Now for something completely different

Well, it's been a big day. Sometime in the night "A Time for Poncey" went live at Amazon without a hitch, which is a major thing in this time of high-tech. All I'm waiting for now is for it to show up on Goodreads. If any of you like it enough, feel free to rate and review it on Amazon and Goodreads. Here's a hint for all you insiders: The first free giveaway will be this Thursday.

Now it's off to the next project, in earnest. It will be another collection of Southern Gothic stories exploring spiritual themes, but these will have no connection to each other. I'll also throw in some poetry for good measure. The flagship story, which I think will be called "Little Egypt Ain't Home," will be available for free online soon. I'll post a link here so all my devoted blog fans can find it. Also included will be "Spinning Wheel," which is now available for about a quarter at AlfieDog.com. A few of the stories are written and ready to go, and I've spent a good part of today sending them to literary journals. If any see the light of day, I'll let you know.

With that I wish you all a wonderful Labor Day weekend. I'm going to take a nap.

The big day approaches

Well, tomorrow is the big release day. To get the direct link to Amazon first, join our Facebook page. "A Time for Poncey" will be available only in .mobi, the Kindle-friendly format. However, the first story, "You Can't Count What Isn't There," will continue to be available on Smashwords for the next few months, and it will be posted as a free download at St. Celibart soon. It is also still part of "The Job: Based on a True Story," "Feallengod" and "Wars of the Aoten." Yesterday was another free giveaway of "The Job" through Kindle Select, and more than 500 copies were taken. So thanks to everyone who's got a copy, and I hope you're blessed and see your relationship with Christ more clearly. Same goes with "Poncey."

More good news for Nooks

For those of you who use Nooks, you'll be happy to know that "Feallengod: The Conflict in the Heavenlies" is again available for you at Barnes and Noble online. And it's free! It was my first book, and I still believe it is my most important writing - I took all the instances in Scripture where Satan is seen overtly active and wrote them into a single narrative. At the same time, the story is staged at a human level to illustrate how the Church is involved in spiritual struggles even in our material existence. Barnes and Noble shoppers have been very kind to my study on Esther, so I hope you'll try out "Feallengod" also. And be sure to check out the pronouncing appendix at nearly the end.

Also, "You Can't Count What Isn't There" is included in the current edition, which is at the very-most end of the book. It's the first story from "A Time for Poncey - And other Stories out of Skullbone" (in case you haven't been paying attention) which is coming out for Kindle in four days!!!! Join us for the big galactic release at our Facebook event.

Facebook release party

I've set a worldwide release party for "A Time for Poncey" on Facebook at this link. If you are as excited about this as I am - and who wouldn't be? - join me for the global celebration. Click on "going" (or "join," I don't remember which), and the event will show up on your friends' news feed, and the word will spread. And by the way, the 2 a.m. start time means nothing. I hope you're all snugly asleep in your beds at that time. But please help me spread the word. Thanks!

First 'Poncey' review raves

I didn't expect to get any reviews of "A Time for Poncey" in before the release, but the Midwest Book Review really came through. It is a group that for almost 40 years has reviewed independent books, and is highly respected by libraries and other bibliophiles. The group gave a glowing review of "The Job," so I was hoping for similar results for "Poncey." Here it is:

"A touch of the unusual can revolutionize our perspectives of the world. 'A Time for Poncey - And other Stories out of Skullbone' is a collection of short fiction from Craig Davis, touching on the nature of Southern Gothic culture and exploring our world through a metaphysical lens, providing strange humor and thought equally. 'A Time for Poncey' is a strong pick for short fiction collections."

So thanks to Midwest Book Review - you guys show a thoughtful appreciation for writing that goes beyond genre and formula. The stamps are in the mail.

Just a reminder

Don't forget that "You Can't Count What Isn't There" is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords. It's the opening chapter of "A Time for Poncey - And other Stories out of Skullbone," the awesome collection of Southern Gothic stories coming out on Sept. 1. The writings are based on Ecclesiastes, and told with a hint of humor. More news coming as the release date approaches! Stay tuned!

