Andrew Gates's Blog, page 18

I’ve Finished! (Again)

As the title suggests, I have some big news. Today, at 10:50 pm, I finally completed the rough draft of Kholvaria, the second book in the Color of Water and Sky series.

I’m still trying to get over the ending. Man, what an ending! I know fans are going to like this ending just as much as the ending to Iris, if not even more. I’m really excited to see how people react to the final moments of the story.

At this time, I find myself immediately looking back to my older post from last year when I finished writing Iris. You can read about it by clicking HERE (and I recommend you do).

Looking back on my data from last year, I notice a lot of differences between that draft and this one. Most notably is the word count. My initial rough draft for Iris came in at 170,812 words at 305 pages. Kholvaria, by comparison, comes in at 137,068 words and 246 pages. That’s a HUGE difference.

I always intended for this book to be shorter, so I know I shouldn’t be surprised. It has considerably fewer chapters AND a shorter average chapter length. That being said, these numbers still do surprise me.

Obviously all of these numbers are going to change once the editing process begins. The wordcount will no doubt get smaller. I just hope I can get through the editing process smoothly. Last time, the editing process took quite awhile. With a rough draft done on November 18th and a release date that didn’t happen until September 25th, that’s a LONG period of time. I hope to get Kholvaria out in a shorter time frame than that.

The next step is to go by each chapter one by one and knock it out. I plan to follow the same editing strategy as last year. To read more about that, you can click the link HERE. Though the process was tedious, I thought it was worth it. I caught a lot of issues and rephrased a bunch of poor sentences.

The next step after editing will be cover art. That’s a long way down the road. I have a few ideas in mind right now, but obviously it’s all just abstract at this point in time.

As always, keep checking on this blog for more updates. I may be releasing a chapter sample soon.

Post-Black Friday Update

It’s that time of year again. As we put away our turkey-themed decorations and bring out our Christmas snowflakes, the world around us seems to follow suit. One step outside and you can feel it in the air. Breath turns to vapor, shade becomes the enemy and if wind is involved, it’s all over.

Of course, I’m talking about December.

I purchased my first real Christmas tree this year and decorated it from top to bottom. While that may sound festive and traditional, the whole ordeal was complicated by the fact that I have a small home, tiny even. With limited space, the tree was forced to go outside on the porch. It may be unconventional, but at least it can be seen from the living room window. And hey, it’s my first tree. I’m happy to have one at all, porch or not.

Now that it’s been a few days after Thanksgiving, I have had some time to take look at the results of my Black Friday Promotion. For those of you who read my Mid-Promotion Report, the data has not really changed. I’ve learned that I get the best financial payoff by marketing specifically to women between the age of 55 and 64. This data is hugely helpful and I’m glad to have learned this valuable insight.

That being said, I certainly won’t limit my efforts exclusively to this demographic. That would mean ignoring a huge chunk of my market. But it helps to know this information.

The biggest push during this sale was, of course, for Kindle copies. In the end, I sold a total of eight Kindle copies. This may not sound like a lot, but with a total of 14 Kindle sales overall, these eight copies make up 57% of my Kindle sales since the book’s release in late September. Looking at it from this perspective, that means the sale was actually a huge success.

In addition to a spike in Kindle sales, I also saw a spike in physical sales. This surprised me, as the Black Friday price-drop did not apply to physical copies. In the end, physical copy sales increased by 10% during the promotion period.

This promotion was not intended for a quick monetary benefit. Instead, it was intended to gain a new audience for the series who could later take part in future sales. Going into it, I expected to lose money. And I did. But on the plus side, I gained more money from book sales than I anticipated. Profits from book sales during the promotion amounted to $10.38 and £1.29. It may not sound like much, but that’s approximately 30 to 40% of the budget I spent on marketing.

Again, it’s all about putting things into perspective.

From all the research I’ve done, it seems the best way to generate sales is to sell your entire series at once. Selling the first book and ONLY the first book in an unfinished series is like trying to crawl out of quicksand with your arms and legs tied. You won’t get very far. So given that fact, I’d say the results of this promotion are actually rather impressive.

