PROMOTING THE BRAND

Mike Pettit has been writing professionally for ten years. He is an award-winning best-selling indie novelist. He is the author of thirty novels that includes two indie author self-help books, several Action Thriller series, three classic westerns, and numerous short stories. His Jack Marsh Key West Series has been optioned as a television series, sold to overseas publishers, produced as audiobooks, and are available in print through Amazon’s CreateSpace Publishing.
Several of Pettit’s books have been #1 bestsellers on Kindle and were previously sold in bookstores across the nation before he established himself as an independent author and publisher. He attends writing and author conferences around the country throughout the year, and is available as a guest or featured speaker at major industry events. 

After an adventurous thirty-year career in the China Trade, he settled in the Florida Keys and traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean Sea diving, treasure hunting, adventuring, and writing about his exploits. He presently resides along Florida’s Emerald Coast where he occasionally slips away to a small cattle ranch in Central Texas for R&R, but still escapes to the Caribbean for adventures as often as possible.

AN INTERVIEW IN PARADISE

Pat Bertram is an author, publisher, blogger, and friend to all e-authors.One of the most fascinating people I have met online is Mike Pettit. His nightly “Goodnight America” is worth waiting for. His books covers are wonderfully nostalgic, reminding us of an earlier age of publishing. His comments are a bit too amusing to be truthful (except for his political comments, which are a bit too truthful to be amusing.) I’ve wanted to interview Mike for a long time, and now he has finally agreed to answer some of my questions. PB. Mike, Thanks for meeting with me here in Key West today. This is a lovely venue and the Cuba Libra’s are delicious. I know you like to pose as a shy reclusive author hiding from the world coming out only as various characters in your books, but I suspect there is more to the real Mike Pettit that I’m talking with today.MP. The truth is, I have always been shy and felt inferior to others. I am from a large Irish family of seven children, five girls, and two boys. With five sisters life was not easy, (especially when it came to hand-me-downs). Rather than take the brunt of blame and abuse for real or imagined dirty tricks, I would hide where I couldn’t be found and read…and dream. PB. So you started reading at an early age?MP. By the time I was twelve I had absorbed The Yearling, Huck Finn, Red Badge of Courage, and Treasure Island. From there I jumped to Edgar Rice Burroughs’s, Captain Carter Of Mars, and Tarzan, Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Robinson Crusoe…I would read anything I could get my hands on. PB. Were these stories the basis for your writing today?MP. At the time I didn’t realize how much these stories would influence my life. They gave me a sense of adventure, a worldly awareness that you don’t find in a textbook. I developed a boldness from many of the characters that helped me grow out of my shyness and go forth with confidence. PB. Has your adult life’s experiences helped with your writing?MP. I have been very fortunate in my life. I spent most of my working life outside of the U.S. working in developing countries like China, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia…and a hundred little backwater ports across the region. I look back now and shudder at some of the things I did to make a buck. PB. Then your early years of reading what many consider the American Classics and your lifetime of foreign adventure is the basis of your writing.MP. Yes and no. The key ingredient to my writing is that I am a good storyteller. Sitting in closets and under shade trees as a boy reading gave me an unusually hyper imagination that has stayed with me all these years. PB. That gave you all the tools to move forward as a writer. How and when did you start writing?MP. I was on a flight to Hong Kong to finish up a project several years ago and had a heart attack somewhere over the Sea of Japan. The plane landed in Tokyo, I spent two days in a Japanese hospital, and then flew home. I knew if I continued at the pace I had been keeping I wouldn’t last long. I sold my business to my Chinese partners and retired and haven’t been back since. PB. Is that when you started writing?MP. Within two months I was ready to cut my wrists out of boredom. One afternoon I sat down at the computer and started writing, that was the summer of 2008. I wrote my first John Locke Suspense Thriller, Honorable Revenge in ninety days, I wrote five more in that series within the next year. By then my main character, John Locke, was so beat-up shot up, scarred, burned, and tortured that I retired him, he couldn’t have survived another thrill. I took a couple of weeks off then jumped into my Sam Nash Hard Boiled Mysteries series. Then I rolled out the Jack Marsh character in my Key West Action series. PB. That is quite a feat, eleven novels in four years.MP. Writing comes easy for me, as I said I am a good storyteller. My weakness is not in the plot or character development, or dialogue, not even narrative. My Achilles heel is basic grammar and punctuation, I mean, when over the course of working and making a living was I able to do any sentence diagramming? To help I bought an eighth-grade scholastic primer on grammar and punctuation that helped as a quick refresher PB. What about publishing? Are your books available?MP. I went through the same hoop jumping that thousands of other writers have gone through with agents and publishers. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall. I have a perpetual glue taste in my mouth from all the stamps I have licked sending out query letters. After months of dealing with these people, I felt soiled and used and decided to take my new career into my own hands. Amazon had just started pumping up their publishing arm and I jumped on and haven’t let go yet. I love Amazon; I can’t say enough good things about them. I would encourage all writers that are tired of the bums rush to come over to Kindle PB. Do you ever feel like you are lost among the thousands of other Kindle authors?MP. Absolutely not. I treat my writing as a business. Here are my steps to selling books. I call it the Three P Plan (I should publish this and make a fortune…oh wait, that’s been done).PRODUCT: Write the best book you can, edit the best you can, have the best cover you can.I consider myself a good storyteller, but I am not a five-star writer. If stars were grade averages I would be a C+ or B- writer, and that‘s OK. So, be realistic about your expectations. Average authors sell books, trust me. I use the Flesch-Kinkaid comprehension scoring method to determine my writing/reader comprehension. I write to a reading audience at the 8th to the 10th grade level of comprehension. This, by the way, is what the F-K scoring states as the reading level of most fiction-reading adults in America today. As a comparison, Obama’s State of the Union address was written to the 7th grade level of comprehension, The Wall Street Journal just dropped their Comprehension level from 12th grade to 10th-grade level.It might make you feel better knowing this the next time someone writes a bad review on your baby and gives it a two-star D rating. This does not mean you did badly. It means the reader should have read something on a higher comprehension level. That’s why I say you must know your audience …and write to them. PRICING: To thine own self be true. You must price your book at a reasonable price. The big guys that work for the Big Six publishing houses command $25.00 and up per pop. That’s nuts, but they get it. E publishing is growing with more and more readers coming over to the light, soon the big publishing houses and agents will be begging for us little guys to sign up with them. My strategy is that I write and price my books to fit my audience. I am not greedy nor am I swollen-headed. I know that I am a C+ writer and what I have to offer is a damn good quick read for a couple of bucks. The reader is happy with the read and the price and he’ll come back for more. You’ll make your money on volume sales PUBLIC RELATIONS / MARKETING: Never stop pushing your book. I sell on Kindle and Nook. I use every social network platform I can find. I have Facebook, Twitter, Google +, a large FB and Twitter friend base. Look for “Friends that fit your target audience and talk to them…constantly. This is just me, but I don’t spend a lot of time talking with other authors. If you aren’t talking to your customers, someone else is. PB. Uh Mike can we wrap this up. I know you’re a lonely guy and don’t get out much, but I think we can cut this off about here…MP. But…but Pat, I was just getting warmed up. Let me tell you about my plan to ….PB. Thank you, Mike, goodbye…sheesh, glad that’s over. *** 

