Devil's Lair

Read the Kindle Author Blog

2010-08-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

I've started a new blog for Kindle owners called Kindle Author.

I mostly post interviews with indie authors who have published on Kindle, but I also post news and other items.

It's a great way to discover new authors. If you own a Kindle and are looking to find new authors to read, please hop over to my Kindle Author blog and acquaint yourself with some of the great new writers on the digital frontier.

Also, you can read the blog on your Kindle by subscribing on Amazon with a 14-day free trial:

Read the Kindle Author blog on your Kindle!

Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) Available on Mac

2010-03-18T12:29:00.001-07:00

Amazon has just released Kindle for Mac.

This means you can now read Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) on your Macintosh computer.

Excellent!

Kindle for Mac

Amazon Review: Devil's Lair is "Pure Brilliance!"

2010-03-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Rebecca L. Downey, "Mistress of Prose," gives Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) 5 stars on Amazon and writes:

Pure Brilliance!
It is often so hard to find new fantasy novels that exemplify the brilliance of the genre. But, author, David Wisehart, has brought us a wonderfully dark epic that should not be passed up. The novel, based off Dante's Inferno, is a remarkable piece of literature. This book is not just for fantasy fans; it is also a piece worthy of any history fanatic's personal library. I am always looking for fantasy novels that try to re-invent or challenge the conventional ideas of the genre, and Wisehart does just that with Devil's Lair. I truly believe the author is a brilliant writer, and I cannot wait to read what else he has in store for us.

Thanks, Rebecca!

Third Day Sales of Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition)

2010-03-06T10:06:00.001-08:00

So Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) debuted at #17 on Kindle's bestseller list for historical fantasy. But what does it take to become a bestseller in that sub-genre on Kindle?

First day: 4 copies
Second day: 5 copies
Third day: 4 copies

That's 13 copies at $0.99.

At 35% royalty, I earned $4.55 from my book in the first three days.

I'm ahead of my original goal of 3 sales a day (over 1,000 per year). We'll see how things progress. I'm hoping some of the early readers will post Amazon reviews. I'm looking forward to reading their reactions.

Devil's Lair is an Amazon bestseller!

2010-03-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

Devil's Lair debuted at #17 on Amazon's list for "Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy > Historical."

Sweet!

Using Listmania! to Promote Your Kindle eBook

2010-03-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

One way to promote your book on Amazon is to use Listmania! I've now created two lists to promote Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition).

Basically, what you do is create a list of Amazon products organized by theme. You give the list a title and add items to the list. Your Listmania! list will then appear on Amazon product pages and beside Amazon search results. Because Listmania! creates a new web page for your list, it can also appear in Google search results.

List viewers can rate a Listmania! as helpful, which increases its popularity rank and makes it more likely that the list will show up. Getting more views for your list will also increase its rank. Amazon has an algorithm to rank Listmania!s and determine when and where to show them. Lists are also tagged (labeled) so that they can appear on relevant pages.

Authors and publishers can promote their own books by adding their books to the Listmania! list. This puts the book in front of more people. If the list is narrowly themed, then you're more likely to get your book in front of readers with an interest in your subject.

For example, my first Listmania! list is "Epic Fantasy on Kindle for $0.99." My second list is "Horror on Kindle for $0.99."

Both lists are aimed at Kindle owners looking to buy genre books at bargain prices. Each list contains 25 books, including my own book, Devil's Lair.

In the next post I'll show you how you can create your own Listmania!

Second Day Sales of Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition)

2010-03-05T07:13:00.001-08:00

This is an update to my previous post about first-day sales of Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) on Amazon.

First day: 4 copies
Second day: 5 copies

So that's 9 copies at $0.99.

With a 35% royalty, I earned $3.15 from my book in the first two days.

That's just Starbucks money, but I'm thrilled to have 9 more readers than I had last week.

If I can pick up three new readers a day, after one year of Kindle sales I'll have over a thousand readers.

Which would be great.

Of course, I'm hoping word of mouth will spur increased sales, and I'll build a fan base like compound interest. We'll see.

The Kindle experiment continues...

