Direct link to the audio of my interview with James.

Direct link to UNLEASHED: The Podcast to F*&k Up Your Sh%t! - 02

That's right, our boy James Melzer sits down to talk with me about JACK WAKES UP, where I sit in terms of publishing, numbers, and the ongoing saga that is The Quest to Publish JP2™.

Visit his website here to find out more about his podcast novel trilogy The Zombie Chronicles and Escape, the first book, which is already a complete podcast novel that has been sold to Permuted Press.

James is a great guy, a hot podcasting commodity, and someone you're going to be hearing A LOT about. It was a real pleasure to talk with him yesterday.

New Site Content Introduced: The Quest to Publish JP2™: the ongoing saga of my quest to sell enough copies of JACK WAKES UP or find another way to get JP2 published in the calendar year 2010, preferably with a pre-sales launch on Palms Sunday 2010, March 28th. Czech it out!!

Crew at Two Bars

Direct link to audio of Houston -Murder by the Book Reading

NOW I'm ready to proclaim myself the hardest working man in showbiz! Forget about James Brown, God rest his soul, after this weekend's 4 readings in 4 nights in 4 cities over 3 states and covering over 4,100 miles, I'm ready to challange any other first-book author to bring his/her own goods and go head-to-head with a schedule like that! Damn right!

For the record, I did Phoenix/Scottsdale-Poisoned Pen- on Thursday, Tucson- Clues Unlimited- on Friday (that's T-U-C-S-O-N, thanks Daniel), then Houston- Murder by the Book- on Saturday, followed by fun at Two Rows... and then I flew home to appear at Book Passage in Marin County on Sunday night! Yeah. Boo-yah.

It was fun, firey, hot, humid, exciting, worthwhile, and tummy-rubbing all at the same time. Lots of early mornings, even when I tried to keep it from going that way. Thanks to everyone who came out, but especially: Kevin, Karen, Kate, Rich, Jason, Keith, C.J., Evo, Sheila, Teel, Paul, Lisa, John, Suzanne, Jeff, Todd, Jen, Gwennie, Shirley, Ttreed, and... if I forgot you, I'm very very sorry.

I should have a video montage from the event coming up pretty soon, but in the interim, here's the audio of the Houston event for your listening pleasure. If you'd like to skip ahead and pop right to the Q&A portion, it starts at the 23:00 minute mark! Enjoy the kid-gab! That's my friend Todd's wonderful son Caspar!

Know what? You're right. It's crazy to get right back to another book. But if it's what needs to happen to keep selling copies of JACK WAKES UP, then that's what I'm gonna do! You know I've got a few things stashed away, The Genius School book and also... a little something that I like to call HUB HEARTBREAK!

It's coming. That's the big news. I started preparing for the launch today by readying the manuscript for my read. I started getting  things together to rip this baby out so I have all the files to start working with. I'm getting close. And soon you'll have a whole new story to sink your ears into!

Like I've said before, give me four episodes on this one and you'll be lock stock and fully hooked! It's different than what you've seen from me in the past, or maybe you'll think it's the obvious missing link. You'll see it, you'll learn about its world. You'll meet its people. This is HUB HEARTBREAK!!

But for today, I present you with my call to arms, my battle cry, my push for what we need to do this summer. Are you listening? Are you ready to ROCK???

I'm proud to be speaking this fall at a conference put on by Writer's Digest magazine, called "The Business of Getting Published." Sigler and I will be teamed up to talk about how we've dropped ourselves on NY publishing whether they liked it or not!

They've given me a discount code to hand out. If you're interested in coming to the conference, get $50 off your registration by entering the code: S7Har

The Business of Getting Published is designed to guide any author through the new dynamics of today’s publishing world.  This three-day event takes place Friday, September 18, through Sunday, September 20, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis, on Times Square in New York.
With emphasis on platform, networking and social media, The Writer’s Digest Conference is an innovative and ground-breaking conference, featuring the industry’s top forward-thinking speakers, leading sessions on topics relevant to the current and future state of the publishing world.
Chris Brogan, social media genius, is the keynote speaker.

Other speakers include Kassia Krozser, editor/publisher of BookSquare.com;  David Mathison, whose online sales success is the new business model;  Mike Shatzkin, the industry’s top publishing consultant, Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, whose own podcasts and videocasts have made them superstars in the business;  and many more, plus the editors of Writer’s Digest!

Complete program information, including speaker bios, special events related to the conference and registration, is now available at www.writersdigestconference.com.  See you there!

