Jake Bible Fiction

  • The Next Way To Publish- B.A.M.F.V. and Consume

    And here they, the last two pitches of the list of ten. ALL HAIL THE LIST OF TEN!

    Starting Monday the voting will be open for a week. Y’all get to pick the top three! Suh-weet!

    Here is the audio of me reading the last two pitches B.A.M.F.V. and Consume

    Or read them below.

    Cheers!

    B.A.M.F.V.-
    Sick of the pop culture bullshit, vampires decide to come out to the world and show humanity that they’re just as varied as the race they came from. But before the vampires and the humans can come to an understanding of co-existence, the fundamentalist religions of the world declare war on the bloodsuckers. Just as an alien race targets the Earth for destruction.
    Now the same religions, along with the rest of the human race, must beg the vampires to help save them from a force even more deadly than the fanged creatures of the night. Lucky for humanity, despite their variations in physicality, temperament and appetite, every single one of the bloodsuckers are Bad Ass Mother Fucking Vampires.
    It’s Underworld meets Mars Attacks! in this crazy horror/scifi mash-up that will leave the reader cringing, crying, howling with laughter, and on the edge of their seat as those that meant to drain the last drop of blood from humanity now have to save them in order to survive.

    Consume-
    In America we are taught that Capitalism is the most important part of our society. There is debate about that amongst the many political and social organizations, but for Trey Bellamy there is no debate. The mighty dollar and all that it can buy is king in his book! Until one day he buys his morning latte and screams in pain. He is horrified to find a chunk of flesh missing from his lower leg. The ER says it is obviously the result of an animal attack. Trey knows it is obviously not. So when he goes to pay the ER bill, and two fingers are chomped off  his left hand before his eyes, Trey begins a quest to find answers to more than just his spending problems. From the high-rise offices of medical research mega-corporations to the dank basements of Hoodoo priests, Trey has to figure out how to navigate a culture that runs on paying for what you need and rejecting those that can’t. But can he find an answer before spending more money and is forever consumed?

  • The Next Way To Publish- Big Box Blood Bath and Instinct

    Is it Wednesday already? Then it must be time for another set of two pitches!

    You can find the audio of me reading the pitches right here Big Box Blood Bath and Instinct

    Or just read them below. This makes six down and only four to go then voting starts on Monday. Holy schmokes!

    Cheers!

    Big Box Blood Bath-
    The world outside BigMart is gone.
    No more.
    Adios.
    Kaput.
    Those left inside cannot leave.
    Ever.
    Naturally, real estate is divided and factions are formed upon the concrete and between the massive shelves of foodstuffs and durable goods.
    It’s men versus women, children versus the aged.
    And every aisle for itself!
    A gore-filled romp of Thunderdome meets The Mist all set in a Sam’s Club-style hell.

    Instinct-
    Peter Bremer is a man thrust into a world of brutal violence as he tries to help a friend escape the clutches of organized crime. Peter has never fired a gun, never held a knife outside of his kitchen, never been in a fight.
    Never killed anyone.
    But the man quickly finds out he’s good at all if it. Some might say he has an instinct for it.
    Especially the killing.
    Instinct is a non-stop thriller that puts Peter in harm’s way on every page. A race to the death, Instinct pulls zero punches and will leave you breathless as Peter Bremer discovers, and must come to terms with, his true nature.

  • Why Draw Lines? The Us vs. Them BS!

    Okay, so I’m gonna probably stir the hornet’s nest a bit here, but there’s something I need to get off my chest.

    Here it is: I’m really sick and tired of this “Us vs. Them” attitude in the indie publishing community. I’m also sick of it in the traditional publishing community. It’s a load of crap. Big, stinking, make you choke and gasp, pile of crap!

    Why do people insist on drawing lines in the sand?

    Now, I know my situation is different than most writers (or not). I have been published by a small press then negotiated my rights back (the publisher was more than gracious to allow this) and have since independently published my novel, DEAD MECH, on my own as an ebook (print to come soon). I have also published my collection of short stories, Bethany And The Zombie Jesus, plus several of the short stories on their own as ebooks. I’ll be publishing a collection of my Friday Night Drabble Party releases, my Scenes From The Apocalypse drabbles and a Halloween collection of drabbles soon. This puts me in the “indie publisher” category and I embrace that.

    But, there’s more! I have also written a YA zombie novel (about conjoined twins: one dead, one alive) and have found a wonderful agent that is currently in the process of shopping this to the big publishers out there. This puts me in the category of “traditional publishing”. And I’m fine with that.

