I’m pleased to announce that I have a new novel coming this summer, one I’m very excited about: Ghost Detective. In a world where everybody dies but nobody leaves, Myron Vale is the rare individual who completely straddles both sides of the great divide. Read the full blurb below, as well as the first chapter here, and see if it hooks you. I’ve also set up a page at www.scottwilliamcarter.com/ghost, where I’ll collect any links or blog posts related to the book.
If early reader reviews are any indication, it could very well be one of the best things I’ve written, which has prompted me to make a little extra marketing push. When I finished this book, I really wanted to write more books about Myron Vale, and I’ve purposely set it up to be an ongoing mystery series.
When will it be published? Target date for a simultaneous paperback/ebook release is July 1 (just in time for the holiday weekend), but it could be published a few weeks before that. If you sign up for my newsletter there on the right, you’ll not only get a free copy The Man Who Made No Mistakes, you’ll also be the first to know when the book is available. I don’t send many emails, a couple a year at most, but I do try to take care of my most dedicated readers. You’ll also get first crack at limited editions and other things. I won’t spam you or give your email to someone else. Promise.
A couple other things. I’m releasing this book under my own publishing company, Flying Raven Press. When I first dipped my toes into the waters of indie-publishing a couple years ago, I thought it might be good — how can I put this tactfully? — to not be too obvious about that fact. Even though self-publishing was the norm until maybe a hundred years ago (Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Edgar Rice Burroughs and many other notable authors self-published their own work), it took on a certain stink of desperation in recent decades. But folks, the game has changed. Self-publishing, if done right, is not only a viable alternative to traditional publishing, in most cases these days it is the preferred option. There are so many writers covering this now that I hardly need to do so, but if you’re interested in learning more, read the blogs of Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathtryn Rusch, The Passive Voice, and J.A. Konrath. That’s a good starting point, and from there, you’ll be led to many others. I’m thankful to all of them for the help they’ve given writers.
I can honestly tell you I only considered submitting Ghost Detective to traditional publishers for about five seconds before dismissing the idea.
Why? Although I’ve had a great experience with Simon and Schuster with several of my novels, and would certainly consider a traditional publisher again for the right project, the advances, royalties, and contract terms have gotten pretty piss poor unless you have the leverage to dictate better terms. And how do you get that leverage? By coming to them after you already have a top-selling book.
But even then, it’s not a sure thing whether an author should sign up with a traditional publisher. Numbers are hard to come by, of course, but the expert analysis I’ve seen pegs non-online sales of most fiction around 40%. This means that 60% of a novel’s sales (a little higher or lower depending on the genre) come from either ebooks or print sales via online channels like Amazon.com. And once you know how, you as a writer can reach those markets just as well (or in many cases, better) than traditional publishers.
Yes, this means I have to wear the publisher’s hat in addition to the writer’s, but I don’t mind. In my early creative days, I started as a visual artist (both cartooning and fine art), and have worked a number of jobs that required me to learn desktop design, so I enjoy putting the books together. Whether my covers rival those coming out of New York, I’ll leave for you to judge, but I definitely feel I’m getting better. The final draft of this book is currently being proofread by an experienced New York copy editor. I can’t promise you there won’t be any errors in the book, because even the big publishing houses miss some, but when it’s all said and done, whether you buy the paperback or the ebook, I want you to feel you’re holding a book in your hands that’s just as good, at least in terms of presentation, as anything coming out of New York.
It’s been an up and down year on the writing side, which I may talk more about soon (or I may not, I’m a pretty erratic blogger, as you can see), but I feel really good about the future. I’ve made some decisions lately to recalibrate my writing career a bit, and Ghost Detective is a big step in this process. I hope you check it out.
Ghost Detective
by Scott William Carter
Ebook Publication Date:
Coming July 2013
Paperback Publication Date:
Coming July 2013
Genre: Fiction | Mystery
After narrowly surviving a near-fatal shooting, Portland detective Myron Vale wakes with a bullet still lodged in his brain, a headache to end all headaches, and a terrible side effect that radically transforms his world for the worse: He sees ghosts. Lots of them.
By some estimates, a hundred billion people have lived and died before anyone alive today was even born. For Myron, they’re all still here. That’s not even his biggest problem. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t tell the living from the dead.
Despite this, Myron manages to piece together something of a life as a private investigator specializing in helping people on both sides of the great divide — until a stunning blonde beauty walks into his office needing help finding her husband. Myron wants no part of the case until he sees the man’s picture . . . and instantly his carefully reconstructed life begins to unravel.
Read the first chapter here.