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When eighteen-year-old Christopher Myers’ parents are murdered, something is written on his bedroom door, a mark in his parents’ blood that convinces the police the killer has targeted Christopher as the next victim. To keep him safe, he travels away with his estranged grandmother and uncle to the small town of Bridgton, New York. And it’s in Bridgton that he meets an extraordinary young man who has come with his father to stop an unrelenting evil. Soon Christopher learns of the town’s deep dark secret, and how his parents’ murder was no accident, and how he has been brought to Bridgton by forces beyond his power—forces that just may threaten the destruction of all mankind.

"The Calling is a powerful, gripping and terrifying novel, the sort that possesses your whole life while you’re reading it; it’ll stalk you through the day, and inform your dreams. Swartwood has delivered a novel that will become a classic."

— Tim Lebbon

"Robert Swartwood’s The Calling is a diabolical rocket sled of a psychological thriller. Told through the vivid, almost druggy point of view of a young man on the edge, tangled in a web of tragedy and surreal horror, Swartwood’s novel gets under the skin and stays there. Highly recommended."

— Jay Bonansinga

Saturday Stuff: More On E-Book Royalties, TwitLonger, Best Of EDF 3, American Grindhouse

Earlier in the week I talked about e-book royalties and what the Authors Guild had to say. Just yesterday they released a new part of their ongoing series, this one aptly titled "The E-Book Royalty Mess: An Interim Fix":

Negotiating a publishing contract is frequently contentious, but authors have long been able to take comfort in this: once the contract is signed, the interests of the author and the publisher are largely aligned. If the publisher works to maximize its revenues, it will necessarily work to maximize the author's royalties. This is the heart of the traditional bargain, whereby the author licenses the publisher long-term, exclusive book rights in the world's largest book market in exchange for an advance and the promise of diligently working to the joint benefit of author and publisher.

Now, for the first time, publishers have strong incentives to work against the author's interests.

As we discussed in our last alert, authors and publishers have traditionally acted as equal partners, splitting the net proceeds from book sales. Most sublicenses, for example, provide for a fifty-fifty split of proceeds, and the standard hardcover trade book royalty -- 15% of the retail price -- represented half of the net proceeds from selling the book when the standard was established. But trade book publishers currently offer e-book royalties at precisely half what the terms of a traditional proceeds-sharing arrangement would dictate -- paying just 25% of net income on e-book sales. That's why the shift from hardcover to e-book sales is a win for publishers, a loss for authors.

The piece goes on. Definitely worth checking out.

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I love Twitter. I don't know why. If I had to choose between Twitter and Facebook, I would take Twitter in a heartbeat. There's just a simplicity to it that I really like. Also I really dig the fact that each tweet can be no more than 140 characters. And I'm not just saying that because I'm the "Hint Fiction guy." I believe it really can help writers work on their word-choice and self-editing. Of course, a few tweeters out there will run on and on, which sorta defeats the purpose. You know what else defeats the purpose? Services like TwitLonger.

On some level I've always known this service to exist but never bothered with it. Why would I, when the simple point of Twitter is to keep your posts nice and short. But recently a new upgrade with TweetDeck (which I use mostly for my desktop tweeting) has this service enabled. Before when I would tweet and go over the 140 character mark, the numbers would turn red and show a negative. Now, however, it just continues, as if encouraging you to keep typing away and not worry about the limit. This is sad and goes against everything Twitter stands for.

My point? That servies like TwitLonger really suck. And if you use them, shame on you. Shame!

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On a brighter note, the table of contents has been announced for the third edition of The Best of Every Day Fiction. It includes online friends Gay Degani, Aaron Polson, Ben Loory, and many, many more. It also include my story "Multiplicity." A big thanks to Jordan Lapp and Camille Gooderham Campbell and the rest of the EDF team for not only publishing my story in the first place, but for now reprinting it. When the book becomes available, I'll be sure to post about it here.

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Everyone have a nice and safe romantic weekend. Tune in Monday for an exciting announcement (at least, I hope it'll be exciting). In the meantime, American Grindhouse!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AndtsMdk2fc

A Tweet, A Tweet, My Kingdom For A Tweet

You've probably seen this service that allows you to pay with a tweet or Facebook post. Has anybody actually used it, either as a seller or buyer? It seems like a good way to help spread word of a product to more people, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Right now my three e-books -- In Solemn Shades of Endless Night, The Silver Ring, Through the Guts of a Beggar -- can be purchased simply with a tweet or Facebook post. A link for this nifty service can be found on each page under the purchase links. So why not give it a try. While it hasn't been scientifically proven yet, paying for one of my e-books with a tweet or Facebook post actually helps repair the ozone layer. Also, you end up with a nice crisp PDF copy for your troubles.

P.S. I have no idea who created that painting of the Fail Whale, but it's purdy, no?

3 For $3 Sale

So what goodies did everyone get for Christmas? I got some pretty good stuff. Like this clock from my parents:

Judging by the buzz on the Internet, one of the major gifts this year were e-readers. A Kindle, Nook, even an iPad -- some kind of e-reading device. So I thought it would be a swell idea to lower the price of my three e-books to 99 cents each at Amazon and Smashwords (sorry, Nook owners, B&N took way too long to upload this time around but you could always purchase the epub from Smashwords and transfer it to your Nook). Here are the details.

In Solemn Shades of Endless Night is a 14,000-word story about a man trapped in perpetual Halloween night who must make the ultimate choice: to save himself or the world.

“Halloween night. A battle between good and evil, darkness and light. The blurring of reality. A touch of trust and betrayal. The burden of the past on present and future generations. Robert Swartwood’s In Solemn Shades of Endless Night has it all. A classic Halloween tale that will keep you turning the pages.”

— David B. Silva, author of The Shadows of Kingston Mills

A young man finds a mysterious silver ring that holds extraordinary powers -- a ring that the darkest evil in the universe wants for its very own.

This edition contains a bonus short story.

“Robert Swartwood’s The Silver Ring is a full-tilt no-holds-barred bobsled of a ride, absolutely engaging and a hundred percent fun. If this one doesn’t grab you, it’s time to up your Ritalin.”

— Joe Schreiber, author of Chasing the Dead and No Doors, No Windows

Josh wakes up one morning to find his ten-year-old brother filling in a grave in the backyard. From there, the day just gets worse.

This edition contains the original 10,000-word novelette, a 3,000-word alternate ending, and two bonus short stories of pulpy horror goodness.

So yeah, this deal isn't really 3 for $3 as much as it is 3 for $2.97, but I just thought the former sounds better. This offer is only good until the end of the year when the prices go back to $1.99. Enjoy!

30-Word SmokeLong Winners

The latest issue of SmokeLong Quarterly has gone live, featuring the top 5 picks of the 30-word contest. Over 1,400 stories were submitted; out of those stories about 50 was sent to me, and from those I choose the winners. Congrats to Ted Chiles, Sion Dayson, Kevin O'Cuinn, Jan Ellison, and Patricia Anderson (who, if I had to pick just one winner, would have won for her really great story "Still Life"). Thanks to Tara Laskowski and everyone else at SmokeLong for asking me to judge (plus narrowing down those 1,400-some stories!), and to everyone who submitted. Be sure to check out the rest of the issue, especially Ravi Mangla's awesome piece.