Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Part 3: A Day In The Life of A New Thriller, Rogue Wave & It's Author, Boyd Morrison: Release Day of Rogue Wave



By Tom Dulaney, Editor

The official end of Rogue Wave's “release day” begins its long crawl across America. On the East Coast, Planet iPad assesses the day at 10 PM, while on the West Coast it's only 7 PM and the release party is just starting.

Boyd Morrison, author of Rogue Wave, knew from experience with previously-released The Ark that today would be a bit of a non-event is many ways. Much like a man's 40th birthday, Boyd said. Just like any other day.

The rankings on Amazon.com for the paperback book and ebook rose and fell, giving the impression of action. At the moment, Rogue Wave sits at No. 2,541 as an ebook and 25,764 as a paperback.  Those are very good numbers if you consider where the best-known authors' big bestsellers rank today.  

But because they move, and move quickly, those numbers can trick us, making us think they mean more than the do. The real proof of a novel's success is not how high it sits on a bestseller list today, but on how many readers are moved to buy the book over time. That may take days, or weeks, or months to play out.

“I plan to make this my career,” Boyd said today. He expects to write many books before, with good fortune, he is as well known as the premier authors of thrillers. “Persistence,” he explained when describing part of the reason he has made it to this day.  He is clearly not done persisting.

Ken Follett, author of Pillars Of The Earth, World Without End and--among a raft of others--his first major hit, Eye of the Needle, speaks of the same long-term progression toward great success as an author. His fabled Pillars Of The Earth barely generated a ripple when released initially. Yet, over time, its popularity grew. He's called it his most successful novel, the one he wrote against the advice of all his colleagues in the publishing industry. They thought it was too far afield from his spy thriller genre.

Time proved them wrong.

Boyd's life has changed since his dream of having a big name publisher sign him to a contract. “It's a job and you have to treat it as a job,” he said earlier today, explaining the duties of meeting a publisher's schedule, of making sure his work is on time so the artists can do their work, and the marketing department can pull a campaign together, and printers can print and shippers can move the paperbacks around the nation to make release day in every bookstore.

That's quite a change from the free and easy days of the self-published eBook author selling only digital editions in the Kindle Store. Nothing wrong and a great deal right with the eBook format, he indicates.  It it weren't for eBooks and Amazon and the Digital Text Platform, Boyd says, he would still be an unknown writer.

 And perhaps it is just a legacy of the “old days” of publishing, but he says “seeing your book on a shelf in a book store” is an event with impact on the author that the ebook world doesn't offer.

Earlier in the day, Boyd expressed mystification at Amazon's classification of his book as a “manga mystery” and even that it had gotten onto the top of the Amazon bestseller lists in the comic book subcategory of war, and the general fiction genre of war stories. It is not a spoiler to tell you that Rogue Wave is not a comic book, a manga mystery, or a war story. The digital world gets it fast, it seems, but not always right.  It's a thriller and a technothriller.  Boyd's scientific background as a Ph. D. engineer who's worked for NASA, Thomson/RCA and Microsoft shines through.

But that's OK, because eBooks are really in their infancy and the systems that serve them are infants as well. With eBooks roaring ahead at triple-digit growth rates, they are still only 4% of the total book market for 2010, according to best estimates from expert companies like Forrester Research. Everyone knows they are coming on fast. Even Stephen King speculates that in a few years eBooks will account for 50% of all book sales each year. But, King adds, “maybe.”

Things are changing, and changing fast in publishing. Yet with 96% of all books sold this year being printed on paper, there is still the stability of traditional ways and methods to provide a heavy keel to keep this runaway ship of publishing from capsizing in this tumultuous world.

The highlights of Boyd's release day are not big numbers and the acclaim of total strangers buying his books or tacking reviews onto his book's page. Instead, they were these:

The arrival of a bouquet of flowers sent by his wife's parents. Attached was a card reading: “I'm so glad it's you.”

On the phone, he explained the special meaning of that, dating back nearly 20 years to the day he and Randi announced their engagement. His new-found mother in law to be hugged him and whispered: “I'm so glad it's you” who will wed our daughter. Rogue Wave's dedication page reads: “To Frank and Arden. I'm so glad it's you.”

