Publishers Weekly Reviews Dennis Palumbo's Head Wounds

 

Head Wounds: A Daniel Rinaldi Mystery
Dennis Palumbo. Poisoned Pen

The violence starts early in Palumbo’s engrossing fifth mystery (after 2014’s Phantom Limb) featuring clinical psychologist Daniel Rinaldi, who consults for the Pittsburgh PD. Daniel is at home reviewing the file of the unsolved murder of his wife, Barbara, when someone takes a shot at him through his living-room window. Soon afterward, the police apprehend the shooter, Eddie Burke, the drunk, disaffected boyfriend of Daniel’s attractive, well-to-do neighbor, Joy Steadman. Daniel does his best to comfort Joy, but when he returns to her house to check on her hours later, he finds her strangled body. He eventually learns that Joy told Eddie that she was sleeping with him, hence Eddie’s rage. The police suspect Daniel in Joy’s murder. Meanwhile, a computer-savvy psychopath sets out to torment Daniel by killing or maiming an ever-widening group of his patients, friends, and family members. The tension rises as Daniel uses his understanding of the human psyche to play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his nemesis. Palumbo, a licensed psychotherapist, has delivered another well-crafted page-turner. (Feb.)

Buy this book

Publisher's Weekly Featurs Dennis Palumbo's Phantom Limb

Phantom Limb: A Daniel Rinaldi Mystery

Dennis Palumbo. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4642-0256-8

At the start of Palumbo’s twisty fourth Daniel Rinaldi mystery (after 2013’s Night Terrors), the psychologist, who consults for the Pittsburgh PD, receives a visitor one afternoon he last saw posing in Playboy almost 30 years earlier. Lisa Campbell, ex-starlet and current trophy wife to elderly, wheelchair-bound tycoon Charles Harland, plans to kill herself at 7 o’clock that evening. Daniel has only 50 minutes to talk her out of it. Soon after Lisa leaves his office, the police inform him that she’s been kidnapped. As a doctor who may have heard critical information that he’s ethically bound by confidentiality not to share, Daniel is in tricky position as he seeks to help the Harland family and the police get Lisa back. He serves as the perfect point of view character, central to the action without needing to clamor for attention. Daniel’s personal story continues to evolve in this satisfying entry, which ends on a cliffhanger. (Sept.) 



Reposted from Publishers Weekly

How Many Copies Does It Take To Be an Amazon Bestseller?

Not So Much

By Gabe Habash |
 

 Amazon, the biggest bookseller in America, is also famously one of the most tight-lipped. Sales rankings are available on the Web site and are updated hourly, but the company doesn’t provide information on how many unit sales it takes to make a title an Amazon bestseller.

Like everyone else, PW couldn’t get sales numbers from Amazon, but by studying the print bestseller list for a two-week period, we were able to determine that a title in Amazon’s top five averages 1,094 print copies sold across all channels, including other retailers, on a typical day. And because the general industry thinking is that Amazon accounts for about 30% of print sales, that means it likely takes around 300 copies per day to reach Amazon’s top five, depending on the day of the week and the time of year.

How was PW able to get this number? We looked at Dark Horse’s The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, a 300-page collection of historical information, concept art, and chronology of the famous Nintendo video game series. We charted the book’s ranking on Amazon, and during the weeks ended February 24 and March 3, it sold 8,573 copies and 6,128 copies, respectively, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. During that two-week span, Hyrule Historia never fell out of the top five on Amazon’s print ranking. For the week ended March 3, the book sold 6,128 copies at outlets that report to BookScan (which covers about 80% of print units). To account for the units not reported to BookScan, we added 20% to its total of 6,128, which equals 7,660. Based on that total, the book sold, on average, 1,094 copies per day, which means that Amazon sold no more than that number of units on any given day. But because Hyrule Historia is available through other retailers like Barnes & Noble, Target, and even video game chain Gamestop—the book is also sold out on Walmart.com—the realistic estimate is that Amazon sold roughly 30% of the 1,094 copies, or 328 copies per day, on average.

