David Neth's Blog, page 5

GLOW Corporate Cup 2016

This year DN Publishing was at the GLOW Corporate Cup in Batavia, NY. Our team wore our DN Publishing T-shirts, which didn’t do anything to help us in the August heat! Fun day! Thanks to everyone who was a part of the team!

Come see me in Brockport, NY!

I’m doing my first book signing this weekend at Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, NY!

The event is called “Authors Under the Awning,” so two authors will be seated under the awning in front of the store for book signing and such. It should be a fun time. Downtown Brockport is a really cool place, right on the Erie Canal, so even if the event doesn’t result in any sales, I’ll have a nice backdrop.

If you’re in the area, come on out and say hello! I’m hoping to start doing more of these events in the future, so stay tuned!

As always, likes and shares are appreciated on Facebook. Thanks!

The Harvest Moon is now available!

 

 

 

 

 

The Harvest Moon is here! Pick up your copy today! Ebooks are available on Amazon, iBooks, and Kobo, with more retailers to be added soon. All my books will soon be available on all ebook retailers, so look for that.

A legacy of magic and danger.

All Danielle Bowen wants is a normal life: white picket fence, kids in the nursery, and peace and quiet with her husband Simon. But she can’t escape the fate her family has wrought for her. Born into a tradition of witchcraft, she has also inherited a deadly enemy: Toxanna, a dark witch who will stop at nothing to destroy the last of the Bowen line.

But will Danielle’s powers be enough to save her family—or even herself? And when Toxanna sets her sights on Holly, Danielle’s only daughter, will anyone have the strength to rescue the newly fledged witch? The darkness is closing around the last of the Bowens. In a world of wizards and powerful demons, how can one family of witches survive?

In the Under the Moon Series, The Harvest Moon is actually second after The Full Moon and is available in both a standard and a special deluxe edition!

Behind the Book: The Harvest Moon

Like The Blood Moon, the idea for The Harvest Moon came to me when I was 15 years old. In fact, I actually started writing an early draft of The Harvest Moon (then called The Magical Inheritence and completely unrelated to the current Under the Moon Series) before I started work on the early draft of The Blood Moon (then called The Lewis Brothers). I remember the day I started writing The Magical Inheritence clearly because it was my 15th birthday. Yesterday was my 25th birthday and tomorrow The Harvest Moon will be released. It only took ten years, but this book is finally coming full circle.

The story for The Magical Inheritence wasn’t really a story at all. It was more of a situation: a girl is a teenager and has magic. Okay, so Toxanna was still present, and Holly (who originally had her mother’s name, Danielle) had still lost her mother due to magic, but I was seriously lacking a plot. That was surprising because I had actually outlined this book, whereas at this point in my writing career, I was typically a pantser.

About 80 pages in to the manuscript, I gave up on it. Without really knowing where to go, it was inevitable. What really occupied my time was that I began working on another story (I also thought that I could be one of those writers that works on several things at once—I can’t).

That story was The Lewis Brothers. Not only was it more exciting for me, but I could relate to the characters better because they were teenage boys. But I was 15. Writing often got hard (writing is still hard, but I can generally figure out whatever problem I’m facing in a reasonable time). The Magical Inheritence was an attractive distraction…so I merged them. Holly Bowen suddenly showed up at the brothers’ house and asked for help at their weakest moment.

That move could have been executed much better, but it spiced up my story by introducing new problems to focus on when there were lulls in the main plot and gave Chris a romantic interest.

Ultimately, Holly’s story was resolved in The Blood Moon along with Josh and Chris’s, but once I finished The Blood Moon (at 23) I realized there was a big part of the story left untold: Kathy’s relationship with Will and Holly’s discovery that she’s a witch and her introduction to her family’s nemesis.

I diverted my attention to writing Kathy and Will’s story. Partly because I was older and wanted to get out of the YA realm for a bit and partly because I had a more distinct vision of what their story was. Their story became The Full Moon.

Throughout the process of that book, I knew I was going to jump into The Harvest Moon next. I just didn’t know exactly what the story was yet.

