Andrew Gates's Blog, page 15

Magazine Writing and Other Opportunities

It’s been a big week for writing, but I’m not talking about the Color of Water and Sky.

For those of you who don’t know, I write for more than just my science-fiction series. For nearly a year now, I regularly write for a local publication in my community, Run Washington Magazine. It’s a magazine about the running community in the Washington metropolitan area, available in both print and online.

Though each article is only around three pages in length, these stories take time to write. LOTS of time. This season, I’ve recently finished two stories for the upcoming “Back to School” issue releasing later this August.

Just finishing these stories, I feel exhausted, but I’m glad to know that the stories are complete. I’ve got some awesome articles coming out soon! Having them finished is a big relief. It’s a comforting feeling knowing that the work is done.

Magazine writing is a lucrative side-gig. It’s a “pay per project” business, which provides me with a little more cash in my pocket every few months. I’m definitely glad to be part of it. Not to mention, it also improves my catalog of writing content. For an author, that’s always a good thing.

People have asked me how I first got into magazine writing. Around this time last year, after leaving a job I despised, I was desperately looking for a new gig. I knew writing was a skill of mine, so I figured it was a natural next step. I’ve been a fan of running since high school. I regularly run in distance races and run commute to and from work. As a reader of Run Washington, it felt like a logical place to write. I sent an email to the editor and the rest is history.

To view my full author archive, click here: http://www.runwashington.com/author/andrew-gates/

In other news, I’ve begun work on another side-project, a science-fiction short-story parodying Star Wars. I’ve already written the first few pages and even I can’t help but laugh when I read it – and I already know the jokes are coming!

It is my hope to include this short story in an upcoming volume of Pew, Pew! – A Short Story Anthology – If you are unfamiliar with it, Pew, Pew! is a collection of comedy science-fiction short stories with some pretty big names in the genre including M. D. Cooper, author of the Intrepid Saga and Barry J. Hutchison, author of Space Team, both widely popular. Including my story in that collection will be a really good opportunity for greater exposure. Not to mention, it will hopefully get a little more $$ in my pocket.

Before you get too excited: If this does work out, I wouldn’t expect to see the short story out for sale until around December at the earliest. More on that when the time comes.

In other, other news, my upcoming book Cassidy is currently being reviewed by two editors. One editor has already deemed it as her “favorite” in the series so far. That’s a very comforting feeling.

It seems there are a lot of good things brewing on the horizon. Stay tuned for more information. As always, check back on this blog for the latest.

A Day With No Sales

It finally happened!

Strangely, I mean that in a good way.

It is a well-understood fact in the game of self-publishing that your biggest boosts in sales will come from new releases. With my release of Kholvaria on May 27th (with some accompanied extra promos at the time), I saw a huge sales pickup – one which started on May 20th and continued for several weeks.

Since then, sales have definitely slowed down. But they have never stopped… until now.

The streak ended July 15th. Zero downloads, zero page reads, zero paperback sales – though July 14th had only one page read, which isn’t really a whole lot different.

Though it may seem like a problem, this length of time is promising. The general rule, as I understand it, is that new sales basically stop after a month. In my case, they certainly slowed down, but did not stop until about a month and 2/3, which is pretty good!

I expect now I’ll just have intermittent sales here and there, like what I used to experience before my big sales boost. I may run another advertisement just to built some momentum up again, but I doubt I’ll be able to get back to the sales numbers I had about a month ago.

In other news, there is little to report on updates to books like Cassidy or Veznek. Progress has been essentially stopped on both due to a new writing commitment (more on that soon), but do not worry! I am confident both books will be released as planned.

Sample Chapter: Cassidy

Cassidy

Dr. Carter Brown

Carter opened his eyes and looked himself in the mirror. The suit fit him well. He was not accustomed to seeing himself so dressed up. He made sure his tie was straight, then ran his fingers through his hair.

He took a deep breath. This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for.

Carter grabbed the holographic projector from the sink top and held it firmly in his sweaty hands.

“Here we go,” he said aloud.

