Update of August 15, 2020: You can purchase the print edition of Nocturne through Barnes and Noble.

Phil Slattery portrait
Phil Slattery
March, 2015

I apologize for not getting a Saturday Night Special up tonight. It fell through the proverbial cracks.

However, I do want to make it known that you can now get the print edition of Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover through Barnes and Noble. They are not stocking the shelves with it, but if you ask they can order for you.

I was in Little Rock to buy a new cell phone today and thought I would drop by the nearby Barnes and Noble. I have always loved to hang out in the cafe with an iced tea or coffee and write or peruse the stacks. I went in for that purpose and while I was there I inquired about what are the most popular books (this is just for the Little Rock location on Chenal). I found out that for about two years they have had a problem staying supplied with Where the Crawdads Sing and that the most popular horror writer they sell there is Darcy Oates. I looked at some of her books. They appear interesting. I may have to get one soon.

As you probably know, I have been looking at using someone other than Amazon to publish the print editions of the my works. One factor I have to consider is each of the publishing platform’s distribution. Amazon distributes to Barnes and Noble along with many others. So, I wondered if someone could order my works through B&N.

I went to the counter and asked the lady if she could order A Tale of Hell… She said no, it didn’t appear in her search results. So I went back to perusing the shelves, studying cover design, etc. Then I thought, let me see if she can order by my last name. To my surprise, she said the print edition Nocturne was available. I almost fainted. I had published it only a few days ago. I told her I was the author and asked a few more questions of her. She said it had probably appeared because it was a new work. My other works, she said, they would have to order through Amazon and were print on demand. This was excellent news to me, because my latest edition of A Tale of Hell… should be coming out by the 17th if not sooner.  It seems that Amazon has changed their distribution procedures and now print editions go out to the stores. That’s my assumption. I won’t know for certain until I do more research.

New cover of Nocturne
New Cover as of August 9, 2020

Now, I plan to issue new print editions of all my works, except for Alien Embrace and Diabolical. These are included in A Tale of Hell…. I published these separately only so that readers can sample my work in a specific genre. These smaller collections are also cheap in terms of print costs, so that I can hand out samples of my works at little cost to me.

I am thinking I will also have to rethink how I produce collections.  The new print edition of A Tale of Hell… is about 300 pages and at $14,.95 is priced approximately the same as other books of that length, if not a little cheaper. But I think I am going to have to come out with a more professional cover design, if it can now be placed on shelves at places like Barnes and Noble. So, there will be another edition of it coming out soon, and I may included Click in it as a bonus story, simply because at this time I have no other similar stories of that genre to collect into one volume. I might as well use it to increase the size of A Tale of Hell… and keep the price the same to that the reader gets more for their money.

I am considering grouping Nocturne and The Scent and Other Stories together to make a bigger volume, but I am not certain how I would do that, as they are so different thematically. I may through my stories and see if there are a few more that I might include or that would not take much to finish them, so that I can include them.

Of course, I am also considering just grouping everything together in one big volume, but I am not certain how that would work because the genres are so different.

Anyway, those are some initial thoughts.

I am going  to now come up with a plan to get local stores, and by “local” I mean at stores between Texarkana and Memphis. If I can do that, I might have toehold on getting even more widespread distribution.

Cover for New Print Edition of A Tale of Hell
Cover for New Print Edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror

So, I have a lot to think about.

If you have suggestions, please let me know, I welcome suggestions and recommendations.

Of course, if you are a book dealer and would like to sell my print editions, please contact me or go through whatever distribution connections you have with Amazon. And, if you sell books, I would be happy to discuss a book signing and/or reading with you.

Hasta luego. Please leave any comments, thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations below.

 

 

Update of August 13, 2020: Kindle Keywords

Phil Slattery portrait
Phil Slattery
March, 2015

Since Tuesday, I have spent some time trying to improve my book sales by using keywords better on my Amazon site.

When I set up the site, I saw that they had seven fields for seven words up to fifty characters long. Mistakenly, I thought you could have only seven keywords, I feel like such a dummy now.

I read two articles today: 7 KINDLE KEYWORDS: USE ALL 50 CHARACTERS OR NOT?  and Make Your Book More Discoverable with Keywords. What I took away from these and what I decided to do are two different things.

Below are the things I decided to do. What I took away is not as important as I what I decided to do, so I won’t bother you with that.

