So I've started up the mailing list

That's what all the gurus say to do. Get a mailing list going in order to get more people interested and latched on to your brand. Well, there is one phrase that definitely does not work in this business;

If you build it, they will come....

Not so fast. You have to go find them and while I've had some fellow authors croon to me about how easy it was for them.. I have had no such luck.

It's literally the ''superhero age" in movies and books even though comics have suffered. I can't think of a time my brand could possibly be more relevant.  But in a world that wants Spider-mans and Captain Americas how does an Indy brand get noticed?

Well, I'm still struggling to follow guru advice, but I can tell you it is practically never as cut and dried as presented. I'm saying this to you, fellow Indy creator because we live in a tough market. So what am I doing about it now?

Well, opting onto my mailing list (upper left corner of my blog page) will net you a free book. But it won't stop at that. I'm going to make sure my mailing list gives cool updates, more freebies, new artwork, and whatever else I can think of to stuff into that package until it bursts. I want every email you get on my list to feel like you're opening a birthday present. I want fun in your inbox.  Maybe some puzzles or coloring pages you can print out for the kids? Or totally keep them to yourself, I won't mind.

I'm changing the cover of Chaos Rising today. It may take a couple of days for that change to go live, but it will and I will make sure people know about it. Eventually all the covers will be changed. Yeah, you're getting to see that cover right here as the header to this blog post.

And soon I think I'm going to offer a chance to have yourself drawn as a superhero or fantasy character straight from a photo you send me. More details on that if we can get this off the ground.

That's what I'm doing about it now. My next steps are more writing and art of course. I have to keep creating and keep things moving. Direction has always been hard for me. I can wind up with too many projects on the plate but that's easy to do as a one man band.

So that's the update for now. Off to do more creating.

Just the start of the summer giveaways!

I'm finally jumping into an area of  promoting that I hadn't before. I'm actually going to give out some seriously cool free stuff.

Tomorrow I will begin with a 3 day event that allows you to get Chessmen, the fantasy novel, for free as the ebook version. All you have to have is the kindle app and you're golden. Guess what, the kindle app is free too! So there's really no reason not to jump in and grab yourself a book. The only thing I hope people will do in return is to return to the Amazon page later on, and do the 'star vote' thing to rate what you read. Even doing that is free. And no one has to write out anything, but if you do I consider that a bonus and I'll be quite grateful! Here is the LINK. But really it's also in the upper right of this page, my author's page.

Each of my books can only have ONE promotion like this in a month, so you can bet, that the book of short stories will be up next and not far behind.

But I'm not stopping there. How many of you would like to have your own print and play version of the Galaxy Zento game? It's a board game, but the cool trick to it is, that you don't actually need the official board to play the game. You can play GZ on any board game with a sufficient amount of square spaces to move around. Put a pair of chess boards next to each other if you want!. More on that will come later for you print and play fans out there, just know that.

I'm also still working on getting the new novel Chaos Rising ready to hit the shelf! It's not far from done, I promise. Then there is the next book of short stories and Chessmen book 2. So work is still being plugged away at.

On the board game front, we may go ahead and make the game available at The Game Crafter for a very fair price of 45 bucks. That is pending the next prototype I ordered this month. When we get a look at it, we will decide the next move. This should not affect print and play.

So much to learn and discover and so little time to cram it all together. I'm working on more than that, but I honestly have no idea what that all will be just yet. So stay tuned, there is more to come!

Inspirational Gifts for YOU

I've been working on some inspirational gifts for everyone in my FB friends list that I can reach. Let me tell you, over 3000 people is a lofty goal and I still can't reach them all. But it was a wonderful effort that I'm not done with yet. So here is a selection of inspirational pieces meant to spread good vibes, positive energy, and all that groovy stuff.

The point is, that you can great things. There are so many wonderful people who prove this every day and you can look them. I'm just one person.

So please take these images and share them with who ever you want to. So long as the names stay on the images they are free to pass around!

Of course they are based on my heroes from my books. What kind of author would I be if I didn't plug that? See the links in the upper right for my author's page and ways to get my books for 99 cents each. If you don't have a kindle, you can still get the kindle app!  Past all that, please share these images and enjoy.

Remember, you are a worthwhile person and there is good in you!