The 32-year-old engineer turned and walked out of the men’s room. The black hall outside was bustling with well-dressed men and women, quickly making their way through the office complex. Carter tried not to get caught up in the excitement of it all. He held his projector firmly in hand and proceeded to the committee room. It did not take long to get there. He pressed on the thick door and hastily proceeded through.

Some of the elected officials, or EOs, were already present. Their chairs faced him as he entered the room. A massive crimson flag hung above their heads, adding a bit of color to this otherwise dark room.

A young Navy guard in a white suit approached him.

“Name, sir?” the man asked. He looked about 20, not much older than Carter was when he first enlisted.

“Dr. Carter Brown,” he answered. He pulled out his ID. “I am here for the hearing.”

“My apologies, Dr. Brown. I did not know it was you. I expected someone…”

“Older?”

The Navy man was silent. He simply motioned to an empty chair behind a desk facing the EOs.

“Please,” he said.

Carter followed the guard’s order and took a seat behind the desk. A glass of water was already waiting for him. He instinctively took a sip as a few more EOs arrived and took their seats. It was not long before Deborah Otto, Chairwoman of the Oceanic Committee, arrived. Her bright white suit stood out in the world of black.

She took a seat and moved the microphone to her mouth.

“Good morning, everyone,” she said. Her voice echoed throughout the room. “Thank you all for coming. I know it is never easy to come back to work after the New Year celebration.”

This had been the first day back to work for most of the city following the bicentennial, but not for Carter. He had worked tirelessly over the last few days, making sure everything was right for his presentation.

“I would like to especially welcome our guest today, Dr. Carter Brown,” Otto continued.

Carter was not sure how to respond to this introduction. He simply waved back. He felt the EOs glare back at him. He must have been doing it wrong.

“The purpose of this hearing today is to evaluate Dr. Brown’s proposal to grant funding for the testing of his new exploratory ocean vessel. We will hear testimony firsthand from Dr. Brown himself and open the floor to questioning from members of this committee.”

Otto paused and looked to her colleagues, as if waiting for confirmation to proceed.

“Are we all ready?” she asked.

There were nods all around.

“Very well,” Otto said, turning back to face the room again. “I see no reason to delay. Dr. Brown, I look forward to hearing what you have to say. The floor is yours.”

Here it goes.

Carter placed the holographic projector on the table and stood up from his chair. He felt nervous, but he had rehearsed this a thousand times. As long as he recited it as he had practiced, everything was going to work.

“Year 200, Atlantic Federation calendar,” he began. It was the perfect opening line; snappy, relevant and attention grabbing.

Carter cleared his throat. His line worked. All eyes were on him.

“I can hardly believe what year it is. It seemed like just yesterday, we were celebrating 190. Time never seems to progress the way I expect. To think that two full centuries have passed since the bombing of the surface,” he continued. With every word, he felt himself grow more and more confident. “The Atlantic Station is our home now, this extraordinary result of years of brilliant engineering. For us, this is the only world we have ever known, and for good reason. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad we live here. Humanity is free to live without exposure to the planet’s toxic surface. This place, all corniness aside, is the future.”

There were a few chuckles here and there. He wondered how many times they had heard the phrase “this is the future”.

“But still,” he continued, “at times I’m sure we have all wondered what secrets the surface still holds. Something has to have been up there.”

Carter instinctively pointed to the ceiling. He had not rehearsed that, but it just felt right.

“Many of you know that I used to be a Navy engineer. Years ago, while searching through old Navy achieves, I came across the ramblings of a mad scientist who claimed that the surface was populated by a race of intelligent crab people.”

More chuckles came from the EOs.

“Of course, this was nonsense, but that’s not the point. These ramblings, as crazy as they may be, got me thinking: what if something intelligent had survived the bombing?”

The chuckles stopped. The room was quiet. It seemed his question had done the trick.

“This question haunted my mind like a sickness. I could hardly sleep for weeks. My imagination was full of theories, some just as wild as the mad scientist’s. And so,” Carter continued, “I decided to do something about it.”

