Archives Page - Previous Home Page or Other Announcements 2012 - 2013.
The First Rejection of a New Year has arrived.
On January 8, 2013, I received my first major rejection letter for the year, nearly five months after I had sent the original query to Ace/Roc Books of the Penguin Putnam publishing group. It was a query for my then most-recent self-puhlished novel Sister Helena of the Sword made on August 11, 2012. Released by CreateSpace just one day later, I still decided the contact might yield some result this time, unlike other times in 2009 and 2010 when that publisher had either rejected or ignored other book queries I'd sent them - rejecting my unpublished space-opera Goram - The First World: The Prophecy of Kolab and ignoring The Circle of Light's query both in 2009 and rejecting Worldjumpers: An Amazing Journey to Parallel Worlds (then titled only Worldjumpers) in 2010. Both earlier rejection letters (form replies obviously) claimed that they saw no marketability in my works for an alleged crowded market, just as was done this time. At least it wasn't the often vague brush off from other publishers and agents who claim my work is "not right for them at this time" (begging the question exactly when the right time might be - and realizing the unspoken answer is when I'm more popular than Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer and Anne Rice put together - as if that will ever happen). It is clear this world is going to make me crawl, scrape and beg for every book sale I ever get in life. The problem for me is how to market my work to its natural audience when I'm still at the very abyss of poverty without even spare cash to get Sister Helena of the Sword published for Kindle. I of course need to find an audience for my horror novel from Dark Moon Press Claws of T'birsk, but that last self-published fantasy book of mine should have greater appeal to fans of stories like John Carter of Mars and all the derivative adventure stories like Burroughs' early 20th Century creation written since. But how am I going to have time or spare assets to begin promoting these genre novels when I can't even find a job to pay the bills? I've only made around $37-38 in book royalties since August 2011 and $37 from three short story sales all in 2011, so writing won't do it yet. I'm on the large horns of a considerable personal and professional dilemma.
Price Reductions on my three earlier self-published novels at Amazon.com and CreateSpace are now in effect for your book buying pleasure. Also available at Barnes & Noble.
Well, folks, lackluster sales figures (and that's being kind to phrase them with the term) have necessitated a price reduction on all three of my current paperback novels and some of the Kindle Editions.
Worldjumpers: An amazing Journey to Parallel Worlds will now sell for $9.99 in paperback and $1.99 as a Kindle edition.
A Legacy of Blood: Jack Petrov - Private Investigator/Vampire Hunter will now sell for $11.99 in paperback and $2.50 as a Kindle edition.
The Circle of Light will now sell for $13.00 in paperback and $2.99 as a Kindle edition. FYI, the book giveaway for this title has been terminated in August due to lack of interest of the comic book adventure subject matter.
I eventually intend pricing my new novel Sister Helena of the Sword at $13.50 in paperback and $3.25 as a Kindle edition once the proof copy has been approved by me soon. There will be some delay in getting the Kindle edition out (due to a possible cover art change).
Of course I've seen similar sized books or smaller ones from other authors priced higher than mine, but realizing disposable income is at a premium on the cusp of a double-dip recession (never believing one second any of those rosy economic scenarios perpetuated by the US Government), I'm trying to give the book buying public a small break and hope they might show me the love by purchasing some of these titles. I'm also currently looking into other channels for selling my works since the CreateSpace/Amazon.com route and their distribution channels have not been that helpful so far. I hope my next novel with its female central character thrust into a strange new (sometimes primitive) world fares better than the first three so far. All four of my novels are featured in the slideshow below.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The first three of my novels are also currently available at Barnes & Noble's book store webpage at the following links, sometimes priced lower than the Amazon.com store. Worldjumpers sells for $10.79, A Legacy of Blood sells for $11.69 (.30 cents lower than Amazon) and The Circle of Light sells for $10.07 (a full $2.93 lower than Amazon). I'm not trying to undercut my Amazon.com sales and have no control over pricing at B&N, but just thought I'd mention this option for those book lovers with less disposable income making their purchases. I need to find out how I can get these three titles featured on Nook for e-book lovers next.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/worldjumpers-john-grey/1111420802?ean=9781463767570
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-legacy-of-blood-john-grey/1111580543?ean=9781466308152
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-circle-of-light-john-grey/1111035809?ean=9781475195712
Worldjumpers: An amazing Journey to Parallel Worlds will now sell for $9.99 in paperback and $1.99 as a Kindle edition.
A Legacy of Blood: Jack Petrov - Private Investigator/Vampire Hunter will now sell for $11.99 in paperback and $2.50 as a Kindle edition.
