I still remember walking past Rizzoli's when it was still at its 57th Street location, and seeing the front window decorated--there's no other word for it--with copies of my first book, The Actual Adventures of Michael Missing.
Nothing compares with seeing a copy of your book displayed in a bookstore--nothing.

But the funny thing is, the cover design (by Chip Kidd, and prominently mentioned in a retrospective of his career) misled most people and didn't help the book sell. It might have even hurt sales, since it didn't really represent what the book was about.
Despite a lot of critical acclaim, the book didn't sell, so I was locked out by the all-or-nothing business model practiced by traditional publishing companies.

But then something else happened that really opened my eyes.
A friend had dinner with his ex-girlfriend Anne and her new husband Ben.

Ben showed my friend his extensive book collection. He said, "I want to show you this book I found on a street table. It's my favorite book of all time."

You can bet what book it was.

My friend said, "yeah, really funny."

Ben was puzzled.

"Very funny, Anne," my friend said.

But Anne didn't know what he was talking about. It turns out that Anne didn't know me very well, and never made the connection between me and my name on this book.

Ben's favorite book of all time of the moment--was mine. And I realized that there was something better than seeing my book displayed in a bookstore. It's knowing that there are people out there reading it.

So now I'm trying this other, this new thing.

And if you want, you can actually buy a copy of The Actual Adventures of Michael Missing.

Or you can read one of the Michael Missing stories for free, to see if it's your cup of tea.

There are lots of other free goodies on the site, because some of the writing just doesn’t fit in traditional, for-profit publishing, and because I want you to read as much of what I've written as possible.

There is also a novel I wrote many years ago that's up there for you to tinker with. Let's see what we can come up with together.
And then there is Blomqvist, a novel set in the 11th century, narrated by the eponymous protagonist’s devoted amanuensis, faithful standard-bearer, and unrequited lover, Axel Oxensteirna.

Axel is mainly concerned with telling Blomqvist’s story, but we are also privy to his personal search for a god he can call his own--for if Blomqvist is a hero in life, he offers no protection in the after-life.

You can buy this one too, and if you don't like it, I'll send you your money back. In fact, anything you buy on this site comes with my personal money-back guarantee.

There's a lot more to come, because nothing replaces the personal exchange between a writer and his readers. So please keep coming, keep telling me what you like, and keep telling folks about me and my site.

And a big shout to my publisher, Jaz-Michael King|mynameismonkey, for helping me build this platform for my writing.