Welcome John Dover

Welcome, John Dover!

John comes to Breaking Rules Publishing with a series of spellbinding Johnny Scotch mysteries. His first - 

A Song For Charlie. 

Redemption in a red-headed package.

A triple homicide that points to Johnny.

Buying a girl a drink never caused someone so much trouble, and this time- Johnny Scotch ordered a double. How does Johnny deal with the failure with Charlie while trying to keep himself out of jail in the present? What is Lila hiding in her past? How much single malt does it take to dull the sharp edges of Johnny's current predicament?

Follow Johnny down a rabbit hole filled with scotch, bruised knuckles, and soft cures while he reconciles his actions and how their consequences affect Charlie and Lila.

Based out of Portland, OR, John Dover works as both a professional musician and writer. On the page, John is the creator behind the comic book Series, Johnny Scotch. His pulpy, jazz-noir creation pulls from his experience as a performer as well as his love of the hard-boiled detective novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. John has released three comics in the Johnny Scotch world, as well as a self-published short story, Ella, and his first novella, Danger in Bass Clef. John was also a contributing author to "Tales from the Braided Pony" and "Monster 'N' Things" horror anthologies. You can hear John’s musical voice on his debut solo album, Working Out the Kinks, available on iTunes, Spotify, CD Baby, and various other online outlets.


You will also find John's second addition to his series - "Danger In Bass Clef."

It has been months since Johnny last saw Cass, but when she bursts into his bar one night with a tale of kidnapping, extortion, and an illegal downhill death race, Johnny jumps into action. Join Johnny and Cass on an adrenaline and scotch-laced adventure through the pulpy jazz-noir streets of Bridge City as they fight to rescue her love, disrupt a local gangster's betting ring, and keep Cass from becoming road kill.

Amazon Reviews -

Johnny Scotch – whiskey worshiper, jazz musician, white knight and defender of the underdog. While enjoying his favorite drink in his regular haunt, a blast from his past, Cass, the roller derby dynamo, bursts back into his life needing his help. Not one to turn down a plea for help from a damsel in distress, Johnny sets out to save Cass from the bad guys. But, not everything is at it seems.

This is the first story of John Dover’s that I’ve read, and it won’t be the last. Dover weaves a rich palette of flavors in his story-telling. He links back-stories seamlessly with the current tale, creating a world of colors, flavors, and scents. His descriptions are so evocative and seductive that, despite a personal distaste for whiskey, I found myself craving a glass of Johnny’s poison.

This story has believable characters that I found myself caring about, a remarkable achievement for any writer and the city setting he creates is the perfect backdrop for this noir tale. I look forward to reading more from this talented writer.

I was lucky enough to receive an advance reading copy of this. Being already familiar with the Johnny Scotch character from the brilliant noir comic of the same name I was eager to see how having him star in a prose novel would play out. It played out wonderfully, this is truly a great example of a hard-boiled noir styled novel. John Dover was born to write this stuff and it seems to flow from his pen like good scotch from a bottle. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any and all fans of the noir genre. Bravo Mr. Dover, bravo.

“John Dover is an amazing writer. He breathes life into words that transcend the page.

In "Johnny Scotch: Danger in Bass Clef" he seduces the reader into his smokey jazz and scotch flavored world. A noir world of crime, booze, and dames, punctuated by magical interludes of scotch on the tongue, jazz in the ears.

I don't even like jazz, and I don't drink alcohol at all, yet I yearned to fall into the pages and soak up the ambiance. A tourist.

    

Also, in case you're wondering, the title is perfect. It will make more sense at the end.” Robert Easton - Author, Fortress of the Heart

“You’ll pick this scotch soaked, gnarly knuckled noir and polish it off in a single sitting. Storytelling is in tune with the genre. Book is a primer for what you order next time you are at a bar. It’s also a cautionary tale for anyone messing with the grim countenanced jazz musician on stage. 

The only gripe is that the book is short and I’d like the next one right on top. 