What this fact tells me (and this is already something I’ve known for awhile  now) is that the best way to get more sales is to release the series as soon as I can. The quicker I can get out these books, the better. Obviously I have to be careful here. While speed is important, I don’t want to hurt the quality of the story either. Speed is nothing without good content. But the fact remains, it’s hard to sell Book 1 without the rest of them.

With only so many hours in the day, I wondered how I could maximize my writing potential. That’s when I started looking at moments in the day when I was wasting time. One of the biggest time-wasters was, of course, commuting. With a 20 minute commute one way and a 20 minute commute back each day, that’s 40 minutes of unused time per day. With the DC Metro system as unreliable as it is, a regular 20 minute commute could sometimes turn into a 40 minute one at any given moment (if you’re unfamiliar with the current status of the DC Metro, they’re doing renovations and it’s causing a LOT of problems). That means on certain days with train delays, I could be spending over an hour in transit (though these moments are rare).

In order to take full advantage of unused time spent riding or waiting for trains or buses, I have downloaded a mobile writing app so that I can write while in transit. Not to get confused with where I left off in my story, I am NOT going to be working on the same project on my computer as I am during my commutes. To clarify, I will be working on two separate projects, one only when traveling, the other on my computer at home. I have already gotten started and am several pages into this second project.

You’re probably wondering: what is this new project?

Well, it’s a new book. It’s part of the same world, but not necessarily part of the same series. The new book will be called Cassidy and it will take place parallel to the events in The Color of Water and Sky series. Some characters from the main series will show up, but it is really meant to be a separate story (like how Rogue One is to Star Wars).

I will reveal a lot more information about Cassidy in the upcoming future. For now, all you’ll get is a title. In the meantime, I’m still working on Kholvaria and almost finished with the first draft.

As always, keep checking the blog to read more about Iris, Kholvaria and more.

Killing Off Characters

A Song of Ice and Fire is one of my favorite book series of all time and easily the biggest influence on my own series, The Color of Water and Sky. Anyone familiar with ASOIAF, more commonly known these days by its TV show name, Game of Thrones, knows that part of the story’s appeal is the mortality of the characters. Knowing that someone you care about can die at any second makes the steaks high and the story more engaging.

I can remember exactly where I was when I first read the Red Wedding scene in A Storm of Swords. I was in the break room at my previous job, killing some time before returning to work. At the time, I could hardly believe what I’d just read. I actually went back and re-read the last three pages because I thought I must’ve read it wrong. Then I looked at the book. There was almost 40% of the book left. I could hardly believe it. All the main characters were killed! What was the rest of the book going to be about?

That’s the genius of the scene. It’s completely unexpected and it happens in the middle of the story, not the beginning or end. Having this scene revolve around such a pivotal character’s death in a completely unexpected moment of the book means that there are no rules going forward. Anything can happen at any time to anyone. The story may not necessarily follow a traditional format. The result? From then on, the reader is more engaged.

In some cases, deaths are huge and anticipated but can still be well handled. One of my favorite comic book stories is The Death of Captain America, which follows directly after the Marvel Civil War. In this story, Captain America is killed at the beginning. 90% of the story then focuses on the supporting characters. Conventional wisdom would suggest that without a main character, the story is doomed. Yet, this was not the case. As a reader, you are left to wonder which of these supporting characters will rise to take the mantle left by the now absent protagonist. While reading, you are studying each character more intimately and carefully than you otherwise would have. In my personal opinion, and the general opinion of the comic book community, the series actually got BETTER once Captain America was killed.

So what am I getting at here? Should book authors kill off all their characters?

No, of course not. If everyone is killed, you run into the opposite problem. People will come to expect a character’s death. The element of surprise is lost. Not to mention, you’ll need some characters around to tell the story.

Instead, character killing should be done smartly. Saving a death until the end is popular, but cliche and expected. Killing a character in the middle, now that has an impact. Killing a mentor character off so that the protagonist can learn to do things themselves is also cliche. There are enough dead Qui-Gon Jinns, Obi-Wan Kenobis and Han Solos out there that the audience practically already knows what’s coming (and that’s just in Star Wars alone).

So now you might be thinking: Kill a character off in the middle. Kill a character off that seems essential. Yes! But that’s only half the point. The next rule is probably the single most important aspect of what makes good deaths good: The death has to have an impact on the story somehow.

