Statistics

It's a month to the day that the blog received its first visitor and we have received much more traffic than I had hoped for. We are enjoying an average of 19 unique visits a day (blue). Ten visits each day are from first time visitors and nine are from returning visitors (orange). On an average day, 41 pages are accessed.

The most visitors have naturally come from the USA, with more than 850 visits this first 30 days. France had the second largest number of visits with 29 and the United Kingdom had 14. Canada had a total of 12 visitors, the Netherlands nine, and Nigeria four. China, Brazil and Australia each had three visitors and Spain and Senegal had two each. Ten other nations each had one visitor, making a total of 21 nations that had people see the site.

We appreciate the continued interest people are showing The Ghosts of November. Readers from as far away as Bahrain and as close as North Carolina have said they want to read it. I am looking forward to getting it published and meeting with a lot of future readers as I go around the country marketing it.

But is it worth £238?

Last night, a fellow from Great Britain told me he looked up The Ghosts of November on Amazon.com UK.

The Ghosts of November at Amazon.com in the United Kingdom

He surprised me when he told me what the book dealer was asking for it - £238 or almost $500. That's about 25 times the original retail price of $19.95. On May 31, it was listed at £120, still much higher than in the USA.

On the USA's version of Amazon.com, the book is going for $120. Frankly, I can't imagine anyone paying that much for it.

The Ghosts of November at Amazon.com in the USA

I am seeking a literary agent to represent the revision of the book with publishers. The new and improved Ghosts has so much more than the first edition, I don't know why I can't find an agent interested in pitching it to a publisher.

When I send book queries and proposals out, I include the URL to this blog. Perhaps some agent out there will see this and kindly explain to me why, with the first edition selling for almost its weight in gold, why they feel this book is not for them?

The Ghosts of November on Ebay Half.com

A Jonestown Bibliography

There is only one book out of the 33 that have been written about Jonestown, that takes the reader to the scene of mass death and graphically describes the clean-up and return of the remains of 914 Americans to the USA. It's the first book on this list, highlighted in red.

Brailey, Jeff
The Ghosts of November: Memoirs of an Outsider who Witnessed the Carnage at Jonestown, Guyana.
San Antonio: J & J Publishers, 1998.

Chidester, David
Salvation and suicide: an interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1988

Feinsod, Ethan
Awake in a Nightmare: Jonestown: The Only Eyewitness Account.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1981

Hall, John R.
Gone from the promised land: Jonestown in American cultural history
New Brunswick, U.S.A. : Transaction Books, c1987

Kahalas, Laurie Efrein
Snake Dance: Unravelling the Mysteries of Jonestown.
New York: Red Robin Press, 1998

Kern, Phil and Doug Wead.
People’s Temple, People’s Tomb.
Plainfield N.J.: Logos International, 1979.

Kilduff, Marshall
The suicide cult : the inside story of the Peoples Temple sect and the massacre in Guyana
New York : Bantam Books, 1978

Klineman, George
The cult that died : the tragedy of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
New York : Putnam, c1980

Krause, Charles A.
Guyana massacre : the eyewitness account
New York : Berkley Publishing Corporation, c1978

Lane, Mark.
The Strongest Poison.
New York: Hawthorn, 1980

Layton, Deborah
Seductive poison: a Jonestown survivor's story of life and death in the Peoples Temple.
New York : Anchor Books, 1998

Levi, Ken
Violence and Religious Commitment: Implications of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple Movement. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982

Maaga, Mary McCormick.
Hearing the voices of Jonestown
Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 1998

Melton, J. Gordon
Peoples Temple and Jim Jones: Broadening Our Perspective.
New York: Garland, 1990.

Mills, Jeannie
Six years with God : life inside Reverend Jim Jones' Peoples Temple
New York : A & W Publishers, [1979]

Moore, Rebecca
A Sympathetic History of Jonestown: The Moore Family Involvement in Peoples Temple. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1985

Moore, Rebecca
The Jonestown Letters: Correspondence of the Moore Family 1970-1985.
Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986

Moore, Rebecca.
In Defense of Peoples Temple.
Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988.

Moore, Rebecca, Anthony B. Pinn and Mary R. Sawyer, eds.
Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America.
Bloomington: University of Indiana, 2004

Nugent, John Peer
White Night.
New York: Rawson, Wade Publishers, 1979

Parker, Pat
Jonestown and Other Madness.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Firebrand Books, 1985

Reiterman, Tim
Raven : the untold story of the Rev. Jim Jones and his people
New York : Dutton, c1982

Reston, James, Jr.
Our Father Who Art in Hell.
New York: Times Books, 1981

Rose, Steve
Jesus and Jim Jones: Behind Jonestown.
New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1979.