The Archangel ChroniclesAmazon link

 Mysteries within mysteries, unknowns hidden by time and distance, of rumors, and lies, ancient lore, forgotten names and places: all as current as today. Tales of murders and kidnappings, duplicity, betrayals, and deaths that have never been explained. Are the Chronicles true or just old stories told around ancient fires and smoky caves, later to be only partially written about?

The Nails of Golgotha brings to life the mysteries surrounding that fateful afternoon on the hill known as the place of skulls. Did events on the mount just stop that day; did the Romans on crucifixion duty just go back to their barracks? Did the thunderous winds and storm just quiet and blow away?

The truth is that man was suddenly face to face with something unimaginable, something that would change their lives forever. The power struggle between good and evil erupted before their eyes sending ripples of things to come out across millennia.

http://www.amazon.com/Nails-Golgotha-Angel-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B007ZS0UZK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336142155&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Nails-Golgotha-Angel-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B007ZS0UZK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336142155&sr=1-1

E-PULP, ELECTRONIC PULP FICTION

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

E-PULP, e-pulp, EPULP.  epulp …are  copyright properties belonging to Mike Pettit. The term is an inclusive description of a category of electronically published genre works which includes  written genre fiction of any length ( mystery, suspense , thriller, western, political, espionage) identifying the work as an electronic pulp work  ( as opposed to, say, a paper-printed pulp work) The term E-Pulp in all its forms may be used freely without permission in perpetuity.

