I probably shoudn't have done that. I probably should have written the second last chapter of Cairo instead. But they backed a truckload of money up to my door.

What could I do?

*tears our last of hair, rends sack cloth*

WHAT COULD I DOOOOO?

I'd been putting off a return to Facebook for a long time, but I'd known for at least a year I'd have to slink back there with my tail between my legs. It's the advertising. Increasingly online ads are served up by either the Book of Face, or el Goog, or nobody.

Building a mailing list, I had no choice. Facebook's creepy omniscience makes it too powerful to ignore. It is the stalker at all our windows.

Still, I can try to control things. I've set up an offical JB Books page where I wont be posting cat videos or personal info. It's all about the merch.

Go like the page. They tell me that's important.

I've been testing out the advertising back end, which is insanely powerful, but which has a bit of a learning curve. It's chewed up a couple of mornings now, putting me behind schedule with Cairo. I've got the Page working as I want now, however, and can get back to the book, which is two chapters from done.

Thanks to all those who have signed up so far. The spam factory is running around the clock and will soon extrude the first glistening pink tube of industrial grade processed meat product.

Mmmm... delicious direct marketing goodness.

I'm waiting until I hit a set number of sign ups from the Burger, however, for a good reason. The same reason I haven't mentioned this project anywhere else because I want the initial subscribers to come only from here. The Burger is my stronghold on the web. It is where my Centurions gather.

From you I will draw the murderous, blood thirsty champions of the campaign I will fight to ensure world domination when...

Er...

That didn't come out right.

Let me try that again. I want to build out my ebook business next year. Finish (finally) Stalin's Hammer. Start (finally) a return to The Disappearance. And open up some new storyworlds, including a classic space opera. Not all of these will happen under the aegis of my trade publishers. (They're not much interested in long form space opera, for instance).

The newsletter, as a marketting channel I can control, will be a big part of all this. If everything just rolls along, and Season 2 of HOOPER comes out sometime next year with Pan Mac and Random House and Titan, the newsletter will help sell that series. If I decide to take more control of my own business (or I ever have that decision thrust upon me) the mailing list I'm building now becomes even more important than serving as simple channel for a newsletter.

I'd be looking for Beta readers for more than The Oral History of the Monstyr Wars, for instance, and I'd be looking for them here. Not on Twunter or Farcebuck. The mailing list provides an immediate pool of trustworthy candidates because the first couple of hundred names are all long time Burgers. When it came time to pimp the books, everyone who signed up first and was interested in coming along for the ride, would get sorted into a small, bespoke, and highly fucking exclusive list for free Advance Reader Copies.

You wouldn't be reading these freebies to help me with editing. They'd already be edited. You'd be reading them for fun. And because, if you liked the books, upon release you could hit the online stores en masse and shit out sparkling 88 Star reviews like a herd of Unicorns with explosive magic diarrhoea.

Who wouldn't want that?

You can sign away your soul and all associated property rights here.

It's a fleeting visit. I fly in lunchtime on Saturday, and out again Sunday evening. I have a couple of sessions on for the Festival.

Saturday 2.30-4.00 pm "Ask a Columnist" for Writer's Victoria.

Sunday 11.30-12.30 "Monsters and Mayhem." Gettin' down with The Dave!

If you can find a way to get to either, I'm always happy to catch up.

I'm planning to drop into Mark Dapin's book launch at Fed Square, 5.30 on Saturday for a few fizzy sherbets.

Saturday night the publishers sometimes spirit us away somewhere to a party. I'll check on that, but Sunday arvo drinks, or even breakfast might be nice.

Not sure why, but we have trolls. Possibly related to a tweet I sent about the Reclaim Australia rallies. You'll notice the occasional one line comment, usually abusing the first commenter in any given thread. I have snuffed out a hand full already.

Those with access to the comment deletion cannon may now exercise free fire privileges.

Inspired by Steve Stirling’s imminent anthology I’d like to run an idea past you all. As you know, there are two Dave Hooper ebooks coming out later this year – although Dave is only mentioned in one (SOUL FULL OF GUNS), and appears as an extra in the other (A PROTOCOL FOR MONSTERS), with no point of view passages. These will be the last big releases for the series this year, but I have two other possible side projects involving the Dave, and potentially involving y’all, at least in one case.
I’d like to publish a collection of fanfic stories from Dave World, but in a very particular way. I want to collect eye witness accounts of the war between the UnderRealms and the Above. An obvious example of this format from recent genre fiction is World War Z, but WWZ was itself drawn from Studs Terkel’s excellent oral history of WW2, The Good War.

What I’m looking for are first hand accounts from all over the world of the week the monsters came back. It could be your personal account. You could take on the role of another. I’m going to write a bunch of them myself, and I’ll edit those that come in. Some, I'll edit heavily.
Now the deets and logistics.
I’m planning to release this as a free book, almost certainly self published. It’s an experiment. I won’t be getting paid. You won’t be getting paid. But there is of course a benefit to me.
It’s funny how that works out.
I’ll be using this book to gather email addresses for a newsletter I plan to start publishing in the second half of the year. Long story short, anyone can get this ebook for free. At the end of the book there’ll be a link to a sign up page for the newsletter. Anyone who signs up gets a second book for free. Probably Demons of Buttecracke County. Yes, I’m going there.
Buttecracke will also be a self published experiment (pending approval from the various publishing Death Stars) but it will be available in two ways. A couple of bucks to buy. Free for the price of an email address. I’ve been doing some research into newsletters and they’re a proven way to service a fan base with the added advantage of providing a channel under my control to augment publisher’s marketing efforts. That’s all very Inside Baseball, but it's important for me to put it out there up front. If you contribute a story to the oral history of the monster wars, I will ruthlessly exploit it to harvest those email addys. And all you’ll get in return is a thank you, and maybe a little pat on the butt next time we meet. If you have a firm and pleasing butt, I might even throw you a squeeze.
If anyone is up for it I’ll use the email from the last fanfic festival
miniburgerfanfic AT gmail dot com.
IN BRIEF:

1st person story. 250-2500 words
Eye witness accounts from the first days of the Monster Wars.
Pay day? Nope.
Attribution? Yep.
COPY DUE June 30