First, for Kindlepreneurs, jam as many words into each of the seven boxes Amazon gives you. The maximum number of characters is fifty. I did not see anything that said the words have to be separated by commas.

For keywords, choose words that are not in your title or description. This makes sense because that would be redundant.

Google search engines put more emphasis on the titles and description than keywords. So, maybe it would be good to put any words you would use as keywords in the title and/or description.

Sometimes it might be useful to think of an exact phrase that someone would use in searching for your book and put that in as a keyword. Google search engines sometimes look for that.

I tried to think of as many keywords as I could for my books, but after a few, my imagination was crapping out on me. I came up with an idea to help with this though. This is something not taught in either of the two articles I mentioned. I would think of a word describing the essence of my book, something that people might search for, and looked up its synonyms on line. My reasoning is that words have nuances and the meaning and nuances may vary somewhat from speaker to speaker. For example, someone wanting to read my book Diabolical: Three Stories of Jack Thurston and Revenge (I may change this title to make it more marketable), the primary theme of this book is evil. Thesaurus.com gives 48 synonyms for evil. Therefore, I selected several keywords from this list trying to choose one used widely today such as: wicked, malevolent, depravity, misery, suffering, etc.  Then I moved on to another descriptive word and its synonyms.  I changed all my keywords on Tuesday and still haven’t seen any results, but it is only Thursday.

Try out some of the suggestions and let me know how they work out for you. Leave any recommendations of your own in the comment box below.

Hasta luego.

 

 

The Importance of a Good Title/Business Name in Marketing

Phil Slattery portrait
Phil Slattery
March, 2015

As you may know, I am exploring marketing and publicity primarily as it pertains to books. You may also know that I dabble in the stock market. Today, on Ameritrade, I found a business that demonstrates why choosing a good name for your business or a good title for your book is important. Bear in mind that I have no knowledge of this company’s products and as to whether they are good or bad. They may be top of the line and on the cutting edge of their field, but you cannot tell that by the name. The blurb below is taken from Ameritrade.

Holy Crap Brands Inc 

Based in Canada
Company profile: Holy Crap Brands Inc. is a Canada-based company that provides breakfast cereal and related food products. The Company produces and sells cereal from its Gibsons, BC facility.
Please leave comments below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe.

June 6, 2020: Trying to Find a Children’s Picture Book Publisher

Phil Slattery portrait
Phil Slattery
March, 2015

As you may already know, I have written the manuscript for a children’s picture book entitled Bobby the Brave Brown Pelican. This morning I have been trying to find a publisher for it. This is considerably harder than finding a short story publisher. I did submit my work to a few publishers a few weeks ago, but I have had to date only negative or no responses. In short, I am having little success in finding just a possible publisher for my manuscript.

Nonetheless, I shall press on.

The two submissions engines I have for short stories, Duotrope and The Submissions Grinder, list very few publishers for children’s books. Consequently, I must resort to doing an internet search. Fortunately, there are few articles which list children’s book publishers. This morning, I have been working my way through a list of thirty publishers that can be found on johnfox.com. After I finish this list, I have another of 75, but this will no doubt include many on the first list.

I have had to develop an Excel spreadsheet to track my submissions. In this spreadsheet I am including the publishers I considered but decided not to submit to for one reason or another. This is to ensure that at a later date, I don’t go forget that I decided not to submit them and don’t go through the effort of researching them again.

Some accept manuscripts by mail, whereas I prefer to submit electronically. This does not mean I won’t submit to them, just that I won’t submit to them right away. I an trying to submit to as many as I can as soon as I can and submitting by mail slows this process considerably. Luckily, it seems only a few won’t accept simultaneous submissions, or at least they don’t state so on their website. Given that, I am submitting to as many as possible and will probably accept the first decent proposal that pops up.

Another stumbling block I am encountering is that, as with many publishers, many do not accept unsolicited manuscripts either throughout the year or during a good portion of the year.

Of course, there is the obvious matter that my subject matter is not to the taste of all publishers. Some have narrow requirements.  For example, Arbordale Publishing accepts only manuscripts that are math or science related. Kids Can Press accepts manuscripts only from Canadian authors.

One big stumbling block is that it seems most children’s book publishers won’t send a message or letter declining a work. They state that if the author doesn’t hear from them in a certain amount of time, he/she should consider the work not accepted. Unfortunately, this time period is usually in terms of months. Three to four months is not unusual. So far I have found one that says 6-9 months.

