Stephen Burckhardt's Blog: My Blog Ramblings, page 67

Monday Movie Madness!

Hello Posse,I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this lovely fall Monday! I am off to a typical Monday morning start. I forgot to reset my alarm for a weekday so I accidentally slept in. Then, I wrote this full blog then hit the wrong button and wiped it out. Next, I made a post for my Facebook page to vent about deleting my blog post and it disappeared instead of posting. The great thing about days like this, things can only improve after a start like this! Back to the regularly scheduled post: I have been spending a lot of time recently attending online seminars and watching tutorial on how to gain more visibility online. I have learned so much! Since I began implementing some of the tips and tricks I have learned, I have seen a sizeable leap in my social media following. Whether that will translate into increased sales has yet to be proven but it is a very good place to start. I owe a lot of gratitude to everyone who not only followed me but has stuck with me as I stumble my way through learning how to build a self-publishing career for myself. I have had a lot of missteps and face-plants along the way (and will have more I am sure) and I will forever be thankful that I have had you here to support me as I keep getting back up, dusting myself off, and trying again. One of the greatest takeaways from these recent courses has been learning how to create better, more engaging blogs. I am sure some of you are thinking, Thank God! It's okay, it's what I am thinking. So, without further ado, Monday's are now Movie Madness Monday's! Since my cliffhanger book serial is based on the old movie cliffhanger serials, I thought I would start sharing some of those with you. The first movie serial I want to share is my favorite, The Lone Ranger. *The Lone Ranger is a Republic Movie serial based on a radio program of the same name. This serial was the ninth serial produced by the studio; the fourth western. About a third of all of the serials produced by Republic were westerns. The Lone Ranger was released in 1938, almost 30 years before I was born. A year later, Republic released a sequel serial, The Lone Ranger Rides Again. In 1940, Republic condensed fifteen chapters of the serial into one film to create, Hi-Yo Silver. Below you can watch the full first chapter of The Lone Ranger serial. Disclaimer: I take no responsibility if you get hooked on them. Enjoy,Stephen*Reference: Wikipedia.com, The Lone Ranger Serial

Exciting News!

Hello Posse,If you haven't already heard, last night I got some great news. I got an email informing me that my first book, Into the West: The Orphan Train is a finalist in the 2019 TopShelf Indie Book Awards. This means so much to me for many reasons. First of all, this was the first book I tried to write for myself. It is very personal and has a lot of my own family stories woven into the fiction world I created. To have people appreciate that, just makes all my hard work and late nights even more worth it. Second, this is the first contest in which I have ever entered any of my writing. To have it become a finalist in my first contest attempt makes me feel extremely validated as a writer. I'm having flashbacks to Sally Field winning her Oscar.(Yes, I am that old and if you get that reference, so are you! If you don't get it, click here whippersnapper!) Lastly, winning anything for this book will hopefully bring more attention to my entire serial and might increase my overall visibility as a writer and, hopefully translate into sales. In this moment, I truly understand how people can say it is just an honor to be nominated. I hope like heck that I win at least one of the categories but just having my work recognized at all is a huge honor! Now, I just have to wait patiently until December to find out what my book won. Those who know me personally, know how well I do with being patient for anything. Here is hoping I can stay sane until then! Thanks for following my crazy world,Stephen

New Challenges

Hello Posse, Once again life messed up my best laid plans. It has been a month since my last blog. Unfortunately, my health issues had a lot to do with that. I have been having a horrible problem with vertigo this past month. I am seeing several doctors working to get this back under control so I can move on with my plans. For those of you who know me personally, you know I refuse to let anything, even my own health, deter me from doing what I want! Life is too short for that bull-pucky! I have been working on increasing my visibility for the books I currently have in print and I have seen an increased interest. I have been asked to do another interview next week and my following on my social media has gone up a bit. I will be writing free short stories to be given to anyone who joins my mailing list. This first one will be a Halloween short. It will be set in modern times. A ghost hunting crew is going to investigate a haunting which turns out to be one of the characters from the serial. In November, I will create another short taking place in Sharon Springs. Local Natives will come together with Doc and some of the town's folk to celebrate the harvest. A tradition we find out started in town after Doc did his best to save so many of their tribe when they contracted Small Pox.In December, I plan to write another short that will be Elizabeth and Conner's first Christmas on the plains. These three shorts will be sent out to each new person who joins my mailing list but will also be posted on the Member's Only page of my website for anyone to download for free. This way all current members will get them too. Remember, the Member's Only page is free to join and you can leave that at any time, no strings attached! Into the West: The Orphan TrainI am also planning another free eBook giveaway for part one to try to introduce more people to my serial. I will post the dates once I get all my promotional material ready. I would greatly appreciate if you would share this information with anyone who might like to read my book. The more downloads I can get, the higher my books will go in the algorithm and will make my books pop up higher in searches, and I can use all the help I can get. So keep watching the blogs and get the free stuff when it comes out! Thanks for following my crazy attempt as I build this writing career! Stephen

