Get all of my ebook box sets on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents each, November 23 - 28. THAT'S 33¢ PER BOOK! Almost my entire backlist of fifty books--a normal retail value of $250--for less than $17! Or if you have Kindle Unlimited, read them all for free! I'm so excited by this sale that I'm using exclamation marks! As a holiday bonus you can pick up two box sets from my frequent collaborator Ann Voss Peterson, also for just 99¢ each. Ann and I write the Codename Chandler books together, and the Melinda DuChamp books. Harry McGlade and Jack Daniels appear in the Chandlers and the DuChamps, a ..read more

Hey Super Advanced AI, write a novel in the style of thriller author J.A. Konrath. Make sure it uses his main characters Jack Daniels and Harry McGlade, contains two jokes per page, crams in plenty of serial killer suspense, adds lots of dialog that Konrath thinks is clever, and has a surprise twist ending. Also include rutabagas and alcohol in the plot somewhere. (3.8 seconds later...) BOURBON TURNIP - A Jack Daniels Thriller Chicago cop Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels could never have known she was the target of a serial killer, even though it has happened to her 38 other times. When the Rutab ..read more

Some things don't change. When I got my start in this biz, way back in 2002, writers had to get a lit agent to get a publisher, then they did what their publisher told them to do. That way of doing things was terrible for lots of reasons, including (but not limited to): Agents missing good books. Publishers missing good books. Publishers owning rights forever. Publishers screwing up promotion. Sales numbers following you. Having no control during the submission process. Having no control during the publishing process. Having no control after the book comes out. The "having no control" parts ..read more

So let's talk about punctuation. Like all writers, I have preferences. Actually, preferences may not be strong enough a word. I have rules. Things I do, over and over. My rules may be a little unorthodox, but they work for me, and my readers don't seem to mind. I like the Oxford comma. Without it, things can get confusing. For example, consider my favorite blogs: Stomp Out Racism, Children Are Precious and A Newbie's Guide To Publishing. Obviously the Children blog and this blog are not racist, but without the Oxford comma, it could be misinterpreted. Sometimes I don't use a comma even ..read more

I'm back in the self-promo game, and I decided to return to ebook marketing with two big ideas. The first is a promo for my 180,000 word thriller duology, WHAT HAPPENED TO LORI. I blogged about it at length. In a nutshell, I wrote a very long thriller with some unique punctuation and tried to pace it like clickbait, and then I split it into two books. The first, I released for free. The second will debut on August 30 for 99 cents. I wanted to see how many readers I can reach by debuting a novel for free, and how many will stick along for the second book if it is super cheap. So far, so good ..read more

Hey! An axe! Let's grind it. Back in 2013 I wrote a post about critics. Four years prior to that, I did another post about critics. It's time to revisit. Like all breakthrough technologies, the Internet has improved life for a lot of people. We now have a fast and easy way to reach other people who share our interests and ideals. We have unrestricted access to information. We can entertain ourselves, educate ourselves, make some money, improve the world, and make life better. And then there are the haters. The first human who invented fire: "Look! I can harness this wondrous new technol ..read more

Hey Jack. Cool name. My name is Harry McGlade. I heard you've read about me. The guy who writes about all the awesome shit I do, J.A. Konrath, also known as Joe, told me it's your birthday today. Happy birthday! I remember turning 15. Best year of my life. I was on top of the world, and so happy all the time that you couldn't smack the smile off my face with a hockey stick. Joking. Being 15 sucked sweaty balls. School was brutal. I was pudgy, short, had a high voice. Got picked on. Had to deal with bullies. My grades were shit, and my merry-go-round of foster parents were always riding ..read more

I recently wrote what I believe is my best work. It's an epic gearshift thriller duology, and took more than a year to plan and write. Me, the guy who wrote SHAKEN in 9 days, spent twelve whole months carefully crafting a story. I was so jazzed at the final result that I gave it to my agent to sell, thinking I had a big, marketable bestseller with a huge hook and unpredictable twists and water-cooler-talk potential. A book that would generate lots of buzz and word of mouth and sales. My agent sent it to 47 North, Thomas & Mercer, Simon & Schuster, Harper, Tor, Blackstone, Kensington ..read more

So you wrote a book. Hooray. Celebrate. Enjoy the moment. I suggest craft beer. My go-to is barrel aged stouts, invented and perfected by Goose Island. But Prairie Artisan, The Bruery, Alesmith, Founders, Stone, Central Waters, Epic, Boulevard, Oskar Blues, and Avery also work well. More suggestions welcome in the comments. As I was saying, you wrote a book, and you celebrated, and now you are creating a marketing plan. You're nervous, but you've been an avid student, devouring everything you can on how to sell books. And you've discovered some common threads. SOCIAL MEDIA The catchall go ..read more

Back when I was on the conference circuit giving speech after speech about how to get published, I'd always preach that the most important thing a writer can do is, "Don't write shit." It's 2019, and I may be ready to take back those words. On axiom that I haven't considered taking back (yet) is that I never do anything that doesn't work on me. That's worth explaining. More than a decade ago, in the early noughties (so nice to finally have a word for the 2000s), I used to attend a lot of conferences, conventions, and book fairs, and every author seemed to be armed with an endless cache of ..read more