Pick it up. Solid noir.” Erick Mertz - Author, The Mask of Tomorrow

Amazon Reviews for Ella:

“This is a fast-paced short story about a trumpet player turned vigilante named Johnny Scotch. It's straightforward and violent and has a retro pulp flavor. If you're looking for irony or satire, you won't find it in this story. What's unique isn't the character's typical physical prowess but his expertise as a musician and love of Scotch whiskey. They both feedback into the old-fashioned plot about the tough guy title character coming to a helpless person's rescue at the hands of over-the-top bad guys. I recommend it if you like two-fisted tales that don't try to parody the genre or be hardcore for its own sake.” Charles Austin Muir -- Author of “This is a Horror Book”

“If you like music, detective stories, and scotch then you will find that this is a book is aged to perfection!” Greg Smith -- Writer of “Junior Braves of the Apocalypse

“I am familiar with the dark and gritty world of Johnny Scotch from the brilliant noir comic series of the same name when I saw this prose short story available on Amazon I had to buy it immediately. John Dover writing never ceases to astound me, he paints such a dark and vivid picture of the action going on in the story. His Johnny Scotch character, booze-soaked musician and righter of wrongs never hits any false notes in his various quests. Buy this story and read it but by all means, go seek out the comic as well. Bravo Mr. Dover, this story is a worthy addition to the legend of Johnny Scotch.” Anonymous Amazon Reviewer

Look to the Breaking Rules Publishing website - www.breakingrulespublishing.com to order and check out John and his two new books. 



Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in all genres from writers around the world. Simply email us at info@breakingrulespublishing.com.

And thanks for stopping by.


GONE WRITING!!!

Guest Blogger Justin Ulrich

Welcome to Breaking Rules Publishing — an international publishing company founded on,

believe it or not, a dare from our founder’s daughter. Sixty-four books, three magazine editions,

and several short stories later, here we stand in growth mode. We are eager to put more writers

and authors on the map! Thank you for visiting and we hope you find value in our content as

well as our services.

Please note: we are open to submissions for manuscripts. Please email

info@breakingrulespublishing.com with your submission and a member of our team will

respond shortly. We manage a lot of correspondence and projects and cannot guarantee an immediate response so we thank you in advance for your patience.

Welcome to the Breaking Rules Publishing blog! We found a local published author and writer

named Justin Ulrich who comes to us by way of our interviews featured on the Beauty & The

‘Burg podcast. He will be helping us grow our exposure while bolstering his own blogging and overall writing portfolio. Tune in every first and third week of the month for fresh content from

him. For now, learn how we connected to bring a publishing name to St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay,

the surrounding areas, and overseas to beautiful Florence, Italy.

—————

Hello everyone, Justin here. I’d like to take you on a quick journey of discovering Breaking

Rules Publishing through my side gig. I also plan to share marketing advice as well as tips and tricks that have helped me and can help writers of all backgrounds and experience.

As my side gig, I manage the podcasting arm of the Helium Radio Network—a local internet

radio network broadcasting podcasts across the globe. It’s my job to edit raw audio files and

create a polished podcast. Those podcasts are then broadcast live or recorded to our audience

and placed on our website to live forever.

Not long ago, a local well-known podcaster named Cindy Stovall—host of the Beauty & The

‘Burg Podcast—featured Christopher Clawson-Rule on her show twice! You can check out

her past episodes and listen to our interviews here: Episode 135 | Episode 156. As soon as I

heard the initial podcast, I tuned into every word with the intention to say hello. However, it

would be many months until I reached out. That time was essential to edit my writing and

move closer to the formatting stage of my next manuscript (more on that later).

Simply put, I reached out and introduced myself in late March. Christopher mentioned he

wanted to start a podcast and YouTube channel for Breaking Rules Publishing. He is aligned

with the right strategy in my opinion and I hope he joins our list of show hosts on the

network! Learning where he wants to position his company in terms of exposure helped me

understand more about his long term goals.