Uncle Ben’s death makes Peter Parker want to be a superhero. Gandalf the Grey’s death causes the Fellowship to break apart and doubt themselves. Spock’s death exemplifies the meaning of the phrase “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. In all cases, these major character deaths improved the story. They were not simply deaths for the sake of shock value.

If you have not gotten the hint yet, I have taken a great deal of interest in the idea of character deaths. Whether this influences my upcoming books or not, you’ll have to wait and see. Obviously I don’t want to run any story details. But this is something I take to heart.

In conclusion, I will leave you with the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBxMPqxJGqI

Mid-Promotion Report

It’s been an exciting few days thanks to Thanksgiving. Amid the travel and adventures with various family members and ferocious felines, I’ve had little time to write. I manged to finish the difficult chapter I’ve been working on (it came out to 18 pages) and even finished the chapter after it. But still, that comes out to about 1.25 chapters in about three or four days. When you factor in that I have not been working my day job during that time, it comes out to a lot of time spent not writing.

During that time, however, I have been closely monitoring the results of my first big promotional event. The Kindle version of Iris went on sale for just $0.99 on Black Friday (November 25th) and is still on sale until November 30th. In addition to lowering the price by two whole dollars, I put some money into marketing. I put my book on Digital Book Spot‘s homepage to help generate more attention. I also started advertising over Facebook, taking advantage of their targeted advertising.

The results have not been as promising as I initially anticipated. Though I cannot accurately assess the success of the spot on Digital Book Spot, I can very easily determine the success of my Facebook advertising. Facebook gives a whole lot of data on this type of thing.

When choosing my target market, I set my advertising parameters to cater exclusively to females (since females make up a majority of book sales). Therefore my advertising has reached 100% females and 0% males. Of these women, the ad has generated the most clicks from the age ranges 18 to 24 and 55 to 64. Five women from the 18 to 24 range have clicked the link. Four women from 55 to 64 have clicked it. There seems to be a black hole in the middle for some reason. Only one women 25 to 34 has clicked the link and zero women from 35 to 54 have clicked it. This gap is fascinating. I’m not sure why the ad does not appeal to women in this age range. Likewise, women 65 and over have only generated two clicks.

At the time of this report, I’ve spent a total of $20.67 on Facebook advertising. The expenditure changes based on how many people my ads reach. The more people see it, the more money gets spent. This means I’ve spent $1.90 to get a click from women age 18 to 24, $1.84 to get a click from women age 25 to 34, $1.05 to get a click from women 55 to 64 and lastly, $1.61 to get a click from women 65 or older. This averages out to $1.72 per link click overall.

What does this tell me? This data tells me that women age 55 to 64 are the cheapest to advertise to and seem to make up a high percentage of my overall clicks. Though the overall promotional campaign has not been as successful as I imagined, gaining this insight is hugely valuable. This information will allow me to better target my audience in future promotions.

You can take a look at all this data in the chart below:

Keep in mind, I am still in the middle of my promotion. That means ALL of this data could potentially change in the next few days (though I find such an outcome unlikely). It is certainly possible that I will get a brief cyber-Monday bump at the end of the day today. In short, none of this is set in stone. I look forward to seeing the final report at the end of this promotion once it is all over.

Opinion: Destroying the Dreadnought at the end of Halo 2 Could Have Saved Earth Much Sooner

For those of you who follow my blog, today is going to be a VERY different kind of story. Today I will be writing about what I consider a pretty big flaw in the plot of one of my favorite video game stories, Halo.

For those of you looking for some of my more traditional content, I will be putting out another update on Iris and Kholvaria soon.

At the end of Halo 2, the massive spaceship known as the Forerunner Dreadnought, once used to power the Covenant holy city High Charity, comes out of slipspace near Earth. The Master Chief and the Prophet of Truth are both aboard this ship. As it nears Earth’s orbital defense grid, UNSC soldiers scramble to take it out.

“We’ve got a new contact. Unknown classification,” says one of the UNSC soldiers over the radio.

