Andrew Gates's Blog, page 13

Cassidy Finally Selling Fairly Regularly

Merry Christmas Eve! I wish everyone a terrific holiday.

In recent news, Cassidy has finally begun to sell fairly regularly. While it’s still outdone by both Iris and Kholvaria, the fact that I’ve managed to move a few copies in the past week is progress. As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I think Cassidy is the hardest to sell simply because readers are possibly confused about what it is and where it fits in the timeline.

Adding to it’s difficulty in selling is the fact that Cassidy‘s Amazon reviews are entirely unhelpful. Despite all being five-star reviews, the write-ups give no details on what the book is. For reasons beyond my explanation, the reviews on this particular book are completely non-descriptive. One review only talks about the quality of the book’s delivery. Others are hardly sentences at all. You can see one example in the photo below:

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But alas, the book is starting to sell. I attribute these additional sales entirely to the release of the Pew! Pew! Bad Versus Worse short-story collection. Though no longer #1 on any Amazon charts, the collection continues to do very well. Last I had checked, the collection was #7 in Amazon’s parodies section.

In related news, there’s a Thunderclap campaign out for the collection. For those of you unfamiliar with the website Thunderclap, it works like Headtalker. For everyone who clicks “support” on the page, it’ll send out an ad over social media. If you want to help out in an easy way that only takes three seconds of your time, CLICK THIS LINK HERE and click “support”. You can choose any form of social media you want. Any support his helpful!

That’s all for now. This week is nice and brief. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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“Pew! Pew!” Now Out and Selling!

If you took a look at the “parodies” section of Amazon.com’s Ebook library yesterday, you would have seen the #1 selling parody: Pew! Pew! – Bad Versus Worse right above Go the Fuck to Sleep, Space Team and You Can’t Spell America Without Me. That’s right: my story was featured in Amazon’s #1 best-selling parody book.

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As I write this update, Pew! Pew! is currently ranked at #2, which is still no small feet, right behind Go the Fuck to Sleep.

I think what makes this book so appealing is that there’s something for everyone in it. If you’re a fan of heavy technology-driven thought-provoking futurism writing, you’ll get intelligent pieces like that here. On the opposite end of the coin, if you want something dumb and idiotic, you get that here too (in the form of my story). And there’s everything in between.

It also helps that nine different authors are pushing this book at the same time, allowing us to advertise to our own individual markets, which certainly overlap, but at the same time are always going to be slightly different.

With the success of Pew! Pew!‘s release, I have witnessed a boost in my own book sales (something I hoped and anticipated for). Sales of Iris and Kholvaria have both picked up, though Cassidy still remains difficult to sell (it doesn’t quite have the appeal I’d hoped for).

I also think, with the release of a new Star Wars film, science-fiction is popular right now.

Jump on the train before it’s too late. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to check out Pew! Pew! – Bad Versus Worse, available now in E-book and available soon in paperback. The E-book is currently on SALE for the low price of just $0.99! Act now before this deal ends.

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Update on “Pew! Pew!” Collection

Hello, folks! I hope everyone is staying warm. The weather is beginning its descent into frigidity, which can only mean December has come!

For those of you who follow this blog, you may recall my announcement of Pew! Pew! – Bad Versus Worse, a short story collection featuring nine different authors. The collection, as you can determine from the title, contains comedy stories in the science-fiction genre.

My story, Totalus, is featured in the collection, which is available for pre-order NOW and will be released in a mere seven days. To order your copy, click HERE.

People have already been pre-ordering the collection. Help make the release huge by getting your copy too!

On a similar note, I am pleased to announce that I will try to have another short story featured in the next edition of Pew! Pew!, which will be released around January or February.

I am working on a story now titled Valentine’s Day 1979: An Intergalactic Adventure. I figured it was timely, seeing as the collection will be released around Valentine’s Day. The story is about a man in the 70’s who must marry an alien named Princess Mayra in order to prevent an intergalactic war. It’s full of 70’s references and slang and it will be my first released story written in the first-person (something I typically do not enjoy).

Valentine’s Day 1979: An Intergalactic Adventure has been a blast to write. In only four days, I’m over 8,000 words into it with no sign of slowing down soon. At this rate, I’ll have the story done in no time!

Currently my other projects are all on hold. I’m doing a bit of editing on a secret project, but not much else (hence the reason I can spend so much time on Valentine’s Day 1979).

That’s all for now! I hope your Christmas shopping is going well.

 

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A Strong Sales Day

Yesterday was a strong sales day, specifically for Iris, the first book in the Color of Water and Sky series. I was constantly checking sales data throughout the day, eagerly waiting to see what it would say next. On November 28th, I had more than triple the downloads of Iris than the rest of the month combined. Wow!

