On May 23

Come Monday, May 23, I'll be reading at Golden's Lowertown with Ethna McKiernan and other fine local writers as part of Cracked Walnut's Spring Literary Festival. “Detached” is the theme and I'll try to be that.

Never did blog about my Lowertown Pop experience. I managed to sell 23 books, doubling my yearly total to that point (not counting those read through Amazon's library set-up). A successful and interesting endeavor to be sure.

My work-in-progress, The Great American Scrapbook, is turning into pretty much of a regional novel, as it's set mainly in south Minneapolis and the Uptown Bar back in 2003-04, though trips to Mount Rushmore and back into the 50s connect it with the other four books in my Americana series. I'm about halfway through it and, I must admit, have no idea where it's really heading.

On Lowertown Pop

Preparing for the Lowertown Pop event Saturday in Saint Paul. I'll be there at the Union Depot trying to sell my books. I wish I was doing a reading, maybe from a high-wire, naked, over a flaming gorge—something less stressful. I believe I'm the only writer selling. The advertising makes no mention of booksellers. I'm an experiment.

I already asked the woman who gave me my tax ID # if I still had to file if I made no sales. Yes, I do. At least I got that covered.

Zero sales aren't my worry. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about the damn Square Reader stuck into my phone that seems to work with every fifth swipe of a credit card.

My sister, Susan Tinkham, has worked hard on a looping video with photos and blurbs about the novels. Even now she's scrambling to create a poster to bring the customers in. My boss, Carin Olson, volunteered to assist me in this venture. Here's hoping she doesn't spend six hours watching me hand out a bunch of business cards—the cards, again, my sister's work.

Okay, I'm making a big deal out of nothing. Got the card reader. Check. Stole easel and table from work. Check. Priced books at $9.29, $10 even with tax to limit change making. Check. Business cards. Check. Books. Check. Signed. Check.

I keep thinking, I'm a writer not a retailer! Guess it's time to lose that attitude.

Tell your friends!

Got my MN tax ID and sent in all the forms, so it looks like I'm set to peddle my wares at LowertownPop in St. Paul on April 9. Here some info. It features: “local artisans and craftspeople, brewers, bakers, distillers, street performers, artists, and musicians,” which may leave me as the only writer there. We'll see how that works out.

Just finished up a 24-straight-day period where 3,000+ pages of all four of my books were read on Kindle Unlimited. I get paid something per page from a pool of some amount divided by a multiple of pages, readers and writers, minus the square root of Amazon's take and rounded down to the nearest penny. I know it sounds complicated but it is. My thanks to the fellow in Wisconsin who liked a sample of Hank Fenn he read, read the whole book and then the other three, and told his friends—who all seem to enjoy Unlimited's $10-a-month, all-you-can-read deal. Tell your friends!

Wanna flip rather than swipe? Shop paperbacks in store and online at Magers & Quinn, Uptown, Mpls.

HANK FENN on sale!

My latest novel, The Adventures of Hank Fenn (Americana Book 4) is out in paperback and digitally at Amazon. Paperbacks are also available in store & online at Magers & Quinn, Uptown Minneapolis. It goes like this:

For Hank, Sam never became Mark Twain. As a riverboat pilot, Sam saved young Hank from the crushing paddle wheels as the boy stowed away on the City of Memphis. Sam returned Hank to Minnesota when news reached downriver that Hank's mother was on trial for killing the father Hank had run away from. Years later, in a barber's chair prior to his mother's funeral, Hank reads a frog story that's awful close to a tall tale Sam once told. The magazine claims it's written by a fellow named Mark Twain.

The Adventures of Hank Fenn sends Hank searching the West—and then the East—for Mr. Twain. All along he and Sam exchange letters and make plans that never seem to get them together—Twain always on the road or abroad. Hank does find hatred and brutality while railroading and mining throughout this new frontier. He finds Calamity Jane in a Wyoming mining camp and Custer breaking treaties. He finds the Emperor of these United States. Ultimately Hank finds love, boys to raise and gold to unearth on a Black Hills mountaintop.

Thanks, Will

PS: An interview from last month concerning an earlier novel, Bonus Man.

On sale now!

The Adventures of Hank Fenn is out and available in paperback and digitally at Amazon. The hope is that Magers & Quinn will be carrying it by the end of the month (I'm not even due to receive my copies till Jan. 27).

2015 saw me publish three books which all started out fine sales-wise then fizzled over the last half of the year. Somehow I have to get beyond Facebook and business card word of mouth and move on to another level. All in all, the 103 copies sold were far more satisfying than the 100-plus rejections I likely would've received had I continued on the more traditional path.

There's talk of a trade show this spring (at which I may be the only writer) at the Union Depot in St. Paul. I'd have to figure out how to set up some sort of slide show (been watching Youtube videos) involving book covers and blurbs. And what if someone wants to buy one? Taxes, credit cards... And what if no one buys one? Then I'm stuck with a bunch of books... So much to learn.

Meanwhile I work on book #5, The Great American Scrapbook. It's the long-awaited sequel to Alice and Her Grand Bell. The much-anticipated sequel to No Happier State, too. And The Adventures of Hank Fenn, for that matter. Come to think of it, if you're worried about those quadruplets born on that train, it serves as a sequel to Bonus Man, as well. And a prequel to more...

Interviewed!

Go ahead, click the Awesome Indies logo below and view my interview on this wonderful site. Many thanks to Emily Reads Everything for featuring me and Bonus Man!

 

On Numbers & 'Reach'

The Adventures of Hank Fenn spent 14 of its 720 hour campaign “Hot & Trending”—the last 14 hours. After 24 views on the first day, it rarely exceeded 10 views—often zero—until 53 people stopped by to take a peek on the last day.

Three people shared my final Facebook post on the matter which helped greatly. Many thanks there. I have a “Will Tinkham – Fictionist” FB page as well as my Will Tinkham goof-off page. Long ago I discovered the increased “reach” of my posts when I shared them from Fictionist to goof-off. Through the Scout experience I realized just how valuable other peoples' shares can be, along with the increased “reach” simply from attracting new people to the pages. If I only knew what “reach” actually refers to in the FB world...

I also made a few new connections through the process, which can never hurt.

Kindle Scout sent me an email saying that my submission is in review. I'm sure books that were Hot through the entire process will get a longer look than one that sneaked in at the end. We'll see...

Will probably try Scout again with my next book. Should get myself on Twitter, too, I suppose. Or write a book phenomenal enough to breeze through all these hoops...