CSI Goldberg returns

Hilton bathroom

I had a great time at the Forensic Trends conference, though, to be honest, I only attended the talk that I gave. Before I began my presentation, I made a quick visit to the Hilton men's room…which may be good for relieving your bladder but, as the photo illustrates, won't do much to bolster your self-confidence before you speak to a few hundred people (you can CLICK on the photo for a larger view, no pun intended).
After the conference, I had a very nice dinner with Jim Clemente, a former FBI profiler turned TV producer & consultant (CRIMINAL MINDS, THE CLOSER, etc.). He' s a fascinating guy and a very talented story-teller. I actually met him for the first time two years ago at a forensics conference I spoke at in Pittsburgh.  Meeting people like Jim is one of the big reasons why I agree to all these speaking engagements and teaching opportunities….you never know who you will meet or what might come from those relationships.

I was stunned by how much Las Vegas has changed since I visited three years ago. The skyline is radically different…and yes,I know that's a cliche observation, but it's true nonetheless.

Le Notre bakery is no longer at Paris Las Vegas… c'est triste. I loved that place.

Caesars Palace has had more facelifts than a Malibu trophy wife, but the latest one is very nice. The Forum Shops is still the best looking shopping mall in America, but the shops at the Venetian are a close second. 

The Aladdin is now a Planet Hollywood resort. I visited the former Aladdin Shops, which were once like the Forum Shops but now they are renovating out the character so it will look like any other shopping mall. I went into an ABC convenience store and was surprised to see Extenze and Top Gun, both advertised as a "fast acting male enhancement that can make you larger," on sale beside the Rolaids & Tums & M&Ms. Only in Vegas.

I also visited some of the new hotels — Palazzo is spectacular, Wynn/Encore are gaudy and garish riffs on the Belagio decor, Aria is super sleek and contemporary, and the face-lift at the Mirage is very nice, downplaying the dated gaudiness Wynn seems to revel in nowadays.

The conference was held at the Hilton, which is a decaying dump…not quite as bad as The Riviera, but heading in that same direction. The rooms aren't bad, decor-wise, but the walls are so thin you can hear the people in the adjoining rooms making love, farting, talking on the phone, etc..and if you manage to finally get to sleep, the talking and bitching of the maids and workmen in the hallway will wake you up before 8 am. 

The Hilton pool is no better than what you might find at off-the-highway motel…and the music that blared from the out-door speakers was so loud and distorted that you couldn't hear yourself think, much less read a book. The Star Trek Experience is gone, but not the corner of the casino that's decked out in a science fiction theme. It now serves as a portal to the Vegas Monorail. The Hilton certainly is not the classy, elegant place James Bond stayed at it in Diamonds are Forever anymore…and probably hasn't been for twenty-some years. 

CSI Goldberg

Today I am off to speak at the third annual Forensic Trends: Psychiatric & Behavioral Issues Conference in Las Vegas. The conference is supposed to tackle "current advances in forensic research and theory with subsequent translation into assessment strategies and interventions […]to produce the best possible legal and therapeutic outcomes for those encountering the medicolegal system." I think they invited me to speak by mistake. But I am looking forward to it… I had a great time faking my way through a similar conference in Pittsburgh two years ago. The topic of my presentation is How Fictional Detectives Solve Crimes, which they've billed as "a humorous, inside look at how authors and screenwriters craft their mysteries, bend the rules of science, and abuse their forensic and medical technical advisors to create entertaining crime novels and TV shows." It's a four hour drive from L.A. to Las Vegas, so I'm hoping that will give me time to figure out what I am going to say.

But this is also doubling as a research trip, since a chunk of my next book, MR. MONK ON THE ROAD, takes place in Las Vegas and journey there.  So au revoir, a bientot, see you back here soon.

You Can Become a Kindle Millionaire, Part 18

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 On April 17, I predicted in a post on this blog that I'd earn $1400 in Kindle royalties this month. I was right. I earned $1416. It was, by far, my best Kindle month since I began this experiment eleven months ago. Last month, I sold 1360 books…this month I sold 1798, an increase of 438 books and $400 in royalties. (Click on my royalty statement for a larger view).

BADGE 3  I credit the surge this month to three things:

1.   my bet with Joe Konrath, which resulted in new covers and titles for my Vigilante novels. It was a bet I was thrilled to lose.

2.  raising the price of THREE WAYS TO DIE from .99 cents to 1.99. 

3. adding a Kindle edition of my out-0f-print book THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE to my available titles. 

Sales of the VIGILANTE books (now known, thanks to Joe, as The Jury Series) shot up enormously. For example, the previously titled .357 VIGILANTE #4: KILLSTORM sold  14 copies last month. This month, by rebranding the book GUILTY, I sold 125 copies.  I now have someone re-reading the manuscripts of all four books, correcting the conversion errors that have bedeviled me since I posted them a few months ago.