And this: “Treated myself to a burger at my favorite burger joint, Red Mill. Best bacon cheeseburgers in Seattle!” he wrote in a text to Planet iPad with a photo attached. Not quite New York high society dining, but now you know where to go in Seattle.

And this: “I called a couple of local indie booksellers to see if I could drop in and sign stock, but they haven't received their shipments yet,” the texted on the run. “That's why Release Day can be anticlimactic.”

And this: “Took an hour to work at at the gym. Spent my StairMaster time reading a soon-to-be-published thriller for a possible endorsement. Enjoying it so far.”

And this: “Signed Rogue Wave stock at one Barnes and Noble, but couldn't at the other B&N near my house because they were already sold out!”

And even this: “Picked up five boxes of desserts for the party tonight.”

And this to close the day:   Boyd and his wife are surrounded by friends as these words are written, people who believed in him and them before his breakthrough with famed Simon & Schuster.  No matter how things go, it seems, that same crew will be there believing in them in the future.










Planet iPad Daily Free Book Alert, Tuesday, November 30: 11 Brand New Free Listings Today! PLUS Renegade Paladins, Y.S. Pascal (Today's Sponsor)

Christmas headlines the latest 11 new free books added to our list today, including best loved Christmas songs, advice on making Christmas better this year,  a little bit of romance, a little mystery and, of course, another vampire romance....


But First, A Word From Our Sponsor

Singularity Channel viewers may recognize Hollywood actress Shiloh Rush as Ensign Tara Guard from the sci-fi TV series Bulwark, but nobody knows Shiloh is leading a double life.


by Y.S. Pascal
5 Stars - 3 Reviews

Text-to-Speech:  Enabled

Here's The Set-Up:

Haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her beloved older brother, Shiloh hopes to track him down by following in his footsteps as a secret agent for the Zygan Federation, an intergalactic empire still hidden from Earth. 

During this quest, Shiloh and her British co-star Spud, also a Zygan agent, fly into space--for real--to stop terrorists and invaders who could destroy the Federation and kill millions throughout the universe. 

Sent back in time to Earth's Ancient Middle East to save the life of a young prophet and prevent Earth's destruction, Shiloh and Spud stumble on a diabolical conspiracy and barely escape with their lives. 

Their assignment sabotaged, Shiloh and Spud discover the villains' real mission, face powerful enemy fighters from warrior planets and traitors from their own ranks, and race against time to save Earth.


Click here to download Renegade Paladins or a free sample to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

*  

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Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, iPad Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.

Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store 

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Part 2: A Day In The Life of A New Thriller, Rogue Wave & It's Author, Boyd Morrison: Release Day of Rogue Wave




Continuing Our Coverage:

By Tom Dulaney, Editor

Part 2: We're virtually spending the day with Boyd Morrison, author of Rogue Wave, which released for sale today in print and eBook editions across the nation's bookstores, as an eBook in the Nook Barnes & Noble store, on Amazon.com as both a print book and an eBook in the Kindle Store.  For Part 1, click here.


Boyd has been through this drill earlier this year, where his first book backed by publisher Simon & Schuster, The Ark, went on sale on May 11. He expected a quiet day today, with few surprises, and time spent during the day mailing copies of Rogue Wave to supporters, authors who boosted it in print, and family and friends.

We last posted at about 11 AM East Coast Time where Planet iPad office is located, or 8 AM at Boyd's home on Seattle. At the time, the new paperback was ranked 29,568 on Amazon and the eBook stood at 8,985.  Things have changed.

4 PM New York, 1 PM Seattle: The eBook edition has climbed to 3,880th place in Amazon's rankings, while the print edition is currently bouncing around between the 17,000 and 20,000 marks.

Boyd texted Planet iPad several times in between, once from the post office where he was mailing off his book, once sharing his concern that Rogue Wave was missing from the Apple iStore. “Trying to figure out why Rogue Wave is missing from the Apple iBookstore,” he texted. “It was there yesterday!”