SAM NASH, P.I. E-PULP

The Sam Nash. P.I. Action Mysteries continue....THE CASE OF THE TWICE SHOT COP.
"'That's him, he says.' He didn't need to tell me, I would know that face any where. I watched him shoot that cop in cold blood, made me lose my stomach, then he bends over and shoots him again. Why? Why shoot the cop again? Anybody could see he was down for the count. Well, Sweet Cheeks, you're about to feel payback..."

NEGATIVE REVIEWS

Negative reviews hurt, no doubt about it. One bad review can ruin your whole day, some can ruin your career. I am a writer. I  am not a good writer, but I'm not a bad one either, I just write.I love to write and I love when other people read my work and enjoy it. I have had my share of five-star reviews and yes one-star reviews as well. After receiving a one-star review on my kindle books I feel like cutting my hands off, or tossing my keyboard in the trash, or worse, take up a second language and wander through the desert wastelands looking for the meaning of life.
My salvation has been the discovery that most critics that write negative reviews are just plain old mean people. When a mean critic writes something it is always nasty and cuts deep, beyond the lines of  civility or constructive criticism..they go for heart's blood. They want the writer to feel pain or worse, wander in the wastelands.
Writers by nature are loners, avoid outsiders, living  among their mental creations. Suddenly, exposed to a negative review, the first reaction is fear, an overwhelming urge to vomit, you have been outed, you're no good...you are a failure...oh woe is the writer.
But, if you know the critic's game you can beat him hurt him, make him squirm. How you may ask. Ignore him, or even worse thank him. He will shrivel up from the kindness, he will run and hide in the night like the roach that he is.
So, the moral of this rant? Ignore the bad stuff. Fix what you can, and move on.

#10 TOP WRITING SECRETS BY KAREN TYRRELL

How to Write a Successful Story using my #10 TOP WRITING Secrets

Do you want a story that connects with the reader? Leaving them begging for more? A story that is publishable and in big demand? … Then follow my #10 Secrets for a successful story.

Image Danilo Rizzuti/FreeDigitalPhotosnet

My #10 Top Writing Secrets
√ Create a captivating story and let the reader know from the beginning what the premise is
√ Start your story at a dramatic pivotal entry point into the plot
√ Compel your reader to care deeply about the main character from the very start
√ Express your main characters hopes and motivations early on in your story. What does your main character really want? What do they fear?
√ Connect the reader emotionally to the main POV character using sharp dialogue, personal thoughts and emotive body language
√ Orientate and anchor each new scene with SHOWING detail so the reader knows exactly where and when they are. Illustrate your scenes in the most cinematic way possible … Utilize the five senses
√ Include only scenes and characters which push the story forward
√ Amp your nouns and verbs to the max. Create strong vocabulary and images that project your story forward
√ Challenge your character to a series conflicts and a brick wall trials which they fail to achieve, until the final climax
√ Share your story with your writing buddies, let them critique it and follow the advice that resonates within you
Where did I learn the craft of story making?
In my beginner days, award-winning authors Anita Bell and Katherine Howell revealed their secrets in one-to-one private consultations. Then I completed two six month writing courses with the Queensland Writers Centre … the Year of the Edit with Kim Wilkins and the Short Story Development series with Kate Eltham. Editors Selena Hanet-Hutchins and Sally Odgers shared their editing and writing expertise with me.
Last year I won a mentorship with the Society of Editors QLD. Generous publishers have offered personalized detailed feedback … I have much to be grateful for

Why reveal my secrets today?
This week I critiqued two writing buddies stories, sharing my writing knowledge with them. We all need a critique buddy or two. We cannot see flaws in our own writing as we’re much too close.
This Saturday, I in turn will hear from members of one of my writing groups as they deliver critiques on my first two chapters. My only desire is to remain open-minded, so I can reap the benefits of their constructive feedback.
I’m on a HUGE learning curve with my writing … I’ll continue to learn, fine tune and expand my writing skills and ONLY my Writing Colleagues can HELP ME !!
How has a writing course, an editor or critique buddy helped to improve your writing?
What VIP writing lessons have you learned along the way as a writer?

Did you like this? Share it:

THE WRITERS CREED

THE WRITERS CREED

This is my keyboard. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my keyboard is useless. Without my keyboard, I am useless.          I must tap my keyboard true. I must tap straighter than my peers who are trying to out-tap me. I must out-write him before he out-writes me. I will. My keyboard and I know that what counts in war is not the taps we fire, the noise of our burst, or the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit.