I told Christopher I was looking for freelance work to blog, edit, and/or ghostwrite. As soon

as I mentioned guest blogging, he responded, “YES!!!” So here I am guest blogging and

growing two entities at once—his publishing company and my personal brand. In this first

post, I’ll share helpful tidbits that you as readers can use right away and a brief background

about myself.

Tips, Tricks, and Tools of the Trade

In my journey of life-long learning, trial and error, changing, tweaking, hacking, failing, and

more tweaking, I’ve come across many interesting tidbits. I feel some of these will work for

you; others may not. Take your pick and try them out. Let’s start off with what you’re most

likely writing on … your computer—iPad, desktop, laptop, what have you. Make sure you

protect your eyes and body since writing is, for the most part, sedentary.

F.lux

F.lux (“flux”) is one of the best software programs available. I believe the blue light emitted

from our computer, tablet, and phone screens do us harm. It disrupts our sleep cycles, attention

spans, ability to focus, and drains our energy to name a few.

F.lux takes control of your computer screen and lowers the hue on the spectrum to a more

pleasing color. It ranges from super bright white as in your normal LED screen down to a

candle-like ambiance. In the drop-down menu, there’s even an option to turn on “darkroom”

and have the colors fully inverted. This is perfect for low-light, late night settings.

Most important, F.lux is FREE, it’s easy on the eyes, and it’s versatile. MacOS, Windows,

Linux, iPhone/iPad, and Android applications are available. Some of the more recent factory

operating system updates enable “night shift” or something similar. Still, F.lux blows those

generic settings out of the water. Play with the color tone slider to see what daylight, sunlight, fluorescent, halogen, tungsten, candle, and even darkroom look like on your device.

Be Focused

Another great background app I use for working from home is called Be Focused (Mac only;

although I’ve seen similar apps on the Microsoft Store). Soon, I’ll use it when I return to

editing after this blog is complete.

What’s so great about Be Focused? It’s a FREE countdown timer set to custom intervals for

work time and break time. It can track time, but you won’t get all the bells and whistles unless

you pay an upgrade. I don’t think that’s necessary though.

This is still a perfect way to ensure you move throughout the day. We are all guilty, myself

included, of sitting down and not moving for hours if I’m in the zone. I push myself to

continue. “Breaks are missed writing time. Go big or go home!” Not good; my legs and back

are usually sore from not moving. I plan to hold myself accountable to a time limit and this

app is my new tool.

Guilty Writer Habits

There are two pieces of advice that come to mind as I share my insights. The first I feel

fortunate to have been aware of since day one. Yet, I’m still partially guilty. The second I

am definitely guilty of and working toward fixing. Ironically, the two tie together. Let’s

dive in…

First, before I even wrote anything another person would read, I knew my “finished work”

would need editing. No matter how much I edited, there was always something I missed.

When I published my first novel, my publisher corroborated my mentality by saying, “every

author needs an editor.” I presumed she anticipated me refuting her argument. “Yes, absolutely.

Couldn’t agree more.” I responded. A fresh pair of eyes is extremely valuable since, as writers,

we get caught in the story.

I feel the more we edit our own story, the less we have the ability to edit. We subconsciously

train our minds to find certain things and accidentally overlook others. As the old saying goes,

“do what you do best and outsource the rest.” Writers should write and let the editors edit. I

knew I needed an editor. I admitted I wasn’t stellar regarding writing and editing the same

manuscript. That’s fair. Did I listen to myself? Not really…

Second, I wrote my first novel and claimed it was finished. I, then, edited it myself and did

one full pass through looking for plot holes, poor grammar, misspelled words, etc. You could

say I combined copyediting with line editing. It felt great to fix problems before sending it to

be professionally edited. In retrospect, spending those weeks on that initial pass didn’t save

me much time or money. I still had a lot of work to do once the editor returned my manuscript.