Some publishers don’t go into detail about what they would like to see and basically say to just to submit the manuscript while others go into excruciating and exacting detail.

Another big stumbling block for my particular work is that most publishers want a picture book to be under a 1,000 words. My manuscript is 1,388 words and it is as concise as I want to or can make it and still get my message across.

I know that these obstacles are common to just about all genres, but, at least compared to the short story market with which I am most familiar, they seem more numerous and frequent with children’s books. Children’s book publishers also seem less organized. There doesn’t seem to be a standard or preferred way of submitting manuscripts whereas publishers of short fiction seem more consistent in detailing what they accepts. Of course, that is only a subjective observation.

I feel like I am taking pot shots in the dark.

Anyway, I will keep plugging on even if I have to go through hundreds of publishers. This is not unusual for novelists or short story writers and, as I am learning, it is apparently not unusual for children’s book authors either.

Stay woke.

 

 

Seeking Opinions: New Collected Works Project Les Danses Macabres

Having dinner with my wife at Ray's Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019
Having dinner with my wife at Ray’s Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019

I am considering collecting all my short fiction published to date into one volume. This would include all the works in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, The Scent and Other Stories, and Click (Alien Embrace and Diablolical are already included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works).

The working title for this collection is Les Danses Macabres.  According to The Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (J.A. Cuddon, Penguin Books, 1991) the danse Macabre is:

Also known as the Dance of Death…The Dance of Death (in art and literature) depicted a procession or dance in which the dead lead the living to the grave.   It was a reminder of mortality, the ubiquity of death and of the equality of all men in that state.  It was also a reminder of the need for repentance. Apart from its moral and allegorical elements, it was very often satirical in tone…Death is, as it were, presented as a kind of sardonic joke.

Notice that the title of my planned work is Les Danses Macabres, which is the plural of danse macabre. I chose this variation for two reasons:

  1. To distinguish my book from other books and other works which have the name Danse Macabre, which is not an uncommon name. In fact, there is even a tone poem for orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens called Danse Macabre (Opus 40, 1874) and a non-fiction book by Stephen King entitled Danse Macabre.
  2. “Danse Macabre” is a single way to death . By using the plural, I am intimating that there are several ways to death (or to hell, if you prefer). I think the stories in the collection illustrate that.

I have rearranged the stories, somewhat, to start with “The Scent”, which is a very pleasant, poignant, but a little spooky story. From there the stories gradually increase in intensity until the collection ends with the intense, violent microfiction at the end of A Tale of Hell….

The total word count of the collection is over 87,300, which puts it into the same size range as a novel. This should make it more marketable as people like to buy longer works. In fact, I have read that Stephen King likes to write long works, so that his readers get something for their money. This seems to bear out in my sales, as my longest work (A Tale of Hell…) has accounted for 43% of my sales since January, 2018. it is 62,054 words in length, which puts it in the range of shorter novel. According to my research on Duotrope, most small publishers are looking for novels to be about 40,000 to 100,000 words in length with the majority being around 40,000 to 50,000.

I am designing this work initially to be marketed on Amazon Kindle, but I am also keeping it simple to make it easily converted into a hard copy book.

This planned work will include only prose. Nocturne, therefore, will not be included in this collection. However, I am planning a second edition of it that will include poems that were not included in the current edition.

.I have started designing covers for Les Danses Macabres. Here are the possibilities I have come up with so far. Let me which one you think most suitable.  For easy reference, I have put a name below each. Let me know your thoughts on my other plans too as well, if you will.

 

Dancer Cover

 

Red Skull Cover

 

Blue Skull Cover

 

Bonfire Cover

Hasta luego.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeking Opinions: New Collected Works Project Les Danses Macabres

Having dinner with my wife at Ray's Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019
Having dinner with my wife at Ray’s Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019

I am considering collecting all my short fiction published to date into one volume. This would include all the works in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, The Scent and Other Stories, and Click (Alien Embrace and Diablolical are already included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works).

The working title for this collection is Les Danses Macabres.  According to The Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (J.A. Cuddon, Penguin Books, 1991) the danse Macabre is:

Also known as the Dance of Death…The Dance of Death (in art and literature) depicted a procession or dance in which the dead lead the living to the grave.   It was a reminder of mortality, the ubiquity of death and of the equality of all men in that state.  It was also a reminder of the need for repentance. Apart from its moral and allegorical elements, it was very often satirical in tone…Death is, as it were, presented as a kind of sardonic joke.

