Christopher D. Schmitz's Blog, page 16

State of Writing

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I feel like I’ve had success this week. I’m still plugging away at the audio for Through the Darque Gates of Koth (It’s really a big book) and I have revisions done for Dekker’s Dozen: Spawn of Ganymede AND  the cover is also completed. I have one more round of revisions, plus any relevant edits following the last report from a beta reader due this week.

Perhaps my biggest success, or one that feels like it, is that I finally got Kindle to release Shadows of a Superhero from ebook jail where it got stuck on some weird technicality. It’s been stuck in publishing limbo since summer. I was able to get it restored while working on my books following the Createspace/Kindle forced-merger.

More to come. I’m excited for the projects I’m working on right now!

Interview with Taran Matharu (The Summoner series)

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You may or may not have heard of Taran Matharu, but if you read YA Fantasy or use Wattpad at all, you’ve probably heard his story or about his stories. He found an audience via the social networking/writing website and used it as a platform to become a NY Times and Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller! I thought he would be a great voice to hear from on this blog since he started with such independent, obscure roots and rose up to write a bestseller.

If you haven’t checked out this wildly popular series yet, you can get a peek at it by clicking here!

Tell me a little about your publishing journey. I know you had something of a unique path to publishing, and most of my blog readers are either book fans independent writers.

I started writing on Wattpad while doing NaNoWriMo, and the sample I shared was read 3 Million times in less than six months. When it hit the million mark I started receiving unsolicited offers from publishers. I contacted 6 agents and received offers from almost all of them within 24 hours. I chose one and went on to sell rights in 15 languages, became a NYT bestselling author and now write full-time.

I know your path to getting discovered was more of an exception than the rule… how do you feel about that and what advice do you give to undiscovered writers?

I would say that everyone’s first book should be as commercial as possible. Save experimenting with an unusual, niche concept for your follow up, when you have a following. If there isn’t a comparison title or two you can use to describe your book (e.g. Summoner = Harry Potter meets LOTR meets Pokemon), and not tangentially, you’ve probably written a book that publishers are less likely to pick up.

One of my friends has requested I ask why your main character uses kophesh instead of the standard European sword?

I wanted my character to stand out from the many other warrior MCs, and stand out on the cover. Also it’s a cool weapon.

What are your plans for the future of the series?

It’s done for now! A trilogy, a prequel and a companion guide should be enough, I think, haha.

Tell me about your publishing company, Portal Books.

Everything you need to know is on the website – www.portal-books.com. It’s a publishing house that specialises in LitRPG and DungeonCore novels.

Anything else you want to share?

My new book, The Chosen (Contender #1) is coming in May, 2019!

State of Writing

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Dekker’s Dozen: Spawn of Ganymede is in the can… or at least it’s in the final stages (and then onto recording for audiobook and release). I’m also still editing like a madman… more of that this week.

This week, I’m hoping to complete my worldbuilding notes for my new fantasy, Ashes of Ailushurai, so I can fill in some blanks and round out some spots during the next round of edits (and then on to my next short story.

Also, I’m hoping to send out a couple lit agent queries for Fear in a Land Without Shadows.

Is KDP Rocket Worth the Investment? Guestblog by J.M. Butler

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You may have seen adverts for, or heard about, KDP Rocket. You might be wondering either what it’s used for, or if it’s worth the investment? I came across a discussion in one of my online writing groups and asked J.M. Butler to give me her thoughts as a skeptical user of the marketing software…

My KDP Rocket Experience

I purchased KDP Rocket about a year ago because I was struggling to sell my books and I didn’t have a lot of money from ads. I also wasn’t especially certain how to fix my marketing or what keywords to target, so I did a lot of stabbing in the dark. It wasn’t working. At all. So I decided to try KDP Rocket, and I went through the tutorials (an essential step since the program isn’t the most intuitive and the information gathered needs a bit of explaining).

Once the program was installed, it took me a couple hours of researching to find appropriate keywords for each of my fantasy novels, especially the ones not connected within a series. At first, there wasn’t much of a change. Amazon can take a bit before the new keywords kick in, but after a few days, I noticed that I was selling more books. I went from selling one copy of one book every so often to selling one or two books a day with a couple gap days. Obviously this isn’t huge, but these numbers are coming in with zero money going into advertising as of the time of this writing, which is October, 2018.