He turned to the holographic projector on the table and activated it. Instantly, a 3D image of a submarine concept filled the room. It spun ever so slightly to give viewers a look at all sides of the craft.

“I present to the Oceanic Committee, the first submarine since the Descent capable of shallow water exploration. Finally, we will have the proper tools to answer that great question of the surface. More durable than a simple probe, smaller than the Nautilus E10 and cheaper to produce than even the Ray 4T-80,” he explained. “Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, if you agree to fund this project, you are investing in answers to world’s greatest mysteries. Thank you.”

Carter sat down and powered off the hologram. He felt a smile form on his face. His short pitch had gone just as well as he’d hoped.

The room was quiet now. The EOs simply sat in silence, as if they were each waiting for another to speak. Otto adjusted in her chair, cleared her throat and eventually broke the awkward quietness.

“Thank you, Dr. Brown. As you can imagine, I have a few questions about your project. Firstly, if we were to fund such a project, what kind of timeline are we looking at?”

Carter leaned forward and spoke clearly into the mic.

“Assuming it all goes to plan, we can have a prototype developed by the end of summer. We can begin testing shortly thereafter.”

“And how long will the testing phase take?”

Carter sighed.

“That is harder to answer,” he explained. “It is difficult to predict an accurate testing period for projects like these. Sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes a few years.”

“I see,” the Chairwoman said. She adjusted in her seat again. “And how many crewmen would be needed to operate this craft?”

“Two, ma’am. One pilot and one co-pilot.”

Otto leaned back in her chair and let out an exhale.

“I must say, Dr. Brown, what you’re selling here seems quite impressive. If you can actually deliver something like you’re describing, that would be a remarkable achievement.”

Carter smiled. Those words were like music to his ears.

“I am glad to hear it,” he replied, hardly able to contain his excitement. “Trust me, I can deliver.”

“I’m sure my esteemed colleagues have many questions of their own. We shall move onto them in a moment, but before we do, I have just one final question for you, Dr. Brown. If your project gets funded and you actually build this thing… what would you call it?”

“I would name it something bold, something catchy, something that evokes the feeling of adventure,” Carter responded. “I would call it Cassidy.”

One Month After Kholvaria Release

It’s now been a whole month since Kholvaria hit the market. It’s hard to believe it’s been that short. It feels as if the book has been out for a long time already. I guess that speaks to how quickly things move in the publishing world.

So far since the release, sales have been strong, very strong. Prior to Kholvaria‘s release, I had more days with 0 book sales than days I made even 1 sale. Since May 20th, however, I have not had a single day with 0 sales. Momentum is carrying forward and things seem to be going very well.

The long-understood rule in publishing is that sales begin to dwindle after the first month. I suppose I’ll have to wait and see if that kicks in here. I am optimistic though. If I’ve been able to consistently sell everyday since May 20th with minimal advertising (I’ve had a few Headtalker campaigns go out), that bodes well for me overall.

In other news, if you haven’t seen it yet, Cassidy‘s rough draft is now complete. You can expect a lot of news about Cassidy in the upcoming days and weeks.

That’s all for now. Not much else to report. As always, check back here for all the latest news on the Color of Water and Sky series.

Cassidy Rough Draft Complete

Cassidy is now complete!

Well, the rough draft is. But still, it’s another draft finished. And with a considerably shorter editing process this time around, I expect Cassidy may be released sooner than expected. During my last post, I queried my readers to know if they would want to see the upcoming spin-off book released before the end of the year rather than timed with the release of Veznek. The response was overwhelmingly that I should release it sooner.

I still have some editing to do and I want to have it read by a beta-reader first. But all in all, I think, if my beta doesn’t doddle, I could have it out by December at the latest.

It’s hard for me to say the exact word count of the book because the draft I have is missing two chapters (these missing chapters will be taken from other books and republished in Cassidy). But the draft I have, absent two key chapters (and the longest chapters by far) comes out to 44,715 words, making it considerably the shortest book I have written yet. I expect, once the extra chapters are added in, the word count will be something more like 56,000. Still, that’s short compared to both Iris and Kholvaria.

