January 2011

 by Jon F. Merz

Official Launch Day for THE KENSEI – 10 Ways to Build a Bestseller!

Welcome all, to the Official launch Day for THE KENSEI. This is the street date for the novel, meaning that it is now pretty much everywhere in the various distribution systems. You should be able to find it anywhere….

So first and foremost: please go buy a copy. If you need to find out if a Barnes & Noble near you has it on their shelves, use this link: http://bit.ly/ejQpQD. Buying a copy is the single best way to support the book and help make sure we have more Lawson books in the future. And the paperback is better than the ebook, but if you’re only into ebooks, then by all means feel free.

Also, there are a number of ways you can help spread the word about THE KENSEI and I hope you participate in them. It makes today more of a party event and that -in my book – is always a good thing!

1. Change your profile picture to THE KENSEI cover art. (grab it out at Facebook Fan Page)
2. If you have a blog, write a blog post about THE KENSEI.
3. Take a picture of yourself holding a copy of THE KENSEI – preferably in a public space where others can see you. (Outside of the bookstore you bought it at is great!)
4. If you tweet, please tweet about today’s launch and use the hashtag #thekensei after your tweet
5. Make a point to tell four friends today – preferably in person about the book and ask them to buy a copy. if you can’t do it in person, then send out an email to some of your friends and let them know.
6. If you’re buying it online, please buy it at Amazon.com – and the print version of the book is better than ebooks. Remember: we’re trying to sell out the first print run.
7. Try to get others involved – have them talk to their friends about buying a copy. Word-of-mouth rules and can really make a book take off, so talk it up!
8. Post out any book forums, and sites (Goodreads, Shelfari, Library Thing, etc.) and talk to people about the book.
9. Swing by the Facebook Fan Page and post away, try to create a party atmosphere and get people excited!
10. When you’re done reading the book, please post reviews on Amazon and any other sites. Reviews help spur new sales!

I truly hope you all enjoy THE KENSEI. It’s a special book to me for a number of reasons and I’m looking forward to hearing what you all think of it.

Thank you so much for your support!
-Jon

in Build a Bestseller / ebooks / general / how I write / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / THE FIXER TV series / Tour 2011 / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

7 Days, A Newsletter & A Contest

Wow, we’re just seven days away from THE KENSEI’s official street date – the day when the book should be in stores, literally everywhere and will start shipping from online retailers.

I’m excited.

Actually, I’m freakin’ thrilled. Lawson has a second chance at life and I’m determined to make sure he has a far longer one at St. Martin’s than he did at that other house. 🙂

I’ve got a ton of stuff coming your way. The official book trailer will debut soon. Possibly tomorrow if everything gets sorted. And then there’s another video with me in it that will be released in another week or so.

And today, my all-new, all-free Boston Nocturne newsletter launches. It has news, free fiction, and much more. And the free fiction is a serialized Lawson adventure called MISSION: MALTA. But the only way to enjoy it is to subscribe, so make sure you sign up! And you can do that by putting your email in the block over there on the upper right side where it says “Get My Newsletter.” It’s that simple. Just sign up and you’ll be all set when the newsletter goes out later today.

Back to THE KENSEI…I’m announcing a very cool contest now. Here it is.

Ready?

🙂

Send me proof-of-purchase (or a copy of your receipt if you bought online) that you’ve bought a copy of THE KENSEI and you’ll be entered for a chance to win the sword used by actor Brandon Stumpf in the official book trailer for THE KENSEI. Brandon will be starring in the TV series based on the novels, THE FIXER, and I’m certain he’s got a huge future. If you win, not only will you get the sword, but a certificate of authenticity, and you can even have it autographed by Brandon and me. Each copy of the book counts as one entry, so if you buy three copies of THE KENSEI to give as gifts to friends and family, then you have three chances to win the sword. One winner will be drawn on May 28th, 2011. You can send your entries to

thekenseicontest AT gmail DOT com

Good luck!

in boston nocturne / Build a Bestseller / general / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / Tour 2011 / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Guest Post: Willie Meikle

Note: today’s guest post is from a good friend of mine and an amazing writer, Willie Meikle. He’s got some fantastic fiction available for ebook readers. Read on and find out where he draws his inspiration from. – Jon

What inspires me.
_________________

There were two main points of inspiration for my vampire series, vamps themselves, and Hadrian’s wall on the Scotland/England border.

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to vamps – mine are evil, bloodsucking bas*ards. They don’t have souls, they don’t have good dress sense and they don’t get to snog Sarah Michelle Geller. Oh, and they’ll bite anything, not just ladies with big, exposed, bosoms.

I’ve walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall several times, and I’ve been to Culloden Moor where the final battle takes place. I have a deep love of old places, in particular menhirs and stone circles, and I’ve spent quite a lot of time travelling the UK and Europe just to visit archaeological remains. I also love what is widely known as “weird sh*t”. I’ve spent far too much time surfing and reading fortean, paranormal and cryptozoological websites. The cryptozoological stuff especially fascinates me, and provides a direct stimulus for a lot of my fiction.

