vampires

 by Jon F. Merz

Fun Stuff To Do This Weekend…

So, in case you missed my status update over on Facebook, tomorrow is “The Rapture,” whereby all radio stations in the world will play that song by Blondie for 24 hours straight.

Okay, not really. It’s actually crazier than that. Apparently, The Rapture means this: “…when in the End Times the Christians will be gathered together in the air to meet Christ.”

Why they chose the air and not a great all-you-can-eat Chinese food buffet is beyond me, but maybe it has something to do with frequent flier miles. I dunno…seems like it would be cheaper to arrange the restaurant than it would be to pay for all those air traffic controllers to not fall asleep and make sure none of the “chosen ones” collided with each other. Just sayin’.

In any event, if you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, I suggest taking all your old clothes and shoes and laying them out in a way that suggests you were just zapped up in the Rapture. This is especially fun to do with dry ice in your shoes to really give that effect for your neighbors. A sign saying “Later suckers!” would probably really rub salt into the wound as well. Y’know, have fun with the day.

OR you could get a FREE sneak-peek at the latest Lawson adventure THE SHEPHERD by emailing me a copy of a receipt for another Lawson adventure and I’ll shoot you out the first 3 chapters of this new adventure (unproofed). So, if you’ve bought a novel, novella, or even a short story – get the receipt and zap me a copy of it. I’ll send you out a .pdf as soon as possible. Email it to jonfmerz AT verizon DOT net

in common sense / ebooks / lawson / promotion & publicity / publishing / Uncategorized / vampires 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Amazon’s German Kindle Store

I’m thrilled that Amazon has now opened up its new German Kindle store – and already, my Lawson Vampire series is out and available for mass consumption. As of this morning, they had just about every Lawson adventure there, except for THE ENCHANTER, but I epxect that should be available shortly.

As someone making a significant income each month from my independently published titles on Amazon and Barnes&Noble, this latest news is fantastic. It’s yet another platform to sell ebooks on, and yet another market I can enter into and reach new fans. The books are still in English, of course, but given that there are many English-speaking Germans, I’m hoping to reach a majority of them and get them hooked on Lawson. And this, of course, helps also with the building of a global community ready to devour Lawson on the television as well.

Here’s the link to the full press release from Amazon.

in Build a Bestseller / ebooks / film/TV / lawson / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / vampires / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Twilight Scam on Facebook

There’s a massive scam happening on Facebook right now involving a Twilight Breaking Dawn game. Do NOT click on it because it apparently hacks your account and attacks your friends. Worst of all, it opens you up to ridicule from people who see that you actually like the Twilight series. 🙂

The single best way to combat this threat is to read my Lawson Vampire series. Like, say, the latest novel in the series that goes back to the 1970s when Lawson and Zero are dispatched to Madagascar to track down a skeleton in the Council’s closet with roots running back to World War II. Its awesomeness will easily trump any Twilight scam and you can be proud that reading Lawson is like saying to the world, “I rock the casbah and so does Lawson.” In fact, you can grab THE ENCHANTER just by clicking the cover here—>

And here’s another way to show your pride on Facebook: grab this anti-Twilight scam banner and fly it proud! (just right click and “save as” or Mac users can Control + click to save)

Remember: I’m here to help. 🙂

in common sense / ebooks / gifts / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Lots of News

So, this past Friday at 9pm, we launched the all-new, all-awesome website for THE FIXER. This is THE place to go for all things Lawson Vampire – the TV show, the book series, everything. We also debuted the new 30-second teaser clip, which you can see just by clicking on the screen shot to the left.

AND on top of that, we also debuted the brand new ebook THE ENCHANTER. You might know this better as THE MADAGASCAR MATTER project that I ran as a subscription only serialized piece a year or so back. The problem was, the story took on a life of its own and blossomed into a full-fledged novel of 81,000 words. So I turned it into THE ENCHANTER and put it out. The book is a Lawson adventure from the late 1970s when he’s in Madagascar with his former mentor Zero to run down a skeleton in the Council’s closet with roots running back to World War II. Fun stuff. It’s out for the Kindle and the Nook, or you can grab it on THE FIXER website, too.

And we have much more planned. This week, I’m working on THE SHEPHERD, a special Lawson novella written for some very special folks. That should be out soon. And then we’ll be debuting the extended cut of the teaser clip out on THE FIXER website. Look for that by the end of the week,hopefully.

More media attention is brewing. I have a lunchtime interview today, so that should be fun. It comes on the heels of a nice piece in the Boston Herald a week or so back.

Tons of other stuff happening right now. I’ll talk about it when I can.

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

EBook Sales for March 2011

I sold 3421 ebooks in March.

To say I’m thrilled would be an understatement. And if I thought February was great, well, March was even better. I saw a 46% jump in sales in March and it’s my goal now to realize that same sales increase with each succeeding month. Is it sustainable? I think it just might be. More people are flocking to ebooks and ereaders than ever before. And my numbers, as great as they are for me personally, are still a drop in a very, very big bucket. I still have hundreds of thousands of fans to introduce to Lawson. If I can be sure to introduce new Lawson adventures each month, retain readers from each book, and drive new readers to the series, I think it’s very, very possible to make good gains each month. We’ll see if I’m right.

The vast majority of my sales in March came from my Lawson vampire series. THE FIXER alone sold 953 copies on the US Amazon site. The other three novels all posted solid triple-digit sales and even the two novellas made it into triple digits. The Lawson short stories, while not as impressive sales-figures-wise, still managed to add several hundred dollars to my bottom line. And this next week will see the addition of a new Lawson novel, THE ENCHANTER (previously known as THE MADAGASCAR MATTER before it became a full-fledged novel) as well as a new novella titled THE SHEPHERD. I’m hoping that more and more people will find the series and really enjoy what I’m doing with it. Add to that the new redesign of THE FIXER website – which will be THE place for all things Lawson (including the TV series) and you have some very cool things happening right now.

For me, this new world of ebooks sales is extremely gratifying. I’m earning a very respectable wage on ebook sales (roughly $150 bucks each day) and I couldn’t be more pleased. I get a monthly check (net 60 days) which certainly makes things a lot easier to budget and plan for. I’d like to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has purchased ebooks over the last few months. I write for you and I hope you really have fun with Lawson.

Oh, and by the way, PREY is coming soon. It needed a bit more revision work, but it will be out within the next month.

in Build a Bestseller / ebooks / general / how I write / lawson / ninjutsu / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments