It's only very recently that this question has hit me -- and it's hit me like a brick. No, Keegan isn't going blind! But my mother is. Life-long, my mother has been the most major supporter of whatever I wanted to be, do, and write. I'm one of the incredibly lucky ones. My mother was a professional musician with experience of performers from the legitimate stage to what, today, would be called "pub rock." (In her day it wasn't rock, of course, but the popular music of the era.) That breadth of experience makes a person wise, compassionate, tolerant. However your kids grow up, you know that they're bright, savvy, talented, as "normal" as any human being ever is (since there's no such thing as "normal" anyway), and if they're going to work hard, they deserve the best shot at success a person can have.
I had this fantastic lady behind me from Day One. Friends, partners, life partner and so on -- all that came along later, and some friends disappeared as smoothly as they appeared. There's been one constant, however -- yep. Your Mom isn't going to disappear on you. Mine calls herself "Mel's #1 fan," and although she hasn't read everything I've written (a few titles are too hot, too "down and dirty" for a lady of her years and refinement), she's read a hell of a lot of it. The Swordsman, Dangerous Moonlight, Lords of Harbendane, Nocture and Twilight, Tiger, Tiger and so on -- these are among her favorite reads...
Except, she can't read them any longer.
Just after Christmas, she was diagnosed with advanced glaucoma, and right now her specialists are struggling to stop the condition worsening (yes, it's the laser treatment, starting next week). We've gotten her every big magnifying glass and reading light you can name, but the fact is, small type is beyond her.
So naturally (Keegan being far from dumb even now, though I have no doubt a considerable number of brain cells have gone bye-bye), I went back to the software, reset the type in BIG fonts, and hit "print."
Joy. She can read again, so long as the type is up there around the 16 point mark. Problem solved ... I can also download loads of stuff from the web and do the big-type printouts.
But all this got me to thinking: If you're blind and gay, or visually impaired and gay, how many publishers out there are making books available in extra-large type? What are blind gay readers reading?
So I hit the web, and discovered a lot more than I'd imagined. There's a page at Writers' Services, for a start: http://www.writersservices.com/wps/s2_visually_impaired.htm ... and here is an outtake:
"Anybody who does not require glasses for reading by the age of 40 is a freak. A bit shocking perhaps but it makes the point that eyesight degrades with age for absolutely everybody. The little muscles and membranes in the eye are truly remarkable but they do wear out. Anybody who could design a modern material as durable as the components of the human eye would make a fortune.
So reading and seeing is a problem that everybody will have to deal with. The only question is the age and the severity. A few are blind from birth but a much larger group are not blind but have problems reading text. The ability to read was not, after all, a factor driving our evolution.
There are about 2 million people in UK with sight problems. According to RNIB, ‘another 100 people will start to loose their sight’ each day within the UK. Figures from the American Foundation for the Blind, (ABF) ‘approximately 1.3 million Americans are legally blind’ of which 55,200 are children and a further ‘5.5 million are visually impaired’. The Blind people’s Association of India estimate that there are over a [m]illion people on the sub-continent are blind because of cataracts.
Demographics makes it likely that the problems people have reading are going to increase in spite of medical advances. It is important that publishers address the issue both on the grounds of social exclusion but increasingly for good market motives. In the UK 96 per cent of the books published cannot be accessed by those with sight loss or dyslexia. By 2030 the number of people with sight loss will have doubled, and eight out of ten people say that they would want to continue reading if their sight deteriorated."
I'm sitting here being shocked. Appalled. And I can imagine how much more difficult it must be to be blind or visually impaired, and gay, and wanting desperately to read a good gay book, and not having a damned thing available.
Now, ebooks are starting to make this easier. You can always use a PDF and go up to 200% or whatever you need on the text size. The little palm-top screenreaders will be a right royal pain though -- first, they're bloody damned expensive, and if you're on a budget ... well, I don't have one myself yet, because of the price of the things. And if you're seriously visually impaired, the screen will be displaying about six words at a time. Gak. So, to read an ebook you have to sit at a desk for many, many hours. Again -- gak.
And (fair go, here) you want the same reading comfort that a sighted person would have -- to be able to curl up in a lounge chair with your feet up. Can't do this when you're chained to a desk.
And there isn't a single publisher, not one, which caters to these needs.
Keegan is appalled. Again. Keegan is remembering a 79 year old lady hunched over with a big magnifying glass, trying to plow through The Lords of Harbendane -- and that problem got fixed in about an hour flat, as fast as the printer could run.
Blind, or visually impaired, and gay -- or know someone who is? Tag yourself onto my mailing list and watch your emails, because in the very near future I'm publishing a range of books in large type. I can't speak for other publishers, but I can certainly address this deficiency in the system myself.
The books will be produced by Lulu.com, and will be "the real deal," properly designed and laid out, with text around the average 16 point mark. (If my mother can read it, almost anyone can.)
Let me show you what I'm doing. Here's the first 10pp of The Swordsman as a PDF, as a sample. Download it, guys, and print it out. Find out if it suits you (or your friend, whoever needs the large print) ... http://www.box.net/shared/17ldr0d141
Give me some feedback here. Is this good for your vision? Can you read comfortably? This is what my mother is reading without a problem, but before I go ahead and hit "publish" I'd like to have feedback from a group of people. So -- let me know! Leave comments right here.
Need a little perspective? This is excellent: http://www.chanton.com/blindandgay.html
Thanks! Stay tuned.
Cheers,
MK
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Writer beware: marketing deals? Be very, very cautious
I'm wondering how many other writers reading this blog (and there are about a dozen that I know of ... hi, guys!) received this rather outrageous piece of unsolicited advertising ... you want to call it spam, go ahead and call it spam ... and since they spammed me, I'll consider myself at liberty to paste the whole thing in here, verbatim -- and then talk about it below:
You've published a book. What's next?
The hard part about writing a book should be writing the book. You're not a digital marketing guru - you're an author.
So let AuthorWeb take care of the digital stuff. Here are some of the things we can do for you:
Other services may include:
Enrolling you in AuthorsGlobe and other services, so you can get virtual speaking engagements
Setting up Facebook/MySpace/Twitter accounts so you can jump on that social networking thingSetting up a blog so you can tell the world what you're doing
How do we do this? We've been in this business for 22 years. We've watched it evolve from a print-and-paper world to a digital world - so fast that many authors are left hanging with no support. How do you navigate all the rules and forms? Why is an ISBN essential for selling your book? Once you've got your book listed on Amazon, how do you get the word out so people can buy it?
Viral Marketing Services - $1500 Creation of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pages
Creation of blogSocial networking tutorial, so you can maintain these pages yourself
We have helped authors for 22 years.
Contact us today to learn more about how AuthorWeb can help you.
Exclusive: I've negotiated a special deal with mediabistro.com to offer all of you a $10 discount on a premium AvantGuild membership. Members get access to a wealth of professional resources and information, including their "Pitching an Agent" series, health insurance options for freelancers, and discounts on mediabistro.com courses and instructional videos. Just make sure to click on this link in order to claim your discounted membership.
END OF SPAM
Now, I don't appreciate spam any more than the next person does, and the only reason these people are not getting a very annoyed email from me is that they dropped two names that are new to me. Author's Globe and MediaBistro have not yet crossed my path -- and that path has cut swathes all over the Internet. I'd have stumbled over them all on my lonesome sooner or later.
I'll trade: no stinging email from Mel in exchange for two dropped names by them.
The rest of this stuff? I've already done it. YOU've already done it. EVERY author who has the talent and courage to call him/herself a professional has already done it.
The only writers who haven't done this stuff are amateurs, whose books are (sorry guys; it's nothing personal -- it's just unavoidably truth) not yet up to snuff. Amateurs who have several years and another 250,000 words of writing, self-correcting and learning to go before they can work their way into the entry-level of the professional arena. (Notice that the above spiel begins, "You've published a book." A book. One. It had better be the 3rd or 5th or 10th book you've writtenbefore you tried publishing one, because 99.7% of first books are tripe -- this much is fact.)
Almost without exception, first outing writers are not ready to sell copies. They'll get stinking reviews, lose a lot of money, get a lousy reputation as artists, and very likely have the "heart" knocked out of them. They might never write again, even though the latent ability is very probably there inside them.
The only people making money out of this kind of deal are the shrewd manipulators at the controls.
For gods' sake, all genuine writers (even the upper ranks of the wannabe authors) already have blogs, and websites, and Amazon listings, and ISBNs, and a thorough knowledge of Bowker, and Lulu, and ... so on.
You and I -- having been there, done that -- would rate the above list of chores to be worth about $250, max. And some of the items on that list are professional suicide.
I just went through a wringer to get my books OUT of the Google Book Search program, and these jokers are advocating it! They actually recommend a system that would upload 20% of an Agatha Christie novel -- including the END. Get this straight: You want to beat your brains out writing something like Death on the Nile, and then have Google "tell the ending" to everyone who searches on your name or title ... for free?!
Other forms of slow suicide are FaceBook and similar. Chatchatchatchatchatchat... Amateur and wannabe writers, take note and beware: Very soon, you'll be spending the time you ought to be investing in learning your craft, and WRITING, in chatting. You won't be writing; at best you'll be blogging, and at worst you'll be babbling. Writing and studying time goes down the chute, and -- it happens routinely -- you can wind up with carpal tunnel syndrome, with nothing to show for it.
Every pro or semi-pro writer reading this has already filled the above list, and a lot more besides. Personally? I've got that list quadrupled in terms of initiatives I've undertaken. I also have 26 titles on my backlist ... and I still occasionally get "dead days," or days without sales.
Here's a fact you might not like: the average professional writer earns about US$3000 from writing, per annum. Some of us earn a hell of a lot more, and I'm privileged to be among them ... but it didn't happen overnight, or even swiftly. I've been in this game for 25 years.
If you're an aspiring writer, you cannot afford to shell out $2,500 for services you could perform yourself. A day arrives very soon in your career (long before you find a publisher or take the plunge and POD it yourself) when you must commit to what you're doing. LEARN. You'll have to be your own must ruthless editor, your own most ingenious publicist, your own dynamo of a marketing analyst, and your own demon accountant.
The first thing an accountant will tell you is to "plug the leaks: Look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves." Writing is your business. If you were a chef, you'd expect to work long, hard hours for nothing in the early days while building up your restaurant. If you didn't want to do this, you'd go work for someone else.
Writing is no different. You'll work for years to gather and hone your skills; then you'll work for months or years writing not one but several books. This is how you become good enough to charge money for your work, have people pay you, call it money well spent, and buy your next book.
My heart aches for aspiring writers who get drawn into deals like the one outlined in the above spam. I wish there were some regulatory body to stop these people, but alas, there isn't. It's down to folks like me -- us -- to speak up.
Uh ... pass it on.
Cheers,
MK
You've published a book. What's next?
The hard part about writing a book should be writing the book. You're not a digital marketing guru - you're an author.
So let AuthorWeb take care of the digital stuff. Here are some of the things we can do for you:
- Upload your manuscript to Google for Google Book Search
- Upload your manuscript to Amazon for sale on the Kindle
- Upload your manuscript to "Smashwords" for all other ebook distribution
- Make sure you are listed with Bowker's Books in Print program so your book is listed on all e-commerce sites
- Work with Barnes & Noble.com's Small Press division for web (and possible store) distribution
- Work with your POD service (Lightning Source, Lulu, Xlibris, etc.) to make sure you are getting the value you've paid forList you on author sites such as Filedby
Other services may include:
Enrolling you in AuthorsGlobe and other services, so you can get virtual speaking engagements
Setting up Facebook/MySpace/Twitter accounts so you can jump on that social networking thingSetting up a blog so you can tell the world what you're doing
How do we do this? We've been in this business for 22 years. We've watched it evolve from a print-and-paper world to a digital world - so fast that many authors are left hanging with no support. How do you navigate all the rules and forms? Why is an ISBN essential for selling your book? Once you've got your book listed on Amazon, how do you get the word out so people can buy it?