I felt I wasted my time in hopes of perfecting my work. *sigh*

In sum, write your story and fill your plot holes, if any. As tempting as it may be to polish your

work, don’t do it. Hand over your blood, sweat, and tears to a professional editor. Leave the

next step to a solid editor with a fresh perspective.

Circling Back to Justin

I am a published author and writer creating a mixture of dark dramas, thrillers, and romantic

fiction. I joined the Tampa Bay area as a transplant, like many Floridians. Long story short, at

20 years old, I had the popular idea to write a movie script. In learning how to properly format

a screenplay, I created one that would have passed the fan test. For those who aren’t familiar,

when literary agents receive a hard copy screenplay, they fan through it with their thumb to

quickly gauge if it’s formatted properly and even worth their time past those initial five seconds.

Several confusing drafts later, that script transformed into my first fictional (and coherent)

novel. GANGER follows a young adult couple lost in a realm of thrills, love, and the

paranormal. I released the Kindle version in February 2017 and the paperback version in July

of that same year. For curious readers, the synopsis is below.

Claire Austen, a troubled girl in her late 20s, struggles through life with an undiagnosed mental

condition. With the help of a well-known psychiatrist and a young man named Aaron, Claire

dives headlong into her problems. In efforts to treat herself, Claire falls into a reality wherein

she is preyed upon by Sierra, her living doppelgänger. With lust as her modi operandi, Sierra

instills fear in Claire and her companion by forcing them to a breaking point; both of them start questioning their identities and their realities. With aspects of their lives uprooted, her

doppelgänger comes between Claire and Aaron in more ways than one as she selfishly chases

what she truly desires: affection.

Currently, I’m finishing my second novel. Many people ask, “Oh, a sequel already?” No, it’s

not a sequel to GANGER. It is a dark fictional drama entitled AVENTURA. You can learn

more about me and my personal blog from my website: justinjulrich.com. I also welcome

emails at writer@justinjulrich.com and enjoy connecting with the community.

For my next blog post, I will discuss more tidbits and some thoughts on marketing. Stay

tuned!

Thank you for reading,

Breaking Rules Publishing

Go break the rules!

Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in all genres from writers around

the world. Simply email us at info@breakingrulespublishing.com

Guest Blogger And BRP Author - Tommy Bell

Writing can be an exciting business.  It can be satisfying.  Sometimes, scary as hell.  That all usually happens on the same day.  I was thinking of this when my publisher asked me to consider writing a blog.  A blog?  

It came on a day when I couldn't have composed a post-it note.  

Here I was, with a new leaf turned over.  I had done things the right way for a change.  Had my book all mapped out.  At least the changes I wanted to add in, to make it stronger, wonderful -perfect!  I'd written them all down on a two-hour airplane flight from D.C. to Florida.  I'd written them down by hand, in a journal.  It was because the flight attendant had said to "turn off all electronic devices".  I got going with the outline and didn't hear the follow-up announcement.  

The follow-up message came days later, for me.  That day was the third or fourth day of jumping in there, doing three, five pages of changes according to my new outline.  It was what I'd planned.  Then something struck me.  I couldn't get to what it was.  Things weren't flowing.  Did I have to go high altitude again to fall in line?  Why weren't things working?  Great on paper, as they say.  Doesn't always work out in real life.

                                                                                                                

I found I didn't like the direction my book was going.  It dawned on me.  If I didn't like it, who would?  I mean, my book is usually my baby.  I'm proud of it.  I love it.  I cherish its wit and sparkle.  Its smile is the brightest and cutest.  I defend it, even if the world hasn't discovered it yet.  They will.  Give it time!    

My voice was needed, not some plan that was a bit too smooth, all tied up in a bow.  I knew I'd find it because I love my book.  I've loved each of them.  I can enjoy re-reading them, though I definitely remember what happens at the end.  This new one will get there.  There'd be more trial and error.   It will take me, sitting down and pouring myself into the whole deal.  That IS the hard part, some days.  Pouring myself, on days when I hear other voices telling me to try this or that.  Some may be helpful, some not.  Or on days that are busy.  For me, that last one was most of them.  