The biggest shift that KDP Rocket brought about was in helping me understand what keywords readers use. I tended to think in a more “authorly” way, I suppose. And I had never considered the competition level I was facing. At least not in that way.

Upon first publishing, it seemed clear to me that my books belonged in epic high fantasy, but when I ran that keyword phrase through KDP Rocket, the results were rather grim. Not only was the phrase highly competitive but the market was heavily saturated. At that time, I would have over 3,800 competitors for the same keyword with a competitive score of 80 (which means that there is little room to break in unless you have a lot of money for ads and swaps). The competition listing showed me the books using that keyword phrase, their price, overall review rating, daily sales, and number of reviews. And from there, I realized, yeah…there was no way I was going to get to the first page of the epic high fantasy search. And as you probably know, if you can’t get to the front page of a search, your books are not as likely to be purchased. All my efforts to place in that keyword search were likely to return low result. Indeed, I had one book that had never broken past the tenth page.

So I played around with other possible keyword bundles, keeping it fairly simple. Eventually I discovered that a then lower competition point was “epic high fantasy with romance” and “epic high fantasy shapeshifters” and “high fantasy romance mindreaders.” Similarly, switching “little mermaid retelling” to “black mermaid romance” and “mermaid love story” proved to be much more effective, taking my story from the fifth page back to the first. These and similar terms (often combinations of a subgenre and character/race type) allowed me to get to the front page and sometimes even as the top listing for that keyword bundle.

The initial price of $99 for KDP Rocket might seem a bit steep, but I consider it one of the best purchases I’ve made. At this point, it has earned its keep multiple times over. Even using Google Analytics and Adsense keyword analytics did not give me enough insight into the specific platform I needed. The other issue that needs to be considered is that keyword efficiency changes over time. So while you may be able to hire someone to gather and test keywords for you, you need to bear in mind that they will have to be updated as more authors and stories enter the competition or others fall out. It’s especially important for someone like me who is not yet spending much money on advertising, and the little differences can really add up.

All the best to all of you in your stories and your writing!

J.M. Butler is an adventurer, author, and attorney who never outgrew her love for telling stories or playing in imaginary worlds. She is the author of The Tue-Rah Chronicles, which includes Identity Revealed and Enemy Known. Independent novellas set in the same world include Locked, Alone, and Cursed. She has also written a number of other stories including Mermaid Bride, Through the Paintings Dimly, and more. She writes primarily speculative fiction with a focus on multicultural high fantasy and suspenseful adventures with intriguing romances. She lives with her husband and law partner, James Fry, in rural Indiana where they enjoy creating fun memories, challenging each other, and playing with their three cats.

Visit her website www.jmbutlerauthor.com to learn more.

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Email: hello@jmbutlerauthor.com

Free Fiction Tuesday (plus, support starving artists at no cost to you!)

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So, I’m back after a 1 month hiatus at my blog. Yes, I have a free book this week! But also, I wanted to tell you how you can support writers in a huge way… I use Amazon Affiliate links on all of my reviews, etc. They are neat little things that give promoters a little commission. Christmas is huge for us. If you plan to do some shopping on Amazon, would you click my below link before you do your holiday shopping (even if you’ve gotten my free book before?)

Pop all those wants and needs in your cart and then check out when you’re ready. Just because you’ve clicked through to Amazon, I get a little commission–you get good prices and support an author all at once! And if you’re buying someone a new Kindle, smartphone, or ereader for Christmas, make sure to get a free copy of Dekker’s Dozen: The Last Watchmen!

I plan to have the next installment (prequel #3) available by new years!

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State of Writing

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I finished my new story, Ashes of Ailushurai in November. Not much more left to write this month… but I’m editing like crazy. I’m working on my daughter’s YA fantasy edits plus getting my nano project smoothed out with some editing software before a revision I’ll send to beta readers.

This week I’m hoping to get a few blogs loaded up and ready for publishing. I’m also hoping to watch a few modules from Mark Dawson’s course. I’ve got to learn how to market online better.

