Category: Shameless self-promotion

W.B.’s sales report 2022

I looked through my sales reports for 2022 the other day, and I found good news and bad news. Because human nature, let’s look at the bad news first: Five of my 22 books did not sell a single copy last year, including Full: Rockets, Bells & Poetry, which was my top seller in 2021, the year of its release. Yeeps!

In case you’d like to help them start 2023 on a more positive note, my big losers of 2022 are:

Full: A short book that’s really three teeny-tiny books in one — thoughts about creativity, encouraging thoughts, and thoughts about freedom and overcoming tyranny. You know, thoughts like you find here daily, because those are my three main themes. Published in 2021, so maybe it was the proverbial flash in the pan.

Gladness is Infectious: Published on the last day of 2020, this is subtitled “A Book of Celebrations,” my attempt to lift spirits in dreary times. Maybe nobody wanted a book with “Infectious” in its title after 2020.

A Scream of Consciousness: My little tome about living in the moment and staying alive and awake and aware. Published in 2011, so maybe it has faded away.

Men in War (Roger Mifflin Collection #2): This semi-autobiographical novel by Andreas Latzko, based on his experiences in The Great War, is one of the most chilling antiwar books I’ve ever read. When I decided to create editions of the great books mentioned in The Haunted Bookshop, this was the first one I wanted to share. “… so damned true that the government suppressed it.”

Letters to the Citizens of the United States by Thomas Paine, written by the great patriot during the first decade of the 19th century and featuring some themes that still divide Americans today. I have sold a handful of these books every year since 2010, so I’m hoping 2022 was an anomaly.

Are you curious how the books that DID sell fared? I’m glad you asked; here’s my personal Top 10 for 2022:

1. Echoes of Freedom Past
2. It’s Going to Be All Right
3. The Demi-Gods, by James Stephens (Mifflin #5)
4t. The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesteron (Mifflin #4)
4t. The Story of My Heart, by Richard Jefferies (Mifflin #6)
6t. Air Monster, by Edwin Green
6t. The Haunted Bookshop, by Christopher Morley (Mifflin #1)
8t. Resistance to Civil Government, by Henry David Thoreau
8t. Refuse to Be Afraid (10th Anniversary Edition)
10t. Make Phoenix: The Complete Novelettes
10t. 24 flashes
10t. How to Play A Blue Guitar
10t. A Bridge at Crossroads
10t. The Imaginary Bomb
10t. The Imaginary Revolution
10t. Trivia, by Logan Pearsall Smith (Mifflin #3)
10t. A Little Volume of Secrets 

If you clicked on more than one of the links, you’ve noticed they’re mostly from Walmart. For whatever reason, Walmart.com is the only e-tailer that actually gives you nearly every one of the books I’ve written or edited all in one place. That’s one nifty search engine!

W.B.’s Book Report: Air Monster

W.B.’s Book Report: Air Monster

My next book publication has been, um, flying under the radar, and now it’s on sale starting today. Air Monster by Edwin Green entered my life seven or eight years ago when I found a beat-up copy of this 1932 “boy’s novel” at an antique shop. How does a guy like me pass up a book called Air Monster? And it’s a fun enough book to share with the rest of us.

It turns out the “air monster” is the world’s largest dirigible, the Goliath, which the Navy has under construction at a secret location in those pre-Hindenberg days. The effort is being hampered by the efforts of an agent planted by the Gerka, the secret police of the evil regime in Rubania. Here’s the blurb from the original dust jacket:

“‘Lines away!’

“This is a story of the world’s greatest dirigible and of the dangers in the frozen wastes of the Arctic — a combination sure to provide thrills for every reader.

“The Goliath, largest dirigible in the world, is to meet the submarine Neptune at the North Pole. The Neptune encounters one mishap after another in the drifting ice of the Arctic and Harry Curtis, its radio operator, sends an S.O.S. to Andy High, assistant commander of the Goliath. The dirigible starts north, Captain Hawkins, the commander, is stricken, and Andy takes charge of the rescue attempt.

“What befalls the Goliath on the Arctic trip is only a part of the smashing action of this great book for boys. It’s alive and up-to-the-minute in every detail.”

Hey, it’s 1932. Who knew, 90 years ago, that it was a great book for girls, too? 