The Circle of Light will now sell for $13.00 in paperback and $2.99 as a Kindle edition. FYI, the book giveaway for this title has been terminated in August due to lack of interest of the comic book adventure subject matter.
I eventually intend pricing my new novel Sister Helena of the Sword at $13.50 in paperback and $3.25 as a Kindle edition once the proof copy has been approved by me soon. There will be some delay in getting the Kindle edition out (due to a possible cover art change).
Of course I've seen similar sized books or smaller ones from other authors priced higher than mine, but realizing disposable income is at a premium on the cusp of a double-dip recession (never believing one second any of those rosy economic scenarios perpetuated by the US Government), I'm trying to give the book buying public a small break and hope they might show me the love by purchasing some of these titles. I'm also currently looking into other channels for selling my works since the CreateSpace/Amazon.com route and their distribution channels have not been that helpful so far. I hope my next novel with its female central character thrust into a strange new (sometimes primitive) world fares better than the first three so far. All four of my novels are featured in the slideshow below.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The first three of my novels are also currently available at Barnes & Noble's book store webpage at the following links, sometimes priced lower than the Amazon.com store. Worldjumpers sells for $10.79, A Legacy of Blood sells for $11.69 (.30 cents lower than Amazon) and The Circle of Light sells for $10.07 (a full $2.93 lower than Amazon). I'm not trying to undercut my Amazon.com sales and have no control over pricing at B&N, but just thought I'd mention this option for those book lovers with less disposable income making their purchases. I need to find out how I can get these three titles featured on Nook for e-book lovers next.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/worldjumpers-john-grey/1111420802?ean=9781463767570
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-legacy-of-blood-john-grey/1111580543?ean=9781466308152
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-circle-of-light-john-grey/1111035809?ean=9781475195712
Thanks to anyone and everyone purchasing my self-published novels in 2011 and 2012.
In my blog and sometimes elsewhere at this site I have an unfortunate tendency to complain about any and all setbacks to life in general and this would-be writing career in particular. Today, September 26, 2012, I thought I should take the time to thank the kind souls who have purchased copies of my self-published novels since I started releasing them in August 2011 with Worldjumpers. I was pleased to see a second copy of The Circle of Light had sold at Amazon.com about two weeks ago (the most recent point for which sales data is available). NOTE 9/29/2012: That last statement turned out to be an error on my part - the second copy selling I meant. I would also like to thank the folks who are purchasing poetry and short story collections in which my fiction work appears alongside other far more talented writers from Aurora Wolf Press, Lame Goat Press, Leucrota Press, Pill Hill Press, Shade City Press, Static Movement and Wicked East Press published in the past three years since November 2009. These presses could not survive (and sadly some of those listed above - Leucrota - are no longer in business) without the sales of their varied titles and intriguing collection themes. Please support them if and when you can. I hope my two online published stories at Static Movement Online and Tales of the Zombie War have entertained those viewing them on your screens. Despite my small press exposure in recent years, however, my four published novels are of greater concern since my name alone stands behind them (published through CreateSpace) as the creator of said works. So I conclude by saying (perhaps too repetitiously) thanks to everyone who bought copies of Worldjumpers, A Legacy of Blood, The Circle of Light and/or Sister Helena of the Sword. And thanks to everyone who requested copies of two of those titles to read (even though I realized too late the first free book offered was not free of errors that would have been corrected by a more skilled proofreader) in my recent book giveaways. I should have a fifth novel coming out in Spring 2013 from Dark Moon Press, the werewolf coming-of-age tale Claws of T'birsk, once all the details regarding the contract and eventual publication are finalized. I hope more readers of my novels will (as one old friend already has last year) post some review opinions of them at Amazon.com in the future. Good night and God bless.
Some other Jack Petrov Private Investigator/Vampire Hunter fiction and where it appears or will appear soon.
For those who have read my December 2011 self-published novel A Legacy of Blood and liked it, the book's main character has appeared in some short fiction I wrote in 2010 and 2011, all published or accepted for eventual publication in some short story collections from Pill Hill Press and Static Movement. Here is a list of those anthologies where the stories appear (in order of each book's release date) or should someday appear (hopefully during 2012).
"Case of the Green Vampire," Weird City (March 27, 2011 - Static Movement), pp. 72-88. Jack takes on a strange exotic piece of flora in 1927 Gotham, New Jersey.
"The Vampire Hunter's Requiem," Leather, Denim & Silver: Legends of the Monster Hunter (April 13, 2011 - Pill Hill Press), pp. 71-82. Jack's final case in 1975 New Orleans on Halloween, settling accounts with his estranged undead second wife.