As for writing, I hope to finish recording at least half of what I have remaining for the Audible book on Wolf of the Tesseract 2. I also want to get my next round of edits done for my newest Dekker’s Dozen installment. I’m hoping to get it out before the end of the year (and I hope to be writing the final leg of the 3-story prequel set while I’m on winter vacation… end of Jan at the latest).

State of Writing

November is almost done and I thought I should give an update on my Nanowrimo project. I hit the winning 50k word count before Thanksgiving on my fantasy story The Ashes of Ailusurai. I’m hoping to complete it this week… the rough draft ought to be complete at about 75-80k…

I should also be back with my regular blog in December.

Finding Time to Write

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I’ve entertained a lot of questions while hosting my writing workshop and participating in author’s panels. A lot of folks ask this one, “How do you find time to write?”

Bookbub recently posted an interview with an author whose advice echoes my own, and it’s certainly worth revisiting if you’ve ever had times when it finding moments to write seems impossible.

Bookbub’s interview features Rachel Caine who writes at a similar pace as my own (though I still keep my full-time job’s security and stick mostly to the independent world, thus giving me more flexibility). While the article is titled, How to Juggle Several Books in Progress, it’s really a piece about time management which offers several pieces of great advice.

Caine’s first one is to “Calendar Everything.” I often say the same thing. I have a writing calendar for each year with my goals and also keep a long-term one to plot which books and stories I want to concentrate on in the future. Of course, it’s just a guide to help me prioritize life. Sometimes life gets in the way. That’s fine. Rearrange it all and continue.

She also talks about math and knowing what wordcounts she needs to hit for her deadlines. If you read my blog, you’ve seen me say to set goals, and for a variety of reasons. When you break up your project into smaller pieces and work towards manageable goals, you’ll write more, faster, and achieve success. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Often, my number one piece of advice (which Caine did not touch on) is to protect your writing time. Find a time and place to make your writing a habit and make sure that your family knows it must be an emergency to interrupt you–think of it like a small, part-time job. Yes, you are the boss, but the work needs to get done or the company goes under. Protect the time from interruptions (both family and personal… turn off your phone and even the internet if that’s what it takes to crowd out life’s noise and write for 15-60 minutes.)

Caine encourages outlines, staying focused, and finding a balance to stay healthy and keep writing with all of the plates spinning in the air. I think that’s especially important for Indie authors as most of us still have careers and other family and life commitments to maintain. Whether you have one book in the works (at any stage) or five, learning to spin plates/juggle books/herd cats is a skill that we all ought to work to perfect in order to stay healthy and keep writing!

Review: Armor of Alethia

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Ralene Burke’s Armor of Alethia is a great example of faith-based high fantasy. Burke’s primary protagonist, Karina, is relatable in many ways and the storytelling and pacing are on point. As Karina begins to discover more and more about who she is, her fixation on the nearby mountain and her high calling/destiny become more focused.

One of the bright spots of Burke’s writing is the way she interweaves familiar, Christian tropes with those concepts that any fantasy reader is acquainted with. If I have a major complaint against “Christian fantasy” as a genre, it’s that the faith aspects are seldom melded seamlessly into the narrative; not so with Burke’s storytelling. It comes across smoothly and believably.

While I’m not terribly impressed with the cover, the tightness of her prose certainly kept me turning the pages and seeing how Karina embarks on her journey of her discovery and how the mystery of the high calling revealed to her by the Creator unfolds. I recommend this book  to any readers YA on up!

I received a free copy of the book in order to write a review for Inside the Inkwell blog… you can click here to check it out on Amazon!

 

State of Writing

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I do have several book reviews in my hopper and I hope to get to them in December, when I return, but I fully intend to take pause from my blog in November to concentrate on a nanowrimo project… it might be particularly challenging since I have every intention of first finishing my current scifi project (Spawn of Ganymede) and then launching directly into it!

If you’ve followed me at all (or especially if you know me personally), you know how prone I am to multitasking and spinning a few too many plates at any given time. I’m going to take a month-long hiatus from the blog all November long… so check back in December—hopefully I have awesome things to talk about with a new manuscript! (and there are still two more scheduled blog posts to come, in the meanwhile.)