Tag: The American Archipelago: Book 1 – The Sniper

How the Mighty Hath Fallen

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So, I put a chapter of “The Sniper” up on Royal Road about a week ago.  And shortly afterward I received a rejection from them because the story was also on Amazon and this website (OCF) and I had to prove to them that both those copies belonged to me.  They wanted me to add in my Amazon Jake Barter author page that I was putting the story up on Royal Road.  So, I had to figure out how to do that and whether this would cause a bad reaction by Amazon.  After all, Amazon sells my book for money and Royal Road lets people read it for free.  Well, the day before yesterday I tried putting up the statement about Royal Road but the author page rejected the edit.  It turns out that I couldn’t use Royal Road’s actual internet address on Amazon but I could just use the name of the site.  And then I had to prove that OCF was my website by a similar message and then, voila!  They put the first chapter of my book up on their site and so far, nine people have read it.  Well, that not much.  But I figure it’ll be fun to see if I can get much interest on that site.

Apparently, Gen Z frequents the site to read fan fic called “Lit RPG.”  Now, my book is neither fan fic nor Lit RPG.  So, it’s not certain that I will find an audience there.  But I’m interested in testing the waters.  I also put it up at BookFunnel and the good folks over at Whatfinger were kind enough to put up a link to that site and I got 14 e-mail addresses of people who downloaded the book there.  So, a little at a time I’m getting more visibility for the book.  I’m at 187 sales on Amazon and I’ve accumulated 34 ratings and 29 reviews with a cumulative rating of 4.7 and some very nice reviews that were definitely encouraging.

Once the experiments on Royal Road and BookFunnel have run their course I intend to put the book on KDP Select which requires the book to be exclusively on Amazon for at least 90 days.  Supposedly the low-cost barrier to reading on this program will attract the maximum number of “eyeballs” to the story and I’m very curious to see how that effects sales.  And I’m not particularly hoping to make a lot more money that way but rather I’m hoping for much more exposure.

So, the great book publishing experiment grinds on.  My hopes for international fortune and fame have been dashed on the sharp rocks of harsh reality.  My dream of movie studio executives battling each other in front of the Compound to see whose blockbuster offer would land the movie rights to this timeless masterpiece has gone up in smoke.  At this point I’m negotiating with the Dunwich Middle School to have the sixth grade put on a one act play version of Chapter 1.  Is this how Heinlein got started?  How, the mighty hath fallen.

The Psychology of the Individual and What Not

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So now I have to start writing book two of my series.  And boy, that’s a wide-open operation.  You see I wrote the book based on the idea of a father’s revenge.  And all the stuff that grew out of that was seat of the pants writing that came to me as things that would make the story more fun.  I invented Connors to give Bogey a powerful friend who owed him.  I invented Cutter to facilitate the impossible task of Bogey being invisible to the surveillance state.  I invented Chastain to have a conflicted antagonist to provide resistance to the protagonist but also acknowledge the justice of his cause.  All of these major characters and the plot elements they involve just grew out of the desire to tell Bogey’s story in an interesting and dramatic way.  But Bogey’s crusade is over.  He won.  He steps out of the center stage.  Now what?

It’s not an easy question to answer because I need a direction to go.  Certain things are now baked in.  The United States government nuked some of its own citizens.  A shadowy tech giant took down Washington DC with a technology nobody (including me!) truly understands.  This weakened United States is struggling to hold onto the allegiance of many states that have seen its unjust criminal actions exposed and want to free themselves from its tyrannical control.  That’s a lot of stuff going on.  It’s like the cue ball hitting the racked balls on the nose and scattering them across the table.  All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put things back together again.  So, we have to dodge around the flying wreckage and wait for the ricochets to subside before planning the next move.  Of course, I could cheat and place the next story five, ten or even twenty years into the future and announce some faits accomplis as ancient history.  And I know that is the lazy way out but, after all, I am an extremely lazy man.

