readers | John Locke

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

23

I Love You!

John Locke posted on November 23, 2011

A huge thanks to my loyal readers! I asked for your opinion about publishing a particular book and more than 500 people responded in 24 hours! That is just amazing! But even more amazing, I received more than 100 emails or messages of support for both decisions.

I’m not going to publish the book.

Those who voted yes gave me brilliant reasons that inspired me! Those who voted no told me tragic stories that hurt my heart.

I need to confess something: my book was not nearly as creepy and graphic as I led you to believe. But I wanted to phrase it that way because the subject matter was rough. While my advisory council thought I shouldn’t publish the book, they also said it was the best writing I have ever done, which is what led me to the quandary. So I wanted to get your opinion.

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Posted in: Action, Adventure, epublishing, Fiction, Horror, Nook, Kindle, iPad, Smashwords, Self-Published Authors, Dani Ripper, Donovan Creed

Tagged with: John Locke, Amazon, authors, book sales, Call Me, ebooks, Email Marketing, hostage, how-to, indie, Kidnapping, Kobo, Literature, marketing, readers, reading, Reading Groups, selling books, success, writers, writing, book marketing, ebook, Sony eReader

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