Anyway, I'm making a new start.  And I want to try this Blog-thing.  I'll bet other writers have been through what I have.  Maybe visa versa!  Somewhere down the road.  Like I said, writing can be an exciting business, and definitely more satisfying than you can imagine!       

Tommy Bell     

You can find Tommy Bell and his new book - We Both Danced on the Breaking Rules Publishing website - www.breakingrulespublishing.com or follow his direct link below.

https://www.breakingrulespublishing.com/store/p69/We_Both_Danced_By_Tom_Bell%2A.html

10 Marketing Tips for Any New Author

Being a successful author these days means knowing how to market and promote yourself and your book, and it doesn’t matter whether you are traditionally published or going the indie/self-publishing route. 

Here are our top ten tips for making your book launch a success.

1. Get Ready - Because Marketing Your Book Is Going To Take TIME. LOTS OF IT.

It sounds crazy, especially if all you really want to do is write, but you should be investing as much, if not more time in your PR and marketing as you do in actually writing the book. It's possible to spend 15 hours a day on social media before your book launch. But spending an average 2-3 hours a day scheduling Tweets, connecting with readers and bloggers and writing posts makes a lot more sense.

So you ask, shouldn’t we all be writing the next books, anyway? Don’t be silly! We don’t have time for that! You might loathe the idea of having to spend so much time on marketing, but if you want to sell books and be ‘successful’ then there is simply no other way. And if you’re signed to a mainstream publisher, forget it if you think they’ll do it all for you. You will still need to do 99% of it yourself.

2. Create A Website With Engaging Content

Your book might be the greatest on the planet, but who cares? There are millions and millions of books out there, with that many writers. You need to prove yourself and your book is worth your readers’ time. How do you do that? By making sure everything else you put out there into the world is top quality. Blog every day, offer interesting insights and make sure your website is SEO optimized. If you don't know this then now you do - Your website is the gateway point for publishers and fans to find out about you and your books. Once you start offering the good stuff, trust us, people will be back. They’ll ditch you sure as shit however if you simply talk about yourself, which brings us to the next point…

3. Do NOT Just Talk About Your Book      

There’s nothing more annoying (or boring) than an author who talks about nothing but their amazing/bargain/99c/5-star reviewed book. Intersperse your online plugs with interesting blog posts and Tweets. These can be about anything – your life, your interests, your thoughts on other books and current events, the latest Trump Tweet. Once you start offering content that people enjoy on a regular basis, they’ll be more likely to support you when you start to sell your book. Why? Because you have become a source of wisdom and superiority (ahem). We plan to start making more blog posts - podcasts and YouTube videos to help promote our services and authors. Give it a try - who knows what will happen?

4. Build Your Mailing List

A mailing list is your number one tool for selling books. In an ideal world, these are the people who love your work, who can’t wait to hear from you, who will support you till the end of time. But - building an email list of this type of reader takes a while. The best way to a list is by writing a book that’s so good, people beg for more by emailing you and ordering

you to inform them of all updates. Another way is offering free content. We always add a download link of our homepages on all of our social media, give away extra stuff, like bonus chapters and excerpts of new work. This allows us to capture emails. Running a Rafflecopter contest also helps you gather email addresses. However, make sure that the prizes you offer are things that people who read your books would like eg; Amazon vouchers, signed books etc. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a mailing list of people who are outside of your sales demographic and they’ll simply unsubscribe.

5. Make Your Mantra “Give give give“.

Social media should be 90% giving. We found a lot of success and support by offering free content to our readers. We also interact a lot. You should always re-Tweet other organizations/people’s Tweets. Share blog posts. Create interesting posts on specialized subjects or just sharing stories that entertain or inform helps you become a useful resource for others. It helps to do a free or discount promo with your book, too. If you’re self-published this is easy with the Amazon’s KDP Select option, but if you’re with a publisher it may be tricky as they don't want to lose sales. Talk to them about a marketing plan that incorporates giving away some kind of free content.

