The ship is rolling out of port, baby! Wake up and smell the coffee! Big reviews coming soon. Army Times and more nationally. Then we’re talking AAFES, which is bigger than Wal-Mart. We’re snazzing up the text and cover and the text a bit too (another advantage to POD).
Sales are rising. We are now in print and I shipped a lot of orders! This is really fun. If this beast keeps growing, I will be able to leverage a lot of stuff. I’ve been working toward this point with my press all along. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to where I can seriously throw my weight around and turn lead into gold. It’s going to happen fast too. I mean this is real sales baby and national attention. Not the MSM BS but serious front-runner status. Then everything changes. And it’s all working so perfectly. Leave it to the US Army to save my life twice now—thrice if you count my own war. Hooah.
Here is new, official Web site! John Holmes’ Facebook page. I am trying to get this book into print as fast as possible; this is crazy, man!
Whoa, check out this book I just published! Finally, I have a superstar! Check out the reviews, it’s just wonderful to be publishing this book that is so well-received by the military community. I have a lot of pre-sales to fill too of the printed book, hundreds. Right now, it is just available on Kindle. Flying off the shelves, baby!
Well it’s nice to be loved, I’m the man, what can I say—Tex by my rugby mates. Now I’m getting famous too. At this rate and including new and old projects, I’ll never get another speeding ticket in America or buy my own beer again.
I was in Las Vegas this weekend, covering the rugby 7s for my press and Audience Magazine. It was a blast. I stayed with my buddies, who are the Sin City Irish Rugby Football Club. There are now 2 main teams plus the Henderson Firefighters, as well as the “Old Boys” which are the founders and my squad. I had not seen them for years. It was all extremely inspirational for my book that I am writing about this team and American rugby in general, and the history of rugby—not to mention this group’s exceptional story. (Imagine, if you will, how all kinds of rugby players have great stories; they are all like gnats next to these stories. In fact, I have no choice but to change their names—all of their names.) The problem is every time I uncover one stone there are 10 more I find for this book and I have not figured out how piece it all together. I had wanted to go to this tournament to wrap up everything but the exact opposite happened. I’ve done a lot of writing and encountered a lot of people and subjects worth writing about but this time it’s like moving a mountain. What’s more, I am the first—particularly in America.
As for why I was officially there as a member of the press pool, dear reader, I must admit that I am a not qualified to be a journalist. First, I found the press pool.
But the press were milling about in groups and it was oppressively boring. So as the people began to gather, I wandered around and somehow managed to get into the VIP section.
Where the people were from all over the world and far more interesting to talk with.
And there was free food and drink all day long—all weekend long. Famous rugby players were there too and I met them. I was able to see the games right in box row seats!
These seats were something like 1k per day. Here are the NZ All Blacks.
Here are the USA Eagles getting ready to enter the field.
The adventure then continued with my teammates. So all of this has got me thinking now. There was much discussion about whether America would ever be anything on the World Stage of rugby; the consensus seemed to be NO. NBC covered the game and it was on national TV, and there were all kinds of sponsors; but Las Vegas is just one of 7 or 11 (depending on how you count) Sevens tournaments. It does not mean that America cares about rugby. That’s unfortunate but perhaps just the way it has to be. But that does not do much for me and my book about American rugby—other than connecting with the puny niche of rugby players in America. But I already have that in scores. So perhaps the only answer is to expand my operation further and make this book—and my magazine—a much broader look into rugby; even though it’s a big broad already. I think that may have to be the best answer.
And publishers have still not learned how to use the iPad. This is why a media corporation like World Audience, Inc. represents the future of publishing: digital and print-on-demand. But even as our competitors try to work within a rapidly-changing industry, we are busy re-inventing it. One of the main problems with the media in 2012 is that it is all, exclusively, owned and operated by politicians and bankers (Wall Street). As an example, here is a story about Rachel Maddow winning some big, Liberal award. The award is made to sound “literary” but there is nothing literary about it. I like Ms. Maddow’s show; but hosting a TV show should not lead to a literary prize named for John Steinbeck—even if his son says his dad “would have adored Rachel Maddow.” What’s more telling is that the son says that he feels “part of an alliance.” Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors; but he invented things, and kept experimenting. Every sentence Steinbeck wrote challenged the one before it. Steinbeck would want no alliance, all independence, no rules. All that we can do today, it seems in America, is keep unsuccessfully copying his ideas.
There are very few independent presses left. Many, perhaps nearly all, of the older small presses have become obsolete due to the harsh economy, and before that many others were swallowed up by large publishers that became multi-national corporations, such as Random House. So the opposition, the truly independent presses are online these days, but no one in the industry recognizes that fact. That used to bother me; but not any more. I’d rather not be bothered by a dying industry. There is no literary establishment left in America, zero, nada.
Here is an good review of something I wrote a couple of years ago. I’m planning on expanding this book. Tony Rubino did the layout and some editing, I wrote the text—and took all the pictures, actually. Tony has a popular comic strip and several very well-selling books.
Click here. In fact, there are a number of articles about this book in the NY Times and the year Peyton Manning went to New Orleans, there was a huge article in the print paper, Sunday NY Times on P. 2 about this book—Super Bowl Sunday.
