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Come See Me at My Author Talk!

In conjunction with the Friends of Southborough Library, the wonderful folks at my town library have extended a special invitation for me to share my insights at their highly anticipated annual event.

On June 12th, at 7 p.m., please join me at the Southborough Library for a half-hour talk on the art of writing, publishing, marketing, and (hopefully) selling a book.

I’ll discuss the entire process, from ideation to writing a million drafts, to publishing through Amazon and other services, and then shouting from the rooftops about your book.

I’ve created a Facebook Event for the night and would love it if you could RSVP there.

After my talk, I’ll be answering questions and selling and signing copies of all four of my books. I hope to see you there!

Happy Tenth Anniversary, “A Sour Chord” – Big Sale Celebration!

Let’s flash back together. It’s May of 2014. I’m about to click publish on Amazon for my very first book, A Sour Chord. Up until that moment, the only person I’d told I’d written a book was my now wife, Megan. And even then I’d only told her a couple of months beforehand. I don’t know why I kept it a secret, but I did. Other than Megan, my editor, Austin, was the only person to know this book existed.

That day was filled with anxiety, fear, imposter syndrome, and, most importantly, hope. I don’t know what I planned to get out of writing that book, but I knew I wanted to. And now, ten years later, I’m here celebrating its anniversary. I published that book ten years ago next month, though I’d written the short story that was its foundation—a play, of sorts, really—way back in 1999. It’s been a journey, and I’m grateful to have you all with me.

Here we are, today, together, celebrating this work. And what better way to celebrate than to get my books into your eager little hands, no? From April 22nd through May 22nd, all paperbacks in my online store are $10, and hardcovers are just $15. But you need to order them from this special link. If you go right to the books themselves, the special pricing isn’t going to be there. So be sure to click that link.

And, as always, I wanted to say thank you. For those of you who’ve just stumbled onto my work, welcome. For those of you who’ve been here since the beginning, thank you for your support, kind words, encouragement, and nagging me to keep writing when I feel defeated or unsuccessful. I won’t delve into how hard it is to be an independent, self-published author, but I will say that it’s more work than I could have ever anticipated. If you’d told me ten years ago that writing the book(s) is the easiest part of the process, I may have reconsidered doing it.

Last Chance to Pre-Order My Best Friend, Marty

I’m happy to report that the first batch of paperbacks arrived yesterday.

I spent the morning signing and packing up pre-orders to get them out before next week’s release.

If you want a copy before release day (March 14th), tomorrow, March 6th will be the absolute last day you can get your order in with enough time for me to sign, pack, and ship it out to you.

You can pre-order your copy here. Thanks for your support!

30 Days Until “Marty” Arrives!

Several things about “My Best Friend, Marty” are hard to believe.

If you haven’t been following along, “My Best Friend, Marty” is the tale of two unlikely best friends who meet at random one night. It follows the journey of their lives over twenty years, documenting their ups and downs, their loves and lives. It’s written in the first person perspective and is semi-auto-biographical.

The first thing that’s hard to believe is that it’ll be available in just thirty days! I can’t believe the time’s gone by so quickly. Pre-order for Kindle will be available next week. Paperback and Hardcover through Amazon will be available on March 14th.

This brings me to item two, which is hard to believe: “Dudley Road” just came out 11 months ago. I’ve never written something so fast (and got through all the nonsense of editing, artwork, etc.) in my life. You’ll have to believe me when I say the story flowed out of me. It did. The more I wrote, the quicker it just came out of me. It’s probably because a good portion of what happens to Matt (the main character) and Marty (the best friend) are things that happened to me over the years. It is very much semi-auto-biographical. Those of you who know me in real life will probably try to pick out the real things and those that I made up for the book.

The last thing that’s hard to believe — at least for me — is that I just uploaded the final copies to Amazon. I’ll give them a day to process the new files and then order all of the copies I need to have on hand to fulfill pre-orders. If you haven’t pre-ordered your signed copy yet, now’s your chance! You can grab your copy here. Pre-order pricing is less than it will be on launch day, so order now and save!

