John Locke (7) (1951–)

I had never heard of John Locke until I read a blog post by Michael Shatzkin who writes about issues related to ebook pricing. Shatzkin noted that many ebook authors were doing quite well pricing their books at $.99, John Locke being a good example of someone making a great deal of money pricing them at that level even though he would probably sell almost as many at $2.99. If his books are 99 cents and most ebooks from big publishers are $9.99 and up, he doesn’t have to prove he’s as show more good as they are; they have to prove they’re 10 times better than he is!” Shatzkin noted he had read one of Locke’s and “I can tell you this. I’ve read one of John Locke’s books. Nobody I can think of is ten times better than he is.” (http://www.idealog.com/blog/)

Well, I just had to check this out and $.99 is close to pocket change. In 10 seconds I had it on my Kindle and was intrigued. Locke is a good writer and the story intrigued me. Donovan Creed is an ex-assassin for the CIA and Homeland security. “Years ago I’d been a government assassin for the CIA, and the people I killed had been a threat to national security. When I retired, I took a short break and then began killing terrorists for Homeland Security. But those jobs were infrequent, so I began killing people for mob boss Sal Bonadello on the side. Sal’s victims were always criminals and often murderers, so justifying their deaths hadn’t been a problem. But at some point I drifted into doing freelance work for Victor”

Victor is running an experiment to see what people will do for money. Couples are offered $100,000 knowing only that if they do, someone will die. “The Peterson sisters, like Rob and Trish and half-a-dozen others, had accepted “Rumplestilskin Loans” after being told that by taking the money, an unpunished murderer would die. In Victor’s mind, that made the recipients guilty of conspiracy to murder. Hence, accepting the cash, Rob and Trish were sentencing the Peterson sisters to death by execution. When Callie placed the next suitcase, Rob and Trish would have to die. It was, in all respects, a lethal experiment, and it would continue to be one until the day an applicant refused the money.” The variables change with each experiment and its Creed’s job to do the killing. Interesting premise, especially as Creed begins to have his doubts. (We needn’t go into Creed’s lack of moral fiber.) “What, indeed? I wondered. Is this what I’ve been reduced to, a guy who kills civilian men and women who didn’t realize they’d become accessories to murder simply by accepting a sum of money they desperately needed? Was it really a fair experiment?”

Moments after securing the Peterson sisters, he has a heart attack. To say more might spoil it.

Sometimes the book seems like a collection of stories pulled together by a common thread. Minor issue. There are some very, very, funny scenes in this book. The one in the hospital where all the staff look like they might have stolen their lab coats from playschool had me laughing out loud. Locke is good. Buy some for your Kindle. Well worth 10 times the price. show less

Here’s another contender for the best opening line to a book: “MOST PEOPLE WOULD think getting bit on the balls by a water moccasin while sitting on the toilet in their own home would be the worst thing that could happen that day.” Sam Case learns the hard way that not helping Donovan Creed may reap all sorts of bad things. Including the fake amputation of his leg.

Again, I really am enjoying John Locke’s Donovan Creed series. And what a deal: all are available for $.99 for your show more Kindle. As I have noted in other reviews in the Creed series, they are a combination broad farce, comic Bondian thriller, and mystery. All are competently written and occasionally include side-slapping comedy and witty repartee.

In this one, Creed, whose face has been surgically altered into the most handsome man in the world to hide his former identity, is looking for his married girlfriend Rachel (Sam’s wife) because as it happens she is naturally immune to the great Spanish flu virus of 1918 (which, of course, originated in Kansas,)and Creed speculates she has been kidnapped by the government to harvest her eggs and blood so a vaccine will be available in case terrorists use the flu as a terror weapon. “By the time it hit Spain it was so deadly they called it the Spanish Flu. And it’s been called that, ever since.” I hold up my hand. “You mean to tell me that because a single pig in Kansas ate some duck shit one morning, 100 million people died?” “Yes.” (Did I mention the tongue in cheek nature of these stories?) Since Creed is a Homeland Security assassin and counter-terrorist (and Homeland Security countenances every imaginable crime in order to deter terrorism,) he has access to all sorts of sophisticated tools and Lear 60 to ferry him around.

How can you not like a book that has lines like this: “Damn right you haven’t. And her perfect breath dances behind teeth as pure and white as the 3,617 words Melville used in Chapter 42 to describe how white the whale was. “ and referring to a character’s shillelagh, “Have you ever hit anyone with it?” “No, but my grandmother claims to have used it to beat off the men in her neighborhood.” “My grandmother used her hand,” I say. “Excuse me?”

Droll, indeed. show less

Think Donovan Creed without the trappings and set in the mid-19th century old west and you have Emmett Love. He’s embarked on a trip to ferry a mail-order bride and some hookers through wild country. He has a side-kick Shrub/Wayne who rarely shows himself but is always just a little ahead of the game. The book can be both poignant and hilarious. Another Locke winner.

Phoebe, the mail-order bride, encounters Emmet in the beginning. She’s from the East and on her way to join a prospective show more husband. Standoffish and arrogant, she adapts to the harshness of the journey, but maintains her optimism despite Emmet’s attempts to present a more likely scenario, a sod house instead of the fine wood one with porch she envisions. "Well, we'll see when we get there. I hope he's got a fine wood house, 'cause sod houses are fiercely cold in the winter, and scorchin' hot in the summer. And they leak like crazy whenever it rains, which ain't often enough. But when it does rain, it won't stop. As the water comes through the sod, it turns the dirt into mud, at which point you and your husband and kids'll be wearin' half the house on your faces and clothes.”