What we do
Basic Services - $1000 Upload files to Google for Google Book SearchNegotiating author's agreement with GoogleUpload files to Amazon for Kindle ebook sales Get listed (or enhance existing listing) on Amazon/B&N.com for print salesNegotiate the best distribution deal possible for both Amazon and B&NWork with your POD service for any further (independent) distribution - getting all those forms filled outEnhance your listing with Books in PrintEnhance your listing on FiledbyAuthor and other websitesViral Marketing Services - $1500 Creation of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pages
Creation of blogSocial networking tutorial, so you can maintain these pages yourself
We have helped authors for 22 years.
Contact us today to learn more about how AuthorWeb can help you.
Exclusive: I've negotiated a special deal with mediabistro.com to offer all of you a $10 discount on a premium AvantGuild membership. Members get access to a wealth of professional resources and information, including their "Pitching an Agent" series, health insurance options for freelancers, and discounts on mediabistro.com courses and instructional videos. Just make sure to click on this link in order to claim your discounted membership.
END OF SPAM
Now, I don't appreciate spam any more than the next person does, and the only reason these people are not getting a very annoyed email from me is that they dropped two names that are new to me. Author's Globe and MediaBistro have not yet crossed my path -- and that path has cut swathes all over the Internet. I'd have stumbled over them all on my lonesome sooner or later.
I'll trade: no stinging email from Mel in exchange for two dropped names by them.
The rest of this stuff? I've already done it. YOU've already done it. EVERY author who has the talent and courage to call him/herself a professional has already done it.
The only writers who haven't done this stuff are amateurs, whose books are (sorry guys; it's nothing personal -- it's just unavoidably truth) not yet up to snuff. Amateurs who have several years and another 250,000 words of writing, self-correcting and learning to go before they can work their way into the entry-level of the professional arena. (Notice that the above spiel begins, "You've published a book." A book. One. It had better be the 3rd or 5th or 10th book you've writtenbefore you tried publishing one, because 99.7% of first books are tripe -- this much is fact.)
Almost without exception, first outing writers are not ready to sell copies. They'll get stinking reviews, lose a lot of money, get a lousy reputation as artists, and very likely have the "heart" knocked out of them. They might never write again, even though the latent ability is very probably there inside them.
The only people making money out of this kind of deal are the shrewd manipulators at the controls.
For gods' sake, all genuine writers (even the upper ranks of the wannabe authors) already have blogs, and websites, and Amazon listings, and ISBNs, and a thorough knowledge of Bowker, and Lulu, and ... so on.
You and I -- having been there, done that -- would rate the above list of chores to be worth about $250, max. And some of the items on that list are professional suicide.
I just went through a wringer to get my books OUT of the Google Book Search program, and these jokers are advocating it! They actually recommend a system that would upload 20% of an Agatha Christie novel -- including the END. Get this straight: You want to beat your brains out writing something like Death on the Nile, and then have Google "tell the ending" to everyone who searches on your name or title ... for free?!
Other forms of slow suicide are FaceBook and similar. Chatchatchatchatchatchat... Amateur and wannabe writers, take note and beware: Very soon, you'll be spending the time you ought to be investing in learning your craft, and WRITING, in chatting. You won't be writing; at best you'll be blogging, and at worst you'll be babbling. Writing and studying time goes down the chute, and -- it happens routinely -- you can wind up with carpal tunnel syndrome, with nothing to show for it.
Every pro or semi-pro writer reading this has already filled the above list, and a lot more besides. Personally? I've got that list quadrupled in terms of initiatives I've undertaken. I also have 26 titles on my backlist ... and I still occasionally get "dead days," or days without sales.
Here's a fact you might not like: the average professional writer earns about US$3000 from writing, per annum. Some of us earn a hell of a lot more, and I'm privileged to be among them ... but it didn't happen overnight, or even swiftly. I've been in this game for 25 years.
If you're an aspiring writer, you cannot afford to shell out $2,500 for services you could perform yourself. A day arrives very soon in your career (long before you find a publisher or take the plunge and POD it yourself) when you must commit to what you're doing. LEARN. You'll have to be your own must ruthless editor, your own most ingenious publicist, your own dynamo of a marketing analyst, and your own demon accountant.
The first thing an accountant will tell you is to "plug the leaks: Look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves." Writing is your business. If you were a chef, you'd expect to work long, hard hours for nothing in the early days while building up your restaurant. If you didn't want to do this, you'd go work for someone else.
Writing is no different. You'll work for years to gather and hone your skills; then you'll work for months or years writing not one but several books. This is how you become good enough to charge money for your work, have people pay you, call it money well spent, and buy your next book.
My heart aches for aspiring writers who get drawn into deals like the one outlined in the above spam. I wish there were some regulatory body to stop these people, but alas, there isn't. It's down to folks like me -- us -- to speak up.
Uh ... pass it on.
Cheers,
MK
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Keegan at Target.com --!
Good news from the Mel-o-sphere: you can now buy your Keegans at Target.com -- check out the picture, it tells the whole story. Click the image to see it at full size:
At this point, Amazon is still loading the database, and 11 out of the 12 books are visible at Target.com. The "missing" item is DEATH'S HEAD UNABRIDGED, and it ought to pop up automatically in a day or two.
This is extremely cool! Full marks to Amazon for this one.
Cheers,
MK
At this point, Amazon is still loading the database, and 11 out of the 12 books are visible at Target.com. The "missing" item is DEATH'S HEAD UNABRIDGED, and it ought to pop up automatically in a day or two.
This is extremely cool! Full marks to Amazon for this one.
Cheers,
MK
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Mel Keegan March 2009 Newsletter
The newsletter, as dispatched from DreamCraft this morning...
Mel Keegan March 2009 Newsletter
All five NARC books are now available at Amazon!!
Before I tell you all about this wonderous event let me remind you how easy it is to subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter.
Just go to Mel's blog
http://mel-keegan.blogspot.com/
or any of the pages at the Mel Keegan Online site
http://www.dream-craft.com/melkeegan/home.htm
and check out the sidebars until you see big, friendly newsletter banners with sub and unsub links, no worries. With no further ado... Here's all the goodies in this newsletter:
*****************************************
NARC! Jarrat and Stone! At Amazon!
*****************************************
At last! It's the event many people -- MK included -- had begun to think would never arrive.