So how did I get there?

The answer comes down to finding the right audience to send an email blast. It’s no secret for writers that one of our greatest forms of advertising comes through email lists. If you can get the message out to your audience via email, the downloads will come. Every author has their own list, but sending “buy me” messages to the same list over and over gets stale, so its important to find other email lists to get on in order to reach new readers.

I often use a website called Bookboost.com to get exposure with different audiences. It’s a site that allows authors to promote their books on other people’s email lists. For example I might push your book on my email list if you push mine on yours. The website is fine, but it honestly doesn’t seem to move the needle enough. Results are minimal.

As a new author, it is still hard for me to find the right connections with other authors in my genre, though I’ve certainly made a lot of progress in a short time. On Black Friday this year, author Drew Cordell was kind enough to reach out to me and offered to promote my book in his email blast. Sneakily giving away the free preview collection on Black Friday may have made some people think that an always-free book was only free for a limited day. That sense of “getting a deal” spurred a tremendous amount of downloads for the free preview collection!

It’s no surprise that downloads of the free preview collection lead directly to downloads of Iris and other books in the series. After all, that was the whole point. And sure enough, a couple of days later, Iris suddenly becomes a hot seller!

I’m glad to see that the potential is out there for tricks like this to work. If only I had more time to really hone this practice, then things would really be looking up. But I’m learning the techniques every day and getting better.

For my next trick, I need to find a way to replicate this process all over again. Stay tuned.

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Two More Book Promotions!

Lots of promos going on lately, but there are just so many great books to talk about!

Today I’d like to share two great books with you, both available for low, low prices.

First up is Dan Petrosini’s The Final Enemy.

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In the face of a death-defying power, what’s the “new normal”?



Like all reporters, Jack longs for a breaking story but is stuck writing obituaries for a small-town rag. As his frustration mounts, it hits him that no one has died in over three days. Jack’s odd observation becomes something far stranger when he connects a meteorite to the bizarre phenomenon.

Seizing the opportunity, Jack breaks the story and after a struggle to control the meteorite’s power is resolved, a swelling population begins to create havoc. With the survival of the human race hanging in the balance, politicians enact increasingly horrific measures and desperate citizens take matters into their own hands.

Jack’s in a position to not just report the news, but change it, and his decisions and observations creates an epic thriller that pits the potential of human immortality against a force designed to change – or obliterate – humanity itself.

The Final Enemy is currently on sale for the low price of just $0.99! Click HERE to purchase your copy today! And click HERE to sign up for Dan’s newsletter.

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Next up we have Alex Nast’s The Body Hunters, which he is giving away for FREE. That’s right: absolutely FREE!

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You can pick up your free copy today by following this link: https://www.bookboast.com/swap-claim/f2ce77b03c

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Announcing “Totalus”

For those of you who follow my blog, you may recall me mentioning a long time back that I was working on a story for a collection of science-fiction shorts.

If you don’t recall that, don’t worry. It was a long time ago (click here if you want to see for yourself).

In any case, you may notice that a new item has popped up on my author page, something called Pew! Pew! – Bad Versus Worse. It is a new book up for pre-order, but will be released December 14th. The collection features some great writers that I have worked with already including S.E Anderson and M.D Cooper.

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Limited release collections have been a great success for me in the past. If you recall, I had tremendous success with the release of Broken Tomorrow. These types of collections are a great way for authors like me to reach new readers who would otherwise never find my books. And the extra money isn’t so bad either.

My story is tentatively titled Totalus, though that name could potentially change. The summary is as follows:

The powerful Totalus Empire, led by the sinister Emperor Totalus, has constructed its secret weapon: The World Ender Base, the largest, most advanced battle station in the universe. Crewed by a staff of thousands, the station strikes fear in the hearts of the brave Resistance.

But with a crew so large, it is easy to forget about the little-guys: the soldier who waits in position for hours just to salute the Emperor as he emerges from his shuttle, the pilot who gets left behind because her fighter didn’t have gas, or the bartender who sees it all, because you know there must be a bar in a place like this.

Told over a series of five vignettes, meet the ordinary people who make the universe’s deadliest battle station what it is.

The story is intended as a spoof on Star Wars. There are some pretty obvious references in it to the movies. I think people will really enjoy it.

To pre-order your copy of Pew! Pew! – Bad versus Worse, click HERE.

 

Maximizing Your Time: How to Write During Commutes

Time is valuable. The more time we have, the more productive we can be. It’s simple math.

Humans waste a lot of time. And in many cases, it’s not time we can cut. Take sleep for example. While we can certainly limit our amount of sleep, this is something we cannot cut from our lives altogether. We need to sleep. There is no way around that.

