THE FIXER TV series

 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!

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 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!

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 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!

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 by Jon F. Merz

Welcome to 2011: The Year of Lawson

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great holiday season filled with wonderful memories. Now, it’s January and it’s time to get back into the swing of things. For me, this means getting ready to herald the debut of THE KENSEI, my long-awaited 5th Lawson Vampire novel, from St. Martin’s Press. To that end, I’m engaged in a lot of stuff right now. Tons of promotion around this title is coming. This week, I launch my newly-revamped FREE newsletter, BOSTON NOCTURNE – which you should sign up for right now since it’s going to feature a FREE serialized Lawson adventure called MISSION: Malta along with a lot of other really cool content.

Additionally, I’m still working on finishing up THE MADAGASCAR MATTER, so if you’ve subscribed to that, don’t worry – the end is coming and it will be chaotic mayhem, to say the least!

From the publicity plan I’ve laid out, you’ll pretty much be hearing about another review or interview every weekday from January through April. My goal is to sell the holy nuts out of this book and I’m always grateful when others retweet or share my posts. The more people who know about Lawson, the better. Just last night, THE KENSEI got a fantastic review over on RomFan Reviews. Many more of these will be coming. You can also read my first interview of the new year over at The Novel Blog. They’ll be adding a review soon.

Look for added pages out here on the website – including a bunch of freebies you can download. There’s a lot ahead this year – trust me, you’re not going to want to miss it! 🙂

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 by Jon F. Merz

Updates on stuff…

We’re just 38 days away from the launch of THE KENSEI and I couldn’t be more pleased with how things are looking. Back in 2002, I was excited about seeing The Fixer eventually come out in mass market paperback, only to have the series dropped by Kensington after four installments. A lot of nastiness went into that decision by the publisher, and I’ve never stopped believing they made a huge mistake in letting it go. That said, I couldn’t be happier than I am knowing that THE KENSEI is being released by St. Martin’s Press. Not only is SMP a far superior publishing house, but I have the editor I’ve always dreamed of having and the in-house support has been extremely gratifying. Additionally, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the good people at Barnes & Noble, who have really stepped up to get behind the book as well. I hope you’ll give them your support in return by purchasing THE KENSEI either at one of their stores or online here (you can preorder it now). In fact, next Friday, Barnes & Noble will be doing a little something special for folks to get them rev’d up for THE KENSEI. Details next week as it approaches, so stay tuned!

Obviously, my goal with THE KENSEI is nothing short of selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Seriously. I want the rebirth of Lawson to be so spectacular, they every person who has grown weary of the sparkly, glitzy vamp angst that has plagued both books and TV/film, to read THE KENSEI and become excited all over again. A groundswell of support from my fans and friends will really help make that a reality. So I’m pulling out all the stops to make sure everyone gets a copy and then tells their friends to get a copy as well. Let’s sell this thing out of its first print run in a week!

To that end, I’ll be doing a lot over the next five weeks or so. Today, I created the Official Facebook Book Launch Event and would love for everyone to click over and attend. It happens everywhere on the 18th of January, so you don’t have to do anything special, except buy a copy of THE KENSEI on that day (or preorder it now). I’d also like to ask that you all invite all of your Facebook friends to attend the event as well. Let’s see if this social media phenomenon can really turn this thing into a bestseller. The more people who attend and make the commitment to buy THE KENSEI, the better. There are instructions on the event page about how to easily invite all your friends without needing to click every single one of them.

I’ll be posting more as the days dwindle toward launch, but please remember that without your support, none of this would be possible. I’m indebted to each of you and can’t thank you enough for your support through the years it took to find Lawson a new home.

Have a great day!

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