It should be noted that print sales vary week to week on Amazon, and just because a calculated estimate for Hyrule Historia yielded a daily sales number of 328 for the week ended March 3, it doesn’t mean it takes 328 copies sold on any given day to have a top-five Amazon bestseller. For the week ended February 24, for instance, Hyrule Historia sold 8,573 print copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which means it sold about 1,530 copies per day across all outlets. If we apply our 30% estimate based on how much of print sales are accounted for by Amazon, that means Hyrule Historia sold about 459 copies per day on Amazon to maintain its top-five ranking. During the holiday season and other brisk sales periods, the number to hit the bestseller list is certainly higher, but for large parts of the year it only takes a few hundred copies a day, not a few thousand, to get to the top of Amazon’s daily charts.

'Zelda' Print Sales and Amazon Ranking


                                                Nielsen BookScan Sales     Average Amazon Sales Rank
Week Ended Feb. 24, 2013            8,573                                              2.4
Week Ended March 3, 2013            6,128                                             3.1

 
CORRECTION: We incorrectly calculated the total of books sold per week (including outlets not tracked by Amazon) as 7,353; its per day total average as 1,050 and its Amazon estimate as 315 per day.


Reposted From Publishers Weekly

Let Story Merchant Books turn your script into a novel!

Script Lit Turns Unused Screenplays Into e-Novellas







Looking to transform Hollywood’s pile of unproduced scripts into publishable e-books, James West, a motion-picture industry entrepreneur, has launched Script Lit. The company licenses optioned, but never produced, scripts, to turn them into commercial fiction. At the end of April, Script Lit released its first e-book novella—Mom of the Year by screenwriter Denise Pischinger—and plans to offer three more titles later this year. It’s no secret that Hollywood studios option a lot of scripts that never become movies—scripts that may be quite good but are victimized by bad timing or arbitrary decisions of the studio, West said. West has been making his pitch to Hollywood studios since last fall, asking them to give him access to their scripts and hoping to sell the studios on the potential for finding bestsellers in an otherwise inert mound of content. “There are compelling stories in these scripts. The studios love the idea,” he said, though he acknowledged that some have been slow to act, adding, “there’s a lot of legal stuff to go through.”

Mom of the Year is the story of a 30-something woman who gets into a battle with another mother in her school volunteer group. The book is available for sale at all major e-tailers, and right now, Script Lit is offering a free download of the title. The company is also publishing Ambrose Fountain by Brian Sieve, due out in June, the story of an ordinary guy who comes to believe that a fountain on his property can grant wishes; and The Enders by Rich Farrell, slated for August, about five people in different countries and their reaction to the news that the world is ending.

West said he has been looking to partner with traditional book publishers. His original plan was to get access to the scripts through a studio, pick the best unproduced content, and act as a kind of “producer,” while working with a New York publisher to secure a ghostwriter, edit, and publish the book. West met with “most of the Big Six,” who he said have been “overwhelmingly positive” but also reluctant to act. (Although he said one publisher wanted to get involved but only if the script was also being produced as a movie—of course, if that were the case, West was quick to note, publishing wouldn’t be a problem.) “It will take a visionary publisher to do it this way,” he said.

So West decided to launch Script Lit and publish the books himself as e-book original novellas, with POD paperbacks to come. West said he licenses the rights to each script directly from the writer’s agent or manager and hires a ghostwriter to create a narrative context for the story. He noted that screenwriters aren’t necessarily novelists, so he’s put together a staff with two in-house novelists who have experience writing in a variety of commercial genres. “We keep all the script’s original dialogue in the book—the dialogue is important—and take the setting and tone, and I have a staff of writers enrich the story and turn it into literary and narrative prose.” He emphasized that the original screenwriter is credited as the book’s author.

“We typically offer the original screenwriter up to 50% of royalties,” West said, noting that his terms will likely change once he’s able to get an agreement with a conventional publisher, who may want to offer an advance or split royalties differently. “I always ensure that the original writers get the best deal possible,” he said, adding that Brian Sieve will get “a 50-50 split of all future royalties.”

Zach Tann, literary manager and partner at Magnet Management, which manages the careers of screenwriters, represents Sieve. Tann said, “It’s hard to sell a screenplay to the studios these days if it isn’t a huge franchise. There’s a lot of good material that isn’t known. So here’s a script that can be turned into an e-book and read. It seemed like a good way to get more attention, and there’s not a whole lot to lose.”

