This new painting of the 9th Georgia Artillery Battalion opening fire on Fort Sanders on Nov. 29, 1863, is one of the few that’s ever been done on the battle that is the subject of my historical novel Knoxville 1863.
Artist Ken Smith of Pulaski, Virginia, is offering a print for sale here. The novel recently made its 100th sale, in paper and as a Kindle ebook, both in the US and the UK. A pittance, indeed, but not bad considering its trifling promotion.
Comments Off on At First Light
Posted in Civil War
Tagged 9th Georgia Artillery Battalion, Fort Sanders, Ken Smith, Knoxville 1863
I happily ended November with six more ebook sales for Alamo and Knoxville—including twice as many of the latter. Which brings that one to a total of 91 since its first month in April, 2010—finally edging in on breaking even for the cost of ebook formatting.
Hardly bestseller material here, these single-digit sales months. Haven’t had a double-digit month since 15 sold back in April. Record still 27 for Knoxville alone in August 2010, thanks to a plug from power-blogger Instapundit. It’s a nice lunch-money hobby, however.
Thanks to all my loyal readers, including those who promised reviews at Amazon but haven’t gotten around to it. Several have good excuses, including one in San Antonio who’s seriously ill. Best wishes to him, of course, for a recovery soon.
Still in the works: polishing a Vietnam War novel which loyal-reader Snoopy was kind enough to read and criticize, finishing a Civil War digital regimental still in blog form, and writing a memoir about growing up in the Cold War.
War-Is-Us, obviously. One of these days I may do something different. Meanwhile, coupled with new violin lessons and full-time parenting, I’m busier than before I retired.
Comments Off on Thanks to all my ebook readers
Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles
Tagged ebooks, Knoxville 1863, Leaving the Alamo
My novel has received a four and three-quarter star boost from Red Adept Reviews, one of the gold standards of Indie book reviewers.
Wrote reviewer Jim Chambers: “I’ve long considered Michael and Jeff Shaara’s Civil War trilogy to be one of the benchmarks for Civil War historical fiction. Knoxville 1863 came very close to that mark.”
The complete review is here.
Comments Off on Boost for Knoxville 1863
Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles
Tagged Jim Chambers reviews, Knoxville 1863, Red Adept Reviews
Not that I expect to equal this result any time soon, because crime novels have always sold better than Civil War ones.
But I’ve been watching the debate over how unknown, indie authors can best amass readership without extensive (and expensive) marketing and I’ve become convinced that pricing one’s eBook at 99 cents is an excellent start.
Also, thanks to Al Past of Beeville, Texas, for including my professionally-edited, independently-published Knoxville 1863 in this new posting of his.
Comments Off on Knoxville 1863 now 99 cent eBook
Posted in Blogosphere, Civil War, Library
Tagged "Distant Cousin", "The List", 99 cent ebooks, Al Past, J.A. (Joe) Konrath, Knoxville 1863
No, it’s not snowing at the rancho. Just on my Civil War blogs Knoxville1863 and the 13thMississippi Infantry Regiment because the plug-in involved has no effect (without significant nanotech) on the actual weather (duh) and can’t be used here because I’m not using Version 3.0 or higher.
Or, so I thought. Seems I have misspoke. Heh, I did it. Altho it’s hard to see on this white background. Happy snowfall, whenever it does appear. The kind you just watch, though it does accumulate at the bottom of the page if you don’t scroll up. At least you don’t have to shovel it.
Comments Off on Snowing
Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, Site building, Weather/Climate
Tagged 13thMississppi.com, Knoxville 1863, Knoxville1863.com, snowfall plugin wordpress
Good old Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, acknowledged the review copy I sent him of the historical novel and he posted its title and Amazon link this morning. Thanks, Glenn.
Only problem for me is that he posted the link to the Lulu-distributed edition, for which I get pennies on the dollar, instead of the CreateSpace-distributed one, for which I get a lot more.
But some click-throughs are noticing that the CS one is about half as costly, and they’re buying it. And the ebook also is selling. It is (as of this moment) ranked No. 56 in Historical Fiction for the Kindle. Yee-haw!
Comments Off on Instalanch for Knoxville 1863
Posted in Blogosphere, Civil War, Library
Tagged Instalanch, Instapundit, Knoxville 1863
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 