Hello Again . . .

Hello Posse,I'm sorry I have been away for so long. I will not bore you with the details but while P.R. and I were on vacation a situation came up has thrown our lives into a bit of a tail spin. We've spoken with the necessary people to help us sort it all out and we are in the process of getting things back in order but all the stress has taken a toll on my health. As you know, I have three neurological conditions which I manage very well under normal circumstances but all the recent stress has made my symptoms spike periodically. My doctor even had to send me to the hospital at one point. I'm doing well and am working with my doctor to take care of my health but it has been very disruptive to my schedule. I have had numerous doctors appointments and will have a few more but things are back on track. P.R. has a business trip coming up so I plan to use this alone time to get caught up on some work and get back to work on the audio book. With luck, I can get the first book recorded while P.R. is gone. I promise to do my best to get past this bump in the road and keep up with things here better. Thank you so much for everything.Stephen

Making Progress!

So, I think I know how I'm going to do this. I have been working on learning how to create audiobooks. Dianne has been working hard trying to perfect her Irish accent for voicing Margret. Though she says she will be happy if she can just not offend any Irish listeners with her attempt. I have a store available to me here on my website that I had not used up until now. It turns out it is set up so I can sell my audiobooks straight from here and even allow for customers to listen to samples of the tracks. It's amazing what you learn when you actually check out the information on your web hosting site. I also accidentally upgraded to an eCommerce plan which I didn't need but, seeing as I have it for two years now, I'm going to see what I can do with it. For now, I will just be able to take payments through paypal. I can set it up to take credit cards but I would have to pay a fee for that. I doubt I will make enough off of the audiobook sales at this point to make that worth the cost. Hopefully, in the future that will change but it is not financially feasible at this time. I still have to decide what music track to buy for this serial. I had put up a poll on Facebook but I only had a few votes. I really wanted to get a few more opinions before I buy one so I'm going to hit up my writers group this week and let them be the deciding factor. I won't be able to work on the audiobook too much this weekend because P.R. and I are going to go visit a friend for a few day. They live about a three hour drive from here. It will be my second time driving since we moved here about four and a half years ago. The first time was last weekend. P.R. and I renting a car and went driving around for a few hours just so I could get used to it again before heading off on a road trip. It wasn't too bad but the traffic here is quite a bit heavier than in Wichita, Kansas. There are also a lot more pedestrians and bikes on the road. I'm glad most of this trip will be on the highway! Just to keep you in the loop, you can check out a sample of the first practice recording for chapter one of Into the West: The Orphan Train on my new General Store page.This track will not be in the actual audiobook. It is just a practice track where we were trying out sound settings and studio setups. The final audiobook will be more polished and have consistent sound levels. We promise!Please give it a listen and let us know what you think. We love constructive feedback! Thanks for following me!Stephen