First Amazon Review for Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition)

2010-03-04T09:48:00.001-08:00

The first customer review for Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) appeared on the Amazon site the day after the book went live.

"Dragonnade" gave it 5 stars and said:

Great Fantasy Novel Based around The Inferno
What a great find! Devil's Lair is loosely based on Dante's "The Inferno" and follows the quest of a medieval knight to retrieve the holy grail from the devil. The knight is joined by a cast of historical and literary figures on his quest while Europe is facing the black death. Interesting fantasy novel set in a well described world. Do not pass this up if you like The Divine Comedy or a solid medieval fantasy story.

Thanks!

First Day Sales Figures of Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition)

2010-03-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) went live yesterday on Amazon.

I don't know what time it became available for purchase, but I became aware of it at around 2:45pm. There were no customer reviews on the launch day, and for some reason the Amazon product description did not appear on day one.

By midnight, Devil's Lair had sold 4 copies at $0.99.

That was good enough to put Devil's Lair in the top 7,000 items purchased in the Kindle Store.

I don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm happy some people are buying it. More importantly, I hope they read and like it.

Product Description for Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition)

2010-03-04T09:33:00.001-08:00

Here is the Amazon product description for Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition):

A thrilling adventure through Dante's Inferno....

"I've battled evil all my life. I’ve wrestled with darkness and demons and monsters beyond measure, in the black forests of Germany and in the troubled hearts of men, for it is there, in the human heart, that evil festers and grows. But evil has a source, and we must find that source: at the bottom of the abyss. We must descend into the Devil’s lair, and penetrate the heart of all evil."

It is the year of our Lord 1349. The world is dying. The Black Death sweeps through Europe. Apocalypse approaches. The Fourth Horseman rides the Earth…

One hope survives. A vision of the Holy Grail. Stolen by Lucifer, the Grail now lies in the lowest circle of Hell. To save the human race, someone must steal the Grail from the Devil and return it to the world above.

Four pilgrims — a knight, a friar, a poet, and a prophetess — will journey down into Hell to confront their deepest fears…

And the Devil himself.

Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition) now available on Amazon

2010-03-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Kindle edition of Devil's Lair is available on Amazon for $0.99.

Devil's Lair (Kindle Edition)

For those who don't own a Kindle, the eBook can be read using the Kindle app for iPhone, BlackBerry, or Windows. A Mac version is forthcoming.

Devil's Lair - new chapters now online

2008-11-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

I've been posting new chapters to the Devil's Lair website.

Of the novel's 34 chapters, 22 are now online. Check them out and let me know what you think.

I will be posting the rest of the novel soon.

New Website for Devil's Lair

2008-08-31T15:31:00.001-07:00

I'm setting up a website for my forthcoming novel, Devil's Lair.

So far, I've posted a few sample chapters.

I'll be adding a lot more.

I have big plans.

Check it out: Devil's Lair website

Devil's Lair on Knol

2008-07-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have created a knol for Devil's Lair.

Don't know what a knol is?

Check it out: Devil's Lair.

The Cave of the Sibyl

2007-01-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

According to the Roman poet Virgil, the entrance to the underworld lies inside the Cave of the Sibyl, a hole cut into the cliff that circumscribes Lake Avernus, a volcanic lake northwest of Naples, Italy.

Outside the sibyl's cave, you can see a sign carved into stone:

The quote is from Virgil's Aeneid, Book VI, verses 42-4

Excisum Euboicae latus ingens rupis in antrum,
quo lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum;
unde ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyllae.

John Dryden translates:

"Thro' the hill's hollow sides: before the place,
A hundred doors a hundred entries grace;
As many voices issue, and the sound
Of Sybil's words as many times rebound."

From E. Fairfax Taylor's version:

"Into the lofty temple now with speed,—
A huge cave hollowed in the mountain's side,—
The priestess calls the Teucrians. Thither lead
A hundred doors, a hundred entries wide,
A hundred voices from the rock inside
Peal forth, the Sibyl answering. "

The modern visitor is provided a map of the inner labyrinth:

Unfortunately, this map only charts the upper chambers of the cave, and does not include the netherworld below.

For that, you're advised to bring a well-worn copy of Dante's Inferno.

