I am glad you read Rogue's Game. The author, Milton Burton, called me up after he read an article I wrote about George McGann. available at www.JohnnyHughes.com

He has an interest in the Dixie Mafia for a book he is writing.

He read my novel, Texas Poker Wisdom, before it came out and wrote a cover blurb.

Milton writes about the same Texas outlaw types that I write about. He is in Tyler, East Texas. I am in West Texas. He is one fellow that I would like to meet. I will email him. He will get a kick out of this thread. I do. Thanks to all.

Johnny Hughes

I appreciate the kind things my friend Johnny and others have said about "Rogues' Game." Having a person really enjoy one's work is the finest feeling an author can get. Glad you folks likes it!!

Milton T. Burton,
Tyler, Texas

Milton should have another novel ready soon.

Ace of Spades, The: A Poker Novel
Bruce McDougal

Staying Ahead of the Rake: Fourteen Days in the Life of a Hardcore Poker Player
Gil DuRoss


Feel free to check out these two novels and tell me how it went. I unfortunatelly, am not going to risk it at 20$ a pop, as both these are Publish-America novels. What does that mean? It means they are really a vanity-press in disguise, and will LITERALLY publish just about anything that would NEVER get off the slush-pile.

Just maybe these books could be exceptions, but PA novels are known to have writers that don't even understand the basics of grammar, or even english for that matter...

Thanks for recommending "King of a Small World by Rick Bennet". Finished last nite, enjoyed it (8.5/10).

yeah King of a Small World was truly awesome. Wish that guy would write more. Anyone know him?

Deadman's Bluff is a pretty good part two for Deadman's Poker. Both are by James Swain. I had read Deadman's Poker a few months ago and had wondered why the ending was missing. Thankfully, someone on this thread filled me in

I did the same thing after I read the first one. I had no idea it was a 2-book series until my mother (she luvsa' her gambler stories) told me.

It definitely took me a while to get into the first one. I was over 1/2 way through before I actually became interested. Most of the prop bets/scams he talks about seem to come straight out of Amarillo Slim's book.

I picked up Hautman's All-In at the library today. It is surprisingly very short, and I'm rather glad I didn't order it for 20$, which seems a little on the heavy side, particularly for a read once-shelf it type book. However, at least it is hard-cover (one wonders if it's HC to make it look thicker).

I shall try to read a bit of it today and get back on it later.

A little update. I read through the first 100 pages very quickly this afternoon. So I'm essentially over 50% of the way there to the end. Once again, we have a story where a casino dealer is cheating the game. And Pete seems to be using the mystery of 'why' did the dealer cheat to propel this one forward.

However, he keeps using the old time-flashback type form, and a few times I found myself lost not knowing if I was reading something in the past or present. Needless to say, I've always hated this sort of writing structure.

A couple other things to complain about, is I really hate it when modern writers still use terms like set-of-trips. Now either it's a set, or it's trips, how can it be both?

I also find it sad but humorous, when a writer spends a whole page going through in detail of the play of a hand, yet somehow starts the protagonist off with pocket-tens, but on the turn, ends up changing his mind and giving the same character pocket-jacks instead. What?!

I understand every writer makes mistakes, but if you're going to spend much details on the play of hands in a novel, for heavens sake, make your mind up on the hole cards and stick to it! I guess you could say the publisher didn't proof too well, or simply was clueless about hold'em.

I am in the middle of A New York Hold Em by William Klein. Like Cards by Jonathan Maxwell, this appears to be sort of a self-published book. I looked up iUniverse on google, and yes it is a self-publishing company. I just noticed too that Johnny Hughes's Texas Poker Wisdom was published by iUniverse. I would give Texas Poker Wisdom a 7.5 and Cards a 7. A New York Hold' Em will probably end up as a 6 or so. It has some good story elements, but it is a little long and dense. There are also some awkward sections of dialogue and description. The writing alternates between smart and slightly dopey a lot. Also, the story of a guy who owes money to the mafia has been done a billion times already. The problem with self-publishing is that some novels get published that shouldnt get published, or they get published before they have been edited enough to be worth $20.

Broke is iUniverse too

My reviews for Texas Poker Wisdom are excellent. They include Nolan Dalla,Gary Wise, Iggy, Dr. Pauly, and reviews from Dublin and London. For customer reviews, I have ten reviews, eight are five stars and two are four stars. Ted has some good things to say. On another thread, he requested they ban me. I do hope that I don't get banned for my answer about the reviews.

Ted...Package up your book and send it to me, and I will refund your money.

My novel had two editors. As Ted focused on, the word quiet is still mispelled after this editing.

Lol. Problem is that those damn spell checkers think quiet is correctly spelled.

I just read that IUniverse has been taken over by AuthorHouse...which if i remember correctly is who Sam O'connor used when he self published his book.

I'm about 50 pages into another Burton book (The Sweet and the Dead). No poker in this book (so far anyway) but, damn, that man can write.