I also want to thank everyone who’s supported me over the last year while I wrote this book. Everyone who’s read an advanced copy and offered suggestions. Everyone who’s commented on any post I’ve made about the book. Everyone who has already pre-ordered a copy. Everyone who’s read any of my work over the last ten years since I first published A Sour Chord. I’ve never been into writing books to make money. From the first time I published, I knew that I wouldn’t get rich doing this. But I do it anyway for a few reasons:

  1. I love telling stories. Whether in person or on paper (or eInk, as it were), I just love to do it.
  2. Knowing someone’s read something I wrote and it touched them in some way means the world to me.
  3. There’s something special about holding a physical copy of something you created.
  4. As silly as it is, having something to leave behind after I’m gone seems profound. Maybe, in a hundred years, someone will find a copy of one of my books while cleaning out their great-great-great grandmother’s basement and read it.

So, again, thank you. For continuing to pick up a book full of nonsense, I smashed into the keys of my computer over many, many days and nights and then smushed it into a cohesive story.

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you get to spend time today with someone you love. And that there’s maybe chocolates involved. Happy Valentine’s Day, Megan. Thank you for loving me and letting me love you. I don’t know what voodoo I did to convince you to marry me and spend your life with me, but I’m glad it worked. ❤️

Dudley Road Audiobook Now Available WorldWide!

If you know me by now, you know I can never focus on just one thing. So, while working to promote My Best Friend, Marty, I’ve also been working behind the scenes to get the audiobook of Dudley Road on a bunch of platforms other than Audible.

As of this morning, you can now listen to Dudley Road on Spotify, Chirp, Nook Audiobooks, Kobo, Storytel, and Libro.fm

I have 25 free codes to listen on Spotify. If you want to listen to the only spooky story I’ll likely ever tell, just get in touch and I’ll get you a code!

And if you haven’t pre-ordered your signed copy of My Best Friend, Marty yet, what are you waiting for‽‽

My Best Friend, Marty Pre-Order Now Available!

Well, friends, we made it. As of just a moment ago, My Best Friend, Marty is officially available for pre-sale in paperback and hardcover.

The Amazon versions, including Kindle, will be available on the 14th of March, which is the official release date for the book.

If you pre-order today, you’ll get discounted pricing, perhaps a little surprise offering in your shopping cart, as well as getting your hands on the book before the launch date. (I’ll start shipping them in early March).

If you want to check out the book description, it can be found here. The artwork was done by the incredibly talented Megan Handley of Definitely Pink.

Thanks so much for your support and motivation while I wrote this book. It’s the quickest I’ve ever written and published a book, which speaks volumes about how this story just poured out of me over the last twelve months. I really hope you’ll enjoy it!

Re-write incoming!

The last step with any of my books, before I publish, is to read them out loud. Sometimes, that’s to record the audiobook (like I did with Dudley Road) or to read it out loud to my wife.

As I read through My Best Friend, Marty, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to do some re-writes on the earlier chapters. Though none of the beta readers called it out, it feels like the introduction of Marty makes him a little too much of a weirdo.

Since you have no idea what I’m talking about, Marty is from Belgium. He’s recently moved to America with his father, and I made his foreign mannerisms and language a little bit too weird and outlandish.

It won’t be a huge rewrite, and I don’t think it’ll make me miss my deadline. Which, if you’ve been following along, is slated for March 14th, 2024. Once the final artwork is completed, I’ll get pre-orders up on the site here. Pre-order pricing will be much lower than retail, so be sure to get your pre-order in once they go live.

Stay tuned. And, as always, thanks for the continued support!

Beta reader feedback is great, so far!

I’m super happy to report that the feedback I’ve been getting from beta readers has, so far, been unanimously positive!

