Spring 2012 Update

It was a slow winter and early spring for us in terms of events as we geared up for the gala release of  "River Muse: Tales of Lowell & The Merrimack Valley." We'll be at the UMass-Lowell Inn & Conference Center on 50 Warren Street in downtown Lowell, MA on 6/8/12 from 7-10:00 p.m.

Come on by and meet many of the authors involved in the project, buy a book and get it signed and listen to some of the authors read selections from their work. All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to veterans' charities. The event is free and open to the public.

If you can't make that event, look for book signings throughout the rest of spring and into early summer. Watch this spot for dates, times and locations. You can also buy the book at Amazon. We're working on the e-book version that should be available in the next few weeks.

The book has also been getting some very positive press including The Lowell Sun and Nashoba Publishing.We're hoping to get on some local television as well to promote the book especially since it contains unpublished works from Jack Kerouac and it's for charity.

One final note, we are not currently accepting submissions. While we know that there are a lot of talented authors out there (as evidenced in the River Muse book), we're primarily focused on promoting the books we have published. We expect to begin putting new books out sometime in 2013.

Until summer...

The Winter Update

It's been a while since we last posted, but we're still here. To that end however, we've decided short of any huge announcements, we'll be only blogging updates quarterly.

As 2011 comes to a close, it's very obvious that ebooks are beginning to eclipse sales of our trade paperbacks. As more and more devices come out that support ebooks, especially with the ever present Kindle App for Android, etc., we're seeing about a 4:1 ratio of sales of ebooks vs. trade paperbacks. Will there ever come a time when "real" books are no longer published? Consider that it's been said that CDs will be gone within 5 years in favor of total electronic music distribution, it's very possible that the only physical books you'll find are special printings.

Stephen O'Connor's outstanding work "Spy in the City of Books" has been nominated for an IPPY, that's the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Two years ago, Larry Brooks' "Whisper of the Seventh Thunder" won best suspense novel so we're hopeful that Steve can reel in a second award for our little publishing business.

In 2012, we'll be cutting back to just a few books published, primarily gearing our efforts towards marketing the fine books we've already released the past three years. The biggest release will be "Mill City Stories: Tales of Lowell & The Merrimack Valley," a compilation of stories from local authors past and present. We're going to donate all the profits from this book to a veteran's charity and kick it off with a release party at the UMass-Lowell Conference Center on June 8th. More on that as we get closer. We also have a huge announcement about an unpublished piece by a well renowned author for the book that we'll let slip once we work out the full agreement.

Mike Girard's "Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales" is now available as an audio book. Right now it's only available as a 6 CD set for sale at Fools' shows, but we're working on a digital download through our website. It's even funnier to listen to Mike read it (with music and sound effects) than it was reading the book on your own.

We're also hoping to do another Murder Mystery event with some of our authors in 2012. Look for more info for that in the future.

Have a great New Years and we'll update no later than the spring...unless there's huge breaking news...and that's quite possible!

The May Update

Wow...it's May already?

Yes, we're still here and yes, we're guilty of not updating since January. It's been a busy few months getting through the winter and now into spring. Since our last update, we've been involved in a few notable events we'd like to share.

First was a couple of interactive
murder mystery events at the Zorvino Vineyards in Sandown, NH (www.zorvino.com). The first two were in January and authors Mike Girard and Lloyd L. Corricelli participated in two sold out nights of "Loud and Lethal" which was written by local author CJ West. As you can see from the photo, it was a hell of time.

We followed that up with a second mystery show in late April called "Three Strikes & You're Dead" written by Lloyd. Look for more of these events at Zorvino in the winter. If you've never took part in one, it's an absolute blast.

In January, we released Stephen O'Connor's book "The Spy in the City of Books"to great acclaim. The release event was held at the Athenian Corner restaurant in Lowell, MA and the line was out the door. We actually ran out of books and had to provide a lot of people IOUs. It's a great book that we continue to have high hopes for.

A quick note on ebooks. While five years ago, people snickered at the idea, they've now caught on in a big way and in March of this year, we actually sold as many ebooks as traditional books. This is pretty significant and as more people buy Kindles, Sony eReaders, IPads, etc. they should eventually surpass the sale of the traditional physical books. What this means for traditional publishing remains to be seen but we feel sure that some people will always want a book they can hold in their hands.