      My keyboard is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its length and its width. I will keep my keyboard clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other.

      Before God I swear this creed. My keyboard and I are the defenders of my thoughts. We are the masters of our words. We are the saviors of my life.

      So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy.

E-PULP VS PULP FICTION

I'm not sure if I have coined a new word or genre or not, but I think the new low price for an Ebook is very similar to the old Pulp books and mags. Below is a history of the Pulp era. read it and let me know what you think.

Article written by 'The Vintage Library'

What Is Pulp Fiction

Term originated from the magazines of the first half of the 20th century which were printed on cheap "pulp" paper and published fantastic, escapist fiction for the general entertainment of the mass audiences. The pulp fiction era provided a breeding ground for creative talent which would influence all forms of entertainment for decades to come. The hardboiled detective and science fiction genres were created by the freedom that the pulp fiction magazines provided.

Pulp Fiction is a term used to describe a huge amount of creative writing available to the American public in the early nineteen-hundreds. Termed "pulp magazines" because of the low quality paper used between the covers, these publications proliferated in the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties to the point where they blanketed newsstands in just about every popular fiction genre of the time.
Although the pages in-between the covers were a dingy cheap quality, the covers were beautifully decorated, many times with lurid portraits of pretty women in various stages of trouble, and the handsome men attempting to rescue them.
By under-paying writers and publishing on in-expensive media, pulp publishers were able to charge 10 cents for an issue containing several stories. Low prices drew in many working-class young adults and teenagers, who could not otherwise afford some of the more pricier magazines of the day.
The low price of the pulp magazine, coupled with the skyrocketing literacy rates, all contributed to the success of the medium. Pulps allowed its readers to experience people, places, and action they normally would not have access to.
Bigger-than-life heroes, pretty girls, exotic places, strange and mysterious villains all stalked the pages of the many issues available to the general public on the magazine stands. And without television widely available, much of the free time of the working literate class was spent pouring through the pages of the pulps.
World War Two brought paper rationing and increased paper prices. Also, some believe that the real horrors of the war replaced the fictional horrors found between the cover of the pulps. The once popular magazines began to lose readership and disappeared from the newsstand, one-by-one, replaced by paperbacks, comic books, television and movies.
Today, the short story has changed into a different breed of creative writing, leaving the stories found in the pulp magazines a unique offering. But, beyond the legacy of entertaining stories, pulp fiction must be given some credit for the evolution of literature and popular fiction heroes of today. Many authors that got their start in the pulp magazines grew to be great writers that changed the landscape of popular fiction. Writers such as Carroll John Daly changed the detective fiction story from the staid whodunits popularized in Great Britain to the more "hard-boiled" version where the bad guy was bad and the detective was tough and street-smart.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was another pulp writer, who helped to define the science fiction story into what it is today. The other well-known alumnae of the pulps include Max Brand, H.P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ray Bradbury. And of course, there were the legions of other authors, less well-known today, that had an equally important hand in forming popular fiction.
Even though some details are dated because of social, technological, and historical developments, the stories found in the pulp era are still an entertaining read. They still offer action-packed adventure, on par with any of today's television shows, and heroes who are lively, entertaining characters.
Enjoy your exploration into this vast world of fiction!

A TIME TO PLOT, A TIME TO WRITE.

My formula is simple, come up with a good plot and start writing. It's that simple. I don't agonize over lengthy outlines, genre conflicts, or even if I think people are going to read it or not. I believe that a writer has to be free of all the outside manias and phobias thrown up to slow a writer down. When I sit down to write I don't worry about how many will I sell, what if people don't like it, or what if I offend someone.That's all speed bump trash thrown out by the nay-Sayers that surround authors; the ones that feed off our words and would have us believe that we can't go it alone and must have their expertise to guide our careers. If a writer is serious about writing, then he leaves all that outside minutia at the cave entrance. Write the story that you want to write, bring in characters that well defined and strong enough to carry their own weight  along the story line. Be inventive, blow your mind away with each paragraph, get tingles running a goose bump marathon up and down your body. Create excitement, if you can excite yourself, then your reader will pick up on that and be excited too. Live your story in your mind, never pull back and question what your characters have done or said. Let your creations set the pace and the plot...it's amazing how they all want to live the closer you get to the last page.