Later: “Just stopped at the post office to mail a dozen copies as a thanks to authors who blurbed and people in the acknowledgments.”

Later still: “Took at hour to work out at the gym. Spent my Stairmaster time reading a soon-to-be-published thriller for a possible endorsement. Enjoying it so far.”

Such is the mundane life of an author on the day his book goes on sale.

Earlier, he emailed that he expected to have a quiet day, mostly alone, followed by a gathering of friends this evening to celebrate the day, and thank them for the ongoing support of his writing. His wife, Randi, his “First Editor” and best friend, was away at a medical conference. She's an internist at a Seattle area hospital, and Boyd's most ardent fan.


For the romantics among us, the story of how Boyd set aside his writing for years to support her as she went to med school, is worth knowing.

We checked the Amazon rankings together during the phone call, him from his Seattle home, me from my suburban Philadelphia home.

We authors tend to obsess about Amazon rankings,” he confided in the phone call. In truth, he adds, “they are no indication of what the book is doing in the brick and mortar bookstores” where 96% of all books are still currently sold. Though eBooks grab the headlines these days, this year Forrester Research estimates eBooks will have a banner growth year and get 4% of all book sales.  That adds up to quite a sum:  $1 billion in sales.

Last year, book sales in all formats were about $24 billion, and there is no indication 2010's total sales in all formats will be significantly higher.

While Amazon recently reported that, title for title at all the top levels, eBooks in the Kindle Store outsell Amazon's stock of print books for the same title 2 to 1, in the entire scheme of US book sales the figure is this at the moment:  $1 eBook dollar earned for $24 printed books earn.

That is not to discount the impact and rapid growth of eBooks. They're hot, and growing by triple digit percentages. But there are still only part of a much larger picture.

But Amazon's figures are the only ones we can see instantly,” Morrison noted. “Royalty statements from the publisher will arrive in six months.”

It's becoming clear that the only immediacy of today's events concerning Rogue Wave will be the Amazon rankings, and that those are a small part of the picture. During a long phone conversation, Morrison talked about other aspects of the eBook revolution, its immediacy, and wider issues. For example: reviews posted online by readers.

"I stopped reading the reviews most of the time,” Morrison says. “It's human nature to fixate on the negative things we read. Most of the reviews posted have been very good, but we gloss over the praise and focus on critical comments.”

Other authors, including bestselling Bill Myers have shared the same sentiment with me.

It's all opinion, after all,” Morrison says. “Not everyone likes the same thing. For instance, my books were rejected by 25 publishing companies.” But opinions changed, at least at Simon & Schuster.

I'm satisfied that the book is the way I wanted it to be,” he says. How others view it—whether they are editors or individual readers—is something he acknowledges is beyond the author's control.

There's another divide between eBooks and print for the author:  “If you're self-publishing,” he says of the different worlds of eBooks and print, “you can see your sales from minute to minute.” And you can see the reviews the moment they're posted.

He detects significant differences in the eBook and print book markets, and points to the bestseller lists for both, which are usually quite different lists. “People with Kindles will want to buy eBooks,” he says. “Those without will want to buy print books. It seems that the eBook world is totally separate from the print world.”

Overall, Morrison puts eBooks and print books in their context, his ideas paralleling the size of sales of both. But, he explains, he's in it for the long haul. The success or failure of one book is less important when your long-term plan is to publish many books.

I now have two books out,” he says. “But I want to build a career at this. People you know about have 10 or 15 books out."  He cites his bestselling friends James Rollins and Douglas Prestons as examples.

Another perspective on today, release day, he givevs, “is that it's like your 40th birthday.” He's 43. “It's really just another day.”

In other parts of the conversation, he revealed that his third and fourth novels are scheduled for release, but we'll cover those in a subsequent post, along with Morrison's other observations about the nature of being an author under contract, the responsibilities, and more.