"The Blood Legacy," Ruby Red Cravings (June 7, 2011 - Static Movement) pp.214-221 (partially excerpted from A Legacy of Blood with some additional material added).
"Silver Bullet Honeymoon," Twisted Love (August 8, 2011 - Static Movement) pp. 211-239. Jack's first marriage is shockingly short when honeymooning with his bride, Gotham newspaper reporter Phyllis Harrington, in 1939 eastern Pennsylvania.
"The Christmas Murders" and "Undying Love Lost," Weird City 2 (August 11, 2011 - Static Movement) pp. 192-208, 8-19. The first story involves Jack and Phyllis discovering murderous toys and their controller in 1937 and the second tells how the couple first met in 1934 when Miss Phyllis Harrington's old flame comes back from the dead.
"The Night that panicked Gotham, New Jersey," Halloween Frights Volume 2 (September 20, 2011 - Static Movement) pp. 207-228. Set against the historical event of Orson Wells' War of the Worlds radio drama broadcast in 1938, Petrov must defeat a real extradimensional invasion beachhead while other Americans are panicked by the fictional one.
"Immortality in Clay and Wax" and "The Idiotic Medium,"Weird City 3 (May 25, 2012 - Static Movement) - The first two stories of mine appearing in this anthology are Jack Petrov Private Investigator/Vampire Hunter pieces. The first features Jack and Phyllis discovering a sinister long-running plot inside a new wax museum in 1936, and the second where Jack (by then married to second wife Angelique) crosses paths with a vengeful psychic in 1952. The third story featured in the book entitled "Murder on Poppy Street" is about one non-human detective on the trail of someone or something murdering his own kind.
"Return to Angel Beach," The Evil Twin: Doppelganger Stories (TBA - Static Movement). Set in 1956 and 1966, Jack and his surviving children must return to the Florida coast where their sister/his daughter died a decade earlier and became a monster. This anthology is still open for additional submissions.
"The Blackout Hunters," A to Z: Cities of Death (TBA - Static Movement). Jack teams up with a good werecreature he first met three years earlier to stop evil shape shifters murdering women in Gotham during 1942. This anthology's release has been delayed until sometime in 2013.
"The Night Fightin' Jack Petrov came to Town," Fightin' Jack: A Horror History (TBA - Static Movement). In 1932, Jack is accused of committing crimes actually being perpetrated by a parallel earth double who crossed over by magic accidentally and is not a living being. This anthology is still open for additional submissions. Another story of mine accepted at this anthology ("Quicksilver for a speedy Vampire") set in 2003 is about the vampire hunter's grandson, a tabloid journalist in Las Vegas, Nevada who often finds the supernatural when doing his work. At the city's Greyhound Bus Station, Jack Pike and his visiting great-uncle Jacques DuVal (Angelique's brother) must defeat a vampire able to move faster than the human eye can perceive.
"Undead out of the Past," Noir! (TBA - Static Movement) - A family man working an ordinary job to support his family in 1950, Jack, his second wife Angelique (married since 1947) and their two young sons are stalked by a former city police official (sent to prison in 1925) who has returned for revenge upon the former private eye and recently joined the undead while incarcerated. This anthology's release has been delayed until sometime in 2013.
The published stories and their respective anthologies are now all available as paperbacks at Amazon.com. The others will also be there for sale once in print.
"Case of the Green Vampire," Weird City (March 27, 2011 - Static Movement), pp. 72-88. Jack takes on a strange exotic piece of flora in 1927 Gotham, New Jersey.
"The Vampire Hunter's Requiem," Leather, Denim & Silver: Legends of the Monster Hunter (April 13, 2011 - Pill Hill Press), pp. 71-82. Jack's final case in 1975 New Orleans on Halloween, settling accounts with his estranged undead second wife.
"The Blood Legacy," Ruby Red Cravings (June 7, 2011 - Static Movement) pp.214-221 (partially excerpted from A Legacy of Blood with some additional material added).
"Silver Bullet Honeymoon," Twisted Love (August 8, 2011 - Static Movement) pp. 211-239. Jack's first marriage is shockingly short when honeymooning with his bride, Gotham newspaper reporter Phyllis Harrington, in 1939 eastern Pennsylvania.
"The Christmas Murders" and "Undying Love Lost," Weird City 2 (August 11, 2011 - Static Movement) pp. 192-208, 8-19. The first story involves Jack and Phyllis discovering murderous toys and their controller in 1937 and the second tells how the couple first met in 1934 when Miss Phyllis Harrington's old flame comes back from the dead.
