Moved

I've moved this blog to my website.

Puritans in Outer Space

I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself. I was tooling around Chris Walley’s website and came across the phrase, “Puritans in Space,” except when I first read the phrase my mind read “Puritans in Outer Space.” Monty Python style skits flooded my head and I had a seriously difficult time stopping chuckling to myself before I could read, “On the theology of the Lamb Among the Stars series."

After I finished poking around, I dashed off an email to Mr. Walley asking if he’d be offended if I did a cartoon about Puritans in Space. He wrote me back, “Sounds absolutely fascinating. I am totally up for this. I'd prefer a book burning by Tim LaHaye, but you can't have everything.”

I emailed Tim Lahaye. I didn’t ask for a book burning, but I did tell him about the CSFF Blogtour and asked him to drop by and post a comment or two. I also emailed Jerry Jenkins, Orson Scott Card and Oprah. I couldn’t get in touch with Frank Peretti without going thru his manager. (publicist?)

Anyway, the idea behind the cartoon is that tons of people email funny pictures and cartoons. If a cartoon is funny enough, it could go viral. Book buzz is all about getting an author’s name ‘out there.’ My challenge to each and every CSFF Blogtour member is to create a cartoon or two you can give Mr. Walley and/or post on your blog.

Mr. Walley could create a webpage for “Puritans in Outer Space” with the cartoons. The cartoons would prompt people to search “Puritans in Outer Space” and his name would likely be in the top spot for that phrase. Currently he occupies the top spot for “Puritans in Space,” but few people search for that term.

Chris Walley's novel:

The Shadow and Night

Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet

“It may be that some prefer more streamlined writing. Extravagant description tries the patience of some,…” quoted from Jeffrey’s blog.

I’m one of them; I like more action, less exposition, but most of the time that doesn’t keep me from reading a great story. I haven’t finished it yet, but I think it is turning out to be one of those rare gems like A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) by Ursula K. Le Guin. I love Jeffrey’s story, but I am not enamored with his writing style. I think he was somewhat influenced by Le Guin’s style as well her ability to tell a story. Overall, so far I’d give Auralia's Colors 5 ‘Yeah Baby’s for story and an ‘oh well’ on style.

I Googled the name “Jeffrey Overstreet” and let me tell you, Jeffrey is an impressive person. He is an established film critic both in print and online. His reviews appear in:

• Christianity Today,
• Paste,
• Risen,
• Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion, and
• Response

He was even quoted in Time magazine in an article titled “The Gospel According To Spider-Man” (Aug. 09, 2004).

I also saw he is doing quite a lot to market Auralia's Colors online, but there are several things you can do to help him. Two important things are:

• First, if you liked the book, write an honest review at least at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com.
• Next, make a search suggestion at Amazon. Look about half way down the page for Auralia’s Colors at Amazon and locate:
  

“Help others find this product - tag it for Amazon search.”

(It’s right under “Tags customers associate with this product.”)

Click on “Search” and add your tag. What this does is put his book in the search results for your search term. My tag was:

Christian Fantasy
This is a great fantasy story by Christian writer and film reviewer, Jeffery Overstreet.

I’ll be adding more search suggestions after I finish the book.

Why are these things important? Amazon currently has little more than a 20% market share for all books sold in the US according to what I have been reading. Regardless of that, a very large percentage of people (most) considering the purchase of a book use Amazon’s reviews and search results to aid in their purchase decisions. The more reviews and the more search suggestions the better.

After researching Jeffery I only have one question for him; I wonder if he knows the airspeed of a coconut-laden swallow? ;-)

It’s hard to believe the last time I posted was way back in August! Life for the last few months has been a whirlwind. One of the things I have been involved with is helping BRT Meetings@Sea behind the scenes to organize the Guerrilla@Sea seminar. (Yes, with the Father of Guerrilla Marketing.)

