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The Second Conducting: What is the Value of a Goodreads.com book giveaway? 84% had never heard of me. 34% plan on reading my books.

April 16, 2012

Does giving away your books lead to more readers, and in turn, more fans? A few weeks ago I conducted a pretty in-depth study regarding the effectiveness of a Goodreads.com book giveaway in which I found that 93% of entrants had never heard of me and 88% planned on reading my books. Couple that with 51% of entrants signing up for my email newsletter, and the giveaway was well worth the two books I sacrificed. Science must be repeatable, right? A couple of weeks ago I ended yet another giveaway. The Setup I listed a 2 copy giveaway for I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin to take place between 3/14/2012 and 3/31/2012. During this time the giveaway received a total of 378 entries. After the giveaway was closed for entries, I sent a 9 yes/no question questionnaire to 222 entrants. 156 entrants could not be sent the questionnaire, either because I know…

Writing a Book Doesn’t Make You an Author

April 14, 2012

The first of my hopefully long-running contributions to Phil Jourdan's Slothrop blog is now live. The title, Writing a Book Doesn't Make You an Author, isn't meant only to be an attention grabber, but is actually true. I know, truth, right. Here's a taste: The role of author has transformed almost as drastically as has media distribution support system. Authors can no longer be expected to simply produce content. Anyone with $10, a manuscript, and access to the internet can get a book listed on Amazon within minutes. Rather, the role of the author is to be an active, participating member of a book-loving community—by both consuming and creating content—and most importantly by legitimizing the importance of the literary community itself to those who may not be a part of it. Head over to Slothrop to read the post. Leave a comment. Let Phil know how much you love the…

Mr. Burns reads Tina Fey and robots fall in love with literature

April 10, 2012

(part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series) The Simpsons are back, this time with two references in a single episode, one of classic literature and one of contemporary comedy. Or so I assume the latter is of contemporary comedy; I haven't actually read Tina Fey's Bossypants. But Mr. Burns has, as evidenced by this screenshot from "Them, Robot," the seventeenth episode of season 23: Robots display human emotions by appreciating literature, notably the novella (though the girth in the above screenshot would imply novel-length) Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.

Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

April 3, 2012

I am honored to have been asked to teach a couple of sessions at the 2012 Tallgrass Writers Workshop at Emporia State University in June. If you will be in the Emporia area, you should register. Let me manipulate your mind to reflect my morbid desires. THE POWER!!!! I'll be teaching: PLANTING A STORY: How to Grow a Plot from a Single Seed Author Stephen Graham Jones has said that many of his story ideas stem from misheard conversations. This session will explore the process of building an entire story from practically nothing, with special consideration given to dismantling the sham known as writer’s block. SURVIVING ONLINE: Why Social Media is Not a Waste of Time for Authors Some writers claim that time spent engaging in social media is time wasted. But what is an author but a communicator of ideas, and what is social media but a platform for…

Brand new story, “Different People Entirely” in the Ice Picks anthology. Horror? Yep.

April 1, 2012

When anthology editor S.S Michaels approached me last year about contributing a story to the Ice Picks: Most Chilling Stories from the Ice Plaza anthology, I hesitated for a moment. I never thought of what I write as horror. Grotesque? Sure. Morbid? Sometimes. Horror? No. But the more I thought about it, the more I accepted that a stretched definition of horror (never mind that I didn't even consider a narrow definition at all) could very well encompass my work. Other people have thought of my work as horror, so I broke down and thought of the solicitation as a challenge. I came up with "Different People Entirely," a story of a breaking family that embarks on a vacation to the Ice Hotel in Scandinavia. How does the family fare? Read for yourself. The anthology contains stories from the following authors: Jeremy C. Shipp Caleb J. Ross Robert R. Best David…

New review of Murmurs: “If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him”

March 28, 2012

A beautiful few words from reader Frank Edler: "These are fairly short bursts of that unique domestic fiction that Ross not only has a penchant for writing but also executes to a level that could earn him the moniker of 'Father of Domestic Fiction'. If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him or her...Once again I walk away from another of Caleb J. Ross' work with an uneasy feeling. ..The author is brilliant at looking at a tender moment and peeling away the layers to reveal the disturbing grotesque. We connect with it because under all our facades lies a bit of that same ugliness to some degree or another. I must now venture forth into his longer works, STRANGER WILL and I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE KEVIN....I can not wait to have my emotions unsettled a little bit more." Read the full review…

I did it. I have an official author Facebook page now. Changes coming.

March 28, 2012

I did it. I broke down and created an official Caleb J. Ross author page on Facebook. I've been averse to doing this for a while, primarily because I want to avoid perceived ego as much as possible (well, as much as a guy with a self-titled website can do), but also because I don't want to bombard people with duplicate content posts. The logic being that until the official author page gains traction, I would have to post updates to both the author page and my personal page in order to curb anybody missing out on my genius (see, no ego there). Nobody needs double Caleb. So, here's what I propose: If you are currently a Facebook friend via my personal page, but you ONLY WANT TO RECEIVE AUTHOR TYPE UPDATES, then un-friend my personal page and Like my author page. You can actually do this by clicking this…