Sony readers rejoice!

After an inordinate waiting period, "You Can't Count What Isn't There" is now available for Sony readers. Follow this link to get your free copy. It's the first story from "A Time for Poncey - And other Stories out of Skullbone," which will be released for Kindle only on Sept. 1. If you use a Sony reader, you may wonder, why bother with the story if the book is for Kindle only. Well, you can get Kindle reading software for your computer for free, and read the whole book there (cause believe me, you'll want to), so don't be shy!

News for Nooks

The first Poncey story, "You Can't Count What Isn't There," is now up and running at Barnes & Noble. It's completely 100% free. I've also included it in "Wars of the Aoten" at the Kindle store, so go for it. It still hasn't shown up at the Sony book store, which is the last of the major distributors, so stay tuned for that. And that's all I want to say about that.


I will mention that I've just learned the British slang "poncy" means pretentious, which seems to fit.

What a Difference a Day Makes

At the Clarksville Writers Conference, which I attended a couple weeks ago, one of the tips offered by Peggy DeKay, the author of several e-marketing books, was to offer KDP Select titles for free on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. I've had good results from this program, but I've always made my books available on weekends. The first time around I got about 450 downloads of "The Job," and in subsequent promotions would get 200-240 or so. So for this latest promotion I switched from the weekend and tried Thursday-Friday. As a result, 400 copies of "The Job" were downloaded, which is particularly important since I've included a story from "A Time for Poncey" in the updated edition. That's an increase of at least 60% over my other promotions (excluding the initial one). So there are 400 more readers with a copy of both "The Job" and "You Can't Count What Isn't There" to be seen and read and passed around. Look for future promotions to fall at the end of the work week.


In other news, "You Can't Count What Isn't There" is up and running on Kobo. I don't know what a Kobo reader is, but for the thousands of you who use them, today's your lucky day. The story is also available at the iTunes store, for all your iPad and iPhone reading apps, but since you don't get there through the web, I can't give you a link. But here's what it looks like:

You Can't Count What Isn't There

One of the biggest cogs in the publicity machine for "A Time for Poncey" is the first story, "You Can't Count What Isn't There." The story is available at St. Celibart to read online, and in every e-book format you can think of at Smashwords. Absolutely free.

 On top of that, I've included it as a bonus in the Kindle versions of "The Job: Based on a True Story" and "Feallengod." Just go to the end of the book, and there it'll be. I may add it to "Wars of the Aoten" as well, but that's later to be determined. I'll let you know.

The problem with art

Many months, perhaps a year, ago, I sent a copy of "The Job" to Big Al's Books and Pals, a review blog. I had no reason to, except that he was embroiled in a shouting match with another author and had gotten quite a lot of buzz, so I thought it was a good outlet. In May he finally posted about the book, which is no slam on him but indicates the backload of books he must have. The review appears here. As you can see, his approach is simply from a political perspective, and so he misses the greater points of the book. (Still gave it three stars, though.) But this is the way we want it to be.


What artists should want more than anything else is to leave room for the reader (in the case of literature) to bring something of himself to the party. If the point of a book or poem, or painting or piece of music, hits the audience over the head so hard that there's no room for interpretation left, then you've lost everyone who does not agree with you 100% already. I placed "The Job" within a corporate setting simply to give it a point of familiarity to westerners, and most particularly Americans, and "Big Al" took that to be an apologetic for capitalism. And maybe that indeed is what evangelicals look like to the world, or even to themselves. But it's not the point of the book. That's the price you pay as an artist, however, and my best hope is that there's enough of "The Job" stuck in his head that he'll reconsider the themes.

"Madness Is In Their Hearts"

Dr. Hurley's Snake-Oil Cure has posted the first part of "Madness Is In Their Hearts," so please give it a look. Even if you don't want to read it, click on the link and give them a page hit. The story is part of "A Time for Poncey," for which I will soon start turning the marketing gears, looking at a Sept. 1, 2012 release. It's classic Southern Gothic writing based on Ecclesiastes, with a wicked twist of humor. So please help get the word around by directing folks to Dr. Hurley's. I think you'll find some other interesting arts there as well. Thanks.

