Author Tips: Tracking Amazon Sales Rank Numbers

Authors love to watch the Amazon sales rank and speculate what that means for their book sales. The problem is that in order to chart the progress of your book against other comparable titles you have to manually search and click on each title in Amazon and write down the sale rank. This is a time consuming and frustrating process.

Luckily, you don't have to do that anymore.

I just found a great website that offers a FREE book monitoring service for your titles. The website is called www.TitleZ.com. Simply sign up for a free account and start adding titles to your watch list. It provides a sales rank history for your books and any comparable titles you type in. In addition to giving you a history it will calculate your average sales rank number and the best sales ranking you've received to date. PLUS: with a single click of a button the website will generate a printable report with all of the data on it in a graph chart.

So - if you're a published author looking for a better way to monitor your sales rank, try www.TitleZ.com and see what you think.

For those who are interested, Hunter Brown has ranked as low as 19,045 out of over 6 million titles (the lower the number the better!) We're working hard to bring that number down even more through marketing. For a better understanding of how Amazon's sales ranking system works check out this other blog entry.

Fake Celebrity Endorsements

Since we are still awaiting official celebrity endorsements for our book Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow we decided to make up a few of our own. Are they real? Absolutely not. Funny? We'll let you decide.

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On the eve of his Republican National Convention appearance, presidential candidate John McCain is considering legislation that would require every American to read Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow. In doing so, he earned our votes.

Not to be outdone, Obama replied that he absolutely loved the book and claims he agrees with McCain on the issue adding that he found it ironic that one of the characters in the book was named after his campaign slogan: Hope. Regrettably, we had to inform him that the character was not, in fact, named after his campaign to which he simply replied, "the audacity!" (An obvious and humorous plug for his own book entitled the Audacity of Hope.)

If you are a real celebrity, or if you know a real celebrity who enjoyed our book, and would like to offer an endorsement - drop us a line. In the meantime, we'll keep looking for other "fake" celebrity endorsements for our book.

Miller Brothers to Join Motiv8 Fantasy Fiction Tour

Some exciting news has surfaced for the Miller Brothers and you won't want to miss out!

In July 2007, four Christian Fantasy/Fiction authors embarked on a journey that would make literary history, open doors for their beloved genre and spark the imaginations of readers and publishers alike. They called it the Fantasy Fiction Tour; four authors from four different publishers uniting together for the cause of promoting the fantasy fiction genre. Last year’s successes included appearances in 15 cities, hitting everything from large chain bookstores to homeschool events, front page coverage by The Washington Post and even an interview on FoxNews.

Needless to say many new fans were made, and faithful readers popped up everywhere, surprising the four authors with gifts and rowdy welcomes into their cities.

This year - they are at it again with a West Coast tour that is twice as big as last year. They are calling it Motiv8 and are welcoming four additional authors to the team. Joining the original FFT “Fantastic Four” of Wayne Thomas Batson (Thomas Nelson), Christopher Hopper (Tsaba House), Sharon Hinck (NavPress), and Bryan Davis (Zondervan), are new comers Eric Reinhold (Creation House/Strang), LB Graham (P&R Publishing), Jonathan Rogers (Broadman & Holman Publishers) and the amazing Donita K. Paul (Waterbrook/Random House). Never before have so many fantasy/fiction authors from completely different publishing companies come together for a multi-city tour like this!

In addition to the full tour the Miller Brothers (that's us) have been selected to join the Motiv8 tour for the northwest portion of the event. It is an honor to be invited to join the tour and we would love to have a great gathering of people show up at each event. If you can make it to any of these locations please come and cheer us on. Having personally met several of these authors we can say without a shadow of a doubt that they are amazing individuals with a passion for great writing. We highly encourage you to check out the full tour schedule on their website at http://www.fantasyfictiontour.com/ and make plans to visit them when they come through your town.



The official schedule for our appearances is shown below.

Friday – October 3rd Abbotsford, BC, Canada
Mennonite Educational Institute (Middle School)
4081B Downes Road
Abbotsford BC
Canada V4X2M8

1pm – 3pm - Full school assembly
4:30pm – 6:00pm –Meet the Authors Dinner with 20 student reading contest winners
6:30pm – 8:30pm – Speaking Event with parents and students
8:30pm – Book Sales and Autograph session

Saturday – October 4th Seattle, Washington
Harvest Logos Bookstore 3pm to 5pm
115 N. 85th St. #100
Seattle, WA 98103
206-781-8725

Salt Shaker Bookstore – 6:30 to 8:30pm
1456 Cole St.
Enumclaw, WA, 98022
360.825.7258

Sunday - Ocotober 5th - Portland, Oregon
(TBD)

Looking forward to seeing you at one of these events!

Just Another Bigfoot hoax?

After the recent Bigfoot hoax in Georgia I thought I had sworn off believing in the beast. But recently new evidence has caught my attention that perhaps it is actually alive and well. Just look at this interesting image below. Is it just me or is that our book the creature is holding? Could it be that Bigfoot actually likes to read fantasy fiction?

August Rush - The Month that Nearly Escaped Us!

The past month has been a whirlwind of events and appearances and (to our shame) we have failed to post a blog update in quite awhile. So here is a blog entry to catch everyone up with what the Miller Brothers have been doing.

8/2: The VIP Pre-Release Party
We hosted an exclusive event for members of our VIP club (join at Luminationstudios.com for FREE) and family and friends. It was an exciting time and we had a super turn out this year. It was fantastic to see so many of you there. Those who came were treated to food, fun and a special game in which they could find the working title of the next book in the Hunter Brown series hidden throughout the room. For those who figured it out - great job! For those who are curious well let's just say that the title has nothing to do with Surfing On Mice or an Ice Forming Sun and leave it at that.

