Tag Archives: Gaius Konstantine

Funny, Tender, Unflinching. Gary Got Goosed by J.R. Montarbo

J.R. Montarbo’s Gary Got Goosed follows Gary Gander through one relentless week, structured day by day, Sunday to Sunday, as an ordinary guy’s life buckles under a pileup of bad luck, embarrassment, and grief. It’s a small, internal story in scope, following one deeply flawed, deeply likable man through the worst seven days of his life, and it’s exactly that closeness that makes it work.

Book Marketing Basics: A Guide to Building Your Author Brand

Typing “The End” on your manuscript is a huge achievement. But getting your book into readers’ hands? That is a completely different challenge. Many authors assume a great story will sell itself. Unfortunately, even the most brilliant prose goes unnoticed without a solid marketing foundation.

Unsettling, Grief-soaked, Restrained. Holes In The Somewhere by Richard Brown

Holes in the Somewhere by Richard R. Brown is speculative fiction in form — weird, unsettling, occasionally cosmic — but reads less like a genre exercise than grief given permission to take unusual shapes. Brown uses the uncanny as pressure rather than decoration, and the result is horror that bruises rather than shocks.

Why Mafia Novels Still Work: From Mario Puzo to the New Wave

Mafia fiction survives generation after generation because it runs on a contradiction readers can’t look away from: institutions built on loyalty, family, and honor that exist entirely to break the law and hurt people. A mob boss is both a father figure and a killer. A “family” dinner table can host a murder plot in the next scene. That tension between intimacy and violence, between codes of honor and total moral corruption, is what makes the genre feel less like crime writing and more like tragedy in the classical sense: ambitious people undone by the very values that built their power.

Elegant, Brooding, and Philosophical, The Shattered Way by Adam Caisse

“Memories live longer than anything if we preserve them. They die the easiest of anything if we choose not to.” This statement is true. But are all memories worthy of being kept alive? Or are some best left to be forgotten? This question and many more are explored in The Shattered Way, a novel by Adam Caisse. 

Walking A Tightrope (Without a Net)

While it’s true that not all authors share the same goals when they embark on their journey, enough commonalities exist for every author to face the same challenges. Publishing, covers, editing, and marketing are all functions that must be addressed in one way or another. This, in turn, means resources must be allocated, whether it’s time or, for many of you, cash.

A Changing Environment: The Indie Publishing Quality Crisis

A seismic shift has impacted the publishing industry over the last few years, with traditionally published books now accounting for only 13-25% of new titles. While these figures vary by genre and region, and publishing houses still retain an advantage for print books, the repercussions for the industry cannot be ignored.

State of the Industry: An Overview

Congratulations. You just finished your manuscript (or maybe are considering writing one) and are on your way to becoming an author. Perhaps dreams of publishing contracts and a life as a full-time writer are your goals, where the novels you write generate enough sales to sustain your lifestyle. Maybe you’ll succeed, but it may be wise to step back and take a realistic look at the (literary) world you are hoping to become a part of.

The Book-Reader Buying Cycle: A Strategic Framework for Authors in the Modern Publishing Landscape

Every product has a buyer. Every buyer has a journey. In the consumer goods world, marketers have long relied on the Product-Consumer Buying Cycle, a structured map of how a stranger becomes a loyal customer, from the first flicker of awareness to the passionate endorsement of a brand advocate.