Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
The Great E-Book Giveaway
Plus: I Will Photoshop Your Head
And: The Grand Jury Prizes

So then we have what they call "social proof." This is evidence from the community around us that something (or someone) doesn't suck. In the particular case of my new e-book, this means Amazon reader reviews. I'm assured of a couple of things:

  1. Reader reviews sell e-books;
  2. Every author who has a mother, a partner, and two friends to rub together ought to have at least four positive reviews up there.

I'm terrible at begging (okay, you might not have guessed that), so I'm going instead with bribery:

I will send a totally free copy of DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES, in the electronic format of your choice, to anyone who will afterwards post a review on Amazon – if you like it.

If you don't like it, you're obviously off the hook. I wouldn't ask anyone to say anything he didn't think. I'll never contact you to ask where the damned review is. Your stated intention is good here.

That's it. Free copy for willingness to post a review. (If you like it.) This is going to be a long game, and I've got to try and build a foundation for some kind of eventual success here. Strong reader reviews will be key. Just write me on for your free e-book.

If you've already bought a copy, thank you very very much indeed – and if you're now willing to post a review . . .

If you've already bought it and are willing to post a review now, I will instead reward you by photoshopping your head. Just send me a photo, and it will reappear, mangled, right here in this space.

Here's a sample of my work for you. Sorry, Mandy.




I can't promise they'll all be you vanquishing an army of Cthulus on the moon. It'll probably be something else. Something worse.

Finally . . .

For the writer of the single most effusive and/or entertaining (and I'm holding my breath, given what that could mean) reader review, I offer the choice of the following two grand prizes:
  • A custom-written 2000(-ish)-word short story – on any topic you like. And you can be as detailed as you want here. You outline it, I will write it. (Bear in mind this will probably be done in my usual style – meaning there will be gunfights, chases, techno-babble, existentialism, and hot chicks on motorcycles. Virtually no matter what your topic.)
  • Your own custom-produced music video – you give me a few minutes of footage of yourself (or anything you like); and name the song you want it put to; and I will give you something not remotely MTV-worthy, but hopefully pretty damned amusing nonetheless.

To write a review, you have to be registered with Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, and I believe also have bought something from them in like the last six months or so. Here are the direct links to post a review: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. And to get your free book, and/or to have me Photoshop your head, it's:

Thanks! (And thanks again!


  e-books     my books     photoshops     publishing industry  
about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
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