Troubleseeker launch on its way...

Listening to Bear's Den new single "Berlin" fairly loud, even though the house is dark is quiet, everyone else asleep. This is out of my hands now. Work is done. "Baby on the way, catch!" Pressed the "Publish" button, mere days before Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Nobles will start carrying "Troubleseeker", the third (or fourth, depending how you count) installment from the Troubleshooter universe.

Always a good feeling, on the other hand a scary feeling, letting go of a story that consumed you for about half a year, many train rides, many late evenings. Your protagonists gather around you like ghosts, whispering their story to you, consuming your thoughts, inspiring you to write their story, their truth and your truth mix until the story is made of one thought, made of one truth. 

THE MAN ON PAUL Trouble’s doorstep fell into his apartment with a solid thud, muttered something that could be widely interpreted as “far,” “harr,” or “argh,” and died. Paul stood in his PJs and stepped aside to avoid getting any blood on his bare feet. The dead guy’s hands, face, and back were sticky and dark with it, soiling Paul’s hardwood floor and the corridor’s carpet.
When the doorbell had rung, Paul had expected a neighbor asking for late-night assistance, not a film-noir situation. A quick inspection of the hallway and staircase confirmed that the bleeding had been heavy all up the stairs. Paul was sure he would get into trouble with his neighbors in the morning.
— First sentence "Troubleseeker"

From the Writer's Desk

Hi there, not much happening in Writer's land. I had to travel a lot all over the place for my company, which took me away from my Mac and my iPad for the last three weeks. Every night a new hotel room, a new conference center, and new faces. Kind of social overload for an introvert like me. But it all went well and actually was a lot of fun. This is how Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones must feel when they are doing one show a day for months and months. And we remember Mick Jagger's advice to us road warriors:

What else is new? Kindle Scout for "Troubleseeker" did not pan out, unfortunately. Even though it got almost the same exposure as "Five for Forever", they decided not to take it into their portfolio. Which means that I'll need to do the final edit and publishing one of these days. Big question is whether I'll make it an Amazon exclusive and put it into KDP Select, or do a broader release. Decisions, decisions. The Troubleshooter series so far hadn't created much buzz in the past, so I'd like to try something new this time. Most likely I'll publish it broadly and run a campaign via Wattpad. Put up the first "Troubleshooter" novel up to Wattpad, and advertise books two  and three ("Troublemaker", "Troubleseeker", and 2.5 "Pieces of Trouble") heavily. Maybe that works better. The Calendar Moonstone story gave a lot of attention.

Which brings me to the planning for the next novel. My latest work in progress "Matchbreaker" is about in the middle. Many core pieces are in place, although I am not so happy about style yet. It is supposed to be a romantic comedy, but I tend to linger too much on the backdrop (Start-up scene New York) instead of the hilarious comedic and romantic situations of my three main characters. After that it will likely be either the next Calendar Moonstone Brilliant novel (working title: Brilliant Heist)  or a high speed ultra-violent thriller with the working title "Rattlesnakes". I might throw a coin...

 

Troubleseeker in Review for Kindle Scout Publishing

The third Troubleshooter installment "Troubleseeker" is now through the month long public scouting period at Amazon's Kindle Scout program. It is a strange feeling to give your works out of your hand for a while, not thinking about it. The next book is in the works and I almost had pushed Troubleseeker out of my mind. But then the "It's over" email came in and I checked the stats for the scouting period. Look not as promising as the "Five for Forever" period.

The hours in hot & trending were about the same, but "Five" had more double the view numbers than Troubleseeker. I like the series tremendously, as it is a very versatile and creative universe for me. But the reception so far for the Troubleshooter books had been more than luke warm, and of course I need to ask myself "Will there be another step forward in the series?" Or do we call it quits and concentrate on other projects? I have ideas for at least three more Troubleshooter novels, so writing them is not a problem. But the positioning is an issue right now.

All right, let's see where Kindle Press's review will lead us. A few more days then I will know.