JACK WAKES UP just made the Bestseller List for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA)!

I came in at #9 softcover for MAY. Link here.

You want answers?

You sure you want the answers?

You want the truth, huh? Well you can't handle the truth!

Or maybe you can. In any case, I present to you here, in all podcast loving kindness, the basic deets, facts and unbridaled truth about the JACK WAKES UP sales numbers so far. I'm banging the drum, you're working to sell copies of the book and--know what?--WE ARE DOING just fine! And we will do fine. We'll keep it up, keep banging that drum, spreading the JACK PALMS Gospel, and the copies will get sold. But today I'm also telling you a lot about how things really work, back behind the scenes where the sausage gets made. Listen at your own risk.

Direct link to THE TRUTH!!

BONUS: Good news included: JACK WAKES UP just made the Bestseller List for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA)! I came in at #9 softcover for MAY. Link here.

Two more hot ones this week, as I'm out on the road... when I get back I'll wrap these all up into a quick podcast AND tell you all about what I'm learing on "The Numbers."

Bruce from GonzoGeek.com reviewed JACK WAKES UP, saying: "Harwood writes some quality pulp.
The dialogue crackles.  The action moves.  The plot moves along quickly just like it should.
Some of the characters might have come across as stock written by a lesser talent, but even the black drug dealer, Junius, pops off the page.
Harwood is a promising talent and I look forward to the further adventures of Jack Palms." 

I'll take it! Word.

Next up, Kristin Brandt wakes up to podcast fiction in her RealSimple blog "simply stated." Great to see more recognition for Podiobooks.com here. About Jack Wakes Up, she says, "The story is a little gritty (I found myself swearing like a mobster after listening for a couple of hours) and gory, but very enjoyable." Gotta love that! Reminds me of how I've seen The Sopranos affect my parents!

Very cool reading event tonight at Newtonville Books with all-star and Granta-recognized author Binnie Kirshenbaum! Only thing cooler than that is getting to read tomorrow night at The Harvard Coop! Woot woot!

Damn, time's a flying! Monday on the Open Culture Blog, I wrote on a new challenge for contemporary writers: getting your work onto as many potential reading platforms as possible to maximize your reach and market. I've been faced with this now as JACK WAKES UP hits print and I want to make sure I can get it onto iPhones, Audiobooks sections, and other tech gadgets. It's a battle, one I didn't expect.

Writing in the Digital Age: It’s All About the Platform

The number of ebook readers and reading devices is growing rather than shrinking these days. We’re entering a world where individual readers will decide not only what books they want to read, but how they want to read them. And here there’s something to think about for authors: As readers choose the reading platform they like best, they’ll see a certain set of books in that space. Different books show up at Wal-Mart than at your local independent bookseller. On the Kindle there are different books—with different prices—than on the iTunes App store. And even within the iTunes store, you’ll find different books in the Audiobooks section (owned by Audible.com), the Podcasts>>Arts>>Literature section (where many of the titles are free), and in the App store.  Read more...

I'm learning that video-casting or vodcasting is harder than it looks. What kind of file extension do you guys prefer for me to put up into the feed? Confused.

But, maybe it's because I found out that Jack Wakes Up is "the literary equivalent of testosterone" or because I'm getting ready for a big trip, but either way, I'm juked up tonight, the sun was out here in Berkeley, and I've got a new video to drop (and .mov file here) on you with all new highlights from events, me with some serious bounceback, and I'm raring to come east to appear in NYC and Boston in the next week and a half!

Dates: 6/4 Thursday - NYC - Mysterious Bookshop 58 Warren St. 6:30P - followed by drinks at Biddy Early's

6/9 Tuesday - Boston/Union Square - The Independent Bar & Lounge - presented by Kate's Mystery Books - 75 Union Square - 6:30P

6/11 Thursday - Newton, MA - Newtonville Books - 296 Walnut St. - 7:00P - Books & Brews!

6/12 Friday - Cambridge, MA - Harvard Coop Bookstore - 3rd floor - Harvard Square - 7:00P

gridFile under: Keep this book away from Manny!

The Metro Newspapers (a free publication found on the subways of Boston, NYC, and Philly) feature a review piece on JACK WAKES UP this week by Dorothy Robinson, where she calls it "the literary equivalent of testosterone!"

No wonder it keeps failing all these damn drug tests!

Holla it out and spread it! (And three stars is their highest rank "Buy it!" in case you were wondering.)