But all of that is still only the window dressing of the story.  Hanging together a future history is relatively easy.  What I really need is another character with as compelling a problem as Bogey had with his son.  But really the two elements are linked.  Bogey’s problem grew out of the injustice of the society he lived in and his war against this injustice gives the story its trigger but the larger effect also has to be an interesting story too.  So, I need another personal story wrapped up in the tumult I have set loose on my imaginary world.  So, what I’m looking for is a personal story that is tied up in the larger actions that I’ve unleashed and that takes the world in a direction I think will be interesting and lead to further stories and actions beyond.  The only problem is where to start.  Hmmm.

“I fear I have nothing to suggest at the moment, sir.”

“Come, come, Jeeves!” 

“I fear not, sir. Possibly after I have seen the lady—-“

“You mean, you want to study the psychology of the individual and what

not?”

“Precisely, sir.”

An Honest Review

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In the last few days, I’ve been getting a few more reviews on Amazon for the “The Sniper.”  And today I got my first somewhat negative comments.  Take a look.


4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven political thriller good for a slow day

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2026

Format: Kindle

The Sniper is a good, but uneven political thriller.
It’s not particularly deep, but entertaining. I liked the plot. I liked most of the characters.
The lack of a star was in the author’s (and maybe the editor’s) lack of basic writing. While the beginning of the novel is a great premise, the lack of detail is astonishing. It’s like someone describing a video game, but just the broad strokes. I read for the details.
The other nitpicky thing is that the basics of prose dialogue is ignored entirely. An exchange between two characters is all one paragraph. And then there’s the commas (or lack thereof). It’s the classic of “Is it Thanksgiving or cannibalism?”
It’s a casual read. If you can read past the details, the general plot is pretty good.

 

Very interesting.

The Good:

  • The Sniper is a good … political thriller.
  • … entertaining. I liked the plot. I liked most of the characters.
  • … the beginning of the novel is a great premise
  • … the general plot is pretty good

The Bad:

  • … uneven
  • It’s not particularly deep
  • … the lack of detail is astonishing. It’s like someone describing a video game, but just the broad strokes. I read for the details.
  • If you can read past the details

The Ugly:

  • The other nitpicky thing is that the basics of prose dialogue is ignored entirely. An exchange between two characters is all one paragraph. And then there’s the commas (or lack thereof). It’s the classic of “Is it Thanksgiving or cannibalism?”

Yes, very interesting.  First of all, this is honest criticism.  This fellow doesn’t know me from Adam and he doesn’t owe me anything.  That’s valuable to someone who wants to know whether his writing is any good.  So, look at the things he likes; “entertaining. I liked the plot. I liked most of the characters.”  Those are the most important basics of a story.  That’s pretty good.

Look at the criticism; “uneven, not particularly deep, lack of details are astonishing.”  He wants more!  Okay, that’s a problem.  This reader probably wants lots more technical description.  So, in terms of the mining equipment and the technology for collapsing the earth under a city he wants the details.  Fair enough.  Well, there will be sequels and we can get that stuff fleshed out to satisfy the technical type.  But since this book was about Bogey and he wasn’t a technical guy, I left that stuff aside.  When Connors and Cutter get their stories, I’ll geek out on the details.  So that’s okay.

Now for the ugly, I’m guessing that the reviewer was an author or an editor himself.  I decided not to use a professional proofreader/editor for the book.  I felt comfortable with the level of standard English I could provide.  The reviewer is obviously very sensitive to the conventions of professional editing.  And that’s legitimate but I’m guessing a lot of my readers won’t be as sensitive to that level of editorial finish.

So, I’m pretty happy with that review.  I got an honest review and four out of five stars is pretty damn good news.  So, I’m hoping to get a bunch more reviews and who knows I might even get an honest 3 stars from someone.  I can take it.

Time to Make the Donuts

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So, I’m busy, busy, busy with my giveaway on BookFunnel (here’s the link).  I’m also seeing if I can put part or all of it up on a site called Royal Road.  And I’m posting links on my X feed to try to connect with the wider world.  And if any of you want a free copy or have any friends who might like the story, please pass the link along to them.