Last month, THREE WAYS TO DIE sold 201 priced at 99 cents and earned $70. This month, I sold 169 and earned $103. Fewer sales, but higher royalties. I can live with that.
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THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE, priced at $2.99, quickly became my second best-selling title, if not in volume (234 copies sold) certainly in profits ($245). Those sales reassure me that my bestselling title, THE WALK, will do fine when, in late June, I raise the price from $1.99 to $2.99 to take advantage of Amazon's new royalty formula, which will give me a 70% royalty instead of the 35% I get now.
By the way, this month THE WALK  sold  629 copies, earning me $440 (last month I sold 575 copies). A new high.
Beyond project4  

Changing the cover and title of BEYOND THE BEYOND boosted sales a bit. Last month, under the BEYOND title, I sold 73 copies. This month, rebranded as DEAD SPACE, I sold 92.

I can't wait to see how things shake out in July once my royalty doubles. Will my earning, if not my volume of sales, go up? Or will it level off? Or will the bubble burst and sales slowly begin to deteriorate? I don't know, but no matter what happens, I am already a winner. As I keep saying, this is all found money on out-of-print books that were packed away in my garage or in a dark corner of my hard-drive.

Edgar Awards Announced

And the winners are…

BEST NOVEL

The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Body Blows by Marc Strange (Dundurn Press – Castle Street Mysteries)

BEST FACT CRIME

Columbine by Dave Cullen (Hachette Book Group – Twelve)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company)

BEST SHORT STORY

"Amapola" – Phoenix Noir by Luis Alberto Urrea (Akashic Books)

BEST JUVENILE

Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams (HarperCollins Children’s Books – HarperTeen)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

"Place of Execution," Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (PBS/WGBH Boston)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD 

"A Dreadful Day" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Dan Warthman (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER

Dorothy Gilman

RAVEN AWARDS

Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Zev Buffman, International Mystery Writers’ Festival

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Poisoned Pen Press (Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 28, 2010)

Awakening by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)

Cover Comparison

Which cover do you like better for my Mom's Kindle ebook Active Senior Living. Do you prefer the current one:

Moms Cover New

Or this new one?

Activeseniorliving3
Or should we start from scratch?

UPDATE 5/1/10:  We listened. We scrapped the new one and stuck with the old one. So what do you think of this one? Does it capture the humor and the heart?

Momactive
  

Walking the Walk, Talking the Talk

159414110X  My brother Tod had the following conversation at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books:

A couple walked up to me after a panel on Sunday and looked very excited.

Man: We always come to the panels you're on!

Me: Oh, thanks, I appreciate it.

Man: We just loved The Walk! [a book my brother Lee wrote]

Me: Oh, uh, yeah, it's a good book.

Woman: Will you ever write another book like The Walk?

Me: Probably not.

Man: Is it even still in print?

Me: Yes. It's sold over 2 million copies. So I would think so.

Man: Really?

Me: Really.

Woman: It's so different from your other books.

Me: You think so?

Woman: It's nothing like Living Dead Girl.

Me: Well, I wrote The Walk when I was in recovery.

Man:

Woman:

Me: So, I was a different person with that book. 

Me at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

As usual, I had a fantastic time at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I got to talk with so many writers, including Hannah Dennison, Brett Battles, Denise Hamilton, Gregg Hurwitz, John Wirth, Jane Smiley, Doug Lyle, Paul Levine, Cara Black, Joseph Wambaugh, Gary Phillips, Megan Abbott, Alex Espinoza, Cecil Castellucci, Tim Maleeny, Robert Gregory Browne, and Robert Dugoni, to name just a few. I also talked to tons of readers and bought a bunch of signed books, including "Model Home" by Eric Puchner, "Up in the Air" by Walter Kirn, and "A Bad Day for Sorry" by Sophie Littlefield. Here I am with my brother Tod and William Rabkin at the Mystery Bookstore booth.

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And here's Christopher Rice, me, and Joseph Wambaugh.

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And here I am with Todd Reynolds, who is going to be one of the stars of the short film I am shooting in Owensboro KY this fall.

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I moderated a panel with Gayle Lynds, Christopher Rice and David Corbett and it went great. It was a nice mix of laughter, good advice, and knowledgeable observations about the craft and business of writing. I think we had as much fun as the audience. I hope I get to moderate another panel next year.

The Clock is Ticking and the Hands Are Dripping Blood

Vigilante 3  Marty McKee talks about my book .357 VIGILANTE #3: WHITE WASH (now available in a Kindle edition under the title PAYBACK) He didn't like it as much as the earlier books in the series, but still found some things to enjoy. He says, in part: 

The book's highlights are its action sequences, which work very well, even though some of the villains' motivations seem weak. When Macklin is introduced in the first chapter while tinkering with his new gadget-equipped 1959 Cadillac, I turned the pages in great anticipation waiting for him to use that sucker (which he does in a bloody scene that could have come right out of an Executioner novel).