We've finally got all of Mel Keegan's NARC books available at Amazon. Death's Head, Equinox, Scorpio, Stopover, and Aphelion. Don't worry as this is NOT the end of Jarrat and Stone though. Mel has several more NARC stories mapped out.
We've been able to do this because CreateSpace is partnered with Amazon, so that every book that goes through them also goes through Amazon. Very Cool. We're thrilled to have finally come to this day.
Not only does each NARC book have its own page at CreateSpace with a push button shopping cart...
Death's Headhttps://www.createspace.com/3366014
Equinoxhttps://www.createspace.com/3366557
Scorpiohttps://www.createspace.com/3367130
Stopoverhttps://www.createspace.com/3367219
Aphelionhttps://www.createspace.com/3368313
But we've also put all the Amazon shopping cart buttons onthe main NARC page:
http://www.dream-craft.com/melkeegan/narc_order.htm
You'll notice the LuLu shopping cart buttons are still there and still active, no worries.
And of course you can just go to Amazon.com and search onyour favorite author ... Mel Keegan.
*****************************************
Mel Keegan: LEGENDS
*****************************************
Mel's foray into the world of online serial gay fiction is moving along at a brisk pace. Every day there's a new post up at the Legends blog and Book One is close to completion. (Yep, it's a trilogy, with each book ending in a solid punctuation point, so you really do reach a point where you can say, "The End" ... for now.)
Are you interested in a grand Atlantean Saga? Pop on over to:
http://mel-keegan-legends.blogspot.com/
to find out what you've been missing.
You will probably want to start at the beginning though:
http://mel-keegan-legends.blogspot.com/2009/01/1.html
Be ready to download a lot! There's currently 53 episodes online, and they're good, bite-sized chunks of reading each.
*****************************************
Have you checked out DIGITAL KOSMOS lately --?*****************************************
You might remember that MK began to contribute to a new photoblog a few months ago. (Mel has been aprofessional photographer for more years than you might care to remember...) The blog is Digital Kosmos, and it took us all by surprise.
There are currently more than 160 images online -- at one pic per post. How's that for a blog that went online only eight weeks ago?! The images are all astonishing, and many of the most amazing are MK's work.
Here's the url for Mel's photoblog:
http://photographyfan.blogspot.com/
Now, it's very true that MK has been working too hard to contribute much to DK lately, but the blog itself is very beautiful, and Mel will be back with rafts of images in the next couple of weeks. So ... enjoy!
You can also "follow" the photo blog and be updated when brilliant new images go online ... which is every day.
A massive thanks to Doctor Mike for keeping DK up and running while things in Keegan Country went berserk. As they calm back down to normality, we'll see more entries from MK and our cover artist, Jade.
*****************************************
KINDLE!
*****************************************
Do you like your Kindle? We now have four Mel Keegan novels available for your Amazon Kindle, with more to come soon!
The Lords of Harbendanehttp://www.amazon.com/The-Lords-of-Harbendane/dp/B001UV4FH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-1
Dangerous Moonlighthttp://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Moonlight/dp/B001V7PR9A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-2
Fortunes of Warhttp://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-of-War/dp/B001V5KEHC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-3
Nocturnehttp://www.amazon.com/New-Title-1-Nocturne/dp/B001VH7P90/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-4
And for users of the popular Mobipocket format, you'll be pleased to know that the Keegans are starting to appear there too. The first title online at Mobi is The Lords of Harbendane ... the other25 MK titles will be going up as 2009 progresses -- they'll also be appearing at Amazon, and later, at Smashwords. (We seem to have upload "issues" with Smashwords, probably due to being outside the US. These issues will be answered, and you'll find us at Smashwords before long.)
*****************************************
Aricia Gavrial at large:
Launching a new Gay Book Shoppe
*****************************************
It's amazing what our resident proofie, AG, is doing -- when't the last time you looked at her two blogs?!
In total, AG has now reviewed (or touched down on)more than 50 books, and there are SIX MK reviews, and THE INTERVIEW.
What's this you say ... an interview with Mel? You bet.This rare item is informative and fun, and you can find it right here:
http://ariciasgaybookblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/author-interview-talking-with-mel.html
Here's the book blog itself:
http://ariciasgaybookblog.blogspot.com/
and here is AG's Lords of Harbendane review:
http://ariciasgaybookblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/epic-gay-fantasy-lords-of-harbendane.html
The latest reviews added are for The Lords of Harbendane,The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks, China Mountain Zhang,The Jade Owl ... and lots more.
One of the most impressive developments is Aricia's Gay Book Shoppe, which is an Amazon Store filled with *only* hand-picked titles. Every single book and video on these pages has been added byAG. You'll find Mel Keegan, Josh Lanyon, Alex Beecroft, and more than 150 books and videos -- all gay titles, and all recommended.
Here is it:
Aricia's Gay Book Shoppe,http://astore.amazon.com/arsgabo-20
There's more (there's always more, right?) ...
Way back on January 22, AG's other blog launched. Remember the spiel? "Welcome to Aricia's album of delicious decadence, hot goss and hotter bods, gay goodies, celebs being silly, sweet treats and candy for your senses!"
Have you looked at this blog lately? There are about100 posts online now ... Brad, Orlando, Hugh, Elijah, Viggo, Capn' Jack (both of them!), Philip Morris, Mr. Gyllenhaal, Mr. McGregor, and an amazing collecton of goodies.
In fact, this blog is starting to gallop. It was recently featured on Huffington, and you don't do that without having something great to offer.
Here are some recent posts:
Elijah Wood ... as Iggy Pop?!
Johnny Depp: vampires rock!
To Liam Neeson and family: our deepest sympathies
Twits, nuisances, lawbreakers: where does Twitter draw the line?
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie: Brangelina to the rescue
David Tennant: what's next?Jack Harkness: immortalized in comics!
Rutger Hauer ... ice up a cold one. Wow!
The Ultimate Movie, starring Depp, Jolie, Smith and Knightly
The boy from Barcelona is back!
Viggo, Orlando -- and that other cute dude from TROY
Star Trek was never like this; or was it? Come to think of it...