Notice that the title of my planned work is Les Danses Macabres, which is the plural of danse macabre. I chose this variation for two reasons:

  1. To distinguish my book from other books and other works which have the name Danse Macabre, which is not an uncommon name. In fact, there is even a tone poem for orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens called Danse Macabre (Opus 40, 1874) and a non-fiction book by Stephen King entitled Danse Macabre.
  2. “Danse Macabre” is a single way to death . By using the plural, I am intimating that there are several ways to death (or to hell, if you prefer). I think the stories in the collection illustrate that.

I have rearranged the stories, somewhat, to start with “The Scent”, which is a very pleasant, poignant, but a little spooky story. From there the stories gradually increase in intensity until the collection ends with the intense, violent microfiction at the end of A Tale of Hell….

The total word count of the collection is over 87,300, which puts it into the same size range as a novel. This should make it more marketable as people like to buy longer works. In fact, I have read that Stephen King likes to write long works, so that his readers get something for their money. This seems to bear out in my sales, as my longest work (A Tale of Hell…) has accounted for 43% of my sales since January, 2018. it is 62,054 words in length, which puts it in the range of shorter novel. According to my research on Duotrope, most small publishers are looking for novels to be about 40,000 to 100,000 words in length with the majority being around 40,000 to 50,000.

I am designing this work initially to be marketed on Amazon Kindle, but I am also keeping it simple to make it easily converted into a hard copy book.

This planned work will include only prose. Nocturne, therefore, will not be included in this collection. However, I am planning a second edition of it that will include poems that were not included in the current edition.

.I have started designing covers for Les Danses Macabres. Here are the possibilities I have come up with so far. Let me which one you think most suitable.  For easy reference, I have put a name below each. Let me know your thoughts on my other plans too as well, if you will.

 

Dancer Cover

 

Red Skull Cover

 

Blue Skull Cover

 

Bonfire Cover

Hasta luego.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeking Opinions: New Collected Works Project Les Danses Macabres

Having dinner with my wife at Ray's Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019
Having dinner with my wife at Ray’s Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019

I am considering collecting all my short fiction published to date into one volume. This would include all the works in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, The Scent and Other Stories, and Click (Alien Embrace and Diablolical are already included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works).

The working title for this collection is Les Danses Macabres.  According to The Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (J.A. Cuddon, Penguin Books, 1991) the danse Macabre is:

Also known as the Dance of Death…The Dance of Death (in art and literature) depicted a procession or dance in which the dead lead the living to the grave.   It was a reminder of mortality, the ubiquity of death and of the equality of all men in that state.  It was also a reminder of the need for repentance. Apart from its moral and allegorical elements, it was very often satirical in tone…Death is, as it were, presented as a kind of sardonic joke.

Notice that the title of my planned work is Les Danses Macabres, which is the plural of danse macabre. I chose this variation for two reasons:

  1. To distinguish my book from other books and other works which have the name Danse Macabre, which is not an uncommon name. In fact, there is even a tone poem for orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens called Danse Macabre (Opus 40, 1874) and a non-fiction book by Stephen King entitled Danse Macabre.
  2. “Danse Macabre” is a single way to death . By using the plural, I am intimating that there are several ways to death (or to hell, if you prefer). I think the stories in the collection illustrate that.

I have rearranged the stories, somewhat, to start with “The Scent”, which is a very pleasant, poignant, but a little spooky story. From there the stories gradually increase in intensity until the collection ends with the intense, violent microfiction at the end of A Tale of Hell….

The total word count of the collection is over 87,300, which puts it into the same size range as a novel. This should make it more marketable as people like to buy longer works. In fact, I have read that Stephen King likes to write long works, so that his readers get something for their money. This seems to bear out in my sales, as my longest work (A Tale of Hell…) has accounted for 43% of my sales since January, 2018. it is 62,054 words in length, which puts it in the range of shorter novel. According to my research on Duotrope, most small publishers are looking for novels to be about 40,000 to 100,000 words in length with the majority being around 40,000 to 50,000.

I am designing this work initially to be marketed on Amazon Kindle, but I am also keeping it simple to make it easily converted into a hard copy book.