A Day In The Life of A New Thriller, Rogue Wave & It's Author, Boyd Morrison: Release Day of Rogue Wave



By Tom Dulaney, Editor


A new thriller from author Boyd Morrison, Rogue Wave, was released to the public on Amazon.com overnight.  Pre-orders were sent off to Kindles and Kindle app devices.  The book began posting its first rankings on Amazon's bestseller lists, updated hourly.  And, backed by megapublisher Simon & Schuster's and its Pocket Imprint, paperbacks should be sprouting on the shelves of bookstores across America.


On this very important day for him and the book, a culmination of a lifetime of dreams and hard work, Boyd is sharing his day with Planet iPad readers.

Boyd has agreed to spend some time on the phone today with Planet iPad.  

As best we can, we'll ask Boyd to apprise us of the day's events as they happen.  We'll pass them along to readers in a running journal of continuing posts.

We're cobbling this together on the fly, so it's an experiment in blogging and glitches will no doubt occur.  We're hoping Boyd and, perhaps, those joining him today in Seattle will text Planet iPad, perhaps share some photos from cell phones, and so on.

Authors agonize for months or years crafting a novel, hoping it will catch the fancy of book readers and that it will also catch fire and run up the sales.  The hours of hard work come to a head the day the book is released to the world.


Today, November 30, is just such a day for Boyd Morrison and his thriller, Rogue Wave. 


There's more to this exercise than peering over the author's shoulder to see how the day of the release goes.  We'll be watching Boyd move through his day.  But we'll also do our best to watch this wild new world of ebook and print book publishing move through its day, as well.


In the instantaneous world of ebook publishing, and especially because the world's biggest ebook publisher--Amazon--updates book rankings in its Kindle Store hourly, there is a temptation to judge a book based on the rank of the moment.   


But as big and powerful as Amazon is in this new world of books, it's still only part of the picture for the author and the book.  Boyd is well aware of that, having gone through the process with his previously released book, The Ark, back on May 11.  Here's how he inserts the Amazon rankings into his plans for the day, which he emailed to Planet iPad before turning in last night:


"I don't know how glamorous my day will seem (although it would have been my idea of heaven when I was unpublished, and I'm super excited about having it released). My plans are to send off copies of Rogue Wave to friends, family, authors who endorsed it, and everyone in my acknowledgments. 


"I'll try not to get too wrapped up in what my Amazon rankings are since it's not really a good indicator of how well it's doing in stores, but the Kindle ranking will be interesting to see. It took a long time to build when it was on Kindle last year, so I'm expecting the same now since it will be new to almost everyone. My only peeve is that the stellar reviews for The Palmyra Impact [Rogue Wave's title when Boyd originally self-published it to Amazon's Kindle Store] haven't been transferred over to Rogue Wave, which would be helpful because I got 22 five- and four-star reviews last year.

Then I might drive around to a few local stores that are carrying the book and sign the stock they have. I have a signing at Seattle Mystery Bookshop on Saturday, and that's my only signing scheduled for Rogue Wave (paperback originals don't get nearly the attention that hardcovers do). Then it's back home to get ready for the release party that we're hosting at my house to celebrate with my friends here in Seattle. I'm sure I'll also touch base with my agent and editor tomorrow."


Overall here at Planet iPad, the hope is to "join" the author and his family and friends in a virtual way through an important day.  


Beyond that, another hope is to get a better look at the ways and workings of ebook publishing on, for at least this book, a high-speed day.  We'll keep tabs on the book's progress on Amazon, report on news flowing in via Google Alerts through the day, watch Facebook for news that pops up on the book's Facebook fan page and on Boyd's personal Facebook page


We don't know what we will discover, but it should be interesting for those who love books, love thrillers in particular, and love ebooks on our iPads, Kindles and Kindle app gadgets.


It should also be of interest to those who like to see someone who was a publishing underdog before the Amazon Kindle Store appeared get a good shot at the top of the bestseller lists.


Here We Go:


11:45 PM, Nov. 29, The Night Before:  


Movement on Rogue Wave's page in the Amazon Kindle Store. Two hours ago, the paperback edition of the book was ranked at about 35,700th out of some 750,000 eBooks in the store, based on pre-orders.  The ranking has disappeared from the page.

