From Murder to Immortality, Author Biff Mitchell Offers Both

For Immediate Release

Summary: Author Biff Mitchell, who recently ran an eBay auction for the privilege of being murdered in one of his novels, is offering immortality of sorts to the best reviewer of his soon-to-be-released print version of The War Bug.

“In Murder by Burger, I’m killing somebody off,” said Mitchell. “This time, I’m giving somebody the chance to be immortal by appearing on the back cover of the print version of The War Bug.”

The War Bug, available as an ebook from Double Dragon Publishing and most online bookstores, will be released in bookstores across North America in June 2005. To promote the release, the author and publisher are running an unusual contest.

“There’s no entry fee,” said Deron Douglas, president of Double Dragon. “But people will have to buy the ebook version of the novel and read it. Then they write a review of the novel and submit it to Double Dragon. Part of the winning review will appear as a jacket blurb on the back cover of the book along with a picture of the reviewer.”

“The winner will be on the cover of a book,” said Mitchell. “It’s sort of like being immortal. We’ll also be giving the winning reviewer an autographed copy of the first copy of the book to be printed.”

The War Bug is a satiric science fiction novel set 200 years in the future just before the collapse of the Internet from a deadly war fought with computer viruses between huge online citystates that dominate the online world. In the midst of the chaos, Abner Hayes has just hours to find his virtual wife and daughter before the Net crashes and he loses them forever. The only ally in his quest is the computer virus that started the war.

When the novel was released in ebook format in March 2004, it was featured at Fictionwise.com and made the EPIC bestseller list.

“Ebook sales of the book have been good enough to justify a print run,” said Douglas. “The offbeat sci-fi nature of the book fits into the direction DDP is going. Plus, Biff has shown keen marketing savvy and the energy it takes from an author to help boost sales.”

“Deron told me he was putting together a list of ebooks he wanted to publish in print in 2005,” said Mitchell. “I begged him to include The War Bug and he asked me if I believed that I could market it enough to sell a few paperbacks.”

“He told me he could market the hell out of print version of The War Bug,” said Douglas. “So I told him he had me 99% convinced. I told him I’d send him a contract sometime in the future.”

“He sent the contract by email 5 minutes later,” said Mitchell.

Four other reviewers will receive autographed copies of The War Bug, plus have their names mentioned in the acknowledgments at the end of the book. All winning entries will have their reviews along with their pictures appear on the author’s web site. The final date for review entries is February 28, 2005. Winners will be announced on March 31, 2005.

“The War Bug has received excellent reviews from both readers and critics,” said Douglas. “One of them called it a fusion between Douglas Adams and Philip K. Dick. We’re looking forward to the reviews generated by this contest.”

“All reviews entered, both good and bad, will be published on the Double Dragon web site,” said Mitchell. “So it should be interesting to see what develops.”

Details about the contest are posted at www.biffmitchell.com. The War Bug will be distributed in the USA by Ingram and in Canada by Double Dragon Publishing. It will also be available through all major online stores.

Double Dragon Publishing is a leading publisher of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror titles with an impressive line-up of best selling and award winning writers.

Biff Mitchell is the author of three novels, Heavy Load (eBookAd and CyberRead), Team Player (soon to be released by Double Dragon), and The War Bug (Double Dragon). His novellas, The Baton and Smoke Break, are available in ebook format through Echelon Press. A book of short stories and two books of poems are available free on the author’s web site and at Memoware.com.

Contacts:

Deron Douglas, President Double Dragon Publishing info@double-dragon-ebooks.com Web Site: http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/index.asp

Biff Mitchell, Author biff@biffmitchell.com 506-455-3678 (evenings 6:00 PM AST) Web Site: http://www.biffmitchell.com