Los Angeles, CA, March 19, 2013 –(PR.com)– He’s done it again. Phillip Sheppard of CBS Survivor (Fans vs. Favorites) not only dominates the current season, as the show’s Nielson ratings soar among adults 18-49, he also just released a book, a Bestseller with himself as the hero no less.
Sheppard’s new book, The Specialist: The Costa Rica Job shot up the charts this month, leapfrogging over 100,000 other titles into the top tier of Amazon’s vast Action and Adventure catalogue. Now in the retailer’s top 300 ranks, the book dominates celebrity book sales, buoyed by brisk paperback and eBook purchases from a worldwide fan base. Women play a powerful role in the novel, getting The Specialist in trouble, out of trouble, advancing the plot, and of course loving him.
Sheppard’s new venture into action adventure rides the new wave in bookselling of self-published authors using social media and digital eBooks to bump big name publishers off the Bestseller lists. “You have to be creative,” said Sheppard, recently. “Traditional publishers move too slowly in the new digital world. You have to tap into social media, creative marketing and be willing to do it all yourself. But in the end, it’s about bringing joy to people with a quality book.”
The Specialist: The Costa Rica Job showcases Sheppard as a hard hitting, no-nonsense ex-secret agent who fights drug dealers and dirty cops while thwarting a terrorist bomber and solving a high-stakes kidnapping case in Costa Rica. Despite early skepticism by some, the book has taken off, embraced by legions of CBS Survivor fans clamoring to be recruited into Sheppard’s make-believe spy team “Stealth-R-Us,” which originated on the CBS reality show. It makes for good television, and Sheppard has shrewdly used that capital to generate incredible book sales.
He views the bestselling novel as a way to show another side of himself as “The Specialist” and credits CBS Television for giving him another shot at success. “I love the show, the whole CBS family and the fans. This is my way of giving something back.” The Specialist: The Costa Rica Job is available online at Amazon and other online bookstores.