One thought lingered from my work on The Blood Moon: what if the Bowen family and the Harper family had previously been connected somehow? Not only that, but how did Toxanna’s crusade on the Bowen family begin?

These were questions I needed to answer in The Harvest Moon. I suddenly had my story. But it still wasn’t Holly’s story. That needed to be fleshed out more. So I went on outlining the early part of the Bowen’s story, focusing primarily on Holly’s mother, Danielle. As I crafted her journey, Holly’s naturally came to me.

I knew how I wanted the book to end: Holly needed to run to Erie. Not only that, but in The Blood Moon Holly had knowledge of several magical things, yet she only discovers she’s a witch a month or two before the events of The Blood Moon. There’s something else that needed to happen.

Somehow, it all worked. Funny thing, too, because I hated writing The Harvest Moon. I thought it was trash and I had lost my touch and I couldn’t imagine following up a great book like The Full Moon with this amateur crap I was writing.

As with all my books, by the second draft my mind began to change. Once I got the book back from my copyeditor and she said, “I think this is the best thing you’ve written,” my mind really changed.

Another thing that I wanted to try with The Harvest Moon was release two different versions of it: standard and deluxe. The standard is strictly the novel. The deluxe features an exclusive short story, Bound, which chronicles a portion of Drew’s story.  His character is one of my favorites but was probably the least developed until The Harvest Moon and Bound.

In the end, I’m very proud of this new book in the Under the Moon Series and where I’ve come as a writer since the idea first came to me. I hope you all enjoy it and pick up a copy tomorrow when it comes out.

A legacy of magic and danger.

All Danielle Bowen wants is a normal life: white picket fence, kids in the nursery, and peace and quiet with her husband Simon. But she can’t escape the fate her family has wrought for her. Born into a tradition of witchcraft, she has also inherited a deadly enemy: Toxanna, a dark witch who will stop at nothing to destroy the last of the Bowen line.

But will Danielle’s powers be enough to save her family—or even herself? And when Toxanna sets her sights on Holly, Danielle’s only daughter, will anyone have the strength to rescue the newly fledged witch? The darkness is closing around the last of the Bowens. In a world of wizards and powerful demons, how can one family of witches survive?

Bound

(Exclusive to the Deluxe Edition of The Harvest Moon)

Orphaned by the shocking murder of both his parents, thirteen-year-old Drew must conceal his magical powers as he navigates the foster care system. But it might be easier for a young wizard to control his cracking voice than his magic. When one of Drew’s spells attracts the attention of a local coven called the Fire Wizards, Drew sees his chance to solve the mystery of who killed his parents with the coven’s help.

There’s just one catch: once you enter the coven, you’re bound for life. And the more involved Drew becomes with the Fire Wizards, the faster his façade of safety crumbles. Can he find justice for his parents without binding himself to a world of magical peril?

Book Review: Gotta Read It!

Writing the back cover description of my books has always been a pain in the butt. Before I started publishing, I didn’t even know where to begin with the back cover descriptions. Then, like a sign from God, Libbie Hawker put together a video explaining the key fundamentals and breaking down book descriptions to easier chunks. Using that video, I wrote the book description for The Blood Moon.

The video was great, but the problem with videos is they’re hard to learn from. Sure, you can go back and listen again, but if you really misunderstand something, you’re going to be watching the same video over and over and over again. That’s why I’m glad Libbie put out Gotta Read It! – Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells.

This book further broke down just what I needed to do to put together a compelling product description. Not only that, but Libbie broke down the psyche of readers as the browse for books and why certain words or phrases are glossed over. I used this book to write the product description for The Full Moon and many other of my books.

What I Found Most Helpful: The breakdown of steps. What stopped me from writing a compelling product description wasn’t my inability to do so, but my confusion of where to begin. With this book, Libbie held my hand through the way.

Scheduling My Projects

I wrote this post a while ago on KBoards and as I was putting together The Independent Author: My First Year, I thought this might make a good blog post. I’ve borrowed from my KBoards posts before, so here I am doing it again! Below, I lay out how I decide what project to work on next and why I work on books in the order I do. 