But the more time we spend time on things like sleeping or showering, the less time we have to be productive. There are only so many hours in the day after all, and you’re taking time from that finite limit. Again, simple math.

But there are still ways to be productive during many of our traditional “time-wasting” periods. Take, for example, commuting. As someone who commutes between 45 to 90 minutes for work (depending on the time of day), I can find myself in traffic for anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours a day. Multiply that by five or six days each week, you’re looking at a best case scenario of 7.5 hours wasted weekly. That’s basically a full workday, and that’s a best case scenario.

For those of you who follow this blog regularly, you probably recall my experiment when working on the book, Cassidy. For those of you unfamiliar, the experiment was to write an entire book exclusively during commutes. In the end, it was a big success! Cassidy has since grown to be one of my best reviewed books on Amazon.

When writing Cassidy, I was taking public transportation and was therefore able to sit down and write on my mobile tablet. Now I have a new job which takes me far out of the city and public transportation is no longer an option for me. Therefore, I have to drive. Like many of you who may drive to work each day, I initially thought this was just another unavoidable “time-wasting” period, as unavoidable as sleeping or showering. After all, how could I possibly write while operating a vehicle?

But I was wrong.

Enter Dragon Software, a popular voice-to-speech converter. After a quick installation, I began using Dragon during my commutes. It’s as easy as saying the words aloud and vocalizing the punctuation (literally saying things like “period” and “exclamation point”). It’s entirely hands free, which me this software enables me to write as I drive.

Since late October, I’ve begun using this software for yet another new project, something I’m tentatively calling Prescott. Like Cassidy, I plan to write 100% of this book while commuting to and from work. In the time since I’ve started, I’ve noticed a few interesting things in my writing as a result of using speech-to-text software.

First: The structure and pacing of your writing will change

When writing on a laptop, it is easy to go back and change a line or re-order your paragraphs on a whim. Sometimes coming up with sentences takes time. Phrasing can be complicated or uniquely structured. But when speaking, it’s a whole different ballgame. When speaking, everything becomes much simpler. Complex sentences like “He gazed at the vista above his head, enamored by its pristine color, decorated by puffs of white like cotton candy” become “He looked at the sky. It was blue. He saw a few clouds here and there.” The flow also becomes much faster. Events that would take pages to get through suddenly pass by in paragraphs, making for a quick read, but a significantly less fleshed-out world.

Two: Grammar and spelling will never be right

Speech-to-text software like Dragon is pretty impressive, but it’s not perfect. No matter how well you enunciate, there will always be screw-ups. In fact, there will be lots of them.

I can’t tell you how many times “sighed” has been written as “side”, “nodded” has been written as “knotted” and “win” has been written as “when”. But as long as you’re aware that these issues are taking place, you can catch a majority of them with a quick skim of the document. At this point, I’ve become so accustomed to these common errors, that I can spot them almost instantly. It’s something that comes with time and practice.

So sure, there is still a component of writing that involves sitting behind a computer screen and typing, though what would have once been hours of typing is now reduced to a few minutes of quick editing. In the grand scheme of things, you’re still saving a tremendous amount of time.

Prescott is currently 15,544 words long and around 50% finished. As my first attempt writing a story using this software, by no means am I expecting to produce a full-length novel. My ultimate plan for this story is to include it in a short-story collection, perhaps an omnibus of stories set in the world of The Color of Water and Sky series. But whatever I choose to do, I can say this experiment has definitely been worthwhile.

I encourage any writer who feels like there is not enough time in the day to try speech-to-text software. Give it a shot. You may like it. You may not. And if you find that writing this way is not for you, you can always use it to jot down quick spontaneous notes on the go. There’s certainly benefit to that.

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Cassidy is Selling!

It’s an exciting time. There are now three books out in the Color of Water and Sky series and all three of them are making money!

As I’ve determined from my release of Kholvaria, I’ve discovered that the best way to sell books is to have more books out. One book sale leads to another book sale, which leads to another and another. This seems to still be the case, as the release of Cassidy has only spurred another uptick in sales.

What is interesting to consider now is that the order in which people purchase my books is now unknown. It used to be clear: first the customer buys Iris, then they buy Kholvaria. But with Cassidy‘s plot fitting in parallel to the timeline of both of those books, the sequence is now more of a mystery. Perhaps Iris sells first, then Cassidy, then Kholvaria. Or perhaps Cassidy sells first, then Iris, then Kholvaria. Or maybe Iris sells first, then Kholvaria, then Cassidy. Any of these sequences are now a possibility. The only thing I know for certain is that Kholvaria is not selling first, as the reader needs to have at least read Iris first before diving into that one.

