Getting (or giving) a Kindle, Nook or iPad this holiday season? Then how about a fun book to go with your new ereader? As featured on KCUR Radio, Pilate’s Cross is garnering some great reviews and enthusiastic fans. Based on a true story, this quirky mystery has been called “a total winner, ” “a page turner” and “intriguing” by readers.
Featuring a cool cover by the talented Mr. Terrill, this ebook will soon be available as a paperback, too. But with ereaders being all the rage, we hope you’ll save a tree–and some cash–and take us up on this special Black Friday offer: order Pilate’s Cross from the publisher website today and get 75% off the cover price. That’s right–get a copy of this quirky thriller for only $1.00! Just click here and use discount code JJ48P at checkout.
Over 10,000 authors and publishers around the world now use Smashwords as their ebook publishing and distribution platform. Watch the slide deck below to learn why.
Regular readers of this blog may recall that I published an ebook and recently premiered a book trailer. Pete Dulin of Present Magazine of Kansas City interviewed me about the book and the trailer. Here’s an excerpt:
PresentMagazine.com: How long did it take to write the book?
Greenwood: “I wrote the first draft in three months – six days a week, three to four hours a day. Yes, I will cop to the cliche’: I wrote that first draft on a laptop in the Starbucks at Country Club Plaza.
The finished book people are reading today on their iPads and Kindles took about eighteen months and six drafts. I did about four “polishes” on top of that.”
PresentMagazine.com: How did the idea for a book trailer come about?
“Readers have told me they thought they could easily see Pilate’s Cross as a movie. That’s why I’m so excited I got the chance to work with the talented crew at T2 + Back Alley Films of Kansas City.
This never would have happened without the vision of T2 + Back Alley Films CEO Teri Rogers. She’s a courageous innovator, always looking ahead to that next undiscovered country. When I told her about my book, she immediately suggested a trailer. Not many firms of T2’s stature are doing trailers. I had given a trailer some thought, but never dreamed a nationally recognized digital media agency like T2 would work with me.
The trailer really transports you right into the world of Cross Township – like a movie. I wrote a treatment and a script, and then T2’s team created a concept that I think just blows away most book trailers. Their concept and screen execution was teamed with Wheeler Audio of Kansas City to record actors and mix sound.
I will also join T2’s Paul Miles Schneider (besides being a gifted graphics producer at T2 he has written the acclaimed novel Silver Shoes) on KCUR Radio’s “Central Standard” show Monday, October 25 at 10 a.m. CST. (You can stream it on the internet if you’re not in the KC area.) We will be talking about book marketing, ebooks, trailers and of course, our books!
In recent years, publishers, authors, teachers and students have been using the book trailer, a promotional video, to develop buzz and cultivate readers for a book. Some book trailers are similar to the familiar movie preview while others look like something you will see on MTV.
Some trailers focus on the story (many even tell you the whole story, like an overwrought PowerPoint book report!) some interview the author, and many more just confound me with their incomprehensibility. Of course, like anything, there’s a lot of DIY going on in book trailer production; with predictably dreary (dare I say crappy) results. For every compelling, well-produced trailer, you get about one hundred trailers slapped together with bad clip art, stock photos, bland music and cheesy graphics. Yeah, that makes me want to read the book. Not.
I don’t mean to be nasty, but if you’re going to represent your product–especially one I presume you spent years writing–do it right.
That said, I wrote a mystery thriller novel. Long story short, after a couple of near-misses with being signed by an agent over a two-year period I decided I could stick the book in a drawer forever or publish it as an independent ebook with Smashwords. I’m glad I did. Pilate’s Cross has sold more than a few copies (on iBooks, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo and Smashwords), and hundreds more have sampled it. I still believe in the book and feel it could reach a broader audience if it could just rise above the crowd a bit.