Audiobook Dilemmas

Hello Posse,So, I've been working on making an audiobook for Into the West: The Orphan Train. I think I'm getting the technical part figured out for recording the tracks so they meet all the specifications but I still have a few things to work out. One issue is I'm still going back and forth between should I record this in stereo or mono. I have seen examples for people using both. I like the sound of the background music in stereo better but that only plays at the beginning and the very end. It seems to me to need a lot less tweaking with mono. Beyond that issue, I'm also having trouble deciding how I want to make this available for sale. I have been researching different audiobook venders available to me and I have not been very thrilled with what I have found at this point. I plan to review it all again today to be sure I understand things correctly but right now it seems as if my options are quite limited.I am not able to use ACX, for reasons I won't go into here, which is the Amazon producer for audiobooks. I can use Author's Republic (AR) which can publish to Amazon for me but there is a catch. What they do is create an account for my book with ACX. The agreement with ACX is you can get up to 40% of the profits if you are exclusive with them for 7 years or you can get 25% if you are not exclusive. If I go with AR and they publish to Amazon (this includes Audible and iTunes in their package), they make this deal for me, sort of like an agent. AR would get the 40% or 25% profit from the Amazon package sales and I would get 70% of AR's 40% or 25%. I can't imagine that would be much of a profit. I can choose to have AR post my audiobook in several other places in the non-exclusive deal so I would, hopefully, have a wider market for sales but the major audiobook publishers would be the big three through Amazon. If I choose to have AR just sell through the Amazon package, it would have to be an exclusive deal with AR for seven years to qualify for the higher percentage rate. Meaning I would be tied to AR for seven years (and them to ACX) and not able to even sell my own audiobooks on my own site in that time. ORLast night, quite by accident, I found I can sell my audiobooks directly from my website. I would retain all the profits from those sales but I would have an extremely limited market. Though when you consider my main audience still tends to just be family and friends, I'm not really sure it matters all that much if I go through Amazon or not. I am going to research but right now I am considering selling in the expanded market eventually but will most likely just start with the sales directly from my website and expand from there sometime later in the year. I hope I to get some good reviews posted on my own site for the audiobooks that I could later use to market the audiobook on the expanded retail sites.It is all a work in progress. Just wanted to let you know, I am working on it. I know some people have been asking for audiobooks since the first book came out in 2015. I looks like it's finally going to happen, one way or another. I just have to get it all pulled together.Thanks for riding with me on this adventure!Stephen

I Need Your Help!

I have decided to take a month and see what I can do about getting and audiobook put together. Please note, the cover art you see here is not the official cover for the audiobook, it's just a placeholder at the moment. I want to see if I can produce the audiobook myself with Dianne narrating. I have been looking into it today and I think it's doable. Dianne has experience in broadcast news and a bit of acting so I think she can do the performance, I just need to be able to do the post production. I have been going through different websites to find music for the audiobook edition of Into the West: The Orphan Train. P.R. and I have found a few music tracks we like on Envanto Market's Audio Jungle. I would like your opinions on the ones we like. If you have Into the West: The Orphan Train, you know it is not a straight western but more of a historical fiction in era of the Wild West. As the serial progresses, it will get closer to more of a traditional western as the characters get settled in the Kansas territory. These things are important to express the feeling of the storyline. We wanted something that had a repetitive train "chugging" sound to the music, at least in the background. I like the ones we have found. I will post samples on my Facebook page. For some reason I cannot get them to load here. Please give the samples a listen and vote on which one you think we should purchase. Hear samples and vote hereIf you need music for your own projects, please check out the Audio Jungle site. They have a wonderful collection of music. Thanks for following me crazy journey. It is always better when you travel with life's trails with good friends!Stephen

I'm A Lucky Person!