No, they're not links. Go over there and browse:
Aricia's Album: http://ariciasalbum.blogspot.com/
*****************************************
What's next in 2009 for Mel Keegan?
*****************************************
In a word: HELLGATE. Two books (big ones) to go, and both finished by Christmas. That's the plan. The books are quite huge, so you can expect the work to devour the rest of the year. As 2009 progresses,you'll also see the Keegan titles appearing en masse at Kindle, Mobi, eXcessica, and other places, too. "Social networking" is where we're going right now --
In fact, MK now has a Live Journal page:
http://mkeegan.livejournal.com/
From that page, you can keep updated with events in the Mel-o-Sphere. Or even add MK to your 'friends' list. Cool stuff, this Live Journal.
******************************************
Remember, to keep up with everything Keegan, just check out
www.melkeegan.com
and
http://mel-keegan.blogspot.com/
Mel Keegan March 2009 Newsletter
All five NARC books are now available at Amazon!!
Before I tell you all about this wonderous event let me remind you how easy it is to subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter.
Just go to Mel's blog
http://mel-keegan.blogspot.com/
or any of the pages at the Mel Keegan Online site
http://www.dream-craft.com/melkeegan/home.htm
and check out the sidebars until you see big, friendly newsletter banners with sub and unsub links, no worries. With no further ado... Here's all the goodies in this newsletter:
*****************************************
NARC! Jarrat and Stone! At Amazon!
*****************************************
At last! It's the event many people -- MK included -- had begun to think would never arrive.
We've finally got all of Mel Keegan's NARC books available at Amazon. Death's Head, Equinox, Scorpio, Stopover, and Aphelion. Don't worry as this is NOT the end of Jarrat and Stone though. Mel has several more NARC stories mapped out.
We've been able to do this because CreateSpace is partnered with Amazon, so that every book that goes through them also goes through Amazon. Very Cool. We're thrilled to have finally come to this day.
Not only does each NARC book have its own page at CreateSpace with a push button shopping cart...
Death's Headhttps://www.createspace.com/3366014
Equinoxhttps://www.createspace.com/3366557
Scorpiohttps://www.createspace.com/3367130
Stopoverhttps://www.createspace.com/3367219
Aphelionhttps://www.createspace.com/3368313
But we've also put all the Amazon shopping cart buttons onthe main NARC page:
http://www.dream-craft.com/melkeegan/narc_order.htm
You'll notice the LuLu shopping cart buttons are still there and still active, no worries.
And of course you can just go to Amazon.com and search onyour favorite author ... Mel Keegan.
*****************************************
Mel Keegan: LEGENDS
*****************************************
Mel's foray into the world of online serial gay fiction is moving along at a brisk pace. Every day there's a new post up at the Legends blog and Book One is close to completion. (Yep, it's a trilogy, with each book ending in a solid punctuation point, so you really do reach a point where you can say, "The End" ... for now.)
Are you interested in a grand Atlantean Saga? Pop on over to:
http://mel-keegan-legends.blogspot.com/
to find out what you've been missing.
You will probably want to start at the beginning though:
http://mel-keegan-legends.blogspot.com/2009/01/1.html
Be ready to download a lot! There's currently 53 episodes online, and they're good, bite-sized chunks of reading each.
*****************************************
Have you checked out DIGITAL KOSMOS lately --?*****************************************
You might remember that MK began to contribute to a new photoblog a few months ago. (Mel has been aprofessional photographer for more years than you might care to remember...) The blog is Digital Kosmos, and it took us all by surprise.
There are currently more than 160 images online -- at one pic per post. How's that for a blog that went online only eight weeks ago?! The images are all astonishing, and many of the most amazing are MK's work.
Here's the url for Mel's photoblog:
http://photographyfan.blogspot.com/
Now, it's very true that MK has been working too hard to contribute much to DK lately, but the blog itself is very beautiful, and Mel will be back with rafts of images in the next couple of weeks. So ... enjoy!
You can also "follow" the photo blog and be updated when brilliant new images go online ... which is every day.
A massive thanks to Doctor Mike for keeping DK up and running while things in Keegan Country went berserk. As they calm back down to normality, we'll see more entries from MK and our cover artist, Jade.
*****************************************
KINDLE!
*****************************************
Do you like your Kindle? We now have four Mel Keegan novels available for your Amazon Kindle, with more to come soon!
The Lords of Harbendanehttp://www.amazon.com/The-Lords-of-Harbendane/dp/B001UV4FH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-1
Dangerous Moonlighthttp://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Moonlight/dp/B001V7PR9A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-2
Fortunes of Warhttp://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-of-War/dp/B001V5KEHC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-3
Nocturnehttp://www.amazon.com/New-Title-1-Nocturne/dp/B001VH7P90/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237857891&sr=1-4
And for users of the popular Mobipocket format, you'll be pleased to know that the Keegans are starting to appear there too. The first title online at Mobi is The Lords of Harbendane ... the other25 MK titles will be going up as 2009 progresses -- they'll also be appearing at Amazon, and later, at Smashwords. (We seem to have upload "issues" with Smashwords, probably due to being outside the US. These issues will be answered, and you'll find us at Smashwords before long.)
*****************************************
Aricia Gavrial at large:
Launching a new Gay Book Shoppe
*****************************************
It's amazing what our resident proofie, AG, is doing -- when't the last time you looked at her two blogs?!
In total, AG has now reviewed (or touched down on)more than 50 books, and there are SIX MK reviews, and THE INTERVIEW.
What's this you say ... an interview with Mel? You bet.This rare item is informative and fun, and you can find it right here:
http://ariciasgaybookblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/author-interview-talking-with-mel.html
Here's the book blog itself:
http://ariciasgaybookblog.blogspot.com/
and here is AG's Lords of Harbendane review:
http://ariciasgaybookblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/epic-gay-fantasy-lords-of-harbendane.html
The latest reviews added are for The Lords of Harbendane,The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks, China Mountain Zhang,The Jade Owl ... and lots more.