One reader, who’s read all of my other work, said, “This is my new favorite book of yours.” I take that as such a compliment. I can’t even put it into words. Another also said it might be her favorite.

I was skeptical of the first draft. I won’t lie to you. Not after all this time we’ve spent together, dear reader. I finished it, set it aside for a week, and then read it through, end to end. I felt it needed more. You know my work, right? There’s usually a big reveal or an aha moment. I, personally, didn’t feel like there was a big enough thing at the end of the book.

But it didn’t seem to matter. I’ve gotten feedback from 60% of the beta readers I sent the first draft, and they unanimously all loved it. To me, that means I should trust my gut more. That, perhaps, my process of “just write it until you think you’re done” continues to work. This crazy way I write things, without planning anything out, without picking names or places or events, without any forethought about how it’ll end. That all of this insanity in my writing process just works.

I know what you’re thinking; what about the underground bunker in Dudley Road? To which I say, “You’ll never let me live that down, will you?” I still kick myself over that, but refuse to edit the book and either take it out or explain it at the reveal at the end of the book. I made my bed, and I’ll lie in it. I never claimed to be perfect, and Dudley Road was certainly not the norm in what I write. And don’t worry, I’ll (probably) never try to write another “scary” story. It’s just not my cup of tea. But I’ll read Stephen King’s books until the day I die.

What’s next? Glad you asked.

I’ll wait for the rest of the feedback to come in, then likely read it through one more time, seeing if there’s anything I want to change.

Artwork is already in process and a copyeditor has been hired to find any misspellings or grammatically incorrect sentences.

I’m still debating if I want to do an audiobook version or not. The audiobook of Dudley Road didn’t sell well enough to recoup the cost and time I put into it, so I’m on the fence. I’m leaning toward not doing it, if I’m being honest.

The estimated release date for My Best Friend, Marty is March 14th, 2024. It’s a special day to me, which I’ll explain when that day gets here.

Editing Complete! Beta Readers Needed!

As of the other day, I’ve completed the first round of edits to “My Best Friend, Marty”. I cut around 5,000 words, found roughly 2,000 grammatical errors (which is pretty good considering it’s over 111,000 words!), and re-arranged a handful of scenes.

That said, I’m now looking for beta readers! If you aren’t familiar, a beta reader is someone who reads an early draft of something and provides honest and unfiltered feedback hoping to help the finished product become better!

If you’re interested in an early reading, let me know in the comments below and I’ll reach out to get you the file.

The summary of the book, in case you didn’t see it on social media: Matt meets Marty one night. They quickly become inseparable best friends. The book takes place over 20 years and details the ups and downs of their friendship, lives, and their relationships.

Marty’s First Draft Is Complete!

Marty's first draft is complete!
Progress Update

Well, here we are. It’s 10:30am on Tuesday July 25th, and I just wrote the last words in the first draft of “Marty”. I’m still using quotes there. You’ll see why in a minute.

Yesterday I wrote around 9,000 words, and today I wrote another 4,544 to wrap the whole thing up. The last few chapters just started flowing out of me and wrote themselves. Which seems cliche to write, but it’s true.

It clocks in at 116,435 words and I finished the draft 6 days ahead of my completely made up, self imposed schedule. Around 20% longer than my previous longest work, if memory serves (yes, I’m too lazy to go check.)

What’s next? I’m going to take a week (maybe a little more) off from it before starting editing. I need something as a palette cleanser so I can hit it with fresh eyes.

As for the quotes around the name: I started off just calling it Marty because it was intended to be a completely different thing from what it ended up as. But, when all is said and done, the title of the book is “My Best Friend, Marty.”

It’s the tale of Marty and Matt, who become best friends after a random encounter meeting, and all the things they go through in life together as they grow from young men to adults.

Stay tuned for updates as editing happens. If you’re interested in reading an early copy once I’m done editing (known as Beta reading) and providing honest and thorough feedback, drop me a line at m@mjandreau.com and we can discuss.