This planned work will include only prose. Nocturne, therefore, will not be included in this collection. However, I am planning a second edition of it that will include poems that were not included in the current edition.

.I have started designing covers for Les Danses Macabres. Here are the possibilities I have come up with so far. Let me which one you think most suitable.  For easy reference, I have put a name below each. Let me know your thoughts on my other plans too as well, if you will.

 

Dancer Cover

 

Red Skull Cover

 

Blue Skull Cover

 

Bonfire Cover

Hasta luego.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeking Opinions: New Collected Works Project Les Danses Macabres

Having dinner with my wife at Ray's Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019
Having dinner with my wife at Ray’s Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019

I am considering collecting all my short fiction published to date into one volume. This would include all the works in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, The Scent and Other Stories, and Click (Alien Embrace and Diablolical are already included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works).

The working title for this collection is Les Danses Macabres.  According to The Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (J.A. Cuddon, Penguin Books, 1991) the danse Macabre is:

Also known as the Dance of Death…The Dance of Death (in art and literature) depicted a procession or dance in which the dead lead the living to the grave.   It was a reminder of mortality, the ubiquity of death and of the equality of all men in that state.  It was also a reminder of the need for repentance. Apart from its moral and allegorical elements, it was very often satirical in tone…Death is, as it were, presented as a kind of sardonic joke.

Notice that the title of my planned work is Les Danses Macabres, which is the plural of danse macabre. I chose this variation for two reasons:

  1. To distinguish my book from other books and other works which have the name Danse Macabre, which is not an uncommon name. In fact, there is even a tone poem for orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens called Danse Macabre (Opus 40, 1874) and a non-fiction book by Stephen King entitled Danse Macabre.
  2. “Danse Macabre” is a single way to death . By using the plural, I am intimating that there are several ways to death (or to hell, if you prefer). I think the stories in the collection illustrate that.

I have rearranged the stories, somewhat, to start with “The Scent”, which is a very pleasant, poignant, but a little spooky story. From there the stories gradually increase in intensity until the collection ends with the intense, violent microfiction at the end of A Tale of Hell….

The total word count of the collection is over 87,300, which puts it into the same size range as a novel. This should make it more marketable as people like to buy longer works. In fact, I have read that Stephen King likes to write long works, so that his readers get something for their money. This seems to bear out in my sales, as my longest work (A Tale of Hell…) has accounted for 43% of my sales since January, 2018. it is 62,054 words in length, which puts it in the range of shorter novel. According to my research on Duotrope, most small publishers are looking for novels to be about 40,000 to 100,000 words in length with the majority being around 40,000 to 50,000.

I am designing this work initially to be marketed on Amazon Kindle, but I am also keeping it simple to make it easily converted into a hard copy book.

This planned work will include only prose. Nocturne, therefore, will not be included in this collection. However, I am planning a second edition of it that will include poems that were not included in the current edition.

.I have started designing covers for Les Danses Macabres. Here are the possibilities I have come up with so far. Let me which one you think most suitable.  For easy reference, I have put a name below each. Let me know your thoughts on my other plans too as well, if you will.

 

Dancer Cover

 

Red Skull Cover

 

Blue Skull Cover

 

Bonfire Cover

Hasta luego.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeking Opinions: New Collected Works Project Les Danses Macabres

Having dinner with my wife at Ray's Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019
Having dinner with my wife at Ray’s Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019

I am considering collecting all my short fiction published to date into one volume. This would include all the works in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, The Scent and Other Stories, and Click (Alien Embrace and Diablolical are already included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works).

The working title for this collection is Les Danses Macabres.  According to The Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (J.A. Cuddon, Penguin Books, 1991) the danse Macabre is:

Also known as the Dance of Death…The Dance of Death (in art and literature) depicted a procession or dance in which the dead lead the living to the grave.   It was a reminder of mortality, the ubiquity of death and of the equality of all men in that state.  It was also a reminder of the need for repentance. Apart from its moral and allegorical elements, it was very often satirical in tone…Death is, as it were, presented as a kind of sardonic joke.

Notice that the title of my planned work is Les Danses Macabres, which is the plural of danse macabre. I chose this variation for two reasons:

  1. To distinguish my book from other books and other works which have the name Danse Macabre, which is not an uncommon name. In fact, there is even a tone poem for orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens called Danse Macabre (Opus 40, 1874) and a non-fiction book by Stephen King entitled Danse Macabre.
  2. “Danse Macabre” is a single way to death . By using the plural, I am intimating that there are several ways to death (or to hell, if you prefer). I think the stories in the collection illustrate that.