Stephenson, Denice
Dear People: Remembering Jonestown.
Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2005.

Thielmann, Bonnie
The broken god
Elgin, Ill. : D. C. Cook, c1979

Thrash, Catherine
The onliest one alive: surviving Jonestown, Guyana
Indianapolis, Ind. : M. Towne, 1995

U.S. Committee on Foreign Affairs
The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy. U.S. House of Representatives, 96th Congress, First Session. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1979

U.S. Committee on Foreign Affairs Hearing
The Death of Representative Leo J. Ryan, Peoples Temple, and Jonestown: Understanding a Tragedy. U.S. House of Representatives, 96th Congress, First Session. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1979

Wessinger, Catherine
How the Millennium Comes Violently.
Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1998

Wessinger, Catherine Lowman.
How the millennium comes violently: from Jonestown to Heaven's Gate.
New York : Seven Bridges Press, c2000.

Wooden, Kenneth
The children of Jonestown
New York : McGraw-Hill, c1981

Yee, Min S.
In my father's house : the story of the Layton family and the Reverend Jim Jones
New York : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, c1981

Keeping On Keeping On

Having exhausted the names of literary agents who represent my genre, accept email queries and allow simultaneous submissions, I've began submitting proposals/queries to small publishing houses that accept email submissions. Since I am 90 miles off the coast of Nigeria, it's impossible to use snail mail. I have made a list of agents that do not accept email queries as well as publishing houses who prefer paper proposals.

I'll wait three months after submitting the postal proposals to see if I receive any positive replies, then I'll look for a printer to self-publish with again. Whatever route I finally take, I will get The Ghosts of November printed by June 2008.

The Ghosts of November

Rejection Rarely Riles Me...

...but I made an exception in this agent's case. The letter he had his assistant send demonstrated a total disregard for reality, I had to reply it. The book commemorates the 30th anniversary of what arguably is one of the biggest news stories of the last century. Interest in Jonestown and cults has never been higher since the massacre occurred in 1978.

If the agent sent me a run-of-the mill rejection (i.e. too busy, not right for us, not the type of book we represent, not taking on any new clients right now,, etc.) I wouldn't have minded. But this?

Dear Mr. Brailey,

Thank you for letting us have a look at your proposal for THE GHOSTS OF NOVEMBER. Unfortunately, we here at XYZ Literary just didn’t feel there would be space in the market for another book on this topic right now, but we wish you the best of luck with it.

All best,

Xxxxxx Xxxxxx

XYZ Literary Management

I had to respond to this clueless agent and here is what I said:

Ms. Xxxxxx,

I am going to respectfully disagree with XYZ's assessment of my book. There is no other book that describes what happened in Jonestown after the massacre. Interest in this subject is as high as its ever been, evidenced by the hits I am receiving on my blogsite (http://novemberghosts.blogspot,com) and the emails I get on a regular basis from scholars and conspiracy buffs and all kinds of people in between.

I self-published the book in 1998 and did very well marketing the 5000 copies printed on radio talk shows. If I have to do it again, I will. I am committed to the success of my book and will do what I need to to get the revision published.

Thank you for your reply. I am confident Mr. Z. will wish he represented me next year when I hit the speaking trail with other members of the Jonestown Institute's speakers bureau. I usually don't reply to the replies of agents, but you are so very wrong about the market for my book I was compelled to in this case.

Regards,

Jeff Brailey

I originally sent the following query letter along with my book proposal, which you can find on another page of this blog:

Dear Mr. Zzzzzzzzzz:

November 18, 2008 is the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre. I was there.

As senior medic of the joint humanitarian task force sent to Guyana to return the remains of the 914 Americans who died there, I was able to observe the grueling and grotesque job performed by the men and women of the force. The Ghosts of November is the only book written by a member of the task force and the only one that describes the nine days we spent in Jonestown.

Originally self-published in 1998 for the 20th anniversary, the revised book is more than 50% new material and has been professionally edited. It has footnotes, photos and a map the first edition lacked. I sold almost 5000 copies of the book in 1998 through radio talk shows and book signings.

If you doubt the continued curiosity and building interest in the Jonestown Massacre, please check out my Ghosts of November blog at

http://novemberghosts.blogspot.com

My book proposal follows. I do have two more nonfiction book ideas to pitch to publishers. One is a memoir of my life as a derelict and the other a nonfiction narrative about cults in the 21st century.

Sincerely,

Jeff Brailey

What do you think dear blog reader? Did I do the right thing or should I have left the clueless agent alone?