Well, in a way, anyhow.  The ebook - without illustrations - has gone live at Amazon, cover and all. It will stay the way it is until the grumpy artist finishes the interiors and the paperback is made available - sometime in the middle of next month.  Until then, enjoy book 3, and here's a link to the Amazon page and a sneaky peek at that cover.

DEATH SPRINGS ETERNAL AMAZON PAGE

COVER:

Pretty, ain't it?  I thought so.

Till next time,

RJD

Yes, folks, the new book is up and running - on Amazon and Amazon UK in ebook format, that is.  The paperback is still a few days away, but it'll get here, I promise. 

So, here's the cover and description:

"Ken Lowery is a man at odds with his life. He hates his job, is disappointed in his marriage, and feels resigned to leading a mundane existence.

That all changes when his wife brings home a rambunctious Black Labrador puppy named Silas, who forges a remarkable connection with Ken and begins to heal his inner turmoil. When some neighborhood children start to go missing, he takes it upon himself to protect those around him and is thrust into a surreal world where monsters roam.  Not everything is what it seems to be, he soon discovers, including his new best friend."

I really need to thank Dans Arenson and Pyle for their work beta-reading this manuscript.  And of course I need to thank Jesse for the fantastic cover, Mel Rico for the lettering, and my wife for putting up with me.  Last but not least, thank you Leo, my one-eyed yellow Lab, who was my true inspiration for writing this story.

You gentle readers can purchase the ebook at, as I mentioned earlier, Amazon and Amazon UK

Peace, folks, and we'll talk to you soon....

RJD

Here we are, everyone.  May 1st.  This date means something very special to me, so I thought I'd post about it right here, right now.

The Fall first went live in paperback on April 21st, 2010.  That means that Jesse and myself ave been going at this little thing called publishing for a year now.  This is as good a time as any to get everyone up-to-date on how the experience went for us.

As I said, we released the first book on April 21st.  In the last nine days of that month we sold 15 copies of the book - exclusively to family and friends.  I watched our rankings drop and thought, "well, this is how it's gonna be.  We're a hit!"

Then...reality struck.

Sales dropped in May, and we saw little to no movement.  In that time I decided we best get into this burgeoning ebook market.  On June 5th we released The Fall on the Kindle, and again I thought things would just take off. 

I sold a grand total of 5 ebooks that month.

However, this slow progress didn't deter me.  I kept plugging away at other projects while constantly updating our books with new corrections and edits.  I started my review blog, "Journal of Always", in July, and started to gain some exposure.  By the time October rolled around, when I took part in Amanda Hocking's "Zombiepalooza", her dedication to Halloween, things really started to take off.  In November we broke 100 sales in a month for the first time, along with releasing "The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales".  We were on our way.

So here we are now, with three books out there and one more to be released this coming June.  Our sales have been relatively consistent and we've made some more-than-significant progress.  Reviews have been (mostly) good and the reception has been greater than I would've hoped.

I know some people only believe numbers, however, so here you go.  This is how our books - The Fall, Dead of Winter, and The Gate - have fared over the last year:

The Fall: The Rift Book I

Paperbacks Sold - 65
Ebooks Sold - 2783
Total Sold - 2848

Dead of Winter: The Rift Book II

Paperbacks Sold - 19
Ebooks Sold - 1276
Total Sold - 1295

The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales

Ebooks (and Total) Sold - 1254


Overall Sales for TRO Publishing, our little baby here:

5397

Boo-ya!

Peace, folks

RJD

Here is where we stand right now when it pertains to the two separate projects we have going on right now:

#1 - Dead Of Winter

Yes, the final round of edits for the second book of The Rift are now finished!  The manuscript has been sent off to our first editor to look over.  When it comes back, it will be sent to yet another editor.  By the time it comes back to us complete, it should be a pretty spit-and-polished final product - unlike the many versions of The Fall in which the mistakes we (I) made cost me a ton of money and will not be repeated.

Jesse is also hard at work putting together the cover and interior illustrations.  When he's finished, we'll be putting it all together, producing the paperback and hardcover, and then it's up to me to format and upload a version for the Kindle, Nook, and iPad.  Yes, it's still a lot of work to do, and many more sleepless nights.  But in the end, it's all worth it.  This is going to be a fantastic book, better than the first, and will hopefully please those looking forward to following the exploits of Josh, Kyra, Colin, and a host of new and interesting characters.  And yes, our release date is still tentatively scheduled for around December 15th.

#2 - The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales

This is a special - and now collaborative - project.  I have collected nine of my best short stories, and gathered contributions from a few great writers I know - David Dalglish, Mercedes Yardley, David McAfee, and Daniel Pyle.  These shorts will all be gathered in this 50,000 word tome.  It will be released at first for the Kindle only, again with Jesse's artwork adorning the cover.  Then, after we put finishing touches on Dead of Winter, we will go about creating a digest-sized paperback, complete with sketches from the fabulous artist himself based on the stories included.

There are a wide range of tales in here, everything from straight horror to science fiction to slipstream.  It's quite exciting for me, and all the stories (even mine) are good.  Look out for this to be released by the middle or end of this month.  Here is the table of contents in the order I have them right now:

1 - The Gate
2 - Sullivan Street
3 - Container of Sorrows (Mercedes M. Yardley)
4 - The Sins of the Father
5 - Blight (Daniel Pyle)
6 - Feeding the Passion
7 - Dispatch #337
8 - Exhibit A (David McAfee)
9 - The Bandits of Yaddo
10 - I Spy
11 - Kitty in the Cellar (David Dalglish)
12 - Perfect Blue Buildings
13 - Empty Spaces

That's all I have for now, folks!  Check back later for more.

Well now, folks, The Fall is now available for sale on Barnes and Noble as an ebook for the Nook.  The price is $2.99, same as for the Kindle.  So any Nook users that stumble upon this, feel free to check it out!

The Fall for Nook at Barnes and Noble.com