    I have seen tons of forums filled with nothing but hatred for traditional publishing. The folks posting talk about how big publishing will screw you over and they are dinosaurs that are past their time. They talk about how indie publishers need to stand together and if you dare say anything counter you will be vilified on the spot. I think this is childish and highly unprofessional. It’s totally cool to want solidarity among indie publishers, I’m all for it, but to go after those that still want a traditional publishing contract is silly.

    Why is it silly? Because traditional publishers don’t screw you over, you screw yourself. They do not have a gun to your head when you sign that contract. Your family is not being threatened with bodily harm if you don’t take their royalty rates. In fact, traditional publishing could give two craps about you. They have tons of authors they are working with that need their attention (yes, we can debate the definition of “attention”) and dealing with your whining really isn’t a priority.

    This persecution myth needs to stop. Really, folks, just knock it off. If you don’t like the contract (and this applies to contracts for ANYTHING) then don’t sign it! Simple as that. Don’t. Sign. The. Contract. It’s okay to do. Many writers walk away from contracts. It’s your right, exercise it!

    Oh, but wait, you’re telling me you do want to be published by a big New York publishing firm? But you want them to bend to your will and offer you a contract on your terms? Why should they do that? They have a business to run, and as outmoded and bloated as it may be, it’s their business and not yours! Get over yourself!

    On the flip side, all the traditional publishing proponents need to stop vilifying indie publishing as the scourge that will destroy the industry! Stop saying that indie published novels are inferior in quality. Stop saying they don’t go through all the checks and balances that make for a great novel. Stop saying that ALL indie published authors are just throwing out their old rejected crap. Sure, there is a LOT of indie published crap out there. But, there is a TON of traditionally published crap too! That’s just a fact. And I have yet to see a disproportionate amount of crap coming from the indie published authors. It’s pretty much the same ratio as with traditional publishing.

    And stop saying that selling novels at $.99 is bringing the industry down! McDonalds sells cheeseburgers for less than $.99 but that hasn’t stopped anyone from going to a restaurant and paying $7.95 for a burger! It also hasn’t stopped McDonalds from being a multi-billion dollar a year company. There is decades upon decades of retail statistics that show this argument is not based in anything even resembling fact. Knock. It. Off.

    Okay, so why am I even posting this? Why go to the trouble of pointing any of this out and risk the backlash from either side?

    That’s a simple one: because the state of publishing, whether indie or traditional, is in complete chaos and being ruled by fear on both sides! No one knows how everything is going to work out. No. One. What we need to do is pull together and get to a compromise where everyone can benefit. Will that be easy to do? No. But it needs to be done.

    Does traditional publishing need to pay higher royalties? Yes. Do they need to get their head in the game when it comes to ebooks as a 100% viable, and soon to be dominant, publishing format? Absolutely.

    Do indie publishers need to come down off their cross and realize that they hold their fate in their own hands? Yes. Do they need to stop bitching about being victims in a system that they aren’t even participating in? Absolutely.

    But this doesn’t even touch what’s really important and getting missed in this stupid argument!

    What’s being missed is this: readers don’t give two craps about any of this. They just want to be entertained. They don’t know indie publishing from shinola! They just know when they’ve read a great book and when they’ve read something that was scraped off the bottom of a writer’s shoe. The argument between traditional and indie publishing means nothing to the reader! Let me say that again: The argument between traditional and indie publishing means nothing to the reader!

    Are you listening writers? Are you listening publishers? The reader doesn’t care! They. Don’t. Care. At. All.

    It’s time for EVERYONE to get over themselves. It’s not about you Mr. Author Person. It’s not about you Mr. Editor Guy. It’s not about you Mrs. Publishing Giant. It’s not about you Miss Agent Extraordinaire. It’s not about any of you. Or about me!

    It’s about the Reader. And it always has been!

    So let’s erase the sand lines and get back to what we are all supposed to be doing: giving the Reader quality product in the format they want at a price they can afford. That’s just simple business, folks. Simple business…

  • The Shadow Publications Interview!

    Yes, you read that right, Paul E. Cooley of Shadow Publications, author of the Fiends Collection, has interviewed me.

    Now, if you have never heard a podcast where Mr. Cooley and me are on together then you should be warned. Yes, you should be. What’s the warning? JEEZ! You want me to do everything for you? Golly!

    In all seriousness, you should be warned.

    Okay, I’ll stop. WARNED! Now I’ll stop.

    Great interview, great time and great guy. Check out Mr. Cooley’s info at shadowpublications.com

    The show can be found here HERE!

    Enjoy!

