You'll need more sugar

Would you like to have your mind blown? Well,  it certainly will be when you go to Apple-+ TV and watch a series called Sugar. The show is a modern day version of a classic Crime Noir movie--except this is a limited run TV series. And, brothers and sisters, it is mesmerizing to watch!

Collin Farrell is the private investigator who specializes in finding missing person cases. You instantly bond to the character because you hear his thoughts and see his daily fights to remain 'normal' in an insane world. And you quickly realize the man is carrying secrets, lots of secrets, around with him.

Essentially the first season is all about finding the granddaughter of a very powerful movie mogul.She's young, with a long history of being messed up with drugs, sex, booze--as, we eventually find out, her entire family is seriously off the rails as well. But this intrepid investigator quickly gets into the investigation and starts showing an unusual need to find the girl as quickly as possible. An odd enigma we wonder about until the very end of the series where we find out the driving force behind his investigation.

Ah! But there is an even more revealing surprise waiting to be revealed!

At midpoint in the series run, a real surprise come to us. The series started out as a classic noir crime story. But then, another entirely different literary genre is thrown into the mixing pot--and it is a revelation that just takes the breath away from you! And it fits! This new inclusion of a different genre blends into the overall plot perfectly, making the overall plot even more captivating!

Nope.

I'm not going to reveal anything. Best you take in the series yourself and make the decision on if you like it or not.

But you will. I know you will,

To book trailer or not to book trailer?

 Seriously. 

My gut is telling me a well-written, visually captivating, musically mesmerizing book trailer will capture a wandering reader's attention far more quickly than just about any other form of advertising. And if you use the internet as the main (sometimes only) medium to spread the visual feast out to the masses, well 
Godfrey Goes to Glasgow! --- maybe the masses might discover a new and rising star in the genre you write!

So okay. I've been playing around a little bit with book trailers and using Facebook for the main carrier route for such devices. Facebook cuts a deal with authors and wannabe authors where for a certain price (which, so far, has not become too outrageous) you can pop in your book trailer as the main carrier and they'll spread it out over the Kingdom of Facebook for a week at a time.

That's a lot of curious eyeballs falling out of the internet ether to watch your visual baby. A lot of eyeballs. And it seems to be working.

I've created four book trailers already. The fourth trailer, a trailer for Death of a Young Lieutenant, in a span of three weeks, had over 20,000 clicks of interest. And about ten percent stuck around to view the entirety of the trailer.

While I cannot say sales have gone through the roof for the novel, I can say the book has been gathering a large viewing crowd, Amazon speaking.

So a fifth trailer has been cut. This time featuring the Smitty series. (there are two novels in this series so far. One is called Smitty's Calling Card. The other is Discreet Inquiries) We'll see what the raw numbers this trailer runs up to in a week's time. But I can tell you in a little over 24 hours, its already hit the 2,000 mark.

I thought I might share the trailer with you today.  And you can tell me what you think about it. Here goes;