Well, in addition to all this I’ve been drafted into a publicity campaign for the Dunwich Republicans.  I’ve got to awaken a “sleeping giant.”  But it’s more like a geriatric midget in a coma.  So even if I can drum up new blood, I’m afraid they’ll just show up, hear there’s work to be done and say, “Looks like you’re doing a great job.  CARRY ON!!!

But one must do the best one can.  As old TR used to remind us it’s “The Man in the Arena” that counts.  Unfortunately, I feel more like the Christian being fed to the lions in that arena.

Well, the weather is just as uncertain as ever with one day being seventy degrees and the next day featuring snow flurries but we’ve definitely turned a corner and the Great Southern Ice Sheet is barely a foot thick and receding rapidly.  All the spring flowers are budding and the turtles are sitting on the dead log in the swamp.  The mallards must be awaiting the hatching of their eggs and even the local pair of hawks seem to be hyperactive, probably getting food for their nest.

Listening to Andy Weir talk to the Critical Drinker about his book “The Martian” was kind of exciting.  I think anyone who writes a book secretly desires to be that guy who hits the jackpot and has the world beat a path to his door.  I mean, I know it’s ridiculously unlikely for a number of reasons for my book to be a big seller.  It’s in a very restricted corner of the marketplace based on politics and demographics and trying to get advertising is like pulling teeth.  But I confess I not-so-secretly dream of the book going viral and selling tons and tons of copies.  I guess when the dust settles, I’ll probably be in a funk for a while but I think it was still a good experience to try my hand at something I’ve wanted to do since I was a teenager.

And I’ll say that I don’t think that writing a good book is beyond my talents.  But self-publishing and self-marketing is not for the faint of heart.  It takes money and a lot of hard work to promote a book in the current marketplace.  And that’s the part I don’t enjoy at all.  Playing cat and mouse with the Amazon algorithm isn’t my idea of a fun occupation.  It’s more like going to the dentist’s office than something associated with creativity.

Ah well.  Whine, whine, whine.  Time to make the donuts.  Onward and upward.  Excelsior!

Book Funnel Sniper Giveaway

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That’s right get your free pdf copy of “The Sniper.” All that’s needed is to provide your e-mail address and view my harrangue at the end of the book to leave a review on Amazon. What’s fairer than that? Don’t answer that! It’s a rhetorical question as part of my sales pitch.  Let me know if there are any problems with the download.  This is my first attempt to use BookFunnel.

 

Click Here for Link to Sniper Giveaway

 

 

Riding High on a Horse in a Star-Spangled Rodeo

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So, I’m making the plunge.  I’ve joined BookFunnel and I’ll be running a giveaway for e-copies of the “The Sniper” starting pretty soon.  The trick now will be to get as much visibility for the giveaway as I can.  So, I’ll publicize it here (of course) and I’ll put up a post on X and I’ll tell everybody I can think of that likes this kind of story.  My plan, such as it is, is to use the giveaway to garner as many reviews as I can and try to get the book more attention.  And after that I’ll put it up on Kindle Unlimited to tempt the general public that tests out its fiction one page at a time.

Will it work?  Well, I certainly hope it will but I’ll find out for sure whether I can interest the world at large.  I was listening to the Critical Drinker interview Andy Weir about the success of two of his books being turned into movies.  But I was just as interested in his story about self-publishing.  His “The Martian” was self-published on Amazon and struggled to find an audience in the beginning.  So, it’s kind of that one in a million-success story that inspires the other 999,999 writers out there toiling away in obscurity.  So just to clear the air ahead of time, for the movie version of “The Sniper,” I want Adam Baldwin to play Bogey and Gary Oldman to play Cutter.  Nick Searcy would make a good Chastain.  As for Connors, I haven’t made up my mind.  And the other parts are also up for grabs but definitely no Hollywood weirdos; that’s for sure.  I think Christopher Walken would make a good President Miller.  He’s always able to provide a memorably psychopathic character when required.  Of course I’m hoping to get myself a bit part.  Sort of like how Stan Lee always got a cameo in the Marvel superhero movies.  Maybe I can be one of the clerks at the airport in Baghdad.  I think I could really handle the part with style and finesse.  Sort of a latter-day Olivier.