This feels like one of those forgotten treasures you hear about from time to time. Green wrote a sequel to Air Monster, called Secret Flight, and the response to this edition will help determine whether Book 2 is rescued as well.

If you like old stuff, if you like stories from the early days of aviation, if you like stories about old technology from when it was cutting edge, and if you like stories of high adventure and heroic camaraderie, may I suggest Air Monster?

Beware of knock-offs by other public domain publishers. Make sure you order this edition featuring the handsome cover illustration by James Group Studios Inc., with ISBN number 979-8-9863331-2-0. And keep your eye out for Gerka agents from Rubania! You know what they say: If you see something …

W.B.’s Book Report: it’s going to be all right

There are people out there making a good living (a better living than I am, too) advising independent writer-publishers how to make the biggest splash when your book launches. I tend to ignore their advice, which may be one reason they make a better living at it than I.

Part of the reason for that is my biggest sellers have traditionally been Refuse to be Afraid, a book I first published in 2010, and my edition of Resistance to Civil Government by Henry David Thoreau, the brilliant essay about civil disobedience that has been inspiring readers since it was first published in 1849. 

I would rather sell a few books for years and years than make a big splash. I did the latter last year and sold a boatload (well, a nice canoe full) of Full: Rockets, Bells & Poetry on the first day, but have not sold that many copies in all the ensuing months.

Be that as it may, I have to say I’m excited to be holding it’s going to be all right in my hot little hands at last. Like Echoes of Freedom Past, the book I released a few months ago, it’s going to be all right is a collection of these blog posts around a common theme. This time, the theme is:

You can do this. You will survive. Never mind that the world is scary and raging; if you reach inside to a calm place, you’ll find the most basic of truths: It’s going to be all right. Oh, change os inevitable, and tomorrow will not look like yesterday, but it’s going to be all right.

BARNES AND NOBLE

EBOOK (AMAZON)

Book launch minus 2 days

The anticipation around here is palpable.

The post office says it will take a couple more days for my proof copies of it’s going to be all right to make the last 77 miles into our mailbox, so I’ll see the new book only 24 hours before the world does, but that’s OK, I’ve read it already.

The book is an introduction and 52 short essays that got their start in this space. The point is that this can be an alarming world but it’s going to be all right. We need encouraging words at times like this, so I thought I’d put a few together.

If you want a preview, here are the first five pieces after the introduction.

Better time’s a coming

It’s going to be all right

Darkness and light

Shout joy

Once

It’s my 12th book, but who’s counting? (I shouldn’t kid myself; I’m counting, obviously.) Thanks to the folks who have pre-ordered it in advance of the “official Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022 lunch date.”

Love anyway

When weariness overtakes you

And your fuse is short,

Love anyway.

 

When the slap of reality hurts

So bad you want to lash back,

Love anyway.

 

When the loss is so deep

You can’t see straight,

Love anyway.

 

When you’re tempted to quit

And go running away forever,

Love anyway.

 

That’s what love is;

That’s why it’s called love.

o o o

“Love anyway” is one of the 101 encouragements in my book A Bridge at Crossroads. It’s funny; I forgot that I originally illustrated it with a photo of Willow The Best Dog There Was™ resting her head and paw on my leg. Now, when I decided to reprint it, as I seem to do every couple of years, I independently decided to illustrate it with a somewhat similar photo of Summer and me. There must be something about snuggling with a pup that reminds me of this little poem.

The new book has more in common with Crossroads than my last book, Echoes of Freedom Past. That book was about identifying the storm and finding ways to stay free in this weird new dystopia; this one is about calming the storm and finding the peace in freedom, realizing that whatever comes our way, it’s going to be all right, however else it may appear.

Mostly today, though, I just wanted to revisit my poem. Every so often you sit down to write out a feeling, and when you’re finished you’ve written exactly what you meant to say. The day I wrote this poem was one of those “every so oftens.”

Pre-orders go live

The pre-ordering process is underway for It’s Going to Be All Right, my new collection of writings, intended to offer reasons for hope in troubled times. Here’s the link for the ebook, or if you prefer to read off the grid, here’s the link for the paperback at Barnes & Noble, and more paperback pre-order opportunities ought to be showing up at your favorite site momentarily if not now.