Which brings me to The Watchers trilogy, my retelling of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion in Britain. Bonnie Prince Charlie, and all his highland army, are Vampires and are heading south to claim the British throne. The “Watchers” of the title are the guards of the old Roman wall built by Hadrian, now reinforced to keep the vamps out. It is constantly patrolled by officers of the Watch, two of whom become the main protagonists of the series. I got the idea on a walk along what is left of the wall, and by the time I’d had finished my walk and had a few beers the first part of the trilogy was fully formed in my head. Think “ZULU” or “Last of the Mohicans” with vamps and you’ll get a feel of what I was trying to do.

I was dealing with a retelling of the Bonnie Prince Charlie story, where romantic myths have subsumed the harsh reality of a coup gone badly wrong. I needed to strip all the romance out of the Highlanders and build them up from the bottom. Making them a shambling army of vamps and mindless drones seemed an obvious place to start. The Watchers series is a swashbuckler, but there is little lace and finery.

What I do have is blood and thunder, death and glory in big scale battles and small scale heartbreak. I love it.

THE WATCHERS OMNIBUS edition in print

WATCHERS BOOK 1: THE COMING OF THE KING on the Kindle

in ebooks / guest post / novels / short stories 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

What About Books 1-4?

So, inevitably, with the release of the long-awaited 5th Lawson Vampire novel, THE KENSEI just 11 days, people are asking about the first four books – specifically, THE FIXER, THE INVOKER, THE DESTRUCTOR, and THE SYNDICATE. All of these books were released by Kensington Publications Corp’s Pinnacle Books line back in 2002-2003. And they’re all out-of-print now. That’s not to say you can’t dig up a copy at some places but they’re not generally available at this point. With that said, let me make on thing abundantly clear:

You don’t need to read books 1-4 to read THE KENSEI.

When St. Martin’s – a far better publishing house than the previous home Lawson had – decided to buy THE KENSEI, my brilliant editor and I worked to ensure that new readers and old fans alike could equally lose themselves in the pages of it without needing to have read any of the other books or stories. This is a series REBOOT – if you’ve never read Lawson before, the THE KENSEI is a great introduction.

Now, of course, I would love to have all the rpevious four novels re-released (along with some much needed editorial rewrites at the hands of my amazing editor) and that will hopefully happen soon. But the single best way to help ensure that is to buy gobs and gobs of copies of THE KENSEI. Like everyone, my editor reports to higher-ups. And those higher-ups want to see big sales numbers for THE KENSEI. You buying a copy and then picking one up for a pal and then telling all of your co-workers about it, and then telling your family to get copies for themselves – all of that helps! So does spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, any forums you frequent, and any flyers you help post around your town, library, what have you. Your word-of-mouth endorsement of THE KENSEI is the single-best way to help Lawson.

Just this morning, using Amazon new Bookscan software, I see that someone managed to find a copy of The Syndicate somewhere around the country. I won’t see a dime from that sale. All the rights to those books have reverted to me and I’m patiently waiting to sell those rights to my new publisher. I don’t want people thinking they need to read those other books – you only need to buy THE KENSEI and then get everyone you know to buy a copy. 🙂

I hope this clears up any confusion, but let me know if you have any more questions and I’ll be glad to answer ’em!

Eleven days…I’m so excited I can barely stand it!

Oh, and look for the book trailer to hit the scene soon!

in Build a Bestseller / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Build a Bestseller!

We’re coming down to the street date for THE KENSEI and I’m busy ramping up things to make this my most spectacular book launch ever. Seriously, I need to hit this one out of the park, in a big way. THE KENSEI is a very special book to me and I want it to do the best of anything I’ve ever written. To that end, I’m asking you to get involved. if you’ve read my work and enjoyed it, please consider helping spread the word about the book, cajoling friends and family to buy copies, and so on.

Every so often, I’ll be making a post about promotional stuff you can take on to help the effort and BUILD A BESTSELLER.

The first initiative is a flyer campaign. At the left, you’ll see the image of a flyer I’ve drawn up. Nothing special, but it hits some key points. Just click on the picture and you’ll download a .pdf copy of the flyer. Feel free to make as many copies as you want and leave them in mailboxes around your neighborhood, in cubicles at work, on bulletin boards around town, wherever. The goal is to just get the word out about what a great, fun read THE KENSEI is. The more flyers we all get plastered around the country and beyond, the more copies we’ll sell. I’m breaking out a whole arsenal of tactics and this is step one.

I hope you have fun with this – even putting ten flyers around is a great help to me and doesn’t take that much time. Let me know how you make out. And my thanks for helping me BUILD A BESTSELLER!

in Build a Bestseller / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / THE FIXER TV series / Tour 2011 / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments