Marketing Efforts and Future Directions

Cory Maye, as noted, is on Amazon now, so the next big effort is marketing. We're mailing books with a cover letter to a bunch of Mississippi newspapers, and we've submitted to a listing that goes to 35,000 librarians. Hey, if we could get one book in each library.....

And, watch this space! Last weekend we noticed a new bookstore had opened just two blocks from our house. It's been open since the first of August, so perhaps we're a little slow on the uptake. We walked down to Gatsby Books to meet and talk to the owner, Sean Moor.  He's a nice young man who has been making a living selling books online and on Amazon. He took it to brick & mortar to have the experience of running a bookstore. His collection of used books is of extremely high quality, and he also carries new books.

He's enthusiastic about local authors. You can get much more local than two blocks away! After some discussion we took him up on his offer to use his store space for a book signing, tentatively scheduled for 7pm October 20, 2010. We'll be working on some flyers, and other ways of publicizing the event. 

We also left a copy each of Cory Maye and Byron Case with Sean. We're in a bookstore!! Yay. First one anywhere.

So we'll be planning and working for the talk TSJ will give at the signing. Maybe we'll draw people in by talking about self-publishing. Yeah, that's the ticket!

Print Edition now on Amazon

As you see, the link to Amazon now leads directly to the print edition of The Skeptical Juror and the Trial of Cory Maye. This is the first (and as of this date) the only book about the case.

We are working at present at marketing this book, and Byron Case as well. Two in a series...what will be the third??

Cory Maye To the Printers!

We've finished editing the proof copy of Cory Maye, and have released it for production, which means that quietly, in the night, without notice to anyone, it will appear on Amazon. When we discover it, we'll let you all know.

Which means we go back to compulsively checking Amazon. Frequently. Because who knows when it will appear? It's like mushrooms sprouting after rain. Well. In rainy places. Not in Southern California, because it'll probably be November before we get rain again.  Gosh, I've gone all Bulwer-Lytton, here. 

But you know what I mean. 

The incidence of errors in the proof wasn't too bad. Either that or our editing got really crummy. You'll let us know, I'm sure. We've ordered a case of publisher's copies for publicity purposes, we'll be mailing them out to interested parties, including every crime reporter in Mississippi whose address we can dig up. 

More updates as news happens!

Late Update

Today, we uploaded the cover and text of Cory Maye to our digital print house.

We await the proof copy, the better to find most of the mistakes the last editing process missed.

So, probably 3 weeks out on the availability of print copies! With almost all the misteaks corrected. You never catch them all.

In other news, even without publicity, 3 copies of the Kindle version have sold! How exciting.

Now, it's time for bed on the Left Coast.

Cory Maye Kindle Edition Now Available!

The second book in the Skeptical Juror series, The Skeptical Juror and the Trial of Cory Maye, is now available for Kindle.

The print edition will be to the digital print house in a day or so, and after checking the proof, we'll release it for publication. So look for that version in about 2 weeks.

Cory Maye is the story of a young man in Mississippi who shot and killed a police officer who entered his home. The circumstances are tragic, and there is no denying that Maye shot the officer.  Maye was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

But did he know the intruder he was shooting at was a police officer? Or did he think it was a burglar or other criminal? He says he was protecting his young daughter, who was asleep in the house.

Now, The Skeptical Juror has uncovered facts in the court and police documents that throw some doubt onto the conclusions of the prosecution.  Cory has gotten a new trial, but is still incarcerated.

This new book in the series tells a dramatic story, and raises some shocking questions.

A Flying Update for Our Blog Readers

All three of you. 

TSJ has finished the writing of The Skeptical Juror and the Trial of Cory Maye.  And I, in turn, have finished the first copy and style edit of the manuscript, and returned it to the author with a few brief suggestions for some relatively minor additions.

I think we must be getting the hang of this author/publisher stuff. For the first time, a substantive review has not resulted in suggestions that result in major rewrites. 

The book is turning out well. It's a national story, with a subject who is coming up before the Mississippi Supreme Court this fall.  And it's told, this time, in a more entertaining and readable, and yet scientifically compelling way, than the Byron Case book. 

We'll be publishing, I hope early next week, on Kindle, then on to paper publishing soon thereafter. 

Good Things Come To Those With Buns of Steel

For sitting on while waiting, of course. The buns of steel, that is.

Today, we got our first teeny-tiny reimbursement check from Amazon for the sales of our Kindle edition of The Skeptical Juror and the Trial of Byron Case.  It's a beginning.

In furtherance of our purposes, nefarious and otherwise, we also signed up today for the Reporter Connection, and HARO (Help A Reporter Out, out of what they don't say). Both of these are connection sites that work by putting together reporters in search of expert sources, and sources in search of publicity.

So, who knows. We may come up with interviews or newspaper stories where The Skeptical Juror is the perfect expert.  We'll be watching our email!

In that vein, on July 20th, TSJ will be interviewed at 3pm, Pacific Daylight Time, on BlogTalkRadio, on the Women Behind the Wall show. It will be his first interview about the book. He'll be talking about Byron Case, and wrongful convictions in general. The host of the show, Gloria Killian, was herself wrongfully convicted and exonerated and released after 17 years in prison. The questions ought to be interesting!