6. Build Your Online Relationships

We have spent a lot of time building relationships in the reading, blogging and authors’ communities out there. It’s fun as we’re talking to people who love the same things we do, and there’s nothing better than forming new friendships with like-minded people all over the world. If you want your books to sell, you need to start building relationships well before your book release, with key reviewers/influencers on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.

Engage every day. Use Tweetadder or Hootsuite to schedule Tweets. Add their pages to your social media feeds and start getting involved. It’s a good idea to dedicate an hour or so every day, just to this. Interact with fans. Follow back. If you constantly self-promote you’ll soon lose followers. Connect. Communicate. Entertain. Inform. Share.

7. Know Your Audience

Focus on just one or two social media platforms so you 

don’t spread yourself too thin and make sure you know who you’re trying to reach before you start. If you write Young Adult novels, focus on Instagram as many teens don’t have Facebook or Twitter accounts. Likewise, if you’re writing erotica, it’s pointless writing to Young Adult book bloggers or targeting teenagers, as they won’t be buying your sexy masterpiece. Do your research and then get involved.

8. Get Reviews Before Your Book Goes On Sale

Next to your mailing list, this is the most important thing for a new author to remember. Amazon is often the first point of contact for readers looking to buy new books. How often do you buy a book with no reviews? It’s a good idea to send Advanced Reading Copies to bloggers/key influencers a month, or even further in advance, and ask them to review you on Goodreads. The day the book is listed on Amazon contact them and ask them to paste their review to Amazon. If you can send them the URL, even better (make it easy for them). Don’t waste time asking friends to read and review. If nothing else this experience has taught us that this is a huge waste of time. Your friends aren’t your readers. Remember, know your audience. 

9. Make The Most Of External Resources

Whether you’re a self-published or traditionally published author, there’s a myriad of awesome people out there with skills to help you create and market your books. Going solo? Becky worked with a great cover designer to help her make her new adult books eye-catching and easily convertible to all formats. When it comes to shouting about it, advertise your promos with sites like Kindle Nation Daily and BookBub, and read sites who offer countless free videos packed with information from social media and marketing experts, and best-selling authors. 

10. Be Yourself

This might sound obvious, but when you’re marketing your book, you’re selling a piece of yourself and you’d be surprised at the number of authors who sound like robots, sending plug after plug out into the Twitterverse. The last thing you want to be in the public realm is a nuisance to anybody, or to come off as an uninformed amateur. A little preparation goes a long way. Don’t just re-Tweet if you can add something to it yourself. Don’t just copy what others are doing when you can create your own twist or niche to a story/article/comment thread. Let your brilliant, creative self shine through in everything you do and hopefully, with some time and effort, success in the publishing world will be yours.

As always - thank you for stopping by. And Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in all genres from writers from around the world.

www.breakingrulespublishing.com

Fantastic News

Hey Guys -

We are here today to give you a bit of news. An exciting update.

In April, we are opening up a second office in Florence, Italy.

After continued conversations and much debate, we are taking the leap and reaching out even further than our own backyard.

The recent rate of overseas submissions has led us to consider the options of better shipping prices to writers and reader across the pond. The possibility of gathering more talented writers from around the globe we thought improbable. But we have found that we are getting more and more submissions from writers around the world. Presently we have writers here in the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, the Czech Republic, India, Nigeria, Australia, and the Philippines.

The efforts and "business as usual," will continue here in the states and we will certainly be able to service all of our US writers as well as look for new and exciting writers here in America.

The printer and distribution for the US will stay here in St Petersburg, FL. Additional printing and distribution have been found in Florence and we look forward to expanding our base.

So join us as we search the globe for the magical stories that we bring to our readers everywhere.


As always - Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in ALL genres from writers around the world.