What a great looking family - if we do say so!

8/8: The Official Launch at WATCH Convention
Of course the big news since our last post is the official launch of the Hunter Brown book on 8/8/08. We kicked off the launch with an appearance at SPU (Seattle Pacific University) for the WATCH homeschool conference. The event was a huge success and we signed nearly 100 copies of the book for some new fans. The event lasted 2 days and we stayed in the dorm rooms with many of the other vendors and exhibitors. We also had a chance to present two seminars to homeschool families. One on "Inspiring the Artist in your Student" and another on "Inspiring the Writer in your Student". It was a lot of fun.

The seminar wasn't as boring as it looks in this picture, really!

See, I told you it wasn't all boring!

8/13 - 8/14: Writers Retreat for Hunter Brown Book 2
After a busy beginning to August, we were blessed to have the opportunity to get away for a couple days for a writers retreat. Escaping away to a cabin in Snoqualmie Pass we were ready to start planning for our next project. We were joined by our good friend and pastor, Ryan who helped us work through the many ideas we had been collecting for the next Hunter Brown book. The outline started to come together and we explored many details, events and characters that will be involved in the next story. It was an extremely productive time and one that we will long remember and cherish. Oh yeah, the Mt. High Hamburgers were very good too!

8/21 - 8/24: Church Campout
It is tradition every year for our church family (Valley Bible Church) to head for the hills and enjoy an extended weekend away. With clear skies overhead, and more than a million starts to capture the imagination at night we explored the wonder of God's green earth. How can you look at the world and not be amazed at God's artistry? One of my favorite memories from this trip was the night we used a video projector to project the movie "Ratatouille" on the back of the RV. There we were in the great outdoors roasting smores while watching a movie with our kids and other campers under the stars. Yeah - we were really ruffing it! :-) It was great fun anyway.

8/29 - Final Outline for Book 2 Completed
The final outline for Hunter Brown (book two) was due to the publisher today and we turned it in at the last possible moment. Karen and Robin (our editors at Warner) will be very happy. Now, we're waiting to hear if they like it or not...we'll keep you posted. Here's a quick teaser summary for those who are interested.

Hunter's connection with the Shadow has been broken, but the real battle has only begun. Upon returning home he discovers things are no longer as they used to be. For starters, he sees things no one else can. Yes, the Shadow are still alive and well in Destiny and they seem to be growing in number every day. To top things off, a mysterious figure seems to be following his every move.

Will Hunter be able to resist the Shadow alone...and who is this mysterious new stalker that haunts him as he goes?

The Stuff that fills in the gaps.
Well that brings us through the major events of the month. However, all throughout the month of August we have also been hard at work on several improvements to the Codebearers website as well as developing the next several Codebearer challenges that are scheduled for release early next week on http://www.codebearers.com/ Exciting stuff is on its way!

So, thanks for sticking with us through the August rush. I'm hoping the month of September slows down a bit so we can enjoy writing the next Hunter Brown book. Keep an eye out for some special events coming soon.

We love the muppets!

Go Beaker Go!

Making a Splash at ICRS!

The last couple of weeks were a bit of a whirlwind. July 14th kicked off the annual ICRS (International Christian Retail Show) event in Orlando, FL. Each day was jammed packed full of meetings, interviews and book signings. Our enthusiastic publishers (Warner Press) pulled out all of the stops on our behalf and really made us feel like the stars of the show. For those of you who aren't aware of what ICRS is all about, it is the primary trade show where publishers present their latest offerings to Christian and family-friendly bookstores and licensee's around the globe.

Allan and I felt very blessed to be able to attend for the fourth year in a row. This time, we were given the royal treatment and were able to take part in a lot of fun stuff. Here's a short list of some of the highlights of our trip:

• Book signing for Ten-Gallon Sam


• Trying to keep up with a line over 100 people long for our 2-hour Hunter Brown book signing (sorry if we had to turn you away at the end)


• Seeing a giant 20 foot banner promoting our novel


• Seeing our book promoted on the back of each show bulletin


• Several interviews by radio stations and TV


• Seeing one of the characters we created in our latest novel as a real-life costumed character along side Bob & Larry, 3-2-1 Penguins, the Bernstein Bears
  
• Chris nearly tackling Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungee
  
• Meeting some really cool movie execs who are interested in our book
  
• Signing books FOR renowned fantasy fiction author Bryan Davis (Dragons in our Midst)
  
• Dinner with Chris Waters of Angel Wars fame
  
• Personally giving away 200 Hunter Brown backpacks to booksellers
  
• Meeting Ben Stein (producer and star of the recent "Expelled" movie)
  
• Meeting "President Bush"

Here's a short photo snippet of our journey for you to enjoy!

Signing the Hunter Brown book for one of our young fans.

I asked Ben Stein for his money - but apparently somebody else already won it.

Not too many authors get endorsed by a "president".
He said he liked the book because it was easy to read.

One of the many interviews.

Signing a book for Bryan Davis, author the extraordinarily
successful Dragon's in Our Midst series

But after all the meetings had been made and the conference wound to a close, I must say my favorite part of all was receiving a special letter from one of the parents of the children who had acquired a copy of our Hunter Brown book at the show. She left the hand written letter at the Warner Press booth and it read as follows:

Dear Miller Brothers,

My Son Marek is thrilled with your book. The first thing out of his mouth this morning: "I couldn't put that book down last night. I love it! I stayed up past my bedtime."

He went on to tell me all he's read so far. I've never seen him so animated over a novel.

Thank you for your awesome novel. I'm sure its going to change Marek's view about reading. A mother's dream!

Thanks again,

Melissa

P.S. Can't wait to read it myself!

It's a message like this that makes all the long hours of writing completely worth it. Thanks for the message, Melissa. You really encouraged us as well.