Heroes — Lloyd Cole Live in Munich

Three thing we can say for certain after this evening of Lloyd Cole’s Songbook tour: we all got older, there are not many of us left, and Mr. Cole’s songs are not meant to be played on a single guitar.

We all got older, indeed. Lloyd at fifty-six still has a lot of hair, the most hair of any male in the room—what is his secret? He even mocked us by flattening his post-reading glasses "wings". Youth to spare! This proves that Lloyd, despite being the first hipster from a time when he occupied a then-niche single-handedly, has no following in the very today-scene he had helped to create in the mid-eighties. The absence of massive facial hair in the audience did not bother us at all. And it showed us that even if all of us are BOFs by now, we’ll always have him, the one prophet to look out for us and explain us the delicacies of love and life. And he takes us seriously! It was my first pop-rock-folk concert in what, twenty years?, where chairs were prepared in ten neat rows. We don’t want any cardiovascular episodes in the target group, don’t we?

I had estimated / hoped at breakfast that one-thousand people showed up, but the crowd was closer to two-hundred. A hard sell. The whole first set was basically for nothing. Not sure that it brought anything to Lloyd, it certainly didn’t bring anything to us. His songs do not have the substance to be played by a single songwriter with a laid-back attitude and a British temperament. Where a solo-guitar Billy Bragg brings an edgy aggression to the microphone, or a Ben Watts is able to generate an emotional depth with a broken voice and a minimized arrangement, Lloyd Cole’s songs are simply made to be played by a band. Period. The second half of the set was proof of that. One more guitar in play, congenially celebrated by his son Will Cole, improved the songs by 100 %. And the investment of the audience by the same amount. Too bad he hadn’t brought his current band, ‘The Leopards’, along.

Imagine, it took me years to find someone who looks like me when I was younger...
— Lloyd Cole's introduction of his son Will

And of course Lloyd Cole remained the wise-ass he had started out to be, the book-reading intellectual, writing songs with literary depth. His comments during the set were as wry as anything, his demonstration of soap opera avoidance by leaving the stage and closing some curtains in the back of the room was a little overdone. After that the audience was so shellshocked that no one dared to visit the bar during the rest of the set in fear of Lloyd taking away the drink personally. The set concentrated on the early years from 1984’s “Rattlesnakes” up to 2004’s “No more love songs” with all Commotion hits present, the first album played completely. I maybe missed some pop-cultural bits, but I caught the nice Norwegian Wood reference at the end of one song and the last bars of ‘Born to run’. Two encores, ending with a wonderful ‘Forrest Fire’ sent us on our way again.

If we get caught in this wind, then we could burn the ocean
If we get caught in this scene, we’re gonna be undone
It’s just a simple metaphor
It’s for a burning love
​Don’t it make you smile like a forest fire
— Forrest Fire - Lloyd Cole

Readership Stats

Who is reading your books? On the one hand a really irrelevant question, whoever does, does. As a writer, I am busy with my book and my ego, but not contemplating on target groups or reader demograhics. My Wattpad posting for "A Brilliant Plan" brought me about 1000 followers on Wattpad. Here are some nuggets:

2/3 of readers are female. That fits with the Calendar Moonstone story which combines romantic and jewelry. Their age is young, which is unsurprising: Wattpad is a young plattform.

Wattpad Demographics for "A Brilliant Plan" by Alex Amex

Wattpad Demographics for "A Brilliant Plan" by Alex Amex

Another question that Wattpad answers is the where: US in the lead, of course with about 25 % of all readers. Two exotic countries came next where Calendar seemed to have found a followership: India and Philipines!

Wattpad Demographics for "A Brilliant Plan" by Alex Amex

Wattpad Demographics for "A Brilliant Plan" by Alex Amex

"Troubleseeker" at Kindlescout: VOTE!

Not sure who to vote for in a month? Hillary or Donald? If you can't make up your mind up until now, why not vote for me instead?

Kindlescout holds a voting for the next four weeks whether Troubleseeker, my latest Troubleshooter-series book, will be published at Kindle Press or not. The more attention it will get, the better! So spread the word!!!

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1KXLUVT20KNPV

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1KXLUVT20KNPV