Every so often, a letter comes from an unexpected place. A Christmas card and thank you note from a reader in Malaysia, in this instance. Made the perfect bookend to my birthday and the kindle edition giveaway.

First kind Christmas and New Year tidings  . . .

Then a handwritten thank-you note.  And who doesn’t love those?

Speaking of the giveaway, the final number of The Last Track downloads: 11,560. Of that total, just over 11,000 went to US households, the remaining were bound for other countries. Downloads from the United Kingdom comprised the lion’s share of the international demand, but readers in Canada, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, India, Brazil and Japan also grabbed copies as well.

Not a bad few days, indeed.

Thank you very much to everyone who helped get the word out about the promotion and a special thank you to those who downloaded The Last Track. And Natasha from Malaysia, of course, for such a nice note!

And next week, I go back to writhing in self-pity. Er, I mean, writing the sequel.

The Last Track giveaway on Amazon this week went very well. With a little more than 24 hours left, the book is ranked #4 in action/adventure and #2 in hard-boiled mysteries, down from a peak #1 position in both categories. For nearly four days, The Last Track remained in the top 100 of all free Kindle titles.

So that’s what a download count well in excess of 10,000 can do for rankings. Not too shabby. Was a nice treat on my birthday, especially after being so exhausted that I passed out on the couch at 6pm. Although there is one day left in the promotion, I’m OK with those numbers, so anything else that happens is gravy.

Based on the above results, the publisher decided on a new pricing strategy for the e-book version. Also, the paperback release is getting reset in another trim size and perhaps a new cover, though that won’t happen until sometime in April.

Anyway, if you’re reading this before February 15, 2013 at 8pm EST, by all means, grab a copy of The Last Track.

Quite a few things happened between the last post and today’s. First and most importantly, I got a new job. After seven years and a month as the tech office at the boarding school, it was time for a change.

No matter how often someone has changes jobs and deals with the last day emotions, until that door shutters behind you for the last time, what you’re really feeling about leaving that position–much less about the time you spent there—remains the big unknown. Especially this time.

So when the ninth graders delivered a handmade card they all signed to my office, I lost it. This was the first and only time a group of fourteen year-olds reduced me to tears. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised, since the day before the seniors almost succeeded with their own missive. Needless to say, it was moment I shall remember for a long time.

That being said, despite all the interviews and waiting to get the new place, after almost a month there, it was definitely worth the hurdles.

The publisher and I decided to try a new promotion technique, and so The Last Track is free on kindle for a short time. To say the least, I’m very pleased with the download numbers.

So please help yourself to a free copy.

Stephen King penned a great article about the state of culture, books, movies and TV recently. The feature came via the Poet as a page ripped from a magazine, so citing the exact source is not possible at this hour. All that can be noted for certain: the author is Stephen King.

“I love my Kindle but what appears there has (so far) been backstopped by great publishers and layers of editing. If the e-book drives those guys out of business (or even into semi-retirement), what happens to the quality? For that matter, who pays the advances?”  – Stephen King

The beauty of Stephen King is that he can openly question what an industry that for years depended on his output can not even dare to murmur. I have nothing but respect for him as a writer and businessman. He’s done more to advance the cause of fiction writers than anyone alive.

I’m going to run a little further with his words now–in my own very frank terms.

Publishing as nearly everyone knew it since the Great Depression is over. Always before, publishing “righted” itself after a downturn–even a chronic one. No recession ever altered the fact that a few strong houses dominated the distribution channel; thus they controlled the talent, and by extension the content available to readers.

What happens when NYC literati lose control of the channel and the talent realizes the potential reward of reaching readers differently? I should think the least of the established traditional Old World acts worries ought to be their advances.

How about the fact that there are 1000 more potential Stephen Kings offstage, who suddenly have the same level of access to readers? Much like television, the most interesting books could come from alternative sources. A cable network of books, as it were.

Thinking beyond advances, what could less fettered competition do to the royalty statements of even the biggest literary hitters?