“It isn’t one of ours. Take it out,” responds Lord Hood. This statement would imply that the UNSC has the means to destroy the Dreadnought. Otherwise, why would he have made that order? Yet, only moments later, the Master Chief alerts Lord Hood that he is aboard the ship, thus prompting them not to fire upon it.

For those looking for context, the entire scene can be found HERE.

But if you really think about it… destroying that ship may not have been a bad idea after all.

The Master Chief attempts to assassinate the Prophet of Truth while aboard the ship, but fails and is forced to flee. He crashes in the jungles of Africa and is later found by Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter.

Here is the first issue. By not destroying the ship in orbit, the Prophet of Truth is now still alive and able to lead the Covenant.

But that’s not all. Meanwhile, the Covenant excavate the ancient Forerunner Ark Portal and Truth lands the ship there to power and activate it. Seeing this as a threat, the Gravemind sends Flood ships to Earth in order to stop them from activating the portal.

Here is the second issue. By not destroying the ship in orbit, the Flood arrive on Earth. This is bad news mainly because the Flood spreads across Africa, prompting Shipmaster Rtas ‘Vadum, also known as “Half-Jaw”, to glass a large portion of the continent.

THEN the Prophet of Truth and his fleet travel through the portal and arrive at the Ark. A huge battle ensues. There are many casualties including Sergeant Johnson and Commander Keyes. During this battle, all the Halo arrays are nearly activated, but stopped at the last second.

This battle was a LOT of unnecessary work and led to unneeded casualties. It could have been avoided altogether if the Ark Portal was never even activated.

There is only ONE good thing that came out of this battle and it’s that the Gravemind was destroyed along with the remaining Flood. To the story’s credit, that’s a pretty big deal. But now think of what ELSE came out of this battle.

Cortana lives!

In the context of Halo 3, that’s not really a big deal. In fact, it’s a good thing. But this does pose an issue later in the series. In Halo 4, she survives to defeat the Didact by splitting herself up and putting herself in the Forerunner computer system. Following her assumed death, she becomes corrupted  and grows almost God-like in her powers.

Evil Cortana summons the ancient peacekeeping giant robots called the Guardians to basically be her puppets and keep the universe in line. So that’s not good. And again, NONE OF THIS SERIES OF EVENTS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THEY HAD JUST SHOT DOWN THE DREADNOUGHT.

In a nutshell, the Ark battle wouldn’t have happened (along with the threat of universe-spanning doom), the Prophet of Truth would have been killed right away, which would mean the end of the Covenant, the Flood wouldn’t have come to Earth, and Cortana would have been destroyed whenever the UNSC eventually got around to destroying High Charity, the last bastion of Flood presence.

Of course if they HAD destroyed the ship, that would have made for a pretty anti-climactic ending to Halo 2. I get that. But still, it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you think about it.

Stuck on a Difficult Chapter

Welcome back to the blog! For this post, I’ll be writing about a particularly difficult chapter. It’s not gory. It’s not emotional. It’s not sexual. What makes this chapter difficult is because it just has a whole lot going on.

When writing, I generally follow a pretty normal format. I’ll write out chapter summaries one by one and then go through them that way. For example, my outline for Iris looked like this:

Chapter 1

Who is Iris? Establish character.

Childhood

Chapter 2

Establish character

– Learns that his younger brother, Damien was killed – grieves his brother

Elude to field trip

Elude to alcohol, rich v poor, government is bad

– Religion, follows Christian religion – Lord Beyond Both Seas

Chapter 3

Who are other characters? Establish supporting cast.

Heavy academic – Plato/Socrates stuff

Real Chapter 4

– Greyson

– Do Greyson’s memory of his wife and him meeting

Chapter 5

First day of school. Establish history of Atlantic Federation

Obviously it goes on and on with each new chapter. What you see there is unedited. Those are the real chapter outlines I used. They’re very basic, but I mention everything I want to get across.

At the start, these simple outlines were helpful and they gave me a lot of flexibility to play around with the story details as I went along. As my story has gone on, my chapter summaries have gotten longer and more complex. I have more plot threads to balance and more things I want to make sure I mention in the chapter.

That being said, this current chapter I’m working on is a doozy. There are just too many things I want to fit into one chapter. I’m worried it may turn into a double-length chapter, potentially over 20 pages! (Most of my chapters are around 10)

Iris certainly had some chapters that were longer than others. In fact, there were definitely some chapters MORE than double the length of others. But this chapter I’m working on now is on course to easily be my longest chapter yet from either book.