Recapping the blurb:

It has become almost a cliche to refer to these times with anxious adjectives: These challenging times, these trying times, these unprecedented times, these stressful times, these times, these times, these times.

For more than a decade now, the world has gotten angrier and meaner and more afraid. Log into your favorite “social media” site, anytime, and someone will alert you about some outrage, someone will warn you about some threat, and someone will be shouting down voices of reason and calm and peace.

This book has a simple but powerful message: Never mind that the world is scary and raging; if you reach inside to a calm place, you’ll find the most basic of truths: It’s going to be all right. Oh, change is inevitable, and tomorrow will not look like yesterday, but it’s going to be all right.

The new book may have more in common with my earlier book of encouragements, A Bridge at Crossroads, than with my book about liberty earlier this summer, Echoes of Freedom Past. In some ways they fit together, because the times are troubled because our freedoms are being stripped, and times like these, well somebody has to say it’s going to be all right. As the propaganda reminded us in the early days of the lockdowns, we’re going to get through this and in this together, right?

P.S. You can have the ebook for the uncanny price of 3 bucks, and for what it’s worth I’ve recently reduced the prices on all my ebooks, which you can find at my Amazon Author Page.

P.P.S. Just for the halibut, I went to various sites and searched for “Warren Bluhm” to see how my stuff displays online. I was surprised to find only one etailer found all of my books — the ones I’ve authored, the Roger Mifflin Collection of vintage books from The Haunted Bookshop, and three other volumes of essential freedom and motivational classics. You can find that very successful search at this link. Wow, right?

I choose a book and explain the why

I have made the choice I promised to make 11 days ago. The book I will complete and send to the publisher this month is called It’s Going to Be All Right, and I plan to ship it to the printer by midweek. By this time next week, it ought to be available for pre-order with a publication date of Oct. 20.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Wasn’t I going to publish a book a month? Why, yes. So why can’t you buy the September book before Sept. 30? Well, I have slowly learned in these challenging times that there are important things to do before a book’s release, and so I’m parsing words a bit and saying I promised “send to the publisher” instead of “publish.” Once we get past this month, when I completed a book but didn’t actually release it, my intention is to ship a book to the world at least once a month, starting with this one.

So what is It’s Going to Be All Right about? It’s another short book mostly collected from these daily writings, 117 pages, and here is the blurb:

It has become almost a cliche to refer to these times with anxious adjectives: These challenging times, these trying times, these unprecedented times, these stressful times, these times, these times, these times.

For more than a decade now, the world has gotten angrier and meaner and more afraid. Log into your favorite “social media” site, anytime, and someone will alert you about some outrage, someone will warn you about some threat, and someone will be shouting down voices of reason and calm and peace.

This book has a simple but powerful message: Never mind that the world is scary and raging; if you reach inside to a calm place, you’ll find the most basic of truths: It’s going to be all right. Oh, change is inevitable, and tomorrow will not look like yesterday, but it’s going to be all right.

Of course, second-guessing yourself is in the job description for anyone who puts a part of themselves into the marketplace, and as I’m currently reading Starr O’Hara’s very cool and insightful book How to Survive Dystopia (with your humanity intact), I wonder if it’s wise to be putting out a book called It’s Going to Be All Right, because there are often days when it seems it isn’t going to be all right for a very long time.

Then I remember that it depends on what we mean by “It.” If by “It” we mean society and the world in general, things are indeed going to hell in a hand basket, and much of the bad stuff is in the “things I cannot change” bin.

But the stuff O’Hara writes about — independent thinking, freedom, honesty, resourcefulness, peace of mind, faith, gratitude, a sense of humor — and the knowledge that the secret is not electing the right boss, it’s about realizing that I am the boss of me? Those are definitely in the “things I can change” bin.

And a book that encourages people to take heart and not despair as the rhetoric rages and the fear mongers ramp up their mongering, because evil cannot prevail for long? It might even be a nice complement to O’Hara’s outstanding book. A book with a subtitle “Reasons for hope in troubled times” might be just what we need.

It’s certainly going to get worse before it gets better, but like anyone who believes that humans are slowly growing, I believe freedom will out in the end, and it’s going to be all right — eventually. And it’s precisely because it doesn’t look like it’s going to be all right anytime soon that people need to hear this message.

I’ll let you know when you can pre-order.