Friday, November 19, 2010

BACK TO THE BASICS

A large section of time has elapsed since my last posting. Chris Smoot and I took a run at starting a "shopper" here in Chiriqui -- In two languages. Unfortunately, we were the only two people interested in the concept. We invested a lot of time and money, only to be dissapointed in the end. We dissolved our endeavor a month ago. So for me it's back to the basics. Writing and publishing.
I currently have one book in print. It's entitled PARTNERS. It was released in 2005. The timing was unfortunate. I was out promoting this contemporary western novel during the high hype of the movie "Broke Back Mountain". (the story of two homo's that wore cowboy hats). Without exception, when I was at a book signing, someone would ask, "is this the book about the gay cowboys?" The ensuing discussion always left a chill in the air -- resulted in poor sales.
I did a national tour with Michael Blake (author of Dances with Wolves). Michael was promoting his first non-fiction book, INDIAN YELL. Even piggy backing on his fame, book sales were marginal at best. I could never make the math work. Spend $12,000.00 promoting (travel, hotels, food, etc.) to sell 3000 books with a royalty payment of $.96 each. So, I quit and returned to my home in Panama. I continued writing, however. I have several completed manuscripts that have been reviewed by publishers and contracts issued. I didn't sign because I would have to return to the US to do the promotional gigs.
Electronic books have held an alure. For a decade, I've held the opinion that e-books are the future of publishing. Amazon dot com has blazed the way with their Kindle reading device. Each generation of this device has gotten smaller and less expensive. AND, their library of e-books has swollen to almost a million titles.
Yesterday, November 18th, 2010, I uploaded one of my manuscripts into Library of Congress (copyright office) and later, to the Amazon Kindle Library. I also ordered the latest Kindle with WIFI and 3G capabilities.
So, in summary, I joined the thousands of authors who've embraced e-books. Look for CRYSTAL COWBOY in the fiction section of the Amazon Kindle library.
Puro vida,
Bob

1 comment:

  1. I share your book publishing frustration. I published 'Angels in Panama' in April and have since learned that it near impossible to promote a book using traditional methods when you are not physically in the U.S. I am also in the process of getting the book 'Kindle-ized'.
    I really like your idea of a Kindle blog. Thanks Larry

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