I’ve made a graph below, illustrating just how long my hypothetical 20 page chapter would look when stacked up to the others before it:

In any case, I’m sure I will figure it out. And if you haven’t been able to figure it out yet from the graph, the chapter I’m working on is Chapter 15. Keep in mind, that means I have between seven and eight chapters to go! I’m nearly there (for the rough draft, at least).

In other news, Broken Tomorrow is out now and has already made a decent number of sales! There are a few reviews up on Amazon already, though none of them mention Iris. If you haven’t heard about Broken Tomorrow yet, check out my previous post about it by clicking: HERE

Before I leave you one final time, I would just like to remind you that Christmas is soon approaching. What’s a better gift than a beautiful paperback book? Iris makes a great gift! Tell your friends!

Bye bye!

Broken Tomorrow

As readers of this blog, I know many of you already own a copy of Iris. But I’m sure some of you out there may want another copy, or want to buy it as a gift, or are just looking to expand your collection. For those of you who fall into any of these categories… I have news for you!

Announcing Broken Tomorrow: A Dystopian Boxset Collection. It’s nothing new from the Color of Water and Sky series, but what you get is a collection of eight full-length post-apocalyptic novels by eight different authors, including Andrew Gates’s Iris.

In addition to getting Iris by Andrew Gates, you’ll also get novels by Jill Cooper, B.R. Paulson, Susan Kaye Quinn, G.P. Ching, Steven Savile, Drew Avera and Ren Worom.

This deal will only be available starting November 11th and lasts until mid-February. I’m pretty excited about this deal and I hope a lot of sales will be made during that time.

You’re probably wondering… as an author, what do I get out of this?

Good question! For every box purchased, author royalties will be split evenly among all eight authors. This is a big deal for someone like me, as I am clearly the newest and least-proven author in the group. Not only do I see this as a great way to boost sales, but also expose myself to new readers.

Now you’re probably wondering… how did I get invited to join this deal?

Another great question! The answer: right place, right time. Originally another author was set to be a part of this. But that author dropped out last minute, leaving the group with an unforeseen vacancy that needed filling ASAP. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, I jumped at the chance.

The cover art for the set is pretty cool. If you have not clicked the Amazon link yet, you can also see this picture below (though my name has not been switched in yet):

Not only am I excited about this set coming out, but my Black Friday sale is on the way too! If you have not yet read my previous post about Iris going on sale for Black Friday, you can read about it by clicking here.

Lastly, I just want to give you all a quick update on my writing progress. Book 2 is still in progress, but I’ve just finished Chapter 14 of what I plan to be a 22 chapter book. That’s e of the book! So I’m almost there.

As always, for more news and updates, check out the official Facebook page for the Color of Water and Sky, which has recently obtained over 1,000 likes.

That’s enough updates for today. I’ve got to get back to writing!

Two Great Book Deals!

I have a treat for you all today. I want to let you guys know about two great book deals going on right now. If you’re looking for something new to read, look no further than here:

The Intrepid Saga by MD Cooper

I know that most of my blog followers are fans of science fiction. You guys are in luck! First up is a science fiction series, the Intrepid Saga by MD Cooper.

“Demoted by the military and hung out to dry, the media labels her the Butcher of Toro. Despite her soiled record, Tanis still one of the best military counterinsurgency officers in the Terran Space Force.

And they need her to find the terrorists responsible for trying to destroy the GSS Intrepid, a massive interstellar colony ship in the final phases of construction at the Mars Outer Shipyards.

It’ll be her ticket out of the Sol system, but Tanis discovers she is up against more than mercenaries and assassins. Major corporations and governments have a vested interest in ensuring the Intrepid never leaves Sol, ultimately pitting Tanis against factions inside her own military.

With few friends left, Tanis will need to fight for her life to get outsystem.”

To celebrate the release of the 4th book in the series, Destiny Lost, MD Cooper has put Book 1 on sale for just 99 cents! Click here to get Book 1 for just 99 cents.