This weekend was going to be all about starting writing Into the West: Most Wanted, or at least the first chapter. I have it plotted in my head and now I just have to get it on the page. However, Murphy struck again! A storm front rolled into our area and the barometric pressure dropped. Every time this happens I end up in severe, blinding pain. I spent three days in bed and am just now starting to feel human again. I'm sure at least some of you are thinking, "That doesn't sound very lucky to me."The lucky part is being married to P.R. I was able to stay in bed and do what I needed to deal with the pain. For me, that means sleeping with my head on a heating pad with a cold towel or ice pack on my forehead. It helps but doesn't get rid of the pain. The pressure was so bad this time that it affected my eyesight. That is not unusual.I had extremely blurry vision and had to put one pair of reading glasses on top of another or use my reading glasses and a magnifying glass to read anything. Whenever this happens I always have a little bit of fear that it will not clear up. That is a possibility but as the pressure is letting up now my sight is clearing up a bit. I'm back to just one pair of glasses. Thank goodness because I looked seriously goofy with two on.Why do I share this personal information with you? It's not to garner sympathy or to give excuses for why it can takes me so long to get things done on my blogs and books (well . . . okay, maybe a little for that) but mostly it is to share what I work to overcome on a daily basis to produce my work. There may be someone out there who was like me. Someone who's doctor is telling them that they will never be able to accomplish their dreams because of where they are right now. Don't listen to them!I had many doctors tell me that. I have had six brain surgeries, I am brain damaged. I have three debilitating neurological conditions that all come with their own set of issues I have to overcome every day. I found a way to go after my dreams in spite of all of that and I am no one special so I know you can too. You may not be able to go about it the way you had planned. You may not be able to do things the way everyone else on the planet does them but you can find your own path. Blaze your own trail and make your mark in this world. I am still not making a profit from my books. Honestly, I am so far in the red at this point I would need Ellen to feature my book on her show just to break even. I cannot get people to post reviews to save my life. I am just now up to 61 subscribers to my website, 228 followers on , and surprisingly 595 followers on (not sure how that happened but I'm thrilled) and I have been working at this since 2015. But am I discouraged? Yes . . . To be honest, I am discouraged a tiny bit but for the most part I'm happy. I don't have many reviews but the ones I have are great. They are all five stars except for one guy who rated one of my books just three stars because it was "too short, and cliffhanger." I found that review amusing considering I market my books as a cliffhanger western novella serial. A novella being defined as a short book between 30,000 to 60,000 words. This is a good reminder for everyone to read the book details before purchasing a book to prevent this kind of thing.Beyond the great reviews, I love what I'm doing. I love writing. I love designing the website and promotional material. I love creating something that moves people emotionally. I have lost count of how many times readers have told me I made them cry because they got so investing reading about the characters. There is nothing better than that! Okay, maybe all of that with a profit margin would be a little better but no matter what, it's worth it. It is worth every sleepless night. It is worth all the historical research. It is worth all the hours fixing my website and creating blogs. It's worth all the notes I have to keep so I can remember the names of may main characters I feature in every book and how to spell them correctly. It's worth every effort I have to make to keep doing this, to keep writing. I am doing what I always wanted to do with my life. How many people can truly say that? Thanks for sticking with me folks! It is much appreciated! Stephen

Introduction Video is Finished!

Hello Posse,I hope you are having a great weekend. I've been busy here learning all kinds of things about creating videos for social media. I learned a lot of new skills including how to put action cards in my videos. If you get a chance, check out the video in this email or on the main page of my website and let me know what you think. I could use some constructive feedback. Please note: if you use Google Chrome, you will have to turn your sound on when the video starts. The lovely people at Google have decided that they will prohibit sound from playing on any autoplay videos. While I understand their reasoning behind this, I still find it incredibly annoying. I haven't done much writing since we got home from vacation. My hand hurts quite a bit from the accident but I'm doing some physical therapy on it out now so hopefully it will work better in the coming days. On another topic, I am current dealing with a dilemma. I do not know if I should just write the first chapter of the next book, Into the West: Most Wanted, to get it up online for those who found the hidden page for the free chapter, then take a break from writing and work on audiobooks. The other option is go full steam ahead on the next book and put off the audiobooks until I get part four finished. I'm torn. On one hand, ideas for Into the West: Most Wanted are starting to come together in my head but on the other hand I have put off the audiobooks for so long I feel like I need to do those next. If you have an opinion I would welcome hearing it. I feel like I might be able to reach a wider market if I can get some audiobooks out and Lord knows I need to do that!It's insanely hot here the last few days. I'm off to go get some ice water and sit in front of a fan for a moment. I hope things are wonderful where you are!As always, Thanks for following me!Stephen

Just A Quickie . . .

I have added a new opening video for the book serial to my sight. Let me know what you think of it. I'm doing my best to get back into the swing of working again but my hand injury is creating a lot more trouble typing than I expected. I am soldering on though and hope to do some writing this weekend. Keep Watching for a sneak peek if I can get anything significant written this weekend. Take Care,Stephen