New Marketing and Old Media I

Well, I've obviously not been around here much lately, and I doubt I will be in the future. I must not be doing this tagging thing right, because this blog does not come up very high on searches that I need it to. "Christian humor" may just be too ubiquitous on the web. Anyway, here's another review, someone who obviously didn't get it. Why do these reviews always end up on Amazon, but the insightful ones don't? One of the big hurdles I've encountered is that online reviewers say they're prepared for Christian fiction, but then don't read with that in mind. There's a real possibility that they can only handle the most obvious of Christian content. Just waiting for that next "Left Behind" story.

So, anyway, it's on to phase two. I determined long ago that blog reviewers have no influence at all, and that to get exposure to a large audience, the traditional media is still necessary. But my strategy was to collect enough minor reviews to throw myself to the traditional media wolves again, and so I have. At the beginning of this gambit, which started last Labor Day, I sent copies cold to a number of magazines and other outlets, and mostly got zero response. Today I sent out a dozen emails to some of these - Christianity Today, CCM Magazine, &c. - with links to the better online reviews. My hope is they'll do a little research and decide I'm legit. If I get anything to show from this, I'll let you know.

New Media and New Marketing XX

Well, I've not been around here for awhile, and I've got to mention that I'm about to give up. I continue to get good reviews for "The Job," for instance this new one at Simul Iustus et Peccator, but these things don't seem to ever show up on Amazon, Goodreads, B&N, Smashwords, &c. &c. where they could actually do some good. As well, a quick googling of some of my key words to this blog shows that it's not showing up even on the first 10 search pages. So what's the point? (or "pint," as I nearly typed). This blog has three followers, and I'm one of them.

On top of that, I was shut out of the Independent Publisher Awards, the only contest I had a chance to be recognized in. I'd entered in the humor and religious fiction categories, and came away with nothing. Not really surprising, but the winner of silver in religious fiction was "The Sherlock Holmes Church Mysteries." This was an author who stole an iconic secular literary character, long after its creator was dead, and adapted it to her agenda. And she gets an award for it. So I'm pretty close to giving up any kind of marketing. It's not what I should be about, anyway. Success in the marketplace is not the raison d'etre of art and literature, and certainly not of the Church.

Back to the Old Grind

Well, this has been enlightening. As reported, a feature on DailyCheapReads.com boosted sales of "The Job" at the Kindle store, although not to the great effect that I first thought. The next day, sales went back to zero, and it's been that way ever since. So getting on a prominent website can substantially help a book, but once it's no longer at the top of the front page the effect is over. The only thing I can think of to do with this is, since these sites are mostly blogs, is every time a new feature or review is posted, leave a comment about the new post. Probably won't garner much attention, but what else is there?

In other news, the second installment of the Poncey stories is finished in first draft, and the opening story is undergoing its editing process. Don't know what I'm talking about? Stay tuned for more details!

New Media and New Marketing XVII

Hey, I thought of something. I've finally figured out what to do with a meaningless review. 

A new review came in the other day, which I'm not going to link to for reasons that will become apparent. First, I have to say that any review is a good review, because it gets "The Job" in front of eyes that might not see the title otherwise. Also, I've never gotten a bad review, even when the reviewer obviously didn't get it. But insightful commentary on the book seldom comes through, which has left me wondering how to use these things pro-actively.

This is how. The review that I speak of reads like this, in toto: "This book is humorous and short by Craig Davis . I couldn't put this one down. This one I highly recommend  this book but a easy short read." Extra spaces and jumbled line spacing is sic, and I don't mean that in a hip way; I don't know what that last sentence is supposed to say. This girl is clearly not a writer, and I think she's not really a reader either. She gave "The Job" four stars, which is fine, except that a review of her blog reveals that she gives any brainless romance five stars. I think "The Job" is blown off to some extent because it is humor and short, and many times it's read superficially, and I think reviewers who read any book only at that level, or want only books that can be read that way, should be discounted.