Right now Iris is priced at $1.49 on Kindle and Kholvaria $2.99 on Kindle. This $2.99 prices seems to be working well, as there have been numerous sales of Kholvaria listed at this price. Tentatively my plan is to release Cassidy at the same price of $2.99. I think this is a price people like and are willing to pay.

To help justify the cost of paying for a full-length book, I plan to also include a free preview to Veznek, the upcoming third book in the Color of Water and Sky series included with a purchase of Cassidy.

No update yet on cover art for the spin-off, but you can be sure I will share details once I have a clear idea of what it’s going to look like. Expect a chapter sample soon.

If you want to read part of Cassidy now, a chapter is already available to the public as part of the Color of Water and Sky Preview Collection. You can find it HERE on Smashwords.com

Opinion: Should Cassidy Release Sooner? – Respond in Comments!

Cassidy, the upcoming spinoff novel in the Color of Water and Sky series, is nearly complete. I only have two chapters to go before the rough draft is finished – and even then, the editing process this time around will be much faster.

Why will the editing be so fast? For one, two of the chapters have already been published in existing books. So they are polished and ready to go. Secondly, Cassidy is a considerably shorter novel compared to the others in the series, so it will be quicker to get through.

Currently the plan is to release Cassidy near the release Veznek, which is book 3 in the Color of Water and Sky series. The thinking? Two books releasing at the same time would generate a tremendous boost in sales and relevance, therefore allowing the Color of Water and Sky series to climb on Amazon’s sales charts. The higher the series is on the charts, the more people will see it. The more people see it, the more people buy it. Everything comes down to numbers.

So, in short, I would get a much bigger boost if I release two books around the same time.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve been beginning to wonder if I even need to wait it out. After all, if the draft is done, why not release it sooner? Cassidy‘s contents do not spoil anything in either book 3 or 4. From a storytelling standpoint, there is no reason Cassidy has to come out after Veznek.

Should I decide to go through with publishing Cassidy sooner than planned, we may see it around winter this year.

As this is an idea I am strongly looking into, I urge the fans to let me know your opinions in the comments. I am open to hearing all suggestions.

Thanks!

Outlining Final Chapters of Veznek

Over the past few days since Kholvaria‘s release, I’ve been going through and re-reading/editing the work I’ve done on Veznek, the upcoming third book in the Color of Water and Sky series.

It’s a cool feeling to read my story again after I’ve spent so much time away from it. It’s like re-watching a movie you haven’t seen in a while. This book is good. It’s really good. And I’m not just saying that because I’m the writer. I will finish a chapter and go “ooooh, cool!”

Alas, I’ve finally re-read/edited my way all the way through the book and I’m all caught up to where I left off, which is about 2/3 the way through what will be the finished story.

Up until now, I’ve written the book one character at a time. I wrote all of A’s chapters, then all of B’s chapters and so on. But now I’ve reached the point where the characters are starting to re-group, so at this stage, I’m reverting back to my old writing style (that is, writing it all chronologically). Since I’m going back to my old style, I had to do a bit of outlining, just to make sure everything matched up the way I wanted.

And the outline, let me tell you, is intense.

Every single chapter in the final 1/3 of the story is so full of action. Iris was admittedly a very slow-paced book. Kholvaria was faster by comparison, but still, I’ve never written a book this eventful before. There are basically six chapters-worth of climax.

Veznek is by far the darkest, grittiest, scariest and most depressing book in the series. A lot of villains are given the spotlight. Part of me does worry that I’m going too dark. There is one chapter in particular that I’m concerned pushes the boundaries too far. However, the final book, Hive, will be a lot lighter by comparison. If all goes as I have in mind, Hive will have the lightest tone in the series, a good way to cap it off, I think. So perhaps it will all balance out the end. I suppose only time will tell.

