Tag: whiskey delta

1000 Sales!

fireworks1Today was a red-letter day for Whiskey Delta and the dude who wrote it (that’d be me). According to Kindle Direct Publishing and Createspace, the combined sales of Whiskey Delta has just passed 1000 copies. And I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all the people who helped make it possible.  I would name specific names, but at this point, that would be too many to count and I feel that everyone who’s been following this site since it went up has contributed to this milestone in one way or another.

So thanks are due to all! In fact, last night while I pondered the layout for book two, I decided that on the dedications page, I should make sure that the collective fanbase of Stories by Williams get a heartfelt thanks. So if you’re planning on buying a copy when it comes out (no pressure!) look for the part at the beginning where it says “Thank you to all the fans!”… or something like that. I will be talking ab0ut you people out there!

*Sidenote: In the future, you may notice me saying the following five words. They are sort of an inside joke, but also represent my long-term hopes for the series. It’s WD’s tagline, so expect to see if often in the future:

Six novels and a movie!

New Cover Selected!

Pappa_Zulu2Well the votes are in, and by a margin of six to two, the third cover for Papa Zulu has beaten out all other contenders. And while I waiting, I managed to updated it a little, placing a few excerpts from the positive reviews the first book got on the back cover of the jacket. And so, when the second book hits the bookshelves in a few weeks, it will look like what you see above.

I also took the time to update the Whiskey Delta page over on the left there to show the book’s info. Now, whenever a new book is added, the publication date and a link will be added so people will know when it came out and where to buy it. As for those that are still in progress, there will be a projected publication date so people know when to expect it. Obviously, everything after the first two is still TBD for the time being, but give it time…

Oh, and I also came up with names and themes for the other books in the series. After Whiskey Delta and Papa Zulu, there’s Alpha Mike, which is already in production. Then there’s Hotel Tango, the proposed fourth installment which will be followed by the fifth and final book in the series, Zulu Alpha.

Stay tuned for updates! I’m not done with this zombie craze yet. And speaking of which, I got some new characters to announce. Stay tuned for the latest additions to the Zombie Warrior challenge as well…

Next Zombie Novel!

zombie_hardestpartHi folks! You may recall from the incessant way I keep posting about it that I recently published Whiskey Delta on Amazon-Kindle. And yes, after many a mixed review, I finally uploaded the 2nd Edition, the tighter, edited version, for purchase today. And now that I’ve tackled the first bit of advice all my reviewers had to give, I now go about dealing with the other. That would be the calls for a sequel.

Which brings me to the point of this post. As many people who follow this blog are also aware, Papa Zulu – the sequel to Whiskey Delta – has already been written. And like it’s predecessor, I posted it chapter by chapter on this site over the course of several weeks. And now that the first has hit the market and is selling, I need to begin prepping the second – which means proofing, editing, and giving it an appropriate cover.

The only problem is, I got a few contenders for the cover. There’s the one I produced some months back, and the more recent cover which I made with the upcoming release date in mind. Here’s the first, which boasts a drab and olive green color scheme and an image which I felt captured one of the biggest, most climactic moments in the story:

Pappa_Zulu

That was one version. I did another with the same picture but moved the color scheme around a bit to make it more stark and contrasting. But of course I worried that it was too much like its predecessor, who’s cover was also all olive and black. Just me, but I would imagine a second installment needs to look like it is striking a different tone, not fitting in or piggybacking on the first.

Pappa_Zulu

Ah, but after Whiskey Delta was published back in April, I began to wonder if the covers were a little boring and didn’t highlight the zombie-smashing enough. Now I’ve got someone on the task of creating me some original zombie art; but until such time that it is completed, I still needed something that screamed action, adventure and hails of gunfire. So here’s what I came up with in the meantime:

Pappa_Zulu2

As you can see, went with an action shot, paired the color of the print to match the most eye-drawing color there (orange-red), and made the background solid black to bring out the surrounding darkness, and kept the borders olive green.  I do wonder if I should change those, or ditch them altogether. They are different from the first installment which had no borders at all, but I do question my obsession with them for this book!

So what do you fine folks think? Door number one, door number two, or door number three? Always good to have at least three options. And just for fun, I’ll put it all in poll so people can just point and click. But of course, if you have any additional comments or want to say why you think one is better than the others, please do so…


And to all my fine, zombie-smashing friends who are participating in the Zombie Warrior challenge and creating a character who will one day appear in this series, remember the most important rule of all:

zombie_keepcalm

Whiskey Delta, 2nd Edition!

zombie-wallpaperWell let me start by saying that Whiskey Delta continues to do well. And though the sales appear to be slowing down a bit, the overall number has just passed 900 copies! Good news, but in truth, I am concerned that interest is waning and I can’t help but wonder if the mixed reviews are to blame. After a total of ten, the overall rating is now at a 3.4 out of 5 stars, which puts it in the good, but not great section.

So here’s what some of the latest reviewers have had to say on the subject of the 1st edition. As you can see, it was more of the same:

J. York (3.0 out of 5 stars):
As others have said, i enjoyed the story itself but stumbled a lot in the reading due to the editing. It didn’t read smoothly as there were so many words misspelled and put in the wrong part of a sentence. As i said, I totally liked the plot but found the flow of it hard to read.

Bob Gawler (3.0 out of 5 stars):
The plot and story were actually pretty good, but the edititing let the store down. Too many grammatical and spelling errors.

Can’t help but notice some typos in these comments, glaring ones too. I know, I need to stop mocking commenters who are just being honest. But the irony, man, the irony! Ah, but then there was this one, which was the second five star review this book earned:

Rosie Reader (5.0 out of 5 stars):
This is a really gripping read; awesome story, great characters. Yes, there were typos, but the story kept the pages turning quickly. Great work Matthew S. Williams!
I’m looking forward to the next one.

That makes for a grand total of two 5 star reviews, three 4 star reviews, 2 three star reviews, and 2 two star reviews; which as I said, averages out to a total of 3.4 stars out of 5. Like I said, good, but not great.

Luckily, as the title suggests, my wife and I finally finished work on the 2nd edition of Whiskey Delta, the one that doesn’t have so many typos and errors. Yes, after a few short weeks of tinkering, the process of creating a novel that I can truly be proud of is finally complete. Good thing too, because I can’t take another comment about how my “story is good but it desperately needs editing”!

And of course, now that the 2nd edition is complete, I will be getting to work on turning Papa Zulu, the second installment in the series, into an typo=free, error-proof manuscript. Then I will be making it available on Amazon-Kindle for all to see. May it receive a greater reception than the first…

Even More News!

Good_News_EveryoneWhiskey Delta, my zombie apocalypse-themed indie novel, has just sold over 750 copies! What’s more, another good review has come in, once again pushing the overall rating up a bit. And of course, they hit on the usual points:

Good Book (4.0 out of 5 stars)
Great story with interesting people. Spell was poorly done and many editing issues were present. Would like a sequel

Rest assured, Pappa Zulu, the sequel to Whiskey Delta, will be coming in just a few short months. Obviously, I need to finish my work on WD’s second edition, and then give the next installment a full and thorough edit. And if there’s time left over, I hope to have Alpha Mike finished before 2014 begins. Fast times!

Oh, and I do hope the good news continues. As it adds up, you can expect to see less of these constant updates!

More News!

zombie_graveyardGood morning all! Once more, I have some good news from the world of publishing and zombie writing! First up, my newest book to hit the shelves, Whiskey Delta, has just passed 650 sales. Woohoo and woohoo! And yet, I am mourning the fact that the people I dedicated it to are unable to read it yet. C’mon people, you got to get on that! Uh, but you might want to wait until I finish with all the edits.

Speaking of which, the creation of Whiskey Delta’s 2nd edition is coming along nicely. My trusty editor and I have polished the first quarter of the book, which seems to account for the majority of the typos and errors.  But of course, we won’t stop until it’s done. And then I plan to get on the second installment and make sure it is in prime shape before it’s release. I am hoping it is received well, since the sequel came up in more than one review.

