Velocity of sales in the first week of a book’s release are important, and pre-orders are a big help in ramping up that velocity.  So I’d obviously love it if you pre-ordered The Hammer and the Blade, my forthcoming sword and sorcery novel from Angry Robot Books.

To encourage pre-orders (and as a way of saying “thanks”), I’d like to give a free digital copy of Ephemera, my dark short story collection (in … Read the rest

So, you’re an author, and you want get your signal heard in the noise of the marketplace.  What do you do?  Here’s my best advice:

Write a great book.*

That’s it.

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*Obviously there are a lot of social media/marketing things you can and probably should do.  But having done this a long time, having watched the careers of other writers at a distance, I can tell you that the best and most important thing … Read the rest

The giveaway of two signed ARCs of The Hammer and the Blade is concluded.  I used random.org to choose two random winners from all the entrants and they are:

Tom S. and Peter A.

Each of you please send me an email at paulsvantekemp at yahoo dot com and we’ll figure out the dedication and shipping address and whatnot.

On a related note, I really appreciate the enthusiasm everyone showed.  I’m excited about the novel … Read the rest

I’m holding a giveaway of two signed Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of The Hammer and the Blade (Amazon, B&N), my sword and sorcery novel forthcoming from Angry Robot Books.  That’s them in the picture and they look great.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment to this blog post.  As always, please enter only once and use a username that’s reasonably distinctive.  I’ll choose two entrants at random next Friday at … Read the rest

It’s April, so let’s see what’s new this month in the Forgotten Realms, in the Galaxy far, far away, and from Angry Robot Books.

From Angry Robot we have Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig (proprietor of Terribleminds).  The novel has been getting great reviews and has an intriguing premise.  From the back matter:

Miriam Black knows when you will die.

Still in her early twenties, she’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, … Read the rest

I’m 43 today.  Time to come clean.

It’s April, and that means it’s time for another monthly excerpt from The Hammer and the Blade (Amazon, B&N).  As always, the goal here is to give you a sense of the novel’s tone.  Previous excerpts are here, here, here,  here, and here.  Early reviews of the novel are here and here.

Also, I received a quote about the novel from Jim Lowder, a writer and … Read the rest