I have rearranged the stories, somewhat, to start with “The Scent”, which is a very pleasant, poignant, but a little spooky story. From there the stories gradually increase in intensity until the collection ends with the intense, violent microfiction at the end of A Tale of Hell….

The total word count of the collection is over 87,300, which puts it into the same size range as a novel. This should make it more marketable as people like to buy longer works. In fact, I have read that Stephen King likes to write long works, so that his readers get something for their money. This seems to bear out in my sales, as my longest work (A Tale of Hell…) has accounted for 43% of my sales since January, 2018. it is 62,054 words in length, which puts it in the range of shorter novel. According to my research on Duotrope, most small publishers are looking for novels to be about 40,000 to 100,000 words in length with the majority being around 40,000 to 50,000.

I am designing this work initially to be marketed on Amazon Kindle, but I am also keeping it simple to make it easily converted into a hard copy book.

This planned work will include only prose. Nocturne, therefore, will not be included in this collection. However, I am planning a second edition of it that will include poems that were not included in the current edition.

.I have started designing covers for Les Danses Macabres. Here are the possibilities I have come up with so far. Let me which one you think most suitable.  For easy reference, I have put a name below each. Let me know your thoughts on my other plans too as well, if you will.

 

Dancer Cover

 

Red Skull Cover

 

Blue Skull Cover

 

Bonfire Cover

Hasta luego.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeking Opinions: New Collected Works Project Les Danses Macabres

Having dinner with my wife at Ray's Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019
Having dinner with my wife at Ray’s Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019

I am considering collecting all my short fiction published to date into one volume. This would include all the works in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, The Scent and Other Stories, and Click (Alien Embrace and Diablolical are already included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works).

The working title for this collection is Les Danses Macabres.  According to The Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (J.A. Cuddon, Penguin Books, 1991) the danse Macabre is:

Also known as the Dance of Death…The Dance of Death (in art and literature) depicted a procession or dance in which the dead lead the living to the grave.   It was a reminder of mortality, the ubiquity of death and of the equality of all men in that state.  It was also a reminder of the need for repentance. Apart from its moral and allegorical elements, it was very often satirical in tone…Death is, as it were, presented as a kind of sardonic joke.

Notice that the title of my planned work is Les Danses Macabres, which is the plural of danse macabre. I chose this variation for two reasons:

  1. To distinguish my book from other books and other works which have the name Danse Macabre, which is not an uncommon name. In fact, there is even a tone poem for orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens called Danse Macabre (Opus 40, 1874) and a non-fiction book by Stephen King entitled Danse Macabre.
  2. “Danse Macabre” is a single way to death . By using the plural, I am intimating that there are several ways to death (or to hell, if you prefer). I think the stories in the collection illustrate that.

I have rearranged the stories, somewhat, to start with “The Scent”, which is a very pleasant, poignant, but a little spooky story. From there the stories gradually increase in intensity until the collection ends with the intense, violent microfiction at the end of A Tale of Hell….

The total word count of the collection is over 87,300, which puts it into the same size range as a novel. This should make it more marketable as people like to buy longer works. In fact, I have read that Stephen King likes to write long works, so that his readers get something for their money. This seems to bear out in my sales, as my longest work (A Tale of Hell…) has accounted for 43% of my sales since January, 2018. it is 62,054 words in length, which puts it in the range of shorter novel. According to my research on Duotrope, most small publishers are looking for novels to be about 40,000 to 100,000 words in length with the majority being around 40,000 to 50,000.

I am designing this work initially to be marketed on Amazon Kindle, but I am also keeping it simple to make it easily converted into a hard copy book.

This planned work will include only prose. Nocturne, therefore, will not be included in this collection. However, I am planning a second edition of it that will include poems that were not included in the current edition.

.I have started designing covers for Les Danses Macabres. Here are the possibilities I have come up with so far. Let me which one you think most suitable.  For easy reference, I have put a name below each. Let me know your thoughts on my other plans too as well, if you will.

 

Dancer Cover

 

Red Skull Cover

 

Blue Skull Cover

 

Bonfire Cover

Hasta luego.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeking Opinions: New Collected Works Project Les Danses Macabres

Having dinner with my wife at Ray's Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019
Having dinner with my wife at Ray’s Italian Bistro, Midland, TX, May, 2019

I would like your opinions on an idea I had last week.