Some of the other organizations we’re in talks with now for seminars at sea include:

• Nehemiah Project Ministries Inc.
• H.O.P.E. Ministries International
  

One other thing of note happened while I’ve been absent. A motion picture production company is considering my novel, The Seventh Mountain. :-D

Lastly, I’ve decided to start a blog about, “Strictly Internet Marketing for Fiction.” Most books on Internet marketing for books are written for non-fiction and anyone that has tried to market fiction knows it is an entirely different animal. I’ll be implementing different techniques from three primary sources:

• POD People
• Plug Your Book and the one I am most excited about
  
• Guerrilla Networking

strictly for The Seventh Mountain which is currently hovering around 1.5 million at Amazon. If you’re interested in fiction marketing on the Internet, drop by and have a look-see. As usual, I’ll be taking a bit of a different perspective on the subject.

Virus Hoax Turns Real

McAfee discovered the “A Virtual Card For You Hoax” in late 2000. The hoax stated, in many variations, if you receive an email notifying you of an ecard it could be a virus that would destroy sector zero on your hard drive thus effectively destroying the entire disk. In 2000 this was a hoax.

As of June, 2007, the threat is real. The email directs you via a link to the ecard to a website that performs a “silent drive-by” download to your computer. Your computer then becomes a vehicle for remote malicious attacks.

Links to the relevant information are:

Hoax: http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=98893

Real: http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

The obvious work around for this is to personally send a separate email notification to the recipient letting them know the forthcoming ecard isn’t a hoax. (Plus, it’s just good manners.)

I wonder how much longer before links in blogs and website ads follow the same route?

Attenshun ta Orders, Mates

Avast, me heatries! So it’s a good yarn ye be wantin. T’aint none better ‘n The Legend of the Firefish by me mate, Cap’n George Bryan Polivka. Now da ole cap’n here done spun a tale to do himself proud he has. Why there be a pirate ship by the name o’ Trophy Chase in it; not haughty like some but a real seaman’s ship. I’d be proud to sail her meself. And if ye fancy sword fightin, as if I had ter ask, yer in fer a treat. Sea monsters; got that too. True love? Truer ‘n the nor' star I tell ya. Couldn’t be a truer, right spunky female tho.

So whatcha waitin fer? Go get it ‘fore someun thinks you’re a lubber!

Oh yeah, Cap’n Polivka wants I should remind ya, Speak Like a Pirate Day id be Sept. 19, so don’t ferget, speak like a pirate or be keel-hauled fer sure!

Book Trailers

The latest thing I’m trying to wrap my head around in book marketing is the recent explosion of “book trailers”. Like movie trailers they hype the story and give a sense of the storyline. I was very impressed with the trailer for the Fantasy Four Book Tour. A lot of time, effort and expense went into that 3 minutes or so clip, but I doubt I would have even noticed it playing on the wall mounted TV in Borders if I hadn’t been specifically looking for Fantasy Four Book Tour related stuff. All of the other trailers I’ve seen have been on the Internet.

I’ve started conversations about book trailers with several avid book readers and the general response I’ve been getting is that they have never heard of them, and most of the people in my limited sample were very Internet savvy.

I just watched the trailer for Robin Parrish’s new novel Fearless and I can’t say that it would influence me to look farther into the title. The same holds true for every trailer I’ve seen, including the ones for authors that I really like. (I haven’t had a chance to read either of the books in the series: Relentless or Fearless.)

If you would, watch the trailer and give me some feedback. I’d really like to know what you think.

(For those of you interested in book marketing, there’s an interesting survey on the subject here.)

Breaking News

“Could the next Harry Potter be a devout Christian?” The Washington Post in a front page article (July 18, 2007) suggests that Wayne Thomas Batson’s The Door Within series could replace the Harry Potter novels and that Christian fiction is the next big thing in books. In fact, secular publishers like Random House, Avon Books and Penguin Books have just started actively seeking Christian fiction. Only God could have accomplished this turnabout.

Not only is the Washington Post touting Batson, Fox News & Friends featured him in an interview about Christian fiction and The Door Within series. The Hand of God is moving folks. Stay tuned and stay knelt.

To quote Batson, “We are never alone.”