That page carries kudos from some to the top thriller writers in the business. Morrison told me during an earlier interview that these authors haven't been put up to hyping a fellow author by publishers or publicists. Boyd told me he has met them all at writers' conferences, they keep in touch with each other via email.   He was amazed that such famous writers took an active interest in his success at the meetings, and afterwards.


All of these men are successful thriller writers, bestsellers one and all. Notice where their books are at the moment, in the volatile and constantly—hourly--changing horse race that is the Amazon rankings.


Morrison, a relatively unknown author compared to these writers, sits in the middle of the pack according to the posted ranking of 35,700 some few hours ago.


To a man, they are cheering him on.

"This is top-notch suspense, with crisp plotting, believable characters, and well-researched science. A classic disaster novel, up there with the very best." --Douglas Preston, NY Times bestselling author of IMPACT  (Current Amazon Rank:  5,256)

"ROGUE WAVE is the best thriller I've read this year." --Chris Kuzneski, NY Times bestselling author of THE PROPHECY (current rank:  64,745)


"ROGUE WAVE is a disaster novel stripped straight out of today's headlines. Not to be missed!" --James Rollins, NY Times bestselling author of THE DOOMSDAY KEY  (Rank: 2,658)

 "Morrison's smooth and savory mix of science and suspense brings the absolute best of Michael Crichton to mind." --Jon Land, NY Times bestselling author of STRONG JUSTICE
 
(32,127)

      


























6 AM Eastern Standard Time:   Rogue Wave greets the sun with an official position for the paperback at 56,706 in the Amazon rankings.  Boyd emailed overnight putting those rankings in the context of nationwide sales that include the Kindle Store, but go well beyond that.  


10:30 EST:  Rogue Wave has risen to 29,668 as a print book, and sits at 8,985 as a Kindle Book.


Read a free sample of our eBook of the Day, The Light At The End without leaving your browser!



Here's The Background for the 25th Anniversary Edition of 
The Light At The End:

First published in 1986, The Light at the End tells the story of Rudy Pasko, bad poet, Subway artist, and now ... vampire. This is the 25th anniversary edition of the first Splatterpunk novel. It sold over a million copies in only a few weeks, and Rudy was the model Joss Whedon used to create the vampire SPIKE for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This is a fast-paced, hard-biting novel of love, lust, betrayal, and blood, told by two master storytellers who went on to a string of best-selling novels and, along with Clive Barker & David Schow, ushered in the sub-genre of Splatterpunk. This is a refreshing change for those tiring of the whiny, drama-hyped vampires of Anne Rice and Twilight.

From Library Journal
This 1986 novel was the first of the duo's six collaborations in the horror subgenre dubbed "splatterpunk." The story follows a series of gruesome murders in New York City that have police totally baffled, because they're assuming the killer is human! Stealth books are available online at www.stealthpress.com.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

And here's the Set-Up:

An adrenaline-charged tale of unrelenting suspense that sparks with raw and savage energy... The newspapers scream out headlines that spark terror across the city. Ten murders on the New York City subway. Ten grisly crimes that defy all reason -- no pattern, no m.o., no leads for police to pursue. The press dubs the fiend the "Subway Psycho"; the NYPD desperately seeks their quarry before the city erupts in mass hysteria. But they won't find what they're looking for.

Because they all think that the killer is human.

Only a few know the true story -- a story the papers will never print. It is a tale of abject terror and death written in grit and steel... and blood. The tale of a man who vanished into the bowels of the urban earth one night, taken by a creature of unholy evil, then left as a babe abandoned on the doorstep of Hell. Now he is back, driven by twin demons of rage and retribution.

He is unstoppable. And we are all his prey... unless a ragtag band of misfit souls will dare to descend into a world of manmade darkness, where the real and unreal alike dwell in endless shadow. A place where humanity has been left behind, and the horrifying truth will dawn as a madman's chilling vendetta comes to light...

Filled with gripping drama and harrowing doomsday dread, The Light at the End is the book that ushered in a bold new view of humankind's most ancient and ruthless evil; a mesmerizing novel from two acknowledged masters of spellbinding suspense.

