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I’ve been hitting the heavy bag and doing extra sparring this week in the virtual Fight Card training camp. While my publishing/boxing analogy is certainly tongue-in-cheek, there is a thread tying the two disciplines together.
Every fighter has to train before getting in the ring for the big fight. So it is in the world of publishing the Fight Card novels – there is much preparation to be done before each of the Fight Card novels gets to go toe-to-toe with all the other novels on the virtual bookshelves.
Even though Fight Card is an authors cooperative (with each member contributing back to the endeavor as a whole), there still has to be a central lynch pin ... and that lynch pin can get pretty busy. This past week has been even more hectic than usual as Fight Card’s profile continues to rise with the release of several new books and a number of different blog posts delineating the workings of the Fight Card cooperative.
As a result, I thought it might be interesting to keep track of a week’s worth of Fight Card interactions …
- Exchanged emails and shared a phone conversation with author Kathleen Rice Adams (Galveston, Texas) about writing the second book in our Fight Card Romance series, tentatively titled Love On The Ropes. Kathleen also has a story in the first upcoming Fight Card charity anthology ...
- Checked in via Facebook messaging with Jeremy C. Jones (South Carolina), who is helping edit the Fight Card charity anthologies. Celebrated the news the first anthology is full. Jeremy also put me in touch with writer and martial arts expert, Balogun Ojetade ...
- Traded emails with Balogun Ojetade (Atlanta) and then spoke on the phone as we ironed out the plot details of his proposed Fight Card MMA entry, A-Town Throw Down, as well as a follow up Fight Card MMA novel, Circle Of Blood. Steeped in African culture, these titles promise to explode in the cage ...
- Received via email the manuscript for December’s Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes novel from author Andrew Salmon (Vancouver, British Columbia) ...
- Fight Card Sherlock Holmes is an important tale for Fight Card – the world’s most famous detective gets ready to rumble – and creating the correct cover could have been a major problem, but it was brilliantly solved by artist Carl Yonder (Maryland) with some help from Fight Card stalwart, David Foster (Australia). Carl has been working for the past month or more on a painted cover, and David has been working his own magic on the cover’s lettering. Made decisions regarding the final product and left the project in the hands of the artists for last tweaks ...
- After having had email exchanges and reading the manuscripts for three Sailor Tom Sharkey short stories, I tracked down author Mark Finn (Texas) on the phone. Mark is on the board of the Robert E. Howard Foundation as has been a prime mover in bringing to fruition the REH Foundation’s recent four volume publication of REH’s fight fiction. Included, were all of REH’s Sailor Steve Costigan tales, upon which Finn based his Sailor Tom Sharkey stories. Agreed to publish Finn’s seven Sharkey tales as a Fight Card Presents anthology in 2014 ...
- Contacted artist Carl Yonder via email, sending him various images of Sailor Steve Costigan and asking him if he would do a painted cover for the similar Sailor Tom Sharkey tales. Also checked in about progress on the cover for the upcoming Fight Card Luchadores ...
- Coincidentally received the finished manuscript for Fight Card Luchadores: Rise Of The Luchador from Jason Ridler (Toronto, Canada). Exchanged emails and decided on a first quarter 2014 date for book release ...
- Spent time on Facebook and Twitter posting about the above activities. Also wrote blog posts for the Fight Card website and other connected blogs detailing various Fight Card activities. Sent those links out via social networking ...
- Checked on the ongoing episodic serialization of Fight Card: Felony Fists on the Venture Galleries website. Linked the episodes to social networking sites and Twitter ...
- Checked in with Fight Card Romance author Carol Malone (California) about the upcoming paperback release of Ladies Night. Checked in with David Foster about progress of paperback pdf file and paperback cover for CreateSpace. Both now in hand ...
- Made email contact with Cesar Mallorqui (Spain) regarding the rights to his father’s boxing pulp novels. Jose J. Mallorqui was one of Spain’s most prolific pulp authors, specializing in sports pulps of all kinds, but especially boxing and soccer. The goal of contacting Cesar is to see if Fight Card can bring translations of some of his father’s boxing pulps back into e-print for a new audience ...
- Finished the final chapters of my own, long overdue, Fight Card novel Swamp Walloper – the sequel to Felony Fists. Did a final edit of the 30,000 word novel and sent it off to Mel Odom (Oklahoma) and David Foster (Australia) for their editorial input ...
- Finished the edit on the next Fight Card release, Punching Paradise by Nik Korpon (Baltimore). Did some thinking and decided (because of its modern day setting and boxing as opposed to MMA theme) to promote Punching Paradise as the first in a new spin-off brand, Fight Card Now – featuring contemporary fight stories. Sent edits back to Nik for approval ...
- Did some work planning out the next few months schedules for Fight Card, Fight Card MMA, Fight Card Romance, Fight Card Sherlock Holmes, Fight Card Luchadores, and Fight Card Now ...
- Contacted Carol Malone and asked her to bring her computer skills to bear on the cover for an upcoming Fight Card title ...
- Exchanged emails with Sam Hawken (Maryland) regarding his desire to write a Fight Card MMA entry. Sent writer’s guidelines. Later received back from Sam an outline for Rosie The Ripper and the first twenty pages. Edited the pages and sent back approval to move ahead ...
- Received another Fight Card MMA enquiry from Walter Conley (Virginia). Sent guidelines. Please to have another potential Fight Card MMA novel in the pipeline ...
- Received manuscript from Joseph Grant (Los Angeles) for Fight Card: Guns Of November – an inspired Fight Card tale set in Dallas at the time of the JFK assassination (who knew Jack Ruby was a boxer?). Exchanged emails with Joe regarding editing and publishing timeline for 2014. Release date is relatively far away, but need to get started ...
- Prepare interview questions for Dave Whitehead (England) of Piccadilly Publishing. Cross promoting other publishing ventures, authors, and books creates synergy and good relationships ...
- Wrote several 1,000 word blog posts designed to promote the upcoming publication of Fight Card: Swamp Walloper. Interviewed myself – twice – in order to have interviews ready to place during upcoming Swamp Walloper blog tour ...
- Virtually hung out with Anthony Venutolo (New Jersey) via Facebook and email in regards to creating a book trailer for Swamp Walloper. Ant created a brilliant trailer for his just released Fight Card novel, Front Page Palooka. Also talked about creating a pulpy version of the Front Page Palooka e-cover for the paperback release ...
I’m sure I have forgotten a couple of additional Fight Card activities, but from the above, you can see you have to keep punching to keep up … publishing is very much a juggling act … Galveston, South Carolina, Atlanta, Vancouver (Canada), Maryland, Australia, Texas, Toronto (Canada), Baltimore, California, Spain, Virginia, Oklahoma, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and England … Fight Card is truly becoming international in its scope and contacts.
To learn more about Fight Card and the Fight Card authors cooperative visit: www.fightcardbooks.com
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