John Locke Blog | Authors Category

06

Davy Jones Knew Curly’s Secret

John Locke posted on March 06, 2012

I don’t know what you thought when you heard Davy Jones died last week. Probably depends on your age. If you’re under 30, you never heard of him. If you’re in your 30’s, your mother had a crush on him. If you’re my age you felt older than you were before you heard the news. Like someone blew out another flame on the candles of your youth when you weren’t looking.

In the movie City Slickers, Curly (Jack Palance) and Mitch (Billy Crystal) are walking their horses, herding cattle.

Abruptly, Curly says, “You know what the secret of life is?”
Mitch says, “No, what?”
Curly holds up his index finger and says, “This.”
“Your finger?”
Curly says, “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean shit.”
Mitch says, “That’s great, but…what’s the one thing?”
With a twinkle in his eyes, Curly says, “That’s what you’ve got to figure out!”

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Posted in: Best-Sellers, Fiction, Nook, Kindle, iPad, Self-Published Authors, Donovan Creed, Authors, ebooks, Kobo

Tagged with: John Locke, readers, writers, writing, blog posts, blogs, books, New York Times best selling author, Billy Crystal, blog, City Slickers, Davy Jones, entertainers, famous people, Jack Palance, movies, singers

04

An Army of Authors and Friends!

John Locke posted on February 04, 2012

Last year publishing houses wanted to buy rights to my next four Creed books. A possible couple million for books I planned to write anyway? Talk about validation and prestige! There’d be talk shows, newspaper reviews, feature articles in major publications!

Heady stuff, even for an old war horse like me.

But I said no. I’m proud to be an independent author, proud to be self-published. Those who remember me from my first tweet in late 2009 will tell you I’ve always believed in self-published authors, always believed we could compete with industry giants. They’ll tell you I always supported indie authors by tweeting news and buying books. In some cases I bought three, four, and even five indie books at a time, announced contests, and paid to ship these books to the winners, to help indies gain not just readers, but also much-needed reviews.

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Posted in: Adventure, Best-Sellers, epublishing, Fiction, Nook, Kindle, Smashwords, Self-Published Authors, Authors

Tagged with: John Locke, indie, Kobo, readers, reading, Reading Groups, writers, writing, books, airport bookstores, Barnes & Noble, bookstores, entertainment, independent authors, indie authors, mass market paperbacks, mystery, paperback books, thriller, Wal-Mart, Walgreens

24

Kindle Owners: Welcome!

John Locke posted on December 24, 2011

If you’re one of the six million new Kindle owners, you’re probably ready to load some books. But where do you start? I mean, seriously, with over 800,000 books to choose from, where do you start?

Here’s an idea. Fourteen authors have sold more than a million eBooks on Kindle. Type the following names into your Kindle search and you’ll find their catalog of eBooks. Some are more expensive than others, but these are the top-selling authors, so their books are almost certainly worth the price.

Stieg Larsson
James Patterson
Nora Roberts
Charlaine Harris
Lee Child
Suzanne Collins
Michael Connelly
(See Below) *
Janet Evanovich
Kathryn Stockett
George R.R. Martin
David Baldacci
Amanda Hocking
Stephenie Meyer

*In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m John Locke, #8 on the above list. I’m a New York Times Best Selling Author, and I sold more than 1,720,000 eBooks in 2011.

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Posted in: Best-Sellers, Nook, Kindle, iPad, Authors, ebooks

Tagged with: John Locke, New York Times best selling author, Amanda Hocking, Charlaine Harris, David Baldacci, George R.R. Martin, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Kathryn Stockett, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Nora Roberts, Stephenie Meyer, Stieg Larsson, Suzanne Collins

22

Lower Your Expectations? Really?

John Locke posted on June 22, 2011

Traditional publishers and even some successful indie authors are publicly saying how hard it is for self-published authors to succeed. They say most will never sell 100 ebooks, and only a small percent will sell 10,000. Self-published authors are being told to “be realistic” and “lower your expectations.”

Really? What type of advice is that?

Sure, there are obstacles out there, but that’s true in any endeavor. Is it simple to write a best seller? No. But can you do it? Yes, absolutely!

The world makes it hard enough for you to be successful, so you’re not going to see me piling on the negativity! Let others talk about the mountains. I’ll show you where the tunnels are! Others can talk about the raging rivers, I’ll point you toward the bridges! Yes, there are roadblocks in the land of self-publishing, but there are super highways, too.

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Posted in: epublishing, Book Marketing, Nook, Kindle, iPad, Smashwords, Self-Published Authors, Authors, ebooks, Kobo

Tagged with: Amazon, book sales, how-to, indie, marketing, selling books, success, writing, books, million, publishing

01

Why I Personally Respond to My Readers

John Locke posted on May 01, 2011

I get this all the time: people remind me I only get 35 cents for each book I sell, and want to know why I take the time to personally respond to emails and website comments. My answer is always the same:

It’s good manners!

Folks tell me I should use an auto-responder or hire a secretary to do it. They say, “How can you afford to answer emails?” My response: “What does book income have to do with answering emails? No one’s paying my readers to write to me! Isn’t their time as valuable as mine? –Of course it is!”

When you read my book and take the time to click onto my website and leave your name and email address, and tell me you loved my book—how could I not thank you? You paid money to read my book! You gave up your time to read it! That’s a gift of time you’ll never get back.

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Posted in: Book Marketing, Nook, Kindle, iPad, Self-Published Authors, Authors, ebooks

Tagged with: Email Marketing, Literature, readers, Reading Groups, writing, Arts, manners, Sony Reader, time, time management