And right here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:



Monday, November 29, 2010

Planet iPad Daily Free Book Alert, Monday, November 29: A Dozen New Free Books Just Posted Late Today, Including Reuter's Columnist Gaffen's Never Buy Another Stock and Smith & Wesson's President & CEO on Pistol Packing Brand Management ... PLUS the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Light At The End (Today's Sponsor)

Lessons of a Brand Manager brings you pistol and firearm maker Smith & Wesson's CEO's business wisdom and experience, Reuter's and former Wall Street Journal reporter David Gaffen's advice to Never Buy Another Stock....PLUS 10 more new freebies covering business, bacteria and the bible....in addition to 150+ more Free Book Alert listings....

But First A Word From Our Sponsor


25th anniversary edition of a seminal novel in the fiction sub-genre of Splatterpunk.

First published in 1986, The Light at the End tells the story of Rudy Pasko, bad poet, Subway artist, and now ... vampire.  This is the 25th anniversary edition of the first Splatterpunk novel.  It sold over a million copies in only a few weeks, and Rudy was the model Joss Whedon used to create the vampire SPIKE for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  

by John Skipp & Craig Spector
5 Stars - 21 Reviews
Text-to-Speech:  Enabled

This is a fast-paced, hard-biting novel of love, lust, betrayal, and blood, told by two master storytellers who went on to a string of best-selling novels and, along with Clive Barker & David Schow, ushered in the sub-genre of Splatterpunk.  This is a refreshing change for those tiring of the whiny, drama-hyped vampires of Anne Rice and Twilight.

From Library Journal

This 1986 novel was the first of the duo's six collaborations in the horror subgenre dubbed "splatterpunk." The story follows a series of gruesome murders in New York City that have police totally baffled, because they're assuming the killer is human! Stealth books are available online at www.stealthpress.com.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Here's The Set-Up:



The 25th Anniversary Edition of the Original Splatterpunk Novel

An adrenaline-charged tale of unrelenting suspense that sparks with raw and savage energy... The newspapers scream out headlines that spark terror across the city. Ten murders on the New York City subway. Ten grisly crimes that defy all reason -- no pattern, no m.o., no leads for police to pursue. The press dubs the fiend the "Subway Psycho"; the NYPD desperately seeks their quarry before the city erupts in mass hysteria. But they won't find what they're looking for.

Because they all think that the killer is human.

Only a few know the true story -- a story the papers will never print. It is a tale of abject terror and death written in grit and steel... and blood. The tale of a man who vanished into the bowels of the urban earth one night, taken by a creature of unholy evil, then left as a babe abandoned on the doorstep of Hell. Now he is back, driven by twin demons of rage and retribution.

He is unstoppable. And we are all his prey... unless a ragtag band of misfit souls will dare to descend into a world of manmade darkness, where the real and unreal alike dwell in endless shadow. A place where humanity has been left behind, and the horrifying truth will dawn as a madman's chilling vendetta comes to light...

Filled with gripping drama and harrowing doomsday dread, The Light at the End is the book that ushered in a bold new view of humankind's most ancient and ruthless evil; a mesmerizing novel from two acknowledged masters of spellbinding suspense.

Click here to download The Light At The End (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them.

Authors, Publishers, iPad Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.

Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store 
HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL:
Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies.


Another Chapter in Kindle History Tomorrow With Arrival of A New Thriller And A Very Intriguing Key Character


By Tom Dulaney, Editor

Another chapter in Kindle history will be made tomorrow, with the release of a new thriller that reviewers love from an author who has a multi-book contract from a major publisher, thanks to the Kindle and Amazon’s Digital Text Publishing (DTP) platform.

And how's this for a great character for a thriller! Look at his dossier:

Actor
He worked on NASA's space station project. He endured rigorous astronaut training, amusing his peers when floating in the zero gravity flight of NASA's famed Vomit Comet. 

Moving on, he added a Ph. D., from Virginia Tech, in engineering to his credentials. Next he dreamed up 11 US patents at Thomson/RCA, the high-tech engineering company. Next career stop: managing one of Microsoft's Xbox video game testing groups.

