Still figuring stuff out . . .

My first Novel "Whisper" went past 60 downloads today on Smashwords dot com.  Now as that is a milestone for my novel, it is still what I would call 'Un noticed.'  That is considering the number of people on the Internet, buying and downloading e-books.  My account balance is still at the $7.82 cents, which translates to two people have actually paid for the book, and I know one of the two is my best friend and biggest Fan Mr. Phillip T. Woody.  Thank you again Phillip! (You still need to write a review of my book on Smashwords.  No I will not clean the crayon marks off your computer screen when your done.)

I still have only one sale on Amazon dot com.  I keep track of the number of downloads my book has received each day when I check the dashboard on Smashwords, while I am checking to see if my book is still pending on gaining entrance to their Premium Distribution Catalog.  I keep waiting for it to either be rejected again or gain acceptance.  It was rejected once so far because I had quotes around the Title on the title page, because I had not center a couple of items on the title page correctly, and because their was a white border around the cover art because it was just not the right size.  While checking the download numbers they give two numbers, total downloads and books sold.

Total downloads includes all downloads including the free trial of 30% of the book.  Books sold is the number of full downloads from either buying the book or using a coupon code to get the book at a reduced price or free.  The difference between these two has been in the twenties for some time now and as of yesterday it has been shrinking.  It dawned on me that some of the places I have been putting the free download code on websites is also somewhere people may have seen the book and partially downloaded it.  These people have had to have gotten the code and downloaded the full book for FREE.  That is alright by me as I am posting the coupon codes where ever I can get away with it.  I am glad somebody somewhere is interested enough to download it.  Hopefully in time people will read it and return and write reviews on the book or maybe keep tabs on me looking for New Releases of my future books.

I am writing the sequel to Whisper where we will go back and learn how Wiley was trained specifically to command a Submersible Air Craft Carrier.  Subsequently his first command goes terribly wrong when he is notified during the shake down cruise aboard the SAC that he is to hunt down the other SAC and retake the ship from a former classmate with the help of a Navy Seal Team.  Not a happy ending, but very exciting stuff.

I am in the middle of editing my second book that I also finished in 2010, "No Rules Of Engagement."  A much darker book about an army of children sent on a six year training mission into space to train to fight a new enemy.  Imagine eight to ten foot beings that would be the same as if Alligators become the dominate species on earth.  They are run with an ant hill type mentality and their entire society is based off warfare and expansion of their galactic empire.  Leading this group of children are eleven of the brightest kids they could find on earth.  The powers to be are praying one of them is the next great military leader of their time.  Alexander Hawk, the youngest and brightest seems to be their shining star if they don't break him through the training.  I have enlisted a talented artist, Jerry Hibbs, who is reading a rough draft of the story to help me come up with some better cover art before I get done with the editing and formatting of the story.  Hopefully by mid summer I will be e-publishing this book which I know already will be at least a three book series.  Phillip loved this one, and is on me daily to write the sequel to it.  Soon, my friend, very soon.

So far I have two reviews on Smashwords and one left on my blog, all three have been glowing and great.  I keep getting compared to Tom Clancy and that can't be bad, because he is one of the greats!  I have read several of his books over the years, even though I really enjoyed the older sailing yearns of Patrick O'Brian and Captain Jack Aubrey.  They combined two of his books and made the motion picture "Master and Commander" staring Russell Crowe a few years ago.