Then pick up a copy of Destiny Lost, where spaceship freighter captain Sera gets pulled into a battle bigger than she bargained for.  Click here to get the newly released Book 4.

Click here to read more.

Bound to Blackwood by Sharon Lipman

Next up, fans of paranormal romance, this deal is for you! The next deal is for Sharon Lipman‘s Bound to Blackwood.

“Lena, a vampire and a Guardian of the Order, has been honour-bound to protect human souls all her life. Acting first and thinking second is what’s saved her skin time and again in the war against the Fallen, but her disregard for orders soon catches up with her when her boss is seriously injured. Forced to take responsibility for her actions, Lena is thrust into the path of her very own kryptonite; Thorn. The raw power of his soul calls to her and his mere presence lights a fire within her that she cannot contain.

With Vampire magic waning and the race in crisis, can either of them afford to ignore Nature’s call? If they do, the future of the race is in jeopardy. If they don’t, they will both lose the most precious part of themselves. Their souls.”

Sharon Lipman’s book, Bound to Blackwood, is celebrating its first birthday. To commemorate this special occasion, Lipman is offering you the chance to win a signed copy of the book, as well as some amazing House Blackwood swag!

This deal ENDS NOVEMBER 15th so act soon! Click here to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a signed copy as well as some exclusive House Blackwood swag.

To buy your own copy on Amazon, click here. To take a fun, interactive character quiz, click here. To learn more about Bound to Blackwood, you can always visit Facebook, Twitter or the book’s official website.

The following is an excerpt from Bound to Blackwood:

Thorn stepped out from the shadow of the Huguenot Protestant Church in Soho Square. The stench of Fallen hung heavy in the air, making the bile rise in his throat. But what made him nauseous was the delicate scent of Lena’s blood that rode the air with that of the Fallen.

Flashing across the small park, he found her.

His first thought was to go to her, but as he rushed towards her, he realised she wasn’t alone. Lena cradled the human to her as the air around them hummed and crackled. Thorn’s jaw went slack as the realisation of what he was seeing hit him.

The faint green glow of the human’s soul shifted and shimmered as Lena’s power forced it back, moulding it, shaping it. Binding it. The pale green shone more brightly as Lena worked, the air becoming more dense as the spring greens turned into a deep emerald.

Lena’s raven hair whipped across her face and her eyes glowed a vibrant sea-green as she forced the woman’s soul back to her body. A great roar echoed around the park, and for a moment, the air stood still before a blinding light made Thorn shield his eyes. And then it was gone.

Thorn heard the woman’s heartbeat kick-start as her soul found home again.

Lena released her vice-like grip on the woman and fell backwards. Thorn caught her before her head could hit the ground. She was ghostly pale as Thorn cradled her against his chest, her breathing shallow. The exertion of holding the human soul showed in the sheen of sweat across her brow, and Thorn winced at the bruising on her cheek bone.

“For the love of all that is holy, Lena! What the hell were you thinking?”

Lena’s black eyes fluttered open and stared up at him in disgust. Even injured, with her powers severely depleted, Lena’s contempt for him was tangible. “No one should hold dominion over another’s soul,” she spat back at him.

Thorn closed his eyes. So she knew. In that moment, he realised he’d convinced himself that she hadn’t really seen through him that night in her bedroom. That she’d just rejected him because she didn’t want him, even told himself that it would all be fine. The look on Lena’s face told him otherwise.

As if on cue, the delicious scent of her blood became overwhelming. Thorn gritted his teeth as exotic spices assaulted him. It was almost overpowering.

“You need to get away from me.”

 

Lastly, I just wanted to share one more update with the blog. If you followed last week’s post, you know that Facebook likes for the Color of Water and Sky have been skyrocketing.

I wanted to share this graph, showing total Facebook likes over the past month:

And then compare that to the graph I shared last week:

As you can see, the official Facebook page is blowing up! I just want to thank all my fans for this explosion. It’s you fans who read this page that keeps it going.

As always, thanks for reading. Keep checking in!

 

First Book Promotion

Hi everyone!

Iris sales have stalled, but I’m not surprised. I have not done much in the way of promotion since the initial launch. Now that the launch buzz has subdued, it’s time for me to think of ways to keep it fresh.

