Signature January/February 2015 - 6

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RICK PULLEN'S FIRST
NOVEL UNDER REVIEW
ON AMAZON SCOUT
Association Media & Publishing
member Rick Pullen, editor in
chief of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers' awardwinning magazine, Leader's Edge,
has completed his first novel,
Naked Ambition. The first five
chapters are available to read
on Amazon Scout through
February.
If enough people like what
they read and recommend it,
Kindle Publishing will publish
the book in its entirety. Pullen
says he has been working on
the novel for about four
years.
"It is not published yet by
Amazon," Pullen says. "This
is their way of deciding if
they want to publish my
novel. People have to nominate it on Amazon Scout.
After 30 days, the Kindle
Scout folks look at the reaction to the novel as well as
read it themselves to see if there is enough interest."
For those AM&P-member closet novelists who
might be curious how this works, Pullen says if
Amazon likes the novel, it will publish an e-book
and also take the audio rights. Pullen says he
can still find another publisher to publish a print
version, or he can release it through print on demand.
"The last agent who read my novel raved about it but
told me how difficult it is to break into the thriller genre
for a first-time author," Pullen says. "Some of my mentors in this side
of publishing have urged me to go this route to get my name out there. I'm
not big at self-promotion, so I figured why not? If I did go the traditional route,
it would be another two years before this would be published."
The story is about a presidential campaign and dark money, which, Pullen
points out, is very topical this year. "Of course, there is sex and murder and all
of the bad stuff," he says. "How else could I call it a thriller?"
Is Pullen optimistic about the Amazon Scout system? "A low-tech guy like
me tries going high-tech. We will see," he says. n

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 16

signature

ASCO CHOOSES
SHERIDAN
FOR JOURNAL
AND MEETING
PUBLICATION
SERVICES
Sheridan was recently awarded editorial
services and print production for two
journal titles of the American Society of
Clinical Oncology, Inc., a leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer, as
well as 14 of ASCO's meeting publications, beginning in January 2016. ASCO
has more than 35,000 members. Both
ASCO and Sheridan are members of Association Media & Publishing.
Editorial services for ASCO's Journal
of Clinical Oncology will be handled by
Sheridan Journal Services, and print production will be done by Sheridan's New
Hampshire printing facility. This journal
is published 36 times a year in print and
electronic formats.
Journal of Global Oncology is a new
online-only, open-access publication to publish six times
yearly, and Sheridan Journal
Services will provide full frontend service. ASCO's 14 meeting
publications will be printed at
Sheridan's Pennsylvania facility, and Sheridan Journal
Services will handle editorial services and XML for
several of them.
ACO will also take advantage of
Sheridan's patent-pending web-based
proofing environment, ArticleExpress™.
Upon implementation of the ArticleExpress proofing system, authors submitting
work to ASCO publications will have the
ability to correct proofs in a user-friendly,
Word-like environment while preserving the XML workflow, and dramatically
reducing cycle time to approved article
submission. n

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signature January/February 2015