Meanwhile, sales on Iris and Kholvaria continue to do well. I haven’t had a $0.00 day since May 20th, which is pretty remarkable for me. I think a combination of factors has really helped push the books forward. I expect to see another slight boost when some of my Headtalker campaigns blast out in about two weeks.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, Cassidy is almost done. I’ve completed 15 and 1/2 chapters of what will be an 18 chapter book, so that’s terrific progress in my opinion. The issue is, Cassidy is a book I am writing exclusively during commutes. Now that the weather has improved so much in my area, I mainly run-commute these days, meaning I don’t really write a lot of Cassidy anymore. But rest assured! With an upcoming trip planned to Chicago, I know I’ll have the time to finish it there. Long plane rides are perfect for getting chapters finished. My guess is Cassidy‘s rough draft will be finished by the end of the month.

Honestly, at this rate, so might the first draft of Veznek.

We may very-well see both books release ahead of schedule. More news on that later.

Most Consistent Sales Period to Date

Hello all! Happy June. We’re officially 50% through the year.

It has been a few days since the new book came out and yet, sales still seem to be holding strong. This was not expected. In the wake of Kholvaria‘s release, I anticipated a significant slow-down in sales. After all, that’s what happened after Iris‘s release last year. Granted, Kholvaria has only officially been out for 5 days, so perhaps I won’t truly see the effects of the slow-down until later, but I am surprised that sales still seem to be going strong.

Interestingly enough, the increase in book sales is not limited solely to Kholvaria. I’ve also seen a boost in sales of Iris, further confirming my theory that the sale of one book directly leads to sale of another.

Unless I have a new release, a big media boost, or something lucrative like the Broken Tomorrow Collection, I consider myself lucky if I break $10 in a month with no advertising. Since May 20th, I’ve made roughly over $75 from sales and KENP reads. Of course, I won’t know for sure how lucrative KENP is until May’s dollar per page amount is revealed later on (more about how that works HERE) – but I’m lowballing my estimate on purpose.

Additionally, my free preview collection has 29 downloads now.

All in all, these numbers are very positive. It seems having more books on the market leads to more consistent sales. Simply by having more products available, consumers are more likely to gravitate toward buying.

If you take a look at the graph below, you can see my sales data. Important to note: this graph does not contain any data relating to paperback sales or downloads of my free preview book. The graph solely shows data for Kindle editions.

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The top graph, the one in red, represents the amount of Kindle books downloaded. About half of these books are Iris and half are Kholvaria. This is good news, as I make nearly 4X the amount of money from a sale of Kholvaria as I do from a sale of Iris (this has to do with a combination of factors including pricing and royalty rates). The peak you see on May 26th is attributed to Kholvaria‘s official release day, in which 9 of the 11 units sold were Kholvaria pre-orders finally being processed.

Even more promising is the lower graph, the one in blue. This represents the amount of pages read for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. For those who don’t know, Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service which allows users to read books for free, provided they pay a monthly fee. For each page read, I get money. The conversion rate varies month-to-month, though it is typically around $0.005 per page. The numbers you see here, once again, are taken from a mix of both books. The drop-off you see at the end on June 1st is due to the fact that this data has been taken at 9:30 am, and therefore I expect the June 1st number to rise significantly by the end of the day.

You’ll notice that there has not been much of any activity until May 20th. This is what the graph typically looks like. There are lengthy periods of inactivity. This is unfortunate, of course, though not unusual for me. Once May 20th hit, suddenly everything started to accelerate.

Why May 20th?

Well, May 20th is the day when my first Headtalker media went out. The next blast went out a day later, on May 21st. It is safe to assume that’s what created all this momentum. The release of Kholvaria helped add a bit of boost 6 days later, which only increased this momentum further.

What this tells me is that everything is in the timing.

Obviously nothing has been as lucrative yet as the Broken Tomorrow Boxset, and I will certainly remain vigilant for more opportunities like that. Still, this data is promising. I think I am starting to figure out how to build momentum and maintain it at little to not expense. Hopefully I can carry this through June.

As always, keep checking back here for more updates on the Color of Water and Sky series.

Kholvaria is on the Market!

It has been one day since the “official” release of Kholvaria. Sales numbers on release day have been about what I expected. There have been strong numbers both for Kholvaria and for Iris.