I don’t have a ton of titles out, but I usually write a year out, so I’ve got some titles basically in the bag that are just waiting for release. What I do, for the most part, to stay organized is pick a release date and work backwards. I’ll use my current WIP as an example:

I’m writing for 2017 now. In fact, the book I’m editing will be released at the beginning of May 2017. Previously, I was happy if I had the first draft of a manuscript done the year before its release date. Now I have more time and I’m about a quarter into the second draft of next year’s book.

Based off my releases for the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017, I know I’ll have a two month preorder period between releases. That means I need to have an absolutely completed book by the beginning of March 2017 (I don’t like to push the ten-day window Amazon gives you, so when I upload a book for preorder, it’s done).

My editor usually takes about two weeks with each novel and it takes me maybe a month to apply her edits and any other finalizing the book needs. But I also need to leave time for me to format the print book (I like to do simultaneous ebook and print releases), which takes me a couple days at most. Once I know the number of pages for the print book, I can notify the cover designers to get the cover. That usually takes a week, sometimes two.

The cover is usually the last thing I do. So if I’m putting my current WIP up at the beginning of March, I’ll start formatting in early-to-mid February and contact my cover designer by mid-February. That means I need to be done editing by the beginning of February, so I would need to have an edited manuscript back to me by the end of December. Factoring in the holidays and the time it takes her to edit, I’ll want to get my book to my editor by the beginning of December. But she also books five months out, so I actually need to contact her by June or July to get in for December. By then, I should be done with my third draft and have a final word count for her so she can give me a quote.

So even though the book won’t be released for another year, I’m planning the steps now so when it gets closer to preorder date, everything will already be in place.

For a series, I like to keep it consistent so I use the same people. But I’ve experimented with other editors and cover designers. Basically, I’m happy with the cover designers and editor for my main series so I will likely stick with them. My cover designers offer me a fantastic rate and they’re very easy to work with. And at this point, my editor knows me and my writing style, so when I send her my next series, she’ll just use the same style guide that she used for my current series. She might not be the most cost-effective, but I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.

Book Review: Morning Star

Since the complete series had been published, I figured I’d read Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Trilogy straight through. I don’t know if I was losing steam toward the end or the story slipped, but Morning Star is likely my least favorite of the books. Let me explain…

Red Rising had a very clear structure. Brown established the world, set the stage for the revolution, and plopped Darrow in the Academy that put him in contact with the characters for the rest of the series and trained him for the intense combat he would be participating in the rest of the series. He won at the Academy and got to choose who his mentor was and the stage was set for him to begin the revolution.

A complete story in itself while still leading readers into the next part of the trilogy.

Golden Son was different. I was always waiting for some sort of structure to loosely define a proper beginning and ending point would be for the book like the Academy was for Red Rising. That never came. The story seemed to be a mis-match of events that were constantly back and forth with enemies and allies that I was confused throughout who was who and what team they were fighting for.

Still, the book had its share of secrets to reveal that were entertaining to read.

With Morning Star, things were different. The chaos of Golden Son continued and it was hard to follow. Sometimes I was asking myself why Darrow and his friends were doing what they were doing (or rather, why people were betraying him or suddenly following him blindly). Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like Brown gave Darrow an easy path. There were struggles. But some of the other “stunts” seemed unlikely.

To me, a trilogy should have an overall arc for the whole series with each book having its own beginning, middle, and end. Depending on the series, the final book can be solely dedicated to closing up the loose ends of the series. It’s the finale, after all.

That wasn’t the case with Red Rising. The first book started out that way but the final two seemed to be all over the place.

Maybe this is just a case of this not being my genre, but I really did enjoy the story. It just confused me more often than it should. Not only that, throughout the series nothing was really pushing me to the next chapter. I never had to force myself to put down the book to do other things. If I wasn’t able to read for one day, I didn’t care.

I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads. Overall, I’d give the whole series anywhere from 3.5-4 stars. The story is there and very rich, but the delivery of the story could use work. Again, I can’t wait to see the movies because these books are a lot more vivid than can really be portrayed in a book.

Preorder Blaze now!

