Finished

The last of the Lauren Laurano books is finished.  Gonna Take A Homicidal Journey This is the fifth book in the series.  I have no plans to put up any of my other back list books, so I'm really done with this project. I rushed to finish because I was expecting my toy (Ipad) and it arrived yesterday morning.  Do I love it?  I do.  But there's a lot to learn. Patience is not my long suit, in case you haven't noticed.

I've also lowered the price on the Jack Early/Sandra Scoppettone books to 99 cents each. They are:
A Creative Kind of Killer
Razzamatazz
Donato & Daughter

The whole experience of turning my novels into E-books has been boring, exciting, wonderful, mind numbing and necessary. Why necessary? Because the idea of having new readers is important to me.  The Laurano series began before some of these new readers were born.  Same with the others.

I started this project back in January when I sent my books to be scanned.  I think I put up my first book in February.  I had no idea when I started it would take this long.  There were a few times along the way that I wanted to quit, but I had a friend, Consuelo Saah Baehr, a wonderful writer, who had gotten me into this thing by constant nagging!  When I wanted to throw in the towel she simply wouldn't let me. Thank you, Consuelo.

From time to time I'll have to do some marketing with these books if I want new readers, but I'm going to take the summer and have a vacation.  A vacation to me means reading.  I have so many books lined up there's no way I could read even half. 
 From the front.

And from the back.

I think of this as my store.

As far as writing another book....I'll never say never.  But if I do you'll find it as an Ebook and in no other form.

A side note.  When I was proofing one of the books I got down to the last 10 pages and still didn't know who did it!  Maybe it's my memory...or something worse, but whatever it is I find it fascinating.  I hope you'll give some of these books a shot. 

I'm not going anywhere.  I'll be posting from time to time.

Maybe I'll start to rant.

Let's Face the Music and Die

I've finally gotten this fourth book finished.  I wasn't in the mood and kept getting involved in other things...mostly reading.  Lately it feels like I have to go to work and write.  It's not. I keep forgetting I can take my time and it doesn't matter.  But it does, If you're me. I want to get this over with so I can retire in peace.  Also my Ipad is arriving on Friday and I know I'll be completely occupied with my new toy.  So I'll finish up this post and get back to proofing book 5.  Here is book 4:

Let's Face the Music and Die

A Sale and A Tale

The sale is A Creative Kind of Killer for 99 cents. It went so well the last time I thought I'd offer it again.

The tale will be on Monday the 13th when Allan Guthrie posts his interview with me on Criminal-E .

Today I start another tale.  I'm beginning to proof the fourth book in the Lauren Laurano series, Let's Face the Music and Die.

Short Story

I might as well mention this because people have been buying it without me ever giving it a push.  I've written a short story called, Tag Sale .  It's 99 cents. I put it up for another reason but that didn't work out.  Meanwhile quite a few people found it and bought it.  See what you think.  Let me know.

My Sweet Untraceable You

The third book of the Lauren Laurano  series is finally available for $2.99. I had to u/l it 3 times because of formatting problems.  But it was there to buy in the wrong version and 3 people bought it.  So if any of you did you can exchange it if you wish.

I have 2 more to do and I wish I didn't.  But I can't leave the series unfinished.  It's almost summer and all I want to do is read.  I guess I'll be finished by July.  Maybe sooner.

There may be some Amazon/Kindle book sellers who are making a good living out of this, but not me.  I didn't expect to.  What makes me happy about this is that I'm getting a lot of new readers for my back list.

I hope some of you will get into this series because I think it's fun.  And so did a lot of other people and reviewers.  You can read these accolades if you go to the books.

Everything You Have is Mine is the first and the 2nd is I'll Be Leaving You Always

Try the 1st. It's $1.99 and if you like that you can go on to the others.  A long weekend is coming up, have Lauren spend it with you.

Razzamatazz

Today I'm lowering the price of Razzamatazz to 99 cents for a short time.

The last thing veteran reporter Colin McGuire , fleeing his job on a big-city newspaper in the wake numbing personal tragedy, expects to find in sleepy little Seaville on Long Island’s North Fork is murder. In a few short weeks Seaville has brought him friends, some comfort and perhaps more in the person of Annie Winters, who is also trying to build a new life. But as the murders multiply, so, too, do the questions and the doubts. Friends suspect friends, lovers suspect lovers and sooner or later a lot of people begin to suspect Colin.

The New York Times said:
"This is one of those down-to-the-wire stories, very well written, guaranteed to keep you flipping the pages."

"New writer Jack Early (Sandra Scoppettone) ranks with Leonard, Ludlum and King."