“I’m surprised this hasn’t been done before,” Tann added. “So many scripts are never sold, and they may be good. Selling to the studios is about timing, you may have a great script but it may be the wrong time.” He said that Sieve worked closely with West and his staff during the novelization of the script, providing them with notes and feedback. “At the very least a lot more people will get to actually read it.”

West, who is also cofounder of TitleDoctors, a firm that researches and provides marketable titles for films, said he’s offering free downloads of Mom of the Year and the book is getting some attention on Goodreads and Facebook, as well as generating good reader reviews on Amazon. He admitted that it was never his intention to become a publisher, emphasizing that “the goal is still to get the studios and conventional publishers involved in Script Lit.”

“Once these books hit their stride,” he said, “I’d like to go back to the studios and say, ‘See, we did it. Now, open your archives and let us see which scripts are bestsellers waiting to happen.’”

Publishers Weekly Reviews Night Terrors

Night Terrors: A Daniel Rinaldi Mystery

Dennis Palumbo. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4642-0131-8 

 

In Palumbo’s riveting third Daniel Rinaldi mystery (after 2011’s Fever Dream), the Pittsburgh, Pa., doctor applies his therapeutic skills to a prickly former FBI special agent, Lyle Barnes, who suffers from night terrors after a career of tracking down serial killers. Adding to Barnes’s woes is a murderer out to get every person who helped put serial killer John Jessup behind bars, including Barnes, who goes into protective custody. Meanwhile, Rinaldi agrees to help Maggie Currim prove the innocence of her troubled adult son, Wes, who has confessed to the gruesome decapitation of a local businessman. Answers prove elusive as the murders begin to pile up, and Barnes escapes from FBI custody. Palumbo ratchets up the stakes in this grisly psychological thriller, but maintains the emotional complexity as Rinaldi weighs his loyalty to his patients against his faith in the FBI. (May)

Publishers Weekly Reviews Story Merchant Client Dennis M. Walsh's Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother's Killers to Justice

Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother’s Killers to Justice

Dennis M. Walsh. St. Martin’s/Dunne, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-2500-0548-9

Walsh, a criminal defense attorney for 30 years, tells the blistering true story of the 2003 murder of one of his brothers, Christopher, who was discovered in a trash barrel in a California storage locker. Despite law enforcement’s reluctance to pursue the case since the author’s father and younger brother were in prison on drug charges, Walsh shoulders the burden and delves into the nadir of the criminal underworld, quizzing thieves, skinheads, Nazi bikers, hookers, and porn queens to construct something meaningful from various lies and schemes. Good leads dead-end and seemingly ironclad confessions crumble, but the author’s resourcefulness and determination to catch his brother’s killers keep this sordid tale moving along at a quick clip. Walsh keeps his law practice operating throughout the ordeal, but still finds time to persuade reluctant witnesses to offer their testimony and cooperate with authorities; after four years of sleuthing, the trial finally begins. The hearing is a real corker, chock-full of twists and turns, and written with passion and an eye for drama. Taut and relentless, this chronicle of a former cold case puts one man’s resolve and the American idea of justice to the test. B&w photos. (Feb.)

Story Merchant Clients Clint Hill And Lisa McCubbin's Mrs. Kennedy And Me Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Mrs. Kennedy and Me:An Intimate Memoir by Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin. 

S&S/Gallery, $26 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4516-4844-7

In November 1960, Hill, who had been on President Eisenhower’s Secret Service detail, wasn’t looking forward to his new assignment—which he viewed as a demotion—of protecting Jacqueline Kennedy. But a disappointed Hill soon realized he was actually serving the president “by protecting the things that were most important to him, personally—his wife and his children.” Hill was completely won over by the first lady’s spontaneity, curiosity, sincerity, and joie de vivre. He accompanied her to Greece twice; on the first trip, in 1961, he was under strict if baffling instructions from JFK to keep his wife away from Aristotle Onassis. Hill was with Mrs. Kennedy on a Virginia hunt where she flew headfirst over her horse and a rail fence, through the death of infant Patrick and in Dallas when the president was assassinated. Hill is close-mouthed about JFK’s infidelities. His book is most valuable for his perceptive recall of the daily routine and problems faced by the Secret Service detail. This is a worshipful, competent insider’s glimpse of a matchless first lady whose diplomatic skills and glamor enabled her to do the unthinkable: briefly wrest the Mona Lisa from France. Photos. (Apr.)