The Under the Moon Series continues with Blaze, a short story that will be released October 1st. This is the first in a series of four that will be released this fall and into the early part of next year.

These four short stories lead into The Blue Moon, which will be the final book in the Under the Moon Series, due out next spring. Blaze is only $0.99 and will be available at all retailers.

Ten years after he and his family triumphed over Will Brown, Chris Harper’s life is broken. Divorced and exiled by his own accord, he spends his time hunting down the sorcerer who murdered his baby girl. 

Pursued by a group that sees potential in his abilities, Chris is being hunted himself. After an attack that leaves him unable to recover on his own, he is forced to ask for help. But with the safety of his family on his mind, Chris may need to consider the group’s proposal if he’s ever going to find his daughter’s killer.

Amazon | iBooks | Kobo

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and to preorder your copy of The Harvest Moon (available August 6th).

Publishing Frequency

One of the most frustrating things to hear from successful indie authors is to get the next book out as soon as possible. For people with day jobs, or for people who simply don’t produce books fast, this is such a challenge.

Before I started publishing, I thought I could put out four titles a year and be good. I knew it’d take me a while to build my catalog at that rate, but I thought it’d be worth it.

Now that I’m in the game, I realize that that’s not the case. Now I’m the one thinking that I should get the next book out quickly.

The best thing to do to reinvigorate your sales is put out a new book. Even with my small catalog, I see this firsthand. Especially when you release in a series.

Let’s take a look at my previous publishing schedule:

August 2015 – The Blood Moon (Under the Moon Series) [Novel]

November 2015 – Snow After Christmas [Short Story]

February 2016 – The Full Moon (Under the Moon Series) [Novel]

May 2016 – Limelight [Short Story]

August 2016 – The Harvest Moon (Under the Moon Series) [Novel]

That means it’ll take me a YEAR to get a complete three books in a series out. Three seems to be the magic number. Once you have three books, you have a trilogy, whether you plan to write new books or not. Readers will notice and will likely start to pick up your series because they know you’re invested in it. They can trust that you won’t leave them hanging.

But a year is too long.

I’m used to the traditional publishing world where a year is normal. But traditional publishers are major companies that put out many books a month. They don’t have to rely on one series to make a profit. Collectively, they’re making money from all the books they put out.

Indie authors, specifically new indie authors, aren’t like that. The one series is everything.

So this is what I’m proposing. Starting with The Harvest Moon, I’m going to release a new title every month until January. With the exception of September’s release, they’re all going to be in my series. Take a look:

August 2016 – The Harvest Moon (Under the Moon Series) [Novel]

September 2016 – The Independent Author [Non-fiction]

October 2016 – Blaze (Under the Moon Series) [Short Story]

November 2016 – Timeout (Under the Moon Series) [Short Story]

December 2016 – Blown Away (Under the Moon Series) [Short Story]

January 2017 – Deception (Under the Moon Series) [Short Story]

The short stories in the Under the Moon Series are not only strategic for marketing purposes, but they’re necessary for the story. I’ll give the shorts a month to perform on their own, but in March 2017, I’ll release the bundle of all four stories (The Crescent Moon to keep up the title structure) and then two months after that in May 2017, I’ll release the final novel in the Under the Moon Series.

Between August and May, readers will be getting a lot of content really quickly. Hopefully this will help generate sales for all of the books in the series and gain me some new readers as each of the books chart. Since I’ll be launching in Select, I’ll have KU borrows and Free days to play with.

Depending on how this works out, I may modify the schedule for my follow-up series to accommodate the release frequency. Wish me luck!

Science Fiction and Fantasy July 2016 Promo

While The Full Moon is still only $0.99, there are over 100 other science fiction and fantasy books that are also only $0.99!

Take a look at the selection below or follow the link in the image above to take advantage of this great deal! This is by no means a complete list. These books are simply the ones available only on Amazon. Many of these books are available across all retailers.

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and to preorder your copy of The Harvest Moon (available August 6th).

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Dystopian, Dark Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, and Horror

Religious and Inspirational Science Fiction and Fantasy

Humorous

Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance

YA, Young, and Young-at-Heart Readers

Box Sets and Collections