"The Night that panicked Gotham, New Jersey," Halloween Frights Volume 2 (September 20, 2011 - Static Movement) pp. 207-228. Set against the historical event of Orson Wells' War of the Worlds radio drama broadcast in 1938, Petrov must defeat a real extradimensional invasion beachhead while other Americans are panicked by the fictional one.
"Immortality in Clay and Wax" and "The Idiotic Medium,"Weird City 3 (May 25, 2012 - Static Movement) - The first two stories of mine appearing in this anthology are Jack Petrov Private Investigator/Vampire Hunter pieces. The first features Jack and Phyllis discovering a sinister long-running plot inside a new wax museum in 1936, and the second where Jack (by then married to second wife Angelique) crosses paths with a vengeful psychic in 1952. The third story featured in the book entitled "Murder on Poppy Street" is about one non-human detective on the trail of someone or something murdering his own kind.
"Return to Angel Beach," The Evil Twin: Doppelganger Stories (TBA - Static Movement). Set in 1956 and 1966, Jack and his surviving children must return to the Florida coast where their sister/his daughter died a decade earlier and became a monster. This anthology is still open for additional submissions.
"The Blackout Hunters," A to Z: Cities of Death (TBA - Static Movement). Jack teams up with a good werecreature he first met three years earlier to stop evil shape shifters murdering women in Gotham during 1942. This anthology's release has been delayed until sometime in 2013.
"The Night Fightin' Jack Petrov came to Town," Fightin' Jack: A Horror History (TBA - Static Movement). In 1932, Jack is accused of committing crimes actually being perpetrated by a parallel earth double who crossed over by magic accidentally and is not a living being. This anthology is still open for additional submissions. Another story of mine accepted at this anthology ("Quicksilver for a speedy Vampire") set in 2003 is about the vampire hunter's grandson, a tabloid journalist in Las Vegas, Nevada who often finds the supernatural when doing his work. At the city's Greyhound Bus Station, Jack Pike and his visiting great-uncle Jacques DuVal (Angelique's brother) must defeat a vampire able to move faster than the human eye can perceive.
"Undead out of the Past," Noir! (TBA - Static Movement) - A family man working an ordinary job to support his family in 1950, Jack, his second wife Angelique (married since 1947) and their two young sons are stalked by a former city police official (sent to prison in 1925) who has returned for revenge upon the former private eye and recently joined the undead while incarcerated. This anthology's release has been delayed until sometime in 2013.
The published stories and their respective anthologies are now all available as paperbacks at Amazon.com. The others will also be there for sale once in print.
My Online Interviews for 2011-2012 and the Websites containing them.
My online interview from author Shells Walter is now available for viewing at the Walter Rhein blogspot site.
Posted today at the Walter Rhein blogspot site, the recent interview given me by writer Shells Walter is now available for your reading edification, telling more about me than perhaps my Amazon.com author page or anything here does. It was a pleasure to answer Shells' questions about my work and the reasons behind it. Certainly the questions were inciteful enough to require my thinking and reflecting on them before providing answers, since I knew the answers on an instinctive level in most cases if not consciously, but perhaps had not thought too deeply about such subjects. All in all, I was pleased with the result and hope anyone stopping here out of curiousity will head on over to that blog. I'm not all that great at self-promotion (shameless or otherwise), so I hope this great interview will provide another piece to the ongoing puzzle of my burgeoning career. Here is the link to that page.
http://walterrhein.blogspot.com/2012/01/shells-chats-with-author-john-x-grey.html
Now that I've had my first wonderful interview as an author, maybe there will be future opportunities to get the word out there about me.
http://walterrhein.blogspot.com/2012/01/shells-chats-with-author-john-x-grey.html
Now that I've had my first wonderful interview as an author, maybe there will be future opportunities to get the word out there about me.
I recently completed an interview for the Beautifully Imperfect blog.
Having recently completed an online interview with author Jessica Haynes for her blog site Beautifully Imperfect, this is my second interview that should appear there in the near future. Keep an eye out there, folks, since I'm not certain yet when it will appear published there and check out Jessica's other posts on writing and varisou subjects. I have included the link below and will post more information when I know more about the matter. It will be my second online interview as an author and hopefully more such chances to gain exposure will happen eventually. The questions were interesting. I hope my answers were adequate but not too lengthy. The interview is available now as of November 7th, 2012. Here is the link.
http://writingthroughmyeyes.wordpress.com/
http://writingthroughmyeyes.wordpress.com/