Tacoma, WA. News-Tribune

"Crisp writing, plus abundant surprises will keep readers riveted until the last page."
Publishers Weekly

You're going to love this book.
Sandra Scoppettone

Donato & Daughter

I've lowered the price on Donato & Daughter to .99 for a short while.  This is what Publishers Weekly had to say when it was first published:


“Topping his award-winning A Creative Kind of Killer and Razzamatazz Early’s third thriller combines a story of alienated family members with the case of a maniac who is murdering nuns in New York City. The suspense is unremitting.”

It says he/Early because that was me using my pseudonym, Jack Early.

And Sara Paretsky said:

“I liked the book. The complex family feelings between Donato and his mother, wife and daughter transform this into something more than just another police procedural. The shadow of Donato’s dead son hanging over the family provides a somber leitmotif for the contemporary action. Donato and Dina command both respect and affection and remind us all too clearly of our own complicated family relations.”

BTW, it was made into a movie with Charles Bronson and Dana Delany.  If you try to find the video I think they changed the title to Dead to Rites...or Rights. I can't remember and never knew why the title was changed. I was only the author, after all.

Price Drop

For short time A Creative Kind of Killer will be 99 cents.  Get it while it's hot!

2nd In The Laurano Series

I finally got the second book finished and you can find it here:

I'll Be Leaving You Always

As for the cover...I lucked out.  A fan, who is a graphic artist, wrote to me and offered her services. I think she's terrific.  Her name is Virginie Brun and she lives in Brittany.

This one took so long because I got sick for two days in the middle of it.  And I have to confess I took a week off before I started doing the proofing.  I had to remind myself that the schedule of this adventure is mine.  That's the beauty of it.

It's fascinating for me to see how I've grown as a writer. I wanted to get better and better and I did. A lot of that came from reading other novelists.  Learning what to do and what not to do.  This has been my writing school.

I may take another break or start on Tuesday.  I have a standing coffee date on Mondays.

While proofing this last book I thought "Well, why not write another book?"  With no one to reject me or to tell me what to do, it seemed appealing.

Who knows what might happen...maybe I'll even do a trilogy.

Just kidding.

Fourth ebook up

I finally have finished the first of my Lauren Laurano P.I series.  I say finally but I don't mean that Everything You have is Mine took so long, it's that it took me a long time to get to it.  I spent two months getting the three Jack Early (my pen name) books readied. That link will take you to one of them and the other two are there to click and buy!

The good news is that this one didn't take as long and the formatting was easy.  I only needed help from the writer Consuelo Baehr one or two times.

I did have some problems with the cover. It wasn't the fault of the usual man who has done the other three, it was my fault for giving him the wrong info.  So I ended up doing it myself.  Go see it and tell me what you think.  Better yet, read the book and tell me what you think.

The Lauren Laurano books are a series. Five in all. Everything You Have is Mine is the first in the series.  I originally wrote it as a stand alone.  It never occurred to me that it would be a series, but that's what the publisher wanted. Who was I to say no?

So I only have four to go. If anyone wants to write a customer review of any of the books I'd be delighted. No, I'm not begging.  Much.

Donato & Daughter

It was a week ago I wrote below that I'd be u/l my latest Jack Early book and then I'd be taking off a few days. Didn't happen that way. I had personal things to deal with but the process with the book took much longer than expected. For author I mistakenly put in Jack Early instead of my name which caused the Amazon Kindle people to question my rights, etc. I have the rights, of course. Still it made me anxious and worried. So it took days for it to become "Live" (which means that it's able to be bought.)

But before that I couldn't get the formatting to behave. Why is this always a problem? Of course it made me wonder what I was doing this for. The whole process is time consuming and now and then irritating. But I'm learning tricks to make it easier with each book I do.

This coming week (dare I make plans?) I'll start on the Lauren Laurano books. The first is EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IS MINE.

But for now it's DONATO & DAUGHTER. A father and daughter cop team chasing a serial killer. It's also a family story. This was made into a TV movie with Charles Bronson and Dana Delany. Here's the link to the book. DONATO & DAUGHTER

Doing Ebooks

It seems like I've been proofing Donato and Daughter for the last 15 years.  Today I finished.  And now I have to do a cover before I can put it up there for you who haven't, can read it.

BTW, the Jack Early books are not a series.

You can't imagine how many times I wanted to throw in the towel.  But maybe if you're a frequent reader of this blog you can believe it.

I've always put real names in my books...the whole name or a friend's first and a different friend's  last.  I said that I was doing it because when I read it I'd know where I was when I wrote the book.  Of course, I never read the book again...until now.  It absolutely told me what I was doing, what was happening in my life, who my friends were and how I was feeling about things.  Reading the Jack Early books has been a fascinating adventure.

Next I'll start on my series starring Lauren Laurano, a detective who lives in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York.  There are five of these all published by Little Brown and Bantam.