One of the most impressive developments is Aricia's Gay Book Shoppe, which is an Amazon Store filled with *only* hand-picked titles. Every single book and video on these pages has been added byAG. You'll find Mel Keegan, Josh Lanyon, Alex Beecroft, and more than 150 books and videos -- all gay titles, and all recommended.
Here is it:
Aricia's Gay Book Shoppe,http://astore.amazon.com/arsgabo-20
There's more (there's always more, right?) ...
Way back on January 22, AG's other blog launched. Remember the spiel? "Welcome to Aricia's album of delicious decadence, hot goss and hotter bods, gay goodies, celebs being silly, sweet treats and candy for your senses!"
Have you looked at this blog lately? There are about100 posts online now ... Brad, Orlando, Hugh, Elijah, Viggo, Capn' Jack (both of them!), Philip Morris, Mr. Gyllenhaal, Mr. McGregor, and an amazing collecton of goodies.
In fact, this blog is starting to gallop. It was recently featured on Huffington, and you don't do that without having something great to offer.
Here are some recent posts:
Elijah Wood ... as Iggy Pop?!
Johnny Depp: vampires rock!
To Liam Neeson and family: our deepest sympathies
Twits, nuisances, lawbreakers: where does Twitter draw the line?
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie: Brangelina to the rescue
David Tennant: what's next?Jack Harkness: immortalized in comics!
Rutger Hauer ... ice up a cold one. Wow!
The Ultimate Movie, starring Depp, Jolie, Smith and Knightly
The boy from Barcelona is back!
Viggo, Orlando -- and that other cute dude from TROY
Star Trek was never like this; or was it? Come to think of it...
No, they're not links. Go over there and browse:
Aricia's Album: http://ariciasalbum.blogspot.com/
*****************************************
What's next in 2009 for Mel Keegan?
*****************************************
In a word: HELLGATE. Two books (big ones) to go, and both finished by Christmas. That's the plan. The books are quite huge, so you can expect the work to devour the rest of the year. As 2009 progresses,you'll also see the Keegan titles appearing en masse at Kindle, Mobi, eXcessica, and other places, too. "Social networking" is where we're going right now --
In fact, MK now has a Live Journal page:
http://mkeegan.livejournal.com/
From that page, you can keep updated with events in the Mel-o-Sphere. Or even add MK to your 'friends' list. Cool stuff, this Live Journal.
******************************************
Remember, to keep up with everything Keegan, just check out
www.melkeegan.com
and
http://mel-keegan.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 23, 2009
More on Google ... and it ain't pretty
Gotta see this!
The whole story is here: http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/3/google-sucks-life-out-of-old-media-huge-2007-share-shift, but to capture your interest, read on...
Total US ad revenue across all 17 companies grew 9% from 2006 to 2007, from $53 billion to $58 billion
Online ad revenue grew 28%, from $14 billion to $18 billion.
Offline grew only 3%, from $39.5 billion to 40.6 billion. This was helped significantly by the inclusion of affiliate fees and (and global revenue) at CBS, Viacom, and News Corp.
Online ad revenue grew by $4 billion.
Offline ad revenue--in all other media--grew by $1 billion.
So advertising revenue is flowing online at a frantic rate. That's the whole story? No. Let's look at how that online revenue breaks down.
Online ad revenue grew 28%, or $4 billion.
Online ad revenue at Google grew 44%, or $2.7 billion.
[end of snippet...]
...and here's Keegan, trying to get Google bloody Book Search to stop giving away, free and gratis, the ends to a whole range of action-mystery novels, before they kill me!
Fact: writers who somehow get dragged into Google Book Search are providing vitually infinite free web content, so Google can park advertising on it.
Oh ... brother.
Cheers,
MK
The whole story is here: http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/3/google-sucks-life-out-of-old-media-huge-2007-share-shift, but to capture your interest, read on...
Total US ad revenue across all 17 companies grew 9% from 2006 to 2007, from $53 billion to $58 billion
Online ad revenue grew 28%, from $14 billion to $18 billion.
Offline grew only 3%, from $39.5 billion to 40.6 billion. This was helped significantly by the inclusion of affiliate fees and (and global revenue) at CBS, Viacom, and News Corp.
Online ad revenue grew by $4 billion.
Offline ad revenue--in all other media--grew by $1 billion.
So advertising revenue is flowing online at a frantic rate. That's the whole story? No. Let's look at how that online revenue breaks down.
Online ad revenue grew 28%, or $4 billion.
Online ad revenue at Google grew 44%, or $2.7 billion.
[end of snippet...]
...and here's Keegan, trying to get Google bloody Book Search to stop giving away, free and gratis, the ends to a whole range of action-mystery novels, before they kill me!
Fact: writers who somehow get dragged into Google Book Search are providing vitually infinite free web content, so Google can park advertising on it.
Oh ... brother.
Cheers,
MK
Google Book Search is the ultimate ripoff
No kidding, folks. I just discovered that Google has been displaying my entire NARC series -- with a few pages omitted here and there to "legitimize" this ripoff.
These are MYSTERY novels ... and the endings are out there for all to see, for free. Like reading the end of the whodunnit while standing in the store, and then not bothering to buy the novel, because you already know who did it.
This is not fair; it shouldn't even be legal. This is just Google using writers at large (like yours truly) to create virtually unlimited content, so they can park their bloody stupid Adsense commercials next to material from which we're trying to earn a crust.
Then, they can make anything from 50c to $100 per click on the commercials -- while the writers get paid nothing ... and meanwhile, the END of the mystery has been displayed, so who in hell is going to buy it? Writers are going to be in the unemployment lines at this rate -- while the Google bosses get richer and richer on the commerials.
I'm steaming mad. Can't you tell?
Google has turned into a massive rip off merchant. In two words: Google sucks. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is putting it in polite terms.
Now, Keegan is in the middle of a labyrinthine process, trying to get the NARC books OUT of the book search engine. You fill a form, give the ISBNs, and --
Hope for the best. There is no human contact. They could take six months over giving me back my livelihood. There's no court of appeal. They could utterly ignore the take-down request, if they chose to, because there's no one to contact about it.
Hope for the best, right?
I'll post again if/when anything is done to remedy this situation. But I have to say, I consider the whole thing shameful.
Ciao,
MK
UPDATE ON THIS POST. March 28th ...
