topic Re: .... in Book Club

Gardenman

CLHS68 — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 00:04:57 GMT

I see Sara X is now available.Must get this one.

Re: Gardenman

gardenman — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 11:37:06 GMT

Thanks! Yeah, it went live yesterday. "Sara X" was my entry in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It's a political thriller about a presidential candidate with an issue in his past that could destroy his run for the presidency. He'd hired a contract killer (Sara X) to kill his first wife. Sara specialized in killing people in such a manner that their deaths appeared natural. When the opportunity to run for president comes along he informs his current father-in-law of the situation. That man is Roger Bentley, the founder of Bentley Security who handles security at prisons, hotels, and other facilities. He has a private army that he sends out to find Sara. She's now given up the game and is living the life of a typical (if there is such a thing) housewife. She's married, has a three year old son, and has moved on.

Bentley sends his team to get a video Sara has of Roger and eliminate the threat. Their attempt to capture/kill her fails however but they end up killing her husband and son in the process. This brings back Sara X who vows vengeance and no force in the world can stop her.

A fellow writer (Nic Tatiano) has read "Sara X" and wants to include it in a political thriller Story Bundle he's putting together for August/September, so I'm keeping it out of the Kindle Select program until after that, but it's available for sale now. Nic stated that it was the first time he'd read a book about a contract killer where he found himself rooting for the contract killer.

Story Bundles are kind of neat. They put together a group of stories that are similar in style/substance and can all be bought for one low price. (Typically $5 and up.) Nic's last bundle sold over 900 copies, so that's pretty darn good. He doesn't have final say over what novels make it in, but he wants "Sara X" in so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Re: Gardenman

Judaline — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 12:05:19 GMT

Wow, good plot. Sounds great. Good luck.

....

debic — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 13:46:12 GMT

How many pages is this?

Re: ....

gardenman — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 14:26:59 GMT

@debic wrote:
How many pages is this?

The paperback version islisted at 230 pages according to Amazon. The Kindle version varies depending on which device you're reading it on, but it's about the same. The word count is 58,040. At least for now. If any issues pop up that require editing the word count may change a bit, but it'll stay in that neighborhood. It's 296 pages long in Word 2007 by the way so the page count on Amazon could be off. I didn't check how many pages showed up on CreateSpace as I proofed it, but Amazon says it's 230. I suspect the real world number may be a tick higher.

....

debic — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 14:41:31 GMT

All I see is a kindle edition and no page numbers. Your other books show page numbers.

I'm in, LOL I'll tell you in a minute.

....

debic — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 14:50:33 GMT

No page numbers. 2960 locations and 4hr 11min to read.

Re: ....

gardenman — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 14:56:34 GMT

It's not a bad read. I've read it five times in the last week. First on the computer one final time. Then I sent it to my Kindle for a read there as it's easier to see some issues there. (Like reversed apostrophes and quotation marks. I wrote a little of the book in Scrivener, a word processing program, and Scrivener likes to reverse apostrophes and quotation marks when I send the files back to Word. They're a pain to see on the computer, but they jump off the Kindle for me.) Then one more time on Word after fixing the issues I found on the Kindle version. Then on CreateSpace's digital proofer on the computer, then finally on the Kindle Direct Publishing proofer. I can confirm that I've now read it too many times in too short a period of time.

Re: Gardenman

CLHS68 — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 17:49:33 GMT

I wish you good luck with book sales. I voted for this on Amazon but then read it was not chosen so I am happy to see it is now available for purchase.

Re: Gardenman

gardenman — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 17:52:57 GMT

It was in the Kindle Scout program, but Amazon decided not to pick it up, so I self-published it. We'll see how it does.

Re: Gardenman

sassenach1 — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 16:04:39 GMT

I was glad to see these posts as I have read The Campaign and To Rise or Fall. I just bought the Kindle edition of Sara X. Looking forward to reading it!

Re: Gardenman

gardenman — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 17:30:58 GMT

Thank's sassenach1! I hope you enjoy it.