And in other news, I just bought a copy of World War Z. It only seems fair that I read the book of the man who got me off my ass and made me publish this work (with Rami’s help of course). It was actually during a conversation with a teaching colleague of mine that I finally decided to buy a copy. I was telling her about my story, and she brought up Max Brooks. As I waited for her to finish, I began chuckling to myself. She paused asked me what was so funny, to which I replied “you’re going to laugh”.

I then proceeded to tell her how a friend of mine (hi again Rami!) mentioned me to Max Brooks and how he went on to mention my name and the name of my story in his speech. She laughed, and then told me exactly how awesome his book is. I’m only a few sections into it, but I can tell you she was right. The book is a work of genius, much as the reviews would have us all believe. If y0u”re looking for a good read and a twist on the zombie apocalypse, I say invest in a copy!

Big News!

zombie-attackGood news from the my small corner of the indie publishing world. My latest book, Whiskey Delta has just sold over 500 copies, including ebooks and paperback! Yaaaaay! And what excites me about this is the fact the vast majority of those sales happened since the 21st of April. That means that over 400 books were moved in the last two weeks. I can only assume that this means the popularity of it is growing.

And to add to the good news ball, I got another four-star review, which in addition to being nice, put the book’s overall rating back to 3 and a half stars. Once again, the reviewer was sure to mention quality of story combined with poor editing. I’ll let him tell you:

FINALLY! A zombie story where the US Military is not hopelessly inept, but is instead taking the war to the enemy and doing a damn good job. I choose to look past the vast amount of editing needed… and instead focus on a kick-butt military adventure during a zombie apocalypse. Fun, exciting, great action, and characters that you get to know and even care about–what more can I say? Buy it, enjoy it, ignore the typos and other errors and just get into one of the better examples of military adventure/zombie apocalypse cross-overs out there.

Now that was exactly the kind of review I was looking for! And rest assured, sir, the editing is being done! I’ve managed to clean up three chapters so far and noticed that the most glaring mistakes seemed to be in the first chapter itself. Not good! Not good at all… But rest assured, the 2nd edition will be clean, and the second book immaculate! I’m taking steps right now to procure a professional editor so the quality of my books won’t be left in my (incapable) hands!

More Reviews Are In!

Whiskey_Delta

Hi folks. As the title suggests, more reviews have come in for Whiskey Delta and the sale figures are going up! Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Of those buyers who chose to offer opinions about my book, the same combination of “good story, but needs some serious editing” was apparent in their comments.

Here’s what the latest reviewers had to say (note the first review has been shortened due to it being very wordy!):

An exciting and well told story (4.0 out of 5 stars):
This is a great book – exciting storyline driven by gripping and well laid out plot lines that keep the reader ‘on the edge of their seats’ right to the end. Even better is the superb characterization of the two main characters and also the driver Whitman, however, considering the small number of characters in the book, I thought the author could have spent a bit of extra ‘fleshing’ out of some of the others a bit more.

The reason the book was a four star not a five star, was that it had simply the worst editing I have come across on Kindle and I am not someone who cares that much about the odd misspelling or use of ‘their’ when you mean ‘there’ and so on as I am usually so lost in the story I barely notice… I must say though, that I am very happy that I did overcome my ‘scruples’ and bought the book in the end as the story was completely riveting from start to finish and the writing itself – aside from typos and little slip ups are all forgotten when caught up in the thrilling ride the author takes you on. Highly recommend it.

Not bad huh? The full length comment contained traces of displeasure about the lack of editing, but the overall feeling is that I wrote something pretty good. Well get a load of what this guy had to say:

Not a grammar Nazi but…, (2.0 out of 5 stars)
By Heuchler:
Thought it was a decent story, but the editing or the lack thereof killed it for me. Ever dozen pages seems to have a spelling or grammar mistake. Even basic things that could be caught with spell-check are there, which leaves me wondering how they were not caught.