Seeing as I’m new to this whole game, I’ve been doing a lot of research on promotions and such. I’ve put a lot of time into it and I think I’ve found a way to do a decent promotion without spending a whole lot. It’s the type of promotion that will take its time to produce results, but I do believe it will pay off for the better in the long term.

To start off, I’m offering Iris for just $0.99 for a limited time on Kindle. Since Amazon takes that much for their own cut, that means I’m breaking even. I will not be gaining a profit form any Kindle sale during this time period. But I expect it to pay off in the sense that more purchases will lead to a higher rate of it showing up on Amazon in the future. Plus, an extra review or two will always help.

The offer will go from November 25th to November 30th. That’s the week of Black Friday, a time when people are in the shopping mindset and looking for deals.

During this time, I also plan to utilize two promotional services. The first is BKnights on fiverr. This service has gotten good reviews. They’ll email blast the book out with a link to purchase it. Their email subscribers are specifically looking for discounted books on Kindle, so this is exactly the target market I’m looking for.

During this time, I will also be using Facebook’s ad promotion feature. Like BKnights, it comes with a cost, but I expect it will pay off in the long term. Facebook will target its advertising to people already interested in science fiction books like mine.

In both cases, these advertising services are cheap, which is great for me. I am excited to see how this Black Friday Sale of mine does. I hope and anticipate that this will pay off in the long term. The more people I can get to buy my book during this sale, the more units I will sell, the more likely it is to show up on searches, the more likely it is people will see it when they go on Amazon, the more likely people will buy it. A leads to B leads to C.

I haven’t lost sight of the fact that the biggest sales asset for me is to get book 2 finished. I understand that the more you have in a series, the more units you can sell. If my research on books has taught me anything, it’s that.

I just finished my first draft of Chapter 11. As I wrote in my previous post, I plan to have 22 chapters plus a prologue. That means I’ve now passed my 50% mark! I’m excited to maintain this momentum, though I’ve reached a slower part of the story, which makes it is harder for me to feel the urge to write. But in the back of my head I know that the more I write now, the faster I can get through this slow period, the faster I can get back to the exciting parts.

In other good news, my Facebook page is blowing up. If you take a look at the graph below, you get a sense of how fast my page is getting new attention. This graph represents total amount of people who like the page.

Unfortunately, likes do not seem to correlate to sales the way I anticipated. I expect many people who like this page are interested, but not enough to purchase the product. For that reason, I hope Facebook’s targeted advertising will significantly increase the correlation between likes and purchases.

As always, I encourage you guys to check in on the Facebook page for more updates.

Nearly Half Through Book Two

*The following contains spoilers for Iris.*

With so much news on Iris lately, it is easy to forget that a whole new book is still on the way. The Color of Water and Sky continues with an all new chapter, bringing the survivors of the AF escape pod to the surface for the first time in generations.

As previously reported on this blog, the initial title for book 2 was going to be The New World. But as time went on, I began to rethink this idea. Seeing as the first book was titled Iris, it seemed pretty odd that the second book would abandon the single word title format for a three word title. With that in mind, the tentative title for book 2 is now Kholvaria.

What is Kholvaria? What does this word mean? What language is this word?

I won’t give you those answers just yet, and for good reason. These are questions I expect people to have when they first see this title. I hope that potential readers will be curious enough to discover the answers for themselves.

Progress on Kholvaria goes well. Unlike Iris, which came in at a whopping 24 chapters + a prologue, Kholvaria is looking to come in at 22 chapters + a prologue. This may not seem like much, but consider that two chapters make up nearly 10% of Iris’s length. When your book is hundreds of pages long, 10% adds up.

Kholvaria will be considerably shorter than its predecessor and the story will progress much faster. This is going to be a very different type of story and very different type of book. I hope to prove this from the very start. Even the prologue will feel like a new narrative altogether.

I finished Chapter 10 yesterday. With 22 chapters planned chapters + a prologue, that means I’m just shy of halfway through.  Pretty soon I’ll need to get things rolling on cover designs and editing. I am easily on track for a 2017 release.

I may even put up a chapters sample very soon.

In the meantime, keep checking up on the blog and on the official Facebook page. People are “liking” it left and right!