He mastered assuming other identities by acting professionally in films, commercials and stage plays.

Like any great thriller hero, he's handsome and daring. He challenges raging white water rivers in rafts, skis like James Bond being chased, scuba dives adventurously like Dirk Pitt, and bungee jumps to fill remaining spare moments.

A well rounded brainy and brawny hero, he asked all the right questions to become an official Jeopardy champion.

His love interest, a beautiful English major, harbored a secret and impossible dream that changed his life. She wanted to become a doctor. Our hero had a dream of his own. For love, he shelved his dream for years to support his leading lady while she attended med school.

She promised, and he agreed, that when she got her MD, he would be free to follow his heart's desire.

Though he's held the most fantastic jobs at NASA and Microsoft, though he tests himself against the elements in daring extreme sports, none of that is enough. The dream he had as a kid burned within during the years of supporting his med school student.

The day came, she got her degree. She was a doctor, he was free. So he set aside all the glitzy jobs, pulled out his chair, fired up his computer, and at last set out on his dream-quest. Writing novels, thrillers to be exact.

The story rises toward a peak as the hero faces an uncaring publishing industry. He makes all the right moves, attends all the right meetings, meets the major thriller writers socially at writers' conventions.

More challenges lined up to take him on as the words flowed. He needed an agent. How would he find a publisher? Would anybody buy his books?  Unknown to him as he wrote over the years, science and technology would create an unusual gadget that would change his life.

He burst with book ideas, using his deep knowledge of the sciences and engineering, plus his wide experiences gliding down mountains on skis, underwater in scuba gear, hanging from a bungee cord and roaring down white water rivers.

He wrote three books combining science and action. One idea for a thriller envisioned a cataclysmic wave. He tapped the story out on his keyboard: A monster tsunami roars across the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii, a puny obstacle, lies in the tsunami's path. Over 2 million people will die.

What more fantastic fictional character can we cook up to send to Honolulu just as the rogue wave appears on Hawaii's horizon? He's perfect for it—gutsy, strong, daring, a scientist with a passion for action.

It's a shame our accomplished, handsome and athletic hero can't appear in the book, but it's impossible.

He's the author, and there's nothing fictional about the man.

He's real. His name is Boyd Morrison. And his thriller Rogue Wave delivers in the Amazon Kindle Store on November 30. for a bargain price of $5.99

Boyd, the living author and not a character, has already dared the fates. In 2003, he set out to write the best thrillers the world has ever seen. After grinding out three novels, he tried to scale the fortress walls of the publishing empire.

I got what I call 'wonderful rejections' from publishers who said they loved this or that about the book, but didn't want it,” he told Planet iPad's editor Tom Dulaney in an exclusive interview earlier this year. “Curiously, there was little consistency of complaint from the 25 publishing houses that turned thumbs down on the novel.”

One said there was not enough action,” he said. “Another thought there was too much action—which I thought an odd thing since it is a thriller.”

With no clear guidance from the conflicting rejections, “I didn't know what to fix.”

From 2007, the next two years saw only a string of rejections. “By 2009 we were finished,” Morrison said. He and his agent, Irene Goodman, had been rebuffed by all of the New York publishing houses. “We were pretty much done,” he adds.

He speaks in passing of “many dark days” but he didn't quit entirely. In 2009, he asked his agent if he could give the book away. The plan: post them on his web site for any and all to take. “I thought maybe we could build some buzz. She said to go for it.”

The book went up on the web, free. “At about that time I saw that anyone could self-publish in the Kindle store,” he said. “I had considered self publishing in print, but that was more trouble than I was willing to take on.”

It was really an afterthought to publish a Kindle version, just something else to do to try to find readers,” Morrison says. “I did no promotion—just put the books up to see what would happen.”

Actually, he made low level efforts to tout the book in discussion forums on the web. That's where I first heard of Boyd, by reading his polite assistance offered to another person in the discussion group.

I would go to discussion forums and see people recommending the books,” he said.

In the Kindle Forum, Kindle Social Network, Morrison gently announced his books and left links to buy them on Amazon. That social network has some 2,200 members overall in about a dozen subgroups based on topic.

