this one, even if it didn't fit what they did, or were capable of doing.  They always told me it was perfect as it was, then had me rewrite the script to their desires over and over and over.  Most of the time these changes were based on egos and power trips, making alterations that didn't improve it, but worked out some issue they were dealing with.  In the end, I wrote 119 drafts.

In the book, I shed everything everyone else said and wrote the story I wanted to write.  What has emerged is what I hope is a powerful and moving story, but that will be for the readers to judge.  It is, at times, a bit hard to get through, I'll admit, as I did not want to hold back on some of the realities of the time.

In particular, racism and slavery is approached in a very blunt fashion, as is the culture of the South.  I'm concerned that people may interpret the narrative as being harsh, or even racist, when, in fact, it's meant to just not gloss over what existed at the time.  I make an attempt to be clear, particularly in the end, that slavery and the racism it was a part of, (and still is,) are some of the greatest evils of this nation's history; but I didn't want to do it from a 21st century politically correct point of view.  I wanted the culture to be played realistically for its time, and that might read very tough in today's world.

On the flip side of that coin, I hope people don't see this as a reprimand on the South either.  My own personal view is that, while there is very clearly a culture gap between the north and south even to this day, (and I feel the country should split,) the way they rebelled at the time was, in my view, a mistake.  But I try to show this through the eyes of the soldiers who were there and believed in the cause, not of slavery, as they don't own any,but of having their own country.  However, because the story takes place near the end of the war, when the South was clearly beaten, I have a tendency of portraying it as a truly lost cause, so desperate they'll send their troops out at gunpoint.  This did happen, actually, but it doesn't represent the whole war, as many southerners fought fiercely and willingly for what they believed in.

I almost wrote essays at the end of the book explaining these two points at the end of the book, but I was afraid it might look too apologetic.  It may look that way here, but there aren't many people reading these blogs, so I guess it's okay.  In short, I hope people understand the intention of the book, which is not intended to be either racist nor a slam on the South, but a realistic portrayal of an ugly time that was brightened a bit by base ball.  (And yes, I'm saying it correctly.  Back then, baseball was separated into two words.)

http://www.amazon.com/American-Game-Jeff-McArthur-ebook/dp/B00LJII7GG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404688416&sr=8-1&keywords=The+American+Game+Jeff+McArthur

Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World Released

Yesterday at Wondercon I released Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World.  It is the first primary book in the Relic Worlds series.  What I mean by "primary book" is that there are other Relic Worlds books out there, but this is intended to be the first in the series.  The Deep Beyond, which was released several years ago, is the prequel, and is intended to be read after someone knows the characters and understands it.  That novella gives insight into the characters before the main incidents in the primary story.

The Relic Worlds series follows the adventures of Lancaster James, an anthropologist scouring the ruins of long lost civilizations on distant planets in search of powerful artifacts they left behind.  He is trying to find out what happened to these alien races, why they disappeared, and to see if the same thing can happen to humanity.

In The Search for the Promised World, Lancaster is following the trail of the subter-Siguerans, a race who left a trail of clues behind as they made their way to a planet they believed was promised to them by their god.  He will have to compete with space pirates, street thugs, and corporate barons to get to his destination and learn the truth.

The book is currently available on the website, www.relicworlds.com, and on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Search-Promised/dp/1499197020/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1398023946&sr=8-11&keywords=Relic+Worlds