Head on over to the facebook page of The Cowboy and Vampire Thrillers Series for the 6,000th “like” celebration. The authors are giving away a signed copy of both books! http://www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire.

Pumpjack Press is also thrilled to announce that our very own authors Hays and McFall are putting the finishing touches on the first draft of the third book in this series Kirkus Reviews called “riveting!” We can’t wait to get our hands on the third book.  The plot is a secret even from us, but we hear the action takes Lizzie and Tucker out of LonePine, Wyoming, all the way to Washington, D.C., and then back west again to Astoria, Oregon. But this time, the threats to their unusual romance come from a new source: inside themselves.

cowboys-readingAs the stigma of indie publishing disappears and the sea of traditional, indie and hybrid books mixes and deepens, the challenge of connecting author with reader (make that readers) will grow even harder. We suspect that when we look back from the year 2030, we’ll likely find that the big winners of the early 21st century publishing industry paradigm shift were those who figured out “novel” ways to triumph in the game of discoverability. It’s a wide open field, reminiscent of the days of the wild west. And just like that era, the winners will need a combination of boldness combined with smarts and speed.

“Discoverability—the problem traditional publishers also face—is only going to get trickier. Huffington Post blogger Julie Gerstenblatt wrote about trying to grab readers’ attention for her book, Lauren Takes Leave, in her series about her experience self-pubbing. With her HuffPo connection, she figured she had the coveted platform that helps writers launch their careers. Instead, she said, “Turns out that platform of mine is less of a high-dive springboard and more of a children’s step-stool.”

The quoted material above is an excerpt from a thoughtful blog post from Kirkus Reviews Senior Indie Editor Karen Schechner. Read the full post here.

In the coming months, we’ll share tips and other interesting perspectives on this frontier topic. The quick answer? Try everything at least once. And remember: Pumpjack Press is shooting for the winner’s circle.

The Cowboy and Vampire Thriller Series continues to build momentum, now with a total of 88 reviews on Amazon, mostly with 4 or more stars. Here’s one sample. 

“This sequel to ‘The Cowboy and the Vampire’, which I honestly did not expect to be written ever after such a long time, was truly worth waiting for. Am I glad I was wrong!

The story continues just where C&V ends. Lizzie Vaughan is still the most wanted person in the vampire world, though she has yet to prove her supposed ability to turn humans. While she still struggles to come to terms with her new existence as vampire and the necessity of draining humans, at the same time she has to negotiate the vampiric future with the not too friendly clan leaders. On top of that, Tucker makes a shocking discovery about the origin of the newly available packaged blood. So instead of spending cozy hours in their new trailer and being excited about Lizzie’s pregnancy, she and Tucker again have to face some very evil bloodsuckers.

B&W perfectly continues the story of Lizzie and Tucker with interesting character developments and more fascinating details about the vampire history, further expanding the unique vampire world built by this series. At the same time, it maintains the well-composed mixture of some-but-not-too-much romance, blood-spilling action and unmistakable humor.

After devouring Blood and Whiskey my only concern is how long we will have to be patient for another return of the cowboy and the vampire. I can’t wait!”

Here’s a post from author Kathleen McFall about how to select your novel’s setting – and why it is such a crucial decision. 

ImageLocation, location, location; my father’s cautionary advice to me upon purchasing a first home. “Nothing else matters, Kath, location, location, location.” It was good advice, I was glad to have it. The advice, it turns out, is relevant to a novel’s setting too, but since Dad had no similar editorial advice, Clark and I learned this literary lesson — and the ripple effects on everything from post-publishing marketing strategies to taxes — on our own.

Here are four fruits of that experience, interspersed with a running deliberation on a related question: does the literary ball-and-chain “write what you know” meme apply to setting choice too? (For sure, hell no and it depends).  Read more >>

We are a new, different and growing small press. We partner with our authors to create distinctive trade paperbacks and e-books.  Our publishing arrangements range from traditional royalty-based agreements to author purchase of our publishing/marketing services on a “menu” fee basis to any manner of hybrid arrangements in between that suit the needs of the project. Pumpjack Press will also consider out-of-print titles for e-publication.

Please send up to four paragraphs describing your book via email to pumpjackpress@yahoo.com; attention Sara Shearer, Editor. Please include the word “Submission” in the subject line. We publish fiction and non-fiction.

lighthouseWhen you have the loneliest job in the world — writing — it helps to have a partner.

Few professional pursuits are as lonely as writing. A lighthouse keeper comes close. Or a hermit seeking enlightenment. Or possibly a toll booth operator.

It’s not that writers purposefully cut ourselves off from people, it’s just that we tend to live mostly inside our heads — forever spinning out plotlines, testing stories, creating characters, constructing new worlds and constantly, chronically, obsessively observing. And taking notes. It’s not normal behavior, truthfully, and it can make us feel alone, even in crowds.

Most productive writers don’t spend too much time in crowds anyway because we’re generally sequestered away somewhere scribbling in notebooks or pounding a keyboard. So it’s lonely AND boring. Think of the worst tortured artist from some subtitled French black and white film, magnify that by a god complex of biblical proportions and then add years of disappointment and the final product is somewhere near a typical writer. And chances are, that writer is probably single or has a sorely disappointed, long-suffering and very patient partner.

What’s the anti-mating call of the writer? “Not tonight dear, I’m making great progress on my book/short story/screenplay/manifesto.”

Read the rest of this post here >>

404111_428479343862075_37774495_n1Horror stories abound about how authors handle poor reviews.  The topic is increasingly important because as the indie publishing world grows, traditional publishing houses are looking for wedge issues to discredit this trend. A bevy of blog posts and news articles about the tirades of angry authors along with the accusation that many positive reviews on Amazon and other online bookselling sites are fake has led to a subtext that indie books have no gatekeepers for quality. Read the rest of this entry »