But Morrison monitored the group, and others like it, and responded when group members asked questions he could answer.

You have to be really careful,” he explained. “You have to be contributing to the group” in useful ways, not just pushing your products on the people.

His three “babies” waiting in the Amazon Kindle Store were The Ark, The Adamas Blueprint, and the Palmyra Impact.

People started talking in the social network groups. Early buyers of the books gave them good or great reviews. Things were moving.

One was Number 1 in the technothriller category for a month, and all three were in the top five for a while,” Morrisson says.

The books took off. “I was selling at a rate of about 4,500 a month, and that was rising,” Morrison said.

While it was the Kindle and Digital Text Publishing that brought Morrison to the attention of a wider audience, it was another Kindle that helped.

That was about the time the Kindle 2 was released,” Morrison said. “A lot of people were flooding in” as new Kindle owners, primed to download books with their new toy. With his books ranked high on the bestseller lists in the technothriller category, “people saw the books and the good reviews. It created a virtual cycle.” Sales took off.

The books landed in the Kindle store on March 13, 2009. Sales ramped up. By mid-June, some 7,500 of the books had sold on Amazon, and another 7,500 or so had been downloaded from his web site.

They were selling at a rate of about 3,500 to 4,000 a month by June,” Morrison said, crediting the good fortune of having the books in the right place on Amazon when Kindle 2 sales helped push them up.

All three books were pulled from Amazon's virtual shelves in mid-June 2009.

The Kindle sales figures had broken the barriers, and Simon and Schuster entered negotiations with Morrison and his agent. The books disappeared from the Kindle Store while talks went on, not to return until each book was formally released in print.

Tomorrow, Rogue Wave (previously known to its first readers as The Palmyra Impact) arrives and delivers in the Kindle Store. It's available for pre-order now. It joins The Ark, which Simon & Schuster's Touchstone imprint released on May 11 this year.

The Ark sailed into port amidst the price storm between Amazon and the major publishers. The Ark's price, $11.99, “was set by the publisher,” its Amazon page notes.

Rogue Wave's price is $5.99 for either the Kindle edition or the mass market paperback. Because the price is fixed on the physical book, it seems unlikely it will go up for the Kindle edition. But odder things have happened this year.

On the night before its release, Rogue Wave is at about 35,700 in the Kindle ranking for sales. The Ark is around the 32,000 mark.

The Ark's reviewers give a strong indication of what readers can expect from Rogue Wave. The Ark has 120 reviewers, with 67 giving 5 Stars and 31 awarding it 4 stars. High marks from 82% of all readers.

Boyd told me several weeks ago that he is well into yet another thriller as Rogue Wave rumbles into Kindle readers' electronic libraries overnight.

The book has been changed since I read its previous incarnation as a self-published eBook, so there were be no plot summary from me here. However, I'm glad my Kindle was light in weight. I was so stressed by the action in the book that, for the first time, I had to pace around the house as I read the concluding chapters.

It's that good and, in this reporter's opinion, could very well launch Boyd Morrison to the uppermost reaches of the bestseller lists.

Here's Boyd's description of Rogue Wave, from his web site:

Honolulu, Hawaii. Tourist Paradise. Hell on Earth.

Over the remote central Pacific, an airliner halfway through its Memorial Day flight from Los Angeles to Sydney is suddenly rocked by a massive explosion. Despite the pilot’s valiant efforts, the blast sends it plummeting into the ocean, leaving no witnesses to the fireball.

Kai Tanaka, the new and untested director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu, notes a minor seismic disturbance in that region but doesn’t make the connection with the lost airplane. There’s no reason to be worried about his wife, who is the manager of a luxury hotel, or his daughter, who is enjoying the sunny holiday morning at Waikiki with friends.

But when all contact with Christmas Island and its 3000 inhabitants is lost, Kai is the first to realize that Hawaii faces a catastrophe of epic proportions: in one hour, a series of massive waves will wipe out Honolulu. He has just sixty minutes to save the lives of a million people, including his wife and daughter…