* * *
Indiebound / Amazon / B&N / Angry Robot / Trailer / Add on Goodreads
Miriam Black knows how you’re going to die.
All it takes is a touch — a little skin-to-skin action.
Now someone — some rich asshole from Florida — wants to pay her so he can find out how he’s going to die. But when she touches him, she receives a message sent back through time and written in blood: HELLO, MIRIAM. It’s a taunt, a warning, and the start of a dangerous and deadly game for everybody’s favorite carcinogenic psychic, Miriam Black.
* * *
My experience in releasing books is this: the first week see very strong sales. Then the remainder of the first month, sales drop a little each week. Then after that month they drop somewhat considerably, and over time kind of creep back up and then yo-yo up and down over the course of many weeks. Watching the sales line is like watching a drunken crop-duster ply his aerial pesticide craft as if he were, instead, a stunt pilot.
(One book that deviated from this is The Kick-Ass Writer, which appeared to go up and up for many weeks after its release — not sure why this is, exactly, but I shan’t complain.)
Anyway!
Point is: The Cormorant has now been out for just shy of a month. We are approaching the dreaded dip and I thought, well, this seems like a fine time to signal boost. Particularly since the book is with Angry Robot — who, while very wonderful and inventive, remains a small publisher. Which means I can’t just take a nap on all these bags of sweet author money. (A contrast to this is Under the Empyrean Sky, which was published by Skyscape/Amazon — they ran a promotion where the book appeared on folks’ ad-subsidized Kindles and as a result, the book sales were rather phenomenal during the weeks of that marketing event. It was a bit boggling in the best way. I felt drunk! SALES DRUNK.)
So, today’s signal boost comes in the form of a contest.
A Twitter contest.
I want you to tweet about the book.
This tweet must include two things:
a) the hashtag: #miriamblackisback
b) a link to this very blog post.
Your tweet can contain anything else you like. Which I know opens me to you inserting some weird emoji of, like, a cartoon dick eating a hamburger, but that’s my cross to bear, not yours.
(The goal is to get people to come here and, you know, at least consider checking out the book. And for those who have already read it, the secondary goal is to ask for reviews. Reviews help a book survive and even thrive, and I appreciate every one that crosses my eyeballs.)
This contest runs from noon EST today (1/28/14) to 11:59PM EST tonight (1/28/14).
Tomorrow morning I’ll pick three random winners.
First picked winner will get all three of the Miriam Black books, signed. (That means: Blackbirds, Mockingbird, The Cormorant.)
Two other winners will each get a copy of The Cormorant, signed.
(Also: I autograph the Miriam Black books by predicting how you’re gonna die.)
I’ll pay shipping — unless you’re outside the U.S., in which case, shipping is on you.
One tweet only, please. Multiple tweets won’t count.
And that’s it. Thanks for signal boosting. Everyone’s favorite psychotic psychic thanks you, too. Probably by predicting your demise then pushing you down some stairs so she can steal your cool calculator watch. Because that’s how she rolls. Usually.
Kerry J Donovan says:
I’ve tweeted as requested – good luck with sales, Chuck 🙂
January 28, 2014 — 11:42 AM
elina says:
The book trailer is so, so awesome!
January 28, 2014 — 11:44 AM
Mark Matthews says:
Semi-related: I keep finding hidden things in the cover art. Birds in her hair, skulls in her eyeglasses, a falling woman from a James Bond opening. When I cock my head like a befuddled pup even more gems are revealed. Extraordinary.
January 28, 2014 — 12:00 PM
terribleminds says:
Joey Hi-Fi is a fucking master of the craft.
January 28, 2014 — 12:03 PM
Erik K says:
Yeah, I can’t even begin to tell you how jealous I am of the covers he’s done for you. They’re fantastic.
I’m jealous of your books and beard, too, but that’s another story.
January 29, 2014 — 10:19 AM
Betsy says:
Done. Be sure to post and say if it worked.
January 28, 2014 — 2:36 PM
brennancm says:
My tweet accompli.
January 28, 2014 — 2:53 PM
Greg says:
Done.
This contest comes at a convenient time since I’d planned on bragging sometime later today how I’d sucked The Cormorant’s fleshy bits off like an oyster on a half-shell and then licked the last juicy scraps from the calcified bits.
I was, you know, trying to make it sound less creepy before I sent that out to the Twitterverse.
January 28, 2014 — 3:22 PM
Liss Thomas says:
done!
January 28, 2014 — 3:30 PM
Laurie Evans says:
Done!
January 28, 2014 — 3:41 PM
HawkZ says:
Uh, anyone got any magic tricks if twitter doesn’t index their tweet/ add it to the hashtag list?
And gogo Cormorant signal boost! Hope it catches tons of social media-deepsea-fish-tweet-sales-things-I’m loosing the plot…
January 28, 2014 — 4:34 PM
James McCormick says:
Curious too. Same prob lol. Oh wells.
January 28, 2014 — 11:43 PM
Jen Donohue says:
Excellent idea!
January 28, 2014 — 6:34 PM
Mark Gardner says:
*Sad. Face* I don’t have the twitter account or Facebook. I can’t enter in the contest.
January 28, 2014 — 7:59 PM
Michael Woods says:
If you’re a writer a Twitter account is a necessity for a number of reasons, the least of which is building an audience.
January 28, 2014 — 9:06 PM
terribleminds says:
DANG, man, one woman spammed the #miriamblackisback hashtag with a bunch of entries (and she seems to be a Twitter feed devoted to trying to win Twitter contests, whee).
So, it took me a lot of clicks to get to the winners.
BUT CLICK I DID.
FIRST UP: Jen Donohue! (All three books to you, Jen!)
SECOND: Denise Drespling! (Who gets Cormorant!)
THIRD PICK: E.M Caines! (Also gets Cormorant!)
— c.
January 29, 2014 — 8:47 AM
terribleminds says:
(Oh, you guys should email me at terribleminds at gmail dot com.)
January 29, 2014 — 8:51 AM
Denise Drespling says:
Whoo whoot! Email sent 🙂 I’ll be very interested to see the prediction…maybe.
January 29, 2014 — 9:26 AM
Jen Donohue says:
Email sent! Thanks so much ^^
January 29, 2014 — 10:45 AM
Nick Nafpliotis says:
You should link their tweets here so that I MAY SMITE THOSE WHO HAVE DEFEATED ME…er…congratulate and retweet them.
January 29, 2014 — 2:39 PM
Jeremy Podolski says:
Congrats to the winners! (Waterboarding to the spammer)
January 29, 2014 — 9:52 AM
Susan H. says:
Wow, a real grabber of a trailer!- You’re on my TBR list- and I tweeted the signal boost.
January 29, 2014 — 2:41 PM
Mary Ann Peden-Coviello says:
I didn’t do this yesterday. I’ll do it today. Doesn’t matter if I can’t win. I won once before — and the books are frellin’ brill. 🙂
January 29, 2014 — 5:30 PM