Ghost Shadow: Unfinished Sins
What Do I Need?
While there are many ways to achieve promotion of this novel at low cost or no lost, there are several areas where immediate cash will be required.
- I need to purchase and ship copies of the novel for reviewers across Canada and in the United States. It's also possible that certain influential international reviewers may be interested. Example:cost to mail one review copy, on average, about $32.50 (novel=$18.99, packaging and inserts=$2.00, postage=$8.00-$15.00). It doesn't take many review copies for that to really add up.
- While some bookstores will purchase books for launches and signings, there's a possibility I may need to buy back unsold books at cost. (I will do my best to make sure no book goes unsold.)
- In bookstores where I self-book a reading and signing (in effect, borrow the store's space) I may have to purchase the books to sell and bring them with me.
- I'd like to organize a promotional tour to bookstores in cities across Canada or, at the very least, across the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, the two with the largest book-reading populations. While I would travel on a slim budget, travel expenses still need to be paid.
- For launches, signings, or a bookstore tour, promotional needs such as posters, promotional cards, and advertisements must be paid for, usually in advance in the case of advertisements.
What Can I Do For You?
- For any amount, from one dollar up, you will receive my eternal gratitude.
- For any amount over $30, I will also send you a copy of the novel direct from the printer.
- For any amount over $50, I will send you a personally signed copy of the novel.
- For any amount over $75, I will also send you a copy of Poem de Terre's most recent CD release, War & Love, featuring my words spoken and sung over original music.
- For any amount over $100, I will also send you a personally signed early copy of the next novel in this series when it is published.
- For for these and further gifts, please check the VIP Perks section in green at the right side of this page.
- Is there anything else I can do for you? Tell me about it and let's see what we can work out.
How Else Can You Help?
- Using Facebook, Twitter, e-mail lists, or any way you can, let others know about this project listing on IndiGoGo.
- Also spread the word about this novel and let people know it's available at online bookstores (or will be in about a week).
- Take some time to read the preview scenes and discover something of what this story is all about.
- Tell all your friends, co-workers, and acquaintances about this novel.
- Include this novel to discuss at your book club.
- If you have the time or can provide any products or services to help promote this novel, please let me know. (We'll attach a cash-value so you can enjoy the thank you gifts listed above.)
What's the Project?
Ghost Shadow: Unfinished Sins is a taut, suspenseful thriller strongly influenced by writers such as Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene, and Elmore Leonard. Here's a synopsis of the novel as printed on the front page of the book's e-store:
In mid-Eighties Windsor, Vietnamese gangs and Chinese organized crime meet head on in violent turf war as they go after a University of Windsor anthropology professor and $2,000,000 in ancient treasure he stole from China. Meanwhile, a brutal serial rapist and killer terrorizes the city.
Three psychologically damaged women - the professor's wife, his 17 year old daughter, and a private detective - are drawn into this world of brutal psychological terror, raw physical and emotional violence, and international crime and intrigue. Can they survive?
In the tradition of Graham Greene and Elmore Leonard. Working on several levels, this psychological crime thriller is also the story of how these three women cope and ultimately survive their journey into hell.
Payge Turner was considered a good cop. At least she was until she was asked to leave the Windsor Police Force for an unprovoked angry attack on a suspect. Payge has a darkness in her that made her dangerous to work with and difficult to control.
Now Payge is a private detective. It's easier to control her darkness when she works alone.
Payge's mind is on the current rash of brutal rape-murders in Windsor when she is hired to investigate the disappearance of 17 year old Susan Markham, the daughter of a respected anthropologist. Susan doesn't fit the rapist's M.O., but Payge begins to suspect something more sinister has happened to this attractive student.
Within days, Payge must cope with the turf war between oriental gangs, stolen Chinese treasure, a father who seems unconcerned that his daughter has been kidnapped, and a client who isn't telling her everything. The dark streets of Windsor hide secrets in bars, in families, in the shaded corners where rapists hide.
Joining forces with her old police partner, Yvonne Laforet, Payge is soon on the trail of the missing woman. What she doesn't realize is that the most frightening thing she'll discover is hidden deep within herself.
The novel is about to be released for sale. It will be available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other respected online bookstores as well as at Barnes and Noble and other bricks-and-mortar bookstores across North America. Book launches are planned at bookstores in Kingston and Windsor, Ontario, to be followed by launches and book signings in cities across Canada. The first official launch will be held on October 14, 2010 at Novel Idea, an independent bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. This launch will be hosted by local author Violette Malan, who is very supportive of this novel. Book reviews are now being solicited and several reviewers have already agreed to read ands review the book. Other media promotion, such as interviews with the author, is also being arranged in the near future.
You can also read previews of several scenes from the novel, available online.
While I have published prose fiction before, this will be my first published novel. If it is successful, it will pave the way for future novel publications. In fact, this story is meant to be the first in a series featuring the same detective. This may also benefit other authors. As a member of the Canadian writing community, I am aware of a number of excellent novelists who have high quality, sellable novel manuscripts which are not being published by the big firms. In the process of publishing my own novel, I've set up an imprint, Dark Matter Press, to publish not just my own writing but that of others as well. As this novel is a test-case for my own series, it is also a test-case for Dark Matter Press. With successful publication and marketing of this first novel, I will be able to publish other authors in the future.
Who Am I?
My name is Bob MacKenzie. I am a widely published Canadian poet and arts journalist (reviews and commentary) and a performer of words with music. I have published hundreds of poems across North America.in magazines and journals as well as many anthologies. To date, I have published six books of poetry and prose fiction and six albums of my performances with the group Poem de Terre. Check me out at the A Canadian Poet website or go direct to my Arts Biography. In addition to being an established literary writer, I have a strong background in print and broadcast media, marketing, and publishing. Recently, I decided to self-publish my novel Ghost Shadow: Unfinished Sins, a psychological thriller set in the Canadian border community of Windsor, Ontario. Just under the surface, even a peaceful Canadian border city has its dark side.