The portrayal of the Kansas prairie is harsh indeed. After Scarlett is gored by a bull, Emmet, Rose, Monique, and Phoebe attempt to carry her injured body to the nearest homestead where Molly and Paul Stone try to eke out a desperate living and they hope to find some shelter. Unfortunately she dies on the way and then it’s a matter of finding tools to dig a grave in the hard-packed clay. The few that they had were broken so they seek a hole to stuff her body, “Gettin' Scarlett's body deep enough into the hole to properly bury her required doin' things to it that'll keep me out of heaven for six lifetimes. I could only hope the good Lord would accept part of the blame for creatin' such a large woman and allowin' her to die near such a small hole. I'm not the sort to criticize, but it seemed like bad plannin' to me, and I might've yelled that comment skyward, or worse ones.”

And this after they had come across the grave of a child. Phoebe asks how the child might have died. "Cholera, typhoid, brain fever, and uncontrollable diarrhea are possible. But if I had to make a guess, I'd say this child fell out of a wagon and got crushed by either the ox or the wheel of the wagon that followed it. She stared at me. "That cannot be a common way to die on the prairie.""I'm afraid it's quite common," I said. She grimaced, closed her eyes tightly, and shook her head. "And not one of the diseases you"mentioned?" "No ma'am."She opened her eyes. "Why not?" I gestured to the open area all around us. No other graves." show less

Locked In

Ruby’s review of ‘How I sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!’ by John Locke

In the last two months I’ve been devouring non-fiction as research to support my new project – a how-to book on novel writing, social media and independent epublishing. It’s been an interesting journey and my final port of call was the much talked about million selling method book by Mr Locke.
The first thing I do when considering a popular book is to browse the negative reviews. Locke’s knockers show more were scathing, claiming he didn’t really reveal his secrets, that his method wouldn’t work for most people and he was on an ego-trip. Then I took a look at the three star reviews (the ones that Locke himself discounts when he calculates the positive / negative review score of books). I sensed from those middling reviews that he was connecting with his readers. Not everyone felt they could emulate his approach but they began to give it credence. A sample of the higher scoring reviews showed genuine praise. So I One-clicked and slipped my few bucks into Mr Locke’s bulging pocketbook.
First impression? An avalanche of advertising, branding and hammering out credentials. Close to sales pitch overload. I’m a bit of a straight-laced Brit and pushy product placement presses the wrong buttons for me. However, in between the lines of Locke’s opening gambit, I sensed warmth and something akin to humility. So I read on.
It didn’t take long before I realised that I was in the hands of a master of rhetoric. That’s a positive super-power, when used for good. Locke’s entrepreneurial understanding of sales and marketing, coupled with that gift for rhetoric, are a powerful combination. He’s a rich man who has unsuccessfully tried to herd his ebook camels into sales heaven through the eye of a needle (or some more suitable metaphor). That was the first major learning. Money thrown at traditional product promotion won’t propel an indie author onto the best seller list.
Locke went on to describe how his writing polarises readers and that demarcation defines his market niche. I read that on the day that Peril received its first ever one-star review. The reader had found my anti-hero thriller unpalatable, where others had lauded it. There, I had polarisation.
Donovan Creed, Locke’s MC in his main series, isn’t a regular guy and the quirky story lines aren’t mainstream. Bells began to ring in my head as I compared the appeal of Creed with my Peril MC Ger Mayes. Locke has a series of Creed novels and that was where my hopeful comparison faltered (note to self – produce more!)
Then Locke went on to describe his GBL (Guaranteed Buyer List) and how these people have become personal friends who not only buy his new releases but are evangelical in spreading the word. I call them the Locked In. He explained his approach to social media and how he engages in a supportive social network where spam is anathema and everyone benefits, how he communicates personally and builds relationships. I thought of people I have met on Twitter, facebook, this blog and in chat forums. How they might have bought my book but I don’t know. How I don’t know if the 17,000 people holding ecopies of Peril even know that I’ve written and released The Baptist! I’m adept at the how-to aspects of social networking and epublishing, and I think I write a decent novel but, compared to Locke’s sleek, tight and smooth machine, my marketing is a pair of old lady’s wrinkled stockings.
All the way through the book Locke promotes his sound marketing plan but the major catalyst for his success, the trigger that set Locke’s snowball rolling down the hill, is his incredible rhetoric. He attributes the initial rush of sales to a series of blog posts that hit the sweet spot with potential readers and went viral. The resulting sales success fed into his business plan with all its carefully designed components and he leveraged the momentum to great effect as the Creed series rolled out.
If you are an indie author who understands product marketing, customer relationship management and the principles of persuasion, then you have to read Locke’s book. If you don’t understand some or any of those things then you have to read Locke’s book.
At the end I wanted to hug John Locke. And I’m not the kind of guy who does man hugs. I don’t think that many people will be able to fully replicate his method. Few have the skill set, determination and work rate that he displays, but there are nuggets in there for everyone and I’m thankful to the man for sharing. And I just bought my first Donovan Creed ebook. show less