Coinciding with Kholvaria‘s release, I also published the a free preview book on Smashwords.com and another on Instafreebie. Both of these sites offer the same exact product for $0.00. The purpose of this free preview book is to get new readers interested in the series without having to purchase the novels in advance. In a sense, it’s intended as a form of free advertising. I’ve already started two new Headtalker campaigns to promote it.

Leading up to and following Kholvaria‘s release, I have been doing a lot of work on book 3 in the Color of Water and Sky series, Veznek. Much of it is already written (maybe about P – `), though I have not had a chance to look at it in a while. Over the past few days, I have gone back through what I have written. I am making a few tweaks here and there, but am mostly just reminding myself of the story so far. The book is very fast-paced and exciting to read, though I am noticing a few trends I had not picked up on earlier that I might want to change. Fortunately, there is still a lot of time for that. Veznek is still on track to release on time, which is great.

On that note, the prologue to Veznek may be my favorite chapter in the series so far. I’m so excited for people to read it.

All in all, there is nothing but good news to report. The series is going strong and work is progressing as intended.

Lastly, if you have yet to purchase your copy of Kholvaria, there’s really no reason to wait any longer! Kholvaria is NOW AVAILABLE on Amazon.com.

Click here to purchase Kholvaria on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/n2cmna3

Click here to download The Color of Water and Sky Preview Collection for free: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/5bSqO

Big Media Push Before Kholvaria Release

It’s three days until the “official” release of Kholvaria, though I put the word official in quotes because many people who have ordered the paperback version have already received their copies early.

Leading up to the big release, I did most of my advertising push around May 20th. This time around, I tried some new techniques I have not done before. My total budget was a whopping $0.00. I must say, my efforts seemed to have paid off as there was a decent spike in pre-order sales (and a slight spike in paperback sales) during that time.

My first big push was through social media. Ironically, social media is a medium I have previously bashed for not being effective enough. Still, I decided to give it a shot. Using a unique platform called Headtalker, I was able to find users willing to share two specific promo messages written by me. One message was to be posted all at once at 12:00 on the 20th and another posted all at once at 3:00 on the 21st. The first media blast was supported by 142 people – meaning that many social media users shared the message – to get a social reach of 1,190,061 people – meaning that many people were exposed to the message, though whether they saw it or read it is a different story. The second media blast was supported by fewer people, this time only 125, though the social reach was higher at 1,193,348 people. Granted, there is likely a lot of overlap between those two groups. Most of the people who were exposed to the first message were the same people exposed to the second message, but still, any visibility is good visibility. Plus, sometimes ads take multiple viewings to hit home.

In addition to my Headtalker campaigns, I decided to lower the Kindle price of Iris to $0.00 for a brief four-day period. The result was a huge spike in downloads and therefore an increase in my author rank and series visibility. This seemed to have paid off as my spike in downloads was shortly followed by a spike in KENP reads – another source of revenue for me. Interestingly enough, I decided to try this big free book push with zero advertising. I wanted to determine how many downloads a book could get just by being free alone, with no ads. The result: very promising.

Granted, I know not everyone who downloads the book will read it. I have heard there are a number of people simply out there collecting free books they will never read. Still, if it brings a spike in my book’s rank, that’s a good thing. Not to mention, there are certainly many who download the book who WILL read it.

The success of this brief free book promotion gives me even more confidence in my plan to release a free series preview book. For more about that, read my idea HERE. I have already gotten the cover made, as well as submitted a draft for review on Amazon KDP.

Though my big media push is done, it is not yet finished. Other authors have agreed to share/promote my new release on their newsletter blasts on May 27th, which should provide another boost.

Is advertising for free possible? Yes. Will I do it again? Yes. Headtalker proved to be a very useful source and I will certainly use it more in the future.

If you are still waiting to purchase your copy, wait no longer!

Click here to purchase Iris:

http://tinyurl.com/zzwxw6y



Click here to purchase Kholvaria:

http://tinyurl.com/n2cmna3