I'm pleased to be able to report that the situation was remedied much faster than I'd anticipated, and without a big scene at Google. I did indeed receive a personal response, and the books were removed without further ado. Problem solved, and full marks to Google on the way this was handled, once I'd made my case.
These are MYSTERY novels ... and the endings are out there for all to see, for free. Like reading the end of the whodunnit while standing in the store, and then not bothering to buy the novel, because you already know who did it.
This is not fair; it shouldn't even be legal. This is just Google using writers at large (like yours truly) to create virtually unlimited content, so they can park their bloody stupid Adsense commercials next to material from which we're trying to earn a crust.
Then, they can make anything from 50c to $100 per click on the commercials -- while the writers get paid nothing ... and meanwhile, the END of the mystery has been displayed, so who in hell is going to buy it? Writers are going to be in the unemployment lines at this rate -- while the Google bosses get richer and richer on the commerials.
I'm steaming mad. Can't you tell?
Google has turned into a massive rip off merchant. In two words: Google sucks. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is putting it in polite terms.
Now, Keegan is in the middle of a labyrinthine process, trying to get the NARC books OUT of the book search engine. You fill a form, give the ISBNs, and --
Hope for the best. There is no human contact. They could take six months over giving me back my livelihood. There's no court of appeal. They could utterly ignore the take-down request, if they chose to, because there's no one to contact about it.
Hope for the best, right?
I'll post again if/when anything is done to remedy this situation. But I have to say, I consider the whole thing shameful.
Ciao,
MK
UPDATE ON THIS POST. March 28th ...
I'm pleased to be able to report that the situation was remedied much faster than I'd anticipated, and without a big scene at Google. I did indeed receive a personal response, and the books were removed without further ado. Problem solved, and full marks to Google on the way this was handled, once I'd made my case.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Save the Internet ... somebody!
----- Original Message -----
From: 'GetUp'
Sent: Fri Mar 20 12:22
Subject: Your ideas could save the net
Dear Mel,
Yesterday Senator Conroy confirmed1 that websites on the Government's closely guarded 'blacklist' of censored sites had been leaked. News outlets are reporting that if the Government's censorship plan went ahead, a dentist and a tour operator are just two of the many legitimate Australian businesses whose websites would be blocked.
We've reached hundreds of thousands of Australians through our petition and online advertising campaign. Now we're after your creative ideas so that together we reach millions.We're producing a TV ad to turn up the heat, and we want your ideas. Script ideas, images, music, video content or just a good pun - your brainwave could end up on national TV! We'll turn the best ideas into a TV advertising campaign ready to hit the airwaves in April.
Click here to find out more:www.getup.org.au/campaign/CensorThis
The internet isn't about control, censorship and government interference. It's about collaboration. Working together we can create and broadcast a message the whole nation will see. This is our opportunity to drive a nail into the coffin of internet censorship. Send in your ideas for a hard-hitting TV ad, and we'll use the best ones to create a unique TV ad:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/CensorThis
Our online ads, running all over the internet since December, have been seen over 3.5 million times. Internet users are firing up the bloggersphere against the proposed censorship. Now it's time to take our message to TV screens around the nation.
A hard-hitting TV ad delivered now can protect that most important of freedoms - the freedom of the community to stand up and defend rights we perceive to be under threat. Let's harness the power of the internet to create the best ad to defend our rights.
Thanks for being a part of the solution,The GetUp teamPS - If you're in Canberra, come join the 'March in March' against the internet filter: 1pm tomorrow, Saturday March 21, Federation Mall outside Parliament House. Organised by the Digital Liberty Coalition and supported by GetUp!
1'There are some common URLs to those on the ACMA blacklist' stated Senator Conroy, Minister for Communications: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/website-blacklist-leaked-on-internet-20090319-931c.html
From: 'GetUp'
Sent: Fri Mar 20 12:22
Subject: Your ideas could save the net
Dear Mel,
Yesterday Senator Conroy confirmed1 that websites on the Government's closely guarded 'blacklist' of censored sites had been leaked. News outlets are reporting that if the Government's censorship plan went ahead, a dentist and a tour operator are just two of the many legitimate Australian businesses whose websites would be blocked.
We've reached hundreds of thousands of Australians through our petition and online advertising campaign. Now we're after your creative ideas so that together we reach millions.We're producing a TV ad to turn up the heat, and we want your ideas. Script ideas, images, music, video content or just a good pun - your brainwave could end up on national TV! We'll turn the best ideas into a TV advertising campaign ready to hit the airwaves in April.
Click here to find out more:www.getup.org.au/campaign/CensorThis
The internet isn't about control, censorship and government interference. It's about collaboration. Working together we can create and broadcast a message the whole nation will see. This is our opportunity to drive a nail into the coffin of internet censorship. Send in your ideas for a hard-hitting TV ad, and we'll use the best ones to create a unique TV ad:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/CensorThis
Our online ads, running all over the internet since December, have been seen over 3.5 million times. Internet users are firing up the bloggersphere against the proposed censorship. Now it's time to take our message to TV screens around the nation.
A hard-hitting TV ad delivered now can protect that most important of freedoms - the freedom of the community to stand up and defend rights we perceive to be under threat. Let's harness the power of the internet to create the best ad to defend our rights.
Thanks for being a part of the solution,The GetUp teamPS - If you're in Canberra, come join the 'March in March' against the internet filter: 1pm tomorrow, Saturday March 21, Federation Mall outside Parliament House. Organised by the Digital Liberty Coalition and supported by GetUp!
1'There are some common URLs to those on the ACMA blacklist' stated Senator Conroy, Minister for Communications: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/website-blacklist-leaked-on-internet-20090319-931c.html
Friday, March 20, 2009
Death by Google
Well, I said I'd be back -- and I'm only a day late. Only. The wifi connection was "up," but there was no opportunity to blog ... as well as nothing significant to blog about. You certainly don't need to know about w.o.r.k, and how it totally screws up your life!
