Red Sox Opening Day

Hi there,

If you read my last blog, you know there’s all kinds of events scheduled locally to get the word out on “Frame Up,” the very first novel in the “Fenway Burke Series.” “Frame Up” has opened to nothing but FOUR and FIVE STAR rave reviews, (go to jamesphoenixnovels.com and click on to “Praise for the Author”.  You’ll get quite an eye full.)

The reader reaction has been even stronger.

Just as “Robert B. Parker” used his great hero, “Raymond Chandler” as his role model, so I’m using the late “Robert B. Parker” as mine.

As “Chandler was to “Parker,” so “Parker” is to “Phoenix.”

They’re billing me as “The Next Robert B. Parker” and the readers agree whole- heartedly. Before we got a single review in we heard back from 310 ribald “Parker” fans. After having read my work, they were asked just two questions:

1. Is the work of “James Phoenix” on a par with his great hero, “Robert B. Parker?”
   
   
2. Would you buy it?

I wimped out and cut the official survey off after the 310 on the grounds that somebody had to come around and spoil my perfect record, had to happen. But we went 310 to 0 in favor. We did not have a single “Parker” fan answer NO to either question...NOT ONE.

Based on that response, I got my publisher to go along with one hell of a special offer, never before seen anywhere.

“If you don’t love, love, love the work of James Phoenix, DON”T PAY FOR IT.” Here’s the link below for that offer.

http://www.jamesphoenixnovels.com/facebook-landing-page.html   

So the big question is, why in the name of God, with a response like this, isn’t “James Phoenix” on the NY Times Best Seller List?

The answer’s very simple, because I came from completely out of the blue.

I had zero in the way of connections, no literary background at all, and to make matters worse, though I had offers from four of the biggest publishers in the world, I signed with a small publisher who offered a much higher royalty.

There’s only one reviewer that matters to a new author, and that’s “Publishers Weekly.” That’s because every book seller in the Western Hemisphere and beyond uses them as a guide to which books to buy.

Had I signed with “Random House” for example, I would have received a much lower royalty, BUT PUBISHERS WEEKLY WOULD HAVE BEEN FAR MORE LIKELY TO ACTUALLY READ & REVIEW MY WORK.

Live & Learn.

I don’t have that to do over again, but it doesn’t matter, because within the next 30 days, “Publishers Weekly” will have the ARC, “Advanced Reading Copy,” of “Loose Ends,” the second ‘Fenway Burke Novel in the Series,” in their hands.

We could not have hoped for a stronger reviews or reader reaction than we received for “Frame Up".

But I see “Loose Ends” as even stronger and so do my editors and the readers surveyed.

And now of course, I’m no longer coming from out of the blue. “Frame Up” made quite a splash with the other reviewers and on top of that, I have people now with me who’ve either themselves been reviewed by “Publishers Weekly” or are connected to writers who have, every single one of them making noise on the behalf of my favorite author, “James Phoenix.”

“Publishers Weekly” receives a thousand plus submissions a week...But even so, “James Phoenix” and “Loose Ends” are going to be very difficult to ignore.

And so my Grand Adventure continues...

James Phoenix