  • Guest Post: Jennifer Hudock Talks About Indie Publishing Standards

    Howdy Folks!

    Welcome back to the blog. Today I have a guest post by author Jennifer Hudock. She gets to express her opinions about the current indie/ebook publishing boom and some of the pitfalls that come with such an open process. I gotta say I agree with her on this. I’ll talk a little after her post about my thoughts on this and an interesting question I have.

    So kick back and enjoy!

    Jennifer Hudock is an indy author, podcaster and editor from Northern Central Pennsylvania. You can check out her first full-length dark fantasy novel, The Goblin Market, on Amazon and Smashwords. For more information visit her official website: The Inner Bean.

    Find her website HERE
    Her Amazon fiction is HERE
    Smashwords fiction is HERE

    Click those links and have at it!

    From Jennifer:

    “The world is changing. I feel it in the earth. I feel it in the water. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is forgotten; for none now live who remember it…”—Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring film adaptation

    As I was stealing that quote from Lord of the Rings, all I could think about was how fast the publishing industry is changing. There very well may come a day when the children of our grandchildren don’t remember those rectangular things made of paper that you and I call books, though they may still read on their portable electronic gadgets. For all I know, by that time they’ll plug something into the back of their head and download Moby Dick into their brain.

    Which brings me to my future conspiracy nightmare… I worry that they won’t read good (poor grammar intended.)

    Thanks to the Internet we are now connected to nearly every humming hub in the world. We download everything from movies and music to magazines and books, and those same humming hubs allow us to share our creative work with a universal audience.

    As an independent author who has chosen to publish her work outside the confines of “big publishing” I feel responsible for the readers of tomorrow.

    A lot of authors are taking the fate of their work into their own hands, and some are just putting their words out there without so much as a self-imposed proofread, much less the careful eye of an editor or beta reader. Some of those authors are even making a killing selling their independently published books in print and electronic format because the subject material is appealing to young reading audiences, even though some of the writing itself is subpar.

    We get excited as writers. We finish a novel or story and because we wrote with the gleeful intent of sharing it with readers, our first instinct is to throw it out into the world without another thought. Maybe there are plot inconsistencies (cough—Charlaine Harris,) or long passages fraught with poorly written sentences and even worse grammar. I realize that using Charlaine Harris in my parenthetical cough doesn’t apply because she publishes traditionally at this point in her career, but big publishing set a standard of mediocrity that independent authors need to break.

    Indy publishing has had a bad reputation for a long time. You tell someone you self-published your novel and they laugh at you. They may even say you’re not really an author and your books don’t count, but as independent authors we have a duty to our readers. We can up our standards, spend the extra time proofreading our work, hire an editor to help clean up your work and take a stand to prove that indy authors are just as good as, and some cases maybe even better than traditionally published authors.

    I’m not perfect, but I know I owe my readers more than poorly strewn together sentences. I owe them more than bad grammar and missing punctuation, n3tsp34K and truncated phrases like “Late!” reminiscent of yesteryear’s “See you later.” And I know I owe not just the readers of tomorrow, but the writers too. By taking the initiative to ensure that our work is the absolute best it can be before we put it out into the world, we set an example for the writers who follow in our footsteps.

    From Jake:

    Thanks, Jenny! Great stuff, really.

    As a writer I agree with this 100%. The more crud put out there the harder it will be for those of us that really work at our craft to gain a professional reputation within the writing community as a whole. She’s right on with this.

    But, I have to wonder about something. After years of being in sales and marketing, specifically natural products/supplement sales, I have watched marketing companies cram the marketplace with “cure” supplements and basically, well, sawdust in a capsule. The interesting part of this is that there would be an initial backlash against all supplement companies when the frauds were weeded out, but then there would be a big push in sales for the good guys, the ones with ethics, morals and a right good product!

    Why? Because there was publicity! But, most of all, customers aren’t total idiots. Those that hadn’t heard of a certain supplement, but needed that supplement, were now looking at the good guys’ formulas for help and relief. Without the scam companies, these folks would never have heard of some of this stuff.

    So I ask, can this be applied to indie/ebook publishing as well? Can bad writing spur on a search for quality? Will quality rise to the top like cream? (Mmmm, cream…) Will the debate just bring more and more customers to the ebook marketplace?

    I don’t know the answer to any of this, really only time will tell. Can’t wait to find out, though!

    Thanks everyone and be sure to check out all of Jennifer’s links. In fact, let me post them again:

    Find her website HERE
    Her Amazon fiction is HERE
    Smashwords fiction is HERE

    Cheers!