I am considering collecting all my short fiction published to date into one volume. This would include all the works in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, The Scent and Other Stories, and Click (Alien Embrace and Diablolical are already included in A Tale of Hell and Other Works).

The working title for this collection is Les Danses Macabres.  According to The Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (J.A. Cuddon, Penguin Books, 1991) the danse Macabre is:

Also known as the Dance of Death…The Dance of Death (in art and literature) depicted a procession or dance in which the dead lead the living to the grave.   It was a reminder of mortality, the ubiquity of death and of the equality of all men in that state.  It was also a reminder of the need for repentance. Apart from its moral and allegorical elements, it was very often satirical in tone…Death is, as it were, presented as a kind of sardonic joke.

Notice that the title of my planned work is Les Danses Macabres, which is the plural of danse macabre. I chose this variation for two reasons:

  1. To distinguish my book from other books and other works which have the name Danse Macabre, which is not an uncommon name. In fact, there is even a tone poem for orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens called Danse Macabre (Opus 40, 1874) and a non-fiction book by Stephen King entitled Danse Macabre.
  2. “Danse Macabre” is a single way to death . By using the plural, I am intimating that there are several ways to death (or to hell, if you prefer). I think the stories in the collection illustrate that.

I have rearranged the stories, somewhat, to start with “The Scent”, which is a very pleasant, poignant, but a little spooky story. From there the stories gradually increase in intensity until the collection ends with the intense, violent microfiction at the end of A Tale of Hell….

The total word count of the collection is over 87,300, which puts it into the same size range as a novel. This should make it more marketable as people like to buy longer works. In fact, I have read that Stephen King likes to write long works, so that his readers get something for their money. This seems to bear out in my sales, as my longest work (A Tale of Hell…) has accounted for 43% of my sales since January, 2018. it is 62,054 words in length, which puts it in the range of shorter novel. According to my research on Duotrope, most small publishers are looking for novels to be about 40,000 to 100,000 words in length with the majority being around 40,000 to 50,000.

I am designing this work initially to be marketed on Amazon Kindle, but I am also keeping it simple to make it easily converted into a hard copy book.

This planned work will include only prose. Nocturne, therefore, will not be included in this collection. However, I am planning a second edition of it that will include poems that were not included in the current edition.

.I have started designing covers for Les Danses Macabres. Here are the possibilities I have come up with so far. Let me which one you think most suitable.  For easy reference, I have put a name below each. Let me know your thoughts on my other plans too as well, if you will.

 

Dancer Cover

 

Red Skull Cover

 

Blue Skull Cover

 

Bonfire Cover

Hasta luego.

 

 

 

 

 

Opinions Wanted

Soon, I will produce a second edition of The Scent and Other Stories, adding my short story “Bye Bye” to it. To reinforce the idea that this is a new edition, I am changing the cover. Below are my latest two designs. Please let me know your thoughts on each and which you recommend. Both are images from the public domain.

 

 

The J.B. Garzon Cover

 

 

Marcelo Dias cover
The Marcelo Dias Cover

Opinions Wanted

Soon, I will produce a second edition of The Scent and Other Stories, adding my short story “Bye Bye” to it. To reinforce the idea that this is a new edition, I am changing the cover. Below are my latest two designs. Please let me know your thoughts on each and which you recommend. Both are images from the public domain.

 

 

The J.B. Garzon Cover

 

 

Marcelo Dias cover
The Marcelo Dias Cover

Opinions Wanted

Soon, I will produce a second edition of The Scent and Other Stories, adding my short story “Bye Bye” to it. To reinforce the idea that this is a new edition, I am changing the cover. Below are my latest two designs. Please let me know your thoughts on each and which you recommend. Both are images from the public domain.

 

 

The J.B. Garzon Cover

 

 

Marcelo Dias cover
The Marcelo Dias Cover

Opinions Wanted

Soon, I will produce a second edition of The Scent and Other Stories, adding my short story “Bye Bye” to it. To reinforce the idea that this is a new edition, I am changing the cover. Below are my latest two designs. Please let me know your thoughts on each and which you recommend. Both are images from the public domain.

 

 

The J.B. Garzon Cover

 

 

Marcelo Dias cover
The Marcelo Dias Cover