Meanwhile, we're preparing our newest release by author Pierre V. Comtois called "Real Heroes: Real Battles." It's a collection of stories about battles from the Revolutionary War, American Civil War and World War II; many of which you may have never heard about. Look for that book to be released in June.

For the rest of the year, we've got Lloyd's new Ronan mystery coming called "The Vicious Cycle" (early fall) and then our big compilation book "Mill City Stories: Tales of Lowell & The Merrimack Valley." There's actually still time to submit a story for inclusion in that book. You have until the end of this month. Please submit it to publisher@sonsoflibertypublishing and we will let you know if it was selected sometime this summer. We're hoping for a big release of this book so we can raise a lot of money for the charity which we'll name very soon.

We're also prepping our first audio book at author Mike Girard has been in the studio reading his "Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales." We expect it to be released in the fall and it may contain a few unreleased gems for fans of Mike's band The Fools. Stay tuned for more details!

Happy New Year - The January Update

Happy New Year to all our friends.

2010 was a great year two for our company and we're looking forward to what's coming up in 2011.

The first thing we need to clear up as the year begins is who we are. It's come to our attention that there has been a white supremacist group using the name Sons of Liberty for quite a while. In fact, we believe they may have actually published some books. We just want to make it clear that we are NOT that group, nor are we involved in any activities along the lines of that group's goals. About a year ago, we actually got a rather humorous email from one such group using that name that demanded we stop using it unless our belief system was inline with theirs.

That's not going to happen. The original Sons of Liberty were American revolutionists from the Boston area who stood up to English oppression. Men like Sam Adams (who also happened to be a publisher) put their lives on the line for what they believed in. By using that name, we pay tribute to our New England roots and the spirit of independence and freedom. We will not ever consider publishing any book that involves hate speech or racial supremacy.

Our first release for the new year is a book by J.F. Dacey called "Take the Long Way Home." It's a whimsical story of a taxi driver in a crumbling mill city in the late seventies told in first person.

You can find it here at Amazon.

Meanwhile next month we'll be releasing a great new book by Lowell author Stephen O'Connor called "The Spy in the City of Books."

The past has caught up with Martin LeBris. During World War II, he served the Office of Strategic Services as a spy and saboteur in Lyon, France. Nearly sixty years later, Lowell cop Gerry O'Neil is trying to unravel the mystery of why an assassin is stalking LeBris. The answer to that question lies buried in the dark days of Nazi Occupation, and in the unforgiving memory of The Spy in the City of Books.

On Sunday February 20th, we'll be celebrating this release at the Athenian Corner restaurant in downtown Lowell at 2:00 p.m. Stephen will read a selection from the book and be there to answer questions. We will have plenty of books for sale.



Meanwhile, Mike Girard's "Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales" has easily become our bestselling book in our two year history. Mike has been all over New England promoting the book with a series of shows with his band The Fools, on radio, in print and on television. The book is available at Amazon in trade paperback and now in Kindle format as well.

We'll soon have even bigger news on this book (here's a hint...big screen...as in a silver one...)

We've also set up a store where you can buy t-shirts, mugs and other items with the cover artwork and title. Go ahead and check it out here. It'll make your friends very jealous.

Finally and maybe most important, we are putting together a collection of short stories called "Mill City Tales" which will focus on Lowell. MA and the surrounding Merrimack Valley area. The book will be fiction and non-fiction stories from authors we've previously published and some new literary voices. The best part of this is that we have committed to donate all profits from the sale of this book to a veterans charity. (we'll let you know which one after we let them know). The intent it to have this book out by June with a big release party.

So if you have a story you'd like to submit, please do so by the end of February to publisher@sonsoflibertypublishing.com. You might find yourself a published author.

Next month we hope to tell you more about where Mike's book may be going, a new release for April and what's in store for the rest of the year.

The December Update

Well, it's December and a fantastic 2010 is nearly over. Let's look at where we've come in the past year.

2010 stared with the release of the award winning "Whisper of the Seventh Thunder" by Larry Brooks. A great book and a great way to begin a new year. If you love Dan Brown, you have to read this one because it'll blow you away.