Publisher Weeekly's Review of Story Merchant Client Dennis Palumbo's Fever Dream

Fever Dream:
A Daniel Rinaldi Mystery

Dennis Palumbo. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (350p) ISBN 978-1-59058-959-5

In Palumbo’s exciting second mystery featuring Pittsburgh psychologist Daniel Rinaldi (after 2010’s Mirror Image), the police bring in Daniel as a trauma expert to care for Treva Williams, the sole survivor of a bank robbery hostage situation gone bad. Though she’s clearly traumatized, Treva has her own secrets, including a former relationship with a cop, another with an abusive thug, and a string of questionable choices. As the center of a messy crime with high stakes, Treva appears to be a link between several unrelated events tainting district attorney Leland Sinclair, who’s running for governor of Pennsylvania. When the governor’s race heats up, Daniel is thrown into a dangerous mix of political intrigue, murder, manipulation, and explosive revelations that could rock Pittsburgh. Palumbo takes the reader into the seamy side of the Steel City, chock-full of corruption and crime, love and loss. (Nov.)

AEI Client Alaya Johnson's The Burning City Publishers Weekly Review

The Burning City

Alaya Dawn Johnson. Agate Bolden, $14.95 paper (385p) ISBN 978-1-932841-45-9

Johnson returns to the curious island world of 2007’s Racing the Dark, where blood sacrifice can gain the favor of powerful spirits. Lana is no longer a simple island girl but a Black Angel, marked with black wings by the wind spirit. Now living amid the refugees and ruins of capital city Essel, devastated by volcanic eruption, Lana seeks her mother, who has been kidnapped by the witch Akua. Her only clue is a strange black book given to her by one of Akua’s spirits. Meanwhile, Essel roils with rebellion led by a religious fringe movement that wants to bring down the ruling Mo’i. Many think the Mo’i has lost control of Nui’ahi’s fire spirit, but Lana fears the Mo’i caused the eruption himself. Events in Essel are interwoven with those recorded long ago in Akua’s black book, creating an absorbing, complex plot. (July)

TOO MANY SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS GLUT THE MARKET

Self-Published Titles Topped 764,000 in 2009 as Traditional Output Dipped

Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/14/2010 9:22:53 AM

A staggering 764,448 titles were produced in 2009 by self-publishers and micro-niche publishers, according to statistics released this morning by R.R. Bowker. The number of "nontraditional" titles dwarfed that of traditional books whose output slipped to 288,355 last year from 289,729 in 2008. Taken together, total book output rose 87% last year, to over 1 million books.

Among the traditional titles, fiction remained the largest segment, although output fell 15%, to 45,181 titles, marking the second consecutive year that fiction production declined. The nonfiction segments were mixed with growth coming in educational and practical areas such as technology (up 11%), science, and personal finance (both up 9%). Categories that depend more on discretional spending fell with the production of cookery and language titles falling the most at 16% each. The travel and sports and recreation segments had declines of 5% and 4%, respectively. Other major categories where output rose included children's, up 6%, to 32,348, biography, up 8% to 12,313, and religion, up 6% to 19,310.

Changes in growth rates in the traditional book segments, however, were overshadowed by the explosive gains posted by what Bowker calls the unclassified titles. The category consists largely of reprints, including those of public domain titles, plus other titles that are produced using print-on-demand production. According to Bowker, the largest producer of nontraditional books last year was BiblioBazaar which produced 272,930 titles, followed by Books LLC and Kessinger Publishing LLC which produced 224,460 and 190,175 titles, respectively. The Amazon subsidiary CreateSpace produced 21,819 books in 2009, while Lulu.com released 10,386. Xlibris and AuthorHouse, two imprints of AuthorSolutions, produced 10,161 and 9,445, title respectively. In something of an understatement, Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publishing services for Bowker, said that given the exceptional gains in the nontraditional segment the last three years, growth in that area "show[s] no signs of abating."

http://www.publishersweekly.com