Again, not to be petty, but the “not grammar Nazi” made some typos of his own there. And I know I’m going to hell for saying this, but with a name like Heuchler, that last thing you want to make is a Nazi reference!

Still, after reading these, it tore it for me. Whiskey Delta needs to be cleaned up and re-released! The public is speaking with one voice on this, and those who are giving it low marks are starting to bring down the overall rating. As it stands, WD is ranked 3.0 stars out of 5 and that’s just not acceptable. For any indie looking to establish a reputation and garner sales, a 3.5 or higher seems like the desirable place to be in.

What’s more, three copies have been returned after purchase. I can only assume they started reading and were deterred by the errors. And though this represents a mere 1% margin, it doesn’t seem too acceptable to me at this juncture. Barring accidental purchases, every copy sold should stay sold, in my opinion.

Lucky for me, I won’t have to take it down to fix it up, but it will mean the updated version will be clearer and (hopefully) polished whereas the ones that are currently selling will not. I can live with that, and hope the market won’t really notice much. Right now, the sales and positive reviews have me highly jazzed about prepping and releasing the second installment and working on the third. But for that to work, I need the first installment to be as good as it can be and get better reviews.

Big News (Updated)!

zombie_gore1Hey all, just thought I’d share a rather interesting and positive bit of news that came to my attention recently. Not more than two weeks ago, I put Whiskey Delta up for public consumption in both paperback and Kindle format. This would be the zombie apocalypse novel that Rami was able to get Max Brooks to mention while he was speaking at Ohio State University doing a talk.

Well, whether it was because Mr. Brooks gave it a mention, or just the inherent appeal zombie fiction seems to have, or a combination thereof, sales have been taking off! In fact, in the last two days, it has sold just over 200 copies! For most writers, that’s a drop in the bucket, but for an aspiring dude like me, it’s a veritable salesquake!

Thanks to all who have taken a chance on this piece of indie fiction. Rest assured, its encouraging and makes me think that Pappa Zulu, the sequel to this first installment, just might be worth publishing too! Who knows, it might force me to buckle down and get to work on the third installment as well, aka. Alpha Mike.

Update: Some reviews have come in, and the new is… generally good!

1: Whiskey Delta (Five Stars):
This was an excellant book from start to finish. I will be looking for other offerings from this author. He knows how to tell a good story, properly his characters and keep a reader riveted.

2: Almost There (Two Stars):
This book started out great but the spelling and gramatical errors really handicapped the book. Charachters change names several times through the book and the military lingo is never completely explained,and at times is very incorrect. There are no gunnery sergeants in the Army or the Air Force. This book has great promise but suffers from terrible editing. The story is great it just needs a little work.

So what I’m hearing is great work, need editing. Huh, tell me about it! My weakness always has been the process which needs to begin after the creative process ends. Well, some would say editing is part of that process, and an intrinsic one at that. But to me, editing and promotions have always been like the clean up and bookkeeping tasks that the artist retreats from in horror. So I either need to change my attitude, or get an editor! But dang, they cost money…

Still, that’s an average of three and half stars after two reviews. I gotta think that’s not bad. And not to be petty or vengeful but did you notice the unfavorable reviews was itself full of spelling errors. Just saying…

Whiskey Delta Published!

Whiskey_DeltaOh yeah, I went ahead and did it! Lord knows I wanted more time to get some spit and polish in her, but some things wait for no one. And in a lot of ways, I’m happy it came to this because there are times I need a boot in the ass! So my thanks to Rami for giving me that push, due in no small part to the fact that he did the mega-solid of mentioning my work to Mr. Max Brooks!

Yes, the author of World War Z himself recently visited Rami’s stomping grounds of Ohio State University to talk about writing, horror, and his fascination with the undead. And in the course of his talk, Mr. Brooks did me the honor of mentioning my name and the title of my book, as part of his shout out to authors who also tackle the zombie apocalypse. Who am I withhold publishing this book now that the name has crossed the lips of someone who’s actually famous?

So check it out, available on Amazon and Kindle in both paperback and ebook formats!

Amazon.com