Next up was David Daniel's "Coffin Dust" which is so good it's now being used a text book in a creative writing course taught at UMass-Lowell. How cool is that?

We also released Lloyd L. Corricelli's second Ronan Marino Mystery called "Chasing Curves" with a big party at the Old Court in Lowell, MA. Lloyd is working on the third book in the series that should be out in fall of 2011. We're also working on a video to promote the series.

The biggest news of the year for us was the release of Mike Girard's "Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales." After a great start on on-line sales at Amazon and as The Fools opened for Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Mike and the band did an incredible show at the Blue Ocean Music Hall on the Saturday after Thanksgiving that was packed wall to wall. Quite a few books went out the door that night and we've also gotten some great press in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and a number of other stations. Look for some huge announcement regarding this book in early 2011 (hint, let's just say you might see it one day on the silver screen).

We have one more book to release this year, J.F. Dacey's "Take the Long Way Home." It's the story of his year driving a cab in Lowell in the late seventies just as the city was about to rise from the ashes with a new national park. With the release of "The Fighter" (takes place and filmed in Lowell) it'll be interesting to see if there's any additional interest in this book.

With the holidays here, any of these books would make a great gift for the readers in your life or hell, just buy yourself one to read in front of the fireplace.

Thanks for being with us and we're looking forward to an even bigger 2011.

Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales Cover is Here!

Greetings from Sons of Liberty Publishing with our September update.

As always, we're busy as hell here with all of the different projects going on. Our next book release is the long awaited sort of...kind of true story of the legendary Boston band The Fools written by their frontman Mike Girard. The Fools are best known for their songs 'Psycho Chicken,' 'Life Sucks...Then You Die,' 'World Dance Party' and "Doo Wah Diddy' amongst others.

So here it is, the very first place the cover will be seen in public...

So what do you think? The cover is meant to evoke the lunacy of the band, along with the classic Japanese monster movies and the old style EC Comics cover. If you look closely, in the background you'll see a number of Mike's classic characters too. How many can you name?

So when will the book be available you ask? The official release date is November, 27 2010 at The Fools' show scheduled at the Blue Ocean Performance Hall in Salisbury, MA. After that, Mike will be doing some in-store signings at local stores...more info to come on that one. We'll also be offering a very limited edition lithograph of the cover signed by Mike and artist Don Mousseau at the book release show. How cool would that look signed and framed on your wall?

Meanwhile, while you wait for Mike's book, how about a good mystery? Lloyd L. Corricelli's second Ronan Marino novel is out. It's called Chasing Curves: A Ronan Marino Mystery and in this one, Ronan tries to clear a UMass-Lowell baseball player accused of murdering his prospective agent's secretary.

You can purchase it at Amazon, the downtown Lowell Barnes & Noble or it can be special ordered at most other bookstores. If you like your detectives hardboiled and stories full of sex, violence and humor, you're going to love Ronan.

Well, that's all for now. Next month we'll have more news on Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales as well as news on other soon to be published books.

The August Update

Well, we're moving towards the end of summer and we have a few projects picking up steam.

First is Lloyd L. Corricelli's new Ronan Marino Mystery "Chasing Curves." We just held the formal book release event on 8/12/10 at The Old Court in Lowell which was well attended. Lloyd did a reading and talked about future plans for Ronan which include a short story in the spring and new novel next fall (2011).



Chasing Curves book release event

We'll have a video up of the event this coming week up on our Youtube channel.

You can find the book at Amazon.com along with the second edition of "Two Redheads & A Dead Blonde" which features a new cover.

We're also working hard to get Mike Girard's "Psycho Chicken and Other Foolish Tales" out for the November 27, 2010 formal launch which will feature a concert by The Fools. We'll be doing a lot of media for this book all over New England so watch the blog and our website for more news as it breaks.

We also have some exciting news for 2011. In the spring, we'll be publishing an anthology called "Mill City Stories" which will be a collection of stories, both fiction and non-fiction, that will have to do with various facets of the city of Lowell. Lowell is the home of a national park celebrating the Industrial Revolution of American history and is a very culturally rich town. Authors like Corricelli, David Daniel and others will be contributing stories. More to come on that project soon.

That's all for now. Keep your eyes peeled for more info including a number of upcoming book signings by our authors that we'll announce here.