Thinking along those lines, many of my readers told me they thought it was a book they could easily see as a movie. Well, I certainly couldn’t make a movie out of an indie novel, but a book trailer was in the cards. That’s why I’m so excited I got the chance to work with the celebrated digital media design company T2 + Back Alley Films of Kansas City.
Lead by CEO Teri Rogers, T2 + Back Alley Films is a nationally recognized digital media agency that creates all forms of new media content. Their specialties include motion graphics design, experiential design, augmented reality and other forms of new media, as well as original films and documentaries, digital production and postproduction.
The book’s cinematic structure made it an ideal project for T2, and I’m over the moon at their interpretation of the book. We agreed that it should be a book trailer that could easily pass as a movie trailer.We had some fun with the voice-over, though we resisted the urge to say “In a world…”
The trailer was truly a collaborative effort between T2, Wheeler and me. I just hope that the book lives up to the high expectations set by the trailer.
So, since the premiere on October 13, 2010 at PilatesCross.com I’ve received many nice comments about the trailer and renewed interest in the book. The trailer is now out there on several trailer sites, YouTube and Smashwords. It’s my hope that the crossover will aid in raising the book’s profile.
Book trailers are here to stay, I’d say, especially in our multimedia world. What do you think–are they here to stay or just a flash in the pan?
I have immense respect for people who can draw–and I don’t mean doodles. I mean people who can sit down to a pad with a few bits of charcoal and create something magnificent. The wonders that flow from the pen of a gifted artist never cease to amaze and grant me joy.
One of my favorite artists is also a friend, David Terrill. By day, David is an exceptional illustrator and brand designer for a nationally-recognized advertising agency. There he creates cool stuff for everything from beer packaging to colorful, suitable-for-framing event posters.
That said…I’d be completely disingenuous if I didn’t tell you that one of my favorite works by David is the cover he designed for my ebook, Pilate’s Cross. David seemed to effortlessly zero in on the themes of mystery, isolation and danger that I wanted to express in my book and create a cover reminiscent of a cool poster for an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Here’s his take on his process:
I really enjoyed working on this project. I was able to explore my love of illustrating type and its relation to negative space. The title is knocked out of the silhouette of the man’s profile, forming a “maze”. This signifies the characters “internal search” along with the “external search” for answers in regard to the murder mystery. There is a small graphic figure of a man entering the maze. The black and white relates to the winter setting for the story.
I have to tell you, I get more compliments on the cover than I do the actual content of the book–and that’s alright by me. David’s cool cover helps the book leap off the virtual shelf in the iBooks store, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and the publisher’s site. It will likely be featured in an upcoming trailer for the book as well. (More about that soon.)
Besides that, collaborating with a pro like David really makes you step up your game–I recommend it if you ever get the chance. I’m very excited to be working with him on another project, which we will roll out when it’s ready. Until then, I invite you to take a look at his work on his website: I Draw All Day and on Facebook.
So last month we worked on our first audio book and then this month we started working on our first trailer for an eBook. Good thing we’re just as interested in books as we are in audio!
Check out Alex Greenwood’s eBook, Pilate’s Cross, available at Smashwords. As soon as we’re finished with the trailer, we’ll post it for you to view!
2,000+ ebooks from Smashwords authors and publishers appeared on the iPad yesterday.
Very few people in the publishing industry understand the profound implications of this. It’s not just about the iPad – it’s about how any author, anywhere in the world, can go from a Microsoft Word document to worldwide ebook store distribution in a matter of seconds or days.
Welcome to the age of fully democratized, instant publishing where the bookstore is moving to a screen near you. Authors can now publish and distribute with unprecedented freedom.
Getting (or giving) a Kindle, Nook or iPad this holiday season? Then how about a fun book to go with your new ereader? As featured on KCUR Radio, Pilate’s Cross is garnering some great reviews and enthusiastic fans. Based on a true story, this quirky mystery has been called “a total winner, ” “a page turner” and “intriguing” by readers. 
However, it’s the work he does in his precious free time (in between being a cool husband and dad) that will really get your attention.