So what about me? What can I do with this? Here's what: Copy and paste "I couldn't put this one down. This one I highly recommend" and add an ellipsis. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, because it's standard practice in any kind of testimonial, but at least I've got it now. So be prepared for lots of ellipses in future posts.

Old Media I

When you get to the end of the story, you stop writing.

I posted only once last week, and here it is Wednesday and I'm only just getting around to it now. I'm running out of ideas already, and my news to share is paper thin. So has the blog already run its course? No, because it was never about ideas or news, it was about links. Sorry to be cynical, but let's face it, I have no illusions of attracting a big reading audience. I just want links to show up on Google searches, which I'm told begins to happen after about four months of blogging, so I'll keep plugging along. The Job.

I did have an idea about old media and where it might be going, but now I've forgotten it. Maybe it'll come to me.

Here's a feature on The Job at Indie Books Blog. A review would be better, but you take what you can get. I have gotten a handful of new offers from reviewers, but these things take time to turn around.

New Media and New Marketing XV

Time for a new post even though I've got nothing to say. I will mention my new author page at Family Fiction, an online Christian magazine that focuses on fiction, oddly enough. It's worth a mention because I broke in there through my weasely social networking.

Family Fiction is one of the groups I joined on Facebook, and then I added links to a couple of comments they posted, knowing it would show up on the news feeds of their followers. It also caught their attention too, which I hadn't counted on. Judging from their website they seem to focus on traditional publishers, and there's no way I could find to contact them directly, so this is a major breakthrough for me, at least as a moral victory. So be sure to go there lots and generate a lot of traffic.

Gearing up for Sample Sunday #3!

New Media and New Marketing XIV

Well, SampleSunday passed, and I finally learned how to see retweets, and my tweets for Feallengod were retweeted exactly once, and that by a friend I had to pay a lot of money to. JK. But only the last part. So it remains true that social networks are really useless unless your network is really behind you. That seems to be the nut remaining to crack. But I'm going to stick with it for awhile; next weekend, Wars of the Aoten.

But, in other news, I did learn how to track retweets, which proved to be quite easy. For some reason I couldn't find any instructions on how to do it on the World Wide Web. Another thing I've been struggling with is Amazon's best-seller lists based on genre. I think I've finally figured that out as well, and The Job is #68 in the Christian humor fiction category. And this after a brutal March. So tell your friends.

The final comment I'd make today is that Twitter followers are really fickle. Although I'm up by about 30% again after this weekend, that includes a number of drop-outs. I think a lot of people are just trying to set records with followers, and if they pick you up and you don't reciprocate, then you're done. But if someone has several thousand followers, they're never going to see your tweets anyway, so what's the point? So I'm happy with the handful I've got. Especially if they retweet.

New Media and New Marketing XIII

I had an interesting weekend. Did you? Spring is now upon us in all its glory, so I decided to spend a couple days inside staring at the Internet.

First, I found a few Facebook pages that seem useful: Writing Kindle Books, a closed group for, believe it or not, those who write books for Kindle. Another is called Book Worms, which is mostly for readers but has an area for authors to mention their books, and yet another is Christian Books, which apparently just helps people know what's out there. So I'm all over that. I also discovered Pixel of Ink, which highlights e-books that cost less than $1, so I'll probably be using them eventually.

The other notable event of the weekend was my first Sample Sunday, which I think may also have been the first ever. Sample Sunday is a Twitter event in which authors tweet about their book(s) and include the hashtag #samplesunday. Then followers are asked to retweet, and on and on, to gain exposure for the books. I joined in, and even though there's no way to tell if it meant anything, I'll continue on the next several Sundays. I can say that my Twitter followers grew by 50%. I'm just now figuring out Twitter, and I'll probably offer some thoughts about it later. In related news, the viewership of my video on YouTube is still going strong. But sales remain elusive.

I've got another marketing ploy up my sleeve, but I can't say anything about it now. If it develops, I'll certainly let you know.