What this tells me is the reader now has more than one entry point into the series. Instead of starting with Iris as the first purchase, they could easily enter the series with Cassidy. This means I now have two books to market and promote, rather than just one. I suddenly have a lot more flexibility with what I can do when it comes to advertising and there are so many new things I can try with two different products to push.

Aiding in the success of my series is my free preview collection, which remains available to read for FREE on Smashwords.com (link HERE). It’s had a whopping FIFTEEN downloads in two days, a record since I first released the preview collection back in May. I attribute that success to a free promo I ran using Bookboost.com, a website that gets authors in touch with the audiences of other authors.

The only thing holding me back right now is the lack of reviews. Unfortunately Cassidy currently has zero reviews on Amazon. It is a well-understood rule that you’re not supposed to release a book without any reviews, but I guess I jumped the gun with this release. My lack of reviews is no doubt hurting my sales, but hopefully with a bit of time, that will be resolved.

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Two Great Sci-Fi Books to Check Out!

I have two great books to promote for you this week, both in the science-fiction genre. Read below to check out some of these amazing novels!

First up, I’ve got a great promo for you all this week. Niel Bushnell’s newest book, Arkship Obsidian is currently on sale for the low price of just $0.99 for a LIMITED TIME!

“Dune meets Battlestar Galactica, with a pinch of Asimov thrown in for good measure.”

Earth has been destroyed, the entire solar system turned to dust by a cataclysmic event known as the Fracture. Now, the last survivors of humanity live on vast arkships drifting through the Cluster, doing what they can to survive in a hostile ever-changing environment.

When the arkship Obsidian is attacked, Wynn awakes in an escape pod fleeing from a huge space battle, unable to remember who he is. Hunted by a killer robot, the forces of a rival arkship, and the Church of the Infinite, Wynn must survive long enough to unlock his lost memories, discover who is behind the attack and take his revenge.

 

To purchase your own copy of Arkship Obsidian for the low price of just $0.99, click here:

https://www.amazon.com/Arkship-Obsidian-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B0754728PD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505486709&sr=8-1&keywords=arkship+obsidian

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Next up, we have The Cost of Survival: Book 1 of Genesis Rising by J.L. Stowers

Earth spirals into chaos, world war ravages every border, and the human race teeters on the edge of extinction. Humanity’s survival hinges on the success of government contractor Walt Marshall, and his ability to restore life to a decimated valley.

Walt’s job is to bring hope to thousands; a difficult assignment for a man who’s lost everything. During the mission, he finds evidence of atrocious acts committed by the very people sworn to protect human life. He sets off down a dangerous path of espionage and treason as he searches for answers. He must overcome his own dark history, and a ruthless dictator hell-bent on doing whatever it takes to ensure the survival of human kind—on his terms.

Learn more about The Cost of Survival in this riveting science fiction thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

To purchase your own copy of The Cost of Survival: Book 1 of Genesis Rising, click here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074D98W5D/

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Outlining For Book 4

Now that I’ve completed my draft of Veznek, and with Cassidy on the way soon, I’m starting to turn my focus to the finale of The Color of Water and Sky series: Hive.

Hive is my grand conclusion. It has the biggest scale, the largest stakes and the scariest enemy yet. It’s pretty crazy all in all and with so much going on, it’s tough to chart.

Charting is easy when characters are either all together or on separate journeys, but when characters jump in and out with each other, it becomes much harder. In Hive, I need characters to be in certain places at certain times to witness certain things. Getting everyone in the right places and with the right people is a complicated puzzle to put together. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to craft this piece.

Added to the difficulty of plotting this out, I’m still trying to determine the chapter arraignment. So far, POV has been logically sorted out in the series. For example: in both Iris and Kholvaria, my chapters were arraigned with odd number chapters told from Iris’s perspective and even numbers between four other characters. In Veznek, odd number chapters are told from the perspective of Kholvari characters and even numbers are told from human perspectives. In Cassidy, odd number chapters are told from the perspective of Sara and even numbers between two other characters.

I’m not sure yet if Hive‘s chapters will have a similar logic to it. For all I know, it may not be possible. I could take a page out A Song of Ice and Fire and make the order completely random. I’m still working around with it.

Additionally, all previous books have had five perspective characters (save for Cassidy, which has three). I currently have four characters in my head for Hive and I’m struggling to figure out how to fit a fifth perspective into it. For all I know, this book may turn out to have only four POVs.

If you draw any conclusion from this write-up today, it’s that Hive is not going to be easy to plot together. There are so many variables and the story’s scope is just so grand. I guess this is what George RR Martin must feel like. But all in all, once the puzzle starts to form, I know it’ll be amazing.

In other news, Cassidy is now available to purchase in paperback. You can buy your copy today! https://www.amazon.com/Cassidy-Color-Water-Sky-Novel/dp/197620528X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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