But I will say it is a little discouraging to see just how much grunt work there is in navigating the world of self-publishing.  The experts don’t really seem to know that much more than the people wandering around in the dark like me.  Sure, they have a sense of things like keywords and how to attach to other books that are already popular but it doesn’t seem like they can tap into any magic formula for shining a spotlight on a new book.  It reminds me of that Glenn Campbell song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Where hustle’s the name of the game and nice guys get washed away by the snow and the rain.”  Of course, that’s a little dramatic because I’m doing this from the comfort of my dining room where it’s relatively warm and dry.  But metaphorically I’m pounding that digital pavement so I can sing the blues along with Mr. Campbell.

Various Public Relations

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So, Tuesday I have a meeting with my marketer to see how I can achieve more of my goals for the launch.  The book seems to be sustaining sales but I’m not satisfied with the visibility with respect to reviews and general profile.  As I’ve mentioned I’m going to find out just how large a giveaway I can expect to perform.  Now, I have no idea whether this makes any sense at all.  After all, as a tactic giving something away for free seems to be defeating the purpose of sales.  But my whole reason for writing this book, is to get other people to read it too.  And if you’re competing with literally millions of other books and some of them have multi-billion-dollar companies marketing them then it may take extreme methods to break out of obscurity and catch the public’s eye.  And then again, I may just be kidding myself.  But I think I’m very close to making a decision on the path forward.

And there’s not much time left before I’ll be overtaken by other responsibilities and projects.  First Selectman Cthulhu has selected me as his personal spokesman with responsibilities for communicating his agenda to both the human population of Dunwich and also the trans-dimensional realm of the Great Old Ones.  That’s right I’ll be updating his LinkedIn and TikTok pages.  Currently he’s asked me to edit out the use of words like crush, dismember, maim and devour in his recent communications.  He’s up for re-election and he needs to finesse his image quite a bit.  I’ve suggested he watch several of the recent Godzilla movies and figure out how to mimic the joie de vivre of that radioactive reptile who has managed to cultivate a laid back and avuncular style in the last few years.  I told him he might want to think about a facelift.  But then he reminded me that technically he really doesn’t have a face.  It’s more of a foot with eyes, mouth and tentacles.  Well, a rose by any other name.

On the home front, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard have returned to dismal puddle and seemed very satisfied with whatever slop has run into the swamp.  Also, a pair of wood ducks have also appeared but I notice they are much more skittish than the mallards.  Well, it takes all kinds.  So far, we haven’t seen any ducklings.  Time will tell.

And I’ve cut down all of the raspberry canes and put about five pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer on the bed in anticipation of a bumper crop this year.  I’m hoping it will expand significantly beyond the current patch and eventually triple into the whole garden.  This is a matter of turning necessity into a virtue since nothing else seems to flourish besides raspberries in that soggy area.

The southern ice sheet has retreated back to the massive driveway pile which is now only three feet high.  At the current rate of retreat, I calculate it will disappear completely by Memorial Day.  At which point the last of it will end up in my drink cooler for that barbecue event.

Well, things are moving apace.  Excelsior!

OCF E-Book Giveaway of “The Sniper”

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Today I sold my 150th copy of “The Sniper” on Amazon and I’m looking to get more reviews and ratings.  So to increase the availability of the book I’m looking to send complimentary (free) e-book copies to folks here on the website who want one.

Just e-mail me here and I’ll send one back to that e-mail address.  Feel free to be honest with your review.  It’s better to get honest criticism than fake praise.

It Could Be Huge

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Just as I planned, we ate a late and leisurely breakfast today.  It was as warm and sunny as forecast.  Walking out in the sun by a frozen lake was very enjoyable and I even took a few photos just to prove I still remember how.  Then Camera Girl and I drove over to the big city (ha!) and had some Thai food.  Splendiferous.

I went over the communication I received from my book marketer and set up what I hope is a productive post-launch meeting where I can finalize a plan to finish off the launch with a large number of readers getting their hands on the book in the next week or so.

