Indie Book Launch Secrets Workshop

Tim Grahl of Outthink, and Michael Bunker, one of his clients, are giving a three-hour training session next month.

Tim’s had five authors on the New York Times Bestseller list simultaneously, and indie author Hugh Howey is one of his clients.

However, for this particular workshop, he’s using another, lesser-known author who still has unarguable success as an indie. Michael Bunker writes Amish science fiction, which you could argue is a limited market. It’s the kind of specificity that indie was designed for.

Michael’s latest book Pennsylvania Omnibus sold 4183 copies in 48 hours.

Michael’s latest book Pennsylvania Omnibus has sold 13,000+ copies since its launch in January 2014.

$4.49 * 70% * 13,000 = $40,859 (assuming the price has stayed constant)

Not shabby at all, especially for a single title.

If that’s not for you, Tim’s got a ton of free resources on his site for both indie and traditionally-published writers (and aspiring writers).

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.

Mockup: 307 Ale Bottles

I found this beer bottle mockup last night, and thought I’d have fun with it.

Catch is, this particular product would probably be better vended in something stranger—like a Klein bottle. Oh well.

Click for full size:

It’s an homage to a Tom Smith song of the same title:

There’s many drinks you’ll drink, me lads, but this one beats them all.
One hundred fifty-three and one-half percent alcohol,
A beer brewed in a tesseract, it’ll shoot you through the roof,
And if you don’t believe me, I’ve got lots and lots of proof.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Graphic Element Credits

Font: Veneer by Yellow Design Studio I love this font, use it all the time.

Logo font: Trend Handmade by LatinoType

(Both of the above via Design Cuts, as usual.)

Beer Mockup: Original Mockups

Logo: 12 Sci-Fi Badges from VoxelFlux

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.

Another Piece of Walter Breen History

Note: topic is child sexual assault.

Another piece of Walter Breen/Marion Zimmer Bradley history came via snail mail today.

The events recounted weren’t given a time, but checking against the Breendoggle suggests that it’s of the same era as the Breendoggle (1964). I can’t tell if it’s before or after the Breendoggle was published, but very close in time.

I’m paraphrasing here, but the parents of one kid went to the Alameda County DA (which is the county Berkeley is in) and tried to press charges, but the specific case, penetration had not occurred, and thus the DA wasn’t able to prosecute the case. The parents of that same kid tried to get the Contra Costa DA involved, who was eager to take the case, but wanted other parents to also testify.

Because there were no rape shield laws at the time, the parents of other victims were rightly concerned that this would follow their children around in perpetuity and they thus refused to press charges.

This was 1964. I saw at least one note that Walter was arrested in 1964, perhaps this was what that was concerning.

There are also apparently earlier dox. More news when and if they become available.

I’m just very glad that rape shield laws started becoming the law in the 70s. Sadly, this was before laws protected rape victims, especially the children.

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.