News from Jon F. Merz // Writer ~ Producer ~ Ninja

Advice for New Indie Authors

admin — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:58:46 PDT

By Jon F. Merz I chimed in earlier today on Brian Keene’s blog about guest poster Glen Kirsch writing about his success with indie publishing and folks wondering whether Brian would be well-advised to think about a similar route. I posted a few of my own experiences to-date, but it got me thinking about what [...]

More Steps to EBook Success…

admin — Tue, 29 May 2012 05:53:57 PDT

By Jon F. Merz I’m having my best month of ebook sales so far in 2012 so I thought I’d share some of the steps I’ve been taking to increase my sales. I outlined a lot of practical steps – including the best piece of software you can use to help boost your ebook sales [...]

THE NINJA APPRENTICE Heads to Africa

admin — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:41:04 PDT

By Jon F. Merz I am very pleased to announce that I have signed on with Worldreader.org to donate copies of THE NINJA APPRENTICE to their amazing program that brings e-readers and ebooks to children living in under-developed regions in Africa. Worldreader distributes Amazon Kindles to the children and then Amazon “pushes” the free ebooks [...]

Clone Your EBook Success

admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 06:18:51 PDT

By Jon F. Merz Imagine if you were a corporation and you sold several products, one of which sold better than any of the others. That one product was responsible for bringing in more revenue than any of your other products. Looking at your numbers each month would hammer that home and probably make you [...]

How To Cultivate an Asset

admin — Mon, 21 May 2012 07:57:17 PDT

By Jon F. Merz In the world of intelligence, relationship building is one of the most critical skills an operative can possess. As a case officer, handler, [insert term here], you cultivate “assets” by first developing a relationship with your target and then gently steering them into the role you would like them to play. [...]

The Greatest Fans In The World…

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:45:01 PDT

By Jon F. Merz Last night I had the opportunity to interact with my fans on a whole new level – a virtual author event that brought video conferencing to a whole new level. Shindig, a company based in New York City, hosted me on its incredible platform that can handle thousands of guests in [...]

Create Your Opportunities

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:57:21 PDT

By Jon F. Merz I was reading a great post by my friend and fellow ninja Chris Penn the other day about taking the long view and how the ninja masters of old would often put things into motion years if not decades prior to them coming to fruition. It got me thinking about a [...]

A Writer’s Best Defense

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:01:46 PDT

There’s an inherent problem with being an aspiring writer: you’re not all that sure of yourself yet. You have this “Go get ‘em” attitude and you want your stories to be read by the public and you hope way down deep inside for that validation that comes with publishing and seeing your name in print. [...]

Break Out Your Video Camera…

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:23:26 PDT

Because I’m going to give away TWO brand new Kindle Touch 3Gs at the end of May 2012. Want one? Here’s the deal: May 2012 is the 10th Anniversary of Lawson’s debut in print (THE FIXER – book 1 in the series came out in May 2002) and I’m looking for the coolest, most creatively [...]

Playing Ninja

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:54:00 PDT

Ninjutsu, to me, isn’t simply a martial art. It’s not simply a way to physically protect yourself and your loved ones. Hatsumi-sensei has said repeatedly that the ultimate goal of ninjutsu is not to become a “meijin” or master, but to become a “tatsujin” or a complete human being. And yet, the focus of most [...]