"Look Inside" Is Now Available for The Awakened

The Look Inside feature has been added to The Awakened at Amazon.  Click here to visit the product page, then click on Look Inside to read a few pages before you buy it.

Also, The Awakened is now available at Books-A-Million (click here) and Powell's Books (click here).

Acknowledgements for The Awakened

Now that The Awakened is out, there are a few people I’d like to acknowledge for their involvement in getting my first novel ready for prime time:

 - Matt Gaw: for your help editing when my manuscript was in its crudest form.  You’ve championed this book from the beginning.

 - Cindy Tesar: for your help editing, proofreading, and frequent encouragement.

 - Chris Walters: for your critique, your wisdom, and help with editing.

 - Marcia Fry: for your help editing and proofreading.  I wish I was able to give you more time; your input was tremendously valuable.

 - Michael Pollard: for saving my butt on generating the digital files for my printer.  I, literally, couldn’t have done it without you.

 - Carly Tesar: for your editing, proofreading, willingness to read it over and over, and your general awesomeness.

Thank you all!

Ways You Can Help

As some of you already know, my novel—The Awakened—is now available for sale at the following online retailers:
 - Amazon (click here)
 - AmazonUK (click here)
 - Barnes&Noble (click here)

For those of you who have already read the book, thanks so much for your encouraging comments and continued support.  For those of you who haven't yet read it, click here to read a synopsis.

Word-of-mouth endorsement is the most effective way for a self-published novel to gain visibility.  So, if you’d like to know how to help, here are a few ideas:

 1. Buy It: This may seem obvious, but there are a zillion books available these days and sales ranking is critical to getting noticed.
 2. Read It: My hope is that you will thoroughly enjoy the story, but you’ll have to read it to know whether or not it’s something you want to endorse.
 3. Write a Review: Visit the online retailers mentioned above and write an honest review. If you liked it, explain why. If you’re part of a book club or online readers group like GoodReads.com, these are also great forums to express your opinions about what you’ve read.
 4. Social Networking: If you’re on Facebook, Twitter, or have a blog, you can post a comment and a link to my book or my blog
 5. Word-Of-Mouth: Tell others about it.


Thanks for your help!

The Awakened is Now Available on Barnes&Noble.com and AmazonUK

Barnes&Noble.com is the second retailer to get my novel—The Awakened—set up in their system.  Click here to check it out.

And for all you readers in the UK, Amazon.co.uk is now taking pre-orders; click here.

The Awakened is Now Available at Amazon.com

Well…it’s official.

My novel—The Awakened—is now available for sale!

If there had been an actual competition between retailers, Amazon.com would have won. Four days after I approved my proof copy, Amazon had the description and specs listed. Another two days and it was showing as “In Stock”. After reading that it could take up to eight weeks for the cover image to be shown, I went ahead and posted the front and back cover images myself.

As other retailers get my book setup in their systems, I’ll post updates. Meanwhile, you can check it out on Amazon.com by clicking here.

The Awakened is Ready for Distribution

A couple weeks ago, I received a proof copy of The Awakened from my printer.  After reviewing it in detail, I found a few corrections that needed to be made before my first novel was ready for sale.  Today I received a second proof copy and I'm happy to report that everything checks out.  My book is finally ready!  Here's a photo of the finished product:

I just gave the approval to my printing company to begin distribution, so now it's a waiting game.  After reading through technical documentation and trading emails with sales reps, I've learned that it can take anywhere between two and eight weeks for my novel to show up on sites like Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

As you can imagine, I'm hoping it's closer to two weeks!