However, I'm back in a lull where I can transform myself from drone-for-hire to optimistic-and-opportunistic-writer. [short pause while Keegan puts on Writer's Hat]
You can probably tell from the relative brevity and occasional invisibility of recent posts, that life ain't what it used to be! The global economic downslide has hit everyone, everywhere -- physical bookstores are closing, publishers ain't publishing too much anymore, and writers are writing less and reading the employment ads more. And Keegan is no different. Middle of '08, we were screaming along and I was hoping to "give up the day job" by about May or June of '09. Not going to happen this year, guys --
In fact, in the immediate future, I'm going to have a good deal less time than usual to spend blogging and chatting: I have to get my priorities hammered out. I need time to write, and to do promotional activities, and blogging, alas, is going to be shuffled waaaaay down the list.
Add to this the fact that Google never did respond to my request to get my page rankings restored for this blog (they zeroed me out five months ago now, and apparently refuse to talk about it), and you have a blog with 350+ posts up, which is struggling to get 10 visitors per day ... which sadly (in fact, it's tragic) means that the time I invest in this blog is a dead loss, speaking in purely "business" terms.
Why did Big G zero out my page rankings? I'm clueless. I've read their rules. I've abided by all of them. I have been critical of their policies regarding Adsense on gay-friendly pages (where publishers are paid out in fractions of a penny per click on ads for which the advertiser paid to Google dollars, plural, for said click). I've begun to suspect there is a human monitor who reviews criticisms of The Goog, and when they recognize criticism, you get ... terminated. I can think of nothing else to account for what's going on.
So --
Time to shuffle my priorities. I need more time to write and do promotional work; I have less "spare" time to simply chat. I can certainly continue to post to this blog about book launches and special deals, and reviews, and webpage rebuilds. Hey, that's "promotion." But -- and I really am sad to be saying this -- I won't be able to write about every subject under the sun, as I have done for nine months!
Eventually, I'll be recutting this blog into two or three new blogs -- but again, this is a very time-consuming project. Put it this way: if we want Legends finished, and Hellgate finished, the time has to come from somewhere!
This is a very sad occasion for me: I've enjoyed blogging, and if there were any way to keep on doing it ... I would.
Blame the global recession if you like. Or blame Google (which is probably far closer to the mark!) for being a righteous, "true faith" prima dona who disapproves of gay-friendly sites and punishes criticism harshly.
To those readers (you know who you are!) who have been following this blog for months now: thank you! It's been a tremendous learning experience for me. Tune in occasionally, because when I get Hellgate finished (Christmas '09??) I'll have the time to cut The World According to Mel into Keegan's World, plus at least one other blog besides. And since those blogs won't have been "Googled to Death," theoretically I should be able to chat again. When you're chatting for a wide daily readership, you can rationalize the time invested as (!) promotional activities.
What's next, for me? Heavy-duty marketing. All titles available at Kindle, Mobi and Smashwords. All titles available as hardcovers. Press releases and review copies going in every direction; and ... so on.
Summer is winding down into fall ... the rain won't be far away now. Cool weather is good for getting some work done, and I do feel inspiration starting to bite. So --
Ciao for a while: I will be back, but not daily!
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it...
MK
However, I'm back in a lull where I can transform myself from drone-for-hire to optimistic-and-opportunistic-writer. [short pause while Keegan puts on Writer's Hat]
You can probably tell from the relative brevity and occasional invisibility of recent posts, that life ain't what it used to be! The global economic downslide has hit everyone, everywhere -- physical bookstores are closing, publishers ain't publishing too much anymore, and writers are writing less and reading the employment ads more. And Keegan is no different. Middle of '08, we were screaming along and I was hoping to "give up the day job" by about May or June of '09. Not going to happen this year, guys --
In fact, in the immediate future, I'm going to have a good deal less time than usual to spend blogging and chatting: I have to get my priorities hammered out. I need time to write, and to do promotional activities, and blogging, alas, is going to be shuffled waaaaay down the list.
Add to this the fact that Google never did respond to my request to get my page rankings restored for this blog (they zeroed me out five months ago now, and apparently refuse to talk about it), and you have a blog with 350+ posts up, which is struggling to get 10 visitors per day ... which sadly (in fact, it's tragic) means that the time I invest in this blog is a dead loss, speaking in purely "business" terms.
Why did Big G zero out my page rankings? I'm clueless. I've read their rules. I've abided by all of them. I have been critical of their policies regarding Adsense on gay-friendly pages (where publishers are paid out in fractions of a penny per click on ads for which the advertiser paid to Google dollars, plural, for said click). I've begun to suspect there is a human monitor who reviews criticisms of The Goog, and when they recognize criticism, you get ... terminated. I can think of nothing else to account for what's going on.
So --
Time to shuffle my priorities. I need more time to write and do promotional work; I have less "spare" time to simply chat. I can certainly continue to post to this blog about book launches and special deals, and reviews, and webpage rebuilds. Hey, that's "promotion." But -- and I really am sad to be saying this -- I won't be able to write about every subject under the sun, as I have done for nine months!
Eventually, I'll be recutting this blog into two or three new blogs -- but again, this is a very time-consuming project. Put it this way: if we want Legends finished, and Hellgate finished, the time has to come from somewhere!
This is a very sad occasion for me: I've enjoyed blogging, and if there were any way to keep on doing it ... I would.
Blame the global recession if you like. Or blame Google (which is probably far closer to the mark!) for being a righteous, "true faith" prima dona who disapproves of gay-friendly sites and punishes criticism harshly.
To those readers (you know who you are!) who have been following this blog for months now: thank you! It's been a tremendous learning experience for me. Tune in occasionally, because when I get Hellgate finished (Christmas '09??) I'll have the time to cut The World According to Mel into Keegan's World, plus at least one other blog besides. And since those blogs won't have been "Googled to Death," theoretically I should be able to chat again. When you're chatting for a wide daily readership, you can rationalize the time invested as (!) promotional activities.
What's next, for me? Heavy-duty marketing. All titles available at Kindle, Mobi and Smashwords. All titles available as hardcovers. Press releases and review copies going in every direction; and ... so on.
Summer is winding down into fall ... the rain won't be far away now. Cool weather is good for getting some work done, and I do feel inspiration starting to bite. So --
Ciao for a while: I will be back, but not daily!
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it...
MK
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