I'm so happy D&D is over.  Now I can read a little more than I have been.  For awhile. Like tomorrow and Monday.

Another---RAZZAMATAZZ

Last week I spent a lot of time proofing Razzamatazz, a suspense novel published originally under the pen name, Jack Early.  But this time my friend Consuelo Baehr showed me a way to do the proofing that made it much easier.  Still, it takes time and diligence.  But I've chosen to do this, no one is pushing me or waiting for this book.

I'm going to do another one this week and that will be all of the Jack Early books.  After that I'll start on my Lauren Laurano series and there are five of those.  But I mustn't let myself think ahead or I'll slip into a deep depression.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is my choice and no agent is going to give me a hard time and make suggestions I can't use.  No editor is going to reject me.  And no editor is going to insist I cut this or that or change an ending.  None of that happened with these books but it's happened, believe me.

I think it's fun until I start the proofing and then it's hard and crazy making.  But it's interesting to read books that I wrote so long ago.  I'm impressed with me!  I've never read any of my books once they were published so this is a brand new experience.

So pop on over to see for yourself.  It's going for $1.99. What do you have to lose...except maybe $1.99. Razzamatazz

At Last

A Creative Kind of Killer is up and is perfectly formatted.  So should you wish to get it you won't be disappointed.  At least not by the formatting.

A Creative Kind of Killer

Sorry

Just found out that my ebook is a mess.  The formatting is crazy.  I don't know how that happened but if you want to d/l it wait until the next one is up.  And if you have d/l it you'll be able to do an exchange.

Very depressing.  Waiting for help.

Ebook

Okay, it's up.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Kind-Killer-ebook/dp/B004M8T1C4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1296938020&sr=8-2-catcorr

 

Shout it from the rooftops, please.

One Up, Seven to Go

Yesterday I u/l my first ebook to Amazon.  I've been screaming about the tedium of proofing but it's all worth it.  The book isn't showing yet because they had some questions about my rights.  I've put it up saying by Sandra Scoppettone writing as Jack Early. So it isn't there yet which is annoying.  Still, I'm sure it'll be up by Monday. This first book is A Creative Kind of Killer which was originally published in 1984 under the Early name.  No one knew who it was.  I'd published quite a few books under my own name before that, but not a mystery. So lo and behold it was nominated for an Edgar in the Best First category and won the Shamus for Best First.  Nobody knew who I was then either.  Someone else accepted the Shamus for me.  Anyway, my first 3 ebooks will be Early books. 

The big news is that my cousin-in-law has done the cover.  I think it's pretty damn good.  His name is Andy Little.  I thank him profusely.

When Creative is up I'll put a link here.
I'm actually looking forward to the next book which I'll start on tomorrow.  Who said I couldn't be flexible?

Retirement?

Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing,Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing,Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing,Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing.

Do you call this retirement?

Proofing

I can’t think of anything more tedious than proofing these scans. These, I say. I’m on the first one, fourth chapter. This isn’t like proofing in the old days when you’d go over your manuscript when it was finished or proof your galleys. Oh, no. You have to hit the backwards P in Word and the guts of the manuscript shows. This horror of proofing may only happen if you have your book scanned. If you’ve already got the manuscript typed in your computer it’s a matter of formatting and I don’t think you’d have this work.

I just realized if you hit the HTML Code tab in what you use to write your posts for your blog you see a similar thing. But the scanned page is much more annoying because of the way you have to format. Be aware that if you have your book scanned you’ll have this problem. Maybe you can afford to have someone else proof it, but I can’t.

I can’t because the money is mounting up. I’ve already paid to have three books scanned and I have at least five more to go, bought an up-to-date copy of Word and lets not forget about postage. And mostly lets not forget about the cover. The most important expenditure. I’m discovering.

That’s why I’m begging. If there’s anyone out there who wants to do my covers for experience and a credit please get in touch with me. sandrasc@optonline.net

I await your reply.

Starting Off

It wasn’t easy. The copy of Word that I got looked slightly different from the 2007 that I’d been using. The one I lost when my computer crashed. For instance, Tools had changed to options and it was in a strange place. Why?

Once everything was uninstalled and installed, my mentor, Consuelo, sent me the scans of my first book having made it into one long document. When I got it there were all the pages. No one document. Over the phone we went back and forth trying to get it into one document. We tried everything. At least we thought we had. And then suddenly I did something and it happened. I quickly saved it.

Now came the formatting. This took a long time to figure out. While Consuelo tried working on it on her own computer, I acquainted myself with the Word program. This helped a lot. She called me back and we began.

This may sound like nothing but it was over a period of about five hours. Now it’s ready for me to start proofing today or tomorrow. I’d like to start proofing right now, but life interferes.

The hunt for someone to do a cover persists.