Apparently, there is a website called BookFunnel that will allow me to run a giveaway in exchange for the customer’s e-mail address.  This will facilitate follow-on advertising of my sequel books and other writing projects.  In conjunction with this the marketer thinks I should produce a follow-on epilog or teaser to entice the readers to sign up for some program of material that I will produce in the future.  All very interesting, but what I’m also interested in finding out is whether the traction I created with the launch is indicative of a book and sequels that will be popular or not very popular.  I basically don’t have any real knowledge about what a popular book start-up looks like.

I’ve sold a little over a hundred and twenty copies to date and that doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming response by the book buying public.  I was hoping for more like a hundred and twenty million copies or even a hundred and twenty thousand copies.  I’ve had to cancel my rental of MetLife Stadium for my book signing event.  Instead, I’ve taped together three or four of the boxes that Camera Girl gets her dog food bags delivered in and set them up in the lower driveway.  I hope it doesn’t rain soon.  That tape’s not so strong.  I’ll be giving away free key chains with the name of my local mechanic on them.  He had them out on the counter and I thought he wouldn’t mind if I took a few (or all) of them.  I don’t think he bought one of my books so I think it’ll be alright.

For my next book, maybe I’ll attempt to reach viral status using a best-seller adjacent name.  In other words, I’ll make it sound like some other popular work.  For instance, “Reacher” is a very commercially lucrative series.  So maybe I could have a series with a character named “Reached.”  He could be like Reacher only in the past tense.  So instead of being enormously large and strong I’ll make my character big but kind of old and worn out.  Sort of like Reacher in thirty years.  And he could fight crime but only in retirement villages and old age homes.  And his tag line will be, “What did you say?  Speak up you young punk!”  I think it could be huge.

08MAR2026 – This’N’That

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Today I spent a chunk of time with a roof rake pulling snow off the lower roofs.  These roofs have heavy plastic cleats glued to the metal to keep the snow from sliding into the gutters but there was so much snow that the weight cracked the glue and so these enormously heavy blocks of ice and snow were falling down onto the upper and lower driveways and blocking the routes we use to reach the road.  So, I forced the issue and pulled down all (most) of the snow with the rake and then spent a few hours moving the snow away with a shovel and wheelbarrow.  I was planning to use the snowblower to move the snow but all those plastic cleats would be bad for the rotating parts and it would have taken me so long to separate them out using a garden rake that I said, “to hell with it” and just used the wheelbarrow and shovel.  Well, they say work develops character and Camera Girl says I’m a character so it must be working.

I’ve had some interesting conversations on X with another author and he seemed genuinely interested in how my characters would advance in a sequel so I told him I should send him the e-book and then he could see the challenges I’m going to face deciding how I’ll clean up the mess I’ve created in the first book.  Also, I’m hoping to get a review out of him.  Of course, he’s not a genre fiction author so it may not be his cup of tea so I may not get a highly positive review but honest feedback is valuable so I’m interested.

Tomorrow, third grandson is coming over to spend time with us and absorb mass quantities of spaghetti and meatballs followed by mint chocolate chip ice cream.  He’s starting high school next year so I’ll have to try and up my game.  I wonder what form of entertainment he’ll favor.  I know this year his whole family has been on a hockey kick.  While hockey is far from my favorite form of entertainment, I feel I must try to adapt myself to the grandkids as best I can.  After all they’re the future and I’m practically extinct.

I got in touch with my marketer and said I wanted to discuss strategies to maximize numbers of readers by minimizing cost to the reader (up to and including giveaways).  She said I should make a point to collect e-mail addresses to allow for follow up advertising for sequels.  I will study her message and formulate some specific questions to facilitate getting answers at the meeting.  I’ve found marketing a book is an onerous task that’s far from fun.  At this point I want a strategy that sustains itself with minimal demands on my time.  But I may not get the answers I’m hoping for.

Alright, that’s enough for now.  I’m trying to stay away from the news of wars and scandals and elections and other tawdry concerns.  The world is certainly a messy place.