Johnny,
Hey. I liked your book. I gave it a higher rating than the other iUniverse books. I have been dissappointed with some iUniverse titles. With the iUniverse titles, these books can be very hit or miss. There is no quality control when people self-publish. But I did think your book was of a good quality.
I also didnt try to ban you from another forum. I made a joke that you self promote a lot.

Ted

It looks like this organization charges the author 500-600$ to get published. This is very suspect because I don't know of any professional publishing company who would charge its own authors such a thing. It is a publisher's responsibility to promote the books it agrees to sell, NOT the author's.

To sum things up, an author should NEVER have to pay his/her publisher. So when he does, it immediately becomes suspect to me, and you can pretty much guess they will take a lot more of the slush-pile that wouldn't even get past the first page by professionals. A small fraction of good books may just slip through the cracks and will get picked up by these houses, but the writers of these will never earn as much as they should. Hell, they will be lucky to earn their initial investment back.

I am incredibly happy with iUniverse and Texas Poker Wisdom.

Let me explain the difference in self-supported publishing, print-on-demand, and the old-style self-publishing.

In the old-style, it costs a whole lot more and the author has to buy a certain number of books. You guys are right. These usually don't make money. They depend on the author selling them to bookstores on consignment and working at it.

I would highly recommend Self-supported publishing to the young authors on here as an entry step. I would prefer a big, strong publishing house like TwoPlusTwo.

The quality of these companies is higher than mass market paperback. My books are e-books, trade paperback, and hardback.

You are paying to get your manuscript and cover design on their huge print-on-demand system and keep it there. They get all the numbers and you listed on Amazons all over the world, BarnesNoble,Target, and tons of online sellers that will never sell any of mine.

My royalties are deposited directly into my bank account.

Tommy Angelo's book is self-supported publishing on Surge/Amazon. It has been the number 2 to number 10 poker book often since it came out. You order a Tommy book, it is printed and shipped that day, just like mine. I don't warehouse books, sell books. Tommy gets up to 35% royalty of list. I get 20%, 25% Barnes/Noble parent company.

Tommy's sales are strong enough to attract an industry leader like TwoPlusTwo.

This is all part of "the long tail." Poker books are a niche market. TwoPlusTwo is the most prominent and I suspect best seller in bookstores and online. My books and Tommy's don't have the bricks and mortar distribution and marketing system of TwoPlus Two. Most of my sales have to come from the Internet.

However, these poker novels discussed are still selling a little every year. This is all so easy! I am extremely surprised and elated in my sales and especially the sales in other countries. Fiction writers usually don't make any heavy dough unless there is a movie.
I am jealous of Tommy. Everybody is going to be surprised at his sales at the end of the year!! You guys who are saying don't use iUniverse and Surge are crazy. If you can't get with a big publishing house like TwoPlusTwo, it is the way to go. I am making a little money and will until I die.

Again, Johnny are you reading my posts? I didnt say dont buy all iUniverse titles. I didnt say anything against Texas Poker Wisdom. I didnt say you should be banned from another thread on 2+2. Are you reading the other posts?

Yes, Ted, and I appreciate you. You started this thread and you have had very nice things to say about my book.

I was addressing the difference in the old vanity press thing and print-on-demand. I am encouraging those thinking about it to go that way.

Johnny,

thanks for some insight into the world of P.O.D and supported publishing. I always find it interesting to read up on stuff like that as it isnt really written about much.

DB.

I had a break today, so finished off Hauntman's All-In. I don't know... The climax of the book is some 10K buy-in tournament. Funny thing is, it's a winner-take all, with over a million in the pool. I don't know how plausible this thing would be. Furthermore, there is no rake or or house fee either. Furthermore... everyone starts with a 10K stack, and blinds are 20/40, only raised each hour, at full-ring tables, B&M speed. Yet there is no break until the complete thing is over (except for a few 10 min piss breaks???).

I just don't know.. I found the character's actions to be rather implausible too, but I suppose in another universe, this could happen.

Things could be worse...

Anyone else who read this one want to give some input?

I ordered several poker novels that I have not read. I will start King of a Small World.

The bad poker movies are going to make it harder for me to get a movie deal.

These are both first-rate novels, written by real poker players, with real poker steeped into the plot. There is a lot of autobiography in both of them. They're both 10's in my book.

You are far too kind. This is a make-it-up-as-you-go-along book with no plot, only loose ends and holes left over from better authors. The author spends pages telling you what people eat or wear, then a couple of pages later they say they haven't eaten all day and are wearing something different. Every single poker hand contains a major error, which is really quite a feat even if you're trying. Players win with full houses on flops with no pairs, players are eliminated from the tournament on a fold, a straight loses to three of a kind; and there are more. I give it a negative 10.

This is a serviceable mystery wrapped around some fun insider celebrity poker. Shameless plugs, sure. Namedropping too. Lots of inside jokes, some pretty sneaky. Some good poker advice. Fun if you know some of the people, or like reading about them. Okay if you don't and don't. 7 out of 10.

This is a first-rate mystery wrapped around a serviceable poker plot. The poker advice is about the level you get from average experienced players, not terrible, but not great. 8 out of 10.

You can flip the last two ratings if you care more about poker than mysteries.