Ever wonder what it would be like to be the NSA or another government surveillance agency?
In Watched Sweeper, a new HTML5 game about surveillance, players must observe a crowd and arrest people who don’t look like true Patriots.
As that old saying goes: “Patriots are the true. Heretics are the damned.”
Once you’ve given it your all to separate the Heretics from the Patriots, you’ll want to check out my novels WE, THE WATCHED and DIVIDED WE FALL (where the above quote appears). If you submit a high score, you’ll be treated to a discount on the price of the eBook version of WE, THE WATCHED.
Screenshot from Watched Sweeper
You’ll need a recent browser capable of rendering HTML5 to play. I programmed Watched Sweeper in Clickteam Fusion 2.5 and used the HTML5 exporter.
Please leave any feedback on the game in the comments below.
The war has come home. The mission has failed. Eve just wants Jon back.
Divided We Fall by Adam Bender
Agent Eve Parker refuses to accept Jon’s change of heart when he loses his memory and becomes a revolutionary known as Seven. But when Eve learns more about the President’s plan to broaden citizen surveillance, she begins to question what she’s always believed to be right.
Hey, Adam here — I am super excited to announce the release of my new novel, DIVIDED WE FALL in paperback and eBook. Writing this book was a long labor of love. It was crafted in the late hours after the work day and in spare moments of the weekend. But in my mind I was working on it always, inspired by news about government surveillance and my day job at the time reporting on the U.S. Congress.
This novel brings to an end the journey that Seven began in WE, THE WATCHED. However, for those who have not yet read that story, I encourage you to read these books in any order you like.
This is also a self-published work and I thank you in advance for your support.
The paperback costs $13.99 and the eBook is $3.99. Also, if you buy the print book on Amazon you can get the digital version for free through Kindle MatchBook! Below is a list of stores where you can buy DIVIDED WE FALL. There may be a delay in some stores posting the book — I will update this list as more stores come online.
Okay, so a lot has been happening behind the scenes on my new novel, Divided We Fall.
But let’s start with the release date: May 10, 2014. As in, less than two months from now. Get hyped.
What’s that? How should you get hyped? Well, a good place to start might be the brand-spanking-new website for the novel! If you didn’t already click the link above, here it is again: www.wethedivided.com.
The paperback proof has arrived!
Preorders for the eBook will open soon at select online book stores including Apple iTunes, Barnes & Noble Nook and Kobo. On release day, you’ll be able to buy the paperback and eBook from Amazon.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me take a step back. Divided We Fall is a dystopian love story about surveillance. An elite agent of the Guard finds out that her fiancé has become an Underground revolutionary and tries to win him back. Complications ensue.
It’s also a sequel to my first novel, We, The Watched. Should you read We, The Watched before Divided We Fall? Well, of course you should, but you don’t have to. I’ve written the new book so you won’t get lost without reading the first. You will gain a more full experience reading both, but really, I don’t mind about the order.
A sneak peak at Chapter One of Divided We Fall.
Anyway, we’re almost there, people. The cover and book layout is complete for both the eBook and the paperback. I’ll soon be getting the paperback proof in the mail (UPDATE: It’s here! See above photo) and will just have to do a check to make sure everything looks all right. Then it’s just a matter of getting it into the stores!
It’s here! The cover for my new novel, Divided We Fall, coming this spring!
Divided We Fall is the sequel to We, The Watched. The manuscript was a quarter-finalist in last year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and received a great review by Publishers Weekly.
Belinda Pepper, who designed the cover for We, The Watched, has returned to do Divided We Fall with brilliant results! Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Divided We Fall by Adam Bender. Coming this spring.
Quick status update: With the cover finished and the book fully edited, we’re nearly there! I’ve still got to get the interior text formatted for the print and eBook versions. Then it’s pretty much just a matter of clicking “Publish.” Keep your eye on this blog for more updates!
The popularity of the Kindle and tablets like the iPad have driven eBook sales in recent years. Their beautiful screens, light weight and anywhere, anytime store interfaces have convinced readers from around the world that digital books can be just as nice to read as the traditional paper version.
As an author, it’s been great. When I first released We, The Watched online, most people didn’t have eReaders and the best I could expect was for people to read my novel in their web browsers or–maybe, if they had the ink to spare–download the PDF and print it out. Now, with eReaders widespread and my self-published book available on all of the major eBook stores, I have a much wider potential audience than when I began.
Of course, the essential problem with self-publishing remains: how to convince people to give my book a try when I have only a limited marketing budget. Why take a chance spending money on my book when you haven’t heard of it and there’s plenty of other books out there that your friends have been talking about?
It’s a good point. Sure, I could spend all day telling you how great my book is, but why would you take my word for it? I’m no LeVar Burton.
This is why I am so excited about a new wave in eBook publishing: subscriptions!
Following the model of Netflix and Spotify, new sites are popping up promising readers unlimited reading for a small monthly subscription price. These include Oyster and a revamped reading service from Scribd.
Oyster charges $9.95 per month for unlimited reading through an app for the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Scribd charges $8.99 for unlimited reading through its own app for those Apple devices plus Android phones and tablets. Both have promotions offering the first month for free.
The Oyster app running on an iPad Mini. Credit: Oyster
While I’m not sure I read enough books to make this worth it for me personally, I know a lot of people who do. And the ability to discover new books without any risk is pretty cool.
This means that readers can try my novel–and read it to the end–and not pay a penny more than the subscription price they would have paid anyway. And I even get about the same royalty as I would have from a traditional sale.
It’s an exciting concept, and I am hoping it is the beginning of a trend. Perhaps in the future, we will see the bigger eBook stores try similar price models. It is certainly a great development for authors and one that will make an even better business case for going self-published.
Ever wonder what it would be like to be the NSA or another government surveillance agency?