Shall we go inside?

Lake Avernus

2007-01-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

In November 2005, I took a trip to Italy to research some of the places I was writing about in my novel, Devil's Lair.

I had been to Rome the year before, researching my first book, Valentino: a play in verse.

On this second trip, I went to Florence, Naples, Venice, and Padua, but more importantly I needed to visit Lake Avernus and the Cave of the Sibyl.

Lake Avernus is a volcanic crater lake near Naples.

For the ancient Romans, this was the entrance to Hades, and "Avernus" was another name for the underworld. The name means "without birds." It was thought that the smell of brimstone rising from the lake was so poisonous that birds would not fly over it.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas enters the underworld through the Cave of the Sibyl at Lake Avernus.

In Dante's Inferno, the pilgrim Dante is lost in a dark wood and enters hell through an unidentified cave.

In Devil's Lair, Giovanni Boccaccio identifies Dante's entrance with Virgil's, and leads his pilgrims south to Lake Avernus, where they hope to find and enter the gate of hell.

The entrance is described as "...a trapezoidal slit that looked like a keyhole in the crater."

Actually, it looks like this:

Next, we'll go inside...

The Last Line

2006-12-30T19:57:00.001-08:00

I finished writing the first draft of Devil's Lair on March 31, 2006. It took me two years and felt like it would never end. My characters weren't the only ones going through hell. But surprisingly, it does end. There's light at the end of the Inferno.

When I finished the first draft, I was exhausted and exhilarated, anxious and proud.

It felt like graduation day.

When I'm writing, I have to imagine the end of the story before I start, and Devil's Lair was no exception. From the beginning I had the very last line of the book in mind.

But when I finally wrote that last line, it didn't work. Something wasn't right.

Panic set in. I began to doubt everything that came before. This was the line I had been writing towards for two years, and now it just lay there like a dead rat. Maybe the line was just too familiar to me now, and didn't have the same kick as I'd imagined way back when.

Then another thought occurred to me: the novel had evolved in the writing; the last line had not. Was it the wrong line? Or the wrong novel?

Oh, God.

I paced around the room for maybe ten minutes before the solution hit me.

An even better line.

No, the perfect line.

It fit the novel I'd just written, it resolved plot and theme and character, and it added a kind of grace note.

I jumped back into my desk chair, wrote the new last line in a blind flurry, hit save, and shouted to no one listening:

"Yes!"

Am I going to tell you my last line?

Hell, no.

You're going to have to get through the whole novel to find it.

Just like I did.

Barnes & Noble Writer's Group

2006-12-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've been reading chapters from Devil's Lair at a local writer's group that meets at Barnes & Noble. The book store has a reading room where the employees set up tables for us, and the manager comes to our defense when patrons complain about the noise (at least I hope they're complaining about the noise — it couldn't be the words).

We convene every Thursday night come hell or high water.

Of course, I bring the hell.

Last week I read Chapters 17 and 18. My medieval pilgrims haven't reached the gates of hell yet, but we may get to that next week. Can't wait to hear the group's reaction. Everyone's been liking the book so far, but once my heroes enter hell, that's where the real fun begins.

Last week we had a guest for the holidays: Pete, who was visiting his sister Barbara Jo, who runs the group. Pete's writing his own fantasy novel, and told me a little about it, and I encouraged him to keep plugging away at it. He lost the first seven chapters in a computer crash (ouch!), and now he's re-writing it from the beginning.

Now that's what I call a writer.

Pete had a nice comment about a horse chase scene in my book. He compared it favorably to Louis L'Amour. Now, I've never actually read Louis L'Amour, and everything I know of horses comes from research, but I'll take that as a compliment.

Thanks, Pete.

More sample chapters from Devil's Lair

2006-12-28T16:37:00.000-08:00

I've posted two more chapters from Devil's Lair. You can read them here:

Devil's Lair - Chapter 2

Devil's Lair - Chapter 3

Let me know what you think.

- David

Devil's Lair - Chapter 1 Is Now Online

2006-12-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

I've posted Chapter 1 of Devil's Lair on my website.

If you like it, tell your friends.

Thanks!